Good morning. Please open your Bibles to Mark 1.
We continue our series on “Good News.” You see the title of this morning’s sermon. For years, one Cable News Network has had this phrase as its tagline: The Most Trusted Name in News. The problem is… its not. In a recent poll, among all adults, only 55% said they found this particular network credible. That made it fifth on the list of news sources.
Another network made the claim in their advertising that “More Americans get their news from ________ . (I won’t tell you which one, but its an American Broadcasting Company). The problem is… they don’t. In September 2019, the Pew Research Center found that two thirds of Americans now get most of their news from social media. Nearly half from Facebook.
Still another network used to claim that their news was “fair and balanced.” The problem is… it wasn’t. In August of 2016, they began to phase out “fair and balanced” as a tagline. They replaced it with “Most Watched, Most Trusted.” But as we’ve already seen, not even this network is the most watched or the most trusted. So now, if you go to their app, the opening screen just says, “America’s Watching.”
But all three of these are appeals to authority. You should trust us because we’re the most credible. You should trust us because we’re the most popular. You should trust us because we’re the most accurate. But what happens when they get it wrong? What happens when they contradict one another? In the world of fake news, how do you decide who is going to be an authoritative voice in your life?
That’s where Jesus comes in. This morning, I want to continue to talk about the gospel as “Good News.” And why Jesus is THE most trusted name in “Good News.” If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word. We are going to be looking at a lot of Scripture this morning, but for our reading we are just going to look at verses 16-20:
16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”[f] 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me…
One of the things that has always fascinated me about Jesus is how He was able to get a bunch of big, burly, professional fishermen to drop everything and follow Him. I’m trying to imagine what kind of results I would get if I tried that. You know, just go down to the docks early in the morning, after these guys have been up all night. They’re tired. Maybe they’re in a bad mood (most of the time Jesus talks to fishermen in the gospels, they haven’t caught anything, so they are probably a little short tempered). And I just say, “Hey guys… follow me.” I don’t think it would work. But with Jesus, not only did it work, it worked “immediately.” (Remember, this is one of Mark’s favorite words)
• Verse 18: And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
• Verse 20: And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1:20)
And maybe you’re thinking, well, Jesus must have been this big, burly, manly man himself, and that’s why they followed him. And you might be right. But notice that in the next chapter, Jesus goes to a guy who is probably as opposite from these fishermen as you can get. In Mark 2:14, we see that Jesus
• And as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. (Mark 2:14)
So it wasn’t just that Jesus appealed to rough outdoorsy types. There was something about him that drew introverted accountant types also.
Why did they trust Jesus? Because Jesus had authority. The Hebrew word is s’mikhah. Which is just a fun word to say. But the word s’mikhah comes from the Hebrew word for laying your hand on someone. In Numbers 27, Moses smikhahd Joshua when he laid his hands on him. Now Joshua had Moses’ authority. Now, there were lots of teachers in Jesus day, but most of them simply passed on what they had been taught by others. In order to teach a new interpretation of the law, you had to have s’mikhah. Someone needed to have bestowed authority on you by the laying on of hands.
Where did Jesus get His s’mikhah? Who “smikhad” Him? I believe He got it directly from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about Jesus’ baptism. Let’s revisit the language: Look back to verse 10
10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;[d] with you I am well pleased.”
Talk about smikha! The Holy Spirit Himself gave Him the authority! And in the first couple of chapters of Mark, the gospel writer works double time to establish that Jesus has authority in every area of life. Let’s look at what follows:
• Authority in His teaching (1:21-22). This is the first one we come across. Verse 21 says they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. The people in the synagogue were used to hearing the scribes recite the law. Because they didn’t have s’mikhah. But Jesus teaching was different. We don’t know what he says here—mark has less of Jesus’ teaching than any other gospel, but we can get a pretty good idea by flipping over to Matthew 5. In verses 21-48, Jesus is teaching about anger. And he starts off in pretty safe territory—“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But then look what happens in verse 22: 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother[a] will be liable to judgment;
Whoa! “But I say to you?” Who gets to do that? A teacha with s’mikhah!
And he keeps doing it. Adultery—v. 27: You’ve heard it said do not commit adultery—but I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery.
Divorce (v. 31) : I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife makes her commit adultery
Making oaths (v 34): I say to you don’t swear at all!
Retaliation: (v. 38): I say to you turn the other cheek.
I SAY TO YOU… LOVE YOUR ENEMIES (V. 44)
JESUS HAD S’MIKHAH! And it drove the religious leaders up the wall! Later on in Mark’s gospel, (11:28) they’re going to ask him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you the authority to do them?” We’ll get to that story later in this series. It’s awesome.
So the first thing these new disciples saw, immediately after Jesus invivted them to follow Him, was that His teaching had authority. Even when they didn’t understand what Jesus was saying, they still recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life (John 6:68-69)
Second, Jesus had authority over the spirit world. Mark hardly even takes a breath before he’s telling us the next story. In verse 23,
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
Quickly, there’s a couple of things to point out here—first, the demons always get it right about Jesus. In Mark’s gospel, the only ones who acknowledge that Jesus is God are demons and the centurion at the foot of the cross. So the demons get it right. The second thing to notice is that whenever anyone does know the truth about Jesus, Jesus commands them to be quiet. We’re going to talk a lot more about that in the coming weeks. But its called “The Messianic Secret” in Mark, and its going to come up A LOT.
But for now, just know that Jesus demonstrates that He has power over the evil spirits. He commands them to come out, and they come out. And the crowd is amazed about this. Verse 27 says,
27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
Friends, we make two big mistakes when it comes to thinking about demons ad the spirit world. One is to deny it completely, and the other is to be obsessed with it. CS Lewis points out that the devil himself is equally happy with either one of those. The truth is, there really is a spirit world. There really are angels and demons and spiritual warfare and a glorious heaven and a terrible hell, and God and Satan have been waging war since the beginning of time over the souls of human beings, because we are all going to spend eternity somewhere. And yes, there really are demons that are actively trying to trip you up and lead you astray. But let me be super clear about this: Jesus has authority over the spirit world. Satan had to get God’s permission to mess with Job. Jesus told Peter on the night of the last supper, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. (Luke 22:31). And if you are a Christian, there is a limit to how much Satan can mess with you. 1 corinthians 10:13 promises that God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And we know from 1 John 4:4 that the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. So yes, its all real and the devil is powerful. But you know what Jesus has over Satan? That’s right. S’mikhah!
Number Three, Jesus had s’mikhah over sickness. Let’s look at verses 29-34:
29 And immediately he[g] left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
Now, I think its important to understand here that just because Jesus has authority over sickness, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is going to cure every disease. Notice verse 34: Jesus healed “many” who were sick. It doesn’t say “all.” Jesus authority means that sometimes he heals someone, and sometimes he uses that sickness or long-term diagnosis or whatever to bring glory to His heavenly Father. So we pray to Jesus for healing from sickness because He has authority, but just because we pray it doesn’t mean we have authority. I heard a faith healer on TV one time say, “In the name of Jesus, I claim authority over this lower back pain…” and I don’t think we get to do that. We pray to the one who has the smikhah. But we don’t have the smikhah.
The next two I’m just going to mention briefly because we’re going to deal with them more in depth later in this series. But I want to point out here that Jesus has authority over storms. Jump over a couple of chapters to Mark 4 (I think it says Mark 5 in your listening guide—sorry about that) and you have the story of Jesus calming the storm. There’s a fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is asleep in the bottom of the boat, the disciples are freaking out, they wake Jesus up, Jesus rebukes the wind, and the storm stops. And just note what the disciples say about Him: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). In other words, “This dude’s got some serious s’mikhah!” So for all of ya’ll that were worried last week that the rain was never gonna stop, just remember that Jesus has authority over every storm. Both the literal ones (he promised way back in Genesis that He would never flood the world again) and the spiritual ones. Jesus has s’mikhah over every storm in your life.
The last one is the most important one, and we are going to spend all next week talking about it. But Jesus has authority to forgive sin. Just a preview of next week: In Mark 2, Jesus was back in Capernaum teaching, and a group of guys lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof and literally dropped him in front of Jesus. And Jesus looked at him and said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” And that raised a huge issue with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, because remember, they can’t figure out where He got His s’mikhah. They say, “This is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And if you want to see how Jesus answers that question, you’ll have to come back next week.
But as we bring this to a close, I want us to circle back to where we started this sermon: Jesus issued an invitation to Peter, Andrew, James and John (and then to Matthew a few verses later). The invitation was for them to follow Him. To leave everything behind and follow. And we’ve been talking for this entire sermon about what made them say yes. How Jesus had authoritative teaching. How he had authority over spirits. And sickness. And storms. And sin. But now let me ask you this:
Which came first: the faith to follow or the reinforcement of the faith?
See, on Mark’s super compressed timeline, we get the impression that Jesus was just this complete stranger that came up to them out of the blue, said, “Hey, if you follow me, I’ll make you fishers of men,” and they up and followed Him. And maybe that’s exactly how it was. But if you put Mark’s gospel alongside John’s gospel, you get maybe a more complete picture. According to John, Andrew (and probably John) had already been following John the Baptist. John points Jesus out to them and says, “look—there’s the lamb of God.”
• And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” (John 1:38-39)
And notice that Jesus doesn’t immediately jump to “I’ll make you fishers of men.” He just says, “Come and see.” At some point later—John doesn’t say “immediately,” Andrew finds his brother Peter and brings Him to Jesus.
The day after Jesus recruited Andrew, he gathers another disciple, Philip. And Philip goes to his buddy Nathanael and says “Hey we’ve found the Messiah, and he’s from Nazareth.
• Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip gives him the same invitation Jesus gave Him: Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:48)
Maybe that’s where some of you are this morning. You aren’t necessarily sold on whether or not to give Jesus authority in your life yet. Your invitation is simple—Come and see. Engage with us during this season of taking a deep dive into the gospel of Mark. See if Jesus’ teachings have the ring of truth in your life. Join us for Easter. We are going to spend a couple of weeks talking about the reliability of the evidence for Jesus’ death and resurrection. But come and see.
Others of you are just weary of some storms and battles in your life. You’re dealing with physical sickness. You’re dealing with spiritual warfare. And you’re tired of fighting. Your invitation is to come and see also. But I want you to hear it from Matthew’s gospel:
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11: 28-30)
A “yoke” was a rabbi’s teaching. So many of the rabbis of Jesus’ day had a yoke of legalism. Of burdening people with the minutiae of the law. And Jesus said, I know you guys are weary of that. I know you are heavily laden down with that. Eugene Peterson translated it this way (its on the front of the bulletin)—I know you are burned out on religion. But follow me, and I’ll show you real rest. I’ll teach you the unforced rhythms of grace, and you will find rest.
Bottom line: If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you must adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. Jesus is the most trusted name in the (good news). If you give him authority over your life, then you will find rest for your weary souls. Come and see.
Invitation.
