Authority

 Preached at Christ Church, Billericay 28/01/2024 @10:00

Authoritative Teachers – Moses

At Horeb, the Israelites have asked God to make Moses His spokesman.

For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

It became Moses role to become the first prophet. It is his job, and his alone, to speak with God and to take what God says and pass it on to the Israelites. Anyone who doesn’t listen to Moses will be answerable to God. Moses became God’s authority for the Israelites.

There will be other prophets to follow Moses, and this is the way that God will now use to speak to his people for generations to come. Kings may be appointed, but even the best kings will still rely on a prophet to know what God wants in any particular situation. The worst kings would ignore, or even try to kill the prophets, and that is always followed by disastrous results.

Life of a prophet

Life as a prophet is dangerous, you must be careful only to speak what God gives you. Anything else is asking for trouble. If you get it wrong, or deliberately speak in the name of other gods, the penalty is death.

“The prophet”

While this passage talks about prophets who will follow Moses, it also looks forward to the ‘One Prophet’. Someone who will be as close to God as Moses was, or even closer. Someone who will speak with the Authority of God, just as Moses did.

NT Reading

By the time we get to the period where the New Testament reading is set, the expectation of the arrival of that ‘One Prophet’ had reached fever pitch. This may have something to do with God not having spoken to His people for hundreds of years.

Mark Chapter 1

In Mark Chapter one, we are right at the start of Jesus’s recorded ministry. He and a few disciples have gone to Capernaum. This is Peter’s home town. Jesus was allowed to teach in the synagogue there.

Synagogues

A synagogue was not only a place of worship, but also the administrative centre of the town or village, it was where people gathered to make decisions about how their town should run. It was also the primary place of education, where the children and adults were taught about the Jewish faith.

The building was quite simple, and similar to our traditional churches. Not like this building at all. This looks more like a gym or a bus garage than a church. A synagogue would typically be an oblong building with two rows of columns, about 3 meters apart, with a door at one end and a place for storing the scrolls of the Torah and other scriptures at the other.

Just like our word church, a synagogue is both the people and the building. Originally synagogue referred to the people, just as church did, but over time both came to refer to the building as well.

Who can speak

Perhaps because of its multiple uses, it may have been organised with people facing each other, so that debate was easier. On the sabbath, though, not just anyone could turn up and speak. There was a convention known as “The freedom of the synagogue” which meant that the leader could invite visiting speakers, who appeared in the area, to preach on a particular sabbath. These invitees would have to be known for their theological capabilities and their ability to speak.

This suggests that Jesus would already have spoken at Nazareth and that he already had a reputation as a good speaker. Remember that Jesus had spent time in the temple at the age of 12 listening to the teachers and asking them questions. Luke tells us “They were amazed at His answers”.

What He said here, is not recorded anywhere, but it seems unlikely that he would have been invited to speak in a village that wasn’t his home unless he had some experience.

What happened when he spoke.

The assembled synagogue were in for a surprise. A normal sermon would have taught based on the scriptures and referencing different scrolls and the notes that had been made in the margins and the thoughts of various rabbis that the speaker had heard. In many ways, it was very similar to our sermons here. Jesus was different. He spoke directly from God. His teaching was all His own. It clearly made sense, even though none of it is recorded for our benefit, but more than that, it sounded fresh and relevant. They easily recognised Jesus’s authority. The synagogue were already impressed.

Demon (possession)

Then the demon spoke up.

“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Demon possession is not widely believed today. It is largely written off as a psychological disorder, or sometimes epilepsy.

Science, though, is only partly responsible for our dis-belief. Horror films also share the blame, they have dulled our senses to the reality of these things to the point where it becomes difficult, to see any reality in them at all. This is one of Satans strategies.

Demon possession is real

There are some, though, that do believe that demon possession is real. Dr. Richard Gallagher, is a catholic and a psychiatrist who teaches at Columbia University and New York Medical College. He says possession is real but rare. He has been involved in many exorcisms and is sometimes called by the Catholic Church to help out.

There are also theologians who will say that while Jesus was on earth the devil was given a little more latitude, so possessions were more common at that time.

Our Response?

I wonder how we would respond if something like that were to happen here?

Well, I would urge extreme caution before labelling any incident you might encounter as demon possession. Just as the church is very careful to document miracles, so it must be very careful about labelling an incident like this as demon possession.

In the first century, though, it was all they knew.

Jesus’s response.

Jesus, of course, knew exactly what to do and immediately told the demon to “Be quiet.”. You may think that is an odd response. I don’t think it was.

Why not let the demon speak the truth?

Satan is known as the father of lies. I hope you remember that Jesus has already had a long encounter with him in the wilderness, and knows very well how he operates. That means Satan also knows exactly who Jesus is. So, although he’s speaking the truth, Jesus is the holy one of God, I think he’s hoping that it will be thought of as a lie. A kind of double bluff. Either that or he’s trying to conceal that Jesus is the messiah, and God incarnate, to downgrade Jesus a little.

Whatever you believe about that, Jesus is the Holy one of God, and is also God incarnate, so he has God’s authority, and His command must be obeyed. The demon is unable to say any more. He knows his time is up. This is what John says in 1 John 3:8

8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

That’s what is starting to happen here, right at the start of Jesus’s ministry, the works of Satan are being torn apart.

Called Out

The demon, is then called out of the man. This makes the man well again, and presumably he goes on his way, as we don’t hear any more about him.

Fame

This little drama means that Jesus’s fame spreads quickly across the whole area. News travels fast, even without the internet, or the Billericay discussion page.

Jesus is now a celebrity, whether He likes it or not.

Authority

We have seen two types of Authority in these readings. One is the authority of command – Jesus gives an order and the demons obey. The other is the authority of the experts – like our scientists, who have a deep understanding of their field of knowledge. The scribes, those who normally preached, would fall into this category – they really knew their scriptures. Jesus takes this type of authority a step further. After all, the most authoritative person on me is me, and Jesus is God, so knows His father better than anyone.

Our Authority

If we know Jesus; if we pray and study our bibles and if we listen carefully to the Holy Spirit, we too can have authority. Here are a few verses that remind us of that:

John 14:12

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Luke 9:1

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases

The power and authority to exorcise demons is not everyone’s ministry, but we have all been given some authority, and we should all be able to talk authoritatively about Jesus, His death and resurrection, and His gift of Eternal life.

End with a prayer?

“As we speak in God’s name” – protection and courage, love.

 

References

https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/jesus-and-early-synagogues

http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/21399/ddg#21402

https://askgramps.org/preaching-synagogues/

https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-01-25/mark-121-28-3/

https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-121-28-2

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/04/health/exorcism-doctor/index.html

 

God is calling

Introduction

This morning we have two readings which describe God’s call to a few individuals. The method used in each of the cases is as different as the people who are being called. So, we can safely generalise and say that God’s call is unique, customised for each person.

Recognising God’s Call

Each of us will have experienced God’s call somehow. It may come to you very directly, like it did for Philip, a simple “Follow me”.

It may come as a revelation, some small event of someone saying something, like it did for Nathanael – for whom it just clicked as Jesus was speaking to him.

More likely, though, is a fairly long process of things happening, contacts from church members, whether they are friends already, or newly introduced. Perhaps you were invited to attend church or an evangelistic event. Perhaps you just got involved with doing something and the Christianity around you rubbed-off on you.

Some will not have a conversion moment, if you were brought up in a Christian family, you may just have inherited the belief, but even for you there will be a time when you have to take those beliefs on for yourself and be prepared to stand up and publicly confess them.

Memories

I hope that has sparked some memories for you. As we look at the readings we had from this morning, keep those in mind – we’ll come back to them later.

Hannah

At the start of the first book of Samuel, we meet Hannah and are told about her desire for a son. When she was praying she was accused of drunkenness by Eli the priest. She told him she was not drunk, but deeply troubled, and was pouring out her heart to the Lord. In her prayer, she had promised, “I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

Her prayer had been answered, and she had handed the boy over to Eli when he was old enough to be separated from his mother. She didn’t lose touch with him, though, and continued to provide for him, and he grew up under Eli’s guidance.

Samuel

When Samuel was old enough, the Lord called him. We have no idea what Samuel thought, whether he was a believer or a sceptic, but we know he was obedient to Eli. We are told that “the word of the Lord was rare”, so Samuel’s call would be unexpected – especially by Eli. Nevertheless, late one evening, before the lamp of the God had gone out, Samuel was called.

The lamp of God was a seven pronged oil lamp, which was lit at dusk, and gave light into the evening. Then God called Samuel, but because this sort of thing was very unusual, Samuel thought it was Eli. It took Eli a while to realise what was happening. On the fourth call, Samuel was ready and instead of going to Eli, he said ‘Speak, your servant is listening’. The message was a difficult one for a young boy to deal with, you can read the rest of the story in the remainder of chapter 3. Now, Samuel had met God, and his life has changed. He is God’s prophet for the rest of his life. His word became synonymous with God’s word.

NT Reading

In our New Testament reading, Jesus has just started His ministry and is calling His disciples. Two joined from John’s followers, one of those was Andrew, and he introduced his brother Simon. On the second day, Jesus went out looking for disciples in Galilee. It is not clear whether Jesus went to Galilee specifically to call Philip, or whether He was just looking for Galilean followers. Philip, though, was from the same place as Andrew and Peter, so my guess is that Jesus went to find Philip.

Philip

Philip’s call is simple ‘Follow me’ and there is no discussion, Philip simply obeys. He then goes and finds Nathanael, and the discussion that follows requires some careful attention.

Philip & Nathanael

Let’s look first at the conversation between Philip and Nathanael.

Philip starts with:

“We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote —Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Not surprisingly Nathanael is a bit confused by this, after all the prophecy say that the messiah will come from … Bethlehem. It’s there in the prophet Micah (5:2):

‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.’

Nazareth

Also, Nazareth has a bit of a reputation among the Galileans. Although it’s quite close to trade routes, it’s fairly inaccessible from the rest of the region, so it is looked down on.

We know that good can come from anywhere, but Nathanael is not so sure.

Come and see

Philip’s response is not an argument, instead he gives an invitation – ‘Come and see’, come and judge for yourself. This is the classic response. Alway offer a person the chance to make up their own mind instead of trying to convince them yourself. Even the Psalmist makes the same invitation (34:8)

Taste and see that the Lord is good;

So, off they go.

Conversation with Jesus

Then we have this conversation with Jesus that is a little perplexing when you first read it. Let me read those verses again:

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

⁵⁰ Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.”

⁵¹ He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Explanation

What a strange way to greet someone, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” Already judging his character. Why would Jesus do that?

The clue we need is in verse 50 and 51. In verse 50 Jesus is talking to Nathanael – the ‘you’ is singular, and in 51 he is talking to everyone around him, the ‘you’ is plural. But that sentence is aimed at Nathanael. Jesus is talking about Jacob’s ladder. That featured in a dream that Jacob had, where the ladder allowed the angels to climb from heaven to earth and back. The story is in Genesis 28.

Jacob

Jacob was a ‘real piece of work’. He lied and cheated his way through life, even cheating his older twin brother, Esau, out of his inheritance. Now, I’m assuming that you all understood the phrase I used - ‘real piece of work’. In my head at least it means disreputable and to be avoided where ever possible.

Under the fig tree

Well, there is a similar type of phrase in verses 48 & 50 – ‘under the fig tree’. It apparently means that the person it refers to is meditating on the word of God. At the point where he meets Jesus, Nathanael has been meditating on the word we now know as Genesis 28. So he is greeted by Jesus effectively saying “Here is a true Israelite, nothing like Jacob at all.”

That’s why the greeting gets such a reaction from Nathanael. It’s his light bulb moment (there’s another phrase, that I hope we all understand). He doesn’t need any more convincing, if the person he’s being introduced to as the messiah, can tell him his own thoughts, then he must be the Messiah.

Miraculous Call

So, Nathanael’s call is one where he is on the receiving end of a very personal miracle.

Jesus call’s the Woman at the well to belief in a similar way – by telling her ‘everything she ever did’ (John 4:29).  That was Jacob’s well, an interesting link, but not for today.

Other call’s to belief

As I’ve said, everyone’s call from God is different. Here are a couple of others just to illustrate how different they can be.

C. S. Lewis

After a long struggle to remain an atheist, C. S. Lewis reports that he said this to his friend:

"You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin), night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England"

J Hudson Taylor

James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, denounced the faith of his parents as a very young man. At 16, after reading an evangelistic tract pamphlet entitled "Poor Richard", he professed faith in Christ.

Reluctant convert

Both these men had an enormous impact on Christianity, yet both were reluctant converts and the way they were called to faith was very different.

Different Call

My story, and yours will be very different, but each of us was chosen and called to faith by God. Our response to that call has changed our lives. There may have been lots of steps, both forward and backward on the way, but the actual call is always “Follow me”, just as it was to Philip. And just as it was for Philip, we were sought out. You, like me and a lot of others, may not have realised at the time that the messiah was calling you.

Who’s next?

He is still calling, both to us, to come closer, but also to others to ‘Follow Him’.

You may well know people who you think God might be calling, I expect you know people who He is calling. They may not be the same people. One day, maybe soon, they will hear the call and take that final step into the Christian faith. It might come through a conversation, a pamphlet, a visit to church, through watching a live stream, or even something you, or I say or do – but it will come.

I’m just happy to have the opportunity to play some small part in that process for anyone that I can.

References 

https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-john-143-51-3

https://sermonwriter.com/sermons/new-testament-john-143-51-gods-dream-team-mclarty/

https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-01-11/john-143-51-3/

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/mission-to-galilee-christopher-holdsworth-sermon-on-galilee-180507

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-continual-call-of-disciples-ron-tuit-sermon-on-discipleship-191229

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/jesus-knows-shawn-drake-sermon-on-disciples-244610

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/conversion-story-of-c-s-lewis-9821

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december/dikkon-eberhart-reform-orthodox-jew-cross-road-christ.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Taylor

https://www.oneindia.com/india/how-india-is-battling-the-dirty-game-of-christian-conversions-3504569.html

Preached

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJL62kb2fJo Start 18:26–32:25