Oh, this is convenient. You have a clock up here. That's like, hey, don't go too long. Again, yes, I am Josh Adair. It is such a delight to have been here and to visit with you to be considered for the position of Minister of Discipleship. My bride, Samantha, and I, we've been talking all weekend just about how much we have loved putting faces and names with this place and what a ministry it's been to us. So on behalf of both of us, just thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. But as far as our text goes for tonight, we're going to be in Mark, Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 21 to 28. I'll read it in just a second. Some helpful context would be appropriate before I go in. Mark is writing his gospel, and he starts off really with a bang. His gospel advances just very, very quickly, and it advances quickly through the phrase, and immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did that. And it starts off with, really, John the Baptist's ministry, the prophet that was long foretold preparing the way for Jesus, and Mark's really clear to say, this is the king that was foretold, because his messenger is proclaiming him, so listen to what he said. But then this king, he's identified with the people of God through his baptism. He identifies with them in their baptism. Then he's led, after his baptism, actually he hears the voice of his father saying, yes, this is my son, the king. And then he's led by the spirit into the wilderness to fight the enemy of our souls, and he crushes him. The king crushes the enemy of our souls and then he proclaims the moment that all of our eternal hopes have waited upon, saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom has come, so repent and believe the good news. And Mark is quick to say the king has come and he's going to show us what this king is like in this passage. So as I read this passage and we hear God's word, look for how this reveals the character of our king as you go through it. So, hear now the word of our God. And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. This is the word of our God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we believe in your triune name as you've revealed yourself in Scripture, as the Father who from before the foundations of the world ordered our salvation. You promised that you would do it, you sent your Son to accomplish it, and you have sent and communicated by your Spirit to us the benefits of that salvation to apply it to us. And so, Father, as we come tonight, would you use your spirit to take the benefits of the salvation that this king has accomplished? Apply them to our hearts so that as we hear your word proclaimed, you would be magnified and glorified to be seen who you are as a king worthy of all of our trust and devotion. Take these words and use them in our hearts so that we might digest them and really understand your true and beautiful character. It's in the name of our beautiful king that we pray. Amen. So, some of you may be more familiar with the field of psychology, but one of the most profound experiments that's ever been done on the nature of power in psychology was actually called the Stanford Prison Experiment. It was done in 1971 by world-renowned Philip Zimbardo. He's still world-renowned to this day. And it was supposed to last two weeks. It was a study on the effects of power on different populations. And it was supposed to last two weeks. They got volunteers from the community. And they arbitrarily assigned the role of guard or prisoner to these guys. And as they were going through the experiment, they actually had to call it off after six days. There were moral and ethical considerations at some of the behavior of the guards that caused them to really see like, what are we doing to these young men in this simulated situation? And they had to call it off because less than 24 hours in, it turned violent. And this wasn't like some company of like, halfway decent actors who just took their role way too seriously. These were people who were responding in this really unprecedented way to what seemed like these arbitrary roles. And as psychologists have gone back to try and make sense of that and make sense of all the data, they realized and came to the presumption that, well, power must be something that actually corrupts people. Power must corrupt. But as they began to try and theorize and understand how that works, there's these sort of people who buck that trend in our life, right? Noble leaders who empowered it and corrupt. And so as they tried to make sense of all the data, they actually went back and studied it again. And they studied the volunteers who came into the experiment, and they actually found that the volunteers that came in, they were the kind of people who actually, they held more aggressive tendencies and personalities. They were narcissistic in their view of themselves. And they thought there was a social dominance to the world, like one group is more powerful over another. And they realized that power actually doesn't corrupt. It reveals the character of those who are in power. And so that's incredibly important as we come to this passage tonight because we can testify to that in our own experience, can't we? History is littered with the lives of leaders who it seems like power corrupted them or revealed the character of someone who couldn't be trusted. And that's something that we actually bring into our own relationship with the Lord Jesus. We think this powerful king as he's presented in this passage is one who we have an abiding suspicion of. It's only a matter of time before his heart becomes maybe not as kind to us as he's faced with our failures. But this passage Mark has written and included, God has included in his word to show us that Christ's powerful message and his miracle that are in this passage They show us that He's a humbly restrained Savior who's worthy of all of our devotion and trust. And that's the big idea of what Mark wants us to see tonight. He wants us to see that Christ's amazing and powerful message and His miracle reveal that He's a restrained and humble Savior worthy of all of our trust. As we look through this passage, there's sort of three vignettes that he gives in this Percipient verses 21 to 28. The first one that he gives is he shows the powerful message of Jesus. He shows Jesus' powerful message. So that context in Mark of, here's the king, he's come. He goes and he assembles the disciples and then their squad, they go into Capernaum to begin his ministry. And verses 21 through 34, they serve as the first Sabbath day in Jesus's ministry. And he does amazing, amazing miracles on them. But it's really kind of like the first hundred days of any administration. They really show you what that administration is going to be about. We're currently walking through that in our own life right now, right, with our current administration. What's it going to be about? Well, what's the first hundred days like? And what Mark is saying is that Jesus is not the king that you would have expected because popular messianic expectations. They would have been and seen the Messiah as one who would have come politically and overthrown the oppressor, the Roman government. But Jesus comes as the king who comes teaching in the synagogue. And then his message in verse 21, as he enters, when they hear his teaching, they're astonished at his teaching. He taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. Mark gives us the reaction of the Christ. They're dumbfounded. They're at awe at what they hear. And he then gives us a negative comparison. He says, it's not like the scribes. The scribes were the religious leaders of the day. They were the lawyers, the experts of the law and how you applied it to your life. They had achieved almost like a legendary status by the time that Jesus' ministry takes place. And the only category of comparison that they have as they hear this message from this person, Jesus, this teacher, is it's nothing like the scribes. It's legendary, but it's something more. And then they say the positive aspect of what they felt in his teaching, it was powerful. And that word, that word in the original languages is a word that tells us, it's used over a hundred times throughout the New Testament. And it's used throughout the New Testament in a way that talks about how God is going to bring his kingdom to bear. the earth, and the way that God will bring his kingdom to bear on the earth is through his divine power, and that's the same word that they use of Jesus here. And so right at the outset at Mark's gospel, this powerful message is showing us that every temporal authority that they might have known in the day, it doesn't compare, because he's a king who has authority behind his words. He can get done what he actually says he wants to do. He's someone who you can take his word to the bank. You can believe him as the one who foretold long ago as the servant of the Lord. That's the Old Testament category, right? The Old Testament category was the servant who would come. The servant who would come and teach God's people about how to know him. And here's Jesus coming as a king with authority and power, teaching people how to know God. And that asks us a question, because there's an invisible relationship between this king, Jesus, and his word. Jesus is a king who has given us his word, his testimony of himself, and it makes us ask, how do we respond to this preserved record of who he is? Is this something that when we hear it, we're full of astonishment? Do we hear the power and authority that stands behind this word? Because this is the king's word inscripturated for us. And it's something that should cause us this sort of awesome, awesome awe, astonishment and awe, but trembling fear when we hear it. Is that how you read God's Word? Is that what you come away with? But also, there's this sort of prophetic role that Jesus is fulfilling. Because the servant of the Lord, we even talk about this in theological categories, don't we? Like Jesus, he serves through the office of a prophet. That's one of the categories he has. And he's the one who makes known what it is to be saved by God. That's what the prophets did. They made the message of God, and they were the mouthpiece of God, revealing the words of God to the people. And so Mark is also saying like, look, this is, when Jesus speaks, His words are God's words. So when you hear Jesus's words in this passage and in your life, do you hear the voice of God? Or is he just one among many? Is he just kind of one, one sort of teacher among many? Because it's really popular to think of Jesus as just one among many this day and age. But to put it in modern categories, It's like what Mark is saying is, in comparison to the scribes, who were the experts, it's kind of like they're the guys that just retweet other people's wise sayings in order to try and gain a following. But here's Jesus, he's tweeting the original content and everything he says is, it's hot off the press, it's amazing, you can take it to the bank because it'll happen. And so that's the powerful message that's revealed through this Messiah, it's a trustworthy word. But that's not all that's here, is there? Because as soon as this word is proclaimed and his teaching is heard, there's conflict in the room. Immediately, there's that and immediately from Mark. In verse 23, there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? This demon comes out. And he asks him two questions and makes a statement. What have you to do with us? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. And it's like everything kind of stops in the room. Because, you know, we read the printed text and we have the advantage of someone who just read the words, a man who had a demon and was possessed. comes into the open and confronts Jesus. But the audience there didn't know that probably. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I don't know. So things get escalated really quickly here, and everyone's astonished, and all of a sudden here comes someone's, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? That phrase is actually a word that in the Old Testament, that phrase was used for Old Testament combat situations. It's kind of like, you haven't seen anything yet, now I'm here to actually take a stand against you. This demon sees an existential threat in this king. And are you here to destroy us? What he's basically saying is, are you finally come to try and fight in the way that we know that you as the Messiah are going to fight? Because I'm going to keep you from doing that. Scholars kind of are wondering when they say, are you here to destroy us? Is he saying there's multiple demons inside this man? Or is he kind of preying upon the fears that are in the room? Because think about it, here's the awe and power of this king being revealed in Jesus, through his message, through his word. And now, everyone's getting nervous in the room, what's gonna happen? And the demon's sitting there, he's saying, you're actually here to come and destroy us. It's almost like Jesus, he's trying to get him to drift from his mission, like come and take fight, do what you should do, do what you're going to do. You and I both know, Jesus, that we're about to go toe-to-toe, so let's go, bro." And then he says, I know who you are. Commentators believe that he's actually trying to pull a Rumpelstiltskin on Jesus. Trying to, I know you are, you're the Son of God, so I'm the one that knows your name. You can't hide, so you must be banished. And then what happens? With a word, his word, Jesus says, be silent and come out of him. It's almost as like the text is presenting this demon as in mid-sentence when Jesus just snaps his fingers, cuts him off, and literally muzzles this demon. He muzzles his enemy. And there's a whole new level of astonishment that comes out in the room from this. But what is this saying about Jesus? Well, as I've said before, Mark is presenting Jesus as a king. And he's just compared him to the scribes. legal authorities of the day and saying all the temporal authorities Jesus is superior to, his teaching is in a class par no other, but he's also saying even the supernatural realm that this demon is a part of has nothing over the word, the simple bare word of this King. And before we think too much more about what this teaches us about Jesus, we have to ask ourselves, do you believe that your Savior can muzzle the evil in your life with a simple word? We live our lives anxious and suspicious towards those in power. We think that Jesus is gonna reveal some heart towards us that's eventually gonna show he's not consistent because we're not consistent. And we're anxious at the suffering and the evil that's in our world. We know we're vulnerable to it. And here comes our King. who muzzles the evil of his enemies with a simple word. It's almost like a foretaste of the final day that will come with this king. Because what's really interesting is that Jesus actually, he shuts up this demon. You would think that the Son of God would have every vested interest to take on even his enemy's confession. But Jesus knows, no, no. I am the king. I am the one, the servant who came. I am the one who is the cosmic king of the universe, but I will not rest upon my enemy's confession. And in fact, he's the king who his actions here show that he will leave no stone unturned on the evil that is in this world one day. Because think about it, he's just presented Jesus as beating the devil himself. This is one of the devil's minions. And in the first conflict, he just dispatches him with the snap of his fingers. It's amazing to see the mighty power of Jesus in a word in this passage. And it shows us he's a cosmic king, but it shows us he's also a king in conflict. There's a spiritual conflict in this world, friends. It goes back to the very Garden of Eden, where in Genesis 3.15, it was prophesied that one would come after the fall, at the height of man's failure, one would come who would crush the head of the serpent, though his minions might bruise his heel. And this is that cosmic conflict poured out on the pages of scripture for our observation. And Mark is saying, already from the beginning, you can see the end of where our King is taking us. He's giving us the precious gift of foresight at the authority of who Jesus is. But he's also showing us the amazing and humble restraint of our King. Because think about it, in this moment, Jesus I don't have categories to talk about how he could have dispatched this demon in a way that just utterly deposes all the darkness in this world, and yet he exercises restraint. And he does so because, again, he's the servant of the Lord, and Jesus He knows from the study of books like Isaiah in the Old Testament that the servant would be characterized by humility and restraint in his ministry. But that doesn't mean that he's incompetent against the forces of evil or impotent, sorry. He has every ability to dispatch this demon with a word, and he does, but he does so with a severely restrained humility. And it tells us something about the nature of our Savior when he does, because the nature of our Savior And this powerful miracle show, it shows us that he could grasp at glory in this moment. He's a king, he knows his trajectory is ultimately glory. And he could forego that with the simple spoiling of the plan in this moment. But he will not grasp at glory if it means he won't have to walk the path of humility. And because our Savior realizes in this moment, even though he's showing his authority over these demons, friends, he's showing us he's willing to walk the path of humiliation. Because think about it, if Jesus is exposed in this moment as the Messiah, and he shows his power in some supernatural way that begins to testify to that, he actually won't have to suffer. And his dispatching of this demon doesn't show us that he's impotent against the forces of evil in this world. It shows us that he is a humble savior who will not go to glory without us, because he must walk the path of humility first. Friends, this is our king. This is who our savior is. And when he could have grasped in this moment a shortcut, he chose to walk the long path of obedient humility to our Savior. And in our anxious, cynical world, we're kind of terrified of moments like this. Because we're terrified, really I think for two different reasons, we're terrified that Jesus is impotent in the face of evil. That all of his promises really won't come true because of all of the suffering in our world. But he's not. He dispatches this demon with the word. But we also think that he won't be a savior who's restrained and humble and won't forbear impatience with us. But this shows us He has all the power to overwhelm the forces of evil in our lives and in the life of this demon, or the life of this man that casts out this demon with a simple word. And it shows us, friends, that He's a Savior that you can trust. And in our cynical age, when we begin to think about people, power, institutions, we're skeptical. We're kind of always waiting in the anxious tension of, you know, this is going to end poorly for me. And I'm just waiting for people's real motivations to show. But you learn something about the path of our Savior or the character of our Savior through the path of his humility here and his patience. But that's not all you learn. As the passage ends, it says they were all amazed. There's astonishment on the bookends of this passage because they realize it's kind of like, it's awe, as I said earlier, but it's also fearful in the face of such power You can't help but be terrified. To think of coming before the face and the person of this God in one sense is terrifying. It's convicting, because we are not who we should be. But it's comforting, too, if this is the way his character is. And that astonishment, that amazement, it shows us that he commands our devotion, friends. And they're astonished, there's fear because it's kind of like, it's kind of like my little girl Catherine. When Catherine is, she has a really bad tendency right now of being someone who will get into places and things that she should not. And when she, when she's getting into places and things that she should not, I'll go over and Smith will be like, hey, she's getting into something, go get her. And I'll go, I'll walk back as gently and quietly as I can so I can surprise her. Not because I'm a weirdo, but I love my daughter. I just, I love interacting with her and catching her and stuff like this. I'll say, Catherine, what are you doing? Because she realizes daddy's here. He's the authority. I got to listen to his voice and I'm not doing as I should. And when the crowd is faced with Jesus, they're, I mean, it's terrifying to watch as this demon's cast out. It's terrifying to see this man convulsing and this demon tearing at him. And yet there's this authority that remains in the passage and the king and person and work of Jesus that we have to take note of. And yet, it's something that, it challenges us. It makes us think, I have not lived as if this were my king. This is the one to whom all authority and awe are due, and I've lived as if I have my own little kingdom. And it also, it's telling the group, the crowd, it's saying to them, this king who will leave no stone unturned, he comes with a message that he's proclaiming. And that message is exactly what we read earlier in Isaiah 61, one to three. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord's anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. We know that Jesus comes with a message of mercy, but he also comes and to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. He's a king who will not rest until all evil is removed from his world. And when we're faced with that authority, it makes us bow before him in devotion, because we know that even though he comes to exact that judgment, even though he comes to Be the one to defeat the forces of evil in this world. And even though we have not lived as if He is our King, He's a King who from this point will go to the cross. And the very judgment that He proclaims and brings is one that He will swallow whole Himself. And this commands all of our trust, friends. It commands absolute devotion to His person. So that if this is the character of our King, whose message is mercy, you can follow Him anywhere, can't you? You can trust him with the darkest parts of your life. If he's patient in the face of this evil, which is openly opposed to him, how much more will he be patient with our own evil and wickedness? And how much more will he patiently endure our rebellious hearts? but not because he is impotent, not because he cannot have or does not have the power to command obedience. He does. And his character and kingship, they beg of us devotion because he's worthy of our worship, because he's a king who will endure this judgment that he comes to bring. And so friends, you have to ask yourself tonight, what's the attitude of your heart towards this king? As you think about the person of Jesus, as you conceptualize him, and you think about his character towards you, do you see him as a king with a fist raised high about to exact judgment? Or do you see him as a humble king who's willing to be humiliated that you might come into glory with him? It's only when we grasp the heart of this king that we begin to understand the magnificent character and the trustworthy beauty of our Savior and follow him wherever we will go, wherever he bids us go, actually. And I'd love to tell you tonight, just as Dr. Jesselyn did this morning, he's a king that you can trust with your whole life. And so let us pray and ask him to internalize this character in our hearts now. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you that you have given us a Savior who is humble, who is restrained in the use of his power that he might go to suffer for us. He's restrained and humble in the way that he exercises his authority because he comes to serve us. And so may we understand your heart towards us tonight. And may we be drawn to follow you wherever you might lead. and to trust and give you the devotion that you command, because you are utterly worthy of it all. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.