The authority of Jesus
Mark 1:21-28
The apostles are with Jesus at this point, going back toward their home base. Here Jesus demonstrates a kind of authority that they could not have guessed. He has shown power nature, but authority is more than power, it is the right to exercise power. Jesus is demonstrating His right to do the things He does.
21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24“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!”
25“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27The people were all so amazed 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.” 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Mark 1:21-28 (NIV)
Jesus has authority over the Scriptures
Jewish teaching insists that interpreting the Bible in any way separate from the Rabbinic authorities is heresy. They have a powerful oral tradition. They believe that some of the questions that are raised by the law of Moses are answered in oral laws that were handed down by authorities over the centuries. They believe that this tradition spans the entire history of the OT. Rabbinical authorities learned these 613 laws called the Mishna and studied them by learning the interpretations of authorities who came before them.
This was all done orally until about 300 AD when the laws themselves were written down along with authoritative interpretations in a series of books we now know as the Talmud.
In Jesus’ day, before it was written down, students would become attached to an authority and memorize this oral tradition from him. They would learn to debate the interpretations and promote a specific line of practice. The debate was part of the training. They tried to surface the truth of the oral law by debating till falsehoods could be eliminated. When Jesus debated the pharisees, He was not being rude, He simply engaged in the practice of His faith.
We have a strong allusion to this tradition in the Bible. The book of Acts says that Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel is still one of the recognized authorities in the Talmud. To say that Paul sat at his feet is to say that he had an authoritative mentor.
But this is where Jesus comes in. He did not rely on the authorities to teach the Scriptures. He read them and interpreted them for Himself. So when Jesus reads from Isaiah about the end of time and the coming of the LORD to rescue His people, the scribes might have said, this is a military rescue from our enemies, but Jesus ignored these traditions and said, "today this passage is fulfilled."
This was an unheard of type of teaching. Jesus was establishing Himself as an authority over the rabbinical tradition. He was setting Himself up as not only more important than the other teachers of His day, He was setting Himself up as more important than the teachers of history, even the prophets themselves.
He continued to treat the Scriptures this way by defining
• What He could and could not do on the Sabbath
• What made a person clean or unclean
• What constituted murder and adultery
• How retribution should be practiced
• When the death penalty should be practiced
By going into all these things, Jesus was teaching His apostles that He and not traditional interpretation was the ultimate authority in Scripture.
This was revolutionary. No wonder the religious leaders were offended. Jesus with a casual word negated their entire life’s work and the whole traditional system of training and faith.
Incidentally, this is a cornerstone of Mennonite teaching. Jesus is the center of our faith and so He is the center of the way Mennonites interpret Scripture. Whatever else we find in the Bible, in order to see how we should interpret it, we first look to see what bearing Jesus’ actions and words have on the subject. He is the first and the last word. In that way, the gospels become the key to the entire Bible. That is not to say that they are more inspired or that the other books are unimportant, but it does mean that the Gospels should be our guide to all else.
Jesus is God in the flesh
If God personally says something about His word, then it is of utmost importance that we listen.
Also, Jesus has authority over the spiritual realm
This probably seems obvious to us, but it was not to the Apostles. The man with the evil spirit was in a worship gathering. His demons recognized Jesus and the potential power He could exert over them.
Demons are a difficult topic in our time. Some well meaning ministers would like to chalk all Scriptural references to demons to mental illness. They would say that the pre-scientific perception of these cultures were such that they did not understand the workings of the mind and therefore could not properly interpret people’s problems.
Others would like to attribute every problem behavior that people have to the influence of demons. I had a friend who blamed his fear of the dark on a "spirit of terror." Many believe that every time they sin it is the final product of a demon’s influence in their lives.
I believe that both of these extremes are wrong. On the one hand, I believe that demon possession is very real and present in our world and that they are a different thing from mental illness. I do not believe that mentally ill people have demons. Demon manifestations are more common in other parts of the world than they are here. By the same token, miracles and supernatural healing also seem to be more common in other places. As for the demons, I believe it has to do with Satan’s tactics. In our country, people’s belief in demons is so low, that Satan manipulates with deception more than fear.
I also do not believe that demons are the ultimate cause of all our spiritual problems. The Bible makes it clear that temptations arise right out of our own desires and weaknesses as well as from Satan and His minions. I think that we are fallen people with sinful tendencies that must be dealt with apart from other types of spiritual welfare.
We must not be enamored with Hollywood’s version of what demons are about. In movies like the Exorcist and the Exorcism of Emily Rose, we see violent pictures of weirdness that are gauged to manipulate our fear. I have dealt with demons only a couple of times. Each time the people were concerned that a demon was in their home and they wanted to bless their home to drive the demon away. In neither case were there strange apparitions or voices. In each case, it was the sense of the people who lived there that a spiritual influence was lingering over the people in the home.
We dare not treat these things lightly. However, we need not fear them. Jesus has the authority. Still, He warns that some demons will not be driven away easily, that only by prayer and fasting will some demons be driven away. Dealing with demons is a spiritual battle and must not be approached out of curiosity or fear.
The important thing in this passage for us to notice is that, though the demons were powerful they had to obey Jesus. He told them to leave and with violent storms in the person they were tormenting, they left. According to the book of Luke, they were not able to harm the possessed person in the process.
Let’s face it, the demons were afraid of Him. They were shaking in their boots. They couldn’t even speak when Jesus told them to be quiet.
Jesus is the ultimate power in the universe and can more than deal with them. I encourage you, if you think you know of demon activity in or surrounding your life, to come to me or another of our church leaders and get help in dealing with it. Prayer works as much today as it did when Jesus walked the earth.
It does not matter what spiritual forces are pitted against you, Jesus has the spiritual authority to deal with them.
He has authority over people too
When Jesus displays His power and His authoritative Scriptural wisdom people cannot help but notice. The people of His day were amazed at his spiritual authority.
The more they saw His spiritual authority the more his fame increased. This is a part of what it means to worship the living Christ. He is attractive in every way. In His power and in the wisdom of His word, He can dazzle the darkest mind and heart. In this case, His fame spread throughout the furthest reaches of His home district.
Part of reaching people for Jesus is simply making sure they know who He is. This is one of the simpler things in sharing the gospel. We sometimes get wrapped up in sin and forgiveness and heaven and hell and grace and works. All these things are part of the salvation story, but a great part of it is summed up in two questions:
Who do people say that He is?
Who do you say He is?
What many people think of Jesus and claim about Him is based on misinformation, partial knowledge and bias. If we take the time to speak into their lives, not just about what Jesus has done for us and what He can do in another person’s life, but simply about who He is, much of the work is being done.
The authority of Jesus must be real in our own lives
I believe that the disciples were in on this event for a very personal reason. Jesus was going to send them out into the world to spread the news of the kingdom and when they went they would have to know the extent of the authority of the King they represented.
• He had authority over the word of God
• He had authority over the spiritual realm
• He had authority over the people of the land
And when they went, convinced of that authority, because they had seen it in action, they had confidence in its truth. That is the meaning of conviction. It is stepping out in confidence because you are convinced of something.
As a disciple of Jesus, what can you do to make His authority more obvious to you?
Read the Gospel more carefully
When you are reading through a gospel, also use cross references you may have in your Bible. Many of you have center column or margin references in your Bible ... use them. In a Bible study time, when you read a gospel passage, go ahead and look up all the cross reference verses listed in your study helps. You will find that the Bible folds back on itself and comments on itself in many wonderful ways.
Here is an example from today’s passage. Many cross references in my Bible direct me to another gospel, which is important in its own way, but to demonstrate Jesus’ authority over all Scripture, let’s cross reference outside the Gospel just to see how it works.
Mark 1:24 "Jesus of Nazareth" Acts 24:5 The Pharisees putting Paul on trial identified him with the Nazarene
Mark 1:24 "Holy one of God" Acts 3:14 Peter faces off with the religious rulers and accuses them publically of executing the "holy and righteous one"
This is just from a single verse. We see how Jesus’ identity shaped the way His followers spoke and represented him to others. In this way, Jesus exercised authority over Scripture that had not even been written yet. Sometimes the cross references will be in the NT and sometimes they will be in the OT. Both are important.
In short, seeing Jesus’ authority over Scripture involves familiarizing yourself more closely with the gospel and carefully noticing its relationship with other books in the Bible.
In spiritual battles, use the audible name of Jesus Christ
If you are like me, most of the time your prayers are probably silent. That is ok. However, it is important to know that the name of Jesus carries spiritual power and authority. When we are feeling oppressed by Satan or sense that our struggles with sin are more than just our own appetites out of control, it is important to trust Jesus and the authority He has over darkness to deliver us.
A private but audible prayer sometimes like this may be in order:
Dear God, in the name of Jesus I ask you to put Satan in his place and remove him from this situation. I ask the power of Your Son Jesus Christ to be upon me and all involved in this circumstance.
Now, why audible?
Because Satan is not like God. He does not know everything and He cannot hear your thoughts (though he may guess what they are). There is power in the name of God and authority in Jesus Christ that when Satan is confronted with it, He must flee.
Does that mean your problems are over? No, because keep in mind that sometimes problems are caused by people. Sometimes we cause our own problems. In those cases the battle is spiritual not in the sense that we need to defeat Satan or his demons, but it is spiritual in that we need to submit our own spirit to God.
However, audible praying in the name of Jesus to overcome Satan’s influence forces Satan to confront His powerful and overwhelming enemy. He cannot stand in the presence of the authority of Jesus. Also, as many people will attest, audible reminders to ourselves of our goals and confidences will also reinforce us for the battle. It not only places Satan under Jesus’ authority, but it reminds us of His authority too.
Finally, an enriched prayer life and a stronger familiarity with the gospel prepares us to tell Jesus’ story accurately and confidently to others
These activities have the side effects that when opportunities arise to talk about Jesus, you are an expert. You know about Him because you have read the gospel carefully and you have spoken with Him and in His name recently. You are personally acquainted with Him. You can speak with confidence.
The most common reason people give for being afraid to share the gospel is: "I don’t know what to say." When you bathe yourself in His authority, that problem evaporates. You hear questions or conversations about Him and you know the truth, and you may not be able to quote chapter and verse, but you can probably quote book and event. In this way the truth of Jesus is spread in the world.
The authority of the King of Kings is spread abroad and His kingdom is enlarged.
Because His authority is more established in the lives of His people.
