The authority of Jesus over demons 01/08/2023

Pastor Jason will read for us Hebrews chapter 6.

Two points might be made here.

Verses 4 through 6 is argued by some that a true Christian

can lose their salvation, but that is not what the passage teaches.

What it teaches is that some people can become so much like Christians and yet not be

true Christians, and they fall away.

And we know that's the teaching of the passage because of verse 9.

The writer was fully confident of his readers that they had things that accompanied salvation,

and what he meant by that is the grace of perseverance.

They don't abandon Christ.

And then the second word of encouragement at the end of the chapter, the writer

argues that God's promise to Abraham, and then confirmed years later

by an oath that God gave to Abraham, is a basis of assurance

for Christians, for you and me.

That's why God gave the promise to Abraham, that's why he confirmed it to Abraham, so that you

can have assurance of salvation if you're a believer in Christ.

Hebrews chapter 6.

Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to

maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward

God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead,

and eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits, for it is impossible in the case of

those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the

Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God, and the powers of the age to

come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are

crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm, and holding him up to contempt.

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose

sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is

to be burned.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure

of better things, things that belong to salvation.

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in

serving the Saints, as you still do.

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope

until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and

patience inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by

himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you.

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is the final

for confirmation.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character

of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things

in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong

encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the

inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,

having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the Spirit of God, who

bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

We thank you, Lord, that we can have assurance, that we don't have to wonder where we stand.

Lord, we thank you for the work of Christ.

We thank you for the gift of the Spirit.

We thank you for the conviction of sins.

We thank you for the assurance that he gives to us.

Lord, we pray that we would remember all of these blessings, that we would remember the promises that you have given

to us.

We pray, Lord, that in our lives every day we would reflect upon the great riches that we have in

Christ Jesus, and the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

Lord, we ask that you would direct us and guide us now as we open up the Word.

We pray that we would be mindful of what it says.

Help us, Lord, to view the text in light of our own lives, and we pray, Lord, that we would surrender to you,

that we would live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to you.

We pray, Lord, that we would line up today with your Word, and that you would be pleased.

Thank you, God.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 4.

I might just.

Pause and just say a quick word to welcome you shut -ins that tune in.

I know you tune in every week at this time, and it's wonderful to have this technology.

So I think of you, Mary Dacus, and the Lawrences,

Jean Demartino, and I know you wish you could be with us.

Amen.

All right, Luke chapter 4.

Last week we suggested that what happened when Jesus preached in the synagogue of his hometown of

Nazareth, in some ways, pictures his entire ministry, his ministry as a

whole.

And what occurred then would reoccur in Jesus' earthly ministry.

In Nazareth, there had been initial agreement and enthusiasm regarding Jesus,

but then the people turned on him, rejecting him.

The synagogue gathering of worshipers in Nazareth, most of which had probably known Jesus from his

childhood, was initially quite impressed with Jesus.

His message to them, for all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded

out of his mouth.

That was the initial reaction.

But then Jesus taught them regarding the sovereignty of God in dispensing his

grace to whomever he chose.

Jesus cited accounts from the Jewish scriptures when God had passed over Jews and

their needs, but was gracious to Gentiles who had the same kinds of needs.

He showed the Jews that they weren't preferred over some Gentiles in the historical record,

and of course that's what stirred them up and they became angry.

And so we read in Luke 4 28 through 30, so all those in the synagogue when they heard these things were

filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city.

They led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff.

And then passing through the midst of them, he went his way.

Well we read of our Lord Jesus leaving Nazareth and returning to Capernaum, he'd been there before,

the city of Galilee which was the home base from which he performed his Galilean ministry.

Capernaum was a town on the northern shore of Lake Galilee, about 20 miles northeast

of Nazareth.

And our passage now under consideration, Luke 4 31 through 44,

records the events of one Sabbath day in Capernaum,

and it should probably understood as somewhat of a typical Sabbath day in the ministry

of our Lord.

And so let's read Luke 4 31 and following.

Then he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths, notice the plural word,

and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon,

and he cried out with a loud voice saying, let us alone.

What are we to do with you Jesus of Nazareth?

Did you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet and come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, he came out of him and did not hurt him,

wrote Luke the physician.

And 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.

And the report about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

And now he arose from the synagogue and entered Simon's house, Peter's house, but

Simon's wife's mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request

of him concerning her.

And so he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.

And immediately she arose and served them.

And 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.

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.

And now when it was day, he departed and went into a deserted place, and the crowd saw him and came to him,

and he tried to keep him from, they tried to keep him from leaving them.

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.

And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

And so beginning with verse 31 of Luke 4, the ministry of Jesus in Galilee is set before

us.

And this will continue this ministry in Galilee up to Luke 9 51, when

Jesus steadfastly sets his face to go to Jerusalem.

Jesus then began his journey to Jerusalem, which would lead to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem.

And that travel narrative from Luke 9 51 through Luke 19, when he arrives at Jerusalem,

is a significant portion of Luke's gospel.

Jesus then began his journey to Jerusalem, he would die there of course.

But here in this Galilean ministry from this point, Luke 4 31

to Luke 9 50 51, we basically have a case

being built against those who refused to respond and receive Jesus.

In fact we might discern four stages in which this case against those who refuse to

believe him is established.

First, Jesus is shown to have great authority as the Son of Man, the promised Messiah.

Secondly however, since Jesus has authority, it follows that people have a responsibility to hear him,

that is to believe what he says.

And we'll note the transition when we move into that phase.

But then there's a third stage, since Jesus has authority, people not only have a responsibility to hear him, but

they are to obey him.

He has authority, you should hear him, you should obey him.

But because they refuse to hear and refuse to obey, God's judgment would come upon them.

So this case is being built against Christ rejecters from here,

Luke 4 31, through Luke 9 51.

Now with regard to the authority, this first stage that Luke sets before

his readers, there are four different arenas in which his authority

is displayed.

Jesus has authority over demons, that's what we have here in the passage before us.

Secondly, we will see next week, Lord willing, Jesus has authority over nature.

Thirdly, we will see Jesus has authority over physical disease, although there is an

instance of healing Peter's mother -in -law here in this account.

And then fourthly, Jesus has authority to forgive sins,

thankfully.

And that's an emphasis toward the end of chapter 5.

Well let's now consider this one day in the life and ministry of Jesus, the Son of God.

Here we have three events that are related to us.

First, Jesus delivers one who is demon possessed.

Second, Jesus heals Peter's mother -in -law.

And then third, we read that Jesus ministered to many in the evening after the conclusion of the Sabbath.

Let's work through these three sections of this chapter.

First, Jesus delivers one who is demon possessed.

The major theme or lesson that Luke desired to illustrate and emphasize is set forth in verses 31

and 32.

This is kind of a general description of his ministry.

He then went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

There you have the theme, authority.

Luke gives emphasis to Jesus's teaching.

It is set forth as the major and common work of Jesus, since he has said

that he was teaching them on the Sabbath, plural.

It was his common practice.

And so although one Sabbath day is set forth in this section, Luke makes it clear that Jesus's

regular practice was to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath days.

This is also conveyed by the plural form of Sabbath in verse 31, at the account of the event,

rather than the account of just one Sabbath.

But also the form of the verb, the Greek form of the verb was teaching, speaks of a continual

or habitual practice of teaching.

Jesus did so regularly and frequently.

But also that his teaching the people was his principal ministry, as stated at the close of this section in verses

43 and 44.

He said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this

purpose I've been sent.

And so his principal ministry was one of teaching and preaching the kingdom of God.

Yes, he healed people.

Yes, he cast out demons.

But that wasn't his purpose ultimately, principally, but rather teaching and preaching the Word

of God.

It's very important.

The teaching and preaching of Jesus was profound, for we read that the people were astonished at his teaching.

As one wrote, the effect of the teaching is described by another imperfect verb.

And imperfect carries the idea of continuous action.

In this case, yes he was, kind of past tense, imperfect tense, he was

teaching.

There's a continuous idea.

The verb used is very strong.

The people were struck as by a blow.

They were being dumbfounded.

Matthew used the same verb at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

What produced this effect was the didesque, that is the teaching of Jesus.

And this word may mean the act of teaching, active, the very act of his teaching was profound.

Or the doctrine that he taught, the passive, probably both.

The manner and the content of his teaching and preaching struck these people.

So both the content and the manner in which Jesus preached the Word of God impacted his hearers.

They'd never heard such teaching until this man came upon the scene.

And so it is in the ministry of the Word of God.

When the Word is proclaimed with authority, when the Holy Spirit is pleased to infuse spiritual

power into the words of truth, the words of Holy Scripture, people will be

pressed upon with its weightiness.

The significance of that word, perhaps also recognizing the rarity of hearing such things, this

isn't common.

J .C. Philpott once wrote of the increasing awareness of a Christian as he grows in grace,

as he grows in grace, particularly through his trials.

Through the inward conflict, secret workings, mysterious changes, and ever -varying exercises of his soul, he becomes

established in a deep feeling of his own folly and God's wisdom.

See the contrast there?

Of his own weakness in Christ's strength, of his own sinfulness in the Lord's goodness, of

his own backslidings in the Spirit's recoveries, of his own base in gratitude in Jehovah's long

-suffering, of the aboundings of sin and the super aboundings of grace,

he thus becomes daily more and more confirmed in the vanity of the creature, the utter

helplessness of man, the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of the human heart,

the sovereignty of distinguishing grace, God's in charge, the fewness of

heaven -taught ministers, and the scanty number of living

souls, that is true Christians, and the great rareness of true religion or true

Christianity.

And as people grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord, they come to those convictions.

Well these people were hearing things from Jesus that they had never heard before.

Preaching the Word of God was at the center of the people's worship of God, as it should be ours.

Matthew Henry wrote, in hearing the Word preached as an ordinance of God, we worship God.

See, we worship God.

You're worshiping God now as you're hearing the Word taught and proclaimed.

And it is a proper work for Sabbath days.

Christ's preaching much affected the people.

They were astonished at his doctrine.

There was weight in every word he said and admirable discoveries were made to them by it.

The doctrine itself was astonishing, and not only as it came from one that had not had

a liberal education, he's from Nazareth.

His word was with power.

There was a commanding force in it, a working power went along with it to the conscience of men.

And that's key, the conscience of men.

Not just, you know, tickling fancy or informing the mind, but there's an impacting on

the very soul of a person.

Why were the people astonished with his teaching?

Because his word was with authority.

His logos.

What he said was coupled with authority, exousia, the Greek word.

Mark adds it, in Mark's Gospel, the parallel account, Mark adds that it was unlike the scribes.

The teaching of Jesus came as the Word of God, which was presented undiminished in its force by the

Son of God, and it went home with all its power to the astonishment of these Jews who had

never heard the like.

We've never heard anything like this.

This was no skimming of the surface, no quoting of human authorities, basing conclusions on them,

no trivialities and useless distinctions, no arid dissertations and legal human precepts.

It led to nothing.

The Word of Jesus reached the conscience and the heart of

unearned directness and made shiningly clear the will of God and Jesus's own great

mission.

No man ever spoke like this man, as quoted in John 7 46 by his

enemies.

When the Lord Jesus preached with authority, not only did people become astonished, but evil men became

alarmed and fearful.

We read of the presence of a demon -possessed man in the synagogue that morning.

Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon

and he cried out with a loud voice 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.

So here this Jewish synagogue, while the people of God were gathered to hear the Word of God taught and

proclaimed, there was a man who was demon -possessed, who had a spirit of an

unclean demon and the preaching and teaching of Jesus found him out.

We read he cried out with a loud voice saying, let us alone.

The man crying out with a loud voice is a mark of

spirit possession in the Scriptures.

One wrote of this phenomenon, demons are mentioned 23 times in the Gospel of Luke,

but most of the references, 14, occur between here and there's Luke 9 .50 that we mentioned

earlier, the Galilean ministry.

In the discussion of Jesus is Galilean ministry.

It's clear that the man is threatened directly by this possessive force.

Some in Judaism believe that demonic control of humans would end on the day of the Lord and

that reference there is to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The numeral one means it came from cave one, Q means Qumran, the community, and then the M

identifies a specific scroll in the citation.

Judaism taught that demonic possession would be crushed in the Messianic Age and Jesus says

as much in chapter 7.

Here is the second face -off in the battle between Jesus and the forces of evil.

With Satan already defeated in the first encounter, talking about his wilderness temptation,

his underlings are the opponents here, demons.

Both the nature of the times and the victor are revealed in the battle.

We read of Jesus in first John 3 .8, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might

destroy the works of the devil.

And here we see that purpose being realized.

We read that the demon recognized Jesus to be the Holy One of God.

This means that the demon knew and identified Jesus as the Son of God.

The demon was fearful, acknowledging that it would be Jesus that would destroy him and his

evil spirit companions.

Again, now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.

He cried out with a loud voice 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.

And so this demon had an understanding of the identity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Of course, James in his epistle wrote that demons believe, not in the sense that

they know they have salvation, but they believe and they know who Jesus is.

James wrote, someone will say you have faith, I have works, show me your faith without works, I'll show you my

faith by my works.

You believe there's one God, well that's good, that's fine that you do.

You do well.

Even demons believe, and he adds a quality that is not

true of people.

There are people who believe but they don't tremble.

Demons believe and they actually tremble, and that certainly is illustrated here in the synagogue

in Capernaum.

And so there are some people who know very well who Jesus is in truth, they know he's the Son of God,

but they only have the faith of demons and that's not saving faith.

They know the truth of Jesus's identity, they know that he will one day judge the world.

They may even be very fearful of the prospect of judgment for they know that they will be damned by Jesus, the

judge on that great day.

And so this man has this kind of faith, but that's not saving faith, just because you know who Jesus

is.

Well fine, your faith is raised to the level of demons.

We read of the manner that Jesus dealt with this demon, verses 35 through 37.

Jesus first rebuked him, commanded him to be silent, and then Jesus commanded him to come out of the man.

And the demon immediately obeyed Jesus's command.

Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet, come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him in their bits, he came out of him and did not hurt him.

And then they were all amazed, and they spoke among themselves, saying, what a word is this!

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.

And the report of him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

You can imagine why.

Jesus had authority that the demon could not withstand or resist.

He was compelled to obey Jesus immediately.

The demon did not want to leave the man, but he was powerless not to do so.

The demon wanted to harm the man in his departure, but he did not do so, for Jesus would not

permit him to do so.

As one wrote, Matthew Henry, in the breaking of Satan's power, both the enemy that is conquered shows his malice,

and Christ, the conqueror, shows his overruling grace.

Here first, the devil showed what he would have done when he threw the man in the

midst with force and fury, as if he would have dashed him to pieces.

But secondly, Christ showed what a power he had over him, and that he not only forced him to leave him, but to

leave him without so much as hurting him, without giving him a parting

blow, a parting gripe.

Whom Satan cannot destroy, he will do all the hurt he can do, but this is a comfort.

He can harm them no further than Christ permits.

Nay, he shall not do them any real harm.

He came out and hurt him not.

Again, the words of Luke the physician.

That is, the poor man was perfectly well in an instant, though the devil left him with so much

rage that all that were present thought he had torn him to pieces.

We need to say a few words about demon possession.

After all, we're living in a modern world, aren't we?

And to many in today's modern world, the references in the scriptures to demons and demon possession

reflect a primitive explanation of people that were struck with some form of mental disease.

But throughout the Bible, and throughout the history of the world, and throughout many parts of today's world,

demon possession is known to be a real -life occurrence which is commonly encountered.

We should distinguish between demonic activity, in which people are afflicted or

affected by demonic activity, and full demon possession.

There's a distinction.

What is demon possession?

Well, here's a good description.

I've got about a dozen books on the subject in my library.

I found this good setting forth.

Definition of demon possession.

Demon possession is a condition in which one or more evil spirits or demons inhabit the body of a human being

and can take complete control of the victim at will.

By temporarily blotting out his consciousness, they can speak and act through him as

their complete slave and tool.

The inhabiting demon or demons comes and goes much like the proprietor of a house who may or may not be

at home.

When the demon is at home, he may precipitate an attack.

In these attacks, the victim passes from his normal state in which he acts like other people

to the abnormal state of possession.

The intervals between attacks vary greatly from an hour to months.

Between attacks, the subject may be healthy and appear normal in every way.

The abnormal or demonized stages can last a few minutes or several days.

Sometimes attacks are mild, sometimes they are violent.

If they are frequent and violent, the health of the subject suffers.

Distinguishing mark of demon possession.

And this is important.

The chief characteristic of demon possession or demonomania is the

automatic projection of a new personality in the victim.

During an attack, the victim's personality is completely obliterated and the inhabiting demon's

personality takes over completely.

We see that in our passage.

The inhabiting demon uses the victim's body as a vehicle for his own thoughts, words, and acts.

The demon even speaks out of the victim's mouth and declares emphatically that he is a demon and frequently

he gives his name and dwelling place.

Supernatural knowledge and intellectual power of the demon possessed.

While in the demonized state, many persons give evidence of knowledge which cannot be accounted for naturally.

The demon who takes control of the body of his victim is obviously the source of the supernatural knowledge.

While demon possessed, many persons recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and display an

aversion to and a fear of him.

The remarkable cases of demon possession encountered by John Navias in China during the

19th century illustrate how common this affliction is in pagan lands.

His experiences read like the gospel accounts.

And I have a copy of that book in my library too.

It contains 41 case histories.

And of course people in other lands, people are getting these notes today, Kenya,

India, South Africa, these are familiar experiences to them.

Not necessarily to Americans, although it explains a lot in today's world, it would seem,

doesn't it?

And so what is demon possession?

Well it's the condition of an evil spirit taking complete control of a person, his mind, soul, and body.

Several points can be made about this.

Demons can express themselves through the mouth of the person they control.

And here in this passage a demon expresses defiance and fear.

Second, a plurality of demons can possess one person and we'll see that later in Luke's gospel.

Third, demons know their destiny, consequently they manifest unbridled evil and fear.

They know their time is limited.

Four, can a Christian be possessed?

No, a true Christian cannot be possessed, but he can be plagued by them in other ways.

They can afflict him, they can't possess him.

Demons have no ability to resist the authority of Jesus.

Deliverance from their power or control is evidence the kingdom of God has arrived.

How or when does demon possession occur?

We can only speak about it in a vague manner about these things in general ways.

First, it seems to occur more frequently with those who seem to have given themselves over to evil continually,

the grossest kind of sin, who have forsaken the ways of God and have yielded to sin until they're totally

controlled by it.

Second, it seems to occur more readily in cultures which are uncivilized,

I don't know if that's even a good word, who seek to appease and worship demons.

India, there's a, you know, there's a demon idol on every corner,

big shrines, you know, it's just incredible.

They claim there's over 300 million gods worshiped in India and

there is so much demonic manifestation there.

It seems to occur in some cases to children who have not been

provided spiritual protection by their parents.

In families which the occult is sought in practice, the children might be susceptible

as they grow up too.

For it seems to occur with those who give themselves over to darkness, beliefs, philosophies, which are in direct

opposition to the Word of God.

And last, it seems to occur with those who use mind -altering drugs, who've embraced the

occult.

You know, I've been in the ministry 48 years now and I've seen and heard a lot of stuff.

I wish I had time to recount some of it.

We don't.

I don't know the benefit of doing so anyway.

Well, apparently a demon -possessed person can go unnoticed by others.

Nobody knew this man was demon -possessed in his synagogue.

But when he was confronted with the person of Christ, his true character was revealed.

And when the voice of the man cried out, it was the demon that was speaking through this man.

It was a different personality.

The demon had fully possessed the man and the demon's personality came out in the man's speech.

He cried out, let us alone.

What are we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?

Did you come to destroy us?

Notice the plural pronouns are used, us and we.

Was the voice referring to the man and the demon together, this man and the demon?

No, I don't think so.

It was the demon speaking on behalf of all demons.

This one was voicing concern for all of his evil companions, all demons.

Did you come to destroy us?

They know their destiny.

Jesus, Son of God, would one day bring this about.

The manifestation of demon possession was quite pronounced during the ministry of Jesus, but also afterwards in the ministry

of his apostles as recorded in the book of Acts.

One wrote, the level and intensity of demonic manifestations in people during Christ's ministry was

unique, having no parallel in Old Testament times or since.

It was doubtless part of Satan's desperate battle for his kingdom against Christ's attack on it.

We should therefore understand that a lot of what we read about demons and possession and whatnot are not

necessarily normative for all times in history.

And we'll mention some, you know, deliverance ministries that they've done just that.

They take these things as normative and it shapes their so -called ministry,

which is destructive and terribly errant, as we'll point out.

And so it was particularly manifested in the days of the kingdom of God, when the kingdom was breaking into history through

Jesus Christ the King and through his apostles.

The manifestation of demon possession in the Gospels is seen in some cases as physical and psychological

disorders.

Matthew 12, a man who is blind and mute, was possessed by a demon.

Luke 11, there is a man who is mute because of a demon.

Mark records of a count of a demon being exercised by Jesus that caused a man to be both deaf

and mute.

We also read of the two men possessed by demons in the country of the Gadarenes, who seemed to manifest insanity

and terrible wickedness.

And in Matthew, we read of a boy who is at times suicidal.

We read in Luke's Gospel of a woman who was physically disabled due to a demon.

There was a woman who had a disabling spirit for 18 years.

We'll deal with that when we get there.

Demons are immoral creatures, that's why they're called unclean.

They will often lead people to into acts of immorality.

They led some to run around naked, Luke 8, they're said to be the cause of violent sorcery, sexual

immorality.

The book of Revelation describes some, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of

the works of their hands, nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and

bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

That's what they do, for example, in India, but all over the world, they're worshipping demons.

Demons are able to give the people they possess what seems to be superhuman strength.

The demoniac of Gadara is described as having perhaps 6 ,000 demons

dwelling in him.

Chains could not bind him, for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out

of the man.

For many a time it seized him.

He was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the

desert.

We'll get there, Luke 8.

When Jesus delivered people from being possessed or oppressed by demons, he demonstrated that he was bringing forth the

kingdom of God into the world, which was defeating and intruding upon the kingdom of Satan,

and here in Luke 4, the authority of Jesus and his word is pronounced.

In our account, we have a man in the place of worship who was demon possessed.

They come to church, or could.

He was not like the demoniac of Gadara who lived among the tombs.

This is one who lived and worked among the people of God.

Verses 35 through 37 record the manner in which Jesus dealt with this demon -possessed man.

Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet, come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, he came out of them and did not hurt him.

When they were all amazed, he spoke among themselves, saying, what a word is this?

Notice the authority.

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.

And the report of him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

But again, we want to emphasize what was the emphasis of this event.

The emphasis of these verses is twofold.

First, the word of Jesus is altogether authoritative.

This is seen in Luke's description of Jesus' teaching in Capernaum at the beginning of the episode.

It's stated in verse 31, with authority he taught, but then it is also stated again

in verse 36.

And then secondly, the emphasis is on the guilt of those who refuse to recognize his authority, that their guilt

is compounded.

That this account follows the scene of Nazareth immediately is significant.

Whereas the Jewish inhabitants of Jesus' hometown failed to recognize and acknowledge who Jesus is.

Isn't he Joseph's son?

Demons recognizing and acknowledging him.

We know who you are, the Holy One of God.

There is an underlying narrative emphasis here that's subtle

but apparent when you think about it.

The conclusion may be drawn that demons were more alert to what God was doing in Jesus than were the Jews of his

own hometown.

Now before we move on, we should say a word about preachers and ministries so -called who are

sorely aberrant in that they give great emphasis, even preeminence, to deliverance from Satan

and his demonic forces.

Sometimes they refer to their Christian service as deliverance ministry.

They declare that all aspects of life that involves sickness, trials, or life's difficulties

are attributed to demonic forces that must be cast out of people or from which people need to be

delivered.

Basically it promotes victim status and it also

fails to emphasize the problem might lie with people's sins.

No, it's not me, it's that the demon or Satan.

And so it really negates and denies personal responsibility.

It's contrary to the gospel.

After providing a number of examples, this author wrote of these word of faith healers

and these false teachers who claim to represent God.

These stories should make it clear that in faith lore demons are not only behind every bush, they are behind every disease.

That's why you can tune in Christian television virtually any given day and hear faith healers

screaming at demons.

The following is a transcript of Robert Tilton raging at what he believes to be the demonic forces

attacking his followers in TV land.

Satan, you demonic demons of AIDS and AIDS virus, I bind you.

You demon spirits of cancer, arthritis, infection, migraine, headaches, pain, come out of that body,

come out of that child, come out of that man.

Satan, I bind you.

You foul demon spirits of sickness and disease, infirmities in the inner ear and the lungs and the back.

You demon spirits of arthritis, sickness and disease.

You tormenting infirm spirits in the stomach.

Satan, I bind you.

You nicotine spirits, I bind you in the name of Jesus.

Notice how that takes away any personal responsibility and the causes.

Okay, but I should have put this in my note but I didn't.

Really what they're doing, when Jesus dealt with these people, mute and deaf and whatnot,

it was because they were possessed by a demon.

But these word -of -faith guys treat anybody that has sickness or illness or

difficulty as though they were demon -possessed, you see.

And so the whole thing is illegitimate, is invalid.

I read one website that gave instruction on how a person can begin a deliverance ministry,

one of your own.

He wrote this, I believe it's usually a good idea to give the person requesting deliverance questionnaire.

I went to the link and downloaded, just out of interest, ten pages of questions,

a questionnaire, which will give you an overview of their background, the bondages they are

facing, the root or source of their problem, as well as legal grounds, strongholds, and any particular spirits

that need to be addressed.

Then begin to work with them to receive inner healing, break up any legal grounds, tear down any strongholds you see in their life, and

of course cast out any demons that need to go.

Deliverance ministry.

They don't preach the gospel, they don't give emphasis to the teaching and preaching the kingdom of God

as Jesus did, but they zero in and then they twist and pervert

this whole matter of demon possession.

And there are many people who are deceived and swept away by great error because of the false teaching and practice of these

charlatans.

I mentioned Robert Tilton above, his college buddy, you know, said at one time,

they were both non -Christians, and Robert Tilton said that, you know, that he was

going to become a basically a false preacher because he saw the

money that was in it, and he would go into this act as being a preacher in a pulpit to his college

friend.

After college that's what he did, and he was shown to be a charlatan.

Somebody, 60 Minutes, somebody did an expose on him, and all the tens of thousands of

prayer requests sent to him by people, you know, were thrown in the dumpster in back of the ministry.

These people are wolves in sheep's clothing, deceiving people, taking

advantage of people, but again, they take away personal responsibility, and they

give a person a sense of victim status.

It's something that's happening to you rather than something you're doing that you need to acknowledge and repent

of before the Lord, and so people are deceived.

It should be pointed out that the primary ministry to which Jesus was called was that of teaching and preaching regarding the kingdom of

God, and so we read in the last verses of our passage what Luke set forth as the primary

ministry of Jesus.

The crowd sought him, came to him, tried to keep him from leaving them, but he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God

to other cities also because for this purpose I have been sent, and so he was preaching in the

synagogues of Galilee.

Well, let's move to the second event on this Sabbath day, Jesus heals

Peter's mother -in -law.

Here's the first mention of one of the disciples by name, Peter, Simon Peter, but he hadn't

been introduced yet in Luke's Gospel.

We will see that a little bit later, but here his mother -in -law is mentioned.

He's mentioned really only in relation to his mother -in -law.

Now he rose, Jesus arose from the synagogue, entered Simon's house, but Simon's wife's mother was sick

with a high fever.

They made request of him concerning her, so he stood over her and rebuked the fever and left her,

and immediately she arose and served them.

The details of this miracle are few.

It describes such a way to depict it as a matter of common occurrence to those who

came in contact with Jesus.

Luke, the physician, does not simply say she had a fever, she had a high fever.

This was a severe case, and for Luke, as a physician, it would have taken time and effort to

relieve her, but low or high fever, it was an easy matter for the Lord Jesus, so with a

word her fever left her, as one wrote.

Here he stands over her, said she's laying on a pallet on the ground.

I don't know where he got that detail, I didn't see it.

Then Jesus rebukes the fever in the same way he had rebuked the demon.

The use of the word stresses that both miracles are wrought by the Word of Jesus, casting out the demon,

healing her of her fever.

Whether it's also implied that the fever is held to be due to a demon is not so certain.

There are some that assert that.

Luke regarded physical maladies as springing ultimately from the influence of Satan, but nothing more than

personification of the malady may be present, and that's what I wanted to point out to you

in specific, specifically.

It wasn't like Jesus came and touched her and all of a sudden her fever,

her normal, that's not how it's described, but rather the fever is

personified.

He came in, rebuked the fever, and the fever got up and left her.

It's personified, and again what that shows is the authority of Jesus,

that this fever obeyed Jesus just like the demon obeyed Jesus, and really there's an

underlying narrative emphasis again as the demon obeyed Jesus, the fever obeyed Jesus,

you ought to obey Jesus.

This is all suggested in this passage.

Everything hears and obeys the Word of Jesus for he speaks with authority, and then

not only is she immediately delivered from the fever, but she's enabled to bring service to her guests.

As one wrote, the cure was not only sudden, but it was complete.

She had recovered and was sufficiently strong to tend to her guests.

One cannot help but look at this work of grace as typical of all works of grace in salvation that our

Lord performs.

There are parallels.

Many of the cures of Jesus are pictures of the way he brings salvation to sinners.

This does not mean that sin is sickness, but in a number of ways parallels can be drawn between

Jesus healing sickness and Jesus saving sinners from their sin.

First, she was rendered helpless by her affliction, so is every person who is afflicted with

the malady of sin.

She was incapable of approaching, worshiping, serving God.

She was as the sinner without strength.

Second, her friends were helpless to deal with her affliction, and that they had to beseech Christ to come, they

made request of him concerning her.

We have no means to bring people out of their sin.

We have to either get people to Christ or get Christ to people.

We witnessed to souls that they would come to him in faith and pray for him to come to them.

You need Christ.

Third, her only hope was in God's grace and mercy.

She could not be relieved, she could not relieve herself of her high fever, and so the helpless sinner must look only to

Christ.

He must come, he must act on behalf of the sinner, or he will remain in his

miserable condition.

Jesus is the Savior.

And four, thankfully Christ is able to deal with the matter.

He has that kind of authority.

He must come, he must act, and he did so.

He's not troubled or inconvenienced to come and help a helpless needy one.

He enters the house and comes and stands over her, the posture of one who is in control.

He speaks the word and rebukes the fever and it departs, and he does the same thing with sin.

He can give immediate deliverance from sin.

And fifth, as Jesus did with this woman, Jesus brings immediate deliverance.

It left her.

Pardon is granted, power is given to live a new Christian life instantaneously.

And upon our Lord's work of grace and our salvation, immediately afterwards we go about serving.

Lord what would you have me do?

She immediately arose and waited on them.

Now there are human theories abounding these days regarding so -called recovery of

persons.

For about $10 ,000 you go down, commit yourself to a recovery hospital.

They promise to deal with your depression, your alcoholism, drug dependency, gambling addiction, you name it.

They got a 12 -step program for it.

And after a process of weeks or months they promise you perhaps a 50 to 70 percent possibility of

deliverance.

Christ delivers immediately and thoroughly and he does not fail.

Now granted we struggle with sin always and to the degree we compromise our lives we find ourselves struggling more,

but after having come to Christ it's now a struggle against sin.

It used to be a struggle in order to sin.

That all changed.

We now see sins as hideous things whereas they were pleasant treats.

We still enjoy it, that's why we do it, but we hate it even as we do, don't we?

He's put it in our hearts that way.

But again what is Luke's emphasis in this account?

Again the authority of the words of Jesus.

So he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.

And I said a word about the personification of this fever at the top of page 10.

The fever is like a person.

It immediately obeyed Jesus.

Jesus rebuked the fever in the same way he rebuked the demons.

It obeyed him.

His word is with authority, authority absolute.

Everything to which he speaks obeys him as should we.

And then last Jesus ministered to many in the evening at the end of the day.

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.

Can you imagine?

And demons also came out and many cried out 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.

He didn't want or need the testimony of demons to testify who he was.

And besides if everybody realized he was the Christ at this point they would have infused all kinds of false understanding about

what the Messiah would be like.

He didn't want that done.

So here the day is closing.

On Saturday at sundown the Sabbath day officially concluded and now the people could move about freely and travel

a greater distance that was limited during the Sabbath.

And they flocked to Peter's house bringing everyone from every place who had disease and he healed them all.

Further Jesus cast out demons.

These demons could not remain in power where Jesus was present.

Wherever he was the kingdom of God was manifested.

And as the demons were leaving they were shouting and confessing you are the Son of God.

But again he would not have himself known by unclean spirits.

He rebuked them, wouldn't allow them to speak.

And the result of all this?

Well in the morning when the morning came he was sought after by the multitudes.

Now when it was day he departed went into a deserted place and the crowd sought him, came to him, tried to keep him

from leaving them but he said to them I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also because for this

purpose I have been sent.

And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

If we're preaching and teaching the kingdom of God we're doing the absolute best and most

that we could possibly do for the cause of Christ.

That's what he did.

But Jesus felt the need to be alone presumably for prayer.

He felt compelled to preach the kingdom of God in other places for he was sent for this purpose.

And so again in conclusion we see here the importance of

believing who Jesus is.

He's the Son of God.

We see the importance that come to him for our deliverance and we also see the importance of obeying him.

Even demons obey his word.

Should not we?

Amen.

May he enable us to do so.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Thank you Father for your word and with clarity our God and profundity our Lord

we read of our Lord Jesus and his authority.

Help us our God to resort to him always to not depend upon ourselves

or the or the foolishness of those in the world that tell us that they know how

to best deal with our situation.

We look to Jesus our great physician and as our healer, our restorer, our

deliverer give us grace.

We do thank you our God for your providence, your grace, your

common grace in giving us physicians and medications that help so many people.

But ultimately our God we see even that as a manifestation of your kindness and mercy

to us through Jesus Christ.

In his name we do pray.

Amen.