Scripture Reference: Mark 1:14-45

The Call You Can’t Resist – Continued

Please read Mark 1:16-28 for the background to this section.

From Last Lesson: Teaching was the scribes job, and how they taught! Their technique with any question was to go back and quote the experts, and the way the experts had quoted other experts.

For example:

“Rabbi Yohanan said that; Rabbi Eliezer said so-and-so; but Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion, according to Rabbi Ben-Ammi, was this . . . and so on and so forth.”

This was how they taught until in the end, a couple of centuries later, all this opinion-quoting was gathered into a shelf full of huge books called the Talmud (if you ever have the chance to see a copy, or to read it online, you’ll see what I mean!). What they did not have in their teaching was authority. Then one day Jesus gets up and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing . . . [and I am the one bringing it!]”

It doesn’t take long for people to notice the difference. This reaction is very interesting. They don’t say, “This man is crazy, or insufferably arrogant.” Rather, they are “astonished” and “amazed.” The words carry the sense of being overwhelmed with wonder; the people are disturbed by what He says. This is the second group who encounter Jesus’ authority. Many of them never fully understand who Jesus is, but they clearly see that He is different. Through His authoritative teaching He demands their attention.

Sitting among the people is someone who certainly does recognize who Jesus is, a third “group” if we can take the liberty to call it that. This man is under the controlling authority of “an unclean spirit”—literally, an “impure” or “evil” spirit, a demon. Some people try to explain away stories like this one. Many say, especially in our day and age, that they are the product of primitive cultures, and we as “civilized” people have moved beyond such naïve beliefs. The truth is that in most parts of the world people understand only too well that the spirit world is real. If you go to Africa, or to large parts of Asia or South America, you will find that people have no doubt about the reality of evil spirits. Muslims rightly understand the existence of demons, or “jinns” as they call them; they are a feature of everyday life; and it is where the concept of the “genie” comes from. It is only in the sophisticated West that we are foolish enough to stop believing in evil powers that can control people’s lives. Such fools we are, even many professing Christians, think we know better than the Bible in this modern age! The spiritual world is as real as anything you can touch, see or hear, and demons are the most pure and naked forms of evil that we should ever be truly concerned with.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.