Mark 1:21-28

Int.: The story that Mark tells us in our text this morning follows immediately after his story of the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow Jesus and to become fishers of men. That story was our Gospel reading last Sunday.

1. The story in our text is the first time that we are told about Jesus preaching in a synagogue.

1. Previously we were told that Jesus had been preaching out in wilderness areas and baptizing people in the Jordan River, like his cousin John the Baptist had been doing. In fact, some of John’s disciples were upset at first that Jesus and his followers were competing with them in preparing their people for the arrival of the Kingdom of God, and that Jesus was becoming more popular than John was.

2. But John told his disciples, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:27-30)

2. St. Mark tells us that it was after John was thrown into prison by Herod Antipas that Jesus called some of his followers to full time discipleship and began to preach in the synagogues of Galilee as a traveling rabbi.

1. We are also told that Jesus had moved from Nazareth to Capernaum shortly before this. Soon Jesus would make the home of Simon Peter in Capernaum the unofficial headquarters of his ministry on earth. He would return to that home again and again, so it was the closest thing he had to a home in this world.

2. The synagogue just down the street from Peter’s home quickly became the home church for Jesus during his ministry, and today’s text tells us about the first time Jesus preached there and the reaction that he received. St. Mark tells us that …

ALL THE PEOPLE WERE AMAZED AT JESUS.

I. They Were Amazed At Christ’s Teaching.

1. Mark says in our text, “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.”

1. The typical rabbi who taught in a synagogue at that time taught Jewish traditions. Those traditions were the accepted ideas and teachings of previous rabbis and of their contemporary rabbis. If they could quote several different rabbis who taught something, especially if they were well-known rabbis, then the idea was accepted as true.

2. That very same thing is done in our high schools and colleges today. But there it is called “scholarship” and “research.” Students are not expected to do their own studies on different topics and then develop their own ideas of what is true based on the evidence. They are normally only expected to quote from articles and books written by others, thus creating secular traditions and doctrines that are taught in our schools. Rarely does anyone ever challenge whether the people being quoted actually knew what they were talking about.

3. The traditions that developed among the Jewish rabbis worked the same way. Rarely did anyone ever challenge whether the people being quoted actually knew what they were talking about. The rabbis talked a lot about religion and about what the Bible said, but rarely did they ever take their listeners back to the source itself.

4. Jesus was radically different. As the word of God incarnate, Jesus was the ultimate authority on everything religious. As a teacher, Jesus echoed the prophet Isaiah, who had rejected the false teachings of his day and challenged his people to go “Back to the Bible!” Jesus also challenged his people to go “Back to the Bible,” and to actually listen to what God himself told them there. Jesus constantly quoted the Bible, but never another rabbi. That radical difference in style and in the source of their teachings set up the conflict between Jesus and the other rabbis in his day that marked his entire ministry.

5. You may remember another preacher who challenged his people to go “Back to the Bible,” and to listen to what God himself actually said, instead of listening to the worthless traditions that people had invented over the centuries. That preacher was Dr. Martin Luther in Germany. He too was radically different from the other teachers of his day, and he changed Christianity permanently with his return to Scripture alone as the source of Christian teachings and beliefs.

2. But it was not just Jesus’ style that the people were amazed at, it was also the content of his teaching that caught their attention.

1. Day in and day out, from morning ‘til night, Jesus taught his people about the coming Kingdom of God. Jesus began most of his parables with, “The kingdom of God is like …” and the rest of his teachings centered on that topic also. What Jesus called “the kingdom of God,” we today call Christianity. He was preparing his people for the New Testament kingdom of grace that comes from the proclamation of the Gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

2. The message that Jesus taught to his people was usually, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) God’s grace would find its fulfillment in Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, and in Jesus’ conquest of death on Easter day. With Christ’s payment for the sins of the world would come the promise of forgiveness for all people based upon their trust in Jesus as their Savior. But Jesus did not wait until after his death and resurrection to tell people that their sins were forgiven, he forgave people’s sins and proclaimed the grace of God to sinners every day.

3. As much as the people were amazed at the style and the message of Jesus when he preached, …

II. They Were Amazed At What Christ Did.

1. The miracles of Jesus were becoming the talk of all Galilee.

1. It started with Jesus turning about a hundred and fifty gallons of water into wine at the wedding of some friends in the city of Cana in Galilee. The fishermen Peter, Andrew, James and John, along with some other friends, had attended that wedding along with Jesus, and they saw the miracle with their own eyes. St. John tells us in his gospel account, “[Jesus] thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” (John 2:11)

2. I guarantee you that none of the people who attended that wedding in Cana kept the story of what Jesus did there to themselves. Other miracles quickly followed, and Jesus’ reputation as a teacher sent from God quickly grew. As Nicodemus, a leading rabbi among the Pharisees told Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3:2)

2. The people of Capernaum were about to see an astonishing miracle by Jesus that day, also.

1. St. Mark tells us in our text that Jesus was teaching God’s word when, “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

2. How shocked everyone in the place must have been to hear that outcry! I have no idea why a demon-possessed man went to worship at the synagogue, or why he was allowed in if other people realized that he was possessed by an evil spirit. My guess is that at least the synagogue leaders did not realize this about the man. As Jesus preached, terror gripped the evil spirit who possessed that man, and he cried out to Jesus with the truth. Jesus was indeed the Holy One of God who had come to destroy the devil’s work and to set people free from the devil’s power. Yes, Jesus had come to destroy Satan and all his minions, exactly as God had promised through his prophets.

3. This was the first time an evil spirit had shouted out the truth about Jesus, but it would not be the last. In fact, that seems to have happened on a fairly regular basis. The very sight of the Son of God struck terror into the hearts of demons. But Jesus neither needed nor wanted the testimony of demons to bring people to faith in him. Jesus sternly told the demon in that man, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” The evil spirit threw the man into convulsions and then came out of him with a loud shriek.

4. If there was anyone in that synagogue who was not already amazed at what Jesus was teaching them, the sight and the sounds of Jesus casting the demon out of that man in their town truly astonished them. “What is this?” they said, “He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”

III. They Were Amazed At Who Christ Was.

1. “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” the evil spirit had confessed about Jesus.

1. That term – the Holy One of God – was an obvious reference to the promised Messiah. But Jesus did not need or want the devil and his demonic hosts telling people who he was. Later on Jesus would tell people, “[The devil] is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) Testimony from the habitual liar who had invented lying is hardly credible, even if it happens to be true. That is why Jesus commanded that demon to be quiet. A couple of chapters later in his gospel account St. Mark tells us, “Whenever the evil spirits saw [Jesus], they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.” (Mark 3:11-12)

2. Jesus’ teachings, his miracles, and the testimony of evil spirits all bore clear witness to who he was – the astonishing thing to me is that so few people took it all to heart and put their faith in Jesus as their Savior and their God. And to tell you the truth, I am still amazed by that to this very day. With all the knowledge that we have about Jesus today, churches should be bursting at their seams trying to hold all of the people who come to Christ for salvation, but they are obviously not. There are even a few empty seats here at Hope on most Sundays, aren’t there?

2. Jesus did not want the testimony of demons about who he was, he gave his own testimony, in a most eloquent way.

1. When God called Moses from the burning bush at Mt. Sinai to be his prophet, Moses asked God what his name was. God replied, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14) God’s proper name in Hebrew, Jahveh, is from the verb “to be” and literally means something like “the one who is,” with the connotation of “reality,” or “the God who is real.”

2. Jesus used that statement of God to identify himself, with a series of “I am” statements during his ministry. With every one of those statements, in addition to whatever else he was saying, Jesus was telling people “I am the LORD, your God.” Just listen to what Jesus told people about himself: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:14) “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

3. With such statements, Jesus declared that he is God much more eloquently than any demon ever did. For the past two thousand years, the realities of life for Christians have backed up those statements of Jesus and proven that they are true and accurate.

4. Jewish tradition after the time of Christ began substituting the Hebrew word for “Lord” in the place of “Jahveh” when the Bible was read. Most English translations, including the King James and NIV translations, followed that tradition by translating “Jahveh” as LORD. But Jahveh really means “the God of grace and salvation.” And that is precisely who Jesus was. He was God’s love for our human race personified. He left heaven and came into this world to save us from sin, death and hell. And save us he did! Jesus defeated sin, destroyed death, took captivity captive, and barred the gates of hell to believers. St. John marvels at this love from God when he says in his first epistle, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) We too must marvel in amazement at the love of God in Jesus Christ our Savior.

Con.: In Capernaum’s synagogue, ALL THE PEOPLE WERE AMAZED AT JESUS.

1. They Were Amazed At Christ’s Teaching, and so are we.

2. They Were Amazed At What Christ Did, and so are we.

3. They Were Amazed At Who Christ Was, and so are we, because Jesus is none other than the Son of the living God – their Savior and also ours. Amen.