January 31 Sermon: For His Word was with Power
Consider these questions as you listen to this message from Jeremiah 1:4-10 and Luke 4:31-44:
1. How does the concept of God's authority and power through His word connect the Old and New Testament lessons in this passage?
2. What reasons does Jeremiah give for initially resisting God's call to be a prophet, and how does God respond to Jeremiah's concerns?
3. What is the central message conveyed by Jesus' actions in Luke 4, particularly in his healing and exorcism, and how does it relate to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God?
Transcript:
Our God is a God who has the power to uproot and overthrow. He has the power to build and to plant. Just as he did at the beginning of creation he does this by the power of His word. In both our Old and New Testament lessons this morning we see how God speaks and has authority over his creation and all powers that would oppose him.
As we dig into our Old Testament lesson this morning we see the word of the LORD coming to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the son of a priest and was himself going to be a priest. Being a priest was a family business. He was born in the city of Anathoth, a city set aside specifically for the priestly families. We see that God has different plans for Jeremiah though. The Lord comes to him and informs him that he is to be a prophet. This is not a random or haphazard idea that God has had here. Instead God informs Jeremiah that this was the plan all along. Before God formed Jeremiah in the womb God knew him. The idea of God knowing someone is not that God looked at the future personality of Jeremiah and thought that he would be a good candidate to be a prophet. Instead when God knows someone in the Bible it means that he has chosen them. They are called and delegated by God.
Jeremiah understands this because he refers to God as Sovereign LORD. He knows that God has control and that he has called him but Jeremiah seems to think that he knows better than God. Jeremiah questions God's decision to make him a prophet. It is important that we remember what a prophet actually is. We might automatically think that the job of a prophet is pretty cool. I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to have special insight into the future from God. That is probably the most popular way to understand the role of a prophet but when we look at the role of a prophet in the Bible that was only a small part of the job. A prophet was one who called people to return to the LORD. They spoke the law of God and called people to repent. That isn't really very popular with people. Throughout the Bible we see prophets killed and hated by the people that they were called to serve. To be called to be God's prophet could be very dangerous.
It would seem that our potential prophet wants to simply step aside and let someone else have the job. Jeremiah gives two reasons for why God cannot use him. First he tells God that he does not know how to speak. It is quite interesting how much the call of Jeremiah here mimics the call of Moses. Both men seem to be pretty apprehensive about God's call on them and use their inability to speak as reasoning that God must be wrong about calling them. Surely as a Hebrew Jeremiah knew deeply the story of Moses and knew how God took Moses, who claimed he could not speak, and used him to bring the people out of Egypt and to the edge of the Promised Land. Jeremiah’s excuses are not going to fly with God. The Lord made his mouth and he was coming to him with a word to speak.
Jeremiah also claimed that he was too young. In our pew Bibles here Jeremiah says that he is only a child. While the word there in the original language can be translated child it is probably better rendered "I am but a youth". It is likely that Jeremiah was roughly 20 years old but in a culture such as the one Jeremiah was raised in, it is likely that he did feel as though he was too young. Their society valued the wisdom of older people and so when God came to him and let him know that he was to be a prophet Jeremiah was likely surprised by the impending assignment. Again, Jeremiah would have known the stories of the Old Testament. God had used all manner of people. Hebrews and gentiles, men and women, and young and old. God is the one who is going to be working in Jeremiah's prophetic ministry and God clearly lets him know this.
The LORD tells Jeremiah that he should not say that he is merely a youth. God is going to guide Jeremiah and tell him what to say. Even though the job of a prophet is frightening, God is going to be with Jeremiah. He promises that he will rescue him. Jeremiah is not going off into the great unknown alone. Instead, the Lord is going to protect him, guide his steps, and put words in his mouth. Jeremiah tells us that the LORD reached out his hand and touched his mouth. It is through the utterance of the words that God is going to give to Jeremiah that God is going to use him. Through these words he is giving Jeremiah authority over nations and kingdoms. By these words they will be uprooted and torn down. There is something that we don't want to miss there in the last few words of our lesson this morning. He is also going to build and plant by this word from the Lord. Destruction will come, but God is also going to do a new thing. The power to do all of this comes from God's authority and by the utterance of his word.
The power of the word of the Lord is a theme that continues into our New Testament lesson this morning. As we continue our journey in Luke through the early ministry of Jesus we see that Jesus is continuing to minister throughout the region of Galilee. Jesus is continuing to go throughout the region and teach in the synagogues. The initial reception of Jesus is very good. They are amazed by what he has to teach. He is not like the other teachers but instead his word possesses authority. Luke brings us the details of a few very interesting stories. While teaching in the synagogue a demon possessed man begins to create a bit of a problem. The demon within the man knows who Jesus is and it isn't just his name and where he is from that is so interesting. This demon knows Jesus for something else. He says that he is the Holy One of God. The demons know what the people watching the ministry of Jesus only dare to guess. He is the Holy One of God. Here in Luke this title is the equivalent of saying Christ, Messiah, and anointed one. The demon is declaring that this Jesus standing in front of them is the one. He is the one promised all the way back in Genesis who would come and crush the head of the serpent. Jesus does not want too much to be known about his identity and so he tells them to be quiet. Jesus does this because of the misconception that the people of his day had about who the Messiah would be. To them, the Messiah was a political figure. They believe he would show up and get rid of the occupation of the Roman's. Therefore, Jesus silenced the confession of the demon regarding his identity because his mission was not to organize a political revolution. His mission was deeper and wider than that and that is precisely what Luke is showing us about Jesus in our New Testament Lesson this morning.
We read that Jesus rebukes the demon. Just as the prophet Jeremiah was to speak with authority from God, Jesus speaks. No real showmanship here with hand gestures or touching the demon possessed man. He simply speaks. He tells the demon to come out of him and the demon has no choice but to obey because Jesus does not speak with mere suggestion or pleading. He commands and not only does the demon come out but the man is not even harmed. Jesus not only has the power to tell the demon to get out of the man but he keeps the demon from causing destruction as it comes out of him. The people again are amazed because he speaks with authority. It isn't just his teaching anymore but now power even over demons. Who is this man?
Luke then informs us that Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to the house of Simon Peter. His mother-in-law was sick with a high fever. We see Jesus once again speaking with authority. Instead of what we traditionally see with healing where hands are laid on a person Jesus rebukes the sickness. It is not as if the fever has ears to hear, but Jesus still has authority over the sickness. He speaks and the sickness is overthrown. Jesus does not say take two of these and call me in the morning. Instead when Jesus speaks, he speaks with authority and the sickness is gone and she is completely healed. It's important to point out her response. She gets up and serves. This is the right response to God's grace and mercy shown to us. Out of gratitude we rise and serve God by serving others. That is precisely what Peter's mother-in-law does and Luke is deliberate to point this out to us. Not only so we can see what the right response to Christ's saving us should be but also so that we might see that the healing of Jesus here was absolute. He has authority over sickness and disease.
Luke continues to express this to us because he shows us that Jesus is healing all kinds of various diseases. Jesus has great compassion for humanity. The people came to him and he healed their sick and continued to cast out demons. He rebuked them by his word and kept them silent from declaring who he was. The Holy One of God.
Luke tells us that the people didn't want Jesus to leave. Why would they want this great man to leave? The sick are being healed. If Jesus was in your neighborhood taking care of ailments, you wouldn’t want him to go. You would want him to stick around so that your needs could be taken care of when you or one of your family members would become ill. But once again we see Luke informing us about what the ministry of Jesus really is. Jesus could have set up shop in Galilee and had a pretty good life healing the sick and casting out demons. People would have come from miles around to have their afflictions cared for but curing fevers and casting out demons doesn’t take care of the root problem. Every one of those people would still have met their ultimate demise. While Jesus showed compassion for the poor and the sick and demon possessed that was not his primary mission. That was not the reason the second person of the Holy Trinity left the glory of heaven. He came for something more and Luke lets us know what that something more is. Jesus says that he must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose. The mission of Jesus was not to take care of the sick people in a particular town or region of first century Palestine. His mission was greater and it was for all people. The demon possession and sickness was a symptom of a bigger problem. All of these things are in the world because of sin. When Adam fell we inherited his sin and because of it we are sinners and the world is a broken place.
This is why Jesus must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. This is the first time we hear that phrase in Luke's gospel and it is also interesting that these miracles that we see Jesus performing are the first miracles that Luke records for us in his account of the ministry of Jesus. What is the significance here? What is this all about?
Jesus has come to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God and in this passage we see a battle going on. The kingdom of darkness has had its reign but now something different is happening. There is a different authority and just as Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord and had authority over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down Jesus comes with the word of the Lord to uproot and tear down the Kingdom of Darkness. If this was an old western we would break out the classic cliché "There’s a new sheriff in town". The kingdom of darkness no longer has dominion, the kingdom of God does. This idea of the kingdom of God is a central theme of the New Testament. The idea of the kingdom of God isn't about physical boundaries of nations but instead about God's reign. God's reign comes with power and authority from the very word of God. The reign of God is here because the King has come.
This is the message that we proclaim and we so desperately need to hear. The kingdom of darkness is so pervasive and it isn’t just the world out there. In our sin and unbelief, the kingdom of darkness resides right here in each of us. We have not loved God as we ought or loved our neighbors as ourselves…….but the kingdom of God is here. Christ has authority over the kingdom of darkness and regardless of how things may seem in the world, because of his death and resurrection the reign of God is here. It comes to us by the word of God declaring to us that in Christ our sins are forgiven and we have been made righteous. In Christ's death and resurrection, we have the sure hope of eternal life and the resurrection of our bodies. This kingdom is present to us in the word, the sacraments, and in our communion with one another. Each week we gather here called by God and by his word we are made new each week. We take the good news of God's reign out with us into our vocations. Serving God by serving our neighbors because of what God, in Christ, has done for us. We then are called back to be restored and made new by his word once again. Next week we will gather again once again to be restored by his word and we will receive a meal of the kingdom of God. A foretaste of the feast to come in his kingdom. A meal that sustains us to everlasting life.
As we depart from here this week I challenge you to hear and believe this good news. The kingdom of darkness has been defeated because of the work of Christ. The reign of God is here because the king has come and he has authority. By his word he has uprooted and torn down the kingdom of darkness and by his word he builds up and plants. By his word he creates faith in our hearts. By his word we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. By his word we receive the gift of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. By his word we are declared righteous. Trust that because you hear and believe this good news that God is working in you to make you holy and know that by his word we know that nothing can separate you from that love he has shown to us in Christ. Now to our great and eternal God and reigning King be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen
