JESUS’ POWER & PRIORITY

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 11, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: December 11, 2019 from Luke 4:38-44

Theme: Our Lord came not to heal temporal illnesses but to proclaim an eternal kingdom.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

A trap that we can unintentionally fall into as followers of Jesus is that of becoming so distracted by the world’s idea of ‘good deeds’ that we fail to do what God has actually called us to do.

A church can do this quite easily. We live in a time when people everywhere have their own ideas of what the church ought to do, and the good things that it ought to be doing for this world. Many of those things may truly be good to do. But the Lord Jesus has called His church to the work of making disciples; that is, to be “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). That’s not something that the world necessarily thinks of as important. And if we end up doing all kinds of other good deeds that this world thinks we ought to do, but do not end up doing what the Lord has commanded us to do, then we are not doing the Father’s will.

This can also happen from the standpoint of our own individual callings before God in Christ. We are all called, in a general way, to be about the work of proclaiming the message of Jesus to this world. But each of us has a particular calling with respect to how we are to do that. If you or I do other things than the thing that the Father has called us particularly to do for His kingdom—even if those are, in and of themselves, good things—and we end up failing to do that which He has uniquely called us to do, then we are not doing the Father’s will for us. Jesus Himself once taught;

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

It’s important, then, that we learn not let the ‘good deeds’ that we might be doing distract us from the Father’s greater call for us. This was something that our Lord demonstrated to us very early in His earthly ministry. Luke 4:38-44 tells us;

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. So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them. 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. 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.

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; but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee (Luke 4:38-44).

The story of our Lord’s activities in Capernaum teach us that He came not just to meet temporal needs but to preach an eternal kingdom.

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Now; this story comes after He had performed a notable miracle in Capernaum. He had just delivered a demon-possessed man in the synagogue. We’re told that, as a result, “the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region” (Luke 4:37). And it’s then that a set of events occurred—first, somewhat private in nature, then very public—to show forth …

1. HIS POWER TO HEAL (vv. 38-41).

We’re told; “Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house” (v. 38a). Even today, you can walk down the dirt road from the site of the old synagogue, past a set of stone buildings, to a stone structure that is believed to have been the home of Peter. You can even stand before the doorway of the house and look in. It would have been a very short trip from the synagogue—where the deliverance of the demon-possessed man had just occurred—to Peter’s house.

Luke—a physician—tells us, “But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her” (v. 38b). Inside of one of the inner rooms of the small house, this poor woman lay in misery. A high fever was, of course, a dangerous thing in those days. But they had seen Jesus perform a great miracle just shortly before in the synagogue. In Mark’s account of this story, we’re told that they told Him about her “at once” (Mark 1:30). If you were laying sick with a burning fever, and Jesus was nearby, wouldn’t you want friends to love you enough to go immediately to Jesus and tell Him about you?

And of course, Jesus responded. We’re told, “So He stood over her and rebuked the fever …” (v. 39a). Jesus dealt with this fever in the same sort of authoritative way that He once dealt with a storm at sea: He simply rebuked it (see Luke 8:24). It’s interesting to note that in rebuking the fever, He was gentle with the woman herself. In Mark’s account, we told that He took her by the hand and lifted her up (Mark 1:31) as He rebuked the fever. And Luke tells us, “and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them” (v. 39). Imagine that! She got right up with great joy, and was very soon in the kitchen preparing the meal! It was probably a great meal too! (Probably seafood!) When the Lord Jesus does something for us, it’s natural that we would want to serve Him.

And then we’re told of something else that happened. Word must have immediately spread about this gracious healing from our Lord; and verse 40 tells us, “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.” Take careful note of when this happened. It was “when the sun was setting”. Before then, it was the sabbath; but as soon as the sun had set, it was considered that the sabbath was over; and people began to do the work of traveling and carrying those in need to Him. And so, when it was right to do, He healed all.

We’re told that all those who had any within their family or their circle of friends who were sick brought them to Jesus. Just like the loving family members who came to Jesus about Peter’s mother-in-law, these also showed love to their needy friends and brought them to Jesus. And there was none that He didn’t heal. There must have been many who could not have come to Jesus in any other way than by someone else bringing them. Perhaps there were many who were carried on pallets. Perhaps some were helped to come by crutches. Perhaps there were some who were sick along with their loved ones; and together, they could barely crawl to Jesus. But they came. It would have been a great crowd at Peter’s doorway. And Jesus laid His hands upon them; and there wasn’t any of them who had a disease that He could not heal, or a need that He could not meet.

And apparently, some were even brought who had been overcome by an evil spirit. Verse 41 tells us, “And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’” (v. 41a). Notice that Dr. Luke makes a careful distinction between those who were sick with an illness or disease and those who were possessed by a demon. Luke tells, “And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ” (v. 41b). It may have been because demons were trying to so draw people’s attention to Jesus’ divine identity in order to persuade them to keep Him from dying on the cross. Or it may be because He didn’t want demons to, in any way, be associated with proclaiming Him to the world. But in any case, He treated them just as He treated the man in the synagogue. He exercised authority over them and would not permit them to speak as He cast them out.

Jesus healed all who came to His physical presence—those who were sick, and those who were demon-possessed—from all over Capernaum. They all came to Peter’s doorway; and neither Peter, nor his family, nor any of the other apostles, nor the people of Capernaum, would have ever forgotten that amazing night. Jesus was demonstrating that He was the one to go to –that whatever someone’s need may be, they will always find help in Him. He will never turn anyone away who sincerely comes to Him for mercy.

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Now, just imagine all the good deeds that Jesus could have gone on and done. He could have had His disciples build a beautiful building for Him—a magnificent ‘healing’ center by the sea; and for the rest of His life on earth, He could have just stayed there and served the needy people from around the world and heal them all free of charge. He could have brought physical healing to multiple millions of people in His lifetime. And in and of itself, that would have been a tremendously good thing to do. Just think of how this world would have approved of it all!

But He didn’t do that. That was not what the Father had called Him to do. Instead, we read on to discover …

2. HIS PRIORITY TO PREACH (vv. 42-44).

Verse 42 tells us, “Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place” (v. 42a). What was He doing there? Mark in his Gospel tells us that Jesus was praying—a long while before daybreak. You would have thought that there was just too much to do to even take the time out to pray. But our Lord went away from all the demands that people’s needs presented to Him, and He spent time alone with His Father instead.

What might it be that He as praying about? In John 5:30, Jesus said that He did not seek to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. And so—having reviewed the events of the previous day—it may be that Jesus felt compelled to get away from the demands of people, to be alone with the Father, and to seek before Him what the Father wanted Him to do next. What a great lesson this is! The demands of this world are not—themselves, alone—the thing that ought to be allowed to direct our life and labors. We should follow our Lord’s example and listen to the will of the Father first of all.

We’re told in verse 42, “And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them …” (v. 42b). They, no doubt, would have wanted Him to stay and perform more miracles for them and meet their ongoing needs. In Mark’s Gospel, we’re told that Peter and those who were with him went out looking for Jesus; and when they found Him, “they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You’” (Mark 1:37). Our Lord’s popularity was established! Just imagine all the people He could serve! But all of those ‘good’ deeds would not have been what the Father had sent Him to do—and that would not have been good. As Jesus Himself would later say, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

And so, we’re told, “but He said to them, ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.’ And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee” (vv. 43-44). (Some translations have it that He preached in the synagogues of ‘Judea’.)

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Dear brothers and sisters; when we grow to understand the Father’s specific purpose for us in His kingdom’s work, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from it—even by other ‘good deeds’ that this world may pressure us to do.

Perhaps a good way for us to apply what we find in this passage is by doing as our Lord did. We should take the time to break away from all our busy-work for a little while, get alone with the Father, open up our Bible, and spend some time seeking His will. We should ask Him—as a church, and as individual believers—whether or not we have been doing the things that He has been wanting us to do; or if, instead, we have allowed ourselves to be pressured into doing what everyone else in this world thinks we should do—everyone else but the Father. Good things, perhaps—necessary things in some sense—but not the things He has called us to do.

Let’s ask Him to make His purpose clear to us—and to recommit ourselves to not be distracted from it.

EA