1 00:00:04,170 --> 00:00:06,690 Luke 431 through 2 00:00:06,690 --> 00:00:09,693 37 he went down to Capernaum, 3 00:00:09,859 --> 00:00:13,263 a city in Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. 4 00:00:13,613 --> 00:00:18,268 And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 5 00:00:18,752 --> 00:00:23,456 And in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of unclean demon. 6 00:00:23,723 --> 00:00:26,576 And he cried out with a loud voice, ha! 7 00:00:26,576 --> 00:00:29,579 What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 8 00:00:29,579 --> 00:00:31,765 Have you come to destroy us? 9 00:00:31,765 --> 00:00:34,768 I know who you are. The Holy One of God. 10 00:00:34,801 --> 00:00:38,822 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. 11 00:00:39,355 --> 00:00:42,358 And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, 12 00:00:42,392 --> 00:00:44,994 he came out of him, having done him no harm. 13 00:00:44,994 --> 00:00:49,999 And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word for? 14 00:00:49,999 --> 00:00:55,188 With authority and power he commands unclean spirits, and they come out. 15 00:00:55,438 --> 00:00:59,909 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. 16 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:03,747 Every. 17 00:01:03,747 --> 00:01:06,533 Good morning and welcome to Christ Community Chapel. 18 00:01:06,533 --> 00:01:08,668 So, so glad you're here. 19 00:01:08,668 --> 00:01:10,070 Thanks for coming. 20 00:01:10,070 --> 00:01:12,989 How many of you were able to come to premiere tonight? 21 00:01:12,989 --> 00:01:14,457 Would you raise your hand? 22 00:01:14,457 --> 00:01:17,460 How awesome was premiere night? 23 00:01:17,811 --> 00:01:19,913 It was great. 24 00:01:19,913 --> 00:01:24,601 I over 1700 of you, braved the weather to get here. 25 00:01:24,617 --> 00:01:27,620 Those of you who weren't able to get here, boy, 26 00:01:27,654 --> 00:01:30,173 we have created a recap video for you. 27 00:01:30,173 --> 00:01:32,192 You should have gotten it in an email. 28 00:01:32,192 --> 00:01:34,911 If not, you can go on our website and see it. 29 00:01:34,911 --> 00:01:39,032 Also, we have a table out in the atrium that you can ask questions 30 00:01:39,032 --> 00:01:42,018 and get the material that we handed out at premiere tonight, but, 31 00:01:42,685 --> 00:01:44,370 it was such a great time. 32 00:01:44,370 --> 00:01:46,523 Sometimes, 33 00:01:46,523 --> 00:01:49,526 we need to look back at what God has done 34 00:01:49,859 --> 00:01:52,128 and just be amazed 35 00:01:52,128 --> 00:01:55,081 and then dream about what God wants to do. 36 00:01:55,081 --> 00:01:57,984 Can do, will do in the future. 37 00:01:57,984 --> 00:02:00,987 And that was what premiere night was all about. 38 00:02:01,254 --> 00:02:06,860 Somebody sent me like, a a snapshot of our Facebook post. 39 00:02:07,410 --> 00:02:10,430 That was a conversation between two of our members. 40 00:02:11,131 --> 00:02:13,666 And what she wrote is what I felt. 41 00:02:13,666 --> 00:02:14,901 She said, I cried. 42 00:02:14,901 --> 00:02:17,720 I'm in my 37th year at the church. 43 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,558 Never dreamed we would see anything more exciting than what has already happened. 44 00:02:21,958 --> 00:02:24,961 But I left, filled with anticipation and amazement 45 00:02:25,195 --> 00:02:28,047 at the vision for the future. 46 00:02:28,047 --> 00:02:29,182 I love that. 47 00:02:29,182 --> 00:02:32,185 I love that the next big event is commitment Night. 48 00:02:32,752 --> 00:02:35,155 And I think that commitment night, 49 00:02:35,155 --> 00:02:38,308 might be a very emotional worship experience. 50 00:02:38,875 --> 00:02:40,410 And I say that for a couple of reasons. 51 00:02:40,410 --> 00:02:44,297 One is, you know, Jesus says that where your treasure is, 52 00:02:44,297 --> 00:02:48,718 your heart will be also, that your treasure is connected to your heart. 53 00:02:49,435 --> 00:02:51,421 And I think commitment night is a time. 54 00:02:51,421 --> 00:02:54,407 I don't know if you ever have another opportunity 55 00:02:54,541 --> 00:02:57,210 to have 2000, 3000 56 00:02:57,210 --> 00:03:00,496 people who are throwing a bit of their treasure 57 00:03:00,797 --> 00:03:03,716 toward Jesus and falling more 58 00:03:03,716 --> 00:03:07,070 in love with Jesus at the same moment? 59 00:03:07,737 --> 00:03:09,889 I think that will be overwhelming. 60 00:03:09,889 --> 00:03:13,443 But the other thing is that we have a tradition here at TCC 61 00:03:13,443 --> 00:03:16,913 that whenever we replace carpeting somewhere or flooring, 62 00:03:17,630 --> 00:03:22,435 we give you a Sharpie and we ask you to, to go and write on the cement 63 00:03:22,435 --> 00:03:25,371 before we put the flooring back down or the carpeting back down, 64 00:03:25,371 --> 00:03:26,189 right on the cement. 65 00:03:26,189 --> 00:03:29,726 Names of people that you want to see come to know Jesus. 66 00:03:30,059 --> 00:03:31,561 And we have all kinds of stories 67 00:03:31,561 --> 00:03:35,298 of people walking with friends or family members or coworkers 68 00:03:35,515 --> 00:03:40,320 to a place in our building and saying, your name is right underneath our feet. 69 00:03:40,670 --> 00:03:43,489 I wrote it here five years ago, and here you are. 70 00:03:43,489 --> 00:03:44,641 Here you are. 71 00:03:44,641 --> 00:03:47,060 So in Commitment Night, we're going to peel back 72 00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:49,529 some of the carpeting and have you do that. 73 00:03:49,529 --> 00:03:52,865 So don't miss Premier our commitment night. 74 00:03:52,882 --> 00:03:53,933 It's going to be great. 75 00:03:53,933 --> 00:03:57,003 And well, we're asking you to register because we need to know 76 00:03:57,003 --> 00:03:59,222 that you're coming. We're going to have a meal. 77 00:03:59,222 --> 00:04:02,275 And then we're going to worship together and make our commitment tonight. 78 00:04:02,909 --> 00:04:04,427 Be great. All right. 79 00:04:05,428 --> 00:04:07,880 Let's get into today's message. 80 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:12,568 I was reading in the book of Exodus, where the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. 81 00:04:13,286 --> 00:04:16,823 And Moses is out in the middle of nowhere and he sees a bush that's on fire. 82 00:04:16,823 --> 00:04:20,627 So he goes over to it, and God speaks to him out of the burning bush. 83 00:04:21,227 --> 00:04:23,930 And God tells him what, 84 00:04:23,930 --> 00:04:26,633 God wants to do and what he wants Moses to do. 85 00:04:26,633 --> 00:04:29,068 And Moses is supposed to go to Pharaoh, 86 00:04:29,068 --> 00:04:33,389 the most powerful man in the world, and tell him to let all the slaves go in. 87 00:04:33,389 --> 00:04:35,241 One fell swoop. 88 00:04:35,241 --> 00:04:40,046 And then Moses has some questions for God, and they're good questions. 89 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:43,499 He he expects that he will have to answer these questions. 90 00:04:43,967 --> 00:04:46,853 And the first question is, who am I when Pharaoh says, 91 00:04:46,853 --> 00:04:49,856 who are you that I should listen to you? 92 00:04:49,889 --> 00:04:51,441 What should I say? 93 00:04:51,441 --> 00:04:53,543 And then the next question is, 94 00:04:53,543 --> 00:04:56,612 who are who are you when they say, who is it that sent you? 95 00:04:56,913 --> 00:04:59,332 Who should I say sent me? 96 00:04:59,332 --> 00:05:00,750 So great questions. 97 00:05:00,750 --> 00:05:03,870 Anytime someone is sent to save someone or redeem someone, 98 00:05:03,870 --> 00:05:06,873 those are the questions they need to answer. 99 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:08,308 The questions of authority. 100 00:05:08,308 --> 00:05:12,812 Who sent you and can you do what you say you can do? 101 00:05:13,563 --> 00:05:18,718 We are in the second message of our ten week series, Calling Jesus the Redeemer. 102 00:05:18,751 --> 00:05:21,354 We're spending ten weeks in the Gospel of Luke. 103 00:05:21,354 --> 00:05:26,025 It's going to culminate on Easter and we are at Luke chapter four. 104 00:05:26,042 --> 00:05:29,028 So if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to Luke chapter four. 105 00:05:29,162 --> 00:05:31,280 You can wait for it to come up on the screen. 106 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:34,400 If you want to use one of our Bibles, it's on page 808. 107 00:05:34,851 --> 00:05:35,868 Page 808. 108 00:05:36,836 --> 00:05:38,755 The story that we just had 109 00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:41,791 read to us is about authority, 110 00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:46,045 and we find Jesus in the same place that we found him last week. 111 00:05:46,312 --> 00:05:48,498 He's in the local synagogue. 112 00:05:48,498 --> 00:05:51,601 And it struck me that, I don't know how many things rubbed 113 00:05:51,601 --> 00:05:55,488 Jesus the wrong way about how they did services at the local synagogue, 114 00:05:56,305 --> 00:05:58,558 but it didn't seem like it bothered him. 115 00:05:58,558 --> 00:06:02,328 Like he went to the synagogue to connect with God and to worship, 116 00:06:02,845 --> 00:06:05,848 and nothing else seemed to get in his way, which was a good thing. 117 00:06:06,499 --> 00:06:09,869 Now, here are the three points that I want to pull out of this passage. 118 00:06:09,869 --> 00:06:12,171 And they're on the card you got on the way in. 119 00:06:12,171 --> 00:06:15,591 I want to talk about the authority of Jesus, the power 120 00:06:15,591 --> 00:06:18,678 of Jesus, and the goodness of Jesus. 121 00:06:18,678 --> 00:06:22,048 Authority and power, the authority of Jesus, the power 122 00:06:22,048 --> 00:06:25,051 of Jesus and the goodness of Jesus. 123 00:06:25,051 --> 00:06:25,918 Authority and power. 124 00:06:25,918 --> 00:06:27,987 First, the authority of Jesus. 125 00:06:27,987 --> 00:06:30,356 Look at verses 31 and 32. 126 00:06:30,356 --> 00:06:34,761 It says, and he went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee. 127 00:06:35,244 --> 00:06:37,130 And he was teaching them on the Sabbath. 128 00:06:37,130 --> 00:06:39,332 And they were astonished at his teaching. 129 00:06:39,332 --> 00:06:42,318 For his word possessed authority. 130 00:06:42,602 --> 00:06:47,073 Jesus taught in a way that they were not used to in the first century. 131 00:06:47,423 --> 00:06:51,444 Most rabbis, when they taught, they cited sources 132 00:06:52,011 --> 00:06:57,033 like they would, connect with a rabbi in the past who had a good following. 133 00:06:57,033 --> 00:06:59,669 And people all believed what that rabbi said, 134 00:06:59,669 --> 00:07:03,106 so they would build their argument using what that rabbi said. 135 00:07:03,122 --> 00:07:05,208 It's not a bad way to teach. 136 00:07:05,208 --> 00:07:08,211 It's kind of like having footnotes in an article. 137 00:07:08,311 --> 00:07:10,646 Jesus didn't teach like that, though. 138 00:07:10,646 --> 00:07:14,100 When you read Jesus sermons, particularly like the sermon on the Mount, 139 00:07:14,634 --> 00:07:18,204 Jesus says stuff like you've heard it said, you shall not commit adultery. 140 00:07:18,688 --> 00:07:23,309 But I say to you, Jesus, Jesus cited himself, but I say to you, 141 00:07:23,843 --> 00:07:28,197 any man who looks on a woman with lust has committed adultery in his heart. 142 00:07:29,065 --> 00:07:31,134 You've heard it said, you shall not commit murder. 143 00:07:31,134 --> 00:07:31,918 But I say to you, 144 00:07:32,969 --> 00:07:35,688 if you're angry with your brother, you're guilty. 145 00:07:35,688 --> 00:07:38,758 Jesus spoke in a way that was absolutely revolutionary. 146 00:07:39,442 --> 00:07:42,445 And to speak with authority, you need you need two things. 147 00:07:42,979 --> 00:07:47,567 You need the knowledge to speak, and you need the right to speak 148 00:07:48,267 --> 00:07:51,137 first, the knowledge to speak. 149 00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:54,407 I have a friend, who has a PhD in physics. 150 00:07:55,641 --> 00:07:57,477 He had a his emphasis 151 00:07:57,477 --> 00:08:01,347 was on molecular and cellular biophysics. 152 00:08:01,347 --> 00:08:04,133 If that sounds smart, it's because it is. 153 00:08:04,133 --> 00:08:06,302 My friend's crazy smart. 154 00:08:06,302 --> 00:08:09,722 He did his dissertation on the process of blood clotting, 155 00:08:10,556 --> 00:08:13,109 and, he has since done research. 156 00:08:13,109 --> 00:08:16,612 Groundbreaking research on the molecule 157 00:08:16,863 --> 00:08:20,600 called fibrinogen, which is, connected to blood clotting. 158 00:08:21,017 --> 00:08:25,555 When I say groundbreaking research, what I mean is that my friend Nathan, now, 159 00:08:25,588 --> 00:08:28,591 he knows more about fibrinogen 160 00:08:28,975 --> 00:08:31,827 than anybody in the world, 161 00:08:31,827 --> 00:08:34,914 which is just, you know, wild to think about. 162 00:08:35,965 --> 00:08:37,700 If my friends sat down with 163 00:08:37,700 --> 00:08:41,120 Jesus and they began to talk about fibrinogen. 164 00:08:41,721 --> 00:08:44,724 My friend Nathan would end up taking notes. 165 00:08:44,941 --> 00:08:47,426 Right, because Jesus would know 166 00:08:47,426 --> 00:08:50,429 more about fibrinogen 167 00:08:50,763 --> 00:08:52,882 than my friend Nathan. 168 00:08:52,882 --> 00:08:55,885 There is no area of life 169 00:08:56,068 --> 00:09:00,389 that Jesus does not have complete knowledge about. 170 00:09:00,623 --> 00:09:06,112 There is no area of your life where Jesus doesn't know more than you know which is. 171 00:09:06,112 --> 00:09:12,001 Which is why it's crazy that any of us would ever disagree with what Jesus says 172 00:09:12,001 --> 00:09:15,655 about how to handle our sexuality, or how to handle our money, 173 00:09:16,289 --> 00:09:19,041 or how to handle our relationships, or our marriage, 174 00:09:19,041 --> 00:09:22,044 or our kids or anything. 175 00:09:22,311 --> 00:09:25,314 Because Jesus has complete 176 00:09:25,348 --> 00:09:28,351 knowledge in every area, 177 00:09:29,402 --> 00:09:32,388 which is why he speaks with authority. 178 00:09:33,472 --> 00:09:35,608 He has the knowledge to speak. 179 00:09:35,608 --> 00:09:37,827 But the second thing is the right to speak. 180 00:09:37,827 --> 00:09:40,046 Jesus comes as King 181 00:09:41,464 --> 00:09:44,467 in the book Lord of the Rings by Token. 182 00:09:44,784 --> 00:09:49,705 The third volume of Lord of the rings is called The Return of the King. 183 00:09:50,423 --> 00:09:55,194 And in the moment when the king is kind of is coming into his own, 184 00:09:55,611 --> 00:09:59,215 there's a paragraph where where somebody like lists out 185 00:09:59,215 --> 00:10:02,218 all the titles of the king, 186 00:10:02,301 --> 00:10:05,521 and Tolkien gives him a dizzying amount of titles. 187 00:10:05,688 --> 00:10:08,090 There are like nine different titles. 188 00:10:08,090 --> 00:10:11,360 And the reason that he has all those titles is that he is the king. 189 00:10:11,927 --> 00:10:15,498 He is the rightful king of every province and every country. 190 00:10:16,682 --> 00:10:18,267 Jesus comes with. 191 00:10:18,267 --> 00:10:21,270 The title is King of Kings 192 00:10:22,188 --> 00:10:24,256 and Lord of Lords. 193 00:10:24,256 --> 00:10:28,561 There's a great quote that's attributed to a theologian named Abraham Kuyper. 194 00:10:28,861 --> 00:10:31,847 I'm going to put it up on the screen and I want to read it to you. 195 00:10:32,214 --> 00:10:34,133 This is what it says. 196 00:10:34,133 --> 00:10:38,087 There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence 197 00:10:38,838 --> 00:10:42,358 over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, does not cry. 198 00:10:44,860 --> 00:10:46,228 You read that again. 199 00:10:46,228 --> 00:10:49,532 There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence 200 00:10:50,182 --> 00:10:53,185 over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, 201 00:10:53,602 --> 00:10:56,088 does not cry 202 00:10:56,088 --> 00:10:58,007 mine. 203 00:10:58,007 --> 00:11:00,893 Jesus speaks with authority 204 00:11:00,893 --> 00:11:03,596 because he has the knowledge to speak. 205 00:11:03,596 --> 00:11:04,847 He has the right to speak. 206 00:11:04,847 --> 00:11:09,452 And that brings me to my second point, which is the power of Jesus. 207 00:11:10,169 --> 00:11:13,122 Verses 33 to 37 208 00:11:13,122 --> 00:11:16,008 it says, and in the synagogue there was a man 209 00:11:16,008 --> 00:11:18,778 who had the spirit of an unclean demon. 210 00:11:18,778 --> 00:11:21,781 And he cried out with a loud voice, ha! 211 00:11:22,014 --> 00:11:23,215 What do you have to do with us? 212 00:11:23,215 --> 00:11:24,417 Jesus of Nazareth? 213 00:11:24,417 --> 00:11:26,369 Have you come to destroy us? 214 00:11:26,369 --> 00:11:28,020 I know who you are. 215 00:11:28,020 --> 00:11:29,839 The Holy One of God. 216 00:11:29,839 --> 00:11:33,292 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. 217 00:11:33,859 --> 00:11:35,177 And when the demon had thrown him 218 00:11:35,177 --> 00:11:38,364 down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 219 00:11:39,031 --> 00:11:43,502 And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word for? 220 00:11:43,502 --> 00:11:48,207 With authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. 221 00:11:48,774 --> 00:11:53,279 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. 222 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:56,215 This is early on in Jesus ministry. 223 00:11:56,215 --> 00:11:59,218 We're only on chapter four of Luke, 224 00:11:59,819 --> 00:12:02,421 and people don't know what to think about Jesus yet. 225 00:12:02,421 --> 00:12:03,873 What's interesting is the demons know 226 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:05,574 that. 227 00:12:05,574 --> 00:12:07,343 They know. 228 00:12:07,343 --> 00:12:09,445 They know who Jesus is. 229 00:12:09,445 --> 00:12:13,949 They know the power he has because this demon says, have you come to destroy us? 230 00:12:14,066 --> 00:12:17,069 They know that Jesus is their enemy. 231 00:12:17,737 --> 00:12:19,138 You are in the book of James. 232 00:12:19,138 --> 00:12:23,125 There's a little part where James is saying that it's not enough 233 00:12:23,125 --> 00:12:26,212 just to say that you believe in God, 234 00:12:26,912 --> 00:12:31,734 and what James says is the demons also believe, and they shudder. 235 00:12:32,368 --> 00:12:35,371 This is a demon shattering. 236 00:12:35,821 --> 00:12:38,657 I think it's hard to imagine what this must have been like 237 00:12:38,657 --> 00:12:40,593 in this, this little synagogue. 238 00:12:40,593 --> 00:12:43,796 They have all of a sudden a man start to scream. 239 00:12:44,013 --> 00:12:45,948 You know, in this version it says he. 240 00:12:45,948 --> 00:12:47,716 He cried out with a loud voice. 241 00:12:47,716 --> 00:12:52,188 And another version it says that he yelled at the top of his lungs, 242 00:12:53,522 --> 00:12:55,541 terribly disconcerting. 243 00:12:55,541 --> 00:12:58,344 A grown man screaming right next to you. 244 00:12:58,344 --> 00:13:00,980 You would. You would scatter. I think people scattered. 245 00:13:00,980 --> 00:13:05,217 But this isn't a man who's screaming because, he's mentally ill. 246 00:13:05,251 --> 00:13:08,220 This is a man who's screaming 247 00:13:08,220 --> 00:13:10,823 because of evil. 248 00:13:10,823 --> 00:13:14,777 And there's something that is absolutely terrifying about evil. 249 00:13:14,777 --> 00:13:18,531 When my wife and I are watching TV at home and a commercial comes on 250 00:13:19,348 --> 00:13:22,768 about a horror movie, she will avert her eyes. 251 00:13:22,768 --> 00:13:26,422 And if if the even the the talking in the music is 252 00:13:26,722 --> 00:13:30,743 is kind of evil, she'll look at me like, turn it off, right? 253 00:13:30,743 --> 00:13:33,746 And I have to mute it, you know, find the mute button 254 00:13:34,530 --> 00:13:35,481 because it's terrifying. 255 00:13:35,481 --> 00:13:38,484 Even make believe evil is terrifying. 256 00:13:38,784 --> 00:13:39,502 Y'all, I have done it. 257 00:13:39,502 --> 00:13:44,807 I read enough in history to know death stories about human evil. 258 00:13:45,991 --> 00:13:46,442 I've read 259 00:13:46,442 --> 00:13:49,712 stories about Stalin when he was at the height of his power, 260 00:13:50,513 --> 00:13:55,918 stories about Saddam Hussein and his sons, the Taliban, Pablo Escobar. 261 00:13:56,118 --> 00:13:56,669 There are bugs. 262 00:13:56,669 --> 00:13:57,620 And I thought 263 00:13:57,620 --> 00:14:02,091 about telling you some of those stories to give you an example of evil 264 00:14:02,091 --> 00:14:05,578 and then tell you, you got to multiply it by a thousand, right? 265 00:14:05,845 --> 00:14:08,848 But I was afraid that if I told you those stories, that 266 00:14:08,998 --> 00:14:12,601 they would be so disconcerting that you wouldn't be able to get past them 267 00:14:12,601 --> 00:14:14,003 and hear the rest of the sermon. 268 00:14:14,003 --> 00:14:17,690 In fact, I ran it by my wife, and I told her a couple of the stories 269 00:14:17,690 --> 00:14:20,693 and she was going, do not tell those stories, 270 00:14:23,212 --> 00:14:26,215 Human evil is appalling. 271 00:14:27,383 --> 00:14:29,568 It is, 272 00:14:29,568 --> 00:14:32,371 incredible the capacity 273 00:14:32,371 --> 00:14:35,057 that human beings have for evil. 274 00:14:36,091 --> 00:14:39,078 But all human evil is diluted. 275 00:14:39,361 --> 00:14:41,664 It's all diluted. 276 00:14:41,664 --> 00:14:44,433 What happened in that synagogue 277 00:14:44,433 --> 00:14:47,369 was not diluted at all. 278 00:14:47,369 --> 00:14:49,622 It was pure evil. 279 00:14:49,622 --> 00:14:51,657 Something you have never probably 280 00:14:51,657 --> 00:14:54,660 been in the presence of. 281 00:14:54,860 --> 00:14:57,863 And all of a sudden, there, in the presence of this evil 282 00:14:58,547 --> 00:15:01,550 and Jesus is there. 283 00:15:01,700 --> 00:15:05,421 You know, I always love movies, where there's a bully 284 00:15:05,971 --> 00:15:09,391 and the bully is put in their place because it always happens in the same way. 285 00:15:09,858 --> 00:15:12,861 There's a bully who's terrifying someone, 286 00:15:13,128 --> 00:15:15,347 who's weaker than the bully. 287 00:15:15,347 --> 00:15:20,119 And then, a champion kind of comes into the scene and takes 288 00:15:20,119 --> 00:15:25,074 the person that's being bullied and puts him behind him or her behind him. 289 00:15:26,058 --> 00:15:29,278 And then that champion deals with the bully. 290 00:15:29,278 --> 00:15:31,680 That's what Jesus is doing. 291 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:34,383 Jesus is face to face 292 00:15:34,383 --> 00:15:37,369 with evil, unpredictable, 293 00:15:37,403 --> 00:15:41,006 powerful, dark, menacing. 294 00:15:41,423 --> 00:15:44,426 But Jesus is not just unafraid. 295 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:46,946 Look at what Jesus does. 296 00:15:46,946 --> 00:15:47,997 He speaks. 297 00:15:48,948 --> 00:15:51,200 And, and the demon 298 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:54,203 right away has to capitulate. 299 00:15:54,420 --> 00:15:58,457 This man is screaming, I know who you are. 300 00:15:58,674 --> 00:16:00,776 Likes just yelling. 301 00:16:00,776 --> 00:16:04,947 And Jesus looks at him and says, be quiet and boom, he's quiet. 302 00:16:06,231 --> 00:16:08,901 Jesus says, come out of him! 303 00:16:08,901 --> 00:16:11,487 Boom! The demon obeys. 304 00:16:11,487 --> 00:16:14,490 No negotiation, no struggle. 305 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,795 Jesus power is overwhelming and that means a few things. 306 00:16:20,612 --> 00:16:23,298 It means that we are not alone 307 00:16:23,298 --> 00:16:26,301 in our struggle, struggle against evil, 308 00:16:26,402 --> 00:16:28,737 against the darkness of a world 309 00:16:28,737 --> 00:16:31,740 full of injustice and suffering. 310 00:16:32,307 --> 00:16:35,027 It means that Jesus has the power to deal 311 00:16:35,027 --> 00:16:39,348 with the evil outside of you, the terrible brokenness of this world. 312 00:16:40,199 --> 00:16:44,720 And Jesus has the power to deal with the evil inside of you. 313 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:47,840 The terrible brokenness of your own heart. 314 00:16:49,675 --> 00:16:51,210 It means that 315 00:16:51,210 --> 00:16:54,680 Jesus didn't just come with the authority to teach. 316 00:16:55,798 --> 00:16:58,801 He came with the authority to rescue, 317 00:16:59,001 --> 00:17:02,488 to set us free, to set you free. 318 00:17:03,772 --> 00:17:06,141 And that brings me to my final point, 319 00:17:06,141 --> 00:17:09,061 which is the goodness of Jesus 320 00:17:09,061 --> 00:17:11,780 authority and power. 321 00:17:11,780 --> 00:17:14,783 You know, there are times when 322 00:17:15,167 --> 00:17:18,170 when you have a struggle against good and evil, 323 00:17:18,837 --> 00:17:21,774 and it's pretty obvious. 324 00:17:21,774 --> 00:17:23,542 But then there are 325 00:17:23,542 --> 00:17:26,578 there are casualties that are kind of innocent casualties 326 00:17:26,612 --> 00:17:30,983 of a battle between good forces and evil forces. 327 00:17:30,983 --> 00:17:33,986 And we see that in our world 328 00:17:34,169 --> 00:17:38,874 many times there are civilian casualties that we mourn. 329 00:17:39,658 --> 00:17:42,978 When you have, struggle between good and evil 330 00:17:43,762 --> 00:17:46,949 in the human body, where you have somebody with cancer 331 00:17:46,949 --> 00:17:49,952 and they start to get chemotherapy, 332 00:17:50,002 --> 00:17:53,689 then anyone who's had chemotherapy knows that chemotherapy 333 00:17:53,906 --> 00:17:57,543 not only kills the cancer cells, but chemotherapy 334 00:17:57,843 --> 00:18:01,113 many times will kill many healthy cells as well. 335 00:18:01,547 --> 00:18:06,535 My best friend in high school, when we were, seniors, his dad had cancer. 336 00:18:07,503 --> 00:18:09,421 And, his dad 337 00:18:09,421 --> 00:18:12,241 was going through chemo, and it seemed like the chemo was working 338 00:18:12,241 --> 00:18:16,762 and the cancer was shrinking and and that we were all hopeful. 339 00:18:16,762 --> 00:18:19,381 And then his dad took a turn for the worse. 340 00:18:19,381 --> 00:18:22,017 And his dad died right around Christmas. 341 00:18:22,017 --> 00:18:25,471 But two weeks later, as the new year began, they received a letter 342 00:18:26,004 --> 00:18:29,491 from his doctor and the letter said, this is the year 343 00:18:30,058 --> 00:18:33,061 we will declare Jack lives free of cancer 344 00:18:33,745 --> 00:18:35,097 because the cancer was gone. 345 00:18:35,097 --> 00:18:38,100 It was the cure that had killed him 346 00:18:38,901 --> 00:18:39,952 with Jesus. 347 00:18:39,952 --> 00:18:44,940 Jesus is dealing with a man where evil has spread its tentacles 348 00:18:45,174 --> 00:18:49,161 all the way through him, and Jesus reaches in 349 00:18:49,728 --> 00:18:52,614 and rips out the evil 350 00:18:52,614 --> 00:18:54,750 but doesn't hurt the man. 351 00:18:54,750 --> 00:18:59,004 That's the verse that says, Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent, come out of him. 352 00:18:59,521 --> 00:19:02,508 And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of 353 00:19:02,508 --> 00:19:05,544 him, having done him no harm. 354 00:19:07,045 --> 00:19:08,013 You know, when Jesus 355 00:19:08,013 --> 00:19:10,999 teaches us to pray in the Lord's Prayer 356 00:19:11,817 --> 00:19:15,120 and he says, lead us, pray this lead us not into temptation, 357 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:16,772 but deliver us from evil. 358 00:19:16,772 --> 00:19:20,392 The reason we can pray that is because of Jesus. 359 00:19:21,927 --> 00:19:24,229 Because Jesus has come 360 00:19:24,229 --> 00:19:26,899 and he's more powerful than evil. 361 00:19:26,899 --> 00:19:30,502 This means that evil will never have the last word. 362 00:19:31,053 --> 00:19:33,805 Not evil, not suffering, not death, not disease. 363 00:19:33,805 --> 00:19:35,307 Because Jesus has come. 364 00:19:35,307 --> 00:19:37,159 That's why he's doing this. 365 00:19:37,159 --> 00:19:37,910 That's why Jesus, 366 00:19:37,910 --> 00:19:42,331 in the midst of a synagogue, a man who is demon possessed, is there. 367 00:19:42,331 --> 00:19:47,152 And Jesus confronts this man is what I want you to get in your head. 368 00:19:47,819 --> 00:19:50,305 Is that that image of a movie 369 00:19:50,305 --> 00:19:54,393 with a bully where the champion comes and takes 370 00:19:54,393 --> 00:19:59,431 the person who is so frightened and being bullied, puts them behind him, 371 00:20:00,082 --> 00:20:03,802 and then says to the bully, you deal with me, that's Jesus for you. 372 00:20:04,803 --> 00:20:05,721 Whatever it is 373 00:20:05,721 --> 00:20:09,091 that is causing you anxiety and fear, 374 00:20:09,625 --> 00:20:13,328 I just want you to know that you have a champion. 375 00:20:13,328 --> 00:20:16,331 And that's what Jesus is doing right here. 376 00:20:17,849 --> 00:20:19,501 I think if this guy could have asked 377 00:20:19,501 --> 00:20:22,771 a couple of questions, I think he would ask this. 378 00:20:22,938 --> 00:20:27,859 I think he would have said, Jesus, can you save me? 379 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:30,662 Can you save me? 380 00:20:30,662 --> 00:20:34,132 To which Jesus would have said, I am King of kings 381 00:20:35,367 --> 00:20:38,186 and Lord of Lords. 382 00:20:38,186 --> 00:20:41,223 There isn't one square inch of this entire universe 383 00:20:41,223 --> 00:20:44,359 that I do not say is mine. 384 00:20:45,510 --> 00:20:46,912 I can save you. 385 00:20:46,912 --> 00:20:49,915 But then the other question is just as important. 386 00:20:50,182 --> 00:20:54,019 And the other question that he would need to ask is, Will you save me? 387 00:20:55,187 --> 00:20:57,422 And that's the question that appeals 388 00:20:57,422 --> 00:20:59,942 to love and goodness. 389 00:20:59,942 --> 00:21:02,277 Are you willing to do this? 390 00:21:02,277 --> 00:21:05,664 To which Jesus would say, greater love is no one than this, 391 00:21:06,415 --> 00:21:09,234 that a man lay down his life for his friends. 392 00:21:10,469 --> 00:21:13,472 And then Jesus goes to the cross. 393 00:21:14,456 --> 00:21:19,127 So I want you to know you have a Redeemer 394 00:21:20,912 --> 00:21:24,950 who is powerful, more powerful than pure evil. 395 00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:29,905 That which means Jesus is more powerful than anything that you have ever faced 396 00:21:29,905 --> 00:21:32,908 or will ever face. 397 00:21:33,025 --> 00:21:36,028 But you have a Redeemer who loves you so much 398 00:21:37,379 --> 00:21:40,382 that he was willing to go to the cross, 399 00:21:40,699 --> 00:21:43,969 die on your behalf, then resurrect with power 400 00:21:45,237 --> 00:21:48,056 so he can say to you, 401 00:21:48,056 --> 00:21:51,026 you don't have to fear evil anymore 402 00:21:51,026 --> 00:21:54,029 because I have delivered you from evil. 403 00:21:54,112 --> 00:21:57,149 So great is Jesus the Redeemer for you. 404 00:21:57,983 --> 00:22:00,986 Would you pray with me? 405 00:22:01,737 --> 00:22:03,238 Father in heaven. 406 00:22:03,238 --> 00:22:05,807 I come to you, and I am, 407 00:22:05,807 --> 00:22:07,793 I'm always so grateful. 408 00:22:07,793 --> 00:22:10,712 I'm grateful for all the stories 409 00:22:10,712 --> 00:22:13,015 that you have chosen to put in your word. 410 00:22:13,015 --> 00:22:14,216 But this story is one that, 411 00:22:15,534 --> 00:22:18,503 is just amazing to me 412 00:22:18,503 --> 00:22:21,473 that Jesus confronted not just human evil. 413 00:22:21,473 --> 00:22:26,061 He he confronted the source of, of all evil, a pure evil, 414 00:22:26,061 --> 00:22:29,064 and defeated it with, with just the words so powerful 415 00:22:30,415 --> 00:22:33,235 is your son. 416 00:22:33,235 --> 00:22:34,436 But then your son loves us 417 00:22:34,436 --> 00:22:37,439 so much that he was willing to go to the cross. 418 00:22:37,856 --> 00:22:39,391 Thank you. 419 00:22:39,391 --> 00:22:41,727 Thanks for giving us a wonderful Savior. 420 00:22:41,727 --> 00:22:44,730 Thanks. Thanks for giving us a Redeemer 421 00:22:45,113 --> 00:22:48,383 who has power and authority, and also is so good 422 00:22:49,134 --> 00:22:51,653 and so loving. 423 00:22:51,653 --> 00:22:51,920 Thank you. 424 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,272 We pray this in his name. Amen.