The Rejection of Christ's Authority

Well, good morning, church. If you can turn to your Bibles in Luke 4, we're going to be examining verses 23 -37.

Again, today's reading and teaching and preaching comes from the Gospel of Luke 4.

Starting in verse 23, when you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's Word. He said to them, doubtless you will quote to Me this proverb,

Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.

And as he said, truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine over all the land.

And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zareph in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them was cleansed, but only

Nahum the Syrian. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.

But passing through their midst, he went away. He went down to Capernaum, the 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. He cried out with a loud voice, ha, 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 into every place in the surrounding region. This is the

Word of God. You may be seated. Let's pray together.

Father, as we come before You, this morning we come with hearts filled with joy, as we sing praises to You, the

Most High God, and amongst the congregation of the brethren. We ask, Lord, now as we turn our hearts and our attention towards the preaching and teaching, that You would fill our minds with the

Spirit that You would remove from us everything that would so easily entangle us, that would so easily distract us, the things and the weight of the world, the stresses and anxieties of this present age.

And Lord, that we would have hearts attuned to hear that which You have bestowed upon us this morning, namely in Your Word.

We pray, God, that we would not be like those who rejected the authority of Christ, but rather we would be like those who hear the words of Christ and marvel and accept the

One who has all authority given to Him. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Brothers and sisters, how do you do with authority?

I'm gonna be honest with you and tell you that I am not one who is so easily ready to accept authority.

I think I shared a story with you before, but I'll share it again. I lived in Canada for four years and I was an addiction counselor.

One of my roles in that facility was sometimes some of the men in our program were in legal problems, legal trouble, so we would accompany them to their court arrangement, to their court cases before the judge and the magistrate.

In Canada, they have customs a little bit different than our own. Have you ever been to a courtroom here in the United States? You know that there's a certain way in which you are to address the judge as your honor.

You're to show a form of reverence and respect. In Canada, they take things a little bit further than that when you go before the magistrate.

The court or the magistrate is a representation of the very authority of the queen, at that time now the king.

And so back then, it was called the queen's bench. So when we approach the queen's bench and we enter into that courtroom, one of the things that they tell you, they even have it on a plaque in front of every courtroom.

The things that you can and cannot do. And one of the things you cannot do is you can never turn your back to the magistrate because that person represents the king or the queen of England.

So when you enter into that courtroom, you have to bow like this, and then when you leave the courtroom, you can never turn your back, so you have to walk backwards, and you bow before you leave, and you have to walk backwards.

When I read this and I saw this being practiced, I said to myself, this is gonna be a problem.

First of all, I'm a Christian, and I'm not sure how I feel about bowing before a human.

And second of all, I'm an American, and I don't know how I feel about bowing before anyone in that context.

And so I had a problem with accepting authority in that case, and so I would walk in the courtroom and I'd kind of just do the nod and sit down, and they don't say anything, but it is a courteous thing.

And as I examined my own heart, I was examining why do I have a problem with this. One of it is I don't believe this stuff, and I'm not sure how

I feel about this authority, whether I accept this authority. Well, friends, in the early ministry of Jesus Christ, there were many, the majority actually, who encountered

Christ's ministry, and they had the same pervasive thought. We don't know whether this man is who he claims to be.

We don't know whether we are to accept the authority of this

Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, when he goes to his own hometown of Nazareth, the place where he was raised, the place of his family household, he is questioned.

In fact, he's questioned in such a way that Jesus even says, hey, you'll likely quote this proverb to me.

You'll say, physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at your parental home, do here in your hometown as well.

What comes to the mind of those in Jesus' hometown is, if you claim to be the

Messiah, if you claim to be this great physician, prove it. Let's see what you got.

Let's see if you can do for us what you have done for others. Brothers and sisters, that is a very dangerous mindset to have when we approach

Christ Jesus. Maybe you've seen this meme of someone, it's this,

I can't remember the name of this gentleman, but he is on the 700 Show, is that what it's called?

From the, what's that program, that TV program? The 700

Club. And there's this meme where this gentleman is praying. He says, Lord, I've seen what you've done for others, and I want you to do it for me too, right?

And it's a meme that's used in many different contexts in many various ways. And essentially, that's what those in Nazareth are saying.

It's like, we've seen what you've done. We've seen what you, we've heard about the things that you've been doing elsewhere.

Now, do it for us. In a way of saying, Lord, we want you to do for us what we have seen you do for others, but the condition of the heart being, we want to see this for ourselves.

We want to see what evidence you can provide us. We want to see what you can do for us. Famously, John F.

Kennedy, in his inauguration, said, ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country, showing that the position of the heart of every good citizen should not be one of a posture of being a taker, but rather of being a giver.

And in the economy of God, that is chief. In God's economy, our hearts should not be rendered towards what can

Jesus do for me? What can I get from God? What can I get from being a

Christian? What's in it for me? What's the benefits? But rather,

Lord, what can I do to serve you in this grand, incredible kingdom?

When we examine this story here in this narrative in the Gospel of Luke chapter four, recognize that Jesus is in his hometown.

And recognize also that those whom he is now approaching and ministering to have heard of all the great and wonderful things he's been accomplishing.

The healing of the sick, the opening the eyes of the blind, that the deaf are beginning to hear all these wonderful things pointing to Jesus Christ as our great physician.

If you're following the notes this morning, please write this in the notes, that Jesus Christ is our great physician.

So much so that even the proverb that comes up in opposition to Christ is physician, heal yourself.

For we have heard what you did in Capernaum and do here in your hometown as well. Jesus Christ is indeed our great physician.

He's able to cure any disease. I want you to put this in the notes. But none greater than the disease of sin or unbelief.

Sin or unbelief. Notice the posture of those in Nazareth.

The posture of the hearts of those in Jesus' hometown. In verse 24 it says, and he said, truly

I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

You've likely heard this phrase before. Tribute to Christ Jesus our Lord, that no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

I ask myself the question, why is that? Why is it that those who are closest to us are usually the first ones to question and doubt what it is

God is doing in our lives? Maybe you've encountered this in your own life, in your own family, in your own hometown.

When you attempt to do something a little bit different than what you've been doing. As someone who has experience ministering to those in homelessness and also in drug addiction,

I've noticed also this in that community as well, where people who are trying to change their lives around begin to hear the spirit of scoffers.

And see that the scoffers around them say, oh, you wanna change all of a sudden? Now you found

Jesus, now you found religion, and now you think your life is gonna be better? Well, I give you three weeks,

I give you two months, I give you a year before everything comes crumbling down. Those nearest to us are often the greatest critics.

Those who have seen us at our worst, at our best, and everything in between are usually the ones who are the quickest to point out our faults and why it is that we can't do what

God has determined that we can do. Friends, I call you this morning to rely not upon the naysayers, but upon the promises of Christ.

You see, no one in the history of humanity has ever faced more opposition than Jesus Christ.

Now Jesus, though divine, though fully God, is also truly human, according to the

Scriptures. Therefore, every single human emotion that can be felt was felt by the man,

Christ Jesus. Do you think Jesus was immune to the sting of rejection?

Do you think that Jesus was immune to the sting and hurt of those whom

He knew best, those who saw Him as a young child raised up in His family's household?

You think He was immune to the negativity and the spirit of criticism that came along with those in His hometown of Nazareth?

I would submit to you that Jesus Christ felt very similar human emotions as we would in a similar circumstance.

Being rejected and being rejected by your own hometown is not an easy thing to swallow.

Yet Jesus, poised with grace, filled with the Spirit, was able to look past the rejection of His authority, the rejection of His ministry, and know that there was a greater purpose to be fulfilled, not just in His hometown, but in all of Israel, in Jerusalem, and even to the ends of the earth.

The disease of unbelief is one that has captured the spirit of this country. It's one that's maybe captured your own heart at one time.

Maybe you've come to this place today with a spirit of unbelief saying, I don't know if I can trust this word.

I don't know if I can trust this book. I don't know if there's a God out there that hears me, that knows me, that loves me.

I don't know if Jesus is who He claims to be. Maybe that unbelief has touched your heart today.

But I wanna give you this word of encouragement in this good news. Just as unbelief has touched every single one of our hearts, so can the light of the light of the gospel of Christ.

Christ's gospel infiltrates unbelief and brings light where there is darkness, in the same way that Christ is about to bring illumination even to those who are cursing

Him, even to those who are rejecting His authority as the Christ. Jesus again says, truly

I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in His hometown. But in truth, I tell you that there are many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land.

What is Jesus trying to accomplish here? What is Jesus trying to point to?

He's pointing to the word as a sign against the unbelief in Nazareth.

If you're following the notes, I want you to write this down. Words of Jesus' miraculous healings had reached

Nazareth and they too would want to see for themselves and benefit from the works of Jesus.

Again, Nazareth was a place where Jesus grew up and it was a place of prejudice against Him.

They knew Him, they knew His family, and likely was seen as less than. How do we know this?

Notice the preceding verses from last week's message in verse 22, and all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth.

And they said, is not this Joseph's son? In a way of saying, don't we know this guy?

Don't we know his family? Joseph, the carpenter? Not the

Pharisee, not the scribe, not one of great and high lofty achievements, but rather this humble and meek household.

Not of great means, not of great prestige, not coming from Herod's palace, not coming from Rome, but coming from Nazareth.

Coming from the humble home of Joseph. That's why they begin, although marveling at His words, begin to doubt the authenticity of His authority.

Friends, it is not sufficient just to be an observer or hearer of all that Christ has done.

Those in Nazareth marveled at what Jesus was doing. Remember what happened in the previous verses.

Jesus goes into the synagogue in His hometown. He opens the scroll of Isaiah. He begins to read Isaiah chapter 61.

He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the good news to the poor. He begins to bring this message out to them.

He says to those in the crowd in the synagogue, this has been fulfilled in your hearing. It's happening.

I am the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. And they begin to marvel, but that marvel quickly turns to unbelief, to rejection.

It is not sufficient to solely hear the words of Christ and marvel at them and say, man, that's really great.

That's a lot of wisdom. There's a lot of practicality to what Jesus is saying, and that is true about our

Christ. There's a lot of practicality in the teachings of Jesus and in the Gospels, but it's not enough just to marvel at His words, but rather to be transformed inwardly in the inner man and be changed completely by this

Jesus. Earlier this morning, we were talking in our Sunday school about Roman Catholicism and the doctrine of justification and how the

Christian doctrine of justification differs in this great way, that we are not justified by works, but rather by faith and grace.

And it is only through grace and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that we can have a right justice and a just standing before God.

We can be declared righteous before God. And this is important, brothers and sisters, because we have to recognize there's only one way to be made right with God, and that's through Christ.

There's only one way for those in Nazareth to be made right with God, and it's through Jesus Christ.

There's only one way for those in Capernaum to be made right with God, and it's through faith in Jesus Christ. There's only one way for those in Jerusalem to be made right with God, it's through Jesus Christ.

There's only one way for those who live in the Bay Area to be made right with God, and it's through Jesus Christ. What is true for Nazareth is true for Capernaum, what was true for Jerusalem, and it's true for us today.

There's only one way to be made right with God, and it's through God's Son, Jesus Christ.

Which is why Jesus goes then to the authority of the

Word in verse 25, when he quotes to them, or he says to them, encapsulates this idea when

Elijah was in the scene, and there were a great famine in the land.

God sent none of them, Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to one, to a woman who was a widow.

What Jesus is beginning to unravel here is that the miraculous is not always a given.

It is not something that can be demanded, but rather, it is an act of grace.

In verse 24, I want you to recognize this, and I want you to write this into notes. Jesus, knowing their hearts, knew he would be rejected by his hometown, which is why

Christ can say again, truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

Jesus knows the hearts of men, the scripture says. Knowing their hearts, he knew he would be rejected by them.

But the Lord uses the examples of two prophets. What were those two prophets?

Elijah and Elisha. Could also write this in the notes. The Lord uses the examples of Elijah and Elisha to demonstrate that the miraculous was not a right.

This is important, brothers and sisters. Within evangelicalism today, there is a growing sect that believes that we are entitled to all of the miraculous promises of the

New Testament. There are those who believe in what's namely called the prosperity gospel, who believe in a name it and claim it theology, that they can name, claim and possess based upon the authority of Christ and that all the things, health, wealth, prestige, all these things can be ours if we have faith and if we name claim to it and if we receive it.

This is where all the charlatans on TV come, where they're on pulpits such as this, clamoring for people's money, dancing upon the money of others, making a complete fool of themselves and a mockery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, these false teachers who claim that the miraculous is a right and that Jesus and his name is some type of charm that can summon divine power or divine miraculous gifts or miraculous adventures in life, all these false teachers, what they have in common is that they are actually rejecting the authority of Christ.

They're rejecting it, why? Because the miraculous at no time is that a right but rather it's a gift of grace.

The miraculous is a grace. I want you to write that in there as well. The miraculous is not a right but an act of grace.

Notice again the story that Jesus gives to Nazareth here in verse 25.

I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land.

Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zephiroth, then the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.

So of all the widows in Israel during the days of Elijah, God had appointed only for one to be blessed, to encounter the miraculous.

It wasn't a right of all people, but it was only for some, for a few. And similarly appealing to Elisha, and there were many lepers in verse 27 in Israel in the time of the prophet

Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Nahum, the Syrian.

So again, similar circumstance, many were sick, many had leprosy in those days, yet only one was cleansed.

Verse 28, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. You know why they were filled with wrath?

Because they knew what Jesus was saying. There was no ambiguity about it.

He was saying the miraculous was not a right for them, so when they came and clambered upon Jesus and said,

Jesus, do for us what you've done for others. Show us what you can do.

Show us what you're made of, Jesus. This is your hometown. This is your home turf. This is your home court.

Show up for us. And with that spirit of unbelief,

Jesus would offer no miracles to them. Jesus does not provide the miraculous for those who have a hostile spirit of unbelief.

The same is true today, brothers and sisters. Jesus, again, knowing their unbelief, knowing their prejudice, would not entertain them with miracles.

Rather, instead, he relies on the revelation of the word as he declared from the prophet

Isaiah, as he appeals to Elijah, as he appeals to Elisha. He appeals to the word, and the word, brothers and sisters, is the sufficient miraculous statement for all people today.

It is sufficient. Jesus appeals to the word by going again to the prophet Isaiah, going to the prophet

Elijah, going to the prophet Elisha, and the word of God is sufficient for us today.

And really, brothers and sisters, this which you hold in your hands is indeed a great miracle.

If you know anything about the story of the Bible, the fact that you hold in your hands, whether a nice copy like this, or on a phone, or on a tablet, you possess the words of Almighty God, guarded and protected by the

Spirit. No book in history has encountered the opposition such as this book here, even by those who claim to be guardians of it, such as the

Roman Catholic Church, who held this book in a foreign, lost language for millennia, or for hundreds of years, so that even in the dead language, people could not fully grasp the word of God, and burned at the stake men who had the audacity to translate this in modern languages.

If you knew the history of this book, you would marvel at the miraculous statement that this book not only is true, but is the most widely available book in human history.

If you look at the top -selling books every year, the New York Times sellers list, all of them combined in the top 10 do not even come close to outselling the

Bible. The Bible is the number one bestseller book every day, every week, every year.

It is also the most widely distributed book in history, and there is no other book that comes even close.

You take all the top 10 books combined, and they do not come close to the reach of the

Bible. Friends, that is a miracle. The words of God are indeed miraculous.

We don't need to be looking for miracles in churches or in ministries that claim to bring deliverances or healings.

Rather, we have that in our own possession right now, right here, the word of God, which is indeed a miracle upon miracles.

So focus and trust in the authority of Christ in his word.

Again, the miraculous is not a rite. It is an act of grace, beloved. Don't go looking for the miraculous when the miraculous is staring you in the face here in the word of God.

So often, we tend to go to that which is sensational, that which is appealing to the eyes, appealing to the flesh, and we're looking for signs, we're looking for wonders, we're looking for answers, and friends, the answer is right here in the word of God.

Oftentimes, those who are looking for such miraculous are the ones who have their Bibles closed. Open up your

Bible, read it, and see the miracle of God's word alive and at work in our lives.

How does Jesus respond to this wrath? Notice again what it says in verse 28.

And when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff.

But passing through their midst, he went away. Notice how the day starts. Jesus goes to the synagogue.

He opens the scroll of Isaiah. He begins to read to them from the prophet Isaiah. He declares to them that this word from Isaiah has been fulfilled in his coming and his appearance.

They begin to marvel. Then they begin to demand signs and wonders. And what does Christ do?

He rebukes them. He shows them that the only sign they would receive would be the sign of the word of God.

And what do they do? Instead of accepting, instead of receiving, they become indignant in wrath.

And their wrath turns them, not only to drive Jesus out of town, but they even attempt to take his life.

They attempt to murder the Christ because he refused to give them what they wanted.

Brothers and sisters, let's be honest for a moment. Are we that different than they?

It's easy to look at the Nazareth and say, man, what a inappropriate reaction.

What an overreaction. Why would they do that? But do we not do the same, brothers and sisters, when we don't get our way, spiritually speaking?

Well, maybe we pray for something and our prayers aren't answering the way that we want. And so what do we do?

We say, ah, well, maybe God doesn't exist. Maybe church isn't for me.

Maybe this church is just not for me either. And we begin to metaphorically bring

Jesus to the cliff. And we start to say to ourselves, well, Jesus doesn't give me what

I want. My life is still hard. My marriage is still failing. I've got all these stresses, all these wonders on my back.

Where's my support? And we begin with every unbelief, every thought of unbelief.

We bring Jesus closer and closer to the cliff. And we say, I want the miraculous more than I want

Jesus. And friends, that is one of the greatest errors that we see today in the church in America.

People want the miracle more than they want Jesus. Jesus is the miracle.

If you have Jesus, nothing else compares. All things in comparison to the weight of knowing

Christ Jesus, the Apostle Paul said, it's like rubbish. It's like garbage.

So what if you have all these wonderful things happening in life, all the miraculous things happening around you, if you don't have

Jesus? Give me Jesus and take everything else.

Jesus is sufficient. Jesus is enough. So friends, don't be so quick to judge those in Nazareth.

So quick to judge them and say, well, I wouldn't have been a part of that crowd. I would have been one of the disciples. Really? In the same way, many of us, when we read the story of David and we think to ourselves, man,

I would have stood up to Goliath. Really? Friends, you would have been one of those cowering

Israelites in the corner. You're no David. I'm no David. But there is one who is the greater

David, and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus is the greater David. Jesus is the greater

Elijah. Jesus is the greater Elisha, who comes and declares the word of the

Lord. And as he declares the word of the Lord, those in his hometown become indignant, filled with wrath, so much so they want to drive him out of town.

Not only that, but they want to drive him off the cliff. But you see, Jesus would not be deterred.

Jesus, in verse 30, but passing through their midst, he went away. Doesn't give us a lot of detail.

It's almost very ambiguous. It's almost kind of mysterious. They're trying to drive him off the cliff. But he goes right through them.

Right through it. Right through the noise. Right through the crowds. Right through all their wrath and indignation.

He goes right through it. Friends, what a model Christ is setting for us.

What model is he setting for us? That when people see your life and your conduct as you endeavor to do

God's will, many will be critical of you. Maybe those in your own household. Maybe those in your own family. Maybe those at work.

And they'll be critical of you because you are trying to do that which is right before the eyes of God. You are on a mission, dear brother and sister.

And your mission is to know him and to please him and to proclaim his excellencies to the world.

That's your job. You are a disciple, a kingdom proclaimer of God's kingdom.

That's your job. So regardless of the crowds, regardless of the culture, regardless of even those in your own household, be determined to be like Jesus, undeterred, and go right through the crowd and do the will of your

Father who's in heaven. That's your aim. That's your job. That's what you've been called to.

You've been called to be a fine soldier of Christ Jesus. Therefore, go undeterred.

No matter the wrath that comes your way, no matter the opposition, the persecution that comes your way, live the life of a disciple.

In verse 31, it says, he went down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the

Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority.

There is no one more authoritative than the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can say amen to that, right? We can acknowledge that. We can believe that.

Well, let's put that to the test for a moment. Have we actually received that to be true?

What do I mean by that? Brothers and sisters, there will be times in your life, more often than not, when your emotions, your experiences will clash with the word of God.

It'll clash. You will feel one way. Surely, God doesn't love me.

Surely, my life is destitute. Surely, God has forsaken me. But if you're in Christ, know this.

I will never nor leave you nor forsake you, but that you can be of good courage and say, the

Lord is my helper. What can man do to me? You see, your experience might say to you,

God doesn't love me, God has abandoned me, but yet the Scripture says God loves you, that God intimately knows and is aware of your situation, and that God has made a way of escape so that you can continue to live a life that's pleasing to Him.

Your experience says one thing, but the Word says another. Which one will you choose? Which authority is weightier on the scale?

That which you perceive, that which you feel, or that which you know? Dear Christian, do not go by what you feel, but rather go by what you know.

For what you feel is fleeting. It's your one moment gone the next. But that which is sure, that which is true, is the authority of Christ and His Word.

Therefore, stay on the sturdy rock of authority, the rock of Christ, the rock of ages.

If you live your life based upon that authority, you will not go wrong. Live your life on the authority of Christ's Word, so that we don't only just hear

His Word and say amen, but rather that we live it in such a way that we glorify our God who is in heaven.

And it says, and they were astonished at His teaching, for His Word possessed authority. If you're following in the teaching this morning, undeterred,

Christ goes to Capernaum where His Word and teaching was received.

So what a difference. He goes several kilometers away from His hometown in Nazareth.

He goes to this province of Galilee into this town and He begins to preach and teach there.

And His teaching was received, why? Because of His authority.

Because of His authority. This was a people who was ready to receive the authority of Christ.

Know this, beloved, before receiving the miraculous, before receiving the blessings of Christ, one must first receive the authority of Christ.

The authority of Christ. If you wanna see Christ work in your life, acknowledge

Him as Lord. Now the difference between what we preach and what some others may preach is that we don't believe that you and I can make

Jesus Lord. Maybe you heard a preacher say, you gotta invite Jesus into your heart and make

Him Lord of your life. We proclaim a little bit differently. Jesus Christ is

Lord. Therefore, repent and turn to Him. He is

Lord. He is not made Lord by anyone other than the Father whom He has appointed as heir of all things.

For it says in Philippians chapter two, starting in verse nine, for God bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every tongue should confess both in heaven, on earth, underneath the earth, in the sea, all that is in the cosmos, and that they should proclaim with one voice in unison,

Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ is

Lord, amen? He's Lord. But because He's Lord, and because of who

He is intrinsically as the God -man, we don't make Him Lord, we receive

Him as Lord. We receive Him as such. Therefore, beloved, have you received the full

Lordship of Jesus Christ? Have you come under His dominion, under His rule, which means that He now has the right to rule?

What was contested in the Garden of Eden wasn't simply a matter of eating a fruit or abstaining from eating a fruit.

It was the contesting of who indeed has the right to rule.

Who is the proper ruler of the world? Who gets to set things in order? Who gets to say this is right and this is wrong?

In the Garden, the serpent cunningly deceives mankind into choosing themselves to be their own gods, that we will determine what is right in our own eyes.

We will do what is right in our own eyes. And therefore, as the Scripture says, all mankind has gone their own way and all do what is right in their own eyes.

The right to rule is what was called into question in Genesis chapter two and three. Jesus Christ comes on the scene.

He comes to Galilee, He comes to Nazareth, and He says, I am the

Messiah, the one who has the legal right to rule. Therefore, submit to my authority.

What does Nazareth do? They reject. What is Capernaum doing? They're accepting the rulership of the one who has the right to rule,

Jesus Christ. He is Lord. Therefore, we call you, we call every single person here to repentance and faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, that there's only one way that we can be made right with God, friends, only one way, and it's through Jesus.

Therefore, accept His authority as Christ.

Now, Jesus' authority would now be called into question by a very different source. In verse 33, it says, and in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

He cried out with a loud voice, ha, 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. So you have in this instance, an unclean spirit, a demon that is possessing a man, and he begins to question, calling to question

Christ, but in a very different way, in a very subtle way. Notice, not even the demons fall into the sin of unbelief, like those in Nazareth did, where they saw

Christ and they rejected Him. Rather, the demons know full well who this one is, the

Holy One of Israel. Interestingly enough, in the book of Jeremiah and the book of Ezekiel, there is one who is called the

Holy One, and his name is Yahweh. Yahweh is referred to as the

Holy One of Israel. The demon who sees Christ, he says, what have you to do with us,

Jesus? Yeshua of Nazareth, Yeshua meaning Yahweh, is our salvation.

Have you come to destroy us, knowing that this one who is before me is the destroyer of wickedness, is the destroyer of evil?

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

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

Be silent and come out of him. When an unclean spirit confronted

Jesus, it said, I want you to write this in, I know you, I know who you are, showing that even the forces of darkness know the truth about the

Holy One from God. Even the demons know the truth that God is one, and they quiver and shiver at the authority of Christ.

What's interesting about this story, as it comes right after the rejection of Christ from his hometown, is that in one instance you have man and their unbelief, and they don't shiver, they don't quiver.

There's no fear of God in their eyes. And yet the supernatural forces of darkness see

Christ and are filled with fear, why? Because they know who

Jesus truly is. If those in Nazareth knew who

Jesus truly was, do you think that they would try to run him off a cliff? No, because they would know and be confronted with the sheer magnitude of his authority as God.

The sheer magnitude of who he is. The sheer majesty of his being in person.

He's the second person in their trium Godhead. He's the image of the invisible God. He is the one who is seated right now in the heavenly place at the right hand of majesty.

He's so glorious that even the demons, when they see him in his incarnate humble state, shiver and quiver, and are immediately confronted with his authority.

So much so, there's no back and forth when Jesus calls them out, and he says, be silent and come out of him.

They don't come down on the floor and start having this dramatic episode and saying, tell me your name, tell me this, tell me that.

And you have this hour -long exorcism like we see from so -called evangelists and preachers.

Rather, they are completely inundated with the sheer magnitude of his authority.

This is why it can be said of Christ when Jesus rebukes the unclean spirits, be silent and come out of him, and it says, and when a demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

That's a true exorcism, what Jesus just performed. And he does so by the basis of his own authority, because Jesus is

God. And he says, be silent and come out of him. If you've ever seen these charlatans and so -called deliverance ministries, when they have this back and forth and the preacher will have an hour -long episode with one person, this back and forth, and they try to figure out what's the demon's name, what's the demon's name,

Jesus doesn't care. Jesus doesn't care. He doesn't ask what their pronouns are.

He says, be silent and come out. I know this is kind of a cliche in today's culture, because in today's culture, we have a spirit of confusion that's at work, especially amongst our young people.

I have, unfortunately, there's a little boy back in Wisconsin where our kids went to school, and they were close friends of ours, and one of the little boys is the same age as my son, decided that his pronouns are no longer he, him, but now it's they, them, friends.

That's how the demons self -identify. When Lesion was confronted by Christ, I think in Luke chapter nine, what is your name?

Lesion, for we are many, they, them. I'm not saying that this is a direct correlation, but friends, there is a spirit of confusion that's at work that's certainly demonic in nature, certainly demonic.

How do we confront this culture of confusion? With the authority of Christ, with the authority of Christ, and we say things as they are, lovingly but truthfully, and we say,

I can't believe this is a controversial statement in the year 2023, but it is, there are only two genders.

Amen? Male and female, he created them in the beginning. Therefore, let's reject the authority of man, reject the authority of this fallen culture, and embrace the authority of Christ and the authority of the word, and let

God's word be true in every man a liar. Amen? God's word is true.

Notice the reaction in verse 36. 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 the reports about him went out in every place in the surrounding region.

I want you to know this. The Lord Jesus has authority over all the demons.

I want you to write that in the notes. When confronted by a spirit, it acknowledged that Jesus had the power and authority to destroy it.

Jesus has the ultimate authority. So friends, today you are confronted with two paths, two roads, two authorities to accept.

Which one will you choose? There's on one hand the world which says, you have the right to rule.

You can do what is right in your own eyes. If you want to change your pronouns, you can do that. You can be whatever you want to be.

You can do whatever you want to do. You can do all that is right in your own eyes. That's the world of unbelief.

That's the world in which you have the right to rule. And eventually, as it says in Proverbs, there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death.

Then there's another path. And there's a path of embracing the authority of Christ who says, who has said to you, oh man, what is good and what is right.

Who has laid before us his law, his word, his authority, his person. And what is fantastic about this person of Christ is not only does he say

I'm authoritative, not only does he say I am the Christ, that he is the one who is promised in the

Old Testament, but he also demonstrates in great humility his willingness to come down to our level.

God in eternity past, with unbroken succession of worship, steps down into his creation, the self -condescension of Christ, the self -humiliation of Christ.

He takes upon himself a human nature like ours. He's rejected by his own society, by his own people, as it says in John chapter one, that he came to that which was his own, his own did not receive him, but to all those who did receive him, he gave them the right to be called the children of God.

So that through faith in Jesus, you and I can have an inheritance, an adoption as sons and daughters of the most high

God, and we can be children of the most high. Friends, if you embrace

Christ's authority, you will have the gift of eternal life.

And yes, you'll be hated by the world. Yes, you'll be mocked by those who are not of the same values and the same beliefs as we are.

But as Jesus said, if you were of this world, the world would what?

Love you. But because you're not of this world, you will be hated just as he was.

So friends, embrace the authority of Christ and walk through those crowds just as he did.

Because if you walk with God, if you walk with Christ, you'll be protected by his divine authority.

Amen? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come before you, acknowledging you as a true and only authority for our lives that you have given us your word, your word which is powerful and sharper than a two -edged sword, and can divide between joint and marrow, soul and spirit, and can discern the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Lord, help us to receive and to walk in your authority, not in our own where we do what is right in our own eyes, but rather,

God, we would do what is right in your eyes. Do that which is pleasing in your sight for the glory of your kingdom, for the glory of your name, so that the name of Jesus may be magnified amongst the

Gentiles, be magnified amongst the covenant breakers, Lord, that you would, Lord Jesus, would have the final say in all things, for you are indeed authoritative and weighty in all that you do and say because of who you are,

Lord Jesus. You are indeed God, Yahweh, Jehovah. We recognize that you are the

Holy One of Israel. You are the Holy One of God, and we come before you, Lord, acknowledging these truths, not simply as the wicked demons and spirits do, but Lord, that we are recipients of this authority through faith in you, and that you have now granted us this gift of eternal life, this inheritance that belongs to the children of the

Most High. Lord, help us to walk in accordance with thy good word. Help us to be transformed inwardly, daily, as we receive and walk in your most holy and precious authority.

We pray, Lord, that, again, we would not be like those who rejected Christ's authority in Nazareth, but rather, Lord, that we would be like those who accepted

Christ's authority and not only marveled at his words, but submitted to it. For here lies the truth,

Lord, that we are not just called to be hearers of the word, but also doers.