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If you open up to the Gospel of Luke.
So today our texture study is going to be from Luke 4, 31, 44.
And if you’re visiting with us. So we are in the middle of going through just a study, a series through the Gospel of Luke. And so you happen to be here today as we get to Luke chapter four. So 4:31 through 44. And if you open your Bibles, please do keep them open.
So we do a style of preaching called expository preaching. So I’m just going to read through the text, we’re going to pray, and then we’re going to walk right back through that passage. So the desire for our time today is just to really keep our nose in God’s word. So let me read the text and then as mentioned, I’ll pray and then we’ll get to work. So starting at 31 Luke 4.
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. In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon who 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. When the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they all were amazed and said to one another, what is this word for? With authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.
Reports about him went to every place in the surrounding region. And he rose, left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother in law was ill with a high fever, and he appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her, 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 disease brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And the demons also came out of many, crying, you are the Son of God. He rebuked them and not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. And when it was day he departed and went to a desolate place, and people sought him and came to him, and would have kept coming or 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. He was preaching the synagogues of Judea. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for your word. And Lord, please help me to be a good communicator this morning. Help me to rightly divide the word of truth. Lord, please be with the congregation. Please give them ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.
And Lord, please use this time just to bring glory to Christ.
His name. We pray. Amen. So this morning we actually got a lot to cover, so we’re going to kind of jump in right away. And as we jump in right away this morning, I hope the sermon for us is going to be a sermon that kind of looks at the forest of the text rather than like the individual trees.
So as you read sacred Scripture, I do think it’s good for us to look both at forest and the trees. The forest being like, the big picture, the primary teaching of the passage, and then the trees being more like some of the smaller details, details that do matter, that are important, that often are, like, pretty interesting for us to think through. And it’s usually individual trees. This we’re actually where Christians might have, like, different thoughts, different opinions, realizing why there’s different churches, like, different denominations. These are different thoughts on, like, individual trees within Scripture.
So I mentioned, I do think the individual trees are important for us to look at, but more important only after we see and understand the forest, is if we miss the forest for the trees. I think it’s actually some of the ways we come up not only with, like, wrong doctrine, wrong theology, but also just, like, wrong application where we start to do things. Maybe it’s not true to Scripture as a whole. So to say it again, the hope for today is for us to see the forest of this passage, which revolves around the authority and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s really the big and primary teaching of this passage.
Passage that’s important for us to see, particularly when it comes to the trees of our text. Trees that are going to be fairly interesting. Trees. Trees, I’m going to point out, but in ways to not keep our focus on the trees, but to try to keep them our focus on the forest. Okay, now, before we work through the passage, just a quick reminder where we left off in our study of Luke.
There’s a very helpful sermon that Will gave to us a couple weeks back. It came from a heavier text of Scripture found in the middle of Luke 4. So if you’re with us in Sermon series of Luke. So you may remember that after being baptized by John in the Jordan river, where Jesus identified with the very people he came to save. So in our text, last time, Jesus returned back home to Nazareth, which culturally and biblically is actually a pretty insignificant place, almost like a backwater like village.
And this is where Jesus spent most of his first 30 years of his life. We’re in these 30 years of his life, it appears that Jesus lived actually the most normal of lives, where I think we can rightly say that Jesus like toiled in obscurity, most likely just like working for his dad in the family business of being a carpenter, where I’m sure like the monotony that many of us feel with our jobs, like Jesus would experience as well. So in the incarnation or the God’s eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he lived out his first 30 years living among us, much of it was just very normal, very ordinary having a text last time. As Jesus returned home, the normal ordinary had changed for him. Because soon after Jesus entered into his public ministry at the age of 30, he quickly had growing popularity and fame because, because of the teachings and some of the miracles he was performing.
And so in our language, Jesus entered into the public ministry basically was like, like trending like all over the region, where he’s quickly becoming like the topic of conversation as like his lore as well as being talked about more and more about. And because the popularity and fame that Jesus receiving for this small, pretty insignificant hometown of Nazareth, there’s like real excitement as they know that Jesus is returning home. I’m sure part of the excitement just revolved around some of the surprise that the town had. I mean, really of all people, Jesus, the son of Joseph, the humble carpenter, you know, this very one we’ve known his entire life, he of all people, now he’s the one who is the talk of the region. I’m also sure part of the excitement of Jesus returning had to do with maybe some small town like hometown pride that they were able to produce now this popular figure from their hometown every day.
If you travel to a small town, which is actually where I’m from, it’s a very small town. And if that hometown has someone famous, you travel in, you see a sign such and such town, but it’s home of such and such famous individual. If they have someone who became someone popular, you know, it becomes a source of like hometown pride. And that’s like Jesus as he gets back to Nazareth. That’s the sense we get in the text where he’s like welcome back with like this as a hometown hero.
You may remember as you started out the source of hometown pride in our text last time, things quickly changed, so our text became like a heavy text. So as Jesus came back, as Nazareth gave Jesus his hometown heroes welcome, they did so by giving Jesus the honor of being able to teach at the synagogue, assuming that Jesus would be teaching some type of like warm fuzzy teaching to only enhance their hometown pride. But if you remember, as Jesus began to teach, he did so by giving an exposition from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who among many things Isaiah taught about. But the primary thing was he taught about the Messiah that was to come. Let’s take the real four forest of Isaiah’s teachings.
And as Jesus taught from Isaiah taught about the Messiah, he did so in ways he let the synagogue in Nazareth know that the words of Isaiah were now fulfilled in him. Meaning he’s proclaiming to his hometown that he was the long awaited, long anticipated, the promised Messiah, which for the folks of Nazareth, that would have brought even more excitement to them. Wait, so you’re telling us you’re the Messiah? Can you imagine how exciting that would have been for them? Like their hometown would produce the long waited, long anticipated Messiah, make you imagine what they were thinking about their welcome sign, you know, kind of nonchalantly, you know, welcome to Nazareth, no big deal.
But yeah, this is where the Messiah is from. So Jesus gave his exposition. The synagogue at first was pumped clear approval where everyone started to speak well of him, marveling at his gracious words. Although as you may remember, as they marveled at him, they did so with confusion because of the obscurity that Jesus had for much of his life. Okay, we’re really excited that Jesus became a popular figure.
We’re even more excited about the potential of being actually the Messiah. But low key. This is kind of surprising. Like we’ve known him whole life. We know his mom, we know his dad, we know his siblings, we know just simple carpenters.
But even though they’re confused, they’re at least willing to entertain that maybe Jesus actually was Messiah. Because after all, you could hear him teach in incredible ways. Well, after initial approval of Jesus his teachings, things changed quickly and things got really heavy because on that day, Jesus wasn’t there to like rally up some hometown pride. Rather, Jesus was there. Jesus is always there to press on hearts, like to cut out our pride, to expose our sin, which is what Jesus did in the synagogue that day.
And he did so by cutting the legs under some false assumptions that his hometown was living with false assumptions, false assurance that just because they were from the lineage of Abraham, that’s all that they needed to be right with God. As Jesus pressed in their hearts, he did so in ways exposed false assurance, exposed sinful pride. And as Jesus pressed on their hearts, the congregation quickly and aggressively turned on their hometown hero. They didn’t want to be called out in their sin so quickly. Their hearts were like filled with wrath toward Jesus Christ.
Where you may remember in their rage, their wrath, they actually sought to kill him. Which by the way, in the forest of Jesus ministry, there really is only two options you can have with him. Either you embrace him as the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior of your sin, or like the people of Nazareth that day, you reject him with wrath in your hearts. As much as we might try to like find some middle ground like this, kind of sit on the fence when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, we can’t do it. Jesus didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword, A sword that divides mankind into two people who love him and people who hate him and reject him.
Finally, where we ended our text last time, even though in their wrath, the people wanted to kill the Lord Jesus Christ, as the time of death was not yet for him to come, Jesus simply walked through the crowd and left Nazareth unharmed. Now today, as you look at the forest of our text, we see Jesus leave Nazareth and now heads to a town called Capernaum, which actually the place that Jesus had been previously. So in John 2, which in historical timeline came before our text today. So John 2, so Jesus, after he turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, he actually goes to Capernaum. And we see that he actually stayed there for a few days with his family.
This is maybe perhaps at Luke 4:23, if you want to look up there. This is maybe what Luke 4:23 is referring to. When the people of Nazareth heard was concerning Jesus then in Capernaum. So maybe they’re interested that he would do something similar Nazareth similar for them as he didn’t Compernum. They also mentioned Capernaum.
So this is a fishing village, maybe around like 1500 people or so that lived there. Their timeless passage. And based on the text, Capernaum is actually thought to be the home of Peter, the apostle Peter. So John’s Gospel tells that Peter’s hometown was from nearby Pesada. But perhaps during his fishing business, Peter replaced to Capernaum.
So we don’t know the details there, just Capernaum is where he’s living at the time of this Text. Okay, so let me say, look back at verse 31. After Jesus of Nazareth left Nazareth, being rejected by his hometown, we see he traveled down to Capernaum, which the text was a city in Galilee. And scholars think this is one of like maybe 200 plus towns or villages that surround the Sea of Galilee. And this traveled down, this is maybe like 15, 16 miles from Nazareth to this city, which was actually thought to be a thriving city.
Capernaum had like fertile ground for farming and also as part of a major trade route. And because of it being a thriving city, it does appear that throughout the history of Capernaum they actually had some pretty impressive synagogues. So one of the commentaries I’ve read this week called the Pillar Commentary, talks about a synagogue that was built actually after the time of Christ as being one of the most like impressive synagogues to be ever excavated in our text. Jesus returned to a seemingly wealthy town. We see in the text that the synagogue actually be the place where Jesus was headed, which is similar to what he did in Nazareth earlier in chapter four in our text last time, according to his custom, Jesus went to the synagogue.
So in our text today, much like what happened in Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach the Scriptures, which the text tells that he did on the Sabbath. And as Jesus taught the Capernaum congregation, much like at the start of his teaching back in Nazareth, in verse 32, everyone is like astonished at his teaching. And the reason why they were astonished was the manner by which Jesus spoke, by which he taught it was different than others. Jesus taught his Word in ways that was clear that he possessed authority. Now just a few things here.
The teaching authority that Jesus did was different from what others did because what others often did, various teachers or rabbis. What they would do is they simply communicate thoughts that others had who had gone before them. Where a lot of their teachings would simply be quoting others who they viewed as authoritative. Which by the way, is not necessarily wrong. It’s good to learn from others who have gone before us, who can help us interpret scripture.
However, as Jesus taught like he simply needed to give quotes from others. He didn’t need the help of others to interpret Scripture because he was able to teach on his own authority. Like he knew scripture, he knew what it said. He knew the forest and the trees. So as he taught with authority in Mark’s Gospel that actually records the same scene, he said he taught like a new teaching.
And this astonished everyone in their minds. This is like a bold move. This is really capturing their attention. Second verse 32, it’s already helping us see the force of this text, where the primary thing that Luke, the author, wants his readers to see in this passage is just the centrality of the teaching of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Word by which he taught. Others keep saying there’s some interesting trees in our text to study today for us to consider, but the most important thing to see is the authoritative preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ, the power of Jesus Christ, and then knowing, seeing that helps us just better understand some of the interesting trees.
By the way, perhaps we don’t talk about this enough when we think about Jesus Christ. So, yes, he was a healer. You can see that in the text. He actually was an exorcist. We can see that in our text.
He was kind, he was compassionate. As you can see in our text. All those things were deeply connected to him to being a preacher, where he would teach and preach God’s Word. Which, by the way, kind of on this note, as a church, this is why we think preaching and teaching is to be central. This would be like the engine behind all that we do and all the various ministries that we have.
Jesus came to preach and to teach, and if it’s important to him, it ought to be important to us. Okay, keep going. Meritax, verse 33. So we see the first tree in the passage that I’ll point out, but I’m not going to spend much time on this morning, as Jesus was teaching at the synagogue with authority and power, we see that there was a man who was there, a man who had an unclean demon. And the tree here is this.
What do we do with this? Like, how do we think about, like, demons? I won’t say much here outside it. I think there’s two extremes that Christians can run to when it comes to looking at the tree of like, demons. So the one side of the ditch is where it’s like almost like a demon under every rock, where demons are to blame for everything bad that happens, where demons are almost like equal to God in terms of power and authority.
So it’s like one side, one extreme, and then the other extreme is almost to deny that they exist altogether. Like, deny the reality of the invisible spiritual warfare that’s present in this life now. For me, while I can reject either of these extremes, despite taking a class in seminary and spiritual warfare and reading different books that focus on that tree, I’m still not sure exactly where the truth lies between those extremes. But to keep going, to keep our eyes on the forest of the text, we see that the man with the demon who was present at the synagogue, we see he wasn’t like simply sitting in the back of the room kind of quietly, kind of keeping himself, keeping a low profile that Sabbath, not wanting Jesus to notice him rather than the text is Jesus spoke up to preach. We see, so did he.
We’re seemingly under the possession of a demon. The man cries out with a loud voice that had to startle the rest of the congregation. Esv, it says ha or but other translations says go away or leave us. The text, what do you have to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth, with the us being plural I think indicates there’s probably multiple demons involved in this man.
Just something we do see in other places of Scripture. In the text. Jesus, did you show up here today to like destroy us? I know who you are with the singular here seems to indicate there’s like one primary demon now speaking, Jesus. Sure, the rest here might not know who you are, but I do.
In this text I know that you are the Holy one of God. A couple things here. First, ironically, sadly, the people of the hometown Nazareth didn’t know who Jesus was. Even at this point. The people in Capernaum didn’t seem to really fully understand who Jesus was, but the demon did.
Demons actually know truth, but they don’t submit to its authority. Actually is the second thing I was going to point on here. So knowing truth but not submitting to authority, this is not just true of like demons, but actually be true of like us as well. Where like you and I, we might know a lot of things concerning Jesus Christ. You know, we can go play Bible trivia and we get a lot of answers right concerning the truth of scripture, the truth of Jesus Christ.
Yet we don’t submit to to that truth. We don’t submit to Jesus Christ and his authority over our life. I’ve heard others say when that happens, you have like demon faith. You acknowledge truth, you acknowledge God’s powers, authority. You certainly know some things about Jesus Christ, but you don’t submit to it like the demons.
You just don’t joyfully submit to the power and authority of God, but rather you rebel against him. You rebel against Jesus Christ by holding on to your sin, which in the forest of the text, this is something I think we do need to see in ways that we actually test our faith to see if we have like genuine faith or just simply a demon type faith. Keep going to text. Verse 35. As this man made this big scene in the synagogue, we now see Jesus with his authority and his power, rebuke the man saying to the man, ultimately to the demon, be silent.
How dare you come into this sacred time and cause such a scene. Be silent and come out of this man. And Jesus spoke with authority, with power, power and authority even over powerful demons. We see that the demon threw the man down in their midst and came out at him, having done to him no harm. And this has had to be an incredible jaw dropping, terrifying scene for the congregation in Capernaum to observe that Sabbath, right?
Probably not something they had on their bingo card that morning as they walked in verse 36 with their jaws on the floor. Everyone’s like further amazed, amazed, not just what took place, but just further amazed at Jesus. And in their amazed, they begin to process together that which they just saw Jesus do in the text, saying to one another, what? What is this word that Jesus is able to speak? How is it he has such authority, such power that he’s even able to command an unclean spirit to come out?
Which by the way, for them the forest of the scene had nothing to do with like the nature of demons or what kind of power influence demons might have. The focus of him wasn’t like that individual tree. Rather for them the forest. That’s what got their attention. The forest centered on Jesus Christ, his power, his authority.
That’s what they saw, that’s what they were talking about, that’s what had them amazed. Verse 37. The congregation who was present tried to process that which they observed. We see the process continued as they left the synagogue that day and reports about Jesus went out and they went on to every place in the surrounding region, which only added to the fame, the popularity, the intrigue, the interest that is building of Jesus of Nazareth. Keep going.
Verse 38. As the people left the synagogue that day, we see that Jesus also rose and left. And we went see that he went over to Simon’s house. And this is Peter here, Simon Peter. Now perhaps the tree of intrigue here is like, how did Jesus end up in Simon Peter’s place?
Was Peter maybe present at the synagogue that day and so he just invited him over? Did Jesus already know Peter previously? Perhaps Peter and Jesus did business together in the past. Some conclude that some of the carpentry work of Jesus was actually helping to get or put together and mending like fishing nets. And Peter was a fisherman.
So not sure the details how Jesus ended up at Peter’s, but we do know in the text that Jesus entered into Simon Peter’s house, Simon’s mother in law, which obviously teaches that Peter was married that his mother in law was sick and she’s laying in bed with a high fever. And from what I read, this seemed actually a pretty common occurrence for the folks of Capernaum. So Capernaum’s pretty far below sea level and according to commentaries I read, made for favorable conditions for like malaria, which seems to be what the mother in law had here, which can be a very serious and dangerous condition. And think we see in the text, that’s kind of the sense we get from. For the mother in law, this wasn’t some type of like low grade fever.
That really wasn’t anything. But this feels like she was like in dire straits here. She’s in bad, bad place. So naturally Jesus entered into the home. Simon and the others who were there started to appeal to the Lord Jesus on her behalf, asking Jesus to heal her of her sickness.
I mean, they’re clearly worse worried about her. And as Jesus hears the requests, their pleas, their prayers on behalf of the sick woman, we see in verse 39, Jesus makes over to where she was lying down. And it’s like Jesus stands over her and once again with authority and power, he now like rebukes the fever and immediately the fever leaves her. And as the fever leaves her, the woman like she rises up and she begins to serve those who are in her house. Which not only indicates that Jesus has authority and power to give complete healing, full restoration back to health, but I also think there’s a picture here.
When Jesus comes and touches our lives, this is what happens. We have this desire to get up and to serve other people. Keep going. As Jesus heals the mother in law, who’s in dire straits, you can imagine further amazement is filling the city with a convocation that took place in a synagogue concerning the authority and power of Jesus, now is spreading even more. So verse 40, as the Sabbath day was coming to an end, as the sun was setting, word about this healing was now making its way out of the house of Peter.
And as word went out, we see in the text all those who had any among them who were sick with all kinds of various diseases, were now making their way over to the home to look for healing as well. In verse 41, as this like basic hospital of sick ones make their way over to Jesus, we see Jesus and his compassion and kindness and mercy like lays his hands on every one of them. And as Jesus lays his kind and gentle hands on them once again in the forest of the passage, in accordance with his power, his authority, you see that he gives healing to them as well. But Then as we keep going, we come to another tree that’s at least a little confusing as we read in the end of verse 41 that as diseases were being taken out, demons also came out of many. Which applies that demons at least had some hand in the sickness that the others were experiencing.
And as these demons we see were also cast out, they also declared truth as it was being hap. As this was happening in the text, they started to cry out to Jesus, you’re the son of God. Which is true. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. That’s right, it’s true.
But they keep saying the demons knew the truth. They know the truth about God’s word, the truth about Jesus Christ, yet they didn’t submit to it. They didn’t submit to its authority. The end of verse 41. And again, as the demons spoke, the Lord Jesus also spoke wherein his authority and power, he simply shut them up.
And not only did he rebuke them, but he also would not allow them to further speak, for they knew that he was the Christ. Now just a few things here, keep going back to the force of text. Main most important thing we see yet again is the authority of power. Authority and power of Jesus. It’s over sickness over demons.
And this authority and power, this is like complete, complete authority and complete power. There’s not some type of like cosmic struggle going on where Jesus is like fighting against these things, but there’s almost like this back and forth tussle where times it looks like maybe Jesus is going to win out, but then maybe at other times the demons and sickness and death and sin, it looks like they might win out. Like looks like Jesus is almost on the ropes. However, like last minute, like a dramatic movie, Jesus is the great hero and gets some type of hard fought victory. No, Jesus has full authority, he has complete power.
Where even the demons, they’re like powerless before him, they can do nothing before him. So the great Martin Luther once famously said that like even the devil is God’s devil. I mean even Satan himself can do nothing outside of God’s sovereign authority and power. Friends, that’s the forest we’re to see as we come to the interesting tree of Jesus casting out demons that appear to be causing sickness. Which leads us to the second thing I just want to mention here.
So when we do this with this tree of demons and sickness, in terms of like, how are we to think about this once again? I think the answer is somewhere between extremes where one extreme is they blame demons for every sickness, but then the other extreme is denying even the possibility of sickness being related to that which is demonic. Now, I know there’s a lot of gray between the extremes, but if we go back to the forest, the application is actually the same. When one becomes sick, whatever the reason is behind the sickness, the application, the answer the same is to turn to the sovereign authority and power of God through prayer, through his wisdom. This is so important why we understand the forest, because the forest always gives us the proper application.
As you look at individual trees, that can be so confusing. Third, let me also just mention here before we move on. Keep going. If you’re wondering why Jesus not let the demons testify that he was a Christ, and the reason why that’s not for them to share demons that which is evil, they don’t get to pronounce good news. Rather, we’ll talk about at the end the declaration of the good news of Jesus being the Christ.
That privilege, that that right has been given to God’s people, like to us, we get to be the ones who declare good news people. In the text where we’re going to end today, verse 42. After the sun set and night began to turn to morning, as the sun rose as it was day, we see that Jesus is back on the move. And he departed from Capernaum and he left to go to a desolate place. Now, Luke doesn’t tell us why Jesus went to a desolate place, but in other places in scripture we see that Jesus, after having like a full ministry schedule, which he certainly did the day before, as everyone’s bringing sick for him to heal, Jesus would like go to a desolate place where in his humanity he’d not only recharge, but he would just spend time with his Heavenly Father, assuming that’s what he’s doing here.
Wherever Jesus went away to a desolate place, we see that people kept coming to him. They kept seeking him out in ways that they tried to prevent him from leaving them, which how could you blame them? However, verse 43, Jesus said to them that he actually he needed to get away. He needed to spend time with his Heavenly Father, because he’s actually preparing to go back out in the text. He was going to go back out to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, which in the text, the forest of the text, the preaching of the good News and kingdom of God.
Jesus said this is the purpose by which he was sent. The time of recharging, Jesus traveled back to the area of Judea, where he continued to preach at the synagogues there as well, which just notice again, the forest of this text. Once again Jesus went out to preach with authority and power. Friends, that’s what the author Luke wants us to see. I mean, all throughout chapter four, as Jesus moved from obscurity into the public eye.
That’s the forest. Just want to take everybody back up to Luke 4:15. And he, Jesus taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all four. 16 as was his custom, he went to the synagogues on the Sabbath day and stood to read, to preach verses 41 or 31 and 32. And he went down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath.
And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 43 and 44. I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well, for this is the reason why I was sent. And he was preaching in their synagogues in Judea. For us.
That’s where we’re going to end in our text to study this morning. But as we end, I do want to give just a couple thoughts on the force of this text. Just two quick things. So first, if you think about the forest’s text, let the forest give you hope. And this is one of the real reasons we just can never miss the forest for the trees.
The forest gives us hope. We know this. We live in a world where a lot of things feel hopeless, where we can feel defeated and discouraged, where we live with things like fear and worry, anxiety, where we can feel so vulnerable, so insecure on so many fronts. But friends, today, as we see the forest of text, have hope. Hope that the Lord Jesus Christ has all authority, that he has all power.
And if you are in Christ, you can live a life filled with his security. In the text, Jesus has authority and power, even over demons. Yes, we live in a world where this unseen battle waging between forces of darkness and the light of Christ, friends have hope. The light of Jesus Christ shines into the darkness, even into the pit of hell itself. And the darkness cannot overcome it.
It has no power, no authority. So for me, I don’t fully grasp what spiritual warfare looks like. What exact truth lies on this front when it comes to demons. I know the spiritual warfare should be sobering to us, but also, friends, we’re not scared of it. They say it again.
In this war, Christ is the one. He has the power. He has the authority over all forces of evil. They’re powerless before him. They all bow the knee before the Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ likewise In the fours of text, have hope. Christ has all power, all authority over all sickness, even all sickness. Bow the knee before Jesus Christ. In fact, one day all sickness, all disease, in fact, even all death will be taken from God’s people, where our bodies will be fully healed as we enter into the new heavens, new earth. Now, sometimes that sickness, disease taken from his this life certainly true of Peter’s mother in law as well as the hospital people from Capernaum who came that day.
But we know for his purposes, his present life. Sometimes those healing may not come this life. But I say it again, it will come. Christ promises that one day it will come with all of his power and all his authority. Well, he will fully remove all sickness, all death from us.
That’s the force of the text. That’s what gives us hope. Furthermore, in the forest of the text, have hope. Because the Lord Jesus has all authority and all power. He’s the one who’s building his kingdom as he is spreading the message of his good news to other places as well.
Other places that Scripture tells us will extend to the very ends of the earth, where the gates of hell even cannot stand against this kingdom from advancing. So yes, once again, as you look to the world around us, things can feel kind of hopeless where it appears that maybe darkness is actually winning out. But as we see the forest, we know that’s not true. What’s true is that the kingdom of God will advance, that our Lord is the one who is victorious. And within this hope, if I give you some encouragement, as mentioned earlier, how is the kingdom of God advancing?
It’s by God using people, his people, people like you, people like me, as ordinary and as average as we are to testify about him and the power found in his name. That’s how the kingdom is advancing. The famous Great commission the Lord Jesus gave to his people, to us. Jesus came and said to them, all authority and heaven and on earth was given to me. And the application then for us is we get to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to deserve all that God has commanded us.
Knowing that God is with us always to the end of the age. Friends, have hope. See the forest, have hope. The kingdom of God will advance. Have hope.
So be bold, be courageous, take risk tethered to faith and go and make disciples for Christ, declaring His kingdom to the world around us. If you’re looking for a practical way to do that, we’ll mention this at the Start. Just invite someone to join us. This year at Christmas Eve service. We’re going to be joyfully declaring the kingdom of God that came through the Christ child, Emmanuel.
The babe born in a manger became the Savior of the world. For us, that’s the first thing is you see the forest. Let the forest fill you with hope. And second, let the forest of the text take you to the one tree that we must always see, which is a tree that was shaped into a cross where Jesus bled and died. Where on that tree Jesus humbly laid down his life.
Where not only on the cross did he fully defeat Satan and his demons, but on the cross, Jesus defeated all things related to the curse that fills this world, including sickness and death. A curse that is brought on because of our sin, that separates us from God. Sin that we need forgiveness from, that we can never attain on our own. That’s why Jesus came to do what we cannot do, to take on the punishment of our sin in our place, where he died for us. Yet, according to his power, to his great authority, not only did Jesus die on the tree, but in the greatest display of power and authority, on the third day, the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead to claim his victory.
And it’s through the authority and power found on the wooden cross and empty tomb. That’s where we see the good news. The good news of how the Lord’s advancing his kingdom is through the message of the cross and the resurrection from the dead. So yes, the forest in this text, there are some interesting trees for us to consider.
But as we look at the forest, may we be filled with hope and let that hope take us to the one tree that we must get right. The one tree that means everything to us. The one tree that I’m sure we just have to tell others about as well. The tree that Jesus preached that he must go to to save his people Church. May God give us the grace through his power and authority to preach the Word.
May God give us grace to always see the forest. And as we look to the forest, may we see the one true tree the entire forest of scripture is pointing us to see. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for this text.
Lord, thank you for the authority and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord, this morning I pray that we all would joyfully submit to that authority and power, that you’d fill us with your love and your joy.
And Lord, please help us to trust in you in all things, including things that maybe we don’t always understand or fully grasp, including some of the things in our text today.
But Lord, please help us to always see Jesus and always make much of Him. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.