Mark 1: 21 – 28
We Had A Devil Of A Time At Church
21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
Again as we begin I know that you are all aware that there were two other Gospels already in circulation. Matthew it appears from historical records was the first to pen his Gospel. Then we see our friend Mark penned his Gospel. As we have discussed in the past, Mark obtained almost all of his material from the apostle Peter. The one area for sure that is original and can be said Mark was directly involved I believe is when as a young man he was in the Garden of Gethsemane when our Lord Jesus was arrested. We will come to that part when a soldier grabbed a hold of his robe and Mark escaped by breaking free of the robe and running away naked. Who could forget that event in his or her life?
Anyway, Luke was inspired by our Precious Holy Spirit to investigate this event and he writes about it in his Gospel.
Luke 4: 31 – 44, “31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. 32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. 33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. 36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
I am kind of weird but I guess you already knew that. But, many times I view things differently than others. For example, today, we are going to look at how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is also know as Jehovah Rapha – The Lord our Healer. We will take a look at how He healed people.
So, how does any of this refer to ‘weird’? Well, I look at how all these people are overwhelmed with sickness; they have physical defects; deadly diseases such as leprosy; and are filled with demons.
You might be thinking right now, ‘so what? We are facing the same things today!’ Yes, that is true and that is my point.
For a brief time fame, all of this rotten junk was eliminated. We had God Himself here on earth and took care of all of these problems by Himself. He eliminated all doctors, hospitals, clinics, medical businesses, exorcists, religious institutions, funeral homes, etc. To you get my point here. This is what is significant that we should think about and yearn to have again.
So, now as we go through these passages please give a thought to my point. Let us remember throughout that Yahweh Elohe Yisreael – The Lord God of Israel Is our Great God also and beseech Him to clean up this sick world again.
21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Now here Is a Preacher that anyone would travel to see and hear. What a combination – ‘32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.’ He spoke with the Power of The Holy Spirit.
I do not know about you but if you are a preacher and thinking about how you can become an entertainer and draw large crowds and be on television. I would rather go to a small church and if the Lord was gracious to be influence everyone by His Word through the Holy Spirit.
One time I had this new Pastor ask me what he should say and do at a Memorial Service. I told him to pray for the Holy Spirit guidance, and then give whatever message he felt directed to give. I told him that if he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, he could just say, ‘Hi’ and everyone would be overwhelmed and amazed.
Not only did the people have the Greatest Teacher of all times, we are going to see great miracles accompany His Teaching.
23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
We are in the dark and are not aware of what is going on behind the scenes. It seems throughout all the gospels, demons are showing up all over the place. Did they all go away after our Lord’s time on earth. Have you ever heard of the ‘Dark Ages’; ‘The Holocaust’, etc. No, the evil spirits are still causing all kinds of troubles for mankind.
Now, before we take a look at this confrontation between El Olam – The Everlasting God – and some of his fallen created beings. Let me ask you this question first, ‘what is a demon?’ I will not accept the answer that is an angel in a red suit and pointed tail that we dress up each October 31st.
So, is your answer that it is a fallen angel? I think differently. What does the word here in Mark say, ‘‘23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit.’
Are demons and fallen angels the same? I believe that fallen angels are what we read this unique section in the book of Genesis chapter 6, “1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.’
You can get a variety of descriptions on who the ‘sons of God’ are, but my understanding is that they are angels. All the angels that appear in the bible are male. It never says that they are sexless. Some people cling to the verse in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 22 where our Lord Jesus Christ speaks about marriage, “23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24 saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.’
All it says in verse 30 is that in heaven there is no marriage. There is no procreation going on.
Now these fallen angels had children with women and they bore giants. When you look at both before and after the flood these giants are alive from this unholy union. Now the question is what happens to their spirits when they die?
Angels can show up in the form of a human being, this is one reason why they sinned against God by taking human women. In the book of Hebrews chapter 13 verse two we read how many angels are walking around with us today and we are not even aware of it, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”
Demons on the other hand desire to possess a human being. Now, are we all settled on this point. Back to our Bible passages.
As the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ came to break the darkness imposed on us as the book of Colossians chapter 1 declares, “ 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”
Have you thought about this point in the reading of this incident - ‘Satan has infiltrated the Synagogue with his own representatives’. Here this demon possessed man was a regular at the church services. Now, how does that make you feel? At church look around and check out those who are there. Most likely your church has the same unwelcome attendees.
The demons wanted to know if our Lord Jesus had come to destroy them. Perhaps the demons thought that the Lord secretly would have destroyed them, so by declaring out loud Who He Was, might save them from this happening. At the same time they wanted to throw confusion into the fray. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12 we see how they would try to confuse the people by accusing our Lord of having a partnership with the devil, “22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
Our Lord wanted no help from the unclean demons. He had the authority to command and the power to ensure that His commands are carried out.
27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
If you ever have the chance, please take a trip to Israel. For there the Gospels will take on new thoughts for you will actually see the places where our Lord walked. You can visit the city of Capernaum and see the remains of this actual Synagogue where this incident took place. You can also then see the remains of Peter’s home. There is a building over the remains of his home where people meet today to talk about the bible. It is only a stone’s throw away from this Synagogue.
One thing that you can keep aware of is that our Lord Jesus Christ many times touched people who were sick or had diseases. It indicated that He was identifying Himself with our infirmities as spoken by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53, “ 1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
We see again how the evil spirits tried to identify Him as the Son of God, yet He told them to shut up. Please notice He never touches the people demon possessed, He commands they leave the people alone
Our Lord’s fame grew so much that they weren’t any more building in which He could go and preach, so He had to go and teach in the countryside. He was in so much demand that He had a hard time just getting a few moments alone with our Adoni Yahweh Father God.
