WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.560 For 2,000 years now, Christianity has been a worldwide movement, a worldwide religion. 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:10.060 It's on every continent and has been for a long time. 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:15.919 When Christianity first came through Jesus in the first century, within two centuries, 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:25.160 the Roman Empire had gone from a few 12 disciples to literally millions that believed in Jesus. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:32.600 That means that Jesus and that Christianity has always been really attractive in a really powerful religion, 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.719 a powerful movement. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:40.039 One of the reasons, the reason perhaps for that is because of Jesus himself. 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.480 It's Jesus that is so attractive. 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:45.480 When you look at other religions, you have to talk differently. 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:54.679 You can't say that Muhammad is Islam, or you can't say that the Buddha is Buddhism. 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:58.439 When you look at Christianity, Jesus Christ is Christianity. 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.119 It's different than all the other world religions. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:07.079 Jesus is both the founder and the content of Christianity at the very same time. 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:14.000 Now, we're in our third week looking at Mark's gospel, and really one of the things that Mark is doing 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:23.719 is just trying to explain why Jesus is so compelling and why he's so attractive and why Jesus did, in fact, 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:27.239 flip the Roman Empire upside down within two centuries. 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:33.560 And the gospel that we read from here, this biography of Jesus is the earliest one that was written. 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:35.200 It's very straightforward. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:36.200 It's very quick. 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:44.000 The stories move at a very action-packed pace, and Mark really just tries to convey the basic idea 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:50.200 of what makes this man so compelling that you would do what we read about last week 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:54.280 when Jesus comes to Galilee and says to some fishermen, 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:57.719 follow me without knowing exactly who he is. 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:00.280 They leave their lives and they follow him. 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:01.879 They completely change. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:04.120 And that's what this passage is about today. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.920 Mark last week said, follow me. 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:14.840 And today, Mark gives us a hint of why you might want to follow him, what would make him compelling, 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:19.800 what would be the reason that you would give your life away in total allegiance, like these men did, 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:21.000 to him. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:26.200 And the answer in the text that we read is it's because of his authority. 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:30.360 There's lots of reasons, but today's reason from Mark is his authority, 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.760 that his authority is unique, his power is unique. 00:02:34.760 --> 00:02:42.040 And we learn here that he's got the authority to vanquish what's wrong with the world, 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:48.920 and that that actually terrifies humanity, but then it reassures humanity. 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:55.799 And so we're going to say this morning the authority of Jesus and then the irony of fear 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.599 and then why he does give us hope. 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:02.759 Okay, so let's do that together. 00:03:04.279 --> 00:03:06.119 His authority is really the big idea. 00:03:06.679 --> 00:03:11.079 You see at the beginning, he's there with these early disciples in Capernaum, 00:03:11.799 --> 00:03:14.119 and Capernaum is a fishing village. 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:20.120 There's piers going into the lake of Galilee, and there's boats everywhere, 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:24.360 and there's fishing nets all around, drying, hanging, and there's fish and ships, 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:27.159 fish and ship shops, you know, of course, everywhere. 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:28.280 Everybody eats fish there. 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:34.520 And Jesus is here, and we learn that he goes to Peter's house. 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:36.759 We're just told he's called Simon here. 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:42.360 This is Peter at the end of the passage, and that's probably because the scholars tell us that 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.800 Jesus is very likely living at Peter's home. 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:50.440 So he's left Nazareth, and his ministry is around Galilee in the first, 00:03:50.440 --> 00:03:55.960 the beginning of his ministry around this lake, and he's probably living in Simon Peter's house 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:57.880 and doing ministry all around Galilee. 00:03:59.320 --> 00:04:05.880 And that makes sense if that's the case, because he attends the synagogue here and he teaches at it. 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:11.799 And synagogues are just gathering places for worship, worship of the God of the Old Testament, 00:04:11.799 --> 00:04:12.599 the true God. 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:18.360 And so if you were Jewish or you were a convert to believing in the God of the Old Testament, 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:21.480 you would go to a synagogue, and there were synagogues everywhere. 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:26.839 All it took to establish a synagogue were 10 Jewish men. 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.680 10 Jewish men gathered in any region could establish a new synagogue. 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:38.040 And so Josephus, who is a first-century historian, tells us that there were 240 synagogues just around the lake of Galilee. 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:40.600 And it's not that big of a space. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:48.040 And Jesus is here on this Sabbath morning at worship, just like us, and he gets invited to teach. 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:49.720 And that's very normal. 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:54.600 It's not surprising at all, because the way that the synagogue work was normally 00:04:54.600 --> 00:05:01.480 scribes and rabbis would actually travel and guest teach weekend and week out at different synagogues 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.200 all over the place, and the people would invite them to come. 00:05:04.200 --> 00:05:09.640 And so Jesus is likely living in Capernaum at the time, and that's why he's invited, 00:05:10.200 --> 00:05:14.840 very likely, though the text doesn't say, to teach on this particular Sabbath day. 00:05:14.840 --> 00:05:16.040 They knew who he was. 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:20.680 They knew he had been around, and he's being treated like a normal rabbi. 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:24.680 He's got some type of reputation that he's a teacher. 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:30.680 Now, maybe you come to St. C's or whatever church if you're visiting today that you're normally a part of, 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:36.680 and you look at the bulletin and it has a different name, and you say, oh, we've got a guest preacher today. 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:38.680 Some of you get excited about that. 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:40.680 We've got a guest preacher today. 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.639 People have been saying that for centuries we learn here. 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:48.360 Ever since the beginning, you come and you say, in the 19th century they had said, 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:53.319 Charles Spurgeon's preaching at our church this Sunday, or Martin Lloyd-Jones, 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:56.840 or Tim Keller, we've got Tim Keller today, and you get excited. 00:05:56.840 --> 00:06:01.879 Imagine here in Capernaum everybody came and they opened their bulletins, 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:06.759 and one husband said to his wife, who's the guest rabbi today? 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:10.600 Going to open up the Old Testament and explain it to us in the worship service, 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:12.600 and she would decide it was Jesus. 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:17.560 Now, it's probably needless to say the greatest guest preacher you could have, 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:22.520 but if they would have had that conversation, the husband and the wife, 00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:24.520 whoever would have said, who's that? 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:27.160 It's not that they didn't know who he was. 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:31.560 He was living in Capernaum, but we find out very quickly they don't know who he is. 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:39.560 And in verse 21 it tells us he teaches, and in verse 22 they're astonished at his teaching. 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:45.639 And it says, because he taught as one who had authority, not like the scribes. 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:52.600 Now, three times the very centerpiece of the passage from Mark is to say Jesus has authority, 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:54.600 and it's an authority that's different. 00:06:55.240 --> 00:07:00.840 So he has an authority to teach that's different, but then he has an authority to dismiss 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.000 a possessed man, an unclean spirit from the presence of the room. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.000 He has that authority, that authority to teach that's different, 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 that power over evil. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.639 Later he's going to have authority and power to put his hand upon a woman with fever, 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.480 and for that fever to run away scared. 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:23.399 And so three times that the entire point it's very clear is that Jesus has got authority. 00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:27.879 He's got a very particular type of authority, and it's one that's never been seen before. 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:33.319 And so they say, they're astonished it says, because he has authority not like the scribes. 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:34.680 And that's really the simple thing. 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:39.720 The first thing that Mark wants everybody to see is the uniqueness of his authority. 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:42.439 And they say it's because it's different. 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:45.720 It's different than an authority that we've seen in the past. 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:47.560 Now, what did they mean? 00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:48.840 What does Mark mean? 00:07:48.840 --> 00:07:54.199 What did the people mean when they said his authority is not like the normal rabbis, 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:55.160 the normal scribes? 00:07:55.960 --> 00:07:59.480 We're not told explicitly, but it's probably this. 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:04.360 They preached in the first century just like we do today. 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:11.000 Derek or myself or whoever it might be, we come and we preach, but we quote people, 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:16.920 and we read from a text and we try to explain it, but we never do it without reading other people 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:19.879 and trying to get a sense from other people what they think about it. 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:21.319 And that's exactly how it was. 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:28.680 The scribes would stand up and it was custom that they would never give their own interpretation of the passage. 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:33.000 So they would read from Genesis and they would say, as Rabbi Hillel once said, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:38.360 and then the next quote, all the great teachers of old, but never would you give your own interpretation. 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:42.200 So it's very likely that Jesus stood up that day in the synagogue 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:47.159 and he interpreted the Old Testament and he did it without appealing to any authorities. 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:51.080 He just said, this is what it means. 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:56.840 And so the first level authority, Mark is implicitly saying is Jesus has the ability 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:01.240 to tell you exactly what the Bible means, exactly what the scriptures are trying to say. 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:04.840 And when the people there heard that, they've never heard anybody do that before, 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:07.560 to say this is exactly what it means. 00:09:07.560 --> 00:09:10.920 This is how the Old Testament is all about the Messiah. 00:09:10.920 --> 00:09:13.320 I think that's probably what he taught them. 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:15.480 And it says that they were astonished. 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:23.240 Now, that's the more obvious point, but it keeps going and his authority comes out at a new level. 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:28.840 And it's in the second point and that's that all of a sudden in the midst of Jesus teaching, 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:32.039 in the midst of the worship service, there's a disruption. 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:38.120 And you can see it verse 23 immediately, there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:39.240 and he cries out. 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:41.240 Now you see what's happening here. 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:44.200 Immediately, that's a trigger word. 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:51.000 It's saying that while Jesus was teaching the man with the unclean spirit stood up and he screamed. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:51.879 He cried out. 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:53.320 He cried out. 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:56.519 Now that means that this is every single preacher's worst nightmare, 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:01.159 that all of a sudden, you know, from the balcony, one of you folk up there, 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:03.960 it's like you stood up and you just start screaming at me 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:08.279 and telling me to be quiet that I don't know what I'm talking about, which may be true, 00:10:08.279 --> 00:10:11.720 but this is exactly what's happening in this moment. 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:17.159 Somebody, there's a demon in the pew and he stood up and stopped the service. 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:21.639 And he's yelling at Jesus and talking to Jesus. 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:28.519 And Mark, I think Mark wants us to see and think about exactly why. 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:32.840 You know, there's a demon, a demon possessed man in the pew. 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:39.080 There's a demon in the pew and the service, the worship service has been going for some time. 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:43.000 Jesus has been teaching for some time, but then all of a sudden, 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:47.879 he stands up and stops it and says, I know who you are. 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:56.679 Why? You see, the demon himself did not recognize this man as he came into the room, 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.720 as he lived in Capernaum, as he started speaking. 00:11:00.279 --> 00:11:06.120 But as soon as Jesus started teaching from the Old Testament, speaking with authority, 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:12.279 it's the demon who recognizes him and says, you see, what he's saying, 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:20.360 I've heard this man before, I've heard this message before. And he says, this is the Holy 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:27.720 One of God. And that's an Old Testament title. That means one who stands in the divine counsel of 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:34.679 heaven. And you see what the demon is saying, the demon is saying, I recognize him because 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:43.000 I've listened to him in the past. He is the one who stood in the divine counsel of heaven 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.759 and spoke before me. When I was cast down, when I was cast away, when I was cast out, 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:54.199 the demon knows. And the demon doesn't know because he sees this man and knows this is the Messiah, 00:11:54.199 --> 00:11:59.159 he knows because he hears him and he says, I've heard him before. I've heard him in the heavenly 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:07.079 realm. He knows his authority, he knows that he's the one that's made a plan. Now, Mark is trying to 00:12:07.079 --> 00:12:14.919 teach us all something in this. But before I tell you what it is, there's a problem. 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:20.919 And it's the problem that all of us face when we come to a passage like this. And it's the problem 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:28.439 that we face as modern people. Even if you're a Christian today, it's probably still difficult for 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:34.120 you to come to passages like this and wrestle with the fact that Mark is saying by eyewitness 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:39.800 testimony, there is a man in the middle of this room that's possessed by a demon. And if you're 00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:44.120 not a Christian today, if you're coming and you're an atheist, you're an agnostic, or you're curious, 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:48.280 you're not sure, you're a skeptic, you're a modern person, you come and say, I'm a man of science, 00:12:48.280 --> 00:12:55.880 I'm a woman of reason, and I believe in things by evidence, by what I can see, that's what I can know. 00:12:55.879 --> 00:13:00.519 And so you come to a passage like this and say, okay, you're saying, Mark is trying to say, this is 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:06.919 eyewitness testimony from Peter, who was there in the synagogue this very morning. But even if it 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:13.639 is, don't we now know that what people believed in as demon possession in the past is actually 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:18.600 just illness, was actually just sickness and illness. And that's what a lot of people have said 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:23.320 over the past couple of centuries. But let me say a couple of things to you very briefly, and we'll 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:31.160 move on. Verse 34, at the end of the passage, Mark himself says that they were bringing both people 00:13:31.160 --> 00:13:37.879 who were sick and possessed by demons to Jesus. Okay, meaning Mark makes the simple distinction 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:45.560 that you can't simply say, we now know demon possession was just sickness, because Mark knows 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:53.479 the difference. He says both the sick and the possessed came. And so Mark won't let you do that. 00:13:53.479 --> 00:13:58.279 You can't dismiss it in such an easy way, saying, oh, what they once thought was evil spirits, we 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:02.599 now know better. Well, Mark, I don't think Mark will let you do that. But let me say three reasons 00:14:02.599 --> 00:14:09.079 today, and I'm just going to list them off of why you should, why you can consider the fact that 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:17.800 unclean spirits, evil spirits are actually real. And the first one is just to say, if you say today, 00:14:17.800 --> 00:14:22.520 I'm not sure, it's important to know that most people across the world today, and in the United 00:14:22.520 --> 00:14:29.639 Kingdom, believe in evil spirits. This is not proof that they exist, but I want to say that it is 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:35.080 a sociological fact, not in the 16th century or 17th century or 18th century or 19th century, but 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:44.200 in 2023, over 80% of all people on planet earth believe in evil spirits. And that's just to say 00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:48.840 that again, you can't simply dismiss it and say that it's silly to believe in something like this 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:53.960 when four fifths of the whole world does still today in the modern world. Now the second reason, 00:14:53.960 --> 00:15:00.920 and more specifically, is to say, no matter what you might believe in today, every single one of 00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:09.159 us believes in the invisible realm. And so let me suggest that probably you are like me and you 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:17.000 would say, say things like this, you would say all people are equal. And a good society should 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:25.159 protect the weak and the vulnerable, and consent is necessary for relationship and intimacy. And 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:31.159 all people should be free and we must progress beyond the evils of yesteryear into the good of 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.879 the future for the next generation. Every single one of us is going to say that. So we're going to 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:46.279 say today, I believe in compassion, equality, freedom, consent, good, evil, progress. And I want 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:51.240 to ask you, if you're struggling with believing in the invisible, the spiritual realm today, 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:58.680 how do you know that any of that is real? Evil and good, consent, equality, freedom, justice, 00:15:58.680 --> 00:16:06.120 progress, all of these things are invisible. You can't put them in a laboratory, you can't cut 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:10.440 them open, you can't dissect them, you can't see them, you can't taste them, you can't touch them. 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:17.000 They're all beyond the realm of physical evidence because they're moral claims. And moral claims 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:22.519 are invisible, they're part of the invisible realm, they're realities, and yet you can't see them. 00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:28.679 And the reason that we know there are realities is because the invisible spiritual realm exists. 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:34.440 And the last thing I'll say, and we'll move on to simply this, if you say today, and I think 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:40.039 probably you want to, that evil is real, that when you look back at the 20th century, and after the 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:45.320 age of preaching progress, the next century will be progress, it was the most bloody, murderous 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:53.800 century of horror beyond horror, you want to say so much evil in the age of progress happened. 00:16:53.800 --> 00:16:59.960 The only way you can call that evil is if you believe in the spiritual realm, if you believe in 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:05.480 God, if you believe that evil is more than just a construct. And that means it's not very far stretch 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:12.200 at all to say that there is such a thing as personal, absolute evil. Spirits that truly are 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:16.920 evil, that truly do want to do horrible things to the world, it makes so much sense of what's 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:23.319 happened in the 20th century, if this is actually the case. Now, the demon here recognizes Jesus. 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:33.880 And he says, I've heard you before, you're the Holy One. He knew him because of what he said. 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:41.080 And he recognized that this is the one who has authority in heaven and on earth. Now secondly, 00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:46.519 and briefly, that means that Mark wants us to see the reactions of the people, 00:17:47.399 --> 00:17:53.960 that that's really where the application, the point is, and that leads us to see then the irony of fear. 00:17:55.480 --> 00:18:01.879 All right, you can see the people respond. It says first that they're astonished by his teaching 00:18:01.879 --> 00:18:09.000 and then amazed whenever he dispels the demon from their midst. If you get behind these words 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.000 that are translated here as astonished and amazed, and you look at the definitions of them in the 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:22.839 Greek text, they're ambiguous words. And both of them can be translated in several different ways. 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:30.839 But the first word that the people were astonished can very literally mean that they were repelled 00:18:30.839 --> 00:18:37.559 by him, astonished in the sense that they wanted to get away. So astonished here isn't that everybody 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:42.440 was amazed in giving each other high fives and saying, this is amazing, this is so great. 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:48.200 Instead, it actually has the connotation that they were so taken aback that they wanted to run away. 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:53.639 And we see this throughout the rest of the Gospels that whenever he performs miracles, 00:18:53.639 --> 00:19:00.119 like sending demons away into pigs or whatever it may be, the city actually asks Jesus to leave. 00:19:00.919 --> 00:19:05.159 They don't want him to stay. The same thing's happening here. The second word amazed 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:12.040 is very ambiguous and can also be translated terrified. And so most commentators and scholars 00:19:12.040 --> 00:19:17.000 think that it's not saying that everybody was happy. Instead, what's happening is when they see his 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:22.680 teaching and they see the demon being dismissed, that they're terrified of him and they want him 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:31.400 to leave. Now, this is the irony of fear. The absolute good, the Holy One of God, enters into 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:40.120 the midst of the worship space and they're terrified of him. But there's been a demon in the pew 00:19:40.120 --> 00:19:45.800 for years and years, perhaps, and they've completely ignored it. You see that there's 00:19:45.800 --> 00:19:50.200 absolute evil in the room and they're okay with it, but when the absolute good stands up and speaks, 00:19:51.080 --> 00:19:57.960 they want him to leave. And Mark is making a really simple point here. He's, 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:02.440 he's saying they're okay with the demon in the pew, but not the God in the pulpit. 00:20:04.600 --> 00:20:10.440 And he's saying that when the Holy comes into the room, it's not just the unclean spirits that 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:18.519 get exposed. You know, when the Holy One stands in the room with human beings, it's not just evil 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:26.039 spirits that are named unclean. It's every single person in their midst. Every single person in the 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:31.399 room is terrified because they've hurt, they've seen the Holy One. And it's just like Moses at 00:20:31.399 --> 00:20:36.200 the burning bush and every other instance in the Old Testament that when you approach the Holy God, 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:41.079 the consuming fire, when he's there, when you're in the presence of holiness, you have to say, 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:48.680 I want to go near him, but I've got to run away. You see, they fear him. They're terrified of him. 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:56.360 But there's also, there's also a subtle point here. And the problem, Mark is saying, 00:20:56.360 --> 00:21:01.320 don't you see, there's been a demon in the pew. There's been a possessed man 00:21:02.120 --> 00:21:07.640 worshiping in the synagogue, weekend and week out in Capernaum, and the people aren't aware of it. 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:14.920 And that means that this is not like Hollywood, you know, it's not like the exorcist. 00:21:14.920 --> 00:21:21.640 The demon possessed man has not been crawling on the ceiling, you know, up and down. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:28.279 That's not what's been happening. It's been much more subtle. And this is actually what CS Lewis 00:21:29.320 --> 00:21:34.920 wrote a book about in his famous screw tape letters. In Lewis's screw tape letters, there's a 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:42.279 senior demon screw tape giving instruction to a junior demon, Wormwood, about how to be a good 00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:47.879 demon. If you can say good demon, I don't know. But rule number seven, you know, you remember 00:21:47.879 --> 00:21:56.119 rule number seven in the screw tape letters, it was screw tape said to Wormwood, the goal is 00:21:56.119 --> 00:22:03.399 always do your work without anyone knowing. Be subtle. You know, we don't want, we don't want 00:22:03.399 --> 00:22:08.200 people to believe in us at all. The goal is not that they would believe in you, but that they 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:14.440 would never know you exist. He says, they'll worship science. They'll practice their religion, 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:21.319 but they'll never really care about anything. Let them be serious and extreme about anything 00:22:21.319 --> 00:22:27.319 but the fact of the supernatural. Don't let them know the extent of evil. Help them to see that 00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:34.759 evil doesn't really exist. And Mark is saying that's exactly what had happened. There was a demon in 00:22:34.759 --> 00:22:43.799 the pew and they didn't even know it. It was subtle. It was concealed. And that means that the work 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:51.079 of the unclean spirits may not be as visible as you think it would be. And that the goal really is 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:58.279 to block people from realizing that what they sing about, what they maybe pray about, what they 00:22:58.279 --> 00:23:07.240 hear about is okay, but it's not that serious of a thing. That's when the demons in the pew, 00:23:07.879 --> 00:23:13.240 in other words, it's when the message of mere religion creeps down into the bottom of our hearts. 00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:20.839 And we think that it's good to be religious, but it's not that important to take it seriously. 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:28.200 It's not that important to say, I'm going to give my life away to follow him. And Wormwood says it 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:34.600 discreetly like this. He says, whenever the patient is at church, make sure they're too distracted by 00:23:34.600 --> 00:23:39.480 the flaws of other people all around them so they won't realize the enormity of the claims. 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:45.880 And this is what he said, if any of those people around them sing out of tune, have boots that 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:52.279 squeak or double chins or odd clothes, the patient will quietly believe that their religion must be 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:58.759 somehow ridiculous. You see, spiritual evil may be different than you think it is. It's actually 00:23:58.759 --> 00:24:04.440 subtle. It's actually to say, yeah, be interested in religion, but don't actually believe that Jesus 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:09.720 is calling you to follow him with your whole life. See, it's the claim of compartmentalization. Jesus 00:24:09.720 --> 00:24:14.119 is just this one drawer in the midst of the whole chest of drawers, but I'm not going to give him the 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:19.399 whole thing. And that's exactly what the work of the demon in the pew was in the midst of the first 00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:29.160 century. And the irony here is that they're afraid of the absolute good who is God, the Holy One, 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:33.160 who can give them everything they've ever wanted, every desire of their heart. They're terrified 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:37.400 of them and they want to run away from them, but they're okay with the evil in the pew. 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:46.519 Now, there's a transition as we close, thirdly and finally, and it's why this man of authority 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:52.039 actually gives us hope in the midst of our fear. And you can see the transition. If you look down at 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:59.960 verse 33, it says that the entire city by the end of it is gathered at the door in Capernaum, 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:05.480 trying to bang the door down to get this again to see Jesus. Okay, so on the one hand, 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:12.279 they're shaken in their boots. When Jesus stands in the synagogue, it says that they want to run 00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:17.480 away from him. They want him to leave. But by the end of the passage, they're banging down his 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:23.399 doors as the whole city was gathered, trying to knock down his door to see him. What's happened? 00:25:23.399 --> 00:25:29.879 There's a transition. They were afraid and now they want him. They want to be near him and with 00:25:29.879 --> 00:25:39.799 him. And here it is. It's very simple. It's that he extended his authority. He showed them the 00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:49.079 reaches of his power and his authority. You see, in other words, if God came into, came to earth, 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:55.480 and he only came to stand in the pulpit and explain the law like he did in the synagogue that day, 00:25:55.480 --> 00:26:01.639 if he only came to stand right here and to say to you, this is what Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy 00:26:01.639 --> 00:26:08.759 really mean, then there's nothing we can do but be terrified. Because when Jesus opens and explains 00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:13.799 what the Old Testament really means, it means that for every one of us, we're totally exposed. 00:26:13.799 --> 00:26:18.039 That the uncleanliness is not just in the evil spirits. It's all the way through us. It's down 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:24.519 in our hearts. That's exactly what the Old Testament says. And Jesus preached it that day. And if 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:30.839 that's the extent of his power and his authority, then you have to be afraid. It can only be bad news, 00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:36.920 but that's not where the passage ends. His authority gets extended beyond that. And you see what he 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:43.800 does. Very simple. First, he dismisses the evil from their midst. He says, be quiet, get out of here, 00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:51.640 and the demon leaves. And then he goes home and the woman whose house he lives in, he touches her 00:26:52.200 --> 00:27:00.680 and her fever runs away. Notice every time in the gospels, when there's a demon, an unclean spirit, 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:07.960 Jesus speaks the unclean spirit out of the presence of the people. But when there's a sick person, 00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:11.320 if he's there in their presence, he always touches them. 00:27:13.560 --> 00:27:18.680 And you see why? He's saying on the one hand, absolute personal evil cannot win. 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:23.320 It can't stick around. It has to go. It has to be destroyed. 00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:29.639 But the evil and the uncleanliness and the sickness and the disease that's inside of people, 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:37.559 I will touch them. He said, he dismisses the unclean spirit by saying, get out of here, 00:27:38.439 --> 00:27:46.200 but he touches the people. And he tells them that I've come to not dismiss you, 00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:52.840 but the evil and the death that encompasses you. I've come for you. I've come to help you, 00:27:53.400 --> 00:28:00.600 but dismiss the evil that's in your midst. And they realized it. And all of a sudden, 00:28:00.600 --> 00:28:07.160 they're banging down his door because he gives them hope. Now, isn't it the case, 00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:15.400 isn't it the case that there are two things in this life, two things that make us most afraid 00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:31.320 most sad, most miserable, most full of pain? And those two things are our physical bodies 00:28:31.880 --> 00:28:35.960 wasting away unto death and watching those around us experience that. 00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:45.079 And the evil, the evil deeds that are outside of us, but also within us, 00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:50.120 are those the two things that make us the most sad, that give us the most suffering. 00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:55.480 And you see, the reason they're banging down his door is that Jesus came in their midst 00:28:55.480 --> 00:29:01.960 and he dismissed the two things that bring us to a place that we don't have hope. 00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:06.680 And that means that Jesus came to give hope. And the word hope is not mentioned in this passage, 00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:13.240 but it's exactly what it's about. Jesus Christ, why is he so compelling? Why did the world flip 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:20.039 upside down to believe in him? Why did people go to death in every century, even today in 2023, 00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:26.200 go to death because they want to follow him? Why is he so compelling? And it's because he gives hope. 00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:32.759 And we live today in the midst of a world that doesn't have hope. It's a world of meaninglessness. 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:38.360 Ever since Nietzsche in the 19th century, the greatest atheist philosopher of all time, 00:29:38.360 --> 00:29:43.960 he said it. He said, if you don't believe in God, this is not from a Christian, this is from an atheist. 00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:48.840 He said, if you don't believe in God, you have to say there's no such thing as evil, 00:29:48.840 --> 00:29:53.640 there's no such thing as good, and there's no meaning to this life. And Nietzsche said, 00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:59.640 the only thing you can do is create your own meaning. And Nietzsche's goal, answer was seek power, 00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:05.640 and maybe then you'll find some happiness. But he was exactly right. We live in an age 00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:11.320 in the western mind of meaninglessness, and we try to fill the meaning gap as the philosophers 00:30:11.320 --> 00:30:16.280 call it with all sorts of things like hoping in politics and thinking that the next election 00:30:16.280 --> 00:30:23.560 will be the one that finally fixes everything. And it never will. Only the one that's going to 00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:29.960 be the last election. Only Jesus Christ, only God entering into our existence, could dismiss the 00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:36.039 evil outside of us and within us and say no to the death and the disease that our bodies always feel. 00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:43.319 Only that kind of authority can give you hope. And so the people come and they bang his door down 00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:50.039 because there are people looking for hope. Now, let me close by saying this. Last thing, verse 34. 00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:57.960 And verse 34 is a strange thing because it says that his fame spread everywhere. He was very famous. 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:05.000 He went throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons. But in 34, he told the demons 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:13.000 that they could not speak because they knew him. Now, Mark is trying to bring it all together here 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:18.279 in verse 34. He does bring it all together. He doesn't try. He actually does it. He brings it all 00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:25.559 together here in verse 34. And it's when he says the demons knew him as he went around healing 00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:34.359 and dismissing, but he wouldn't let them say it. He tells them to be quiet. Why? Now, the scholars 00:31:34.359 --> 00:31:39.559 call this the messianic secret, that there's this theme that runs through all throughout the gospels 00:31:39.559 --> 00:31:47.000 that Jesus does not want to be known in his early ministry. And it's the demons above all that he 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:52.440 says, you cannot say my name. You see, the demon had already said it. He said, this is the Holy One 00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:57.400 of God. He got it in before Jesus could stop him. This is the Holy One of God. And he had said, 00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:03.000 this is the one who comes from the heavenly realm. And the Holy One of God didn't just mean one of 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:08.119 divine authority from the heavenly realm. It's also used a few times in the Old Testament of people. 00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:13.720 One time it's used of Moses. It's used of Moses, the Holy One of God. And it's a reference to 00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:22.440 Moses' role as the one who carried Israel from Egypt across the Red Sea into the Promised Land. 00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:28.360 And it's used once in the Greek translation that Jesus probably read from this very day 00:32:28.360 --> 00:32:36.839 in the synagogue, the Septuagint. It's said of Samson. Samson's called the Holy One of God. And 00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:45.240 remember Samson? He was the strong man who could bind the strong men. But in the end of his days, 00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:50.519 in order to defeat evil, Samson put his arms out and he pulled the temple down. You see, Samson 00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:56.679 was the strong man with authority who went down to death so that he could defeat the evil. 00:32:58.199 --> 00:33:04.759 And now this title is being used of Jesus. And they say, the Spirit say, 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:10.759 have you come to destroy us? It's not a question. They're not asking a question. 00:33:11.960 --> 00:33:18.119 They're giving a retort. It's rhetorical. It's saying, of course, you are the Holy One of Israel. 00:33:18.119 --> 00:33:24.519 You have come to destroy us. You see, the demons know. The demons know exactly what's going to happen. 00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:30.680 They know that Jesus Christ is headed to the cross. And they know that this has been the plan. 00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:35.720 And they say, have you come to destroy us? You have. He's the Holy One. He's the one that's been 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:41.080 talked about in the heavenly realm for centuries. And he's come and they saw in his baptism. And 00:33:41.080 --> 00:33:47.720 when he went into the wilderness with Satan last week, and he vanquished Satan how? Not by becoming 00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:53.799 the king of the world right then and there, but by starving, by being weak, by submitting. 00:33:53.799 --> 00:34:01.480 You see, the messianic secret is that Jesus is headed to vanquish evil and death by submitting 00:34:01.480 --> 00:34:06.039 to it. Jesus is headed to defeat the demons by coming underneath the domain of death and evil 00:34:06.680 --> 00:34:14.199 to die. And Jesus says, you can't say it yet, because if you say it, the people will try to kill 00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:25.079 me today. They're terrified, but it's not yet my time. And that means the last word, that Jesus's 00:34:25.079 --> 00:34:32.039 authority is an absolute paradox. Jesus has the power to tell you exactly what the Bible means. 00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:37.559 Jesus has the power to dismiss death and evil and every unclean spirit from the world just by 00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:43.639 speaking and by touching. And yet he's chosen that he would exercise his authority at the 00:34:43.639 --> 00:34:51.799 uttermost by giving his life to death itself for you. And that means that the heart of his authority 00:34:51.799 --> 00:34:57.079 is the holy paradox that Jesus Christ, the all powerful creator, became the ultimate servant. 00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:06.119 Now let me ask you six questions. I'm not, I'm just going to ask them. Six sentences as we close. 00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:16.119 The very last word. Christian friends, are you awake today to the spiritual reality of evil? 00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:22.839 That there really is a domain called the spiritual realm, the invisible realm of evil spirits, 00:35:22.839 --> 00:35:28.759 and they're at work to do subtle things and explicit things all throughout the world. Paul says, 00:35:28.759 --> 00:35:33.400 the battle is not against flesh and blood, but for the Christian against, it's against the 00:35:33.400 --> 00:35:38.519 principalities and powers of darkness, Satan himself, and we fight with the armor of love and 00:35:38.519 --> 00:35:49.400 truth. Second question. For all of us, in what ways has religion become for you a merely comfortable 00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:59.079 event in your weekly schedule? And Mark is saying here that true religion is following Jesus in 00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:07.639 every domain of life, that we can't be blinded by the demon and the pew to think that religion is 00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:16.519 just for this place. Third thing, third question, the obvious question of the text. Do you submit 00:36:16.519 --> 00:36:24.199 to Jesus today the true authority of heaven and earth? Have you? It's an invitation this morning. 00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:29.799 Do you submit today on the Sabbath this day of renewal? Do you submit to the true authority 00:36:29.799 --> 00:36:34.199 of heaven and earth? Is he who makes sense of your life? Is he your real authority? Fourth, 00:36:35.879 --> 00:36:42.919 that means have we today given up personal authority to say that I'm in charge of my own 00:36:42.919 --> 00:36:48.279 life? I'm the commander of my own existence. I'm the master of my own fortune. Have you given that 00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:54.840 away and said, no, I'm willing to follow him. I'm willing to submit to him from top to bottom. Fifth, 00:36:55.880 --> 00:37:04.680 do you know the cost? And we see it here. The cost is serious. The fishermen left and changed and 00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:11.320 hear the cost of what it means to follow Jesus. It's that you have to give your whole life away. 00:37:11.320 --> 00:37:19.400 Do you know the cost? And then finally, here's the cost. Do you see the paradox of his authority 00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:25.400 as the example of your own, for your own life? In other words, if you say I give full allegiance 00:37:25.400 --> 00:37:31.400 to Jesus today, have you put into place the paradox of his authority, which is that you're 00:37:31.400 --> 00:37:39.240 called to then be like him by becoming servant to all. His authority is that he's the creator, 00:37:39.239 --> 00:37:46.439 yet he became the lowest. And so Mark is saying, if he is your master, if you give him true authority, 00:37:46.439 --> 00:37:52.599 final authority, then that's got to be the paradox of your life too. That in him, he's given you 00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:59.079 everything, the inheritance of the nations, yet in this life, you live like him by becoming servant 00:37:59.079 --> 00:38:07.079 of all. Let's pray and ask that God would do these things for our hearts. Lord, we ask that you would 00:38:07.079 --> 00:38:15.400 show us what it means to follow Jesus today. And we give thanks that in the face of evil and death 00:38:15.400 --> 00:38:23.000 and disease, there's hope. And until we see hope fully accomplished in the new heavens and the new 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:31.400 earth, that you would give us the ability to have full allegiance to the true author, the authority 00:38:32.199 --> 00:38:36.599 Jesus himself. So I ask now, Lord, that you would come down as we sing and that you would touch 00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:43.079 our hearts and maybe Lord, meet with someone today who needs to give their life away to Christ, 00:38:43.079 --> 00:38:48.679 to submit. And so we ask for the presence of the Spirit now as we lift up our hearts to you 00:38:48.679 --> 00:39:08.679 in song. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.