Tag Archives: the Holy One of God

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.

BOTH LORD AND CHRIST

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BOTH LORD AND CHRIST

“From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.’You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ (He meant Judas Iscariot who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Him).” John 6:66-71.

Good old Peter! For once he got it right!

For all their blundering, misunderstandings, prejudices and misperceptions, of one thing the Twelve had become convinced, that Jesus was the Son of God. They did not fully understand all the implications and they certainly clung tenaciously to the hope that He would deliver them from Rome, but they never abandoned their conviction that He was someone far more than human.

John was careful to identify and isolate Judas Iscariot as the traitor, but that did not mean that Judas was not also convinced of His identity. Why he betrayed Jesus is not absolutely clear. It could have been purely for money or it could have been his way of trying to force Jesus to do what he thought He would do — move supernaturally against the Romans during the Passover when Jerusalem was filled with Jews from in and outside Israel.

John made a clear distinction between two groups of disciples — the ones who were following Him for opportunistic reasons and the Twelve whom He had chosen. The first group was obviously fascinated by and drawn to Him because of the possibilities of what He could do for them. He healed them; He got rid of tormenting demons and He even fed them supernaturally from very little. If they could have a king like that, their troubles would be over.

The problem with this kind of faith is that it places false expectations on Jesus which He is under no obligation to fulfil. It is unfortunate that He is often presented to people as the solution to all their problems. Prayer and faith are a way to get what we want. When He does not meet to our expectations and capitulate to our demands, we either do what we can to appease Him, as though He were some pagan idol, or we become disillusioned and walk away like these fickle “disciples” did.

The Twelve followed Jesus because they were chosen. He selected ordinary men from many walks of life; fishermen, tax collectors, political activists, nobodies who were not already fashioned by the religious system to have fixed ideas about God and His Messiah.

When He began to speak about things they could not understand; about suffering and dying, which made no sense to them, they were sufficiently convinced about His identity to wait it out. Their expectations might have differed, even from one another’s but they were prepared to give Him a hearing because they had bonded with Him as a person even if they did not understand everything He said.

Peter voiced the thoughts of the group, and they agreed with him by sticking with Jesus when the others left. It must have heartened Jesus to know that He had a loyal group, even if it was only His intimate group of disciples whom He had personally invited to be His followers. They were not part of the “anyone” and the “whoever”. He called them by name and that meant a lot to them.

The fact that He lost only Judas from the Twelve is also surprising, given the harshness of His words. They may have trembled with fear, abandoned Him and run for cover, hidden in the Upper Room and lost all hope when He died, but that was only part of the process. Resurrection day changed all that. His words, falling on deaf ears then, took on explosive meaning when their implications burst on their understanding.

No doubt, the Twelve must have remembered Peter’s expression of their collective faith: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ How glad they must have been to have stuck with Him then! Their faith had paid off. It was not about what He could do for them. It was all about who He was — both Lord and Christ to whom every knee shall bow.

Have you bowed to Him as Lord, your supreme authority?

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.