Sermon Tone Analysis

Authority.

We all have a mixed relationship with authority, do we not?

On one hand, we are rebels when it comes to certain authorities.

We bristle at the authority.

Don’t tell me what to do.

Rules are meant to be broken.

And yet, at the same time, we all live under authority every single day.

When a bill comes due, you pay it.

Why?

There are potential legal consequences.

When boss gives you a job to do, you do it.

Why?

You don’t want to get fired.

When the light turns red, you stop.

And you probably get mad at someone who doesn’t.

Suddenly not only are we happy to live under authority, but we are also expecting others to live under that same authority as well.

But what about the ultimate authority?

We’ve been going through apologetics in our Sunday School hour.

We’ve talked through some basic foundation principles for apologetic methodology, what a worldview is and how everyone has one.

On its most basic level, a worldview is comprised of one’s understanding or belief about reality itself.

Who are we, why are we here, where are we going, what’s the purpose of life, etc.

One crucial aspect of a worldview is the issue of ultimate authority.

How do you make decisions?

To what are you accountable?

Some rely on Reason.

They live according to their own rational processes.

Philosophy.

Some rely on Experience.

They live according to what they have personally observed or the experience of others

Some rely on Emotion.

They live according to what they feel is right.

Some rely on tradition.

They live according to how they’ve always done it.

Some rely on Faith.

They live according to what God says is right.

No matter what, even if it something that is not consciously considered, we all intuitively live according to some ultimate authority.

The questions that faces us all is this:

Can your authority stand under the weight of that responsibility?

Do the things you look to for answers to life’s questions provide the necessary answers?

If you are looking to anything other than Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible, the answer to that question is going to be no.

Someone might be self-deceived into thinking that they are okay with whatever it is they are looking to, but when the examination comes those things will crumble.

Here at Pillar Fellowship we have a standard of truth that is unshakable.

We stand upon the very Words of God and His self-revelation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

There is no other surer foundation than what God has said, amen?

The Jews of Jesus’ day held the Scriptures in very high regard.

They, too, considered the first testament to be the very words of God Himself.

So what would you do if someone came along claiming to have the same level of authority as the word of God?

You would be surprised, would you?

But that’s exactly what Jesus came on the scene doing.

He not only came with a message about the Kingdom, he not only came with a mission to the lost, he came with a statement about who he was in his very essence.

He was the Christ, the Messiah.

And He has come with authority.

These next several sections serve to demonstrate the authority of Christ over various spheres.

Jesus demonstrates Himself to be the authoritative Holy One of God.

How do we know that Jesus is worth listening to? how do we know that we ought to heed and follow this Jesus of Nazareth?

How do we know that He has the authority to which we should submit ourselves?

Today we will see him demonstrate His authority in two spheres:

He demonstrates His authority by His teaching

He demonstrates His authority over the demonic realm

Let’s read our text:

I.

He demonstrates His authority by His teaching

After Jesus calls his first disciples, demonstrating how he is interested in people and bringing them into the Kingdom, on the Sabbath day he enters the synagogue.

The Synagogue was a gather place for the Jews for worshiping Yahweh.

Often they would organize for prayer, reading from their Scriptures, and if a Rabbi was present, they might ask him to speak.

Jesus has begun his public ministry and so it was likely that he was already recognized as a Rabbi.

That He would be invited to speak after the reading of the Law or Prophets would not have been a surprise.

What was a surprise was the manner of his teaching.

This is one of the unique features of the book of Mark.

Mark will often make mention of the fact of Jesus’ preaching and teaching, but spends less time on the content of that teaching than the other Gospels.

The reason for this is simple: Mark wants us to focus on the reality of Christ and the appropriate response to him.

So Mark will often summarize the teaching, and then record the reactions or responses to the teaching as if to say, this is how they responded for good or ill.....how will you respond?

Such is the case here.

Nothing is recorded of Jesus’ teaching, only the impact that his teaching had on the hearers.

They are astonished.

They had never heard anything like this.

Look at why it says they are astonished:

For he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the Scribes.

First of all, who are these Scribes?

A Scribe was someone who was considered an expert in the Law of Moses and the tradition of previous Rabbi’s.

Their full time Job was to study the Law of Moses and how Rabbi’s have taught about the Law, and then they would regurgitate that to others.

They did not simply read the Scriptures and then explain what it meant, but instead, they would read the Scriptures, and then tell you what other religious leaders in the past thought the passage meant.

They didn’t actually teach the Scriptures, but rather they taught what other men said about the Scriptures.

They would read the passage and then say Rabbi so-an-so from 100 years ago had this to say about this passage, and Rabbi such-and-such from 50 years ago taught this, and then there’s Rabbi so-and-so who says something else…and so on.

They were failing to actually teach the Scriptures because they were so caught up in what others had written in times gone by.

So now Jesus gets up.

He reads the passage.

But he doesn’t quote Rabbi so-and-so.

He doesn’t explain what some other teacher had to say on the topic.

He doesn’t lean on the authority of other men in history.

No, he begins to teach and he teaches as though he is someone with inherent authority in Himself.

He isn’t reliant upon commentators of the past, but teaches them according His own word, on the basis of His own authority.

We might wonder....where does this authority come from?

It isn’t in his social status or wealth.

He was born into a poor family and worked as a carpenter all his life.

His authority isn’t based on being some kind of elected leader.

No one voted for Jesus.

He wasn’t hired to be the leader of the synagogue, like a hired pastor or anything.

He wasn’t employed by the government and given a position of rulership.

What, then, is the basis of His authority?