3- Turning Heads: Mark 1:21-39 - Mike Olynyk, Meadows Church

You're invited!  Come on a journey as we see the sights, smell the smells & experience Jesus' story told by Mark in an immersive way.  Engage in the story as one of the crowd, the disciples or even as a religious leader.  For an even more immersive experience, click the link below to follow along with the PDF media with maps, pictures of historical sites and more.

Turning Heads PDF - Click Here

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

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You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. Well, can I just say that I am absolutely captivated by our series, Encountering Jesus? I don't know about you, but when we get to actually encounter, dive into the Bible and smell the smells, and we get to see relational tension or or healing or confusion, we get to uh experience through the eyes of the disciples and through the eyes of the crowd. And I love that we can do that, that we can dive in together. And I hope you're with me in that. I hope I'm not just a Bible geek that's like, oh yeah, love Mark, love Jesus' story, but that that you guys are with me and we can dive in together. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna be in Mark 1, starting in verse 21 today. We'll be using the NLT, but why don't we pray to start? God, as we open your word, would you speak to our hearts? My prayer is that that I and that my friends here would be able to encounter you. That we would be able to embrace you and you us. And so will you do that as we dive into our series today. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So Mark 1, verse 21 says this. Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. We're experiencing it, right? This is the town of Capernaum. More of a village. It's a a hill village looking over grassy knolls and the Sea of Galilee is there, and I just want us to put ourselves in that for a second. Can you see it? The sun's a little more bakey there, but there's also something else. There's the sea that's right there. Uh, one tourist, and I sadly have to rely on tourists because I haven't been to Capernaum yet. I can't wait to go one day. But one tourist went there and he said this: that there is a crisp, mellow saltiness with a hint of something not unlike seaweed or driftwood. The smell of the Sea of Galilee. Can you experience that? Can you take that in as you're walking through this small village and saying hi to the people? You know everybody in the village. It is not that big a place. Well, Capernaum is a small fishing village built up on the hill, and as you can see in the picture, they have unearthed the basalt foundation of the village that was there. Now, the village uh obviously had wooden malls in the day, and that has disintegrated over the last 2,000 years, something like that. But what you do see, and what's notable, besides the UFO that I'll talk about in a second, is this stone building in the middle. It is the central part. And if if I'll zoom out so you can see it, you can see that there are buildings all around this stone building. It's worth pointing out here that this stone building was actually built in the fourth century, and we're in the first century. But this is the synagogue that's there, and it was the central hub of everything that would happen. And so, as you go into the synagogue, you would not just go for a meal and worship and a discussion. You would go for a town hall meeting. You would go there for court if the judge was coming by. And so it's kind of interesting that we are in a public space for our church. It is not unlike that, as this was a public space, but it did have Jewish roots to it. What I love about this place is that it was built in the fourth century, but it was built on the original basalt foundations of the original synagogue. What that means is that the floor plan is the exact same. So as you look at this picture, you can picture Jesus walking into the synagogue. Have that in your mind as we walk through this story together. Can you see Jesus walking down the street towards the synagogue? Smelling the sea air? Well, Mark tells us that it's one occurrence that he goes to the synagogue, one specific story. Whereas Luke says that Jesus has been there for a while in Luke 4, and that he goes to the synagogue every Sabbath. And so we don't know if that is one month, if that is six months, if that is a year. But Jesus is there with his homeboys and they are going to the synagogue. Now I can tell you about the UFO. The UFO in the picture is not a UFO. It is something that was built. It's a chapel that stands over Peter and Andrew's house. They believe that this, right in the center of that UFO-like building that they built, is where Peter and Andrew lived. And so as you hear the story, you can see the sea, you can see the synagogue, and you can see just how far Jesus had to go to get to the locations that we're going to be talking about today. Mark writes of this particular occurrence on one of his Sabbath trips to the synagogue. Mark 1, verse 21 says, When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. So pre-70 AD, and that's important because that's the fall of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple. The Romans had had enough, and it is a key moment in history. Before this time, there is not much on the liturgy of the synagogue, which means the up down touch the ground, I'm gonna pray, and then I'm gonna, we're gonna worship, and then we're gonna read Old Testament, New Testament. They didn't have the New Testament back then, but all of that stuff didn't exist. Instead, two things happened when they went to this open forum. First, there was a reading from the Torah, and if you know what the Torah is, it's the first five books of your Bible. And then the second thing is that there would be robust conversation and discussion, like we do around the tables. Except it was different because this is important to note. This is the what I showed you, the picture of Capernaum, that's the size of the village. And you have Pharisees that don't like Sadducees, and you have Sadducees that don't like Pharisees, and they both think they're off their own rocker. And there is not a, it's not like Abbotsford. You don't have a Pharisee church, and then right beside it, you have a Sadducee church. They all went to the same place. And so can you imagine the robust discussion that is taking place at this meeting? It was also quite common for a non-priest to come up and share. He would read a piece of scripture and then he would teach on it, and they would discuss it. Well, Jesus got up and he mic dropped the moment. So let's continue reading here. The people were amazed at his teaching, and he taught with real authority, quite unlike the teachers of the religious law. Little caveat, we know that there is, it's about to go down, there's about to be a physicus between the religious leaders and Jesus. This hasn't happened yet. Know that they don't have their knickers in a knot yet about Jesus, and the mood is astonishment. But it's about to get wild. Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Oh, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. I had to look at this. Had to see the text. Had to look at scholars because in this moment, this demon is calling out Jesus as Messiah, but know that it's not him going, Well, I guess my jig is up. So presenting Jesus. That's not what's happening here. Actually, the spiritual batter and the demonic and the dark magic of the day, uh calling out a person and their title was an attempt to gain control over them. So do you get it? The power in this moment, and what will be Jesus' very simple response to show that he is truly the Messiah. Josephus talks about, and if you know Joe Josephus, Josephus is a non-Christian who wrote about that time period, and he talks about exorcists that that release demons out of people. And he talks about how this one guy named Eleazar, and how he has this incantation, these set things that he has to say, and then he has this root that he keeps in his ri around his wrist that he puts up to the nose of the person that he is going to exercise. And then sometimes the demon would come out. Jesus had none of this. There was no need for this. This is the Messiah, the Savior. Let's see how Jesus did it. Demons said all this, but Jesus reprimanded him. Be quiet, come out of the man. That was it. No incantations, no special charms, no nothing. Jesus has the power. And it is a moment that could go over our heads if we don't know the culture, but it is crazy. That's all he had to say. And the demon fleed. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him. Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. What sort of new teaching is this? They asked excitedly. It has such authority. Even evil spirits obey his order. And the news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee. Let's keep going. After Jesus left the synagogue, do you remember how long that distance was? Do you have it in your mind? Was not far. I picture Burnaby, Burnaby, Langley. The amount that I have to walk to get to Home Depot or the mount I gotta walk to get to Willoughbrick Mall, and you lose sight of the track that it was right there. He left the synagogue, and within two minutes, he was at the door of let's find out. After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew's house. Why wasn't Simon and Andrew with them? It was because their mom was sick, their mother-in-law was sick. Verse 30. Now Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. Listen to what happens here. It's amazing how relational Jesus is. He went to her bedside. He took her by the hand and he helped her up. No pomp, no circumstance, no be healed and knock over and then back up. No, no, no. Come on up. And not only did she get he get her up, did she have uh a disease that was curable? Was she on her deathbed? We don't know. But what we do know is that he lifted her right out of that, and she was healed. The power, the simplicity, the relationship that Jesus wanted with her and wants with us. It's incredible. That evening, after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered at the door to watch. So actually visualizing this, and that they're literally a stone's throw away from the place where Jesus left mouths open by his authority and by his exorcism. Why did they wait till after sunset? He's right there. Just go knock on his door, get healed. He did it once, he'll do it again. He's got the authority, right? You know what the reason was? Legalism. It was legalism. Like Jesus is not about legalism, but the Jewish religious leaders were, and they had so many extra rules that were just heaped on the people, and they thought that it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath because healing is work. And you can't work on the Sabbath. Legalism. And in a couple of weeks, we'll we'll get into this. Jesus actually calls out the Pharisees and the religious leaders for this. And he says, no, no, no, no, I'm not about religiosity. Jesus is about relationship and faith with him. But I can't, can you just imagine the people? Like I would just, if I was in need of healing, I would be vibrating with energy. Like just come on, just waiting for the clock to tick sunset so I can burst out of the house and head over to meet Jesus, would he still be there? What do you think was going through their head? Let me tell you right now that if you think that faith is about religious observance or legalism or how much you do for God, can I say something with just all sincerity and love? I I just don't think you're reading your Bible right. That is not the case. But they were under the spell of the religious leaders. And he wants relationship with us too. It's incredible to think about. Well, what happens in this next moment just opens the floodgates. Let's keep reading. So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. In that one sentence, how many people gained freedom in that moment? That sentence has power. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. That verse challenged me. I want to read it again. Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Like, I I gotta confess to you that if I have a really busy week or if I'm up all night doing something, the next morning my first response isn't to get up and crack open the Bible and pray. It's like, I wanna sleep in, I wanna like, like just I need a moment. And it's not what we need, but flipping up on socials becomes a thing we do to try to recharge, and it's not. It doesn't work. Jesus went to the Father, and in that moment, that's how he was recharged. How late do you think he was up healing and casting out demons for all the people in the village? You saw that little village, but the people from all around, the little fishing huts on the side, they would have all heard and come running. And yet, the first thing Jesus does is he goes and spends time with his heavenly father. I love that. How many of us need to hear that? Well, let's continue. Later, Simon and the others went out to find him. And when they found them, they said, Everyone is looking for you. Jesus, you're a star. There is a mob of people chanting, Jesus, Jesus, come, like you, you, let's roll out the red carpet, let's go. That is not what Jesus wanted. There are so many people out there trying to swindle. You look at guys like Benny Hinn that have been unmasked by journalism of doing shady things. And then you and what is it for? It's just to line his pockets so he can have the house in the hill, and he could have the jet and all this stuff. You know what Jesus wanted? He wanted to be with us. And he wanted to do one thing that is in this verse. It's not that he would go and get the acclamation of the crowd. He actually says this in verse 38. But Jesus replied, We must go on to the other towns as well. And I will what? Preach to them too. That is why I came. So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. What was the most important part of Jesus' ministry? Yeah, he healed. Yeah, he cast out demons. But the message of the kingdom of God, the fact that we can be a part of his kingdom, that we can be sons and daughters of the living God, that's what he came for. And he needed to go and to share that. So here is the facts laid out. Mark claims Jesus is the Messiah. And this Jesus has the ability to heal disease, people with disease, and to cast out demons without special charms or incantations or magic or anything. He heals instantaneously. He heals for other people, not himself. And he does it in such a gentle and relational way. The religious leaders would try to trap him again and again, yet, knowledge and his teaching had authority and power like nobody had ever had before. There is no doubt that what Mark is saying in chapter one is here is the Messiah. Like that is what every prophecy of old has talked about and more. He isn't some God in the sky somewhere. And he wasn't lining his pockets, he wasn't giving a shallow message of legalism. He was offering freedom and love and joy and peace. He was gentle. He was relational, forgiving and understanding. That is the Jesus that I embraced and that I worship. This world is crazy. I feel like often we we just cannot measure up to the expectations of the world. And when we finally attain something, there's just something else right there. Something else to attain. And we just it's never enough. And Jesus says to us that He wants to embrace us. And and that joy and that peace that passes understanding that's bigger than our situation. And if we're honest with ourselves, I feel like even when that's the case, it just feels like we're chucking around. We're chucking along, and it is still quite hollow. And all the promises of the world, they don't measure up. Jesus wants to embrace you. And he wants you to embrace him. The craziest thing is he doesn't care about your past. Doesn't care about your wrongs. Doesn't care about any of that. And the reason he doesn't care is because he died for that. And he rose from the dead to give you freedom. So he took that on. So all he sees is that you are a beautiful son or daughter of the Most High. If you're at a place where you have not embraced Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity before we get around tables. You can just pray a prayer of that acceptance of Jesus as your king. You can pray, Jesus, thank you that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead. Thank you that you love me. And that I am free if I embrace you. Today, I invite you into my life. I embrace you, Jesus. I thank you that you embrace me. Make me and change me. And fill me with love and joy and purpose. In Jesus' name. Amen. If that's something that you prayed for the first time, or if it's something that you're like, you know what, I need that. And you did that again. I would love to have that conversation with you. I'd love to connect. Because it is the most amazing decision that you could ever make. It has changed my life. I am a completely different person. I am so filled with love and I still make mistakes, but at the same time, Jesus is at the center of my life. And he gives me fresh mercies every morning. It's amazing. That's why we're here. This is why we have Meadows Church. To come and we talked about it last week. This is a hospital where we come and we get healed. We don't have to bring our perfection. Actually, Jesus said, I don't, I don't, I'm, I didn't come for those that think they're righteous. I came for those that need me. So you're welcome here. And I hope that you find family and embrace here. We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with the pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to meadowschurch.ca.