Amazing Authority (Mark 1:21-39)
A man from Berlin, Germany, took an unusual approach in trying to bring peace to his marriage. CNN reported that the man was using an old air raid siren to stun his wife into submission.
“My wife never lets me get a word in edgeways,” the man identified as Vladimir R. told the police. “So I crank up the siren and let it rip for a few minutes. It works every time. Afterwards, it’s real quiet again.”
The 73-year-old man’s 220-volt rooftop siren was confiscated by police after neighbors filed complaints. (Man Uses Air Raid Siren to Quiet Wife, CNN.com, 4-19-03; www.PreachingToday. com)
Some men think that the way to be heard is to be loud, but does that really work? If not, then what DOES work for us men to gain a hearing? How can any of us gain any real influence in the home and in the community? How do we get the authority to be heard and respected by those around us?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 1, Mark 1, where we see the surprising source of authority for Jesus Himself. He is the Son of God, to be sure. But even as the Son of God, He chose to live His life in such a way that ANY man must live. Thus, he becomes the example for EVERY man, whom he invites to follow His example.
Mark 1:21-22 They (i.e., Jesus and his followers) went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. (NIV)
Unlike their own teachers, JESUS HAS AUTHORITY OVER PEOPLE. HE SPEAKS IN SUCH A WAY THAT GRAB’S A PERSON’S UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. IN FACT, HIS WORDS STRIKE PEOPLE WITH POWER.
Verse 22 says, “The people were amazed” – literally, they were stricken out of their senses. When Jesus spoke, people listened with a little fear and trembling, because they knew His words carried weight.
Their own teachers of the law quoted authorities all the time. But Jesus was His own authority, and His words had the power to evoke decisions. In fact, they sometimes made people a little uneasy.
I like the way Andrew Greely once put it in the Chicago Sun Times. He said, “If Jesus makes you feel comfortable with your agenda, then he’s not Jesus… Once you domesticate Jesus, he isn’t there any more. (Andrew Greeley, “There’s No Solving Mystery of Christ,” Chicago Sun-Times, 1-16-04)
You see, Jesus didn’t come to make us feel comfortable. He came to shake us out of our own world into His.
In Today’s Christian Woman, Kimberly Shumate tells how she became a Christian after living as a witch. After coming to the end of herself, she walked into a church and shot up a desperate, silent prayer: God, please give me someone in this crazy crowd I can relate to. If you don’t give me someone, I’m walking out of here. At that moment, the pastor told the congregation to stand up and shake a few hands, and Kim met Lisa, whose dyed-red hair and nose ring suggested they might be at a similar place. They became fast friends.
Week after week, at the end of each message, Kim marched down the aisle to the pastor and began firing off an onslaught of questions. She made her rounds from one church leader to another, finally ending up at a Friday night Bible study looking for answers.
As she sat on the floor in the leader’s living room, she felt a peace amidst this group of people who seemed to care about each other. She had come with an arsenal of New-Age arguments, and after the study, Scott, the Bible study leader, patiently listened to every one. With her new best friend, Lisa, by her side, they listened as Scott responded. That night, Kim said that “Scott’s words – but especially the Bible’s words – confounded [her] cosmic view.” After they’d sat there for an hour debating, she was exhausted.
As Lisa drove her home, Kim says, “The Holy Spirit began melting my vanity and arrogance with a power stronger than any hex, incantation, or spell I’d ever used. Suddenly, the blindfold I’d worn for almost 30 years was stripped away, and instantly I knew what I’d been searching for: Jesus!” That night, Kim exchanged her darkness for the light of God’s truth and trusted Christ as her Savior.
She soon realized her life was filled with empty props, and it was time to clean house. Her first act of obedience was to throw out all her books on witchcraft and the paranormal, as well as her Tarot cards. But the most important possession—and most difficult to discard—was her treasured crystal ball.
She called Lisa, who came right over, and they immediately drove to the Pacific Ocean. They stood at the end of Malibu Pier, where Kim unwrapped the crystal’s black velvet cover and dropped the ball into the deep blue water. (Kimberly Shumate, "I Was a Witch," Today’s Christian Woman, Sep/Oct 2002, pp. 41-43; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the power of Christ’s Word! It confounds our cosmic view and turns our world upside down. In fact, it puts us in a whole new world.
I dare you. Take the time to listen to Jesus and see what He does to your world.
Jesus has authority over people, and JESUS HAS AUTHORITY OVER DEMONS, as well. You see, JESUS NOT ONLY HAS POWER IN THIS WORLD, HE HAS POWER IN THE SPIRIT WORLD TOO. & EVEN THE FORCES OF EVIL MUST OBEY HIM.
Mark 1:23-24 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil a spirit cried out, “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!”
This evil spirit is trying to intimidate Jesus by using the first personal, PLURAL pronoun, “us.” & In an effort to control Jesus, this demon calls Him out by name, both His human and divine names. But Jesus is not about to be intimidated or controlled.
Mark 1:25-26 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
Mark 1:27 The people were all so amazed – Literally, they were “rendered immovable” (VINE). It’s a different word in the Greek than that used in verse 22, this word “associated with terror as well as astonishment” (VINE).
Mark 1:27-28 The people were all [rendered immovable, so much so] that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching – and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Everyone quickly learned of His power in this world and in the spirit world, as well.
In Christianity Today, Brenda McNeil writes about a brother from Ghana, West Africa, who was completing his PhD in the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary. During one of his trips home, he attempted to share the gospel with several people who lived in his community. Although they listened respectfully, no one turned to Jesus Christ. He later learned that they were intimidated by a witch doctor that lived nearby. The witch doctor kept a symbol of his authority hanging outside his home: a lattice basket, filled with water that never leaked.
Our brother decided to pray that God would empty the basket.
He stayed outside the home of the witch doctor and prayed all night that God would demonstrate his power. At some point he fell asleep. The next morning he was awakened by a commotion. The basket was empty. The power of Christ was stronger than any demonic power that kept the water in that basket, and the town saw a mass revival as people turned to Jesus Christ. (Brenda Salter McNeil, “Behold, the Global Church,” Christianity Today, November 2006, p. 45; www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus has ALL authority! He has authority over people. He has authority over demons.
And HE HAS AUTHORITY OVER DISIEASE. JESUS HAS POWER OVER ANY KIND OF SICKNESS. EVEN ILLNESS MUST FLEE WHEN JESUS COMMANDS IT.
Mark 1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. (NIV)
Just a short walk away.
Mark 1:30-34 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Not only did Jesus cast out demons, He healed the sick, but He didn’t want anybody to know who He was yet. You see, Jesus was not about promoting Himself. He was about helping people. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
Jesus truly cared for people! The word for “healed” in verse 34 is from the Greek word therapeuo. It’s where our word therapeutic comes from, and it means to care for and wait upon a person such that it brings healing and restoration.
Sometimes when you go to a doctor’s office, you sit in a little room for a long time, and wait for this “very important,” very busy man, who, when he finally comes into the room, has very little time for you. He looks at your chart, grunts a little when you talk to him, prescribes some medication and walks out. That’s not very therapeutic, is it? Sure, he’s prescribed a cure, but he really doesn’t care. How refreshing to find a doctor who really cares.
That’s my Jesus. He not only cures; He cares!
Henri Nouwen once said, “What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in the suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart. (Henri J. M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude, Ave Maria Press, 2008, pp. 35-36)
Jesus cares, do we? Or do we just want to dispense answers without participating in people’s pain? You see, real healing comes when we not only dispense the cure of the Gospel, but also care for people like Jesus did.
I like what Warren Wiersbe says about these verses. “Peter’s house became a place of healing for the whole city! How important it is for us to “take Jesus home with us” after we have worshiped. The Lord met the need in the home and then used the home to meet the needs of others.”
Fathers and Mothers, Jesus can do the same thing in your home if you invite Him in. He’ll bring healing there, and then use your home to be a source of healing for others as you care for them.
In his book, God Is Closer Than You Think, John Ortberg talks about an incident that happened to his friend, Kim, when she was a young girl. Her dad had pulled his car off the road one day to help a woman change a flat tire. While he was lying under her car, another vehicle accidentally swerved to the shoulder, and in the collision the car was shoved onto his chest. His right thumb was torn off at the joint, five of his ribs were broken, and his left lung was pierced and began filling with blood. His wife, who is barely five-feet-tall, placed her hands on the bumper of the car and prayed, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and lifted the car off his chest so he could be dragged out. (Some weeks later she found out that she broke a vertebra in the effort).
Kim’s father was in a state of shock as he was taken to the hospital. Doctors prepared him for emergency surgery. “His thumb won’t do him any good if he’s dead,” one of them said. His survival was in doubt.
Then suddenly, spontaneously, the man’s skin changed from ashen to pink. He experienced a miraculous healing. He invited a surprised surgical team to join him in singing “Fairest Lord Jesus.” They did not even bother to hook him up to oxygen. He did not find out until later that this was the precise moment his father-in-law, who was a pastor, had his congregation start to pray for him.
The man’s name was James Loder, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. His life was not only saved, but changed. Until then, although he taught at a seminary, God had been mostly an abstract idea to him. Now Jesus became a living Presence. Kim writes that her father’s heart grew so tender that he became known at Princeton as “the weeping professor.” He began to live from one moment to the next in a God-bathed, God-soaked, God-intoxicated world. (John Ortberg, God Is Closer Than You Think, Zondervan, 2005, pp. 24-25; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, does Jesus always heal in such a dramatic fashion? No. But when He does heal us, no matter how he does it, he wants to use us to bring healing to others.
You see, Jesus is not an abstract idea. He is a Living Presence to all who believe in Him. & Once he meets the need in our homes, He’ll use us to meet the needs of others (just like He did for James Loder and Peter’s mother-in-law here in Mark 1).
Take Jesus home with you today from this place of worship. & Watch what He does for and through your family in the days to come. For Jesus Himself has all the authority. He has authority over people. He has authority over demons. & He has authority over disease. Remember, in verse 17-20, Jesus invited us to follow Him.
Now, as we have followed Him into the next few verses, we find that He has this amazing authority. But even more stunning is the fact that Jesus wants to give US, his followers, a similar kind of authority!
He’s already told us, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). He wants to gives us influence over men. Then, later on in chapter 3, we’ll discover that Jesus wants to give his disciples “authority to drive out demons” (Mark 3:15).
The question is: Where does such authority come from? Where can we as Christ’s followers get that authority over men and demons like Jesus had? Well, let’s see where Jesus leads us next.
Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
REAL POWER COMES IN THE SOLITARY PLACE OF PRAYER. REAL AUTHORITY COMES FROM TIME SPENT ALONE WITH GOD. REAL INFLUENCE COMES WHEN WE TAKE THE TIME TO TALK TO GOD ABOUT PEOPLE BEFORE WE TALK TO PEOPLE ABOUT GOD.
That’s where Jesus found His authority. Even though He was the Son of God, He chose not to use His powers as God. Instead, He chose to live in dependence upon His Heavenly Father, so He could show us how to live the same kind of life He did.
And what do we see Him doing? We see Him withdrawing to a “solitary place” of prayer.
And this is not the only time He does it. In Mark 1:12, the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the desert – literally, into a solitary place. It’s the same Greek word we have here in verse 35. Then again, in Mark 1:45, we see Jesus staying outside in “lonely places” – literally, in solitary places (the same word again). And finally, in Mark 6:32, we see Jesus and His followers again going away to a “solitary place.” On at least four occasions in six chapters, the first three in just the first chapter alone, Jesus withdraws to a “solitary place.”
Does anybody see a pattern here? Jesus showed us that the place of power is not with the crowds. It’s in the solitary place of prayer.
It’s in regular times alone with God Himself.
This gave Jesus perspective. It helped Him to remember why He had come.
Mark 1:36-38 Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
Jesus didn’t come to be popular. He came to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God and to call people to repentance.
In the solitary place of prayer, Jesus was reminded of his purpose in life. He was reminded about what was most important. I find it very interesting that Jesus withdraws to this “solitary place” whenever He finds himself very popular with the crowds.
It’s a pattern Jesus wants us to follow. Certainly, He wants us to come to the Lord when we have problems. But especially, Jesus wants us to come to God when we are popular and successful. When we are tempted to believe our own press reports, we need to get away from the crowds, spend time alone with the Lord, and remember what life is really all about.
And by the way, Life is not about US and OUR popularity. It’s about bringing OTHERS into the Kingdom.
That’s the pattern Jesus set for us. He often withdrew to the solitary place of prayer. This gave Him perspective.
And this gave Jesus power.
Mark 1:39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Jesus found real authority over demons, disease and people in the solitary place of prayer. And that’s where we find it, as well.
A pastor in Kent, Washington, would occasionally go on a personal retreat to pray and seek God’s direction for his ministry. During one retreat, someone called the church office and asked, “May I speak with the pastor?”
The secretary replied, “I’m sorry, he’s gone to be with the Lord.”
There was a long silence on the other end. Then the secretary realized what she had said. “But he’ll be back next week.” (Diana J. Estes, Kent, Washington; “Lite Fare,” Christian Reader.)
All kidding aside, before we go out into the world, we must go to be with the Lord. We must spend regular time in that solitary place of prayer, not so much talking, but mostly listening to God, seeking His direction.
Dallas Willard once described an experiment done with mice a few years ago. A researcher found that when amphetamines are given to a mouse in solitude, it takes a high dosage to kill it. Give it to a group of mice, and they start hopping around and hyping each other up so much that a fraction of the dosage will be lethal. In fact, a mouse given no amphetamines at all, placed in a group on the drug, will get so hyper that in 10 minutes or so it will be dead. “In groups,” Willard noted, “they go off like popcorn.”
Now, you’d think only mice would be so foolish as to hang out with other mice that are so hopped up, so frantically pursuing mindless activity for no discernible purpose that they put their own lives at risk. (John Ortberg, “Keeping Your Clock Ticking,” Leadership Weekly, 8-29-02, www.LeadershipJournal.net)
The sad fact is that we human beings do it too, all the time!
That’s why we must withdraw on a regular basis to that “solitary place of prayer.” Then, instead of letting the world influence us with its frenetic, mindless activity, we can begin to influence the world.
My friends, if we would follow Jesus into the place of power, we must follow Him into the solitary place of prayer.
