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A friend once described his life before he became a Christian; he said it was rather like staggering around helplessly in the dark. And then he said that becoming a Christian was like someone turning the lights on and suddenly, for the first time, he could see and everything around him began to make sense. He said that one of the best things about being a Christian was knowing how to live life, and knowing that following Jesus was submitting to a King who had his best interests at heart; The King with authority.

We’ve just started a new set of sermons in Mark’s gospel the past few weeks. Tonight we’re going to unpack another remarkable passage about Jesus – who Mark begins his gospel account by telling us is the Christ (the long-promised Saviour from sin) and the Son of God. And over the next number of weeks we’re going to see more of what that means, because we’ll see more of who Jesus is. And tonight, we’ll see that Jesus is the King with authority. But before we go any further, let’s pray…

Do have Mark 1:21-28 open in front of you that’s on page 836.

1. Jesus’ authority to speak for God (Mark 1.21-22)

Reading from Mark 1.21-22:

...And they [that’s Jesus and his disciples] went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished [literally: “shocked”] at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

If you’re a student here tonight, let me cheer you up, by asking: When’s your first assignment due?! Let me cheer you up even more...When you write an essay you can have the best content, and the best argument, and you can write up the best research, but you will do really badly if you don’t get one thing right: those little numbers that link to all the blabber at the bottom of the page - your footnotes! (How smug those of you aren’t students look!) Footnotes and references are vital because they link our work to another higher authority. At the time of the New Testament, the scribes were the considered the highest authorities on religious matters. But, at best, their authority was derived from the Old Testament part of the Bible. And, on top of that, there was also a tradition of quoting and relying on other scribes in building arguments. That’s the background. So picture Jesus, walking into the synagogue and beginning to teach.

Now we aren’t told what he taught, but Mark does give us Jesus’ first words (or mini sermon) back in Mark 1.15. Jesus said:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel

i.e. “I am the King who can bring you back into God’s kingdom – so turn away from ruling your own life, and trust that I can forgive you and change you”. And that’s a summary of Jesus’ fundamental message. Perhaps he opened the Old Testament and taught with such clarity that the prophecies there pointed to him. Perhaps he spoke of God’s kingdom like he’d been there, or of God like he knew him personally. But what Mark is really highlighting here is not what Jesus taught, but how he taught. Mark 1.22, he taught:

…as one who had authority.

There were no footnotes; no references to someone else, or someone greater. Jesus spoke for God with absolute authority. He was authority. And the people’s jaws drop. They turn to each other and said, “We have never heard anything like this before...” And that’s because it was the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Can you imagine being in the synagogue to hear him? Mark is painting a royal portrait of King Jesus, and he will go on to show us how Jesus will go to the cross where he’ll die for our sin, and rise again from the dead. And that puts Jesus’ authority at a whole new level because if Jesus was prepared to die for how you and I have pushed God out of our lives it shows he’s the kind of King with our best interests at heart. And if he rose again from the dead, then he must be speaking for God because he must BE God, and we ought to listen to and submit to him.

So as Pete said, we’ve got a week of events coming up at church were we want to propose Jesus our Saviour and King to other people. And we’ve called it “Jesus make sense of life” because we believe that he does. That’s not saying that life is easy. Nor is it saying that life is easy following Jesus, but it is saying that life makes a lot more sense with Jesus than it does without him. It’s like someone turns on the lights, and you realise that before you were flapping around in the dark. Jesus himself said he is light of the world, and Jesus makes sense of life only because he has the authority as the Son of God to answer the big questions about life. Questions that we would otherwise be in the dark about like “Is there a God and what is he like?” Answer: “Yes, there is. And he came to earth in the person of Jesus – so look at him and you’ll see what God is like”. Like “Who decides right or wrong?” Answer: “Jesus says he does and that you and I don’t”. That’s why we want the Bible to be at the front and centre of our life together – here on a Sunday, and during the week; because the Bible is the record of Jesus teaching with authority. And Jesus himself said that all of the Bible, in one way or another, is about him and is his teaching for us. So any teacher or preacher, like me or the others of us here, at best has a derived authority. And any preaching and teaching stands or falls on whether it’s faithful to the word of God because all the power to change, and all the authority belongs to Jesus. So we need to pay absolute attention to him and his words. As the old hymn puts it:

Trust and obey, for there's no other wayTo be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey...[John H. Sammis (1887)]

Back in the synagogue this astonishing teaching of Jesus is interrupted by a howl from the crowd, and our story takes an unexpected twist. And Mark wants us to see that Jesus had authority not just to teach but a spiritual authority concerned with the big enemy we face in life. So, secondly:

2. Jesus’ authority to deliver us from evil (Mark 1.23-28)

Back to the action! Reading from Mark 1.23-25:

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? [i.e. what do you want Jesus?] 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.

Can you picture the scene? The crowd gathered and transfixed, hanging on Jesus’ every word, and suddenly a man starts shouting...and then he’s there, right in front of Jesus, saying “What do you want Jesus? Why are you here?” This poor man was dominated by the unclean spirit, or demon. It controlled him. It was de-personalising him – though it was his voice, it was the demon who spoke. It was destroying him. But with a few short words the demon is silenced and removed from the man. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s not even a contest. Jesus is the King with authority. The demon is silenced because Jesus had come to conquer demons, not to listen to them. The demon knew who Jesus was. But Jesus will reveal who he is, and what he came to do, on his terms in his own time. To use modern parlance: Jesus controls the narrative.

I wonder, what do you make of this incident? Many around the world might not bat an eyelid at this kind of account, but our Western culture is largely non-spiritual. Which means that we’re inclined to find this a bit weird, and more than a bit, well, pre-modern. I’ve been watching Rings of Power on Amazon Prime recently - the prequel to the Lord of the Rings detailing the rise of the evil Sauron. It’s been absolutely panned by the critics, but I guess I’m just a sucker for the classic good versus evil story line. Why are we so compelled by those types of stories? Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dune, The Hunger Games, Star Wars...they’re all around us. Is it because deep down we know evil is a reality and we’re worried it’s going to win? Can we really believe that all the evil in our world is simply the sum total of everyone’s bad choices? Or might there be something bigger behind it all? And if there is, how can we explain it? And what do we do about it?

Jesus taught there is such a thing a real devil and demons, who act as his agents. Together they are a real force for evil in our world. And although it leaves questions for us, we can’t simply dismiss demon possession as being pre-scientific. Our reading from Genesis 3 showed us that everything that’s gone wrong with our world is a result of humanity’s choice to reject God. And that rebellion looked like it promised freedom but in reality, it was going along with the devil and his schemes. Now, our passage is an extreme example of this work of the devil. Demon possession was not an everyday occurrence at the time of the New Testament. And our passage is an account of God himself, in the person, of Jesus being confronted by the devil and his forces. So as Ian said last week, narrative is not to be read as normative of us and our experience. Demonic activity like this is far from an everyday occurrence today. In our culture of course, it would seem the devil mainly operates by convincing people he doesn’t exist. But what is true is that left unaided and without Jesus, we are under the influence of the devil – who is an anti-God power. That’s why some Christians can look back to their life before they trusted in Jesus and say: “I was out of control.” or “I was ruled by anger, or lust, or greed...”

I remember someone telling me, before finding Jesus that his life was work and money. It defined him. He said looking back it felt like it owned him. The chilling thought is that the devil was there tempting and enticing him in all of that. These are not pleasant thoughts, but they aren’t meant to be, are they? The demon shouts (Mark 1.24) Jesus... have you come to destroy us? And the answer is yes he has. Because, this passage is a snapshot of something far greater to come that Mark’s gospel is building towards. The point where Jesus goes to the cross to deal with the devil and his minions. On the cross Jesus took the punishment our sin and rejection of him deserved so that the barrier of sin between us and God could be removed. And he rose again from the dead, triumphing over sin and evil. And he is building a new kingdom of forgiven people - people who love God and want to serve him. People who one day, will live in a new world he promises – a world without sin and evil, and a world ruled only by the power of Jesus. Because of the cross and resurrection there is no doubt – victory is secure in Jesus! And the lies of the devil are utterly exposed because the devil whispers to us “Live as you want, do as you please – it’s ok!” But through Jesus, God has created a people who now want to say “No it’s not ok. I want to live for King Jesus who has loved and forgiven me”. And the devil’s tactic was to look to God and say to him about any of us “Look they’ve rejected you. They’re living their way, but really, they’re under my influence and listening to my lies”. But because of Jesus, God can reply “They’ve trusted in the death of my son – they are forgiven, accepted and loved – and you have no ultimate say over their life now, or over their eternal destiny”.

The devil has been fundamentally de-powered, and is now living on borrowed time. So, if we’re Christians…Jesus our King - He lives in us. He possesses us. He protects us. He has secured our destiny. But at the same time, we are still vulnerable to the devil and his attacks in the here and the now. And I think the best illustration of this is the D-Day landings because on the 6th June 1944 when the allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, and established a base for their invasion, the war in Europe was effectively over. There was no way back for the Axis powers. But some of the fiercest fighting would continue until an unconditional surrender was signed on the 8th May 1945. The devil is raging in our world, angry because he knows his time is short.

Can you hear his tempting and accusing voice? “God doesn’t love you…He just limits your pleasure…He’ll never accept you after this…” “That person deserved your anger, look how hard life has been for you…” Temptations and lies. The final battle rages on. But friends, it will not rage on forever. Sooner or later, the devil and all evil will be crushed for good. So, who do you want to live for? Who do you want to listen to? Who do you want to influence you? The pathetic lies of the devil who hurts and destroys? Or the authority of the victorious and compassionate King Jesus? Evil wreaks havoc in our world. The pain, frustration, the mess of our world…Words cannot describe its horrors. And sometimes we experience it and taste the utter awfulness of life. But trusting in Jesus is trusting the Saviour who went to the cross to defeat sin and evil, and who took the full weight of it on himself, for us. It’s trusting the King with the authority to one day destroy evil forever. And it’s trusting the Friend who’s with us every step of the way, guiding us through the terrors of life, and guaranteeing that he will bring us home. Does any other worldview give us a hope that’s even close to that? How else can we make sense of the darkness? What other hope can we have? The final few verses of our passage, from Mark 1.27-28:

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.

Who is Jesus? That’s Mark’s big question; He’s the King with the authority to speak for God – to make sense of it all, to give us the answers to life’s big questions. And he’s the King with the authority to deliver us from evil – the only saviour from the biggest enemy of all. He is amazing! Does he amaze you? If he does, listen to what he says; know that he can deliver you from evil, and trust him. Don’t stagger around in the dark. Give your life to the King with authority. Let’s pray...