WWUTT 2301 Jesus' Authority Over Unclean Spirits (Luke 4:31-37)

It's popular to talk about angels and demons and all manner of other spiritual things. Some have even made a hobby horse out of it. But what is necessary for us to see is that Christ is Lord over all of it.

That we know who Jesus is when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Jesus Teaches with Authority in Capernaum

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we've been in chapter 4, where Luke has been introducing us to the earthly ministry of Jesus. Today I'll be reading verses 31 to 37. Hear the word of the Lord.

And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

And he cried out with a loud voice, Ha! What have you 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. Now this seems like a simple account, but it is actually filled with complexity. And we could spend a long time talking about this, as a matter of fact, discussing things like evil spirits, and where they come from, and Jesus' authority over them, and why we see these kinds of things happening in the New Testament during the time of Jesus and the disciples.

But is this something that would be just as prevalent even now? People possessed by these unclean spirits that are in as abundance as we see happening in the life and ministry of Jesus, that he encounters them fairly frequently, so that people know of Jesus' ability over these unclean spirits to even cast them out, and him granting the disciples that same ability.

Do we not have the same number of evil spirits probably lurking about today that we might observe, and somebody being gifted in such a way to be able to cast them out? Like I said, we could probably go on about this for some time.

But as Luke has been presenting to us the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry here, this is kind of a snapshot of the average day that Jesus might be teaching in the synagogue. For that's what is said here, that he comes to the synagogue on the Sabbath.

And we had read previously, when Jesus had taught in his hometown, he went to the synagogue as was his custom. So this is a regular kind of occasion for Jesus, in which he even encounters a man that is possessed by an unclean spirit.

Now where we go from here, and we'll get to the next part of this tomorrow, Jesus heals many, including Simon's brother-in-law, and he continues preaching in the synagogues, and says, this is the closing passage that we have at the end of this particular chapter, he says, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose.

So like I said, this is just kind of a picture of what might be the average occasion in which Jesus is teaching in a synagogue. And this one is in Capernaum, a city of Galilee. Now this will kind of become Jesus' home base, so to speak.

He resides in Capernaum, and it is regarded in other gospels as being his hometown. And that's kind of funny, because we know that he was born in Bethlehem, and he grew up in Nazareth, so how could Capernaum be considered his hometown?

That just in the sense that during the time of his earthly ministry, this was kind of the central place from which he would go. If he came back to somewhere and stayed, it would be in Capernaum, and he would go out from there, preaching in Galilee.

He spent more time in Galilee, it seems, than he would come down to even Judea, and certainly more time than he spent in Jerusalem. So Capernaum is a city that is right on the Sea of Galilee. It is a very prosperous place.

There is a tell where a lot of excavation and archaeological research have been done today that is very likely the location of Capernaum. I believe it's called Tell Hum, if memory serves. They don't know for certain that that is actually Capernaum, but that's the general consensus, that they're excavating Capernaum.

This is a city that is not mentioned in the Old Testament, so it's obviously a settlement that had come about following Malachi, which kind of concludes the Old Testament period, the time of the prophets, John the Baptist, of course, being considered the last prophet.

But you have that silent period in about those three plus centuries between Malachi and Matthew. So Capernaum is a town that gets settled in that particular period, and we don't even really know what the name Capernaum fully means.

It has been regarded as a town of consolations. I saw that being one of the definitions of the name Capernaum. It's probably an amalgamation of two words. So Caper and Naum, or Naum, or something like that.

And Naum, incidentally, there are many Hebrews that suspect that the town is actually named after the prophet Naum, which is a possibility. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the name of the town originally belonged to.

A fountain.

So it was a fountain that was called Capernaum, and then when the town was settled, they took the name of the fountain since that was a popular location. Now this would have been a much busier synagogue that Jesus was in here than the synagogue in Nazareth, of course.

Nazareth was a small town. And if you'll remember even Nathaniel's comment at the beginning of the Gospel of John, can anything good come out of Nazareth? So there wasn't much regard for Nazareth. But Capernaum, as I said, was a bustling, thriving, and very prosperous community.

So the synagogue there would have brought more people and even more teachers. And here Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, again, as we have seen being his custom. And it says here in verse 32, they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority.

And we saw that at the end of the Sermon on the Mount as well after Jesus sermon there in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. At the end of chapter 7, it says that the people are astonished at his teaching because he didn't teach as their scribes.

He spoke as one having authority. Jesus is not merely referencing Old Testament words as though they were someone else's, but he speaks that word as if it were his own, because indeed he is God incarnate.

So the people are amazed at the confidence in his teaching, the words that he says, the way that he expounds upon the text and explains it. And in the synagogue, it says in verse 33, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

And he cried out with a loud voice, ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? This is an address that we have seen before. But first of all, it being said here that there's a man with an unclean demon, he had to have been sneaking about in there because a person with an unclean spirit would not have been allowed in the synagogue.

A person with an unclean spirit would have been identified by multiple people. We've seen previously in other occasions of Jesus casting out spirits, like we were reading in Matthew and Mark. For example, the man that was at the tombs or the two men, according to Matthew's gospel, and Jesus addressing them and them saying, what have you to do with us, O son of God?

Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time? So we've seen this kind of address before that comes from these unclean spirits when they encounter Jesus and known by the people to be unclean, which is why this man is living among the tombs in Matthew chapter eight.

They are unclean spirits and they live in unclean places. And there's there also seems to be some sort of condition or illness that also marks them as unclean, because we've seen in previous places that the unclean spirit causes a person to be epileptic, having seizures like in we'll see this later on in Luke chapter nine or there will be a muteness or a dumbness to the person that is possessed as in Matthew nine 32 or the unclean spirit causes him to have blindness in Matthew 12 22.

And then we've also seen insanity and the spirit causing the person to harm himself and other such things. So there's something external about being possessed by the spirit that causes other people to look at that man and say, he's unclean, therefore he cannot be here.

He has to go to a place of uncleanness since he's been marked that way. So the fact that there is a man with an unclean spirit here in the synagogue means that he had to have been lurking about. He's snuck into this place.

And for what reason we're not told, but it could be to try to expose Jesus since the way he addresses him is, I know who you are, the holy one of God saying this in the presence of all the people who are there.

So once again, verse 33, there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice, ha, which is kind of funny the way that's translated in English. It may have been more pronounced in, uh, in Aramaic as ER or something, something to that.

Effect.

When I was kind of trying to figure out the, uh, the Greek of this word, of course, what we're reading is an English translation from the Greek and what the language they were likely speaking was Aramaic.

So that may have been the sound. It was some sort of sound of indignation. It was, it was a sound of surprise or spite even. So this is the, the utterance that the evil spirit makes when confronting Jesus, getting his attention somehow, and then addressing him in this way.

What have you to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth. It's interesting that there's a collective pronoun there, a plural, a plural pronoun.

Us.

Have you come to destroy us is the next question. We know that when Jesus encountered Legion, they referred to themselves by that name because they were many. They said, this just seems to be a singular spirit.

He had the spirit of an unclean demon, Luke says. So it just seems to be one unclean spirit. So therefore why refer to himself with that collective pronoun? What have you to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?

And it could very well be that he's just speaking on behalf of other unclean spirits. Not that this man had more than one unclean spirit, or it could also say something about, maybe there's some sort of collective consciousness, so to speak, of these unclean spirits.

Who knows? And like I said at the very beginning, we can theorize about this quite a bit and go into all different kinds of discussion as to what these unclean spirits are, the different theories that have been postulated about them.

One of the popular theories that's going around today, influenced by Michael Heiser's teaching in particular, Doug Van Dorn is another one that I know that has repeated this, but that the unclean spirits that Jesus encounters during his earthly ministry are actually disembodied spirits of the Nephilim.

And so you had the Nephilim that are talked about in Genesis chapter six, as those who were the offspring of sons of God who came into the daughters of men and they bore children.

To them.

So the common interpretation of that is that the Nephilim were demon seed, in other words. You had these evil spirits that were congregating with women, with human women, and then producing these children that were kind of superhuman on a certain level.

But then when the floodwaters come and destroy all the Nephilim, they become these disembodied spirits and where is it that those spirits go? The souls of men go to one particular place, but with the Nephilim, it's a different kind of thing.

This is a different creature. So these disembodied spirits just kind of wander the earth. And since they had previously inhabited physical bodies, they're looking for other physical bodies to inhabit.

And that's been the popular theory. Again, that's kind of been proposed by Michael Heiser and why that one has caught on. What did the Jews believe during this period of time though? Well, the Talmud, which would have been the collected works of Jewish teachings that was commonly referenced during this time of Jesus, the Talmud talks about these evil spirits being in abundance.

And there was a belief even among the Jews that these evil spirits were disembodied souls. So it was the souls of people who died and now those souls are looking for other people to inhabit. And those souls are not going to dwell with God.

So they would be rebellious people. They would essentially be the souls that we would think would be eventually cast into hell. So these are rebellious souls, people that rebelled against God. And here they're looking for other bodies to inhabit and then therefore referred to as an unclean spirit or an unclean soul.

And entering into another person causes all manner of confusion and insanity and otherwise. And this was the best explanation that the Jews had for this, because it's not like anybody sitting down and interviewing demons.

A person that is possessed by one of these unclean spirits clearly has a consciousness that is other than what that person had before the spirit had entered them. So they would call this person as being unclean.

This is a spiritual uncleanness. But the spiritual uncleanness also manifests itself in some sort of physical uncleanness as well. Now, this particular man that's confronting Jesus, it isn't said of him that he had any particular physical illness of some kind or something that physically would have marked him as unclean and therefore should have been outside the synagogue.

But just the very fact that he has this unclean spirit and is acting in an unseemly way would have been this would have been enough to mark him that way in the eyes of the people. And so anyway, that's just kind of embellishing upon some various ideas that people had regarding these unclean spirits and where they came from.

It's going to be mysterious to us no matter what. There's really not a definitive conclusion that we can come to and say, well, this is definitely what an unclean spirit is. We're left in a lot of mystery regarding the nature of angels and demons and such.

But these are definitely consciousnesses, right? These are beings that have a consciousness in that they are addressing Jesus as individuals and they make requests of him. In fact, when we read of Legion addressing Jesus in Mark, chapter five, it says that he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Mark five, ten. So they're making a request of Jesus. Don't send us away. Instead, send us into this herd of pigs over here. And remember that Legion in the account that we have in both Matthew and Mark, Legion says Have you come to torment us before the appointed time?

Or in Mark's account, I adjure you by God, do not torment me. So they make requests of Jesus and they don't want to be sent out of the place that they inhabit. So there is a bottomless pit that is referred to as a place of judgment for the devil and his angels.

And that place is a place that the demons don't want to go to. That would be even worse than than being here in this place. So they get they request to be cast into other places. So you'll have these conscious beings asking requests, making requests of Jesus.

They even answer questions and they speak in a language that the other people can understand. They hear what it is that the demons are saying. So whatever these unclean spirits are likely, again, I think the most reasonable explanation is that they're fallen angels along with the devil, because it is spoken of them that way, especially in their judgment in the book of Revelation.

It's not necessary for us to go into any kind of wild, fanciful, spiritualistic ideas as to what these creatures are, but simply using what is given to us in the biblical text. A lot of times when you have some of those those explanations like them being disembodied Nephilim spirits and all this kind of thing that actually comes from extra biblical sources that doesn't come from scripture itself.

So since we have a reference to the devil and his angels in Revelation, Chapter 12, or when Jesus talks about them being sent to the same place of destruction that the godless will be sent to in Matthew, Chapter 25, there's not a reason for us to have to expound upon their identities any more than that.

There again, there's going to be things about angels and demons that are mysterious to us. We don't know where they come from. We don't even really know where they go. Yet we know that at this particular period of time, Jesus encounters a number of them and demonstrates his authority even over the spiritual by his ability to command this unclean spirit out of this particular man.

So again, the man confronts Jesus and says, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? The people don't yet recognize who he is. Remember, we just came from the account of Jesus teaching in Nazareth, and even the people in his own hometown did not recognize who he was, despite the fact that he told them from the scriptures and even demonstrated power among them.

But this demon definitely knows who he is. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God. It could be that this particular unclean spirit representing other unclean spirits, since he refers to himself in the plural pronoun us, is wanting to know what business Jesus has here.

Why are you here? You have come as the incarnate son of God. For what reason have you come to destroy us? Is that the reason you're here? So maybe this man with this unclean spirit has come to confront Jesus because he wants to know what business you have here on Earth.

Why are you in the place that you are in in in this form, in the likeness of man, God incarnate himself? Are you here to destroy us? Is that the reason why you've come and why you've arrived? I know who you are.

You are the holy one of God. Now, he doesn't say that with any kind of reverent address. Of course, he says it out of fear and anger. But Jesus rebuked him, silencing him so that he's not exposing the mission and the ministry that Jesus is here to do.

And he says to him, 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 no harm to him. So he throws himself down, but still throwing the man down in such a way that no harm comes to his person.

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 into every place in the surrounding region.

And so what Luke is really demonstrating here is Jesus authority, because that's the word that we have that comes up a couple of times, right? They were amazed at his teaching because it possessed authority.

And then when he casts out the unclean spirit, the people say, what is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. We're seeing Jesus being introduced as the one who has power and authority even over the spiritual things, even over the spiritual realm.

But then we're going to see the power and authority that he has even over physical when he will heal diseases. And that's what comes up next. So Jesus, first of all, demonstrating power over the spiritual tomorrow, we're going to get to see his power as he demonstrates his authority even over physical diseases, healing many beginning in verse 38.

But all of this pointing to the fact that Jesus came to preach the message of the kingdom. And again, that's the way that this chapter closes. I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well.

For I was sent for this purpose. This is the way Luke starts. Jesus earthly ministry teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth. Here he is teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum and has authority even over unclean spirits.

He's going to heal many diseases. But all of this authenticating that the word that he proclaims is the authoritative word.

Of God.

The fact that he can cast out unclean spirits or heal diseases just affirms that his authority is God's authority for Jesus is God. We must heed ourselves to this word that this demon came into submission to the word of God.

We must be in submission to it. Also, whatever he commands of us to do, we must do when his word convicts us of sin and we are cut to the heart. We must come to him and repent. We must live lives of holiness because he instructs us to do so.

And as his subjects, as subjects of the king, it is our delight for we know that our reward is great. It is the very kingdom of God that is promised to us for all who are in Christ Jesus preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.

It is good news to us because in Christ Jesus, we will be delivered from sin and death and judgment and this world and live forever with God in his eternal kingdom. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here, observing the power of Christ demonstrated over even these evil spirits and may we flee the evil ways of this world and desire to walk in those paths of righteousness with our Lord Jesus Christ that he has marked out for us the righteousness that he has clothed us in for all who believe in him, forgive us our sins and lead us in those paths of righteousness for your namesake.

It is in Jesus name we pray, amen.