Readings: Psalm 111; Mark 1:21 -28
Intro
When I needed to know what to convey this morning I talked with God about it and the ideas began forming in my mind. I wrote them down next day. I often have ideas in the night but they are often gone by morning or they seem not as wonderful as they did when I dreamed them.
Anyway, this is an example of God providing for my need. It happens all the time. That is, whenever I ask God for what I need he provides.
Not that I always get it right or always ask God. I am not as wise as I’d like to be. The problem is that we all have ideas about the way things are and the way things should be and these ideas vary from true to near true to way off to very wrong and we have a hard job sorting true from false.
Wisdom
The first step in real wisdom is to recognise that the Lord is God, to treat him with the utmost respect and to learn the truth from Him (Psalm 111:10). Psalm 111 offers the reader many reasons to worship God. I recommend reading it from the Message as we go along.
Firstly, the psalmist considers how great the works of the Lord are [read vs 2-4 MSG]. From creation to the present God’s works are magnificent. In modern parlance, ‘mind-blowingly awesome’. Do you know there are people who deliberately deny God the credit for his wonderful works? Of course you do.
The story is told of a university lecturer – an atheist – who told his class that he was going to prove that there is no God. He said, “God if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you 15 minutes!”
As time went by he kept taunting God, saying, “Here I am God, I’m still waiting”
He was down to the last couple of minutes when a BIG 120 kilo football player happened to walk by the door and heard about what the lecturer said. The football player walked into the classroom and in the last minute, he walked up, hit the lecturer full force, and sent him flying off the platform.
The lecturer got up, obviously shaken and said, “Where did you come from, and why did you do that?”
The football player replied, “God was busy. He sent me.”
(With thanks to Mikey’s Funnies)
Of course we know that it isn’t a matter of God being too busy but that he constantly uses human agents to accomplish his work.
God’s provision
The psalmist goes on to remind us of God’s provision and covenant love for his people [read v5 MSG].
Next, he rejoices in God’s provision of a land (v 6) even at the expense of others, and that God can be relied upon in all that he says and does (vs 7,8). [read vv6-8 MSG]
Finally, he speaks of how God has redeemed his people [read v 9 MSG].
All good reasons to cry out with wonder to the God of gods and Lord of lords!
An example of power and authority
The passage in Mark is a particular example of God’s power over everything and his redeeming of people. It also shows Jesus’ power and authority. The word ‘authority’ can mean power to control, judge, influence or limit others. It can also refer to someone who is an expert or a reliable witness. All those meanings are involved here.
[read Mark 1:21-28 MSG]
Demonic power is present and powerful even in the synagogue as the people of God meet to worship (vs 21 -24). The language, like the action, is violent: the man ‘cries out’ at the fear of destruction; Jesus rebukes and commands silence, and the man convulses and cries out again – this time with a ‘shriek’ (vs 24-26).
No wonder the people were amazed (vs 22,27). However, the story makes clear that it is not just the violent and unusual happenings that amazed the crowd, but Jesus himself. Here is a man who speaks and acts with unparalleled authority and power. If they were amazed before the incident (v 22), they were even more so afterwards (v 27). Not the usual Sabbath worship! They had never seen anything as dramatic before; they regarded his actions as a ‘new teaching’ (v 27). They were agog. What a contrast to their other teachers of the law and religion scholars, the scribes and Pharisees.
Why did Jesus speak and act with such authority? And why the great contrast with the teachers of the law?
Jesus’ words had authority
One has first-hand knowledge; the others have only got someone else’s word for it. This is the first difference between Jesus and the other teachers. The scribes and Pharisees learnt about God from books, but Jesus knew God personally. This made him a more reliable witness. His words therefore had more weight: more ‘authority’.
Jesus knew God his father
Jesus knew what it was like to be human because he had lived an ordinary human life. He knew how to walk with God because God was his father and he spent time with him. It was not just head knowledge or complicated theory. This made him a better teacher and a real ‘authority’ on living God’s way. The scribes and Pharisees just had their rules.
Jesus was God himself
Jesus had authority not just because he was a good teacher. He had authority because of who he was. He had the right to forgive sins or release people from evil because he was the Son of God. Jesus used his power and authority to set people free. Those who saw and heard him could not deny his authority or that he was uniquely different.
We live in a world where lots of people, organisations and religions claim to be right and to speak with authority. It can be very confusing and it undermines people’s confidence. But the ultimate authority can only be found in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is only in God that we can put our complete trust.
what do we do?
Turn to God with every question
and praise Him in every joy – count your blessings.
Fill your mind and heart with his truth and live by it.
Today the battle is, and always has been, for the mind. Good thinking always results in good feelings and good actions. Obviously, therefore, if you are feeling terrible or you are in a terrible predicament it is reasonable to assume that somewhere in your thinking you are getting it wrong. The lies you believe cause much of the pain. The measure of false beliefs you adhere to is a measure of how crippled you will be spiritually, socially, mentally, physically and financially – and will therefore measure the level of pain you are currently in. The good news is that the needed truth and insight is available and gives us freedom from confusion and pain as well as hope for a better future.
We often labour under various delusions – we live by beliefs that are wrong. We’ve picked up ideas from others or even come up with them ourselves and they’re taking us in unhelpful directions. Replace them with God and God’s truth and live better all round.
Go back and reread Psalm 111. Retell the stories of Jesus. Let Truth permeate your life and your living and stay with Jesus.
Conclusion
We conclude as Psalm 111 concludes: [read v11 MSG].