I Must Preach the Good News - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on Luke 4:31-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/22/2021 in Novato, CA















Sermon Manuscript







As we consider Jesus’ ministry of the Word in todays passage, it would be helpful to see it in light of last week’s passage. Last time, we saw Jesus explain his ministry at that time to his hometown of Nazareth. He used a prophecy from Isaiah 61 in verses 18-19 to describe his ministry as one who is anointed by God to give the gospel of God’s liberating power and healing. After Jesus read that prophecy, he said that by reading it, he fulfilled it. So then, that is what we continue to see him literally doing in today’s passage. While the people of Nazareth wouldn’t receive him, we see how the town of Capernaum received him well. There he brings that same prophesied ministry of the word in power, liberating and healing the afflicted. So then today we’ll see Jesus’ powerful ministry as a prophet and apostle of God to preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God.







Let us then begin in our first point to consider the power which Jesus’ word possessed. We see this stated in verse 32, that his word possessed authority. Now, if we just heard that statement by itself, we might just assume it means he spoke with a boldness or with a tone of command. But the context shows us that this had much more in mind. The passage immediately shows us what kind of authority it had in mind in the exorcisms. In verse 35, Jesus’ word commands a demon to leave a man. In verse 40, we see that he does the same for many others. Verse 36 then explains this by saying that his word came with both authority and power. In other words, for Jesus’s word to possess authority, it means that his word had power over the demons. At the command of his word they had to obey. By his word, he exercised control over demons.







But that’s not all. The power of Jesus’ word was also seen in how he healed people. We saw how the passage gave one example of Jesus rebuking an evil spirit from one man and then it described how Jesus exorcised many such demons there in Capernaum from people. Likewise, we see an example of one person healed with Simon’s mother-in-law in verse 38. This Simon is that beloved disciple Peter who was also named Simon, by the way. But notice in verse 39 that he rebukes the fever like he rebuked the unclean spirit. He spoke that fever out of her and she was healed. Then verse 40 describes a whole mass of other people from Capernaum that he later healed that same day. So, we see here that his word contained power and authority not only over demons but even over sickness and disease, amazingly!







Notice the effect that this fact had on the people. When they recognized the power and authority in his word they were astonished and amazed, verses 32 and 36. They ask in bewilderment, “What is this word?” They see the inherent power of his word, but they are at a loss to explain it. Of course, the facts speak for themselves. It’s what was said in that Isaiah prophecy. As the incarnate Son of God, he has been anointed by God with a ministry of word in power. We today look at what we did and rightly recognize the wonder of his miracles, but there is a sense in which we aren’t astonished and amazed the way they were because we know who Jesus is. The text focuses his power and authority in his word, in what he was saying, but we recognize that his words had such power because of who Jesus’s identity, because of who he is. So then, let us recapture some of that awe today when we remember there is power in his word because he is Jesus, the Christ and the Son of the God!







Let us turn now in our second point for today to see how his word silenced the demons. Consider just the contrast there.

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