Authority and Power Luke 4:31-44

Luke 4:31-44                          May 17, 2026

New American Standard Bible 1995

31 And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; 32 and they were amazed at His teaching, for His [a]message was with authority. 33 In the synagogue there was a man [b]possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Let us alone! [c]What business do we have with each other, Jesus [d]of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. 36 And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is [e]this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

Many Are Healed

38 Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him [f]to help her. 39 And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and [g]waited on them.

40 While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. 41 Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be [h]the Christ.

42 When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. 43 But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

44 So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of [i]Judea.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Thank you very much. Grateful for that. I'm grateful for the grateful for the earlier recognition. And if you're a guest with us or uh you haven't been attending here very long, they don't do this very often. So I'm grateful that that and I I apologize if that was uh a little a little too much, but uh I've been I've been grappling with and wondering if I should say anything or just be quiet and I don't wanna I don't want to be ungrateful or ungrateful or ingratitude or ungrate anyway, I don't I want to not be grateful, however that word works. Um so I I got to thinking and I honestly was at a loss of what to say or not to say, and I just kind of just smile and move on. Um but I I do wanna I do want to do something, and uh it it it won't take me a but a moment, but I thought if you wouldn't mind could I could I just could I talk to you the way that I I talked to my Lord? So what I tell him is that I've been I've been pastoring for over three decades and I'm amazed, that's why the song was so appropriate. I'm amazed at his grace toward me. I if you knew me, and and a lot of you know you know you you know me maybe superficially or or we've done life together, but if you knew me, I spend more time beating myself up than I do, just enjoying my savior. And things like this 10 years, it helps me to kind of come back to who he is and his faithfulness and his truth and his grace. And I I don't wanna I don't want to come off like, you know, yes, and this is all, you know, the everything was great and all that sort of thing. The truth of the matter is I came here ten years ago in May of 2016, and I had just been through one of the horrendous church splits and destructions that I'd never known about. And this church God used to heal Kim and me. And then over the years, you adopted my daughter. You loved her and you love her, and I I there's no words for that. And I I thank God for that. I thank God that my wife and I can minister here and be a part of this, and with all the things that that I've done wrong, and I don't want to go through the list of everything I've done wrong, we don't have time for that. The one thing I do know is that God has been faithful and that He has He has shown Himself out, He has been glorified, and in the ups and the Downs, and in our tense times, and in our glorious times, and our mountaintops and our valleys, God has been so good. The last ten years you've been about part of that with me. You've been my family. Uh we've been able to do this together. And so the way I talk to my Lord about you is I love you. But I I and you, most of you, love me. And and I'm I'm grateful for our relationship. I'm grateful that we get to to do this together. I mean, it means a lot to me that some of my family were was able to be here today. My uh my oldest son, William, and his daughter Lauren, who I love very much. Um she she uh I mean daughter's wife, sorry. Okay. So his wife, he does not have a daughter named Lauren. But to my not no, not kidding. Um this is uh his wife Lauren, um uh my brother-in-law Kevin are here as well. I'm grateful for that. Um see I knew I shouldn't have tried this. I I knew I I was gonna mess with it. God's grace is enough. And what I want to do over the next few moments is I want to I I want to I want to talk about our Jesus. And I want to do it in a way I hope that would allow us to be able to walk through this uh in a way that honors him, but also gives us a perspective to this. So if you would turn turn with me to to Luke chapter four. And maybe I need to have a word of prayer that I don't say the wrong words again, so that I can figure this out. But see, I appreciate your grace that you understand that that we're fallen, and we're I love the way that Pastor Matt did this earlier. We're broken people who have received a healing and and Christ is working in us, and we get to be a part of that family. Okay, so Luke chapter 4, we are continuing that passage. If you have if you have the the scripture in front of you, and I hope you do it. If you don't, grab a Bible and pew back in front of you. I want you to be reading along with me as we're we're going through this. But what I want what I want to do is I want us to read it as a congregation. We've been we started at the beginning of the gospel, we're making our way through. We've already talked a number of things. If you haven't been here before, this is this is what we're working through right now. But I I love this part, and there's gonna be something I think that will help us as we walk through this. Luke chapter 4, and in honor of reading God's word, if you'd stand with me, please, Luke chapter 4, verse 31, beginning in verse 31. We're gonna be working our way down to the end of the chapter, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be reading this. If you'd be listening um as as I read, beginning Luke chapter four, verse thirty one. And he came to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were amazed at his teaching, for his message was with authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he crowd up, cried out with a loud voice, Let us alone, what business do we have with each other? Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another, saying, What is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the report about him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district. Then he got up and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to help her, and standing over her he rebuked the fever, and it left her, and she immediately got up and waited on them. While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick and with various diseases brought them to him, and laying his hands on each one of them, he was healing them. Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, You are the Son of God. But rebuking them he would not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ. When they came, when day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place, and the crowds were searching for him and came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. So he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Would you pray with me, please? Lord, thank you for this. Thank you for who you are, thank you for how you move and what you do. And Lord, may we worship you today, your authority, your power. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Please be seated. I need you to look with me in chapter 4 of Luke, to go back up to the part that he read when he was in Nazareth in the synagogue in Lazarus, in Nazareth, and I need you to see what he said when the book Isaiah was handed to him in Luke chapter 4, verse 17. He opened the book, and this was the beginning of his ministry, and the scripture says in verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. We've spent a number of Sundays referring to this, talking about this. I'm not going to belabor it, but if we don't have this paradigm, if we don't have this program, if we don't have this view of why Jesus came, then nothing else is going to make sense. But what's happening in Capernaum, what happened in Nazareth, all that's going to happen from these days forward in the gospel and in Acts up to today, all is framed by these verses. Because he's quoting from Isaiah 61, he's talking about his identity as the Messiah, as the anointed one, and he's saying, the things that I'm going to do, go back with me, verse 18. He says, Anointed, the Spirit of God is upon me. This is not just a human being just speaking human things. This is God speaking. He is, as he speaks, he's been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. The truth of God's word is going out to those who do not have it, who are empty, not just financially, that's included, but it's so much more than that. A poverty of spirit, a poverty of knowing, a poverty of understanding who God truly is. He says, He sent me to proclaim release to the captives. This understanding that in our culture, in our world, that is contrary, rebellious, anti-God, we have a God who comes to us and says, I don't want you living in that slavery. I don't want the sin capturing you. I want to bring you freedom. He says, I'm going to give you recovery of sight to the blind, free to those who are oppressed. So the oppression, the blindness, the negative, all the things that God is saying, I've come into this world, not just to give you another message, but to give you life. And then verse 19, we talked about this quite a bit a few weeks ago. To proclaim the year, the favorable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee, the year of debt release. Well, what happened in the Old Testament is that after fifty every 50 years, what God ordered is that on that 50 year 50th year, there would be a Sabbath of Sabbaths, and this would be the day that the year that all the fields would go fallow, that this would be the year where all the debts would be released. If you were in slavery, if you had any kind of owing anyone at all, all of that, the slate was wiped clean. And Jesus is saying, You don't have to wait 50 years for that anymore. I'm here. I'm here to give you that freedom. I'm here to give you that that that release, that that that new creature, that new beginning, that new life. And so here he's giving this. He does it in Nazareth. They reject him, they want to kill him. He goes to Capernaum, and it picks up where we are here. Now I want you to scoot down in chapter four and want you to see why the sermon is called authority and power, because in in chapter four, verse thirty-six, Luke chapter four, verse thirty-six, amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another, one another, saying, What is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. With authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. Authority and power. You go just a few more chapters, and Luke's gonna do this throughout Luke and Acts, but you go a few more chapters to Luke chapter 9, verse 1, just one example. He called the twelve apostles, gave them power and authority over all the demons to heal diseases. So he's gonna keep referring to this. He's going to keep talking about this, about this Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, with authority and powers. And what you and I would tend to do, this is this is not a knock against us, it's just this is how we were raised, we would tend to see it from our vantage point and go backwards and say, Well, that makes sense because Jesus is Jesus, right? But you come back to that, what's happening in this moment at this time, Jesus walks in, and instead of having a bunch of scribes and a bunch of elders and a bunch of teachers and a bunch of authorities and a bunch of Sadducees and Pharisees and all the other sees, when you've got all of these guys talking about scripture, they would always say, Thus saith the Lord. They would always say, This is what Rabbi Camille said, or this is what he said, or this is what they said. They would go back to the old covenant and the new, and they would talk about all the things that God had done and all that God had said. But now, now Jesus walks onto the scene and he doesn't need to refer to anyone else. He's the one who wrote the word. It's his word. He doesn't have to say, I think this is how he should interrupt. He is the one who wrote it, he is the one who says it. He's speaking with such authority, such power. What is this? It isn't it isn't about, I think I like the way he thinks. It's about, wait a minute. He's not talking as a reporter or a herald. He is the message. I I'm not just following what he's saying, I'm following him. As he comes and he speaks, it it's it's God walking into the room. And not the God that we have miniaturized, not the God that we have crammed down to our size and our understanding. This is truly God. This is the Messiah, the anointed one. And he is walking into the room and his authority and his power, it makes everything else go away. It makes everything else submit, every knee bow, every tongue confess. This is going to be the beginning of the kingdom of God. And what Jesus is doing is he walks into these different scenes, these different episodes, these different scenarios. What he's doing, he's walking in and he's saying, I'm going to show you what real authority is. I'm going to show you what true power is. So pick it up with me, please. Luke chapter 4, verse 31. Let's talk first about the synagogue. He came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were amazed at his teaching. For his message was with authority. Authority in the synagogue. You keep reading. Verse 33. He says, In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, Let us alone. What business do we have with each other? Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Let me read that again, starting in verse 33. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon. What is he doing in church? I know synagogue's not church. Don't write me letters. I know those are typical things. But what's he doing in the synagogue? What's he doing there? Why is what why why shouldn't he what what is going on? And why is he why is he about to have a conversation with God? You would think that a demon would know his place. I don't understand, but he's doing this. He's there. And as he's speaking, the spirit of an unclean demon cried out with a loud voice, verse 34, let us alone. Now, if Jesus is not who Jesus says he is, and he is, and if Jesus didn't have the power, which he does, and he does, and if he wasn't under the have the authority, which he does, his all authority under heaven has been given to him, and we go out under his authority. If that wasn't the case, this would be a terrifying moment. You want to talk about disruption in church services. You want to talk about having a counter-cultural experience. You go to hear the Torah, you go to hear the prophet, you go to hear how God is moving and interpreting the Isaiah, and then all of a sudden someone starts screaming at the top of their lungs. This is disruptive. This is not this is not protocol. This is not this is not how we should be doing things. And then he starts yelling, and look, look at what happens next. Jesus rebuked him. Verse 35. And Jesus told him, Be quiet and come out of him. Jesus rebuked him. You're going to notice as we go through this passage in each of the scenes that he has this rebuking, this authority. It's more than just censor, it's more than just saying, Hey, that's not a good idea. There is this authority of walking through the situation, and people do what God says. Be quiet and come out of him. There's been a lot of conversation on why he tells the demons to be quiet. Why, if they're telling the truth, well, why does do they need to hush? And he does it with the disciples a little bit later, telling them, don't tell them everything about him being in the Christ. So what is what is happening here? What's going on? Jesus saying, Be quiet, come out of him. He he does two commands, and all he has to do is just say, You know that's how he created the heavens and the earth. You know that that we are just here by his spoken word, that that he is the creator, he is the sovereign, he is majesty, and because of that, we are even an ability to come come and gather is dependent upon him and his grace giving us that ability. So he comes and he says, Be quiet, get out of here, get out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. So there were there was no damage to the man who was being possessed. In verse 36, and amazement came upon them all. They began talking with one another, saying, What is this message? Message? What what is this word? What it what is this what is this authority? What is this power? And they say, For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. If for no other reason, when we walk into this scenario, when we see Isaiah 61 being fulfilled, Jesus is walking into the synagogue, he starts to speak, and this demon-possessed man starts yelling, and he speaks to the demons. Jesus speaks to the demons, and he uh cleanses them. His authority, his power, and then it says in verse 37 the report about him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district. The power to rebuke the unclean spirit, the power to tell the spirit to stop, to be quiet, to hush, and then to be able to have the authority to say, now you stop and you go, to tell him to be done. That's one. But in case we think this is a one-off, in case we think this is just something that he does oddly or whatever, we we keep going. And after the synagogue service, you'll pick it up in verse 38, Luke chapter 4, verse 38. Then he got up and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home. Now we haven't in the Gospel of Luke, we haven't been introduced to Simon yet, so this is kind of cool. He's doing it out of order. He he left and went to Simon's home. Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to help her. And standing over her, he rebuked the fever and it left her, and she immediately got up and waited on them. Wow. So here is Jesus in the synagogue, and now in a home, he's got authority not just in the place of worship, he's also got authority in the people's home. And the same wording, if you'll notice with me, in verse 38, he says Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. They asked him to help her. Verse 39, he rebuked the fever. Now, I can understand, I can understand rebuking the demon, but he's even talking to the fever. Now, a fever doesn't have ears, a fever doesn't have a mind, a fever doesn't act the same way as a demon, but there's still this sense of authority and power so that he can tell not just the spiritual realm which he is sovereign over, but also the physical realm which he is sovereign over. So let's let's kind of bring this together just for a second. Just in case, just in case you're thinking, well, what's he rambling on about? This isn't just a story 2,000 years ago. There is this very moment, this very second, there is absolutely nothing outside of the authority and power of Jesus Christ. Okay, let me let me just let me just clarify in case occasionally, well, you know, preacher, let's just be careful. No, no, no. Listen, listen, please, listen. There is nothing, no demonic force is greater than the power and authority of Jesus Christ. 2,000 years ago, they dealt with it. Today, we deal with it. And what we know now is the same thing we know then. There is nothing, nothing greater than God. His power over the demonic, his power over the spiritual authorities, he and he alone, greater as he is in you than he is in the world. We have a prince of the world, we have the spiritual elements, we have the things that are happening, and we there's so much that we can get into in terms of biblically parsing that out. But what we have to understand at the end of this conversation, at the end of the day, is that only Jesus has the power and authority over the demonic. So you can you can go down the road of demon possession and and and spiritual forces and all those other things. But honestly, if you don't start and stop with that one truth, nothing else is going to matter. You're actually you'll probably get beat up pretty bad. You have a savior, Jesus Christ, who has power over demons. Hang on to that. You get into the home, Simon's mother-in-law, he sees, Jesus sees her sinned. The same Jesus who has power over the spiritual elements is the same Jesus who has power and authority over the physical element. That that we have modern medicine now. We no, that's that's who do you think gave us modern medicine? Who do you think? Wrote the codes for the DNAs and the chemicals to be able to do what we do today. We tend to stop and think we're so enlightened and we're so babblish that we think we've got it all figured out in our own little tiny little minds. Jesus Christ is the authority and the power over every physical thing. In him we live and move and have our being. There is nothing outside of him. So this morning, whether you're struggling with the demonic or disease, he is the authority. So, well, you don't understand the cancer, you don't understand the migraines, you don't understand the debilitating issues that are happening inside of my body. I don't. You're right. I haven't got a clue. But he does. He created you. And he didn't just create you and say, hey, good luck with that. I hope your life works out well. He says, I not just I didn't just make you, I have authority over everything. Now, what we tend to do, and what happens unfortunately in our Christian cultures and our Christian circles, we tend to go a little bit to seed on this, and we think, well, good, now I can say that I have authority in the name of Jesus to conquer every demon and conquer every disease, and I'm gonna be good, I'm gonna be great, I'm gonna be powerful. You got way too many personal pronouns in that sentence. You and I, we may be racked with pain till the moment we die. He's always gonna have authority and power. You and I, we may have spiritual warfare and battles, but we will always have a victory in Jesus Christ. This isn't about you and me being best life now. This is not about us doing the best we can with what we've got. This is about you and I bowing before King of Kings and Lord of Lords and saying, Jesus, I I am scared of what's happening spiritually in my home. But you, you're king. Lord, I don't like what the doctors say. But you, you're king. The fact that Jesus Christ has authority over demons, he has authority over diseases, he has authority over death, that isn't something that's just a past tense, nice theological truism. It's something that allows us, you and me, as followers of Christ, to walk with him, abide in him, be in union with him. And as we're doing that, as we're walking with him and knowing him and loving him, it gives us the ability, in the midst of our forgiveness and his grace, for us to say, yes, life is hard and things happen, and I don't understand everything that's going on, but at the same time, I will praise him. I will praise him when everything is great, I will praise him when I think everything is bad, and I know there's a lot of variants in even my interpretation of those two things, but I will praise him because of who he is. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He has the power over unclean demons, he has power over the fever. But then he does a transition in Luke chapter 4. And what he's doing is he's going through this, he he goes and he talks about the time of day. So pick it up with me if you would, in Luke chapter 4, verse 40. While the sun was setting, so Sabbath is about over now. So all those people who had to wait until Sabbath was over before they could leave their homes and bring the needy to Jesus, now they're coming. But you understand this is the end of the day, not the beginning. This is when you start to wind down, not to wind up. And here, while the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and laying his hands on each one of them, he was healing them. Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, You are the Son of God, but rebuking them he would not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ. So during the evening, during the nighttime, the authority in the night, instead of him going off and getting some rest, after an incredibly long time, a period of him healing, now he comes, and all of these gather around him. They flock him and they overwhelm with all the diseases and all those who need his hands to touch them as he's healing them, even the demonic. So we've got both now. We've got both the physical, the diseases, as well as the demons, the demonic, they're coming, and Jesus is this is a summary statement. There's so much involved in just these two verses. Luke tells us that Jesus, he hears the demons in verse 40 and verse 41, were coming out of many, shouting, You are the Son of God, but rebuking them. Rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ. The fact that they knew him to be the Christ is not the problem. The fact that they knew that their destiny, their end, the abyss was coming, that's not the problem. The fact that they understood that he was the Messiah, he was the anointed, that's not the problem. I would even go so far to say that the fact that he didn't want a demon to be his witness, his testifier, I don't even think that's the problem. Here's what I think the problem is. Jesus is going to try to explain over the next few months and years, as he's getting closer and closer to the cross, that his identity as the Messiah, the anointed one, the Son of God, is not just about authority and power, but also about submission. And he's going to say that me as God, I'm going to walk into this earth, I'm going to be Emmanuel God with you, with us. And as he's walking in this earth, he is going to be the anointed one. He is going to be the Messiah. He is going to be the conqueror, the releaser, the one who gives freedom from oppression and sight to the blind. All of that is going to happen. But what the demonic would want to do, and what his disciples would want to do, is they would want to shortcut this very important piece of the puzzle of the gospel. They would want to say, I want Jesus to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I want him to do everything that he's told us in the Old Testament that he's going to do. And Jesus would say, absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, no doubt about it, I'm going to do that. Except you can't leave out the cross. No, Lord, even if I die, I'm not going to let you die. Get thee behind me, Satan. If we leave out the cross, if we leave out the resurrection, then the gospel's incomplete. If we leave out the suffering servant and not just the servant, if we leave out what he's about to be doing and why he's doing it, we leave out the daytime, I mean the nighttime of what he's trying to do. The power to rebuke demons, what he is telling them and why he is telling them this, is so that they would they would not start talking about a misaligned political advantage of a Messiah. They would he would rather help them understand, as he progresses toward the cross, the shadow of the cross, that there's something greater coming. There's one last part. It starts in verse 42. It says, When day came, Jesus left. So we had the nighttime, authority in the night, authority in the day. When the day came, and I don't see anywhere in here where he got any rest at all. He went to a secluded place, and the crowds were searching for him, came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. So he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. So the power overnight, yes, the authority, the power to rebuke the demons, but the authority on the day too. And as as he's coming through the day, they come to him and say, Jesus, we love this, we we want this. Steve, please stay with us. It's almost like we want you to be our personal rabbi. We want you to be here so that if somebody gets sick, you can take care of them. And we want you to be here so that others will hear about your authority and the message you have, and they'll be amazed at you, and it'll build our reputation as well. We want you to be our personal pocket and able to have our own little Jesus Messiah right here with us. And he said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. This isn't, it's never been and never will be just about you. This is about the kingdom of God. This won't this isn't and never will be just about what you want, your felt needs, and what you think is important. This has always begun and ended with the sovereignty and the glory and the authority of God. And so, what he does, and let me show you this to you. What he does as he's going through this, he explains to them in verse 43, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. The purpose, back to Luke chapter 4, verse 18 and 19. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. The struggle that you and I have, we we have as followers of Christ, we have as members of a church, we have as those who want to grow in our faith and help others grow in our faith, is sometimes we become a little clickish, sometimes we become a little selfish, sometimes we we think that it's all about us and we want our kingdom to grow. And he said, No, no, no, no. If you're gonna do this, if you're gonna do it the kingdom way, if you're gonna do it the way that Jesus came and why he came, then the idea isn't to build our budget and our building and our our our people, our programming. The idea is to build the kingdom. And if he does that through this local congregation, amen and amen, but if he does that through using this local congregation to go to other congregations, amen and amen. This isn't about us. It never has been, it can't be. And so what he's doing is he's going through this, he's saying, I am going to give the authority for the kingdom to advance. This is what I'm preaching, this is what I'm about, this is what we're going to do. And as I do this, you're gonna be tempted somewhere along the way to get very selfish in your faith. You're gonna you're gonna think that that you're comfortable with with the people who you're sitting around, but he didn't come for the comfortable, he came for the broken. He didn't come to make us feel better, he came because we're we're blind and we're oppressed and we're captives. He came because we are under the master of sin instead of the master of righteousness. We he came because we can't get there without him. We can't be in him, we can't know him. Without that, there is no there's no hope. But with him. With him. You know, there's a book that was written a number of years ago by C. S. Lewis called Mere Christianity. I'm just gonna read a portion out of it, then I'm gonna wrap up with uh another passage of scripture. It's gonna take but a moment, but I hope I hope you can see what I'm where I'm going with this. Lewis says, I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus, about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be he would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poach daggola, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Let's be clear. Jesus was around a number of people who were sick, and he didn't heal them. He was around demonic, he was around issues, and he didn't make everything perfect on earth. Because his agenda includes healing, it includes authority and power over the seen and the unseen, over the physical and immaterial. That's not the issue. His agenda, his purpose, was much greater than making us feel better temporarily. His agenda, his purpose was to preach the kingdom of God. For us, you and I, to live in such a way that we would understand who he is and bow before him on a moment by moment, day by day basis. If this was just about healings, if this was just about spiritual warfare and the demonic, then we would lose sight of what he's really doing here. So let me let me wrap all of this together. And I hope you're still there. I hope you have a check down. I hope you're awake. If the person next to you is sleeping, just nugs them gently and say, please stop snoring, but let's get this. We're gonna get this, okay? Here we go. Turn with me to first John chapter three. And let me finish with this. First John chapter three. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. I just stay there just for a moment. Verse 1, it talks about the love lavished on us of overwhelming grace that he has given us to be his children, and that's what we are. Verse 2. Now we are children of God. As yet, it has not appeared what we will be. Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, he walks in and he says, Now is the kingdom of God. Now you know me. Now you get to be a child of God. Now you get to come under my authority and my power, so that the guilt and the shame goes away. There's now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now you get to enjoy, now you get the privilege, now you get the life. But he says something else here in verse 2. And has not appeared as yet what will be. And so between Jesus' first coming, the now, and his second coming, the not yet, oh boy, hang on. Because what the demons and the disciples wanted to do is they wanted to make the now the not yet. And they wanted him to be the full authority where everyone would bow and there would be no more disease and no more demons and no more death right now. And he says, No, no, no, no, that's not yet. I want everything to be my way, I want to be the center of the universe, I want to be the center of attention, I want everything to follow according to what I want to do right here, right now. And he says, No, no, no, no, no, no. Wake for not yet. Because what's going to happen as we walk through 1 John chapter 3 and as we see what Jesus is doing with the disciples is he is shifting their worldview, he's shifting our understanding as followers of Christ. If you're wanting to be physically fit and whole today, that's not in the cards. That's not what the scripture says. If you want to be submissive to the Savior who has authority over all physical realm, that is what the Bible talks about. If you want to have authority to be walking with Jesus and when the demonic attacks, which it will, Ephesians chapter 6, when we are continually in a spiritual warfare, we fight that not by arming ourselves up with all of this mysticism and innuendo and these correct phrases and the words and et cetera, et cetera. We fight it according to the scripture by speaking the truth in love. And Jesus, when he walked through the synagogue and when he walked through the home and he walked at night and he walked at day, every moment and everywhere that he walked, he didn't have to say, Hey, would you please let me have some power and authority? He is the power and authority. He didn't have to beg, he didn't have to plead, he didn't have to look for numbers, he didn't have to try to figure out his budget, he didn't have to try to understand how he's gonna make all of this work, because he is the author. He is the creator, and you and I, we get to we get to know him. We by his grace get to hear him as his children. So in verse 2 of 1 John chapter 3, not yet appear is what we will be. We know that when he appears, that second coming, the not yet, we will be like him. Then death will be gone, it will be conquered, then disease will be over, then the demide will be out of the picture, because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. I love verses like this, because my tendency is to try to do better so that Jesus will love me. He's saying, No, no, no, you don't seek his purity so that you can feel better about yourself, you seek his purity because you want to know him better. And so he says, Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared. So this is why Jesus came. There's two of them. He appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. He walks into the picture, his authority, his power, he walks into the picture, and he says, These things that are rebellious against the Holy God, these attitudes, these actions, these words, they are not about him. And so he says, When you walk in and you become my child, that is not going to be you. That's not going to be your identity, that's not what you're going to be known for, that's not how you're going to live. And so he continues in verse 7 or verse 6. No one who abides in him sins. No one who sins has seen him or knows him. And this scares us the wimpy jeeves out of us because I'm sorry, that's a technical term. This gets this terrifies us because we think, well, wait a minute. I sinned after I became a Christian. That's not what he's talking about. Romans chapter 6, 7, 8, it deals with that. That's not what he's saying. He's saying if you have an habitual sin, if you are you are content, complacent, and comfortable in a lifestyle contrary to the purity of God, then you really need to question whether you know him or not. It's not talking about sinning, repentance, uh then confession and seeking to be right with him. That's what 1 John chapter 1, verse 8 and 9 talk about. Confess your sins, he's righteous and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What he's talking about here is if you've got this habitual lifestyle, this practice where you can walk as and claim to be a follower of Jesus and not look like him at all, you're not his child. Continue in the passage. It says, Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. So back up in verse 5, he said he appeared to take away sins. Now in verse 8, he says, the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. So let's just summarize this real quick and I'll be done. Jesus Christ in his authority and power, 1 John chapter 3, verse 5, came, appeared to take away sin. So that you and I would know him. And then in 1 John chapter 3, verse 8, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. The devil, the thief, the evil one, he comes to steal, he comes to kill, and he comes to destroy. And now, because of Jesus, Luke chapter 4, verse 17 and 18, we no longer have death, we have life. We no longer have destruction, we have construction, we have we have new beginnings, we have new life. And continuing finishing the passage, he says, verse 9 No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. Now you let passages like this sit for just a moment. And let me let me put it in context as I wrap this up. The temptation to come to 1 John chapter 3 is to say, Well, I've got to be perfect on this side of glory. That's not yet. But now is that we will reflect on him and we will grow sanctification, become more like him until we get to know yet. The temptation to come to 1 John chapter 3 is to be racked with guilt, with condemnation, with shame, and say, I can't believe that I've done the things I've done. I claim to be a follower of Christ. But the truth of 1 John chapter 3 is the fact that you have the guilt and the shame and the conviction means that the Spirit of God is working inside of you. I'm more concerned with those who claim to know Christ, live like the devil, and have no remorse or regret whatsoever. Because what John is dealing with is not those who are repentant, but those who are not. Not those who care, but those who don't care, those who are apathetic, and think all you've got to do as a follower of Christ is just say a few words, pray a few prayers, and get to heaven when you die. Now get back to life as you really want to live it. That's not the gospel. Because when Jesus Christ walks into the room, whether it be a home or synagogue, daytime or nighttime, when he walks into the room, the authority of God is walking right here. And as he's walking, he's saying, I'm not giving you a multiple choice test here. I'm not giving you options on what is right and what is wrong, because he is the author of right. He's not giving you choices on whether or not, hey, do you want to give me a little bit or a lot of it? You want to be fully committed personally? Legended, you want to come every once in a while, do whatever you want, whatever you want. He's not doing that. That's not what God is. That's not who God is. God is authority and power incarnate. And when he walks in, we don't have debates. We don't argue. We shut our mouth. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Seeing the presence of God, I don't say a word. Because I don't want my words to rattle. I just want to be here. Seeing the authority and the power of God, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. Seeing the authority and the power of God is realizing that when Jesus walks into your life, when he makes his stand and his mark, and his earnest payment, and his confirmation, all the things the scripture talk about, being born again, being made new in Christ, union with Christ, sanctification, glorification, regeneration. I got all those 25 cent words. He's doing all of that. He's doing it because he's preaching the kingdom of God. And you and I get the privilege of being a part of that kingdom. You fight demonic warfare, you fight the demons, you fight disease, and you fight death. Not by just trying harder and doing the best you can, but by being a part of the one who conquered death, who has authority over demons, who has authority over all nature. He'll do it with the water a little bit later. He'll do it. He can do whatever he wants. He's God. But can I can I just give a final concern slash warning? Just like what C.S. Lewis was talking about with treat him as a liar or lunatic or a Lord. We've got to continually remind ourselves that the one we're praying to, the one we're serving, or the one we are identifying with, is not your good old buddy. He's God. He's not just your friend, he's your redeemer, he's your savior. Do not bring him down. Always lift him up. Don't minimize, don't excuse, don't ignore. Allow Jesus Christ to sit on the throne in your heart, because he already sits on the throne in reality. So that you and I can be followers of him in a way that gives him the glory, and is definitely for our benefit, for our good, for our wholeness. I'm going to ask in just a moment for Pastor Adam to come down and to close us in a word of prayer. But before I do that, I'm going to ask you, you and I, if you would bow with me and could we just spend a few moments speaking with our Savior? The musicians are transitioning. We're kind of making a little bit of movement, but I'm going to give it just a second. And then I'm going to ask you something. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I'm going to ask. If Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ is, if he's speaking power and authority in your life right now. I'm trying to be careful with how I ask that because I'm not asking if he's worthy, he is. I'm not asking if he is has the power, he does. I'm not asking if if you get to decide if he's Messiah, he is. What I'm asking is which category are you going to fall into? Are you going to Are you going to allow him to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Are you going to let him be your Savior? Or are you going to continue in rebellion, knowing from just the few verses we said this morning, that that end is sure and it's not good. After I close in prayer, after I pray, the altar will be open, there'll be an opportunity to come forward. I'll step down and Pastor Adam will come up.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Would you pray with me, please? Because of who you are, we know who we are.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Because of your great for love for us, we get to be called children of God. Father, even this moment, we need your help. I need your help. Beyond the confusion and beyond the frustration and beyond the guilt and the condemnation, Lord, open our eyes to who you are. As we read the doctor's reports, as we as we get the news from family members, as we we engage in our co-work with our co-workers or with our neighbors, open our eyes to your authority and your power. Speak your truth and love to us. Lord, I pray for the individual who's walked into this room, lost, confused, maybe even angry. And I thank you that today is the day of salvation. I thank you that today is the day that they can repent of their sins and trust in you as Savior. Lord, I pray for the believer who is a child, is your child. And passages like 1 John chapter 3 have have served as a reminder that we don't live like the world anymore. We don't go down that road anymore. And maybe there's there's this remorse, there's this issue that they need your help. And maybe it's it's part of the body, maybe there's a conversation that needs to be had with the pastor, or come to the altar and pray. But we know you're here, we know you're working. We just pray that you would, that you would be glorified in our lives. Lord, help us. Help us to honor you, help us to worship you, help us to be obedient to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Would you stand with me, please, Pastor Adam? Will come and close us in prayer. There will be pastors and deacons at the front if you'd like to linger or come forward and have a word of prayer or speak with someone.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

So thankful for that message. We'd like to invite you to please, if you can, stay with us after the service in the fellowship hall and help us uh spend some time fellowshipping together, praising the Lord for what he's done in the life of this church, and uh praising him for the work that he's done here and for the work of uh the pastor that we have. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for all that you do. We're thankful for this message that we've heard, this faithful message.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Your word was opened, your word was declared, it was laid out before us like a banquet.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Pray to help us to take what we've heard. Relish it. Keep our eyes fixed on you, Jesus, our Savior, who has all authority and power. Help us to live in the truth of that. Thank you for the work that you're doing in the lives of us as believers. Lord, if there's someone here this morning that has never bowed their knee to you as our sovereign king, but continues to live in rebellion against it. Or help them to see you as you are, to see Jesus who he is. Everything he said was true. He is the Savior, how he came to save us from our sins and to defeat the works of the devil. I'd be glad to open your word and show them from the Bible how to come to know you as their Savior. God and direct in all that's said and done now, Lord. We give you the honor and the praise in the name of prayer. Amen.