I thought we would pause this morning from our series. If you're a visitor, we're working through the book of Exodus in the mornings. And at nights we're going through Mark's gospel. I thought we would pause. Next week is the Lord's Supper and we will have a great section in Exodus chapter 17 to then come to the table. But this morning I wanted to consider with you Mark chapter 1 verses 21 through 28 where Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit. Mark chapter 1, Matthew, Mark, second book. This is the word of the Lord beginning at verse 21. 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 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? Excuse me. Have you come? What have you come 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word this morning. As we began Mark's gospel a few weeks ago in our evening service, you will, if you were there, you will remember that upon his anointing and then the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, he was cast out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days. And the intention of Mark's gospel, moving as fast as it is in these opening verses, was to make very clear right out of the gates that Jesus had defeated Satan himself in the wilderness. He had come to destroy the devil's works. This is the testimony of Scripture. We'll look at that. And with his presence, the kingdom of God had come upon the earth, the rule of God in a very powerful way. Not in the ways that we look for the kingdom or the ways that we think the kingdom should come, but it is present and it's very powerful. That's Mark's gospel. And why that is so important this morning is now as we begin to really, it took me a bit to get my head into this book, to really transition and see what Mark is doing, we are really understanding here the intention of our Lord as he has started now his earthly ministry. John the Baptist, of course, preparing the way, had made very serious calls out in the wilderness for people to repent and believe in him he prepared the way for what was known as this time of the gospel mark began that way the beginning of the gospel the time of fulfillment the time of gospel refreshing has come that everyone all throughout history had looked for but i want you to notice jesus is so strong on this right at the beginning calling people right out of the gates his first words being repent and believe for the kingdom of god is at hand the time has come the time of fulfillment is here jesus was commanding in mark's gospel right out of the gates with urgency the necessity for repentance and faith this being the inauguration of his kingdom coming that soon everything would be put under his feet everything hebrews says that that god has put all things in subjection under his feet yet at the present we do not see everything subject to him revelation anticipates the day when it's all said and done the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the lord and of his messiah and he will reign forever and ever when he said the kingdom has come he's pushing us to that it's moving fast that's mark's intention now that leads us to where we are today in our study of mark's gospel after his introduction immediately we are presented with this first scene if you will of now he is out this is this is jesus's day this is a day in the life of jesus this is fascinating stuff to study and he is out and you'll notice here as he now we enter into this first sort of scene the kingdom has come with real power in the scene before us that i read in verses 21 to 28 jesus is pulling back the curtains and he's showing us how the entire demonic kingdom of satan reacts to his coming that's really the intention up front here he wants to pull back the curtains and show you how the kingdom of darkness how the kingdom of satan has reacted themselves how they are reacting to his coming and all of that has the goal of showing for us how much power and how much authority he has the time has come his presence has opened the gates of heaven this is why he's calling people to repent and believe but in this short moment of time and it's a short moment he has come to subdue for because he has come to subdue forever all of those who have not submitted to him and not believed in him he is showing us that judgment's reality the coming judgment and its reality so mark is is through this initial event showing us the demonic realms response and he's challenging us as human beings made in the image of God he's challenging us as to our response to his coming that's the intention of this the initial call being repent and believe it's challenging us to ask the question have you repented and believe that is so clearly the intention in this he's challenging us to that question because now is the time it's the moment of gospel refreshing that all of history looked for in fulfillment. There is one word that dominates this section and it is the word authority. In fact, I had initially titled my sermon, He Came as One with Authority. Authority. He's using that authority again to impress the intention of repentance and faith. And you'll notice that here, that that's demonstrated authority in his teaching. And then in the demonstration, as he frees this man, and then, of course, his call to people to accept and receive and believe in that authority in true faith. Let's look at this. In verse 21, we read that they went into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. Capernaum was a flourishing community of traders and merchants and, of course, a booming fishing industry. Remember what we looked at last time with the fishing and the Romans having confiscated 200 fishing boats about this time. In fact, they believe they found with some certainty the house of Peter in Capernaum. It seems that Jesus made his home here many times, staying in Capernaum and even lived for a time in the house of Peter. The public ministry of Mark's gospel begins here. It begins here. But what is specifically noted in this one is that it begins in the synagogue. Fascinating. We begin in the synagogue. The Jews had established a network of synagogues all throughout the various cities throughout Palestine. The temple was still obviously the center of their worship in the major feasts, we see that, but when it came to sort of routine Sabbath worship, the people would, just kind of like the church today, attend various synagogues in their cities for worship. And here, as these synagogues are all spread throughout Palestine, each town and village maybe would have several of these synagogues, the word meaning to gather or a symbol. It was the place of real common life among the people. They had schools there. They had meeting halls. They had courtrooms. Of course, the prime emphasis being it to be a place of worship. On the Sabbath, they would have services not unlike ours, as a matter of fact. They would begin their services with blessings. They would have prayers of response. They would read a passage from the Pentateuch, they would read a passage from the prophets, and then they would have a sort of sermon that the scribes gave, an exposition of it. It was then followed by a benediction. What was different, however, was known as the freedom of the synagogue. Anyone who was a ruler or rabbi was allowed, when recognized, to get up and stand up and deliver the homily, deliver the sermon. Jesus' ministry begins in the synagogue. He enters the synagogue and he begins to teach. But something is said that drives this section. In verse 22 again, we read that they were astonished as he was teaching, they were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority not as the scribes now we know from Matthew's gospel that was the reaction right after the sermon on the mount too they were astonished they were struck out of themselves you could if you were to sort of make it a plain way of saying it they were blown out of their minds when they heard him teach they'd never heard anything like it. Mark says it came with real authority. Mark is impressing this upon us as he now transitions initially, and his goal here is to show you that this authority and this power had a great effect on the kingdom of darkness and the demon. Lo and behold, Mark wants you to see that the preaching of the gospel threw the kingdom of Satan into absolute chaos. absolute chaos. What we find, which is interesting, is that a demon had been hanging around the synagogue. A demon was sitting and hanging and influencing the synagogue. As Jesus is preaching, the demon is listening to this. I don't think he visually recognized Jesus. This was a common thing where they would get up and they would speak. Jesus is clothed in our humanity you know he had become one of us he had taken on a human nature there was nothing outwardly glorious about him when they looked at him it makes it really powerful because here comes the son of god and as he's preaching the gospel he starts doing that the preaching of the gospel with authority he is getting into the hearts and lives of people with this and this has caused a problem when that happens you can you can you can just get the imagery from ezekiel in the valley of dry bones bones are sitting there bones are rattling and flesh is coming on them i mean this is the fulfillment that's exactly what's going on and this is the most alarming phenomenon for the kingdom of satan in fact what mark wants to show you is that they fall apart at this think about it The Son of God has just defeated Satan himself out in the wilderness. That's where Mark started. And now he has just put down. He has just taken out. He just handled the devil in the desert. No one in history has done that. No one. Everything's thrown up. Dirt is kicked up everywhere. And now Jesus starts teaching. Now Jesus starts preaching. and runs into one of Satan's positioned demons in the synagogue. Jesus steps into the synagogue. And as he's listening this demon to the word of God, it's the word that shakes him up. It is the word of Jesus Christ that utterly shakes him up. As he hears that word, and as he sees that word beginning to overtake hearts, in other words, he's seeing the response. Nothing has ever been done like this. Nothing has ever been heard like this in the synagogue. He loses control. And he enters into somebody. This is a battle for hearts, remember. And using this man's vocal cords, we read in verse 23 that this man in whom the demon had entered cried out saying, 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. Demons aren't noisy. No demon, no false teacher ever yells out and says, here I am, you know. They don't do that. Satan, 1 Corinthians tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light and so he has ministers who are his own ministers who appear as ministers of righteousness and let me tell you, they quietly do their job and they're good at it. It's fascinating as Jesus is preaching, he starts screaming. I mean, you have to feel that in the middle of the synagogue. We've never had that in here. None of you better do that. I know ministers in whom that's happened to. One day it'll happen. Somebody's going to get up and challenge. I pray, not from this body, but somebody, you know. This was different. This was directly a demon. And he, the word that Mark chose here is really powerful he screeches out with the loudest scream he can give through that man's vocal cords in the midst of jesus's sermon i know who you are you imagine screeching out it's about as bad of an interruption as you could ever get preaching your sermon the demon is listening to the words of christ he hears what's happening he's observing the response It's like when Paul preached and he could perceive that a man listening to him had the faith to be healed. You know when people are with you and when people are checked out. Jesus has them all. He is getting into their hearts. He is building the kingdom. Remember we looked at last time? Into the hearts of the people. And if he is overtaking hearts, now you have a demon who's panicked, leaping into a heart to battle over that heart. Now here's what I'm getting. He hears this kind of preaching. He hears this kind of authority. He hears gospel. Notice that's what Mark's telling us he's preaching. He hears grace. And he has no ability to control himself. None. He can't control himself. He can't contain himself. He shrieks out recognizing what it is. shrieks out. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. I know where you came from. Remember when certain people tried to cast out demons, certain ministries in Acts, and they were running around trying to do that in the name of Jesus. And remember what happened in Acts? That the demons in Acts said, Jesus we know, Paul we know, but we don't know you. And they leaped on them. Remember that? Those ministries were under the darkness. They knew. The demons leaped on those ministers because they did not come with the authority of Christ. They were not sent by Christ. The ministry of Jesus came with such power and such authority because it was time for judgment to begin. Here's my question. Here's my question. How long had the people been coming up to the synagogue to worship? They got in their synagogue clothes. They kept coming up to the synagogue every single Sabbath. They heard the call to praise. They heard the Bible readings of the Old Testament. The scribes got up and they preached. Everyone went back home and nothing happened. How long? The demon had been assigned to this synagogue. We see this in Scripture. The devil has done this. Daniel shows that. Demons are assigned places. He had stationed one of his demons at this synagogue. And he was perfectly content with the worship of the people. Isn't that something? He was content. he never shrieked out before. He was content with what they were hearing. He was content with how it was going. And I stopped and I think, what in those stars were they getting? Did you notice the contrast that Mark made? Jesus came to preach with authority, not as the scribes. The scribes were the primary teachers in Israel. Everyone went to the synagogue to hear the all-wise scribes, to supposedly explain the scriptures to them. R.C. Sproul said the scribes were like the PhDs in theology. Their opinions were accorded with great weight by the scribes. So what they would do is that they would get up and they would give their interpretations, but it was nothing more than an academic exercise. I mean it. They did nothing but endlessly quote the other scribes. They loved to quote the other scribes. They were constantly after the approval of men. In fact, some of them had believed, but in John's Gospel it said they would not confess Jesus because they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. If you ever read the Talmud, which is a collection of Jewish writings, they just ramble and dispute and ramble and dispute. William Henderson said it's as dry as dust. They were so disconnected from the people. They were endlessly training other scribes to be like this. Totally disconnected. One of the biggest observations about the teaching of the scribes was that they wasted all their time on trivialities. The minutia. Nothing of it was beneficial to the spiritual life of the people. In fact, this is what burdened our Lord when he came into the Jewish tight-knit community. was a community tied to superimposed traditions of the law. And remember this, when that was the concern, you hear Matthew 15 come out, the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat and you say what that's what you're concerned about see how out of whack the priorities were aren't you concerned people are dying do you even believe in hell anymore aren't you concerned about that aren't you or are you worried about debating the fine points of the law it had become a self-righteous club no one could get into church leaders were in front saying God I thank you I'm not like these other men out there while the real problem of the people in back beating their chest over their sins wasn't getting handled you know people can get really comfortable in this that's what amazes me isn't it something you could you could come up to worship every Sunday for years you could go through the tradition of the elders for years hear thousands of sermons you could be the most religious people on the face of the earth you could keep the tradition to a T. What does that tell you? There are certain ministries in the name of Jesus that have no power. Nothing ever gets to the conscience. And the people are fine with it. They did their synagogue duty. They put on their nice clothes. They headed out. Had a great lunch. Great. We did church today. Mark says a demon was really pleased with that. In other words, the kind of ministry you would want to attend is one that the demon would never want to stay quiet about. And it's not in the things that we value or the things that we think that make the demon screech out. A demon would love a church with no reverence for holiness, no one taking much seriously about anything, a church looking like the world, the messages, everything's fine, you guys are all doing great, good job. Demon would love that. because the heart of your need is not being addressed. Do you think Jesus would be telling people if He were here today how to manage their finances? Do you think that would be His priority? Do you think Jesus would be out today giving steps to this to have a great life? This night, your soul may be required of you. That's on His mind. Now that helps us to understand the ministry of Jesus, doesn't it? You know what happened when Jesus went into the synagogue? Well, you can kind of put this together from the other Gospels. In the Old Testament, he would read, and this is what we have in Luke's Gospel. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed in their lives to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and he handed it back to the attendant and he sat down, the attendant sat down and all the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Whoa! Who ever said that? I fulfill that right now. I fulfill it. And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the, ready? Gracious words that were coming from His mouth. Mark chose the word authority means out of source so jesus teaching was out of the source this is what he'd been saying in john's gospel the whole time i speak to the world the world the things that i heard from my father it's right out of the source he is out of the source he's preaching the gospel with conviction but most of all he wasn't giving dry muddled expositions his goal wasn't the dissemination of information over disputes and controversies. He had one goal in his preaching. You know what it was? The conversion of people's lives. That they would repent and believe the gospel. It was to bring the truth of the gospel so powerfully to bear on the people's consciences that when they heard him preach, they understood it was a matter of life and death. You can't walk out of here neutral. You've got to decide to go one way or the other. That was preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That's why there was so much opposition to him in his ministry. Demons were content with the ministry of the scribes. Not this. Not this. Because it's getting into hearts. I assure you, if your Judaism was an affluent, prosperous, don't press me too much, Don't make me feel uncomfortable. Don't make me feel conviction. Jesus, you would have hated listening to. In fact, many people who were very religious walked away from Him. Would you have been one that walked away from Him because He made you so uncomfortable about your life? The people had been confronted so directly and so powerfully. Everything was stirred up. Dust was kicked up everywhere. All hell broke loose. And that should tell you something about preaching. Everyone today aims for a comfortable environment where visitors feel non-threatened, nothing can be off-putting. His preaching was so uncomfortable for those who never wanted to turn that in Luke, he was in the synagogue of Nazareth before this. And listen to this. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff. They were done with him. But others were overtaken. All these broken sinners were coming to him and receiving relief. The woman at the well, Nicodemus, the blind, the sick, the lame, all the needy were getting forgiven. Gracious words were coming to them. this ministry caused an uproar. And here's the uproar Mark wants you to think about. 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. Mark wants to show you something here. Pull back the veil, what the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ coming upon the earth, here's the demonic view of it. Here's the demonic response to it. When the demon hears the word of Jesus, look at his response, Mark says. Look at what they understood was happening. We read, the demon says, I know just who you are. You had a demon recognize his voice. He knew that voice. He knew him because this was God incarnate. And the demon, after hearing this kind of authority, is shrieking out in fear and panic over the word of Christ because he thinks it's over. He's come. It's done. It's done. He's trembling so much, he can't help but cry out because years ago, he heard this voice say to him, Jude tells us this, that all the demons were reserved in chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day. After the fall, God doomed them. He cursed them forever. They're done. They're going to hell. It's sealed. Their doom is sealed. They have nothing to look forward to except eternal fire. They can't be saved. And this demon says, have you come to do it now? Is now the time. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. In other words, the demons believed. James says that, that even the demons believe and shudder. So they believe and then they tremble at the Word. You know, we all have this questioning of God among humans today. Think about what goes on to try to disprove His existence. Think about all the hatred of God from humanity. We have atheists. We have everyone under the sun questioning everything about God. There's no fear of Him in the earth. Remember Romans 3, there's no fear of God in their eyes. Look at how he's treated by humans. And Mark says, look at how he's treated by demons. They had no problem believing in the Holy One of God. The whole spiritual realm was set ablaze by his presence. They are utterly falling apart before him. They heard him speak. The kingdom is here. They are listening to the gospel that has no intention for them. and all hell is breaking loose because they think the time of their eternal torment begins. So what are they doing? Confessing His name. That's what's going on here. You have to understand, the Lord told us every knee will bow, every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord. They're doing it. They're doing it right now. The time has come. How wonderful a scene is this then for this reason. Mark told you at the beginning This is the time of gospel refreshing for you. Who is the sad case in this story? The man who was overtaken by a deity. We don't know his name. We're not told. I would imagine week after week, he went up to the synagogue to worship. I would imagine week after week, he heard all the synagogue sermons. Look at the darkness gripping his life. I think we look at a passage like this and demonic possession and we reform people say, we don't believe in that. We don't believe in that. And we really are missing the point. There may not be a demon under every pew. They are present. Can't you see the havoc they wreak? The mere fact that this could happen, doesn't it tell you of the darkness that prevails over people's minds and hearts? influencing their hearts and their minds. We go through our days, we get up in the morning and we act like this is no big thing. This is no big thing, you know? And all the while we may come every Sunday to worship God. All sorts of stuff's going on. The Scriptures tell us you don't wrestle with principalities and powers, I mean, you don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers of the rulers of the darkness, the prince of the power of the age who now rules in the sons of disobedience. This is what you're wrestling with. You want to know how prevalent the darkness is? A man, one day, who had every intention never to deny his Lord and had a good intention to stop the Lord from going to the cross. His name was Peter. It will never happen that you're going to the cross. Get behind me, Satan. Peter was not possessed. What Jesus saw was Satan right there. Jesus saw it. He was directly involved in attacking. Satan is asked to sift you as wheat. You know that goes on? Here's my point this morning. There was only one who could undo this mess. 1 John 3.8, The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. The world sits back and it can't explain why all these terrible things are happening. Isn't it just something? You think you're going to regulate that with gun control? You think you're going to really stop shootings? They can't figure out all this evil. They can't figure out all these things that are going on. In fact, they're blinded to it. They can tear apart babies and they don't even care. We know that behind all of this activity are demons and hearts that are receptive to it. look at the havoc oh the bondage don't you see it and mark says today to you do you see how much authority he has do you see his power but jesus rebuked him be silent come out of him and the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out right right then right there he was out the man was free in the synagogue from the mere word of christ jesus commands his release with a demon overtaking his life. Immediately that demon flees. Jesus gives a solemn warning. As the demons were running around proclaiming him, Jesus gives a solemn warning and says, don't you say anything else. Shut up. You say, why did he stop the demons from saying it? The word he chose here is that he wrapped a muzzle around the demon's mouth. In fact, the end of verse 33 says he didn't allow the demons to speak because they knew him. People have been puzzled by that. The answer is simple. The demons can't keep silent about him. They have to cry out realizing he's the son of God and bow the knee. But why does he stop this? The time is not yet. And he won't have demons testifying of him. He has a testimony of himself and he gives that to us. You won't have demons doing that. Mark wants your heart set on the Son of God this morning. He has that much power to bring you freedom. He has that much power to set you free. His word, his gospel, is freedom to you. And it's the most encouraging message to you this morning. The king has the ability to obliterate all darkness and he will over people's lives ultimately. But Mark presses us with a response. Saying to you, do you know who's come? Do you know the day of your visitation? They'd all come up on the Sabbath day. They'd all heard. They were all mesmerized by his power of his preaching. They were taken by his authority. They were all amazed. So they questioned among themselves, 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 the surrounding region of Galilee. They had never been confronted with the truth that way. The impact of this is, should be how the demons responded to his coming. Every demon shrieks, panics, drops, despairs, bows, trembles at the word, believes it's the Son of God, trembles before the Son of God, can't keep their mouths shut about the Son of God. That's the demon's response. But the people, wow! That was amazing! Really? I hope next time we get to come up to the synagogue and hear something like that again. I hope next time we get to go and see a show like that again. Jesus is interesting. He is so interesting. Demons and unbelievers go to the same lake of fire on that day. Think of the glorious truth then in closing, the gospel. Demons had no chance for salvation. It's over for them. Jesus holds off the time of final judgment for you. Instead of wrath, right now, this powerful Son of God with all authority in his gospel speaks his gospel to you right now and he's inviting you to come instead for forgiveness in life. He desires to free you from your darkness. Have you responded to the Son of God? Mark is so urgent in repentance and turning from your sins. Fear him, reverence him, bow him, confess his name now because you can do it without judgment. Turn like the demons would if they could. You see this? Turn like the demons would if they could because everything is about to be put under his feet. And if he's not your savior, he's your enemy. So don't just be amazed with Him. Don't just be interested in Him. Don't just walk up to the church every Sunday and go home and have nothing affect you. Come to Him for life. His powerful voice today has come to you in the preaching of the Gospel. It's saying, believe and you will be saved. All you who are weary, heavy laden, burdened, stricken with guilt, sorrowful, in bondage to another master, Come to me, says Jesus, and I will set you free. You repent and believe, and I will set you free. That's his wonderful gospel, and he has the power to do it. He is the Son of God. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, what a wonderful text. So powerful to show your intention, and how wonderful you are to give us this day of refreshing in your Son so that we can come and find life. Oh, let us hear that voice and not harden our hearts to it. Let us not just be amazed. Let us cry out believing, trusting, confessing, realizing that You are and believing in the eternal Son of God who came to save us from all of our sins. Give us true repentance and faith and encourage our hearts that You've broken the darkness, You've shattered the bondage, and we have nothing but the joy held out before us of being with You forever in glory as our friend. We praise You today in Jesus' name. Amen.