Mark: Authority In Action

Mark 1:16-45

Pastor Matt Moran

Transcript

By the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon,
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them,
Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left
their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the
son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.
And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat
with the hired servants and followed him. And they went into Capernaum, and
immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they
were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and
not as ascribes. And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an
unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. 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,
a new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits, and they
obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding
region of Galilee. And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house
of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with
fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the
hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by
demons, and the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many
who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he would not
permit the demons to speak because they knew him. And rising very early in the
morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place,
and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and
they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you. And he said to
them, Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is
why it came out. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their
synagogues and casting out demons. And a leper came to him, imploring him, and
kneeling said to him, If you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he
stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And
immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly
charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See that you say nothing
to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what
Moses commanded for a proof to them. But he went out and began to talk freely
about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a
town, but was out in desolate places and people were coming to him from every
quarter. Let's pray. Lord God, we are grateful to be gathered here under the
power and authority of your word. And Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would
illuminate us as we read about your son. Lord, I pray that you would make us
more like him, that you would draw us closer in conformity to Christ, that you
would illuminate our hearts and minds. We pray for that in Jesus' name. Amen. So
we're in our second sermon series, second sermon in our series through the
Gospel of Mark. And Mark is giving us a short and fast-paced description of
Jesus. He wants to show us who Jesus is as directly and as concisely as
possible. You see in the passage that we just read, we're moving rapidly from
scene to scene. This is a quickly paced Gospel. In the introduction of chapter
one, which we covered last week, we've seen that Jesus was baptized. He was
empowered by the Holy Spirit, that he's received the approval of God the Father.
He has resisted temptation in the wilderness, and now he's in his public
ministry in the region of Galilee, proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at
hand and that everyone must repent and believe the Gospel. And this morning in
our message, we're moving into this passage where Jesus is in the early
ministry, his early ministry in Galilee. And the Gospels, when we read them,
they can be a little bit tricky because we can struggle to understand how the
different episodes relate to each other. Moving from scene to scene is not
always obvious to us how the scenes relate to each other. But what Mark is
emphasizing here in chapter one is the absolute complete authority of Jesus.
That's a theme that he will develop throughout the first half of the book. So
our passage this morning is about Jesus's authority in action, his authority in
action. We're going to look at that and then we'll see what it means for us. But
let's get into this text. We see first that Jesus has the authority to call.
Look at verse 16 through 20. Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon
and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea. They were
fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers
of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a
little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were
in their boat mending their nets. And immediately he called them and they left
their father's Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. So
we hear Jesus's public ministry summarized in verses 14 through 15. He comes
into Galilee, which would be like a region in northern Palestine, and he comes
proclaiming, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and
believe in the gospel. Well, then what happens next? He starts calling people to
follow him. He starts with these two sets of brothers, Simon, Peter, and Andrew.
That's one set. And then James and John. And I want us to think first about what
a reversal of authority this would be. If today you were looking for a coach or
a physical trainer or a piano teacher, the customary thing would be you would
approach them and ask if you could study or train under them. You would think
you would probably weigh your various options and think maybe this person can
help me. Maybe this person would be the best one to help me. And in Jewish
culture, if you wanted to study or to train under a rabbi, you would approach
them and ask. But in this case, Jesus is the one with authority. He's the one
initiating the relationship. He calls the disciples and tells them to leave
their lives and follow him. Follow me and I'll make you become fishers of men.
So Peter and Andrew are brothers. They're fishing. James and John, they're
brothers. They're fisher men who are mending their nets. And think about these
pairs of brothers and think about what a small world these men would have
inhabited. I don't even mean this in a negative way, but they likely would have
lived and died in Galilee by the sea. Their lives would have revolved around
fishing. You can probably imagine what their conversations would have looked
like day after day. Might have been who caught what, who had a good night
fishing, who has a new boat. It's a small world, kind of like a lot of Western
New Yorkers, you know, talking about Tim Hortons and we got a coupon at Delta
Sonic and Let's Go Bills. And like, it can be a small world that they lived in,
but they respond immediately to Jesus's call to discipleship. He comes and calls
them with absolute authority to follow him. And think about this, the trajectory
of their lives changes forever. Peter ended up going all the way to Rome as a
minister of the gospel. Do you think he was thinking about Italy when he was
sitting there by the boat when Jesus called him? John became a bishop of the
early church in Ephesus. It's Turkey. And according to early church history,
Andrew became a missionary who took the gospel to the edge of Russia. That's
what happens when a person meets Jesus. And I don't mean that every single
person becomes a missionary or world traveler, although that is possible. But
meeting Jesus will radically expand your horizons, your concerns, your
perspective, your direction in life. And that is what happens to these men. And
we see also in this section that Jesus unapologetically has the authority to
call people to follow him. We could say he's making a claim about himself that
he is one to be followed. He has that type of authority. Last week I said the
best way to understand Jesus is to read the historical documents about him. In
other words, actually read the gospels carefully. And when people today
categorize Jesus as someone who's inspirational or a good example to us for how
to live, that is a giveaway. They have not done that. That is not a conclusion
anyone in Galilee was coming to. If someone says that they have the authority to
call people to follow him, that person is making a very significant claim. In
other words, Jesus has the rightful authority to do that or else that is
something that like a cult leader would do, or someone who is mentally disturbed
or someone who is manipulating people for their own selfish ends. The call to
follow Jesus is initiated by Jesus and it has authority. So he calls with
authority and then we move to this section in verse 21 and we see Jesus, Jesus
is teaching itself, carries with it authority. If you look at verses 21 through
34, there are several episodes linked together, but really it is one Sabbath
day. Starting in the morning, ending at night, it's one Sabbath day in the life
of Jesus. Let's look at Mark 1, 21 through 29 to begin with. They went into
Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was
teaching. They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who
had authority and not as the scribes. 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? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the
Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, Be silent and come out of him.
And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out
of him. They were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying,
What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean
spirits and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all
the surrounding regions of Galilee. So Galilee is in northern Palestine and
Capernaum is like a little fishing village within that region alongside the sea
of Galilee. And Jesus comes to teach in the local synagogue. This is very
different than like the big temple in Jerusalem. It's the local house of
worship. And when the crowds heard Jesus teach in the synagogue, they were
amazed. They were astonished. They recognized something very different is going
on. Verse 22 says, They were astonished at his teaching. For he taught them as one
who had authority and not as the scribes. And the point is not simply that Jesus
was a really good communicator and the scribes were not, although that's
probable. The crowds aren't just recognizing like this is much better than what
we normally hear. The word authority is where we would get the word author. What
they're recognizing is that Jesus's authority is original. It's not second hand.
It's not derived. He's not rehashing material. He is the actual source. So the
local rabbis of the time, they would tend to see themselves as like the keepers
of tradition and the experts of the law. They might take the teaching time at
the synagogue to kind of like compare each other's opinions or look at different
perspectives and compare different rabbinic interpretations and traditions. And
now Jesus shows up and people recognize we are hearing something completely
different. This teaching carries with it inherent authority. Imagine if you were
taking like a literature class in high school or college and you're discussing
books like Huckleberry Finn or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. And as part of your
class, you have one of those huge textbooks that they give you in English or
language arts. And it's called something super boring like comparative studies
in American literature. And everyone's just sitting and maybe they read,
probably they didn't, and people are talking about the different things,
comparing different things. And then all of a sudden into the midst of the haze
and the boredom of that class, Mark Twain appears and starts to explain what
those books are actually about. Your discussion and your understanding would
radically change in that moment because you would be talking with the person who
has the highest possible grasp of the material because he actually wrote it
himself. Well, that's kind of what's going on. The people realize something very
different is going on this morning in the synagogue. They're astonished at the
teaching. The teaching has authority. But we also see that the teaching and the
announcement of the kingdom of God is going to come with opposition. Jesus gets
confronted by this man with an unclean spirit. We'll talk more as Mark goes on
because there's several episodes like this about what that means, but this is
clearly demonic. The text says there's a voice within the man screaming or
shouting. The man's in the grip of this demonic spirit. He's accusing. He's
crying out. He's trying to resist the power of Jesus. And when this demonic
spirit says, I know who you are, it's with this idea that by naming your enemy,
you can have power over it. You can imagine the disturbance going on in the
synagogue as everyone is wondering what's going to happen next. You can imagine
the chaos that's happening. And Jesus simply rebukes the spirit. He says, in
effect, be silent and shut up. And the man thrashes around and he convulses, but
the demon has no choice but to leave. It's powerless before the authority of
Jesus. And Mark again notes the response of the crowd in verse 27, 28. They were
all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this? A new
teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.
We see that Jesus has the authority to call people to follow him. His teaching
carries with it inherent authority. And that authority extends even to the
spiritual world as he has authority to cast out demons. So Mark's account
continues now after this encounter. Look at verse 29. And immediately he left
the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now
Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever and immediately they told him about
her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left
her and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown, they brought to him
all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered
together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and
cast out many demons and he would not permit the demons to speak because they
knew him. So Saturday morning after the synagogue, now we're supposed to be
coming home for lunch after church. And the problem is that Simon's mother-in-
law is flat on her back on the couch. And now we see Jesus's authority extends
over sickness, over the physical body. He has authority to call men to follow
him. He has authority to teach, to cast out demons. Now we see he can heal with
a single touch. You'll notice how just brief and simple this text is. There is
no complicated incantation or procedure. The idea in Mark, you see a variety of
healings and they're very personal. They're not the same. It's not formulaic.
It's not a technique. There aren't certain steps that need to be taken to help
someone. In this case, Jesus simply touches the woman by the hand. He takes her
by the hand and she's healed. She's restored to her rightful place. She's able
to serve. We can picture the joy in the home that Sabbath afternoon. And when
sundown comes, that marks the end of the Jewish Sabbath. So now everyone is free
according to the law to go about their business. And the truth is probably
everybody has been waiting since that morning to get over to Jesus' place. They
had to wait though for the end of the day. And everyone who is sick and
oppressed gathers at this place as night is falling. Imagine what a collection
of sick and broken humanity, all desperate, gathered outside the door. And the
text tells us Jesus healed many. He cast out many demons. Again, he exercises
his authority over the demonic realm by not permitting the demons to speak. And
what we're seeing outside the door of Peter and Andrew's house is a visible
demonstration of what Jesus was proclaiming. The kingdom of God is at hand. All
these healings represent the rule and reign of God. Each one of the healings and
miracles, they're authenticating the message that's being preached. And by the
end of verse 34, by the end of verse 34, we can see this night has fallen. This
whole crowd has come. So many people have been healed and we're thinking what
happens next? Verse 35 says, While it was still dark, he departed and went out
to a desolate place. And there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him
searched for him, and they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for
you. And he said to them, Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there
also, for that's why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in
their synagogues and casting out demons. So after this very busy Sabbath and
after this amazing day of ministry success, where Jesus had been teaching,
healing, astonishing everyone. After Mark reports, the whole city gathered at
the door. What happened next? Verse 29 says, His fame had spread everywhere.
Verse 32 says, The whole city was gathered. Then the next morning Jesus just
kind of intentionally disappears. And look at the way Mark describes how
purposeful this was. He says, Rising very early, he departed. He went out to a
desolate place. There he prayed. We get the sense that it kind of took a while
for Peter and for everyone else to find him. There's a little bit of this idea
of exasperation when they finally locate Jesus and they say, Everyone's looking
for you. And I'm sure there were more sick people, more oppressed people, more
teaching opportunities, more conversations to be had, more questions that people
had. Jesus says, He's got obligations and he's got expectations to deal with and
there are good things to be done. I'm sure Peter saw those needs. I'm sure I
would think at least also the disciples must also have been thinking, Let's
capitalize on this. Let's build on this. Let's make the most of this
opportunity. Most of us. Most of us. If we have success of any kind, we tend to
see it as a critical window of opportunity. We see it as leverage for future
success. It's this idea like this won't be here. This opportunity isn't going to
be here forever. Look at Jesus's response. Let's go. Let's go on from here.
Let's go on to the next towns that I may preach for that is why I came out. So
Jesus's ultimate agenda was not to heal every sick person or meet everyone's
expectations. That those healings did authenticate the proclamation that the
kingdom of heaven is at hand and the healings were real. And today God still has
the power to heal and God still heals. But the healings also are not the point,
not in the ultimate sense. A physical healing God does heal physically. We ought
to pray for it. There are times in the church when we ought to ask the elders to
come together and pray because God still heals. And a physical healing is never
going to be forever in this life. The reason Jesus came above that was to preach
the gospel and declare the kingdom of God. The healings authenticated the gospel
proclamation. He came out to preach the gospel and we see where the authority
comes from. Jesus was sent by the Father to declare the kingdom of God. And in
his humanity, he needed to pray as the pressures of other people's expectations
surrounded him. Jesus had external pressure from well-wishers. He had external
pressure from people wanting something from him. He had demonic opposition, as
we'll see later. He had religious opposition. He had pressure even from his own
family. He needed to pray to carry his mission out. Look at the end of Mark's
gospel. When Jesus's mission is coming to a close and he is facing the reality,
the pending reality of suffering on the cross. Once again, in the Garden of
Gethsemane, Jesus turns to prayer that he might finish his mission of giving his
life as a ransom for many. And here's the point for us. We are never going to
deal with pressures and expectations on the level that Jesus did. At the same
time, we all have to deal with burdens, responsibilities, people, obligations,
questions about how we ought best to spend and invest our time and resources.
And it's probably a very simple application that you're thinking of right now.
If Jesus was that purposeful to pray, how much more do we need to make time to
pray? This is early morning, undistracted, quiet time to pray. And this was the
source of Jesus's power and authority. He was sent by the Father in the power of
the Spirit to accomplish his mission to declare the Kingdom of God and to give
his life away as a ransom for many. Well, chapter one concludes like this. Verse
forty through forty five. A leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling said
to him, if you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out
his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And immediately the
leprosy left him and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent
him away at once and said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go
show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing. What Moses commanded
for a proof to them. But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to
spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town who was out in
desolate places. And people were coming to him from every quarter. This is a
physical healing, but it's a completely different situation than when Jesus
healed Peter's mother-in-law. A leper was uniquely sick, uniquely unclean.
Socially speaking, a leper was as good as dead. Leprosy was a disease that
chewed away at your skin. Because of the nature of the disease and the risk of
contagion, lepers were completely socially isolated from society. They had this
rotting, swelling skin disease. The Mosaic law considered them unclean in
Leviticus 13, 45 and 46. The law said this, the leper's person who has the
disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he
shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean
as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling
shall be outside the camp. So this leper's not supposed to approach Jesus, but
we can see the man's desperation. Look at the words in verse 40. He is
imploring. He is kneeling. Basically, he is begging. And he says to Jesus, if
you will, you can make me clean. So he's got no misunderstanding about his
condition. He knows he's ruined. And yet he comes in total faith. The question
in the leper's mind is not whether the lepercy is bad or whether Jesus could
heal him. He already knows both those things. It was whether Jesus was willing.
Most people would have been repulsed. They would not have touched this man with
a ten-foot pole. Their thoughts would have been about self-preservation and
about the risk of infection. And really, on a lighter level, we've all faced
this before. Maybe your co-worker's sick. Do you say hi to them? Do you try and
avoid them? Maybe your child's sick. It's like, do you give them a hug or a
kiss? Or do you risk contagion yourself? Maybe your spouse is sick. Do you kind
of feed them the food under the door? Leave them in their room alone? We want to
be kind, but we want to preserve ourselves. Jesus, full of love, mercy, and
power, cannot be contaminated. And the text says, moved with pity. He stretched
out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. So he touches
this repulsive social reject, and he heals him with one touch. And leprosy is
not a modern disease. None of us have this particular sickness. But really,
leprosy is analogous with our sin condition. Sin is really simply falling short
of God's holy standard, and sin is something we all do by our very nature and by
our own decisions. Sin is what separates us from God and from one another. Sin
will pervasively destroy us from the inside out, without healing and without
cleansing. And sin is what makes us unclean before God. In all those ways,
leprosy, which is described sometimes confusingly thoroughly in the Old
Testament, well, it points us towards a much deeper spiritual problem. And like
these lepers of old, we are completely helpless to cleanse ourselves. The only
remedy for sin is to acknowledge our situation and come to God in confession and
in confidence and faith. The leper wasn't sure whether Jesus would be willing to
cleanse him. He thought he might be too disgusting or too repulsive. But when we
think about our own sin condition, we can come to God with confidence and in
prayer for inner cleansing because we can know that is in absolute accordance
with his heart. Look at Jesus' power and compassion in coming to heal this man.
And look at what the Scripture tells us about Jesus' power to cleanse us from
within. 1 John 1.7 says, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin. Jesus has
the authority to call people to follow him. He has the authority to teach,
empower the very words of God. He has authority over the spirit world. He has
authority over the physical world. He's been sent by the Father to save and
restore, so he has authority in his mission. And because of his atoning blood,
he has authority to cleanse and forgive. And when we think, what does that all
mean for us? It's just very, very simple. We have to bow to that authority.
Maybe for the very first time confessing your sin and acknowledging Jesus as
Lord. It may be more specific when you recognize there are categories or areas
of your life where you do not want to bow to Christ and to his rightful
authority. Either way, Jesus' authority is comprehensive. We see it here in this
text, and we are called to bow to it. So let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for
giving us these words, this description of your life. Breathe that by the Holy
Spirit where we see your authority in action. And I pray for each one of us here
as we hear your words and see the rightful claims you make on our lives that we
would bow to that authority. Lord, where we resist, I pray that you would give
us faith and humility. Where we are proud, I pray that you would help us by your
spirit to humble ourselves. Lord, where we are afraid, I pray that you would
give us confidence to come to you for cleansing. In all these things I pray, in
your name, amen.