GOSPEL OF LUKE: Chapter 4 - Temptation

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Luke 4:1-14   The Temptation in the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-2

Luke 4:3-4

Luke 4:5-8

Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-14

Luke 4:21-31  Good News and Rejection

Luke 4:21

Luke 4:21-23

Luke 4:24-30

Luke 4:38-41    Healings and Exorcisms

   He left the meeting place and went to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was running a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. He stood over her, told the fever to leave—and it left. Before they knew it, she was up getting dinner for them.

   When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, “Son of God! You’re the Son of God!” But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah.  (MSG)

     Jesus came to announce the Good News of God - release from the power of oppression, sin, or injustice over us.  He had already sparred with Satan in the wilderness.  In Jewish culture, the Messiah was believed to come to crush demonic power.  It is no surprise that some of Jesus' first acts are to establish, right from the start, 'This is who I am and why I have come'.  Evil has no power over the Son of God!  But why did Jesus shut the demons up?  Why didn't he want people to know him as the Messiah at this early stage? 
     How do we 'battle sin' today?  Is our battle just to avoid sinful acts ourselves?  How do we minister to those with mental illness or other forms of enslavement?  How do we proclaim freedom from the power of a corrupt media culture....TV, movies, music?  How do we deliver those who are orphans and refugees of civil war and conflicts beyond their control?  What demons do WE have the power, through the Spirit, to cast off today???