Speaker 0 00:00:08 Welcome to the thinking Christian podcast, your weekly guide to solid Christian thinking on culture science, faith, and Christian confidence hosted by Tom Gilson.
Speaker 1 00:00:22 Hi, I'm Tom Gelson. Thank you for joining me here for the thinking Christian podcast. We're taking a look together through the book of Luke at the character of Jesus in line with what I teach in my book, too. Good to be false. How jesus' incomparable character reveals his reality. We're in Luke four beginning in verse 31, and I'm gonna combine several passages from here and the next chapter, as we look at Jesus, performing miracles, several things that are interesting about them. What I show in the book that I wrote too good to be false is that Jesus has an unusual, and for many of us unrecognized use of authority, which is in the sermon on the Mount. He speaks on his own authority. It's not the Lord says, it's I say to you, he spoke with that kind of authority in the book. I didn't get that much into the miracles.
Speaker 1 00:01:18 And the reason is because we're so used to talking about the miracles that I wanted to talk about something different, but he does have authority over demons. For example, we see this in Luke four 31 through 37, he went down to Capernaum. It says a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority. That's the same thing that they said at the end of the sermon on the Mount. The last couple of verses of Matthew seven, his teaching was with authority. Exactly the same thing. He carries it through in what he does with healings and with miracles here specifically with an unclean demon, it says in verse 33 in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice.
Speaker 1 00:02:11 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, be silent and come out of him. Jesus wants to be his own witness. At this point. He certainly doesn't need the demons doing it for him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, it goes on to say, he came out of him, having done the man, no harm. They were all amazed and said to one another. What is this word for? With authority and power. He commits the unclean spirits and they come out and reports about him, went out into every place in the surrounding region. The, that he employed when he was teaching and the authority that he employed when he was casting out demons, they were the same authority.
Speaker 1 00:03:09 He was the one who could say that you have heard it was said, but I say to you, he taught on his own authority. We think of the power and the authority that he showed when he cast out demons. And it's for real demons are for real. I have no doubt about that. They have real power. They are really to be taken seriously. At least as far as we encounter them, we don't need to go looking for them. Jesus has authority over them. And we're impressed by that. We can be equally impressed by the authority that it speaks up here in verse 32, where it says they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority. This is Jesus. The extraordinary, the one of extraordinary character, extraordinary authority, extraordinary power. It goes on in verse 38 says he arose and left the synagogue and enter Simon's house.
Speaker 1 00:04:11 Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf and he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she Rose and began to serve them. Now, at this point, I have to tell you a story. I was talking with my friend, Mike Lacona about the message that I was teaching the early form of the message I was teaching in the book too. Good to be false. I said, Jesus never used this extraordinary power for his own benefit. And I think that's astonishing. And Mike said, what about the time when he healed Peter's mother-in-law and she Rose and started to serve him. And I looked at him and I said, Mike, all that proves is two things. One, you know, your new Testament really well. And to hear a smart Alec, uh, he took it in good humor.
Speaker 1 00:05:02 And that was, that was his answer to what I had to say about Jesus, never using his own power for his own benefit, his extraordinary power for his own benefit. He went on to teach and we're gonna come back to that next time. He went on to, to cleanse a leper, and this is the same kind of a thing going on. And Jesus heals with power and with love, he touches chapter five, verse 13, he stretched out his hand and touched the leper. This is unusual, love and action. This is unusual relationship. This is what makes cheeses so different from everybody. He cleansed them and said, go show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded that wasn't because Jesus lacked any authority to, to proclaim his healing. It's just that there were rules that needed to be followed in order for the man to be readmitted to society.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 That was all that was going on there. And that instruction that Jesus gave to him. And then we have in chapter five or 17, the story of the paralytic. And I'll, I'll finish with that with one comment that you may be familiar with. And another one that may not be so much on one of those days, it says as he was teaching again, this is Luke five 17 Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed, a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring them in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring them in because of the crowd. They went up on the roof and let him down with his bed, through the tiles, into the midst before Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:06:51 And when he saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you and the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, who is this? Who speaks? Blasphemies who can forgive sins? But God alone, when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them. Why do you question in your hearts, which is easier to say your censor forgiven you or to say rise and walk, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, pick up your bed and go home. And immediately he Rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God and amazement sees them all. And they glorified God and were filled with awe saying, we have seen extraordinary things today. The Pharisees were struck by the authority.
Speaker 1 00:07:49 Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins. They asked the right questions. No one has the authority to give to forgive sins, but God alone, it's that authority issue again. And Jesus answered by showing authority. He spoke to the man in his illness and said, be healed, rise up, take your bed and go home. And that was to demonstrate his authority. This is about the character of the power of the authority, the place that Jesus holds in, in the scheme of things that he has, the authority, the God has the authority to forgive sins. This is important. Partly because skeptics will tell you that there's not much evidence that Jesus acted as God or thought of himself as God in the synoptic gospels, the synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke. The first three, we have clear signs of Jesus deity being taught in the book of John.
Speaker 1 00:08:51 And they'll tell you, it's not in the Synoptics. Well, it's right here. Jesus is showing that he has the authority that only God has to forgive sins. That's important teaching for us as we engage with skeptics on this. But there's one final point I want to leave you with. And that's this. It's very likely that as you read this, you might be asking yourself, here comes this paralyzed, man, he's lying on a bed. His friends have brought him there so he can be healed. They've climbed up on a roof. They've cleaned out all the tiles. They've lowered them in front of Jesus so they can, he can be healed and stand up and walk. And where does Jesus do? He says, my son, your sins are forgiven. You did Jesus not get the message. Did he miss the memo? Couldn't he tell what was going on there?
Speaker 1 00:09:38 Did Jesus miss the important thing? No. And I can tell you that on my own authority, I've never been paralyzed, but I have had a lot of walking issues that is, I have had six foot surgeries, serious foot surgeries. I've had lots and lots of trouble in between those surgeries. I had trouble leading up to them. I have worn a fracture boot, I believe for a total of 25,000 hours. I've worn out five fractured boots. I've worn out to a knee walkers. I currently own two pairs of crutches, even though it's been a while. Since the last one, at least incidents, I have spent months and months on crutches. I've had cast applied to my feet, at least 12 times 12 different casts. I know a little bit about what it means not to be able to walk. I also remember very, very clearly what it meant to me when I came to faith in Christ and experienced his forgiveness the first time I know what it means now, after all these surgeries to be healed of these foot problems, I know what it means to be forgiven.
Speaker 1 00:10:52 And I'll tell you what if I had a choice, forgiveness is way better. So cleansing it, it opens up the heart. It opens up the life. It opens up the soul. It opens up relationships. I can get along without walking. I could not get along without forgiveness. When Jesus said to him, son, your sins are forgiven you. He gave him the better thing. And I can tell you that from my own experience, Jesus knew what he was doing. He always knew what he was doing. He never, you never see him coming out of a conversation going on. Nah, I handled that wrong. That doesn't happen in jesus' ministry. He was brilliant. He was loving, he was caring. He had authority and we see it all here in these passages in Luke four and five. We'll come back to some that I skipped next time until then. Thank you for joining in I'm Tom Gilson for the thinking Christian podcast,
Speaker 0 00:11:53 Thinking Christian podcast is copyright by Thomas Gilson for more information, visit the thinking Christian
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