• Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
with Mark 1:21-28
www.FirstChurchBville.com @FirstUMCBville @kerrfunk
with Mark 1:21-28
www.FirstChurchBville.com @FirstUMCBville @kerrfunk
A
video of this sermon can be found here: https://youtu.be/p_y0pABTnEU
• Do
you remember when email came out? Then the internet. WWW in 1983. It took over
25 years for the internet to reach a zettabyte of information. I never heard of
zetta. Kilo mega giga tera peta exa zetta. Twentyone zeroes. For scale: number
of seconds since Jesus was born: about 63 billion. Only 9 zeroes. Some
estimates age of universe at 13.8 billion years. 435 quadrillion seconds. Only
15 zeroes. 435 quadrillion microseconds, that’s the scale of a zettabyte of
data, and it took 25 years to reach that level.
How long to double that? 2 years.
Expected 2 zettabytes by end of 2019. That’s just counting to 100,000 in a
second, every second of imagined time.
All that information and we still
don’t know what to make of a story about demons.
We’re skeptical and seek to rationalize, put into terms that we can understand,
but even if I explain a zettabyte to you do you really understand it? I don’t.
I don’t understand internet. Or even electricity. But I approach them with caution
and with knowledge of who/whose I am, also speaking in tongues. Can’t explain
it, can be faked, but… could be genuine.
•
We learn about Jesus: He’s different from the rest. Not like the others. Unique
(Before Christmas I shared that Christ was Sufficient, Unique, Necessary, here
comes the SUN). Innate authority. Not described, but you just know, that’s the
impression. Jesus has authority, &
here’s a mic-drop example.
By the way, recall I will be with you
always…
that power is not far off but it is near.
There is no situation where we should be saying,
Yeah not even God can handle this one…
that power is not far off but it is near.
There is no situation where we should be saying,
Yeah not even God can handle this one…
•
We learn about power of evil, & it recognizes good & is afraid.
Hollywood scream? Dono. Maybe. But point is spiritual powers acknowledged one
another, & knew Jesus was the victor.
•
A father said to his child they went to church to make God smaller. God is so
big, beyond understanding: go to church, make God smaller, understand God. The child: I think to make God bigger. What
do you mean? Smaller doesn’t make you go Oh!
Experience God, be amazed, be changed
& change your life, and tell.
What happened after this? People told This is what happened. It was Jesus.
•
Hymn 371 I Stand Amazed at the Presence
Mark 1:21-28
(HCSB)
21 Jesus and his
disciples left the Sea of Galilee and went into the village of
Capernaum, and right away they entered the synagogue. It was the
Sabbath and Jesus began to teach. 22 Everyone was
astonished at His teaching because, unlike the scribes, He was
teaching them as one having authority.
23 Just then a man
with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue. He cried
out, 24 “What do You have to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth?** Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the
Holy One of God!”
25 But Jesus
rebuked him and said, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And
the unclean spirit convulsed him, shouted with a loud voice, and came out
of him.
27 Then they were
all amazed, so they began to argue with one another, saying, “What is
this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and
they obey Him.” 28 News about Him then spread throughout
the entire vicinity of Galilee. ò
**Nazareth is about forty miles from Capernaum
No comments:
Post a Comment