He Is Good | Mark 1:21-34 | The Authority Of Jesus

Uh if I don't know you yet, my name is Colton.

I have the honor and privilege of being the pastor of this church.

Really grateful to be here today.

Thank you for joining us.

Um I'm going to, there's there's parts in my message where I heard this morning at like 8 30 that the AC may not be working.

And so I was going through my message trying to go like, I think I can nix that part and that.

So we're gonna I I want to give you the message, but at the same time, I don't want to keep you here all day.

But we are as a church going in a series uh through the gospel of Mark, and we've titled it He is Good because Mark titles his gospel, The Good News of Jesus.

And so basically walking through the gospel, saying a bunch of stuff about Jesus, talking about why he is good.

And so today is no different.

Uh in this passage in chapter 1, verses 21 through 34.

Um that's the teaching text for today.

So Mark 1, 21 through 34, and then we'll look at what Mark says about Jesus.

But this is what he writes.

He says, They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

And 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, Jesus said sternly.

Come out of him.

And 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, and 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, and so he went to her, took her by the hand, and helped her up.

The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.

That evening, after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and the demon-possessed.

The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.

He also drove out many demons, but he would not let them speak, because they knew who he was.

Let's say this together.

This is the word of the Lord.

The worst authority that's ever been over my life, that I've ever had, was a boss that I had in New York City when I moved there to work at a church.

I moved there to help plant a church in New York, worst authority in my entire life.

Before Rainey and I got there, they sold us on this whole thing.

They were like, you're gonna love it here.

They took us out to fancy dinners.

They showed us my office on 8th Avenue, which was like awesome.

And that was gonna be this, you know, it's gonna be great.

Um they paid for us to go to conferences, just they just sold us on.

They they sweetened us up and made it like you're gonna love it here.

It's gonna be the best thing ever.

And um, we had questions and we were asking things that sounded a little off, so we asked them questions about certain things about the preaching and about work days and work weeks and all these different things, and they really did their best to like skirt those questions and answer them a certain way to put us at ease.

But when we got there, like when we finally like we sold everything we literally owned and moved to New York and like had a house as big as the table you're sitting or an apartment as big as the table you're sitting at.

Like that's how I was very small.

And we get there, and as soon as we're in this space, uh, I was there for a week, and I came home and told Rainey, I was like, these people are nuts.

Like they're crazy.

And uh so I I get there, and one of the things that that happened was um my first sermon that I was going to preach, because I was gonna be there to like help plant and start a church on the upper west side that was a part of this church.

And uh they told me, like, hey, uh so glad you're here.

Um you won't write any of your sermons.

We'll write them for you, and you'll just read them to the congregation.

And I was like, What?

Like, how does that like how does that I was like, well, what if like what if the illustrations are different?

Like this, and they gave me one, I was like, this story is about your wife, not my wife.

And they were like, Yeah, just say it like it's your wife.

Like it's fine.

Just go.

I was like, Well, we don't have kids yet, and you do, and this is we I can't tell this story that way.

And they're like, Well, if you can't tell it, don't do another one, just leave it out.

Like, don't worry about it.

And every sermon was that way.

And I one time went off script and I was pulled into a closet that looked very similar to that by the uh founding pastor, and he ripped me a new one and cussed me up and down.

Just weeks after he he uh launched a book on not cussing, he he he showed me every cuss word that exists in the closet over there.

Cuss me up and down.

It was harsh.

We had friends there that could see through the little glass, and we're like, man, he was like visibly raging at you.

And I was like, yeah, I went off script.

I didn't read his notes.

Um what else happened when we were there?

Uh they put sp- I walked in when they put spyware on my desktop computer to watch what I was looking at.

Uh and I only assumed that they were doing that to try and catch me in something, which I wasn't looking at anything bad.

Um, but I walked in, I was like, what are y'all doing?

And they're like, uh, we're just we do this on all our computers.

And I was like, I don't, okay.

I was like, that's whatever.

But I had known like they were super sketchy, and so like three weeks before, I had bought my own personal laptop and I had been using that because I thought that like maybe they were already spying.

I don't trust authority in any capacity, really.

So I was already a little nervous about this.

Um, but it was awful.

I mean, it was just, I mean, there's so many, I could I could just walk through.

I was talking to Rainy about it.

I was like, I could walk through a list of things.

No weekends, no weekends off.

They were like, hey, you're new, you don't get any weekends off except Saturdays, but then they always planned something for us on Saturdays, so we never got to thank you.

It was just, it was rough.

It was awful.

Um, Sundays were from 6 a.m.

till 10 p.m.

because we did five services and had to be at every single one of them.

Rainy, we're we get we were pregnant during that time and like couldn't spend time with it.

Anyway, it was just awful.

During that time, under that authority, um, I got really depressed.

Um, I just really unhealthy and so many different things and the how I spent my money to try and like numb myself that what I ate, uh, just all kind of just super unhealthy under the authority.

Uh and then Rainey finally told us, like, hey, maybe we should leave.

And what triggered her to say that was one day I was coming home and I saw a bus.

I used to ride my bike in New York, and I saw a bus passing, and I had the thought, I was like, man, if I just threw myself in front of that bus, then I wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow.

And uh I told Rainey that, and she goes, I think it's time to go.

Like, I don't, I think when you're thinking of harming yourself by throwing yourself in front of a bus, maybe that's when you know the job's done.

We shouldn't do this anymore.

But I say all of that because to me, and I think it's true for everyone, whoever is in authority over your life has control over how your life goes.

And the choice you get is who you put in authority over your life, not if you have somebody in authority over your life.

We all are going to have somebody in authority over our lives, and we get to choose who that is.

And whoever we choose to place ourselves under will control and dictate the way that our life goes.

And Mark is making the point in this text that Jesus is the authority and the only authority that we should put over our lives.

He's not the only authority in general, but he's saying he is the only safe authority to actually put over your lives, even above yourself.

You can be your own authority, but he's saying he's even better than you.

And so he's the authority you need over your lives.

So, what I want to do quickly is look at three things that Mark says about Jesus' authority.

The first, uh Mark says that Jesus' words have authoritative power.

Jesus' words have authoritative power.

When you read this text, they never say that Jesus is an authority.

They're talking about him, about authority a lot, but they never say like he's an authority.

They don't point to him directly.

They're always talking about his words.

There's something about his words that they have power to do things that they're like, I don't know what it is, but whoever that man is, and we're not completely sure because this is the first time we've really heard him speak or teach, whoever he is, his words have some weird, powerful authority.

And so for them it says they were amazed at his teaching.

And it's not like, oh, your teaching's so amazing.

It wasn't that.

Amazed carries with it the idea of to strike or to smite.

And so it's like his words are striking us, his words are smiting us.

There's something happening that they're feeling internally when he speaks and as he teaches.

It's like there's something about the way that he teaches that I feel internally.

So it's it's the idea that Mark is giving us of remember back at Mount Sinai when God speaks to the people from the mountain and they're shaking internally and everything, they're they're scared and they're freaking out, and they're like, Moses, you talk to that God.

We're terrified.

It's similar to that.

As Jesus speaks, his words are striking them and it's doing something to them internally.

It's actually moving something along.

But then they notice not only that, but they notice that when Jesus says something, that his word actually causes things to happen.

He speaks things into being.

And so he says to the demon and the demon-possessed man, come out of him, and the demon has no other option but to do that thing.

And so he says, come out, it comes out.

He says leave and it leaves.

And so they notice that his word is powerful and authoritative, but it has the power to generate a cause and to make things happen.

And so again, Mark is driving back to Genesis, where God says, Let there be light, and then there was light.

To go to, let there be a sky and then there was sky, let there be seed-bearing plants, and there was seed-bearing plants.

Let the demon come out of him and the demon comes out.

He's just trying to drive at something to help us to see that his words aren't normal words.

They have authoritative power to do stuff, and people are taking notice of the fact that his words actually are doing things.

He's not just saying stuff and people go, that's really interesting.

Talk.

Your words are shifting the very world that we live in.

It's doing something in me, it's doing something out there.

And I think we see this throughout the Gospels where Jesus' words actually do something.

And so things that normally have zero power in them, things that people do that there's never any miraculous power in them.

When Jesus says to do those things, all of a sudden miraculous power like almost accidentally starts breaking out.

And so, for instance, John 2, with the water being turned into wine, Jesus tells the servants, just fill the jars with water and serve it to the host of the banquet.

Just do that thing.

And the truth is, people have filled those jars with water and served cups to people at banquets all the time, but it's never turned water into wine until now.

And the reason is because now Jesus has said to do it by his own accord.

He has his thoughts on what he wants to happen.

And so all you have to do is put his word into practice to begin experiencing the power that he wants to actually see break out.

Peter catching fish says Jesus says to him, Let down your nets in the deep water to catch some fish.

And Peter says, notice what he says.

We've been fishing all day.

Like we've been doing this all the time.

There's no power in this.

There's no power in catching fish.

We've been doing this all the time.

But then notice he says, But because you said it, because you said it, I will do it, and they end up catching so many fish that their boat almost begins to sink.

They've been fishing all day, and nothing's been happening, nothing's been taking place.

And then all of a sudden Jesus says, Why don't you fish this way?

And he fishes that way and then experiences that power.

Peter walks on water, not because Peter knows how to walk on water.

Peter walks on water because Jesus says, Come to me on the water.

And it creates the space.

And as Peter does it, Jesus' words are allowing that power to take shape in Peter's life as he takes every single step.

John 9, the man born blind, Jesus says, Go wash in the bathtub, basically, the pool of Saloon, and you'll be healed.

And so he goes and he goes to the bath, he goes to the pool of Saloon, and then all of a sudden he washes and he's healed.

And the crazy thing is, is like there's probably dozens of people in the bath.

Like it's an actual bathtub.

Like this people go there to bathe and to do this stuff.

And one man steps out healed, and everybody else just goes in and gets, you know, relatively clean.

I mean, a bath is basically sitting in your own filth, which is disgusting.

But like, but one person steps out with a very different experience, and the only reason he steps out with that experience is because Jesus has said, go do this thing.

He goes and does it and puts the powerful word of Jesus into his life.

And then all of a sudden he experiences that power breaking out in his life, and it heals his eyes.

And the best to me is Luke 17, where Jesus talks to the ten lepers.

It says, as Jesus was going into the village, ten men who had leprosy met him and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.

And when he saw them, he said, Go show yourselves to the priest, and you'll be cleansed, is the idea.

And it says, As they went, as they did the thing he said to do, as they put his word into their lives and just did the simple thing that they said to do, they were cleansed.

The healing and the miracle and all the stuff didn't happen because Jesus snapped his fingers.

He spoke what to do.

They took his powerful word, shoved it into their lives, and then all of a sudden they're seeing his power actually into his lives.

And what you're seeing in this space is that something happens consistently, something is happening that normally doesn't happen, but it's happening because Jesus told them something to do.

He spoke the powerful word, they took the word and just implanted it into their lives.

And what changed is only the thing, the only thing that changed is that he said to do it.

And the people experience his power.

And to me, and I think to Jesus, this is why Jesus constantly tells us to put his word into our lives.

He's not constantly saying to us, like and beating the drum of like, I just want you to be obedient to me.

Like I matter, listen to me.

Like that's not what he's saying.

He's not like, just obey me, robot.

Like, just do the thing.

He's not, he doesn't give us commands just simply to change and modify our behavior.

He's going, my words have ridiculous power.

And I and when you take that power and you take my word and you shove it into your life, all of a sudden your life begins taking the shape of the power that I actually have.

I've bundled power inside my words.

And so when you take the commands and you take the demands and you take the things that I say to do, and you take all that stuff that has power out there and you take it and you shove it into your life, it moves things, it changes things, it causes things.

And so consistently, what he's trying to get us to do is not just obey me.

He's like, I want you to experience my power, and if you don't do what I say, I'm not gonna be like, well, I'm really mad at you, so I'm gonna crush you with my hand.

It's not that.

Actually, what's gonna happen is worse.

You're gonna experience nothing.

Like you just experience nothing that I have for you.

I've bundled my power in my word, put it into your life.

He's wanting us to experience what happens when his authoritative power of his word is actually inside of us and what it changes and what it does.

Uh, Cory Tinboom is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, and she writes uh this awesome story that I shared at one point with our men and our men's group about her experience taking Jesus' word and like shoving it into her life and then seeing what it does.

This is what she says.

It's a rather long story, but bear with me.

It's a wonderful, wonderful story.

She says, uh, it was in the in a church in Munich that I saw him.

People were f filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken.

It was 1947, and I had come from Holland to the defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

It was the truth that they most needed to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture.

When we confess our sins, God cast them into the deepest ocean and they're gone forever.

She said the solemn German faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe it.

There were never questions after a talk.

People stood up in silence and then silence left the room.

But that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others.

One moment I saw the overcoat, then the brown hat, the next a blue uniform, and then a visored cap with those skull and crossbones on them.

It came back with a rush.

The huge room with harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man.

I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin.

Betsy and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

This man had been a guard at Ravensbrook concentration camp where we were sent.

Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out.

A fine message, Freulein.

How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea.

And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand.

He would not remember me, of course.

He could not, how could he remember one prisoner among thousands of women?

But I remembered him and that leather crop that's swinging from his belt.

It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors, and my blood seemed to freeze.

You mentioned in Ravensbrook in your talk, he was saying, I was a guard in there.

No, he did not remember me.

But since that time, I've become a Christian.

I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there.

But I would like to hear it from your lips as well.

Freulein, again the hand came out.

Will you forgive me?

And I stood there.

I, whose sins had every day been forgiven and could not.

Betsy had died in that place.

Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply by asking?

It could not have been many seconds that we stood there, hand held out.

But to me it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I ever had to do.

For I had to do it, I knew that.

The message that God forgives has a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us.

If we do not forgive men their trespasses, Jesus says, Neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience.

Since the end of the war, I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.

Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars.

But those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids.

It was as simple and as horrible as that.

And I stood, I still, and still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.

But forgiveness is not an emotion, and I knew that.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

Jesus, help me.

I prayed silently.

I can lift my hand.

I can do that much.

You supply the feeling.

And so, willingly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me.

And as I did, an incredible thing took place.

The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arms, sprang into our joined hands, and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

I forgive you, brother, I cried with all my heart.

And for a long moment we grasped each other's hands, and the former guard and the former prisoner.

I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

And I love that story.

One, because I mean, how impossible when I think it's impossible to forgive somebody, like the people in New York who were cruel to me and like what she walked through.

But she experienced power bundled up in the words, forgive those who have injured you, forgive, love your enemies, forgive those who have trespassed against you.

She experienced the power that was actually baked into those words.

When she did them, she experienced the power breaking into those things.

And I think for us, when we take his word, regardless of whether it makes sense or not, and goes like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this into my life.

Like I what is this going to do?

I don't know what it's gonna do.

But if there's power in it, and it's out there for you if you want it.

And so, but when you take the powerful word and you shove it into your life, you actually begin experiencing that power for yourself.

We have to stop seeing God's word as something we have to do, that he's just asking us to do.

Like, just do, I just need to do this to be good.

We're missing the point when we do that.

There's something he has for you, there's power for you to live by that he has for you.

And when we take his powerful, authoritative word that everybody in this is testifying to, it's true, it's real.

When we take that and we shove it into our hands and our feet and our eyes and our mouths and our how we talk and how we think and our hearts and how we believe, when we take it in there, we experience power in those spaces that we would wouldn't experience otherwise.

He has something for us.

For the servants, it was more wine, for the blind man it was seen, for the lepers it was healing, and for Corey Tinboom, it was this rush of healing that took place in forgiving this person.

And for you, putting his word into your life allows you to experience the power he has for you.

So we need to place ourselves under the authority of his word, not seeing his word as advice.

That's like, oh, that's take it or leave it, but it's authoritative and it has power to do something.

It is something that he demands, and we should do it because of that, but it's something that he demands for our good.

Place yourself under the authority of his word.

Secondly, Mark shows us the characteristics of Jesus' authority.

The characteristics of Jesus' authority.

What Mark is doing in this whole text is he's juxtaposing the kingdom of Jesus and his authority, and the kingdom of Satan and his authority, and then the characteristics that fall out in those things.

So if you want to know what Jesus' kingdom and what it's like being under his authority, Mark is showing us like it looks like this.

If you want to know what it looks like to be under the authority and kingdom of Satan, it looks like this.

And so, for instance, next slide here, the demon has trapped and enslaved this man, and Jesus sets this man free and brings him peace.

That's verse 23 through 26.

And then the demon shakes this man violently when he's coming out of him.

Luke says that when he comes out of him, tells the same story, throws the man on the ground.

But, and the next bit here, Jesus, when he goes to Peter's mother in law, takes her tenderly by the hand and actually lifts her up.

It's completely different.

Thing that you're seeing there.

It's the exact opposite.

One man is shaking people violently and throwing them to ground.

The other man is tenderly taking them by the hand and lifting them up.

Satan has ravaged the town of Capernaum with sickness and enslaved people.

And Jesus takes all night and doesn't just do like a all demons be gone.

Doesn't do that.

All disease see you.

Like doesn't do it, like there's no sweep, swooping motions.

It's like one by one, taking them one by one, meeting every single person, looking them in the eyes, tell me your story, tell me what's going on, what has ravaged you, what has he done to you, and let me fix it.

Every single person.

So Jesus takes all night and heals the sick and the demon-possessed and brings restoration to all the pain and all the brokenness.

And Mark is showing us that every place where Jesus' authority begins to expand and to touch, any space that Jesus' authority touches begins to thrive better than it was doing before.

And so in this giant town of Capernaum or whatever, and it's all riddled and basically run by the kingdom of Satan, Jesus begins taking steps forward and his kingdom begins advancing.

And every space that you see that, you see more restoration and more healing, and his kingdom advancing in those spaces.

And his characteristics of Jesus' kingdom, they look like this.

They look like freedom.

They look like peace, they look like love, restoration, unity, joy, life.

But the characteristics of Satan's kingdom look like slavery, fear, pain, conflict, hate, division, and chaos.

And so the question that's presented, or the implication of the question that's presented here to us, is who's in authority over your life?

Which kingdom looks more like your life?

Which characteristics define more of your life?

And so if Jesus' authority looks like freedom and peace and love and restoration, unity, joy, life, and Satan's kingdom looks like slavery, fear, pain, conflict, hate, division, and chaos, which kingdom is ruling your marriage?

If one, if, if one, if it looks like this on this side and it looks like this side, which one defines your marriage?

Which one defines your dating relationships or your relationships with your friends?

Which kingdom and which authority defines your anger, your emotions?

Which kingdom defines your thought life?

Which kingdom defines and has characteristics that define your body and how you think of your body, how you use your body?

Which kingdom is ruling your money?

And you can tell just by looking at the ones and going, like, oh yeah, with my money, I'm experiencing a lot of freedom and peace and unity.

And my wife and I are just completely unified on how I spend it, and it's great.

Or is there division and conflict over your money?

Pain, fear.

Are you enslaved to it?

How you use your time, your ambitions, which ambition isn't necessarily a bad thing, but selfish ambition is.

Your desires with those who've wronged you, with your job, your education, your substances, and the whatever those substances are for you.

Which one rules over those areas of your life?

And not just looking like, oh, pretty much the defining thing of my entire life, but like individually, in these small relationships, in this relationship, and in this pocket here, which kingdom rules those things?

Which one, which characteristics more define that particular spot in your life?

Is it this one or is it this one?

And the point is to look at that and go, like, oh, now I can tell.

Now I know I'm under the authority of someone, and I have to be.

I don't get a choice to that I'm under authority.

But I do get to choose who's in authority.

And so if spaces in your life are experiencing hate and pain and bitterness and uh division and all those things, you can tell, oh, that's a space ruled by the enemy.

That's not Jesus.

And so you have a space to look at it and go, okay, I need to give that.

I need to shift that to a different category.

I want to experience something completely different.

I don't want those characteristics defining those parts of my life.

And maybe you sit there and be like, well, that's just the way life is.

And I hear that all the time.

That's just the way life is.

Like, I'm just going to experience life this way.

I'm just, my life is filled with division in that relationship.

My life is filled with irreconcilable differences here and that relationship.

It's like, Jesus will never call you to demonic oppression, which is what that is.

Like he'll never do that.

He'll call you to persecution, he'll call you to experience suffering and dealing with hardships.

Demonic oppression is something he drives out consistently because he hates it.

And so if you're like, I'm just in a season of division with my wife, that is not because Jesus has put you there.

That is because you are actively living under the authority of a kingdom whose characteristic is division and disunity and conflict and pain.

And so don't blame it on Jesus.

We allow those things to come in.

We choose that stuff.

He doesn't pull us into that.

He wants to drive that stuff out of us.

And so we have this space to look at this is what Jesus' authority looks like.

These are the characteristics.

And so if you're not experiencing these wonderful characteristics in the areas of your life where you want them, all you uh what the call is to make him the authority over those things.

Begin doing things the way that he says and stop doing the way that you're doing them, because the way that you're doing them is creating these areas of conflict.

His desire to be your authority is not a power grab.

He's just trying to save you from the things that you actually want to avoid, anyways, that eventually we grow used to.

I'm just used to this conflict.

I've always been at odds with them.

I've always had this hard relationship with them.

I've always had this type of pain in our dynamic.

I've always like always is a terrible word in those things.

Like you can, you know, you don't always have to stay there.

Like he wants to drive those things out.

And Mark is saying, like, all you have to do is shift authorities, shift allegiances.

And maybe you're like, oh, I've done that with my entire life.

Great.

But there might be a pocket of your life that you haven't.

Jesus, you can have everything, just not this.

That space ruled by Satan will crumble and die and bring destruction in your life.

And so the idea is like to take it and go.

But I'm going to give this one to him too.

Just like Corey Tinboom, I can sit there and hold on to forgiveness, under unforgiveness.

And I can live as an invalid, unable to move on.

Or I can just allow Jesus to rule and reign over my enemies and the pain that I feel, all the different things, the bitterness, and I can allow him to do it, and I can do things his way.

And then I can experience his life breaking in.

This is what he wants for us.

But if we were choose to reject Jesus' authority in our lives, those are the characteristics that will define different aspects of our lives.

And Jesus is saying, I'm not trying to grab power from you.

Although, I mean he is, but that's not the point.

He's like, I'm actually trying to free you.

I'm trying to do something good for you.

And so where are you not experiencing the characteristics of Jesus' authority in your life?

Where in your life do you want those things and you're not experiencing them?

And then just align your life to those things.

Fall under his authority.

Last thing.

Mark is showing us what Jesus will do with his authority.

Super important what somebody does with their authority.

You don't know that thing that people say is like that's the smallest amount of power ever to go to someone's head?

Y'all know that?

Yes?

Okay, cool.

One person.

That's awesome.

It's great.

Smallest amount of power to ever go to someone's head.

Sometimes you give somebody power and it's like, wow, you're a crazy person.

Like I should never have given you any kind of authority in any capacity whatsoever.

You're an actual nut.

Okay.

Sometimes we do this with Teddy and we give him some authority, and then it's like, he's like, I am king.

And it's like, well, you're still eight.

But we do that, you know, we Rainer and I were at the zoo one time, and a lady checking us in like just was wearing the badge of like check-in lady at the zoo, and she took it to the nth degree of like, I will let no one in who is a tyrant.

And so I came in and I didn't have my ID, and she basically wanted to arrest me, but couldn't, because she didn't have that authority.

But she wanted to put me in zoo jail.

She was really upset that I didn't have my ID, and she was not gonna let me in until someone I know at the zoo came in and got me in.

But like the smallest amount of power.

What people do with their authority is my point.

What people do with their authority is very important.

And Mark is saying, Jesus, what he seeks to do with his authority is actually to serve us.

And so the man in the synagogue is under the authority of the demon.

He's under an authority, under the authority of the demon.

Peter's mother-in-law is under the authority of the fever.

The whole town is under the authority of disease and demonic oppression.

They're under authority of those things.

And what Jesus does with his authority is he uses his greater authority to set them free from the things that have authority over them.

He takes his greater authority and the things that are defeating us, he takes his greater authority and he's like, I will free you from the things that are overpowering you, because the things that overpower you have no power over me.

And so he just moves into this space.

You actually see that take shape.

There's this point in here where the demon tries to use some type of language to get Jesus under his authority.

And so he goes to the next slide here.

He cries out, he goes, I know who you are, holy one of God, Jesus of Nazareth.

What he's trying to do is it was it was known back then that, like, if you can know the name of a spirit person, you can gain control over them.

That's what the demon's trying to do.

And Jesus basically is like, shut up, get out.

Like it doesn't even work at all.

There's nothing that helps in that capacity.

It doesn't work.

The demon can't get authority.

He can get the authority over the man.

He can't get authority over Jesus.

And so Jesus is powerful and more powerful than the things that overpower us.

And so he uses his authority ultimately to cast the demon out.

And so for us, Mark is showing us that Jesus is able to set us free from the things that have authority over us.

Jesus has power over the things that overpower us.

And so the question that's implied is what has power over you right now?

Where are you stuck?

Where are you in a space where you're like, I just can't seem to move on past this thing?

I'm at my wit's end and I don't know, I don't know how to do this in my marriage.

I don't know how to do this with my kids anymore.

I don't know what to do anymore with my job.

I don't know what to do anymore in this space.

I don't know what to do anymore with my thought life, my sin life, my relationships, my lack of a relationship.

I don't know what to do.

Those things are ruling you.

Those things are more powerful than you, but they're not more powerful than him.

He is more powerful than the things that are overpowering us.

And so the question that's presented to us is what are those things for us?

And then the encouragement is bring those things to him.

The whole town, the whole town lines up at the door.

I don't know how many people that is, but that's a lot of folks.

The whole town go to Jesus' door or Simon Peter's door.

Because they realize, like, you have more power than the things that are overpowering me.

And so they go to him and they bring those things to him, just like they just find people in the street that are like, oh, you seem to be overpowered by something.

They snag him, they walk him to Jesus, who's like, you got more power than this.

And it's like, mm-hmm, I got more power than that.

And he drives those things out.

And so for us in our space, what are the things that are overpowering you in your relationships, in your life right now?

And the idea is, man, bring those things to him the way the town did.

This is what Mark is trying to show us.

Everyone has someone in authority.

Someone or something rules your life.

Someone or something has authority over your life.

And the authority over your life has the ability to dictate and determine and control how your life goes.

And Mark is seeking to make the point.

Make Jesus the authority.

Make his word the authority.

Because he's good and he uses his authority for good in your life.

And so if you find yourself under the authority of someplace else, it's like, great, that's fine.

Just move over here.

Allow him to be your authority.

Don't run from it.

And so for us as a church, I would encourage you to read the scriptures.

Come under the authority of God's word.

Come under the authority of Jesus' word so that you experience the power that he has for you.

He has bundled it into his words and he has it for you.

Bring the areas of your life that are under the authority of other things, that you're experiencing wherever you're experiencing the characteristics of an alternative kingdom, bring those spaces under the authority of Jesus so you experience his life.

And then bring him the things that are just too strong for you so that you can experience the one who's actually stronger than the things that are too strong for you.

So I want to finish today by practicing a prayer together.

So if you could, it's a get to, not a have to, which means that you don't, I'm not forcing you to do it.

And I'm not like staring the room wondering, but it's a get-to, I'm offering this to you.

But if you could, uh, close your eyes and just find a comfortable position in your chair.

Maybe put the things down that are in your hands.

And I just want you to think and consider.

What is it in your life that is overpowering you right now?

What is too strong for you to deal with?

I encourage you to maybe cup your hands in front of you.

Again, if you get to you, not have to.

But just act like whatever that thing is.

The thing that's too powerful for you.

The thing that's too strong for you.

A thing that you know you need to deal with, but you're just not sure how to deal with it anymore.

Cup that in your hand.

And I just want to give you some time to offer that thing to him.

That is what these people do.

They find something in their hands and they just bring it to the man who's powerful enough to do something about it.

The scriptures say, cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

And so I just want to give you some time in silence.

Just to cup that thing in your hand and just give that thing to him.

And you can just say, like, I'm just giving you authority over this.

I don't know how to do it.

I'm tired of worried about it.

But just in your own words, in silence, just take some time and give that thing to him.

And then I want to read this passage over you.

That evening after sunset, the whole town gathered at the door.

And the people brought to Jesus all the sick and all the demon-possessed.

And Jesus healed those who had various diseases.

And he drove out many demons without letting them say another word.

Jesus, you are the only safe authority.

You're the only safe person to make our king.

You're the only one who won't take the authority and use it for your good, but you gave it up for us.

So Father, I pray that we would make you our authority.

That we would see you as good.

That you want to use everything you got and you want to bend it towards our good and our flourishing.

So Father, I pray that that would be just a new day breaking into the lives of the people in our church.

That tomorrow would be the beginning of shifting from the characteristics of a demonic kingdom to the kingdom of the beloved Son who we've been called into.

We can experience this beautiful stuff, not because we've done anything good or righteous, but because we're just simply invited.

God, would you overpower the things that have power over us?

Would you shift what we can't move?

Would you change what we can't change?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

One of the ways that we know that Jesus will do well with his authority and he will use it for our good is communion.

Because there was a space where he's hanging on the cross and he has all the authority and all the power to call down a legion of angels to come and rip him off the cross and crush Rome and everybody else.

I can show you everything that I actually have power to do.

And he chooses to set aside his authority and set aside his power and just hang there so that we can actually experience life.

So that he could actually remove the thing from us that has authority over us, which is our sin.

We're enslaved and held captive to our sin.

And so instead of using his authority for what he could use it for, he sets it aside so that we could actually be set free from the thing that's actually holding us down.

It's a beautiful thing, and communion is this space we get to be reminded of that.

His body held there on the cross, setting aside his authority, his blood poured out when he could have kept it all in his body for himself, but yet he pours it out so that we could be washed clean.

A beautiful, beautiful thing.

And he's just a great king.

And so make him your king.

He is wonderful.

Make him your king again today.

Remind yourself like it's not just a one-time thing.

It's like, oh yeah, this space, I've taken authority back in that space in my life.

But I don't need to do that anymore.

I want to give that back to you because honestly, I can't crush it like you do.

And so give it to him.

And so take some time in your seats and then come receive the elements of communion and then go back to your seat, and then we will commune together by taking a liturgy.

If you help set up communion, please come and serve with us.

But come as you feel led.