There we go. We're going to move right to our passage this morning and given we have the Lord's Supper and the sermon and the passage are a bit longer. Now granted that I think the last few times I warned you that the sermon would be longer. A few of you came up afterwards and said it was three minutes longer. So I'm not always the best one to judge on time. I must say I have sat through sermons where three minutes seem like an eternity. So Also, before I read this passage, I do want to remind you that it is difficult to discern an order of events in the gospels at times, because the writers did not write history necessarily chronologically. Sometimes they wrote thematically, even using the word then, they weren't required to give a chronological order. And so sometimes when you compare gospels, it seems, well, this happened earlier here, but in this gospel, it happens later. And that's just the way history was written. And they each had, they wanted to go through different themes and ideas. And so if something I say or sounds out of order with before, people have tried to put a harmony of the gospels together, but that still is somewhat speculative as far as every detail. Given that we are in Luke 4, and we pick up in verse 31, and this is Congregation God's holy word for us. 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 they 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. And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and had left her. And immediately she arose and began to serve them. Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many crying, you are the son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. And when it was day departed and went into a desolate place and the people saw him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said, but he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well. For I was sent for this purpose. Let's pray. Our Lord God, we ask that we would be open to being instructed by your word. not simply for knowledge's sake, but it would affect the way we think and believe and live. And we ask for your Holy Spirit's help. And we thank you that you have ordained this simple means of preaching to instruct and bless your people. In Christ's name we thank you, amen. Our passage contains three miracle accounts. all of them occurring within a 24 hour period. This was a very busy day for Christ. He is at the Northwest shore of the lake of Galilee or sea of Galilee and in a town called Capernaum. Capernaum would end up being his ministry center. He had a home here. He would spend most of his time in this area along the lake. Now, the key word in this passage, if you didn't notice, was authority. Everyone is commenting on Christ's authority, the people as well as the demons. Jesus is the son of God, and so he possesses full authority. And so the question is, how will he use it? And also, how will he not use it? How will he refuse to use it? Another question that we will deal with later is when we compare this to last week's passage in Nazareth, how did that end? The people of Nazareth tried to kill him, remember? And yet here, the people of Capernaum, only about 30 miles away, all want to keep him there. So what really is so different from the people in Nazareth compared to the people up in Capernaum? Now the first miracle occurs in the synagogue on Saturday morning. Jesus is teaching again and the people are amazed at his authority. Now they're amazed at his authority in teaching because the typical rabbi, for lack of a better term, was very boring. He got up there and he usually took most of his servant to cite older rabbis who had died. And he would cite one rabbi after the other And it was a fairly dull, boring sermon of citing other human authority. Well, Christ didn't preach this way. Christ quoted the scripture. He explained the scripture. And he was anything but boring. And he was very clear and direct. And so they were amazed at his teaching. And if they were amazed at his teaching, they were even more amazed, of course, when somebody began to yell in the middle of the sermon. So if there were a few people still sleeping, as there always are in sermons, I'm sure at this point they woke up. In the middle of a sermon, a man yells out from the congregation, and Luke tells us it wasn't really a man, it was a demon inside a man. Now, if you've seen any movies about demon possession, not encouraging that, But they all tend to suggest that once a person is possessed by a demon, he is for life. Now that is not in the Bible, that's in the movies. And so often Christians assume that's what's happening here. But there's only one instance of anything like this in the whole Testament. Do you remember who that was? King Saul. A demon would oppress Saul for a while, come upon him and then leave. And so even here, even though it seems more than outward oppression, there is some kind of possession. We should never assume that this was this person's lot for life. Christ would say in another context that demons often leave somebody and then come back later. And so it was a very temporary time that a demon for certain people for certain reasons could enter that person. Now the intent, obviously, of the demon is to disrupt Jesus' teaching. The demons did not want Jesus to be preaching what he was preaching, and so they were trying to disrupt and challenge him. We see that they had more insight into his identity than the people themselves. They already knew he was the Christ, not quite fully aware what he would do, but they at least knew who he was, that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. So in verse 34, they identify him and they basically ask him what he's doing there. Are you here to destroy us now? They're trying to gain insight into what exactly he's doing in his teaching, in his ministry. Now, we don't even know why they keep revealing Jesus' identity. There's some speculation, but apparently we know that they wanna hurt him in some way. It couldn't have been very helpful to Christ that the only people that really believed in him were demons that seemed to understand. So that wasn't gonna help. Now, if this happened in our church service, we might be terrified, but notice that Jesus is not, he's not full of fear. He doesn't panic, he only seems a little irked or bothered. In one word, he silences the demon, and the demon is silent, and then he simply, in one word, casts him out. It's the power of his word that they see. The man is violently thrown down, but Jesus protects the man. Luke notes that he wasn't hurt at all, even though it must have been very hurtful normally to be thrown down like this. Now, if all those people were amazed before, how much were they amazed at Christ after seeing this? Luke moves us then to the second miracle, which takes place a little bit after, very normally back then, like in our time. After church, you went to have lunch at someone's house. And so after the Sabbath service, he would go to a local house and he'd share a meal. So they go to Simon's house, Jesus with some of his disciples. And at Simon's house, there's no meal ready. And it's because Simon's mother-in-law is very sick. Now Simon is married because he has a mother-in-law. And for those of you who grew up Roman Catholic, I hope you see the irony there. Simon, who is considered the first Pope is married. I'll let that sink in a bit. Now we're not sure where Simon's wife is. She may have been traveling. She doesn't seem to be there, but there's no lunch and she's sick. And notice how Luke describes her sickness. She was sick with a high fever. Now Luke is a physician. Luke knows the difference between a fever and a high fever. And I bet you know the difference, if you've ever had a high fever, between a normal fever from a flu or something and a high fever. A high fever, especially back then, was very dangerous and often people died from high fevers. And so Jesus listens to their request and he bends over and looks at her and he takes authority over the fever. And with one word, the fever is gone. Now notice the detail Luke adds. Whenever Luke adds a detail, we should pay attention to it because it's not normal. He tells us exactly what she does. He doesn't say this about anyone else that he heals here, but she gets up immediately and begins to serve him. Now, why add this? Well, have you ever had a high fever? Has it ever broke? Of course it has. When it broke, did you immediately get up and do whatever you wanted? You know what happens. It takes a few days, doesn't it, to really get over a high fever. Luke is showing us how completely Christ healed this woman, that she immediately could get up and begin serving lunch. Now the third miracle account is verses 40 through 43. While Jesus is eating lunch, word gets out of what happened in the synagogue, maybe even what happened in the house with Simon's mother-in-law. And so everyone who had a relative or a good friend who was very sick began to bring them to the house to be healed. They waited till the sun went down because it was Sabbath and you weren't allowed to move people on the Sabbath. Now you can imagine the scene. It's evening time, the meal is over. Jesus hears a noise outside and he walks out. And as far as you can see, you have sick people and their relatives standing there waiting for him. What a scene that summarizes our cursed fallen world. Basically, they're all dying. especially then. They're close to death, and they're just looking at Jesus helpless. Please do something about this. Now, Jesus has all authority, and so he could have stood there, spoken one word, and they'd all be healed, right? He could have, but what did he do? He went to each person individually, he took the time, and he laid his hands on each one of them, and they were healed. We'll talk about the importance of that in a moment. A few of those who were healed also had demons, and they identified Christ again, trying again to cause some damage in calling out his identity. Christ cast them out also, and the passage ends the next morning We're now about 24 hours from where we began. Jesus wakes up. The other gospel says before dawn, he finds a lonely place to pray. It's been a very busy day, right? And Jesus often secluded himself to pray to his father, but he wasn't praying very long where the crowds figured out where he had gone and they came again. And notice what Luke writes. They would have kept him from leaving. Now, why were they coming to him? It wasn't for healings because he had already performed the healings. But notice the language. They would have forced him or kept him. to stay. Now we've seen that phrase before, which is why Luke brings it up. And it's in John 6, 15, where it says, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him King. Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. And so we know what they were thinking. They were thinking, if he can heal us, if he has this type of power over demons, imagine what he could do to Caesar. I mean, if he can heal the powers of evil, if he can defeat the powers of evil, he can defeat the Romans in our country. That would be the mindset. And so they were gonna force him to be king. But notice Jesus' response, I must preach the good news of the kingdom to all Israel. Now, I wanna spend some time answering questions that come up about this passage, maybe even questions that you had as I read it. First about demon possession. And the common question is, why does it seem in the ministry of Christ, demon possession was so common? Because how many times was someone possessed with a demon in the Old Testament? Zero. We never see it throughout the whole history of the thousand years of the Old Testament. Then Christ appears and there seems to be demons and people all over the place. The question is, what's going on? Well, we see it's common because the time of Christ was unique and Satan knew that. Remember back in the temptations, Satan realized how strong Christ was. He was devoted to his father. He was determined to fulfill his ministry and suffer. And so Satan is pulling out all the stops. So he does something unique in the history of the world that we just don't see anywhere else. He begins to possess people of demons along the path of where Christ is going to minister. Satan is doing anything he can to stop Christ. That is why when we get to the epistles, we have no mention of demon possession. The apostles never say anything like, be watchful for demon possession, or here's how you cast them out. The whole idea disappears as the New Testament closes, because this was a unique time in history. And so people often ask, can it happen? Well, I guess it could, but the very fact that we never see it in the Old Testament, we only see it in the time of Christ, and a few, to stop his apostles, and then it disappears again, we probably should understand it's unique in the history of salvation. Now the second question would be, why does Jesus silence the demons? Those of you who were in school as a kid, you ever get into a fight? And when you get into a fight and there's kids gathered around watching you and you're winning the fight and you pin someone down and you say something like cry uncle. Um, I don't know if people say that anymore, but you want your enemy to call out that you're stronger. Admit that I'm stronger than you say it so everyone can hear. So the question is, why doesn't want Jesus to have the demons call out in fear of who he is, that he is so strong? Wouldn't that promote his own ministry? Well, for one, Jesus didn't need demons to do his ministry work for him, right? But also we see throughout the New Testament, throughout the gospels, that Christ is very slowly revealing his identity. He slowly and carefully gives more and more information. He doesn't want people to know too much too soon because they're not ready for it. And we see that in our passage. Already they're misunderstanding what he's there for, and they're already forcing him to do something he's not there to do. So he doesn't need more of this type of hype that the demons would have given him. Now the third question then is, what do we do with these two distinct reactions? A week ago, if it is a week later, 30 miles away, the Jews were trying to throw him off a cliff. Here, they can't wait to make him their pastor and leader. Were the people so awful 30 miles down the road and so wonderful in believing here? Well, the answer is no. Both of them were rejecting Christ. The difference is they're just rejecting him in a different way. Well, how do we know this? Because not too much later, Jesus will speak these words. This is from Matthew 11, 20. Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." You see, both of them refused to repent and believe the gospel message. Why then two such different reactions? One wanting to kill him, which we understand, but then here wanting to praise him and wanting them as their leader. Because in their minds, they simply saw an opportunity to use Jesus for their own sinful purposes. Who didn't want healings to constantly happen? Who didn't want a political leader that could defeat all their hated enemies? They, just like the people of Nazareth, they were not interested in repenting of their own sins. and asking for forgiveness and living for Christ, even if they suffer, they simply saw an opportunities to have as many goodies in this life as they could get. Now that leads us to the fourth question. If Christ did not come for physical healings, why did he keep doing them? Wouldn't that give the impression that that's what he came for? Well, no, for one, in Isaiah, the way that they were identifying who the Messiah was, was by healings. So they already told, because many people claimed to be the Messiah back then, about every 10 or 20 years, somebody stood up and said, I'm Israel's Messiah. So the question is, how would you know when Jesus said it, that he was the one? And Isaiah said, he will grant healings to people. None of the other messiahs quote messiahs could do that. So it was simply for one to identify who he was. But secondly, the physical healings always pointed to something greater and they were to make the connection. If I'm a sinner, what's my greatest need? Forgiveness, right? And so if you know you're a sinner and Jesus deploys the power to heal your body, what connection should you make? Well, if he can heal my body, then he can heal the biggest problem, my soul. He can do something about my sin. They were supposed to make that connection, but they were not interested in making that connection. You see, if he's only coming to do these outward miracles, they're all temporary. You think these people he healed never got sick again? They may have gotten sick a week later. Do you think that if he cast out a demon, a demon could never go back? Jesus said they often did in his day. So these were all temporary miracles. But when the Old Testament describes the work of the Messiah, was it temporary? He will come and make your life better for a time? Was that the promise? Or would he completely turn around Satan's kingdom? Would he give everlasting life and be an eternal king? And so if they cared at all about the great things of life and death, they would have saw beyond any temporary benefit to what he really came to do according to the Old Testament. I mean, if these are only pictures, Think about it, when you cast out a demon, it's a picture of a problem with your soul, right? And if you heal a disease, it's a problem with your body. Both of these problems came as a result of the curse, as a result of sin. These were to picture permanent blessings that lasted forever. Well, where do we get bodies that last forever? In this life or the new heavens and earth? The new heavens and earth. And so he may cast out a demon, but that doesn't deal with your sin problem. So where does that happen? That happens through the gospel. The body will be redeemed at the stage to come when Christ returns. And so they would have, should have looked at the miracles and said, he's the one, if he can do this, that now can do what I really need. which is something about this sin that separates me from God. And that started separating me from God way back in the Garden of Eden. You were to make that connection unless one thing, you didn't want to make that connection. And that's exactly the problem Christ rebukes them about. You didn't want to repent and admit your greatest need. You just wanted me for temporary goodies and help in this life. Now, as I said last week, what's scary about that, that continues today. There's two types of people who hear the gospel. Some angrily reject the gospel. They think it's foolish and silly and offensive. But then there's others that like the gospel. They like the idea of God's love and grace. They're okay with Jesus. but they see it as a way to use God for their own temporary blessings and good. Now, we'll get to more of that in a moment, but the final question is, how would Jesus with all his authority do what he really came to do, which is take away sin? And the answer really is right here in our passage. You may have heard it and just skipped over it. What does Jesus do when he goes out and he heals each person who's sick? What does it say? He lays his hands on them. Now there's an Old Testament background to that. Where did you lay your hands on somebody? It was in the sacrifices. When you went to the temple or the tabernacle and you brought an animal from your home and you wanted it to be used as an offering to God for sin, What did you do? You went before the priest. Before you gave him the animal outside the gate, you laid your hands on it. And that was a symbol of all my sin on this sacrifice. That was the picture. Then the priest, after you laid your hands on it, took the animal, brought it to the altar, and offered it to God. So what is happening when Jesus is laying on hands on sinners who are stung by the curse? What is he saying? He is saying, I am taking your sickness, your sin. I will take these upon myself to be the savior. In another gospel, that's exactly what the writer brings out, that this was done to show that he would take on their sins. And so even in these miracles, he's showing that he has come to be the great sin bearer. to take on our biggest problem, the sin that separates us from God. Now, those are the common questions. Let me leave you with three applications. The first one is a very comforting one, and that is this picture we see of Jesus going out to each person, and we can imagine him bending over, maybe asking a little bit about him, laying his hands on each one, and then healing them. Isn't that comforting to know that God doesn't simply love his people in a big picture sense, but he actually cares in an individual sense for each one of us. He has the time and the capacity, not only to care for the whole world, but to care for our own personal needs. So it's a very wonderful picture of what Jesus could have done quickly, but he takes the time to do individually. Secondly, I want you to see also what's in common with each of these miracles. In each of these miracles, the person who receives the blessing is helpless. The man who is controlled by a demon, he's completely controlled. He can't even control his speaking. What about Simon's mother-in-law? Could she have healed herself? She had a high fever close to death. And then all these sick people, others must carry them, Luke notes. They can't walk. Somebody must bring them to Jesus. Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We are helpless. He had to take away our sin legally. He had to change our hearts. We were bound in sin. And so this teaches us what is the right way to approach God? Well, as a non-Christian, you come helplessly. I'm a sinner. There's nothing I can do. Do this for me, Jesus. But even as Christians, this is how we are to come to God, helpless. Lord, I'm weak. I need your grace every day. I need your mercy. I don't come with strength or anything to boast in. We are helpless, and that's how we live our Christian lives. And finally, we need to end with a warning, because this passage is a warning. And the warning is to make sure you are not using God for your own selfish purposes. Today, the gospel is often marketed as a cure-all for everything. It's a product. Do you have depression? The gospel will take away all your depression. Are you lonely? The gospel will take away all your loneliness. Having trouble with your kids? The gospel makes sure your family's great. Having problem with politics? God will heal it all. You have problem with sickness? Christ will heal your body. You see, We offer God as an answer to the good life instead of the reason he actually sent his son, which is to take care of our sin. We can want just enough religion to get what we want, but not to ever repent of our sin and live for Christ, even if it's not convenient. And you need to see that whenever this happens in the gospels, Jesus turns away. He refuses to use his authority that way. They come and they say, Jesus, we want you to be our permanent pastor right here in Capernaum. And we want you to do great things for us. And Jesus says no. And that's the same way he responds when we use him this way. We also must be careful not to present God to others. in this way, and what do I mean by that? Well, let's say a person comes up to you who doesn't know the Lord, and he found out he has cancer, terminal cancer. And he comes to you and says, are you a Christian? And you say, yeah. And he says, if I become a Christian, will God take this away? Now, what are you careful to say at that point? You're not going to promise anything, right? You're going to say very rightly, that's not why we come to God. We don't come to get healed in this life. We come to forgive us of our sins and to have eternal life. Not that God can never heal, but that's not why we come to God. And there's no promise of it in the Bible in this life. And so you're very careful to present the truth. But at the same time, when someone on the Christian right says the answer to all our problems is if we turn to God and then America will be great and all our problems will be solved and we'll have a better economy and less crime and a great life. If we just turn to God and ask enough people and what do you say? Amen. You fall right for it. You're simply applying the health and wealth gospel to politics. It is still a false use of religion. There's no promise in the Bible that if just more people will ask God, or beg God or repent that we will have a better economy or less crime or less catastrophes or anything else. Just like there's no promise in the Bible. If we turn to God in faith, he'll heal our sicknesses in this life. And so you hear this now, you hear me saying it, it makes sense. And what are you gonna do the next time somebody suggests it? You're going to say amen. God can do this for our country if we just do this. And I'll let you figure out why. Now on a side note, some of you have mentioned how often I criticize the Christian right. Let me just say, the Christian left is just as bad and ridiculous. But we are a conservative church in theology, so the temptation in our circles will be on the political Christian right more than the left. But they deserve just as much criticism for using the gospel for their own political purposes. Now, there's another way we can do this, besides in politics, and that is with our children and with close family and friends. And the way we do this is, if they've never turned to Christ and repented of their own sin, we still say to them things like, well, when you need God's help, just pray. Pray for a good job. Pray for this or that or health. And what are we doing? Now we are using God to give them goodies while they refuse to come to Him for forgiveness of sin. And see, when we do that, we again are violating what Jesus says here. Jesus refuses to be used for anything besides our sin problem. He refuses to be used for other things when we ignore our sin problem. So we should never encourage people to pray to God, to trust God, when they haven't even come to Christ for salvation. That's simply using God and God will refuse that request. That is promoting a false gospel with our own family members and close friends. We need Jesus because we are sinners. and because he is the one to come to take care of our sins through dying for us. That is what you profess when you take the Lord's Supper that we're about to do. You're saying, this is why I believe in Jesus. I am a sinner and I need his sacrifice for me. If I don't get anything else in this life, this is why I profess and believe in Christ. This is why he came. Amen. Let's pray.