January 8, 2023

From verse 21, 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 the 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.

So, from verse 23, it's like we enter into the story and Mark phrases this in such a way that leads us to believe that this man as we said last week, was not someone who just entered into the assembly here for the first time. He wasn't just sort of a visitor passing through--happens to visit in the synagogue on this particular day. Instead, he was, we're led to believe, one who was here on a regular basis. Mark doesn't say that they're came into their assembly or, or here he comes...it's as though he was there. He was one of them. He was among them. Immediately he's there. And he's been listening all along, as we said last week, without any disturbance, without any need for him to speak up and say, this is something that I must object to, because he's been listening to this teaching all along, but now he hears the truth being proclaimed, because as the kingdom of darkness finds no reason to oppose the synagogue teaching as it's not advancing the kingdom of light as it's not preaching the truth as people's lives aren't being changed than the kingdom of darkness sees no need to object against that. But when Jesus comes, and he begins proclaiming this life changing truth as he's doing, then that's when the kingdom of darkness then sees need to object.

And this is just a wonderful spiritual gauge for us in our life. So, many times, I have heard one scenario or another in which someone is a follower of Christ, but yet they have been lax, they've been lazy in their pursuit of God. And they reach a point in which God grabs a hold of their life. And they say, I need to be serious about my relationship with the Lord. I need to be serious about in taking the Word, I need to be serious about prayer, I need to be serious about putting my life in motion for the kingdom of God. And then almost immediately, the wheels of their life just start to go off. The circumstances of their life just go wacky. I've seen this happen. I know that you've, we've all seen this happen. And this is something that is just an excellent spiritual gauge for us. Because if our life is not impacting the kingdom of God, if our life is not being used by the kingdom of God, then the kingdom of darkness finds no reason to oppose our life.

Yet when we make that decision, when we say now I will be serious about my relationship with the Lord, now I will pursue God with vigor, then the kingdom of darkness wakes up and takes notice.

The same thing is true for the church. If a church is making little or no impact upon the kingdom of darkness, then the kingdom of darkness finds no reason to object to that. But if a church is being used mightily by God, they should expect to find great opposition from the kingdom of darkness. And this is what we see taking place in the synagogue on this day, Jesus begins preaching this life changing truth, and the kingdom of darkness wakes up so to speak, and voices their objection.

Immediately there was in the synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit. So, we said last week that this is a story of contrasts. And we made note last week of the contrast of great contrast between the authority of the scribe, the teaching authority of the scribe, and the teaching authority of Jesus. And we noted the fact that those are two people, two teachers, so to speak, both with authority. Yet the contrast in the two authorities was stark, it was drastic. So, that was the first contrast that we see. But we see another contrast. And that's the contrast here between these two men. One man is called--in the words of the demon--the Holy One of God. The other is called the man with the unclean spirit. So, here we see the contrast the Holy One of God, the unclean spirit, the evil spirit, the wicked spirit.

So, the contrast here really goes much deeper even than that. So, they just think for just a moment, not just the contrast here, but think of the almost like a parallel There are two men in the synagogue. And both of these men are humans that are bonded together, fused together with you, if you will, with the spiritual. There is Jesus, who is the God-man. Theologians like to use that word, the hypostatic union, which is just a good word to describe to us the fact that Jesus was fully God and fully man together. He had a human nature and a divine nature. So, he is this union, this perfect union, between humanity and deity. And as they are together here in one Being, then they represent just this beautiful relationship of love and accord. Because they are the God-man, he is the God-man.

But there's another man in the same building. And this man also is a fusion of the spiritual and the human. This man, we're told, is a man with an unclean spirit. So, he is not a person who is under the influence of the demonic. He's not a person who is just often persuaded by Satan to make bad decisions. He's not a person who's thought life and pattern of living is just shaded by the influence of the demonic. He is a person that is fully and completely under the control of this demon. His personality has been invaded and taken over by this demon to such an extent that the demon, as we'll see in the passage, uses his vocal cords, uses his mouth, uses his tongue to speak what he wants to speak. Uses his body uses his arms and his legs, as we'll see a little bit later in the passage, will even throw his body down into a fit of convulsions.

So, this is a wicked, evil fusion of the spiritual and the human. This is the personality of the man being completely distorted and taken over by the personality of this demon.

So, this parallel almost, contrast between Jesus the God-man, and this man who is the unclean spirit-man, coming together into the same room. This is a fantastic contrast that Scripture shows us here.

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.

So, there's this interruption that takes place the next week, we're going to trace a little bit the theme of how the demon seeks to interrupt--not just anything--he seeks to interrupt the Word. And so we're going to see a connection between the Word and what's being done here, the preaching of the Word. But we'll follow that out next week.

So, here we see this interruption as he cries out, I know who you are--Jesus of Nazareth, you're the Holy One of God. So, there is a fantastic parallel here, that is not easily seen, but it's a parallel between Jesus and one other person in all of Scripture, and that person is Samson. There is one other person in all of the Bible that's called the Holy One of God, and that's Samson, and Judges chapter 16, verse 14, in the Septuagint reading. The only other one and all scripture that's called the Holy One of God, was the other strongman, the forerunner strongman. The one who could defeat entire armies, single-handedly, when the Spirit filled him.

He was called the Holy One of God as Jesus; the true Strong Man here is called the Holy One of God. There's so many other incredible parallels between Samsung and Jesus really fascinating. If you've always thought of Samson as sort of this loser sort of character, that couldn't keep his love life straight, and cutting of the hair, and all that just the way he ended so badly--if you've ever thought about Samson in that way, then I would encourage you to think of Samson as a fallen, sinful, forerunner of the Christ. Because just like Jesus, Samson's mother, conceived supernaturally. Remember how Samson's mother was barren? Just like Jesus, Samson's birth was foretold by the angels. Just like Jesus, Samson was endowed with great strength to defeat the enemies by the filling of the Spirit. Just like Jesus, Samson defeated his enemies by way of his own death, remember, as a tour pulled the temple down upon himself and killed all his enemies by killing himself with them? So, also Jesus defeat his enemies through his own death. There's so many parallels between Samson, the forerunner of the strong man, and the true Strong Man who is here, he is called the Holy One of God.

So, notice how the demon, of course, knows Jesus's name, I know who you are Jesus of Nazareth. And then he says, not only his human name, but his divine name, have you come to destroy us, you are the Holy One of God. So, the demon knows his name. In this, what we're seeing here is the demons attempt to get power over Jesus. There was a way of thinking, ancient people thought about an encounter with a spiritual being in such terms that they felt as though to know the name meant that you had power over that, that spirit or that or that being. Remember in Genesis 32, that odd encounter between Jacob and the angel where they wrestled? And you remember in that encounter, how Jacob asked the angel, his name? They were wrestling all night, and Jacob says, What's your name, the angel didn't tell him.

And then the angel asked Jacob, his name, he says, my name is Jacob and the angel renames him to Israel--because you have struggled and prevailed? So, all of that is illustrating for us this belief on the part of ancient people that when you are in a struggle with a spiritual being, the way that you exerted power over them was to know and proclaim their name. So, the demon in a sense, is trying to have some sort of power over Jesus, I know your name, I know who you are, you're Jesus of Nazareth, you're the Holy One of God--as though that's going to give him some sort of power over him. Remember, Jesus when Jesus comes to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and he's met by the Gerasene demoniac. And Jesus says, What's your name? And in submission he says, I'm called Legion.

Same sort of thing there. Or remember, the sons of Skeva. Acts chapter 19, is they're going to try to cast out that demon and they use the name of Paul. And that doesn't work. But instead, the demons know their name. So, same sort of thing is going on.

He's trying to exert some sort of power, he's trying to manipulate Jesus, and in the same sort of way, the entire time that God's people have been on earth, we see the same sort of thing. We see people trying to manipulate God, in the same way that this demon is trying to manipulate Jesus. People trying to exert power over God, in the same way that this demon is trying to exert power over Jesus.

We've seen it from the beginnings of God's people. Remember from judges 11, remember the story of that the fellow Jephthah, how he tried to manipulate God, He said to God, God, if you give me victory in this battle, I will sacrifice to you the first thing that comes out of my door. See, manipulate God--I'll do this for you, God, if you do that for me. Or this continues with Jacob, when in the whole, when Jacob says, If you bless me, I will serve you. If you do this, God, I'll do that. And the whole thing sort of continues on through the Scriptures, we see Acts chapter 19, of course, the sons of Skeva, or Simon bar Jesus, remember, he tries to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit. And then of course, this comes into the New Testament, Matthew chapter six, when Jesus says that there are those who tried to manipulate God through their long winded prayers, they pray all these words, and by so doing, they're trying to manipulate God, they're trying to exert control over God.

And we see the same sort of thing today, we see is, we see the same exact sort of thing today, that again, and again and again, rears its ugly head, in things like the prayer of Jabez, that you just sort of know this certain prayer, and then God's got to do what you asked him to do. Or you do this, you pray in this sort of some sort of way, or you have this type of faith, and God's got to do what you ask of him to do, right?

It's the same sort of exerting power or authority over God, when in reality it's the reverse. So, he says, I know who you are, you are Jesus of Nazareth. You are the Holy One of God, have you come to destroy us? And notice here, just how complete and how accurate is the demon’s theology. The demon’s doctrine is absolutely correct, is it not? As James chapter two verse 19, tells us the demons believe demons, James says, You believe well, good for you, so to the demons. The demons, in fact, have absolutely correct doctrine. You know that every word that spoken by a demon in the New Testament is doctrinally correct. Every word spoken by the demons in the New Testament is right. They know who Jesus is. They know, he's Jesus of Nazareth. They know his role. They know His anointing, you're the Holy One of God, you're the chosen one of God. You're the sanctified one of God.

Furthermore, they know something about eschatology. Are you here to destroy us? Matthew, chapter eight, have you come to torment us before the time you're going to cast us into hell? Notice all the things that they seem to get right. Furthermore, notice how the demon even gives Jesus a type of begrudging obedience. Jesus will tell him to get out. And he'll sort of kick the guy on the way out, but he will obey. He gives Jesus a sort of begrudging obedience.

Isn't that frighteningly close to what so many who claim the name of Christ today look like? They've got mostly right theology. They've getting mostly correct doctrine. And they give unto God a type of obedience, like the demon, who gives unto God a certain type of obedience--not from the heart, not willingly. But like so many today, the demon knows what he has to do, and he does it.

So, this is frighteningly close to what so many who today would claim as the name of Christ. But now let's now finish by looking at Jesus's command. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you noticed? Notice also, the demon is speaking in the plural. It's not multiple demons, because Mark uses the singular to refer to the demon. But then when the demon refers to himself, or itself, it uses the plural. So, the demon here is sort of speaking, he's considering his fate to be the same fate as all of his demon cronies. So, whatever Jesus is going to do to him is what Jesus is doing to all of his demon friends and demon cronies, so to speak.

So, he 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. Verse 25, but Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent, and come out of them. So, 'be silent' is a very, very gracious translation of a word is very pejorative, very insulting. Literally, it's it would be translated be muzzled is the same word that we see in First Corinthians nine, verse nine, and First Timothy five, verse eight, when Paul speaking of that Old Testament teaching, he says, not to muzzle the ox, when it's treading out the grain. Same word there. So, Jesus literally says, "Be ye muzzled, you ox." You hear just insulting tone? Maybe we could translate it a little bit more closely today with something like "shut up." "Shut your mouth." "Silence."

And then the command, get out of him. So, this is all Jesus has to say, shut up and get out.

Notice how Jesus doesn't engage in conversation. He's not going to explain anything. He's not going to go into any details. He's not going to offer any explanations to the demon--shut up and get at your time is over. Shut your mouth. I don't want to hear anything you have to say get out.

Now notice Jesus shuts him up as he's giving true testimony of Jesus. Kind of like the slave girl in Philippi. Acts chapter 16, who's following Paul around saying these men are preaching to you the right way of salvation. And you would think, well, Paul, my sort of like that, but then he gets tired of it and turns around and rebukes the woman cast the demon out. In the same sort of way. The demon here is giving true and right testimony of Jesus--I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth, you're the Holy One of God, and you have the power to destroy us, are you going to do it now?

Yet Jesus's answer shows us--he neither wants, nor will allow testimony from the demon. Jesus cares nothing about true testimony from the lips of a demon. Jesus says in other words, do not even put my name on your wicked lips. I care not that what you say is true. I care not that what you say is right. Do not speak my name. In fact, do not speak anything. I do not want you to say a single word for I do not need you to say anything. Jesus needs nothing from the demon, Jesus will take nothing from the demon, Jesus will not allow the demon to even give testimony of himself.

Now, this is going to introduce to us something that we're just going to have to put off to another time, because it's going to come up over and over again, because Jesus is going to repeatedly tell not only demons, but people who recognize him, he's going to repeatedly tell them--don't say anything. So, we're going to put that off for now to another time when it comes up. But it's something we have to wrestle with. Why does Jesus so often in Mark's gospel, say, Don't tell anybody what I did for you. So, we'll deal with that another time.

But here's what he says to the demon. I don't care whether what you're saying is true. I don't care what you're saying what is accurate. I don't want you to speaking my name, I don't want you speaking at all. You know that the Scriptures teach us that the glorious privilege of testifying to Jesus Christ is not given to the demons. It's not given to the world, it's given to us. We are the ones that have the privilege of telling the world--we know who he is, he's the Holy One of God.

You see, Jesus wants testimony of himself, to come from the lips, of those who know him. Of those who have been changed by him, of those who know of His redeeming power, of His forgiving grace. That's where he wants testimony. That's why Paul says we have this treasure in jars of clay. That's why Paul will say to the Romans quoting from the prophet Isaiah, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring this news? Because the kingdom of God has determined we could have legions of demons that will proclaim the truth of who I am, I don't want it. I want my people to proclaim who I am. I want my people to proclaim what I have done for them. I want my people to proclaim why I am here.

So, the last thing that we're seeing the passage is what the demon does as he leaves, and then we'll leave the reaction of the people to next time. Verse 25, Jesus rebuked him saying Be silent, Come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. And so the demon on his way out, is just going to give one last little dig. Because the demon hates his host. The demon is like this parasite, that hates the one in whom he lives. Jesus says in John 10:10, I am the good shepherd. I'm the one who loves the sheep. I'm the one who lays down my life for the sheep. This other one, he's a thief, he comes to steal, and kill and destroy. I come to give life. The demons hate, not only those who they possess, they hate those whom they try to influence, whom those whom they tried to persuade. They hate you with a hatred that is from the pit of hell. This demon exhibits this one last, just, okay, I'm leaving, but on the way out--here's what I'm going to do. Because the kingdom of darkness always has, and always will hate the kingdom of light.