Transcript

That majestic anthem was written after the author meditated on Psalm 96, which opens our time of worship together.

The psalmist writes, Sing to Yahweh a new song, for He has done wondrous deeds.

His right hand and His holy arm have worked out His salvation.

Yahweh has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the eyes of the nations.

He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

And all will see the salvation of our God because of the righteousness of Christ.

Let's bow in prayer.

Yahweh God, how thankful we are for music that stirs our souls, that brings beauty to our ears, and that reflects Your truth in song.

It reminds us of how worthy You are to be worshipped.

It reminds us of how glorious Your name will be to all of the world and how every nation, tribe, people, and tongue will see Your salvation.

It reminds us of how one day every knee will bow in humble reverence to Your holy greatness and Your awesome salvation.

So give us the privilege this morning to rehearse that glorious truth in how we listen and how we sing, and may our worship bring joy to heaven this day.

And we pray these things in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

God has declared Himself to all people, first of all, through creation.

And let's sing of this together.

Number 26, I Sing the Mighty Power of God, and then over to 29, Creation Sings the Father's Song.

26 and then 29. Would you please stand as we lift our voices in praise?

Would you please remain standing for the reading of God's Word?

I invite you to open your Bible to Matthew chapter 5. I invite you to open your Bible to Matthew chapter 5 for our reading in God's Word this morning.

All creation sings; we're just reminded of God's big book of this universe, and now we hear His direct and specific revelation and submit ourselves to His Word in Matthew chapter 5, reading verses 1 through 12. Jesus's introduction to His famous Sermon on the Mount: Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.

And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is the very Word of the living God.

Let's go to Him in prayer.

Our Father, we hear the wisdom of Jesus as He teaches the crowds, and we love these familiar words that promise us the reality of being a part of Your kingdom and what it entails to enter by faith is to recognize that blessedness that comes from acknowledging that we are poor in spirit.

So God, help us to be humble before You, recognizing the impoverishment of our own strength, for those who are poor in spirit will enter the kingdom of heaven.

We acknowledge that spiritual bankruptcy, aware of our deep need for grace.

We bring only the sin necessary for our salvation; You do all the rest.

And God, in our mourning and our sorrow over sin and suffering and evil in this world, we pray that we would know Your comfort by Your Spirit.

We pray specifically for those in our church who are mourning and who have suffered loss, that they would find supernatural comfort in the fellowship of the saints.

Give us meekness, O God, that quality so unusual in the world around us.

Make our hearts meek, dependent on You, and cause us to be marked by a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Like we long for water or food, may we yearn for righteousness in our lives and in the process experience deep soul satisfaction.

And God, You've shown us such mercy, and so we pray, help us to show mercy to others.

May we reflect the mercy that we've received, the undeserved love that You've poured out on us.

We keep no record of wrongs, but instead forgiveness and grace and mercy would be our instinct and impulse towards others.

And Father, purify our hearts because we want nothing more than to see You, to be welcomed into Your presence.

Help us to grow in holiness; help us to grow in affection for holiness.

Make us pure in heart, O God.

And Father, thank You that we can be peacemakers, unifiers, not those who cause division, but who strive for unity and peace.

Help us to lead and serve one another with love.

And as we experience the promised persecution that belongs to all those who name the name of Christ, we especially lift up churches in areas of intense and violent persecution, that the threats of this world would not cause them to shrink back from trial, that You would strengthen them for endurance, knowing that theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

All these things, God, we ask that You'd help us to rejoice and be glad.

Drive us to You in prayer, in dependence, because of the good grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you, thank you.

Let us pray.

Thank you with my soul, the King of Heaven, to His feet I will be.

Let the fear before me be.

Let the Lord, His presence be.

Amen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And let's sing together about the life given to praise God, who saved us all to honor Him and glorify Him in our lives.

The next hymn reflects that: number 35, if you will please, in Hymns of Grace, O Great God of Highest Heaven, number 35. Once again, please stand.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

O praise God, the Lord is with thee.

O praise God, the Lord is with thee.

And everyone said.

You may not know it, but that beautiful hymn is based on a prayer from a collection of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision.

In that particular prayer, the source of that song was called Regeneration and begins with these words: O God of the highest heaven, occupy the throne of my heart; take full possession and reign supreme.

Lay low every rebel lust; let no vile passion resist Thy holy war.

Manifest Thy mighty power and make me Thine forever.

And it goes on with many, many other moving verses.

So I just highly recommend that you would get a copy of The Valley of Vision for yourself and peruse the depths of those prayers daily as you have your private time of worship with the Lord.

Well, welcome to Grace Community Church on this beautiful Lord's Day morning, following one of the most powerful Shepherds Conferences that we've ever had.

But more on that in a moment.

We're going to be collecting an offering in just a few moments, and if you could, as you are anticipating that, go before you and get the registration card that we always ask that you fill out every Sunday morning.

It's such a blessing for us and helps us to shepherd you.

All you have to do is, again, take the card, update your contact information on one side, and then on the other side, there's a place where also you can have prayer requests that our prayer team will pray for tomorrow morning.

And as you're doing that, though, we also want to acknowledge every Lord's Day morning we have new visitors with us.

So if this is the first time you've ever been to Grace Church, welcome to Grace Church!

We're glad that you're here.

In fact, if this is the first time you've ever been here, would you raise your hand so we can see where you are?

Just welcome, welcome!

Good to have you, welcome!

Good to have you, thank you!

We're so glad that you're here this morning.

In fact, we have something for you as new visitors immediately after this service.

If you would just go out the back to your left, you're going to see a one-story building.

It's called the Welcome Center, and it's been designed especially to welcome you as a new visitor.

So please just go out there and let them know that you're new here, and they will answer any questions that you might have about our church, as well as give you a gift from our pastor, John MacArthur.

He's been our pastor for 56 years.

It's a book about the Gospel titled Good News, so that's there for you this morning.

Please take advantage of that; it's a wonderful time, and we're again glad that you're here with us.

Just one announcement for our ladies here: please know that all of you are welcome to join the six different Titus 2 homes for the next meeting that comes up this Tuesday, March 11th, at 7 PM. The theme for this year has been Counseling Our Hearts from Scripture, and the topic for Tuesday will be Hope Instead of Despair.

So ladies, if you are interested, please stop by the Titus 2 table this morning on the patio.

They can give you information about locations, and the email address is also available on the Grace Church website under Women's Ministries.

Well, as you probably know, we just finished a power-packed three days of ministry and encouragement and instruction and fellowship that we call the Shepherd's Conference.

And here's some bullet points for you to know: we had all 50 states represented, plus Guam.

We had men from 70 countries here.

We had 700 internationals, and over the 5,000-plus men that we had here, 1,000 of them were here for the very first time.

It was the largest Shepherd's Conference that we've had in our 45-year history of having them.

But the main takeaway that I want you to know is that our volunteers and our Shepherd's Conference team and our events planning leaders did a truly incredible job, and in every single way— their planning, their teamwork, their flexibility, their work ethic, their smiling dispositions under some very tremendously pressuring circumstances at times— it was so honoring to the Lord and so extremely encouraging to the men that came.

That if I might, let me just represent the elders here at Grace Church to say to you, we want you to know just how very incredibly thankful we are for everything that you did.

Many of you gave up your vacation time; many of you sacrificed so much, and it was a true blessing for us, and it filled us with deep appreciation and great joy all week long.

So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you all!

So in light of the fact that over a thousand of you worked so very hard as volunteers this week, we want you just to take the night off, okay?

And so we're not going to have an evening service tonight so you can get some rest.

But only this Sunday night; next Sunday night, we're back, okay?

Back in the book of Philippians.

Gentlemen, we're ready to receive the offering.

If you're not a member of our church or have not yet been baptized, you can begin that process this morning.

All you have to do is immediately after this service go out the back to the left, past the Welcome Center into the corner, and you'll see the Member Center.

Just go out there and let them know that you haven't been baptized or that you would like to join the church, and they can begin that process for you this morning.

This morning we have Austin Duncan continuing the Gospel of Mark for us, and we look forward to that ministry.

Michael Bohr also comes to sing, but before that, it's important that you know that Bear Morton, the son of Matthew and Erica Morton, is now in the presence of the Lord.

Matthew and Erica are dear members of our church involved in Cornerstone Fellowship Group, and they are at this point without their dear Bear.

We're having a memorial service in his honor on Saturday, March 15th, at 10:30 AM in the chapel, so please keep his family in your prayers.

In fact, we're going to pray for them now.

Bow with me.

Heavenly Father, we know that You are good, and we know that You are powerful, and we know that You love Your children and that all things work together for good to those that love You.

And yet, dear Lord, we admit that a loss like this of a little one to his parents is so very, very hard.

It strikes deep, and there are literally no words to express the depth of the valley that they now find themselves walking through.

But our hope is that Your kindness, that Your knowledge that You have given us of how You usher these little ones that don't know the difference between their right and left hand into Your loving arms, the fact that You grant them eternal life and grant them unceasing joy, may that be our comfort.

Comfort Matthew and Erica with Your truth; strengthen them with Your compassion and love, and allow all of us who know them here to serve them and wrap our arms around them and weep with them, as well as rejoice with them.

Thank You for the example of their faith to all of us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I will exalt You, my God, and I will praise Your name.

I will extol You, Lord, forever and ever.

Great are You, Lord, our Father, most worthy They will tell of the power.

We will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing, and joyfully sing, and joyfully sing: My God, my King!

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.

Let every creature praise his name forever and ever.

My heart forevermore, thank you.

Thank you so much, musicians and orchestra.

They sound good even when they're out of gas after a week like that.

But so do you, dear church.

Thank you, just like Pastor Tom said, for all your acts of service this week to those visiting pastors.

I remember my first Shepherd's Conference in 2001. I came; I was young and a youth pastor like I am today, but way more hair, like Aslan.

It was my first time ever coming to Grace Church.

I didn't know a single person except John MacArthur because I'd heard of him on the radio, and I was awestruck by this place and by the people here—the kindness and warmth and hospitality and generosity of all the members of the church taking care of all the pastors from near and far.

So, a special greeting to those of you who are still here from Shepherd's Conference and are headed home.

Mark 1, verses 21 through 28. Mark 1:21 through 28. They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach.

And they were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Just then, there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are—the Holy One of God!

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him!

After throwing him into convulsions and crying out with a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him.

And they were all amazed, so they debated among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority!

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!

Immediately, the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding region of Galilee.

This is the Word of God, more precious than gold, even fine gold, sweeter than honey, even from the honeycomb.

May the Spirit of God write these words on our hearts today and teach us Jesus' true authority.

The title of this message is The Teacher.

And maybe that gives some of you trauma; it reminds you of your days of incarceration in the school system—those long days when boys in particular have a hard time staying still.

And when I was in school, one of my favorite poems was—you probably know it—I cannot go to school today, said little Peggy Ann McKay.

I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps.

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I'm going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted 16 chicken pox, and there's one more—that's 17! And don't you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut, my eyes are blue, it might be in somatic flu.

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I'm sure that my left leg is broke.

My hip hurts when I move my chin, my belly button's caving in.

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained, my appendix pains each time it rains.

My nose is cold, my toes are numb, I have a sliver in my thumb.

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out.

My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, my temperature is 108. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, there is a hole inside my ear.

I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?

What's that?

What's that you say?

You say today is Saturday?

Goodbye, I'm going out to play!

Shel Silverstein's epic poem reminds us of the difficulties of school and of teachers that were less than captivating.

And we remember when that changed for so many of us.

We had an encounter with a teacher who we would usually call our favorite teacher.

For me, it was in the fifth grade, Mr. Ramsey.

He played the guitar and had a huge beard.

I wear this in his honor, and I honestly think as a fifth grader, he sparked my love of history that continues to this day.

And I could go through, and I'm sure you could too, other teachers who influenced you or challenged you or engaged you and maybe showed interest in you personally or encouraged your abilities as a student.

And it changed learning.

A teacher can change your whole experience of education and can redirect your whole life and vocation, and we can all testify to that.

Even if you're homeschooled, it was mom or dad that was your favorite.

That was a joke.

We all love a teacher—a great teacher.

And I wonder if we think of Jesus as this passage instructs us to, as a teacher.

That seems to be the emphasis that Mark is making.

After giving us a look into the theme of Jesus' preaching in the prior paragraph, being described as the Gospel, the content of Jesus' teaching, the distillation of all of His ministry was an announcement of the victory of God—the euangelion, the good news.

And now, as we move into this passage, into a day in Jesus' life, a Sabbath day where He ministers in the synagogue in His adopted hometown, Mark presses on us that the teaching ministry of Jesus—verse 21: began to teach.

Verse 22: amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority.

Verse 27: people say a new teaching with authority.

And 35 times in total in Mark, Jesus will be called a teacher, a rabbi—one of the most common titles ascribed to Jesus.

And as we hear Mark explain not the content of Jesus' teaching but the predominant mark of His teaching, the most notable aspect of it, and then give us a vivid illustration of that authoritative teaching in this diabolical, satanic interruption of this synagogue service as a demon-possessed man confronts Jesus and identifies who He is and speaks of Him.

And then Jesus, illustrating and demonstrating His divine authority, casts this demon out of this man.

And then the passage concludes as it started—remarkable amazement, with people looking at Jesus as teacher and as authoritative teaching only increases His fame and popularity.

In verse 28, it's really a packed little paragraph that has so much to help us understand not just Jesus as teacher in an objective and informative way, but a passage that Mark employs to call all of us to consider the power of Jesus as a teacher, His divine authority, and to provoke all of us to move beyond awe and amazement at Jesus and instead to exercise faith and discipleship in Him.

So, let's look at this little paragraph in three sections.

First, let's be taught by Jesus in verses 21 and 22—taught by Jesus.

And then in this middle section, the interruption in this scene—let's call that commanded by Jesus.

And then third and finally, we'll look at amazed by Jesus—amazed by Jesus, verses 21, 27, and 28. So, taught by Jesus, commanded by Jesus, and amazed by Jesus.

Starting in verse 21, taught by Jesus, let's think a little bit about Jesus as a teacher as Mark guides us into this scene.

And he starts in a familiar place to Jesus and His disciples—verse 21: They went into Capernaum.

Capernaum today—we start in Capernaum, a seaside village on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee.

It's Jesus' adopted hometown, His base of operations.

You know He wasn't born there—born in Bethlehem as a refugee, moving into Egypt to flee, but then settling in Nazareth, His childhood home.

Capernaum became His adopted base of operations.

And here we see Jesus in Capernaum on Sabbath day, entering the synagogue to teach.

And Capernaum, this northern area in the Sea of Galilee, is a place that I don't want to drown you in geographical details, but I'd like you to pause and look around this quaint village.

It's the place where Jesus just called those four men to be His followers and leave behind their vocations—Peter and Andrew and James and John left behind their commercial fishing businesses, and now they are disciples full-time of this rabbi.

And they spent so much time in their hometown, and they would have known this place, and this place would have known them.

And it becomes Jesus' hometown as well.

Nazareth, His childhood home, is about 40 miles away, so a significant journey to the south and the west to get back to Nazareth.

But Nazareth is a tiny little agrarian village, and Capernaum's a bustling place—a village still, but a seaside village full of harbors and industry.

It's a blue-collar sort of a place.

Capernaum was a place that Jesus and His disciples would feel comfortable and at home, far from the drama of the religious leadership in Jerusalem and far from the dangerous headquarters of Antipas at Tiberias.

This is about as far in Galilee away as you could get from the trouble with John the Baptist and his persecution and arrest.

People seem to mostly get along in Capernaum.

In fact, the Bible tells us that a Roman centurion was responsible for building the synagogue.

It was a place—the sign says when you go visit it today for tourists, it welcomes us.

It says Hometown of Jesus or The Village of Jesus, and it could say under that maybe Good Vibes.

I don't think it says that, but it should say that.

I mean, it's a lovely place—coastal seaside breezes.

It's an intimate place.

The synagogue is still standing; it's a fourth-century version of the first-century synagogue.

You could see it if you go there today.

It's beautiful limestone pillars and a perimeter of limestone, white and gleaming in that desert light.

It's not a large synagogue.

Remember, there's a difference between the synagogue and a temple.

The temple is the mothership of Judaism; it's on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, way down to the south.

It's the place where animal sacrifices and festivals and courts and the Holy of Holies and all of that takes place.

It's the legislative and religious center of Israel life.

But the synagogues—there were lots of them.

They were similar to little local churches.

They were gathering places or meeting houses.

It only required ten Jewish men to start a synagogue, and some had a rabbi who was attendant there, and others had guest teachers that would often travel through, and others rotated through the men of the local congregation to do the readings and the prayers and to have worship on Sabbath day.

That's the kind of town it was.

In this, the synagogue was maybe 5,000 square feet.

If you go there today, you can see these beautiful limestone pillars, and you can walk through it.

What's really most remarkable about it is that the first layer, the foundational layers of the synagogue are a different color of rock, and that's because that's the first-century version.

It's balsam, like a volcanic rock, dark gray.

And when I went, I was just marveling at the reality that I'm walking in the same perimeter, in the same space that Jesus had this very encounter—a stone's throw away.

If you've got a decent arm, you could hit Peter's house with a rock.

It's a little place, and the coast is just right there.

If you look behind you, you'll see the mountains of Capernaum—a hillside really—and the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount that I read to you in Scripture reading.

That's just maybe a mile and a quarter up the hill.

And so this was an important place for Jesus—a place that became synonymous with His ministry, His famous sermon, ministering to the crowd, so many miracles and healings.

And if there was a centurion in the town—and there was—there must have been an outpost.

And so it was a place that had the obvious Roman influence.

The Via Maris, the road that ran through the north, there ran through Capernaum.

The fishing industry would have been lucrative; that was the protein of the day.

And this is a place of economic significance.

Matthew, the evangelist, finds Capernaum to be so significant in the life of Jesus that in Matthew 9:1, he calls Capernaum Jesus' town.

That's how close the association was.

And so Mark brings us there after such a rapid-paced look at the ministry of Christ in John the Baptist's proclamation of Christ's coming and His lowering Himself and raising up of the Messiah, and then Jesus being identified in God's triune wisdom and an act of faith acknowledgment as the Father speaks from heaven and rends the skies and the Spirit descends in His baptism, and then immediately propelling Jesus into the wilderness to engage in a cosmic battle against the devil, and then straight to calling His first disciples.

And now a look at a day in Jesus's ministry—a Sabbath day, a day at synagogue.

And I want you to see how ordinary this is because synagogue is where they went each week for their gathering and prayers and the reading of the scrolls and teaching, instruction of the children—it all happened there.

Jesus had been going to synagogue for 30 years, but it's on this day that He's the appointed teacher, either as one of the local men or as a guest rabbi.

Jesus teaches in synagogues throughout His ministry.

It's often a place where some of His most tense encounters are as He reads the Torah to the people and speaks of its fulfillment.

And having heard the theme of Jesus' preaching being the Gospel in the prior paragraph, verse 15 specifically, The time has come, He said, the kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the Gospel—the good news, He now focuses on the teaching ministry of Jesus.

And without giving us any content of the teaching in this paragraph, and in the Gospel of Mark, a very small amount—a scarce amount of teaching—chapter 4 with the parable of the soils, chapter 13 with the end of days exposition.

But beyond that, there's hardly any formal lecturing teaching in Mark's account of Jesus' ministry.

But in typical Markan fashion, he's obsessed with the action here, and he wants to drive home this singular reality that Jesus is a teacher, and a teacher whose manner of teaching is what's so notable.

He's a teacher who teaches with authority.

And if you're to consider Jesus as a teacher and to survey what the Scriptures say about Jesus' teaching, I think you would find really a rich study in how much an educator Jesus is.

He was certainly more than a teacher, but teacher is the most common title that was given to Him by His disciples and by the crowds and even by His opponents.

And as you read the four Gospels, Jesus is constantly teaching.

And sometimes it's a sermon, like the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes—a lengthy address.

But more often, it's interactive and even parabolic, asking questions and responding to situations.

Jesus called Himself a teacher—John 13:13: You call Me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

Matthew 23:10, the teacher says, My time is at hand; I'll keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.

He was referred to as teacher because He was their teacher, their instructor.

They were His disciples—learners, followers.

And His ministry was inclusive of the entirety of His life.

It was a 24/7 kind of a teaching as He called sinners to Himself.

They were told to leave everything behind and follow Him in the case of His disciples, and He employed them as fishers of men.

He demonstrated and patterned what His teaching was like as He trained His disciples and taught them to be missionaries and sent them out on mission, the culmination of that being Matthew 28 in the Great Commission.

But lots of opportunities to minister in pairs and in short-term capacity under the tutelage of Jesus.

He's different than the rabbis of His day because He sought out His disciples.

Normally, a disciple would seek out the rabbi and affix himself to his ministry, but Jesus thoughtfully chose those He trained.

And in a formal sense and in a transparency and accessibility of His entire life, He trained and enlisted these men to be His witnesses and to learn from Him about the Father.

He modeled for them a genuine faith and modeled for them a true and dependent prayer, and He modeled for them a pursuit of righteousness.

And He showed them grace as He interacted with sinners, and He reminded them that there was something going on that was exemplary here.

Luke 6:40: A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

And Jesus' pedagogy—the fancy word for His manner of teaching, His methodology of teaching—was reflective of that relational attachment He had to His disciples.

It could never be said that Jesus' disciples were intellectual giants and relational dwarfs because they saw Jesus teach in interacting with sinners and tax collectors and leprous people and welcoming children to listen to Him and learn from Him.

And they saw Jesus respond to confrontation and accusation, and all of it.

One educator writing about Jesus as master teacher says it this way: In their turn, they followed Him not only in the sense that they heard and learned His words, but also in that they would imitate His life.

They watched Him teach and preach and pray.

They were present when He healed the sick, raised the dead, and liberated the demonized.

They listened in His opposition and insults confronted Him, and they heard how He responded.

They saw how He related to family and friends, inquirers, authorities, and adversaries.

They witnessed His attitude towards hypocrites, the poor and rich, the broken and abandoned of society, notorious sinners and tax collectors despised for their collaboration with Rome.

They accompanied Him when He ate, when He journeyed, when He slept.

They observed Him hungry, thirsty, exhausted, exultant, indignant, and distressed.

There is a striking transparency, indeed a vulnerability in the way He lived before them, and every moment of the years they spent with Him was part of the training as He came under their constant scrutiny.

If you sat under the teaching of Jesus, you'd know the thing that activated His indignance more than anything else that fired up Jesus the teacher was when teachers were hypocrites because that was the opposite of our Lord's teaching.

He was teaching them about Himself.

He was the way to God.

He was the fulfillment of the promises.

He was the reality that the shadow of Old Testament prophecy had pointed towards, and He could be nothing less than perfectly authentic because He was sinless and because He was God.

And nothing activated Jesus's ire like the teachers who refused to practice what they preached.

Matthew 23, verse 2: The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach but they do not practice.

It was never merely cognitive for Jesus.

He was concerned about His disciples' character and attitudes.

He confronted their ambition, and His teaching was often seemingly happenstance, right?

Because the disciples would be arguing in a pack as they walked down the road discreetly about which one of them was, you know, the best.

And Jesus, the wise teacher, would ask a great question: What are you guys talking about?

Oof!

Found out!

And He would use those opportunities as teachable moments to instruct them on the nature of greatness in His kingdom, to instruct them on the servanthood that He modeled and taught.

But that's not what Mark emphasizes.

It's certainly true Jesus is the master teacher.

Jesus is the greatest theological educator to ever walk the earth.

He is the vocational trainer of His apostles and missionaries, and He engaged His hearers with such brilliant teaching as He drew from life and circumstances.

He answered without prejudice and with perfect truth from a deep well of the knowledge of the Scriptures, and He countered His opponents.

All that was true of Jesus' didactic style and interactive style and authentic style of teaching.

But more than anything else, Mark wants to underline one thing—not just that Jesus is a teacher, but what you would have noticed if you would have been there in the synagogue that day.

If you, like the scribes, were sitting in the front row, you would have walked away not just with the bizarre encounter and the demon-possessed man, which certainly would have commanded your attention.

Instead, you note this reality in verse 22: They were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Authority—exousia in Greek.

It's used six times in the Gospel of Mark, talking about Jesus, three times talking about the authority Jesus gives His disciples.

It's contrasted by Mark in verse 22 as being so different—so obviously different than the teaching of the scribes.

They were the graphite; they were the writers; they were the soferim in Hebrew; they were the copyists, initially the secretaries.

They wrote it all down.

But as the years unfolded and as Judaism strayed from the covenant clarity of Torah and God's revelation, they became those who added to the Word of God—not just commentators, but extrapolators—so that their traditions became the forefront of the teaching that the people had gotten used to.

And everything was, Rabbi this says this, and Rabbi that says that.

It became, as one author says, death by a thousand quotations.

And there's nothing wrong with quotations; I got a bunch of them in here.

But the problem was that they lacked authority.

They had displaced the voice of God in the Scriptures and replaced it with the teaching of men.

Jesus condemns this very thing in Matthew 15. Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 'Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

Why don't they wash their hands before they eat?'

And Jesus replied, 'And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?'

And His indictment goes on.

He calls them hypocrites that honor God with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him.

They worship God in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.

And that's why this was such a stark contrast.

Jesus spoke with exousia—a word meaning divine authority, as if He was speaking on behalf of God.

And that's because He was speaking on behalf of God.

And so when they heard Him, they heard the very voice of God.

There were no interpretive questions that Jesus couldn't answer.

There was no, Well, I'm with this rabbinical school, and these guys have a good point too, and you know, we got to be fair and balanced in our academic assessment of these things.

These are difficult questions that smart guys answer in different ways.

Good and godly men disagree.

Jesus didn't talk like that.

It's been said to you, but I say to you, or Truly, truly, I say to you.

His teaching was divine, and that's what was so notable that day at Capernaum in the synagogue.

The scribes took the good seats, but their teaching wasn't the good stuff.

And when Jesus opened His mouth, He could be puzzling and enigmatic; His parables were famously challenging.

But there was no question about the conviction and authenticity and divinity of His message.

He taught with authority.

Yesterday, I used authority.

I don't use it a lot because authority is like soap—the more you use it, the less you have.

But I did.

I spoke with authority yesterday, and I even announced that I was speaking with authority.

And it wasn't at my dear family—they're the best.

It was in the context of a wedding.

I did a wedding yesterday, and the lovely couple was there.

And at the end of the ceremony, I said, By the authority vested in me by the state of California and as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I pronounce you man and wife.

That's a big statement.

It's a pronouncement—an authoritative pronouncement.

They had to make a trip to the courthouse in Van Nuys or something to get paperwork and do the stuff, and then I had to say this with authority, and I had to fill in the form.

And I filled in those forms a hundred times.

There have been times where I miss-filled in the form, and my friends weren't quite married for some months, and I learned to be more careful in that dating, right?

It's a more complicated and pressure-filled form than you'd think, but I'm good at it now.

But my apologies to some couples—in God's eyes, they were married.

But when I said, By the authority given to me, it's because I'm representing not just California—California doesn't know what marriage is if it hit them in the face.

But I'm representing God, who invented marriage for human happiness and holiness.

I'm representing God, who officiated the first ceremony in the Garden of Eden.

I'm representing God, who sent His Son to perform His first miracle in Cana, just reminding us of the grace of marriage.

I'm representing God, who built into marriage a picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—something more magnificent and marvelous than even the relationship itself.

And so I speak with authority as I pronounce the man and wife.

And I like to do this thing after the ceremony's over.

We usually go to sign the paper or whatever, and I introduce myself to the bride again, and she doesn't know what to do with that.

It's a fun trick.

And she'll say her name, and I'll say, Austin Duncan.

And she thinks I'm having some slippage, right?

Austin Duncan.

And she'll say her name, and I said, And?

And she realizes she's never introduced herself with her new last name.

It's a fun trick, I think, because something is different.

Something is authorized.

Something is official.

Something's been pronounced.

And when Jesus taught, He taught with the very authority and conviction and authorization and pronouncements of God.

He spoke the Word of God, and the people had heard nothing like that before.

The prophets of the Old Testament hadn't heard from those kind for 400 years, and they used to say, Thus saith the Lord.

Jesus says, I say to you, because He's God.

And then a real-life illustration breaks out in the moment of this service in the synagogue.

Verse 23 says, And just then there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit.

Eleven times in Mark, demons are called unclean spirits.

Thirteen times, he uses the word demons—synonymous words describing evil spirits or fallen angels, demons, the legions of hell, the arch servants of Satan, the opponents and adversaries of God.

This is what a demon is.

We won't go into full angelology today; there will be lots of opportunities throughout Mark to think more carefully about demons and demon possession, so hold that thought.

But they're called unclean spirits here because they are defilements.

They are sinful; they are the opposite of the holiness of God.

And so they are spirits—unclean—and they have inhabited this man who is an attender of the synagogue, and he interrupts Jesus's service.

And he says, What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

In ancient incantations in this day, to say the name of a demon or of a person was to exercise power over them.

So perhaps that's what this demon is doing.

But by saying, What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

he's announcing this vast separation that he recognizes between the fallen angels and Jesus, the Son of God.

It's so often in Mark's Gospel the demons recognize something true about Jesus far before His disciples ever do.

There's no place for us to be together.

What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

using Jesus' home, His childhood home, His human name.

And then he asks another question: Have you come to destroy us?

And here we see there's plurality at least being represented, and it could be that there's multiple demons in this man.

But more likely, this demon speaks on behalf of the kingdom of darkness, acknowledging that Jesus's mission isn't to cast out one demon or deliver one demon-possessed man, but instead to overthrow the entire satanic enterprise—to show forth the battle between light and darkness, between heaven and hell, between God and the devil—to magnify the kingdom of God's light and of heaven and of truth.

And it's not just going to be one demon who will be dealt with, but the entirety of the cosmic realm is under assault by Jesus.

And then again, identifying Jesus—verse 24: I know who you are—the Holy One of God.

And that's a unique expression.

It's used of Jesus only a few times, but it only occurs and speaks of one other person in the entire Bible—the Holy One of God.

It's in the Septuagint in Judges 16—that's Samson.

That's an unusual phrase, isn't it?

The Holy One of God.

The root there is the word nazar; it's the word for separated ones.

And that's exactly who Samson was.

You remember he's the muscly guy; he's the deliverer of Israel—kill him with a jawbone—but fall into big bad temptation with Delilah to throw away his ministry in so many ways.

But then finally, in the end, to come to his senses and in a final act of sacrifice to tear down the pagan temple and kill more in his death than he ever had in his life and warfare and ministry.

Why is this demon saying Holy One of God?

Well, certainly Jesus is the separated one, the Holy One, the one who came from God.

But to use an expression that would have been Samson-like is a reminder of what this demon knows, and it's that Jesus has come to deliver and save.

And unlike that deliverer of old in the book of Judges, this deliverer is sinless and perfect, and by His sacrifice, He will save many, many, many.

In fact, I think Jesus picks up on this same concept, aware of the cosmic battle that's waging behind the scenes of the human call of disciples and individuals to exercise faith and discipleship and following after Jesus.

There is something greater going on.

Flip over to Mark 3, just a page or so—verse 20. Jesus enters the house, and again a crowd gathered so that He and His disciples were unable to eat.

And when His family heard about this, they went to take charge of Him, for they said, He's out of His mind.

And the teachers of the law came from Jerusalem and said, He's possessed by Beelzebub, the prince of demons; he's driving out demons.

And Jesus called and told them in parables, Satan can't drive out Satan.

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.

Jesus sees a cosmic reality unfolding as the kingdom of heaven is breaking forth and announcing its eventual and final and ultimate victory over all of sin and Satan and death.

And look at the words He uses in verse 27: In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.

Then he can rob his house.

And here's Jesus, Samson-like, stronger than the devil and all his minions.

When the Jewish people dealt with, they had incantations and formulas and all kinds of efforts and combobulations to try to counter demons—not Jesus.

Verse 25: Jesus simply rebukes this unclean spirit and with authority says, Be quiet and come out of him!

And verse 26, the spirit instantly obeys, throws this man into convulsions, cries out with a loud voice, and the unclean spirit came out of him.

That's the authority of Jesus on display, and that's the remarkable power of Jesus—the divine authority of Jesus, Jesus the teacher marked by this exousia, this authority.

Jesus the commander of heaven is now speaking life to these people and ends to all these demons.

It'll be a massive theme through Mark that Jesus's ministry is cosmic in scale—so much happening in the unseen world.

I mean, to imagine what it would have been like to be in the synagogue that day, to hear this teaching so powerfully that an interruption like this one—just audacious and satanic and shocking—and mothers would have grabbed their children, and everyone would have been up in arms at this interruption.

But what they walked away from their meeting that day was not a concern for a service disrupted.

Instead, they're amazed at Jesus's authority—verse 27. And here we get into amazed by Jesus.

Taught by Jesus, commanded by Jesus, finally amazed by Jesus.

Verse 27: They were all emphatic in Greek, all amazed.

The root word is to strike, to be astounded, to be astonished.

They were all amazed, so they debated among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority!

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!

This word amazement—to be shocked, to be awed—Barclay translates it to be thunderstruck—is a constant word used to describe how people respond to Jesus.

They're so shocked by Him, by His teaching, by His authority, by His miracle-working power.

They're awestruck, thunderstruck, fearful, astonished, moved, horrified, amazed at His teaching.

And now they're debating and arguing among themselves about the implications of this man in their midst.

This happens in chapter 6, and the villagers say, We've had a discussion; we see your power; please leave.

And here in the synagogue, they don't know what to do with this power.

They're just struck by it.

The strong man, stronger than the other strong man, is here, and he's accomplishing his work.

And this is what it sounds like all over the Gospels.

It sounds like this: Matthew 15, Matthew 7:28—people are regularly astonished by Jesus' teaching.

When Jesus finished these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching.

Matthew 19:25—When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, 'Who then can be saved?'

Matthew 13:54—He comes to His hometown; He talks to them in the synagogue, so they were astonished and said, 'Where did this man get his wisdom and these mighty works?'

Mark 6, verse 2—On the Sabbath, He's teaching in the synagogue, and they're astonished at His miracle-working power, saying, 'Where did this man get these things?

How are such mighty works done by His hands?'

And the astonishment continues throughout these crowds of people—not just the disciples, but even His critics are astonished.

The crowds, the congregation, are amazed.

They're horrified; they're shocked; they're afraid, and they can't figure this out.

They know it's so closely associated with the divine, and it's just astonishment on astonishment as Jesus, in Luke, raises a little girl from the dead, and her parents are amazed—astonished.

Or He confounds the Pharisees in Luke and stumps them, and the crowds are amazed at His understanding and His answers.

It's even amazement that marks the disciples at the open tomb.

Everywhere Jesus went, people were awestruck by His power and His authority.

Like the theophanies of God in the Old Testament, we appeared to a prophet, and they fall down on their face.

They've been hearing rabbis teach their entire lives; they've never heard anything like this.

This man was obviously here from God.

His teaching showed it; His miracle-working power demonstrated it.

But what's so remarkable about this authority and the crowd's reaction to it—verse 28: Immediately, the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding region of Galilee.

There's a growing popularity, a surge of interest in Jesus.

Crowds will even, in the next passage, we'll look at next week, crowds will flock to Jesus and occupy hours and hours of His day and demand His attention and desire an audience, and they'll be captivated and enraptured with Jesus, and they'll love to hear His teaching, and they'll hope to see a miracle work, and they'll want to get free food and benefit.

And all of them have an agenda.

They're all amazed; they're all stupefied by this thing.

They're all struck by it; they're all astonished by His authority.

But they're not—all of them—willing to follow Him, willing to obey Him, willing to submit to Him.

And it shouldn't surprise us because if you've been in church for very long, you know that as Christians, we submit ourselves to the Word of God.

We hold it in high regard, and we're amazed at its wisdom and teaching.

It is the very Word of God.

But there's a difference between being amazed and being obedient.

And Capernaum is the greatest illustration of that.

We started in that seaside village; let's conclude there.

Go to Matthew 11, verse 23. In verse 20, Jesus is denouncing the cities in which He had performed most of His miracles because they didn't repent.

Woe to you, Chorazin!

Woe to you, Bethsaida!

If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on that day than for you.

Look at verse 23: And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?

No, you will go down to the depths.

If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.

But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

Friends, let's walk carefully together as we go to church each week.

Let's look to the Scriptures submissively as we sit under the preaching of God's Word.

Let's not be distracted by the preacher; let's focus in on the message that God has for us week after week.

Let's listen to the voice of God and hear the clear testimony of Jesus Christ, the very Word of the living God.

And let's not just be impressed or amazed by Him and fall short of repentance and faith and followership and submission.

That's what happened to far too many in Capernaum, and it still happens today.

If you don't take that next step—not just of amazement, but of faith in the Son of God.

Father, thank You for Your Word—the incarnate One who gives us the message and the fulfillment and the reality and the certainty.

We don't have to speculate or guess; we don't have to be dependent on the traditions and interpretations and teachings.

But in Your Word, we hear Your voice, and we see Your Son, and we must respond rightly.

May those here who do not yet call themselves Christians, who haven't been born again, would they follow in faith and repentance—not just surprised and amazed by Jesus.

May that just be the first step, but following Him by faith.

Friend, if you're not a Christian, the prayer room is open to my right, to your left, under the exit signs.

There are men and women who'd love to pray with you.

God, thank You for Your authority preached through Your Son, rebuking evil spirits, announcing victory over the kingdom of darkness—a glimpse of the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

He's the one we follow.

In His name, amen.

One more thing before you take off—Pastor Tom has an announcement, something from Pastor John for our precious church.

So, Pastor Tom, come on up.

Thank you, Austin.

As many of you know, Pastor John was scheduled to preach this last Friday night at Shepherd's Conference, but unfortunately was not able to do so.

However, it was his desire for the men at Shepherd's Conference and for you as well, those of us here at Grace Community Church, to know what he had planned to preach on by printing his message in a booklet for us.

It's titled On Finishing Well.

On Finishing Well is powerful, it is profound, and it is an encouragement to us.

So, he wants each of you to have a copy.

As you exit this morning, the men will be at the doors and be able to give you one, or if you're out in the courtyard area by the chapel as well.

It is a helpful tool for us to understand our pastor's heart, so enjoy this gift from Pastor John.

Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think or understand, Christ, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Thank you, thank you.