When Authority Speaks, Spirits Flee (Mark 1:21-28)

``I don't want you to miss how amazing and shocking this sentence is. Jesus is teaching with authority. He is teaching passionately. He is speaking the truth about scripture, and what's the first thing that happens? An unclean spirit, a demon immediately comes out and attacks him and attacks his word. He says, what do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God. Evil responded immediately, not after a miracle. Evil didn't respond after Jesus healed somebody or did something miraculous. No. All Jesus had done to this point was teach, was open God's word and to proclaim truth. [00:14:23] (41 seconds)  #JesusTeachesAuthority

I love Jesus' response. It's simple. It's clear. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him. Notice how direct Jesus' response was. It was authoritative. It was immediate. It was, like I said, direct. There was no negotiation in it. It was simply this, be silent, come out of him. And the Greek word here or the Greek verb is literally to be muzzled. This voice that is crying out and proclaiming something, this demon, Jesus says, be muzzled, stop talking. [00:19:43] (31 seconds)  #JesusSilencesDemon

But what it really means to revere Christ, what we are what the Christians are actually called to do is to submit to his authority, to realize that Christ's word carries more weight than your preferences. When your preference clashes up against God's word, it's not God's word that needs to change. It's your preferences. When his commands outrank what you are comfortable with, you need to be okay with being uncomfortable to let God's word overtake your comfort. And we know that his will should shape our lives, not just our beliefs. [00:28:35] (30 seconds)  #SubmitToChristsWord

See, the same Jesus who silenced demons, who taught authority was the same Jesus who would later stretch out his arms on a cross. The authority that commands evil and it obeys is the same Jesus and the same authority that wipes away your sins. Christ didn't come to destroy us like the demon thought. He did cast out the demon, but he came to save us. He saved that man who is demon possessed. [00:29:53] (28 seconds)  #ChristAuthoritySaves

Evil doesn't fear our tradition. Evil doesn't fear doesn't even panic when people pretend to go to church and have religious activity. No. Evil doesn't react to anything that explains God but never calls for repentance. Let me explain that again. Evil is not gonna react if you just simply explain God, but you're not actually calling people to repent and to surrender to Christ's authority. [00:16:03] (24 seconds)  #RepentanceMatters

But Jesus speaks, truth entered the room, and evil couldn't stay silent. It had to react. It had to come forth. It had to come out against Jesus. I think that can still be true of us today in many churches across the world. You can walk in and you have a church that will sing worship, maybe even lift their hands and be bold in their singing. They'll open up the Bible and give a a sermon. They'll they'll listen to his word. They'll they'll pray for one another perhaps, but yet there is no genuine repentance and evil stays silent. [00:16:27] (33 seconds)  #TruthCallsForRepentance

Satan loves religious people that go to church every Sunday, but at the end of the day, haven't repented of their sin. Satan loves it when he can deceive people, not by some false religion, not by something that is so obviously wrong and immoral and wicked. He loves that too. But what he really loves is deceiving us to saying, hey, I live a good life. I go to church on Sunday. I drop a 20 in the plate. I maybe even serve, but I haven't fully repented. I haven't fully gone under Christ's authority. [00:17:00] (30 seconds)  #ReligionVsRepentance

And that that should be a warning call to us when preaching avoids calling people to repent, when preaching avoids sin, and when preaching avoids the holiness of God, God is ultimately holy. And we need to worship him and revere him. See, evil doesn't need to show itself if you're not doing those things. It can simply sit quietly in the pew, content that people are hearing about God, feeling good about themselves, but ultimately they're going to hell. [00:17:31] (28 seconds)  #PreachRepentanceNotPride