The Church of Eleven22 - Lent Devo Episode 9: The Synagogue Demoniac

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

Luke 4:33-36; Mark 1:23-24

What is it? Some of the miracles. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Welcome to our Lent podcast. Hi, I'm Anne-Marie, and as you know, this Lent season, we are working through some of the miracles of Jesus shared with us across the gospel accounts. We're looking at how each of these miracles points us to the greatest of all miracles, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The miracle of Jesus that we're focused on today is found in Luke chapter 4, verses 33 through 36, and also in Mark chapter 1, verse 23 and 24.

I'll read from Luke first. And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Ha, what have you 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 saying, silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their mist, he came out of him,

having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And in Mark, it says, and immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God. Before we dive in, to the details of this miracle, let's back up a bit to look at the context. This miracle occurs at the start of Jesus' ministry. In fact, it's one of the first healings accounted for in both the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Just a few verses earlier in Luke 416, Jesus was actually in another synagogue

in his hometown of Nazareth. The practice in those days was for teachers, known as rabbis, to read from Old Testament scrolls, and in this earlier passage, we see Jesus reading from the prophet Isaiah saying these words. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set it liberty those who are oppressed. And Jesus rolls up the scroll and then says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. If you keep reading, you'll see that Jesus was actually rejected in his hometown for speaking with such authority. If you think about it from the rabbi's perspective, here's this man they've known his entire life from their own town proclaiming to be the fulfillment of scripture. It's a pretty radical claim, and understandably

could be hard to believe. We have to remember, we have the benefit of knowing who Jesus is when we read this text. The people seeing Jesus for the first time, hearing his words and witnessing his miracles, didn't know yet who he was. They just knew that God promised to send the Messiah, and they were waiting, gathering each week, faithfully reading the story, and they were waiting. Gathering each week, faithfully reading the scriptures, praying and listening to their rabbis. Who knows if they were waiting passively or actively? If they even remembered that they were waiting for a Messiah, or perhaps they were just busy with the cares of the world,

feeding their kids, taking care of their families. Or perhaps they woke up every day wondering if today would be the day that the Messiah appeared. So before we judge the rabbis for rejecting Jesus, we might want to think about how often we inadvertently do the same. How often do we hear the words of Jesus but not really take them to heart? How often do we miss Jesus in the day to day? That's why a season of Lent is so important for us to intentionally focus on receiving and believing the words of Jesus. Okay, so back to our miracle.

First, let's remember, this is a real account. This event actually happened to a real person with real witnesses. At this point, Jesus had left Nazareth and is in the big city of Capric. There they are gathered together in the synagogue for their weekly teaching, and this new guy, Jesus from Nazareth, begins to speak, and then suddenly this other man shouts out, disrupting and distracting the others from the teaching, from the kingdom truth that Jesus was sent to share. And Jesus and his omniscience and his all-knowing spirit recognizes immediately that the man himself isn't shouting out, but instead is being oppressed by an unclean spirit, a demon,

an underling of Satan. mind you, this is the same Satan that Jesus just defeated for 40 days in the desert, the same enemy that deceived Adam and Eve in the garden, the same enemy that Jesus fully conquered with his death on the cross and his resurrection. And then not only does Jesus recognize the oppression for what it is, but he is the only one in the room equipped to do anything about it. He is the only one who had full authority from God himself to proclaim liberty to the captives and set at liberty those who are

oppressed, just like the prophet Isaiah said. So with the fullness of his authority, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to be quiet and to leave the man, and the spirit does. Imagine what that must have been like for the man that was healed. How much lighter he must have felt without the weight of darkness on him. Picture in your mind the way he must have looked up at Jesus after the demon left him. Close your eyes for a minute and put yourself in the place of the man. See Jesus. See Jesus. standing there in front of you, having just released you from this captivity. What would you feel toward Jesus? Gratitude, amazement, love, awe. Would you believe in your core that he is for you and not against you? Would you believe that if he could do that for you, then he could do anything?

The truth is, each one of us are just like the man with the demon. Each one of us is weighed down by the cares of this world by darkness by an enemy we have a very real enemy the world and its distractions and busyness our own flesh and satan himself all work against us to steal kill and destroy us first peter five eight tells us that our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour Ephesians 612 reminds us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in this world And then there's our own fleshly desires, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and pride of life, that wage war within us, as Paul reminds us in Romans 7.

And yet, Jesus and all of his authority came to set us, the captives, free. All we have to do is simply receive and believe. As we prepare to celebrate Easter, may we see ourselves in this miracle. May we remember that the enemy tries in sneaky ways to disrupt and distract us from following, following Jesus and abiding in him. During this Lent season, may we quiet the disruptions and eliminate the distractions. May we remind ourselves of Jesus' authority over all things in our life. May we believe that He is for us and may we keep our eyes fixed on him, the author and perfector of our faith, the one who brings sight to the blind, light to the dark, and freedom

to the captives. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel, of the miracles of your son Jesus, the way that he worked through your power here on earth. We thank you for the reminders of his authority over all things in this life. May it be an encouragement to us this Lent season, particularly for those walking through what feels like an incredibly dark season. May we cling to the hope that through our faith in Jesus we have freedom. We have been set free from the darkness, and it is no longer ruling over us. as we celebrate the victory Jesus Christ had over death, demons, and darkness, and continues to have this day, may we walk in the fullness of knowing that we have that same victory because of the power of his blood that lives in us.

Amen. Thanks for listening. Our prayer is that this podcast will help you deepen your relationship with Jesus. For more resources, go to C-O-E-22.com forward slash lent.