Tag Archives: Jesus of Nazareth

MARK’S GOSPEL…OPPOSITION – 6

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Mark 1:21, 23-26 NIV
[21] “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach…
[23] Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, [24] “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” [25] “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” [26] The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.”

Jesus’ appearance on the public scene stirred up a hornet’s nest of demonic activity. In the synagogue, of all places, the place where God’s people met together to worship and to hear God’s Word… one of the resident demons voiced its objections! How could demons be comfortable in the synagogue? Surely, the very Word of God would stir them to frantic opposition!

It seems that demons were quite at home in Israel, judging by the number Jesus encountered in His movements around the country. Like flies on a rubbish dump, demons infested many of the people of Israel, sucking life out of them and being an embarrassment to their fellow Israelites.

How fitting that the first record of the Servant’s work, according to Mark, was a frontal attack on one of His fiercest enemies. Demons were the devil’s footsoldiers, the infantry of hell, occupying ground that Satan desired to possess completely. The people of Israel were meant to be the front line of attack and defense in the battle between heaven and hell for the souls of men and women. Instead, their lives of sinful disobedience to the covenant of their covenant-keeping God had made them vulnerable to enemy occupation.

One thing the demon recognised when Jesus arrived on the scene, was that the commander-in-chief of the armies of heaven was right there, in its face, if you please! There was no negotiating, no peace agreement, no cease-fire pact. This was not a balancing act between two equal enemies. This was war to the death!

Demons were usurpers, squatters in God’s territory. This was not a battle. This was an eviction order…and the demon knew it. Despite its objection to being disturbed, this demon understood authority. It had to obey. In view of all the people in the synagogue, the demon bowed to Jesus and, with a final show of defiance, fled the scene, leaving Its victim dazed but free.

Imagine the effect of the deliverance on the worshippers! This was power and authority they had never witnessed in all Israel. As much as their spiritual leaders swaggered around, claiming the authority and power they could not produce, Jesus had done the unthinkable with just a few words!
“Be quiet!”… “Come out of him!”

Mark 1:27 NIV
[27] “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey him.”

So, the battle lines were drawn for all-out war. Most of His struggles were not with Satan’s henchmen but with his representatives…the men who posed as God’s representatives but who, in fact, resembled the devil more than the God they claimed to worship.

Jesus had identified His territory, the kingdom of God, under the authority of the Father… and His weapon of choice, the infallible Word of God, “It is written,” which He used with devastating effect.

Jesus never allowed His reputation or His emotions to take centre stage. In every encounter with the enemy, be it with demons or humans, He always wielded only one weapon…truth. All the Father’s authority and power flowed through His Word.

His first hand-to-hand combat with the devil in the wilderness was convincingly His victory. He had proved the effectiveness of His weapon and established His authority over the only one who had ever dared to challenge His position in heaven.

For the rest of His time on earth, Jesus continued to overcome the world and its opposition forces with one defence…faith, and one weapon…truth. He trusted, submitted to, and obeyed the Father. He did the Father’s works and spoke the Father’s words… a true Servant of Yahweh!

Through the Word, the universe came into being. Through the Word, Jesus upholds all things and all creation functions in harmony. Through the Word, the Son has been assigned the power and authority to judge all people…and, through the Word, He will conquer all opposition.

Revelation 19:11-16 NIV
[11] “I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. [12] His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows, but he himself. [13] He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the WORD OF GOD. [14] The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. [15] Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. [16] On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Jesus’ victory was not His alone. He passed on His conquest to those who would follow Him by faith.

John 16:33 NIV
[33] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus unmasked Satan’s plan to enslave all people by holding them accountable to the law of God. He broke Satan’s power by perfectly fulfilling God’s law, then dying as a law breaker to pay our debt for disobeying the law.

The devil can no longer deceive us into believing that he has us in his power.

Colossians 2:13-15 NLT
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. [14] He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Jesus stepped in, paid the debt, reversed the charge, and cut us loose from any obligation to obey the law to be righteous. So, with His word, these squatters were evicted, and their victims freed from all accountability.

WHO WAS IN CHARGE?

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WHO WAS IN CHARGE?

“Again He asked them, ‘Who do you want?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they said. Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am He. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.’ This happened so that the words He has spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus). Jesus commanded Peter, ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?'” John 18: 7-11.

Who is in charge around here?

This is a very strange situation. A mob of soldiers and religious big shots, armed to the teeth, had come to arrest Jesus but they couldn’t. He was protected by the power of His name. The very words, “I AM!” struck terror into these men and they fell backwards to the ground when He spoke. Never had they had dealings with a prisoner like this!

He was fully aware of their purpose.. He had been anticipating their arrival and had actually gone to meet them. What criminal would ever deliberately put himself in the path of the authorities unless he knew he was guilty and wanted to hand himself over? Not only could the men who had come to arrest Him not lay a hand on Him, but they were also afraid of Him. There was something about Him they could not fathom.

Jesus, the felon, was actually in charge. He gave the orders; He called the shots and they obeyed Him. How crazy was that! ‘You can take me,’ He instructed them, ‘but leave these men alone.’ And even when they took Him and roughed Him up, He was still in charge. Everyone who had dealings with Him, soldiers, Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate, Jewish mob, lost their cool while He remained calm and serene throughout the entire debacle.

Peter lost it too; Peter, the big, brave fisherman, pulled out his sword and lashed out wildly at the nearest guy — what a way to handle the crisis! Did he think he was going to pick them all off, one by one, while they waited in line to be taken out? Did he really think that Jesus would stand by and allow him to do that? No, Peter acted brainlessly and instinctively, so unlike his Master whose response was deliberate and carefully controlled.

Jesus’ response to Peter’s reaction was typically Jesus. Never for a moment did He lose focus. He had come for this reason and He was not about to allow Peter’s panic to side-track Him or cause Him to deviate from His purpose. Listen to His response! ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?’ Iwonder what the soldiers and the rest of the mob made of that!

How did the military men react to Jesus? What did they think when He allowed them to arrest Him? How many of them would gladly have walked away rather than take a man prisoner who literally invited them to do so? I would not like to have been in their shoes. What went through their minds when they lay in bed that night?

John did not record the sequel to Peter’s cowardly act, not that it didn’t happen or that it was unimportant but that it was just not a part of his purpose. He probably did not want to deviate from what he intended to convey. He was presenting Jesus as the Son of God and, at this moment Jesus was behaving as perfectly obedient to His Father, a true Son of the Father, doing the Father’s will without question because He had chosen to submit and become the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Jesus was fully aware of the “cup” which His Father had given Him to drink and the baptism of suffering He was about to undergo and He faced it without flinching because the reward that lay beyond His suffering far outweighed the agony of the next few hours. However, His suffering was to be His alone. The time would come when His disciples would have their own cup to drink. But not now. For the moment they were only spectators.

His words of command protected them from any thoughtless action by the soldiers. They would, in the future, be guilty by association but, for now they would be unmolested and free to follow, watch and try to process what was happening to their Master until He returned from the grave to shake their lives to the core and to send them on their way as witnesses of all these events.

Who was in charge in those tension-filled moments? You decide!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE WAY TO THE FATHER

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THE WAY TO THE FATHER

“The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

“‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.” John 1:43-46 (NIV)

John gives us some interesting little exchanges between these would-be disciples and Jesus. The other gospel writers focus mainly on Peter and John, the ones who were always getting into scrapes or had the most to say. Andrew and Philip were the evangelists among them. Their first encounter with Jesus was enough to put them on the right track.

Andrew had already done his little bit by introducing his brother Peter to Jesus. What if he had kept his discovery to himself and left Peter out? Meeting this unique Man was something he couldn’t keep secret.

Philip was so convinced that he had come face-to-face with the one who fulfilled Old Testament prophecy that he unashamedly declared his faith to Nathanael. He brushed Nathanael’s scepticism aside by inviting him to come and see for himself. It was no use getting into a theological argument about it. An encounter with Jesus would be enough to convince Nathanael that He was the Messiah they were expecting.

“When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit,’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’” John 1:46-49.

Nathanael was blown away when he overheard Jesus’ comment about him. ‘Now this is a really good guy! He’s a true Israelite, not a fraud like some of them.’ How did Jesus know that? He’d never met Nathanael, let alone spent enough time with him to watch and listen to him so that He could sum up his character.

‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael demanded. ‘I know you, Nathanael. I knew you long before you came here today.’ Is this a subtle hint that Jesus was referring to His pre-incarnate existence with the Father when He knew Nathanael from before the foundation of the world? Where was Jesus when He saw him under the fig tree? Was He actually observing him? What prompted Him to discern in Nathanael a wholesome sincerity that pleased Him?

Nathanael’s conclusion was the only one he could come to. This man must be more than a man. There was no other explanation. His spontaneous outburst, ‘You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!’ may have been accurate, but he was yet to see and hear much more — marvellous truths and miracles that would flesh out the conviction that would bind him to Jesus and send him out to tell the world that Jesus is the Son of God.

“Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ Then He added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'” John 1: 47-51 (NIV)

The purpose of John’s gospel was to convince his readers that Jesus is the Son of God. “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life through His name,’ “John 20:31 (NIV). Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathanael found that out by meeting Jesus and spending time with Him.

The witness of brother and friend was not enough to convince them. When they spent time with Jesus over the next few years, they would see for themselves that it was He who would open the way between the unseen realm of the spirit and the earthly realm in which they lived and functioned. He was the link and the key to restoration of fellowship with the Father and personal access to the heavenly realm which sin had denied them.

There is no one other than Jesus who can take us to the Father.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.