Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on April 14, 2024.
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Audio Transcript
As you’re leaving, if you’ll take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 4, the passage will be on the screen. But we also encourage you to use your Bibles to follow along with us today. We’re going to be looking today at Jesus authority over demons and disease. So we’re going to be talking about demons today, we’re going to be talking about disease. But most important importantly, we’re going to be seeing that all of this is part of Luke’s method of proving to us that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
He is the Son of God, and he came to this earth with a purpose to live among us, to die on the cross, be buried and raised from the dead to restore a right relationship with God the Father. Let’s begin reading in Luke 4, verse 31. Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astonished at his teaching because his message had authority. And in the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, leave us alone.
What do you have to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him and said, be silent and come out of him. And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all.
Amazement came over them all, and they were saying to one another, what is this message where he commands the unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out. And news about him began to go out to every place in the vicinity. After he left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother in law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.
She got up immediately and began to serve them. And when the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him. As he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them also. Demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, you are the Son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah.
When it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place, but the crowds were searching for him. They came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said to them, it is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. May we pray.
Heavenly Father, as we look at your word again today, we thank you for giving it to us that we might know how to live according to your way and how to receive salvation, Father, from our sins in your way and not of our own making. Give us more understanding of how we are to live. In light of what we read over and we look at today in Jesus name, Amen. We’re going to be looking first today at the affirmation of Jesus identity. And then we’re going to be looking at the authority of Jesus over demons and disease.
Tom has been going on Saturdays over a lot of information about demons and Satan. This is more of a Cliff Notes version today just to get you on track. So if you’ve been coming to Tom’s classes on Saturday, this won’t be anything new to you. But the gospel writer Luke, part of his main intention is to demonstrate to us, to prove to us, to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the anointed one of God.
He is the Son of God who has come to provide salvation to the world. And we’ve started out with this affirmation of Jesus deity and who he is. Over and over and over, we have the testimony of Mary, of Joseph, of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Gabriel the angel gave testimony to who he is. Simeon and Anna, and I know I’ve got them up there twice.
I’m being a little dyslexic today, so forgive me. The angels gave testimony of who Jesus was at his birth. The shepherds gave testimony. Then John the Baptist gave testimony that he is the Son of God. And at his baptism we had the Father, God the Father giving testimony, the Holy Spirit giving testimony.
Then Satan himself, by tempting him in the wilderness, gave testimony to the fact that he is the Son of God. And then last week we looked at how Jesus came along and said, yes, what all of these witnesses are saying about me, people that are respected, people that are priests, people that are prophets, it’s true, I am the Son of God. And what we’re going to see today in this transition is that even the demons give test testimony that Jesus is the Son of God. But we’re going to look at how he has authority over them as another evidence of who he is. Let’s go to the text in verse 33, where we see the affirmation of Jesus identity through the testimony of demons.
In verse 33, we read in the synagogue, there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a Loud voice. You’re going to hear evil spirits mentioned, demons, unclean spirits. It’s kind of all put together here that we’re really talking about the same group of beings. And they cried out with a loud voice, leave us. There was more than one demon here in this man.
What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? And then the demons say, I know who you are. And it doesn’t say, he is a Holy One of God. What’s the three letter word there?
He is the Holy One of God. The demons recognize who Jesus is and they know that eventually that he has the power to destroy them and that that day is coming. The other gospel writers give the same testimonies from other demons. Let’s go to Matthew, chapter 8, verses 28 through 29. When he had come to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon possessed men met him as they came out of the tombs.
They were so violent that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they shouted, what do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Not just one demon now, but we have two. A different location, a different place.
But they’re still acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God. And they understand that he has the power to torment them. And they recognize that a time is coming when he will do just that. Another gospel writer, Mark. Another testimony of demons to who Jesus is.
We Read in Mark 1:23, 24, just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue, not in the graveyard, not just out in public. But this man is actually in what would have been their church building. And the demon cries out, what do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are.
Once again, not a Holy One of God, but the Holy One of God. And all these affirmations of who Jesus is, you would think that, that those against him, his enemies, would not be identifying him as the Son of God. But they do, because they know who he truly is. Demons are mentioned over 80 times in the New Testament. It tells us that they were very real and they were very active then.
They’re real and they’re active today. They just don’t necessarily manifest themselves in our presence. But if we were to go to other countries, we would see things that are very similar to what was going on here in these New Testament times. C.S. lewis gives us two things that are equally bad in having wrong views about Satan and his demons.
Let me read the statement. There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, and the other is to believe, but to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. Demons are real, but some people have disbelief. They just laugh them off, oh, that’s just a Halloween costume.
It’s just something on a scary movie that’s meant to entertain us. They laugh them off or they just outright deny that they do not exist. To have that point of view about demons is wrong. But on the other side are people that have an unhealthy interest in demons. This can come out by people that are dabbling in occultic practices.
They might be using a Ouija board, they might be going to someone to tell their fortune, or they’re reading their astrology forecast in the paper or online. All of these things are dabbling in the occult, having an interest in them that you should not have. Instead, we need to be fearful. I mean, not be fearful of them, but we need to respect that they are powerful and we need to respect that they’re real and that they have a purpose in this world that is anti God. Demons are real.
Demons are Satan’s angels. As best we can tell from Scripture, there isn’t a whole book of the Bible that scientifically lays out how they came into being or gives a historical explanation. But what we do find is that they’re mentioned in a number of passages and it treats them kind of allegorically in a manner, because it’s always involved in prophetic text. And when we read prophecies in the Bible, we don’t always understand them until they actually come to fruition and they come to truth. But it’s pretty clear here in Revelation, chapter 12, when we’re hearing about demons and fallen angels, where they came from.
So let’s read the text. Another sign appeared in heaven. There was a great fiery red dragon. So you say, well, who is that? This is allegorical here, but it’s going to come up in the text exactly who this is Red dragon is.
And this fiery red dragon had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven crowns. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And so we ask the question, what are these stars? Or who are these stars? If we continue to read, it becomes pretty clear.
It says, then war broke out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So we have Michael, who we know is an angel of God, fighting against this dragon, who also has angels. So we have two types of spirits here. One is on God’s side and the other is on the dragon’s side.
Verse 9 says so the great dragon was thrown out. The ancient serpent, referring back to Genesis chapter three, who is called the Devil. We have a name for him. He’s also known as Satan. He is the one who deceives the whole world.
He was thrown to earth and his angels with him. So to the best of our understanding, what we see here in the text is that when Satan was rebelled against God the Father, that there were a number of angels that were also in agreement with him, that rebelled against the Father. And those angels were cast to earth where they continue to be ministers of Satan. The demons that we know today, what are the demons all about? What is it that they are determined to do?
They are determined to cause deception, they are determined to cause destruction. And and they are determined to cause death. Let’s look at John chapter 8:44. Because they take after their father the devil, just as human beings that don’t serve God Almighty. If you’re following Satan, these are characteristics of your life.
John 8:44. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies. If you had a demon here today, and you had an angel, the angel would not try to deceive you.
The angel would not be here to bring about destruction or death. But the demon on the other side would be trying to deceive you. Their purpose would be to destroy you and to bring about death. Because demons are following after their father, the devil. Let’s look in Mark chapter 9, verse 20 through 22 and see how the demons are continually trying to cause destruction.
And here we have a boy who is possessed by a demon. They brought the boy to him and that would be Jesus. And when the spirit saw him, this evil spirit, this demon, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground, he rolled around foaming at the mouth. How long has this been happening to him?
Jesus asked his father. From childhood, he said, and many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. The demon was out to kill the this young boy by causing him either to burn to death or to drown. Demons are out to deceive, to cause destructions, and to bring about death. We also want to say that demons are powerful, they’re not weak.
We need to respect this about them. Let’s go to Luke chapter 8:29 and see how powerful these demons are. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man many times it had seized him. This is just one demon in a man. And though he was guarded, and though he was bound by chains, and though he was bound by shackles, it says that he would just snap those restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.
This man, if he was under guard by a group of policemen, if he had on chains wrapped around him and he had on shackles on his feet and on his hands, he was just able, not even to wrestle, but could just snap out of these, because demons are powerful in what they can do. We have another instance of this in Acts chapter 19, where we read about seven sons of Sceva. They were itinerant Jewish exorcists, meaning that they went around exorcising demons from people. But they decided they were going to take a new tact. In this text, instead of doing their normal thing, they attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches.
They heard that Jesus had cast out demons. So they’re like, well, let’s try and see if it works for us. But they weren’t believers in who Jesus was as their Lord and Messiah. And this is what happens. The seven sons of Sceva, their father was a Jewish high priest.
They were doing this and the evil spirit answered them. I know Jesus recognize Paul, but who are you? You’re nobody here because you’re not here representing Jesus. And then the man who had just one evil spirit, he jumped on all seven of these men. He overpowered all of them.
He prevailed against all of them, so that all seven of them ran out of that house naked and wounded. This one man, by the power of a demon, was able to overtake seven other men that were trying to cast him out. Demons are powerful. Demons are also active. They’re active in the Old Testament, they’re active in the New Testament.
Let’s go back to Deuteronomy 32, 16, 17. And what I want you to see here is there is a connection between idols and little G. Gods and demons, they’re all one in the same. It may be an idol of wood or stone or gold. But there is a demon behind that idol that is causing people to worship it. God said that they provoked his jealousy with different gods, little G gods.
They enraged him with detestable practices. They sacrificed to demons, not to the big G God, which is the God that we serve, but instead to these other false gods that they had not known. The new gods that had just arrived, which your ancestors did not fear in the Old Testament, they were worshiping idols. They were worshiping false gods throughout the Old Testament. And behind every one of those, there is a demon that is involved.
And yes, demons are powerful. They can do things for people that worship them, but they’re not benevolent, they’re not good. They’re just as likely to do something to harm someone as they are to do something that is beneficial to them. We don’t see this so much going on in our presence. But if we went over to India, if we went to other countries in Africa, we would see temples all over where there are idols and people are worshiping idols.
They’re actually worshiping demons. We find this in the New Testament again, that idol worship, false gods and demons are all connected together in First Corinthians 10, 19, 21. What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? What he’s saying is that food, physical structure there, that is not anything at all.
The wood is just wood. The gold is just gold. The stone is just stone. But what he’s telling them is that behind that, the involvement that people have in that idol is a demon. He said no, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they’re not really sacrificing it to stone or wood.
They are sacrificing that to demonstration, knock to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Behind every physical idol, behind every false God, we find demons.
But there are a lot of idols that we have in our country. Satan works here in a different way. Just like people in the Bible would take something useful like wood or stone or gold that could be used to cook food or to make a structure to live in, or gold jewelry to wear. They would take those same good things and change them into idols, and then they would begin to worship something wrongly and placing it over God. But the same thing happens in our society where we take things that are good that God has given us, and they all of a sudden become an idol.
To us. Because now they’re more important to us than God is. It could be that someone’s boat is more important. Somebody’s car is more important than God. Somebody’s house is more important than God.
All these things are good. But if we elevate them above the place that God is supposed to have in our life, if we spend more time with them than we do with the Lord, if we spend more money on those things, things more than we do with the Lord, if we want to do those things more than we want to spend time with the Lord, then those things are becoming idols in our life. And those idols have a demon behind them that is encouraging you, encouraging other people to serve that thing. But it can also be a person in our lives. Some people elevate their spouses, their parents, even their children above God, that they are more important.
So something that is good. Satan’s demons encourage people to elevate those people above God in our lives. Behind idols are demons. Behind worship of other things are demons. We switch now to disease.
Two things have been placed together here. Jesus has his testimony, but then now Luke is showing us. But we also know that he’s the Messiah because he has power over demons and he has power over disease. Now what we need to understand today is that the two things are separate, but they can also be the same thing. That there are times that physical problems, physical illnesses are demonic in nature, but there are times when they are not.
And that’s what we have here in the text. There is a separation. I’m not going to read passages, so I don’t have them up there today. But we can see where demons had physical influence bringing on physical maladies. In Mark 9.
If you want to write these down and you can look at them later. Mark 9, Matthew 17, Luke 9, Matthew 9, Luke 11. I will read from Luke chapter 13 today. Just one instance. In verse 11, it says there was a woman who for 18 years had had a sickness that was caused by a spirit.
So here we have a physical illness, a disease that was being caused by a demon. It says that she was bent double and she could not straighten up at all. Job is also another example in the Old Testament that by means of Satan’s work and demonic influence, God allowed him to have physical problems that he might be tested. Sometimes disease is from demons, but it isn’t necessarily always from that. Next thing we need to see about disease today is disease can be purposeful in our lives.
God allows it to achieve his glory. And we see that in the story about Lazarus and Martha and Mary. Let’s go to John 11, 2, 6. So the sisters sent a message to him. This would be Martha and Mary sending a message to Jesus.
And they said, lord, the one you love is sick. God loves all of us. But Jesus had this special relationship with Martha and Mary and Lazarus that he would retire to their home. This one that he loves is sick. And when Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness will not end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
There was a purpose in why Lazarus had this illness that will lead to his death. It goes on again to say now, Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. He allowed them to be worried, to be concerned, and not show up to heal Lazarus, because there was going to be purpose in what was going on there. Disease can be purposeful in our life.
2 Corinthians 12, 7, 9. We see another example of this. Paul says, therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. He had some type of physical problem. It doesn’t tell us what it was.
And he said, this is a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. It kept Paul humble that he wasn’t ever completely healed of this illness or this problem that he had. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. The purpose of Paul’s malady was to keep him humble.
But the fact that he was weak allowed God to demonstrate his power through this weak man to people. There was purpose in the disease that he carried. The next slide is a duplicate that I had earlier. So we’re going to go on now to 2 Corinthians 12, 7, 9. Again, we’re looking at the same passage, but the different point here is that not only can disease be purposeful, but it’s not always healed by God when we pray, because Paul tells us in verse 8 concerning this matter, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me.
And none of us would doubt that Paul was not following the Lord as completely as any man could, for all that God used him to do. But God, even though Paul asked three times, still did not heal him from this physical problem that he had. First Timothy 5, 23. A follower of Paul and of Jesus Christ. Same thing.
He has A physical problem that is ongoing because God does not always heal disease. Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. And we get from this that it’s okay to take medicines, it’s okay to take things to help us with our physical problems, because God does not promise to always heal everything that we have. But there’s another option for disease, and that can be that Scripture says it can be a result of sin. There’s some sin in your life that’s lingering and it is causing you to be ill. And the only way to get rid of that illness is to confess sin in your life.
So we should always, when we’re sick, ask the Lord, is there something in my life that I need to confess? Because maybe this illness is trying to bring me to you. To point to this every time we have communion, I read over this text. It says, whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Paul is talking to the community of believers in the church that are around the Lord’s Supper.
And he says, this is why many are sick and ill among you in the church. And many have even died, because when they were coming to the Lord’s table, there was sin in their life that was not acknowledged. James 5. It tells us that if we’re ill, that we can call the elders to come and anoint us so that we might be healed. But in this anointing process, you’re supposed to examine yourself to make sure that your illness is not there because of sin.
And part of the process. It says, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Disease can be a result of sin in the believer’s life. Let’s go back now to our text, verse 34. And we find that over demons and over disease that Jesus has authority over them.
We’re looking at the authority of Jesus over over demons. Leave us alone. They said, what do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
But Jesus rebuked him and said, be silent and come out of him. And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all. We’re going to see this over and over throughout the Gospels that Jesus has authority over demons, but he also has authority over disease. He is able to heal. He didn’t heal everyone, but he was able to heal anyone that the Father directed him to.
In verse 37, news about him began to go out to every place in the vicinity. And after he left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother in law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him him about her. There’s no indication there’s a demon involved here. She’s sick.
So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, not the demon, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them. And then it goes on to say, when the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with all types of various diseases brought them to him. As he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them also. Demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, you are the Son of God.
But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah. What are the takeaways from the message today? The first one is that this is all written so that we will acknowledge Jesus as God, God and Savior. If we had been there in that day and seen these things going on, we would have been amazed. And we should be just as amazed by reading about the eyewitness accounts of what he did.
The second thing is that we need to be aware of Satan and his demons, not to be fearful of them, but we do need to be aware that they are at work around us. But thoroughly. We should fear not Satan and his demons because we have a Lord and Savior who can overcome them. And we need to fourthly go to Jesus for deliverance and go to Jesus for healing. He should be the first one that you go to when you have deliverance problems or health issues.
Next, we should accept God’s right to allow illness. We’re not all healed from the maladies that we have in our life, but we can know that God has purpose and reason for those things. Either to strengthen us, to show his glory, or to let his power be demonstrated through us and praise the Lord. We can all anticipate the new creation when death and disease will finally be gone. Sin will be removed from this world.
We’ll have a righteous king reigning over us and no one then will be sick. No one will have demons trying to control them, to destroy them, or to lead them astray. Acknowledge, be aware, fear not. Go to Jesus. Accept and anticipate.
There may be other things that God is laying on your heart today. But as it is with every time we come to the Lord’s Word, whether we’re reading at home or hearing it here, we need to ask God, what are you showing me today that you want me to change or think differently in my life and ask God to help us to do those things. Will you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity again to come to your word. Lay upon our hearts any new understandings that we need to have, Father, any changes that we need to make in the way we think or talk or live so that we might reflect your son more fully in this world, ultimately sharing the gospel and bringing people to faith.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.