As one who had Authority

Mark 1:21-22

Once again we see Mark using words like immediately, or your Bible might say right away, as they enter into Capernaum Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.  How would that look today, what happens if Jesus comes in the flesh to your place of worship, and before the preacher or priest gets to deliver the message, Jesus comes to the platform and opens the Scriptures and begins to preach?  One can only imagine, but I see Him removed from the building with police and deacons all around him.

What was different in the synagogue at Capernaum?  I found this on the teaching in the synagogue at “Sermon Writer” and wanted to share it with you.  “Sabbath worship includes prayer as well as the public reading and exposition of the scriptures. The role of the president of the synagogue is more administrative than pastoral, so he invites qualified laymen to speak. Synagogue rulers would welcome a fresh, promising voice, which explains how Jesus could teach in the synagogue.” 

Do you recall when Jesus cleared the Temple in Matthew 21:13, ‘He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”  Is your place of worship a house of prayer?  Or does it seem there is always some program that sounds like a great plan to raise money to fund some good intention?  Is it directed at those who never show up to worship or much worse at non-church members?  I get sick to my stomach when I see people begging for money on a street corner to support a ministry.  Or they are sending their youth out to beg non-Church members for money, as if Jesus cannot meet every need that you have.  It is my belief that when we do such things instead of spending time in prayer and asking our Lord to do as promised by the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:19, we bring shame on the name of our God.

Are you astonished at the teaching of Scripture in your place of worship? The people of Capernaum were, and we must ask why and the answer is clear that Jesus taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes?  Are you sitting under a scribe, or a pastor, or priest that has spent time with the Lord and the message is from the Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit and you come away overwhelmed?  Does Jesus still show up at your place of worship, or has it become a den of robbers?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice