Amazed at the Power of Jesus

Jesus speaks and the room becomes silent or amazed.

Verse twenty-one to twenty-two.

They went to Capernaum and right away they entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and they began to teach.

And he began to teach.

They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not like the scribes.

They go to a Capernaum and right away, what's the first thing that Jesus does is they go to the synagogue and he begins teaching.

He begins teaching.

And this is on the Sabbath, as the text tells us.

And he spares no time.

And that's to teach and to preach.

And in verse 21, it's amazing because in the Greek here, in these verses, verses 21 and 22, we see this strong sense of reaction to what's happening.

With the phrases, they were astonished.

And why were they astonished?

Well, because he was teaching them as one who had authority.

Mark wants us to feel and experience the weight of what's going on here.

They were amazed because he taught as one who had authority.

Not like the scribes.

Wasn't because he was loud, wasn't because he was obnoxious, but because he taught as one who had authority.

You see, the the scribes were incredible scholars.

They knew their law of Moses.

They knew the writings, they knew the prophets.

And when scribes would teach, they would mainly interact with the traditional teachings and they relied heavily on commentaries.

But what sets Jesus apart was that Jesus doesn't need a commentary.

And as God, we know He's the one who breathes out the Word of God.

He is the ultimate authority.

He's the one who holds all creation together, as Colossians 1 tells us.

And you know, this is a great moment in the Gospel of Mark for us to consider.

When we encounter the teachings of Jesus, are we amazed?

Are we listening?

You know, we're going to encounter some of the most amazing, astonishing teachings from the most amazing, astonishing teacher who ever lived.

And it's amazing.

Are we listening?

Not only were they amazed at his teaching, but they're also amazed at his authority over the demons.

Amazed at his authority over the demons.

So we see this verses, sorry, in verse 23, it says, Then, just then, as uh just then a man, so he's teaching, they're amazed, and then there's this interruption.

Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue.

He cried out, What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the holy one of God.

You know, his teaching has this abrupt interruption.

You know, things sometimes can be distracting when you're teaching.

Microphones sometimes don't work.

Sometimes when you're preaching, things can be distracting.

I remember years ago we were in a camp meeting at camp, and there was like probably 120 kids there.

It was a full week of camp, and our camp speaker was preaching the gospel.

So this was giving the gospel, giving the gospel invitation, and right at the moment where he's like, and Jesus came to die for your sins, blah, one of the kids in like the fourth row blows vomit everywhere.

And it was interesting to watch because you know, we had trained our counselors, like, this is what you do in these situations.

Um, and so there's people in front of him, vomit on the floor.

You just start to see the counselor shuffle and clean up, get the kid out.

And uh later afterwards, some of the kids were like, What happened?

I just started to smell something really bad.

They had no idea what had happened.

But sometimes there can be these interruptions, and Jesus experiences this interruption, and this interaction that he has with this man is so powerful.

Verse 24, what do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

He says, Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the holy one of God.

You know, verse 24 reminds me of James 2.19.

You believe that God is one, you do well.

You know, even the demons believe, and they shudder.

You know, demons are great theologians.

Satan is a great theologian.

He knows more than probably all of us combined in this room know about God and how he works.

You can believe that there's a God and know things about God, but be completely godless.

And this demon recognizes this is Jesus of Nazareth.

He calls him the Holy One of God.

Some have suggested that what he's doing here is something they would do is when you would say somebody's name, it almost gave you authority over that person.

So it's so perhaps what's happening here is this these demons are trying to gain that kind of authority over Jesus, but Jesus doesn't have it.

The demons were afraid of him.

They certainly knew who he was, and it scared them.

And what does Jesus respond with in verse 23?

Or sorry, in verse 2025, Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.

You know, this was no illusion, this was no party trick.

Jesus didn't need anyone else's help.

He spoke and the demon obeyed.

The same voice that spoke the world and cosmos into existence.

Here he puts an end to this demonic torment of this man with these five words in the Greek that render in the English for us, be silent and come out of him.

Never had the people seen such teaching with such authority.

Never had they seen such authority over a demoniac.

And so, how do they respond?

Verse 27.

Can't get any better than this.

They were all amazed.

And so they began to ask one another, what is this?

A new teacher teaching with authority?

And at once the news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.

Again, we see this phrase we talked about last week, this at once or this immediately phrase at the beginning of verse 28.

This triggers a reaction and change.

And what begins to happen is from this point on, this news of Jesus spreads.

And then we move from this scene now into seeing the amazement at the power of Jesus' healings, beginning in verse 29.

Amazed at Jesus' words, he speaks with authority, but he speaks and demons are cast out.

But here, amazed at the power of Jesus' healing, starting in verse 29.

Verse 29, as soon as they left the synagogue, they went to Simon and Andrew's house with James and John.

Again, that word in the Greek for immediately is used.

So again, showing us a shift here.

As soon, immediately, they left the synagogue, they went to Simon and Andrew's house and James and John.

And you would, um, even today, I know some of us have been there, but you can go to the place in Capernaum where they believe was Peter's house where they went, and even the synagogue that perhaps was a synagogue that Jesus taught in.

But as with the customs of the day, the main Sabbath meal would come right after the worship service around noon or at 12 o'clock.

And all those who would be joining them for this meal, so they're they're going to Simon's house and Andrew's house to have this meal.

And just think about it.

Everyone who would have been present would have been there in the church service or in the synagogue service.

They would have seen this amazing, these amazing things happen before their eyes.

They've already been primed.

They've seen how amazing Jesus is.

And here, as we get into this section, we see Jesus perform another miracle, but this time he does it in private, starting in verse 30.

Simon's mother-in-law, this is how we, one of the reasons why we know Simon or Peter was married, because he has a mother-in-law.

Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

And so he went to her, Jesus does, took her by the hand, raised her up, the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

You know, it's noted that for ancient Israel, a fever was not considered a symptom, but it was considered an actual illness.

And they would even understand Leviticus 26, 16, and Deuteronomy 28, 22, where the law talks about fevers, they would see those verses as teaching that fevers were a possible punishment of God to those who violated the covenant.

That's how they would sometimes interpret some of these laws of God.

And they they did with this fever, perhaps.

And their custom also taught that only God could intervene in such a case because it was his divine judgment.

Listen, God the Son intervenes.

He doesn't just speak words as he could have, because he's the one with all authority, and he proved that already.

What does he do?

He takes her by the hand.

He takes her by the hand.

It was ceremonially unclean for an Israelite to do so.

They may incur the same judgment on themselves if they did as the afflicted.

But Jesus takes her by the hand.

He enters into her world, into her pain.

He identifies himself with her, and he helped her up, and the fever left her.

And what does she do?

She starts serving.

That's what you do when Jesus changes your life, right?

You serve.

You serve others as he did.

You serve him as our king, the ultimate authority.

You see, Jesus would not come just to fix the broken bodies of the world, but he was there for so much more to fix the broken, sinful hearts, to step into our pain, reach out, take us by the hand.

And what happens next?

Verses 22 to 33, or 30, 32 to 33.

When evening came as the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed.

The whole town, the whole town assembled at the door.

And he healed many people who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons, but he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

The whole town gathers at the door.

James Hamilton Jr., in his book God's Glory and Salvation Through Judgment, notes that in these actions that Jesus takes here, he overturns the condemnation of sin and reverses its sentence.

This is salvation through judgment, judgment on the judgment itself.

That Jesus would step into our world and reverse the condemnation of sin in the world.

And so the whole town gathers.

They were amazed.

Why else would you gather?

And they gathered at the door.

And this doesn't necessarily mean the whole uh the whole actual population.

The population of the town at the time, likely between a thousand and fifteen hundred people.

I mean, perhaps there were 1,500 people gathered at the door.

But you you you you might be familiar with this.

Some of us grew up in small towns, right?

And we know when you grow up in a small town, news travels fast.

Kind of like in a church sometimes.

You know, you trip at the grocery store, then it becomes tomorrow's front page news of the paper.

Small towns are notorious for everybody knowing everyone and everyone getting into each other's business.

I guess not much has changed.

The whole town gathers.

The word has spread.

And what Mark wants us to see is that this was a large crowd.

It was a large crowd.

As if the whole town was there.

And Jesus, what does he do?

He continues to serve, continues to heal.

And this is an amazing start, if you think about it.

Amazing start to the ministry of Jesus as Mark is proclaiming it.

As we're amazed at the power of his speaking to heal.

And in healing, we see his compassion, which we're going to talk more about next week.

We see this compassion that will continue to define his ministry and continues to define his care for us right now.

And this last line of verse 34 about the demons is golden.

Look at this.

And he did not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

Nope, you're not talking.

They needed to be granted permission, and they weren't granted permission.

You see, Jesus was going to declare who he was.

He was going to finish the narrative that had begun with the promise of God to send the Redeemer, not the demons.

They weren't allowed to open their mouths and wag their tongues about who he was.

That's what Jesus is there to do.

And then we see in our final point here, they were amazed at the priorities of Jesus.

Amazed at the priorities of Jesus.

We see this in verses 35 to 37.

Just picture this scene again.

Remember, this is all within a 24-hour period.

He's probably up late into the night, healing, casting out demons, goes to bed, and then in verse 34 or 35 it says this very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place.

And there he was praying.

Being God, he wakes up early in the morning, gets alone, and prays.

Likely up all hours of the night, but he gets alone with God still and he prays.

It was so early, it was still dark outside.

He got alone with God and he prayed.

The events up to this point have been rapid.

They've been emotionally, spiritually, physically exhausting.

And instead of hitting the snooze button and getting even more much-needed shut eye, Jesus gets up, gets alone, and he prays.

You know, even Jesus needed alone time to talk to the Father.

And he made time for it.

You know, what would happen if we made this kind of time to pray?

If all of us did.

You know what I think would happen?

I think there would be less anxiety as prayer focuses our attention on God and his sovereign care, Philippians 4.

I think maybe there would be more confession of sin.

Psalm 51.

There would be deeper spiritual growth, Colossians 1, 9 to 14.

And there would be more opportunities to share the gospel, Colossians 4, 3.

What if we got up early and prayed like Jesus did?

And Jesus' priority in the midst of so many needs and so many people scrambling for his attention was to slow down, pause, and pray.

And we see him do this two other times in Mark 6 and Mark 14.

And when he does this in Mark 6 and 14, it always comes right before a significant crisis or event.

And then we see verse 36 after this.

So he goes and he prays, What happened?

Simon and his companions searched for him.

They searched for Jesus.

And when they found him, they said, Everyone is looking for you.

You know the phrase here, search for him in the structure has this idea of hostility or frustration and eager concern, even disgruntledness.

They were upset that they couldn't find Jesus.

They were annoyed at him.

And some believes that, uh some believe that this phrase also carries with it more the meaning of hunting.

They're hunting Jesus down.

You see, the disciples here assumed, and the people were demanding that things would stay like that.

That they would have their healer.

They wanted their amazing physical healer back.

They wanted him for what he did for their temporal life.

I think if we were there, it probably would be us two.

We struggle because we see the temporal and we live as if this is it.

We get our noses bent out of shape about things, let alone last for eternity.

They're not even gonna last into next week.

But Jesus had other priorities.

His priority was prayer.

And then here in verse 38, where does he say, You're right, I'm sorry.

Let me go back, let everybody know I'm okay.

No, he turns to them and said, Okay, let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there, because this is why I've come.

Probably not the answer they're looking for.

They accuse him, right?

Everyone's looking for you.

Where have you been?

All right, it's time to go.

More ministry to be had, more preaching in particular to be done.

Jesus was unquestionably focused on the mission he had come for, to preach the good news of God.

The power and authority of Jesus' words would be on full display as he preaches the gospel of God in total fulfillment of his mission.

The healings were not a waste of time, but they were not the point.

This is the point.

The preaching of the gospel.

Church, listen, this is the point.

The preaching of the gospel.

The healings only authenticated the power.

And the glory of the message.

But the message of the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ would be the real power.

And this was his real purpose.

He started his ministry, if you remember this way, earlier on in Mark 1:15, right out of the wilderness, preaching the good news or the gospel of God.

Mark 1:15

We started today's passage, him teaching in the synagogue, preaching the good news in the synagogue.

And now 24 hours later, and a few miracles in the mix, Jesus is all prayed up, and it's time to do what he had come.

It's time to preach again.

There was a work to be done.

But it was time to go.

Declare salvation of souls.

It was time to set the captives free.

His mission and his authority demanded it.

The miracles and the casting of demons confirmed it.

Jesus was here to reverse the effects of sin, not just temporarily with a sickness or an ailment, but forever.

And so he got to work preaching the good news of God.

You know, our work and our priority as his church is to pray and preach his message of redemption.

It's to pray and speak the good news of the gospel to those who are suffering, those who are dying, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins.

It's to speak and preach and teach the gospel to one another as we are weary pilgrims passing through this life.

Weary pilgrims in need of the daily grace which is made possible through the gospel.

And so the words of Jesus, the healings of Jesus, the priorities of Jesus should not just amaze us.

Great, it's amazing, wonderful reminders.

But they should draw us in.

Stir us up.

Stir us to pray, to preach the good news of the gospel.

Jesus wasn't focused on the return of investment.

He was focused on his mission and calling, what he had been there to do.

Today we heard from missionaries who are involved in the transforming work of the gospel in Honduras.

We sang songs about the transforming work of the gospel.

We read scripture.

In the baptism, we heard a testimony of the transforming work of the gospel in all of this because Jesus said in verse 38, I gotta go preach now.

There is so much need all around us.

And we may only make a dent, but the point isn't the numbers.

It's about doing what we're here to do.

This is why we're here.

This is the church.

We preach and proclaim the good news of Jesus.

Let's pray.

Some sitting here today maybe have never accepted or heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

Well, Jesus came to save you.

He died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected from the grave to save you and to save me.

And I encourage you to talk to somebody maybe you came with or get somebody on the way out.

Ask them what's all this good news that Jesus was preaching all about.

We'd love to talk to you about it.

Father, I ask that you would forgive us at times for being lazy.

Father, forgive us for seeking the miracles above the mission.

Lord, forgive us for complicating the ministry and neglecting the simple proclamation of the gospel as we're going and living among our villages.

Lord, we ask you would forgive us for being like the disciples who had missed the point.

Lord, I ask that you would stir within us an urgency and a burden to see the surrounding city, villages, hear the good news.

Give each of us an opportunity, I ask, Lord, to share the gospel with a lost person.

An opportunity, Lord, to encourage one another with the good news.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.