It is so good. Thank you, I'm doing that. It's really, really amazing. So, it's so good to see young people, young men who love and worship the Lord freely, you know, that just the bravery it takes alone just to come up here and just worship God. God bless you and do. Just keep sharing your gift, keep blessing the body of Christ with your gift, and we know we're going to see much more of you going forward. For our family this morning, we are wrapping up the series of Mark. Before we do, I just want to acknowledge a couple of anniversaries. We have some anniversaries, the Leon's, so Ryan and Nicole, I'm not sure the dates or when. I think it's today, if not, you'll forgive me. So, we'll wish you after the Montague's, you just were over the seas in another country of Cape Town. They just got back and God bless you guys. We love you. You are an example to us, and please just keep flying that flag. The cheapest Keegan and Carmen, they aren't here today. They celebrate an anniversary as well. And Sanjay and Remy as well. So, please send your love and your wishes to them. They celebrate an anniversary. May God continue to bless you and cause his face to shine upon you guys. So, we are in the Book of Mark. In the beginning of the series, Pastor Biv challenged us to read the Book of Mark, and I think Keenan got through it the most in the first week. But, Pastor Biv, I want to maybe just ask you about their challenge because we are still in chapter one of Mark. We're finishing the series of Keenan. You need to give us books back, please. But, I trust you've been reading through the Book of Mark. I trust you've been blessed. Trust you've got to see the nuances of Mark's writing, the style of writing, and how it contrasts against the other gospels of John, Luke, and Matthew. You get to see how Mark is very action-orientated. John Claude van Damme is just immediately, immediately, immediately. Straight to the points, doesn't link on too much details. And, you'll get to see the nuances of his writing as well. But, today we're going to look at Mark, chapter one, verse 21 to 28. If you have your Bible, you'll turn the, you'll keep your finger on there. We're going to read through chapter one to 28. And, our title today's message is the authority of the Holy One of God. The authority of the Holy One of God. And, as we come into chapter one, or we get to the closing of Mark, chapter 21, verse 21 to 28, now the preliminaries are done. The introductions are done. We're now getting into the action. This is where Mark begins these accounts of the historical events of the Gospel of Christ, the Son of God. And, the purpose of Mark's account here, Mark begins with an incident that takes place in the synagogue of Caponium. Mark's purpose here is to demonstrate two things here, right? He first wants to show that Christ, he comes in his power to demonstrate the power of the Son of God. And, he has to show two things. He showed that Christ will exercise power over the current rule of this earth, which is Satan. And, he must also break the bondage of Satan in his demons over the souls of sinners. This is the two-fold statement of the purpose of Mark's account here in Mark chapter 21. And, we're going to look at the cosmic authority of Jesus Christ. So, it's essential that Christ comes to establish his kingdom. And, he must overpower the current rule, which is Satan, as I've mentioned. He must have cosmic authority, and also, he must have power over the evil forces of this current generation. So, last week, what we have preached so brilliantly about the accounts of verse 12 and verse 13 of how Jesus overcame Satan himself. So, now, Satan, we know, is the God of this world, the ruler of this domain. And, we get an account in Luke 1, 21 to 28 of how Jesus overpowers a demon. So, let's begin in verse 21. Starts off, they went into Capernaum. That's how he begins his gospel. They went into Capernaum. They, who were they? Jesus and his disciples, those who followed him. And, immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as describes. Just then, was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, or screaming, as it said. What business do we have with each other, 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." Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated amongst themselves, saying, "What is this?" A new teaching with authority, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. Immediately, the news came about and spread everywhere into all the surrounding districts of Galilee. God blessed us reading this word, and if I stopped it, there's nothing better I can say than the word of God. Now, there's a number of things that strike you in this passage. But, what strikes me first year are the two responses to Jesus. The one that strikes me first is the difference between Jesus, the people, and the demonic forces. The other is the response of the people. His authority amazed the people. That indicated in verse 22, and again in verse 27, it says, "They were amazed." On the other hand, the demons were terrified. So, there's two responses here, and I want to look at the duality between the first response of the people and the second response of the demonic realm. Now, the people wondered, they were bamboozled, the demons panicked. What is the reason for this difference in reactions? Simply puts, the people didn't know who he was, and the demons did. And this is how we need to pivot our lives. Do we have a view or an understanding or a theology of Christ that isn't true? Because when we truly understand who Christ is, and we look at it in this passage, and get to understand who Christ is because many of us see him as the meek, mild, soft, lamb of the series of the chosen. And we forget that he's also the lion, the one who comes, swords out of his mouth flaming arrows, the one who actually creates the universe, the one who costs everyone into hell, the one who costs judgments, the king of kings and the lord of lords. Do we see him as the lamb or do we see him as the king of kings and lord of lords? Because he's both, but he's not one or the other. Verse 24, "This one demon speaks out on behalf of all of them," says, "What do we have to do with you?" So, it might be one, but he's speaking of behalf of everyone. He says, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one." So, the demons knew who he was. There was an intimate knowledge and understanding of who Jesus was here. In Mark 3, verse 11, "Whenever the uncleans put it so him, they would fall down before him and shout, 'You are the son of God,' there's a proclamation. Chapter 5 of Mark verse 2, "A man with an unclean spirit coming out of the tombs where he lived is confronted by Jesus and he's screaming." Verse 5 says, "constantly day and night in the tombs and in the mountains, cashing himself with stones, seeing Jesus from the distance he ran up and he bowed before him, shouting with the loud voice and said, 'What business do we have with each other, Jesus, son of the most high God?'" So, the demons know him. In the first half of the Gospel of Mark, the only beings who seem to know who he was were the demons. That is stock, people. Is it any difference today? Because we have so many portrayals and versions of Jesus. Do we understand him as the son of God, the holy one of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one who was high and lifted up? Do we see him as the Quran portrays him as a prophet who came? Or somebody who just taught us nice teachings and moral teachings? Or is he the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? So, they know him. They have known him since they were created by him. They have known him since they dwelled in heaven and they were angels before they had rebelled. They had known him since they were surrounded in the throne and they rebelled in the insurrection that Lucifer led them in. They had known him from time immemorial. They knew him intimately. They knew Christ. So, Luke says it in chapter 4 of verse 40. The demons are also coming out of many and shouting. He says, "You are the son of God." So, here we have then the first testimony of the Gospel of Mark to identify who Jesus is. And it comes from a demon. Profound and powerful. The first testimony of Jesus is coming from a demon. They know who he is. In fact, in the first half of the Gospel, as I said in Mark chapter 3 verse 6, the Pharisees, the Erodians, do not recognize him as the Messiah. They were really trying to plot to kill him. They didn't recognize him as the Messiah but the demons do. In chapter 3 verse 22, the scribes came down from Jerusalem and said this about him. He possessed by Pielzebub and he caused out demons by the ruler of demons. In chapter 6 verse 2, he began to teach in the synagogue. So, many listeners were astonished. They said, "Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him?" And such miracles as he is performed by his hands. Is this not the carpenter? The son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon. Are not his sisters here with us? And they looked at him at the fence. And many times we see that Jesus was looked at with disdain. Is this not the carpenter's light? This is not James's light. We don't fully grasp him. We don't fully understand who he is. The people looked at him as little. They looked at him as small and insignificant but the demons knew him for who he was. The Pharisees didn't know who he was. The Erodians didn't know who he was. The scribes didn't even know who he was. The people didn't know who he was. Even his own followers, his disciples didn't know who he was. It is not until we get up to chapter 8 of this book. Verse 29, when Jesus asks them, says, "Who do people say I am?" Some say, "You are Elijah." Some say, "You are trying the Baptist." And who do you say I am? And this profound confession by Peter says that you are the Christ. Blessed are you. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in Heaven. This is the first time we see somebody identifying him for who he truly is. You are the Christ, the anointed one of God. People didn't understand who he was. And that's the difference. The crowd was amazed and the demons were terrified. It's terrified. So we look at the authority of Christ. When sinners come to a true understanding of the person and authority of Christ as the son of God, they are also terrified. And I will confess something. The thing that drove me to repentance to my knees when I gave myself to the Lord wholeheartedly, something was bugging me inside and it wasn't about the goodness of God and the blessing of God and what he can do for me and all of the different variations and invitations that come from the pulpit. No, it was the judgment of God that drove me to his feet because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it says in Hebrews, in Hebrews it says that it's appointed for man to die once. We all have a date with death and we have another date and that is with judgment. You are appointed to die once and then comes judgment as it says in Hebrews 9. And that terrified me because I know I've got to come face to face with this Jesus. Not the meek and my lamb, but I've got to come face to face with the judge and execution of this universe. And that terrified me and it bothered me to no end until I said, "Lord, I surrender." The terror and the fear drove me to come to his grace and mercy. And that is my invitation. That is the invitation, this morning for us. So the demons were terrified. So, terrified sinners tend to run in holy fear to Christ and forgiveness and grace. This is something that demons cannot do. I don't understand why. The Scripture doesn't give us insight into this, but they cannot run to Christ and submit to his grace and mercy. There is a judgment date for them which is already set. The demons were terrified and could not be saved. The people were amazed and would not be saved. And these two people, these so the amazed people and the terrified demons are all in the up in the same hell. Same group. And this is the great contrast that we see in this passage. So the demons fear and tremble. And we see that in James 2, verse 19. It says that you believe you do well, but even the demons fear and tremble or fear and shudder. As the ESV of the King James puts it. What makes a demon shudder? What makes a demon tremble? Because I think when we read it, we read it sort of, you know, words tend to lose their meaning. We understand what trembling is. Like when you know you in trouble with your dad and your dad's coming home, there's that fear and trembling. But it's no comparison to what the Scripture is saying here. There's a trembling and a fearing and a shuddering that is shaking them to the core. So what makes demons fear and tremble? So there's several passages in Mark in which we see demons as, wherever they're speaking, they're always screaming. We always see the accompanying of them speaking by screaming. So the scream is because they are terrified of Jesus. The scream is because they are panicked, because they know where they are headed. They know about the lake of fire long before the Olivet Discourse when Jesus preached in Matthew 25, verse 41. Long before the Book of Revelation makes an account for it in Revelation 20 about the lake of fire. Where the flames don't die and its eternal darkness and this weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. And you know, you get this grim account of what the lake of fire entails. But they knew about their destination long before it is ever recorded for us in Scripture. They knew it from time immemorial when they were surrounding the throne of God. So they know about their destruction and they are terrified. This is the shattering and fearing that they have in verse 23 at the end of the verse. So it says he cried out. The original word is anacrazo, which means to shout with strong emotion to scream. These are deeply felt screams of someone suffering or someone traumatized. You can picture those horror movie screams of the shattering, fearful, deep, deep, deep. Coming from the guts, the belly of this demonic force. Now, we understand that when I want you to get something in mind, right? This is important to understand that demons did not attack Jesus during his ministry. They didn't attack him, they attacked the souls of sinners. Jesus was the one attacking the demons. So just by showing up they panicked. Just they are terrified, so they blow their cover. They can't restrain their fear because they may be invisible to us and to the people of the time. But they are not invisible to Jesus. Here, grips their wicked souls. So this is not an illustration of Jesus going through ministry, attacking demons and being constant in John Wick. His core purpose here on earth was to teach. Firstly, when he came into the synagogue, he says he began to teach. Just by his presence, just by him being the demons were shaking in their boots because of his presence, because of their fear for him. He didn't go around looking for them and trying to execute demons and cause them out. He caused them out, yes, but that was not his initial purposes. We understand that demons like to hide. Demons don't like to blow their cover. This is, you've got to understand this part, the enemy's kingdom. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light as scripture puts it. He puts himself on the garb and the clothing of somebody who looks good, sounds good, smells good. Satan disguises himself and likewise his agents also disguise himself. They want to hide in religion. Satan is not in the prostitution dens, he's not in the taverns, he's not in the casinos. This is not where Satan himself is. Satan is in the realm of religion. The drugs and alcohol and prostitutes and all of them will take care of themselves. We all driven away by our own desires. Ourself, sometimes we blame Satan for things that we want to do. We need to understand that Satan's realm is in the realm of religion. When we look at the book of Revelation, we find that religion is central. There's a belief and understanding which takes us away from the gospel. If we do not have the gospel as a central focus, we have another gospel which is a false religion which Satan is in the sense of. Doctrines of demons as Timothy puts it. Where do doctrines or demons come from? It comes from Satan himself, teachings that go contrary to the word of God. Satan disguises himself, false teachers are demonized, sprouting doctrines of demons by supernatural demonic power. False teachers are also in the domain of Satan. Demons go to churches. They attend every kind of religious service. They are hidden in false religion. Jesus exposes them by simply showing up, and they can't restrain their terror. So these two needs for us as humans. In the human race, there are two needs and our need is to fold. One, we need a sacrifice for our sin. Core, core, core. We need a substitute who will pay the penalty for our sin that we don't need to pay the penalty. And secondly, we need someone who has the power to rescue us from the domain of sin. When Jesus came he says, "Death, where is your sting?" Where is the power of death? Because he's taken away their sting, he's rescued us from the forces of evil, which had total control over this world up until this point. And so the Lord Jesus Christ left his divine realm and entered into this world to be a sacrifice for our sins on the cross to demonstrate his power to destroy the grip of Satan, that demons and Satan had, and to rescue sinners. So the evils, but it's no that the kingdom has arrived. When Jesus says, "When you see me casting our demons by the finger of God, you'll know that the kingdom is here." They knew the signs. They knew that the kingdom of God was here, and our time was short. The scripture says that Satan walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour because he knows his time, his short. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't slumber. Day and night he wants to destroy us. The enemy has come but to steal, to kill and to destroy one agenda, one purpose, no sleep, nothing so focused, blinders on that one purpose, to destroy us. And he knew when Christ came into the scene that his time was short. So they knew their destruction was imminent. So more than any time in history they escalate their activity in the realm of Judaism. They don't want to expose themselves, but they can't help it when confronted by Jesus. So why are demons afraid of Christ? Let's look at that a bit more in detail. Now in this passage this asks the question, what makes demons scream when they're confronted by Jesus? What is it about him that makes them panic so? What is it about him that they are terrified? And number one is the authority of his word. Number one is the authority of his word. It's all about his cosmic authority. And as I said, the title of this message is about the authority of the Son of God. There's something about authority. Verse 21 and 22 says, "They went into Caponium immediately on the Sabbath. He entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at his teaching and for he was teaching them as one having the authority and not one having scribes." So let's look at this. The demons in a general sense do not like the truth. The truth is something that is being challenged today and will be challenged on such a level going forward because there's an attack, a direct attack on truth. I've mentioned this before, but we are today arguing things that have been settled long ago. The earth is flat. Like why are we arguing things like this now? We actually have documentaries and debates about what is a woman? Have you seen the discourse around that where you go to the LGBT community and you ask, what is a woman and they can't ask? They say a woman or someone who feels like a woman, but what is that thing you're defining? You can't define something using the same definition. What is a woman? We are arguing fundamental truths that there's X, X and X, Y chromosomes. We are arguing basic truth because truth is a thing under attack. We are calling God "tyrant now" because he destroyed people in the Old Testament for their sin and God is now a tyrant. The character of God is under assassination. We find that truth is a thing that has been attacked and has been challenged like Noah. Where's the source of truth in John? It says, "Sanctify them with the truth. Your word is truth." The word of God is a truth and let everything else be a lie. That's what Scripture says. Let God be true and let every man be a liar. So demons and Satan do not like truth. They do not like truth and the fact that Jesus arrives and taught truth because this they know that this is the only thing that can free us from the clutches of Satan because our minds get deceived by lies. I was under the power of Satan when I was in the world. I believe lies and those lies got solidified and to believe the truth becomes so difficult that you can believe the truth of the gospel. It becomes difficult to believe the truth of the gospel because it's foolishness to the carnal mind. That's what it's saying. A blind mind sees the gospel as foolishness. You've got to give so that you can give. It don't make sense. The world says invest and grow your thing so that you can get more. It says you've got to die before you can live. It doesn't make sense but this is the truth that seed can't live by itself. It's got to fall down, die and then it can grow again. This is the thing that has been challenged today so they don't like truth. Here comes Jesus teaching the truth which damages their kingdom. He comes with an authoritative teaching of truth. Now let's look at the scene a little bit. It says in Caponium. They meaning Jesus and his disciples and those who are following him come to Caponium. This is where Mark begins his gospel account. Very, very strange the way he writes his gospel. But Jesus had been baptized already as we had lost a couple of weeks ago by John in the Jordan River that gone into today around the south of Jerusalem. You already had a ministry there for months and months, close to year. Finally he arrives in Galilee here in Caponium. And Mark tells us, baby, into Caponium. There's all this history Mark homets. Ministry going on for months and months, Jesus doing miracles. Jesus casting our demons there and doing all of these different things. And then Mark says that came to Caponium. But that's how Mark writes his gospel. So Caponium comes from Kefur K-A-P-H-A-R, Nahum. Nahum was the name of the prophet, Nahum in the Bible. And Kefur was a village so it's the village called Nahum. So Caponium became Jesus' ministry. He had corpses, right? It's just some context. His head corpses, he set up his head corpses in Galilee in Caponium. It wasn't Nazareth. I would go back to Peter Marisburg where people know me. You know, when you set up your basement, no, but Jesus came here. It wasn't Nazareth. If you remember Luke 4 when he went into the synagogue, he preached the gospel. We preached the kingdom message and they tried to throw him off a cliff. They tried, they plotted to kill him. He didn't set up the flood from there and he set up here. Caponium was a beautiful place and still is, but a very, very simple place. Far away from Jerusalem, far away from the quote, unquote, holy influences around Jerusalem of core Judaism on the fringes of the Gentile world. So it was at the border of where the Jewish faith met the Gentile world. So you find a lot of intersection, a lot of traffic, a lot of trade. They even set up Roman garrison because it was known to have a lot of traffic, a lot of trade, a lot of crime because of that. So in fact, Matthew chapter 11, so we're saying that it was a very, very evil place because of these different nuances and different factors. But in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus actually said this. It would be better for Sodom in the day of judgment than Caponium. And we need to look at that. Why would he say something that serious? So the sins of Caponium are vile and the opportunity for Caponium to be exposed to Christ gave them a greater responsibility. And that's why it would be more tolerable, tolerable for Sodom than Caponium and the chair of judgment. So what he's saying in essence is that the decree or the amount of lights we are exposed to is the decree we would be charged by. The Bible says that everyone who is found in that list of sins would have, they share in the lake of fire, right? So this different decrees of punishment in hell for this. And I believe, it's my conviction, that the decree of punishment in hell is directly tied to with the decree of lights that you've exposed and rejected. And that is the unforgivable sin, is that the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to you and you say, "I'm good." That is the unforgivable sin of blasphemy, of the Holy Spirit, because Christ is revealed in our hearts. How many times have I sat in a church service with Christ tugging at my heart, pastor says, "Come up, I see that hand. Come up to the altar." And I say, "Ah, but there is this party next week." Just one more, there's this young, pretty girl, whatever the thing is, whatever the desires of the hearts were. Just one more, okay, next week when you call me, "Lord, I'll go up." And many Sundays past, many years past, and got it to resort to more stringent methods to say that this judgment coming should you not want to come over to my side. So this is the sin of Caponium. They were exposed to Christ on a level that no other city was exposed. He sets up his headquarters. This was the headquarters of Jesus' ministry. Jesus, the Rock of ministry, was in the center of Caponium. And they were exposed to his teachings like no one else. That's why it says it'll be more terrible even in that debaucherous city Sodom. Then it would be in Caponium, they'll be charged harsher because they were exposed to more light. So Jesus having arrived there, it says immediately on the Sabbath. It says, Luke 4, verse 16 says, as was his custom. It is his custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath. So what is the synagogue? Let's look at that very quickly. Simply a synagogue is a meeting place. It's a meeting place. There were no synagogues in the Old Testament. They had a temple in the Old Testament. They'd come out of captivity in Babylon. Israel, remember, was taken into captivity in Babylon in 586 BC. They go to Babylon. They don't have a temple. The temple is destroyed and they want to meet. They collect it in small groups. Synagogues are simply a word for coming together like ecclesia, which is a coming together of saints. Where they returned under Nehemiah, they took the concept back of synagogues and this is where the concept of synagogues sprouted from. And now a pro-liferated in the time of Jesus, which means basically just grew at a rapid rate. You had it from the time of Nehemiah when they came out of captivity and then grew in terms of these little meetings, little churches, these satellite churches that were all over the place. The Talmud says that there were 500 of them in Jerusalem alone. They were like local churches, so they were all over the place. And so they got together and they read the law every separate, right? So the law was explained to them. Now when the law comes, the synagogues provide a ready-made opportunity for him to call from place to place. Town to town and neighbor to neighbor and teach and explain his message. And my thing is maybe they came into existence for this very purpose to keep Jesus the platform. It makes sense that God will create a platform and a place of meeting with you and preach his message. And the tradition was that visiting rabbis would also speak. So it wasn't an inclusion for a visiting rabbi to come and speak. So Jesus enters the synagogue. Now by the time Jesus arrives in Caponeum, according to Luke 4, which is sort of a murder of this incident, he arrives in Galilee in the power of the Spirit, right? He writes in Luke 4, 14, and the news about him is spread throughout the surrounding districts. So, you know, people always like news. You hear something? No, you did. You see. Now we have TikTok and we have all of these different things. They did you hear this news spread, even when the world of Jericho, the rabb, the prostitute said, "We heard about what happened. We got the news. Likewise, his ministry, he had been moving in power. As Luke 14 says, that in power in the Spirit, he had been moving in doing miracles." This news spread. So remember Mark doesn't give us the context. He just said he came into Caponeum, but Luke gives us that view. So his reputation was going before him, right? So the text also says that he was praised by all. So people were giving him props. They were lifting him up. They were like, "This is like nothing we've ever seen before." The word reached them in Judea, and obviously his ministry was merely a year. He had taught. He had performed miracles. They were all away over at the time, so his reputation proceeded him. So they knew about him before he even got there. So they were eager to hear him. They gave him the opportunity as he began to teach, because they wanted a year later here. What this man has to say. So Mark doesn't tell us about anything that he taught. That's not Mark's focus. He didn't give us the content, like the Sermon and the Mount. This is what he preached, but Mark rather focuses on the outcome. When we look at the response in verse 22, it says, "But they were amazed at his teaching." You see an amazement? Why? For he was teaching them as having authority and not as describes. So let's look at the first part, having authority. What does that mean? It means that there was a level of conviction that they were not used to. They were not used to this level of conviction for somebody speaking and cutting their hearts and speaking directly with power and authority. This was the authority that they spoke about. They had never seen this before, ever. So he didn't quote anybody. Like we sometimes would do, we would quote references and we would quote other authors and to validate their points. Jesus didn't. He was the source. He quoted himself. So if you look at Matthew 7, 28 and 29, after the Sermon of the Mount, it also says, "They were amazed because he spoke as one having authority." What is authority? It's exousia, it's rule, dominion, jurisdiction, full right, power, privilege and prerogative. This is the authority he spoke with. He just spoke with absolute conviction, objectivity, authority, dominion as if he was in charge and as if that was it. This was the truth, finish and clap end of story. He spoke to the heart. He spoke as if he belonged there. This was his message. There wasn't any questions about his authority here. And in verse 22 it says, "Not as describes." How did the scribe speak in contrast? Well, they didn't speak with authority, clearly. They quoted other rabbis. They were also prior to themselves in being associated with other rabbis. Prominent men, so you'd say, listen, hey, as TV Chakes would say or, you know, John Bevere told me the ones who they would speak and associate themselves with other powerful men of God who were revered in Israel. So the scribes prior to themselves on familiarity with all the possible views. That is sort of the scholaristic discourse that they would have. They prided themselves in the labyrinth of their musings. They would go here and there, never get into a point. They would have obscure insights and mystical notions and never said anything original. This is what they were used to, robotic. They traced the heritage back to Ezra who, according to Ezra 7, read the law and explained it basically. We find also in Nehemiah, he is the first in the lineage. So they traced themselves back to Nehemiah and Ezra because the law was read. If you go look at Ezra and Nehemiah, the law was read to the people and explained to them. So this was their duty in their mind. They were also the elite and they handled the scripture, like how the Catholic Church was in the formation because people are literate and the Catholic Church would read to you, you wouldn't own a Bible. So they were the ones who read the law and explained the law. So this is how the scribes would do things. Remember, they view their nation as a theocracy. We live in a democracy where the people vote. At theocracy is regard rules, completely utterly. He is the king. So in contrast, Jesus is a authoritative approach. He didn't get his theology from anyone. His teaching was absolute and not arbitrary. Jesus' teaching was logical and not evasive. His teaching was concrete and not esoteric. His teaching was reasonable, systematic and not mystical or muddled. His teaching was on essential matters and not trivialities. His teaching was also clear by the way of illustration. They had never heard anything like this before. You can just imagine being in this presence. So there are a number of Old Testament words that explain the wonder or amazement that they have and the strongest one I could find was EXPLESSO. One Lecicon says it this way. "To strike a person out of their senses by strong feeling." In the custody, they say, "Shapa by Dierma Kar." They were Dierma Kar by the teaching that God that Jesus was giving them. It says, "To strike a person out of their senses." You can imagine this being confounded and being bamboozled by this man's teaching. But if they weren't used to it and it amazed them, it terrified the demons. The demons who are living in one man verse 23, it says just then or immediately. At this very time, Jesus is teaching. And the people are in absolute amazement at this very moment. A man in a synagogue with uncleans, but it starts screaming. You can imagine a scene. What terrified this demon? And we mentioned the arrival of the truth. They are afraid of truth. He knew that with the arrival of Jesus' kingdom or the arrival of the truth, his kingdom had come. The demons knew that. So basically, they developed a system of false religion in Israel. It was highly successful. Highly successful. It was working. Remember the Pharisees and scribes? They were 400 years of silence from the Old Testament. Up until Jesus comes in the scene, up in Sotron, the Perapsis, and in that time, is where all of this falsehood and this tradition had risen up to be prominent over the actual Torah. So the demons had developed this false system of religion. They disguised themselves as angels of light. They hide in the middle of false religion. Satan is before all things a liar and a murderer. We need to understand the nature and the heart of Satan. He wants to deceive everybody and kill their souls. This is his agenda. So truth is, therefore, deadly to the demonic operation. Truth is contrary to lies. This is where the initial conflict comes. In John chapter 8, it says this. John chapter 8 verse 44. This is you of your father, the devil, talking to the Pharisees. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not hear me. There is the conflict. Satan develops demonic lying doctrines. You concocts false systems of religion, all the systems of religion, other than the true gospel, otherwise of Satan. These are the photos in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3. We need to understand that in all systems of religion, outside of the true gospel, if it denies the deity, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, his propitiation force and taking our place, imputing his righteousness and taking our dirt and exchanging it for his righteousness and his holiness. It is a lie and a doctrine of Satan. We need to understand this. This is how we can ascertain whether we are in the right church, we can ascertain whether we have the right friends, we can ascertain if you listen to the right preachers, or if we entertain in the right kind of people. Is Christ central and is his work, he is complete and works central to what we believe. Anything contrary is another gospel in the work of Satan. The essential feature, the first thing that we make that makes demon scream is the word or the word of truth. The truth Crusher Satan's lies, the truth destroys his strongholds, his ideological fortresses, the world hates Scripture. Do we understand this, family? The world hates Scripture. Try and quote Scripture to somebody who is in the world and you will get all the opposition in the world, but just come up with any other ideology and you will not have any push back. It is a word of quote Scripture, quote Scripture in his context and see how much the world hates the word of God. Men by nature hate the Bible because the truth is not in them. Because it is run, they are run by the prince and power of this world, they are the father, the devil, and this is the reality of it. We were all there at one time, so we know how we also hated the word of God. They hate the true gospel, they hate the liberating message of salvation, but when it comes to demons, nothing terrifies them more than the truth. Nothing is more deadly to their domain than the gospel of truth. Secondly, the authority of his chargements, but the demons also terrified by the son of God not only because of the authority of his word, but the authority of his chargements. Just then, in verse 23 again, there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" There's that immediately again. So, down in verse 34, he wasn't permitting the demons to speak. You'll notice that even with Paul, when the witch was following him and saying, "You are the servants of the true God," and he said, "keep quiet and then come out of this person." There was always a shutting up of the demons because Jesus did not want demons as his publicity agents. He didn't want them preaching the gospel on his behalf. He said, "Come out of him and be silent." And also, he didn't want to speak into this narrative that they were saying that he is working in the power of Satan, and he calls out demons by the power of Satan. So, he said, "Keep quiet and leave this person." So, the demon position has always been around and it's never been more manifest than in the time of Jesus. You will find that in the Old Testament, there's very, very, very little mention of demons you find with Saul and David played the tune for him and the evil spread left him. You'll find just very, very few accounts, but you see it just exacerbated when it comes to the New Testament. Jesus just walked and the living hell came out of everything because he's presence. So, draw near to God in your life and see how all of these evil forces, I'm not saying that as Christians, as believers, we can be possessed by Satan. That is not possible. We have what is light and darkness have in common. But see how the influences says, resist the devil and your flee from you, find that Satan flees in the presence of Christ in the presence of his spirit when you draw closer to him. So, you find that Jesus is just walking into a room that demons start trembling and screaming. So, it was during Jesus' earthly ministry that we see this exacerbated. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and as I said demons sit in religious services and they stand in the false pulpits of false religion. They put on the cob or spiritual leaders, but in Jesus' days they were exposed with wildness. Physical deformities, convulsions, seizures, torments, self-mutilation, nakedness, screaming. They always screamed in his presence. The screams, because they couldn't help themselves, it wasn't voluntary. The demons shuddered, terrified at his presence that the Son of God came to proclaim the truth. The demons said it this way, what business do we have with each other? Have you come to destroy us? Literally in the Greek it says what to us and to you? What do we have in common? What do you want from us? In 1 John 3 verse 8, we say, "New this right at the time of destruction was closed." 1 John 3 verse 8, "The Christ was revealed to destroy the works of the devil." As I told you, he knew about the lake of fire. So, the Christ comes, he knew that the time was short, like our joyride is over. So, in Mark chapter 5, we read about the demon possessed man in magazines who said, did you come to torment us? Don't send us into the pits, send us into the pigs. What makes a demon scream? Is the authority of Jesus' word, the truth, that destroys their lives? Is the authority of Jesus' judgment? Because they know that he is judge and they know about the lake of fire and they know their time is short. He prepared this for them, not for us. They knew it before it is even written in Scripture. This is what makes a demon scream. Thirdly, what makes a demon shuddered in fear? By the way, the demon calls him Jesus of Nazareth. As a footnote, this was the most common name given to him and is always used as the name of disdain. To belittle him, Jesus of Nazareth. Crainville from Anatol. You know, it's there. Now, I'm just joking, Anatol, people. But you find that sometimes a place has little reputation. Peter Marisburg is one of those reputations, like what good can come out of Marisburg besides the entry. There's nothing good in the dead name. Jesus of Nazareth because Nazareth was viewed as a disdainful town. Little reputations, small, insignificant. So they spoke to him with disdain, but in the same way, calling him the son of God. You see the contrast here. There's still this cheekiness or this arrogance and this rebellion that demons still have. Jesus of Nazareth, son of God. So they speak to him with the same scorn that others spoke of him. The ludicrous notion that the Messiah would come out of Nazareth. So they join the scorn at the same time they express terror. But they knew who he was. End of verse 2, "I know you are the Holy One of God." So, looking at the Holy One of God, install contrast to the influence. But at the demon knows that the son is as holy as the Father is holy. They know that God is holy. They know that the son is holy. They know that they were thrown out of heaven because they were unholy. They know that they once faced the holiness of God. And they were thrown out of his presence, headed for the lake of fire. And they know that they're going to face him again. There's this certainty that they have because in contrast to the holiness of God, the Bible says holy, holy, holy. It's not three holies or one holy person of the Trinity. No, it's Hebrew writers and Hebrew poets would repeat something. If you look at Proverbs, you'd find the same thing said in a different way. You know, the weaker one plus per the weaker one perish. You find the same idea. It's the way Hebrews wrote. It's the way Hebrew poetry would work. And when you accentuate something three times, it's talking about something so otherworldly, so out of this world that it can't be compared. There's no higher level of elevation from that. You say, "Good, better, best." There's nothing after that. Nothing after that. So when you talk about the holiness of the holy one of God, what he's actually saying is that God is separate. This is what holiness means, right? That God is so different to us. It is so separate. We compare God and we like to anthropomorphize him to say that you know God has hands and he has feet and his ears and stuff. But God does not. God is so different. He is so otherworldly, he is alien. He is so separate from us that he can't even dwell in our presence with his sin, which is why he sends a Savior to die for us so that all of that punishment gets put on him and we can have fellowship with him. So this is what he's saying, the holy one of God. The holy one of God is otherworldly. The son is holy, the father is holy, and they're going to face him once again. If you face God, I mean, at the Mount of Sinai, with the present worship team, we were hiking up yesterday, you find that God's presence came down. And the people wanted to see God and when his presence came down and lightnings and tornadoes and all of these things were happening. He said, "No Moses, you talk and I'll be off." They were scared out of their boots. This is the presence of God and these angels sat in the presence of God. And they know they're going to face him face to face one day. And they scream at the anticipation of their torment. When dead is coming on that fear that you're going to catch it, that fear that torment is coming. This is what they were afraid of. And, fourthly, the authority of his power. They scream that the authority of his power, they screamed when Jesus says, "Be quiet and come out." He threw him into convulsions, the uncleans put it screamed again with a loud voice and they came out of him. At this point, it's not yet time for the destruction that's yet to come. But the demon gets a taste of the authority and the power that Christ has over them. He has instant authority to command no dialogue, no negotiation, no formula, no prayer, no exorcism, just absolute power. He watched the exorcist when the power of Christ compels you, you're negotiating with demons, come out please. Like Jesus just says, leave him and they had to obey this and authority of absolute power. No authority above him. The Bible says that all things were given unto him. We sang it also to him. All things are made for him, by him and through him. There's an absolute power and authority that he has, no negotiation. There's not even an exorcism where you're sitting days. Well, the demons wanted to stay, or the demon wanted to stay. He holds onto, he wanted to hold that soul for capital for hell. He protests, one lost protest, one lost throw of the dice. But eventually, he gives up the ghost. A final protest, and he has this necessary obedience. So the power makes them scream, just like the truth makes them scream, just like his purity makes him scream, his holiness. So whenever they are confronted by Christ, they are terrified because they have a reason to be terrified. But the demon makes a final statement, slamming the man in convulsions. In this case, the man goes into convulsions as Luke says in Luke 4 verse 35, his record of the same accounts says the man was not harmed. There's no information about the man, or because he's not the focus here. He's not the point. The point here is about Christ's authority. So they were amazed. The people were amazed. They were more amazed even now after this incident. They're debating amongst themselves now. He says, "What is this?" Can you imagine this scene is like, what did we just see? What did we just witness? What is this power? What is this authority? We've not seen anything in our entire lives. This is what we call a buzz. There was this buzz about him, not a debate, discussion in a formal sense. But this was hype. They say, "What is this? A new teaching?" We've never heard teaching like this with this authority. He commands even the uncleans, but it's to come out and they obey him. Nobody else was doing this. According to Matthew 933, he calls out the demon of a mute man and it says, "It was never seen in Israel before." So you find that this is the first time and I mean 400 years also of silence. God wasn't speaking or doing anything miraculous in that time until John the Baptist comes on the scene. So what makes demon scream is the authority of Christ. And I'm closing now. The authority of Christ terrifies them and it should terrify us as well. Christ has absolute power, absolute authority. It should terrify sinners if we're sitting in this building, in this room. And sometimes we don't preach the fear of God enough. We went to watch John the Veer the other day at CFC and they just reminded me about the fear of God and the lack of the fear of God. This God that we are going to face one day, Hebrews 9. We die once and we face him. If we are living on the fence and God is tugging on our hearts constantly, one day he will hand us over. Romans 1 gives us an example of it. He also says, "My spirit won't strive with men forever." There is the expiry on this invitation. He says, "I stand on the door and knock. If anyone will open the door, I'll come in and eat with him and eat with me." There's an expiry to this. One day we've got to face the fiery, fiery Christ. John the Veer also mentions something that just reminded me of something. It says, "When Christ comes, the light will be darkened, but not necessarily meaning that it's going to go into blackness. But the light that he comes with even outshines the sun that it looks like darkness. This is the Christ that comes down with legions and legions and merrieths of angels as the Book of Jude says, to charge the world. Sometimes we look at Christ as just the one-sided. He loves us. Oh, how he loves us. Yes, he loves us, but also he's a judge. He's a savior, but he's also a judge and we look at a two-fold. It's not enough to be amazed by Jesus because we can be amazed by these teachings. We can be amazed by the things that he does, the amazed people, and the terrified demons will spend forever in the same lake or fire. Same destination for both of these two groups. Even when Jesus was at the end of John, when there were, I think, 120 disciples there, and he said, "You need to eat up my flesh and drink up my blood." And he said, "There's a hard teaching." And all of them turned away. And then he said to his 12 disciples, "You also want to go." And it says, "Where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life." Out of 120, 12 stayed. Many will turn away. Broad is a part that leads to destruction. You can walk any which way you want and find all the pleasures in the world, but the narrow path. The narrow path says, "There are few that find it." And this is the reality of the gospel. It's not God being negative, but this is just the nature of our sinful hearts, is that we want what we want and we want it. And this is my encouragement, is that Jesus doesn't want our astonishment. He doesn't want our amazement. He wants our fear. And he wants you to fear him as judge and then run to him as Savior. When we see him for who he is, we can't help but turn away and run to him. Just like I was convicted at that one point to say, "I know I'm going to be judged if I'm taken today." And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. The Bible says, "We need to understand the weight of this family." Immediately in verse 28, the news about him spread everywhere into the sounding districts of Galilee. And that was just the start. According to verse 39, he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons. He put on a power display that was shocking. I can only imagine being there even in John, it says it. There's much more things that Jesus done that weren't recorded. It's like volumes and volumes of books you can write about the things he done. Imagine in the year of ministry before he started, here in Mark I, what he had done. The tragedy again was that the people were amazed and went to the same hell as the terrified demons. Demons knew who he was. And couldn't be saved. The people didn't believe who he was and wouldn't be saved. So, my encouragement today, and I hope I didn't come across too harsh, but we have to preach the whole council of God. And in this case, we understand that I wanted to paint a picture of Christ not just as a meek Savior, but the mighty Wario comes down riding in the clouds with murials of angels behind him. He means the power of God coming to judge us. It says that he comes to judge every thought, well and intent. If we are not found in Christ, we realize that every sin that has ever been committed since the dawn of time is recorded. Recorded history to be played back to us to say on the 5th of June, 19, what what? Quarter past 12, this is what was done. And all that weight of that sin, it says you're just heaping, heaping coal onto your head, heaping onto yourself more weights that you can't carry on your own. The only one who can carry the weights of our sin in the presence of our holy card is Christ, who stood as propitiation for our sin in our place, paid the fine, ransomed us out of the clutches of sin. He came to establish his kingdom and came to break the bondage of Satan. We have the power to say no to sin because of his name. We have the gift of faith to believe him. We have the blood that has purchased us. Everything that pertains to your salvation is given to you. There's nothing you bring to the table. And this is the Christ that we serve. The loving merciful card, but also the judgmental one who will charge all sin for what it's worth. But we know that everyone in this house one day will stand before him blameless, spotless, washed by his blood, that you will not pass that judgment seat because Christ is your all and Christ is the one who dwells within you. Let's have a proper view of Christ. Let's have this view that makes demons shut, let us even shut, let us work at our salvation with fear and trembling and scripture puts it. Every day, let me not preach the gospel to others and me, myself, be disqualified and preach for 99 years and then on the 100th year I decide now I'm going to go straight. It doesn't make sense. So, let us live our lives. Dedicated to Christ, let us live our lives with a proper view of him. And this is my judgment for us.
