A Day in the Life of Jesus (Part 2 of 3)

Guest (Male): Does it surprise you that demons in scripture demonstrate a solid understanding of the Bible? Scripture makes it clear they actually believe in Jesus. So how is their belief different than ours? We'll find out today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg is teaching from Mark chapter 1, beginning with verse 21.
Alistair Begg: And I don't know if you've ever experienced anything like this, but if you have, then you will remember it. Here he is, he has begun to teach, and all of a sudden, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit started to shout out right in the middle of the event. It's possible that he did this all the time, and that the authorities in the synagogue didn't know what to do with him. It's possible that that was the case, and that the authorities used to come down the aisle and say, "Excuse me, if you could just be quiet please, it would be a tremendous help to all of us. Maybe go outside for a little while," or so on. I don't know, but if we assume that this interruption, that this confrontation was a unique event, you've got to imagine that the effect was quite unbelievable. In other words, they routinely come along, routinely somebody preaches, eventually they stop and they all go away, but not on this occasion. All of a sudden, this fellow stands up. Notice that this individual is described as being possessed (verse 23) of an evil spirit, or an unclean spirit, akatharto. Verse 26, the evil spirit shook the man violently. Verse 27, he even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him. Now notice, evil, evil, evil versus: who are you, the Holy One of God? So the confrontation here is between the dramatic kingly rule of the absolute purity of God manifest in Jesus and the powers of darkness whom Jesus has already confronted in the temptation in the wilderness. He has come out of that victorious. Satan has left him waiting for a more opportune time, presumably the temptation in the garden of Gethsemane. But it would be ridiculous to assume that the King in all of his absolute holiness could move within the precincts of absolute demonic activity and there not be a confrontation. Now this shouldn't surprise us as readers of Mark's Gospel, because Jesus has come, as Mark has told us, and the inauguration of his kingdom brings with it the invasion of the kingdom of darkness, and ultimately the destruction of the kingdom of darkness. You have to go all the way to the last book in the Bible to see the story given there in dramatic pictorial form, defining for us the end that is in view, an end that is not in doubt, but an end that is coming. And in the meantime, the activity of Christ's kingly rule is confronted, and confronts again and again the powers of darkness. Now this is a good moment to give you one cross-reference. And the cross-reference is 1 John chapter 3 and the second half of verse 8. And I suggest you do look at it so that you know that it is actually there. Jesus, as the Holy One of God, as the Righteous One, is the one in whom the righteous live. And the distinguishing feature of being in Christ who is holy and righteous is that we are no longer in the province we once were. We once belonged to the kingdom of darkness, now we belong to the kingdom of light. Verse 8: "He who does what is sinful is of the devil." In other words, he who just engages his life governed by, framed by, motivated by the sinful activities of his earthbound existence indicates unequivocally that if you want to take it back to its source, you go right back to the devil. Because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. That's what the devil does. The devil just sins all the time. The devil lies about God. The devil is a murderer. The devil brings people down. The devil destroys. So whenever you find somebody who is on the side of destruction, on the side of evil, on the side of death, in all of these things, then you can be sure, says John, that this person is of the devil. Now here comes our quote, second half of verse 8: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Now if you've kept your finger in Mark chapter 1, turn back to Mark and look at what the demon asks in the second half of verse 24. The beginning of it is set as a question here: "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" is actually not an inquiry, it's a confrontation. It's the spirit of challenge. "What do you think you're doing here, Jesus of Nazareth? You think you got some influence over us?" Now comes the question: "Have you come to destroy us? Have you come to destroy us?" You see, the demon understands. And when the King steps forward, the demonic activity, satanic forces, realize that in this Jesus they find the end of the line. This is their terminus, this is where they get off, if you like. And you will notice that the man's personality here has been so disabled that the demon, usurping the place of his selfhood, speaks through him. And when Jesus replies (verse 25), he replies to the demon. "Be quiet," said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" He's not speaking to the man, he's speaking to the demon. Because demonic activity eventually destabilizes a personality, usurps the place of selfhood, and may even speak in strange voices in a way that is inhuman and bizarre. And Jesus speaks into this circumstance, confronts it for what it is, and tells the demon to be quiet. Now the demon immediately assumes that the ministry of Jesus will be to destroy him, because things have totally changed with the arrival of Jesus. On one occasion, Matthew records for us when the religious folks were challenging Jesus and what he was doing. They had brought to Jesus a man who was demon-possessed, and Jesus healed him. The man was both blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so he could both walk and see. And as a result, all the people were totally amazed by this, and the Pharisees said, "Well, don't be interested in that, don't let that lead you astray to follow this Jesus. It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." In other words, he's employing demonic activity to drive out demons. Jesus says, "How much sense does that make? You're telling me that Satan drives out Satan?" He says, "I don't know who you use as the authority for your exorcisms, but the idea that if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? You can go figure that out." Now here comes the quote: "But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." You see, Jesus stands, steps up onto the stage and he says, "The time is fulfilled. I am here. The kingdom of God is near." Now if the kingdom of God is near, you would expect some kind of indication of that, wouldn't you? If the Creator of the universe steps down into time, the big surprise would be if he simply succumbed to the influences of nature in the way that everyone else did. That would be surprising. What would not be surprising would be that the Creator of the ends of the Earth, stepping down into time, would be able to say to the troubled Sea of Galilee, "I want you waves to lie down for a while. My boys here in the boat are getting upset. Just let's calm down." And the people said, "What manner of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?" He's the King. The King of what? The King of the entire universe. He is the King who is sovereign over all the activities that range against him. He is not powerless, waiting on the edge of his seat to see what happens next. He is the authoritative one. And it is a matter of note that the demon has got a pretty good grasp of theology. In fact, this demon has got more of a grasp of what's going on than does the crowd or do the cronies of Jesus. Look at your Bible, you'll see. What does the demon say? "I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God." How many times do we read in the Gospels to say the disciples couldn't get it? "And I know what you've come to do. You're here to destroy us, aren't you?" You see, he speaks on behalf of his friends, those who down in verse 34, before the day is out, they're also going. They'll be driven out. They'll want to speak and shout and make a noise, but he won't let them speak. He has all power over them. No, you see, the demons are orthodox. Don't be put off by somebody who tells you, "Well, I'm very orthodox in what I believe." Do you remember what James said concerning that? When the people came and said, "You know, I believe in a very orthodox way, it's just that it hasn't made any difference in my life. I believe exactly what you're supposed to believe, but I just don't have any indication of it, no deeds that follow from it. I just believe, you know, my faith is all up here." And do you remember what James says on that occasion? He says, "You believe in one God? That's good. Even the demons believe that and they shudder." The demons are orthodox. They know what they're up against. The demon says, "I know who you are and I think I know why you're here. You've come to destroy us, haven't you?" Yes. 1 John 3: "The reason that the Son of God came was that he might destroy the works of the devil." You see, demons believe, but demons don't trust. The belief of a demon is the grudging belief in a God who is for them an unwelcome reality. That's demonic belief: the awareness of the fact that it is undeniable that God exists, it is undeniable that God is powerful, it is undeniable that this Jesus is actually the King that he claims to be. But they don't rejoice in that, they don't trust in that. They are grudging in their acceptance of that because this God whom they acknowledge is an unwelcome reality. For this confrontation here, which ends with the man shaking violently and the demon coming out with a shriek and the people all being amazed and saying to one another, "What kind of teaching is this? What new authority is this?" The confrontation with evil gives rise to the demonstration of Christ's authority and power. And both the crowd and his cronies, once they have this demonstration, are in need of an explanation which he then provides for them so that they don't go wrong. As we will discover, Jesus makes the apparently crazy decision at the height of his popularity and influence to leave the Capernaum region and go off somewhere else to the other villages. Much to the disappointment of the crowd and much to the surprise of his followers. What was the deal? The response of the crowd was the response of attraction, it was not the response of conviction. The response of attraction, not conviction. Crowds attract crowds. Miracle workers will always draw people to them. After all, they're so unusual, it's so bizarre, it's so exciting. Let's go there and see this man. After all, I have needs that perhaps he can meet. I'm attracted to the idea of a God who exists to meet my needs. Jesus was not telling them that story. That attraction is not the same of the conviction which is brought about in the life of an individual, a man or a woman, when they realize that I do not come to God so that Jesus can give me what I want, but I must come to God so that Jesus will grant me what I need. And there is every indication that the crowds that were stimulated on this occasion remained actually unchanged in relationship to Jesus' message, which was what? Repent and believe what I'm telling you. Can you be attracted without repenting? Yeah. Can you join the crowd without repenting? Yeah. Can you get involved in the services in the church without repenting? Yeah. You can do it all. You can be a demon in the third row. And let's not kid ourselves, loved ones. Although our materialist friends and our naturalist secular friends—and there's great pressure on many of us who live within the scientific community—although our friends would laugh us to scorn for such assertions as these, these same friends can provide me with no rational explanation for Columbine, the anniversary of which we bemoan. Nor for the 28-year-old woman killing the small girl, putting her in a suitcase and drowning her in the water. They can provide me with no sensible explanation for that. Please don't tell me that it is because the lady's grandfather was not very nice to her when she was seven. Please don't ask me to believe that. You think I'm an idiot? But I have an explanation for Columbine. I have an explanation for the 28-year-old woman. And the explanation is right here in this dramatic confrontation: the demonic activity of a life that sells out to the evil one, laying themselves open to the invasion and the destabilization of their personality so that before they realize where they are, they are actually possessed and in the grip of that over which they have no physical control. And until the King Jesus comes to set them free, they remain tied as if they were bound in chains and shackles in the local cemetery. Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians, says, "Fellas, girls, face it. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places." That does not mean that there are demons under your coffee cup this afternoon. That does not mean that we see things in terms of demonic activity all the way. But what it does mean is this: that we recognize that underlying all that represents death, all that represents the abortion agenda, all that represents the destruction of the teenage population, all that leads to those horrible suicides among young boys and girls that have no hope in life for nothing—behind all of that lies the activity of the evil one himself. Who is a liar and the father of all who tell lies, and who himself is a murderer from the beginning. That is the biblical answer to the question. And it is into that horrible world that Jesus came as King to destroy he who opposes, who confronts the activity of God himself. And one day, read Revelation 19 before you finish your lunch, one day, all that is emblematic and is represented in the initial dimensions of the kingly rule of Christ will be brought to fruition. And that's how it is that the lion will lie down with the lamb. That's how it is that we will have peace. That's why it is that you will have an unpolluted ocean. That's how it is that you will have a seashore without any potential of jellyfish nipping you and paralyzing you and sending you home in a coma. Why is all of that? Because eventually the King is going to put it together exactly as he planned. And God's purpose from all of eternity is not actually Adam and Eve in the garden, but his purpose from all of eternity is the work of Jesus on the cross and the impact of that when he brings it all to fruition. Do you see how much bigger this is, how vaster this is than any kind of little preoccupation with "I'd like to tell you what Jesus means to me"? That's good, I'd love to hear what Jesus means to you, but this is of cosmic significance. This is huge.
Guest (Male): Think it out. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. He'll return shortly to close today's program. As we are learning, this message that Jesus proclaimed at the beginning of his earthly ministry is the same message we should be proclaiming today, namely the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel. That's the reason Alistair began hosting the Basics Conference so many years ago, to encourage men in ministry to do the basics of ministry well. And now the 2026 Basics Conference is just around the corner. If you are in pastoral ministry or church leadership and have not yet reserved your space, there are still openings available. The conference will take place September 29th and 30th at Crossroads Community Church. That's in Valencia, California, and you can register at basicsconference.org. Ministry is demanding, but Christ is sufficient to meet every pastor's need, and that's the theme of this year's conference. Alistair and I will be there along with guest speaker Hershael York. If you're in ministry or attending seminary, we'd love to have you join us. Again, you can sign up at basicsconference.org. Now if you're already looking ahead, thinking about your 2027 vacation plans, consider joining Alistair on a Mediterranean cruise. On the Journeys of Paul cruise, which departs out of Barcelona, Spain, on August 28th, you will trace the travels of the Apostle Paul through Malta, Crete, Turkey, and Ephesus, completing your trip in Athens on September 4th. Find out more, visit deeperfaithcruise.com. Now here is Alistair with a closing prayer.
Alistair Begg: Father, Father, Father, we come bow before you, the Creator God. The world looks on at such a scene as this; my words would be regarded as abject stupidity. And where is power to be found? Where is there that which conquers our jealous hearts, cleans up our dirty minds, fills our lives with a desire to serve you, a willingness to turn the other cheek? Who, when we know we're in the right and could push everything right to the very limit, we determine that we will instead, like Jesus, entrust ourselves to him who judges justly. And to discover again that the judge of all the Earth will always do what's right. Forgive us when we're able simply to read our Bibles and cast them aside, when we're able to come and attend to worship like this and let it all just flow over us as an irrelevancy, as a sideline, as a passing attraction. Lord Jesus Christ, come as it were and stand, tower over our puny little lives and say to us again, "Repent, believe the good news." And then grant us grace to do so. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who believes, now and forevermore. Amen.
Guest (Male): Thanks for listening this week. Hope you have a great weekend and that you're able to worship with your local church. Next week, we'll continue our study in the Gospel of Mark by looking at how Jesus was able to heal the sick and rebuke demons. What does this reveal about him and his mission, and what should our response to this be? We'll hear the answers on Monday. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.