The Author has the Authority
Mark 1:21-28
Mark 1:21-28
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "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!"
25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 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 evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 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 evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
This is the Word of God. Let's pray...
Alright, I am only going to hit the first two verses of this passage tonight, and we are going to continue it into next week.
I wanted to read through all of this down to verse 28 tonight because it flows together in a very clear way that I don't want us to lose sight of.
So for at least this week and the next, maybe for three weeks we are going to see how this trip to the synagogue keeps unfolding more and more important information and then how it comes back to repeat a VERY important truth.
So tonight we will start unpacking four points from this text, and we'll only get to the first point this week. We're going to unpack the passage using the questions "What? and "So What?"
We are going to start by asking “What is happening?”
Then, based on what we find we are going to ask “So what? So What's that thing that we see happening got to do with the character and nature of God?
And, so what's that got to do with you and me as we interact with the Living God of the universe and with each other?”
And by the way, I'm always telling you to read your Bible and this is a great way to do it.
Prayerfully reading the Scriptures and asking those two questions “What & So What?” is a great way to read the Word and really start digging into it so that it can dig into you, into your heart.
I am not the preacher who calls you to read the Bible in a year or any set period of time, as though God is most concerned with you getting it done in record time.
But I absolutely will call you to chew on the Word and leave nothing left on the bone. I want that kind of interaction between us as a gathered body and the Word and for you individually with the Word.
So WHEN you read the Bible for yourself – that's not a suggestion. I didn't say IF you read the Bible. No, WHEN you read the Bible — I believe you will get more out of it if you slow down and after praying, go through a small section of the text and ask, “What does this clearly say?”
Then move into the “so what” questions — Questions like:
“So God's word says to love my enemies; what does that look like in my marriage? What's that look like in my job? So What's that look like with the other people in Church (big “C” and little “c”)?”
Or, “So God's word says not to worry about what we will eat or drink or what we will wear, but instead to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and that everything else will be added onto us; so what does that look like when money is tight? So What's that look like when our little kids are not so little anymore and they are growing faster than we can keep up with them – faster than we can buy more clothes? So What does that mean when the factory doesn't come back from their seasonal layoffs? So What's God's word mean to my life and yours in a recession?”
Do we think that God's Word was valid to a particular point in history, but that He really didn't see our newest round of world and personal crises?
Of course not, He is THE eternal and all powerful God. That means He was in control before the world and every nation and all of our lives were created. He will be in control once all of this present age, all the nations, all the historic landmarks and all of our crises are over and gone. And He will still be in control when we are before His throne.
He's in control then, now and always – from eternity past to eternity future, there is no limit on Him. He's bigger than any problem you and I are dealing with. So again, “So What!?” How does His word affect us in the here and now?
Now use that method to read God's word, it's a great starting point in your walk with Him. And, we like to always remind you to do this like the Bereans. Remember in Acts 17:10-11, they took all of what Paul told them in his teaching and preaching and they looked through the Scriptures to make sure he was on the level.
When I or Andy or any guest comes up to the pulpit to speak or even to lead us in singing. Be studiers of the Bible so that you will know when or if we are off track.
Now let's get back to tonight's passage and the “What/So What's?”
So here are the four “What's?” or the four points we're exploring in the next couple of weeks.
Point one, from the text is this: Jesus goes to Capernaum and teaches with Authority.
Point two: Jesus is recognized as who He TRULY is – not by the people yet - but by a demon. And, the demon is controlled by Jesus without a real fight.
Point three: The crowd is amazed by Jesus' teaching AND His power to cast out demons.
Point four: Jesus gets quick fame.
Now lets ask “So what?” starting tonight with the first point.
Tonight's Point, from the text is very clear-cut. It’s this: Jesus goes to Capernaum and teaches with Authority.
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
So Jesus taught with authority, so what?
Teaching by a visiting rabbi was not an uncommon practice in the synagogue. But there was something different going on here - wasn't there?
These Jews came in and were expecting the same old thing, some very well educated guy who would come up and read from the scroll, then unpack the passage. But what was common was a dissection of what other teachers had already said about the passage and a affirmation or a rebuttal about those other views on the passage.
But all of those references to other men's views didn't have the power behind it the LIFE in it - that it did when Jesus came to Capernaum that day and spoke.
The others taught as someone who had read and studied the Word.
But, when Jesus got up to read and then taught, He did so with an undeniable and unique authority.
As one pastor said, Jesus didn't teach like someone who had read the book, He taught like the one who wrote it – As The AUTHOR!
And listen, if you don't get another point, if you leave after this and never come back I want you to grasp and hold tight to THIS. The Author has the Authority.
The Author has the Authority.
We, in the church sadly as much as the world, all look to a million different places for our information today except to the Word of God.
We look to the news channels, which we honestly choose from on the dial based on what slant we want to hear from, we look to self-help gurus who tell us that we are basically good people who just need this one thing to fix us or we just need to follow this list of whatever.
Or, we look to our own understanding because we think we have it all figured out. We don't need anyone to tell us anything because we see the big picture and the only problem with the world – in our eyes – is all the other people who don't see things our way, right.
This is the culture we live in and – in one degree or another it has always been this way. Even way back in the day, the people wouldn't listen to God's revelation.
They knew what they WANTED to be true, so they sought out people who would fill in the pre-arranged blanks for them. They wanted them to read from the World’s script, not God’s.
When the people of God were in exile as a result of their rebellion against God, they wanted the exile to end sooner than later and they wanted to hear that God was going to give them victory right away. That’s what they wanted to hear.
But He wasn't going to. They were going to remain strangers in a strange land for 70 years before being released.
But they didn't want to hear that, so instead of listening to God's true prophet, Jeremiah, they found some false prophets to tell them what they wanted to hear.
In the book of Jeremiah 23:16-18, the Lord used His prophet to speak against these guys – the false prophets – who came in and told people what they wanted to hear.
And, God sent Jeremiah to speak out against the people who LISTENED to the impostors instead of listening to and following the true Word of God.
Jeremiah 23:16-18
16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.'
18 But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?
16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.'
18 But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?
Listen, if you read through this set of 66 books, and specifically to the Authoritative words of JESUS you will see that God has called us to a counter-cultural life. That means we do not respond to the world in the same way that the world responds:
- We are not to hold onto grudges and outright unforgiveness like the world does.
- We are to hold our tongues when other's gossip.
- We are to raise our children up by God's design, not in the world's way of idolizing the children or making them our buddies.
- We are to love our wives, men. And you are to respect your husbands, women.
- We are to live and die for the kingdom mission and not for our own comfort or glory.
- We are to connect with a church based on what needs we can help that local church meet - NOT just by what the church can provide for our niche needs.
- We are to call one another out when we see sin and we are to receive correction when it is our turn, because we all need that correction.
In another Gospel, when we read through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus kept saying, “You have heard it said... But I tell you...”
And what He did again and again was He took the flawed teaching of men and our traditions and said, this is where you are off the rails and this is where you need to repent.
And, again at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we see the same reaction from the crowd:
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (Matt 7:28-29 ESV)
But listen, listen, let's bring it back here, back to the present, back to our lives again.
Just like in Jeremiah's time when the Israelites were in captivity, and just like we will see from the crowds later in Jesus' ministry in the Gospel of Mark,
WE honestly just want the word of God to give us promises of riches and conquest and we don't want to hear the Word of God when it works like a scalpel to cut away the chunks of selfishness, self-centeredness and pride off of our hearts.
Part of that in this local church may be my fault. I preach a lot about the role of Jesus as our Savior. But we also need to recognize Him as our Lord. We have to see Him as the Author with the Authority.
But, when you do that I don’t want you to overcorrect and put yourself into another ditch.
Listen, if you always look at the Word of God and only see a list of rules or impossible standards that you can't meet and if you think that keeping those rules are the way you are supposed to earn God’s love and His acceptance then you will never follow Him with the right heart. You may never even try.
Instead, if that’s how you see God and His Word you will run back to the easy answers. We'll run back to the people and organizations and publications that help us to believe that WE are all right and it is the rest of the world that is jacked up.
It’s easier for some of us to live in denial than as failures.
What we need to understand is that The Word of God is the Word of Our Loving God. That changes everything. It changes everything IF we believe it.
If the Word of God is the Word of Our Loving God, then even the parts that sting are for our good.
Before you run away from Him and His PERFECT will for your life. Ask yourself, what are you running to?
The old adage is still true when it tells us to “Consider the source.”
For our discussion tonight: Consider the source of the information you are ingesting.
God is desperately in Love with you. With YOU on a personal level. He loved YOU so much that He did what? He loved you and I and the world so much that He...sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.
That's the source of these hard teachings, these commands toward holiness, these calls to godliness. These calls that we kick back against AND I HONESTLY MEAN WE. The things we kick back against are from the greatest lover of our souls. And what do we run to instead?
Listen, whether you run to the best ideas that you can form in YOUR OWN mind; whether you run to Headline News and CNN or Fox News; whether you run to the patriots or the traitors, whether you run to a shrink, or to Oprah, or to the many friends and family who don't love you enough to tell you the truth; or whether you run to the flawed “masterminds” of modern or postmodern thought, or even to other self-focused, moralistic world religions - No matter what, consider the source.
No matter how pure their motives might be on their BEST days, not one of those people or groups will ever be more purely and lovingly FOR YOU than Jesus Christ.
And not one of them, no matter how smart or savvy or worldly, has as complete a view of history and the future than Christ our Lord.
So. You can and you will feed from the trough of the perfect love and truth of Christ, which will mean dying to self and living for Him. Or you can and will feed from the data (not the truth) of what is AT BEST, the imperfect love and the incomplete information of this world OR your own mind.
Consider the source.
Listen, you know when you read this Bible for yourself that Jesus speaks to you – to YOUR LIFE with authority. When you get to those things that you want to take a marker and cross out – when you get to those things that you want to explain away in the Bible (or just ignore) – those things shine a spotlight on your heart so that your heart can’t hide anymore.
We are not in a position to change God's mind any more than a character in a book is in a position to change the next chapter that its creator has written.
Like I said at the beginning the Author has the Authority.
But we've all tried to rewrite His plan for our life OUR way haven't we?
So, do we go along in our sin of rebellion against the author? Do we keep reading and listening to the teachers of this age? Do we keep following our own way of thinking to the detriment of our souls and to the continued defiance of our loving Father in Heaven?
Listen some of us have denied the will of God as He's revealed it and we have found misery on top of misery. Others haven't yet.
No matter where you stand, tonight can be the night that you put down the teaching of the world’s best and worst minds and pick up the clear and authoritative Word of God.
Pick it up and read it for yourself. Ask the questions of “What & So What?”
And in the Word, find the uncompromising – for your good – for His glory – LOVE of God for you.
It will be hard going, especially as the Word cuts through the most calloused areas of your heart. But Oh! How His love heals the tender wounds of that surgery. And Oh! How free we become once we stop following the world and we submit to His authority.
I pray that we might all put down our old ways tonight and take Christ.
If you are here and you have been fighting for too long against His authority and if the fight's got you wrung out and deflated, please don't leave here tonight without confessing that and receiving prayer. God is not waiting until you jump through hoops. He's ready to pour His love into your life right NOW.
Be open to it.
Let's pray...
