We Had A Devil Of A Time At Church Series

Mark 1: 21 – 28

We Had A Devil Of A Time At Church

21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.

Again as we begin I know that you are all aware that there were two other Gospels already in circulation. Matthew it appears from historical records was the first to pen his Gospel. Then we see our friend Mark penned his Gospel. As we have discussed in the past, Mark obtained almost all of his material from the apostle Peter. The one area for sure that is original and can be said Mark was directly involved I believe is when as a young man he was in the Garden of Gethsemane when our Lord Jesus was arrested. We will come to that part when a soldier grabbed a hold of his robe and Mark escaped by breaking free of the robe and running away naked. Who could forget that event in his or her life?

Anyway, Luke was inspired by our Precious Holy Spirit to investigate this event and he writes about it in his Gospel.

Luke 4: 31 – 44, “31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. 32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. 33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. 36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

I am kind of weird but I guess you already knew that. But, many times I view things differently than others. For example, today, we are going to look at how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is also know as Jehovah Rapha – The Lord our Healer. We will take a look at how He healed people.

So, how does any of this refer to ‘weird’? Well, I look at how all these people are overwhelmed with sickness; they have physical defects; deadly diseases such as leprosy; and are filled with demons.

You might be thinking right now, ‘so what? We are facing the same things today!’ Yes, that is true and that is my point.

For a brief time fame, all of this rotten junk was eliminated. We had God Himself here on earth and took care of all of these problems by Himself. He eliminated all doctors, hospitals, clinics, medical businesses, exorcists, religious institutions, funeral homes, etc. To you get my point here. This is what is significant that we should think about and yearn to have again.

So, now as we go through these passages please give a thought to my point. Let us remember throughout that Yahweh Elohe Yisreael – The Lord God of Israel Is our Great God also and beseech Him to clean up this sick world again.

21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Now here Is a Preacher that anyone would travel to see and hear. What a combination – ‘32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.’ He spoke with the Power of The Holy Spirit.