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We left off last week with Jesus in the synagogue of his own hometown of Nazareth.
He had just read Isaiah 61:1-2 and sat down and the eyes of all in the congregation were upon him. And he expounded on the text by saying:
Today these words (that he just read) are fulfilled in your ears.
They responded by saying: “Is not this Joseph’s son.” Jesus replied that they were probably wondering why he was not doing miracles among them that he had done in Capernaum and in reply he said to them that “a prophet has no honor in his own country.”
This brings us to another segment of comments Jesus has for the audience – so let’s read beginning at verse 25 of chapter 4 in Luke where Jesus adds:
Luke 4.25-end
June 30th 2019
Meat
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
All right let’s jump back to verse 25 where Jesus adds more insight into the condition of his audience before him there in his home-town, and he tells them of a situation that existed in in Israel in the days of Elijah, saying:
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
We left off where Jesus has told the audience that a prophet has no honor in his own country and now it appears that he gives them some examples of this from the scripture where certain prophets had little honor in their own country so they bestowed their favors on strangers.
This was a means to tell them that this was the reason that he would not perform miracles in his hometown, which they presumably wanted out of him.
So, he tells them a little story here, saying:
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
This is really an extreme example of a prophet having no honor in his own country because Jesus here points out that in ALL OF ISRAEL there were MANY widows during a family that lasted three years and six months ‘
This story is found in 1st Kings 17:8-24 and in that story there was a great famine (so the widows were especially suffering) (verse 26)
26 But unto none of them was Elijah sent, except unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Sarepta was a town between Tyre and Sidon, near the Mediterranean Sea and it was a gentile town full of a people called Sidonians.
In other words, while there were many widows in Israel, Jewish widows suffering in the famine, Elijah went to none of them but had to travel to Sarepta to a Gentile widow there.
And then at verse 27 he drops another example of a prophet having no honor in his own country, saying:
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Just an FYI – Eliseus is the Greek way of writing Elisha just like Elias is the Greek way of writing Elijah.
So again, there were many lepers in ISRAEL in the days of Elisha the prophet but (again) NONE of these Jewish lepers were cleaned – in fact the only one who was a man named Naaman the Syrian. And this story is told in 2nd Kings 5:1-27.
Bottom line – Jesus was first of all likening himself to both Elijah the prophet and Elisha the prophet AND he was likening them to the Israelites back in those prophets days who were not worthy of receiving a miracle.
(Verse 28)
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
They were enraged. They saw that the cases applied to themselves and they heard Jesus say (indirectly) that he was not going to give his attention to them.
Quite frankly, he actually was telling them the the miracles would be directed to the Gentile instead of them – which suggested to them that he was saying that they were WORSE than Gentiles because as a prophet he was suggesting that he was going to ultimately go outside of Israel to do his miracles. (verse 29)
29 And (they) rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Nazareth was situated between two hills, or in a vale among mountains. The place to which they led Jesus is still in place and is called the Mount of Precipitation. It is at a short distance to the south of Nazareth. They sought to take him and cast him down from it. I’ve seen pictures of it and it looks like to cast someone down would have only injured and humiliated them but perhaps it was more dangerous than it appears.
(verse 30)
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
It is remarkable that Jesus would escape out of their hands when their very object was to catch him and that he would escape without violence.
We read about a similar case in John 8:59 when Jesus said to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am”
There we read:
Joh 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Perhaps in this situation other Nazarenes who were not in synagogue but were friendly toward Jesus got involved and in the conflict Jesus escaped. Or perhaps it was just supernatural and since it was not his time nobody was gonna lay hold of him.
We recall that even at Gethsemane that John reports that when Jesus announced that he was the Messiah that they went backward and fell to the ground, so perhaps some of that was going on here.
All we know is Luke tells us he escaped their clutches and therefore he was not cast down the edge of the hill.
31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
Okay, let’s jump back to verse 31:
31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
Again we come across the importance of words – and how when they are delivered by the Spirit – they arrive with power that transcends regular human speech – they become words that actually heal, give life, encourage, renew the mind, and create things in the hearers.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
Mark tells this story in such a way that the man is in the power of an unclean spirit but Luke writes it that the man had a spirit of an unclean demon.
And while Mark does not mention the scream or shout Luke says that the devil cried out (in what appears to be when the man with the devil made contact with Jesus.
What the demon says is interesting because of its use of the pronouns I, us and we. Take a listen (verse 34)
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
We have a decision to make – and I have made mine – on who is speaking and how many demons are involved?
I think that there is one demon and I think the pronouns we and us refers to it and the man. Let me re-read the passage to support this (remember, the man is the one speaking here – using his vocal cords)
Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? And then the demon is only speaking of itself here when he concludes, “I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”
We can say this because the man would not have KNOWN who Jesus was, the Holy one of God.
We also have to examine what the demon calls Jesus – how he identifies him and how he was able to identify him.
First of all, he asks says and asks
Let us alone – what have we to do with you, thou Jesus of Nazareth.
In this statement the demon admits that it knew Jesus of Nazareth had the power to destroy them.
Where did he get that knowledge? Was it from the abundance of the Holy Spirit that was in and upon Him or was it from being a demon and privy to the pre-existent state of Jesus as the second person of the co-eternal trinity?
We have to admit that this, and other interaction Jesus has with Demons, gives us opportunity to examine what demons know about Him.
So, the demon in this man addresses Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the first thing out of his mouth. Does the demon know that Jesus is God? Perhaps he addresses him as Jesus of Nazareth to try and appeal to his fleshly nature and ignore his deific nature? Just a thought.
He then asks, “art thou come to destroy us?” In this question the demon knows that Jesus of Nazareth has the power to destroy the demon and the one he inhabits. This is important – the demon admits that Jesus has power and authority.
Then the demon says plain as day:
“I know thee who thou art”
So it seems at this point that the demon admits, at least from a spiritual sense and perhaps also from having heavenly insight, that he KNOWS who Jesus is.
That’s pretty radical. And how does he describe him? He says the following:
I know who thou art, and he adds his description: “the Holy One of God.”
The HOLY ONE of God.
This is, as far as we can tell, a first hand witness account even though it is from the mouth of a demon.
Thus far in Luke’s gospel we have the devil or his demons question Jesus by saying (in the wilderness experience)
“If thou be the Son of God”
And now a demon actually expresses knowledge of his identity and calls Jesus of Nazareth, “the Holy One OF God.”
As radical as this may sound, I think we can say that the demons in the presence of Jesus know far more about his identity than many Christians today.
Now there is always the possibility that they were speaking lies (they are demons and devils) and so their professions could be said to be misleading) but that does not seem to be the case because Jesus never corrects them. So let’s consider some examples from the scripture.
In Matthew 8:29 we read:
29And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Yeshua, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
Parallel passages to this one where the demons call Jesus, Thou Son of God are also found in Mark 1:24, Mark 3:11, Mark 5:7, Luke 4:34, Luke 4:41, Luke 8:28
In Mark 1:24, we read demons saying
“Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Yeshua of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
Then we have in Mark 3:11 – And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
And in Mark 5:7 we read, “And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Yeshua, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
Luke 4:34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee,thou Yeshua of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
Luke 4:41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Messiah the Son of God. And he rebuking themsuffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
Luke 8:28 When he saw Yeshua, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Yeshua, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
My conclusion of this evidence?
The Demons all knew exactly who Yeshua was, and they never addressed him as God or even hint that He is God.
Yet they ALL recognized Yeshua as the SON of God – not God the Son!
Friends – how can Jesus be the Son of the Most High God IF the most High God is a Trinity that must include the Son in its make-up?
There is not one single solitary example of the many recorded examples of Yeshua’s casting out of demons where the demons ever even hinted that he is God the Son! NOT ONE!
Always the Son of God or the Son of the Most High God. Again, here are the titles the devil or his demons use toward Jesus:
The Holy One of God
The Son of God
The Son of the Most High God
The Messiah (Christ)
The Son of God Most High
Taking it a step further, in Mark 5:7 we read one demon use God’s very name to request that Jesus NOT harm him, saying:
“And (he) cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.”
I want to hit this straight up without any varnish – to know the only true and living God and his Son is life eternal.
Either the demons were speaking in a way to confuse and obfuscate the identity of Jesus or in His presence they perfectly described him. If the latter, they describe Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the Most High God – and that is how I choose to see Him – as the only begotten, the Only Human actual literal physical Son of The MOST High God, even the Father.
Someone, as a means to standardize and systematize and corporatize God, men have created a creature called the Trinity, which is never ever endorsed by the beings who we would think understood the nature of God better than us – angels and demons.
On the other hand, the demons ALWAYS address Jesus as the
SON of God
The SON of the Most High God
The Messiah (Christ)
The Holy One of God (and)
The Son of God most high
Why? Because that is who Jesus was and is – the actual literal physical Son of the Most High God. He was Jesus of Nazareth’s Father!
The Most High God sired Him through the Spirit of God and the Flesh of Mary.
That spirit that sired him is eternal, uncreated, and was God – just as the sperma of my father sired me, making Jesus of Nazareth the Son of the Most High God.
He was to be feared.
Honored.
Followed.
Obeyed.
And ultimately worshipped once he overcame all things on our behalf.
He was the very logos of God made flesh, and in the face of all of this I reject the man-made Trinity as well as the visions of Him by Smith and others.
(beat) (verse 35)
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
Only Luke includes the fact that when the Demon existed the man and threw him down the man was not hurt.
It appears that the demon wanted or attempted to hurt the man but failed – for whatever reason.
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
Remember this was scene in the synagogue in Capernaum and this event caused the people there, with amazement, discuss that Jesus of Nazareth spoke with POWER and authority even to the point that all he had to do was speak and the unclean spirits would come out in obedience.
It is not a mistake that John describes Jesus as in the beginning (as the Word) and the Word was with God (for the word was God’s word) and the Word was God (His very mind will and emotion) and the Word was made flesh (in the man Jesus of Nazareth) and dwelled among us.
That word of God, that was God, that logos of God, when he spoke, things happened.
It is interesting that the witnessed there focused their attention on “the Word” (or words) that Jesus said which caused the spirit to exit the man.
That is why Luke wrote:
“What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
Interestingly, the Greek for word here is logos and not grapha, which means much more than just certain words.
37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
This description is in the Imperfect middle of echos which mean, “the fame of him kept on going forth.” – Like an echo – which gives us a vivid picture of the immediate influence and popularity Jesus had on the scene of his day.
And this takes us to another story from Luke’s account (verse 38)
38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
So leaving the synagogue Luke says that “He rose up” (anastas)gue and went into Simon Peter’s house.
This account is reported in Matthew and Mark and from them we get some details not provided here through Luke.
For instance, we know from Mark that this was the house of BOTH Peter and Andrew. And borrowing from Paul’s account in 1st Corinthians 9:5 we know that Peter had a wife and they lived in Capernaum.
And according to this story Peters mother in law was suffering from a long standing illness (based on what is called the “periphrastic imperfect passive) and means it was a chronic and severe ailment.
39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
It is true that the word rebuke used here is the same that is used when Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves but in the other synoptics – at least one of them – Jesus is said to have touched her hand, which gives us a slightly different view of this scene then that of rebuking an evil spirit.
And even though she had suffered a long time with this ailment we read that she rose up immediately though chronic ailments usually leave people weak.
Here the cure appears to be instantaneous – and Luke adds that she rose up and ministered (served) them.
Of course, the picture presented is clear – once Jesus heals anyone, they turn and serve him. (verse 40)
40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
Because Jesus had been in the synagogue before this we know that it was a Sunday. The Greek describes this scene as happening when the Sabbath had come to and end – during the time the sun was setting – so there was no breaking of the Sabbath in this scene by the carrying of the sick to Jesus feet.
It seems that news of the healing of the demon-possessed man and then of Peter’s mother in law had spread and the community, unlike those in Jesus hometown, were of faith, believing that Jesus could heal.
Where the passage says
and “all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
The term divers means multi-colored – so we could say that these people were ill with every disease imaginable.
Looking back to what Jesus read in the Synagogue in the morning we find direct fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that Jesus read, that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and that he was anointed to
“preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”
We note that Luke describes him as touching every one of them and that this resulted in them all being healed.
Of course, the application to us is when Jesus reaches out and touches anyone, healing takes place.
I met with three atheists a while ago and explained to them what I also explained to John Dehlin as to why I am so committed to Jesus.
It was not intellectual – I cannot explain many criticisms about the Jesus story to others. It wasn’t emotional – I do not appeal to emotional responses to the faith nor respond to them readily.
All I can say is what the man born blind says to the Sanhedrim after being questioned as to whether Jesus was a sinner or not, said:
“Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
This is the determining factor of whether Jesus was the Messiah or not – could he, did he, would he – heal, as prophesied by Isaiah?
We can intellectualize him into oblivion, we can rationalize him, deny him, receive him by faith – but in the end, the one thing that has keep me devout and aimed at teaching and sharing Him and Him alone is the fact that for thirty-six years I was blind, captive, sick, imprisoned and organized religion couldn’t do anything for me – but once Jesus reached out and touched me, I was healed, liberated, set free and cannot deny it – ever.
And that liberty and the love it brings to the heart has only grown over time in His presence.
No other power – not fear, not law, not pain, not threats, nothing could grant me sight and the liberty it brings, but Jesus. None. Only He has the power to bring such healing and liberation. (verse 41)
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
When Luke writes that they “Came out”
It means that they came out one after the other.
After identifying Jesus as Christ the Son of God, Jesus does not allow the demon to bear witness of him – apparently demons are not permitted to bear witness of the Messiah more than to address him.
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
We note that it was sundown in the last verses so an entire night has passed and it is now Sunday morning.
Apparently, according to Marks account, Jesus rose up to leave after a restless night and this was when the people sought after him and they did not want him to leave them.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
He apparently felt obligated to get to as many cities as possible as a means to preach the Kingdom of God. And where did he go when he went to those other cities (verse 44)
44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
We will stop here for today.
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