The Gospel of Luke 4:31-44 Healings

Good morning. The perspective that I get when I first get up here and see these kids going out, that's kind of cool. Anyway, I thought I'd share that. We're in the Gospel of Luke. We're going to be doing verses 31 through 44 of the fourth chapter, so Luke 4, 31 through 44. It's covering quite a bit of material, but I think we can handle it.

Just to kind of review, in Luke 3.21-38 we had Jesus' baptism and along with that the genealogy through Mary.

We had in Luke 4.1-13 Jesus being tempted by the devil.

And then last week in Luke 4.14-30 we had Jesus teaching at the synagogue Nazareth and so today as we step into this this is following his time in Nazareth and it says in Luke 4 31 and 32 and he came down to Capernaum a city in Galilee and was teaching them on the Sabbath and they were amazed at his teaching for his message was with authority let's take a look at that so here's Nazareth and Capernaum. Capernaum is at the north end of the Sea of Galilee.

Let me talk about the pronunciation of that a little bit. It's a town of Nahum is actually how it translates. So it's had various pronunciations depending on language and dialect. Capernaum is kind of a common pronunciation in English carried over. So he traveled from Nazareth to Capernaum, and just to get an idea, here's Capernaum at the north end of the Sea of Galilee to the west of where the upper Jordan River feeds in. It's also known, and you'll come across it, not just the Sea of Galilee name, but the Lake of Tiberias, the Lake of Gennesaret, the Lake of Kinneret. We're going to see Gennesaret as the name for that lake or sea in next week's passage. So it was definitely down that he went.

Capernaum, this town of Nahum, is certainly down from Nazareth. Nazareth is about 1,400 feet above sea level, right? Capernaum is about 700 feet below sea level, right there at the lake level. So down about 2,100 feet. So it's a downhill drop going from Nazareth down to Capernaum. Capraium was built on and built of a dark basalt lava flow being about 10 to 12 acres in area.

All four of the Gospels speak of Capernaum more than once, so it's a significant place. It starts off with rather positive statements, and this happened and that happened. In the end, however, we'll see later on in Luke that Christ actually has words of condemnation for Capernaum and how they received what was presented to them.

If you would like to do so, we're going to be talking about it a little bit here. YouTube, if you search for biblical archaeology at Capernaum, and you have that on page one of your handout, there's actually a three-part series on the archaeology of Capernaum. Really fascinating. We won't have time to go into it, although we'll touch on it here.

One of the things that you saw there is the teaching with authority, and Matthew and Mark also noted this. When Jesus had finished these words, and this was the words of the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. That tells you the way the scribes taught. The way the scribes taught was not with authority. Well, let's take a look and see shortly what that means. Here's Mark 1, 22 and 27.

They were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In verse 27, they were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, What is this? A new teaching with authority! So why was Jesus' teaching with authority amazing? The Jews, of course, had many traditions, many traditions. One of those traditions was to quote from others.

This person said this, this person said that, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote. And quoting from somebody else, getting somebody else's opinion and throwing that in there, rather than making direct statements about what was true and false. As Jesus did, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you, OK? So this is the error you've been taught, and let me tell you the truth. Another one of those traditions was to present things in conflict and in tension and to leave them in tension. We've got this idea and this idea, and the tradition is we just leave it that way.

I heard from Arnold Fruchtenbaum this representation of the Jewish culture. There was a group of Jews gathered together, and as you might expect, the group was divided as to what the tradition was. And so one part of the group was saying, the tradition is this.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, said the other part. The tradition is this. And so they argued back and back and back and forth. And so then the rabbi steps into the room, and they all say, ah, the rabbi! And they go asking the rabbi, and the rabbi gets presented with this tradition, and the rabbi gets presented with this other tradition. And the rabbi says, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the tradition. Neither one of those is the tradition. And then so the two groups really start arguing with great heat, and he says, that's the tradition!

OK, here is a for instance, the courts of Hillel and Shammai. Now Hillel was the grandfather of Gamaliel, Paul's teacher, so you know the connection there. The courts of Hillel and Shammai regarding divorce among the Jews. They had a two-court system. The Jews established a two-court system just a few decades before the time when Joseph, had this decision, how am I going to put Mary away quietly?

Well, you pick out which ones here shortly. A Jew could choose to conduct legal matters under one system or the other. For example, Rabbi Hillel said that a man could divorce a woman for any reason at all, and so if a man went in and said, I want a divorce, they didn't even ask why. No questions asked. That's what Joseph was picking. He was planning that. I'll go to this court.

Well, they won't ask any questions. And therefore, the issue of Mary being pregnant wouldn't even be brought up. But Rabbi Shammai said the divorce was permitted only for reasons of unfaithfulness, abandonment, lack of support, and denial of affection. Now, so what did they do?

They had two courts. You could pick one. And each court accepted the other court's decisions. Crazy, isn't it? They'd leave that in place. Imagine being able to choose your court in this country. Oh boy. Alright, so here's Luke 4, 33 and 34. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Let us alone! What business do you have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Now, one of the impressions that you get Is that this demon or these demons are panicked?

Okay panic This is the one who's going to judge me eternally right he's here ah Now, we're going to step back for a little bit. Last week, we pointed this out, and I want to bring it up again. Richard Horsley wrote in 1996 that Dr. Luke was wrong, and he said in Chapter 6, you have that reference in the bottom, of Archaeology, History, and Society of Galilee, he took up the whole chapter, basically to say, Luke is wrong, Luke is wrong, Luke is wrong, and by the way, Luke is wrong.

However, just in Migdal, otherwise known as Magdala, It was reported just three and a half weeks ago, archaeological excavations have revealed a synagogue in Magdala that dates from the time of Christ's ministry and was likely a place where Jesus spoke. One of the reasons why we say it was likely is we know the name Mary Magdalene. That means she was of Magdala. She was from Magdala. Here's the excavation of the synagogue.

It's not been open to the public yet. The first thing they do in Israel is when they do the archaeological excavation. And then they have to get things kind of set up for the public to be able to come around and look at things. That hasn't happened here yet. So the announcement's been made. This will likely be eventually made into some kind of public access park, archaeological park.

So here we are at Capernaum. If you look at an aerial view, this is what you see. There is that octagonal building, and we'll talk about that in a minute. And then there's the synagogue, and what you see there is a kind of a white stone synagogue. Remember we said the rock in Capernaum was dark? This was imported material used to build the synagogue, and we'll talk in more detail about that shortly. This is what the excavation looks like for most of the city of Capernaum.

Here's an artist's reconstruction. It's pretty good, except for one detail. You see all that nice bright yellow? That's not what they found. What they found instead was dark colored material. And imagine here you are in a house with small high windows and walls that are dark. And so just without lighting, which would be an oil lamp typically, without lighting it would be pretty dark places to live. Here is the synagogue, the structure as you see it now. However, we've got to mention something about that. This was not the synagogue Jesus was in.

This was built later. Very difficult to date because the architecture looks like about 200 AD, but the coins underneath the floor are from the 5th century. So a little puzzling. So there will be some disagreement among archaeologists as to what age should I give this. Now, one of the things I want to point out is that the archaeologists who looked at this noticed that underneath that white imported stone is the old material.

And we will see from Dr. Luke that there was indeed an older synagogue there built around the time of Christ. And it's believed, this little sign here, late 4th century, that's contested because of the contradictory information, but until this discovery of the synagogue in Magdala, this built-upon-the-remains-of-the-synagogue-of-Jesus was also contested. Now with that discovery, it lends support to the idea, no, this is the genuine synagogue shown with the black rock, and later the white material was put on top. So what was contested there, at least the bottom part, was it the synagogue of Jesus? Not the white one. but the black material underneath. So they took the old one and used that as a foundation and then built with white material imported later.

OK, quick briefing on angels and demons, because we'll get questions. Wait a minute, where are these demons here? What are they? Who are they? How did we get there? OK, angels were all created at some point in time before the earliest days of Genesis and possibly before. Jewish tradition has that the angels were created on the second day.

Probably some kind of reasoning behind that. I'm not sure that that's exactly the case. But nonetheless, they're called angels, sons of God, and morning stars in Genesis. And then other names you'll find in different parts of scripture. They can embody themselves as men. What's interesting is you'll see kind of artwork or dramatizations of angels and they'll look like some guy that's been weightlifting for a thousand years, you know, and you'll see that. Or you'll see an angel that looks like a baby. You'll see pictures of angels will be some gorgeous, you know, woman. probably none of those, right?

But they can embody themselves as men, and at some points they were startling in their presentation, and they'd say things like, don't be afraid. In other cases they could appear simply as a man, and here's Abraham, for example, as we saw when we were studying the book of Genesis. Abraham served as host to three angels, but didn't know that they were angels. He just served them as if they were men.

Angels were given an early window of opportunity to choose at one time, all at once. See, we choose differently, don't we? We're born sequentially and choose for or against the Lord in the course of life. The angels were all created at once and given a window of opportunity to decide before, decide for or against the Lord.

One-third, that's from Revelation chapter 12 verse 4, one-third of those angels chose to rebel and were cast out of heaven, but Satan retained access to get permission and to make accusation. The fallen angels were given the earth as their domain, and Satan, head of the fallen angelic hierarchy, is called the god of this world, lowercase g. and he is head of that hierarchy. Before the flood, some of the fallen angels chose to embody themselves as men, cohabiting with human women and having offspring. All these were swept away by the flood along with sinful humanity, except for those eight of Noah's family on the ark.

There is a handout, and we'll also upload it on the website, for the identity of these sons of God. There are different ideas. What we put in yellow highlight is the one we believe is correct. Now, there are two groups of these demons, which are also called fallen angels, which are also called unclean spirits, or in this passage, an unclean demon. So that combination.

The spirits of those demons who left their domain, that is, embodied themselves and began intermarrying with the human race, are now in bondage in Tartarus, or the abyss. The word abyss means a bottomless. This is a deep pit. There will be only one time of escape for these fallen angels who are in the abyss.

They will be released for five months, so the book of Revelation tells us, during the tribulation period. And they will only be allowed to attack unbelievers. The remaining demons, those who are not held in the abyss or Tartarus, knew their time and ultimate destiny, and they also knew who Christ was. And so that's why the question is, you're not going to start torturing us yet, are you?

They're panicked. They know who He is. They know what their fate is. They know where they're headed. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that the lake of fire, the place where they are headed, has already been prepared, perfect tense, for them. for Satan and his angels. It's waiting. And these demons are panicked. These demons are panicked because Christ will be the one that will send them there. And they're worried. Isn't now the time? They're panicked.

These fallen angels, which are called demons also, Unclean spirits or unclean demons can possess a fallen human being either in as a single demon or as plural We'll see later on where there's a plural Possession Mary Magdalene from Magdala and where the synagogue was found and Mary Magdalene, it says, has seven.

We'll see that later on in the book of Luke. Had seven demons. Those were kicked out, if you will, by Christ. And she was very thankful for it and put her trust and confidence in Christ after that. The demons seem to have particularly gathered around the time and location of Christ. Manifestation of demons. It seems like, boy, they're swarming in here for this event. and Christ cast them out. The demons are not free to defy the Son of God.

None of them says, well, you know, you've asked me to leave, but I'll think about it. None of them comes up with that. They don't, as we'll come across them in Luke, they don't come out and say something like, I don't think I'm gonna. If they're commanded to leave by the Son of God, they go. They go.

And they know who He is. You notice that they keep making truth statements? They know who He is, but they also know that He's going to be the one that's going to put them away for eternity. And they know that time is coming, and they're panicked. You can see it right in the character of the voice and the language. They are panicked that that time is right now. Their time is up.

They see demons know and believe the truth of who Christ the Son of God is. And that's something we're going to see, not only in this passage, but in subsequent passages. The demons even openly declare the truth about who the Son of God is. They start blurting it out. It's amazing. Their knowing and believing and declaring that Christ is the Son of God doesn't do them any good, does it?

See, that's something that's really interesting. There is no plan of salvation for these fallen angels. There is for us, but not for them. Nothing's available. They've made their choice. It's fixed. There's nothing going to change it. Nothing going to change it.

So, knowing the truth, and even believing it, as James says they do, and even declaring doesn't do them any good, and it doesn't do any good for those who hear. Why? It's because these demons, which everybody knows is evil, speaking the truth, what kind of testimony is that? Well, it isn't, right?

So Jesus commands them, you know, put it in our vernacular, shut up! Shut up! And that they also have to abide by. They can't say, oh, blurt, blurt, and keep on spewing. If he says shut up, they better shut up. Jesus forbids them to speak. You're speaking the truth, but your father, the head of the hierarchy, is the father of lies. And therefore, your testimony is of no use. Jesus commands that they leave, and they absolutely must obey. They have no choice at all.

Alright, so back to Luke 4.35, so Jesus rebuked him, that is the demon, and saying, be quiet and come out of him. So two commands, shut your trap, okay, and get out of here. Shut your trap and get out of here. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.

So one question we have, is there one demon or many? Because we saw in verses 33 and 34, the demon speaks using the word us more than once. But verse 35 only refers to one demon, so which is it? One or many? Well, there's only one demon here, that's clear. Whether a single demon or many, the demons always talk in association with the others.

It's group speak. They always talk in association with the others. It's us. It's we. And that's the way they think. They don't think individually. They don't think about just themselves. They always think about the group. They all have the same diabolical, Satan-headed hierarchy.

All of the demons share this common fate in the lake of fire, and they all know it, and they all know it's waiting. And they are panicked that now is the time. No, now is not the time. But the demons had better absolutely obey Christ, the Son of God. They have no choice, right? He could make it sooner if they'd like, right? So here's Luke 4, 36 and 37. An amazement came upon them all and they began talking to one another saying, what is this message?

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. You see there are accounts of the rabbis trying this. And the rabbis would go and say long prayers and all sorts of things, and they would even make commands, and they had limited success, according to the records.

Whereas Jesus comes in, and every single time, right then and right there, the demon is out. Gone. They are astounded. And you can imagine, if this guy who was demon-possessed was there in the synagogue, this isn't the first time it's likely happened. And everybody knows what this guy is like with the demon in him. And all of a sudden it's gone, just because Jesus said, shut up and get out. Right?

So, the people, obviously, very, very impressed. People in the nation of Israel are quite impressed with this. They're telling others And if you've ever been in a small town, it is amazing, amazing how fast news travels. They didn't have texting, didn't have cell phones, no email, none of that. But boy, news traveled fast. And this was, after all, some exciting stuff.

They are very impressed with Jesus' signs and wonders. Now think about this. Did Jesus come to earth so that people would be really impressed? No. As we'll see as we continue on in Dr. Luke's account, no, that's not what he came for. It's not what he came for. He didn't come here to just impress people. Jesus' popularity, though it's now growing in Dr. Luke's account, that's going to reverse itself. That's going to reverse itself, and we'll see why as well.

So here's Luke 4, 38 and 39. He got up and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him to help her. And standing over her, he rebuked the fever and it left her and she immediately got up and waited on them. Wow. So this isn't just a recovery. He prayed for her and eventually it went away. right then and there, boom. She goes from, boy I feel terrible, to what would you like for dinner, right?

Now, so this Simon guy, in the Hebrew it would have been Shimon, okay? And then there's Peter and Cephas are other names that you'll see for the same fellow, okay? So Simon and sometimes Simon Peter, to put them together, right? Shimon would be after the tribal name, okay?

But Peter and Cephas, Peter is from the Greek for a stone, a small stone, and Cephas is simply the Aramaic for that same thing, a small stone. And we've anglicized all three of them, because it's not really Simon, it's Shimon. It's not really Peter, it's Petros. And then in Cephas, it's actually Kephas. But nonetheless, those are the names that we're going to run across here. So Simon also has the names Peter and Cephas.

One gets the impression that Simon's house was pretty near to the synagogue, as you read the account, and that's likely the case. Here is an overhead. As a matter of fact, I'm going to make that larger. Here's a recent Capernaum aerial, and what you see is the synagogue that we've been talking about with the later structure of the white stone on top of what was earlier likely a black stone, and we even have an account in the New Testament we're going to run into of the previous synagogue and who paid for it. So we're going to see who paid for it.

And then you see this octagonal building, which was, again, what they do with archaeological sites is they tend to put in some kind of thing to accommodate visitors one way or another. But right when the excavation was not quite complete, this is earlier, and right, so you see on the lower right, there's the synagogue, and the upper left, that's believed to be Peter's house. right nearby.

And some of the reason for that is that this Peter's house had been turned into a church, a church building in earlier days. And then it was also unusually shaped. And so it was one that was easily identifiable over time. So anyway, that is not absolutely certain to be Peter's house, but the evidence leans that way. And the evidence leans that the black rock structure that's underneath was the synagogue that Jesus was in, that we just read about. So the archaeological evidence is leaning more and more in favor of the biblical account.

Now, so in this instance we see that the one who was ill was Simon's mother-in-law, which means that Simon had a wife. Very interesting, okay? And as we'll see, Simon also had a brother. We're going to run into that connection as well. Now, so here's Luke 4, 40 and 41. While the sun was setting, so this is later on, likely on the same day, all those who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and laying his hands on each one of them, he was healing them. One of the things that I really appreciate about Dr. Luke is that he cares about the individual. And you see the Lord's care for the individual come out from the way Dr. Luke writes.

Notice, he laid hands on each one. God is not one that we should think of as, you know, God's really busy. He hardly can give me any time. No, that's not the way the Lord works. So that's a neat thing just to come out and see there. But verse 41, the demons also were coming out and many shouting, You are the Son of God! Right? And what do you tell them? Shut up! But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak because they knew Him to be the Christ, the Messiah. Now here's an important and critical distinction.

There are some who say that the gospels see all the physical and emotional problems as caused by demons. That is, there are those who think that the gospel authors are just ignorant people who just attribute everything to spiritual influence and activity. Some in the ancient world did indeed view everything as having a direct spiritual cause. And that's actually true of some people now. The inclination, for example, even among the charismatic folks, is to attribute everything to some direct spiritual cause. It may or may not be.

Those two verses that we just read, verse 40 and 41, counter that claim. Here is Dr. Luke, who in verse 40 says, here are diseases, and verse 41, he says, here are the demons. And he sees them as distinct. Here are diseases, Jesus took care of that. Here are the demons, Jesus took care of that. But they're distinct, they're not just rolled into one. So he sees that disease, verse 40, is separate from what's caused by the demons, verse 41.

Now, so we have a question here. Should we expect a miracle? Here we are, we're Christians living some 20 centuries after this time that we're reading about. Should we expect miracles now? I mean expect. Based on Jesus performing miracles, and later the Apostles as recorded in the book of Acts, add to that the Jews were told, multiple times by the way, Jews were told, God heals all your diseases, Psalm 103. Based on those connections, that is how many today are saying you should expect a miracle. That's the norm. You should expect a miracle. And they base it on this.

Some have said that we should expect miracles today, and the reason we don't, if we do not, is because of a lack of faith in God, or a lack of obedience to the requirements of God. You either are lacking in faith, that's why a miracle hasn't happened, or you're disobedient, and therefore that's why a miracle hasn't happened.

Now, to be clear here, healing all of your diseases was a promise to the Jews if they followed the Law of Moses. So that doesn't qualify. We're not Jews under the Law of Moses at all, so we don't qualify. Next, Jesus did miracles to demonstrate his qualifications as the Messiah. These were a demonstration of his qualifications. He didn't come just to put on a show. The apostles also did miracles, as recorded in Acts, And those miracles were a validation that they were apostles. We're not apostles. They were. We're not.

God can perform miracles now. We're free to ask God to intervene. It is not presumptuous for us to do so, knowing that God will do what seems best to Him. Nancy and I have seen a miracle. I shared last week about my grandmother who was a missionary to the cannibals in Fiji and then to on the island of Hawaii or in Hawaii and I shared about a lady named Hattie who had leprosy, had taken her fingers down to this and they prayed for her and not only was she healed of leprosy but the fingers grew back.

God can do miracles, right? He is capable as we saw in here. He is able. He is able. we can ask in faith knowing that God is able God can do miracles and also in faith that he will do what's best he will do what's best even if he says no as he did with Paul his no is still the very best thing eternally Paul had a thorn in the flesh he asked three times God, take this thorn! No. No. Paul, you need this. You need this. Paul needed to learn grace as a sufficiency. It is an aspect of grace that Paul needed to learn. So God said, no. I'm not taking that thorn away because you need it. You need it.

Grace is a sufficiency, among other things. So if the malady, problem, injury, disease remains, If, upon asking to heal us, God chooses to leave the problem in place, it does not mean that we're being punished. By the way, God never punishes believers. And we can be assured of God's purpose in the problem.

It's one of two things. It's either discipline to put us back on the path of faith and fellowship, Or it's a trial to grow us. It's one of the two. It's never punishment. God doesn't punish believers. Not happening. We are free to seek relief by earthly and health science methods. It doesn't mean that we lack faith or are disobedient.

Here's Paul writing to Timothy, 1 Timothy 5.23. No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. And so here's Paul, who is a companion of Timothy, and has been with him through these things, enough to know that he frequently has a problem. We don't know whether Paul asked the Lord to heal Timothy of this, and the Lord said no, or whether Paul just said, You know, something the Lord's put in Timothy's life. But it was not because Paul lacked faith, and it was not because Timothy lacked faith. It's not because they're being disobedient. And we're free to seek, you know, earthly, you know, health science solutions to things. That's okay.

Now, Luke 4.42, when day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place. The crowds were searching for him and came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them. We like it, right? So Jesus went to the secluded place.

It wasn't that he was suddenly getting social anxiety or just kind of need to cool off or something. He wanted to have a time of seclusion in order to fellowship with the Father. And we'll see that later on as a pattern as the Lord goes through his time of ministry. The people of Galilee really like the benefits of having Jesus hanging around. Man, this guy is really cool.

And he hasn't even started passing out free food yet. Healings, casting out demons, authoritative teachings, it doesn't get any better than this. Woo! I love it! So who wouldn't like more of that? So the people who realize the benefits of Jesus' presence in Galilee are about to make an appeal for Jesus to stay in Galilee, and by the way, stay here in Galilee in our part, right? We really like this. And we've got more people that need to be healed, and more demons to cast out, and we've certainly got a whole bunch of Sabbaths ahead of us.

Interesting insight, the parallel passages in Mark 1, 35-39, that I believe is on page 3 of your handout, In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Ding! Verse 36. Simon and his companions searched for him.

Hey, I really like what Jesus did for my mother-in-law. And that was right after a great authoritative teaching at the synagogue nearby. And they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you. You know how that word everyone gets used, right? Everyone's looking for you. He said to them, let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so I may preach there also, for that is what I came for. And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.

Here is Luke 4.43, and I want to point out something. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

Now, the entire Bible, that Kingdom of God phrase, I want to look at that, the entire Bible teaches two Gospels. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teaches two Gospels, and the Gospel of Christ's substitution, His death in our place, and His burial and His resurrection is one Gospel. The other Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom.

In fact, that particular phrase is used in the Gospel of Matthew in the early chapters. It is synonymous with the kingdom of heaven, which is also used only in Matthew. Mostly aimed at the Jews who were called to accept and believe in Christ as the Messiah and King. So you had the gospel of the kingdom primarily aimed at the Jews.

You had the gospel of substitution, Christ dying in our place, being buried and rising again, aimed not only at the Jews but to everyone else. Both of those Gospels are spelled out in the Bible. Here is, for example, for the entire Bible beginning to end, you have Genesis, you have Revelation, and places in between. And so what we have here is a sampling of the Gospel of substitution from the earliest chapters in Genesis to the last book of the Bible, multiple places. Now you have the gospel of the kingdom also in Genesis, starting with early chapters and continuing on to multiple places in the book of Revelation again, and places in between. We've actually given just a sampling here to get the idea across.

The Bible teaches those two gospels from beginning to end, the first book to the last book. Next, during the coming of Christ, there is the gospel of substitution, and it actually first comes out in the New Testament, in Matthew, in what was communicated through a dream by an angel to Joseph. Jesus, he will save his people from their sins. And that continues on in the other Gospels. I've tried to kind of weigh this towards Dr. Luke's Gospel, and for good reason.

But there's also the Gospel of the Kingdom, and we've already seen that in what was told to Mary. He will have the throne of his father David, who will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will have no end. So that message we saw in Luke. And as a matter of fact, what we see is all the way through, and we'll see it all the way to the end, the gospel of the kingdom is presented. So two gospels all the way through the Bible, two gospels presented through the four gospels as well.

So last verse, Luke 4.44, So he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. And so he went here in Judea, and now we have an interesting question that comes up. Did Jesus go to Galilee or Judea? That's translated Galilee in your King James Version, and it's translated Judea in other translations. And also in the Mark 139 passage says he went to Galilee. So which is it? Does the Bible have an oops? Okay. The truth is, Jesus appears to have gone to both places.

Because if he starts off in Capernaum, which is at the north end of Galilee, in order to get to Judea, where is he going to have to go through? Galilee first. So he's going to go to Galilee first, on his way to Judea, and then go to the churches there. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that doesn't mean just Galilee. So he went also on his way down to Judea, he went through Galilee.

The picture we get from this passage is the many miracles got people's attention and they really liked it. The miracles were to authenticate the message. So many people lost sight of what was priority. The miracles were to authenticate the message. What is the message is the point. Can you do another miracle please? So the message that Jesus brought to the synagogues was the priority. The miracles were of secondary priority in order to underscore and validate the message that Jesus brought, which so far in this ministry we're seeing as the gospel of the kingdom.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for this passage, what neat things are in it, and what great revelations. And we thank You that You have given these things because You love us and care for us. We thank You for the help that this is in beholding You through Your Word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.