“The Authority and Power of Christ”
(Luke 4:31-44)
Series: Certainty in Uncertain Times
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson KY
(6-20-10) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open them to Luke, chapter 4.
Of course it is Father’s Day, but I felt led to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke. We’ve been making our way, verse-by-verse, through Luke and I just felt led to continue on this morning even though it is Father’s Day and I could have preached about dads and being a godly dad, and so forth. Maybe I avoided that because of my own challenges of being a father.
I can relate to the PhD student in Child Psychology. He began his dissertation entitled, “Ten Definitive Principles for Child Rearing.” He later married and after they produced their first child he changed his dissertation to, “Ten Principles for Child Rearing.” After they had a second child he changed it to, “Ten Suggestions for Child Rearing.” Four children later it was, “Ten Questions about the Nature of Child Rearing.” By the time the children reached their teens it was entitled, “Perils and Pitfalls of Parenting.”
Not too long ago I was talking to Nicholas, our youngest, about one of the differences between men and women. He was getting a little agitated because of his mother’s shopping behavior. He couldn’t figure out how she could spend so much time looking at things and then come out of the store empty-handed. So I put on my pastoral counseling hat for a moment and explained to him that God created men and women very differently. “For a man,” I told him, “shopping is a mission to be conquered. Typically, men know exactly what they want when they go to the store. Men locate it and we buy it. For a man, a successful shopping experience is locating the item, purchasing it and returning home as quickly as possible. For a woman,” I explained, “Shopping is an experience in and of itself. A woman enjoys just looking at things and trying them on. She may buy absolutely nothing, but feel that she has had a successful shopping trip.” Nicholas paused for a moment to take this in and then he said, “Are you saying mom should be a man?!”
I’m going to begin reading at verse 31. Remember the context: Having been baptized and having passed the tests of temptation in the wilderness, Jesus begins His earthly ministry and He does so, Luke tells us in verse 14, “in the power of the Spirit.” Having been rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, He now travels down to Capernaum where He ministers in great authority and power. So beginning in verse 31, we’re going to be reading about the authority and power of Christ. Listen for that as I read and as I invite you to follow along.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.
32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.
33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice,
34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”
35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.
36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
37 And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
- Pray.
Introduction:
My aim this morning is to exalt Jesus Christ, to lift Him up. I want to lift Him up because He alone has all authority and power and is therefore exclusively worthy of our worship and praise.
I read awhile back about the late EV Hill, famous African-American pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. EV Hill told about an elderly woman in his church whom everyone called “1800” because nobody knew exactly how old she really was. But she had this ministry there at the church. This woman was especially hard on preachers who may not have had much experience preaching. She would sit on the front row and as soon as the preacher started preaching she would shout, “Get Him up!” meaning, “Get Jesus up. Lift Him up!” After a few minutes of preaching, if she didn’t feel there was enough of Christ in the sermon she would shout again, “Get Him Up!” So if the preacher wasn’t preaching a Christ-centered sermon, he was in for a long and difficult sermon (Kent Hughes, Luke, 116). Well, that’s exactly what my aim is this morning, to “Get Him up!” I want to exalt Jesus Christ who has all authority and power and is therefore exclusively worthy of our worship and praise.
First, because Jesus has all authority and power He can conquer Satan and the spiritual realm.
I. Jesus is sent to Conquer Satan (31-37)
In these first seven verses we have the first of 21 miracle events recorded by Luke. And it is not insignificant that the first of these 21 miracle accounts demonstrates Jesus’ authority over Satan and the dark, spiritual realm. We read earlier that Satan, after failing to conquer Jesus in the wilderness temptation, “departed from Him until an opportune time (4:13).” So now Satan comes against Christ again, this time through a demon possessed man in the synagogue.
Jesus is in the synagogue there in Capernaum and He is teaching them, says Luke in verse 31, “on the Sabbaths.” We remarked last time about our Lord’s habitual weekly practice of worship in God’s house. If this was the practice of our Lord Jesus, it should be the practice of His followers. We should be in God’s house every week to learn the Word and to encourage and minister to one another.
So the people are listening to Jesus teach in the synagogue and Luke says in verse 32 that “they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.” Most of the teaching by rabbis in the synagogue was their quoting other rabbis. One would stand and say something like, “As Rabbi Abramson has said,” and then a quote would follow. But Jesus stands and He quotes no one. He speaks His Word—the Word. You get a greater sense of this in the Sermon on the Mount where He says, “You have heard that it was said…but I say unto you.” He spoke with authority and it astonished the people. They had heard nothing like this before.
This authority and power is about to be challenged. Imagine as He is teaching that a man suddenly cries out, “Let us alone.” Other translations have, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth!” Now that would get your attention, wouldn’t it? A few weeks ago my preaching was interrupted with birds flying around. I believe I would prefer that interruption to this! So Jesus rebukes the demonic spirit, casting him out of the man and, verse 36, “they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, ‘What a word this is!’ literally, “‘what a word this!’ For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.’”
We should note in verse 34 specifically what the unclean spirit says just before being cast out. First, he says, “Let us alone.” Demons often speak in the plural, sometimes denoting that there was more than one spirit inhabiting the body of a person. The demon also asks, “Did You come to destroy us?” The demons know that their ultimate fate is to be cast into the abyss (Revelation 20). And the demon also says in verse 34, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” It was widely believed in Jesus’ day that one showed mastery over the other by identifying the name of the other. This, of course, does not work for the demon. And Jesus rebukes and silences him. Jesus is not prepared for the entire world to know His exact identity at this point and certainly not in this manner, coming from a demon of all things so He rebukes the demon.
We should also note that verse 34 demonstrates that it is possible to know Jesus Christ and to even know His identity as “the Holy One of God” and yet to remain lost. There are many people who are members of churches all across our country, perhaps even in this church, who know intellectually that Jesus Christ is “the Holy One of God,” but are unsaved, unconverted, and unforgiven. Just knowing truth about Christ does not save. We must personally appropriate that truth into our hearts, receiving Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We must believe with both head and heart. It’s a dangerous thing to know only the objective truth of the Gospel without having personally embraced that truth with our hearts.
When reading these examples of demonic possession, someone invariably asks why it is we do not see this as much today. Truth is we do see it in many places outside of our country. You will see this much more in third world countries where Satan continues to operate this way. We may wonder then, “Why not here as much in our country?” We must remember that Satan is highly intellectual. He will get us where he can get us best. He knows the best way to detract us from Christ is not through the attention getting displays of demon possession, but through the more subtle means of prosperity, greed, and self-sufficiency. If Satan and his demonic minions can get us to fall in love with the world, then there’s no need for dramatic displays of demon possession. So let us examine our hearts. Is Jesus really Lord of all? Are we trying to hold the things of God in one hand and the things of the world in the other?
If we live whole-heartedly for the Lord Jesus Christ we have no fear of Satan. There are Christians running around and wringing their hands because they are afraid of Satan. There are some who are afraid to pray out loud about their innermost concerns and temptations and worries for fear that Satan will hear and learn of them and somehow triumph over them. What lack of faith in the authority and power of Christ!
In Colossians 2:15, Paul writes about one of the benefits to Christians as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection. He writes, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
Jesus Christ has authority and power over Satan. We must remember, as Martin Luther, the great reformer, writes in the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” that just “one little word” from Jesus causes Satan to fall. Remember the words?
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
Jesus is sent to Conquer Satan. Secondly:
II. Jesus is sent to Conquer Sickness (38-41)
38 Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her.
39 So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.
I find that utterly amazing, don’t you? I know how weak I am even after my fever breaks. But so immediate and complete is our Lord’s healing that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who had “a high fever,” not just any fever, but “a high fever” gets up immediately and serves them a meal, why? Because, just as before, one word from the Master is all it takes. Such authority and power! He just speaks the Word. He rebukes the fever. He talks to the fever! He says, “Go” and it goes. This authority and power over Satan and over sickness continues in Capernaum:
40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.
41 And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.
Jesus is sent to conquer Satan and Jesus is sent to conquer sickness. There are three things we must remember here about healing.
First, because Jesus is the Great Physician, then He gets the glory for all healings, whatever the means through which they come. If healing comes through medicine, surgery, radiation, or other means, we credit doctors for their skill and giftedness, but Christ gets the glory for it. Our Lord may elect to heal through medicine or He may desire to just speak the Word. In either case, He gets the glory for the healing. This raises the question of whether we are in the habit of giving God the glory for healing every time we have been sick. Do you thank God for healing you of a headache through the means of ibuprofen? Do you thank God every day for the health you enjoy? None of us deserves good health. We are all sinners, deserving nothing. But if, in God’s grace, He allows us to enjoy good health, should we not be in the habit of thanking Him regularly? May we never take our good health for granted. Our good health comes to us as a gift from the Great Physician.
Secondly, it may not be the Lord’s will to heal our physical sickness. Not every Christian in the New Testament was healed by our Lord. Remember what Jesus had just said earlier when teaching in the synagogue of Nazareth. He says back in verse 27 that there were many lepers in Israel, but Elijah was not sent to bring God’s healing to any one of them, but rather to someone living outside Israel in Syria. And we remember, don’t we, from 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul had his “thorn in the flesh,” whatever that was. And Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:20 that he left a guy named Trophimus back in Miletus “sick.” It is not God’s will for every person to be healed of physical sickness this side of heaven. Sometimes, He permits sickness because He knows best. It is not the purpose of this sermon to talk about all of the reasons why God may allow sickness in our lives, but let us at least acknowledge that God knows what He is doing and that He always does what is best.
Thirdly, because Jesus is the Great Physician, He is the healer of every sickness we may face, not just physical sickness, but heart sickness, emotional sickness; worry sickness, anxiety sickness, and sickness over hurts, loss, defeat, and despair. No, this is not to suggest that if you’ll just “come to Christ” all will be well and you’ll never hurt again. But it is to remind us that we have in Jesus someone who can sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). We have a loving Lord who says to us, “Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).” Rest! Our Lord will calm your hearts this morning if you will but trust Him. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast your care upon Him for He cares for you.” He will heal you of your hurts and your worries and your cares. Just trust Him to care for you today.
And Jesus can do so because He is sent not only to conquer Satan and Sickness, but thirdly:
III. Jesus is sent to Conquer Sin (42-44)
The Bible says that following this long day of ministry Jesus gets up the next morning and finds a place of seclusion. Verse 42:
42 Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them;
43 but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”
44 And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Before we discuss the main point of these three concluding verses, we must pause for a moment and consider the devotional practice of our Lord Jesus. Frequently we find Him in the Scriptures going away to a secluded place for mediation with the Heavenly Father. You know, it’s not enough that we take time to read our Bibles and have a regular time of prayer. And let me say that is very important! Most of us do not do that as we should. But in addition to our daily prayer time and Bible reading, we ought to periodically get away and just be quiet somewhere before God. Jesus just disengages and gets away to be quiet before God. He had to go somewhere where the people were not. He went away from the crowds of people and got alone before God.
And again we find ourselves confronted with the question that if this was the practice of our Lord Jesus, how much should it also be the practice of those who follow Him? And how much more important given our busied barrage of noisy and bothersome technology: televisions, radio, CDs, DVDs, laptops, cell phones, texting, tweeting, and gaming? We must “unplug” every once in awhile and get away somewhere and just be quiet before God. Failing to do so increases our vulnerability to worldly temptation and exposes us to the unhappy prospect of backsliding into sin. Let’s follow the Master’s example and periodically get away from it all and be quiet before God.
So the crowd manages to locate Jesus and they’re all like, “Hey, Jesus! Come on! Let’s get back to the town! Everyone is asking about You!” But Jesus says in verse 43, “I must preach (that is, “evangelize,” or, “share the Good news about”) the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”
That phrase, “the kingdom of God,” is the first of 31 references in Luke’s Gospel. The kingdom of God refers more to God’s reign than it does to a specific place. The “kingdom of God” is both a present and future reality. If we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then the kingdom of God breaks into our lives. God reigns in our hearts. And, one day, when Christ returns, He will set up a literal kingdom and God will reign on the earth. So the kingdom can be a present reality to all who trust Christ.
The kingdom of God is the good news of the Gospel coming into our lives and freeing us from the bondage of sin. Jesus Christ was so focused upon His mission that, in spite of the fact that great things were happening there in Capernaum, He says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom elsewhere, too,” why? “because for this purpose I have been sent.”
Jesus is sent to conquer sin. No one city has exclusive rights to the Gospel. The Gospel is for all peoples in all places. The Gospel is for people in the community, the commonwealth, the country, and the continents. The Gospel is for everyone. The Gospel is for you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only, unique, one-of-a-kind Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not die, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).”
“For this purpose,” says Jesus, “I have been sent.” He has been sent. Have you received Him?
- Stand for prayer.
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