January 30 2022
Epiphany 4 January 30th 2022
Old Testament: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19) “I formed you in the womb … they shall not prevail”
Psalm: Psalm 71:1-6 “A rock of refuge … a strong fortress”
Epistle: 1st Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 “The greatest of these is love”
Gospel: Luke 4:31-44 “Teaching … with authority”
Sermon Text: Luke 4
Sermon Title: “Teaching With Authority”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Again today, we hear about the importance of the Word of God; the Holy Scriptures; the inspired, inerrant Bible; from Genesis to Revelation. In particular, today we hear about its authority. Jesus had left His hometown of Nazareth because of their unbelief, “and He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And He was teaching them on the Sabbath, (as He had done at Nazareth) and they were astonished at His teaching, for His Word possessed authority” (Luke 4:31-32) unlike that of their scribes and Pharisees. (This is our text)
There are many Bibles printed today that have the words of our Lord Jesus in red letters, in order to stand out from the rest of the text. Of course, there was nothing like this in the original Greek text. There were, I am sure, many good (and pious) reasons to do this, and these Bibles have always been popular.
But from having the direct words of Christ in red, there is an unfortunate conclusion drawn by many Christians, that the words in red are somehow more important than the rest of Holy Scripture; as if the rest of the Bible is not also Jesus’ Word. Since Jesus is true God, from all eternity, all of Holy Scripture; even the Old Testament where there are no red letters, is Jesus’ Word. Therefore, “every article of Christian doctrine is taken directly from the Word of Scripture” (Pieper, vol. 1. P. 147) because it is His Word. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word will not pass away”. (Luke 21:33)
The text of the Holy Bible was written over a period of about 1500 years, by a variety of men of widely different cultural experiences and backgrounds, and yet since they wrote under the inspiration of Almighty God, the Bible is without any errors and is a perfect unity in its teachings. Scripture owes its origins to God alone; whose word is truth”. (John 17:17b)
As Paul wrote, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. (2nd Timothy 3:16) Peter also said, “No prophesy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”. (2nd Peter 1:20b-21)
So, for example, in the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah; “the Word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you”. (Jeremiah 1:4-5a) The psalmist today also said “You are He who took me from my mother’s womb”. (Psalm 71:6b) Here and in several other places, the Word of the Lord confirms that the life of the unborn is precious in His sight and should be precious in ours as well.
The same is true regarding many other (so called) controversial teachings from the Bible; from the literal creation of the world by God out of nothing in Genesis (which shows the theory of evolution to be in error) to the testimony against all manner of sinful behavior (throughout the Scriptures) which seem to rule in the world today; to the all-sufficient atoning death of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, testified to in all the Gospels, but which is rejected by so many; to the second coming of our Lord in judgment on the last day as spoken of in the Gospels and in Revelation, which shows that God makes eternal distinctions between those who trust in Him and those who reject Him.
In all of these and many other teachings of God’s Word, as Christians, we are not free to pick and choose which parts of Scripture we believe and which parts we reject, as if we are going through a buffet line. Jesus’ Word has absolute authority; “it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. (Hebrews 4:12)
Yet even Christians routinely fail to treat the Scriptures as the Word of God. How often do we get into fights and divisions simply because we fail to check what the Word of Jesus is on the subject? How often do we make decisions based on what is right in our own eyes instead of what is right in God’s eyes? How often have we given more authority to our experiences, opinions and feelings or those of others (so called experts), rather than to the Word of God?
How often do we place our relationships with others above our relationship with our Lord? How often have we rejected/abused someone when they wanted to bring the Word of God to bear on a topic because of our personal dislike of them? This is what the devil wants us to do, so whenever we do this, we need to repent. Whether we like it or not, the Word of God is the final authority in the church.
As you also know, faith itself comes through the authoritative word of God, as the Apostle Paul declared, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ”. (Romans 10:17) Only a word with authority could as Isaiah wrote, “not return to Me empty, but accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it”. (Isaiah 55:11b) Therefore we are exhorted/urged to “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly”. (Colossians 3:16a)
Then there is Jesus’ example for us to follow. Even though Jesus is true God, even though He is without sin, as a man, in His humility, Jesus perfectly obeyed/kept the Word of the Lord. As Luke recorded, “He grew and became strong … He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man”. (Luke 2:40a, 52b) As Jesus told His parents when they found Him in the temple; “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house”. (Luke 2:49b)
Jesus and His family were always found in God’s house, keeping/performing “everything according to the Law of the Lord”. (Luke 2:39a) To put in another way, a way I heard multiple pastors refer to it in recent weeks, Jesus went to church. He kept the third commandment perfectly, “remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”. (Exodus 20:8)
In last week’s Gospel reading, we heard Jesus, “went to the synagogue as was His custom on the Sabbath Day”. (Luke 4:16a) Again today we heard, “Jesus went down to Capernaum … and He was teaching them on the Sabbath”. (Luke 4:31) If Jesus, the sinless Son of God, needed to “go to church”, for the sake of the Word, what does that say about us “poor miserable sinners”?
The author of the book of Hebrews speaks to this saying, “since we have a great high priest over the house of God (Jesus), let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith … let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for He who promised is faithful … not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day (of His coming again) approaching”. (Hebrews 10:21-25)
While in the synagogue preaching, Jesus was interrupted by a “man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice … have You come to destroy us? I know who You are; the Holy One of God”. (Luke 4:33b-34) The demon tried to destroy and discredit the authority with which Jesus spoke; “but Jesus rebuked him saying; Be silent (shut up) and come out of him … and the demon came out of him, having done no harm”. (Luke 4:35) Jesus speaks a word and the devil must leave.
All were amazed at what they had just witnessed, “and said to one another; what is this Word? For with authority and power, He commands the unclean spirits and they come out”. (Luke 4:36) Then Jesus went to the house of Simon Peter and found his mother-in-law sick, with a fever; “and He stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her”. (Luke 4:39a)
Continuing the next day, Jesus continued to show His authority in Word and deed; preaching the Word, healing, and casting out demons, “rebuking them and not allowing them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ”. (Luke 4:41b) The devil came to destroy life and all that is good, but “Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly”. (John 10:10)
When the people wanted Him to stay with them longer, Jesus said to them, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Judea”. (Luke 4:43-44) This is how the work of the Kingdom of God gets done; even today; through the proclamation of the Word/Gospel of the Lord.
Therefore, the Apostle Paul urges young pastor Timothy, “preach the Word! Be ready, in season and out of season, (to) reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching”; (2nd Timothy 4:2) because “nothing saves souls except the Word” (Lenski, p. 281) through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not our winning personalities or persuasive speech, but only God working through His Word, that will cause any success. “But whether there be success or not, God has commanded His church to preach His Word without addition or subtraction” (Pieper, vol. I, p. 185); “neither turning aside to the right hand or to the left”. (Joshua 23:6)
In other words, His Word still has authority in our world. It is a word that the world needs to hear, it is a word that our neighbor needs to hear, and it is a word that we too need to hear; over and over again. In this wicked, sinful world, we need to constantly be reminded of the Word and promises of God; and so we pray that God would let every trial, affliction and persecution in this life, drive us to cling to Christ our Lord; trusting His precious Gospel/Word of salvation; “for His Word possesses authority”. (Luke 4:32b) Amen.