Scripture reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20.

Sermon text: Mark 1:21-28.

If you were born in the United Kingdom after 1952, you’ve known only one monarch. In that time, the United States has seen 11 presidents serve in the White House, and 14 governors have served in Alabama. In the past 59 years, the British have lived under only 1 authority: Elizabeth II.

In the Scripture passage today, Moses had begun the transition between his rule of the Hebrews and the time when Joshua would begin to rule the nation. The generations born after Israel’s time in Egypt had known no other authority figure, and a shaky transition could have serious consequences for the young nation. These consequences included both temporal and spiritual issues because Moses served as both the temporal and spiritual leader of Israel.

Moses knew that no Israelite would succeed him as intercessor before God for the nation. The book of Deuteronomy concludes by saying, “nd there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). The judges, high priests and kings who ruled Israel in the centuries after Moses never enjoyed the relationship with God that Moses had experienced. Moses, however, told the Hebrews, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.”

The Hebrews experienced nearly 1,500 years of history awaiting the prophet Moses had told them would come. In that time, many prophets spoke God’s words to the people, encouraging them to remain within the covenant God had given them and warning them of the consequences of breaking their covenant with God. They experienced wars, triumphs, conquests, and finally exile. Their descendants, the Jews, returned from exile determined never to repeat the sins that cost them their nation. Still, the people waited for God to send the “prophet like Moses.”

Then, in an obscure village in the Roman Empire, a Man walked into the city of Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He began teaching in the synagogue there. If you go to Capernaum today, you’ll see the White Synagogue, built around the second or third centuries A.D. This synagogue rests on the foundations of the synagogue of the story we find in the sermon text today from the Gospel of St. Mark.

In some ways, we find little unusual about the setting of the story. The Jews of the first century A.D. often heard guest speakers in their synagogues. These speakers would sit in the “Seat of Moses” located in the synagogue to teach, demonstrating their authority to teach the worshipers. However, the lessons brought by these men would remind us of a research paper more than a sermon. The speakers would spend most of their time quoting the sages and great rabbis of Judaism; they never strayed very far from the teachings of others.

The Man who sat in Moses’ Seat in this tale did something unusual: “He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” This Teacher didn’t pepper His teachings with the usual quoting of other teachers; instead, He drew His teachings from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings of Hebrew Scriptures. He used the Scriptures to teach the people, speaking to them in a way the Jews hadn’t heard in centuries. Finally, someone sat in the Seat of Moses and taught with the authority of Moses.

This Man, Jesus, spoke with authority because, as God incarnate, He was the authority. The Holy Spirit of God had inspired the Scriptures Jesus used to teach the people that day. Jesus, the divine, only-begotten Son of God, taught the Scriptures as their Author.

Jesus’ listeners that day received confirmation of His authority from a very unlikely source. A man in the synagogue that day was possess by “an unclean spirit.” We don’t know how long this man had suffered from this spirit, nor do we know anything about this spirit other than what we read here. Know this: Another realm exists in reality, and anyone who tinkers with the veil between the realms does so stupidly and at great risk. In some way, this man had fallen under the possession of an evil spirit, a spirit determined to remain in him and torment him throughout his life.

Many people today deny the existence of the spirit realm, but spirit possession still exists in areas where the Church enters new territory. Too many missionaries have reported documented cases of demon possession for us to deny its reality. We also know, from the historical accounts of the New Testament and Church history, that demon possession occurred in the Roman Empire during Jesus’ life and the time of the founding of the Church.

No one else present that day may have known Jesus’ true identity, but the spirit obviously did. The spirit recognized Jesus as the Son of God. You can almost hear the panic in the spirit’s reaction to Jesus’ presence in the synagogue.

The spirit tried an ancient form of magic. In all ancient societies, people believed that the knowledge of someone’s true identity conferred power over that person. This explains the spirit’s words: “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.” Notice the spirit’s last words: “The Holy One of God.” The spirit apparently thought that identifying Jesus as the “Holy One” would give him authority over Jesus.

Jesus, instead, demonstrated who possessed the true authority in the encounter. “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’” St. Mark recorded the results: “And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.” Notice that Jesus did not identify the spirit, nor did He need to do so. As God, Jesus taught with authority; He held authority over the spirit as well. The spirit could not oppose the authority of Almighty God.

I suppose we would respond as did the worshipers in Capernaum that day. “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.’”

Authority. All of us live under some authority; all of us must recognize the authorities in our lives. No authority, either temporal or spiritual, outranks the authority of Jesus, the Son of God. Only Jesus could match Moses’ authority over Israel. Only Jesus could bring freedom to a man possessed by an unclean spirit. Only Jesus could bring freedom from everything that has entrapped humanity in misery throughout our lives.

Many who saw Jesus exercise His authority over demons that day — who heard Him teach with authority in the synagogue — thought He would exercise greater authority in His life. Jesus had already begun proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The “kingdom of God” implied the fulfillment of prophecy in which Israel would reign supreme over the pagan Gentiles who had oppressed the Jews for centuries. The prophecies of Daniel gave the exact timing of the appearance of a Prince who would restore the kingdom of David, Jesus’ royal descendant.

Jesus’ life and ministry seemed to point to this restoration, but Daniel had continued his prophecy by declaring, “An anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing” (Daniel 9:26). A week after Jesus rode into Jerusalem as royalty, the Jewish leadership — who had never accepted Jesus’ authority — and the Romans crucified Jesus. It seemed that, in the end, the imperial authority of Rome had destroyed the One who held authority over demons, who had taught with the authority of Moses.

Regardless of who we are, we must always submit to authority in our lives. We must submit to the authority of our ruling authorities; we must submit to the authority of the laws that govern us. And, in the end, we must submit to death. Not one of us here will escape death. It seemed, on Good Friday, that the One who rightfully possessed authority over demons had submitted to the authority of death.

Death itself may have exerted itself with Jesus crucifixion, but Jesus defeated death on Easter Sunday with His resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus destroyed death’s authority over humanity. Adam and Eve submitted to sin and death in the Garden of Eden; in the Garden of Calvary, Jesus obliterated death’s hold over us.

Now, everyone who confesses the risen Jesus as Lord of his life — who submits to Jesus’ authority in life — will live under His authority and receive the joyous benefit of eternal life. Our bodies may die one day, but we have the sure and certain expectation we will live eternally. We will experience a resurrection like Jesus’; like Jesus, we will receive a body that will never suffer the effects of sin, nor will it suffer death again.

Yesterday, New Hope commemorated the funeral of our oldest member, Mrs. Vivian Gregory. Mrs. Vivian died at age 101. We gathered here yesterday to celebrate her life, but we also gathered in the expectation of her resurrection in the day Jesus returns “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). On that day, “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16); we will see Mrs. Vivian and all those who have died in faith, awaiting the return of Jesus, the Christ.

Regardless of what you believe, you must submit to one authority or another: Either the authority of sin and death, or the authority of Jesus, the One who fulfilled Moses’ prophecy. Only Jesus can release you from death. Only Jesus, the Son of God, can bring us freedom and eternal life.