Mark’s gospel tells a wonderful story of an event that took place in the Synagogue in Capernaum (See Mark 1:21-28). To us it is a miracle story but to Jesus it’s an event in which His divine personhood is revealed.

A man with an unclean spirit was released from that spirit; or, as Mark says, “the unclean spirit…came out of him” (26). From a prison in his inner life, the man is set free. Suddenly we know that for him the future will be different from the one we would expect him to have given his situation. Jesus spoke into the man’s life, and he was set free.

Interestingly enough, the unclean spirit had engaged Jesus in a conversation that ended with the spirit saying, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God” (25). It seems the spirit knew more about Jesus than the others in the sacred place that day. Apparently, Jesus wasn’t interested in a conversation with an unclean spirit and He rebuked it abruptly by saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” (24). Just like that a man gets his life back.

Jesus’ action that day got everybody’s attention it seems. Suddenly we hear people saying of Him, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirit, and they obey him” (27).

Are you captivated by the authority that is in Jesus? The people who observed Him in action in the Synagogue that day became captivated by Him. In fact, in a spirit of amazement they started talking about Him, and the conversation went far beyond the walls of the building.

And He is among us today, with the same authority, the same power, the same influence. No wonder they started talking about Him.

I wonder how their conversations went.

Start walking with Jesus and your story really gets intriguing. This is one of many ways to speak of what it is like to get connected up with Jesus. He shares the truth, He calls people into His life, challenges them to reconsider what they once believed to be true, to believe in God, and to join Him on a journey of walking into tomorrow from within the embrace of God.

So it was that Simon and Andrew and James and John got connected up with Jesus. They were fishermen by trade but had apparently been impacted by what they heard in the preaching of Jesus. Then one day Jesus ups and calls them to walk away from their trade and to follow Him. They would still be fishermen, He said, but in a completely different way.

Men and women need God but men and women don't naturally gravitate toward God so God has a force of men and women who, in a sense, fish for men and women. That is, they invite others to consider the possibility of Jesus, and to come to Him. There testimony: God has changed my life for the better. It can happen to you, too."

Jesus told His disciples that the kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15) and that they were invited into this kingdom. Simon and Andrew and James and John heard the message, received it, turned around and embraced the life of Jesus. It changed their destiny, even though at the time they probably had no idea what was coming down the pike at them.

"Follow Me," Jesus said (Mark 1:17). Isn't that enough? Join up and start following Jesus. You don't have to have every T crossed and every I dotted. Follow Him. He will build your life as you journey with Him. The kingdom of God is here. Wherever Jesus is, all the possibilities of God are present.

In the Gospel of John we read the story of the conversion to Christ by one Nathanael (John 1:43-51). His friend, Philip, had discovered Jesus and had invited Nathanael to discover Him, too. Nathanael wasn’t particularly impressed with it all when he found out that this supposed Messiah was from Nazareth. To him, that was pushing the sensibility envelope a bit too far. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he asked. For him it was a rhetorical question, the obvious answer being, NO.

When he met Jesus, however, something happened in him. Jesus seem to know him and to appreciate who he was. This intrigued Nathanael and something in his spirit drew him to Christ and to an amazing proclamation, “Rabbi, You are Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (vs. 49).

This did not end the discussion. Jesus responded by saying to Nathanael something to the effect that he hadn’t seen anything yet. “You will see the heavens opened,” Jesus told him, “and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (vs. 51).

What happened to Nathanael was just a beginning. Jesus was going to work a work of grace in his life and in the lives of all His disciples, and in our lives, too, that would reveal He is indeed the long awaited Messiah.

Start walking with Jesus and the story really gets intriguing.

WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

Thirty years after His birth in a manger Jesus steps out of obscurity and into the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by one John the Baptist. Except for a couple of snapshots of isolated events, we don’t know much about those thirty years. The Gospel of Luke tells us that during this time “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52), and that’s about all we know. The Gospel of Mark picks up the story at what appears to be Jesus’ inauguration into public ministry.

After waiting His turn in line Jesus came up out of the waters met by “a dove descending upon Him. Then a voice spoke to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:10-11). Those who witnessed the event said that it was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that descended upon Jesus and that the “voice came out of the heavens.”

John would later declare that Jesus was the one of whom he said, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8; John 1:27; Matt. 3:11).

At the heart of all that Jesus Christ brings to the world is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is huge and I cherish that Sunday afternoon so many years ago that I was baptized, but that beginning led me to something more. I needed God to work a work deep down inside my life where nobody lived but me and where nobody really knew what was going on there except for God and me. I needed an inward work that could not be touched by water but only by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came to set our hearts on fire with God. He came to work the works of God deep within our lives. The One of whom the Father said, “In You I am well-pleased,” sets our hearts on fire with God so much so that God can honestly say to you and me that in our lives He is well pleased. Wouldn’t it be great to hear God say, ”Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23)?

On the way home from Jerusalem and the Feast of the Passover, Mary and Joseph realized that their twelve-year-old son, Jesus, wasn’t in the caravan, so back to Jerusalem they go, frantic to find him.

They finally find him in the temple conversing with the teachers. He is listening to them and also asking some questions. He was conducting himself in such a way that “all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:47). Mary and Joseph aren’t thrilled about it all and Mary asks Jesus, “Why have you treated us this way? Behold your father and I have been anxiously looking for you” (Luke 2:48).

The twelve-year old boy responds to her by saying, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house” (Luke 2:49)? This response did not clarify things for Mary and Joseph, but apparently it was the end of the matter. The next thing we read is that Jesus “went down with them...and continued in subjection to them” (Luke 2:51). “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (vs. 52), and Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” (vs. 51).

What do we do with this story? I suppose we just let it be and fight the temptation to read too much into it. Apparently God became a real human being and had to learn to live “in subjection” to his parents.” Also, Mary and Joseph had to learn to let go and to let their Son become who He was.

Here we see the spiritual depth of parents who really do live by the tenants of their faith and we see the Spirit at work in a twelve-year-old boy who still has a lot of growing up to do.

Incarnation is a tough reality to embrace, but if God is really going to do it, it had better be real or it will just be fluff. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) as a twelve year old and he submitted himself to parents who loved him. He wouldn’t always be twelve but He would always be Messiah.