What scares Satan?

Luke 4:31-37

Luke 4:31-37.

The way you know Jesus in the fullness of His person is by knowing in depth the revelation of Him on the pages of Scripture. Luke is introducing us to the Messiah, the Saviour, the Son of God. Up until this point he has been discussing the person of Jesus Christ, that

• He was announced by the angel,
• His forerunner was announced, that
• He was born of a virgin named Mary with no earthly father, that He was in the line of David, that
• He was the true Messiah announced to be the Lamb of God by John the Baptist,
• affirmed by the Father who said in His Son He was well pleased,
• that the Spirit of God came down on Him.

Luke has said up to this point, including Jesus'conflict with Satan in the wilderness, affirms Him as the Messiah. It deals with His person as Messiah, Son of God, Saviour of the world. Even the occasion in Nazareth in the prior section from verses 16 to 30 focused on the person of Jesus as the Messiah. He was the Anointed One, He was the one on whom the Spirit of the Lord had come to preach the gospel.

So, everything up to this point has been His person. We are going to see His power over all religious teachers, His authority over all other religious teaching.

• We are going to see His power over demons.
• We are going to see His power over disease.
• We are going to see His power over nature.

Jesus has power over everyone and everything.

• He is the Messiah by virtue of angelic announcement.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of virgin birth.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of Abrahamic and Davidic descent.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of the proclamation of the forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of angelic announcement.
• He is the Messiah by virtue of His defeat of Satan.
• Father announced Him to be the Messiah, because the Spirit came upon Him to be the Messiah.

Because Jesus, being anointed, came to preach the gospel to the poor, the captives, the blind, and the downtrodden. All of that identifies Him as the person of the Messiah.

Now we begin to see His power. We have met the real Jesus as to His person, now we meet the real Jesus as to His power. Jesus was not a mere human with a limited sphere of influence. He was God the Son possessing absolute power and absolute authority over everyone and everything.

Luke will show us in rest of the Gospel. First, Luke deals with Jesus'power over demons. It mentions His authority twice. V 32 &V36 We already know that Jesus has engaged in a conflict with Satan.

Luke 4:1-13, Jesus went out into the wilderness, He was sent there by the Holy Spirit to engage in conflict with Satan. Satan put three temptations in front of Jesus over which Jesus totally triumphed in every case. He established His power over Satan there. He established the fact that Satan had nothing in him, as the Scripture says, that He could withstand all of Satan's assaults personally. Could Jesus overpower Satan for others? If Jesus is to save sinners, He is going to have to deliver them out of the kingdom of darkness.

If Jesus is going to save sinners, He is going to have to get them away from Satan whose children they are.

John 8:44, Jesus says, the unregenerate, the unconverted sinners of the world are the children of Satan. Ephesians ² says that they are children of disobedience, that they are the sons of disobedience who are under the power of the prince of the air.

They are under the control of the god of this world.

2 Corinthians 4:4, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Colossians 1:13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

1 John 5:19, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Acts 26:18, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

All sinners are under the dominion of Satan.

• If Jesus is going to deliver people from their spiritual poverty,
• if Jesus is going to deliver them from their spiritual bondage,
• if Jesus is going to deliver them from their spiritual blindness and their spiritual oppression,
• if Jesus is going to set the captives free,
• If Jesus is going to smash down the fortifications of the deceiver,
• If Jesus is going to do that and set the captives free and bring them to salvation, He must be able to conquer demons.

Then the Messiah must have the power to shatter the guardians of that kingdom, the demons, the fallen angels and their ruler, Satan. Once people admit that they are the poor, Jesus said He would preach the gospel to the poor.

Once they admit that they are the prisoners who need to be liberated spiritually, Once they admit that they are the blind who need spiritual sight, and they are the oppressed who need to be freed from that oppression, have that burden removed, once they admit that and turn to Christ, can save them.

Can Jesus deliver them from the domain of darkness? The bondage is profound and deep.

Hebrews 2:14, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, Jesus must be able to conquer Satan on their behalf. So, it is one thing that He could defeat Satan in His own temptation.

The question is, can He conquer the kingdom of darkness on behalf of others? He must demonstrate His power on behalf of sinners who are the helpless subjects of Satan's angels. Why did the Son of God appear, for what purpose?

To save sinners.

1 John 3:8, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Why did Jesus Christ come into the world? He came into the world that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Messiah then was brought into the world, God incarnate, for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil. When the Messiah comes, the battle is on. The war is on. That is not to say that every sinner, every unregenerate person including all of us before we were converted is demon possessed, but we are all in bondage to the demonic system.

Sin places us in the domain of darkness where we are under the influences of Satan and his demons. Every sinner is under Satan's dominion. Every sinner is under Satan's influence. Since we can't do anything that is right, we only do what is wrong, and we satisfy the kingdom of darkness at every point.

That is different than being possessed by a demon. That is an extreme form of bondage that is rare. It is not rare in the gospels. If you read the Old Testament, you will not find one incident of a person being demon-possessed in the entire record of the Old Testament.

If you study the epistles starting with the book of Romans going through the New Testament, all the epistles, you will not find one individual demon possessed. It is a rare occurrence.

That is not to say it didn't happen. There is no record of it in the Old Testament, no record in the epistles but there is an explosion of demon-possession in the gospels attacking the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.

We see it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. That is a unique and extreme form of bondage. While every sinner is not possessed by demons, every sinner is in the domain of darkness and must be liberated by the Messiah and the Saviour. The sinner comes to the recognition that he is the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed and he turns to the Saviour and says, please save me, deliver me from Satan, deliver me from sin, deliver me from bondage, deliver me from death, and deliver me from hell.

Can Jesus do that? If He's the Messiah, He must demonstrate that He can. This passage shows that He can. By the way, the man doesn't even say anything. We don't even see this man repent. We don't even know whether he believed.

A demon spoke out of him and in verse 35 Jesus rebuked the demon and said, "Be quiet and come out of him."

When the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing any harm. Regardless of where the man was, in terms of his own understanding of his sinfulness or faith in Christ, we don't have any indication that those things were part of his thinking.

It didn't matter where he was, Jesus can command the demons at will anytime, and they had to do immediately what He told them to do. If Jesus is the Messiah, He must have power over the kingdom of darkness if He's going to deliver us, as Colossians 1:13 says, from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Jesus must be able to shatter the power of the demons, and this illustrates that He can! The terrible need of the human race is this: They are in bondage to Satan. They are under demonic influence. It is the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, they are alienated from God, they are subjects of Satan.

So, 1 John 3:8 says Jesus left the divine realm, came into the world to shatter, to destroy those works of the devil and set sinners free. The devil had been holding humanity in a death grip since Genesis 3rd chapter.

Now the evil spirits knew why Jesus had come. They should have interviewed some of these demons on the search for Jesus. They would have gotten the right answer. V 34, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

The demons know exactly who Jesus is. They have known Him since before they fell out of heaven. They were once holy angels. According to Revelation 12, a third of them fell. They know who God is. They know who Jesus is. They can read the Bible.

They know the story very well. They also know the end of the story, the lake of fire prepared for them. That is why when Jesus arrives you see this explosion of demon possession take place because they really feel the battle is on at full force.

All hell breaks loose and all through the gospels and even into the book of Acts there's this explosion of demon possession as these demons try to hold on to the sinners that Jesus has brought the message of release.

Demons generally try operating on a subtle way, this what happened in the past. During the life of Jesus, the power is so great that they can't restrain themselves and they blow their own cover. This demon in this text screams in the middle of Jesus'sermon and it's apparent to everybody that a demon is in this man.

But normally you find demon possession rare, and you find the demon conversing also rare. But here in the ministry of Jesus it explodes and the clandestine, subtle ways in which demons generally operate give way to an open confrontation with Jesus Christ as the battle for the souls of sinners is on.

Throughout the biblical history the demons unleashed their greatest and most visible audible assault at the time of Jesus and on the sinners that are hearing Jesus preach. As we look at this illustration, this is one of those definitive passages. We must understand this before we can just tell the little story.

James 2:19, You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! People might think that as a believer you need to be afraid of demons. Wrong. You don't need to be afraid of them.

Demons live in constant terror. They know that Jesus is going to come back and bind them for a thousand years and then throw them in the lake of fire. They can read Revelation just like we can. The demons know the story.

They are in constant fear because they also do not know the day nor the hour when the Son of Man is going to come and render their judgment. So, the demons believe and because they believe the truth, they are in a constant state of trembling. They are afraid.

We believe the gospel and that tells us that our eternity is settled, secure, and in that we rejoice. The demons know the very opposite. They know for them there is no salvation, only a lake of fire. They don't know exactly when that is going to come. They know it is inevitable and they live in constant terror.

What makes them tremble?

What scares demons? Preaching of the Word of God by the Son of God. The purpose of the Son of God scares them.

The purity of the Son of God scares them. The power of the son of God. Demons live in terror of the Son of God.

• His preaching,
• His purpose,
• His purity, and
• His power.

The preaching of the Son of God. Jesus was a preacher! Above all He was a preacher in terms of His ministry. He spoke the Word of God. He never spoke anything but the Word of God. Every time He opened His mouth, the truth of God came out.

John 8:26, I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” He was always preaching, and teaching.

Luke 4:15, And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Then His teaching and preaching there in Nazareth.

Luke 4:43-44, but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” 44 And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. He not only preached in the synagogues of Judea, also in Galilee where He was at this time, but He preached all over the place, Galilee, Judea, wherever it was. Everywhere He went He was preaching! He was preaching the Word of God. He was expositing the Scripture.

Luke 24:27, And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. From the beginning to the end of His ministry He preached and preached and preached and preached and always He preached the Word of God. That's all He ever preached and that's all any preacher should ever preach.

Acts 1:3, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

V 31, Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. Capernaum is here identified as a city of Galilee. We will not find Capernaum now because it was destroyed, judged by God. After all, the Messiah had made His home there for a year and a half during His Galilean ministry and He had preached many times there. On this occasion in the synagogue and they had rejected Him, and God judged them and wiped that city out and it doesn't exist today.

All that's there is a little monastery and some ruins in an old synagogue and a place that is believed to have been built on top of the house that Peter once lived in. But the city is obliterated from the earth. But at that time, it was the main agriculture and fishing centre of the Galilee area, which is the north part of the land of Israel.

He went down to Capernaum. There is a reason for saying down because Galilee is an area that has depths and heights of some interesting proportions. There are hills and mountains in the northern part of Galilee and then there is the Jordan Valley that runs down the middle of the Galilee, surrounded by mountains. The city of Nazareth is about 1,300 feet above sea level, whereas Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee is 686 feet below sea level.

So, it was a 2,000-foot drop to go about the twenty miles from Nazareth down to Capernaum. It is identified as a city of Galilee for the benefit of readers who may not know the geography of the land of Israel. Jesus left Nazareth, went down the 2,000-foot walk to Capernaum. It was on a Sabbath in Capernaum that He was teaching them.

It was typical to do that on a Sabbath. V 33, "There was a man in the synagogue," V 31 doesn't mention the synagogue. V 38, refers to it when it says He left the synagogue. Jesus went into the synagogue as His custom always was.

Luke 4:16, So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Again, He was asked to read the Scripture and preach and no doubt He preached perhaps the same message He had preached in Nazareth, the fulfilment of Isaiah 61:1-2. Jesus preached repentance, He preached the gospel. He preached salvation.

We don't have the record of His sermon, but we can assume it was the same message that He came to preach. Of course, they never heard anybody like this. The clarity of His preaching, the truthfulness of it, the power of it, there was never a speaker like this.

This was the greatest mind that ever walked on the planet. He had the greatest grasp of truth. He had the same understanding of truth that God Himself has because He was God. There was never anybody who spoke like Him, and they were literally in awe of this man and His ability to speak.

V 32, And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. By the way, the word "amazed"means to be stunned or shocked! They never heard anything like this, and it was the gospel. His message came with such force, authority, or power used interchangeably.

His authority was absolute. He didn't quote anybody.

He drew nothing from tradition. He drew nothing from history. He didn't quote any old rabbis or any new scholars. He just spoke the Word of God. He didn't need to quote anybody. He didn't need any scholastic support for anything.

His Word was true, it was penetratingly true. The preaching came with power and tremendous clarity. Nobody could escape its meaning. It came with tremendous conviction, and nobody could escape its application. V 33-34, Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

There was a man in the synagogue. That is all we know about him. But he becomes the recipient of the first miracle recorded in Luke when Jesus cast the demon out of him. He had a big problem. He was possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon.

When Satan fell out of heaven, he took a third of the angels with him, they become the demons. One of the things they do is dwell inside people. This is such a person. Now it tells us that this man was possessed, indwelt, literally the Greek is “having the spirit of an unclean demon literally in him.” It is called here an unclean demon.

They are all unclean. There is no such thing as a clean one, or a semi-clean one. Demon possession means to be under the control of a demon which control cannot be resisted. It's different than being influenced. People can resist the influence of Satan, but possession is another thing altogether in which total control cannot be resisted.

So here is this man just sitting there and this gospel is coming out of the mouth of Jesus with tremendous force, and it hits the demon and the demon screams. Literally the demon screams with a loud voice, right in the middle of the preaching.

He was in the midst of His teaching. He was in the middle of His sermon this demon screams at Him.

Now again, the demon blows his cover here. Demons don't like to do this. My understanding is that they would prefer to be subtle. They would prefer to ply their devilish work in a secretive fashion because they can accomplish so much more and not frighten people. This demon is exposed.

You must have this experience saying that I came to the church this morning and I felt like the preacher was talking directly to me? Exactly the way the demon felt. In fact, Jesus was, because Jesus was coming with force of the gospel of God that was going to shatter the kingdom of darkness and rescue the captives of Satan and free them and bring them to salvation.

The demon felt the power of that gospel. The demon couldn't restrain himself. Jesus preaching good news of salvation, deliverance for those who are the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed and He's coming to free them from Satan, free them from the demons, free them from sin, death, darkness, hell.

This is a terrible announcement that the demon hears, "this is indeed the Messiah."The demon knows it. V 34, I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

Jesus knew He was the Messiah. Demons ask "Is this the time for us to be destroyed? Is this the time when we’re all going to get thrown into the lake of fire? The dreaded reality hits the demon. The holy war is on, and the demon can't restrain himself, so he screams through the voice of this man. The demon panicked.

The demon knew the holy war was on and he knew the implications, almost, if not actually, out of control now, losing the more effective clandestine presence, the demon exposes himself and screams, "Ha,"which is... In all lexicons, that word in the Greek, ea, means dismay, fear, or terror.

The demon is panicked because his kingdom is being plundered and Jesus is after the soul of that man in whom that demon lives, and the demon feels the force of that gospel of deliverance. V 34, 'What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?'"

Jesus of Nazareth was the title by which Jesus was known. It's not necessarily a term of disrespect or disdain. That was His hometown.

What is it to us and to You? But you can't translate idioms literally in any language.

Why are You attacking us? Because he knew that the attack on him was an attack on all the other demons who are in the same kingdom. "Why are You attacking us?"would be an accurate translation.

Luke 8:28, When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”

The demons felt the power of the truth of God coming through the lips of Jesus. Do you want to have an impact on demons? Preach the gospel! Do you want to shatter the kingdom of darkness? Preach the gospel. Preach the message of deliverance and salvation.

You want to shatter the kingdom of darkness and you want to cause the already fearing demons to panic, then you preach the gospel that saves sinners. The demon says, "Why are You attacking us? Why are You interfering with us? Is this the time

of our destruction?"And he uses the plural "we"and "us" again because he knows that the assault is on all of them, not just him. The demon felt the real threat of the power of the gospel. The worst thing that threatens demons is the preaching of the gospel. The clear, profound, powerful, accurate preaching of Christ and His salvation causes the demons to panic.

Normally they don't want to show themselves, but sometimes they can't restrain themselves as in this case. The war was on, and the victory was Christ's and the demon knew it.

Luke 11:20, But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. If I'm the Messiah, you'll see Me cast out demons. If you see Me cast out demons, you know I'm the Messiah. And He will do that in a moment, but He didn't even have to cast the demon out to get a response. All that had to happen was the preaching of the truth.

The demons still don't like the preaching of the gospel. While they would rather sit back quietly, sometimes they can't be restrained, and the demon panicked, and they come after.

Was the same demon who was in Capernaum?

Who knows? Maybe, of course, it wasn't. But the response is the same. You preach the Word of God, you preach the message of Jesus, you preach the gospel of salvation, and you literally turn the demonic kingdom into a panic.

Why?

Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Preaching the gospel is what the demons hate most because it tears the sinner out of their clutches. In the fight for man's deliverance from the power of Satan the first and foremost tactic is the proclamation of the supremely and authoritative Word of God. You want to confront the kingdom of darkness? Don't run around with little formulas. If you want to confront the kingdom of darkness, preach the supremely and authoritative Word of God. That threatens demons.

The preaching of the Son of God turned them into a panic. The preaching of the Son of God in the Word of God still does the same. Anybody comes along, casts doubt on the Bible, is aiding and abetting Satan.