Luke 4:31-44 with Aaron Searles

Transcript

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So what is authority? Think about that word, authority. What is it? How would you describe it? Where do you see it in your life? Authority. If someone were to ask you on the street or a friend, you're like, how would you define authority or describe authority? What is it? I relate authority to the word power. And in learning about this and learning about authority, thinking about authority, thinking about power, who's in charge. It's been discussed that ultimately comes down to, from again, a human perspective, but comes down to physical force. Who's got more power? Who's got more physical force to exert their will? And again, this though, or speaking to that idea of authority and power and physical force really is really an understanding from the temporary or human perspective. And this morning we're going to be talking about a different kind of force, a different kind of power. We're going to learn about that today in the passage of scripture in Luke that we're going to be in. And as we go through this sermon series in Luke, as we go verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke, we're continuing to ask this question as we go through. Who is this Jesus? We're learning about the person, Jesus. And ask the question today: does Jesus have power? And what kind of power does Jesus have? And again to that idea of physical force and power and authority, who's in charge. What kind of weapons does Jesus have? What kind of weapons does Jesus impose his will in the physical and in other ways? What kind of authority does Jesus have? We're going to learn about that today. So I'll just give you spoiler alert right now, just tell you the whole thing right now, okay? The authority of Jesus is spiritual deliverance. Okay, so that's the other kind of power that he has, the spiritual deliverance and healing of various diseases. We're going to learn about that and see the story today. We're going to be introduced to a new character in the Gospel of Luke. He's called Simon. We'll understand him, and we normally call him Peter. We're going to be kind of in his orbit a little bit in his life, as we'll see. And we're going to learn about and talk about the priority, or I call it the first importance of the gospel. So last week we talked about Jesus and how he declared his mission to his hometown synagogue. You know, if it was his resume, this was his objective, and he read from the from the prophet Isaiah. And, you know, did he raise an army to kick out the Romans? Did he did he start building weapons and assembling tanks and horses and whatever? You know, obviously tanks were not in the first century, but did he did he do that? Did he raise an army? Did he go to the temple and kick out the high priest and take over the high priest's job? Did he do that? Well, the answer is we know that he didn't do that. And we'll see the king, though, the king, the one who's in charge, the one who's in authority on the move this morning. And again, he's going to deliver from demonic oppression. He's going to heal everybody in Capernaum. And he's going to preach the good news. So, how does Jesus, though, wield his power? How does he wield his authority? Well, what is Jesus' not so secret weapon? I think this is something that we can focus on every day, every week, every month, every year of our life. What weapon does Jesus wield? And if we remember from last week when he resisted Satan himself and the temptation, he responded to Satan and the temptation with one repeated phrase. It is written. It is written. Again, the not-so-secret weapon of Jesus' power is the word. And I'll say this: it is the word and his word. And his sacrificial atoning body on the cross. That's the weapon, that's the power, that's the force of Jesus in the world as he is God in the flesh in ministry. Today, though, we're going to focus on the word and his word, God in the flesh today. So let's look at, again, Luke chapter 4, verse 31 through 37. We're going to read this first. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, Ha! What have you d what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out, and reports about him went out, and went out into every place in the surrounding region. So we're in Capernaum, similar to Nazareth, minus the murderous hometown mob that we learned about last week. So I was curious, you know, some little research, you know, how big is Capernaum? You know, some estimates just say less than 2,000 people. So another small village or town. You know, Capernaum was a sea town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the northwest shore. And this would become, as we'll learn as we go through the Gospels, as we go through the Gospel of Luke, this is kind of Jesus' base camp. This will become his base camp, this little fishing town of Capernaum. And so if you were to visit Capernaum today, there is a second-century synagogue that's been excavated that they believe possibly, likely, was built on the same site where the synagogue that Jesus was at, where Jesus was taught. Pretty interesting to go to these places and see the actual places where Jesus walked. So the crowd, again, in the synagogue was astonished by his teaching. So we recognize that Jesus in the flesh was smart. He understands the word. He teaches with authority. They were astonished by him. Also says that when he taught, when he spoke, he possessed authority. He spoke, and the humans in the room understood like this guy's in charge. You know, they this had this intuitive sense like he's in charge when he spoke. He spoke that way. So what and why is Luke, again, inspired by the Holy Spirit, highlighting in this story as he's unfolding the story of the life of Jesus? What's he doing here? So far, the answer to the question, who is Jesus, is as we talked about the Christmas story, he is born God. He doesn't become God. He's always been God. Okay? He's born God, as we learned in the Christmas story. He's of the bloodline of David, so he's born in that bloodline to fulfill prophecy and scripture. He's sinless, so he never sins. He never makes a mistake. He's God in the flesh. He faces temptation, which is for us gives us, in a sense, comfort and confidence in Christ, that he has dealt with what we have dealt with and from Satan himself, but he has resisted the temptation, he's sinless. At this point, we only have miraculous rumors that we hear about. Okay? But today those rumors are gonna we're gonna see the truth of them in the reality, in Luke's gospel. We know, and again, who answering this question, who is this Jesus? We're gonna we're gonna see, or Jesus identifies with the rejected prophets like Elijah and Elisha. We know that Jesus is the Messiah on mission, and he's declared that to his hometown synagogue, that he's the liberator from sin and death, and he is declaring the year of Jubilee. That's a good year to be in. And he doesn't read that verse in Isaiah about vengeance and judgment of God. And you could say we're still in that in-between place as well. The judgment day is coming, that the day of vengeance, the wrath of God is coming against sin. And for those who have faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we do not fear that day because we know that Jesus died in our place. He takes our place on the cross. That's a stark reality, a black and white, a light and dark reality. For those who have faith, we do not fear that because we are put our trust in Jesus Christ as our sacrifice. But again, who is this Jesus now? He has power over natural and supernatural. And so we're going to dive into that today as we just read the story of him delivering this unclean spirit from this man. You know, we are hidden from spiritual warfare. We don't get to see it. And I would argue this is a tactic, a tactic of Satan in our lives. I would say maybe from a more Western perspective. You've maybe heard someone say, if the devil doesn't exist, that means what? God doesn't exist. But when you see demonic activity, when you see that there is a spiritual realm in this world, you realize this isn't all that there is. It's not just the natural, but it's supernatural. There is an unseen battle. You maybe have heard this verse before, Ephesians 6.12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And I think as followers of Christ, we have to be careful not to claim or dismiss this mystery of spiritual warfare, but it is a reality that we live in. So one commentary said this. So this demon is resisting Jesus. I used to kind of read these encounters as like Jesus is taking over, but these demons are, these unclean spirits are resisting Jesus. You know, later in Scripture, later in the Gospels, you'll remember these other stories of these demons later wondering, and they kind of ask aloud this question: is this the moment? Is this the time? And they're referring to our future as well. To that, as we read about in the book of Revelation, and we see that later. But we don't see this in this moment. But the demons, by crying out, I know who you are, the Holy One of God, according to again one commentary, were trying to subdue Jesus. And I thought that was interesting. And I had this thought. This was their first time encountering God in the flesh. This was their first time. Again, I it's a mystery. I don't want to be like, you know, like kind of run on with conclusions here, but this is their first time encountering God in the flesh as these demons, and they're they're trying to exert their will upon Jesus. You know, what did they know about the powers of the God man, Jesus? So again, these big questions of authority. We got these kind of what I would call scary things talking about supernatural warfare and and and physical warfare, talking about authority again. And I just want to again say something about authority. And I'm gonna say something about authority in this church. So, what is the authority in this church? Maybe I think, Aaron, are you an authority? Are the elders an authority? The house church pastors are an authority. I would I would say to just be abundantly clear, this is the authority. God's revealed word is the authority.

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Okay.

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If the elders, the house church pastors, the leaders of this church aren't submitted and following this, don't stay here. This is the authority of this church. We check it for everything that we do. We are not smart enough. We just keep checking this. We keep poring over this and searching it and understanding it. This is the concrete, this is the truth, this is what we can have our confidence in. This is the authority in our lives and in the leadership of this church. You know, and as we learn about authority, I thought about the kind of the order of kind of force, the order of change, the order of transformation. And the reality is we change. We are transformed. God does not change. That is the authority. When we ask about who's changing, who's in charge here, who's being transformed? We are. That is the order of authority. So some reflection for you, some application for you. As we talk about this scary thing of authority, we talk about natural and supernatural warfare that's going on. I would say, maybe I'm projecting onto you, but some of our tendency as humans is to shy away from this idea of spiritual warfare. I thought I was thinking it's helpful to wonder why. Maybe even as I say that as I read that Ephesians 6.12 verse, why? Why do we shy away? Why do we avoid this conversation? I would say it's because it's unseen. We can't see it, we can't grab it, we can't touch it, we can't understand it in a sense. There is mystery in this idea, in this reality of spiritual warfare. And because it's unseen for us humans, it's unknown. And I think it's natural to fear things that you can't see. When you can't see around the corner, when you can't see down that dark alley, it's normal as a human to have some caution. There's some wisdom in that. But we need to be careful with that. We need to realize we don't want to avoid it. Again, humans in Scripture, as we've seen and as we talk about spiritual things, every human really that we see in scripture encountering an angel, a good guy, they're still scared because they're encountering something that they have not encountered. So it's something that's strange. But there's also a tendency to shy away from spiritual warfare because it's the reality of evil in our lives. That there is someone who hates you, that wants to destroy you, that wants to lie to you, that wants to get you off track, that wants to get you away from God. And that is scary. That's something to be concerned with, that's something to be aware of. But here's the reality, here's the truth, here's the reflection when we are afraid, when we're we're dealing with these thoughts and we're dealing with these natural and supernatural realities. We believe in God, who is in charge, who has all power and authority. And by one word transforms everything and is in charge. So when you have that scary dream or that scary thought or something, you know, again, is unexplainable going on in your life, remember who's in charge. Remember who's in the authority, who's in true authority, who has conquered all. And that is Jesus. We cry out to Jesus, we pray to Jesus, we search God's word, we we proclaim his word in spiritual warfare. Again, going back again for reflection on this kind of um comparison now of Capernaum, what happens in the synagogue in the Capernaum, now to Nazareth. What happened in Nazareth? There was they heard Jesus and they heard how he compared them to himself, to Elijah and Elisha, and said about how these Gentiles had faith, but they didn't have faith, and then they're like, We're gonna kill you now. We're gonna throw you off the cliff. And there's this there's this comparison, you know, this hometown was convinced, though, that he was a human. And we may all understand that. We may say, yes, we understand that, but for hundreds of years the church has wrestled with this reality, with this theology, this Christology of Jesus. Was he God that looked like a human, or was he a human that became God? These are the big questions. The reality is he's fully God, fully man. But again, his hometown crowd knew that he was human, but they they lacked the faith to believe that he was God. And one, again, comment uh commentary spoke to this and called it a grim poetry. A grim poetry that these evil spirits are speaking about who Jesus is and his hometown crowd. Didn't didn't speak to his divinity. So let's continue on though, verse 38 and 39. And he arose and he left the synagogue and he entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them. So again, this is the same day. It's my understanding, learning and researching this, that it was customary, you know, for synagogues to conduct a mid-morning service. Sounds familiar, and for the Sabbath meal to be served right after synagogue at the about noon. Sunday lunch or Saturday lunch. So Jesus was invited to the home of his soon-to-be disciple Simon Peter. And so what this also means is Peter has a mother-in-law. He's married, and she's sick with a high fever. So I asked the question: who is the they that appealed to Jesus? Again, this report is out what Jesus can do. They just experienced Jesus deliver someone from demonic activity. They must have known that he could do these things. We don't know who the they is, but again, I just have these questions. Who would have invited Jesus to Simon's house? Again, Luke is introducing Simon, Peter, before his calling. Just a thought, an interesting. And this is also the first healing over sickness that we see in Luke's gospel. Again, another pondering that I have. He rebuked the fever. That's an interesting word to use that he rebuked the fever. I'm sure, I'm unsure of the spiritual implications here, but what God knows, I don't know. It's a mystery, and that's what's important. God healed her from this fever, high fever. Let's continue on verse 40. Only verse 40 here. Now, when the sun was setting, key word here, all. All those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. All so uh we went through the Mark Gospel series a couple years ago, and we we talked about this idea that I call healing traffic. We know full well in Chicagoland what traffic is like when everybody wants to go somewhere at the same time. Well, can you imagine Capernaum and the word spreading out that that the Messiah is on the move, the king is here, and he's healing, he's delivering people from demons and sicknesses. The word would spread fast. Can you imagine that happening in this town? How fast the word would spread, how fast everybody would grab everybody they have and bring them to that place where Jesus is. That would be a crowd, real quick. And that's what happened. I love this. One commentary highlighted this. Luke is most careful to tell us. He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Just think about Jesus. Think about our God in the flesh among us.

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He takes the time to be with every single person. One-on-one. Putting his hands on them. Healing all of them.

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Again, this commentary spokes about hands on healing was most unusual, for such a practice was unknown in the Old Testament and rabbinical literature. I think what we all need to take away from this is we ask, who is this Jesus? Who is God in the flesh? He is compassionate. He's close. He's tender.

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This is who God is.

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This is the reality of who we believe in. Again, he's compassionate. He's close. He's tender. He's personal. Again, another quote: kingdom authority is not an impersonal force. Kingdom authority is not an impersonal force. So I'd like you to just wonder with me for a little bit. Again, we kind of did this when this happened, when Jesus could have walked through the crowds that were trying to throw him off the cliff, but he allowed them to bring him to the edge of the cliff, and then he walked through the crowds. His timing is perfect. Why don't you think about this? Jesus could have snapped his fingers in Capernaum. He's God in the flesh. He can do whatever he wants. He could have snapped his fingers. He could have waved his hands. He could have said a word. He could have said a whisper. He could have just had a thought, and everyone in Capernaum could have been healed, but he didn't do it that way. God in the flesh did it this way. Every person got his attention. Every person that was suffering was personally attended to. His hands were placed on them and they were healed in the moment.

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That is who our God is.

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I hope that transforms your mind and your thoughts and how you think about Jesus. He is not far away. He's not a puppet master, but he's close and he cares about each one of us. And I had an aha this week. There's passages in Scripture that talks about laying on of hands and anointing the sick with oil. And I've kind of had this wondering like, why? Why is this in Scripture? Why is it this way? And then I just had it like a reality. Like, this is what Jesus did. He was close. He was personal. He was one-on-one with people. That's an immediate application for each one of us in ministry, in our lives, as you are sent on mission to be the ambassadors, the witnesses, to slow down, to be with people one-on-one, to care about what's going on, to be listening, because that's what Jesus did. Verse 41. So it's like you have this like moment where there's demonic activity for one person, and you have this, you know, Simon's mother-in-law gets healed, and then everyone gets healed. Now everyone, all the demons in town, right? Verse 41. And demons also came out of many crying, You are the Son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. So we see the full display of the power of Jesus, healing of various diseases and demonic deliverance. And the demons are professing Jesus as the Son of God. And I, you know, I just wonder, I don't know, but why did Jesus rebuke demons and fallen angels? Why could they not say it out loud? And I had this thought. They don't get to participate, they don't get to participate in the plan, the unfolding revelation plan of Jesus. And it's interesting, what Jesus said he would do, he is doing in Capernaum. They rejected him in his hometown in Nazareth. They tried to kill him, but now it's happening in Capernaum. I love this quote. This was the unrestrained display of raw kingdom power. The night vibrated with healing wholeness. God is on the move. Jesus is at work. He's healing everybody. All the demons are fleeing. This is who our God is. So back to what are we learning about Jesus? Again, what is authority? Authority is power. It's the rule and the reign, it's change, it's transformation. But we're seeing in Jesus' authority, we're seeing his power to resist temptation by Satan, again, by saying, it is written. We're seeing his authority in teaching. We're seeing his authority and his power in exorcism. We're seeing his authority in healing. Again, not tanks, not armies, not navies, not military power. This is how God is operating in his authority and his power. And again, Jesus' not so secret weapon is the word and his word. Let's continue on, verse 42 through 44. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Again, clearly the mission of Jesus is not the temporal, but the eternal. Jesus is clearly focused on the eternal, on the forever, on the things that are of what 1 Corinthians 15 talks about is of first importance. That is the gospel. Okay, but we can't separate it also from what Jesus does. He heals everybody, he delivers everybody. So we have this priority of the gospel spreading in our lives, of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. And we at the same time care for our neighbors as we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We move in priority with the gospel and in the reality of compassion and closeness of God. We have to make sure that we are prioritizing heaven and people being in heaven for all eternity and also recognize their needs in this life. Again, of course, we move in compassion like Jesus, but of first importance is the gospel and sharing the good news. So I just would invite you to reflect on the people in your life, the people in your sphere of influence. Do they know who Jesus is? Do they know that he's compassionate and close and tender? That he moves in power and authority, and that he prioritized the gospel, the good news of Jesus. Again, the Messiah, the King, is on the move. The ministry of God in the flesh has begun. This is our reality and perspective. So you are, if you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a subject in his kingdom. We are citizens of heaven. And I also like to remind us of what it says in Scripture, and I would not say it unless it said it in Scripture. We are co-heirs with Christ. We are adopted into the family of God. He calls us sons and daughters. You know, on mission, we are his adopted children going out into the world saying, Our Heavenly Father wants you. Our Heavenly Father wants you to know what He did for you. In compassion and in love, in the words that He gives you. Again, does Jesus raise an army? Does He take over for the high priest? Does He start a political party? Does he go to Caesar or Herod? No. He goes one-on-one to heal the sick, to deliver from demons. Again, he doesn't do these things, but Jesus has the right to sit on any throne in any kingdom in any time in history at the same time. That's his authority. He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. So in conclusion, who is this Jesus? He is the authority over any spiritual force. So I would encourage you. We've all probably got a story, a moment. And as you face these moments in your life where things unexplainable happen, and maybe you have a sense, or maybe something's strange in your life. Take confidence in Christ. Take confidence in the reign and the rule of Jesus in your life. Cry out to Him. He hears you. He's the mighty God. In his name, they flee. But we cry out to Jesus. We saturate our minds and our lives in his word to combat the enemy. We also recognize who this Jesus is. He has authority over all diseases. And we live in the mystery of this when we pray for healing. We wonder aloud as children who are loved by God, his timing. Knowing that his timing is perfect, knowing that he works all things for good. And sometimes we live in that hard reality. But we still pray. We still ask for healing. And we know for all those who are in Christ that perfect healing is coming. New heavenly bodies in Christ. Again, who is this Jesus? He is compassionate and he's close. He took the time to heal everyone, one-on-one, hands-on, praying for them and healing them. And there's just this reality. There's a statement. He loves us. He loves us. And so I challenge my house church with a phrase, and I challenge you with this. Sometimes we can kind of lose the impact of when we say this, us. God loves me. So I encourage you to say that maybe right now. God loves me. Would you say it?

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God loves me. God loves me.

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He does. His word is clear. I'll end with this. Is Jesus your authority? Is he your king? Is he in charge of your life? Is there any area of your life that he's not in charge? Is there anywhere where you're like, you can have charge of this, but this is mine, Jesus. I'm going to keep controlling this. I went through this in my life. I would describe it as Jesus was in my heart, but he wasn't in all the chambers of my heart. He had different spots. I believed in him, but I didn't have enough faith to give him control over everything, to trust him in every area of my life. And that's sanctification, that's transformation. He's good, he's gentle, he's humble, he's patient. But he doesn't just want half. He doesn't just want a little bit. He deserves it all. All of your life, all of your thoughts, everything. And again, we might in our pride and in our sinful nature be like, hey, but he's our heavenly father. And he paid it all for us to be free, to be liberated from sin, to be liberated from death. So the good news is this. Jesus is God on display in these verses that we're reading. This historical document that we're reading.

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He is God.

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And Jesus died on the cross for your sin. He died in your place. He took the punishment that you deserved on himself because he loves you. He wants to be in relationship with you forever. And on the third day he conquered death. So we do not fear, but we are in awe of him and we are thankful to him and we love him. Again, Jesus' not-so-secret weapon is his word. And we have it. And there's this phrase that I again read in the research that said this word divinely hurt. And we talked about this when we talked about our value of biblical authority. And we can think of the word and when it calls in the armor of God as the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And we can think of it as a sword, and it is a sword, and we can think about pointing it at everybody else. But the reality, I would say, the majority of the time, it's piercing us. It's piercing our sinful nature. It's divinely hurting our sinful nature. It's taking over, and we're inviting God's word to take over our thoughts to have the mind of Christ. It's piercing us to address our deceitful heart. We're saturating our minds in his word to take over our conscious thoughts and our unconscious thoughts. To fully give our lives over to him. I invite you to do that as the Lord prompts you in your life. Put your faith in Jesus Christ 100%. Every aspect, area of your life, every relationship, every opportunity, everything that you're going through, give your life to Jesus. I wanted to end today. I'm going to invite Christy up after we pray. And I wanted to offer praying for people this morning. I think I should pray for people. So if you would like prayer this morning about anything, I invite you to come get prayer. We'll go over here and hide in the corner, and we'd love to pray for you. Trust in God for whatever it is that you're burdened with. So let's pray. God, I pray for everyone in here. God, I pray in your truth, God, in your love, in your power, God, for your will to be done in us. God, help us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to you, God. Help us to surrender everything to you, God. Help us to trust you with everything. God, I pray for anybody in here that doesn't know you. I pray that they would turn, they would repent from their sin and give their lives completely to you, God. To surrender all to you, God. To believe that you are God, that you died on the cross for their sins, and that you conquered death on the third day. I pray that they would believe it and confess it today, Jesus. And God, I pray for your healing today, God. I pray for your transformation of our minds and our hearts and our spirits and our lives, God. I pray for your, again, your reign and your rule in our lives. Again, for your will to be done. And we just thank you, God, and we love you. In your name we pray. Amen.