Luke 4:31-37
If you are one of the 30% in the Untied States who attends a
Christian church you are blessed, but that is where the percentages get distorted
for it would be very hard to establish if the priest or preacher-teacher is a
man under the control of the Spirit of God.
The Scriptures tell us to examine and study the Bible to make sure what
one is saying is correct. Jesus has
these words about false prophets and teachers in Matthew 7: 15-16, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will
recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs
from thistles? So, every healthy
tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” As a follower
of Christ it is a wise person who goes back to the Scriptures to examine what
is coming from the lips of anyone who stands in front of them as a
teacher/preacher. It is also a wise
person who allows the Scriptures to shape their heart and mind. Jesus also tells of a time to
come and some of the signs of the closing of the age are found in Matthew 24.
Now when the people of Jesus’ home town rejected Him He went
down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching on the Sabbath, and they
were astonished at His teaching, for His word possessed authority. The prophet Isaiah shares these words from
the LORD; “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not
return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and
furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will
My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without
accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I
sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
On that day a man was in the synagogue with 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.” A footnote may be needed at this point, the
demon knew without question who Jesus was, but the crowd, the witnesses were
clueless. Back to Luke 4:35, “But Jesus rebuked
him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he
came out of him, having done him no harm.”
I am always amazed that in our culture, a cruel civilization
where life is taken so easily and babies are killed out of convenience, and
little girls and boys are used as objects of sexual lust, and women are seen as
objects to fulfill the lust of some deprived mind. We call this lack of education, poverty, sickness,
but not evil, not demon spirits living in the ones who act and prosper in this
present darkness. And let me share one
more insight, the dude with the unclean spirit of a demon was in the church
building and he may have been well respected for his wealth, his family, his
teaching, but he was in the synagogue, and a demon does not come to worship
God.
A wise man once told me, a word to the wise is sufficient,
and believing you are wise we are going to look at Doctor Luke’s writing in
Acts 17:11, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in
Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined
the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” My prayer for you and for myself is that we will also be as
wise as the Bereans as we follow the teaching in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to
present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth.”
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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