Luke 4:40-44

The Gospel of Luke chapter 4 reading verses 40 through 44 for our text and study this morning. Now when the sun was setting all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them unto him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And devils also came out of many crying out and saying, thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuked them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. When it was day, he departed and went into a desert place, and the people sought him and came under him and stayed him that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the king, preached the kingdom of God to other cities also. For therefore am I sent? And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee. And God blessed to us is sacred this morning. Years ago, Ben Franklin wished to interest the people of Philadelphia in street lighting. So what he did was, even though he was a publisher of books and so forth, he didn’t say it worked. He, instead of talking about street lighting, or writing about street lighting, instead he just held a hung out a beautiful lantern on a long bracket before his own door. He kept the glass brightly polished and carefully hung it out at the last. the approach of dusk every day. Well, people wondering about on this dark street saw the glow of his light a long way off and appreciated it. And before you know it, Franklin’s neighbors began placing lights in brackets outside their homes. And so Philadelphia’s streets became lit simply by following Franklin’s example. Not all the… teaching of scripture that we have is based upon personal instruction. Sometimes when we look at the scripture, we learn by the example of others. And here we have the example of Christ before us. Our text is a case in point. By simply observing what Christ did and following his example, you can be greatly benefited. Now, it was a busy Sabbath day. in the morning he was in the synagogue preaching and of course he cast out the demon from the man who he found in the temple in that condition. He retires afterwards to Simon Peter’s house where Simon Peter’s wife’s mother was very sick with a high fever and he heals her and then we find she ministered to the needs of Christ and his apostles. Now near the end of the day, this Sabbath day, people brought a whole host of sick individuals to the house to be healed by our Lord and Savior. So I want to talk about Christ’s example here. You find an account here of many kinds of healings that he did in verses 40 and 41. Christ healed every kind of disease. The text talks about diverse diseases. Now down through the centuries, thousands of diseases have been identified. We cataloged them. We have books full of information about various diseases. There’s an innumerable number of them. And they’ve been, some of them are old disease that have plagued mankind for a long, long time. Today we have identified and classified many, many, many diseases. However, all forms of diseases came under Christ’s power here and fled at his word. Remember, as we look at this text and we think about his miracle working power, that all were healed who were brought to him. Not just some of them, but everybody that was brought was healed. That is amazing as we look at this. Because the Bible talks about the fact that every one of them he healed in verse 40. Whether they had blood disorders, whether they had heart conditions, whether they had cancers, whether they had paralyzed limbs, whether they were blind, whether there was some type of seizures that they had, or mental disorders or disturbances, or deafness, or stomach ailments, or whatever the case. maybe it didn’t matter. He healed them all. And there is never one that wasn’t cured by our Lord. You know, today, even the greatest physicians can’t claim that kind of cure rate. If they got 90% or 80%, that would be really good of everyone that came to them. Every once in a while, there are people that come to the doctor and they can’t, they try to help them, but they just aren’t able to. No matter what our society. and old medicines they have, no matter what skill they have as surgeons, they can’t help them. But our Lord Jesus Christ is a physician that never once had a case that was too difficult for him to handle. There’s nothing too hard for the Lord, right? So he cured all that were sick, regardless of the multitude of diseases. He had 100% sick, cure rate, cure rate, success rate. He healed them by his own power. He simply laid his hands on them and healed them. He didn’t have to use medicine. He didn’t have to have any surgical instruments to do any type of work on the patients. So this astonishing feat was accomplished, and guess what? They didn’t get a bill afterwards. It wasn’t that wonderful. He healed by charging a penny for it. It was free. What compassion, Jesus. has had for others in need here. What patience he displays in dealing with all that were sick that came to the house, he healed every one of them. He didn’t say, well, you know, I can heal so many. He, one by one, he heals them all as they come to the, come to him. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, as Isaiah 53 for indicates. We see how compassionate your Savior is toward his people in their sickness. So Christ healed every kind of disease. Christ healed special cases of demon possession. Verse 41 talks about the many that came to him with demons, devils, in them. They were possessed with evil spirits. Very common in Christ’s day. It was a wicked and perverse. generation. When Christ came to earth, it seems Satan unleashes an onslaught of demons to try to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ. And they seem to be really in the forefront during Christ’s ministry, and he is casting them out, showing his power over them. He often encounters them. These, maybe even more than any other time in human history. Well, these demons more heavily infested society in Christ’s day. So you repeatedly have these healings of people that have demons. They were no match for the Savior. He easily cast out the demons just as easy as he cast out the sicknesses. No problem for the Savior. They came under his power. He cast them out. These demons confessed, crying out with rage and indignation. Thou art the cry. the son of God we read here in verse 41. They knew who Christ was. They trembled being in the presence of the son of God. He could banish them. He could send them off into the bottomless pit where they’d be imprisoned and so forth. We talked about this previously. Jesus silenced them, not desiring their testimony because they are spirits that are lying spirits and they’re unreliable witnesses. He doesn’t want their testimony. Now, we should learn from this the almighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ how he easily he can cast these demons out and they yield to his commands. Now let me make these couple observations as we look at this first two verses of this text. You should be aware of religious knowledge that does your soul no good. The demons had a very clear knowledge about Christ. He’s the Holy One of God. He is the Son of God. Doctrinally, they were correct in what they knew about the Savior. Not all people around the Savior had such a clear perception and understanding of who Christ was, but they did. And yet those who possess this knowledge were miserable, fallen beings, agents of Satan, full of bitterness and malignity against both God and man. They oppose Christ. They oppose Christ’s kingdom. People often know facts and figures about. the Bible. Maybe they even know some of the doctrine that is found in Scripture. And the sad thing is you may know all this and your soul be completely unaffected by the scripture itself, the doctrines. That religious knowledge that you have may not do you any good. Do you have spiritual knowledge? that’s unaccompanied by faith, hope, or charity? You may know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but does that knowledge have any influence over your heart, your will, your affections in your life? Don’t be content to be like the demons when it comes to having knowledge. They at least knew something about Christ. But does your knowledge of sin make you hate it? make you repent of it. Does it convict you? Does your knowledge of Christ make you want to trust him, to love him? Does your knowledge of God’s will make you strive to do it? Those are the kinds of questions that we should ask with regard to our knowledge. As you should be aware of religious knowledge that does your soul no good. Secondly, you should use the whole Sabbath day for doing good. suppose a finally dressed man is walking down the streets of Pittsburgh and he comes across a homeless man on the streets. And he opens his wallet and he sees that he has seven $10 bills in his wallet. So he pulls out the money and he begins counting it out and he counts out six ten dollar bills and gives them to the homeless man and he tucks that seventh ten thousand. dollar bill back in his wallet. And off he goes. To his surprise, he finds that the homeless man follows him and then robbed him at knife point because he wanted the last $10 bill that he had and he took it from him. What would you think about such a person as that? How evil this homeless man would be to do something like that. How ungrateful when a man gave him six of the $10 bills and he’s still one of the seventh. yet clearly this sets forth the ingratitude of men and depriving God of the seventh day or in this case the first day of the week one out of seven. He’s reserved for himself one day for him as the Sabbath. He says, I’ll give you the other six. You can do whatever you want with the other six. But man wants to steal the seventh day from the Lord. Look at Christ’s Sabbath day. See how fully he used it. In the morning he’s preaching at the synagogue. He’s casting out demons. Later he heals Simon’s wife’s mother of the great fever as we talked about. At the end of the day a great multitude of sick people are coming and he’s healing them. No doubt while he ate at Simon Peter’s house, he was discussing spiritual things with his disciples and the people in the house because that was his common procedure, what he normally did. So Jesus used the whole Sabbath day profitably, either in public worship, private worship, spiritual conversation, or doing good to those in need. Do you attempt to follow Christ’s example in this? Do you give the Lord the whole day. Our Confession of Faith, London, 1689, Chapter 22, paragraph 8, says this. The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts in ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe a holy rest all the day from their own words, our own works, words, words, and thoughts about their worldly employing. and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. Follow Christ’s example. So you find an account of the many kinds of healings that Christ did. Demonic castouts and also healing of sickness and disease. Secondly, you find Christ retiring to a solitary place to pray. In verse 42, when it was day he departed, went into a desert place. Now, look with me at Mark’s gospel and chapter 1, verses 32 to 35, because he tells us what the Lord is doing in this solitary place. You’ll notice that if you look at this section before this, verse 32, if you look from 20, to 31, he goes to Simon Peter’s house, Simon’s wife’s mother, lay sick of a fever, and so forth. So it’s the very same account. And then verse 32 at evening, when the sun did set, they brought on to him all that were diseased, and them that possessed were possessed with devils, same as we saw in their previous text and Luke, and all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases and cast out many devils and suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him. Now notice verse 35. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. So this is what he was doing. He went out to pray. Now, I suggest if we look at this, it indicates to us another thing we can learn from the example of Christ is that you ought to start your day with prayer. This is what he’s doing. When it was day. Jesus would go nowhere, nothing without first praying. He delighted in drawing near to his heavenly Father. He loved to pray the first thing in the morning. This is a good example. As you begin the day, begin by asking counsel and guidance from the Lord. You can accomplish nothing without God’s blessing, so seek it early. Make your day profitable. Take advantage of your ability to come before the throne of grace and lay your petitions before your Lord. Let us do it joyfully, delighting in the access that we have through the work of Christ to the throne of grace and the approach we can after the Lord. Think of the intimate intercourse that Christ had with the Savior that must have made up the main portion of his prayers. He had no sin to confess, and he didn’t have any need because of any human weakness per se. He didn’t have any physical ailments or anything of this nature. It’s just Christ’s Holy Mind conversing with the Father. There was a wonderful agreement between them. Some of the sweetest devotions that we can have in our prayer life with as Christians is simply enjoying the Father. As we think about his attributes, we take the light in God for who he is, longing to be more like him, desiring, to serve him. Don’t we express our wonder and appreciation for his omnipence, omniscience, umni presence, his justice, his holiness, his power, his wisdom, his love, his patience, and so forth. C.H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of London, was once shocked by a woman who told him, I am so conformed to the mind and will of God that I don’t need to pray. He had to deal with those who claim to be perfectionist. They had reached perfection in his day. So Christ answered. He said, I pray God, open your eyes and see the delusion on which you are laboring. He said, the Holy Lord Jesus Christ abounded in prayer, notwithstanding his absolute perfection. Christ was perfectly conform to the Father’s mind and will, and this most of God, motivated him to pray. As Spurson put it, the kind of perfection which leads a man to think that he doesn’t not need to pray is damnable. How true that would be. So you should desire to start your day with prayer. This is what Christ was doing. You should seek to be alone for prayer. He goes out into a desert place. There’s nobody else out there. So he can be alone. He can be by himself when he seeks the Lord. Now we should desire secret prayer. I think I told you this once about the little boy. He’s a young boy. It was accustomed spending every day in some time in prayer. And so he would go up in the hayloft on the farm in which he was being raised and he would pray up there. But then every once in someone would come up and disturb him. So he learned to pull the ladder up behind him. so that nobody else could come up and therefore no one would disturb you while he’s praying. Well, Jesus taught us that when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou shut the door, then pray to thy father, which is in secret. We close out the world. We get away from sources of distraction, and we shut out anything that would hinder our secret devotion to the Lord. Secret prayer is the secret of prayer, one old divine stated. So you should desire secret prayer. Secret prayer allows you to pray aloud. Now it’s not necessary to pray out loud. You could pray silently. You know, there’s nothing wrong with that. And yet I think it is greatly advantageous to yourself to verbally express your prayers in a manner in which you can actually hear what you’re saying. Sometimes there’s, I think it’s stimulating and useful to us to pray aloud. And I think it keeps us more focused. You better express yourself with freedom and force when you pray aloud. You can cry out. You can groan with, you can express joy. You can express gratitude better. We read of the Savior strong cry out. and tears when he prayed. So it seems like there was some outward verbal speaking when he prayed. So secret prayer allows you to pray aloud. Secret prayer allows you to express your innermost secrets to the Lord. Christ’s prayers were marvelous communications when he prayed publicly. Look at John 17 in his high priestly prayer. It’s a wonderful prayer to contemplate. Yet here we have him praying in a solitude situation here. He’s out in the desert praying. And the Bible does not record for us what he prayed. We’re not told what he prayed. Perhaps we would desire to know what he prayed at this time. But it’s sort of like the Seven Thunders in the Book of Revelation where John is told, don’t recall. record that. And so it’s not here, it’s not recorded in Luke, for God does not want us to know. Every child of God pleads at times in forms of passion and expression, which nobody else should hear. It’s between you and God alone when you pray. You may say things from your heart which nobody else has a right to know. The fervency of your words, the freedom of expression you use, what deep feelings you have as you pour out your heart before the throne of grace, they are for God’s ears alone. So you find Christ retiring to a solitary place for prayer. A good example for us. Thirdly, you find Christ expanding his ministry to all Galilee in the second part of verse 42. through verse 44. Now, we find here in this text of scripture that the people sought him out. Where is he? So they find him. They come to him and find him out. And they don’t want him to leave. That he should not depart from them. Please stay with us. And he said under them in verse 43, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also. For therefore am I sent? And he preached in the synagogues of Gal. Now you see Christ committed here to fulfilling his divine commission to all of Israel. Jesus didn’t seek to be popular. However, the people of Copernian begged him to stay. when he indicated he planned to move on. The people were fond of him, no doubt, because of his healing ministry. And so they sought him out. Remember how his hometown Nazareth tried to kill him and threw him out of town, you know, trying to throw him out of town, basically. Because Pernium here desires for him to stay. But Jesus was mindful of his father’s commission in verse 43 that he was sent to all Israel, for therefore am I sent? They preached to the kingdom of God to other cities also, he says. He wanted to spread the gospel to other places, to broaden his ministry, plow new ground elsewhere. Now, we who enjoy the light of the gospel of Christ shouldn’t hoard it for ourselves. That would be selfish. It should be our own. desire that the benefit of the gospel would reach other people who needed. Our commission is the whole world. And for this reason, we send our dearly beloved brothers to faraway lands, to be missionaries and so forth. We’d like to keep them here. We’d like to keep their fellowship here and know them, but there is a need for the gospel to go to other people, other lands, other places for the expansion of the kingdom of God. So you find Christ committed to fulfilling the divine commission to reach all Israel. You see, the priority of preaching is emphasized. Verse 44, we see here, he preached in the synagogues of Galo. Now, preaching is near that today. Why it’s boring, we’re told. We are told. We are told that it’s wearisome, too wearisome to hear expository preaching. Modern churches wish to make worship, you know, fun and exciting. Let’s add some Christian drama, some sacred dance, some messages about health and wealth and so forth. But you notice that scripture here doesn’t even stress his healings. It stresses his preaching in these other cities. It is by the scripture here. foolishness of preaching that men and women or children are brought into the kingdom of God. Not by seeing miracles per se. For this reason, we persist in preaching the gospel, even if critics have decided that it should be dead and buried in the church today. It is Christ’s example that the preaching of the gospel should have priority. Jesus Christ came to be a preacher. For this end, for this purpose I’m sent forth. He is the prophet greater than Moses that all should heed. According to Deuteronomy 18, he was commissioned by his father to spread the gospel throughout the land of Israel. So he puts honor on the office of the preacher here. We must never allow preaching to lose its priority. We should always beware of those who would undermine the preaching of the Word of God, that it would not be placed in the forefront. By preaching, a church is first gathered and established. By preaching, it’s maintained, and the spiritual growth takes place, and spiritual health is nurtured. By preaching, the faithful preacher is following Christ’s example. This is the reason I was sent for. forth to preach the gospel. Well, Ben Franklin, got the people of Philadelphia to engage in streetlighting just by his example. Christ here in our text, I think, provides much instruction for us to follow just by his example. The use of the Sabbath day. Private prayer. The priority of preaching. The need to spread the gospel. All these things are set forth. fourth in the example of Christ here in our text. Let us close with the word of prayer. Father, we are thankful for your goodness, your mercy, and your grace. Strengthen us, Father, with the things of Christ. Let your word benefit us, and may we follow Christ’s example. Lord, it’s in Christ’s name we ask these things. This morning we’re going to observe the Lord’s Supper. To that end, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Song of Solomon as we have been looking in this book as preparation for the Lord’s Supper. Song of Solomon, Chapter 1, verse 6. Back up to verse 5, where we looked at our last study, I am black but come, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon, look not upon. me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother’s children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Communion is at time when we draw near to the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy his fellowship, as verse four indicates to us in Song of Solomon chapter 1, where he’s at the, we’re at the kings palaces at the king’s palace and so forth. And part of our duty in preparation for the Lord’s supper is self-examination. Is it not? For the scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 1028, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. And there’s a sense in which verses 5 and 6 give us a self-examination. by the church. The bride, the church is speaking here to the daughters of Jerusalem. So the daughters of Jerusalem are another, it’s a portion of the church, those that are perhaps early believers, young, just born again believers, they’re not very knowledgeable as we find out as we looked at our last study, and they have much to learn. and so they have some questions that have arisen, and the church itself is instructing part of the membership here about these matters. And they perceive that there is some blackness in the church. So the daughters of Jerusalem are busy judging others. There’s some blackness about you. And the bride humbly acknowledges, I am black. Black because of the black. of sinfulness that still plagues her, and suffering is still being endured. And the latter part of verse 6 explains that a little bit further. And we’ll look at that some other time, Lord willing. The bride, however, asserts that no matter how black she may appear to others, she is comely or beautiful in the eyes of Christ, her Savior. Now the bride states here, look not on me because I am black. or as Gil says, exceedingly black, don’t look negatively upon me because of this. Perhaps we could say, judge yourself. Judge yourself. There are those who may scornfully look upon Christians. The lowliness, the poverty, the sufferings of the saints often rendered them contemptible in the eyes of others. The people who are people. of God acknowledge spiritual imperfections, but they’re looked down upon them because of them. Maybe it’s a prying look. Some people intensely seek to find flaws and sins and others and make it their duty. They’re busy trying to find specks in other people’s eyes and not beholding the moats that are in their own. If God so strictly observed and marked our iniquities as people are apt to do, What hope would we have? Thankfully, there’s forgiveness with the Lord, and that there’s mercy for his people. Some people have a gleeful look. Some people take pleasure in the falls and afflictions that believers endure. Edom was blamed for this in the day of Israel’s calamity in Obadiah chapter, or there’s only one chapter, verses 12 and 13. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother. gleefully with joy when he was suffering. Sympathized with our fellow believers who struggle with a fall or an enduring infliction. Pray for their triumph. An astonished look. Why should you amaze at the church’s suffering as though this was some strange, uncommon thing? Did not the head of the church have to suffer, even though he was perfect? Should not the body his body, the church also have to endure it? Maybe there’s a one-sided look. Don’t merely look on the blackness of the church. It’s faults, its failings, it’s trials, but look on her beauty as well. She is comely in Christ, cleansed of all her sin. She is redeemed, isn’t she? So, the Lord’s Supper demands personal examination. a man examine himself. Focus on yourself, not on others, when you come to the table. Your brother in Christ may have plenty of flaws, may be enduring a great period of suffering. Don’t look down upon it. The best Christians are the most shame-faced with regard to themselves. I am black. That’s an honest. honest assessment. Don’t look on me. Don’t judge me harshly. I admit I’m exceedingly black. I know that to be true. But my friends, this fellowship we have with the king is not for perfect people. You’ll notice it’s for sinners. Have their sins washed away. Isn’t that what we’re celebrating? When we come to the table? We are forgiven people. We’re not. perfect people, we’re forgiven. But in Christ, we have a perfect covering for our sins. Are you someone has your sins washed away and forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ? Does that describe you? Then you can come to the table with a heart of thankfulness to the Savior who has taken away your sins. So judge yourself. Let yourself be evaluated by your own heart and where you stand with the Lord. We come to the table this morning. We always ask that you have examined your heart and you have prepared yourself to come to the table in a proper manner.