Luke's Gospel

Luke luke chapter 4 verse 31. Then he went down to Capernum, a town in Galile, and on the Sabbath, he taught the people They were amazed at his teaching because his words had authority. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice. Go away.

What do you want with us? Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy 1 of god. Be quiet Jesus said sternly.

Come out of him. Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other What words these are? With authority and power, he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out. And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of illnesses and laying his hands on each 1.

He healed them Moreover, demons came out of of many people shouting, you are the son of god, but he rebuked them. And would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of god to the other towns also.

Because that is why I was sent and he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Good evening everyone. My name is Steve. I'm 1 of the the leaders here at Cornerstone, and a very warm welcome from me. Today, we are continuing, our series in Luke think it's our third our third sermon in Luke chapter 4, and we're gonna be looking at this passage that Dean just read for us now.

Even reading it now, again, I'm realizing there is so much stuff in this passage. And we're not gonna be able to cover it all tonight. It really should have been 2 sermons, and I blame Phil Cooper thoroughly for that. But we're gonna try and cover as much as we can here. We're looking at the theme of authority, and it's also the longest, title you've probably ever seen, for a sermon.

But let me pray, and then we'll get started. Henry Father, please help me now as I speak and please get us all ready to hear from your words, your words of authority. And we do pray that you will prepare our hearts to be challenged and encouraged by what we see of who Jesus is in this passage. Username, amen. Okay.

A few weeks ago at the tail end of 20 18, Daryl, preached, a sermon from this, series in Luke chapter 3 in online. If you missed it, you can download it from the website or the podcast. In that sermon, Daryl opened with a quote from the AT song by Bonnie Tyler. Daryl doing it? No?

Okay. It was I need a hero. That was that was the song. He didn't sing it. Which was very disappointing for most of us there.

But it was a very helpful premise. And I'm just gonna unashamedly unabashedly steal it tonight. I'm not gonna sing it. And I'm gonna piggyback off that because it's a very helpful premise. The idea that Jesus is indeed a hero And he's not just a hero.

He is the hero. The 1 that all creation has actually been waiting for. But in particular, the Jews, the Jews had been looking forward to this hero for so long. And it's a really helpful premise because it's not only, biblical, but it's also something that I think speaks to, to most people in today's society. We love heroes.

We look for them not just for help, but also for inspiration. And if you, I looked this up, if you look at the top 10 grossing films, pretty much every year for the last 4 or 5 years. 50 percent of them have been superhero movies. We love heroes. It's the most popular story trope or structure in fiction, the hero's journey it's called.

So if you read Harry Potter, That's a hero's journey. Lord that rings the hero's journey. The wizard of oz, hero's journey, even all the way back to Jason and the argonauts. The heroes journey. We love heroes.

So popular in fiction and yet so rare in real life farming. And so when we hear about a a real life hero, we pay attention. Now this is important because it kind of sets the scene for everything we've seen up to this point in Luke, in the run up to this passage tonight. So a few weeks back, we saw Jesus being set up as the ultimate hero, the 1 who the Jews had been waiting for, and he had the ultimate seal of approval from god. The pre approval are gaining hero status, blessing from the almighty, and things are looking good.

The Jewish readers would have been getting, you know, a little bit excited as they're reading about this. And then Paul Langman, spoke 2 weeks ago, on how Jesus after being confirmed as the hero goes out into the wilderness and has a battle with the devil, where he has victory. He resists temptation. Temperature that had flawed so many other supposed heroes before, and things are starting to look even better. And again, the Jewish readers of Luke's letter are getting even more excited.

They're gathering round the letter reading and saying brothers' sisters. This is it. This is the 1. This is our guy. We've been waiting for so long.

We had saw, and he was good for a bit, but, you know, he let us down in the end, David. So close, but no cigar. Solomon started well, finished badly. The prophets didn't really make Israel great again. John the Baptist, strong start.

But, you know, he's endorsing this guy now, and I'm telling you, this guy, he's the 1. He's the 1. They're excited for a hero. And then we get to verses 14 to 30, which Rory spoke on last week. And again, we see Jesus in the power of the spirit preaching and speaking with authority, again, the theme we're gonna see here tonight.

But at the end of that passage, the hero is ultimately rejected. By the people, and for the first time things start to seem a little bit strange. And now we come to this passage, and again, there's something about this hero Jesus that is very compelling. He performs his first miracle in Luke's account anyway, here in this passage. But again, there's something strange here.

Why does this hero at the way he does? And particularly, why does he address the demons the way he does? And why did the demons respond the way that they do? Who is Jesus? Is he really the hero?

And if he is, what type of hero is he actually gonna be? Are 3 questions we're gonna be looking at tonight. That brings me to my first point. Words of authority. So look down again.

Let's read the first, 7 verses of this passage. Then he went down to Capernum, a town in Galileley, and on the Sabbath, he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching because his words had authority. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by edema an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice.

Go away. What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy 1 of god. Be quiet.

Jesus said sternly. Come out of him, then the demon threw the man down before the mall and came out without injuring him. All the people were made, excuse me, All the people were amazed and said to each other, what words these are? With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits, and they come out, and the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area. Twice, in this first section, verses 31 through to 37, the people are described as being amazed by something that Jesus has done.

Twice. And I think it's easy to gloss over the first 1 because the second 1 is so clearly a miracle. So we're gonna spend a little bit of time just looking at the first thing that amazes the people. So this is my first, sub point under my first point. So Words of authority, sub 0.1 teaching.

It's the Sabbath. And like all good Jews Jesus is in the synagogue and he's teaching the other people who have gathered there. Now a synagogue is simply a a Jewish meeting point, a place of worship there would have been opportunities to hear various people, from various areas speak from the word, preach from scripture. And every week, the people would gather at their local synagogue and they would pray, and they'd have scripture read, and they would have someone come up and speak to them. It's very common practice.

It happens literally every single week. But this day, This specific day in this specific synagogue was anything but common. And so I want you to imagine try and try and picture the scene. Imagine you're there. It's the Sabbath.

You are a Jew living in First Century Gallery. You're living in capernum. You're traveling out because the sabbath you put on your sandals, your robes, whatever is they wear. You walk down the dusty roads to the synagogue like you always do. And you walk in and you smile at the people who you see there and you see your friend, Jeff, the sandal maker, you say, hey, Jeff, how are you doing?

And he says, hi. And you see over in the other corner, there's Frank, who sells figs good Jewish names these. And then you sit down next to your buddy who we're gonna call gus. Like you always do and you chat to him and you find out how he's doing. Sit in the same place you always do.

Just another hot sabbath day in the synagogue. It should be quite easy to imagine. It's very similar to what we do here pretty much every week. We turn up. We say hi, we sit down, and we listen.

So you're sitting there. It's a normal sabbath day. And then a man who you don't recognize, gets up and starts to teach. And within seconds, Gus is gone. And Jeff is gone, and Frank is gone.

As far as you're concerned, there's no 1 else there. It's just you and this man who is speaking. And there's something about the way he teaches the air in which he does it that you've never experienced before. There's a power and an authority that is so compelling that you are absorbed in his every single word. And then after a period of time, he finishes, and you kind of snap back into the room and you realize Gus has been there the whole time.

So as Frank, so as Frank, so as Jeff. It was so compelling that actually you were absorbed in everything that he said. Look again down at verses 31 to 32. Then he went down to Caperna Matown in Galleli, and on the sabbath he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching.

Because his words had authority. That is all Luke says on the matter just 2 sentences. We don't know what Jesus said, and while the content of what Jesus says is always important, I don't think actually it's Luke's focus here tonight. In this instance, Luke is a concern so much with what is said, but about how it is said. The impact that Jesus has on people when he speaks.

Again, they were amazed at his teaching because his words had authority Jesus' words grip the minds of the people there. He holds their attention He draws them in. He has them hanging on his every word because his words have authority. Now, how does Jesus have such authority when teaching from the word of god? Well, if you look at the words, authority, The root of that word is author.

No one's worst can have more authority on a book or text than the 1 who authored said book or text. That's logical, isn't it? So if you had to, take part in a in a pub quiz or a mastermind and, and the topic was Harry Potter, You might want to have Roy Connect as your phone or friend, or sitting on your team in the pub quiz because Roy knows an obscene amount about Harry Potter, a a real crazy amount about that that book series. But even better than that. Surely.

Surely would be if you could have JK Rowling on speed dial. Because as good as Rory is, she's the author She is the greatest authority on those books. It's no question if you give them the choice between the 2. The author has supreme authority. Jesus teaches from scripture.

The word of god, and his words are so powerful they carry such weight, such heft. Such authority, The the people are amazed because it's as if the lord, the author is speaking to them. Again, they were amazed at his teaching because his words had authority. That's the first thing that I miss to people. And the second thing is this.

So sub 0.2, words of authority cast out demons. That down a verses 33 to 37 again. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice. Go away.

What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy 1 of God. Be quiet, Jesus said sternly. Come out of him.

Then the demon threw the man down before the morna came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed. And said to each other, what words these are? With authority and power, he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out. And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

So sometime after Jesus has finished speaking in the synagogue had amazed the people with his teaching, he is approached by a man with a deep spiritual affliction. He's possessed by a demon. Now we don't know from this pattern in particular if this was common knowledge to the people who were there, but looking at other examples in the gospels of Jesus dealing with demon possession, it seems like it's logical that people would have known who this man was. He would have been known in the community before he turned up. Now we're gonna cycle back to look at the reaction of the the man stroke demons, in a little more detail later.

But clearly, he is in the most terrifying state, and he quies out half challenging, half begging Jesus to leave and to spare him. Now, unfortunately, in the west today, We've kind of, caricature in the media, what demon possession actually looks like. It's something that is more, spooky and scary than, what is truly terrifying. What was terrifying then and still is today. Exorcisms now seem to involve, in the media at the very least, some kind of weird ritual, implements and it seems to be a long drawn out battle between 2 equally spiritual, equally powerful spiritual forces.

That's kind of what it seems to be like nowadays in the media at the very least. Quite simply, that is just not the case here in this Pakistan with Jesus. Look again at verse 35. Be quiet. Jesus said sternly, come out of him.

Then the demon threw the man down before the wall and came out without injuring him. See, it's not it's not a long drawn out battle of 2 equal forces. It's instant and complete submission. There's no ritual with crucifixes or or holy water being sprinkled. Jesus uses nothing except his authoritative word.

You see, as serious as this case is, and it is serious. In terms of difficulty, this is like nothing to Jesus. He's already bested the devil at the beginning of this chapter and again using his words. And now with a short sentence, he demonstrates that his words have complete power and authority over diminished demonic spiritual forces. And again, the people are amazed.

Jesus's words have power to bring healing to physically sick people. Yes. As he shows in verses 38 and 39. But his words also have the power and authority to bring spiritual healing to. Heating that the people had never seen before, it amazed them.

He talks as 1 with authority, but not just words. He backs it up with miraculous feats. In fact, the word authority that is used here in the original Greek is Exusia, which means power, it infers rule, lordship, That is who he is. Who is Jesus? He's the man who speaks and teaches with the authority of god himself and he's the man who has complete and ultimate authority over all spiritual forces.

Now the interesting thing here is that both feets are amazing. Both amazed the people. The preaching of the good news and the casting of demons actually have the same effect when you look at them. Both shock caused people to be amazed, but more than that, both deliver people from death, both bring a renewed life. You see a person sitting in the synagogue back then who hears the teaching of Jesus and realizes that despite the fact that he's come to church, every week for the last x amount of years, churchill synagogue, realizes that he's still spiritually lost.

He's trying to exercise his own authority over his life, trying to fight the sin that he's powerless to fight. But the authoritative words of Jesus amaze him such that he is set free. He's set free from his own powerless authority I can come under the powerful authority of Jesus. Do you see how this is just as profound a thing? For the man who is sitting in the synagogue here in the words of Jesus as it is for the man who has had the demon cast out of him.

Both he and the demon possessed man can receive spiritual salvation through the words of Jesus. Now, look, maybe this is, you here tonight. I don't know, all of you here. Maybe you need to hear the words of Jesus. Maybe you need salvation, you need a hero.

And if that's you, then then please I'm asking you don't kid yourself and assume that actually you have authority over your own life to battle sin. Stop trying to do that, and come to 1 who has authority over all things, and who can heal you of whatever is ailing you. That's my first point, words of authority. My second point, responding to authority. Now this is where, to be perfectly honest, this passage really started getting under my skin because it started to really confuse me, when I was preparing this.

There are things that seem to happen in this passage that on the surface seem very counter intuitive to what I would assume would actually happen. So turn with me again when your bibles, look again at verses 33 to 35, and then we're gonna jump down to go versus 40 to 41. So, verses 33 to 35. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out of the top of his voice Go away what you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth.

Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy 1 of god. Bequired Jesus said sternly, come out of him, then the demon threw the man down before them and all down before them all and came out without injuring him. He looked down again at verse 40 to 41 now. At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness.

And laying his hands on each 1, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out to many people shouting, you are the son of god. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah. Okay. 2 accounts here 2 accounts of Jesus healing, demon possessed people, and both accounts have on the surface at the very least, the same slightly confusing, element where the demons are shouting about who Jesus is, and they refer to him as the holy 1 of god or the son of god.

Now, you might be thinking, Steve, that's not confusing at all. It seems perfectly logical. What's the deal? Why is that why is that confusing? We can't forget who or what we're dealing with here.

These are demons. They're servants of the devil, who Jesus in John chapter 8 calls the father of lies. Paul Langland 2 weeks ago really impressed this on us when he was talking through this passage at the beginning of chapter 4. The devil is a liar His servants demons are liars. They operate under him.

They use the same methods, the same strategies. They lie. Which is why it's strange and it is right for us to think about what's happening here when we hear them speak truth. These demons refer to Jesus as the Holy 1 of God and the Son of God. Both those statements are true.

Jesus is the son of god. He is god in flesh. He is the holy 1 of god, god's chosen king. The divine hero of prophecy, who is holy and true and perfect and just and everything that is good. That is who he is.

Demons are inherently liars. And if you wanted to undermine Jesus's ministry here on Earth. It seems like it would be a good place to start, wouldn't it just to deny that he's from god at all? And yet they don't. So why is that?

What's happening here? What can we learn about this? Well, the truth is it's actually very encouraging. The truth is they acknowledge who due to sit because they had absolutely no choice in the matter. They couldn't have denied his kingship, even and his sovereign power, even if they wanted to.

Because when confronted face to face with the spiritual reality of who Jesus is, They have no choice, but to acknowledge that he is the holy son of the almighty god. He is not just any mad He's not even just a man who has had the spirit come on him and empower him to do great things. No. He is the holy 1 of god. He is the son of god.

He is the 1 who was prophesized to come and crush Satan's head. That is who he is. He has power and authority and is undeniable. So is he really the hero? Yes, he is.

Even his enemies can't deny that. They have no choice but to acknowledge instantly and submit to his will because he is lord. Now that should be encouraging for us. But it's also a challenge because it highlights something that is very, very important for us to understand that I think many people in the wider church seem to to miss and maybe even some people here tonight. Haven't quite understood.

It highlights this very important issue. And the issue is this, acknowledgement and worship are not the same thing. I said that 1 more time, acknowledgement and worship are not the same thing. James chapter 2 verse 19 says this. You believe there is 1 god.

Good. Even the demons believe that, and shudder. Listen, if you believe that Jesus is the Holy 1 of God. If you believe that he came to fix what is broken in this world and make peace between god and man, that's great. That's that is great.

But it means absolutely nothing if it just stops there and doesn't turn into worship. True worship, where you give yourself to Christ. Where your life is no longer your own, but you live for him because he died for you. I grew up in a church, probably very similar to this 1, with Christian family, Christian friends, and I had friends and family members who if he asked them, who is Jesus? A lot of them would say, well, he's the son of god.

A few of them might even say he's the holy 1 of god. They said that but their lives lacked true worship, some of them. Now if that's you here tonight, then please know that you are in a real real dangerous spot. You must respond to his authority and worship. Not just acknowledge it.

Now there's 1 more thing in this passage. I think raises questions. And we're gonna look at that now. I started off by asking, if you remember 3 questions. I said, who is Jesus?

And we saw that he is the 1 with absolute authority who has the very words of God. I asked is he really the hero and we saw through the dima's response that actually he has authority and that he is the hero. He's the holy 1 of god. And we should respond with worship. And the last question I asked was, if he is the hero, what type of hero is he actually going to be?

If he is the hero, what type of hero is he actually going to be? And for that, I think it helps if we look at Jesus's response to the demon's response. And that's my third and final point, understanding authority. Again, 1 more time, let down at verses 33 to 35. And then we're gonna look at verse 41 after that.

In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, go away. What do you want with us, Jesus Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy 1 of god.

Be quiet. Jesus said, Stanley. Come out of him. Then the demon threw the man down before the mall and came out without injuring him. The down at verse 41 now, Moreover, demons came out of many people shouting you are the son of gods, but he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah.

Jesus rebukes the demons. He silences them when they publicly declare who he is. Now again, I think we have to ask why because we know it's true. We know he is the holy 1 of god. Why does he not want people to hear this?

And so to understand that, we have to take a step back and understand how his authority is gonna work its way out. It's the end of January. Now, Christmas was, I guess, just over a month ago. For Christmas, Emma got me, 1 of the things she got me was a poster, which is now up, in our sitting room on the back of our door, that has scratch off panels for a hundred great movies before you die. So it's a hundred movies bucket list.

And so I enjoyed looking through them, scratching off the ones I've seen, and people have come around since then, have had a look to see what they can do. I think Matt Dreyer, what I don't think is here tonight, holds the crown at the moment with 96 of a hundred movies. That's why he runs our film club. I was very excited to run through it all, and the second movie on that list, I was very pleased to see. Is a movie called The Dark Knight, directed by Kristen Nolan.

It's a Batman movie. If you haven't seen it, I don't know what you're doing, It's a great film, and unfortunately for you, I'm gonna spoil it slightly tonight. It's probably still worth watching even even with the spoilers. So at the end of the film, Batman and Commissioner Gordon are talking about what it means to be a hero in the light of what we'll refer to as, the death of a major character in the film. And and we'll leave it at that.

Spoilers. So they're having a debate about what it means to be a hero. And after that, Batman goes on the run, and Gordon has to explain to his son who's with him at the time why he's running. Why is the hero running away? Now Gordon explains that the people of Gotham, this is the city that Batman proposal, if you don't know.

Neither the hero, and Batman was it. But they expected their hero to be something else and they were unable to wrap their heads around the very fact that the hero that they had didn't match up in reality to what they had in their heads. Reality and their expectations weren't aligned. And during that scene, there's a line that is said that kind of sums up the movie, defines the definitive Ryan of the movie, and Gordon says, he's not the hero we deserve, but the hero we needed. Now I've already seen as Darren introduced a few weeks ago that Jesus is the hero.

He's the 1 that history has been building up to. Especially for the Jews. The Jews have been given this prophecy that this hero would come, and they're waiting for him. God's chosen hero would come and he would usher in a new age for god's people. Jesus is that hero.

But he isn't necessarily the hero that the people were expecting. And so just like the people of Gotham, the Jews have this disconnect with what they expected and reality. They knew the Messiah was coming but there was this lack of alignment. And Jesus, of course, knows this, which is why he acts the way he does in this passage. You see, a lot of Jewish people at the time would have expected the Messiah to come and that he would have a role and that role would be 1 of a political leader that he would come in as some violent revolutionary who would usher in a new age for god's people.

He would be the new king David. He'd wipe out their oppressors, kick out the Romans, establish a new strong revitalized Israel that all other nations would fear, he would make Israel great again. You can imagine them with their red hats on. You see, they wanted the Messiah from Psalm too, who would, quote, make the nations his inheritance and break them with an iron rod. They liked that Messiah.

They were all about that kind of Messiah, but they didn't want the Messiah from Isaiah 53. 1 who will be oppressed and afflicted and cut off from the land of the living. They don't want the suffering servant. That isn't the type of hero they expected. It isn't the type of hero they want.

But in trying to divorce the 2, they miss a key point about who Jesus is and what he came to do. And that is that it is through his sacrificial death on the cross that he ushers in his new kingdom where he will rule. You can't remove 1 from the other. It is through his death that he crushes his enemies. Notice in verse 34, the demon's asked, have you come to destroy us?

And the answer is yes. John says in 1 John 3, the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy the devil's work. That is why Jesus has come to destroy them, but he doesn't do it through political uprising. He does it by going to the cross and anything that might get in the way of that has to be stopped. Now I was thinking I was trying to, play out this hypothetical situation in my head.

What would have happened if the demons, called out and said you are the holy 1 of gods, you are the son of gods, and all the people in the vicinity heard that and believe that, she just didn't shut it down. And with their incorrect understanding of who the Messiah was started following him, what would have happened there? I was trying to think this through. And as I was trying to play this hypothetical scenario out in my head, I realized we already know because we see it happen. In a much smaller scale with Peter.

Peter, Jesus's disciple who loves Jesus He's 1 of the first ones to work out who he is and to say you're you're the Christ. You are the Messiah. He knows who Jesus is. He knows he's the Messiah. But then what happens when a a group of soldiers come to arrest Jesus?

Peter in a misguided sense of loyalty jumps to his lord's defense, pulls out a sword, chops off some guy's ear, or before Jesus can calm him down and say, no, no, no, this has to happen. Now what if it hadn't just been Peter? What have it been 10, 20, 50, a hundred, 500 people, who all in a misguided sense of loyalty decide to fight rather than see their political leader. Get arrested. It would have been a bloodbath.

A lot more than just 1 ear would have been chopped off, and it would have made it so much more difficult for Jesus carry out his mission of going to the cross. So Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, silences the demons because he didn't want the people to know because just like Peter, they would refuse to let him go and do what he had to do, which is die. It's not time yet for the people to know who he is. They're not ready. And they could make his mission more difficult.

But the plans of god cannot be stopped by the words and machinations of demons, and Jesus silences them with a few words. He can stop them, but they can't stop him. And he continues on his mission to bring salvation to us through his own death because he's not the hero we deserve, but he is the hero that we need. We must accept Jesus for who he truly is, not who we just want him to be. It's an easier trap to fall into them.

I think a lot of us actually acknowledge. It happens to Peter so it can happen to any of us. Jesus is not a low commitment king. No matter how much we wish he was. He wants hot followers who will sacrifice not Lukewarm followers who just do the bare minimum.

That's not who he is. So how do you view him? Is your understanding of who he is and how his authority works correct? Is he just a man to you? Or is he your lord and savior?

With the authority to make things right in your life. At the time of this passage, the time for a proclamation of Hujita was hadn't yet come because he hadn't gone to the cross. He hadn't sacrificed himself for us and showed his ultimate authority over death by rising again. But he has done that now. And so now is the time not for us to stay silent, but to proclaim.

In verse 43, Jesus says this, I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of god to other towns also because that is why I was sent. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Jesus doesn't just stop in capernum. He continues on because the good news of the kingdom of god is not just for 1 small town in galilee. It's not limited to a specific region or a specific country or a specific people group.

It isn't limited to first century Jews or even Jews and gentiles in the first century. It's a message that knows no bounds and spans all of space and time. It's not limited to 1 space in the Middle East, but it's for all nations for every part of the globe, all spaces. It's not limited just to be relevant to people in the first century, but it spans all time going forward from them and actually all time going back as well. All the way to the Garden of Eden when Jesus first mentioned as the 1 who will come and crush Satan's head.

All spaces in all time. Jesus authority over all spiritual things is good news for all people at all times. And so just as Jesus goes on and continues to preach in verse 44, so must me, so must we preach and proclaim who Jesus is, and his words of authority that can bring new life and spiritual salvation to all who are in need. Let me pray. Father, we have no authority over any spiritual aspect of our lives.

We are powerless in and of ourselves to do anything. We need spiritual salvation that can only come from the words of g And so we do pray that you open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to see this, to accept this, to acknowledge who he is, as your holy 1. And lord, we do pray that, actually, that will not just stay at acknowledgement, a mental exercise but it will turn to true heartfelt worship and proclamation of who he is to the nations. We pray this for your glory. The spreading of your wonderful word.