Mark 1:21-28, "A Church of Spiritual Deadness"

Mark 1:21 - 28 tells us that every Sabbath day, Jesus went into the Synagogues and taught the people, and they were amazed at His teachings, for He taught as one with Authority, unlike the teachers of Religious Law.  A man possessed by an evil spirit was in the synagogue, and (at this time) began shouting, "Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are, you're the Holy One sent from God!"  But Jesus cut him short by saying, "Be silent!  Come out of the man!"  And at that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into convulsions, and left him.

So what we have here is a spiritually-dead synagogue.  Why, just look at the symptoms: A Demon was present (either nobody noticed, or nobody cared: the sin of indifference), and the demon was threatened by Jesus.

But isn't it interesting that the demon didn't reveal or manifest himself until people began to respond to Jesus' teaching?  So the demon was actually "safe" until people began to actually listen and respond to Jesus' teachings.  This shows us that the synagogue was already spiritually dry before Jesus arrived, for demons can't normally exist in God's presence.  This also tells us something about the teachings there before Jesus arrived.  For the people were amazed at Jesus' teachings because He spoke as one with authority, un