A Day in the Life of Jesus — Part One

I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Mark—Mark chapter 1. If you’d like to use one of our church Bibles, you will find this reading on page 707. Page 707. Mark chapter 1, and we’re going to begin reading at the twenty-first verse of the chapter.

Mark 1:21:

“They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘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!’

“‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

“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 evil spirits and they obey him.’ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

“As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

“That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.

“The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’

“Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so [that] I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’ So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.”

Father, we ask now that you will help us in studying the Bible—for clarity of thought, for brevity of expression, for a sense that we are under the tutelage of you, the living God; that you are the one who teaches through your Word by the Holy Spirit, so that we might be prepared to sit up, to pay attention, and to say, “Speak, Lord. Speak to me.” And we ask it humbly in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, here we are, returning to our studies on the first Sunday after Easter. I don’t need to remind you of that, but I want to pinpoint the fact, because Easter has reminded us of the fact that what we are dealing with is historical material: that Easter itself is a historical event, that it actually happened, that it involved real people in real places at a real moment in time, so much so that when we ask why it is that the small band of followers—men and women who had already begun to follow Jesus—why it was that although they had been in hiding for fear of their lives, they had come out of hiding to face the challenge that was not only presented by the religious authorities but also by the persecuting Roman Empire—why it would be that they were prepared, at the risk of their very lives, to face all the persecution that would come their way—the answer is absolutely clear. And that is that these individuals were completely convinced that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. They were in absolutely no doubt. Their cowardice had been replaced with courage. Although they had been hiding away, now they were out, heralds of this gospel.

And as we observed last time, it’s highly unlikely that we would even know who Jesus was were it not for the fact of the resurrection. It’s hard to imagine why Matthew and Mark and John would take the time and trouble to write these detailed accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus if the whole Jesus story had actually come to a brutal and sorry end in the scene of the crucifixion. Indeed, that is the real challenge that confronts anyone who wants to think for a moment about the significance of Christianity itself: Why would Mark write this Gospel? Why would he begin the Gospel in the way that he does? “The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins here.”[1] Well, the answer is, because he was convinced that Jesus was alive. And it is this conviction which pervades the entire Bible.

Now, Mark has moved very quickly in keeping with his own personal design. He’s introduced us as his readers to Jesus. John the Baptist has come, and he is the forerunner, and now he points us to Jesus. We have very quickly seen Jesus baptized, tempted in the wilderness, and then calling his disciples to become his followers. He has invited them to join him on his mission. And these men were in no doubt as to the message that Jesus was proclaiming, and we need be in no doubt concerning it either. And it’s an important thing for us just to keep it in the forefront of our thinking.

Verse 15 of the first chapter, Jesus is “proclaiming the good news of God”: “Here is the good news that comes from God. Here is the good news about God.” And he essentially has two things that he tells people and one that he asks them then to do. First of all, he says, “The time has come,”[2] or “The time is fulfilled.”[3] In other words, “All the expectations of the Old Testament and the things that the prophets have said has now reached its fulfillment in me.” That in itself ought to give us cause for thought. It’s quite a statement for somebody to say that “the entire Bible as we know it so far has all been pointing to me, and you will find in me the fulfillment of all that is contained there.”

Secondly, he says, “[And furthermore,] the kingdom of God is near.” “The kingdom of God is near.” And what he’s saying there is this: that God’s rule over people’s hearts and lives is now being established, and the unfolding story of the rule of the King will finally reach its fruition and fulfillment, described for us in that great cataclysmic moment in Revelation 19, where all that is opposed to the power and might of Jesus as King is finally cast down into the abyss.[4]

But in the meantime, the evidences of the kingly reign of Christ will be seen in lives that are touched and changed and in the indications of his kingly rule in circumstances as they unfold. And then he says, “And let me tell you what I want you to do: since I’ve told you that the time has been fulfilled, that the kingdom of God is near, I want you to repent and believe this good news.”

The evidences of the kingly reign of Christ will be seen in lives that are touched and changed and in the indications of his kingly rule in circumstances as they unfold.

Now, it becomes immediately clear that Jesus confronts us always with a crossroads. There may be others who teach, and we really don’t know what they’re on about, we don’t know what they’re saying, and we don’t know if they want us to do anything at all, but we will never run foul of that with Jesus. And you see it right here at the outset: “Here’s what I want you to know: that all of this has been pointing to me. I, the King, have arrived, and what I want you to do is turn away from your sinful rebellion and believe this good news that I’m telling you.”

And a person would know then, and the person would know now, whether they had made this decision called for by Jesus concerning his right to rule and reign in their lives. And it falls to me to ask you the same question this morning: Have you yourself made this decision? You say, “Well, I actually have not made a decision.” Oh, you voted to abstain, did you? I want you to know that that was a decision. And all of us have decided either for or against the rule of Jesus in our lives. Either he rules and reigns in our lives or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, we do, or something else does. It’s as clear and as unequivocal as that. Read the Gospels—you’re sensible people—and see if what I’m telling you is so.

Now, with that by way of background, we pick up the account in verse 21, where Jesus and his disciples are arriving in the lakeside community or settlement of Capernaum. If you have a Bible that has maps in it, you will be able to find Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, and if you have that which gives you any kind of notes concerning it, you will know that it was a large enough place to have a detachment of Roman soldiers. If you remember the story of the centurion whose son was sick and he sent for Jesus to come and heal his son, that centurion was from Capernaum. And the only reason the centurion would be there was because of the detachment of a Roman battalion.

It was also large enough to have a customs post, as we’re going to see later on in chapter 2, here, of Mark. And also, according to verse 29, Capernaum was the home of Simon and Andrew, two of these early followers of Jesus, and it may also have been the hometown of James and John.

Now, what Mark gives to us between verse 21 and verse 39, as best as I can understand it, is his own version of [24]. You know, I’ve told you before that this television program, [24], is completely lost on me. My attention deficit disorder is insufficient to cope with it. I cannot jump around as quickly as the program demands. So, consequently, I just sit like an old man, staring at the thing, saying, “I’m sure this means something to somebody, but it means absolutely nothing to me.”

Well, the twenty-four hours that are described here in the life of Jesus are far easier to follow, even for a soul like myself. And Mark gives to us, first of all, in 21 and following, Jesus in the synagogue; and then, verse 29 and following, Jesus in a private home; and then, verse 35, Jesus in a solitary place; and then, in verse 38, Jesus once again on the move. So I say what we have here is a day in the life of Jesus. A day in the life of Jesus. Actually, a Sabbath day in the life of Jesus. A Saturday.

Now, I have been helped in studying this material by thinking around three words. I’ll tell you what they are: the first word is confrontation, the second word is demonstration, and the third word is explanation. There is in this a significant confrontation, there is in this material a wonderful demonstration of the power of the kingly rule of Christ, and there is within the structure of this the need for and the provision of an explanation as to the overarching purpose and ministry of Jesus.

Now, it quickly became clear to me that we would not be able to get through this material in the scope of a morning, and so it’s going to take the day today to get through to verse 39. And I intend spending the day on it—the first part now, this morning, and the balance of it this evening.

First of all—and we won’t get beyond this—what is this notion of confrontation?

Verse 21: “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.” Jesus went to the synagogue because Jesus always went to the synagogue. In other words, it was his custom to go to the synagogue. He was a Jewish male, and it was expected of Jewish males that they would attend the temple and they would attend the synagogue. And indeed, Luke tells us that Jesus went up to the synagogue “on the Sabbath day … as was his custom.”[5] In other words, it was his constant practice. If someone had looked for Jesus on the Sabbath—they’d said, “I was looking for Jesus of Nazareth; do you know where I might find him?”—the answer would have come back immediately and without any doubt: “Yes, you’ll find him if you just wait for him. He’ll be coming out of the synagogue with the rest.” Why? Well, because he woke up in the morning and he had a feeling that he would like to go to the synagogue. No! He went to the synagogue because he decided he would go to the synagogue, and it was on the strength of that decision—if you like, volitionally, not emotionally.

Let me just say to you in passing that if you decide to attend worship on the strength of your emotion rather than on the strength of your volition, your attendance will always be patchy. It will always be up for grabs. It will always be “Well, I don’t know if I feel… I have… What about… I don’t know.” But if you determine, “This is what we do,” then your emotions will be subservient to your volition. And in Jesus’ case, that was so. And that is why we find him where we find him.

Now, within the framework of synagogue worship, it was routine for the leaders of the synagogue not only to teach themselves but to give occasion to others to engage in teaching. We see this elsewhere in the Gospels concerning Jesus. And on this occasion, perhaps because of a prior awareness of Jesus, the invitation is extended to him to teach. And immediately as he teaches, there is a buzz within the room. And his teaching stands out in contrast to what the people were used to.

They were used to “the teachers of the law,” verse 22. The grammateis is the word in Greek. They were the ones who interpreted the law, who gave explanation and so on, who quoted from the various rabbis, and they would stand up and say what they were saying, and “This is what this says, and that’s what the other person says.” But now Jesus stands up, and his teaching seems almost self-possessed. And, of course, it is. Because the very Scriptures to which he turns are the Scriptures which point to himself. And you get that dramatically when he’s not in Capernaum but in the synagogue in Nazareth, and, you remember, after he has read from the prophecy of Isaiah concerning all that will happen when the Messiah comes who will open the eyes of the blind and so on, and Jesus says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”[6] Well, they’d never heard anything like that before. They had no notion of that at all. And he was marked by authority.

Now, it is clear that it is this very authority which gives rise to the dramatic outburst that is described in verse 23. And I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced anything like this, but if you have, then you will remember it. Here he is, he has begun to teach, and all of a sudden, “a man in [the] synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit” started to shout out right in the middle of the event.

Now, I wonder: Are we to assume that up until now, this man had been able to attend these services, listen to the teachers, participate in the congregational singing, and find nothing at all in it to disturb him? Now, we don’t know, but it is at least one possibility, isn’t it? If this is not a unique occurrence, if this was routine, then was the fellow just able to come to the synagogue, sit there and go through it all, and just let it wash over him? It’s possible, isn’t it?

I hope nobody can come here as an unbeliever and let it wash over them. Oh, I hope you find nothing offensive in me in the way I say things or in my colleagues or in the people who meet you and greet you, but I do hope you find something horribly offensive in the gospel. I do hope you find something that challenges you, that is like a dagger in underneath somewhere, that gets right into the thing—it appears as though what you’re hearing is coming from somewhere other than simply the lips of a man, that this book seems to possess an authority that you had never encountered before, and that it almost feels as though your insides are being peeled back and exposed, and it’s an uncomfortable experience. But if you can just come and listen and sing and walk away again, then something’s probably really wrong.

There again, it’s possible that he did this all the time and that the authorities in the synagogue didn’t know what to do with him—you know, that he was “Bellowing Bill.” And the kids loved it, because there’s nothing better than a Sabbath when old Bill started to bellow in the thing, because it really shook things up. After all, the scribes, their preaching was brutal in any case and would make a saint go to sleep, but when old Bellowing Bill let go, man, the young people, they said, “Oh, this is terrific!” It’s possible that that was the case and that the authorities used to come down the aisle and say, “Excuse, if you could just be quiet, please, it would be a tremendous help to all of us. Just maybe go outside for a little while,” or so on.

I don’t know, but if we assume that this interruption, that this confrontation, was a unique event, you’ve got to imagine that the effect was quite unbelievable. In other words, they routinely come along, routinely somebody preaches, eventually they stop, and they all go away. But not on this occasion. All of a sudden, this fellow stands up.

I’ve had this happen to me on more than one occasion. I remember it vividly in the congregation I previously served in Scotland. It was a Sunday morning much like this, and I was speaking much as I’m doing right now, when all of a sudden, near the back of the room, a man stood up and began to shout out at the top of his voice, telling me to be quiet and sit down and so on. And it just sent electricity around the room. I think on that occasion, the problem was probably mental illness. On this occasion described for us here, the problem is clearly demon possession. Demonic possession.

You see, it is impossible for the absolute clarity and authority of God not to confront the hidden dimension of evil. Because there is a radical, dramatic, phenomenal, significant, huge contrast between light and darkness, between that which is of God and that which is of the devil. They are not in the same department at all. The lines of demarcation are clearly drawn. And the demon in this man recognizes that immediately.

It is impossible for the absolute clarity and authority of God not to confront the hidden dimension of evil.

Notice that this individual is described as being possessed—verse 23—of “an evil spirit,” or “an unclean spirit,”[7] akathartō. Verse 26: “The evil spirit shook the man violently.” Verse 27: “He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”

Now notice: “evil,” “evil,” “evil,” versus “Who [are you]—the Holy One of God!” So, the confrontation here is between the dramatic, kingly rule of the absolute purity of God manifest in Jesus and the powers of darkness, whom Jesus has already confronted in the temptation in the wilderness. He has come out of that victorious. Satan has left him, waiting for a more “opportune time”[8]—presumably the temptation in the garden of Gethsemane. But it would be ridiculous to assume that the King, in all of his absolute holiness, could move within the precincts of absolute demonic activity and there not be a confrontation.

Now, this shouldn’t surprise us as readers of Mark’s Gospel. Because Jesus has come, as Mark has told us, and the inauguration of his kingdom brings with it the invasion of the kingdom of darkness and, ultimately, the destruction of the kingdom of darkness. You have to go all the way to the last book of the Bible to see the story given there in dramatic pictorial form, defining for us the end that is in view—an end that is not in doubt but an end that is coming. And in the meantime, the activity of Christ’s kingly rule is confronted and confronts again and again the powers of darkness.

Now, this is a good moment to give you one cross-reference. And the cross-reference is 1 John chapter 3 and the second half of verse 8. It’s in page 863 of the church Bibles, if you would like to look at it, and I suggest you do look at it so that you know that it is actually there. Jesus, as “the Holy One of God,” as the Righteous One, is the one in whom the righteous live; and the distinguishing feature of being in Christ, who is holy and righteous, is that we are no longer in the province we once were. Once we belonged to the kingdom of darkness; now we belong to the kingdom of light.[9]

Verse 8: “He who does what is sinful is of the devil.” In other words, he who just engages his life governed by, framed by, motivated by the sinful activities of his earthbound existence indicates unequivocally that if you want to take it back to its source, you go right back to the devil. Because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. That’s what the devil does: the devil just sins all the time. The devil lies about God. The devil is a murderer. The devil brings people down. The devil destroys. So whenever you find somebody who’s on the side of destruction, on the side of evil, on the side of death in all of these things, then you can be sure, says John, that this person is “of the devil.”

Now, here comes our quote—second half of verse 8: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Now, if you’ve kept your finger in Mark chapter 1, turn back to Mark, and look at what the demon asks in the second half of verse 24. The beginning of it that is said as a question here—“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”—is actually not an inquiry; it’s a confrontation. It’s the sort of spirit of challenge: “What do you think you’re doing here, Jesus of Nazareth? You think you’ve got some influence over us?” Now comes the question: “Have you come to destroy us?” “Have you come to destroy us?”

You see, the demon understands. And when the King steps forward, the demonic activity, satanic forces, realize that in this Jesus they find the end of the line. This is their terminus. This is where they get off, if you like. And you will notice that the man’s personality here has been so disabled that the demon, usurping the place of his selfhood, speaks through him.

And when Jesus replies—verse 25—he replies to the demon: “‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’” He’s not speaking to the man; he’s speaking to the demon. Because demonic activity eventually destabilizes a personality, usurps the place of selfhood, and may even speak in strange voices, in a way that is inhuman and bizarre. And Jesus speaks into this circumstance, confronts it for what it is, and tells the demon to “be quiet.”

Now, the demon immediately assumes that the ministry of Jesus will be to destroy him. Because things have totally changed with the arrival of Jesus. On one occasion Matthew records for us, when the religious folks were challenging Jesus and what he was doing (you needn’t turn to this, but I’ll just quote it for you), where they had brought to Jesus a man who was demon possessed, and Jesus healed him—the man was both “blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so … he could both talk and see.”[10] And as a result, all the people were totally amazed by this, and the Pharisees said, “Well, don’t be interested in that. Don’t let that lead you astray to follow this Jesus. It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”[11] In other words, “He’s employing demonic activity to drive out demons.” Jesus says, “How much sense does that make? Are you telling me that Satan drives out Satan?” He says, “I don’t know who you use as the authority for your exorcisms, but the idea that if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out?”[12] You can go figure that out. Now here comes the quote. “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”[13]

You see? Jesus steps up onto the stage, and he says, “The time is fulfilled. I am here. The kingdom of God is near.” Now, if the kingdom of God is near, you would expect some kind of indication of that, wouldn’t you? If the creator of the universe steps down into time, the big surprise would be if he simply succumbed to the influences of nature in a way that everyone else did. That would be surprising! What would not be surprising would be that the creator of the ends of earth, stepping down into time, would be able to say to the troubled Sea of Galilee, “I want you waves to lie down for a while. My boys here on the boat are getting upset. Just let’s calm down!” And the people said, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the [waves] obey him!”[14] He’s the King! The King of what? The King of the entire universe! He is the King who is sovereign over all the activities that range against him. He is not powerless, waiting on the edge of his seat to see what happens next. He is the authoritative one.

And it is a matter of note that the demon has got a pretty good grasp of theology. In fact, this demon has got more of a grasp of what’s going on than does the crowd or do the cronies of Jesus. Look in your Bible; you’ll see. What does the demon say? “I know who you are—[you’re] the Holy One of God!” How many times do we read in the Gospels that say the disciples couldn’t get it? “And I know what you’ve come to do. You’re here to destroy us, aren’t you?” He speaks on behalf of his friends—those who, down in verse 34, before the day is out, they’re also going. They’ll be driven out. They’ll want to speak and shout and make a noise, but he won’t let them speak. He has all power over them.

No, you see, the demons are orthodox. Don’t be put off by somebody who tells you, “Well, I’m very orthodox in what I believe.” Do you remember what James said concerning that? When the people came and said, “You know, I believe in a very orthodox way. It’s just that it hasn’t made any difference in my life. I believe exactly what you’re supposed to believe, but I just don’t have any indication of it, no deeds that follow from it. I just believe. You know, my faith, it’s all up here.” And do you remember what James says on that occasion? He says, “You believe in one God? That’s good. Even the demons believe that, and they shudder.”[15]

The demons are orthodox. They know what they’re up against. The demon says, “I know who you are, and I think I know why you’re here. You’ve come to destroy us, haven’t you?” Yes! First John 3: the reason that the Son of God came was “that he might destroy the works of the devil.”[16] You see, demons believe, but demons don’t trust. The belief of a demon is the grudging belief—the grudging belief—in a God who is for them an unwelcome reality.

That’s demonic belief: the awareness of the fact that it is undeniable that God exists; it is undeniable that God is powerful; it is undeniable that this Jesus is actually the King that he claims to be. But they don’t rejoice in that. They don’t trust in that. They are grudging in their acceptance of that, because this God whom they acknowledge is an unwelcome reality. And the specific instance that we’re dealing with here in verse 23 to verse 26 is part of the general encounters that some of us will see this evening when we return. And we must stop, and think about returning later on.

For this confrontation here, which ends with the man shaking violently and the demon coming out with a shriek and the people all being amazed and saying to one another, “What kind of teaching is this? What new authority is this?”—the confrontation with evil gives rise to the demonstration of Christ’s authority and power. And both the crowd and his cronies, once they have this demonstration, are in need of an explanation, which he then provides for them so that they don’t go wrong.

The confrontation with evil gives rise to the demonstration of Christ’s authority and power.

So, this is a teaser for this evening, if you care. As we will discover, Jesus makes the apparently crazy decision, at the height of his popularity and influence, to leave the Capernaum region and go off somewhere else to the other villages—much to the disappointment of the crowd and much to the surprise of his followers. What was the deal?

The response of the crowd was the response of attraction; it was not the response of conviction. The response of attraction, not conviction. Crowds attract crowds. Miracle workers will always draw people to them. After all, they’re so unusual. It’s so bizarre. It’s so exciting. “Let’s go there and see this man. After all, I have needs that perhaps he can meet. I’m attracted to the idea of a God who exists to meet my needs.”

Jesus was not telling them that story. That attraction is not the same of the conviction which is brought about in the life of an individual, a man or a woman, when they realize that “I do not come to God so that Jesus can give me what I want, but I must come to God so that Jesus will grant me what I need.” And there is every indication that the crowds that were stimulated on this occasion remained actually unchanged in relationship to Jesus’ message. Which was what? “Repent, and believe what I’m telling you.”

Can you be attracted without repenting? Yeah! Can you join the crowd without repenting? Yeah! Can you get involved in the services in the church without repenting? Yeah! You can do it all. You can be a demon in the third row.

And let’s not kid ourselves, loved ones: although our materialist friends and our naturalist, secular friends—and there’s great pressure on many of us who live within the scientific community—although our friends would laugh us to scorn for such assertions as these, these same friends can provide me with no rational explanation for Columbine, the anniversary of which we bemoan, nor for the twenty-eight-year-old woman killing the small girl, putting her in a suitcase, and drowning her in the water. They can provide me with no sensible explanation for that. Please don’t tell me that it is because the lady’s grandfather was not very nice to her when she was seven. Please don’t ask me to believe that. You think I’m an idiot?

But I have an explanation for Columbine. I have an explanation for the twenty-eight-year-old woman. And the explanation is right here in this dramatic confrontation: the demonic activity of a life that sells out to the Evil One, laying themselves open to the invasion and the destabilization of their personality, so that before they realize where they are, they are actually possessed and in the grip of that over which they have no physical control. And until the King, Jesus, comes to set them free, they remain tied as if they were bound in chains and shackles in the local cemetery.

Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians, says, “Fellows, girls, face it: we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.”[17] That that does not mean that there are demons under your coffee cup this afternoon. That does not mean that we see things in terms of demonic activity all the way. But what it does mean is this: that we recognize that underlying all that represents death, all that represents the abortion agenda, all that represents the destruction of the teenage population, all that leads to those horrible suicides amongst young boys and girls that have no hope in life or nothing—behind all of that lies the activity of the Evil One himself, who is a liar and the father of all who tell lies and who himself is a murderer from the beginning.[18]

That is the biblical answer to the question. And it is into that horrible world that Jesus came as King to destroy he who opposes, who confronts, the activity of God himself. And one day—read Revelation 19 before you finish your lunch—one day, all that is emblematic and is represented in the initial dimensions of the kingly rule of Christ will be brought to fruition. And that’s how it is that the lion will lie down with the lamb.[19] That’s how it is that we will have peace. That’s why it is that you will have an unpolluted ocean. That’s how it is that you will have a seashore without any potential of jellyfish nipping you and paralyzing you and sending you home in a coma. Why is all of that? Because eventually the King—eventually the King—is going to put it together exactly as he planned. And God’s purpose from all of eternity is not actually Adam and Eve in the garden, but his purpose from all of eternity is the work of Jesus on the cross and the impact of that when he brings it all to fruition.

Do you see how much bigger this is, how vaster this is, than any kind of, you know, little preoccupation with “I’d like to tell you what Jesus means to me”? That’s good. I’d love to hear what Jesus means to you. But this is of cosmic significance. This is huge!

Well, think it out.

Father… Father, Father, we come bowing before you, the creator God. The world looks on at such a scene as this; my words be regarded as abject stupidity. And where is power to be found? Where is there that which conquers our jealous hearts, cleans up our dirty minds, fills our lives with a desire to serve you, a willingness to turn the other cheek, who, when we know we’re in the right and could push everything right to the very limit, we determine that we will instead, like Jesus, entrust ourselves to him who judges justly[20] and to discover again that the judge of all the earth will always do what’s right?[21]

Forgive us when we are able simply to read our Bibles and cast them aside, when we’re able to come and attend to worship like this and let it all just flow over us as an irrelevancy, as a sideline, as a passing attraction. Lord Jesus Christ, come, as it were, and stand, tower over our puny little lives, and say to us again, “Repent. Believe the good news.” And then grant us grace to do so.

And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who believes, now and forevermore. Amen.

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[1] Mark 1:1 (paraphrased).

[2] Mark 1:15 (NIV 1984).

[3] Mark 1:15 (KJV).

[4] See Revelation 19:20.

[5] Luke 4:16 (NIV 1984).

[6] Luke 4:21 (NIV 1984).

[7] Mark 1:23 (KJV).

[8] Luke 4:13 (NIV 1984).

[9] See Ephesians 5:8.

[10] Matthew 12:22 (NIV 1984).

[11] Matthew 12:24 (paraphrased).

[12] Matthew 12:25–27 (paraphrased).

[13] Matthew 12:28 (NIV 1984).

[14] Matthew 8:27 (KJV).

[15] James 2:19 (paraphrased).

[16] 1 John 3:8 (KJV).

[17] Ephesians 6:12 (paraphrased).

[18] See John 8:44.

[19] See Isaiah 11:6.

[20] See 1 Peter 2:23.

[21] See Genesis 18:25.