Mark 1:21-28 Notes

Context

Immediately before today’s passage, we saw Jesus call His first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, and John. It seems right after, Jesus takes them to Capernaum and into a synagogue to preach.

Verses 21-22

A rabbi, or Jewish teacher, like Jesus would be expected to teach in a synagogue on the Sabbath. But Jesus’s teaching was special.

What was it about Jesus’s teaching that astonished the listeners?

In what was did Jesus/does Jesus have authority?

Jonathan Leeman’s definition of authority is that authority is:

a moral license

an office

a good and dangerous gift

theology teacher

Authority is not power, but the moral right or license to make decisions with power. To have authority, you must be given it. Authority, for men and women, does not necessarily come with your existence, but your office or position.

Jesus Christ has authority because of His position as Son of God and His position as God.

Jesus’s teaching stuck out because He taught God’s Word as His own word. No one had such authority to speak God’s Word and explain it as Jesus Christ did.

Verses 23-26

What do you notice about where the man with the demon is? Why does this matter?

This man had likely been in this synagogue with everyone else for a long time and no one knew about this demon ravaging his life. Nonetheless, when Jesus Christ, one with true authority over that which is seen and unseen, is simply in the same room as this demon, he submits to Jesus.

In our fight against all evils, spiritual and physical, we must be dependent on Jesus as He is the only one with true authority over all things.

Verses 27-28

Jesus’s teachings and works stuck out in this world of darkness because He is the foundation of all light and goodness. We are blind sheep wandering in darkness and Jesus opens our eyes and shows us true light.