The Untouched Authority of Christ

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it. We’re going to cover a pretty good amount of ground tonight and cover Mark 1:21-34. What we are going to see tonight is really a day in the life of our Lord as He walked upon the earth. In these 13 verses we are going to see that Jesus did not spend His time twiddling His thumbs but throughout the entire 3 and a half years that He ministered on Earth, His life was devoted to ministry and mission. His life of ministry and mission was not done with hopeful optimism for world change but as we are going to see, Christ did all that He did with untouched, unmatched, and unrivaled authority and this authority and power is noted by His admirers and it is noted by His rivals. Jesus has authority as we will see on a cosmic level and He also has authority over that which may appear to be a minor level. The authority of Jesus is an all-expanding authority where no level of life is untouched by it. No group of people is untouched by it. Everything that happens within the seen and unseen world ultimately bows at the feet of Christ. What I want us to look at tonight is where His authority ultimately goes and what that ultimately covers. Jesus does not possess an authority that is under, He possess authority that is over and there is not a single element of your life that is not under this authority as we will see in our passage tonight. We’ll look at 3 R’s that I believe are somewhat easy for us to remember when it comes to Christ’s authority over all things in this passage. 1. Christ’s authority over the “righteous”. 2. Christ’s authority over the Rebels. 3. Christ’s authority over the rudimentary. If you aren’t sure what rudimentary means, just think that it means that which is common or basic but I really wanted that 3rd R so that’s what we are going with tonight. Let’s pray and then we will go ahead and read Mark 1:21-34

Mark 1:21–34 NASB95

They went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee. And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them. When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

Christ’s Authority Over the Righteous

So let’s talk about Christ’s authority over the righteous and when I say that, I am mainly referencing those that believe that they have an inherent righteousness. I am thinking more of those that believe really in their own self-righteousness as we will see in this passage. Now those that have been given the righteousness of Christ, He certainly has authority over but I do not want to spend time on that this week. Instead, I want to stress to you that even those that do not submit to Christ now and believe in their own righteousness, are still under the authority of Christ. As many of you have heard me say before, Jesus is still Lord whether you believe in Him or not. As Paul tells us in Philippians 2:10-11, it is to Jesus that every single knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Those that are in hell will not confess that in faith, but as we saw in our passage, even those of hell cannot help but acknowledge who Jesus Christ is. So, when we talk of Christ’s authority over the righteous, I want to draw your attention to Mark 1:22 where we read, “They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” What we see happening in these verses is something that was fairly common for Jesus and that was He would teach on the Sabbath in whatever synagogue he was near but Jesus taught unlike any other man. Jesus did not come to town preaching a felt-needs gospel, He did not come preaching feelings, He came and He preached with the very authority of God. You couldn’t help but be amazed at Christ’s teaching. His enemies even admitted that He taught with authority and He taught like no one else that they had ever heard of. In John 7, Jesus is teaching during a festival known as the Feast of Booths and His teaching stirs up the hearts of so many that the Pharisees and the chief priests send officers to arrest Jesus. The officers go and they come back and we read in John 7:45–46 “The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”” Jesus was not just a pastor that had one good sermon every now and again which caught the people off guard and impressed them. These words that we have read were the norm for Christ’s teaching. At the end of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 7:28–29 we read “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Before we talk about the way Jesus taught, we need to understand how the scribes taught the people in the first century because notice that both at the end of Matthew 7:29 and Mark 1:22, there is a reference to the authority and teaching of Jesus as not being like that of the scribes. To understand the weight of what is being said, you need to know the context of how these men taught. The simplified version of the answer comes down to who was the reference point in the 1st century sermon. The scribes of Jesus’ day had really their entire ministry summarized in tradition. They never taught an original thought but instead they would reference the rabbi’s that came before them, the fathers, the great theologians of the olden times, that was where the bulk of their sermons came from. The great concern of the scribe was not on the Scripture that they were supposed to teach but was based on what the previous scribes and rabbis had said in the past. John MacArthur puts it like this, “Rather than faithfully explaining the simple meaning of Scripture, they delighted in complex musings, fanciful allegories, obscure insights, mystical notions, and the teachings of earlier rabbis.” The scribes and rabbis of Jesus’ day were not Bible preachers and I hope you understand that not all Christian preachers are Bible preachers. Sure, they reference the Bible, sure they may open and read from the Bible, but their sermons are not centered in the Bible. The reason that we go through books of the Bible verse by verse, is because I want to be a true Bible preacher and because I believe that is most important for your Christian life. So, Jesus’ teaching stands far above and beyond what the teachers of His day were teaching. One commentator put it like this, while the scribes, rabbi’s and pharisees taught from authority, Jesus taught with authority. Jesus’ teaching was prophetic but it was even unlike that of the prophets of the Old Testament because the prophets never spoke their own opinion but what the Lord gave to them. John Stott wrote, “The commonest formula with which the prophets introduced their oracles, namely ‘Thus says the Lord’, is one Jesus never used. Instead, He would begin ‘Truly, truly I say to you’, thus daring to speak in his own name and with his own authority, which he knew to be identical with the Father’s.” Maybe to put it even plainer, while the prophets of the Old Testament spoke words FROM God, Jesus spoke the words OF God. Well only God can speak the words of God. It is in Christ where the Word of God is spoken by the God of the Word. Christ’s authority is over every earthly teacher and every righteous person. The scribes obviously believed that they were really something and that no one could possibly have the mind and understanding that they did yet here comes Jesus preaching with authority! This is an important reminder for us that no student every rises above their Master. We are the student and Christ is our master and we will never rise above Him because we can’t and their is nowhere else to go! Not only does Christ have authority over the righteous, He has authority over the Rebels and we see this in Mark 1:23-26.

Christ’s Authority Over the Rebel

In these verses, we read of a man that was in the synagogue with an unclean spirit that cries out to Jesus saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God!” Now an unclean spirit is a demonic spirit so this man has been possessed by a demon. We hear things like this today and many people seek to discredit the Bible over this because they do not believe that such a spiritual realm exists. They claim that we don’t see things like the Exorcist or the Conjuring movies happening but it seemed to be a normal occurence for Jesus in His time so these things must not be true. Yet if you were to look at the world today and see the hatred that many have towards God, His Word, and the Church, does it not look demonic? Is Satan not influencing the hearts and minds of many? Could you not look at how Christians are treated in the Middle East and not think that Satan has set up his thrown in the midst of these places? Surely demons are still at work today! But as for the thought that the demons seem far too active at the time of Christ for us to take these accounts literally, wouldn’t it make sense that the forces of hell would be at high alert during the life of Jesus? Look at what this demon admits in verse 24! He knows that Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil so why on earth would the forces of hell just passively wait for that time to come? Maybe the reason that we see quote on quote so many demonic episodes in the Gospels is because Satan is throwing out all he can in the hopes that it will stop Christ’s work. We must remember that we live between two worlds. We live between a physical world and a spiritual world. There are earthly beings, heavenly beings, and hellish beings and we must be mindful of all three. In this account in Mark we have this man possessed by a demon coming to Jesus and he makes three statements. Or he asks 2 questions and makes one pointed statement. He asks “What business do we have with each other?” He asks, “Have you come to destroy us?” And then finally, He knows exactly who Jesus is: the Holy One of God. He asks Jesus what his intention is but really he knows what Jesus has come to do. He has come to destroy Satan and to destroy the works of the devil. John says at the end of 1 John 3:8, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” The demons know who Jesus is. We see this clearly in verses 24 and 34. In fact, they have a better idea and they know sooner than those that are present in the synagogue. They have a better idea of who Christ is than many within the church today do. I want to challenge you quickly in 2 ways: the first is if the demons of hell have a better understanding of who Jesus is than those that are inside the church, what does that say about you? And what does that say about the church that you are a part of? The second challenge is this: this demon possessed man was already in the synagogue. It doesn’t sound like he just ran in from outside but this man sat in this building. So my challenge is: What kind of church are we if something like this is allowed to happen? Are our services and teachings so shallow that even the demons in hell aren’t offended by it? This is a challenge for me! If a demon were to be here today, could he sit comfortably through my preaching? This is food for thought but to remind you of what we have already read, even the rebels, even the demons must submit to the authority of Christ. In just 7 words, Jesus casts the demon out of this man and the demon is powerless to withstand Him. You need to be on the right side of Jesus. Just because you know who Jesus is does not mean that you truly know Him. You can know Him but not love Him. The demons knew Jesus but they did not have saving faith in Jesus. If you are a Christian, you are going to have the forces of hell looking right at you. They are going to bark and they are going to chirp and they are going to try to tear you down but if you belong to Christ, you will be the victor. Satan cannot take that which belongs to Christ. Martin Luther was asked how he managed to live a victorious life over Satan and Luther answered like this, “When Satan comes and knocks at my door, Jesus goes to answer the door. And Satan says, ‘Who lives here?’ And Jesus says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here, but he has moved out, and I live here now. And when Satan sees those nail-pierced hands, he leaves immediately.” If Satan were to knock on the door of your heart, who would answer the door? If it is you, you are on your own. But if it is Christ that opens the door, if it is Christ that is the owner, all of the forces of hell are powerless to stand against Him. Why? Because Christ has ultimate authority, not the rebel, not the devil, Christ alone.

Christ’s Authority Over the Rudimentary

What we have seen so far tonight is that Jesus has authority over the righteous, over the rebels, and tucked in nicely at the end of our verses is that Jesus has authority over the rudimentary or the basic. Maybe a better way of saying it is that Jesus has ultimate authority over that which seems the most regular in our lives. If you look at Mark 1:29-34 we see that as Jesus left the synagogue, he goes to the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John but while they are there, Simon or Peter’s mother-in-law is in bed sick with a fever. The disciples tell Jesus about this and without so much as saying a word, Jesus goes to Peter’s mother-in-law, raises her up, takes her hand, and immediately the fever leaves her. What’s amazing is that Jesus heals her so completely that she doesn’t just go back to bed and wait to make sure that she feels good enough to get up. Sometimes when we are sick, we like to spend a few extra minutes in bed just to make sure that we aren’t going to overdue it but when Christ heals, He heals so completely that people get to work. We see this in Peter’s mother in law that as soon as she is healed, she begins to wait on and minister to the needs of Jesus and His followers. As the day goes on, many come that are sick and it seems that Jesus heals all of them. All that came to Him with an illness are ministered to and it is clearly a large crowd because verse 33 says that the whole city has gathered at the door of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus has ultimate authority over every aspect of our lives, in health and in sickness, Christ has authority over it all. Now why do I say that Christ has authority over that which is rudimentary in our lives? Well I think that we have the tendency to look at sickness as something that is normal. All of you have been sick at one point in your life. Maybe with a cold or maybe with something far worse, but you have all been sick at some point in your life. Jesus’ healing of those with diseases shows that not only does He have the power to heal the sick, He has the capacity to love the hurting. Jesus heals ultimately because He loves us. While He may not always heal us physically, we know that if we belong to Him that He has healed us at our greatest wound and greatest illness and that is our death from sin. Understand this, there is absolutely nothing in your life that Jesus regards as insignificant. Jesus’ love for you does not vanish when you have the sniffles. All healing, all salvation comes from the Lord. Everything that happens to you as a follower of Christ only serves to make you better. Even death itself can do nothing but make you better than what you have already been! There is nothing in your life that is so small that Jesus does not have authority over it. We sometimes think that there are things in our lives that are too small to bring to God. Something like being sick it seems like God is the last person that we run to. Why do we do that? Is it because we think He does not care? Or do we think that He is far too busy with running the universe to care about what we are going through? No, that has never been the case. God’s love for you is so strong, so unshakable, and so certain that even something that we may think of as minor has not escaped His sight and has not outran His authority. Christ’s authority is over the minute and it is over the major. When Christ exhibits such authority over your life, how are you supposed to respond? We see exactly what we should do in the life of Peter’s mother-in-law.

How Do We Respond?

Like I said earlier, Peter’s mother-in-law doesn’t start feeling better and say, “Well let me just stay in bed a few extra minutes to gather my strength or let me stay here so I don’t risk getting others sick.” No she gets up and she immediately starts waiting on the Lord and His followers. If Christ has made you new, the only response that you should have is to go immediately to the work of ministering to Him. This may not mean that the moment you are saved that you should get in front of a church and preach a 5 point sermon but it does mean that when Christ saves, He saves totally. He saves completely. He does not save us for go back to the old work of our lives but to embrace the new. J.C. Ryle said, “When Christ grants free forgiveness for the past, he also grants strength to minister to him for the time to come. The sin-sick soul is not merely cured, and then left to itself. It is also supplied with a new heart and a right spirit, and enabled so to live as to please God.” It is when Christ saves us and we begin to embrace living under His authority that we are able to live a life that is pleasing to God. I want to challenge you all tonight by asking that if Christ has saved you, what have you done for Him? Has He done all the work in your life just for you to get back in bed and pull the covers up like a sick man or woman? Or has He worked so fully in you that you feel a desire and a need to get up and get to work for Him. You may not get up now and go on a mission’s trip to Uganda but you may get up now and seek Him in prayer! You may get up with a newfound desire to love your neighbor! What is important for us here and now is that if Christ has saved you, He has not saved you so that you would do the same thing you were doing or live how you lived. A healthy person doesn’t check himself back into the hospital! Imagine this, imagine if you were in a horrible car accident and you get rushed to the hospital and you are just a total vegetable. You are laying in that hospital bed in a coma and you spend years of your life like that. You don’t move, you don’t talk, you can’t do anything, you are fed through a tube but then finally, like a lightning bolt to the soul, you wake up! You sit straight up, the tube comes out of your mouth, you aren’t groggy or tired, your body parts are all working, so you get up! A miracle has happened, you are good to go, the doctor is totally in awe and you are cleared to go and live this new life, imagine the stupidity and the shock of if the first thing that you do as you take that first step out the hospital is to turn around and say, “Ya know what, I think I’ll have a nap first.” How insane is that? Does that make any sense? Yet that is what so many within the church do! They here all about Christ, they get saved by Christ, they even claim to love Christ, but instead of living out that love and that new life that has been purchased by Christ’s blood, they turn around and go back to bed! Look, if you are going to be a Christian, you must understand that you are now living a life of service. You are living a life of service to Christ and you are living a life of service to your neighbor. God has saved you to restore the purpose that exists for your life. Your life belongs to God and all that we do should reflect that reality. Can we truly sing with the hymn writer, “All to Jesus, I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him and in His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all. All to Jesus, I surrender, Lord I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power and let thy blessing fall on me.” That is what our heart song must be if we want to follow Jesus. This is His world and He has authority over every aspect of it. Will we surrender to what He has called us to be? Let’s pray.