Luke 4:42 “Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them;”

   It is truly wonderful that we need not suffer the departure of Christ. Those who belong to Him have constant fellowship with Him. Though He is physically now in heaven, He works here on earth just as surely as then. If only more people would have the attitude we see here, wanting to retain Christ, rather than turning Him away!

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your provision for our salvation. Jesus is a constant comfort to us by Your Holy Spirit. We will be forever grateful for His Presence in our lives! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:41 “And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.”

   Another reason for Jesus keeping the demons quiet is related to something He did throughout His ministry. Many times He told His disciples, and others, not to tell anyone who He was. Why? There are several reasons. For one, Jesus had a very specific task He was working towards, His cross-work. Timing was important, so He tailored the news about Him so as to get events to line up per His plan. Also, Jesus was leaving the task of preaching His Messianic, Divine identity to the early church. Another reason was that Jesus sought genuine faith from people, not just a belief fueled by miracles and the words of demons. And, finally, Jesus wanted people to hear His teaching. The Jews were looking for a way out from Roman rule, and they hoped the Messiah would rescue them by force. Those who were close to Christ learned that world conquest was not His plan at the moment.

Heavenly Father, simple faith is what You desire, and we believe, trusting You for everything. All I can do or think is already known to You, dear Father. You know our lives in every respect. May we live to live for You! Give us today what You would have for us. We love You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:40 “When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.”

   Jesus healed every single one that came to Him. He turned nobody away. But, there were those whop did not come to Him. This is also true for salvation from sin. Jesus will turn nobody away, but many will not come to Him.

Heavenly Father, thank You for not picking over us. You don’t leave some of us out as less deserving. You won’t discriminate, except on the basis of failure to respond. Thank You for accepting all who come to You in faith. You have confounded the great of this world, and have accepted the lowly. We praise You, Almighty God! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:39 “So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.”

   It is very likely that in Simon’s house, everyone slept on the floor. In many places in the world today this is still the custom. So, Jesus coming to ‘stand over’ her was not strange as it meant simply that He walked up to her bedside.
   The word rebuke is interesting as well. It is as if Jesus spoke to the fever, telling it to leave. If Jesus can speak to the winds and the waves, surely fevers are no different!

Heavenly Father, can we ever understand You? And yet we will spend our entire lives trying. You are the focus of our deepest studies, and the subject of our greatest desires. All that we have and are begins and ends with You. We will praise You, for You have done all things well. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 4:38 “Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her.”

   We see again Luke’s attention to detail as he documents the high fever here. Though it is not possible to be sure, this could have been the beginning of a serious illness. It seems that Jesus stayed at Simon’s house on occasion, and was familiar with he family. Thus it was only natural for Him to be asked to heal her.

Heavenly Father, thank You for caring for our deepest needs. You don’t just provide physical healing, but also You can give us emotional healing. You are good to us, and we want so much to please You. We praise You and lift Your Name on high! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

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.