The One With Authority

Grateful for another Sunday afternoon where we are able to come together and a warm welcome to each one of you, especially all the guests that are here. We welcome you to our church. We’re so thankful to the Lord that your God has brought you here. I know it’s been a very difficult week in the life of many families in our church. We continue to pray for God’s comfort, strength, and care, especially so widely needed in the life of so many. We pray for God’s favor, he’s the only one who can help us in times that are so desperate, and I know that our God is a faithful God. Thankful to the servant of God who’s ministered among us the last couple of days during our fasting prayer. We thank for his ministry, we pray for God to continue to use him even more in the days to come.

You are living in a fishing village, and it’s a place where Gentiles, Romans, and many people from diverse backgrounds, Jews find their home in. It is a thriving place, but there is not much going on spiritually. There’s a local synagogue where people would come to hear God’s word being read, but often what they hear is sometimes so confusing, and there’s no one really there to explain to them what it all means. Those scribes and the people who are reading God’s word and the Torah in this local synagogues don’t often speak with much authority. They come and tell you what the interpretation is, this from long time ago. They present you even different opinions about the same passage. Sometimes you go away from these meetings utterly confused, so there’s not much spiritual renewal that is going on. 

Not only that, there is the oppression of the Roman Empire who is collecting taxes left and right. There is no political freedom, and so you’re kind of pressed from all sides. As a young person growing up in that village, you didn’t really have much to look forward to: political dysfunction, spiritual dysfunction, society that is kind of falling apart, lack of an identity of who you are even as a Jewish person. And into that context comes a teacher who starts performing certain miracles. He starts coming and teaching in the local synagogue, but more importantly, some of the people who are leaders in that fishing village started getting attracted to his ministry and they start following him. These are people who have been fishermen all their life. A couple of them were from a very wealthy and influential family in that town, and they had started becoming followers of this Jesus.

In the context of that, let’s turn our Bibles this afternoon to Mark 1:21-28. God’s word reads like this:

“They went to Cabernet 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 evil 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,’ Jesus said sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The evil 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 evil spirits and they obey him.’ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

It doesn’t take much to have a synagogue at that time. In fact, when you look to Mark 1:21, the Bible says different things about the context of this passage. The Bible says, “They went to Capernaum, Jesus and the few disciples who were already following him, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.” All you needed at that time was 10 people who were over the age of 13 to form a synagogue. You have the temple in Jerusalem, but every locality, every single town, you can have as many synagogues as you want in different villages. They would have this synagogue as long as at least 10 Jewish people over the age of 13 were there, you could have a synagogue in that particular village. 

The synagogues were loosely organized, and history tells us that there was not really any one person who was an assigned teacher in any of the synagogues. They didn’t have any pastors or elders who were controlling or providing leadership in a synagogue. What the synagogue had was a person who was known as an organizer. So, he’s the one who each week would assign people to come and teach in the synagogue. He’s like a person who is in charge of organizing the meetings in the synagogue. Week after week, he would make the decision as to who would get to teach in the synagogue and they would come and teach.

It was not much of a teaching, many a times they would come and read from the Old Testament, they’ll read from the first five books of the Bible. But oftentimes, when asked to interpret passages, these teachers of the law did not have anything original to add to the people. What they would often say is, “This is what we have been taught all along. This is what this Rabbi would say, this is what this Rabbi would say, you kind of make up your own mind as to what this passage means.” Such were the teachings at the time of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says he went into Capernaum, which was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. Even though the word “Sea of Galilee” is used in God’s word and the same sea is known as the Sea of Tiberias also in God’s word, it’s not much of a sea. It is a freshwater lake. It is 13 miles long, seven miles wide, 700 feet below the sea level, strikingly beautiful, but it’s more of a freshwater lake than a sea. But it provided the resources for the region; people fished, people came for tourism to those places, and it was teeming with life and activity.

By the time you come to Mark 1:21, four important people in that community had become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know about Peter, Andrew, James, and John. From four prominent families, two prominent families had become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this man who was teaching out and about, his teaching was different. So, we can assume that the person who was organizing the meeting in the synagogue one Sabbath invited Jesus to come and teach in the synagogue, and all these people, we don’t know how many were there during that day, had come to listen to Jesus teach. They’re expecting a teacher kind of in the same vein of the rabbis or the scribes of yesterday.

These men had become men of great authority. In fact, there are some Jewish tradition that says that the scribes of that day, the rabbis who would teach in the synagogues, were considered to be even more important than the high priests who would reign in their temple. That is how important these men were. Jesus, the Bible says, started in the synagogue and began to teach. 

Mark 1:22 tells us immediately they notice a difference in the teachings of Jesus. The Bible says to us that people were amazed at his teaching. Now to put it in words modern words that you can understand, the way to kind of translate that word “amazed” that is used there in the original language is this, that people were literally blown away by his teaching. If I were to stand over and says that Pastor was so good at his preaching that we were completely blown away by it, you know what I’m talking about. Exactly what it says in God’s word, the people were blown away by his teaching.

Why? See, here is a man who is now coming and teaching, but he sounds so different. He is not telling you the opinion of others or the opinion of other people. He’s not bringing to you commentaries from different sources and telling you “You now get to pick what you want to believe.” No, the Bible says, “He teaches as one that is different because he taught them as one who had authority.” All the others who were teaching did not have any kind of authority. You know when somebody is speaking you can kind of tell if they truly believe what they’re saying? Have you ever listened to a preacher and you’re like “I don’t think he even believes what he’s saying?” That’s the difference between someone who has authority and someone who does not have any authority. Sometimes the preacher is more confused than the listener about the passage that they’re expounding on. That is not healthy teaching at all, but when Jesus comes he is not telling you about what he heard over there, he’s not telling you about what he heard over there, he is telling you what is heard directly from the Father, after all He wrote the entire Old Testament. When he is teaching to them, he is giving them absolute answers this is what it means.

Even in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does this, doesn’t he? “You have heard it written, but I say to you. You have heard all your life that it is written like this, but I say to you what it really means,” and suddenly they’re like, “Oh wow, who is this man?” He is teaching with authority. What he is saying, he means something by it. He is not speculating, he is not saying another person’s opinion, he is not telling us we can make up our own mind. 

He is convincingly, very clearly telling them what is truth, what is not truth, and the Bible says his teaching was not as the teachers of the law. So all these people are already quite amazed by what they’re hearing that day. To add to the beauty of that day, the teaching was enough. Look at the next words in Mark 1:23. Imagine, maybe not a crowd as big as this, maybe about 20-30 people are sitting in the synagogue and they’re listening to this man. Their mouths are wide open, they have never heard teaching like this before, and he’s speaking as one with authority. To make matters a little bit more interesting:

Just then, a man in the synagogue, this man is not in the streets, this man is not by the Sea of Galilee, this man is in the synagogue. This man is in the church, this man is breaking bread, this man is singing the song, this man is saying his testimony, this man is giving tithe, this man is a member of the synagogue. You would never tell by looking at him what is going on inside of him. Oh, he’s wearing his white shirt, he has a suit probably just like mine, he looks clean-shaven. No facial hair, no long hair, no jewelry, nothing of the sort. This man is in the synagogue, surely he is a man of God, he is clearly called by God. But the Bible says he was possessed by an impure spirit and he could not stand the teaching of God’s word. And see, this is why we preach God’s word, if there’s anyone sitting in our pews who is like this, they need to be delivered from what is holding them down. That is the power of God’s word. 

We don’t preach counseling, we don’t preach psychology because those things cannot set you free. But what can bring out the impure spirit inside any man is the proclamation of God’s word under the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. Because when the Holy Spirit starts moving among God’s people, impure spirits have no chance, because the Holy Spirit is able to reveal things to us that are unseen to the human eyes. The Bible says he was possessed by an impure spirit. Some of your translations say he was possessed by a demon. Why I tell you these things? What do we know about demons from God’s word?

This is not a sermon on teaching about demons, but very quickly, this is what we know. One third of the angels rebelled against the authority of God, they were cast down by God into the earth and the atmosphere, the air above the earth was given as dominion to Satan and his demons. Many of them were bound for an everlasting captivity waiting for the day of judgment. Some, by the sovereignty of God, by the will of God, were allowed to roam the world and they are the ones that are portrayed in God’s word as demons who are roaming around. These demons come under the control of Satan. Just like any other government or hierarchy in the world, there is order in the demonic kingdom as well. 

The demons do what Satan wants them to do. From God’s word, we can know that there is a demon that is certainly in charge of certain cities, certain countries are under the control of certain demons. There is clear organization within the demonic kingdom as well. These demons can inflict disease, these demons can provide mental sickness, these demons can oppress, these demons can possess, these demons can control. 

In the western world, we are not very familiar with demonic activity, but talk to missionaries, talk to pastors who are privileged to work in the Eastern side of our world and they will tell you story after story of people with demonic possession and control, whom they were privileged to minister to. This is a real thing, and even today, in the city of Rowlett, there are demonic forces at work. In the city of Garland, there is a demonic force at work. Many families are under the oppression of demonic powers. Many illnesses are there as a result of demonic power. Many mental illnesses have a source in demonic powers. Demons are real, as angels are, and by the sovereignty of God, God has allowed them to roam the world. But here’s the good news: demons can oppress the believer, but demons cannot possess the believer. Let me tell you the difference between the two. Demons can oppress the believer, we have evidence of that in God’s word, but demons cannot possess the believer.

But I don’t want you to sit here today being worried about demonic oppression either. Remember, the one that is living inside of you is greater than the one that is in the world. Demons cannot do anything against you until the Heavenly Father allows it to happen. Remember the story of Job, he could not even touch one hair on the skin of Job unless and until God allowed it to happen. Yes, God is ultimately in control of our lives, so don’t walk around with an unhealthy obsession with demonic problems. Don’t blame demons for every problem in your life either, but we need to be aware of the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us.

Why is it that a demon cannot possess us? I love this illustration that this man of God wrote in his book about having a renewed mind, Larry Christensen. He says, think of yourself as living in an apartment house. You live there under a landlord who has made your life miserable. That’s what we were before we became believers. We were living under the control and power of Satan. He charges you a large rent, when you cannot pay, he loans you money at a fearful rate of interest to get you even further into his debt. He barges into your apartment at all hours of the day and night, wrecks and dirties the place up, then charges you extra for not maintaining the premises. Your life is miserable.

Then comes someone who says, “I have taken over this apartment house. I have purchased it. You can live here as long as you like for free. Not only that, the rent for the rest of your life is already paid. I am going to be living here with you in the manager’s apartment.” What a joy, you are saved, you are delivered out of the clutches of the old landlord. But what happens? You hardly have time to rejoice in newfound freedom when a knock comes at the door. A lot of people think that the moment you become a believer, the enemy leaves you alone. No, he’s just getting started. The knock comes at the door, and there he is, the old landlord. He is always used to coming to this apartment, so he comes knocking again, demanding the rent.

What do you do? Do you pay him? Of course not. Do you go out and pop him on the nose? No, he’s bigger than you are. But you confidently tell him, “You will have to take the matter of the rent up with the new landlord.” You don’t fight him, but you just tell him, “You don’t own this property anymore. I have a landlord who is in control of it.” And then he says, “Can I come inside?” You say, “No, I have to ask the new landlord first. This property doesn’t belong to me anymore, nor does it belong to you. It belongs to the new landlord. You cannot wreck it anymore, you cannot make it dirty anymore because there is one who is now owning this house who is greater and who has already paid everything that is needed for this place, and he is absolutely in control of it.”

That’s why it says believers can be oppressed by the allowance of God, but believers cannot be possessed. So by the fact that this man was in the synagogue, we can make the assumption that he is not a believer, that he is being possessed by a demon, and he is within the church. By the way, this is something that we have to guard against so much, even in the Christian church as well.

I remember reading a book about spiritual warfare. In that book, the woman who wrote it was talking about how the satanic church in the local area would actually send people to the local churches. They would send them not so that they become saved, they would send them with one purpose and one purpose alone: to cause divisions within the church. They would come and they’ll be a member of the church and before you know it, they are in influential positions within the church and they are able to sow seeds of Satan.

Have you ever wondered in your life why people sometimes behave the way they do? Have you ever wondered how people can be so evil? When you sometimes see news reports about a woman killing all of her children or men and women sometimes abandoning their children, have you ever thought, “What kind of evil is this?” The answers are found in God’s word. These are all because many people are under the control and the work of demonic powers in their life.

Have you ever wondered, “How can this person act like this in church?” I’m not saying that all of them are demon-possessed or anything like that, but there is a possibility that many of them are controlled by not the Holy Spirit but controlled by the evil spirits that are roaming in the world. And in the context of that, this man in the midst of the authority of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look what happens, he starts crying out and look at the words that he says, verse 24, ‘What do you want with us?’ It’s plural in nature. What he’s saying it’s not, it doesn’t say ‘What do you want with me?’ There are two things we can assume possibly. Either there are multiple demons inside the same person, or he is talking about them as a community in the village of Capernaum, and he is speaking for his entire community.

He said, ‘What do you want with us?’, and look, he says ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, but I love the next word, ‘Have you come to destroy us?’ The lot of things we can learn even from the mouth of the demon. First of all, he knows who Jesus is, he’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, but he knows something more about Jesus. He knows why he came. He has come to destroy the works of the devil. Even though the people, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the scribes do not know who Jesus is, the demon has greater knowledge about who Jesus is than even the religious leaders of that time. And not only that, he says something else about Jesus, ‘I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ This is why in God’s word it says it is not enough that you have a knowledge about who God is. He says even demons know who he is and they tremble at knowing who he is. Just a superficial knowledge about God is not enough.

He says, ‘I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.’ In fact, some of the greatest proclamations in the entire scriptures and the gospels about the identity of Jesus did not come from the mouth of any man. It actually came from the mouth of demons. Look at some passages in God’s word. Mark 3:11: ‘Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and they cried out, “You are the son of God.”‘ Look at this, the demons have a clear understanding of the identity of Jesus even than anybody else. They know who he is. They know that he is the lord of the universe walking among them. Continuing on, look at Mark 5:7: ‘He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the most high God?”‘ Look at all these proclamations about the deity and the divinity and the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the context of what is happening, all the people are just absolutely shaken to the core. You can imagine something like this happening right now in our mindset, everyone would be fearful, but look what Jesus does in verse 25. ‘Be quiet,’ said Jesus sternly, ‘Come out of him.’ I love the brevity of what Jesus said. There is no extended prayer here. There is no magical chanting here. There is no 21-day fasting prayer here. There is no waiting all night here. One word, ‘Be quiet.’ Some of your translators, he rebuked him, and he said, ‘Come out of him.’

Can you imagine the power that is contained in one word of the Lord Jesus Christ? No extended going to him, even laying his hands on him, he is sitting at the pulpit, he is reading God’s word, teaching God’s word. This all happens in a matter of seconds. But immediately, the Bible says, he looks to him and he says, ‘Come out of him’, and look what happens, immediately comes out of him.

This is nothing new to Mark 1. In fact, the word that is used over here, ‘rebuked him’, can be seen in many passages in God’s word. Look at Psalm 9:5-6, ‘You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked.’ Many times, when you read passages as this in the Old Testament, we think that God had to go and fight this battle for us. No, it is one word from God that is destroying the nations and the wicked people in the world.

‘You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies. You have uprooted their cities. Even the memory of them has perished.’ All of that happened with one word from the Lord. The Bible continues, look at Psalm 76:5-6, ‘The valiant lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep. Not one of the warriors can lift their hands.’ Why? ‘At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still.’

Church, you serve a God whose one word from him can destroy nations and even change the course of history. And that also means that your God does not need a lot of time to move things in your favor either. Maybe you have been praying and waiting for God’s deliverance. Maybe you have been asking God, ‘How long, O God? How long, O God?’ Today, I want to tell you one word, in one moment from him, can change your life forever.

That is the power of Jesus’ name. Endless recitations, endless mindless worship that goes on years after years is the work of the devil and is the work of the Gentiles. But the people of God has a living God who answers them the moment they call, and one word from him is enough to change everything in the moment. And even this afternoon, one word from him can change your life. These are not empty words. The Bible says to us, ‘At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, that’s one word, both the horsemen and the chariot, they lie still.’ Exactly what happened in Mark 1:26 as well. “The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek” at the authority that was in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. One word is all that is needed.

Martin Luther wrote his famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” when he was in the midst of some of the most difficult moments in his life. He was a hunted man, hiding in an uptown tower, away from all the people. An entire nation, the entire Catholic Church, was hunting for him and trying to kill him. And he wrote, “Though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,” I told you there are demons roaming all around the world. And even today, this whole world we’re living in is filled with demonic powers. But as children of God, look at the next line, “We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.” How many of you can say with confidence this afternoon, ‘We will not fear, for it is the will of God that we will triumph because the truth that is in us. “The Prince of Darkness Grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. His doom is sure. Look at the words, ‘One little word shall fell him.”

That’s all that it takes, ‘One little word shall fell him.’ Seeing this teaching, seeing what happened to the man who was possessed by a demon. Mark 1:27 tells us the people were amazed. And this word is different than the “amazed” we read about in the previous word. In the previous word, the Bible says they were amazed, they were blown away by his teaching. You know what Mark 1:27 “amazed” in English translation is translated as the same word, but it’s not the same word. He said they were completely filled with fear as they saw demonic spirits coming out of him. See, it is one thing to teach with authority but something totally to have absolute control over demonic powers. Exactly what they said, they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching? And with authority, he even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey him.” Wow, what a great God we serve! He controls everything under the heavens, everything under the Earth. Every evil spirit is controlled by the Lord above. There are no powers, principalities, or authorities that are beyond the control of the Living God that you are privileged to call the Lord and Master of your life.

See, the question this afternoon and every day is only this: Will you give the control of your life over to Him? Or will you let other things rule over you? If He is the one of supreme authority, and if He is the Lord over everything, guess what? He needs to be the Lord over your life as well. He needs to have complete authority over your life as well. Oftentimes, Christian life for many people is one where they have different compartments in their life. There is a social life, there is a private life, there is a work life, there’s a church life. Many people invite Jesus into their heart, but then they have compartments within their heart. In my social life, Jesus is not there. In my work life, Jesus is not there. In my private life, Jesus is not there. In my church life, Jesus is there. No, He is not coming into your life to take a seat at the table with the other forces of this world that are trying to control your life. He wants to come into your life and be the complete Lord over every area of your life. He is not coming into your life wanting to be a guest at the seat at the table with other forces who are wanting your attention. He wants to be the Lord of your social life, he wants to be the Lord of your private life, he wants to be the Lord of your work life, he wants to be the Lord of your church life. Every area of your life, you need to yield it to him, for he alone is the Lord over everything. There is no one like Him, no one who has authority like Him.

This afternoon, we are about to sing and worship Him. We are going to sing about the fact that our Lord is stronger, that He has saved us. Sin is broken, Christ is risen, He is Lord of all. He has no beginning, He has no end. He is our hope, He is our defense. So let your name be lifted higher, let your name be lifted higher, O God. Let your name be lifted higher in our lives. As we worship the Lord, I told you this afternoon about a name and a word from Him that can change your life. If you need a touch from the Lord, if you need that word to come and transform you, and forgive you. Deliverance that you need in a special area in your life. As we worship the Lord, I invite you to come forward, and we will pray for you. See, this is not about me praying for you and me having some kind of magical power or special anointing within me that is going to change your life. No, I am nothing special, but I know one who is special. I know one who has authority. One word from Him can change your life. I know that it is true today just as it was true thousands of years ago. There is no one like my Jesus. There is no one who has authority like Jesus. Jesus delivers, Jesus sets the captives free, Jesus breaks the bondage of Satan. Jesus gives healing that only He can give. Let’s stand in the presence of God, sing unto Him, and worship.