LayGuy

“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.” Mark 1:21-28

My take home points on these 7 versus are:

· Jesus was ready willing and able to get into teaching. Any disciple of His should have the same mindset and, with His help, ability to do so.

· He had authority in His teaching. He knew how to handle the Word of God (after all, it was His equal in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit who inspired the Word)

· The so called “educated” in Scripture are not the be all and end all. Often they get so caught up in details that their teaching lacks any substance.

· Unclean spirits dwell in the members of our church (in this case it was the synagogue)

· These unclean spirits know more about Jesus then you and I

· These unclean spirits know the scriptures

· When the Word is taught properly, you will get opposition to your teaching

I want to expand on this last point. I can almost say with certainty that when the Word is preached in your church the way it should be, opposition will arise from those inside the church. It may be a full on verbal response as noted above. Or it may take the form of whispers and gossip rising into a wave of disunity and discord as people grumble about how the Word is handled.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes people talk absolute crap in the name of “christianity” – such as the prosperity gospel and they deserve to get bagged till the sun don’t shine.

But when the preaching is centered on the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the reason to repent from sins and start afresh and when this is done in a way that is in unison to the whole message of Scripture, if you get opposition to this, you can be sure that there is demonic resistance being stirred in those in your congregation influenced by demons more than the Spirit of God.

In the above passage, the spirits inside this synagogue attendee must have freaked out when they saw Jesus walk in. In the spiritual world, they knew exactly who He was. James says that “even the demons believe – and shudder.” Sometimes I wish I had the mental capacity of a demon. Before you label me as a heretic, it’s only to know and see the awesome reality of Jesus as they see Him. I bet they have a better understanding of Jesus then many of us have. And as soon as I realise this, then I’d switch back into being me. For demons truly suck.

No doubt this demonically possessed Jewish man sat there while Jesus “taught with authority” and inside him, the plural demonic population must have been going nuts as the enemy of their existence taught mankind about the Kingdom coming to shatter their own.

And this made them freak out so much that they manifested within the man and made him shout 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.”

You see, when the Word is taught properly, the Kingdom of Darkness will always be challenged and those influences will always make their views be known as their kingdom is threatened. So when you see this happening in your church, know two things:

1. The Word is being taught the way it should be

2. You are directly dealing with demonic influence – often within those in your congregation

When this happens, the good advice is to treat it the way Jesus did, “But Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!”” Notice that Jesus rebuked the man but also addressed the demons inside. The man allowed the demonic influence in his life and needed to be rebuked. But the demons were the ones causing the trouble.

In a similar way, when these situations arise in your church, it’s a good idea to tackle them head on, publicly, while realising the source of the problem. Trouble makers should be singled out but dealt in a way recognising that the disruption they bring is a direct result of demonic activity and not necessarily their own. Ephesians 6:12 clearly states:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (the Jewish man), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.(unclean spirits)” (Italics mine)

The Kingdom of Darkness will always oppose the Kingdom of Light and try to stifle and distract. Dealt with properly and directly, while addressing the root cause, will always rectify the situation. We need to act with Christ’s authority – not our own. And then the Good News will be free to travel. And travel it will - Isaiah 55:10-11 says:

“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the things for which I sent it.”

Once the Word of God is set free, it will accomplish great things. And it’s totally humbling and scary indeed to know that God partners with us to make sure the Word that goes forth from His mouth is unhindered and delivered to do its work. And sometimes this means we need to directly tackle the obstacles in its way – not being distracted in political correctness and “niceness” while allowing demons to hinder things along the way. Done properly, we can emulate what Jesus achieved:

“And at once, his fame spreads everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee” Mark 1:28

What an honor it would be to follow Jesus’ example and to have His fame spread throughout the surrounding regions of where we live and worship?