We're going to call this today, Kingdoms in
Collision.
We're jumping right into the first chapter of
Mark and we're examining the ministry of Jesus,
the kingdom of God, and just the power
ministry that followed Jesus everywhere he went in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Moses is prophesying in Deuteronomy 18, and he
says, beginning with verse 15, this is in
your bullet, and if you want to look
at it, the Lord, your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me, a
prophet like me from among your own people,
you shall heed such a prophet.
Think about that.
Who's saying this?
This is Moses.
And if you think about just the towering
figure that Moses is, he's he's really the
most important figure in the in the Old
Testament, arguably, at least he led the people
of God out of Egypt, he instituted the
first Passover, he gave the people the law,
the tabernacle and the means of right worship
of the one true God.
This is what Moses brought to the people
of God.
He even appeared while speaking with Jesus.
He appeared with Elijah on the Mount of
Transfiguration.
And that ends, actually, that story will end
this season of epiphany.
We'll look at the Mount of Transfiguration in
a couple of weeks.
Down through the ages, Moses became the source
of authority for all the rabbinical teachers, and
so down through history, you know, as as
rabbis would rise up, they would say, I
speak this by the authority of rabbis so
and so who went back.
It's almost like a reverse succession and every
every rabbi would have to have some sort
of succession until they got back to Moses.
And that's how they would claim their authority.
And so in the name of this rabbi
or that rabbi or by the authority of
this rabbi, I speak this to you.
And so in Deuteronomy 18, this towering figure,
Moses, points to someone else, though he's pointing
to a coming one.
And why is this so?
It struck me this morning reading this again,
that the very reason that we get Christ
in the incarnation, one of the reasons is
pointed out because the people could not listen
to the raw voice of God from the
mountain.
They could not encounter the raw presence of
God.
And he said, because you said we can't
hear this, we can't listen to this.
I'm going to raise up a prophet like
me and you will listen to him.
OK, who is Moses talking about?
He prophesies about another one coming, a prophet
like himself and that big word, listen to
him, you will listen to him.
That's the epiphany theme, isn't it?
At the baptism of Jesus, the heavens open
and the father speaks and he says, listen
to him on the Mount of Transfiguration.
It happens again.
The father speaks and he says, listen to
him.
Moses is saying that one is coming who
will speak the very words of God, listen
to him.
Let's turn to Mark one, beginning with verse
21, and let's consider the gospel passage today.
It starts, they went to Capernaum and when
the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and
taught.
OK, Mark is listing something very specific here.
He's saying there's some sacred time here and
it's called the Sabbath, that sacred time.
And he's entering a sacred space called the
synagogue.
So there's sacred time and sacred space where
Jesus enters and he begins to teach.
And the immediate reaction to his teaching is
they were astonished, they were astonished at his
teaching, for he taught them as one having
authority, not referring to authorities.
Here's the embodiment of authority in our midst.
They couldn't fully understand what's going on, but
they just knew, wow, when Jesus speaks, we
listen and it perplexes us as one having
authority, not as the scribes.
Jesus is not quoting anyone.
You know, he would say in other passages
like the Sermon on the Mount, you have
heard it said, but I say to you,
he's carrying an embodied sense of authority in
his own person.
Now, what is authority?
What does that really mean?
The word is exousia and is one of
the words used in the Nicene Creed, speaking
of the being of God and is out
of authority.
Authority is one who speaks out of the
being, out of the being of God in
this case.
So Jesus is speaking out of the being
of the divine being within himself, the Logos,
and it has this amazing earth shattering kingdom
colliding effect.
When Jesus comes into a room, the demonic,
the dark forces begin to tremble.
The people are astonished and in the midst
of trying to trip Jesus up or reveal
who he is too quickly.
They begin to cry out, they begin to
manifest, this is a different kind of epiphany
of darkness, this is a manifestation, an epiphany
of darkness, we we encounter both in this
present evil age, we encounter epiphanies of darkness,
manifestations ruling through structures, ruling through cultural systems,
right down to the very psychology and the
oppression that we all can enter into and
feel and and war against.
Those epiphanies of darkness are showing up in
this holy time, the Sabbath, and in this
holy place, this sacred space, as it were,
the synagogue.
God.
What's happening?
Just then there was in the synagogue a
man with an unclean spirit, it's kind of
a weird place for an unclean spirit to
be hanging out, right?
The unclean spirit cries out and says, what
have you to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth?
Had you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the holy one
of God.
OK, now it seems like through the whole
ministry of Jesus, the only entities that actually
understood his purpose and his person, it was
the demonic world, right?
Everyone else is missing it.
In fact, it takes a revelation from God
for Peter to get that and then it
leaves immediately.
And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.
Right.
When when Peter all of a sudden you
are the Christ, the son of the living
God, flesh and blood is not revealed this
to you, but my father who is in
heaven.
And then he begins to talk about going
to the cross.
And then Peter says, no, no, no, no.
And now he's speaking directly in opposition against
the plan and the purpose of God.
And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.
You don't know what spirit now you're speaking
of as Peter was being influenced, as it
were, by another spirit because of the blindness
that came back over him.
The epiphany had left Peter and he was
speaking out of his own sense of insecurity
and flesh and national narrative, what happens?
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent, come
out of him and the unclean spirit convulsing
him and crying with a loud voice came
out of him.
And the result is that they're amazed they
don't know what to think of this.
They were saying, what is this?
What is this all about?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits, plural now,
not just singular, and they obey him.
At once, his fame began to spread throughout
the surrounding region of Galilee.
What is the man saying with the unclean
spirit?
He's saying that this is the holy one
of God.
None of the authorities got that, but the
demonic is sort of blowing his cover, as
it were, because Jesus did not want to
proclaim that at this moment, he needed three
years to to build his discipleship band and
get everyone ready to turn over his ministry
to the ministry of the church.
And so Jesus silences that.
As he's building the church, that primitive church
by his first disciples.
Now, how does this kind of ministry continue?
And that's what we're talking about at the
end of the ministry of Jesus, the earthly
ministry of Jesus straight away after the resurrection.
There's many encounters, but let's think about the
Great Commission, Matthew 28.
Jesus says this again, he brings up the
issue of authority and he says all authority,
all authority in heaven and earth has been
given unto me.
There's no other religious figure that can claim
this, you see, especially having risen from the
dead, go and make disciples of all nations.
And then he's adding the sacramental component right
here, baptizing them, baptizing them in the triune
name of God, the Father, God, the Son
and God, the Holy Spirit and teaching them.
Teaching and deliverance and salvation, all of this
go together because we're coming against the father
of lies.
And so teaching has to happen in the
power and revelation of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe everything that I've taught you.
And he said, don't worry, it's not just
teaching, but I'm going to accompany you.
I'm going to be with you always until
the end of the age.
Isn't that good?
We're not alone.
So what's going on, what's going on with
the church in this present evil age?
Colossians describes it in the collision of kingdoms,
Colossians 1, 13 through 14, speaking of Jesus,
for he has rescued us, the church from
the domain, the dominion, the kingdom of darkness.
And he's brought us he has brought us
into the kingdom of his son.
He loves, says his beloved son in whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
In a sense, that's that's how we're delivered
out of the domain of darkness, because the
sin, the alienation issue has been dealt with
on the cross of Jesus Christ and in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Again, no one else could have done this
and no one else can do this.
It's only Jesus that can do this for
us.
Jesus said in another passage, he says, the
kingdom, the kingdom of God suffers violence and
forceful ones lay hold of it.
There's collisions going on, there's casualties happening.
But forceful ones have to press in and
lay hold of it against the enemy, the
father of lies, the deceiver, the ruler of
this world, and just tons of other titles
that Jesus spoke of Satan having this ministry
continues throughout the book of Acts.
And we read that today in Acts 19.
Look at the collisions that are happening in
Acts 19.
It says that God was doing extraordinary miracles,
extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so
that even handkerchiefs or aprons, pieces of cloth
that had touched his skin were carried away
to the sick and their diseases left them
and the evil spirits came out of them.
What that is extraordinary, but, you know, it's
very sacramental that this particular kind of materiality
could be infused with the grace of God
and actually cause demons to flee and healing
to happen.
Brothers and sisters, your priest believes this stuff.
I really believe this can happen.
I mean, it's extraordinary, right?
We don't see it happening all the time,
but we need a grid so that this
is in our realm of possibility and we
pray for extraordinary grace.
We need extraordinary grace, you know, this is
the 10th most violent city in America just
came out, Kansas City.
Now, what's that a result of?
Ultimately, forceful ones lay hold of it.
The kingdom is advancing and forceful ones lay
hold of it.
That's why we're here in the urban core,
learning how to do battle in word and
sacrament and contending for the fullness of holy
church.
Verse 13, and then some of the itinerant
Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of
the Lord Jesus over those who had evil
spirits.
But get this, it's just another formula.
There's no relationship with Jesus, right?
There's no encounter with Jesus.
There's no there's no authority coming up out
of their being.
And so what happens if I cast out
demons by the finger of God?
Jesus said, speaking of the Holy Spirit, know
that the kingdom of God has come upon
you.
OK, so it is the Holy Spirit that
does the work of deliverance.
It is the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit that gives the authority.
It even gave the authority to Jesus because
this was post-baptism when he went into
the wilderness and he contended with the enemy
for 40 days and nights.
This is angels and wild beasts attended to
him.
And Mark, it's just a really, really fun
passage to think about after his baptism and
infilling with the Holy Spirit.
He encountered the demonic world everywhere.
Paul went establishing the church.
They encountered the demonic world.
And think about this.
Did that demon in the synagogue say anything
that was wrong?
Saying the truth, right, just like psychics today
and other forms of supernatural knowledge doesn't matter.
It can actually be true.
But coming from the wrong source, it's not
coming from the source of all truth, the
way and the truth and the life.
And again, the father of lies will speak
truth in a deceptive fashion coming from the
wrong source.
And so we start seeking this kind of
truth.
That's how the Gnostics got off in the
early first and second centuries, seeking truth from
other sources.
But who are you?
This evil spirit said to these guys, I
know Jesus and I know Paul, but who
are you?
Who are you?
And the man in whom was the evil
spirit leapt on them and mastered all of
them and overpowered them so that they fled
out of the house naked and wounded.
You see, deliverance can't happen by a formula.
Deliverance can't happen by unless you have the
discerning of spirits to even know how to
address what's going on.
It's a gift of the Holy Spirit.
We need to pray for the discernment of
spirits.
We all need discernment.
We all need to to recognize when something
that is appearing as an angel of light
in our midst, it's from the enemy.
We need to be able to recognize that.
And so that is even from God himself
saying, I will give you the gift of
discerning of spirits.
First Corinthians 12.
We need this.
There are 17.
And this became known to all residents of
Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks.
And fear fell upon them all in the
name of Jesus was exalted.
Get this, and many of those who were
now believers came, OK, this is very important,
confessing and divulging their practices.
OK, very important here is another sacrament of
the church confession, repentance and confession.
They were confessing and divulging their practices.
Hey, I've come to Christ, but I've got
all of this crazy occultic background that I've
made money on, that I've experienced reality through.
And what's happening here?
A number of those who had practiced magic
arts brought their books together and burned them
in the sight of all, and they counted
the value of them and found it came
to 50,000 pieces of silver.
When this happened and they burned the source
of evil, the misinformation that is leading them
away from the one and the true God,
then it says the word of the Lord
continue to increase and prevail mightily.
I know bookstores are becoming sort of an
artifact of the past, but if you go
into, say, a Barnes and Noble or something
like that, one of the largest sections in
the bookstore is the occult and magic arts
section.
Right.
That shows that we have this incredible hunger
for something beyond, beyond the material world, beyond
my limited mind, beyond we're looking for encounters
just because it's spiritual doesn't mean that it's
right, doesn't mean that it's God.
These are kingdoms in collision.
And so we have to be careful.
We need to be discerning as we're coming
out of these things.
We need to lay these things down.
We need, as it were, to burn those
influences and get them away from our lives
because some of us can come out of
these situations.
It's not uncommon.
And so the occult, astrology and in syncretism
would be another word that we would want
to be mindful of, because, you know, in
the New Age world today and designer spirituality
today in postmodern spirituality, we just sort of
it's a spiritual salad and, you know, we
can make it different every day.
I'll put a little of this and a
little of that and I'll dabble with this
and dabble with that.
And the Holy Spirit is grieved over this
because we don't need to be syncretistic.
That was the whole problem with the nation
of Israel and their polytheistic drive.
God was constantly calling them back from idolatry.
All the prophets were calling them back from
the astral poles and idolatry and all worship.
And it all had to do with weird
sexual sin stuff as well.
You see, that's where it leads you.
Syncretism, that is the combining of religious traditions,
Christianity is the final word on all religious
traditions.
Right in the beginning was the logos and
the logos was with God and the word
was God and the logos is the one
who enlightens the heart of every person.
And we've spoken about this, that logos enlightens
the heart of every person across the universe.
And the logos became a human being so
that we could actually know what the father
is like.
If you've seen me, you've seen the father,
so we need to remember as we're contemplating
these passages of collision, that greater is he
who is in you than he who is
in the world.
Your authority lies in the presence and power
of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you out
of your innermost being, that out of your
innermost being, out of your belly shall flow
rivers of living water.
And that's what I want to direct you
to today, out of your being, let him
flow and then all darkness will flee.
You'll be able to deal with darkness.
You'll have the guidance and the discernment that
you need if you're in the spirit.
We must be in the spirit.
Jesus was in the spirit.
The Holy Spirit came upon him for ministry,
didn't do a miracle before his baptism.
There's no miracles recorded that Jesus did until
after his baptism.
And he was anointed by the Holy Spirit.
And the father spoke, this is my beloved
son.
And so he chose to empty himself and
do ministry the way he calls all of
us to do ministry by the presence and
the power of the Holy Spirit, to know
God by revelation, to know him through an
encounter with the risen Christ, because they didn't
know him until he had risen from the
dead.
And we come to know Christ the same
way in his resurrection, that the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Second Corinthians 10.
And we take every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ.
This is the way forward that the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, we're not
fighting people, we're not fighting flesh and blood.
Paul tells us in Ephesians six, it's not
about that.
It's about the unseen forces of wickedness in
high places.
And so there's a new authority that Jesus
gives us because it's been delegated to us.
All authority, he says, has been given unto
me.
The authority that you need to preach the
gospel, the authority that you need to help
plant churches, the authority that you need to
displace darkness and cast out darkness.
It's all in his authority.
And he says, I'm giving it to you.
It's yours.
Go make disciples.
Having encountered the resurrected Jesus.
Hearing that voice say, and this is listening
to him, right, you know, that prophetic word
that Moses is saying, I'm going to raise
up one like me, listen to him, the
same one that the father says, listen to
him.
And it's ministries all about listening to him,
isn't it?
It really is.
You need to be listening to him and
receiving his word above and beyond what I'm
saying.
That sacramental preaching is when you're hearing the
voice of God and you're encountering God and
God's putting his finger on certain things, the
finger of God comes and he puts his
finger on it.
Hallelujah.
All authority is being given unto me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples, baptizing them in
the name of the father and the son
and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
everything that I have taught you.
And behold, I am with you always, even
until the end of the age, in the
name of the father and the son and
the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
So, Lord, we ask that you will quicken
us today and fill us today afresh with
the Holy Spirit.
If by the finger of God you deal
with darkness, Lord, we ask by the finger
of God you would deal with this statistic
in our city today that we would no
longer be the tenth most violent city in
the nation.
We ask that you would turn that around
by the finger of God, by empowering your
church, Lord, to be the salt of the
earth and the light of the world and
displace the darkness.
Greater is he who is in us than
he that is in the world.
Come and fill us, O Lord, to that
end.
Fill us with your light, Lord, if we
have any occultic involvement this morning, we renounce
it in Jesus name.
If there's anything in our homes that we
need to go and displace and get it
out of our homes, I'm asking you in
the name of Jesus to do that today
so that you may be free and on
the path of truth.
Thank you, Lord.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Amen.