This morning, we will finish up chapter 4 of Luke. Again, as we go through these verses, you'll probably have questions about certain things that I won't answer because we're focusing very pointedly on how Luke portrays the word made flesh. Hopefully, someday I can come back to Luke and preach through it in a little bit more exegetical detail. But for this morning, Again, we want to look at the Word and how the Word made flesh is portrayed to us. And in particular this morning, the authority with which Jesus speaks and what that authority does and how it works and its purpose as well. So we'll be covering a lot of territory from verse 31 to 44 of Luke chapter 4. Let me read that for us and we'll get right into it. Luke 4.31, the very word of the living God. 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. 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 it left her. And immediately she rose 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, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. 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. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea." So ends the reading of the Holy infallible and inerrant Word of God. May He write it upon our hearts this morning, and may it bear fruit in our lives. As we come before it, let's once again join together in prayer. Father in heaven, now we come before your word. We ask your blessing upon this time. We ask you would fulfill your own promise that your word goes out and does not return to your void, that it instead accomplishes everything you purpose for it and is successful in the things for which you send it. For us here now this morning, we pray that You would pour out Your Holy Spirit upon us. Open our eyes to see and open our ears to hear the things that You have for us. And in doing so, make Your Word a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, that we might walk in the light according to what it teaches us. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. We're talking about the Authority of the word this morning. And authority is a bit of a tricky thing. How do you know when someone has authority? Sometimes we look at a title. Look at their position. It might indicate leadership or authority of some kind, but quite frankly, titles can be empty. We've talked about, we use the phrase puppet king. Because the king has no power or authority on his own. He's a puppet controlled by someone else. Queen Elizabeth in England has no authority. People bend the knee, but she can't make any decisions of any consequence for her country. Maybe you've been in a work situation like I have where you see a supervisor or a manager who technically, according to their job description, has a certain amount of authority but is unable to exercise it because of those higher up who refuse to let them do so. So a title or a position needs to be accompanied by the freedom, the power, to make decisions and to be able to tell people what to do. So there's some element of power that goes with it. But power isn't the only thing because power can be tyrannical. And indeed we see that in history as well. People who have power but are just dictators. Power to be exercised as true authority, real authority, has to be exercised rightly, in truth, for what is right and good, and people need to be able to recognize that it is being exercised in that way. There's another aspect to authority. It needs people who will obey. It needs people who will respond rightly. to those who exercise authority rightly. I worked in college for the Air Force in a particular division that managed contracts at Boeing. And we had a bright new lieutenant colonel come in as the chief of our division. And he was eager and ambitious. He was a good man. He was a well-meaning man. But he thought, because he had certain emblems on his shoulders, on his lapel, that he could command civilians what to do. Civilian engineers who had 20, 30 years of experience and who knew their job infinitely better than he did. Guess what they did? They ignored him. They laughed at him. Here I am a college kid wondering how to figure out this whole business thing and I see subordinates laughing at the authority put over them. He had an officer's designation. He had the position. He meant well, but he didn't know what he was doing and so the people wouldn't obey him. Authority has all those components. The right position, the right freedom to exercise the authority rightly and people who will follow. said that the word, when it comes, comes with three characteristics, with power to reveal truth and to compel a response. The word comes with power, it comes to reveal truth, and it comes to compel a response. That is authority. That's authority. So we should expect to see Jesus in His earthly ministry, the Word made flesh, exercising true authority. And that's exactly what we see in this passage. Luke shows us that authority in three ways. Jesus' teaching authority. He shows us that Jesus has authority over even spiritual beings. And then he shows us on top of that that Jesus has authority even over the physical world. And then he closes the section by showing us that Jesus used that authority for a purpose. to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. And that's just what I want to cover this morning, those three kinds of authority that Luke shows us Jesus exercising, and then what He used that authority for. Well, the first is the teaching authority, and it's just in two short verses, 31 and 32 of chapter 4. Simple verses, but a lot of meaning there. Here's Jesus again, as is his habit, on the Sabbath, at the synagogue, teaching. But now he's in Capernaum, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. The teaching would have been in a synagogue whose ruins still exist to this day. The foundation stones have been dated to the time of Christ. be fascinating to visit that place. The content of his teaching that day is not given, but the reaction is. Before, when he was in Nazareth, in verse 22, the people in the synagogue had marveled at the graciousness of his words. This time they're astonished at his teaching. Because it says in verse 32, his words possessed authority. What does that mean? Well, we get a clue from Mark's gospel, the same scene, Mark 1.22. Mark comments there that they were amazed because he taught as one who had authority, not like the scribes. In other words, he taught with his own authority. Other rabbis would come and teach their disciples and the disciple would grow up and become a rabbi on his own account and when he went out to teach he would say, well as I heard from Rabbi so-and-so, as Rabbi Gamaliel says, as Rabbi Shammai says, not Jesus. No rabbi taught Jesus. There was no rabbi that Jesus was the disciple of, to whom He owed His knowledge and wisdom, and under whose authority He taught. Jesus had His own authority. He had His own understanding. Something that we've known from Luke, since chapter 2, verse 47, where He was at the temple at 12 years old, and even then they were amazed at His understanding and answers. And I think even more than this, we can guess a little bit at how Jesus' teaching authority was demonstrated. We can look to something like Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus repeatedly says, you have heard it said, but I say. That's authority. He's not appealing to anybody else. In fact, in Matthew, he's referring to their tradition. He's referring to their rabbis and saying, you've heard this. I say to you this, and what I say is truth. That's authority. And what a privilege it would have been to sit under such authoritative teaching, which we don't have today, in the same way that those crowds had in Nazareth and Capernaum, and as it says later on in the chapter, throughout the towns of Judea. We have teachers and preachers and self-proclaimed prophets, Christian or otherwise, who try to act like they have that authority, try to claim it, but they always fall short. They compel by falsehood or by emotional manipulation. They don't reveal the truth, they hide it or they twist it. It's one of the reasons why Christian worship, historically, and it's so important for Christian worship to be based on and saturated with the Word of God. The Word of God reveals truth. Jesus prayed that would be true for His disciples in John 17, 17. Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. And when that Word is preached rightly, accompanied by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, it always compels a response. That's why we worship the way we do again here at Mission. Look at the elements of the worship service real quickly. The call to worship, always from Scripture. Songs and hymns have to be consistent with biblical truth. We try to sing the Psalms as well. The response of reading from God's law, based on His law. The confessions have scriptural language sprinkled in them. The assurance of pardon always from Scripture. I don't pardon you. I don't have that authority. Anybody who stands up and says they do is lying. But I do have the authority to declare to you, consistent with Scripture, the truth that for all those who are in Christ, their sins are completely forgiven. We read from Scripture, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Not many churches do that anymore. Maybe one reading. Maybe just the scripture to be preached on is all they read. Sometimes I know the readings are long and it's a little bit different than what other people do. But it immerses us in God's Word. It allows God's Word to speak to us. I could do more. Some churches have a Torah reading, a Psalms reading, a prophetic reading, a gospel reading, an epistle reading. Wouldn't that be fun? But it's a tragedy that the reading of Scripture is missing from so many worship services today. Confession of Faith is always a summary of biblical teaching. Our prayers, we try to use biblical language. The sermon is based upon, hopefully, God's Word. We enjoy the sacrament every week, the Word in picture for us. We offer a grateful response according to the Word in our tithes and offerings. We offer words of praise and blessings to conclude. Certain things are repeated regularly. I've said this before. Some of the readings, the confessions, the assurances of pardon, I repeat those on purpose. There's a limited number that I recycle over and over again because I want those things to be part of the way that you think, the rhythm of your thoughts about life and about God. To remember those in times of trouble or distress or doubt So the language of scripture becomes ingrained in us and becomes part of who we are. So while not directly from Jesus himself standing here in front of us, we have his word and that's a very powerful thing. And it is authoritative for us. Here we have an example again of Jesus regularly going to the synagogue on the Sabbath to worship. What an example for us to regularly, weekly, week in and week out, come and enjoy the privilege of hearing God speak to us from His Word. The second thing Luke shows us is spiritual authority. Authority even over the demonic powers in the spiritual realm. An unclean demon comes out of a man there at the synagogue simply because Jesus rebuked it and commanded it to come out. Simply a word spoken and the demon comes out. Again, an astonished reaction from those around who saw this in verse 36. What is this word? They say, what is this word? With authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. What is this word? Who can do this? Who can say this? And Luke is telling us the word made flesh can do this. No one else has this kind of power and authority. This is divine power. This is divine authority. The demons recognized it. Kept saying that he was the Christ, the Holy One of God. Quick passing comment, why did Jesus silence them? I think most likely, there's other theories, but I think most likely he didn't want the truth coming from an evil source. Gives credibility to that evil source, and that's something he did not want. There are other possible reasons as well, but that's a fairly compelling one to me. Why does this power over demonic spiritual powers have any meaning for us for today? Well, there's a continuing error in the church. We keep making the same mistakes generation after generation. One is demon possession of believers, as if such a thing could happen. And yet it is continually taught Exorcists rise up to command supposed demons to come out of believers, and yet it is inconceivable that any demonic power or being could take up residence where the Holy Spirit dwells. That's nonsensical. Now, say that to people and they'll kind of get it and accept it, but then they'll move on to the second error that we see so often. It's not a demonic spirit that possesses a person, but instead, I don't know what to call it, annoys a person. And so now we have the demon of alcoholism that has been passed on from generation to generation, or the demon of drugs, or the demon of sickness, or of poverty, or of sexual perversion, or of whatever it might be, which really is just as inconceivable as the other idea. You are a new creation in Christ. You've been set free, have been set free, not will be set free. You have been set free the moment you come to Christ and are born again. Scripture tells us, those that the Son sets free are free indeed. Jesus says that himself, John 8, 36. Paul reminds us of that in Galatians 5, 1. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. You cannot be bound. You cannot be possessed. You cannot be controlled by any demonic power. Christ has conquered them. He has authority over them. What does Martin Luther say in the hymn? One little word will fell them. Word. One little word. Jude reminds us of Michael contending over the body of Moses. Does he rebuke the demonic powers on his own authority? Jude says that would be blasphemous. Instead, the Lord rebuke you. We don't have to appeal to our own authority or seek it out on our own. God has done it for us, and we can appeal to that. We can appeal to that promise. We can appeal to that reality. Lord, protect us. Keep us from those who would do us harm even in the spiritual realm. Because spiritual warfare is real, and demonic powers are involved in it. And Satan prowls about like a lion looking for those that he can devour. But you are protected by Jesus, the authoritative Word made flesh, who can rebuke those powers. And they must obey. We'll suffer. We'll have trials. Do not fear, says Jesus, I have overcome the world. This matters. Spiritual warfare is real, but we are the victors. Don't ever let anybody, this really bothers me, don't ever let anybody tell you that a demon or a demonic power or a demonic spirit can control you or your family. If you are in Christ, that is a lie, a blasphemous lie. The third authority that Jesus demonstrates here in chapter 4 is authority over the physical, material realm as well, the created world. We know from other stories in scripture that sometimes when Jesus healed someone, he would touch them in a certain way. There's that one kind of awkward, funny story where he spits into the dirt and makes a mud and puts it on the person's eyes to heal their blindness. But in Luke, more often than not, when Jesus heals, he just speaks and it happens. Just a word of command, and people are healed. And here the example is Peter's own mother-in-law. A high fever. People are worried about her. She's bedridden. And what does Jesus do, it says in verse 39? He merely stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. A word, and it was gone. That's authority. That's power. A word is spoken and a fever leaves. A fever is an inanimate thing. But nevertheless, even the inanimate material world must respond to the powerful, compelling, authoritative word of God. That's amazing. That's incredible. We don't see it just in Luke, but we see it in other Gospels and other stories as well. Jesus speaks and calms a storm. He commands a fig tree and it withers. He heals a soldier's daughter and many other examples. Why does this matter today? Because again, unfortunately today we have those who would try to copy what Jesus does, but without biblical grounds to do so. My wife teases me because I like to watch the goofy faith healers on TV. In fact, she hates it. And the latest craze seems to be this thing where they sweep their arm. People fall back and they're healed. They just speak and they sweep their arm or they blow or some other crazy demonstration of something. It used to be when I was a kid that faith healers would at least lay hands on you. Now they do other strange things. They're not faith healers, they're fake healers. And they deceive people because they have no true authority and they have no true power. And yet the willingness that we have to believe in this reflects, I think, well, partly our naivety, partly our lack of grounding in God's Word, but also that deep, deep profound desire within all of us for some tangible evidence of God's power, His love and His goodness to us. And so these crazy displays kind of appeal to us. Oh yeah, there it is. But we really don't need that. The faith healers are indeed fake healers, but we do have a God who can and does heal today, sometimes through medicine, sometimes through the wisdom of doctors and medical professionals, but sometimes in ways that we cannot explain. We don't need the grand displays. We don't need the fireworks and lights and music and all that goofy stuff. We don't need that because I think each and every one of us here knows of or has seen personally in others or may have experienced in your own self the healing power of God's love to you or to someone you know. That's powerful. We don't need lights and shows and action. We just need to remember the profound and wonderful things that God has done for us and for those that we love. There's also another difference between Jesus and the fake healers. When Jesus heals you, you're healed immediately. No relapses, no doubts. The fake healers will tell you if you're not fully healed or if it comes back, it's your problem. You didn't have enough faith, which is terrible and insidious, cruel to do that to a child of God. When Jesus heals, it's done. What does it say about Peter's mother-in-law? He stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. When I get sick, really sick with the flu, if you're laid low with some illness or some problem, there's that point when you get better, you know you're better, but man, it still takes a day or two to get fully up to speed. That's normal. Not when Jesus heals. It's immediate. It's instantaneous. That's power. That's authority. And we see it again over and over and over again in the Gospels. When He tells the lame man to get up and walk, he gets up and walks. When He heals the blind man, they see immediately. When He heals the leper, their leprosy is gone. That kind of power is the power of Jesus, Jesus Christ himself. Again, we do see and experience healing in our own lives. I know it. We've seen it in this little church in the few years that we've been together. When God does that, it's not for our glory. It's not for our fame. It's not to attract all sorts of followers like the fake healers do. It's always for God's glory. Always, so that like Peter's mother-in-law, you can get up and serve God and others. And I love this last little bit of chapter 4 because Luke shows us this in Jesus himself in verses 42 to 44. Jesus is our example in this. We read about Him in verse 42. After He's done all these healings, He's rebuked demons, He's healed people. What do the people want? They want what's natural. Stick around. Stay with us. Keep doing this. More teaching, more healing. But he says in verse 43, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. He was sent for a purpose, to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to those who needed to hear it. All the fakers, all the cult leaders, all the exorcists, all the faith healers are in it for their own glory. And you can see it in the way they act, in the way they dress, in the way they treat others. They're in it for money. They're in it to be pampered and served. They're haughty. They're proud. But Jesus came to serve. Remember Philippians 2, the example of our Lord, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, became a man, and was obedient even to death on a cross. He came to glorify his Father and ours. He served in his teaching. His combat with demonic powers, His healing, but He served primarily in preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and its coming in Him and in those who would follow after Him. This kingdom that belongs to all who repent and believe in Him with their full faith and trust in Him for salvation from sin. So Jesus is our example. This is how we can serve as well. If you've been healed, to serve. If you've been preserved from demonic powers, to serve. Not with grand displays, not with fake miracles, but with the power of the word that comes in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you share the good news, know this, it goes out with power and it goes out with authority. Because the word possesses authority. The gospel is not, will you come? There's no power and authority in that question. The gospel is come, repent, believe. Do it now or do it later. This is the word that we share with others, the word that we celebrate in our worship service, the word that hopefully we remember as we go from this place. I think those words of assurance are great tools. We made a flyer a couple years ago, and I want to commend it to you again this morning. gospel comfort and confidence. There's several copies out on the desk in the lobby, and I can make more. These are great, not only for our own devotions, because as you read each verse, it's a wonderful reminder of the grace that is ours in Jesus. But this is also a tool for witnessing, to share with others. One of my favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 5.21, For our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You can share that with someone and say, do you know what that means? Most likely, they'll say no. You ever made a trade? God is making a trade. our sin for His righteousness. It's an opportunity to share the gospel. So I'd commend this to you. Pick these up and take them with you on your way out and use them in your own devotions. Use them in your own opportunities to share the gospel with others. The power and authority of the gospel is wonderful and amazing. So I think the way that I want to end this morning is just to read these for you. That's how I want to end. Here are these 15 passages of Scripture. Let them sink in. Meditate upon them. Take them home. Study them. This is God's Word with authority and power for you, for your life, for those around you. If you are already a believer, these words are true for you. If you are not, they will be if you come to Christ Jesus in repentance and faith. Let me just read these and we'll conclude the sermon. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is exalted. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as far as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love to those who feared Him. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He himself bore our sins in his body on a tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Let's pray. Our God and Father, again, we do thank you for the great and wonderful gift that is Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Word made flesh. The Word with power. The Word revealing truth. The Word that compels a response. The Word that speaks with authority. What a wonderful blessing this is to us. And we thank you that you have accomplished all these things we have just read about for us in Christ Jesus. We have not earned it. We have not paid for it. It is a free gift of your own hand. We receive it with the open hand of faith. Equip us to serve you in all that we do. Lead us in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. And may we, as we interact with others around us, share with them the powerful and authoritative Word of God. And may that power go out and bring new life to those who walk in darkness. Be pleased, Father, we ask, to use us for this wonderful purpose. We ask it all in the name of Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen.