Mark's Gospel Part 2 - The Authority of Jesus

So Mark's Gospel, chapter one, from verse 14.

Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you uh sorry, I will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in the boat mending the nets, and immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.

And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about him.

And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening at sunset they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons, and the whole city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him, and said to him, Everyone is looking for you.

And he said to them, Let us go on to the next town, that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.

And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

This is the good uh word of God, and we thank him for it.

Uh the kingdom of God is at hand.

There's a new king in town.

A couple of months ago, uh, when uh seemingly overnight uh Bashar al-Assad was removed from power in Syria, and these other guys took over.

It was a real surprise.

But there's also real uncertainty, wasn't there?

What was the new regime like?

What would the country be like?

Were they good or bad?

Nobody seems to know.

In some ways, in some ways, uh, we're in similar territory at this point in Mark's gospel.

The kingdom is at hands, Jesus said in verse 15, because the new king is here.

But we want to ask, who is this king and what is he like, and what will life in his kingdom be like?

How will he use his power?

And those are questions that I hope Mark is going to help us answer this morning.

Now, there is a lot going on in Mark chapter 1, isn't there?

Mark 1 · chapter mention

There's all these short, rapid fire bursts of things happening happening.

This happens, then this happens, then this happens.

The word immediately, I don't know if you notice, comes up five times in our passage today.

And I uh that's not because Mark's a lazy writer, uh, he's doing that on purpose.

It might be helpful as we just sort of look at Mark's gospel, Mark chapter one, particularly, to think less of a sort of single work of art that you stare at and you contemplate and you observe, but more of a sort of firework display.

You know, bang, bang, bang.

So many things happening in quick succession.

But you take a step back and take the whole thing in, and it builds together to create this sort of awesome impression of who Jesus is, of why he came, of what his kingdom is like.

Last week we saw him announced as the Christ, the Son of God, the King promised in the Old Testament, the King loved and confirmed by God the Father at his baptism, the king who announces the good news that the kingdom of God has arrived.

And so it is time to repent and believe this good news, the gospel.

But, like your average Syrian a couple of months ago, uh, do we wonder if this talk of a new king and this kingdom is it really good news?

What about the people first hearing this talk of a kingdom and repentance?

Is it really good news?

A talk of a king suggests someone greater than me.

Someone to whom I'll have to bow the knee.

A talk of repentance suggests that I've done something wrong, that there is something to turn from.

Is the kingdom of God being at hand really good news?

And as we look through our passage today, I think we're going to be able to answer that question.

We've really only got two big things to notice today, as we look at this passage, and here's the first, as we observe this firework display in front of us, and that is Jesus' irresistible authority.

Jesus's irresistible authority.

And we see that authority in three ways over men, over demons, and over sickness.

And so here's the first one Jesus' irresistible irresistible authority over men.

Sort of looking down there from verse 16.

It's remarkable, it's a remarkable little story.

It's one that so many of us will know from when we were children.

Jesus comes across two fishermen.

He calls out to them whilst they are uh working, and immediately they leave their nets and they follow him.

And then in verse 19, actually, remarkably, it happens again, straight afterwards, immediately, again at the call of Jesus, two more fishermen.

They leave everything they're doing, and they and everyone they're doing it with, and without delay, they follow him.

And it's a story that's well known, maybe, to many of us, but we shouldn't understand, uh, we shouldn't underestimate uh what is happening here.

We shouldn't underestimate what they're leaving behind.

These guys are leaving livelihoods, that their boats, their friends, and their families.

And yet they do it without a moment's hesitation.

Sort of like in the modern world, as if the laptop is still on, the Team's call is still running, but these people have just left the room, and there's nothing in their video feeds, but just their chairs sort of swinging round, empty.

It's not normal behavior, is it?

Uh some of us perhaps are more impulsive than others.

I am not.

I'm terrible at making big decisions, and this well, this is an extraordinarily large decision, isn't it?

This is the kind of decision that's life-changing, the kind of decision you take time over.

People don't normally abandon all that they have at a moment's notice to follow someone they've never met before.

But that is exactly what happens when Jesus comes near to these guys and tells them to follow him.

Jesus speaks to them with an authority, an authority that cannot be denied, an authority that is irresistible and which transforms lives.

I'd imagine that perhaps there are a number of folks in this room that could attest to something similar, actually.

An encounter with the Lord Jesus in the words of the Bible, hearing his call, and realizing both that you're hearing someone that it's worth listening to, someone that it's worth giving up everything to follow, and realizing that you must, that your life must belong to him, that you owe him everything, that you must start following him today.

And do you notice what happens next?

Jesus tells them to follow him, and then he says he's gonna send them out to become fishes of men.

This is not a small change for them.

This is not you can carry on with your lives, and Jesus is gonna be this nice kind of add-on bonus that's gonna help things feel a bit better.

You know, from that day on, these fishermen had a new job to do, sharing the good news of Jesus that others in turn might follow him and have their lives transformed by him.

That was a special commission for those four fishermen, I think.

But all Christians are also called to go into the world and share the good news about Jesus so that others might know his irresistible call.

Now, in his kingdom, he speaks and lives are transformed.

People turn from what they were doing and live new lives.

They turn from what they were doing and they follow him.

As the first bit of his irresistible authority that we see.

But then from verse 21, we see Jesus' irresistible authority over evil.

His irresistible authority over evil.

Again, it's incredible.

So here is a man that we meet who is sort of dominated by this evil spirit, by this unclean spirit.

This spirit dominates and controls this man's life.

And nobody in the synagogue has been able to help him.

And yet, along comes Jesus, and he silences the spirit with a word, commands that the spirit comes out the man.

Jesus speaks, the demon comes out, the man is restored.

Because in Jesus' kingdom there is no place for evil.

He uses his authority to banish it.

And I wonder what our reaction might be if that happened today.

It must have been incredible.

Imagine being there in the room, perhaps even a little terrifying to witness this as Jesus, the Son of God, confronts demon.

And you know, we might expect the onlookers to be sat there in stunned silence, or to be cowering behind a chair in the corner, or to be whooping with joy because of this man who is so clearly and wonderfully being delivered from the power of evil.

And yet, that's not actually what the people are talking about, not in the immediate aftermath.

You look down at verse 27 and see what they are saying.

They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.

Back up in verse 22, we've read as well that people were astonished at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the scribes, those teachers of the law.

You see, those teachers that they knew, those scribes, they could teach the law.

They could teach about what was right and what was wrong, but in the end, they couldn't do much more than that.

They couldn't equip people with the power to change, nor could they solve the problems of evil in this man's life.

But when Jesus speaks, it is different, isn't it?

The evil spirit is driven out by his words, the commands of Jesus.

No one else can do this.

No one else can solve the problem of evil in this world.

Jesus' words are different.

They carry an authority that changes lives for the better and changes lives forever and banishes evil.

Verse 27, just going back there again, it is quite interesting and I think quite helpful that the people, when they say it's a new teaching with authority, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him, that they effectively uh equate Jesus' teaching with the defeat of this evil spirit.

And I think that's quite a helpful perspective.

What is it that defeats evil in this situation?

As the crowd in the synagogue, those eyewitnesses see it, it is Jesus' teaching.

It is the words of Jesus that overcome the spiritual forces of evil.

And it may be just worth thinking about what that might mean for us today.

Is there evil at work in the world?

Well, yes, there is.

Clearly, there is, evidently.

Is Satan still at work in the worlds?

Well, the Bible would say that despite the fact that he has suffered the crushing blow of defeat at the cross and through Christ's resurrection, he has not yet been destroyed, though he will be.

But in the meantime, he continues to deceive, to accuse, to undermine, to tempt and to lure people towards sin and opposition to God.

Peter tells us to watch out because Satan prowls about like a lion waiting to devour.

So, yes.

Are people still oppressed by demons in the way that this man was?

I don't know.

Perhaps there was obviously a time in history when this was particularly obvious and prevalent, particularly when Jesus was there in order that he might show his mastery over evil.

Does that still happen like that today?

I don't exactly know.

But either way, how do we respond to the work and the power of Satan in this world?

To the work and the power of evil in this world.

I don't think the Bible teaches us to perform exorcisms.

But the Bible certainly does teach us that what defeats the spiritual forces of evil is the gospel of Jesus.

It is through his teaching that the demon is cast out.

It is Ephesians 6, prayer to the God of the gospel.

2 Corinthians 6, through holy lives, transformed by the gospel.

In other words, how do we combat demonic activity?

That's the head, the sermon headline that goes in the website, combating demonic activity.

But the Bible would say for normal Christian people, it is the normal means of grace.

It is the Bible, it is prayer, it is godly living.

Jesus is the one who has true authority.

It is his teaching that confronts and beats evil.

A world under the influence of evil needs the gospel as the remedy.

That is what Christian people hold out to the world.

And in Jesus' kingdom, there will be no more evil.

We're going to move on then, just to the third way that we see Jesus' irresistible authority.

And that is over sickness, his irresistible authority over sickness.

Have a look from verse 29.

Simon's mother-in-law in bed with a fever.

She's incapacitated, she's not in a fit state to do anything.

But then Jesus immediately goes to her, reaches out his hands, and heals her.

Just like that.

Wonderfully.

So quick and complete is her restoration to health that she's back up and at it as if nothing had been wrong.

There's no hangover, getting over the virus, there's no long COVID.

She just goes straight back to serving.

We read in verse 28 that the news about Jesus, uh perhaps unsurprisingly, spreads across the whole of Galilee.

We see the consequences of that on in verse 32, when at sunset all who are sick or oppressed by demons are brought to him.

The whole city is, you sort of imagine it there at the door, banging, trying to get in.

Help me, deal with me, fix me.

And you see, when Jesus drove out that demon in the synagogue, when he healed Simon's mother-in-law, those weren't one-off events.

He was doing this over and over again.

The sick and oppressed from all throughout the city were being healed by Jesus.

And we get there wonderfully a little picture of what he will one day do for each of us who follows him, who belongs to him.

I get it, you might be sitting there today feeling the unlikelihood of that today.

Like that feels like a dream, a distant and far-off thing.

You might have a medical file, sort of a foot thick.

Or you might have a phone that is constantly pinging and reminding you, testifying to the evils going on in this world.

But Mark chapter 1 is it is a little window into the kingdom that Jesus is ushering in.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

It is a promise of what is more fully and gloriously to come.

Those who've moved into a house will know the experience, perhaps, of not being very happy with how it's decorated.

And perhaps it's a bit shabby and a bit old, it hasn't been touched for a long time.

And a friend maybe comes round and says, You've got a bit of work to do, haven't you?

But then you're able to point them to a couple of rooms, and there are these little swatches in the walls, little dabs of colour.

You can say, Well, you know, it is looking in a bit of a state, but here's what is to come.

Here's what is to come, these little these little samples, these little tastes of the future.

In Mark chapter 1, these events are a little bit like those patches on the wall, those test that testa paint that points to the king who is restoring all things.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

One day, he will restore each of us who belongs to him.

He will tenderly take us by the hand and restore us to full health in resurrection bodies that we might enjoy his kingdom, a kingdom under his perfect rule, a kingdom free from evil.

And so is the gospel really good news?

Is the kingdom at hand somewhere that I want to live?

Well, the evidence so far is of lives turned around, demons driven out, the sick restored.

And all of that through the words of Jesus, through the authority that he carries.

And the authority of Jesus' teaching just takes us on to the second big thing that we notice in our passage today.

And that is Jesus' unwavering priorities.

Jesus' unwavering priorities.

We're just in the last few verses here, verse 35 to 39.

You can sort of feel, if you look down at verse 37, the frustration in Simon's voice.

It's almost passive-aggressive as he eventually finds Jesus and he says, Everyone's looking for you.

And I get that.

The night before, you've got the entire city banging on the door, the sick are being healed, demons are being cast out.

And now by the next day, the word has spread further to surrounding towns and villages.

The roads into Galilee are probably rammed with people in need of healing, looking for Jesus.

If Jesus was here at Becket Keys this morning, imagine what Brentwood would be like.

Imagine what Wilson's corner would be like, the tailbags with all the traffic lights and everything everywhere, it'd be terrible.

But we'd be rounding up our relatives and just trying to get them down here anyhow we can.

We've got to help.

We've got to get help from him.

We need him.

He's our absolute best hope.

We've got to see Jesus.

And if we then found out that he'd slipped away, perhaps we'd be a bit confused, perhaps we're a bit annoyed.

If we discover that instead of doing the urgent business we want him to do, it turns out that he is often a desolate place praying.

That I think helps us to understand Jesus and who he is a little bit better, actually.

That just as his popularity is at its highest, he withdraws to pray, to seek guidance from his heavenly father, to pray, presumably, for his kingdom to come and his will to be done.

And then do you remember verse 15 when Jesus came from God with a message that he was proclaiming?

Or following that proclamation, we go to all these events that help us sort of feel the weight of human expectation and need that was pointed in Jesus' direction.

And all of this human need, it cries out to Jesus, doesn't it, for help and resolution and freedom.

What is Jesus going to do with that?

Will he spend his days proclaiming the gospel of verse 15?

Or will he spend his days as the miracle man, the healer of verse 26 and 31 and 34?

Well, we get a little bit of a clue in verse 38.

When he turns to Simon and he says, Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.

Now, Jesus knows the needs of those around him, but nonetheless, his priority is, he says, to preach the gospel.

And so important is his message that he is unwavering in prioritizing preaching the gospel in the nearby towns and villages, overstaying in Capernaum to heal the sick banging on the door.

Yes, that there were physical ailments that needed healing, but Jesus said, Come incredibly to do something greater.

You see, the natural situation of every one of us is actually this deep spiritual sickness that comes from our rejection of God, isn't it?

And the Bible calls it sin.

The end result is death.

And we might put death off through healthy living, through good medical care, maybe even the odd miracle.

But one day it will still catch up with each and every one of us.

And after that day, we'll stand before God's King and we will be asked to give an account of our lives.

But Jesus has come to deal with our desperate need for the forgiveness of sins.

We read that last week in verse 4.

Jesus has come to do something far greater, to provide real, deep, eternal, spiritual healing through his message of the forgiveness of sins.

See, yes, Jesus could have remained in Capernaum, healing the sick, casting out demons, and that would have been a great thing to have done.

But it would only have been a superficial healing.

It would only have left the deeper sickness unaddressed, like removing a tumor when the cancer is in the bloodstream.

Jesus feels the weight of human expectation and need, but he is too loving to leave us in our sin, facing judgment day alone.

Jesus has come to bring spiritual healing through his message of the forgiveness of sins, and he won't be distracted by it, despite the clamour and the adulation that would surely come his way as a miracle man.

That essentially is what he says to Simon.

Now, just to be clear that Jesus didn't turn his back on the miracles.

I mean, verse 39, straight after he says that, we see that he goes throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

See, these things seem to continue going together to some extent.

If you take a look at the headings of the page of the Bible in front of you, you'll see that next up, Jesus is going to cleanse a leper, then he's going to heal a paralytic.

Then chapter 3 is going to heal a man with a withered hand.

He's going to do these things.

But Jesus walking round on earth, healing people one by one, who would later go on to get sick and die anyway, wasn't the work that he came to do.

He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom.

He came to preach of repentance and belief in him.

That one day everyone who trusts in him might know forever healing, forever cleansing, forever liberty from the powers of evil.

And friends, we might, as Christian people, do well to apply that to our expectation of healing too.

We want to be free, I know we do, from cancer, from arthritis, from ADHD, from autism, from OCD, from long COVID, from chronic fatigue, from depression.

Of course, we want to be free from the sicknesses of a world broken by sin.

And we may or may not know that freedom in this life.

But what Jesus came to give us is a better than short-term solution.

There is a better healing that he grants through the gospel, that he grants to those who leave their old lives to follow him.

What Jesus prioritizes and wants us to know is that in his kingdom there will be no sickness and no evil.

With Christ, that will be the case forever, which is why we speak the gospel to the sick and the dying, don't we?

It is the gospel, it is in the gospel and in the forgiveness of sins that our deepest needs are met.

Our forever needs are met, where real hope is found.

And so we get a glimpse of the kingdom to come.

A kingdom under the authority of Jesus, a kingdom where Jesus uses his irresistible authority of his words to call people to himself, to defeat evil, to undo the sickness and suffering that sin brought into this world.

But if we recognize him as the king then, with that kind of authority, will we listen to him?

Or will we listen to Jesus?

Is the new king in town good news?

Well, hopefully we've been shown in Mark's Gospel so far that the answer is an emphatic yes.

That it's not just good news, but in seeing that glimpse of Christ's kingdom, there is no news that is better.

That would be fools to ignore Jesus, would be fools to ignore these paint swatches, these samplers of what is to come.

Maybe you're not a Christian here today, but you've seen in these first two weeks in Mark's Gospel how good life can and will be under Jesus' rule.

We'll hear these words again from verse 15 and turn to him.

Jesus says the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

And maybe you are a Christian this morning.

I think sometimes we read this passage, one of the main applications that's often preached is that we should become fishers of men, like Simon and Andrew, James and John.

And I think that is true.

That is a job for those who've become part of Jesus' kingdom.

But I do think if you step back and let the firework display put you in a sort of sense of amazement, a sense of wonder, a sense of awe at what you're seeing at this whole picture.

The impression actually ought to be, well, like the crowds may be in the synagogue, astonishment, amazement.

Jesus, my King, he commands such irresistible authority.

He uses that authority to destroy evil.

He uses that authority to bind up the broken.

He's given us a place in a forever kingdom where things will never break and there will never be any suffering because sins have been forgiven and evil will no longer corrupt.

And Jesus the King, as we see him, as we see his kingdom, we ought to be driven, I think, to love for Jesus.

Jesus, who in that lovely children's song that we know so well, is strong and kind.

The awesome King of a wonderful kingdom.

And so let me pray that for us.

We thank you for his irresistible authority.

We thank you that so many of us have known the call of his voice and have uh turned to follow him, living new lives that belong to him.

Thank you for the promise of his kingdom, of healing, of evil destroyed and defeated.

Father, I ask that you would help us to see him this morning, to hear his words and love them, to trust them, to listen to them.

I ask that you would help us find our hope in him.

I thank you that he is our perfect and forever King.

Amen.