Jesus Expels an Evil Spirit

(Luke 4:31-37)

21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 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. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.

The people were astonished at His teaching…why? Because He did have authority! Jesus came to teach and to save those who would listen and learn from His teaching and His authority came from God the Father. As John’s gospel says, He was the Living Word. The Word of God is powerful like a two-edged sword and it convicts and creates and condemns and it is a blessing to those who believe it. By the Word of God creation was brought into being and without it nothing was made.

All of the angels and stars and plants and fish that we see around us came into existence by the Word of God. Only man was “formed from the clay” by God. Adam was not commanded to come forth by the Word, he was formed by God’s hand. We are the only creation of God which was made this way, yet we should not take pride in this because it was done because of God’s love for us. He wanted us to be His creation which could converse with Him and walk with Him and still have our own ideas and the freedom to do what we wished with our ideas.

Why am I writing this now? Because of the time in which we are living in. We are very close to the end of the church age although we don’t know the day or the hour that it will come. When you read the prophetic books of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation and chapter 24 of Matthew all of the indicators are present in our world right now and it will only get worse. I pray that you will seek your Savior in Jesus Christ before this time of God’s patience and mercy comes to an end.

Before Jesus ascended to His Father, He gave His disciples a command to go into all of the world and preach the gospel. Each of us, as Christians, who have asked for His forgiveness and for Him to be our Savior also has this command extended to us. So…what will you do? Have you told those that you know at work or even those that you meet at a coffee shop about your Lord and Savior? It truly is our job to do so and we are supposed to be doing so until we are called to be with Him one day. Have you tried to tell those in your family about Jesus? They are the hardest to tell because they may think that they are Christians already but do they live their lives like they belong to Him?

Those of us who live in the South, the Bible belt as it is referred to, are harder to convince that we even need Jesus as our Savior. Why is this true? Because most of us have grown up in church. We have been brought to church ever since we were too small to even know where we were or why we were there. Our parents and grandparents are members of the church so we grow up believing that we are as well. We have heard many sermons about Jesus and His gospel for years it seems and we can quote some scripture as well. So…why do we need Jesus?

Because growing up in the church and as part of the crowd in the church doesn’t grant you salvation!

Satan can quote Scripture as well as any theologian can and he knows the Person of God and Jesus because he was created by them…but he won’t serve them. He doesn’t want salvation. He wants to be “like God”. The type of Christianity that we have in the South is called cultural Christianity or to put it another way “Christianity by osmosis”. We grow up believing that we are Christians because we have been in the church ever since before we could walk. So we think we are “safe from the fires of Hell” because we have been in church and we know about Jesus and we have a Bible that we look at during the service. But…do you live your daily life OUTSIDE the church as if you are His disciple?

Belonging to Jesus and being known by Him is totally different from knowing about Him. Think of it this way…I know a lot about the new Corvette because I’ve read about it in magazines but I don’t have one in my garage. First because I can’t afford it! Secondly, because knowledge of or about something or Someone doesn’t mean that you possess it or have a relationship with Them because they live in your heart!

You could read the Bible from Genesis to the book of Revelation once every year but unless you have been convicted of your need for a Savior and have given your heart and life to Him, you have only read a book with sixty-six other books inside it. Salvation comes to each of us by faith in God and the conviction that we are sinners and need Jesus as our Savior. Until that happens and you accept Him as your Savior, regardless of how much time you’ve spent in church, you are still lost. Make sure of your place in eternity while you can because when this life is over there are no “second chances” because you’ve used them all up in this life.