THE INVINCIBLE AUTHORITY OF JESUS
Text: Mark 1:21-28
Someone anonymous once poignantly said something very profound about Jesus: "I am far within the mark when I say that all armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of mankind on this earth as powerfully as that One Solitary Life". (Massey Mott Heltzel. The Invincible Christ. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, p. 10). This statement tells us about the ageless authority of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Someone else put it like this: "So very many people are afraid that religion will be strangled and the soul of the human race destroyed, for that has been the threat of every dictator throughout the ages. Is it not remarkable that not a single one has ever succeeded in his determination?" (Leonard Cochran. Man At His Best. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, p. 74). Jesus Christ is Lord of all! Others may have authority and power. Only Jesus has the power to save people from their wages of their sin which is death (Romans 6:23). The authority of others is limited by time and boundaries as their authority will one day come to an end. But, the authority of Jesus never ends!
JESUS CHALLENGES THE STATUS QUO
Jesus challenges the status quo that tries to hinder God’s grace. Jesus did not speak and conclude His statements as did some of the prophets by saying, "Thus saith the Lord". The authentic prophets of the Old Testament that were selected by God spoke with authority and concluded by saying "Thus saith the Lord" because their authority and message was given to them by God. Jesus spoke with authority because HE IS LORD! "And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes" (Mark 1:21 KJV). Jesus obviously spoke with authority that the scribes often seemed to lack in their teaching. They (the scribes) obviously had what someone has labeled as "positional authority" that seemed to lack in it’s ability to satisfy spiritual hunger. "Positional authority without power leaves churches suffering. It also leaves hurting people unchanged in a world where people need to be healed". (David N. Mosser. Ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual. 2003 Edition. Joseph Daniels. "Leadership With Authority". Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002, p. 68). Jesus seemed to be challenging the status quo of whatever hinders God’s saving grace in both individuals and institutions like the synagogue in Mark 1:21-8.
Jesus challenges his listeners to believe and receive God’s grace. Jesus came to heal brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, give recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those that are bruised (Luke 4:18). The Bible says that faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). That is why Jesus taught not only in the synagogue, but also everywhere He went. Jesus was effective in reaching those who believed because His message was empowered by God, His Father. He had also been anointed by God’s Spirit to preach the gospel (Luke 4:18). And God’s Spirit was calling to repentance those that Jesus was preaching to wherever He went. Jesus had left all the glory of heaven to come and live among us as one of us and also as God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16). Jesus was and is God in human flesh. It is through our belief in His message that we have been given the chance to become God’s adopted sons and daughters. Jesus came to us in the way that He did so that we might have the chance to receive His righteousness as He exchanged it for our sinfulness that He took upon Himself (Second Corinthians 5:22) as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) that He took to cross. Only God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ has this kind of power and authority! This is how and why Jesus always challenges his listeners to believe and receive God’s gift of grace!
Jesus challenges people to accept His gift of salvation because our salvation only comes through Him! Jesus is the solid rock and all other ground is sinking sand! "Jesus is the one of whom the scripture says, "The stone that you builders despised turned out to be most important of all. Salvation is found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us" (Acts 4:11-12 TEV). No king or kingdom, ruler or dictator, government, organization or individual can ever give us eternal life! No one else has conquered sin, death and the fear of death! God only gave this authority to Jesus Christ! We are powerless and hopeless without Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior! That is why without Jesuswe can do nothing (John 15:5)!
Jesus challenged and exercised the unclean spirit of the man who entered the synagogue. The man with an unclean spirit was a slave to the unclean spirit that possessed him. The fact that this evil spirit used this man’s own mouth to speak his thoughts indicates that he (the man) was under the control of the evil spirit that possessed him. Jesus had authority over this evil spirit, rebuked him to silence and ordered him to come out of the man (Mark 1:25). Nobody had ever seen such authority and power that even evil spirits had to obey. And for that reason Jesus got a lot of publicity and notoriety. It has been said in Jesus’ ministry that 20% of the miracles that He brought about had to do with casting out demons. (Leslie B. Flynn. The Miracles Of Jesus. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1990, p. 80).
JESUS EMPOWERS US IN HIS NAME
It is not enough to mention the name of Jesus. Even demons can mention the name of Jesus. Consider Mark 1:23-24: "Just then a man with an evil spirit came into the synagogue and screamed, "What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth?" (TEV). Consider also Acts 19:11-16: "And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded" (RSV). The point is clear that it is not enough to mention Jesus’ name. Jesus said, "Not every one who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers’ (Matthew 7:21-23 RSV). Unless we believe in Him and His saving grace and the gift of salvation, then all we have the knowledge of His name. Having the knowledge of Jesus’ name will not save us.
When we have a relationship with Jesus, He empowers us to serve Him in His name. It has been said that William Wilberforce (1759-1833) would not seem like much of a man of stature for those who knew him. He was under medical care for 20 years. for that reason, he had to take medicine to keep his health in stable standing. Though limited, he would not let his infirmities keep him from pursuing the end of the British slave trade. He accomplished that goal. Only one month after his death, the Emancipation Bill was passed and slave trading came to the end in the West Indies in 1833. James Boswell (1740-1795) who once went to hear him speak said afterwards: "I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mounted upon the platform, but as I listened, he grew and grew till the shrimp became a whale." (A. Naismith. 1200 Notes, Quotes and Anecdotes. Great Britain: Pickering Paperbacks, 1988, pp. 101-102). Jesus had made him strong in spite of his weakness.
Jesus makes us strong in spite of whatever our weaknesses are because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philipians 4:13). Benjamin Franklin once said that "God helps those who help themselves". But, the truth of the matter is that without Jesus we would be helpless and hopeless. The reason that Christians have hope and power is because Jesus Christ is the source of their hope and their power. Through Jesus’ authority and power and our faith in that power and Jesus’ authority we have the strength that He gives to us. When we as Christians pray we almost always end our prayers saying, "… in Jesus’ name. Amen." We do that because we know that Jesus is the name of our Savior who saves us from the power of sin. We also do that because we know that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (Second Corinthians 12:9). God’s grace through Jesus Christ is all that we need: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (Second Corinthians 12:9-10 RSV). That is why William Wilberforce accomplished what he accomplished in abolishing slavery. He was what seemed like a weak man who could not accomplish much. But, like our weaknesses, the weaknesses of William Wilberforce were made strong in Jesus Christ who strengthened him and who strengthens us. For His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses because of His authority and the authority that He empowers us with to accomplish all that we accomplish for His glory and the forwarding of God’s kingdom here on earth.
