Sermon Central
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The Holy One Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Jan 7, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Last in series. The demons feared him. The disciples trusted him. You know him. He is the Holy One of God and he is our friend.
The Holy One
The Demons Feared Him
21 Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. On the Sabbath day He went to the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught like a person who had authority, not like their teachers of the law. 23 Just then, a man was there in the synagogue who had an evil spirit in him. He shouted, 24 “Jesus of Nazareth! What do you want with us? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are—God’s Holy One!”
25 Jesus commanded the evil spirit, “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently, gave a loud cry, and then came out of him.
When You follow Jesus
The first place Mark records that Jesus took the original small group of four Galilean fisherman was to Capernaum to encounter a demon-possessed man and experience an exorcism (Mk 1:21–28). This first adventure had to be an experience of cultural, psychological and theological shock. They were in a known place but confronted by a wild man who addressed their leader as Messiah, “the Holy One of God.” They watched a confrontation between good and evil and an exorcism, the power of good over evil. They were astounded enough to declare the whole scene a “new teaching.”
What do we learn from this?
Evil confronts Jesus where ever He goes
Jesus conquers evil where ever it is
When you follow Jesus you will deal with demons and you will conquer them
It is the demons that destroy life
Many stories this past Christmas
Many people – badly damaged by the demons of evil.
Some of you damaged – God heals
The Disciples Trusted Him
66 After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him and stopped following him.
67 Jesus asked the twelve followers, “Do you want to leave, too?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God.”
How you follow Jesus
Peter and the others understood no better than the crowds. But they were willing to trust Him.
You and I might not grasp the meaning of all of Jesus’ words either. We can’t yet tell just what “remaining” and “living” in Jesus, or “feeding” on Him, mean. But we do know that if we are to enjoy our new lives, we must keep on looking to Jesus daily to supply our needs, and to sustain us with His grace.
What do we learn from this?
Some fail to understand God so they leave Him
Some fail to understand God and so they trust Him
We learn to trust the most by knowing Him and having nowhere else to turn.
It is the Lord who gives life
Sometimes we have to struggle to see it
You know him
18 My dear children, these are the last days. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now many enemies of Christ are already here. This is how we know that these are the last days. 19 These enemies of Christ were in our fellowship, but they left us. They never really belonged to us; if they had been a part of us, they would have stayed with us. But they left, and this shows that none of them really belonged to us.
20 You have the gift c that the Holy One gave you, so you all know the truth.
He is your friend
I had a conversation last week with a person who said, “We are friends aren’t we?”
What do we learn from this?
The Holy one has enemies.
These enemies have never really been a part of us
We are his friends.
You are my friends!
