Have you ever been in a class and seen how a teacher can just dominate a subject so thoroughly that you’re enraptured to stay and watch.  I have and it was incredible.  I learned, I theorized and I contemplated a subject that to be honest up until that point was boring to me.  Now because I haven’t asked permission I won’t reveal the instructors name.  I did however catch the instructor afterwards and ask.  How is it that you’re so passionate and knowledgeable about this.  The truth is that their passion, their drive, their delivery of the information in a way that combined that passion and drive made me want to be able to do that with something.  At that moment it made me want to do it with that subject.  A subject that had never gained my interest.  Can you guess what she said to me?  She said I can do that because I live it, I breathe it, I eat and drink it.  It’s what sustains me from one moment to the next.  I’m passionate and forceful about it because it is me and I am it.

Amazingly that sounds like a Bible vs. I read somewhere…  Hmm.

John 14:20 CSB
[20] On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.

When I think about our text today I believe that this is an aspect of what is being shown to us.  Let’s look.

Mark 1:21-22 CSB
[21] They went into Capernaum, and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. [22] They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.

There’s a story out there about a prominent business man who hears that a prominent college educator in advanced mathematics had singled him out for an example that he specifically was not as smart as his fame had made him seem.  He decided to attend not with malice in mind but curiosity.  He’d been roasted in the media before and knew that a few opinions were not the problem.  As he sat he listened and eventually the instructor placed a very advanced problem on the whiteboard.  Her students were amazed at the concept of the problem but knew they weren’t ready to solve it.  She asked if anyone would like to try stating that she’d been stumped by it for some time.  She stated that she’d like to see this business man solve it as it was related to his field. A hand in the back of the room rose after none other had.  The man wearing a hoodie and a ball cap pulled low over his eyes stood at the instructor’s beckoning and moved to the board.  He studied it for a moment and changed one of the numbers she’d placed early in the equation.  He then solved the problem in just minutes.  The instructor was astonished.  She realized that the reason she’d not been able to solve it was that she’d made a mistake early on.  The man then took his hat off to reveal that he was the subject of her roasting.  She stammered, apologized and asked him if he’d be willing to talk to the class on that subject.  He did and a year later the instructor went to work for him.

I wonder if that was how these people in this synagogue were astonished?

I tell you all this so that as we progress through our Bible study we realize why Jesus taught with authority.  He taught with authority because…

JESUS IS THE AUTHORITY!

John 14:6 CSB
[6] Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Colossians 1:15-17 CSB
[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [16] For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. [17] He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

John 1:1, 3 CSB
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[3] All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

Genesis 1:1 CSB
[1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I could write volumes of verses to make my point.  But you know that.

We need to go forward in our study with the knowledge that Jesus taught with authority because…

JESUS IS THE TEACHING!

But even more importantly…

JESUS IS GOD!

They were astonished because they were coming to that realization.  The scribes only had book knowledge.  Jesus wrote the book.

Jesus wants to have a relationship with you.  He doesn’t need you to change because he will change you.  He is in the Father he wants you to reside in Him and He in you.  He wants to share that with AUTHORITY as AUTHORITY through you.

Love in Christ,

Colby