WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:01.040 Morning. 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:01.679 Morning. 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.240 It was it's very cozy, I know. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.639 So it's hard to be energetic, but good morning. 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:07.519 Thanks for coming to church. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:09.599 My name is James Rathman, I'm the pastor here. 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:20.960 Our text this morning is Mark chapter 1, verses 21 through 28, which says, And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:28.079 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:37.359 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? 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:39.280 Have you come to destroy us? 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.079 I know who you are, the Holy One of God. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:46.719 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:57.679 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? 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.240 A new teaching with authority? 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:03.759 He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:08.959 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:10.000 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:11.359 Please be seated. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:13.760 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:15.920 Uh as I said, my name is James Rathman. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:19.120 Uh I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:30.719 We are uh a some amount of years, two or so year-old church, and we are uh started here in the Berkeley neighborhood just at the beginning of 2020. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:36.239 Uh we were meeting just on the same block at uh Centennial Elementary. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:44.000 And uh then about uh just several weeks later, like six or eight weeks later, uh, we moved into this building, which was really exciting. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:47.200 And then COVID happened, um, which is this big event. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:48.799 I can explain it to you later. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:02:00.079 Um and uh but we've been able to start gathering back in person after a hiatus of just live streaming and uh look forward to just continued gathering together. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.159 Um this morning, uh actually a quick announcement. 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:07.599 November 8th, we are having a baby dedication. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.120 So, yep, just like that. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:16.080 So if you have a baby uh that you would like to dedicate, uh we have one, I think there's one right there, there's one in the back. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:26.719 Uh a baby dedication is where we come together as a body and we commit to rallying around the children that are in our church. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:37.280 And the parents make a commitment to raise their children up in the Lord, and likewise the church makes a commitment back to the parents to say we want to support you in that journey. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:43.919 Uh, it takes a village to raise children, and we want to be that support for one another. 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:47.120 So we make that official with our baby dedication. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.080 Uh so sign up for that uh either in the app or in your next newsletter. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:53.919 You'll be able to sign up for that. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:56.159 Okay, that's our announcement. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:00.879 This morning we're talking about preaching, exorcisms, and authority. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:02.800 So let's just get to it. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:04.400 Mark 1, 21. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:10.800 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.080 Last week we saw Jesus call his first disciples. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:19.280 This week those disciples and Jesus begin their preaching ministry. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:30.319 And they move into a town called Capernaum, which is kind of on the outskirts of any major city, and uh it's not a heavily populated area. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:37.360 It's the type of place where Jesus can begin to get known in a slow and legitimate sort of way. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.319 That's kind of Jesus' intention here, as he begins to reveal his identity. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:51.280 He does it pretty slowly and pretty methodically, even in a kind of secretive way, which we'll see as we continue to move through Mark. 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.919 But they enter into the synagogue on a Sabbath day. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:04:10.000 We can kind of have this imagination that the way that we do church now, which that's kind of what you're all doing here, you entered into a church on a Sabbath day and somebody stood up and was teaching. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.680 I think we can kind of think like, oh, that's not really the way the early church was, though. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:21.199 The early church was much more like an action movie with shipwrecks and things like that, you know? 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:26.879 Uh it, you know, occasionally a demon gets cast out, and that hasn't happened at this church since I've been preaching. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:29.279 But who knows what's gonna happen this Sunday? 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:30.560 We'll see. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:32.720 Reveal yourself. 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:49.360 Uh so we are uh but this pattern of church on Sunday with a teacher, the Sabbath then was Saturday, but the Christian church borrows this model and moves it to Sunday, this is the biblical model. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.759 We're not doing something arbitrary here in our gathering. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:05:00.720 In fact, our call to assemble as the church is a legitimate biblical call. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:05.839 This is the main means of discipleship that God has provided for his people. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.360 In the synagogues that would have been built back then, they would have, they were built in the style of an auditorium. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:18.480 A lot of times you hear, like, man, you go to a church and there's just a guy who speaks up front and we all sit and face him. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.040 And is that really the community that God wanted us to establish? 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.480 Is that really the way that God wanted us to grow and know him? 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:33.439 That is the very pattern that Jesus enters into and reveals himself to us in. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:34.959 It is biblical. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:37.360 It is the mode of discipleship. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:40.800 This is a real thing that you're doing here. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:50.800 It's easy to slip into this idea that uh church is something that can that can be modified or that this is just some arbitrary thing that we're doing. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.360 I want you to know that it isn't. 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:58.240 Uh, that you're singing, you're hearing the word proclaimed. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:04.800 This is the means that Jesus operated in to reveal himself to others. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:14.639 So just when we get the context and we start to see this pattern, uh, there's the first thing that we see Jesus doing here is preaching. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:18.160 He's teaching in a in a synagogue type of place. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:24.879 Now, this isn't just me just being like, see, my job's real, but it's a little of that. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:26.720 Because it really is. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:27.439 It really is. 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:30.079 This is a real thing that we're doing. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:40.720 In fact, if you look throughout scripture, even in those stories of Acts, if you were to break down the book of Acts, you would see that it's mostly speeches. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:47.120 The book of Acts is mostly the proclamation of the word of God to people. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.560 It's mostly an argument saying, look, here is Jesus. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:54.879 Let's proclaim him, let's make his name known, let's make his name famous. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:08.720 I say all of that just so that we can begin to gain this shape together, begin to gain this understanding together that that what we're doing here, even this morning, this this is real. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:14.160 This is a real pursuit of God and in the way that He has laid out for us to do it. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:15.920 So thanks for joining us. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:18.000 And this morning it was particularly difficult. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:23.839 When I woke up this morning, the uh uh it was dark for the first time. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:25.600 That was miserable. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:29.040 Um, but here we are, and it's very cozy. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:30.720 Thanks for joining us. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:39.519 So that's the context, and we see in that context that Jesus is entering into this very pattern that we're engaging with today. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:42.319 Still that very same pattern. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:46.720 But his teaching was different. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.800 His teaching was different than what anyone had ever heard before. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:53.360 His teaching, uh, here's the response. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:03.839 In Mark 1.22, it says, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:14.480 So the typical teaching in a synagogue at that time was done by this authorized group of educated men called scribes. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:27.199 And they were literate and they were trained in the scriptures, and they were able to make claims that would set precedence for the way that they uh for the way that scripture was to be interpreted. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:31.040 So they would come and they would do something a lot like I'm doing this morning. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:35.679 They would uh read a text and then they would say, okay, now here's what this text means. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:45.679 Here's what it was like to its original hearing audience, and we can explain this and we can make this type of deduction, and and this is the way that you should understand this text to be known. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:59.120 They were able to do that from their education, but it they played an intermediary role between the text, which held the authority, and uh their own communication of it, which was beneath that authority. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:04.720 But Jesus is not proclaiming like that. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:08.960 He's not speaking in the way that the scribes were speaking. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:12.320 He's not speaking as though he's under any authority. 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:20.000 Instead, Jesus is coming out and he is speaking as though he's writing scripture on the fly. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:28.720 Now, if you hear me come up here and start speaking as though I'm writing scripture on the fly, that's a great opportunity to find a new church. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:31.600 And you just received the opportunity. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:44.799 But Jesus, he stands, he goes in, and we see this in other passages where similar instances are recorded, and he'll say, This scripture that I just read, this prophecy, it was just fulfilled when I read it. 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:58.159 So he's adding this new dimension to the text, and he himself, in his preaching of it, is fulfilling it, and he's speaking it as though he's the author of it. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:04.399 That is Jesus' authority in the way that he preaches on a Sunday morning. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:18.080 You know, it's so it's hard for us to imagine, but like I'm here and I'm explaining the word of God to you, but to have the author in the room is just a different thing altogether. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:24.080 Oh, you know, Herman Melville, who wrote Moby Dick, didn't he wasn't famous when he was alive. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.759 Moby Dick didn't do that great, which can you imagine? 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.840 You write Moby Dick, and people are like, Yeah, not that good. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.559 He's like, well, that's the best I can do. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:36.960 You know, it's a very good book. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:42.799 Uh uh his friend, he was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was famous. 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:46.159 Uh he was a super successful writer. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:50.159 Um, and uh maybe he should have made the whale scarlet. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:54.399 Um but the instead of instead of the white whale. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:08.639 But anyway, generation uh a generation goes by, whaling stops, and we look back on that period with this romantic nostalgia, uh, and all of a sudden the book starts to take on this kind of magical flavor. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:16.480 And so now professors all over the country are arguing back and forth to one another over what does this white whale mean? 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:21.679 Is it the myopic passion of Ahab that's just projected out into the world? 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:27.279 Is it a naturalist uh kind of argument that man shouldn't intervene in nature? 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:34.720 Is it a uh uh is it about uh a charismatic leader and the whale doesn't really mean anything at all? 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:39.840 Is it about the manifest destiny in America searching for the West and the whale is the West? 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:40.960 Some people think that. 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:43.519 I don't think that because they go east into the ocean. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:59.840 But the uh uh imagine in the midst of those arguments that Melville in a time machine shows up and he's like, that's not what the whale's about. 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:02.879 That's not you what are you talking about? 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:10.159 The whale, you you're talking though uh the whale was uh the whale was about you know me wanting to be a famous author. 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:10.799 That's the whale. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:13.919 The whale's about the passions that just drive all humans. 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:20.320 And if you're not interpreting the whale that way, then you don't understand the story, and you're not understanding the project that I'm doing in the book. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:28.559 A professor's not then who just finished his thesis on why it's the American West isn't able to stand up and say, no, no, no, it's the American West is what it is. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.200 Melville's like, no, it's that's my whale. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:35.840 You don't get to tell me what what the in the proper interpretation of it is. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:46.799 Jesus shows up and it's like Melville walks into the room and he says, this prophecy of the one who is to come and save, it was just fulfilled in your hearing. 00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:48.559 They can't be like, no, it wasn't. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:50.720 He's like, no, I'm the one who wrote it. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:52.480 This is my prophecy. 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:54.240 I'm the one, I'm the one who wrote it. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.559 I'm I own it, I'm the author of it. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:00.720 That's the way that Jesus is speaking in the synagogue. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:04.000 But it's even it's even greater than that, okay? 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:19.679 It's even greater than Melville showing up at a Moby Dick conference and a bunch of people disagreeing with him on what the white whale means, because it's uh it's it's more, you know, at that point, because we could say something like this. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:25.039 We could say something like, yes, but once you write it, then it it takes on its own flavor in the world. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:31.519 And and when we read it, our interpretations become a part of the story, and that becomes a part of the mythos of Moby Dick. 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:34.480 And so sit down, Melville, you need to hear my take on it. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:34.960 Right? 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:39.919 I can imagine that happening in at a Moby Dick conference. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.360 Um, like the one I'm going to later this afternoon. 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.720 I'm not going to uh conference. 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:48.639 Conferences are illegal. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:14:04.639 The uh uh I'm what I'm saying is the uh it's it's even a greater authority than Melville um amongst uh a bunch of Melville interpreters. 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.039 Because you know what it's more like? 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:17.840 It's more like Melville showing up on the deck of the ship in Moby Dick. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:19.039 Do you hear what I'm saying? 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.000 It's more like Melville, that ship was called the Pequod. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:30.240 It's more like Melville showing up on the Pequad and talking to Captain Ahab and saying, Ahab, that whale means this. 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:33.279 That whale is going to destroy you. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:43.600 And Ahab, this charisma that you have that manipulates all these sailors, it's going to end up being the death of you because nobody will be able to talk you out of the evil that you're about to accomplish. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:56.480 See, Melville can come in and speak to the lives of those characters with this incredible specificity and this deep reality because they are his characters. 00:14:56.639 --> 00:14:57.120 Do you see that? 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:58.399 They're his people. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.080 He owns the whale. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:05.279 That is the type of authority that Jesus shows up and is speaking with. 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:08.480 When he shows up and he speaks, he's speaking to you. 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:15.120 He's speaking to the hearts of the people that showed up, and they left and they were like, that type of authority was different. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:17.759 He talked to me as though I was his. 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.399 He talked to me like he made me. 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:27.440 The word authority here, I'm twisting it because in English we can say it comes from the word author, which is true in our language. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:33.679 But in the Greek, it comes from the words, it comes from words that means first things, like first principles. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.639 Like Paul will say elsewhere, elementary principles. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:41.039 That's what Jesus is able to speak with. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.080 He's able to say, I know the first I know the things that you're made out of. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:48.080 I wove you together. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:52.080 I speak with an authority over you because I made you. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:57.759 That type of authority was astonishing to hear. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:15:59.600 That's the word that's used. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:03.039 They were astonished at his teaching. 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:09.919 You know, you they'd they'd walk, they were walking out, and it was like, this is he talked to me like he made me. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:18.879 He talked to me like he knew everything about me, like he knew everything about the scripture, and then like I was in it, and it described me perfectly. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:21.440 And you know, that's a different type of authority. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:23.200 They're astonished by it. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.480 Okay, now here's here's the point. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:31.360 Jesus' authority. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:35.679 Jesus speaks with authority because Jesus created it all. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:37.679 It's all his. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:43.840 The first principles of existence belong to him. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:51.120 And his preaching, then, when he goes into the synagogue, what does it immediately arouse? 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:56.720 It immediately arouses this visceral demonic pushback. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:05.279 You know, it shows a uh uh it's like a dividing line where it says, no, I'm telling you the truth of the matter. 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:13.519 There's good and there's evil, and the evil must rebel against it in light of that type and that depth of goodness. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:27.200 We are operating from some first principles, from some foundational assumptions about the world. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:31.119 You know, we have an interpretation of what the whale means. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:42.000 In fact, you you probably have a thing where you think if I don't slay that whale and mount it on my wall, then my life will be meaningless and useless. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:52.640 It could be a degree that you're working on, it could be the rectification of your marriage, it could be getting married, it could be getting out of your marriage. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.480 It could be anything a squirrel can do to a tree, to marriage. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:58.799 It's just ran out of prepositions. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:09.519 The uh uh it can be it could be you you chasing your career or your father's or your mother's approval, or finally your distance from them. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:11.359 Look, you know, okay? 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:18.880 I can't speak with the authority of Jesus and come out and say, like, I know exactly where your character is. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:32.799 But you have some foundational principles by which you're determining what is right and what is wrong, whether it's good to pursue the whale or whether it isn't good to pursue the whale. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:43.599 Jesus always challenges those foundational principles because he is the ultimate authority. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:44.720 G.K. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:47.759 Chesterton wrote this great book called Orthodoxy. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:52.480 It's a really fun book, which you wouldn't imagine by the title, but he talks about that in the book. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:56.960 And uh he makes this observation. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:10.640 He says, the man of the 19th century did not disbelieve in the resurrection because his liberal Christianity allowed him to doubt it. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:20.160 He disbelieved in it because his very strict materialism did not allow him to believe it. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:30.960 You see, there is a foundational principle in your life which Jesus is always coming up against. 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:37.279 And it often masquerades as a type of freedom or a type of liberty that we could move into. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:57.359 And so in the 19th century, when liberal Christianity started to really take root, especially coming out of the German scholarship at that time and the search for the real Jesus, which we talked about a bit at the beginning of this uh uh sermon series, we see this movement of, oh, we've gained this new type of liberty. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:58.160 And you know what? 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.480 You don't really have to believe in the resurrection in order to be a Christian. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:11.039 And it was posing as liberty, but really it was slavery to a different set of first principles. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:16.640 It was slavery to a set of first principles which says the world is material and that's all there is. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:25.759 And if it's not material, then and it can't be explained by a material cause, then uh it's not meaningful and it doesn't actually exist in the world. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:33.599 And so the disbelief in the resurrection was not liberty, it was slavery to a different foundational principle. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:37.119 That's the way that we move through the world. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:46.319 When Jesus preaches with authority, he's always challenging our foundational principles. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:48.960 And that's what gets exposed. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:21:02.960 So just as if Melville will just show up at a conference on Moby Dick and all of a sudden chaos would ensue, so too, when Jesus shows up into his own church, chaos begins to ensue. 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:05.279 And uh someone starts shouting. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:06.400 So let's see what happens. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:07.680 This is the exciting part. 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:24.480 Mark 1, 23, and immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out Okay, so Christ's preaching cuts and it shows this division between these two kingdoms. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:34.319 A man with an unclean spirit hears the authoritative preaching of Christ, and all of a sudden the uncleanness gets exposed. 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:46.000 You know, it makes you wonder, uh, in kind of the way that the text phrases it, there Jesus is already creating a sort of distance between the synagogue and himself. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:49.119 Mark is creating a distance between the synagogue. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:54.240 It says, and immediately there was in their synagogue, right? 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.799 He's not saying this is God's synagogue. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:01.200 In their synagogue, a man was An unclean spirit. 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:13.359 Doesn't it make you wonder how long was that man with that spirit in him able to attend church without having his feathers ruffled? 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:20.720 How long was he able to attend and think like, oh, well, you know, he leaves and he's talking with the demon. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:22.000 I don't know how it works. 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.160 Maybe he leaves and it's like, hey, how was that for you? 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:25.440 Oh, it's pretty good for me. 00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:33.680 And uh they they both just agree and then they go to, you know, wait for six hours at Denver Biscuit Company. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:44.079 And uh, but this time, when Jesus shows up and speaks with authority, the demon has to cry out because it's clear now. 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:51.440 There is a different foundational principle here, who's talking with authority. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:55.759 Christ's preaching cuts to that dynamic. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:59.680 The demon must cry out because they are enemies. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:10.559 Okay, now we're already cutting to some of our foundational assumptions because I'm talking about demons. 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:16.240 Oh, I don't have much experience with demons. 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:18.720 Some of you might. 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:32.640 Oh, but I think generally in our culture to talk about demons or the spiritual realm or the demonic world is to start playing kind of a fairy tale game. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:49.839 Uh instead of engaging with reality, we're engaging with a kind of parallel story that can offer us some helpful metaphors to understand psychological issues or something like that, but can't really speak to the way that things are. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:54.720 This is part of the reason I chose that Chesterton quote. 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:04.640 Look, it's not that we have uh the freedom to disbelieve in demons and still believe in Christ. 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:24.799 You need to recognize that our disbelief in the spiritual world, our disbelief in a spiritual battle, even a demonic realm, in an angelic realm in the heavens and in hell, our disbelief in those things is not out of freedom. 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:36.880 It is out of a strict adherence to a materialist worldview, where we say the only way of understanding existence is in matter. 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:43.279 We're enslaved to that type of worldview in our culture. 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.160 We're just completely bound by it. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:50.319 And to be frank, this is a weird thing to say, but here we go. 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:55.359 It's a little archaic, uh, this type of materialist worldview. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:59.599 Like we can give a break to a 19th-century person. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:08.960 You know, Newton just comes on the scene, and there's this incredible uh power that he has to interpret objects and the movement of an object in space. 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:11.440 And, you know, Newtonian physics is pretty good. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:16.640 You use Newtonian physics, you can go to the moon, which is a pretty sweet thing to be able to do. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:30.160 But then as just our under, and that's a materialist framework, but even as just our understanding of physics has developed in the world, it's it's kind of dead-ended into these strange mysteries. 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:31.279 Right? 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:40.160 Like there's uh the atom, which the word atom means fundamental, indivisible part of creation. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:44.720 And so when we thought we found something like that, we named it the atom. 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:46.640 And then what did we do? 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:49.279 We split it. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:26:01.599 So it turns out that the most fundamental, indivisible part of creation, according to the best of our materialist worldview, is not fundamental, is not indivisible. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:15.519 So when when even when even our own physics is just far more strange than we're giving it credit for, then it starts to help you kind of see, you know what? 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:21.039 My strict adherence to this materialism, it's it's kind of archaic. 00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:26.160 It's kind of a denial of even the reality that we've seen. 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.960 My thought that reality is just such as I think it is, and it's not far more strange. 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:40.960 Well, that's a oh it's a pretty arrogant claim. 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:44.799 Reality as we explore it seems far more strange. 00:26:44.960 --> 00:27:04.079 And so to say that there's such a thing as uh as demons or angels uh as possessions and exorcisms, uh I think actually maps on to human experience uh better than a strict type of materialism. 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:07.920 And we need to understand the shape of the battle that's taking place. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:18.640 Now that we've done kind of a defense of demons, their existence, uh we need to get an understanding for the shape of the battle. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:28.880 Adam and Eve, when they're in the garden, they are given dominion over creation by God. 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:34.799 Humans are given dominion over creation under God. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:48.720 And our design in God giving us dominion was so that we would see the flourishing of creation, so that it by humans being in the world, it would flourish like a garden. 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.599 And what was wilderness would all be transformed into a flourishing garden. 00:27:55.200 --> 00:28:02.319 But Eve was deceived, Adam sinned, and they're deceived by the serpent. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:08.880 They're deceived by Satan, who is ruler of this demonic realm. 00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:13.519 Now, Satan does not have authority over the world. 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:20.640 Satan is given no authority over the world by God, but what is Satan able to do? 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:24.319 He takes authority over us. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:34.319 By his deception, he takes authority over the ones who've been given authority over the world. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:40.160 When we see God as our highest authority, the world finds it's flourishing. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:49.200 But when we become enslaved by sin to Satan, under our dominion, the world no longer flourishes, but the world is harmed. 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:55.839 And we create systems and families that result in violence and destruction. 00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:04.400 And that becomes the results of our sin bearing out in our lives as we live under what is now the domain of Satan. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:17.039 You know, if you were, uh if you sell yourself into slavery to someone, there doesn't become a time where you have the opportunity to buy yourself back. 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:19.279 That's not the way slavery works. 00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:23.440 Because your owner, it's not as though you hit the market price and they have to let you go. 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:26.480 Your owner would simply say, No, you're mine now. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.039 You misunderstood what slavery is. 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:30.880 You belong to me. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.480 You are my property. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:35.039 That is the way we relate to Satan. 00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:44.240 We sold ourselves into slavery to him when we believed his lie and chose his and chose to sin against God. 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:50.240 And so now we are enslaved to this domain of darkness. 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.240 Does that kind of like political history make sense? 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:56.400 Okay. 00:29:57.119 --> 00:29:58.720 Nobody nodded. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:10.640 Now, this helps us understand the cry that the demon makes to Jesus. 00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:12.000 Here's what he says. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:19.039 Mark 124, the demon in the man cries out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:21.119 Have you come to destroy us? 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:24.640 I know who you are, the Holy One of God. 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:26.160 Okay. 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.000 Says, What have you to do with us? 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.359 Have you come to destroy us? 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:41.599 He knows that he is talking to the master of his rival kingdom. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:52.640 Adam, when he was in the garden and he's tempted by the snake, remember, he's been given dominion over the garden by God. 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:56.160 So who's the higher authority? 00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:58.480 He's not like, well, is this really my place to take care of? 00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:00.400 God told you to take care of that place. 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:01.359 So yeah. 00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:04.319 He's been given dominion over the garden by God. 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:09.680 And the snake comes in and begins deceiving his wife. 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:13.440 What should Adam have done to the snake? 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:18.799 He should have killed the snake. 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:24.880 Jesus comes in. 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:30.079 And you see, the demon understands the shape of the story that's unfolding. 00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:33.279 He says, this is a second Adam. 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:41.680 This is someone who is like Adam, but he's not under our domain. 00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:45.039 He's not enslaved to us. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.839 Well, what should Adam have done? 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:50.079 He should have destroyed us. 00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:54.240 What is Jesus here to do to this domain of darkness? 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:55.039 He's here. 00:31:55.359 --> 00:31:59.359 Are you here to destroy us, Jesus of Nazareth? 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:05.839 You hear the dynamic of the conversation that's taking place, how the demon just knows who he's talking to? 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:17.200 Well, Jesus does not engage with the demon on that type of level of conversation. 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:21.519 Instead, Jesus just begins to take ground. 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.559 He begins to take dominion. 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:31.839 In Mark 1, 25 through 26, it says, But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:39.119 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:43.680 You see the authority of Jesus. 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:47.839 Jesus has dominion in this world. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.400 It is his authority. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:33:02.079 And so when he speaks to this representative of the rival kingdom where Jesus has authority, they must listen. 00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:10.240 Now, this authority of Jesus has now been demonstrated in these two ways, just in his teaching and in his word. 00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:13.119 The people sat there and they said, wow, look at this authority. 00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:21.119 But the authority becomes even more astonishing to these people as they sit and listen to Jesus. 00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:24.880 And here's the response after seeing the demon cast out. 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:29.440 I think it shows the cultural difference, you know, the cultural dynamic difference. 00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:33.440 If we were to see a demon cast out, we'd be surprised at two things. 00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:37.119 We'd say, demons are real, and they cast it out. 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:38.880 You know, there'd be two things that we were surprised at. 00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:40.960 They're only surprised at one thing. 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.440 They aren't surprised at the reality of the demon. 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:44.559 Here's what they say. 00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:46.640 And they were all amazed. 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:51.440 So that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:54.400 A new teaching with authority. 00:33:54.880 --> 00:34:00.640 He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. 00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:07.680 Jesus is coming to take ground for his kingdom. 00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:11.760 And right here we see Jesus beginning to do it. 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:23.519 He takes ground in the hearts of his people, and he defeats the one who has enslaved them all by his authority. 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:34.480 Now, Jesus' authority is so profound, and it can even be a frightening thing to encounter. 00:34:35.199 --> 00:34:43.679 In fact, you I think when we depict Jesus, rarely do we see the Jesus that says, be silent, come out of him. 00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:51.440 Most of our Jesus are more, you know, flowing robes, grace, striking type of Jesus. 00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:57.199 Jesus' authority is intimidating. 00:34:58.239 --> 00:34:59.599 Why would that be? 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:03.199 Look, we know whose kingdom we're a part of. 00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:12.400 We know that the foundational first principles of our hearts are not loving God and loving our neighbors. 00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:22.239 We know because when Jesus shows up and he begins to speak in his authority, the result in our hearts is more often than not shame. 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:25.280 And what does that shame tell us? 00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:29.519 It tells us that we know we should be worshiping that God. 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:33.280 But look at these areas in our life where we're just still not. 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:40.239 We still feel just crushed by an anxiety that we can't seem to shake off. 00:35:40.400 --> 00:36:04.159 We still feel just like we're we're loaded down with a fear because we can't bring ourselves to trust in a good God, or we still feel enslaved to pornography, and it's like we just can't shake this thing off, or we still feel so motivated by greed that we just have to turn that part of ourselves off when we walk into a place like church and pretend that it doesn't exist. 00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:15.519 You know, but when we're really encountered with the authority of Jesus, that shame shows us we know he should be Lord and God of us. 00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:18.400 But instead we are slaves to Satan. 00:36:18.719 --> 00:36:23.679 And in our sin we continuously agree with Satan's rule. 00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:27.760 And so why is Jesus' authority intimidating? 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:36.719 Because we know that Jesus came to destroy the evil one and those who work for him. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:39.039 And you know what? 00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:40.880 That's us. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.599 We we are the ones that do that type of bidding. 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:49.920 When we're in sin, we are in the domain of darkness. 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:56.000 And so Jesus' authority is just kind of astonishing, astonishing and scary. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:02.480 But consider the man who is possessed by the demon. 00:37:03.199 --> 00:37:05.440 Look at what happened to him. 00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:08.960 The demon is cast out. 00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:22.639 The evil one is thrown away, dominion is taken over the demon that's cast out, and now the man who walked in possessed stands before his God completely free. 00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:26.400 How is Jesus able to do that? 00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:32.079 How can Jesus conquer evil and spare us? 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:41.360 I think there's something in the name that the demon calls Jesus that can show us the shape of this story. 00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:50.960 Jesus, excuse me, the demon calls Jesus, he says, Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God. 00:37:51.760 --> 00:38:00.880 That terminology is used of one other place and of one other person in Scripture, of a Nazarite who is called the Holy One of God. 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:03.519 And it's Judges chapter 16, verse 17. 00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:05.280 And it's referring to Samson. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:12.079 Samson is he's taken a Nazarite vow, which means he has to let his hair grow long. 00:38:17.840 --> 00:38:22.719 And he is not able to touch anything that's dead. 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:27.679 And he's not able to drink any alcohol. 00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:31.599 And he's taking this vow of purity and holiness to God. 00:38:31.840 --> 00:38:34.079 He doesn't live up to it in any way. 00:38:35.920 --> 00:38:38.400