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[0:00] Good morning. The depiction of the devil as a serpent, a snake, is right.

[0:17] That picture that we have. He's called that in the beginning, Genesis all the way back, Genesis chapter 3, all the way into Revelation chapter 20.

[0:30] Beginning to end, we kind of know and understand that the devil is depicted as a snake, dragon, a serpent, along those ways.

[0:46] In the Garden of Eden, when Satan appeared as a serpent to Eve and to Adam, and they chose to listen and give credence to his spoken words, and they chose to disobey God and sin, and it has to be considered blatant.

[1:15] There was just the one law. Just the one. And they couldn't do that. And so all of creation fell, was cursed as a result of that.

[1:31] And as God is pronouncing the curse on Eve and on Adam, he first pronounces the curse on the serpent.

[1:41] And he says this. We're just going to look at the one verse in that curse. He said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, or hostility, war, conflict between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

[2:04] Now, I've highlighted the phrase, her seed there, because women don't have, if you know anything about biology, you know that women don't have a seed.

[2:17] The seed comes from the man. So what is he hinting at? There is a clue here that is describing the uniqueness of the virgin birth of Jesus, that Jesus would not be born of the seed of a man.

[2:35] Therefore, he would not have the curse brought through the seed of Adam, the seed of a man to him. And therefore, he was born without sin, without a sinful nature.

[2:48] And that comes all the way back. We get that all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. And then the next sentence, or part of that curse says, he shall bruise you on the head.

[3:03] The word bruise there literally means to strike or to crush. The idea that Jesus, the Messiah, the coming seed of this woman, would crush the head of the serpent of Jesus himself.

[3:26] And then the serpent then would bruise or crush him on the heel, the coming Messiah, which is a depiction of the cross, of Jesus dying on the cross for us.

[3:41] And so all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, we have this image. I don't know if all of you have seen, or if any of you, I'm sure some of you have seen, the movie The Passion of the Christ.

[3:57] Mel Gibson directed that, wrote that with a couple other people. And when I went to see that movie, Sherry and I went years ago when it came out, we went to the theater and saw it.

[4:11] How many of you have seen this movie? It was, from my estimation, incredible depiction, kind of a depiction that would take your breath away.

[4:24] It's very intense depiction of the last day of Christ before he would go to the cross, and then on the cross, and all the events that led up to that.

[4:37] Very brutal, very violent. Some people would say gratuitous violence, but I would say it's probably closer to accurate in terms of the violence that it depicted.

[4:55] Now, in the version of this movie, there are some embellishments, some additions that Mel Gibson added to the text, some things that are not in Scripture that he added to it, added to the movie, from his perspective, I'm sure, to add to the story.

[5:15] And one of the things that he did in this movie was a personification of Satan. Satan is not a man, but he personified him.

[5:27] The word personified is to take something that's not human and make it appear as human. And so he personified Satan and had this character lurking kind of in the background.

[5:40] And in the opening scene, which I don't know if you remember, the opening scene is in the Garden of Gethsemane. It blew me away literally to the point of saying it took my breath away literally when I saw this opening scene.

[5:59] I couldn't believe it. At first, I'm reacting, as I'm watching the movie, I'm reacting to this personification because he shows this personification of Satan in the garden, tempting Jesus, asking him questions, making him question who he is in the sense of, Jesus, do you really want to do this?

[6:20] You don't really want to face all of this. It's not going to work. It can't. And I'm like, I don't know what I think about this. This is weird.

[6:31] It's creepy. And then you get the scene with the snake. And I want to show this to you. And I want to show this to you just so you see the impact of this moment.

[6:50] Because when it happened in the movie and it took my breath away, the reason it did that is because there were a few moments in that movie that did this to me.

[7:02] The thing that I thought in that moment was he gets it. When I say he gets it, I'm talking about Mel Gibson. I don't know how, I mean, I don't know where Mel Gibson at in terms of if he's saved or not or a Christian or not, but I believe God used him in that moment.

[7:23] God can speak through a donkey if he wants to. So he could certainly speak through Mel Gibson in this movie. And that's kind of what I think of this movie.

[7:37] But in that moment, I thought, oh my goodness. He gets it. He gets that Jesus is going to crush Satan when he goes to the cross.

[7:52] So watch this and see if you, you're not going to get the full effect because we're sitting here in church and it's not the movie theater and it's, we're not watching the whole thing. But anyway, watch this.

[8:05] It's in Aramaic, but you get the English subtitles here. You get it there, You get it there, You get it there, I'm in me. I can't luck is far. I'm away the luck is far.

[8:39] I'm away the luck. I'm back. I'm back.

[8:53] I'm back. I'm back. Oh, it's a magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic magic I am the king.

[9:31] I am the king. I am the king.

[9:50] I am the king. And that's it.

[10:28] And it literally took my breath away. It was just an incredible moment, incredible scene. It is extra biblical. When you go see movies like this, or when you're watching The Chosen, or some of these other depictions of Jesus, you have to please use discernment.

[10:49] Because not everything that you see on the screen is going to be coming from Scripture. And there is some poetic license, whether it's good or bad. Sometimes it enhances the story, like I believe this kind of enhanced the story.

[11:04] But I also can understand that this didn't happen in the garden. There was no snake. There was no personification of the devil in the garden. It was intense like that, sweat drops of blood.

[11:16] I mean, all of that, the intense prayer was there. There was no snake. The sequel of this is supposed to be coming out this year, called The Resurrection.

[11:28] The Passion of the Christ, The Resurrection. Now, from what I have heard, there's going to be a good portion of this movie depicting Jesus descending into hell.

[11:40] And the Scripture talks about that. Jesus descends into hell, and then I think, this is what I think is going to happen, and I don't think this is a good thing.

[11:52] It's going to depict the devil kind of having a fight with the devil in hell. It's not what happened. From Catholic tradition and from charismatic teaching, they teach that Jesus battled with Satan in hell between his death and his resurrection.

[12:15] It's not scriptural, and it's not theologically accurate at all. The price for our sin was paid completely. It was finished.

[12:28] It was finished. Jesus said it himself at the cross. When Jesus said, it is finished, it wasn't about him dying in the moment.

[12:39] He was talking about the completed payment for our sin. And so when Jesus went to hell in those moments, it wasn't to have a duke it out or however it's going to be depicted or if that's how it's going to happen.

[12:58] It was to release the way that Ephesians chapter 4 describes it, set captivity captive. It's the idea that the Old Testament teaches that hell is one place that contains two areas, paradise or Abraham's bosom, which was a beautiful place where the Old Testament saints, those who were believers in the Lord, they went there after their death.

[13:29] The Lord was not there yet because the price for our sin had not yet been paid. So there they waited until Jesus would pay the penalty for sin.

[13:40] Across a gulf was what we would call hell, a place of fire and torment and where sinners who hadn't trusted the Lord were sent.

[13:55] And we get this, the parable from Lazarus and the rich man, not Lazarus, the one that Jesus raised from the dead, but Lazarus, the poor servant, who when he died was in paradise or Abraham's bosom.

[14:08] And then his master who died and was in hell. And they could see across the gulf each other. Jesus, after his death, went there to bring all of those who were in paradise to heaven because the death of Jesus unlocked the gates of heaven, if you will, so that all the Old Testament saints could then go with him and to heaven.

[14:42] That's what that was about. Not about some battle with Satan. Okay? So be aware of that if you do watch that movie, if indeed that's how he portrays it, and I get the idea that that's what's going to happen there.

[14:59] Now, all of that is somewhat off topic to what we're doing here today. What we're doing here today, and we're going to start seeing this on your notes, what God promised way back in Genesis, in Genesis chapter 3, was that the Messiah would bear the curse of sin and death upon himself.

[15:24] Okay? That was the beginnings of that promise. Here it is all the way back in Genesis. And then, even before his victory on the cross, Jesus, even here in his early ministry, as we're reading in Luke, is beginning to fulfill the promise of crushing the head of the serpent.

[15:48] We see that, again, the hints of that coming here as we read about what Jesus is doing here in Luke in his early ministry.

[16:01] Let's see how Luke is describing this. Luke chapter 4, beginning in verse 31, where it says, And he went down to Capernaum.

[16:12] Now, down is not south. We think of it as south, but it's an elevation. So where Jesus was in Nazareth, as we talked about last week, today he is going to be in Capernaum, which becomes kind of his headquarters.

[16:28] We get that from Matthew and Mark. Capernaum becomes kind of his home base for his ministry while he is in Galilee. It's the hometown of Peter and Andrew, James and John, and so we get that.

[16:44] Capernaum is right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, or the Lake of Gesheneret, depending on where you read that. And that's where he sets up his ministry.

[16:55] So he's in his kind of new hometown, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching for his word-possessed authority.

[17:09] So, again, Luke's gospel is full of these statements about how the crowds of people were amazed or astonished at Jesus, at what he was doing.

[17:20] And it wasn't just his miracles. It was also just his spoken word. As Jesus taught, the people were amazed. There was something different about the way Jesus taught that carried with it an authority that they had not seen before.

[17:39] And so that becomes important as we make our way through the text. And we're going to see three different ways in which Jesus demonstrates his authority.

[17:50] You have this on your notes. And this first way, we see, is Jesus revealed his authority in the way that he spoke truth. That when he spoke, something was different.

[18:04] He didn't speak the way that their rabbis spoke. The way that the rabbis spoke, they just quoted other rabbis, and it was just, if you were to go to synagogue at that time, or if you go to church in some places today, it was just kind of, oh, simple stuff that people would quote, and that was it.

[18:30] And you didn't know if you really picked up anything when you went to church, or you went to synagogue, but just some flowery words, and some big words, and religious sounding stuff, and you went home.

[18:43] Love each other. Go home. That was it. And what Jesus taught was different. It was powerful.

[18:57] It had authority to it. And so we have this, you have this on your notes, the rabbis, they had a kind of a sort of authority, if you will, but it was just quoted.

[19:09] It wasn't necessarily from God. They would read portions of the scriptures, as we saw last week from the Old Testament. They would read a portion from the first five books, the Pentateuch.

[19:23] They would read from that, the law. They would read from the prophets. But when the rabbis taught, it was just theory and opinion, and no real authority.

[19:37] The prophets, which they hadn't heard from for 400 years, they might have heard a few of them, some of them may have heard John the Baptist. John the Baptist, in that sense, would be considered a prophet, an Old Testament prophet.

[19:52] But the prophets, they simply had delegated authority. God gave them authority. The Holy Spirit came upon them and anointed them for their teaching ministry, for their prophetic ministry.

[20:07] But it's not the same. But Jesus had an internal authority. It was different. When he spoke, it's as if God was speaking.

[20:21] Because God, indeed, was speaking. He was God in their midst. And so when he spoke, that authority came through. You see this also, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew.

[20:35] The Sermon on the Mount is chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the book of Matthew. And at the end, when he's done with the sermon, as people are leaving, as people are kind of sitting there, like, whoa, what did we just hear?

[20:51] This was their response. When Jesus finished these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. Why were they amazed? Because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

[21:08] Their scribes, they just gave a speech. But when Jesus spoke, oh, people paid attention.

[21:20] It was real. It was different. And so, that impacted them in a great way. Now, we're going to see some other ways that Jesus demonstrated his authority.

[21:33] And, we start in verse 33. Chapter 4, verse 33. And in the synagogue one day, there in Capernaum, on the Sabbath, here is Jesus going to teach in the synagogue.

[21:49] There was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, Ha! Ha! Normally, when we're reading a text like this, we just kind of go on.

[22:08] But I want to stop here for a minute because I want you to think about what was happening. What in the world was a demon-possessed man doing in a synagogue service?

[22:28] Or, you might say, what in the world was a demon-possessed guy doing in a church service? Because that would be kind of the correlation here. It would be, like, I mean, here we are gathered today for worship.

[22:43] And, I'm going to sit here next to Landon. Hi, Landon. I'm demon-possessed. Did you know that about me? And what's a demon-possessed guy doing in church?

[22:54] He's praying. He's singing along with the songs. And then Jesus gets up to teach.

[23:05] Actually, he sits down to teach. And, the demon interrupts.

[23:16] He's not doing anything until Jesus starts speaking. And then he says, ha. So, I want you to imagine in your minds what that would look like.

[23:27] Ha. Is that, you think that's how it would be? Ha. No, it's kind of hard to read it in the text, but that, what he's saying there is more like, ha!

[23:49] Now, imagine sitting in church and this is going on. Are you freaking out right about now? I know you're not seeing me on the camera if you're watching online, but just imagine sitting in a service and having that show up.

[24:05] Okay? You ready? Now, who was that guy? Is this somebody who attended synagogue all the time?

[24:19] Was he maybe newer in the congregation? segregation? Remember, we talked about last week, the elders would sit up front and then behind the elders it would be segregated, male and female.

[24:31] So, he's sitting over, over here on the male side or, or, ha ha, maybe he's sitting among the elders. Is that a possibility?

[24:43] Ooh, a demon-possessed guy? A leader in the church? Or a leader in the synagogue? God? Certainly a possibility. And then he shrieks like that?

[25:02] Wow! Before we go on to the rest of the story, because he's got some more to say, but before we get to that, I want to clear up what I think is a lot of confusion about demon possession.

[25:19] I don't think many of us Christians really understand what in the world that is. So, I want to show you another verse from Matthew 12, 22.

[25:30] Matthew 12, there's this ongoing discussion. There's some demon-possessed guy, and then there's some leaders who were saying, well, Jesus is cleaning out these demon possessions here.

[25:44] Where's his power and authority coming from? I'm thinking it's coming from the devil. Or Beelzebub. This is like the devil's first assistant. Look at what it says.

[25:59] This is the English standard, our normal translation that we use here. Then a demon-oppressed man. What's the deal? Why does the ESV say demon-oppressed when most of the translations say demon-possessed man?

[26:16] Is there a difference? What's going on here? Who was blind and mute and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see. And he did this on the Sabbath day, which, according to the Pharisees and the scribes, was like a big no-no.

[26:31] You can't heal somebody on the Sabbath day. And it's like, really? This guy's demon-possessed and you're just going to let him go because it's the Sabbath day? I don't think so. So, what's the distinction between demon-oppressed and demon-possessed?

[26:49] Now, the word for possession, demon-possession or demon-oppression here, the Greek word, it's, let me see if I can tell you what the Greek word is just so that you'll be impressed with me.

[27:00] demon-possessed. Are you impressed now? It just means demonized.

[27:14] So, every time you hear about or you see about a guy who's demon-possessed or demon-oppressed and the English standards is the only one that says demon-oppressed, all the other ones basically are saying demon-possessed.

[27:27] But literally, it just means demonized. a demonized man. Is he a Christian? Is he not a Christian?

[27:39] Is it possible for a Christian to be demonized? Is it possible for someone to be possessed by a demon?

[27:52] Let me give you the distinction and you don't have this on your notes but if you want to write this down you're welcome to do that just so that you can understand the demonized versus demon-possession.

[28:04] There is a distinction and we'll talk about unbelievers first and I've got a color-coded highlight system here don't you know just to help you out to see the difference between the two.

[28:14] Unbelievers can experience demon-possession. Meaning, a demon can indwell a person who is an unbeliever and control them a demon controlling a person from the inside.

[28:32] That is a possibility that we have to be aware of. Believers, however, cannot be demon-possessed. Believers, though, can experience demon oppression oppression where it is a demon influencing to the point of even looking controlled by a demon on the outside of a person.

[29:06] Now, a demon cannot indwell a believer. Why? There's someone else already indwelling a believer. Who is that? It's the Holy Spirit indwells us. And believe you me, the Holy Spirit is not going to share a person with a demon.

[29:22] Not going to happen. But a Christian can be influenced by a demon from the outside.

[29:33] And sometimes it would be hard, you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. And this is why when the New Testament writes about or talks about this issue, it just uses the word demonized.

[29:49] There's no distinction in the New Testament between demon possession and demon oppression. It just talks about a person being demonized. Now, if the person's an unbeliever, that means possessed.

[30:04] If it's a believer, then it's just someone who is oppressed. So when you see, for instance, here the English Standard Version using the word demon oppressed, all the other translations using the word demon oppressed, they're both taking liberties with the text there.

[30:20] All of them, from the King James on down, NIV, NLT, on down, they're taking a little bit of a liberty with that word demonized and making it sound as if the person is possessed.

[30:34] oppressed, very possibly could be true, but it's also true that the person could be oppressed. And the context might help us to understand the difference between the two, but the Greek word just uses the word demonized.

[30:47] Now, let me recommend to you a book. This is a book, it's called Angels and Demons. It's not the same guy, Dan Brown, that wrote all this other weird stuff about Christianity.

[31:01] Christianity. This is written by John Gilhooley, even though it has the same name as the other guy, the title, Angels and Demons. This is just a real practical book that helps us to understand about angels and demons because there's a lot of misunderstanding, misconception about angels, both angels and about demons.

[31:23] And so this book kind of clears some of that stuff up for us. And it's got, like, it's broken down into Old Testament occurrences where the word angel is used or the word demon is used and the New Testament occurrences and then toward the end of the book is just a question and answer thing and it's real simple.

[31:45] Let me see if I can read one of these here. Like, do I have, some of you are going to be disappointed when you read this book. Just let you know, okay?

[31:57] Because like, do I have a guardian angel? Angel? No. You don't have anything in the scriptures that help us to understand that. You may have angels, and you do, angels intervening on your behalf, but it's not someone who's specifically assigned to you.

[32:15] There may be a time in the scriptures where an angel is assigned to you. We see that in Daniel, but it doesn't say anything about being a permanent thing or just an assignment. that's one of them.

[32:28] Another one is, do people become angels when they die? That's another popular misconception. No. We don't become an angel when we die.

[32:42] That's not how it works. And the way that he says this, this is funny, there are different kinds of creatures. He says, you don't become an angel when you die for the same reason you don't become an aardvark.

[32:53] Two different creatures. Okay? And let me say this, and he doesn't say this here, I wish he would.

[33:04] It's better than that. Okay? Because Jesus didn't die for the angels. He died for you.

[33:18] You become part of his family. Angels don't. It's better than that. Don't sell the person that you love who's gone on.

[33:31] Don't sell them short. They're not angels. They're more beloved. Matter of fact, when someone gets saved, angels marvel at that. They look upon that, and they look on it in a way that they don't understand, because it's not for them.

[33:50] it's for us. So, if you want to read that, I encourage you to get that. Angels and demons. John Gil Hooley. Love the name.

[34:02] Moving on in the text. Alright, so we're back to our guy in the synagogue, demon-possessed guy in the synagogue, who's just shrieked during when Jesus is teaching.

[34:14] Right? Can you, I'm trying to think of this, I'm preaching away, and some guy does that. I'm like, oh, Jesus, though.

[34:29] So he just shrieks, and then he goes on, and he says, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? And it's basically saying, what are you doing messing around here?

[34:42] What are you doing messing with us? Get out of here. We don't need you. It's basically what this demon-possessed or demon-oppressed guy is saying. He goes on, have you come to destroy us?

[34:55] Because now this demon gets it. This is no run-of-the-mill guy from small-town Nazareth that, you know, nobody's ever heard of.

[35:12] No, no, no. It's more than that. He understands what's at stake here. I know, can you imagine, I know who you are.

[35:26] You're the Holy One of God. Luke made this connection in chapter 1, verse 35, when the angel is telling Mary that the one to be born is the Holy One of God, the Messiah, God in the flesh, the demon gets it.

[35:53] The demon understands that when it comes to his destruction, it's a very real possibility. God in the congregation that day got it.

[36:13] God got it. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him.

[36:30] that's it. That's all Jesus said. No elaborate prayer. No kind of ornate ceremony, right?

[36:46] You see some of the horror movies you guys have watched before. I'm not a horror movie fan, but maybe some of you are. You like horror movies. And you see a priest coming along for an exorcism, and he's got his beads, and he's got his incense, and he's got his Bible, and he's got his prayer cloth.

[37:09] Jesus is not doing any of that nonsense.

[37:27] He's not, I mean, he's not messing around, but all he says is shut up and come out. All right? The English text here kind of cleans it up a little bit, but I'm thinking it's more along the lines of shut up and get out of here.

[37:43] You don't belong. Whoo! And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, one last act of defiance, the demon throws the guy down.

[38:00] Now he's, I don't know where he's at, if he's still here sitting next to Landon, or if he's kind of close up to Jesus now or what, but demon threw him on the ground. We got nice carpeting here.

[38:11] I'm thinking it was more like a dirt floor in their synagogue. The demon came out of him, having done him no harm.

[38:23] That's the other part of the miracle. This guy wasn't harmed, even though he threw him down. That's Jesus. That's who he is. That's what he does.

[38:36] He just says, get out. Boom. And it happens. This is the kind of authority that Jesus has. And here it is again.

[38:46] They were all amazed. They were all amazed at his teaching. And now they're all amazed because of this scene. I imagine so. I imagine if you got to witness this event, you'd be pretty stinking amazed.

[38:59] Right? It'd be like, wow. Wow. what is this word?

[39:13] We're still talking about the way Jesus speaks because he speaks as one having authority and power.

[39:24] It's the way that he speaks and when he speaks these words, things happen. it's like, wow. It just happens. He speaks and the storm is calmed.

[39:39] He speaks the blind can see. The demon possessed no longer. He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.

[39:51] So there's a clue. This guy was possessed. reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding area.

[40:06] I bet they did. And we're going to see the consequence of that in a moment. I want you to notice this again because it's repeated here in verse 36 which we just read.

[40:23] What is this word? This word? For with authority? Where have seen that back in verse 32? They were astonished at his teaching for his word.

[40:34] Verse 36 this word it's a specific word. The very words of Jesus are the word of God. We have his word.

[40:47] By the way the authority today I don't have any. This is the authority. As long as the pastor is faithful as long as the teacher is faithful to proclaim his word that is to be obeyed.

[41:05] Not because Rich said so or Jeff said so or anyone else said so or any guy on TV that you may watch.

[41:15] It's because of this word. That's where the authority is. But Jesus' word possessed authority. There's authority there.

[41:27] We're not guessing. We're not sharing opinion. We're not twisting it to fit our cultural norms. Well the culture has gone this way so the Bible must now mean this.

[41:41] No. It's not how it works. So Jesus now he revealed his authority over the spoken word.

[41:52] Now he reveals his authority over the realm of Satan. Satan's got nothing. Tom said this a couple weeks ago when Jesus was being tempted by the devil.

[42:05] These are not co-equals. This is the creator and the created one going to battle. How do you think that's going to work out? And then here's the interesting part about this.

[42:23] The authority and power of Jesus over demons his miraculous ability we'll see this in the next section too was intended to verify his claim that he was the son of God the Messiah the king our king our coming king.

[42:39] And I've taught that before right? That the miracles not only does it demonstrate the compassion of Jesus over those that he healed that he released but the purpose of these miracles was to demonstrate that when he spoke and when he performed miracles when he cast out demons this is this is very God this is the Lord in our midst now this next point well let me let me demonstrate this in John chapter 20 the reason why the gospel writers are writing these are written highlighted text there these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God Jesus did many other signs miracles John

[43:40] John refers to them as signs and he shows seven of them seven specific signs that demonstrate seven different ways that Jesus did these miracles in their midst that's all he did just the seven because he's doing that specifically to demonstrate Jesus is God and he is to be worshipped and obeyed and followed and believed and that by believing you may have life in his name it is only through Christ that there is life but the second one is something that just kind of hit me as I was preparing for this and I may have heard it before I'm sure I've read some of these I've probably taught some of these verses before but it just hit me because that's the word of God that's something that's unique it's never going to grow old it was also Jesus' ability to perform miracles here in this specific sense casting out demons it was also intended to give us a glimpse a taste of what life would be like once the curse is finally lifted in the coming kingdom both in a lesser way in the millennial kingdom when the curse will still exist but it will be subdued but there will be great freedom in the millennial kingdom but then after the kingdom when

[45:16] Satan is finally dealt with and cast into the lake of fire and then in heaven when all things will be new and sin will be no more no more curse of sin oh what Jesus is doing with these miracles!

[45:33] of what that's going to be like it's just a little taste of what that's going to be like that's what he's doing there he's giving us a little sample because the kingdom and you've heard me teach this before if you've been here for a while the kingdom in Jesus the kingdom was in their midst that day in the synagogue the kingdom was there it was there in the form of Jesus wherever Jesus went he is the kingdom when you were looking at Jesus in the face you were looking at the kingdom of God he came declaring you see it throughout the gospels the gospel of the kingdom the good news of the kingdom the kingdom of God is at hand the kingdom of God is at hand Luke is going to start in chapter 9 we're going to see it there's a switch that happens in chapter 9 verse 51 the middle point

[46:45] Jesus now is toward the end of his ministry and he's going to start there's a drum beat kingdom of God is at hand you're looking at it right in the face and it will impact this kingdom of God is on the move he's moving from Galilee to Jerusalem he sets his face kingdom of God is at hand and it impacts all of your life's decisions because the kingdom of God is at hand now for us the gospel we're preaching is not that we're not preaching the kingdom of God is at hand we're preaching the gospel of grace it's available to you come and receive grace goodness the love of God simply by trusting!

[47:40] in him and then there's coming a time during the tribulation when the gospel of the kingdom will once again be declared on earth the kingdom of God is at hand the kingdom of God is at hand!

[47:56] and that's what was happening in their midst they were getting a little taste of it they were they were getting a little glimpse every miracle he performed every time he taught they were getting a little taste of the kingdom back in Matthew chapter 12 I talked about the demonized man there who was blind and Jesus healed them and the demon was cast out and they're saying hey this happened because of Beelzebub and Jesus is like are you guys nuts I don't you know it's not in the text but I'm thinking think about it why would Satan cast out Satan that kingdom wouldn't last it doesn't make any sense but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons and it was then the kingdom of

[48:56] God has come upon you do you get it the kingdom of God was right there in their presence they rejected it and crucified him but it was right there he was right there they missed it a quote from our book that I talked about angels and demons this is this is what the conflict between Jesus and the demons he encounters is really intended to show two things Jesus authority and power he had that in spades right every time they looked at him whoa they amazed what he was teaching what he was doing he had authority and power and that they were in the very presence of the kingdom was at hand it was right there the demons got it some of them got it but the majority did not the text goes on there's one more way

[50:13] Jesus demonstrated his authority he arose and he left the synagogue! and went to Simon's house this is Simon Peter Peter and James right you know Peter and Andrew Peter and Andrew's house mom's there Peter's mom is there right or his mother-in-law I'm sorry his mother-in-law was there and was sick with a high fever I remember Luke is a medical doctor so when he writes this and we don't see this in the English but you see it in the Greek he uses medical words to describe her illness this is this is how they worked back then all right she was ill with a high fever now the words high fever they had two ways to distinguish a fever and by the way the fever was the problem the fever wasn't the symptom of another problem which we understand today but in their medical practice the fever was the issue the fever was the illness that they had to get rid of okay they didn't understand what was causing it they weren't there yet but

[51:16] Jesus understood that Jesus gets it and he's got a high fever you know what the Greek word is there for high mega in English we get that now she had a mega fever yay and the word fever there just means fire she had a mega fire going on I mean she was hot not in a good way okay and they appealed to him on her behalf hmm I wonder what's going to happen and he stood over her basically he says the same thing that he said to the demon he rebuked the demon now he's going to rebuke the fever wow and it left her oh and immediately you know you know you know what happens when you guys get a fever when I get a fever right you feel sick right especially if you got a high fever it kind of wipes you out doesn't it it kind of wipes you out and you're bedridden right until the and and depending on how long this fever lasts you're like you don't have any energy you're just sapped you don't want to eat you don't want to do anything you're just and then when the fever breaks that's how we refer to it right when the fever leaves how you feeling in that moment yeah not too great you still got to recover at that point you still got to what get some real sleep right maybe eat some food kind of you're going to get your strength back right none of that none of that

[53:11] I want you to notice the word that Luke uses immediately she's got a mega fever going on Jesus rebukes the thing and she's like hey what you guys need let me help you you want some coffee you want some juice!

[53:27] she rose and began to serve them immediately that's the thing about these gospels and the book of Acts when you see these healings they're like boom immediate and there's no physical therapy you haven't been able to walk for 30 years so what get up and walk now you don't need no physical therapy you don't need to go build up your strength legs probably look like twigs from all the atrophy when Jesus heals them I don't need to learn how to walk lame from birth I don't need to learn how to walk I'm dancing and running around and praising God and whoo Jesus revealed his authority here in this last portion over sickness of any kind Jesus is not a specialist we have doctors today who are specialists they specialize in one kind of thing cancer specialist or heart specialist or feet specialist or whatever doesn't matter

[54:40] Jesus heals them all he's equal opportunity healer the rest of this text I know you guys are putting away your notes but hang on I'm not done yet okay I get it I do the same thing now when the sun was setting get a load of this alright we read that oh the sun was setting it's just a little no it means something more this was the sabbath day the sabbath is over when the sun sets so nobody's coming before the sun sets but now the sun is setting guess who's coming they can travel a certain distance on the sabbath day those who were observant in that way but now that the sun is setting guess what's going to happen because we saw before the word's gotten out right the word is traveling fast Jesus is in town and we heard he's over at Peter's place his mother in law we're going she makes good lasagna

[55:46] I don't know that's that's one of those extra biblical things I was talking about before so when the sun was setting so it's still the end of the day all those who had any who were sick with whatever diseases brought them to him so it's getting dark and here they come he laid hands he laid his hands on every one one of them the tense of the verb that they were bringing them to him it's perfect tense meaning it was continual all through the night there's people showing up at the door at Pete's mother-in-law's house maybe it's just Pete's house I don't know and people are showing up the people who are sick and the people who are bringing them and Jesus doesn't matter what the illness is he's just healing them he's just healing them all every one of them and demons also came out of many crying you are the son of God crying you are the son of

[57:03] God but he rebuked them what why would he do that and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ and you wonder what's going on why is Jesus trying to silence them because Jesus doesn't care what demons have to say he's not there for the demons he's there for the people so shut up and get out quit quit quit your stuff and get out and his time hadn't come yet to be crucified so he's still in a sense kind of kind of keep it low and when it was day so this has gone all night into the morning when it was day he departed and went to a desolate place because that's what Jesus did Luke's going to talk about this throughout the gospel that when Jesus had opportunities he would leave sometimes they didn't know where he went he just left to go pray to be with his father to be refreshed notice he doesn't need sleep he probably does but he goes to a desolate place and he doesn't say it here but he's going to pray and the people sought him and came to him so they're looking where's

[58:24] Jesus where's Waldo where's Jesus and they're looking for him and they go and they find him and they came to him and they would have kept him from leaving if they had their way Jesus don't go you know you and I we'd feel the same way right but but Jesus look at what he says he said to them I must preach this good news of the what of God to other towns as well for I was sent for this purpose I was sent to proclaim the good news that's why he's there everything else serves that purpose the healing the demons all of it everything else that he does the compassion that he shows it's all meant to show it's all meant to demonstrate this is his purpose to come to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well for I was sent for this purpose and he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea does that just mean the southern kingdom or does that mean

[59:31] Judea as a whole that's where I'm at it's actually in this so you could consider all of Israel as part of as Judea and I think that's the sense in which Luke chooses this word so this is this is what Jesus is doing and he is the son of God the Messiah now the band's going to come come on come on up band they're going to come and they're going to do they're going to we're going to sing together because the band doesn't perform we worship together we're going to sing together a song that might be familiar to a lot of you how many of you know a mighty fortress well you're nodding because you know it's coming because it's right here on your notes I can't hide anything from you mighty fortress is our God written by Martin Luther it's a little different version than you're used to okay and if you're interested in looking this up this is actually a heart song those of you who went to freeze out this is a heart song song a version of this song it's on

[60:43] YouTube and Spotify and Apple Music and Pandora and Amazon wherever you get your music it's there the video is on YouTube there's a search there that you could do a mighty fortress! on your notes I highlighted some words now all these words in this song are awesome this is my favorite hymn if you were to pin me down and say Rich what's your favorite hymn of all time is my answer I got a lot of favorites but this would be it my Martin Luther he's a hero of the faith but I want you to notice this battle that he's describing in these lyrics and I want you to notice this is the third verse just the first half of the third verse which they repeat so they don't even finish the third verse and the fourth verse is not in here anywhere other than the very last line of the song well it's actually no his kingdom is forever it's from the last verse that's the only part of verse four that we get so it's that little bridge that they're doing a mighty fortress is our

[61:58] God his kingdom lasts forever oh it's but listen to this because this is what we talked about today and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us and that's that's what we're living with every day whether we realize it or not the text of scripture teaches us that we are under threat of their influence not possession but of their influence every day every day we will not fear for God hath willed God God's will is that his truth will triumph through us and then what is the beginning of the second verse and what is the very last phrase at the very end of the song if we in our own strength confide pay attention to this if we're going to try to live this

[63:05] Christian life in our own strength our striving would be losing you're going to lose that battle every time we can only do this through Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit living within so I want you to sit and watch sing along and when we get and the words are not going to be on the screen I'm I'm ruining your life today because we're doing something out of out of it's different the words are only here on the sheet so when we start singing this highlighted part you're going to get like worked up let's pray when we sing the song we'll be done let's pray Lord we love you and we love your word it's so it's so alive and yes it's fun and yes it is powerful and that's the point of it that when we read your word we're not just reading it to read it because of a religious thing but it changes us that's what matters your word because your word is filled with authority and your word is filled with power to bring us to life to change us from the inside out to make us live with life not just going through the motions it's real and we thank you for it thank you

[65:00] Lord for what Jesus is doing here in the text as we have read it thank you Lord for what Jesus is doing in our lives right now he is just as alive just as active just as powerful in our lives to change us to transform us from the inside out to make us more and more like you Lord we appreciate your word and this message of what Jesus is doing Lord as we sing these words I pray that they would have impact in our life and as we worship you now help us to remember that you are worthy you are so worthy and we love you and we pray these things in the name of Jesus

[66:02]  Christ our Savior and all God's people said Amen alright