The Ultimate Authority
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Last week we started our Journey into the book of Mark.
The first thing that we found out about Jesus in the book of Mark is that
Jesus is Yahweh incarnate...
And that what he is doing is leading a new exodus from sin...
Everything we see Jesus do in the book of Mark is good news, because Jesus is in the business of leading his people to new life and away from Sin
Last week we saw that Jesus was announced and baptized but there are these two sentences in the book of Mark that makes all the difference…we read them last week but we are going to start with them this week:
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
So the first thing that Jesus does before he even preaches is that he overcomes evil in the dessert…Before he ever starts his ministry on earth…He is faced with evil and he overcomes it.
If you were to ask people today why is there so much evil in the world?
Why is there so much pain and suffering in it?
In the 21st century christian church today I think you would primarily get one answer…and that is…The fall of Adam and Eve in the garden introduced evil into the world
and this is all true...
But if you were living in Jesus’ day and you were to ask that same question…Any biblically literate Jew would tell you well there are actually three rebellions
Human Rebellion: The Fall (Gen 3) The fall produced death and estrangement from God…So there is human evil
Spiritual Rebellion: The Sons of God (Gen 6:1-4) The origin of demons & depravity…There is spiritual evil
Power Grab: Babel (Deut 32:8-9, Psalm 82, Gen 11) Hostility; lethal threat, idolatry…And there are the powers of the world that are evil
What that Biblically literate Jew would tell you would probably sound a lot like what the Apostle Paul would tell you.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
In their worldview, Satan is the leader of the powers of darkness…he is the original rebel leading the three rebellions that we talked about
What does Satan offer Jesus in the desert…Well we don’t know it from Mark’s account but Matthew and Luke record that Satan offers Jesus political power...
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus is offered all of the kingdoms of the earth…And I know its not made super explicit here but I want you to take my word on it when I tell you that all human authority and power that separates itself from God can be tied back to Babel…It is Babylon
So why is there evil in the world?
There are three rebellions:
So do we as humans Sin, we choose evil and it separates us from God
And this is a lot to unpack but because of the spiritual rebellion in Genesis 6, there is the demonic in the world ...and they want you to rebel agains the father…They want to break up the family of God..
And wait there is even more after that…The story of Babel and the tempting of Jesus shows us that nationalistic power apart from God is evil…There is a reason why people like Peter and John called Rome “Babylon.” Because Babylon is a culture that is always working to pound you into a mold of a person who will rebel against your creator
Why do I bring this all up?
Why do I bring this all up?
So why do I even bring this all up? It is actually a lot to take in.
I bring this up because Jesus is walking into a world of pain and suffering and there are three key reasons for it...
1. Human sin
2. the demonic powers of evil
3. these big beastly countries like Rome
We have to understand that when Jesus lived: There was a supernatural worldview.
And we are highly informed by rationalism…If you were to go around and and ask people if the demonic is real most people would tell you no…Because the culture in which we exist in explains it away...
And these three things correlate with the three rebellions in the bible
So all of this to say that when Mark says that Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan…this is no little thing.
Where israel failed the test in the wilderness, the son of God triumphs over the powers of evil
And this is not a small thing…Because pretty immediately in the ministry of Jesus, the spiritual realm shows up
So turn with me now to Mark 1:21-28
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus has authority over the spiritual realm (Mk1:21-28)
Jesus has authority over the spiritual realm (Mk1:21-28)
so after Jesus passes the test in the wilderness
One of the first things he does is go to Capernaum and he goes to the synagogue and begins to teach
and the text says that the people were amazed at his authority because he taught as one who had authority, not like one of the teachers of the law.
Well what was the difference?
From what we understand, the teachers of the law would stand up and quote this teacher and that teacher and why they disagree with them or not
The best example I have of this is if you go to an academic symposium for a particular discipline and listen to someone present the paper they wrote...
This would be full of references to other professors…why some are right and some are wrong...
And we don’t even know what Jesus was teaching on here but his teaching came with displays of power
Jesus doesn't need to quote rabbis, he is the source of the entire Old Testament
He was there for it all
He was in the burning bush, he was there when the 10 commandments were given to Moses.
So Jesus doesn't need too quote Rabbi’s, he is the source...
And you will see this word “amazed” all through the book of Mark…Mark wants you to know that Jesus is amazing and is constantly leaving people astounded
And then the text says that as Jesus is in the Synagogue…There is a demon possessed man (Now again…too deep to get into today, but an ancient person would have understood that demons were part of a divine rebellion against God)
So this man begins to Shout at Jesus…What do you want? Have you come to destroy us? And the evil spirit knew who Jesus was...
See this evil spirit know that it is in rebellion to God and that Jesus has so much authority over the spiritual world that he can destroy demons
And then he says, I know you are the Holy one of God!
And then at once, Jesus performs an exorcism and says be quiet, come out of him and the demon leaves the man
Now what is so remarkable about this is that in Jesus time, there is a lot written about demon possession and the rabbi’s have special tools to expel these demons
They use different oils and herbs and there is extensive prayers and things to say when doing this...
So Jesus says “Be quiet” which is actually the Greek equivalent to “shut up” and then he tells this demon to leave the man
This showed incredible power and authority over the spiritual world
What Mark is showing in this story is not just that Jesus can cast out demons but that his kingdom is taking spiritual ground
In Jesus the forces of Evil are losing ground
The question I had when I read this text is that why does it seem like christians are powerless against evil and the demonic today?
And I have a cynical answer and I hope I am wrong, I think it is because we are all so discipled into a world view of rationalism that that supernatural stuff is just weird…or we see that it was around in Jesus day but its not really around today…so we might call it something else
Well I am convinced that evil and the demonic are still active in our world today...
It’s still a bit hidden but the occult world is very alive and well today...
The toy company Hasbro sells Ouija boards…Tarot cards are actually making a huge comeback right now…These are all tools to connect with a dark spiritual world
But it isn’t just that. The agenda of evil is to disconnect the family of God and to attack the image of God
I think that the pornography industry has a whole lot of evil influence right now…
There is a massive push right now to normalize sex work…where do you think thats coming from?
Industries like the Abortion industry literally say they are about women’s rights but its is an industry of death…And not only that it causes lasting trauma for the women that have an abortion...See for the forces of evil, death is the whole goal
even normal things that we think of that are benign…like they have just always been there…Like partisanship work to divide the people of God
The point is that there are two kingdoms in our world. And the second that Jesus starts his ministry he is taking ground for the kingdom of God…Evil is repelled because of Jesus
One of the things that we will have to get really comfortable with in the book of mark is that Demons exist and that Jesus drives them out
So what you need to know is that Jesus has authority over the spiritual world...
Jesus has authority over the physical body
Jesus has authority over the physical body
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
this miracle actually gives us a rare look into the home life of the disciples…You can almost imagine Jesus telling this story to Mark…
This woman just has a fever…maybe a virus or an infection
And all Jesus did was go to her and touch her and she was healed
Jesus has all power over our physical bodies…He is the creator of our bodies
The most amazing thing I have ever been a part of is that my secretary when I was a pastor in southern California had cancer of the esophagus...
It got to be the size of a peach and she had a stint put in so that she could swallow food and water....They were doing some radiation and so they were hoping at her next PET scan that the tumor just would stop growing...
That was her goal! and maybe…just maybe the tumor might shrink.
So she asked us to pray for her…And we did…
We had no special words. the church just gathered around her…laid hands on her and prayed
The next day she went to get her scan and the doctors were actually concerned that their equipment was not working right so they physically looked down her throat...
and there was zero sign of any tumor
The doctors actual words were it is as if the cancer was never there…They actually had to do a procedure to go into her stomach and fish out the stint that she had in her throat because the tumor shrunk so fast that it fell into her stomach
When she told the staff that next day I remember not really believing her...
Because nothing happened when we prayed for her…It didn’t feel like a powerful moment…no one was speaking in tongues…no one fell on the ground…We just prayed and that was the end of it....
That whole experience impacted me so much…I realized that God still wants healings to happen today...
In the book of Mark these healing stories are just rapid fire
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
People with leprosy in ancient israel are required to stay 50 paces away and shout that they are unclean…They are dirty they are ostracized from community…they are contagious
Their ritual impurity would transfer from person to person based on touch
So the last thing that you would ever do if you saw a person that was leprous was to touch them
In the ancient world leprosy was a general term for skin diseases
So this man asks…Jesus if you are willing
and Mark loves to show both the humanity of Jesus
It says that Jesus is indignant…he is angry…But we have no clue why he is angry, Mark doesn’t say
But Jesus is willing and Mark is careful to note that Jesus reached out and touched the man even before his disease was gone.
and Jesus says “be clean”not be healed but be cleansed from your sickness
And the ritual impurity didn’t infect Jesus with disease but the holiness of Jesus infected this man with purity
The only other place this happens in the bible is Isaiah 6...
Isaiah finds himself in the throne room of God and says hey I have unclean lips…Basically I shouldn’t even be here
And the angel takes a burning branch or coal and touches Isaiah’s lips and God’s purity is transfered to Isaiah...
This will come back to bite Jesus later and the great thing about Jesus is that he doesn’t care…He seems to have no regard for all of these human traditions and he freely goes against them
what I think I love about this account more than anything is that Jesus realized that not just healing…But being clean returned this person to society…It returned this person to community...
Ok one more little story
Jesus has authority to forgive sin
Jesus has authority to forgive sin
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Now this story is going to come back up next week so I am not going to cover it much
But you get the general gist of it...
These men were trying to get to Jesus on behalf of their friend who was paralyzed
and these men rip a hole in the roof of where Jesus was and then they lower him down and the first thing that Jesus does is forgive sin
See the Men lowering this man down to Jesus wanted this story to be about healing
But Jesus wanted this story to be about forgiving sin first, then healing
then he healed the man just to prove that he has the authority to forgive sin....Forgiving sin is the bigger point
Why do I bring this up in a service dedicated to healing....
Our sin seperates us from God
We don’t know if this man’s sin had anything to do with him being paralyzed
Many times we come before God and we are in pain, maybe physical pain
and we just bring that pain before God and we ask him to take it away ...
Don’t forget what Jesus priortized with the paralyzed man...
The need was for the man to be physically healed but Jesus saw through this to the real need of this man to be forgiven from his sin, whatever that was
See forgiveness from sin immediately puts us in right relationship with God
and many times we go to God and we ask for all sorts of things but Jesus prioritizes forgiveness first....
And then everything else can come after that
I want to invite the band to come forward
So maybe your here today and you need spiritual deliverance you just want prayer for that
Maybe your here today and you need some sort of physical or emotional healing
Or maybe your just here and you need to be forgiven of sin
We have a number of pastors and members of our prayer teams who will be spread around the sanctuary to recieve any prayer request that you might have and we are going to be praying for your healing today