The Holy One Series

The Holy One

The Demons Feared Him

Mark 4:21-26

21 Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. On the Sabbath day He went to the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught like a person who had authority, not like their teachers of the law. 23 Just then, a man was there in the synagogue who had an evil spirit in him. He shouted, 24 “Jesus of Nazareth! What do you want with us? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are—God’s Holy One!”

25 Jesus commanded the evil spirit, “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently, gave a loud cry, and then came out of him.

When You follow Jesus

The first place Mark records that Jesus took the original small group of four Galilean fisherman was to Capernaum to encounter a demon-possessed man and experience an exorcism (Mk 1:21–28). This first adventure had to be an experience of cultural, psychological and theological shock. They were in a known place but confronted by a wild man who addressed their leader as Messiah, “the Holy One of God.” They watched a confrontation between good and evil and an exorcism, the power of good over evil. They were astounded enough to declare the whole scene a “new teaching.”

What do we learn from this?

Evil confronts Jesus where ever He goes

Jesus conquers evil where ever it is

When you follow Jesus you will deal with demons and you will conquer them

It is the demons that destroy life

Many stories this past Christmas

Many people – badly damaged by the demons of evil.

Some of you damaged – God heals

The Disciples Trusted Him

John 6:66-69

66 After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him and stopped following him.

67 Jesus asked the twelve followers, “Do you want to leave, too?”

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God.”

How you follow Jesus

Peter and the others understood no better than the crowds. But they were willing to trust Him.

You and I might not grasp the meaning of all of Jesus’ words either. We can’t yet tell just what “remaining” and “living” in Jesus, or “feeding” on Him, mean. But we do know that if we are to enjoy our new lives, we must keep on looking to Jesus daily to supply our needs, and to sustain us with His grace.

What do we learn from this?

Some fail to understand God so they leave Him

Some fail to understand God and so they trust Him

We learn to trust the most by knowing Him and having nowhere else to turn.

It is the Lord who gives life

Sometimes we have to struggle to see it

You know him

1 John 2:18-20

18 My dear children, these are the last days. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now many enemies of Christ are already here. This is how we know that these are the last days. 19 These enemies of Christ were in our fellowship, but they left us. They never really belonged to us; if they had been a part of us, they would have stayed with us. But they left, and this shows that none of them really belonged to us.

20 You have the gift c that the Holy One gave you, so you all know the truth.

He is your friend

I had a conversation last week with a person who said, “We are friends aren’t we?”

What do we learn from this?

The Holy one has enemies.

These enemies have never really been a part of us

We are his friends.

You are my friends!