#7 When Jesus Came to Church
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
February 2, 2020
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 1:21-28 – "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. 28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee."
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – If Jesus were to personally walk into church this morning, what would it be like? We all have our stereotypical opinions of what it would be like: some think we’d feel an awesome peace; others think a heavenly love would pervade; others, a feeling of tenderness and compassion. In today’s text, Jesus shows up for Sabbath worship, and it was WAY different than anyone expected.
Before we launch into our text, let’s get our bearings with a little background this morning. In the very first verse of the Gospel of Mark, John tells us his theme. He says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Everything in Mark’s book was written to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God.
Each section of chapter 1 we’ve looked at so far was written to reinforce this truth: The fact that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah in verses 2-3, the baptism of Jesus wherein God the Father gave His verbal approval of Jesus and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove to anoint Jesus for service, how He overcame Satan in that titanic 40 days of temptation in the wilderness and finally in His immediate success in His preaching and His remarkable attraction such that when He called believers to be his Apostles, they immediately responded.
All of these sound like someone who is not your average, run-of-the-mill rabbi. No, Jesus is unique—the very Son of God, in fact.
In verses 21-35, Mark records a single day in the ministry of Jesus. In a single twenty-four-hour period, Jesus demonstrated that He was the Son of God by His extraordinary authority. That’s the key word in verses 21-35—authority. In this passage, and indeed in His whole life, Jesus exercised the type of authority reserved only for God Himself. That’s the point Mark tries to convey.
The word “authority” is found 10 times in Mark. The Greek word [exousía] has several shades of meaning, but I can sum up all the language lexicons and dictionaries by saying that it means “inherent ability and power and the resultant right to exercise that power.”
In verses 21-35, the subject of today’s and next week’s sermons, we will see how Jesus suddenly and beyond anyone’s expectations assumes power possible only to God and rights and prerogatives reserved only for God, thereby proving that He is indeed the Son of God.
I. NOTE FIRST THAT JESUS TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY – Verses 21-22 – “And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”
A faithful follower of God, Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath in Capernaum, the hub of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The Temple was the place of worship and sacrifice; the synagogue was the place of teaching and instruction. There was only one Temple (in Jerusalem), but wherever there were at least ten families, it was a rule of Judaism that a synagogue must be established. Therefore, the synagogue was by far the more in?uential, and the logical place for Jesus to begin to establish His divine authority.
When He entered the synagogue, Jesus began to teach. Mark doesn’t bother to tell us WHAT Jesus taught that Sabbath; he only tells us the response to His teachings. He said they were “astonished” at His teachings.
That is a common response of people who first read the Gospels with an open mind. The teachings of Jesus truly are remarkable. Even great atheists marvel at Jesus’ teachings.
In his book, Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis wrote, “In Jesus’ teaching there is no imperfection. He wrote no book. We have only reported sayings, most of them uttered in answers to questions, shaped in some degree by their context….He preaches but He does not lecture. He used paradox, proverb, exaggeration, parable, irony; even (I mean no irreverence) the ‘wisecrack’….His teaching…cannot be grasped by the intellect alone…”
Why were Jesus’ teachings so different?—Because everyone else’s teachings were derivative while Jesus’ taught with direct PERSONAL authority from God because, He WAS God. The scribes, who were largely Pharisees, and as Kent Hughes put it, they “were in bondage to quotation marks!”
They loved to quote the authorities: “Rabbi Hillel says…but on the other hand Gamaliel says.…then there is Rabbi Eleazar’s testimony.… ” ad nauseum.
It was secondhand theology! Their teachings descended into convoluted, petty, legalistic distinctions that were boring, with no spontaneity, no joy!
But Jesus was totally different! When He spoke, He spoke as if he needed no authority beyond Himself—because He WAS the authority. He spoke with utter independence, citing no experts. He spoke with the finality of the voice of God—because He WAS God.
When Mark says they were astonished, that does not necessarily mean they all liked it. They were astonished because His teachings shocked them. Both His style and content were just so radically different; it was not the norm; it rattled them.
If I can be excused for quoting C.S. Lewis one more time, listen to this: “[Jesus] was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects—Hatred—Terror—Adoration. There was not trace of people expressing mild admiration.”
Why was this?—Because Jesus didn’t just teach to educate but to call people to decision—call all people to His kingdom, and a kingdom implies a king, a ruler, a master, and that king is Jesus. Some people simply will not bend the knee to Jesus, and therefore hate Him and everything about Him. Some run in terror at surrendering their lives to Jesus, not realizing that only in Jesus is there eternal life and an abundant life on this earth. But some people hear Jesus’ words and respond in faith and obedience and experience the joy of knowing Him and experiencing His blessings.
II. NEXT, IN VERSES 22-27, JESUS EXERCISED AUTHORITY OVER THE POWERS OF DARKNESS.
Illus. – If you’ve ever been to some of the churches in the hills and hollers in rural U.S.A., you can see some strange things. I remember when we were raising support as missionaries being invited to a weeklong mission’s conference at a church way back in the Smokey Mountains of western North Carolina.
From the moment we got there, it was weird, but our mission board had trained us that no matter what the situation, just go with the flow. The missions speaker that week was one of those screaming preachers. He was a wild man, one time running down the aisle screaming like a banshee, going out the entrance of the church still screaming, and coming around to the side entrance still screaming to the top of his lungs, and running up to the pulpit again, still screaming to the top of his lungs.
Overall, the congregation was pretty calm up to that point, with only your normal “Amens” here and there you get in some Southern churches. Then suddenly, without warning, the lady right behind Susan’s seat jumped up and let out a holler that would raise the dead. When that happened, Susan, who is kind of jumpy by nature anyway, LITERALLY jumped out of her seat a foot high…and I was not solidly planted in my seat myself, it scared us so.
THAT AIN’T NOTHIN’ compared with what happened when Jesus went to church! Already people are perplexed and astonished with Jesus’ teaching and the authority with which He taught it, as if HE were the authority in Himself. But what happened next would make your hair curl.
Look at verses 23-27 – “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 Saying, ‘Let us alone; what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’ 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet, and come out of him! 26 Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this?—A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
Suddenly during Jesus’ teaching a man with an unclean spirit (another word for a demon) caused a disturbance in the congregation. Can you imagine what would happen if that happened in our service? It would kind of freak you out, wouldn’t it?
This demon-possessed man was so totally controlled by this demon that He could not stand to listen to Jesus’ teaching. Now notice that he was in the synagogue; he was in a place of spiritual learning and religious activities. His religious and cultural ties to Judaism had done him no good. He was absolutely helpless.
The congregation there that day were only dimly starting to process this teacher who taught with such compelling authority. Then suddenly, the demon speaks through the voice of the man and says, “Let us alone; what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”
Several of the commentaries I consulted said that the phrase, “Have you come to destroy us?” is not really a question. Rather, it was an accusation: “You have to destroy us!”
While the congregation did not understand who Jesus was, there was no doubt in the mind of the demon. In several demonic encounters in Mark, the demons know instantly who Jesus is. They identify Him as the “Holy One of God” in this verse, “the Son of God” in chapter 3, verse 11, and “the Son of the Most High God” in chapter 11, verse 7. Demons knew exactly who He was, and they knew that among other things He had set out to do, He would most certainly utterly destroy them in time.
This is another evidence Mark provides to show that Jesus was the Son of God. Yet, despite hearing these things with their own ears, the people could not process it.
Now, demon possession was not unknown to the ancient world. There were many exorcists who claimed to be able to cast out demons. The ordinary Jewish and pagan exorcists used elaborate incantations and spells and magical rites. Whether they really had any control over the demons is debatable because they were trafficking in the very arts controlled by demons. But so-called exorcisms were known to go on for hours or days to quieten a demon’s influence, at least for a while.
Not so with Jesus. With one command of clear, simple, brief authority, Jesus says only seven words: “Be quiet and come out of him,” and INSTANTLY the demon obeys and comes out of the man in a horrible demonic paroxysm and a loud convulsive scream. And then, just like that [SNAP FINGERS]—He was perfectly whole and free from the demon’s power!
No one had ever seen anything like this before! WHAT POWER AND AUTHORITY! The power was not in a spell, a formula, an incantation, or an elaborate rite; the power was in JESUS HIMSELF.
The reaction of the congregation was sheer amazement, and again the word “authority” comes up. Verse 27 says, “they debated among themselves, saying, ‘What is this?—A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”
The effect of this kind of power and authority was electrifying. They began to realize that Jesus was not just some simple wandering religious rabbi. He was A POWER TO BE RECKONED WITH!
Later, Jesus would begin to claim rights and prerogatives reserved only for God. Their debate and consternation would only become more pronounced. Eventually, His claims to divine rights and prerogatives would lead to crucifixion by His enemies.
One little side note: Did you notice how Jesus told the demons to be quiet? He wasn’t just trying to diffuse the situation before an already terrified congregation. Later, in verse 34, we’re told that Jesus cast out many demons and the verse continues, “And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.” And in chapter 3:11-12 Mark records, “And whenever unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him, and cried out, “You are the Son of God. 12 And he strictly ordered them…not to make him known.”
Isn’t that kind of odd to you? Why would Jesus forbid them to reveal who He was? Well, sorry: you’ll have to wait until we get to those verses! I’m gonna’ leave you hanging this morning.
III. NOTICE LAST, IN VERSE 28, THAT THE NEWS OF JESUS’ POWER AND AUTHORITY SPREAD EVERYWHERE – “And immediately his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of out Galilee.”
News of Jesus’ power and authority spread like wildfire! Realistically speaking, could you expect any different response? Following such an eventful Sabbath at the synagogue, Jesus’ fame was bound to spread throughout all of Galilee, and then in all of Judea and then ultimately north, south, east and west.
The people were unable to remain quiet about the wonder they had witnessed that day, and every day more incredible things would happen, which only fed the fame of this miracle worker. People had to share it with everyone they met. They couldn’t hold it in.
CONCLUSION
These are remarkable events, but what do they mean to us personally?
First, never forget the reality of the demonic world.
There are evil things that happen in this world that cannot just be explained by sinful human nature. Satan is real and he has a mobilized army to carry out his plan to kill, steal and destroy. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly realms.”
But Jesus defeated the devil at the cross and we already know the final outcome—WE WIN!—JESUS WINS! Although the destruction of Satanic forces awaits the final judgment, Jesus dealt its death blow on the cross. And 1 John 4:4 comforts us with these words, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I have good news for you: Christians cannot be demon-possessed. When you are born into God’s family by faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells you. The Holy Spirit will not coexist with a demon. However, though demons cannot possess a Christian, when we surrender to sin in our lives, we can fall under the influence of Satan and His demon world. When that happens, we should be quick to confess our sins and return to fellowship with God.
The second thing I want to do is challenge you today to surrender to Jesus Christ’s authority.
Each of the four Gospels have different main emphases, but one thing is clear from all of them: Jesus has the authority to direct and order your life. He has the right to tell you what to do. The kingdom of God is not a democracy. Jesus is God, Jesus is the Lord, and He has the right to rule your life. Be a disciple of Jesus by being obedient to your King.
Last, I want you to realize that God can save anybody! This man was under the influence of demons, which happens only when people willingly surrender themselves to the direct influence of Satan. This hopeless man who had rolled in the dust and despair before that horror-stricken congregation rose to wholeness, joy, peace and deliverance.
Listen, there is hope for the worst of us! You may have the hardest heart of anyone on this planet. It may seem to be impenetrable, irredeemable, hopeless, impossible. I have good news for you: Jesus is willing and ready to change your life…if you will let Him.
Will you? Will you recognize your sinfulness before God? You might be a good person in your own eyes. This man was in the synagogue doing religious stuff. But he was lost and controlled by Satan. He had religion, but he didn’t have Jesus!
1 John 5:12-13 says, “He who has the Son has life; and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things have I written to you who believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
Listen, Jesus has come to church this morning. You must not miss Him! If God is dealing with you now, He might not continue to. “Today is the day of salvation! NOW is the appointed time.”
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you should do today. Turn to Jesus and be saved!
