Authority of Jesus

All right. Well, again, good morning and welcome to Hope Lowertown. Glad you're able to be here. If you don't know who I am, my name is Brian, lead pastor here and excited to continue our journey in the Gospel of Mark. This is week four. I believe that we've been in Mark and we're gonna be in here for a while. So we actually did purchase those Gospel of Mark books. Just the Gospel of Mark with a page for notes. If you're interested in it free, you can just have it. I don't know where they are. Are they in the back right now? Oh, they're in the back if you like them. Okay. Thank you for being on top of that, because I was not. All right, if you'd like a little copy of that and feel free to grab that. And if you're never going to come here again, that's okay. You can take that with you. Just encourage you to read it. Okay, so we are in week four, and there's a couple different books that I mentioned. And I meant to say a living author, because, I don't know, I'm more curious than that because I'm gonna quote some. A lot of dead guys today. And so this is a book called the screwtape letters by C.S. lewis, who obviously died a while ago. Famous author for writing the Chronicles of Narnia. But this is a letter that he. A letter, a book that he wrote that is kind of these letters between two demons. A demon that is kind of a head demon in control, and Uncle Wormwood, or maybe I'm switching it and then. I don't know, Wormwood's the guy, the nephew, he's writing tunes. Screwtape is the uncle and he's writing. And it's really. It's fascinating. And anyways, I would encourage you to read it. But when you open the book, it starts off with this quote, this line from C.S. lewis in the preface. And I just wanna read that because today we're gonna be looking at a passage that talks about demons and demonic activity right off the bat here in Mark. In Mark, chapter one. And when I teach systematic theology and we get to the doctrines on angels, angelology and demonology, I always started off with this quote. And so let me read this quote from C.S. lewis in this preface of the Screwtape Letter says there are two equal and opposite errors into which our race, humanity, can fall. About the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, and the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. And so I just want to start off as we look at. In this passage, we're going to be in Mark, chapter one, 2134. We've got outlines in the back if you want to follow along. And I'll be reading from the esv, normally read from the niv, but we'll read for the ESV throughout the series of Mark. And as we look at this demonic activity, there's a warning here. And you couldn't say it any better than what C.S. lewis did back in the 1940s. And looking at. You don't wanna fall on either extreme that there needs to be a healthy understanding and knowledge, and yet not fear because of Christ. And so that's what we're gonna be looking at this morning. So just again, a little bit of reminder where we've been. We're in Mark, chapter one. Specifically verse one says the beginning of the good news. That's what gospel means. And so gospel, when you hear that word, it just means good news about what? This is not the Gospel of Mark or Mark's gospel. It is the Gospel of Mark according to Jesus, or it's the Gospel of Jesus according to Mark. Sorry, excuse me. And so this is about Jesus. This is not coming from Mark. He's reporting about Jesus and he's doing that his real name, his full name is John Mark. He's a disciple, an interpreter of the apostle Peter. And so as Peter is telling stories and, and an oral culture and tradition, as he's recounting the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, Mark is recording it. And now that's what we have. And so we had the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, the prophesied one about the Son of God. And so that's who Jesus is. That's what this gospel is all about. And we've taken a few weeks now to get to where we're at. And so let's jump into the first point here and let's look at the whole idea that I have here with the one who had authority. So we'll be starting off with, in this text, verse 21. And they went into Capernaum. If you're like me, I kind of like seeing maps. This might not be helpful at all. And even after I explain it, you're just like, so what? Yeah, okay, that's fine. I'm okay with that. So towards the north, that little blue dot up there, I Know it's small, but that little blue dot up there is the Sea of Galilee. And that's where Nazareth is, the little pink dot, if you can even see that Capernaum is the green one. And then all the way down closer to the Dead Sea, that's where you have Jerusalem. And so Jesus has already been from Nazareth, travels down, it's about 30 to 40 miles. And then he's now back up. So he just left Jerusalem again. He's going back up to the Sea of Galilee. So what? Okay, maybe it helps you, maybe it doesn't. That's okay. We're gonna keep moving. Okay, so he goes up into Capernaum and immediately again, there's that word. I already lost track of how many times Mark is using that word. You can use it a lot today. Immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. This might be Captain Obvious, okay? But I just wanna explain what has happened here. The Sabbath is a day of rest within Jewish culture based on the seven days of creation. And so on Friday night at sundown, that started the Sabbath. And then on Saturday at sundown, it was about a 25 hour period. Then they were off their break. But then on the Sabbath on Saturday, they would go into the synagogue and there would be a teaching. And the synagogue was kind of like church. And there's a reason why we do church. The way we do it even to this day, is based off of Jewish traditions and histories in these synagogues where they would gather as a community. A lot of times they'd have a meal together. We know this based on archeology. And so you can actually physically, if you go to Capernaum, you can go to the. There was a few, so I don't know which one exactly. This story takes place. You could go to both and go. I went to the one Jesus was in. You can do that physically. You can go to the first century synagogues and they would gather, they would sing songs, they would read from the scriptures, they would have a teacher that would get up and exposit and teach a passage of scripture. Like that Sounds familiar. Yeah, there's a reason for that, right? There's a reason why churches have been doing this for thousands of years. So now I mentioned this in week one, I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time really digging into this. But when we look at the different branch or sects of Judaism at the time of Christ, that there were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Esseans, the Zealots and the Baptizers, and they were all part. Right. Think of it as different denominations within Christianity today. It was the same way back then. And so the Sadducees. I'm not gonna recap everything, but the Sadducees are the ones that were at the temple in Jerusalem. When you hear about the high priests, the one who were, like, in charge of Judaism, that's the Sadducees. They had the birthright of sons of zadok and all this stuff. But then you had the Pharisees. The Pharisees, though, were devout followers of Jesus that said, hey, we don't think that we should have to go into Jerusalem every single Sabbath to be a fully devoted follower of Yahweh. We think that we can do this in our own communities. And the Pharisees are the ones who developed the synagogues and being able to worship God together in their own communities. So that's the Pharisees. We hear a lot about them in the Bible, and Jesus teaches about them a lot. But today, we're gonna hear about somebody else, and we're gonna be introduced to someone. Someone else called the scribes. The scribes in this culture were incredibly important. There's only about a 10% literacy rate during this time. So if you were a scribe, if you could read and write and translate, anytime you made a contract with your neighbor about where their fence needed to go, you would have to go to a scribe to get things written down. But they weren't just lawyers, which they were. They were lawyers, but they were lawyers in the law of God, and they knew the Bible well. They were the teachers. A lot of the scribes that we interact with in the Scriptures are Pharisees. Not every Pharisee was a scribe, and not every scribe was a Pharisee. Okay, so there's other people, but that's usually in our context, what's going on here that you have scribes and Pharisees. So these scribes, though, are the teachers. They have full authority. So when someone goes to a scribe and says, hey, what is. How do you interpret this law? What does it mean? I can't harvest the corners of my field. How far can I harvest into my corner? Right. How. What. What does it mean to obey the law without. They were the. They were the lawyers. They were the ones who knew it. So they had authority. But now we have Jesus who goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath and was teaching. He's teaching, and they were astonished. The people that are sitting there were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. Okay, so here's this language. Mark is doing this on purpose. There's this word that he's using with authority that was used in other extra biblical writings, not just in our New Testament, that other people used in that time to delineate a divine power and divine authority. And so Mark is saying there's something powerful in this word here that Jesus is teaching with divine authority, not as the scribes. The scribes are teaching. And they are. They're like. When you had a question about what the Bible said, you go to the scribes, but then the people hear Jesus teaching, and all of a sudden they're like, oh, now this guy's got authority. I asked that question about the authors because I've never gone to a book signing. But I can only imagine, right, if I were to get up here and do a lecture on some book that we read together or something, that'd be okay because I'm amazing. But it'd be even more amazing if the actual author was there giving their account of their book. Why did you write it that way? Why did you? And that's what's happening. The scribes get their authority from the scripture because they know the scripture. Jesus shows up and he has the supernatural divine authority because he is the author of the scripture. Could you imagine. Could you imagine hearing someone teach, who doesn't just teach about it, they teach it because they wrote it. That's what's going on. I can only. You can only imagine that, that, that change of perspective that these individuals would have had as they hear Jesus preach and teach from his Bible. So what's really awesome about Mark here is that the emphasis is on who is teaching, not on what's being taught. We have no idea what Jesus taught about. And this isn't the only time we're gonna see Mark do this. He leaves it completely blank. Jesus taught, people are amazed. Jesus taught, People believe. Jesus taught, they get saved. What did he say? I wanna know what he said. That's not the point and purpose of Mark. Mark is trying to say it's Jesus. Jesus. The person of Jesus Christ is far more important. He is the subject matter being taught by Jesus. He is the real subject. And Mark's already said this immediately, right as he gets into the gospel. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this is the gospel of God. He even changes that language as Jesus says, repent and believe. Repent of your sins. Confess your sins and believe in me. I am. I am the Messiah. I am the anointed One. I am the Son of God. I am the Good News. The Good News isn't about something. It's just some language. It's who he is. He is the Good news. Verse 23. Here it is again. And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. Mark uses the word unclean spirit and demon interchangeably throughout the Book. And he cried out, 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. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. This for sure is one of the most clear proclamations on the spiritual authority, the divine power. And this is it. This is the enemy, if you will, saying to Jesus, are you here to destroy me? You clearly can. You have that power. You have that authority. You are the Holy One of God. And I think that there is a clear and obvious warning here from Mark that the demons know who Jesus is. That there's something about repent and believe in me that is different from and set apart from knowledge about or belief in a historical figure named Jesus of Nazareth. That's one thing. That's a. That's a first step. But the demons believe that. The demons know that. They know that he has power. They know that he has authority. It is a belief to repent and believe that he can save my soul from my sins. That's a. That's a very different thing. So I think there's a warning here. Just knowledge accumulation of who Jesus is or was is only half of it. I need to believe that he can forgive me of my sins. We also then that there is. See that there is authority over evil. I have a quote here from this James Edwards here from one of his commentaries. It says the demon refers to Jesus of Nazareth as the Holy One of God. That may reflect the belief that speaking the name of a spiritual foe granted one mastery over it. This is true. If you read any books about exorcism, one of the first things they do is you want to get to know the name. There's something about power or authority in it. So he's saying that's part of it here. But then the title the Holy One of God not only recalls divine sonship of Jesus. Baptism in 1:11. Like, this is my son in whom I love, right? But apparently likens Jesus to Samson the Mighty, vanquisher of the Philistines. Who in the. Who the only other person in the Bible who is called the Holy One of God in Judges 16, 17. There may be added correlation between Samson's Nazarite vow and the reference to Jesus from Nazareth, both which stem from the same Hebrew root word. Who's Samson? Samson was a judge in the Old Testament. You read the Book of Judges and there are 13 judges. Sure, I'm the authority here. There's 13 judges in that book. All right, why am I blanking on that? All right, we're just gonna stick with it. There's a certain set number of judges in the Book of Judges, but one of them is Samson. And Samson is notoriously known as the strong guy. Right? He's the strong man in the story. And what would happen all the whole pattern that you see in the Book of Judges is Israel rebels. They say, God, we don't wanna worship you anymore. We wanna worship the gods of the nations around us. They're having a whole lot more fun than we are. So we're gonna start partying with them. And they run away from God. God sends a judge to punish either the nations around or even Israel itself. And then they repent and then they go into a time of flourishing. And then after a period of time, they go right back into worship false gods. And this happens right around 13 times. This just goes over and over and over and over again. And one of the judges is Samson. And Samson is this strong man. He takes what's called a Nazarite vow, which means that he's gonna be set apart as holy. He can't cut his hair, he's not gonna drink alcohol, he's not gonna touch dead and anything that's dead. There's a lot of these different aspects that come to this vow. And it comes from the same root of Nazareth within the Hebrew languages. There's a correlation there. And especially because those are the only two people, Samson and Jesus, who are called the holy one of God. Now, this is gonna be really annoying because there's a lot more that I wanna say about this. The problem is Mark is gonna bring this back up again in chapter three. So in a few months, I will recall all this information and you'll be like, yeah, that was cool. I wanted to learn more about Samson and Jesus. What was going on there? Jesus is going to reference the strongman and there's a reason for it. Okay. But to be continued, because it's really cool and I love nerd. Not about that. Okay, so we'll get there. Okay. But let's get into though, why? What is the point of the demon? What is the object of the demonic attack here? What's the point. And if we go to the next verse, says Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. Well, hang on a second. Why in the world would Jesus rebuke the demon? The demon just said, you are the holy one of God. You have all authority. You are the strong man. But Jesus says, shut your mouth. We're not doing this right now. Why would he do that? Well, why? Maybe ask the question, why would the demons. Let's just ask this question. Why would the demons go out of their way to point out to everyone in this synagogue, Jesus actually is the Messiah. Jesus actually has all power and authority. He is the strong man of God set to set Israel free again. Why would the demons say that? My guess is they're not just making this claim to Jesus's position and power and authority. My guess is the demons be demoning. Okay, My guess is the demons will want to do everything they possibly can to destroy Jesus. They have every intention to cause as much wreck and havoc as they possibly can on not just all of humanity, but on Christ himself. And so when they come and they say, this is the Holy One, this is the Messiah, this is the strong man. He's gonna vanquish Israel and set them free. And Jesus says, shut your mouth. We are not doing that yet. The time has not come for me to be known who I really am. And if you bring that on, you start calling me a messiah, you start calling me the strong man of Israel to set us free, I'm gonna be killed. How do we know this? Because the Romans had a pretty long track record of killing people who claimed to be a vanquisher or a messiah or a whole people group that claimed that person is the Messiah or a vanquisher. And it makes sense. They're an occupying force and someone rises up that they're going to set these people that are being oppressed free. It would make sense that an oppressing group would say, we need to put an end to that. We have historical records of this. Simeon former these. These are all right around the time of Christ. Former slave of Herod the Great. He gathered followers after Herod's death and was eventually beheaded by Roman authorities after his rebellion was put down. Athrogenies A shepherd from his and his four brothers led a revolt and were eventually crucified by the Roman general Varus along with their followers. Judas the Galilean, a leader of attacks revolt. He and his followers were seen as messianic by some. His rebellion was crushed though his name was later mentioned by, he's messed his name up, that guy in Acts, chapter five. Really, he's really important, though. He's a really big deal. I just can't ever say his name. Judas, son of Hezekiah, this leader of robbers. According to Josephus, an extra biblical writer. Josephus is not a Christian, he's a historian. And he's even pointing these things out. He rose to prominence after Herod's death and assaulted the royal palace at Sephora. And he died around the same time as Simon Athrogenus. And this isn't even to mention, even just a couple generations or a couple decades before this, with the Maccabean revolt where they were viewed as messiahs and they actually kicked Rome out for a little while, but until Rome was like, all right, you gotta go. And they go back in and they slaughter everyone. So this is. Rome does not take lightly and take kindly to someone claiming to be a liberator of people. They get immediately killed. And so Jesus here is saying, not yet, not yet, the time is not here, not now. I've got a lot more work to do. Continue on. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed. So they questioned among themselves, what is this? A new teaching with authority, same word, supernatural power and authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. You can read first century texts, not in the Bible. And Jesus, people knew about him. They knew about Jesus of Nazareth and he was a famed exorcist to the point where we have writings where people would go into a place, never even met Jesus, and they would go in to exorcise a demon and they would say, in the name of Jesus, I command you to come out. Because there was power and supernatural authority in the name, and Jesus was known for this in the region. Maybe this is a time to just pause though, and just say, are demons still at work today? The short answer is yes. They didn't go anywhere. They're eternal beings, just like you and I, so they haven't gone anywhere. So don't be so quick to dismiss something. Don't be so quick. I think we can do that. I think we like to use our logic and think. And that when I am not feeling well or just I have some ailment or even psychological warfare or just whatever it is that we're just so dismissive don't be so dismissive about demons who are at work. They are. And they're smart, they're cunning, they're intelligent. The older I get, the dumber I get, because the smarter I get. Make any sense? They've been around a long time. They've been alive and around a whole lot longer than we have. And my guess is they don't have to deal with their brains degenerating, that they've been able to accumulate knowledge. They know people, they know our weaknesses. And they fight dirty. They're not. They're not just. They're not out here to make friends. They are out here to destroy you. And so when you have some, some temptation or even a spiritual battle or physical ailment, a thought of doubt, is Jesus real? Is he really the Messiah? And those thoughts pop into your head. Don't dismiss it, but at the same time, don't fear it. We are taught because of who Jesus is and his authority here that we can read in our scripture that greater is he, Jesus who is in me, who dwells in me, than he the devil who lives in the world. And so when I feel some demonic oppression, or maybe this is, Maybe it isn't. Pray in the name of Jesus. He has authority, full authority over that. So it is real, but we don't need to fear it. We see the next point here that Jesus is gentle with authority. Back when Angela and I. This is not a picture of any. It was a picture of guys moving a piano. Back when we first moved To Minnesota about 14 years ago, we had a piano. I was given an old piano from the church I was working at and just an old piece of junk. And I remember we were taking it off the truck, the U Haul, we moved up here and these guys are a lot smarter than me. They have a dolly. Okay? We didn't have one of those. That's too fancy for me. And I remember we got there and my wife has an uncle who at the time, or at least back in the day, was a bodybuilder, right? Like a weight lifter, like for real time. Big dude. And I remember we got there and he got onto the truck with me and. And I was with a couple guys and he just grabs it and picks it up and he's like, oh, no, this is just a two man job. And I was like, huh? Like, this is a piano, sir. This is not meant to be a two man job. But because of my ego, I was like, yeah, man, this is a two man job. I got this and I Remember going down and we got it down. I remember getting to the bottom and just slamming it down, right? Which, if you know anything about pianos, that's not a good thing to do. And I remember wood came chipping off of it. I had to glue, glue that back on there. A leg came off, it was bad. His side was great, right? Here's the point of this. Saying I can lift something, or being able to lift something is not a true demonstration of strength and power and authority, right? But her uncle, in that moment, who can use their strength, and they have so much authority in that situation that they can be gentle with it, that's a true sign of actual power, strength. And we're gonna see that restraint right here. And so in Mark, chapter one, verse 29, again, immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon, who's gonna be named Peter and Andrew, their brothers with James and John. Now Simon's mother in law lay ill with a fever and immediately they told him about her. Someone, I was in a meeting this week, like, did I think someone was betting Mark, they couldn't use the word immediately, every other sentence because it's just everywhere. And he came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her and she began to serve them. Jesus has total authority here, completely unlike the scribes, because it's from God and yet he has God given authority and he uses it in the right manner. This past week I read this little booklet by Tim Keller called the Freedom of Self Forgetfulness. It's real. It's like a. You could read it 30 minutes, really short little booklet. I highly encourage you to read this book. And Tim Keller says this. He's talking. The whole book is about looking at 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, 214 1. And he says this, he says, Paul is saying that in Christianity the verdict leads to performance. It's not the performance that leads to the verdict. He's saying that the Gospel, who Jesus is because of who he is and what he did. He says, you are free. You are free indeed. You've been set free. You can take all your sin and your grossness. I will take it, I will pay for it, and I will put my righteousness on you. You're declared clean. That's your verdict. You are pure and holy. No, no, no, not me. I'm a sinner. Yes, you are. You're clean. That's the verdict. The verdict has already been set. And so the verdict of purity leads to performance. It's not the performance. I Need to do something that then earns me freedom in Christ. It's not the gospel. That's religion. That's law. That's rules. It's not what Jesus came to do. That's not the gospel. The gospel is Jesus in Christianity, the moment we believe, God says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. In other words, God can say to us, just as he said to Christ, you are my Son, whom I love, and with you I am well pleased. Why this quote? Because when we look at that text, it says that the fever left her and she began to serve them. Jesus doesn't ask her, I want you to serve me. I want you to show your love for me and your worth to me before I save you, before I heal you. He doesn't do that. Just like the disciples. When he calls the disciples again, people would have been going to a school, a rabbi, saying, hey, let me show you. Let me take a test and show you how much knowledge I have of the Bible and the scriptures. Jesus doesn't do that. There's no merit that these disciples have. He just says, you follow me and you follow me. And they do not based on anything they did. She's not healed. Based on anything she did or she's gonna do. She's healed, she's saved, and she immediately serves. One commentary I read this week was like, this is why women should serve. What? That's not what Mark's getting at here. That has nothing to do with this. All right? This is purely 100%. She's healed. And now her desire is to help is to serve. She now has the opportunity to demonstrate her appreciation and love to the Messiah. And we get Tutu. And there's not a follow up here. Hey, we get to. Let me show you 10 ways you can serve this week. It's not. There's no gotcha thing here. This is just what we have. We have been saved. We've been called by Christ to follow him. We've been healed spiritually. And so, man, we get to serve Christ. I don't have to. I get to continuing. That evening at sundown, they brought him and all who were sick and oppressed by demons. And the whole city gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. Again, same thing. He's saying, I still have three years. I haven't even gotten to preach about the kingdom of God yet. People don't even know what's happening. I'm flipping everything upside down, and I haven't had time to do that yet. So. Demonstration where you're trying to get me killed. You be quiet. And guess what? They have to be quiet. They don't get to go, no, Jesus. I'm going to go tell Rome that you're the. That you're claiming to be the Messiah. Why? He has authority, not them. Last thing here, just briefly, is that we see that Jesus has the authority over eternal life. There's a lot more that I really wanted to pack into this sermon. You're like, there's more, but in Mark, there's a lot more where he talks about Jesus's authority. That same word. We're gonna get into that because we're gonna leave some meat on the bones. I thought maybe I could do it this week, and then when that passage comes up, I'll go, hey, you guys have the week off. We already covered that text, but I got an email and someone said, don't do that. So I'm not. No, I'm not. That's not true. Okay, all right. Authority on eternal life. Let's just get into this. John, chapter 10 says this. I'm going to a different book. I'm not gonna be in Mark. Jesus says this. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. He's saying, this isn't just about Israel. I'm flipping this thing on its head. This is about all people, all nations, all ethne. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. And for this reason, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. That's a supernatural authority, Someone who says, no, no, I'm in control of when I die, and I'm in control of when I rise from the dead. That's the one who has authority as Jesus. He is the good news, he is the gospel, and he has complete authority. So just as a Gospel application, Jesus does have authority. He is the authority. But do we recognize his authority in our life? Again, the demons know of his authority. They know it. Or have they repented and believed that he is the hope of the world? The answer is no. Last night, the Mishkees and my wife and I, she's on the board for Metro Hope, and we got to go to a gala fundraiser last night. And it's amazing to me, one after another of people who are getting up there who have battled addictions and abuse their whole lives are getting up there saying this thing had authority over me, had control over me. I just had nothing. And then I met Jesus and I met Jesus and I realized he's the one who has control. He's the one who has say. And it was just so powerful to hear those stories. Angela and I get to do that every six months. And it's always awesome. It always is glorifying to Jesus as he sets people free from their oppression. So what areas of your life do we need to relinquish authority to Jesus or recognize that he is the one who truly is in control? It could be health, man. I just, I need this. I need my health, I need my parents health, I need my spouse's health, I need my children's health. I need my health and I need to have control over that. Could be our finances, could be addictions, anything. Or do we like our first parents, Adam and Eve, still say, I want control, I want autonomy. God, how dare you tell me how I should live my life, what I should do and shouldn't do. You don't get to do that. I'm in control of my life. I'm doing that. I have autonomy. Do we need to relinquish that and give that to Christ? I once heard a pastor say, we're never more like the devil than when we say the phrase I will that I'm in control. I'm going to do this when I want to do it and I'm going to do it now. This way. And if you don't let me have that amount, we're gonna have a time of communion this morning. We do this every week at Hope Lowertown. And so we have the cracker and there's a gluten free one on my left, your right. If that's a dietary restriction that represents the body of Christ that's broken for us, there's nothing magical that happens with this. This is to remember the finished work of Jesus. He has authority that even on the cross he's able to say, it's finished, we're done, I'm done, It's done, it's finished. And we get to remember that we take the juice that represents his blood that was shed for our sin. He is the one who declares the verdict of innocent and clean guilt free, shame free because of our merit, because we did something right to serve him. No, everything to do with Jesus. Everything. Everything. Let's rejoice in that and remember that finished work of Christ. This morning I'm gonna pray. The worship team's gonna come back up. They're gonna sing two songs. If you're just a follower of Jesus and you'd like to have these elements and just remember and gather around and have this meal, if you will, symbolically together to remember the finished work of Christ, would love for you to do that. You don't need to be a member of this church or any church, but if you say, yes, Jesus, he's the gospel, I believe that gospel. I believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins. We'd love for you to take these elements with us today. Let's pray. Father, thank you just for our time. A lot in this text, a lot of depth. But I pray that as we walk out of here, that we would be able to just look at the authority, the true authority of who Christ is, that he has authority. Would we relinquish that? Would we not be like our first parents and even just ourselves all the time, all day, every day of saying, I want control of this. But when we feel ourselves doing that or feeling ourselves getting anxious or stressed or. Or angry because something's out of our control, that would we just recognize that? Would your spirit just say, yeah, you're doing it again. And would we just be free to give that to you? God, we love you. We praise you for who you are. We praise you for your son. We praise you for your spirit. Greater is he who is in us. Your son dwells with us. He is greater than any demon or devil could ever be. And so would we just give him the power and authority? Would we trust him? We love you. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.