A Man Like No Other, part 1

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us.!

The Ministry of Christ. We have come to an excellent passage that we'll look at these next several weeks as we continue to walk through the Gospel of Mark together.

Just a couple of notes. Next Sunday morning is a big, big day for our church. It will be Graduation Sunday for the class of 2022 in our institute.

They'll have their graduation banquet on Saturday. And then as a part of our morning worship service, we'll have the graduation for those men. 27 men who are a part of the graduating class of 2022.

We've had about just a little more than 50 men, I believe, the last two years who have graduated. With this class, we'll push over 75 men who have graduated from the institute.

And we are excited to welcome new students. This afternoon at 4 p.m. in our fellowship center, we'll have our interest meeting for any man who is interested in being a part of the institute.

It's a two-year Bible training program. We meet on Sunday afternoons at 345. There are some online videos you watch. There are books to read.

I teach and lecture for an hour a week. There are quizzes and then final exams at the end of each course. And you will take classes over Old Testament 1 and 2, New Testament 1 and 2, hermeneutics, which is the art and science of Bible interpretation, personal evangelism, the character of a leader, and the life of Christ.

Those eight courses over the course of two years. Any man is welcome to be a part of it. You don't have to be a member of our church to do so. We've got a number of different churches who have people who have been a part of the institute.

They are welcome. We've got high schoolers who have been a part of it, college students who are a part of it, up through men in their 80s. And we would love to encourage and invite any man to come and be a part of the information.

No commitment today. You can come at 4 o'clock, learn about it, and say, hey, I want to do that. You can come at 4 o'clock and say, not for me. I can't do that right now. But we'd love, if you're interested at all, to come and at least see what it's about.

We'll walk through what the two years looks like. I'll walk you through a sample semester so you can get a feel for the workload and commitment and the time involved and see if this is something the Lord may be calling you to do.

And so, we look very much forward to today at 4 p.m. for the interest meeting and next Sunday for graduation. It's going to be a very special day in the life of our congregation.

And ladies, for you, remember, your next Ladies' Night of Theology is one week from this Tuesday. It'll be on Tuesday, May the 3rd, 630 to 830 right here in the sanctuary.

Any lady, any age, anywhere, welcome to come. You don't have to sign up, don't have to pay anything, just show up, bring a friend if you can, bring a Bible and a pen, be ready to study.

And we'll look through aspects of theology as we do every couple of months in here with our ladies. We always have a great turnout of ladies who are here, hope and pray and expect the same a week from Tuesday.

And so, ladies, we'd love to have you be a part of that as well. Well, let's look here at Mark chapter 1. And we are in this section in verses 21 to 45 around the theme of a man like no other.

We won't get all the way through this. It'll take us a few weeks here as we continue our walk through the gospel of Mark. But let me read for us verses 21 and following.

And they went to Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him.

And they were all amazed. So they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons, and the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.

And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. As we walk through this text, I want to show you what we know about who our Savior is.

Let's start with this. This passage and down through verse 45 even will carry us through the next several Sundays. But first, let's make note that Jesus was a man of power.

He was a man of power. And under that first heading, as we walk through this passage today, I want to show you several ways that his power was demonstrated.

First, he was a man of power in his teaching. It says in verse 21 that they went into Capernaum and went into the synagogue.

Jesus and his disciples, whom he's just called, that we looked at the last couple of Sundays, they go into Capernaum. Capernaum is the name that it comes from.

It means village of Nahum. The word, the name Nahum means compassion. And Capernaum was one of the towns there around the Sea of Galilee.

It's on the northwest corner there of the Sea of Galilee. And this is the setting to which he comes. Now, where we are in this text happens to be extremely significant for its teaching.

It's also very personally significant to me and to many in our church who were able to go on our trip to Israel a few years ago because we went to Capernaum. And these next couple of Sundays, we're walking in this text.

Some of the places that are mentioned are places where we have stood. And I thought it might be interesting just to show a couple of pictures so you can have an idea of what this looks like as we're going through the text.

And so, let's see if we can figure this out here. So, this is the Sea of Galilee. It's what it looks like. It's about 13 and a half miles long. It's about seven and a half miles wide.

That's the Sea of Galilee. And so, here we are. We took our group out on a boat and had an amazing worship service on the boat on the Sea of Galilee as we got a chance just to watch the scene and to be able to look around us and know that so many significant things took place right here on the Sea of Galilee.

And if you look back at verse 21, it says, The term synagogue is a word that means gathering together.

It's where the people would gather together here. Just a little bit that may help you to understand the setting of what's going on. So, I want to show you a couple of places of synagogues in Israel.

Before we get to the synagogue in Capernaum, there's a synagogue that has been fairly recently unearthed in a place called Magdala. This is not the setting for Mark 1, but this is actually remains from a first-century synagogue where we can say with great confidence Jesus Himself would have been.

And our group got to go. We were right here walking around this very synagogue. This is the floor and the outer remains there. They've put a roof on top of it now to protect it.

But this is what a synagogue looked like in the first century in a place that with confidence we know that Jesus would have been. When Jesus went and says in the synagogue in this area, He called the scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites.

This is right where it took place. So, there's a few different pictures. You can see the mosaic there on the floor that still remains to this day from the first century in the time of Jesus.

One of the amazing things about our trip to Israel is that when you read your Bible, you're not just reading about names and places. Your mind is going to the place where these things actually happen, which is an amazing thing.

But He specifically says here that He went to the synagogue at Capernaum. I want to show you just to get this in your mind so you can see this. So, this is a synagogue at Capernaum.

Same city this is talking about. Now, the structures you see here are from the 300s. This is the place, they believe, where the same synagogue existed in Jesus' day.

So, when you're reading Mark 1, this is what you're talking about. We're right there in it. The pillars and the remnants of the wall that you see are from the 300s.

There's a part of what still remains today in the corner that is unearthed from the 200s, going back just a century or two after the life of Christ.

Just an amazing, amazing thing to get to see and to behold. So, when you're reading that Jesus from the synagogue in Capernaum, this is what it looks like right in that area right there.

Again, the pillars and wall you see were built about 200 years later after Christ. What exists in His day would have been knocked down and then rebuilt. But right there is what it looks like.

All right? Let me see if I can just get back here to the front there. Okay. So, I just want you to have that in your mind so you can get some kind of a glimpse and a feel of what that looks like.

A synagogue, if you wonder what that is, they were established during the exile. Remember in 605, the Babylonians overtake that southern kingdom of Judah.

And as they are taken into exile, they weren't able to go to the temple. Temple's destroyed, 586. And so, they begin to meet together in what was known as these synagogues, these gathering togethers.

That's what the word means. When they return back to their homeland after Cyrus frees them, when the Medo-Persians overtake the Babylonians, this concept of synagogues, it stuck.

It remained a part of their life and a part of their religious culture. And so, at the synagogues, which were not temples, you still just had the temple, but the synagogues were local assemblies in all these different cities.

And the synagogue's a place where they would gather for worship. It's a place where during the week, they would teach and instruct in schools. It's a place where disputes would be handled.

A synagogue was allowed to be established in any community that had at least 10 men that were ages 13 and over. So, you would have a number of synagogues in the area.

And Jesus goes here to this synagogue in Capernaum. And if you're wondering what does a synagogue service look like or what would Jesus have been doing, what was the norm and the custom of that day?

You would have had a minister known as a Hazan, and he was the one who would take care of making sure that the lamps were trimmed so there would be light in the synagogue.

He would sweep the floors. He would keep the place clean and orderly. You would have a ruler of the synagogue. And that ruler of the synagogue's job was to plan the service when they gathered for worship.

Incidentally, we know the name of the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum. Do you know who it is? It's Jairus. We'll read about him in Mark 5.

Jairus is the man whose little girl was sick and was dying. And he goes and tries to get Jesus when Jesus is dealing with the lady with the issue of blood.

And word comes that the girl has died. And Jesus goes and takes her by the hand and says, Talitha cum, translated to say, little lamb arise. That's Jairus.

He's the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum. There would be elders that would sit up front. But these were leaders of the area, men of esteem.

There would be what was called an attendant. This would be someone who was often a visiting rabbi or a visiting teacher who would come and read the Scriptures and then teach or explain the Scriptures.

There would be people in the synagogue who would take the offerings, the alms, and distribute them to the poor throughout the city. And so, that's how the synagogue was structured and how it was ordered.

And what they would do when they would gather there for worship at that synagogue, their service would begin with the declaration that was so important to God's people.

And they would offer it up as a prayer. As they would say, Shema, Israel, Adonai, Eloheinu, Adonai, Ehud.

Which is to say, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. It's known as the Shema from Deuteronomy 6. That's how they would begin their service.

And then they would read the Scripture and have teaching. That's important because I want you to understand what happens in the service when Jesus steps forward.

So, Jesus on this day in Mark 1, verses 21 and following, is the teacher. He's been asked there to teach. And it says in verse 21, He comes to the synagogue and He's teaching.

And they were astonished at His teaching. Because He taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.

Now, this was not a new thing for Jesus to go to the synagogue and teach. This is what His custom was. He would go to different towns, different villages, invited to come and teach. And He would open the scroll and read it and then explain it.

Now, it did not always go real well for Him. Now, Mark, remember, Mark is picking up with the ministry of Jesus in Galilee. Jesus is baptized in the summer.

Number of months later, begins His ministry in the southern region of Judea. Then works Himself up through Samaria. And finally, to the northern region of Galilee. That's where Mark picks it up.

And so, at this point, Jesus has already been doing lots of ministry for months. And in His own hometown of Nazareth, remember, He stood up and He read from Isaiah.

And He told the people gathered there in the synagogue that they were spiritually bankrupt and in need of salvation. Now, how did the people respond?

Not well. Luke 4.28 says, Jesus slipped away.

Preaching was a dangerous thing. Jesus stood in front of religious, self-sufficient, arrogant people and said, You are sinners in need of salvation.

And they said, We hate that so much. They tried to kill Him. Try to throw Him over the cliff to do away with Him.

Well, that's what happened when He was in Nazareth. This is in Capernaum. And on this day, He's teaching. And the crowd's reaction is very different. They were astonished, it says.

And the reason they were astonished is because He taught with authority, not as the scribes. When the scribes would teach, they would essentially just quote each other.

They would repeat and recite other rabbinic teaching and statements and quotations of other scribes. The scribes were experts in the law who would teach the Torah.

And they would serve as judges in the area. And they would teach and quote each other. It's not what Jesus did. When Jesus stepped forward to read and to teach and explain the Word of God, He did it with no quotations as far as from other men.

He would read the Scripture and say, This is what it means. He needs no footnotes. He doesn't lean on any other tradition or expert.

He has authority as the Son of God like no other man. And it says He taught with authority that astounded them.

The word exousia means authority. It means to have complete power or complete prerogative. It is to say, if you have that level of authority, that you need to stand and lean on nothing else.

That's how Jesus taught. He had complete power in His teaching. Secondly, He had complete power over demons.

Verse 23, Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And the man cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

A little rendering here. He says, What to us and to you? That's what the demon says. What to us and to you? In other words, What does light have to do with darkness?

What are you doing? What are we to do with you being here in our presence? And He says in verse 24, The demon speaks, Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. In this moment, An interesting thing takes place.

Jesus is teaching, And the people are astonished At His authority in His teaching. And at the same moment, The demons are terrified By His presence.

It's worth noting that in the Gospel of Mark, The first declaration of who Jesus is Comes from who? A demon. In the synagogue.

The demon says, I know exactly who you are. You're the Holy One of God. He says, Have you come to destroy us?

And He speaks in the plural. Some take that to mean That He was speaking on behalf of The demon and the individual. The demon had possessed. Others take it to mean There is more than one demon Within the man.

I think it's probably The demon speaking In a collective sense Of all the demonic realm, Which in the time of Jesus Was unleashed In a very unusually high way.

He says, Have you come here to destroy us? And you say, Well, Michael, That's strange. You're telling me the demons Know who Jesus is?

Absolutely they do. James 2 verse 19 Tells us That even the demons Believe there is one God And they Shudder. They don't love Christ, But they Shudder Before Him The demons Know exactly who Jesus is.

I mean, Think with me. The demons have known Exactly who Jesus is Since they were first created. The demons know Exactly who Jesus is Since the moment They were kicked out of heaven In their rebellion Of Lucifer.

The demons are not Confused at all About who God is Or what His authority is Or who Christ is And they tremble And they know Their day of destruction Is coming.

It's the nature of Christ And His holiness That make the demons Tremble in fear. If you doubt That God is real If you doubt That Christ is King of Kings If you doubt That Jesus rules And reigns Forever and forever For all time Just know this The demons Don't doubt They don't wonder They know And Jesus In verse 25 It says Jesus rebuked Him Saying Be silent And come out of Him Literally Be muzzled Stop speaking That's enough Be quiet Stop That's the Intensity Behind the language here Stop teaching And come out of Him

Verse 26 And the unclean spirit Convulsing Him And crying out With a loud voice Came out of Him And they were all amazed So that they questioned Among themselves Saying What is this?

A new teaching With authority And He commands Even the unclean spirits And they obey Him The people are astonished At His authority And power In teaching The demons Are trembling At His power Over them The demons Tremble Before Jesus For the same reason That it would be So frightening For an unbeliever To die And stand before the Lord And that is The unholy Always tremble In dread In the presence Of the holy God And look what happens It says Verse 28 And at once His fame Spread everywhere Throughout all The surrounding region In Galilee It doesn't take long For stories like this To get around The crowds are beginning To get larger and larger

Wherever Jesus goes Because of His power His power in His teaching His power over demons But Mark tells us also A third aspect of His power And that is His power Over disease It tells us here In verse 29 That immediately He left the synagogue This would be about noon That's about when The synagogue services Would end And what takes place At noon As the service is over Is you've got demons In fear You've got the people That are astounded By His authority You've got all the surrounding towns You're going to hear Immediately and quickly About all that Jesus Is doing But I do want to say this Be very careful With your own heart here Because what Mark tells us In verse 28 Is that His fame Spread everywhere But there are always people

Who are intrigued By the remarkable And they have some kind Of emotional response To spiritual things But that is not the same As repentance It is possible to be In a church worship service And the music grips you And it stirs you And the preaching even Maybe captivates your heart And your mind Your emotion And you have some kind Of an emotional response You have some kind Of a buzz about you And you say to yourself That I felt safe there I felt peaceful there I felt something unusual there I felt comfort there And that's well and good But don't ever mistake Your emotion with repentance There are all kinds Of people who go To a worship service And they feel moved

And they feel stirred But that is not the same As being converted Be careful The fame of Jesus Spreads everywhere But most of those Who will cheer Him In the amazing work He does Will also demand For His crucifixion Not long after that It says He left the synagogue And He entered the house Of Simon and Andrew Simon is Peter The apostle With James And John So it's about noon And they leave the synagogue And it says they immediately Went to the house And they go into this house Where it belongs to Peter And his mother-in-law It says is there Verse 30 Simon's mother-in-law Lay ill with fever Let me get this in your mind

Because this is something else That we can see Maybe Did we lose There we go Okay So this is the synagogue In Capernaum When you leave the synagogue You're just You're just going A couple of football throws Down the way And you come here To this location You see some remnants That date all the way back To the first century In the time of Jesus And what you see there In that modern-looking building Is a modern church That church is built On stilts You can kind of see How it's built on stilts Because below that Is the area believed to be The house of Peter Talked about here In Mark chapter 1 And what they did Was in this area This is a place You see this kind of Octagon that's there

This is a house That was converted To a church In the first century What they believe Is that Peter's house At the end of the century Was converted into a church Where the Christians Gathered there On the Lord's Day For worship In the middle of that Is a section You can actually I don't have a picture of it You can actually look Below that I didn't go far enough Into it to get this picture But you can look below it This is from about The 300s And you can see From about a century Even earlier in that Down below that In the middle of this area And so this is the area You've got the synagogue And you go out of the synagogue And you pass through those What would be houses And marketplaces And there where that large church is Is us looking from the synagogue Over to the house Where Peter's mother-in-law was So it's right there You see it right there And the problem is

That Simon's mother-in-law Is ill with fever It says It's not just that she has A small fever The language helps us out here The word for fever Is the root Where we get our English word For pyro For fire The text is suggesting That she was on fire With fever She was very ill And it says that Immediately they told him About her Verse 31 And he came up And took her by the hand And lifted her up And the fever Left her Jesus In the synagogue In Capernaum Teaches with a power And his authority And his teaching That astounds the people While he's teaching A demonic spirit Speaks up And Jesus says Be muzzled No more

Come out of him And the demon says Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are You're the holy one of God We know our days are numbered Is this it?

Is this when you're going to destroy us? And the people say Who is this man? He teaches with authority Unlike any other man He has power even over the demons And he's doing this publicly But I want you to see That Jesus does not display his power Only in front of the crowds He's also a man of tender compassion When that service is over Peter says You've got to come with me My mother-in-law is in the house She didn't come today She's very sick She's on fire with fever Jesus goes in the house No longer in front of the crowds This is now in a private residence And he's going to command the fever To leave her And we see this

Sneak preview Of what one day is to come When there's no more demonic influence No more sickness No more disease And praise God One day No more death It's a preview Of what is to come And I want to show you here At verse 31 Something I think is significant He took her by the hand And lifted her up And the fever left her Now What is Peter's mother-in-law Going to do?

She's been sick She's been in bed She's been unable to do anything Here is the son of God In her own house He heals her Whatever she's about to do Must be something of great value And she began To serve them It's interesting This lady who was sick Who experiences healing Who experiences the touch Of the son of God Who has essentially been given Life back to her Doesn't have to go And leave home And be a missionary As noble as that is For whom God calls to do that She doesn't have to go

And start A Bible study group To tell her story As good as it is For people to meet together New Bible study She doesn't have to go And find a job somewhere Where she can get paid To tell her story Though it's fine For people to write books And say what Jesus Has done for them This lady who has been brought From the brink of death Back to life Is healed And she serves the household She returns To the normal Routine tasks Of serving her family I think that's significant Because I think What that tells us Is there is An inherent Value

Honor And esteem For those who serve Their families And take care Of their households That When you are Cooking dinner For your family And when you're Helping your children With homework And when you're Fighting endless Mounds of laundry And when you're Just making sure The bills are paid And when you're Cleaning up After your children And when at the end Of an exhausted Day You lay down In bed And you hear Voices in your head Of people saying Shouldn't you do More with your life How much money Do you make How influential Are you How many people Know your name Look at all these People in the magazines How beautiful And wealthy And famous they are Have nothing

To do with that There is something Intrinsically good And noble About serving Your family And taking care Of your household In the privacy Of your own life And if nobody Other than God Sees how hard You work for your family And how much You do And husband And wife As they labor Together In their home To do normal Routine Mundane Things And the world May try to convince you That you're not valuable Unless you're wealthy Or famous Or powerful Don't believe it For a second This lady Got life Restored to her And she just Went about Serving In her house

There are things The Lord may call you To do In a business sense There are tasks The Lord may give you That get recognition Or that provide A paycheck There is nothing More valuable You will do Than beginning First To serve Your family And love The people That God Has brought Into your life In your own Home It says He came And took her By the hand And lifted her up And the fever Left her And she began To serve them And that evening At sundown They brought to him All who were sick Or oppressed By demons And the whole city Was gathered together At the door And he healed Many who were sick With various diseases And he cast out Many demons This is the power

Of Jesus He is powerful In his teaching He is powerful Over demons He is powerful Over disease And the whole area Is astounded At what he does No one has done What he has done Before People have taught Not with that Kind of authority People have cast out Demons But Not calling upon Their own name In this way Where he needs The power Of no one else Because he Is God And the people Are amazed In this final sentence We look at In verse 34 This morning He would not Permit the demons To speak Because they Knew him

It's a strange Sentence Isn't it The demon In the synagogue In Capernaum Said You're the holy One of God We know Who you are And the demon Is essentially Giving testimony Not praise Not worship He doesn't love Believe or trust In Christ But the demon Acknowledges Who Jesus is And the sense You get here Is he's casting Out all these Demons And the demons Are all wanting To speak And at least Declare They know Who he is And Jesus Again says Be muzzled Speak no more They knew Who he was And Jesus Does not Clamor For the testimony Of demons It always Astounds me How even In the church In the Christian Realm There's always People who think If we could Just get A really Famous Celebrity That would Be saved Then The kingdom Could explode

If we could Just Have some Big miracle Take place Then There would Be revival Listen I would pray That all Celebrities Would give Their life To Jesus Not for The sake Of Jesus For the Sake Of their Soul Jesus Doesn't Need The powerful Or the Wealthy Or the Beautiful Or the Elite Praise God His grace Can save Them For sure But there Is no Pacing In heaven Thinking to Themselves We better Have some Influential Person Believe us Or this Whole thing Is going To be Over Jesus Doesn't Clamor For the Praise Or the Testimony Of demons Nor does

He clamor For the Applause Of the Unbelieving World to Make him Popular It's not What his Kingdom Is about Which is Why the Scripture Says there Are not Many of Us Who are Noble Not many Who are Wise I mean Look around The room Today You see A whole Lot Of people That are Real Normal Don't You Real Normal The world's Not real Concerned With any Of us In this Room Unless Unless You start To live For Jesus And get Vocal About it Then the World may Be concerned But not To want To praise You To want To silence

You See Jesus Is not Needing Anything Of this World To build His Church He will Build his Church And he'll Do it Through sinners Who have Been saved By grace The outcast Of the World And for Those who Were saved And the World loved Them before When they Start to Speak of Jesus They will Soon Turn their Back It's Okay The kingdom Does not Need anything From this World The Lord Will Build His Church And the Kingdom Will march On Despite The applause Or The arrows From this World Neither Are a Factor In

Jesus Building His Church Jesus Spoke With Power In His Teaching Unlike Anyone Had Ever Seen Jesus Had Power Over The Demonic Realm And he Had Power Over Diseases Because he Himself Was the Living Son Of God My Question For you Today Is Do you Love Him Do you Trust Him Have you Surrendered Your life To him Please Don't Mistake A Warm Feeling Of Peace That you Get At Church With The Same Thing As Conversion Please Don't Mistake Sympathy For Jesus As Salvation The

Question Is Do you Love Him Do you Belong To him And are You Today Trusting In Christ And Christ Alone As Your Lord And as Your Savior Lord We Thank you Today For your Word And pray That your Spirit Would use It To help Us Help Us To Understand To believe Help Us To follow And to Obey Lord We Thank you Today That you Have Revealed Yourself In your Word And we Pray That any Today Who would Be in Need Would Follow The Leadership Of your Spirit And turn To you For salvation And trust In you Each day Of their Life We ask It in Jesus Name Amen

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