[0:00] This is the morning service at Holy Trinity on the 19th of June 2005.
[0:10] The preacher is Tim Johnson and his sermon is entitled Amazing Authority and is based on Mark chapter 1 verses 16 to 28.
[0:30] If everyone would like to sit down and if the children and anyone else who'd like to come and stuff off the floor at the front, that'd be great.
[0:48] You've got two jackets in one, wow. Okay. Okay, we've got lots of people coming to sit at the front.
[1:02] Good to see you all here today. Okay. Okay, now we're going to hear this morning a true story.
[1:15] It's a true story because it's a story from the Bible and it's a true story about Jesus. And so, as we begin, let's close our eyes.
[1:26] And it's good when we read the Bible to ask God to help us that we might understand what he's going to teach us from the Bible. So let's close our eyes and talk to God as we start this morning. Dear God, thank you for the Bible.
[1:40] Thank you that in the Bible you speak to us and you tell us about yourself and you tell us about Jesus. Please help us to learn about Jesus this morning and to obey Jesus.
[1:54] Amen. Okay, now as we look at our true story from the Bible this morning, I've got something here to help me. Now, you need to use your imaginations. Children and adults need to use your imagination.
[2:06] This is actually going to be a fishing net. Okay, this is the best I could come up with. Okay, because in our story today we have fishermen. And so I'm going to use this as the fishermen do their fishing.
[2:19] Okay, so that's what this is. This is a net. Okay, so we'll keep that in mind. Okay. Our story begins on the shores of a lake.
[2:31] It was a lake called Lake Galilee. And Jesus was walking beside the lake and he saw two brothers. And the two brothers were called Simon and Andrew.
[2:46] And Simon and Andrew had a net and they were throwing their net into the water. Now, why do you think they might have been doing that, Jessica? They were catching fish.
[2:58] And what sort of people catch fish? Fishermen, that's right. Simon and Andrew were fishermen. And they were throwing their net into the water to catch fish.
[3:11] And Jesus walked up to Simon and to Andrew and he said, Follow me. And instead of catching fish, you're going to catch people.
[3:26] That's a bit strange, isn't it? It's pretty normal for fishermen to catch fish. But Jesus said, Follow me.
[3:37] And instead of catching fish, you're going to catch people. Now, if you let that net go, Jessica, does that mean that what Jesus wanted them to do was this?
[3:49] Hello. Hello. Who thinks that that's what Jesus wanted them to do?
[4:05] Thanks, Josh. Thank you. No. Jesus didn't mean that he wanted them to use their net to catch people. What he wanted them to do is to follow him and to be his friends.
[4:22] And he also wanted them to tell other people about Jesus and how great Jesus is so that they could be friends with Jesus too. And that's what Jesus meant about catching people, telling other people about him so that they could be friends with Jesus too.
[4:39] So there was Simon and Andrew who normally would be catching fish and Jesus said, Follow me. What do you think they did? Follow me.
[4:49] What do you think they did? They dropped their nets. That's exactly right. Very good, Jessica. Straight away, they dropped their nets. They stopped being fishermen and they followed Jesus.
[5:04] Wow, that's amazing. They started being friends with Jesus. They started being his disciples. Very good. Okay. Then Jesus walked on a little bit further and he saw two other brothers.
[5:16] And these two other brothers were called James and John. Those were their names. And they were sitting in a boat. And they also had a net.
[5:27] They weren't throwing the net into the water. They were fixing up their net and probably cleaning it to make sure that it was all in good order. And probably folding it up to make sure that they were caring for their net.
[5:39] Now, why might they have been doing that? What do you think their job was? Josh? They were fishermen too. That's right. And they were looking after their nets in the boat.
[5:52] And Jesus said to them, follow me. And what do you think they did? Straight away, they left their nets.
[6:03] They left their boat. And they even left their dad who was in the boat, who was also a fisherman. And they followed Jesus. That's right. They stopped being fishermen.
[6:15] Simon, Andrew, James, John, all of them. They left behind their nets. And they became friends of Jesus. And they followed him everywhere he went. And when they followed Jesus around, they made sure that they listened to what Jesus said.
[6:32] And that they learned when Jesus taught them. Now, you've all been listening very well this morning and learning from the Bible. But I was hoping that someone else might be here this morning also to listen and to learn from the Bible.
[6:46] But I haven't seen him yet. I was hoping that Scruff might be here to listen and learn from the Bible. Because it's good for him to do that too. But... Oh! Follow me!
[7:00] Scruff, what are you doing? I'm trying to get Paul to follow me, Tim. Paul who? Paul Barker, Tim. You're trying to get him to follow you. I'm trying to get him to follow me. I'm going to do what Jesus did in the story.
[7:12] Follow me! Well, Scruff, it doesn't seem to be working. Doesn't... He's not moving from his seat.
[7:22] He's not moving. He's certainly not following you. No. What's the difference, Tim? He doesn't like dogs. Well, there's one difference. He doesn't like dogs.
[7:33] Oh. It's okay, Scruff. But I'll tell you a bigger difference. What's the bigger difference, Tim? Well, you see, the fisherman followed Jesus when he said, follow me, because Jesus has authority.
[7:46] Authority, which means power. Power. Power. Jesus had power. He had authority. Authority and power, eh? I've got just the thing, Tim. I know how I'll get that. Hang on a sec, Tim. Oh, dear.
[7:57] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, dear. What's he up to now? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. He goes on there like that and... Hey! Yeah!
[8:08] Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Follow me! Scruff, what are you doing? Well, Tim... Yes? People with sunglasses... Yes? ...always look very powerful and cool.
[8:21] I saw the Matrix. Yes? They've all got the sunglasses and they tell people what to do. Sunglasses. That's the way I am. Well, you do look very cool. So, let's try it again, shall we?
[8:31] Okay. Paul! Follow me! No, no. Still... Still not working.
[8:42] Tough crowd. I think... Look, let me explain. I think what the problem might be... Yeah. ...is that you just don't have authority. Jesus had authority. Even with the sunglasses.
[8:53] Sunglasses is not going to help. No. All right. I've got it, Tim. Hold on. Hold on. I don't know. What is he up to? I'll have to wait and see.
[9:04] Hey! Hey! Hey! Now, I know you're going to ask me why. Why? Well, policemen have hats and they have authority and power.
[9:16] Yes. And train conductors have hats and they have authority and power. Yes. So, I thought if I had a hat and sunglasses... Yes. ...maybe I'll have the authority. Maybe you'll have the authority.
[9:26] Well, you can try, but I don't know. Okay. One, two, three. Follow me! Paul, follow me! No. No. Come on!
[9:40] It's not working, Scruff. You've got a cracker. Sunglasses. Sunglasses hat. They make you look cool hat, you know. But it's just... What else could I use? What?
[9:51] I don't know. What could I use? Oh! I know. I know. There's been lots of movies with people with these things. I'm going to... It'll take a little bit of time, but I think I've got it.
[10:01] Hold on. Well, he's up to something else. Some glasses haven't worked. And a hat hasn't worked. It just goes through here. The thing is, he just doesn't have the authority, I don't think, that Paul might want to follow him.
[10:14] And then you get the pin, and it goes in like that. He's talking to himself. That goes there. What's he going to have this time? Through like that. What do you think? Through. A jacket.
[10:26] Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Very difficult. He's having a bit of trouble, I think. Having a bit of trouble. Oh.
[10:39] Where's that going? Right. Got rid of the sunnies and the hat. They were too heavy. But I've got a cape. A cape. I've got a cape. There's my cape. Absolutely not made of a pillowcase.
[10:53] Yeah, it looks like a pillowcase to me. No, that's a vicious lie. If you say it's a cape, how about we put it like that? It's a cape. Righto. There we go. Okay. Batman had a cape. Batman had a cape. Batman and Superman had a cape.
[11:04] Mm-hmm. And they could do some pretty cool stuff. Yep. And a lot of power. So let's try it with the cape. Okay. Try it with the cape. Okay. One. Two.
[11:16] Follow me! He looks even less impressed than he did last time. It's just not working, Scruff. I'm running out of ideas here.
[11:27] It's beginning to get me down. Well, as I keep saying to you, Scruff, Jesus had authority. Jesus had power. That's why the fishermen followed him.
[11:38] Well, Tim, if you work through this with me, we'll think of something. Now, what happens in the movies when you see someone with power? Someone with power. What always happens? They've got a cape.
[11:49] They've got a hat. Yes. They've got something. Theme music. Theme music. Theme music. Oh, dear. I'll just go and get some theme music ready. Okay. And we'll just hold it and I'll come up to the theme music and it's bound to be impressive.
[12:00] Hang on. Boys and girls are now. I'm still not sure that this is going to work. But, you know, Scruff thinks it might work. We'll see. You don't think it's going to work.
[12:14] I think it was a pitch rock song from the CD player.
[12:29] We'll try that again, shall we? Okay. It wasn't very good theme music. It wasn't very much. Okay. Try something else. Go.
[12:44] Go. And follow me.
[13:00] Please. All right. I don't think you've seen a musician I worked in. No. What's the difference between me and Jim?
[13:11] Well, look. Look. Well. What? Very good. He is a dog. Thanks for telling me before. Look.
[13:22] As I'm sure all the boys and girls will tell you, it's not about sunglasses. Jesus didn't have sunglasses. It's not about a hat.
[13:34] Jesus didn't have a hat. It's not about a cape. Jesus didn't have a cape. It's not about theme music. Jesus didn't have theme music. Jesus had authority because he was very special.
[13:47] He was God's son. God's son. And that's why he had authority. Tim, you're telling me this. Yep. You're telling me you didn't have sunglasses. Yep. Didn't have a cape or theme music.
[13:58] Yep. Didn't have any of this stuff. And you're telling me he had authority. Yes. How do I know? Okay. How do we know? The Bible tells us that we know Jesus had authority because of the things that Jesus said and the things that Jesus did.
[14:15] Well, how about we listen to some more from the Bible to see Jesus' authority by what he said and Jesus' authority by what he did. Okay. Okay. You go down and you take that silly cape off while we listen to some more from the Bible.
[14:29] Now, boys and girls and adults, I need your help for this next part of the story. I need you to do a couple of things. When I say, you need to listen very carefully so that you know when to do these things.
[14:42] When I say people were amazed, I need everybody to say, wow. Wow. Look at that.
[14:54] People were amazed. Wow. And again. People were amazed. Wow. Okay. And the other thing you have to listen for is that when I use the word authority, which means power, you go like this.
[15:13] Okay. Show me your muscles. Adults too, please. Okay. Authority. People were amazed. Wow.
[15:24] Authority. Authority. People were amazed. Wow. Very good. Okay. And remember that we're listening to see Jesus' authority by the things that he said and the things that he did.
[15:40] Okay. Now, Jesus and his friends, after his friends started following him when he'd called them by the lake, they went to a place called Capernaum. That was the name of the town.
[15:51] And he went into the Jewish meeting place where they used to go to hear the Bible. Wow. And Jesus got up and he started teaching. And people were amazed.
[16:03] Wow. People were amazed. Wow. Because Jesus' teaching was different to anything that they'd heard before.
[16:14] Jesus spoke with authority. And people were amazed. Wow. Suddenly, while Jesus was teaching in the Jewish meeting place, a man jumped up who was very different and unusual.
[16:31] And he was different and unusual because he had an evil spirit. Now, evil spirits are a bit hard for us to understand. And they're not just hard for children. They're hard for adults, too.
[16:42] But the Bible tells us that this man had an evil spirit. And it was something inside the man that was very powerful and that made him disobey God and that made him do bad things.
[16:56] And it probably hurt him, too. So it wasn't very nice for the man. And because this man had an evil spirit, he didn't like Jesus. And he yelled at Jesus.
[17:08] What do you want, Jesus? I know who you are. Are you here to destroy us? You are the special one who God has sent.
[17:24] And the people who were watching were probably a little bit scared. And they wanted to see what Jesus would do. But Jesus has authority.
[17:35] And Jesus has more authority than evil spirits. And so Jesus said to the man, be quiet and leave the man alone.
[17:50] And straight away, the evil spirit left the man. He left him alone. Because Jesus has authority.
[18:04] And the people were amazed. Wow. The people were amazed. Wow. Because not only did Jesus have authority by what he said.
[18:16] But Jesus had authority by what he did. He had more authority even than evil spirits. And people were amazed.
[18:27] Wow. Wow. Very, very, very good. Now, who can tell me, maybe from things that you've learnt in Sunday school or at home or at creche or anywhere, some of the things, some of the other things that Jesus did that shows that Jesus is powerful and has authority.
[18:47] And it can be adults too. But how about we start with some of the kids because we've got some hands at the front. What are some things, Jessica, that Jesus did that show that he has authority? He died on the cross.
[19:00] And he came out there for three days in the church. Wow. That's a great one to pick because that's the best way that we see Jesus' authority.
[19:11] He died on the cross. And after three days, he came back to life, which shows that Jesus is very powerful. Anything else? Josh.
[19:25] He can make people follow him. That's right. We saw that one today. David. He calmed the storm.
[19:38] And we've sung a song about that today. Hey, Christopher. He healed a blind man. Excellent. That's right. You've got to be very powerful to do that.
[19:49] But Jesus did it. Yep. He made sick people better. All of these things show us that Jesus is powerful, that Jesus has authority.
[20:00] And because Jesus is powerful, because Jesus has authority, he's someone that we should follow just like those fishermen followed him. We should follow him and we should do what he says because he's very powerful and he loves us very much.
[20:17] Well, to finish... Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen.
[20:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[20:47] Amen.