Do you See who Jesus is?

Mark 1:21-28 “And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.

And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.”

CONTEXT OF TIMELINE: We read in vs. 16-20, Jesus calls His first disciples. Who are they?

Simon & Andrew

James & John

The day the first disciples were called and the day Jesus is teaching were different days. Do you know why? The Jews could not work on the Sabbath.

Here in Capernaum, scholars believe this was the headquarters for Jesus’ ministry. Even though this place became the headquarters for His ministry, this is one of His first visits to Capernaum that is recorded in Scripture. Why would He be teaching in a place if this is His first time?

It was a common practice for visiting teachers to be invited to read the Scripture and/or speak. That Jesus was invited to speak indicates he had already established a reputation as a teacher and that this was not one of the first events in his ministry. Jesus was recognized as a teacher even by his opponents (Mark 12:18-19 - 18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.)

This brings me to my first point on finding out who Jesus is. The People Saw Him as a Teacher.

The People Saw Him as a Teacher (21-22)

The disciples were personally experiencing the teachings of Jesus. Have you ever heard of an author speak about a book they wrote? Have you ever watched a director talk about a movie they produced? Have you ever listened to someone talk about something they put together or built?

Think about the material you have written, projects completed, anything original that you put together — you know it inside and out. You can explain all the details of it and there is excitement that comes with it because it is your material. ||||| Now think about Jesus teaching on the Sabbath in the Synagogue — He was teaching His original content. Jesus did not get teachings from someone else. What He was teaching has always been with Him because He has always been. No one else has come up with something new or fresh. Whenever something is written, acted, seen, it is inspired by someone else or something else.

During this time when teachers taught, they would make statements like this, “This person says the sky is light blue. This different person says it is more of a royal blue. But I say it is in the middle, close to dodger blue.” Teachers today do the same thing. They teach from the material put together by those before them. Even the ones who put their own material together, they are not coming up with new material never seen or heard before.

When Jesus was teaching, it would not have been like other teachers. He would have said, “This is what I say...” Why would Jesus get to teach like this? Because He is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. All of creation came from the Creator. Do you realize in the 6 days of creation and Jesus was speaking all of it into existence, He was speaking all of the science and math into existence? Jesus could do this because He is the origin of everything. Jesus could teach in the Synagogue the way He is the origin of everything.

Do you see how the people saw Jesus? They were astonished and amazed at His teachings. Is that all Jesus is, an amazing teacher? The next part of this passage shows us who the demons saw Jesus as.

The Demons Saw Him as the Holy One of God (23-26)

The disciples, people of the city, and other Scribes were in the Synagogue listening to Jesus teach and then a demon possessed man walks in disturbing everyone. It is possible that this was Satan himself interfering with Jesus ministry, but I personally believe this was just another demon. Satan had already appeared before Jesus before this. Here is timeline to help you...

John the Baptist is teaching about the coming Messiah and He is baptizing people

Jesus comes to John the Baptist and is Baptized; a voice came from Heaven “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus makes His way out to the wilderness for 40 days; in those 40 days Satan is trying to tempt Jesus to sin.

John the Baptist got arrested and Jesus heads to Galilee sharing the Gospel

Passing along the Sea of Galilee, He calls His first disciples

Then we are at Capernaum where Jesus is teaching and this demonic dude walks up disturbing everybody

Whoever this demon was does not matter. Let’s look at what the demon said to Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

First Statement “What have you to do with us” --- In translation from the Greek to English, punctuation was added to help readers because there was often no punctuation used in Greek. Its possible this question was from fear and curiosity or it could be meant arrogantly. The demons have been banned to earth for many years. This is first time they are interacting with Jesus in this style and setting. The demons have never interacted with Jesus being fully God and fully man.

Second Statement “Have you come to destroy us” --- Even though the English translation has a question mark, it is likely that this was an assertion. I don’t know if the demons knew this is what Jesus was coming to do? Is there a way the demons would have known what Jesus was coming to do? They will soon find out what Jesus came to do and people began to understand and they wrote about it (1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” )

Third Statement “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” --- The proclamation of this title showed that Jesus has a special relationship with God. This was something the disciples will be slow at doing during their time with Jesus. When the demons publicly recognized who He was, Jesus responded with confirmation to prove what the demons said to be true. Jesus exercised His authority as God and commanded the demons to come out of that man.

The demons proclaimed Jesus to be the Holy One of God. Jesus confirmed He was the Holy One of God. The people saw Jesus to be the Holy One of God. The people did not spiritually respond to Jesus being the Holy One of God.

The world will soon see what it means for Jesus to be the Holy One of God and why He came to earth. They will soon see Him arrested. They will soon see Him thrown into a dark pit. They will soon see Him beaten and tortured. They will soon see Him nailed to a cross by His hands and feet. They will soon see Him take His last breath. They will soon hear from the crowd at the cross one centurion proclaim, “This was the Son of God.” They will soon see Him buried in a tomb. They will soon see the tomb is empty because Jesus has risen from the dead. We will soon see Jesus return to take His people to Heaven. Do you see who Jesus is?

Do You See Who Jesus Is? (27-28)

The people saw who Jesus was but they were slow to accept who He was and they were slow to respond to who Jesus is. If you see who Jesus is, has there ever been a moment in your life when you responded to who Jesus is?

Do you see Him as the Savior of the world?

Maybe you have responded to seeing Jesus as your Savior. Do you see Jesus as the Lord of your life? Do you to turn to Jesus for direction in your life?

Do you see who Jesus is? If so, show it tonight in time prayer. If so, show it in the time of worship. If so, show it in how you live your life around your friends.