Luke 4:31-44
February 2, 2025
Next Sunday, all of our questions will be answered. Everything will be decided. Well, maybe not everything. In fact, there probably won’t be any important questions answered next Sunday. For those of you who follow professional football, next Sunday is the big day – the Superbowl. All the questions about who is the best team this year will finally be answered, because the Superbowl is where everything will be decided and settled with authority.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place where all of the important questions of life could be answered? Such as, “What really happens when a person dies? What is my purpose in life?” Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place where all of our personal decisions could be decided and settled with authority? For example, when a couple has to make a difficult decision during a stressful time in their marriage who should they listen to? Their parents? Friends? When a person has to make decisions about how to advance their career or handle a difficult situation at work, where do they get direction? Their boss? Magazine articles? When I’m deciding which TV shows to watch or where I’ll go on a Friday night, what influences me? My family? Advertising? Who do we listen to? Who’s our authority? Well, there is a place that can answer our questions and I’m sure all of you know the place – it’s the Bible. The Words of Jesus, and everything in His Word, is the ultimate authority on all things.
In our Gospel lesson for today we see some people in the first century who were struggling with some important questions on authority. Jesus was a new teacher in the area who had been speaking at different synagogues forcing them to face questions about authority and direction in their lives. While a synagogue was a place where Jews could study Scripture and worship God, they never had any resident ordained ministers assigned to them. Therefore, visiting teachers or rabbis who were in the area were usually invited to teach lessons. So when Jesus and His disciples arrived in Capernaum in our text, Jesus was probably invited to teach.
Now we don’t know exactly what Jesus taught, but His teaching was like nothing they had ever heard before. His words seemed to have an authority behind them and they didn’t know what to make of it. What I mean by this is whenever visiting rabbis taught and would quote God’s Law, they would usually something like, “God’s Law, as written by Moses, says;” or they would mention words spoken by Old Testament prophets, such as, “The prophet Isaiah says;” or they would make reference to certain interpretations of Scriptures offered by rabbis from the past. But Jesus did not quote anyone. His teaching was new and had authority in that He personified what He said. He fulfilled what had been said or predicted in the Old Testament about a Savior for all people.
So one of the main things Jesus teaches us in this text is that we have to find a way to personify what we believe. We must let God’s Word live in us and through us. We can know the Bible forward and backward, but unless we live it, unless people can see God’s Word living in us and through us as the authority in our lives, it doesn’t do anyone any good.
For example, while Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, our Gospel lesson tells us there was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit and all of a sudden the spirit cried out, “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.” I find it interesting how evil spirits in Scripture know exactly who Jesus is – the Son of God, while others who are close to Jesus reject Him as God’s Son. But that knowledge the evil spirit had of who Jesus was did not help him in any way – it only filled him with fear. Now, what the evil spirit said about Jesus was true, but Jesus was not going to accept his words as a testimony for everyone there to hear. After all, Satan was not a proper witness, because those who heard him could easily have said, “Well, if Satan is the father of lies, how can we believe what he says?” So that’s why Jesus immediately told that evil spirit to “Be silent!” But Jesus did not stop there. Moved with compassion for this man, Jesus heals him by commanding the evil spirit to come out of him, and that evil spirit immediately obeyed, because Jesus’ words had authority. You will notice there was no asking a second time. Jesus did not say, “Please come out.” There were no negotiations. When Jesus said, “Come out of him,” there was immediate obedience to Jesus’ authority. That’s how powerful His words were.
When this happened, verse 36 says, “And they were all amazed and said to one another, ‘What is this word? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” Verse 37 tells us that reports about Jesus went out into every place in the surrounding region, and yet the Bible goes on to say that even with this miracle, there were still people who rejected Jesus as the Savior. Pretty amazing.
What’s interesting is that the word, “amazed” in this verse carries with it the idea of fear. Something unexplainable and a bit scary just happened, and the people are not sure what to make of it. But the thing that was scary for the people was not the presence of the evil spirit, but Jesus’ power over it. Jesus simply says, “Come out of him” and the spirit obeys. They had never seen such a teaching, with authority, that also produced such powerful, compassionate action. So they were not quite sure how to handle it. Their amazement has a bit of fear in it as they just did not know how to react.
And sometimes we don’t know how to handle this authority of Jesus. When we are struggling with a situation in our marriage and we need to make a decision, consider: Is God’s Word our authority or do we listen to others? When we are dealing with a difficult situation at work, does our direction come from the Word of God? It needs to, because God will determine what will happen. When we’re deciding what we will do this weekend, do we consider what will be pleasing to God? After all, He has the authority to determine what will happen in our lives.
Where does Jesus get the authority to do these things? It is because He is the Son of God, who fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies about the Savior, who lived a perfect life, and sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sins of the world. But then He rose from the dead to demonstrate that not even death or Satan could stop Him. Of all the religions in the world, there is no other religion like Christianity in which God himself became a human being and dies for the world. Christianity is the only religion in which God forgives the world and offers us eternal life as a free gift. No other religion carries with it that much authority.
The message of the Bible is one filled with comfort, hope, and joy. It is a message with more authority than any speech or teaching or philosophy we will ever hear in our world. People who have high level jobs with big companies or who are elected to political offices may speak with authority about many things; but when Jesus speaks to us through His Word, there is much more authority. Jesus does not say to a child being baptized or to any of us when we confess our sins together or receive communion in worship, “I might forgive you of your sins.” No, He says, “Because of me, your sins are forgiven, and you are my child.” Jesus does not say, “I hope you go to heaven someday.” Instead, He says to all of us, “Because of me, you will go to heaven someday.” That’s authority, that’s power, and that’s comforting knowing that the same word that drove a demon out of a man in the synagogue is the same word today that drives out our sins far away from us.
When Jesus spoke, He did not talk about sports, stock markets, or earthly wars. He talked with authority about a battle that He came to fight against sin, death, and the devil. But not only did He talk about it, He fought and won that battle by dying on a cross and rising from the grave. And His authoritative Word tells us that simply through faith in Him, we get to live in heaven with Him forever. Now isn’t that the most amazing thing of all?
