Our sermon text this morning is Mark chapter 1, verses 21 through 28. Listen to God’s word. And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.

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

Let’s pray together. Lord, as your word is read and as it is opened in preaching, give us reverence and holy attention. Let the authority of Christ humble us and silence every rival voice and free us from spiritual bondage. And by your spirit, Our prayer is that you would illuminate our minds, convict our hearts, and strengthen our faith in Christ. Grant that we would not be hearers only, but doers of your word. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. And again, God’s people say, amen. Please be seated. Well, this is now the fifth Lord’s Day that we’ve had together as pastor and people.

And I’m grateful for the kindness that you’ve shown to us and for the way many of you have begun to let us into your lives. In these first weeks, we’ve already seen something of your faithfulness, years of steady worship and prayers offered through times of joy and times of sorrow. and a quiet love for Christ that has endured. I’ve also heard in many conversations the burdens that some of you carry, the weight of age, ongoing pain, loneliness, grief, worries for our children and grandchildren, and sometimes a lingering question in the night, is the Lord still near? Is his word still strong for me now? Well, right here, the Lord has given us a passage that meets this need, these questions that we have, and not with shallow cheer, but also strength, solid gospel strength.

In Mark 1, we’ve seen Jesus is beginning his public ministry, and one of the first things that Mark wants us to see is that Christ proclaims Christ probes and Christ prevails, Christ proclaims, Christ probes and Christ prevails. Here he comes into the gathered worship of God’s people on the Sabbath day and he speaks with authority. His word shines light into what is hidden and he silences the enemy’s voice. And with a simple command, he drives out uncleanness so that fear loses its crown and Christ is seen as king. So we’re not just reading here an interesting story from long ago, we’re meeting.

The living Christ, as Mark presents him, the holy one of God who comes near to his church, who comes near to us as his church in mercy and power. So let’s hear this word again as we work our way through it and ask the Holy Spirit to press it into our hearts, not merely to astonish us, but to bring us to faith, repentance, and steady obedience and deep comfort in Christ. Notice, first off, Christ proclaims his word in worship carries divine authority. Let’s look again at verses 21 and 22. Mark begins very simply.

And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. Well, this is already instructive because it tells us something about our Lord. When he begins his public ministry, he doesn’t begin by chasing crowds in the marketplace. He doesn’t stage an event. He begins where the Word of God is read and explained where the people of God gather for worship. He enters the synagogue on the Sabbath and he teaches.

Now this should teach us something here. It shows us that Jesus honors and he still honors the ordinary means by which God builds and keeps his people. He could have designed his church to run on spectacle, but he doesn’t. He didn’t. He designed his church to run on the word, prayer, worship, the sacraments, and the fellowship of the saints.

And so when Christ comes to his people, he comes first as a teacher because faith comes by hearing. Now, some of you, as you’ve grown older, may be tempted to think, look, I’ve heard all this before, or my best years are behind me. What use is another sermon, another Lord’s Day? But Mark is showing us, showing you the opposite. The place where Christ meets his people is right here. It’s right now in this context here. the gathering of the saints under the ministry of his word.

Now you may not feel strong and your mind may not be as quick. Your body may not cooperate the way it used to, but Christ has not grown weak. His word has not lost its power and his appointed way of blessing and strengthening his church has not changed. Now notice what happens when he teaches. and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. Now that’s, their reaction is not casual. It’s not, oh, that was nice talk. They are astonished, they’re shaken awake. Why?

Because of the manner of his teaching. Mark says he taught as one who had authority. Now in that world, the scribes were respected men, They were trained in the scripture. They were skilled in interpretation. They often taught by quoting authorities.

This rabbi, that tradition, this chain of teachers. And that’s not necessarily a wicked thing. It’s the way a tradition-centered culture establishes credibility. We’ll ask creatures, where’d you go to seminary? And we find out the school and who were here, instructors and so forth and so on. Who have you been reading? Those particular influences here.

But Mark wants us to see the contrast. Jesus doesn’t come merely as one more teacher in the line. He comes with an authority that is immediate, that’s direct, that’s waiting. So when Jesus speaks, it doesn’t feel like a lecture about God. It feels like God addressing you. And that, friends, is what preaching is meant to be. not the preacher’s personality, not mere religious information, but the word of Christ pressed home to the conscience. You see, when Christ is faithfully proclaimed from the scripture, Christ himself is dealing with us, comforting, correcting, warning, inviting, commanding. It is my prayer that I, as your pastor, as your preacher, would fade away and that Christ would be seen here in the midst of his people declaring to you the perfect will of God for his salvation. So let me press the searching edge of this a bit with you.

It is possible to sit under the word, the ministry of preaching and be impressed, even astonished and still not submit. These people are astonished. but their astonishment is not yet repentance. Surprise is not faith. You can admire the authority of Jesus and still refuse it.

So here are a few questions worth asking right away. When you come to worship, are you coming to meet Christ or merely to keep a routine? Do you come to be corrected by God or do you come primarily to be affirmed? Is there any clear command of Christ that you already know and yet are quietly refusing to obey? Because the Lord Jesus does not speak with authority to entertain us.

He speaks with authority to claim us. Now, we have to also see how Jesus fulfills what’s happening here. He’s not merely an example of good preaching. This is the promise teacher, the prophet we read of in Deuteronomy 18. God’s final word standing among his people. Long ago, the Lord had promised he would raise up a prophet like Moses and that we must listen to him. And here he is. His authority is not borrowed. It’s not secondhand. It belongs to him by right. Why? Because he is the holy one of God. And that means his authority is not something just to fear, but it’s something to rest in.

Many of you know what it is to live under many other so-called authorities. The authority of pain in the morning, the authority of a calendar full of a business or school or doctor’s appointments. the authority of the new cycle, the authority of worry, the authority of the past, things you cannot change. But Mark sets another authority before us, the authority of Jesus Christ. And here’s the comfort.

If Jesus has authority, then your life is not governed by randomness. It’s not governed by mere human power. It’s not governed by your fears. It is governed by the king who teaches with authority and who loves his people enough to speak truth to them.

But Mark’s not finished showing us what this authority means, because authority is always tested. If Jesus truly speaks with heaven’s authority, then what happens when darkness challenges him? What happens when uncleanness is exposed? And Mark answers, it happens immediately. You see, when Christ proclaims with authority, the room does not remain the same. Light enters and what is hidden is exposed. So notice here in the second place, Christ not only proclaims, but he probes.

His presence exposes uncleanness and it shuts up the enemy. And immediately, we read in 23, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out. You see how sobering this is? The unclean spirit is not out in the pagan temples. It’s not in some back alley. He’s in the synagogue, in the gathering of worshipers, in the place where scripture is read and prayers are offered.

Brothers, sisters, this is one detail that just shatters our common illusions. We like to think that being near holy things automatically makes us holy. We like to think that religious routines keeps the darkness away, but Mark isn’t going to let us live in that comfort.

Uncleanness can hide behind respectability. It can sit quietly in a pew. It can sing a hymn. It can look like it belongs. And the only thing that reliably exposes it is a presence and word of Christ. That’s part of what Jesus’s authority does. It presses light into the room. His teaching is not merely educational. It is penetrating. So when Christ speaks, the conscience awakens and what is hidden begins to surface.

Now, before we go any further, we have to be careful. and pastoral here. Not every struggle is demonic. Not every affliction is possession. Scripture’s clear that we are complex creatures. We’re fearfully and wonderfully made, body and soul, and there are many kinds of suffering, but Mark is also equally clear that there is a real spiritual enemy. And that spiritual uncleanness is not imaginary. The Bible takes seriously the reality of hostile powers. And this passage is written not to make us superstitious, but to make us confident, because Christ is Lord over it all.

Now, listen to what this unclean spirit says. 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. Now in that outburst, there are three striking notes. First, the hostility. What have you to do with us? That’s the language of resistance. It is, in effect, leave us alone. Do not interfere. Don’t come near. And the second is fear. Have you come to destroy us?

Because the Spirit knows that the presence of Jesus means judgment. It senses what is true, the Holy One has come, and darkness cannot coexist with Him. And the third thing, knowledge. I know who you are, the Holy One of God. That is accurate, that is orthodox. It is the right title, but it’s not saving faith. It is recognition without love, truth without surrender, doctrine without repentance. And that’s a searching word for the church. It is possible to know true things about Jesus and still not belong to him. It is possible to be able to say all the right sentences and still resist his authority over our lives. Demons can confess truth and still be demons.

They believe and tremble that there’s a kind of knowledge that does not soften the heart. It hardens it. There’s a kind of familiarity with holy things that does not produce worship. It produces contempt or resistance or merely cold routine. So let me ask you plainly, are you content with being near Christ but not submitted to him? Are you content with being doctrinally correct? while cherishing a sin you will not surrender. Are you content with astonishment at sermons, but no real repentance? If that’s you, then I want you to hear the mercy in this passage.

Jesus doesn’t merely expose uncleanness. He comes to deliver from it. The point is not that you should despair because darkness can be near the synagogue. The point is that Christ has entered the synagogue. Christ has come near so that darkness will not have the last word. So look at Jesus’ response. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him. Now notice the order here. First, be silent.

Why? because Christ will not receive testimony from hell. He will not allow the enemy to speak on his terms. He will not allow truth to be spoken with wicked intent. Even when the words are accurate, the source is unclean and the purpose is disruptive.

So brothers, sisters, there is comfort here for us. Some of you live under a constant stream of inward voices, accusing voices, condemning voices. despairing voices. You fail too much. You’re too old to change. God is tired of you. Your prayers don’t matter. Your family is beyond hope.

And those voices can sound authoritative. They can feel like fact. And the enemy is content to quote true things in twisted ways if it will crush you. But Mark wants you to see Jesus standing in the synagogue rebuking the unclean spirit and saying, in effect, you will not speak here. You will not define this man. You will not control this moment. And Christ is still the one who silences the enemy. He silences the enemy most profoundly at the cross. The Holy One of God came, yes, to destroy the works of the devil. He came to break the accuser’s case against his people. He came to bear our guilt and to remove it. He came to cleanse our uncleanness at the root, not merely to manage its symptoms.

And that means When God grants you repentance and faith, when you repent and believe, you may say to your accusing heart, Christ has answered this. Christ has silenced that charge. Christ has authority over this voice. Now, there’s also a call to obedience here. Jesus says, be silent.

And if he says that, we must learn not to give the enemy the microphone. So you may have to, we must not entertain sinful thoughts or cultivate resentments or nurse bitterness or feed fear as if those voices deserve a seat at the table. Some of you have been through enough that bitterness feels understandable. But understand this, bitterness is an unclean voice that claims authority and Christ says, shut up, be silent.

And then he says, the second command here, come out of him. In other words, Jesus doesn’t merely hush the enemy. He removes him. He doesn’t settle for quiet uncleanness. He drives it out. And that’s how Christ deals with sin in his people. He doesn’t call you to make peace with what defiles you. He calls you to confession, to repentance, to a clean break, And he does not command this while leaving you helpless.

The same Lord who commands also supplies grace. And Mark wants us to see that grace in action here. So he takes us to the moment of deliverance. And when Christ probes and exposes, he does not leave us ashamed and helpless. He commands, he delivers, and he prevails. So notice in the third place, Christ prevails. His command delivers, it reorders fear, it spreads his reign as well.

Beginning of verse 25, be silent and come out of him. And then Mark continues, and the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. Now notice Mark, what he’s doing for us here. He doesn’t romanticize the conflict. The spirit convulses the man. It’s a loud cry. Deliverance can be disruptive. When Christ drives out uncleanness, there may be turmoil. The enemy doesn’t leave politely.

And that’s an important pastoral word, especially for believers who feel the fight. Some of you may say, pastor, if Christ is Lord, why is sanctification still so hard? Why do old temptations still flare up? Why do I still feel the pull of fear or the sting of bitterness or the ache of regret?

And Mark’s answer in part is right here before us. The unclean spirit convulsed and cried out, but he came out. The convulsing is not victory, it’s resistance on the way out. The loud voice is not authority, it is a noise from a defeated enemy. So take courage here. Because the presence of conflict doesn’t mean that Christ is absent. It may mean precisely the opposite. Christ is present and at work and what once lay quietly in the dark is being dragged into the light so it can be put out. Notice too how the crowd responds to all this. They were all amazed. And they questioned among themselves saying, what is this?

A new authority. A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. That sentence is the climax here of this whole passage. Mark wants us to hear it. He commands and they obey. The people connect the miracle to the message. The exorcism is not a sideshow here. It is confirmation that Jesus’ teaching truly carries divine authority. And here’s a searching question for us in this text. If unclean spirits obey Jesus, will you?

Not merely do you agree with him, not merely are you impressed by him, but will you submit? Will you obey in places where obedience costs you? Will you forgive the person you’ve held at arm’s length? Will you repent of the secret sin you’ve managed rather than mortified? Will you stop feeding fear and begin feeding faith? Will you lay down the resentment you’ve called justified?

Will you trust Christ enough to obey him when you feel weak? Now at this point, some tender consciences will say, well, I want to obey, but I feel so weak. I’m older now. My habits are deep. My emotions are, are fragile. My energy is limited. And here we must speak clearly.

Christ does not merely demand your obedience, but he enables it. He does this by joining you to himself by faith. The Christian life is not you trying to copy Jesus from a distance. It is you united to Christ so that his life becomes a source of your life. You obey not to earn love, but because you have been brought into his love. He enables obedience by cleansing your conscience. Some of you struggle to obey because you’re always trying to pay off old guilt. Guilt’s a terrible fuel. It produces either despair or self-righteousness. And Christ frees you from condemnation. A cleansed conscience makes room for willing obedience.

And notice too, he also enables obedience by his spirit. The Holy Spirit’s not a mere comforter in the vague sense. He is God’s power within you, creating new desire, strengthening new resolve, making Christ’s commands not only possible, but increasingly sweet. Fourth, he enables our obedience through the ordinary means of grace, prayer, the word of God preached and read, the sacraments, the fellowship of the saints, So that’s why you must not despise the slow, steady rhythms of the Lord’s Day, worship, prayer, scripture reading, and simple faithfulness. These are not small things. They are the king’s appointed channels of strength.

And then Mark tells us, and at once, the fame spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. In that world, news traveled quickly by what means, word of mouth. People talked. Families told families. Villages repeated the story, and the story was simple. There’s a teacher in Capernaum who speaks with authority, and when he speaks, even unclean spirits obey. And you know what?

That is still the church’s testimony, because we don’t gather Because we are strong, we gather because Christ is strong. We do not gather because our problems are small. We gather because his authority is great and we do not gather to celebrate our own faithfulness. We gather to magnify the king who speaks and darkness yields.

Let me draw this comfort out plainly for you. Especially if you’re weary. This passage tells you the strongest spiritual forces are not ultimately in control. Fear is not in control. Evil is not in control. The devil is not in control. Jesus is. It tells you something else. Jesus is not only authoritative, he’s merciful. He did not come into the synagogue to shame the oppressed man. He came to free him. He didn’t come to leave the unclean spirit untouched. He came to drive it out. And he did not come to set his authority on display and then walk off. He came to go all the way to the cross, to secure a final deliverance for his people. So when you go home to quiet houses, to ongoing pain, to long memories, to uncertain futures. Take this with you. The king has come. The king speaks, the king commands, and what terrifies you must obey him.

That’s not wishful thinking. That is the good news, the gospel, according to Mark. So we’re left with this simple, unavoidable reality. Jesus Christ is not merely interesting. He is the holy one of God, and he speaks with authority, and that means this passage presses one great question into every heart. If unclean spirits obey him, will you? Don’t be content with merely knowing about Jesus. Do not be content with being impressed by Jesus.

Christ has come near in mercy. Christ proclaims in his word, summons faith and repentance. Christ probes and his light exposes what we would hide, not to destroy the bruised reed, but to cleanse and to heal. Christ prevails and what terrifies you must obey him. And for those who belong to Christ, especially those of us who feel weary, are limited or worn with years. Hear the comfort God means for you today. The authority of Jesus is not against you. It is for you. When accusing voices rise, he silences them. When fear swells, he rules over it. When temptation cries loudly, remember it is noise from a defeated enemy. The King who commands also supplies grace to obey.

Let this be our confidence together, not in our strength, not in our numbers, not in our age, but Jesus Christ. He walks among his churches. He still speaks through his word. He still delivers the oppressed, and he will keep his people right to the end. Let’s pray together.

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, we bless you that you have all authority in heaven and on earth. You’re not a silent king, You proclaim the word of God with power and truth, and your voice still reaches into the hearts of your people. We confess, Lord, that we are often slow to listen and quick to excuse ourselves. Forgive us for hearing without obeying, for being impressed without repenting, for keeping sins hidden that your light would expose.

Search us and know us. Where there is uncleanness, drive it out. Where there is hardness, break it. Where there is fear, quiet it by your sovereign grace. We thank you that you not only command, but you deliver. Not only expose, but you cleanse. Not only speak, but you say.

We praise you for the cross, where you bore our guilt and silenced the accuser, and for the empty tomb where you triumphed over every power of darkness. Grant us fresh faith in you that we may rest in your finished work and live in thankful obedience.

And Lord, for this dear congregation, especially for the aged, the weary, the lonely, the grieving and the afflicted, draw near in tender mercy. Give strength for each day, peace that passes understanding, and a settled confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Help us as a church to be steady, humble, and hopeful, quietly faithful in worship, bold in witness, and gentle toward one another. Now send us out under your authority and with your comfort. Keep us watchful, prayerful, and obedient. And may your fame spread, not because we’re great, but because you are a mighty savior and a gentle shepherd. We ask this in your holy and gracious name, Lord Jesus. And God’s people say, amen. Let’s take our handbooks and turn to 164. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, 164.