The Authority of Jesus

 

We all want change in our nation. My heart was heavy over the massacre that occurred in Buffalo, New York and it became even heavier with the massacre of innocent children in Uvalde, Texas this past week. These are examples of the evil that is gripping our country and our world.

 

In Mark 5 we see how Jesus changes people.

 

Mark 5:1-5

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

 

This man who was demon possessed was violent.

This man who was demon possessed lived isolated from other people.

This man who was demon possessed hurt himself.

This man who was demon possessed cried out in pain constantly.

 

Then in verses 6 and 7 the man encounters Jesus and he falls to his knees and cries out to Jesus, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me.”

 

The demons recognize who Jesus is, Son of God, and recognize He has authority over them.

 

We are living in a culture that is increasingly violent.

We are living in a culture where many are isolated from each other, if not physically, then ideologically and spiritually.

We live in a culture where people are hurting themselves increasingly.

We live in a culture where more people are in mental or emotional or spiritual pain than ever before.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing the truth about the brokenness of our culture.

 

When the man who was demon possessed encounters Jesus, the demons recognized who Jesus is and they recognize that He has the authority to torment them. They beg Him, based on God, not to torment them. They knew that their master Satan had no power to stop Jesus if He wanted to torment them.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing the authority of God and submitting our lives under His authority.

 

Jesus expelled the demons from the man and permitted them to enter a herd of pigs that, when the demons entered them, went rushing over the banks and drown in the sea.

 

The people from the town come out to see what has happened.

 

Verse 15 describes the man after the demons had left him.

 

He is sitting with Jesus; he is not isolated from other people. He is not violent and not trying to hurt himself and not crying out in pain. He is clothed and he is in his right mind.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing Jesus to transform us and to remove the things that He does not want in our lives.

 

If there is going to be change in our nation, we must turn to Jesus and trust His Word, the Bible. We must see that without Jesus we are not righteous or good. We must reestablish the family as the main source of spiritual and moral values and support the family to do that. We must recognize that change of culture comes from a change in individual hearts. Society changes from the individual out, not from society in.

 

God’s people the church must live out our faith in Jesus every day.

God’s people the church must love each other and stop hurting each other.

God’s people the church must love the world as Jesus does.

God’s people the church must focus on the head of the church, Jesus.

 

Letting Jesus Transform Us by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                     Joe