All right, we're there in Luke chapter number four, and we're making our way through the
gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights.
We're on a journey with Jesus through the gospel according to Luke, and we're just simply
preaching through the Bible, verse by verse, through this book of the Bible.
I hope that's okay, that that's what we do around here.
We just preach the Bible.
We don't have much else to offer, but the Word of God is good enough.
And as we are continuing with Jesus here, if you remember from this morning, we saw
that he went down to Nazareth.
He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, where he was raised.
And he preached there, and it didn't go very well.
A prophet is not without honor, saving his own country.
They tried to throw him off the brow of a hill and kill him.
They tried to throw him headlong.
And in verse 31, the Bible says, of course, in verse 30, we saw that he passed through
the midst of them.
In verse 31, the Bible says, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught
them on the Sabbath day.
So we see Jesus continuing on his journey here.
He passed through the midst of them in verse 30, and now he leaves Nazareth.
He goes down to Capernaum, and he's doing here what he's been doing the whole time,
which is what he did in Nazareth.
He's preaching in the synagogue.
Notice verse 32, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power.
And in the synagogues, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried
out with a loud voice.
What we're going to see with Jesus in this episode, in this synagogue, is we're going
to see the power of Jesus.
This morning, we saw the ministry of Jesus.
Tonight, we're going to see the power of Jesus.
I'm going to show you three different areas in which his power is showed and exemplified
in this story, in this passage of Scripture.
Of course, if you're taking notes, I would encourage you to write some of these things
down.
The first thing I want you to notice is that we see the power of Jesus over devils.
We see the power of Jesus over devils.
When he comes to this synagogue in Capernaum, and he begins to preach, we immediately see
something that we've been seeing in the Gospel of Luke, specifically in chapter 4, and it
is the devil's opposition to Jesus.
In verse 33, the Bible says this, and then in the synagogue, there was a man.
I want you to notice that he's been preaching, right?
Look at verse 31 again.
He came down, the Bible says, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught
them.
So he's been preaching on the Sabbath days, and they've been impressed.
The people have been receptive, and the Bible says in verse 32, and they were astonished
at his doctrine, for his word was with power.
Now he's in the synagogue, he's teaching, he's preaching, the Bible says, and in the
synagogue, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil.
It's what we would call a demon-possessed man.
Was there in the synagogue while Jesus was preaching, notice, and cried out with a loud
voice.
So we see the interruption of the demon.
Here we've got Jesus at a church service, you could call, in a synagogue.
There's a crowd there.
He's teaching.
He's preaching.
He's healing people.
He's doing these things, and as he's teaching and preaching, and as the people are being
astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power, the Bible says that this man with
an unclean spirit, I want you to notice the last little part of verse 33 there, it says,
he cried out with a loud voice.
He interrupted the service that Jesus was preaching in.
I mean, just imagine if tonight we were having church just like this, and some crazy person
just stood up and started yelling and trying to interrupt the service.
Of course, we've got a safety team and they'd take care of that, but here this guy, he stands
up in the middle of the service, and he cried out with a loud voice, verse 33, and why don't
you notice the response of what this demon-possessed man says, verse 34, saying, let us alone.
What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us?
Notice these words, I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God.
Now, of course, we know that Jesus has not been hiding who he is, but he's really at
the beginning of his ministry here, and he's not necessarily just going around just completely
trying to get as much attention as possible.
He's getting a lot of attention, because he's obviously healing people.
He's performing miracles.
There's multitudes that are following him.
We've read about his fame, going abroad into the regions and into the land, but as we saw
this morning, Jesus has a plan, and he understands that if things get too out of control, they're
going to try to kill him before the time, and we actually saw that this morning where
they tried to throw him off of a cliff, so he wants to avoid that for that reason.
He's trying to not cause too much drama, cause too much commotion.
Here this demon-possessed man cries out.
We see the interruption of the demon.
We see the announcement of the demon.
He says, let us alone.
What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us?
And he says, I know thee.
I want you to notice that other people, because we see this in the Gospels, that other people
may be confused as to who Jesus is, and there's a lot of questions, and there's a lot of controversy,
and there's a lot of conflict, and a lot of communication.
A lot of conversations are being had in regards to who is this man, and who is Jesus, and
Jesus himself refers to this, and he says, he asked his disciples one day, who do men
say that I am?
And they said, some people say that you are John the Baptist, and some people say that
you're Elias, and some people say that you're some great prophet, and he asked them, who
do you say that I am?
And of course, Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
So there's a lot of controversy in regards to who Jesus is, and by the way, in 2022,
there's still a lot of controversy about who Jesus is.
There's still people that want to question and confuse who it is that Jesus truly is,
but I want you to notice, there is no question in the minds of the devil and his demons.
There's no question in regards to who he is.
They cry out and say, I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God.
They know who Jesus is, and here's what's interesting, keep your place there in Luke
chapter four, that's our text for tonight, go to the book of Acts if you would, Luke,
you have the gospel according to Luke, then you've got the book of John, then you've got
the book of Acts, Acts chapter 19.
Not only does the devil know who Jesus is, but the devil knows who those who are serving
Jesus are.
In Acts 19 and verse 13, the Bible says, then certain of the vagabond Jews, the word vagabond
refers to somebody who wanders from place to place, they don't have a fixed location
where they reside or live, they're just kind of wandering.
Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them, which had
evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul
preaches.
I want you to notice, here you've got these, like Pastor Jones preached last Sunday night,
we've got these posers, they're not really preachers of the word of God, they don't have
the power of the Holy Spirit, they're not followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they've
seen Paul cast out devils, and Paul is doing it by the name of Jesus, or the authority
of Jesus.
So these guys show up, they find somebody which had evil spirits, and they said, we
adjure you by Jesus.
This is what these vagabond Jews are saying to this demon-possessed person, they said,
we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
It's kind of an interesting statement there, they're saying, we don't really know who Jesus
is, but we've seen Paul cast out devils, and Paul's doing it by the name of Jesus, so we
adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
Notice verse 14, and there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief of the priests, which
did so, verse 15, and the evil spirit answered and said, notice what he says, he says, Jesus
I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?
So here, we have this evil spirit saying, I've heard of Jesus, and I've heard of Paul,
because Paul preached Jesus, but he said, I don't know who you are, posers, and then
of course, the story goes on that he beats them up, and they run off naked, and all of
those things.
The interesting thing is this, when you are serving and preaching on behalf of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the devils are going to know who you are.
When you're making an impact and a difference for God, the devil and his devils are going
to put a target on you.
Serving Jesus will put you in the cross hairs.
They not only know who Jesus is, but they will know who you are when you represent and
serve Jesus.
Now, the funny thing is that, go back to Luke chapter 4, if you would.
Over years of ministry, you kind of get to find out how people are and kind of different
personalities people have.
I don't know, maybe it has to do with how they're raised.
There are some people that just have some fight in them, you know, you're always kind
of looking for that.
There's one that has just a little bit of fight in them.
We don't want contentious people, but we want people that are not afraid to contend for
the faith and have some fight.
Sometimes, you know, as a preacher, you would get up and preach about spiritual warfare
and the fact that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers and against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
You talk about the fact that the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom
he may devour, that he wants to sift you as wheat, like Jesus said to Peter, and that
we're engaged in the spiritual battle and we ought to make sure we put on the armor
of God and stand and fight.
Sometimes you preach that way and you're preaching that way for a couple of reasons.
Number one, it's true.
Number two, you're trying to encourage people to get in the fight.
You're trying to encourage people to stand up and fight, but what I've learned over years
of ministry is that sometimes you get up and you preach that way and instead of encouraging
people to get in the fight, you actually discourage them because they're scared.
They're like, well, wait a minute.
I don't know that I necessarily want the devil to know who I am.
I don't know that I necessarily want the demons to know where I live.
I mean, I don't know.
I've literally had a naked demon-possessed person come to my house, you know, and after
getting tased by three big cops, he was removed.
You know, you say, I don't know that I want to sign up for that.
I mean, that doesn't sound like the greatest thing that I want to sign up for.
And people sometimes they get scared when they begin to serve God and they begin to
actually see.
See, it's hard to explain sometimes, but I'm here to tell you that spiritual oppression
is true.
Satan trying to attack us and discourage us and hurt us, it's a true thing.
And sometimes you talk about the fact that the devil has an opposition to the Lord Jesus
Christ and as a result, he has an opposition to you and I.
And sometimes that scares people, but let me tell you something and let me encourage
you with something.
Not only does the devil have an opposition to Jesus, but the devil also has submission
to Jesus.
The devil is going to try to hurt you and attack you because you represent the Lord
Jesus Christ.
But at the end of the day, he knows who Jesus is and he knows that he can't beat Jesus.
Luke chapter 4 and verse 35, notice what the story says.
He cried out, interrupts the service, wants to make some havoc, some chaos, and I'm sure
people there were sitting there and they're like, wait a minute, what's this about?
This is kind of scary.
You got this demon-possessed man crying out and saying, I know who you are.
I don't know, this is a little odd.
Notice verse 35, and Jesus rebuked him saying, hold thy peace.
That's the King James version of shut up, shut your mouth, stop talking, be quiet.
That's Jesus.
You get to know the Jesus of the Bible, you start realizing all those Jesus you've been
watching in those movies, they're just not the same.
Jesus of the Bible preached so hard, they tried to throw him off a cliff.
The Jesus of the Bible, the devils started speaking and interrupting and he says, hold
thy peace.
Shut your mouth, stop talking, hold thy peace, notice, and come out of him.
And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him and hurt him not.
Notice verse 36, and they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying, what word
is this?
For with authority and power, he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out.
Yes, it's true that the devil has an opposition to Jesus, but you must also know that it is
also true that the devil has submission to Jesus.
When Jesus says close your mouth, they close their mouths.
When he says come out, they come out.
When he tells them to jump, they jump.
The devil is in opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ, but he is not an equal to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
I'd like you to go to the book of Jude if you would.
Jude is one chapter right before the book of Revelation.
Now let me just explain something to you in regards to spiritual warfare and specifically
to spiritual beings in reference to devils or demons and things of that nature, unclean spirits.
This is not something that you and I want to play with.
This is not something that you and I want to take lightly.
There are two extremes when it comes to devils and demons and these types of things.
One extreme is that we take this position that it's like a fairy tale, it's not real.
And then the other extreme is that we take this position that it's so scary and it's
so real, I'm not going to do anything and try to accomplish anything for God.
Look, both of those extremes are wrong.
You need to realize that it's real.
It's true.
There is a devil, there are demons, they are trying to attack us.
We are engaged in spiritual warfare and we need to take that seriously.
It's not a joke.
And be careful about making these things a joke to your children.
Watching movies with a bunch of werewolves and witches and letting them read books with
witches and witchcraft.
Hey, it's not a fairy tale.
There isn't a cult out there.
But at the same time, don't let that reality become so real that it scares you into never
trying to fight against the devil and engage in spiritual warfare.
See, we must take Satan seriously.
Today people like to make jokes about Satan.
Pentecostals and Charismatics, they try to act like they can fight Satan and go head
to head with Satan.
Let me show you this verse in Jude 1 and verse 9.
There's one chapter in Jude, look at verse 9.
The Bible says, yet Michael the archangel.
Now we don't know a lot about the spirit world and how all that works, but we know this.
There's angels and then there's archangels.
And the archangels seem to be like the main guys in charge.
They're the chief angels.
Here we're told about Michael the archangel.
So Michael's no joke.
I mean, Michael, we see him battle at other times.
He's a powerful being.
He's a good angel on the side of God.
But the Bible says here, yet Michael the archangel, notice, when contending with the devil.
So we have Michael the archangel fighting with Satan the devil.
He disputed about the body of Moses.
That's a sermon for another day.
But they're fighting about Moses' body.
Why don't you notice this, durst not.
You see that word durst?
The word durst is an older word of saying dared or dared not to bring against him a
railing accusation.
Railing has to do with speaking evil or insulting or blaspheming.
And here we're told that Michael, now look, Michael's no joke.
Michael's the archangel.
He's fighting on behalf of God.
He has control over the armies of God.
And when Michael the archangel was contending with the devil, the Bible says that he durst
not, he dared not bring against him, bring against the devil a railing accusation.
What does that mean?
It means that Michael wasn't talking any smack.
He wasn't going up there and saying, you know, your mom was so ugly.
He wasn't bringing a railing accusation against the devil.
He wasn't insulting the devil or blaspheming the devil.
Why?
Because the devil is a serious being.
He durst not, he dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, here's what
Michael the archangel said.
He said, the Lord rebuke thee.
So what can we learn from this?
Here's what we can learn.
Satan and the devil is not something to be playing with.
It's not something to get cocky and prideful about, thinking that we're going to fight
him and we're already about to search for God and we're going to go fight the devil.
No, no, no.
Let us always remember that the devil is an adversary that we need to respect in the sense
that he is powerful.
He can destroy us, but our strength is not found in ourselves and our strength, whether
it's us or Michael the archangel, is found in God himself and we can fight the devil
when we say the Lord rebuke thee, the Lord fight against thee, the Lord handle thee.
Go to 1 John chapter 4, you're there in Jude, just go backwards.
And by the way, that really should be the source of all of our strength.
Remember David?
When he went to fight Goliath, didn't that seem like an amazing enemy?
I mean, it seemed like an impossible enemy.
Goliath, a giant who had been a warrior since his youth, the Bible says.
The champion of the Philistines.
And here we have David who's not even officially in the military.
He's a shepherd, he's had some experience taking care of sheep and fighting bears and
lions and those things, but he never even fought in battle.
And he shows up and says, I'll fight the devil.
But it wasn't David being cocky when he says I'll fight Goliath, I'll fight the enemies
of the Lord.
It wasn't him being cocky or arrogant.
David said, is there not a cause?
David said, the battle is the Lord's.
And he said, David said, I can't fight Goliath, but I can fight Goliath with God, the Lord
rebuke thee.
1 John 4 and verse 4, the Bible says, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome
him, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
You say, should I be afraid of the devil?
Hey, you should have some respect and realization that the devil's not someone we want to be
necessarily just playing with and messing around with.
But you should have some confidence in knowing that greater is he that is in you, referring
to God, than he that is in the world, referring to the devil.
By the way, this verse proves that you can't be saved and be demon possessed.
When the Holy Spirit possesses you, no unclean spirit's going to possess you.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
Just because you cannot be demon possessed does not mean that you can't be demon oppressed.
Just because you're not demon possessed doesn't mean that the devil can't come at you and
oppress you and fight you and try to hurt you.
We learned that, of course, from the book of Job.
Go to the book of James, James chapter 2.
You're there in 1 John.
Just keep going.
You're there going backwards, past 2 Peter, 1 Peter, into the book of James.
But let's just remember that though the devil has opposition, the devil also has submission
to Jesus.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
James chapter 2 and verse 19, the Bible says this, Thou believeth that there is one God.
Thou doest well.
Notice, the devils also believe and tremble.
You realize that the devils tremble at the presence of Jesus?
They're afraid at the presence of Jesus.
They said, has thou come to torment us, to punish us before our time?
So realize that there's opposition.
Take it seriously.
Expect it.
Be ready for it.
But don't let it scare you into retreat, because greater is he that is in you than he that
is in the world.
The Bible says that if God before us, who can be against us?
We see here that Jesus has power.
He has power over the devil.
Keep your place there, if you would, in the book of James.
We're going to come back to it and go back to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 4.
Not only do we see in this little episode in the synagogue, in this little trip that
Jesus, this journey that Jesus took to Capernaum, not only do we see that he has power over
devils, but I want you to notice that he also has power over disease.
In verse 37, the Bible says this, and the fame of him went out into every place of the
country roundabout.
Verse 38, and he, this is referring to Jesus, arose out of the synagogue and entered.
So he now leaves the synagogue, and he entered into Simon's house.
Now Simon is the apostle that we know as Peter.
His name is Simon Peter, he had several names there, but here Simon is referring to Peter.
It says that he entered into Simon's house, and I want you to notice these words in verse
38, and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought him for her.
Now let me just stop and say this, and I'm not preaching on this, but I want to make
the point.
Some of you were raised in a religion called Catholicism, and you were taught that Peter
was the first pope.
That when Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church, he wasn't referring to himself,
although every reference in the Bible about a rock is to Jesus or God, but that he was
referring to Peter.
That Peter was that rock, and that the church, the Catholic church, was going to be built
upon the rock of Peter, and Peter was the first pope, and all the popes since then have
been descendants of Peter, and they've been taking on the authority and the ordination
of Peter and all these things.
Now there's lots of reasons why that's not true, and I'm not preaching on that necessarily
tonight, but let me just point one out to you.
Peter wasn't a pope, he was married.
The Bible says that he, Jesus, arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house,
and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever.
Here we're told that Peter had a mother-in-law.
Now in order to get a mother-in-law, you have to get married.
You have a wife.
The Bible tells us in other passages that Peter was married as well in 1 Corinthians.
So Peter was not the first pope, in fact there's no such thing as a pope in the Bible.
Peter was an apostle, he was an elder, he was a pastor, he was a preacher of the word
of God, he was a married man.
And by the way, and I don't want to take too much time to talk about this, but in the book
of Acts you'll find that when Peter goes to Cornelius to preach the gospel to him, if
you read that story, the Bible says that Cornelius, when he saw Peter, he bowed down and began
to worship him and Peter told him to get up and he said, I'm a man like you are, don't
worship me.
Again that's different than the popes today because the popes allow everybody to just
worship them.
Come and kiss their big toe and kneel before them and all sorts of odd things.
So we see that Jesus leaves the synagogue, he enters into Simon's house, and Simon's
wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and I want you to notice that we see the power
of Jesus not only over devils, but we see the power of Jesus over disease.
We see the power of Christ's healing.
Notice in verse 38, and I want you to see this, and he rose out of the synagogue and
entered into Simon's house and Simon's wife's mother, Peter's mother-in-law, was taken with
a great fever.
By the way, all the other gospels tell us that she was taken with a...the gospels that
mention the story tell us that she had a fever.
Luke's gospel is the only one that tells us she had a great fever.
I don't know if that has to do with him being a physician, just wanting to be a little more
descriptive there.
She was taken with a great fever.
I want you to notice this little phrase, and they besought him for her.
You know the Bible teaches that we should intercede in prayer on behalf of others?
Here are these people, literally Jesus is there, physically, she's there, sick, taken
with great fever, and I love that little phrase, and they besought him for her.
Hey, here's a question for you.
When it comes to your prayer life, who are you beseeching the Lord Jesus Christ?
On whose behalf are you coming before Jesus Christ?
Who is it that you're praying for today?
Most Christians don't pray at all.
The few that do pray usually end up only praying about themselves, and there's nothing wrong
with that.
You ought to pray for yourself.
Let me tell you something.
Prayer is not only bringing our requests to the Lord, prayer is also interceding on behalf
of others.
That's why I love the Wednesday night prayer sheet, because it gives us an opportunity
as a church to be what Jesus said.
He said, my house shall be called a house of prayer, to make this place a house of prayer
where we can intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ and pray on their behalf.
Why?
Because the Bible says here that they besought him for her, and look, there were people in
your life and there were people in my life, and I often try to remind you of this, because
prayer is such a hard thing.
It's one of those daily disciplines that it's hard to key in and really do and do on a consistent
basis, but maybe this will motivate you.
There are some people in your life that if you don't pray for them, no one will.
I mean, I often think about my children, and I think to myself, if mom and dad don't take
time to pray for their own children, who on this earth is going to pray for my children?
Now, I'm thankful that there are many of you who do pray for my family, and I thank you
for that, and I hope you'll continue that, but the point is this.
We must realize that there are some people in this world that if we don't pray for them,
no one else will, and we should beseech Jesus on their behalf.
They besought him for her.
If you kept your place in James, I'd like you to go back there, James 5, if you would.
When you get there, continue to keep your place in James, because we're going to leave
it and we're going to come back to it.
We ought to pray.
Another reason we don't pray, and we don't say this, you would never say this out loud.
I would never say this out loud, but I think it shows, our prayer lives show that this
is how we think or feel.
We don't pray because we don't really think God answers prayer.
We don't actually believe he's going to hear our prayers.
You'd never say that.
You'd say, well, no, I believe.
I believe that he would answer our prayer, but yet we don't pray.
The truth is that if we actually felt that when we got on our knees and we bowed our
head and closed our eyes or lifted up our eyes to heaven and lifted up our hands to
heaven that we actually got into the presence of God, the Father, in his throne room in
heaven that we were able to bring our request to God, the God of the universe, and that
he would actually hear our prayers and has the power to answer our prayers.
If we actually believed that, we would do a lot more prayer.
James 5 and verse 13, the Bible says this, is any among you afflicted?
James 5, 13, is any among you afflicted?
Notice the remedy, let him pray.
Is any married?
Let him sing songs.
Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders, the elders are referring to the pastor or the pastors of
the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
See, we should not only believe that God hears our prayer.
We should believe that God can answer our prayer.
I want you to keep your place right there in James and go back to Luke chapter 4.
Notice what the Bible says in verse 39.
Luke 4 and verse 39, the Bible says, and he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it
left him.
I mean, I don't know what that looks like.
Luke means to like chase them like sharply with words, to like tell somebody, stop doing
that.
You know, the way he told the devil, hold thy peace, the Bible says, he comes into Simon
Peter's house and here his mother-in-law is laying there sick and this shows the spirituality
of Peter.
And he doesn't say like, oh no, she's fine, leave her alone.
They besought him for her that he would heal her and the Bible says that he stood over
her and rebuked the fever and it left her.
I don't know what he said.
Maybe he said, you fever, you get out of here, you stinking fever.
I don't know what he said, but he rebuked the fever and it left her.
Now, in the ancient world, they believed that a fever was a disease.
We know today that a fever is not necessarily a disease, but it is a symptom of a disease
or of an infection.
Jesus probably rebuked the infection, the disease that was causing the fever, but when
he rebuked the fever, it left her and it proves to us the power of Jesus to heal.
And I'm here to tell you, go back to James chapter five, that Jesus can still heal today.
James five and verse 15, we read verses 13 and 14, is any sick among you, let him call
for the elders of the church and let him pray over him and oil him with oil.
Is any among you afflicted, let him pray.
Verse 15, notice what it says, and the prayer of, don't miss this word, faith, and the prayer
of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up and if you have committed
sins they shall be forgiven him.
We need to believe that God has the ability to answer prayers.
Let me just give a few explanations when it comes to this and understand this.
When you and I pray, we ought to pray believing that God can.
And oftentimes when we pray in faith, believing that God can, God will answer our prayers
and heal individuals.
There are people that by God's grace, they've asked me to pray for them.
I mean, they said, I've got this going on in my life in regards to my health, will you
pray for me?
And I prayed for them and they've literally instantly been healed and praise God for it.
And I do not take credit for that.
It's not like I went on a tour after that, you know, with a white suit saying, let me
heal you.
You know, that was God who did that.
There's been other times that I prayed over people and anointed people with oil and they
have not been healed.
When it comes to faith, faith is believing that God can and understanding that God may
or may not.
Believing that God can heal, but understanding that at the end of the day we have to align
ourselves to the will of God.
Remember whenever we pray, we must pray with this attitude, not my will but thine be done.
Not my kingdom but thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
And if you remember Paul, who himself was able to heal people, himself was able to heal
people from their sickness and disease as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible
says that when he had a thorn in the flesh, he besought the Lord three different times
or three different seasons of prayer in his life that he might be healed.
And the answer was no.
The answer was my grace is efficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
The answer was I'm not going to heal you.
So look, sometimes we have to understand that God wants to heal and sometimes for whatever
reason God does not want to heal.
And faith is believing that God can and is believing that God knows best when he won't.
That's faith.
So we just believe God.
Sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, sometimes God says not yet, but we just
have to believe that God is always right.
Go back to Luke chapter 4.
We see the power of Jesus over devils and we see the power of Jesus over disease.
We see his power to heal, but I want you to notice his purpose in healing.
There's a couple of things that Jesus is doing here.
When he's going about healing people and casting out devils, healing people and casting out
devils.
First of all, this is done that Jesus may prove who he is.
Notice verse 40.
Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick and with diverse diseases brought
them unto him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
And the devils also came out of many crying out, just sounds like when he was back in
the synagogue saying, thou art the Christ, the son of God.
And he rebuked and them suffered them not to speak for they knew that he was Christ.
I want you to notice that he went about healing and casting out devils partly to prove who
he was, that he was the Christ, that he had power and authority, that he had power and
authority over the devils.
He had power and authority over disease.
He had power and authority over nature.
In a different story, we see Jesus out in the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm
and he rebukes the storm, rebukes the wind and the waves and says, knock it off, trying
to sleep here.
And they stop, shows his authority, his deity as the son of God.
But I want you to notice that there's another purpose to the healing.
Oftentimes in the Bible when we find these stories of healing, they really are an illustration
of salvation.
We understand that Peter's mother was literally physically sick.
She had a fever.
He rebuked it and it left.
But these stories all serve as an illustration in regards to salvation because mankind has
a disease as well called sin sickness.
I'm not using that term to alleviate our responsibility in regards to our partaking in sin, but the
point is this.
We are born with a disease called the nature of sin and it's going to kill us.
The wages of sin is death.
But Jesus comes along and he heals us.
When we ask him, when we call upon him in faith, he heals us of that sickness.
In fact, he takes the sickness from us and he bears it.
And by the way, when Jesus was healing people, that's what he was doing.
The Bible tells us that we are, by his stripes, we are healed.
He was literally taking the diseases from them and taking them upon himself, all picturing
salvation.
Why?
The Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
Salvation is that God took my sin and it was placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his
righteousness was placed upon me.
So we see that this is an illustration.
Healing sickness illustrates salvation.
Now it's interesting because in the story we find the purpose for both being healed
and being saved.
Notice there in Luke chapter 4 and verse 39.
And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.
Now notice this.
He heals her.
What's the purpose?
What's the point?
Notice, and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
The word minister means to serve.
Here she is laying in a bed sick with a fever.
He rebukes the fever.
She is healed.
The fever leaves her.
And immediately the Bible says she arose and ministered unto them.
When she felt better she got up and she began to serve Jesus.
And I don't know what that means.
Maybe she started cooking dinner for them or got some things for them to eat or some
snacks or got water or whatever.
But she began to minister to him.
And listen, God healed her.
Yes.
What was the purpose?
He healed her that she might serve.
And I'm here to tell you that when Jesus saved you, Jesus did not save you to sin.
He saved you to serve.
He saved you that you might arise and minister unto him.
That's the purpose.
You weren't saved to sit.
You're saved to serve.
You say, well, what's the point of coming to church?
The point of coming to church is you come here, you sit here so you can learn and work
on the things you need to learn and work on in your life so that you can go and serve
the Lord Jesus Christ.
So you can get involved in the work of God.
Immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
What to God that could be said of you and me?
As soon as we were healed, we arose and ministered.
Look at verse 42.
We saw the power of Jesus over devils.
We saw the power of Jesus over disease.
I want you to notice the last thing.
We see the power of Jesus' doctrine.
In verse 42, the Bible says this, and when it was day, he departed and went into a desert
place and the people sought him and came unto him and stayed him that he should not depart
from them.
I just want you to notice the difference in Capernaum versus Nazareth.
In Nazareth, they're trying to throw him off a cliff.
In Capernaum, they sought him, they came unto him, they stayed him or tried to get him to
stay that he should not depart from them.
I want you to notice Jesus' response to this because they're trying to say, hey, Jesus,
just stay right here.
Just stay with us.
Just keep doing what you're doing right here in Capernaum.
Verse 43, and he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also.
I want you to notice this little phrase.
For therefore, the word therefore means for that reason.
He says, for therefore am I sent.
They said, why don't you say you've been healing so many people, you've been casting out so
many devils.
Why don't you just stay here?
Why don't you just stay with us?
Why don't you just make this your headquarters and stay?
And to some extent, Capernaum kind of did become his headquarters in the sense that
we see that Jesus spends a lot of time in Capernaum, but they said, why don't you stay
right here?
Just don't go anywhere else.
And he says, oh, no, no, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also.
For therefore am I sent.
Notice verse 44, and he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
I'm here to tell you something, that the emphasis of Jesus' ministry was not on his healing.
The emphasis of his ministry was not on casting out devils, but the emphasis of his ministry
was on the preaching of the word of God.
His emphasis was not on the marvels that he performed, but on the message that he brought.
And this encourages me.
You know why?
Because I can't heal people, and I can't cast out devils.
I'm not an apostle, and I'm dead sure not, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But in the power of the Holy Spirit, I can preach the word of God, and so can you.
And the emphasis of his ministry, notice he didn't say, look at verse 43, and he said
unto them, he didn't say, I must go and heal people.
Jesus was not a tongue-speaking charismatic.
He was not Benny Hinn.
I ought to go have these crusades and go into Arco Arena and heal people.
That's what I'm here to do.
He didn't say, I must heal people.
He didn't say, I must cast out devils.
He said, I must preach.
I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also.
He says, for therefore am I sent.
He said, that's why I came to preach.
The marvels are just to show you who I am.
The marvels are just to show you my power.
The marvels are just to show you my authority.
But I'm here for the message, and he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
By the way, in this story, in this chapter really, there is an emphasis, I don't know
if you noticed it, I want to point it out to you.
There's an emphasis in this chapter on the power of Christ's words.
Notice it.
Look at Luke 4 and verse 39.
Remember when he healed Peter's mother-in-law that he never had?
Luke 4, 39, and he stood over her, notice, and rebuked the fever.
How did he get rid of the fever?
He rebuked it with his words.
Notice verse 36, and they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying, notice
what they said, what a word is this?
For with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits and they came out.
Notice the emphasis is on his word, on the fact that he spoke with authority and power.
In Luke 4 and verse 32, notice the emphasis, and they were astonished at his doctrine.
Why?
For his word was with power.
Notice Jesus taught doctrinally, and he taught authoritatively.
Go back to Matthew chapter 7.
Matthew chapter 7, we'll finish up, we'll be done here in a minute.
The gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 7.
And look, to the best of our ability, and obviously I'm not perfect, I'm not sinless,
but to the best of our ability here at Verity Baptist Church, we've attempted to pattern
our church after this ministry.
When you come here, we open the word of God and we give you doctrine.
And when we do it, we preach it authoritatively.
I don't, you know, I'm not going to get up here and, you know, wearing a turtleneck and
skinny jeans and sit on a stool, on a bar stool and say, well, let me just kind of share
with you.
The Bible says that when the word of God is preached, it should be preached with authority.
Not authority because of the person preaching it, but because it truly is the word of God.
One said that we as Baptists, we're not always right, but we're never in doubt.
The point is this, that we should preach with authority.
Matthew chapter 7 and verse 28, the Bible says, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended
these sayings, notice this is similar to what we read in Luke, the people were astonished
at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
I'm here to tell you, our goal at Verity Baptist Church, and by the way, you guys that preach
around here and want to preach around here, let me tell you, our goal is to preach the
word of God, to teach doctrine.
I'm not against humor, and I use humor from time to time, and sometimes I'm funny and
I'm not trying to be.
Sometimes you guys are laughing, I'm like, why are you laughing, it's not a joke.
I'm not against that.
I'm not against illustrations.
I'm not against stories.
I think all those things are useful tools to use in preaching, but the point is this,
when people leave here, we don't want them to be astonished, say, wasn't that guy hilarious?
I mean, that guy, I mean, I've listened to preachers before where after the service,
all everybody talks about is how funny he was, that was hilarious, or, you know, weren't
those amazing stories, like, well, what did he preach about?
I don't know, but he told some really funny stories, let me tell you.
Hey, our goal here at Verity Baptist Church is that when people leave here, if they're
astonished that they would be astonished at the doctrine, that they would say the word
of God was preached, the Bible was opened, it was explained, and it was expounded, and
it was applied, and it changed our lives.
When people left, and by the way, when people just noticed this, he was healing people,
he was casting out devils, he was doing marvels, he was performing miracles, and we know people
were talking about that, we know that that was getting around, they were bringing people
with sickness and disease because they had been told that Jesus was healing.
The devils were coming, and they were bringing people with unclean spirits because they were
told that he was casting out devils.
We know that he was doing miracles, and people knew about that, and Herod and others wanted
to see the miracles of Jesus, but I just want you to notice that the Bible tells us when
the crowds left, and when the multitudes left, the presence of Jesus, they did not leave
talking about, wow, wasn't that amazing when he healed that person?
Wasn't that amazing when he cast out that devil?
Wasn't that amazing when he performed that miracle?
No, when they left, the Bible says that they were astonished at his doctrine.
They were impressed with what he taught, because he taught the Word of God, and he taught them
as one having authority, and I'm here to tell you that the greatest thing that you and I
could ever do is take the Word of God and impart it to other people.
Take the Word of God and teach it to someone, and explain it, and apply it, and help them
grow as a result.
We see in the story the power of Jesus over devils, over disease, but we see that the
true power is in his doctrine.
The power of our ministry and our lives should be found in the preaching of the Word of God.
And we see in the story that when God saves you, when Jesus heals you, he heals you to
serve.
You were not saved to sit.
You were saved to serve.
Let's bow our heads in our Word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the story of Jesus.
We just spent time with Jesus today on a journey.
We went along with him to Nazareth and saw things not go well for him there, and then
we went on a trip with him to Capernaum tonight and saw the impacts and the power over devils
and diseases.
But we walked away astonished at his doctrine, that he preached with authority.
Lord, I pray you'd help us to pattern ourselves up to that.
Realize that the power is in the Word of God, that we can preach this book authoritatively
because it can transform lives.
I pray, Lord, you'd help us to take heed to it, help us take heed to the preaching of
your Word.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen.