Do you really believe that God has authority over everything?
Have you ever wondered why you don’t get your own way all the time?
When I asked this question when time, someone once replied, because thankfully God is smarter than me or you!!
The reality is no matter what happens or is happening around us God does have authority over everything.
Today’s Gospel reading emphasises this.
Listen to verses 21 to 22
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Today’s reading reminds us that God’s word has authority and power over all words.
Jesus had walked into the synagogue.
A place of worship and teaching.
In the synagogues they talked about a lot of stuff.
Particularly about how God’s word could interpreted so they could meet God’s expectations.
Often their discussion were mostly about how God would change so they didn’t have to change much.
In other words about how God should fit around their lives and demands.
They talked about what God expected of them, without revealing a lot about what God was up to.
And into this situation walks Jesus.
Bringing not just a message of God’s law but also how God is helping you deal with His law.
The message of forgiveness.
That fact forgiveness works.
Forgiveness works.
Who here is a tennis fanatic?
This time of the year is dreadful for sleep.
The Australian Open interferes in our life.
But the other night something interesting happened
Jelena Dokic publicly asked for forgiveness, said sorry for being a pain to the Australian public for her actions some years ago.
And thanked Tennis Australia for giving her another chance, even though she had publicly criticised them also some years ago.
Now the support she received probably indicates that many people have forgiven her.
And Tennis Australia’s actions show that forgiveness does and can work.
That it changes a person.
And the message Jesus brought into this situation
And brings to you today is that forgiveness not only works.
But it is the number one priority of God.
And the number one way people change.
And therefore it is the number one priority for each of us.
To receive his forgiveness and to share his forgiveness.
In the next few moments ask yourself the following:
What do you need God’s forgiveness for?
What sins of your past still hinder you, still get in the road of you having a great relationship with God
with every member of this congregation?
and with others?
And secondly who do you need to forgive?
Who are you holding bitterness and grudges against?
This week pray about and act on both these situations.
Ask Jesus to help you accept his forgiveness and to share his forgiveness.
But the message Jesus brings disrupts the group.
It disrupts the congregation, there is an evil spirit present.
Listen to verses 23 to 25
23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil a spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!
Many people believe that church’s are to be peaceful idyllic place.
A lot like a retirement village.
An art gallery.
A place with little disruption.
But there is one problem with this image.
It is not scriptural.
Jesus tells us that, “in this world we should experience trouble.”
If churches are truly in this world they will be more like a tent hospital on the front line of a war zone, like in the tv series MASH.
Church’s are the places where heaven meets earth.
Where God’s Spirit and Satan’s Spirit are interacting.
Now if you have the first image of church you would not expect Satan to be present.
But when you have the scriptural image of church you know Satan will try to disrupt what is meant to be happening through his church.
Satan doesn’t want people to realise how powerful forgiveness is.
Now none of us of would knowingly associate with a person who has an evil spirit.
But we all do.
Satan’s Spirit is often not obvious,
It often comes to us looking and acting as if he has our interests at heart.
In Matthew 7:15 we hear that Satan comes to us dressed like a sheep, but will actually be like a wolf.
In fact in today’s reading it highlights that Satan tries some tricks.
He tries to act reverent, He calls Jesus the Holy One.
And then he tries to get people on his side through scaring them away from Jesus and his way of life.
He says, “have you come to destroy us?”
The crowd hearing this may feel threatened.
A common tactic from Satan is to try to turn people away from God’s mission for them
By saying if you fully follow God,
your lives will be destroyed, your lives will disrupted by Jesus.
Hey you need to think of yourself.
You need money, you can’t stress yourself out, everyone sins.
In other words Satan attempts to make his way of life sound comfortable and God’s completely uncomfortable
by scaring people into thinking they will lose something or miss out on something.
Anytime we are encouraged away from God’s mission of reaching out to others
of loving God and loving others and of receiving and sharing His forgiveness that is Satan’s spirit at work.
And what is the remedy to such situations.
How do we avoid being influenced by Satan’s spirit?
And instead listen to God’s Spirit.
Listen to how Jesus responds to this spirit speaking through the man.
He doesn’t destroy the person.
He doesn’t dismiss him from the group.
He addresses the spirit.
He says to the spirit, “Be quiet”
“Come out of him”
Then the man shook violently and the spirit came out of him.
Often when people are not like us
We want to get rid of them.
But that is not Jesus response.
And what if we were the one with the evil spirit.
We often resist change.
Especially when we have been comfortable with something and that needs to change.
Or we put up a decent fight when change may cost us something in time, money or current situation.
It can be a difficult situation.
Unfortunately many people would rather live with the devil they know than Jesus.
I have a question I want you to think seriously about.
Is there any spirit inside of you that needs to be quiet,
that needs to come out of you.
Have you ever read a bible passage and felt uncomfortable because it is highlighting one of your sins?
Have you ever heard a sermon and thought, hey he is talking about me and I don’t like it.
What thoughts, attitudes, and ways of living need to be replaced
by Jesus’ thoughts and approach to life.
Maybe you believe one type of sin is worse than another.
In some circles of the Christian church the way people act is that sexual sins are worse than many other sins like cheating on your tax or verbally putting others down.
Now don’t get me wrong all sin is bad.
But we need to recognise just that
no sin deserves more or less attention than any other sin.
And secondly God doesn’t deal with sin by removing a person,
But by allowing His word to affect their lives.
Perhaps you feel we should place a higher emphasis on moral living in the church and less on forgiveness.
Perhaps you feel it is ok not to love some people.
Or you need to think primarily of yourself.
Perhaps you don’t really think that our priority in life should be forgiveness,
especially when it relates to others.
Maybe you think it is ok to come to communion, even though you have no intention of forgiving and loving the others you are communing with.
Maybe you think it is ok to make others look bad, when God calls us in Philippians 2 to consider ourselves lower than others.
Maybe you believe that serving others is not essential.
One of the biggest mistakes we make in the church is that we treat it like a club of volunteers, and we can do what we want and when we want.
The church is not that.
It is the Body of Christ, and every person who is part of the church is a disciple.
Called to use the gifts God has given them in ways that love Him and love others.
The reality and truth is that each of us pick up ideas and spirits from this world that are not consistent with Jesus.
And anything not consistent with Jesus is an evil spirit.
And at times we are more attracted them than Jesus’ way of life.
Yet Jesus still speaks to us.
Not to dismiss us.
But to deal with our sin.
You see the authority of Jesus lies in the fact that he has the ability to forgive sin.
To not just identify our sin but to also do something about our sin.
To help us to change.
And most importantly to make it possible for our sins not to affect our relationship with God
And our future.
Throughout life there are many people who can highlight the problems in life.
We hear complaints everywhere about the hospitals.
People are always whinging about governments.
We hear people frequently being prophets of doom in many areas of life.
Frequently people are highlighting the problems with education or with young people today.
It is easy to identify problems.
But fewer people are able to come up with solutions.
And even fewer people have the power to implement solutions.
And when it comes to sin.
When it comes to us accepting Satan’s spirit.
As we read and study His word,
God will not only identify and highlight the sin problems in our lives.
But he also has the amazing solution in dealing with sin in our life.
And that solution is for us to rely on the fact that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection gives us forgiveness.
And for us to rely on God’s Spirit for guidance and help to receive and share His forgiveness.
This is Jesus’ true authority, to truly give you forgiveness
No wonder people were amazed.
Amen
