The Authority of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,
24 “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.”
25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”
26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
27 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.”
28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
Pray
Introduction
We all have some sort of authority in our lives. Growing up, the way that I was raised, the authority that I had was my parents. It was their way or the highway. What they wanted to watch on tv, we watched. What they fixed for supper, we ate. Where they wanted to go, we went. That is just how it was. And I know that not all of us were raised that way, especially the younger generations. But for everyone, there is some sort of authority in your life. It may be the laws of our government. It may be yourself and your feelings, that might be what has authority over you. For the husbands in the room, your wife might be your authority. But we all have some sort of authority that we submit ourselves to.
For the believer, if Jesus is not the ultimate authority over your life, then there is a problem. The entirety of the life and ministry of Jesus has to do with his authority. And we always have a response to his authority. There is a right response and a wrong response. A right response is obedience and a wrong response is disobedience. Just like when I was in my parents house growing up. It was expected of me to have obedience to them and their authority. I did what they said, I went where they wanted to go, I ate what they fixed for supper. The difference between obeying their authority and the authority of Jesus is that I find joy in obedience to Christ.
In our passage today, we will see that Jesus is recognized by unbelievers and demons as someone who had authority. Do we submit to his authority?
Jesus Displays His Authority through Teachings
Jesus Displays His Authority through Teachings
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
It says they went, Jesus and his disciples. He had called them on the Sea of Galilee. They go to Capernaum, which is still on the sea of Galilee, on the northern tip. On the Sabbath, they go to the synagogue. The Sabbath was the day that God set aside for his people in the Old Testament to rest and to worship him. Today, we do not recognize a certain day as a Sabbath, because Jesus is our Sabbath. But, what we do that is similar, is we have a time where we gather together as a body of believers. That is what we are doing here today. Jesus practiced this as well.
So they are in the synagogue and Jesus was teaching. The word synagogue means assembly. What happened during the exile in the Old Testament is the people needed somewhere to worship. The temple was not there so they started to meet in smaller groups of people. These were synagogues. It wasn’t necessarily the building that was the synagogue, but the group of people. To constitute a synagogue, they would need a certain number of men who were over the age of 13, then they would start one. Different people would teach in the synagogue, so Jesus teaching was not something that would be unusual.
22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
Here is where we get to the unusual part. First, look at this word that describes their reaction. It says they were astonished. As a pastor, we tend to try to preach sermons that are what you would consider “home runs”. In my experience, I have gotten some accolades, most of which are unwarranted. But not once has anyone told me that they were astonished by what I said. This word is a special word that is reserved for special things. This reaction they had was one of alarm and amazement. One pastor I know preached this message with the emphasis on disruption. The words of Jesus and the actions of Jesus disrupted all that these people knew. And this caused astonishment. When was the last time that you were astonished by the words of Jesus?
And why were they astonished? Because he taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. “You won’t believe this guy, he is nothing like the scribes, he actually has authority when he speaks.” Which is the correct thing to say. The only authority that comes from my mouth is when I am speaking scripture. All authority belongs to Jesus.
If we know the passage right before this, we should not be shocked by the authority of Jesus. We just read about him calling men to follow him and they dropped everything they had and followed. He has authority.
Let’s put into perspective how Jesus was teaching compared to the scribes. Everything that the scribes were teaching was secondhand. They were teaching the teachings of other men. They would tells stories that had to do with other people. But Jesus was a first hand teacher. When Adam and Eve were created, he was there. When they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was there. When Jacob wrestled with God, Jesus was there. When the Israelites fled Egypt, Jesus was there. He is telling everything from a first hand account.
What has happened with the scribes could be summed up in a poor game of telephone. Have you ever played that game? With telephone, I could tell the first person that their car has a flat tire and by the end of it, the Panther’s have won the Super bowl. With the scribes, a lot of misinterpretation has occured. So Jesus, in his teaching ministry, actually corrects a lot of their teaching. Jesus didn’t just preach about God’s word, he preached God’s word itself. We could use a little more of that these days. This is why you hear Jesus teach in a way where he says, “you have heard it said… But I say…”. This is because Jesus has authority. Jesus displays his authority through his teachings.
I don’t want to move on before we apply this to ourselves. This is something that should be central to us. How we view the authority Jesus has in his teachings shapes who we are. Think about the world that we live in. We have this cancel culture that is so prevalent where if you say or believe something that one side has, they will do everything in their power to ruin your life. Three of the biggest issues we face today are the LGBTQ movement, abortion, and divorce. I promise you that if you fall on the wrong side of this with our culture, they will hate you.
Jesus was clear in his teachings. And I know that there are people that will argue that Jesus never addressed homosexuality and abortion in scripture. But he did address the sexual design for human beings and murder. Matthew 19:4-6
4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
In these verses, Jesus paints this picture of God’s perfect creation. He made them male and female. Count them. 2 genders, God is the creator not man. Marriage is between the husband and the wife. And what happens when they get married, the two become one flesh. So we have the design of marriage. And I know that several of you here may have went through divorce. And I know that divorce is something very difficult and can happen just because of one persons decisions. But Jesus is clear that what God has joined together, that man should not separate. God is not pleased with divorce. God is not pleased with homosexuality and transgenderism. I know some of you may be upset with me for bringing up divorce. I am not saying that people should stay together when they are in an abusive relationship. And I am not saying that if you have been divorced that you are some sort of lesser Christian. I am not saying these things at all.
But also, scripture is clear about abortion. We are in a season where we are raising money for our pregnancy resource center who help mothers who are expecting babies and are in their corner to keep them from getting an abortion. In Matthew 5 on the sermon on the mount, Jesus affirms the Old Testament teaching on murder being a sin. He even takes it to another level and says that if you have anger towards someone, it is as sinful as murder. So we know that Jesus teaches against murder. Well there are people who consider a pre-born baby not a human life. Scripture teaches us that God is the one who formed us in our mothers wound.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Jesus taught about the evils of murder in light of the Old Testament scripture of God forming us in our mothers wound and knowing our days before we ever lived them. With all of these things, if you have went through this, there is hope in Christ and forgiveness for sins. Do not be pushed away from Jesus because of shame. But be drawn to Jesus with the forgiveness of sins that we receive.
I say that to say that Jesus must have authority over our whole lives. What we do, how we act, and what we believe. Not only does Jesus display his authority in his teachings.
Jesus Displays His Authority through Power over Satan
Jesus Displays His Authority through Power over Satan
23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,
We are told that as Jesus was teaching, there was a man with an unclean spirit that came in. They were possessed with a demon. This demon was one of Satan’s minions. We see instances in scripture where people are taken over with these spirits, these demons. 63 times in the New Testament do we hear about people being possessed by demons. This man is one of them.
Mark does not focus on who this man is, he doesn’t even give his name. Mark focuses in on Jesus here. Jesus was teaching and preaching. Jesus has full authority. When Jesus speaks, lives are changed. In this instance, this man is underneath the authoritative word of God and it is Jesus who is teaching.
Growing up, I used to roam the woods a lot. I would spend hours upon hours climbing trees, climbing on fallen logs, and just looking to see if I found anything that was cool. I am not sure how it got there, but behind my parents house growing up, there was a disassembled car in the woods. I liked going to try to find things like that. In the woods, the ground is covered by leaves and limbs and stuff. So to find the really cool things, you would need to pick things up. When you are doing this, you come across all kind of bugs. The thing about bugs is they are under there because it is dark. When you pick up that limb to look under it, the light hits those bugs, and they scatter. The things of darkness flee from the light. We see this in this passage.
24 “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, there was this man with this demon, and seeing and hearing Jesus made this man cry out. This was not some yelp that he made because he was startled. This man was terrified. Think about a scary movie type scream.
In this cry, there are a couple of distinctions that he makes. First, we see that the demon knows who Jesus is. This should not shock us. There is a spiritual battle that has been taking place since the fall of man. Both sides know their enemies. Just as Jesus recognizes that this man has a demon in him, the demon knows who Jesus is. But if you notice, the demon gives Jesus recognition in two different ways.
The humanity of Jesus - The demon calls him Jesus of Nazareth. Now this could be a verbal attack on Jesus. Nazareth did not have the best reputation. So the demon could be saying something similar to what Nathaniel said when he said, “could anything good come from Nazareth”. But because of what he says after this, the demon is recognizing the human nature of Jesus.
The deity of Jesus - The demon then goes on to call him the Holy One of God. By this, we know that the demon did not just recognize him for being a person. It isn’t that he had some cabinet work done and Jesus was the one who came and did it. No, this demon recognized the deity of Jesus. He calls him the holy one of God.
This demon is painting a picture of Jesus as the messiah. He is ultimately declaring him to be fully man and fully God. This is the qualifications for the substitutionary sacrifice that we need. The essence of the gospel of Jesus is that we were born sinful and need a savior. In the Old Testament, they would take a spotless lamb to the priest to be slaughtered for the remission of sins. The problem was that it was an animal that was being used to cover a humans sin. So it was not sufficient so they would need to do this over and over again. So we needed a permanent sacrifice. This is Jesus. Because he is fully man, he is able to empathize with us and because he is fully God, he is able to take his sinlessness and apply it to us, permanently. This is the beauty of the gospel. And this demon is declaring this to be so.
And the demon is in fear. He asks Jesus is he has come to destroy him. Let’s see how Jesus responds.
25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”
Jesus didn’t need this demon to tell others about him. In this instance, Jesus showed everyone his authority. In my english translation here, 7 words. Jesus displayed his ultimate authority over Satan and his demons in just 7 words. These words are quite tame for the point that Jesus was making. What it would really translate out to is shut it. A more literal would be Jesus telling him to muzzle it. Stop speaking. And come out of him.
26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
We see oftentimes in scripture this involuntary reaction that people have when possessed by demons. This convulsing. Many modern interpreters try to explain this off as seizures. But this is what demons were making them do. Jesus gives the command for the demon to come out and this man starts convulsing. And here we go again, he cried out. This scream of terror almost. And came out of the man.
I want us to really focus in momentarily on the authority that Jesus has over Satan and his demons. If you look at the book of Job, we are told how limited Satan is in his power. He had to get permission to be able to get to Job. God has ultimate authority over Satan and his demons. They cannot touch a believer without the permission of God. We also know that he will be defeated. We are told back in Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” This is God saying to Adam that through Eve, he would send a savior to defeat (crush the head of) the serpent (Satan).
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
I am not going to go down the rabbit hole of hell and who is really in authority over hell. But Satan is going to be destroyed. He is not the little red, staff carrying, horned man that cartoons depict as ruling over hell. He is underneath the authority of Jesus and Jesus will destroy him.
In this passage, we see just a glimpse of the authority that Jesus has over Satan and his demons.
Jesus Displays His Authority and People Proclaim
Jesus Displays His Authority and People Proclaim
27 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.”
Amazement came upon them. In the Greek, there is this emphasis on the word all. They were all amazed. Not just one of them, not some of them. All of them were amazed. And it sparked a conversation between them. Even though the demon had declared who he was, they were questioning. Trying to figure out who he is. He has authority. He has power. Like none they had ever seen. Who is this man, this Jesus of Nazareth that even the demons obey him. Mark is doing a great job in his account of the ministry of Jesus of showing us who Jesus is. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Holy one of God. He is the one who comes after John the Baptist that he is not worth to lace up his sandals. He is the one who calls and people come. He is the one who speaks and people listen. He is God.
28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
His fame spreads. It spreads because the people were talking about him. The people proclaimed. When I was a kid, we visited Ghost Town in the Sky. I loved it. It was a little attraction at the top of the mountain in Maggie Valley. It was a western town. Great for a family to visit. They had all the old western type shops.. You could pan for gold. They even had a gun fight in the street. As a kid, this place was awesome. So we went a couple of different years during the summer. And as a kid, when I got back home and was around friends, I had to tell them how cool it was and show them things that I got.
Brothers and sisters, if you have been saved by God, you have the best story and gift to show others. Jesus came down to be our substitutionary sacrifice. We should be itching to tell people of what he has done for us. We should be spreading his fame where we are. I know we can all find excuses as to why we don’t engage others with the gospel. I, sometimes, have what I think are really good excuses. But they aren’t. We are called to spread the gospel, each and every one of us, not just the pastor. This is why we come together for things such as outreach events. When we do outreach, we are around others, building up relationships to be able to share the gospel with others. This Friday, we have that opportunity as we go to Central Elementary to serve breakfast for the teachers.
As witnesses of the authority of Jesus in our lives, we are called to spread his fame as well.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I asked a question at the beginning that I want us all to answer personally. Do we submit to the authority of Jesus?
I believe for each and every one of us as we look into our lives, it will be fairly clear. But you may wonder what that looks like.
For the believer, it is seen in spiritual growth in maturity. If you have not matured any and you were saved years, maybe even decades ago, then you have an issue with submitting to Jesus’ authority. Part of maturing as a believer is being in God’s word. If you are in God’s word, you will continue to read and learn new things. You will see commands that you may have never seen before. When you see a new command, are you submitting yourself to the authority of Jesus and being obedient. Because that is what it comes down to. Obedience. And, I know you hear me say it all the time, but you cannot be obedient to God’s word if you do not know God’s word. And you will not know God’s word if you are not consistently reading God’s word. This is why we are reading the New Testament this year as a church. This is why we are going through the entire bible on Wednesday nights this year. So that we know what God’s word is teaching us.
So what is the challenge for us as believers this week? From the passage that we read today, I see two things.
Deeper engagement in God’s word - We do this to see the authority of Jesus. We see this in his teachings, his miracles, his life, death, and resurrection. Find a way to engage deeper in God’s word. If you are not reading God’s word, you have the reading plan for this week in your bulletin. Read that. It is a good place to start. If you are already doing that and are looking for more, add in a Psalm or a proverb every day.
Spread Jesus’s fame - We do this in a couple of different ways. I want to challenge you to make yourself uncomfortable in this area. If you never share anything about your faith, ask someone about their faith. This is a way to open the door to telling others what you believe. You can look for opportunities to share a gospel truth. Maybe someone is going through an issue. You can do this by saying, “you know, the bible tells us…” If your comfort level is high enough, look for an opportunity to share the gospel, like I am about to do.
And that brings me to the unbeliever. If you have never responded to Jesus calling to you, I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now. You have heard bits and pieces of the gospel in the sermon today, so I want to put it all together for you. We are all born sinners because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Because of this, our lives feel like they are missing something. We try to fill this void with different things (alcohol, politics, sex, drugs). We are never filled because it is never enough. God sent Jesus to be a human being to be able live a sinless life, go to the cross as a substitute for us, and be raised from the dead. Jesus says in Mark 1:15 that we are to repent and believe the gospel. I don’t want to paint a picture of some easy believism for you. Your entire life will be changed by Jesus. To repent means that you see the sin in your life as a crime against a holy God and you hate it. Because of that, you turn from it and turn towards God. We are to turn. And we are to believe. What do we believe? We believe that Jesus is our savior. That everything that he did, he did it with us on his mind. That he redeemed us from hell. And when we believe this, we are saved.
I am going to pray. While I am praying, if you have never trusted in Jesus as your Lord and savior, you have the opportunity to do that. I am not going to ask you to raise your hand or walk down the aisle to stand before the church. This is between you and God. You aren’t responding to me, you are responding to God calling you to salvation. I ask that if you make a commitment to Jesus today, do not keep this to yourself though. Tell me, tell that person you came to church with. We want to celebrate you going from death to life in Christ.
Pray.