Text:  Mark 1: 21-28

I spent three days last week with people who understand authority.  They are part of a system where those lines of authority are clearly defined.  They have to be.  When bullets are flying, when fellow soldiers come under attack, you can’t have a committee meeting.  Everyone looks to the Sergeant or the officer given the authority to lead his or her soldiers at that critical moment.

It’s understood by those soldiers.  Even by those we met whose bodies and minds and families have been so damaged by war.  Those whose sacrifice many of us will never know and can’t appreciate enough .  Even that Staff Sergeant who can no longer serve, whose  back injury makes him unemployable, whose memory is now so bad,  he understands authority in the US Army.  But not just there.  Thanks be to God, Staff Sergeant Mike is just beginning to recognize the authority of another whose name is Jesus.

Some other folks came face to face with that authority a long time ago.  It may have seemed like just another Sabbath day in Capernaum.  A day of rest from the hard work of fishing or farming or work in the home. They got dressed and made their way to the synagogue for worship.  But today things would be much different.  Someone there would make them different.  Jesus of Nazareth.  And here in this Word we join them.  We join them:

IN CHURCH WITH JESUS
I.  He teaches with authority
II.  He displays his authority
III.  He inspires people to spread the news

Jesus had just taken on his first four disciples., the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John.  ²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

Does that sound odd?  Would we have that here?  A stranger comes in and begins to teach.  It was not unusual then.  You see, back then there was a synagogue ruler, something like a president of the congregation.  He was the gatekeeper for visiting teachers to get up and speak.  With that man’s permission, Jesus got up and began to teach.

And here let’s be careful with the picture we paint in our imagination.  We know that he was compassionate and caring.  We know his heart went out to people having a tough time.  So we might picture Jesus as some kind of shy reserved person, who rarely raised his voice.  But that picture doesn’t fit here does it?  ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority… They were amazed because his way of teaching was so different from the Rabbis, their religious teachers.

You see, the rabbis would go on and on quoting the opinions of other rabbis.  And often those so-called authorities disagreed with one another.  So people were left to wonder, what’s the truth?

But Jesus was different. He taught them as one who had authority.  Not on the one hand this, but on the other hand that. And should we be surprised?  From his lips came the very words of God because he is God.  So Jesus was direct, sure, confident and sincere.   So that when he spoke the people listened with rapt attention.

But it wasn’t just the way he spoke. It was also his message.  It was so different from the rabbis.  He didn’t pile a bunch of man made  rules and regulations on them.  His message was far different -so different that these worshippers called it something new – a new teaching.  For it didn’t weigh them down . Rather it lifted them up with freedom and hope.   For Jesus taught them the good news of the kingdom – a kingdom where our King meets your guilt and mine with his forgiveness.  And Jesus was more than a messenger of that good news.  He was and is that gospel message.

But how sad that the people called that something new.  ‘We haven’t heard this before.  It tells you something about the religious teachers of Jesus’ day.  They had reduced the light of God’s mercy to barely a ray.  Instead as Jesus would say, they served up a harsh diet of rules taught by men.

It reminds me of a man I knew who had studied with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. To him the gospel of Jesus Christ was also a new teaching and a welcome one.  You see, until that time, they had told him, you’ve got to be worthy, good enough to earn your way with God.  But Bill knew he wasn’t. He knew he couldn’t no matter how hard he tried.

Did I tell you that Bill was deaf?  Day after day he would ask me one question after another.  Then I would open the Bible to a verse that answered his question. One day, the Spirit shined through the darkness.   You mean that Jesus has done it all?  The tears flowed down big Bills face.  He rejoiced to hear that gospel message of  his forgiveness, a that set him free, that message Jesus taught with authority long ago.

But Jesus isn’t the only one ever to teach with authority.  Through the years we’ve heard the names of people like Jim Jones or David Koresh.   We don’t have to look back very far to read the name,  Joseph Smith.  They too were self-assured people. And they certainly brought a new teaching- a new teaching that convinced many they were bringing the truth.

But in church with Jesus, we don’t just see our Lord teach with authority.  We also see Jesus display his authority .

Go to some churches today and you will hear that Jesus was not much more than a man.  You won’t hear that God in his love sent his Son to redeem us, to pay that bloody price to set us free from our sin.  It’s kind of ironic.  Satan and his demons know who Jesus is.  They know what Jesus came to do.  So  it shouldn’t surprise us to hear what happened in church with Jesus.  An evil spirit interrupted Jesus’ teaching.

You see, Satan hates when the gospel is preached or taught.  He hates when people hear that life giving message.  So don’t be surprised when stuff happens. Ever notice how many things go wrong on Sunday morning before you come to worship.  The flat tire, the argument.  How those interruptions just seem to happen when you sit down to read your Bible?  Why?  The same reason we see here with this poor demon possessed man.  The evil spirit knows who Jesus is and why he’s come.  To crush the serpent’s head and set us free.  So that foul spirit  cries out in fearful opposition,  ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Think about those words.  What that servant of Satan said was true, wasn’t it?  But Jesus was not interested in his testimony as true as it might be.  And he did not want this man to suffer one moment longer. So he said, Be quiet, or literally, put a muzzle on it, spirit. Come out of him.  And the evil spirit could only obey.  He could not resist Jesus’ authority.  Shrieking in protest, convulsing this man one last time, he left him.  In Church with Jesus, Jesus displayed his authority.  Jesus set him free.

What a precious reminder we have here. For Satan is not some make believe cartoon character.  He’s a real and deadly enemy who wants to ruin our lives, steal our hearts, and give us hell.  And even though we can’t see him, we don’t have to look very far to see his work, even in our own lives.

But this man was not the only one set free from the devil’s deadly power.  Look in the mirror and you see one more.  For that’s what Jesus did at the cross.  There at the very moment when Satan thought he had destroyed the Son of God, Jesus set us free.  He set us free from the pressing load of our guilt.  He set us free to live each day as God’s forgiven people.  He set us free from the death we deserved to live in hope.   And how can we know.  How can we be sure?  He rose.  And  there once more displayed his authority.

The other night our president gave his State of the Union address.  I was at a conference so I could not listen to it. But I imagine the president spoke with authority as he sought to move the country in the direction he wants us to go.  And whether you agree or not, lots of people were talking about his speech and what it meant.

Well how much more these people in church with Jesus.  What they heard, what they witnessed could not be contained in that synagogue.  In Church with Jesus, he inspired people to spread the news about him.

Amazed they asked each other, What is this? A new teaching and with authority. They went back to their families, back to their fields, their work, spreading the news of this Jesus of Nazareth.  They went back wondering out loud, Could he be the One?  Could he be the Christ?

Yet we don’t have to wonder.  We know that He is the ONE.  He is the Son of God who pried Satan’s fingers away from our lives.  He is the Son of God whose life for us and death for us bring forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe.

Well that good news can not stay inside this  church either.  For he comes to us here.  Jesus comes to us in this Word with an amazing message, a message that inspires his people to bring it to others.  That’s why we sit here all these years later. Someone has brought it to us, and now he inspires us to do the same.  To bring to people  the only message that can set them free.  Jesus Christ.

What a day it must have been for these worshippers!  In church with Jesus!  Well that is why we gather here.  To come in from a world that sometimes bruises and batters us.  To sit at the feet of our Savior.  To have him heal those hurts, calm those fears.  And give us hope in a world gone so wrong.  In church with Jesus today and forever. In church with Jesus.   How blessed we are!  Amen.