Jesus heals many

Luke 4:40–41 “Now when the sun was setting [just when the disciples thought they had a long day], all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them [can you imagine all the time and work that went into touching every single one of them? and it wasn’t a small group., Mark 1:33 tells us the whole city was there at the door]. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.”

False religion can be identified by work rather than relationship

The people waited until Evening, the start of Monday rather than the sabbath.

The sabbath was a sacred part of the week in Jewish culture. We know the Lord exemplified the sabbath day when he rested on the 7th day of creation. That is the first example of a sabbath. It literally means to rest. And especially if you’re a parent, you know how important rest is. You ever gotten into bed after a hard day’s work and all your muscles just relax and it feels so good? One of the best feelings in the world. That was God’s gift to us - rest.

The Israelites were allowed to gather manna only for the day they were in, except for the day before sabbath. They were allowed to gather two days worth. That meant on the sabbath, they didn’t have to do any work. It was their day off.

It wasn’t a ritual to be followed, it was a gift to be enjoyed.

Now enter the Pharsees. Exodus 20:10 says not to work on the Sabbath day, so the Pharisees created 39 types of prohibited work so no one would break the Law. Here are some of their fence laws: You could not spit on the Sabbath because it would disturb the dirt and you would be guilty of plowing.

You could not swat a fly on the Sabbath because you would be guilty of hunting.

A woman could not look at her reflection because she might see a gray hair and pluck it out, which would be doing work.

They created loopholes to get around some laws.

If your house was burning down on a Sabbath, you could not carry clothes out of it. However, you were allowed to put on several layers of clothes as the house was burning down. You could leave without breaking the law because you were wearing them instead of carrying them.

You could not travel more than 3/5 mile from your house on the Sabbath. However, you could leave food 3/5 mile from your home on the night before, which would make it permissible to travel twice the distance without breaking the law.

The Pharisees used their position to burden the people in the name of God. They were the ones that were supposed to be closest to God because of how much they studied the Scriptures, but instead they were some of the furthest away.

They cared more about people’s work than they cared about their relationship with God. In the same sense, any religion that tells you that you must work to attain salvation, is a religion created by man and not by God. God says, it is not of works, but is of grace. Catholicism, Mormanism, Islam, Jehovah Witness, They all have their roots in works. The bottom line is you have to earn in order to be accepted.

What an unbearable weight to have placed on you. How depressing it must be to live life with the understanding that you are ultimately responsible for whether you will be accepted or not.

Galatians 3:24 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

Satan brings the standard down within our reach so we think we are ok. But the law shows us how imperfect we are and how much we need a Savior.

People Need Jesus

The people in this miracle had a need. They heard what Jesus said in the synagogue and how he preached with authority and power. They witnessed his power over the demon possessed man. Word had spread about the nobleman’s son and the mother-in-law who was healed. Never had people seen or heard anything like it. Jesus’s words and actions were a great contradiction to that of the Pharisees. While the Pharisees laid burdens on people, Jesus lifted burdens from people.

When the people saw and heard what Jesus did, they didn’t just want more of it, they wanted others to hear it too. So the people brought many others to Jesus. Our world isn’t much different than that of Jesus’ days. People still need Christ, People still need a spiritual healing. Once the people tasted what Jesus had to offer, there was no turning back. Christ satisfies. There’s a God-sized void in all of our hearts that can only be filled with a relationship with Christ.

Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

Anybody here enjoy ice cream? The other day our family went to lovejoy ice cream over there on Meridian road. They make some good ice cream. When it came time to order, without really giving it alot of thought, I casually mentioned rocky road ice cream. I’m a sucker for the classic ice cream flavors. Doesn’t need to be fancy. Doesn’t need a thousand ingredients. However, after I took my first bite, my eyes immediately lite up. This rocky road, was unlike any other rocky road I’d ever had. Whatever, chocolate ice cream they used to make this rocky road, was so rich and delicious. I haven’t forgotten about that ice cream. In fact, the following week I had my wife go pick me up some. But guess what, they were out of rocky road ice cream and said they weren’t going to have more until the following week. So guess what I did the following week. . . yeah, I went back. But when I got back, they still didn’t have any rocky road ice cream. So I literally turned around and left. No other ice cream sounded good after tasting that rocky road ice cream. After tasting that rocky road ice cream, nothing else seemed to matter.

Once the world tastes and sees what a relationship with Christ is, everything else pales in comparison. It’s like the man who found the pearl of great price, none of his other pearls mattered anymore. So he sold them all and traded them all in for the pearl of great price. The world is held captive by their cheap pearls. But Jesus is the pearl of great price. He is the one that every soul needs.

They live their life void of the hope, joy, and peace that God has to offer. They struggle through life with out the Spirit of God. They search and search for something that will satisfy. Oftentimes it’s the sin the world has told them will satisfy them. But they are still left empty.

What is keeping us from telling others? What excuse are we going to tell Jesus as to why we didn’t share Christ with others? Do our co-workers and customers know that Christ satisfies? Do our friends and family know that Christ has made all the difference in the world to us?

Here is the challenge for us this week, share Christ with someone. Pray and ask God to open up a door for you to share Christ with someone this week.

Our character matters to God

When Jesus cast out the devil, the Bible tells us that He rebuked them and commanded them not to speak? They were proclaiming that Jesus was Christ the Son of God. What that not true? So why did Jesus rebuke them? It’s because Jesus doesn’t want the testimony of demons. The demons know that Jesus is the Son of God, but whose listening to the demons? What weight do their words carry?

As many of you know, we are building a house right now. We’ll never do it again. But we are learning alot during the process. We have alot of things gone really well. But with most projects, there’s always something that goes wrong. No project or person is perfect. One such thing was working with the door and window company. we have about 20 windows in our house. We ordered them really early on in the construction process to give enough time for the company to order them and get them installed once the framing was up. Well when it came time for the windows to be put in, we were missing four windows. So about 20 percent of our window order was missing. We double checked the order and they were on there. We called the company and they couldn’t find the windows. Not that they didn’t order them, they just couldn’t find them. A few days later they find two windows in their warehouse. But the other two of the windows they never found and ended up having to order them again. Then the front door comes and they install it, but without any hardware on it. They tell us we need to choose the door hardware, but we already did. Or at least we think we did but it was so long ago, we can’t remember. Our attic door was about to be installed, until the door guy, realized that too was the wrong size. The door leading to the garage was installed as a right swing door instead of a left swing door. Which means that you couldn’t turn the light on and you were now going to walk over a heating register every time you entered the house. Then my builder is cleaning up in the house and sweeping up a pile of debris and trash and guess what he finds in a box? The hardware for the front door, the same hardware they told us we needed to decide on. It had been in that box for a couple months just sitting in our house. The company had not only ordered the hardware we selected, but they also delivered it, only they placed it down and forgot they put it down in the house. They never installed it when they installed the door, because they forgot where they had placed it. Well now the door hardware is installed but it doesn’t work properly. Last week I told my builder that company needs to come out and fix the door hardware. I can’t move into a house that has a front door that won’t work. He told me that they said they would come out that day. So here’s my question to you, do you think I believe them? Do you think their testimony matters to me? This company’s testimony means nothing to me. why? Because their words don’t match up with their actions.

How do we make Jesus look like to the world? Do we make Him look good? Do we represent Him well?

The difference is in the relationship. We are able to walk with Him and talk with Him. We are able to walk in the Spirit. We improve our testimony when we walk with Him. It’s as simple as that. The more we walk with Him the less we sin, the more peace we have, the better we make Him look. It’s not complicated. It’s simple. But if we looked back at the previous seven days, what would we find? Would we find that our walk was what it should be?