Luke 04.31-37 What
we will study today is The Authority of Jesus and we see
His authority displayed in the way that 01.
He Taught (Luke
04.31-32); that 02. He Is the
Holy One of God (Luke 04.33-34); and in how 03. He Cast Out and Silenced the Demons (Luke 04.35-37).
We see His authority displayed in the way that…
01. He Taught (Luke 04.31-32)
Luke 04.31 “And He came down to Capernaum, a city of
Galilee,”
We ended the last section in Luke 04.14-30 (The Mission of the Mashiach) with
the people of Nazareth trying to throw Jesus over the edge of the cliff just
outside of Nazareth because He claimed to be the Christ. So that is why Dr.
Luke tells us that Jesus “came down to Capernaum” because He was coming
down from Nazareth which was on a hill. Matthew tells us that Capernaum became
the adopted home of Jesus during His public ministry (Matthew 04.13). Dr. Luke records
for us that Jesus “came down to Capernaum”. The town of Capernaum is about 16 miles
Northeast of Nazareth, on the Northwest side of the Sea of Galilee. (Map
of the Galilee) Capernaum is never mentioned in the Old Testament, and it
means the city of Nahum. Now there
doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to know for sure if this city was named
after Nahum the prophet.
Luke 04.31 “and He was teaching them on the Sabbath;”
Just as He taught on the Sabbath in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 04.14-30),
so too did He in Capernaum.
Luke 04.32 The
Greek word for “authority”
here is (G1849) exousia and it means to be possessed of power and influence.
Jeremiah records for us that the Word of the LORD is
powerful and one of authority in Jeremiah 23.28-29.
The Greek word for “amazed” here is (G1605)
ekplhssw and it means to
be shocked, struck with amazement, astonished, amazed. The rabbi’s in the
time of Jesus would never teach with authority, but only quote other great
rabbi’s to support their views. So when Jesus spoke, they were truly amazed, shocked,
struck with amazement because He didn’t quote what other rabbi’s taught, but
instead He declared the Word of God (Matthew 07.28-29; Mark 01.22)!
Jesus Himself declared that “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh
profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
(John 06.63)
Throughout his letters, Paul wrote about the authority of the Word of God, when
he mentioned that his “message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith
would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (1Corinthians
02.04-05) “not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of
God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s
conscience in the sight of God.” (2Corinthians 04.02) “for the
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the
destruction of fortresses” (2Corinthians 10.04-05) “for our gospel did not come to you in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction”
(1Thessalonians
01.05) “For the word of God is living and active and sharper
than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and
intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but
all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
(Hebrews
04.12-13)
Paul would also write that the giving forth of God’s Word can
change an unbelievers heart in 1Corinthians 14.24-25 and “the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires
and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the
blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ
Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to
purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These
things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard
you.” (Titus 02.11-15)
The power of the Word of God is the Holy Spirit. We can’t
change people’s hearts, no matter how hard we try, for it is “by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians
02.08-10)
We see His authority in that…
02. He Is the Holy
One of God (Luke 04.33-34)
In the synagogue that day, there was a man possessed with a
demon.
Demon possession is real, not just something that Hollywood
made up. Though it is real, it is also something that seems to be
misunderstood. Demons were originally created as angels along with Satan. But
when Satan rebelled, he and the one third of the angels (Revelation 12.03-04) who followed
him were cast out of heaven (Luke 10.18), though Satan still seems to have
access (Job
01.06; Job 02.01) as “the accuser of [the] brethren…who
accuses them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12.10; see also Job 01.09; Job 02.05; Zechariah 03.01-02; Luke 23.31)
There are people who “see” a demon behind every addiction and everything that
goes wrong in their life. But then there are those who will not even
acknowledge it as something that is real even today. Biblically, there is no clear-cut
example of an occasion where a demon ever inhabited or possessed a true
believer in Jesus as their Saviour. Never in the New Testament are we warned of
the possibility of a believer being demon possessed. Nowhere in the New
Testament do we see anyone binding, rebuking or casting out demons from a true
believer. It is noteworthy as well that nowhere in the epistles do we see that
believers are instructed to cast out demons. Every time in the New Testament
that there is a recorded demon possession, it is always of an unbeliever.
The most clear-cut passage on this is found in 2Corinthians
06.14-16 which says that light and darkness cannot mix. Paul says
that God “rescued
us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His
beloved Son,” (Colossians 01.13) and John reminds us that “greater is He
who is in you than he who is in the world.” (1John 04.04).
So while Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, a man who was demon-possessed
cries out “Let
us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You
come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!” (Luke 04.34)
Basically this demon was crying out and asking Jesus why He was attacking them,
for this demon knew that Jesus had come to free the captives (Isaiah 61.01-02;
Luke 04.18).
All throughout the Gospels we see that the demons that are in people all
publicly acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah (Matthew 08.29;
Mark 01.24;
Mark 01.34;
Mark 05.07;
Luke 04.41;
Luke 08.28).
James writes that even “the demons also believe (in God), and shudder.”
(James 02.19)
In Acts 16.16-18 we see another
example of a demon acknowledging that Paul, Timothy and Dr. Luke were “bond-servants
of the Most High God”. Paul was greatly
annoyed because although the statements made by the demon in the slave-girl
were true, it would cause all the people who heard what the demon said through
the slave-girl to think that Paul and the disciples were united with a
demon-possessed girl. For if you have a demon-possessed person united
with those who proclaim that Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19.10),
it will cause people to doubt the power of Jesus and show them that Jesus does
not have power over the demons. Biblically, we are not to partner with false
teachers who preach a false doctrine (Psalm 50.16). We see examples of this all
throughout the Bible, and especially in the New Testament. From what I can
tell, 20 out of the 27 books of the New Testament directly deal with false
teachers (Matthew, Mark, John, Acts, Romans, 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1Thessalonians,
2Thessalonians, 1Timothy, 2Timothy, Titus, 2Peter, 1John, 2John, Jude, Revelation).
When Paul was trying to hurry to
get to Jerusalem for Pentecost, he stopped in Miletus and sent for the elders
of the church at Ephesus (Acts 20.17-38), he declared that he was bold
in proclaiming the Gospel of God and gave them a warning about false teachers,
telling the leaders of the church are to teach God’s Word and be on guard (pay
attention) for the savage wolves who will arise from inside of the church. Paul
gives a warning in his letter to the church at Rome to “keep your eye on those who cause
dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn
away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their
own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the
hearts of the unsuspecting.” (Romans 16.17-18) That phrase “keep your eye”
in Romans
16.17 is the Greek word (G4648) skopew and it means to spy, to look at, observe, to mark, to fix
one’s eyes upon, direct one’s attention to. So what Paul was saying in Romans 16.17-18
that we are to scope out false teachers who teach what is against the Word of
God and turn away from them! Paul told the church at Corinth that false
teachers are from Satan, taking their cue of deceit from him by saying that
they are sent from God, but in all actuality they are false teachers (2Corinthians
11.12-15). Paul warned the church at Ephesus not to be immature like
children and be easily deceived “by every wind
of doctrine, by the trickery of men” (Ephesians 04.14). Paul told
Timothy that the times will get worse, and that false teachers will become more
relevant, but he wanted Timothy to continue in the teaching of the Word of God
(1Timothy
04.01; 2Timothy 03.13-17). Peter warned that false
teachers will arise from the household of faith, and he warned what their
teachings will be about experiences and sensual (2Peter 02.01-02). John warned
that false teachers (antichrists) will come, and that we are to test them to
see if they are from God (1John 02.18; 1John 04.01). Paul warned Titus
about the dangers of allowing false teachers in and that false teachers are to
be publicly rebuked (Titus 01.10-16). Paul told Timothy that false
teaching spreads rapidly like gangrene (2Timothy 02.17) which if not treated properly
can spread quickly and lead to amputation and even death! Paul mentioned false
teachers by name (1Timothy 01.20; 2Timothy 02.17), specifically
Hymenaeus who said that the resurrection at the end was already past (2Timothy 02.16-18),
and Hymenaeus led Philetus astray. Alexander was
another false teacher that Paul mentioned, for Alexander stood up against Paul
and Timothy and the sound teaching of the Word (2Timothy 04.14).
This is why we as CHRISTians are encouraged by John to “not believe
every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because
many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1John 04.01)
for “They
are from the world; therefore they speak as
from the world, and the world listens to them.” (1John 04.05)
CHRISTian, you have no excuse to
listen to these false teachers; the Bible forbids it (Titus 03.10-11)!! This is relevant today, for there are many
people who are promoting the Son of God movie, yet they ignore that the
creators of the film are New
Age Roman Catholic mystics who claim that they are Christians. They are
wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 07.15; Acts 20.28-30), and should be
called out as such and not used to sell
Bible study materials by Rick Warren and
not interviewed by Focus
on the Family (see
also this link). Some people might say,
“Even though there is error in this movie, at least people will get to see who
God really is. And besides, can’t God use anything to save anyone?” But that’s pragmatism, saying that the ends justify
the means. Yes God can save anyone, but light and darkness are not to mix (2Corinthians
06.14-16) and nowhere in Scripture are we told to use the work of
Satan to proclaim the truth of God’s Word!
Luke 04.34 “Have You come to destroy us?” The
demon was asking if Jesus was there to destroy them and Satan (Genesis 03.15;
Hebrews
02.14; 1John 03.08; Revelation 20.02).
Luke 04.34 “I know who You are--the Holy One of God!”
Even the demons know that Jesus is the Holy one of God (James 02.19)!
We see His authority displayed
in how…
03. He Cast Out and Silenced the Demons (Luke 04.35-37)
As we have already studied earlier in Luke 04.34 that Jesus wanted no
demon to promote Him to the people (Psalm 50.16; Zechariah 03.02; Mark 03.11-12;
Acts
16.17-18).
Luke 04.35 “And when the demon had thrown him down in the
midst of the people, he came out of
him without doing him any harm.” Jesus didn’t say a special phrase
or mix a potion to cast the demon out. He simply spoke, and the demon, in one
final act of rebellion, throws the man down and leaves the man.
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