Author: Bill Hall

Luke 4:37 “And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.”

   The ministry of Christ gained quite a good measure of attention. However, it was Christ Himself that prevented it from becoming more than just another news story. He was all in on His plans from the very beginning. He knew ahead of time what would happen. The cross was always in His view, and He orchestrated events to push towards it.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the sacrifice of Your dear Son! We can never forget what was done on Calvary. Jesus has not come to win fame and popularity, or power and authority, You give Him all of that. He wants our hearts, to make them whole again. May we live in spiritual health in praise to You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:36 “Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”

   Jesus was able to expel these malicious spirits by different means than anyone else. The Jews were familiar with exorcism, and there were some Jewish elite who practiced it. But, exorcism is quite different than what Jesus did, though some will call it that. Exorcism is a human, and demonically influenced, practice. Jesus was able to simply command the spirits directly. They had to obey Him.

Heavenly Father, we trust in your power. You are able to solve the problems of this life. We can look to You for everything. You have the authority in this universe. We praise You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:35 “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.”

   The delayed response here is not due to a lack of authority on the part of Christ. Quite the contrary is true. This demon, as many other that Jesus expelled, was none too happy about the situation. The devil and his minions are ever the sore losers, throwing tantrums if possible. Notice however, that Luke points out the man was not hurt by the action of the demon. This is significant because though the demon obeyed reluctantly, to hurt the man would have been disobedience.

Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your Almighty power and wonderful grace. You know everything about us and can meet our every need. We would seek to not only be satisfied by You, but to satisfy You by Your work in our lives. We want to be vessels for Your glory. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:34 “saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are– the Holy One of God!”

   Why would a demonic malevolence want to declare the identity of the Lord Jesus? Wouldn’t that be working against the kingdom of darkness. Obviously, this spirit had no trouble with believing that Jesus was indeed exactly Who He claimed to be. Why then does the devil try to prevent belief in humans?
   This complicated question has a fairly simple answer. For one thing, understand that from what is revealed in Scripture we know that all of the minions of the kingdom of darkness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like they believe in the existence of the universe, or the laws of nature, or any other immutable fact. They are not ill-informed or ignorant.
   But, take yourself back to the garden of Eden. There the most powerful of all malevolent spirits was tempting Eve. Did he question God’s existence? No. Of course not. Eve had just seen God not long before. That line would have died quickly. No, he questioned God’s transparency. He pretended to have knowledge that God had not divulged to Eve or Adam. It was a trick, and it worked.
   The only reason that the devil gets many to doubt the existence of God is because it is another of his tricks. And, for many, it works. So, he keeps using it. If it fails, he and his minions are all to ready to trick us some other way.
   In the case of Jesus, the devil chose to go the route of deceptive knowledge. He and his cohorts didn’t directly challenge Christ’s identity, but sought to trick Him into a trap. Often the devil will keep you busy quoting Bible verses to you while what he is really doing is side-tracking you from more important things. The demon’s knowledge of Christ did not in any way help Jesus’ ministry. Indeed, it only led to confusion, as it has ever since. And, the devil loves confusion.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the true knowledge. We do indeed know the secrets of life. We don’t need the devil or any of his doctrines to find our way in this world. Thank You for Your mercies! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:33 “Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice,”

   We always automatically think of demons as evil. So why the description here? Rather than just saying the man had a demon, it says he had the spirit of an unclean demon, as if there is some other kind. To understand this, we need to keep in mind the human author of the book of Luke. Luke tended to be very thorough and complete. He was a physician, and a very learned man.
   As a result, this description is meant to help us understand exactly what had happened to this man. For one, it reveals this demon was a ‘spiritual’ influence. This man did not have a mental disorder. He was not physically handicapped, or inhabited by a parasite, or any thing of a physical nature. Secondly, the problem was a demon, which denotes a being of extra-natural power and substance. Thus, the manifestation of this being would be expected to produce extra-natural conditions. And, finally, we are told this spiritual influence was unclean, as all such beings currently are, and this indicates evil. A malevolent, extra-natural, spiritual influence had been attached to this man.
   Those who belong to Christ, and are this inhabited by the Spirit of God, cannot be ‘possessed’ in this way. And why? Because the ‘spiritual’ influence of the Spirit of God excludes a direct influence of this type. This does not preclude the Christian from temptation, but even temptation, the Scripture reveals, is tempered by the Spirit.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the powerful protection of the Holy Spirit in our lives! To live with His influence in our hearts is to be free from the spiritual darkness all around us in this sin-saturated world. We praise You for this! Thank You for giving us the victory by Your dear Son! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:32 “And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.”

   The amazing acts of Christ were not limited to miracles and such. His most amazing characteristic was His teaching. The authority mentioned here reflects two things in His teaching. For one, Jesus is a powerful wordsmith. Nobody puts it quite like He does. Among all of the great orators and philosophers of history, His words stand out, and stand the tests of time. Secondly, He had different things to say than anyone had said. His doctrine, meaning the understanding of Scripture behind His words, was impeccable. Rather than appealing only to the flesh, the mind, or the heart, He spoke also directly to the spirit of man. His words were impossible to refute, and cut deep.

Heavenly Father, we will forever be grateful for Christ! May Your truth fill our hearts to overflowing each and every day! We need Your word in our minds and hearts. We need our spirit empowered by Your Spirit. Thank You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:31 “Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.”

   He taught on the Sabbaths. What did He do the rest of the time? Though He may have saved up enough to not have to work for a while, we cannot be certain of that. Indeed, he may have had the care of His mother to look out for at some point, though there is no certainty on that point either. The truth is we know very little about His day-to-day life. What we do know is that He was taking the time to teach.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the Lord Jesus. Give us a heart to follow Him. Your faithfulness, dear Lord, is so wonderful! We know You are the Great Physician, and that You can fix our problems. But, so often we do not understand how You go about it. Lead us to the truth. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:30 “Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”

   Don’t miss this for what it is. Jesus supernaturally moved Himself out of the situation. We think of the crucifixion as the point where sinful humanity had had enough of the truth of Christ. But that is not the case at all. If Jesus had not driven towards it, mankind would have had plans for Him far earlier. But, falling off a cliff would not fulfill prophecy, so Jesus avoids that fate.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your truth! Give to us eyes to see what should be seen. Give us ears and a heart open to You. May Your Spirit fill Your church with plain truth of Your Word! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:29 “and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.”

   Due to the escape of Christ from this attempt on His life, we tend to gloss over the seriousness of it. But, the reality is that this was serious. They did not somehow do this half-heatedly. They had every intention of throwing Jesus off the cliff. Without supernatural power, Jesus would not have escaped this attempt. Thus, the Jews would have put to death their Messiah at this early state in His ministry.

Heavenly Father, we will thank You for Jesus for all of eternity. So many Jews and Gentiles alike have found Him to be the savior of their souls. How can we ever show You our gratitude? But we will try by our feeble attempts, and trust to Your power to make our praise the sound You love to hear. Forever we will know that Jesus is our Anchor and Rock. To Him we will look for everything. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:28 “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,”

   Ah, we people are always like this! Slow we are to receive the truth, but so quick to judge what we find to be offensive. He had just told them that He was the fulfillment of prophecy and they heard gladly. But, when He got more specific, still commenting on plain truths of Scripture that they could not refute, they change their tune entirely.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy in making Your truth available. You already know how it will be received. It is of Your mercies that we are not consumed. Your compassion does not fail. You are great, and so is Your faithfulness! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.