Sermon 4 - Jesus Causes Wonder And Amazement Series

A. Let’s start with a little humor about magic.

1. Did you hear about the magician who did magic with chocolate? I heard he had loads of Twix up his sleeve.

2. Once there was a magician doing a magic show in Mexico. As he was doing a trick he said, “Uno, dos,” and then disappeared without a “trace.”

3. What do you call a magic owl? HOOdini.

4. The best trick a magician can do in his show, is to make your doubts about magic “disappear.”

B. Sadly, we live in a world where there is no wonder – there is no magic anymore.

1. In 1983 when David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear on live TV, everyone rightly concluded it was just an optical illusion and a manipulation of the TV cameras.

2. When we see the magician pull the rabbit out of the hat, we know it had to somehow come out of the table.

3. With our scientific and rational minds, we have reduced everything to a reasonable process or a reasonable explanation.

C. When Jesus showed up on the scene in 1st Century, Roman occupied Israel, the people of that day tried to do the same thing – they tried to reduce Jesus to some earthly, human, reasonable explanation.

1. But Jesus cannot be put in any human, earthly, reasonable category or box.

2. Jesus was God in the flesh and He was a man of wonder and amazement.

3. In the part of the story from the Gospel of Mark that we want to investigate today, Mark wants us to see that Jesus was a man of wonder and amazement.

4. Twice in this section Mark reports the reaction of the people who witnessed what Jesus was saying and doing, and what were their reactions?

a. Verse 22 says: “They were astonished” and verse 27 says: “They were amazed.”

D. Before we jump into today’s section and learn what it was about Jesus that brought such wonder and amazement, let’s do a brief review.

1. Mark’s Gospel began with the opening statement that it was the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

a. This was the good news about Jesus being the Messiah, and more than that, He was God Himself in the flesh.

2. To back up that claim, Mark immediately offered the fulfillment of prophesy as verification.

a. Before the Messiah was to arrive, first a messenger had to come and prepare the way.

b. That forerunner was John the Baptizer who burst upon the scene preaching and baptizing in the wilderness in the pattern and image of an Old Testament prophet.

3. Mark then reported that after John the Baptizer started his ministry, Jesus showed up and was baptized by John and as that baptism occurred the other members of the Godhead showed up.

a. Heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and the voice of the Father thundered from heaven saying: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well-pleased.” (1:10-11)

4. Mark said that the Spirit immediately took Jesus into the wilderness where He overcame the temptations of Satan.

5. Finally, Mark jumped about 6 months to 1 year ahead in the ministry of Jesus when He moved from Judea to Galilee and immediately called the 4 fishermen to be His first disciples, and promised to make them into fishers of people.

a. Those 4 men dropped everything and followed Jesus.

E. With that brief review in mind, we are ready to explore today’s section.

1. Mark continued the story in verse 21: They went into Capernaum…

2. Capernaum was one of the most important towns in Galilee and therefore it was an appropriate place for Jesus to begin His ministry in that region.

a. Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee and was on an important trade route.

b. Capernaum had a thriving fishing industry and had a seawall that ran for half a mile along the shore that was 8 foot wide and had piers extending from it 100 feet out into the lake.

3. Incidentally, this account of Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum bears all the marks of being a personal reminiscence, which supports the evidence that Mark’s source was Peter.

F. The story continues: They went into Capernaum, and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. (vs. 21)

1. If you visit Capernaum today, you can visit the remains of a 2nd century synagogue that sits on the ruins of the 1st century synagogue where Jesus taught.

a. There is also in interesting inscription on a pillar that says that a Roman centurion donated the funds for the construction of that synagogue.