The Authoritative King, Pt. 2

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We all know people who have some level of authority in their field––a doctor who walks into the ER and people move or a coach who says a word and the whole team responds. That kind of authority is earned. But Pastor Nick Gatzke reveals why Jesus’ authority is in a completely different category.

John Calvin once said, “God designs to consecrate to himself the mouths and the tongues of men, in order that his voice may resound in them.” The apostle Paul says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” And I’m struck by the old poem that says, still thinking I had but little time to live, my fervent heart to win men’s souls did strive. I preached as never sure to preach again as a dying man to dying men.

Jesus is preaching with authority. And as he is, we see that a demon-possessed man rose up in the middle of the assembly and said, what have you to do with us, Jesus? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Many people had yet to recognize who Jesus was truly, but the demon knew. They knew that the claim of the kingdom and the coming of it was real. And that’s why the demon thinks that his destruction is imminent. The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is displaying his dominance.

And he silences him and he casts him out. And there’s something that’s really interesting to be observed there. Look at verse 27 again. It says, they were all amazed. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. And so they questioned among themselves saying, what is this? A new teaching with authority? He commands even unclean spirits and they obey him. Now that’s really interesting because they’re still commenting about the preaching. Did you get that? You would think that if a demon-possessed man rises up in the middle of assembly of a bunch of people. and calls out in a strange voice and is cast out in front of all of them, and there’s a human body that’s shrieking and convulsing in the front of their midst, they might be going, whoa, that’s amazing. But they said their first words, a new teaching with authority. And secondly, the result of that teaching is that they acknowledge his authority, the authority, this teacher is so great. that even the demons obey. King Jesus has authority in his teaching and he has authority over the dark forces that oppose his kingdom.

It says in verse 29, immediately they left the synagogue and they went to the house of Simon and Andrew. And we see a different type of authority displayed here. Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with fever. She was in bed and upon Jesus touching her, she was healed. And it’s actually a really sweet picture of gentleness. Sick in bed, as you can imagine, the woman is incapacitated. She is unable to welcome her guests. Jesus comes over. He kneels down by her bedside, and he takes her hand, and he lifts her up in front of everybody who was in the house.

Someone goes out into the city and tells them what happened. there was already a stir from the morning worship service. And now in the evening, men and women, boys and girls, parents and grandparents, homeless people to wealthy people, and everyone in between are making their way across town to sit at the door in hopes that they would be healed from what ails them.

Some wanted to watch, but they didn’t want to watch or see with the eyes of faith. The truth is, is that they just simply wanted something from Jesus. But at this point, they didn’t want to bow before the king. They wanted the benefits of the king’s authority. There’s something there for you and for me. A lot of people want the benefits of Jesus’s authority without actually coming under his authority. A lot of us do that at one point or another. We’re all guilty of it at some time. And sometimes, as in this instance with the healings, Jesus gives those benefits, even though you haven’t submitted yourself to him yet. But the real benefit, the real benefit is going to come a little bit later in the story as you truly surrender yourself to the authority of this king to become a member of his kingdom. And so the hustle and the bustle of a busy night was exciting, and I’m sure it was exhausting. And eventually the crowd died down or they sent them away and the people went home and they went into their beds and Jesus went to bed as well. And you see between the teaching authority, the authority over the demons and now authority over healing that the kingdom is here and the king has complete authority.

The kingdom is here and the king has complete authority. But early in the next morning, while it was still dark, Jesus woke up and he quietly made his way out of the house. He tiptoed his way through. He whisked through the city before anybody was awake and could recognize him. He got to the outskirts of town and you could imagine that he just climbed up off the path into the hills and he found a spot to pray. It doesn’t tell us what he prayed for, verses 35 to 39, but the fact of all the things that he could do, And as the sun went up, the people thought that the show was going to continue. They all started to look for him. Of all of the things that he could do and all of the tugs that were on him, he carved out time to pray. Prayer is the mechanism of intimacy with his father.

And for Jesus, it was so. And it is so for you and for me. It’s been said that when man works, man works. But when man prays, God works. Prayer is also the mechanism of power for what he was going to do next. And it is that mechanism for you as well. Jesus could spend his time doing any number of things. He could spend his time meeting the needs of the sick. He spent his time the previous night doing so. He could spend his time engaging all the political entities that oppressed the Jews. After all, this would point to the nature of a very powerful kingdom, but he didn’t do that. He got away to pray, and when he was done praying, he made his intentions very clear. He tells his disciples in verse 37 through 39, it says they found him and said, everyone is looking for you. And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the next towns that I may preach there as well. For that is why I came. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. The kingdom of God is at hand. And the way the kingdom expands is through preaching. Some people think that preaching as a helpful part of your spiritual diet is something that is culturally dead. Some claim that preaching is too authoritarian or maybe it lacks tolerance. I’ve heard it said that preaching is one of the least democratic activities that there is. We sit and we listen to a person speak, speak hopefully with authority. Sometimes we like what we hear and sometimes we don’t and yet we still sit there and listen. Sometimes, We laugh and sometimes we cry. Sometimes we have to go to the bathroom, but we sit there and we listen anyway. And we contribute to this activity in no other way than our presence and our active listening. But that is how the kingdom expands. When King Jesus speaks, he comes with true clout and weight. And when his messengers today preach, they don’t stand on their clout. They don’t stand on their influence. They don’t stand on their personality. They stand on his because they are tasked with the communicating the message of his kingdom coming. The kingdom is here and the king has complete authority.

When we move to the fourth scene, we see where preaching and power meet together. Look at it with me in verse 40. I’m gonna read it again. It says, and a leper came to meet him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, if you will, you can make me clean. And moved with pity. He stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once. Let’s stop there.

The miracles of Jesus serve like parables, parables that point to spiritual realities and how Jesus meets our needs in those spiritual realities. Perhaps there are no more vivid pictures than the casting out of demons and no more vivid picture than the disease of leprosy. Leprosy is a disease of slow beginnings. Its overwhelming, destructive power and complete ruin as such is uniquely symbolic of sin and the healing from leprosy, the deliverance from sin. In the ancient world, lepers were the outcasts of society. It was believed that their disease was flesh eating and open sores and disfigured extremities. Extremities were the markers of one plagued with it. And as such, no one was to touch them. No one was to even get close. They were perpetually unclean. They were persona non grata. They were the ones that you would steer clear from. If a leper was on this side of the street, you would cross over to go to the sidewalk on the other. And so for a leper to approach Jesus the way that he did was a bold move because he was unclean.

If you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity. Christ stretched out his arm and he touched him and he said, I will be clean. Moved with pity. You know, the Lord Jesus is marked by compassion. He hates to see people suffer in their infirmity physically or their sin spiritually. He hates to see you struggle. and give in to sin and have it slowly eat away at your life to the point where it defines you. He takes pity. We know that the Bible tells us when Jesus came the first time, he did not come to judge the world. He came to save it. He does not currently execute his full judgment against sin. 2 Peter 3:9 says that he is “patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” His mission in the theme verse of this whole gospel of Mark is found in Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus is kind and compassionate and merciful, and just as he was that way with the leper, it is the way that he engages all sinners who cross the street and cry out to him for their cleansing. He will be kind and compassionate and merciful with you if you are the one.

Christ stretched out his arm and he touched him. The one who announces the coming of the kingdom of God, the one who is displaying himself as the king would normally be one who would never engage a leper. And certainly not one to touch one with a deadly contagious disease. But Jesus does just that. He could have just said the words and the guy would have been healed. But he touched him. He did so because this was the sign of his human compassion. He wanted the leper to feel something. he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He wanted the leper to feel his touch. He’s not a distant king. He’s right there with you. The one that nobody would touch was touched by the Savior. And in touching the leper, the disciples would see that Jesus was now ceremonially unclean himself. And this would point us to the core of this whole mission where preaching and power come together, the incarnation of Jesus all the way to the crucifixion. He would be unclean so that we could become clean. He would take our contagious disease so that we would be healed of our disease of sin. And he would take it all the way to the cross.

The passage has a very short description of the healing, but I love the way that Kent Hughes flushes it out. He says, we would think about all the ailments that the man had, rotting skin, fingers and toes that would have been withered away, a smell from open sores, perhaps a hand or a foot that was completely missing. And they were all instantly restored. Hair and eyelashes recovered. A full nose, healthy and looking exactly the way that it should after years of disfigurement. Restored. All in the view of people to see. And the leper. who like all of the other lepers would announce their presence by shouting, unclean, unclean, unclean, as they wandered through the streets, was now running through the streets yelling, I’m clean, I’m clean, I’m clean.

And this is what Jesus can do for you immediately, instantly. Upon your belief in him, he can make you completely clean. If you recognize the leprosy of sin that is eating away at you and you wanna be cleansed, then don’t hesitate to reach out to Jesus. He’s compassionate and will show pity. He’s loving and he will reach out and touch. You, and in an instant, you will be cleansed. The kingdom is here, and the king has complete authority.

Let’s pray. Lord in heaven, we pray very simply now that you would help us to know and to see and to feel the complete and utter dominant authority. who loves us, who is worthy of our adoration and our trust. We bend the knee of our will to him even now and say, come Lord Jesus, come. Amen.

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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.