Luke 4:31-37 Sermon for March 1, 2026

Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astonished at his teaching because his message had authority. (31-32) In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, ‘Leave us alone! What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God!’ (33-34) Let’s stop right there for a minute. Jesus taught with authority. His message had authority. Why? Because Jesus has authority. Jesus didn’t just preach about God. He preached Himself because He is God. And what’s interesting is this: the mere presence of Jesus and the Words Jesus spoke made the demons shutter. And when the demons were rattled, they responded with a loud voice. That’s all they can do. Listen, you ever watch them videos when someone is confronted with the truth and all they do is raise their voice and sound like an idiot? Because there’s something happening when the presence of truth confronts what is evil, what is bad, what is corrupt, what is demonic. We’re gonna get more into that shortly, so hang in there with me. The text tells us that Jesus taught with authority. We already know why that is the case. It’s because Jesus is not a mere man. He is the Son of God. Matthew 28:18 says, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth gas been given to me.’” As I was reflecting on this passage, it got me wondering why there seems to be such a lack of authority in many of the pulpits these days. I remember visiting a church and as I was listening to the sermon, I thought to myself, “This message lacks power. It feels as if the preacher isn’t even sure he believes what he is preaching.” And truth be told that many pulpits lack authority because Jesus is missing from them. We’re too busy preaching our own opinions, withholding certain words to not offend the givers, and preaching more about our own stories than we are the Word of God. We’re preaching in a way that puts the spotlight on ourselves than on God and that’s a massive issue. Where is the fear of God in our pulpits today? Why have we’ve stooped so low as to believe that the Word of God is not enough? Does not the Scriptures tells us that the Word of God goes out and does not return void? Isaiah 51:11 says, “So my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” Do you understand what it’s saying here? There is a sufficiency in the pure, unadulterated Word of God. I keep reading articles after articles of research being done that is showing a decline in people’s belief in the Word of God actually being the Word of God. Check this out: I just read an article from Answers in Genesis that declared, after a massive research was done, that only 37% of pastors have a biblical worldview! We’ve got a massive issue. No wonder why there’s no authority in our pulpits. Jesus is gone! It doesn’t matter what kind of outreach you do, what kind of lights you put on, what kind of awesome programs you have, what kind of events you do…if there is no authoritative preaching in the pulpits (that is, preaching the Word of God only), you’re on a downward spiral. And what I mean by authoritative preaching is the preaching by a man of God who preaches the Word of God as if He believes it and as though he lives it. And let me add something here: what you win people into your church with, you must use that very same thing to sustain them. You put on a show at the church. Cool. They come in, then they leave six months later. Why? Because only the Word of God is going to accomplish what is needed to bring people to a knowledge of how we are to be saved. And in our text, we, again, see the demons rattled. We need to talk about this because it’s important and it’s going to show up in out text down the road again. Here is a stark reality: the demons know the truth of God more than most Christians in today’s churches. I preach this with an urgent sense of massive concern. We have so many people today who profess Jesus and know next to nothing about the Word of God. I get confused by that. And what’s even more interesting is that those same Christians who don’t read the Word of God sure have a lot of opinions about God and such and it’s absolutely ludicrous. How do you know what God says if you don’t read His Word? How do you know what God’s will is in any given situation if you are not saturated in the Word of God? How can you claim to know what God thinks about something if you won’t touch the Word of God with a six foot pole? So, in our text, although the demons know the truth of God, they hate the truth of God and react. That’s what’s happening today as the truth (since all truth is God’s truth) is exposing evil left and right today. We are seeing demons being rattled. We are seeing the work of demons today being disrupted. We are also seeing demons and the minions doing all they can to cover up the corruption and it ain’t going to work. Numbers 32:23 says, “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.” What is in the dark will eventually be found and judged. Demons rule in darkness and darkness cannot overcome the light. When the light comes, when the truth comes, what is in the dark scatters. Just look at recent events. For 36 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran in a demonic, dark, and gruesome way. And now, he’s taken out and people are flooding the streets in victory of their newfound freedom. You look at the Epstein files and people are being found out left and right. What is in the dark will come to the light because the truth will expose and make all the demons rattled. So, there’s obviously a lot we can draw from here in just a few verses. I’ve already said that Jesus has authority and when we preach Jesus in our pulpits, we preach with authority in the name of Jesus and powerful things happen; things that can only be attributed to God alone. My next call here is that if you are playing in the dark, walk away, repent, and embrace the light. Embrace the truth. Embrace Jesus. Before we continue here, I’ll say this: there are a ton of churches whom the devil and his minions don’t bother and those are the churches that lack authority in their preaching, lack a call to obey the teachings of Jesus, and flaunt sin in their pulpits for the world to see. The demons don’t bother them for one of two reasons: either the demons are running the show or the demons know that a church that compromises won’t have much effect so why bother? Moving on. But Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Be silent and come out of him!’ And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all. Amazement came over them all, and they were saying to one another, ‘What is this message? For he commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out!’ And news about him began to go out to every place in the vicinity. (35-37) Let’s pause. I’m gonna make a lot of you feel really uncomfortable right now if I haven’t already done so. I already taught last time that demons are real. The devil is real. At the same time, you can’t blame the devil for your sins because the devil cannot be everywhere all the time. Yet, demons are real. So, we have Jesus here rebuking and calling out the demon that has occupied a man. This was a pretty violent picture here. The man was thrown to the ground and then the demon came out of him without hurting him at all. The question I get often is this: can Christians be demon possessed? No, absolutely not. You cannot have both Christ fill you as well as a demon. That’s premise number one. Next: is demon possession a thing that still happens today? Yes. How often this is the case, I do not know. Now, were there more demons per capita here in our story because the King of Kings, Jesus, is literally walking the face of this earth? Perhaps. I will say this: we don’t take demon possession seriously enough today. I have to be balanced here. Not everything is a demon, yet, I fear that many things that are demon driven are casually brushed under the rug as a simply a medical condition. Let me be careful here because we can easily confuse demon possession and something else. As we pour through Scripture, here are signs more consistent with demonic possession, or at a minimal, demonic influence. Aversion to the name, Word, or worship of Jesus Christ. Sudden, unexplained personality shifts, voices or speech not characteristic of the person. Destructive impulses beyond normal pathology, no improvement after any amount of medical intervention or treatment. Explicit biblical markers such as speaking, “We.” Again, this is just breaching a conversation and making it very clear that demons do exist. We just need to be careful reducing everything to biology and reducing everything to demons. We need discernment, wise counsel, prayer, humility, and compassion. Before we move on, I’ll give a stark warning here: the world is playing with the things of demons and opening doors for demons to walk right into a person’s life and body. And we have more and more Christians today that are following suite. Why are Christians getting involved with palm readings, witchcraft, stones, horoscopes, astrology, sage burning, and all of that demonic crap? And why are Christians perfectly ok with engaging with music by artists who are so obviously engaged in the things that are demonic and thinking that there is no harm? Have we lost our mind? This is a real concern. Why are we allowing our children to be accessible by the work of Satan all because we fear the attitude they might give us? If there is even a hint of the demonic being played with at the Grammy’s, at a concert of a popular artists, etc…even at the risk of maybe it’s a conspiracy theory, why would we risk it? I’m just putting this out there because my fear is that, in the West, we’ve lost any ability to discern what is of the Devil and what is not. Remember, the devil is crafty. He ain’t stupid and he works in ways to trip you up easily. He ain’t coming in a tight red suit and a pitchfork. So, what’s my advice here then? The more you are in the Word of God and allowing the Word of God to shape you (in partnership with the Holy Spirit), the more wisdom and discernment you’ll have when it comes to understanding what is of Christ and what is not. Before we come to the Lord’s Table, I’ll end our message with this: “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” If Christ is in you and Christ has lavished His righteousness on you through His person and work, you have absolutely nothing to fear. You resist the evil one and he will flee. However, if you are not in Christ and Christ is not in you, you’re treading dangerous waters and I invite you to come to the throne of Jesus and cry out to Him in mercy to save you. There is good news that you can do that right now.