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| Mark 1:21-22 - Be Free in Christ! |
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Religion binds but Christ sets free. It is God’s heart that every person serves Christ and walks in the freedom that He provides. Jesus’ teachings and actions revealed the heart of God. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day taught rules and regulations that were manmade. Jesus taught about being in harmony with God’s Kingdom that was being established in Him. He is now ruling supreme over that kingdom and leads His followers to reveal it to the world.
In Mark 1:15, we hear Jesus say "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." After making His message simple and clear, He began to call those who would follow Him and continue His point of need ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. They immediately started to follow Christ, learn from Him and serve Him (Mark 1:16-20)
And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
(Mark 1:21-22 ESV)
Capernaum was a village on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is possible that the fishermen whom Jesus had just called to follow Him (Mark 1:16-20) lived and worked near or in this village. We do know that there was a synagogue there and, on this occasion, Jesus and the called fishermen went to it on the Sabbath (“they went”, 1:21).
The Temple was in Jerusalem, but the Jewish law required that wherever there were at least 10 Jewish families there must be a synagogue. In the synagogue there would be no music, no singing and no sacrifice. The synagogue service would consist only of prayer, the reading of God’s Word and the exposition of it. The synagogue was a teaching institution. At the service on the Sabbath of each week, the ruler of the synagogue would call on any competent person to read the Scripture and give exposition on it so that the people in attendance could learn.
In the synagogue there was no professional minister. Scribes were experts in the Jewish law and the title of the leader among them was “Rabbi.” Scribes used the Torah which is the first five books of the Old Testament and they would develop rules and regulations for every possible situation in life. They reduced the principles of the moral law given in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) to hundreds of manmade rules and regulations which was legalism. Their religion became a matter of obeying these rules and regulations that they taught in the synagogues.
Jesus had a message to deliver and the synagogue in each community provided a forum in which to spread that message. Mark did not find it necessary in these two verses of Scripture to repeat Jesus’ message that he communicated earlier. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15 ESV). Instead, he gives us the response of the people who heard the message and that response describes a contrast with the Scribes. Jesus was telling them about the kingdom of God that was being established through Him. He was not reinforcing the teachings of the Scribes which demanded obedience to their rules and regulations.
Following manmade rules and regulations is religion and religion binds, but Christ sets us free. Obtain your freedom in Christ today! Allow Him to set you free and establish His kingdom in you. Those who Jesus sets free are the church; the true Bride of Christ that He is coming for. He is not coming back for a building or an institution. He is coming back for His followers who have faithfully served Him.
Beloved, we don't have to wait for His kingdom to come in some future event as we are already a part of His kingdom and He has imparted it into our lives through the Holy Spirit. We are to spend our lives revealing to the world His kingdom in us. The apostle Paul taught that the supreme gift is love. Christ said that the world will know that we are His followers by our love for one another. As we love God and ALL people ministering at the point of need, His kingdom is revealed to the world and many will desire to be a part of it. That is so much more than mere church attendance. Church attendance is not bad unless we replace serving Christ and revealing His kingdom with serving the institution. It then becomes an idol and the fruit is communities not realizing that the kingdom of God is at hand and Christ is already ruling supreme. There can be a church on every corner in the city with the city not realizing the kingdom of God. They see the church buildings in their community, but don't see the kingdom of God in action. I believe that we can change that in our day and have been called to do so as Christ followers. Be free in Christ!
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