PT-3 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm” (Luke 4:38-40)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2026 8:53 AM

My Worship Time                                      Focus:  PT-3 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 4:38-40

            Message of the verses:  “Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home.  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.  While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.”

            There is a little more at the beginning of this SD that kind of goes along with what I was writing last evening, and so that is where I will begin this morning.

            We were discussing “faith healers” last night and so unlike these modern faith healers, Jesus performed His healings in public before huge crowds in various locations—not in the carefully orchestrated and highly controlled surroundings of modern healing venues or TV studios. Nor were His healings contingent of the faith of the one being healed; most of those He healed were unbelievers, and hence unable to make a “positive Confession” and claim their healing.  So unprecedented with Christ’s healing ministry that people exclaimed, “We have never seen anything like this” (Mark 2:12; cf. John 9:32).

            I have to mention a story that was very upsetting to me while I was working at my job at Ford, in the casting plant a lot of years ago.  There was always a nurse to go to if you had a problem and one of the nurses told me that she was a believer.  She had cancer in her ankle and she went to one of these churches who believed in the kind of healing that I have been writing about.  She told me that her faith was not good enough and so they had to cut her foot off, and the part that made me so mad was that this is what her so-called Pastor told her, as he said that if she had enough faith that she would have been healed.  I had to keep my feelings to myself when she told me this story, but I had little if any respect for her pastor.

            MacArthur writes “The apostles (Luke 9:1), the seventy (Luke 10:1-9), and a few close associates of the apostles (Barnabas [Acts 15:12], Philip [Acts 8:6-7], and Stephen [Acts 6:8]) were also granted the gift of healing to authenticate them as the preachers of God’s truth.  Their healing was characterized by the same features that marked Christ’s healing.

            “The apostles healed with a word or a touch.  Peter merely said to Aeneas, ‘Jesus Christ heals you’ and he was immediately healed (Acts 9:34).  On the island of Malta after being shipwrecked, ‘Paul went in to see [the father of Publius, who was gravely ill with dysentery] and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him’ (Acts 28:8).

            “The apostles healed instantly.  As already noted, Aeneas was made will immediately.  When Peter and John healed a man ‘who had been lame from his mother’s womb’ (Acts 3:2),’ immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.  With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God’ (vv. 7-8).

            “The apostles healed totally. ‘Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed….Immediately…got up’; his paralysis was gone (Acts 9:33-34).  Paul encountered a man at Lystra who ‘had no strength in his feet, [was] lame from his mother’s womb, [and] had never walked’ (Acts 14:8).  But when Paul ‘said with a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet’’ the man ‘leaped up and began to walk’ (v. 10).

            “The apostles were able to heal anyone of anything.  Acts 5:16 records that ‘the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.’  After Paul healed Publius’s father, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured’ (Acts 28:9).

            “The apostles healed organic conditions, such as lameness (Acts 3:2-8), paralysis (Acts 9:33-34), and dysentery (Acts 28:8).

            “Finally, the apostles raised the dead.  God used Peter to bring Dorcas back to life, and Paul to bring Eutychus back to life after he fell to his death from a third-story window (Acts 20:9-12).  As a physician Luke, who was present [v. 8], was certainly qualified to determine whether a person was dead.).

            “The gift of healing in the New Testament was not given to keep believers healthy, but as a sign to unbelievers verifying the truthfulness of the gospel and the authenticity of its preachers.  To claim that healing is the norm in the church undermines its unique role in authenticating Jesus and the apostles as revealers of divine truth.  In keeping with that purpose, healings faded from the scene as the apostolic era drew to a close.  Paul (Gal. 4:13-15), Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-27), Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23), and Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20) were all recorded to have been sick.  None of them were healed.  Nor do the New Testament Epistles, which define the life and theology of the church, refer to a ministry of healing.  There is no evidence that the kind of healings seen in the era of Jesus and the apostles was to continue beyond them (cf. 2 Cor. 12:12). Nor were such healings a regular part of the purpose of God before them.  They are extremely rare in the Old Testament; for example, none are recorded for the 750 years from Isaiah to Jesus Christ.  God may choose to heal through the prayers of His people, but not through miracle working men as in the case of our Lord and His associates…

            “While the sun was setting, signifying the end of the Sabbath and its restrictions on travel and work, all (Mark 1:33 notes that ‘the whole city had gathered at the door’) those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus.  Word traveled fast and when the Sabbath ended, people could do what they were not permitted to do during the Sabbath—bring their needy friends and family to the house in hope of healing.  They were not disappointed.  In keeping with His compassion and power to heal anyone and any disease or condition, He was laying His hands on each one of them and was healing them.  No one was excluded.  The display of healing on that one day may have exceeded all the recorded healings in the entire Old Testament, and Jesus did such thing over the three years of His ministry.”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When I was struggling with this subject soon after I became a believer the man who was tutoring me on the Word of God said that God heals everyone every time with the exception of the last time.  In a sense God does heal you the last time if you are a believer as He takes you to heaven.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to do His perfect will in the life of my wife who has to make decisions on how to get more treatment, praying that God will be faithful, as He always is in leading us to where He wants us to go for her treatment    5/21/2026 9:59 AM

           

 

PT-2 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm” (Luke 4:38-40)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/20/2026 10:02 AM

My Worship Time                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 4:38-40

            Message of the verses:  “Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home.  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.  While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.”

            I have to say that I did not get too far this morning, but will try and do better in this evening’s SD, as I will begin by quoting a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary that he wrote to help explain these verses above.

            “But Peter had more in mind than a meal, since upon arrival Jesus was confronted by a family crisis.  Simon’s mother-in-law (1 Cor. 9:5 refers to Peter’s wife) was seriously ill, suffering from an infection and a resulting high fever.  (Only Luke the physician specifies that it was a high[Gk., mega; lit. ‘large’ or ‘great’] fever; Matthew [8:14] and Mark ‘1:30] merely refer to it as a fever.)  Fully aware of Jesus’ power to heal (cf. 4:14, 23), they asked Him to help her.  The Lord immediately responded and standing over her He took her by the hand in a gesture of tender compassion (Matt. 8:15; Mark 1:31), rebuked the fever, and it left her.  Rebuked translates a form of the verb epitimao, which is used almost exclusively in the New Testament to speak of rebuking people or demons (the only other instance of it being used to rebuke an inanimate object are in the accounts of Jesus’ calming the sea [Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24]).  Its use here demonstrates that Jesus had authority and power over the forces that debilitate the natural body.  At Christ’s word, the fever instantaneously left her.  There was no lingering weakness, no recovery period; all her symptoms disappeared at once.  Completely healed and needing no recovery of strength lost in the battle with the infection, she immediately got up and waited on them, preparing and serving the Sabbath meal to the many family members and guests.

            “The Lord’s healing ministry set the pattern for the true biblical gift of healing.  Six features characterized His healing ministry and set it apart from those of the fake ‘faith healers,’ who have paraded themselves before the church with their deceptive and abusive false promises.”

            I will now begin quoting these six features that characterized Jesus healing ministry, and see how far I get this evening.

            “First, Jesus healed with a word, as He did in the case of the centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5-13) or, as here with Peter’s mother-in-law, a touch (cf. Mark 3:10; 5:25-34).

            “Second, Jesus healed instantly.  There were no progressive healings; the people He cured did not gradually get better.  As noted above, Peter’s mother-in-law’s symptoms vanished at once, and she was fully restored to health.  Similarly, the centurion’s servant ‘was healed that very moment’ (Matt. 8:13); the woman with the hemorrhage was healed ‘immediately’ (Mark 5:29); the ten lepers were cleansed of their disease as soon as they left to show themselves to the priests (Luke 17:14); after Jesus ‘stretched out His hand and touched [another leper]…immediately the leprosy left him’ (Luke 5:13); when Jesus commanded the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and began to walk’ (John 5:8-9).  Some offer the Lord’s healing of the blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-25) as an example of a progressive healing.  But the man’s statement, ‘I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around’ (v. 24) merely defined his preexisting condition of blindness.  The actual healing was instantaneous (v. 25).  Had Jesus’ healings not been instantaneous, they would not have demonstrated His supernatural power over disease.  His critics could have claimed that the people were better as a result of natural processes.

            “Third, Jesus healed totally.  Peter’s mother-in-law was cured of all her symptoms and went at once from being bedridden to serving a meal.  When Jesus healed a man ‘covered with leprosy’ (Luke 5:12), ‘the leprosy left him’ (v. 13).  It was the same with all of Jesus’ healings; ‘the blind receive[d] sight and the lame walk[ed], the lepers [were] cleansed and the deaf hear[d]’ (Matt. 11:15).

            “Fourth, as verse 40 notes, Jesus healed everyone.  He did not leave behind long lines of disappointed, distraught people who were not healed, like modern faith healers do.  Matthew 4:24 says that ‘the news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.’  According to Matthew 12:15, ‘Many followed Him, and He healed them all,’  while Luke 6:19 notes that ‘all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.’  So widespread was Jesus’ healing that He, in effect, banished disease from Israel during the three years of His ministry.

            “Fifth, Jesus healed organic disease.  He did not heal vague, ambiguous, invisible ailments such as lower back pain, heart palpitations, or headaches.  On the contrary, He restored full mobility to paralyzed limbs, full sight to blind eyes, full hearing to deaf ears, and fully cleansed leprous skin.  Jesus healed ‘every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people’ (Matt. 4:23; cf. 9:35).  All Jesus’ healings were undeniable, miraculous signs, as even His most bitter enemies admitted (John 11:47).

            “Finally, Jesus raised the dead—not those who were in a temporary coma, or whose vital signs fluctuated during surgery, but a young man in his casket on his way to the graveyard (Luke 7:11-15), a young girl whose death was apparent to all (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43), and a man who had been dead for four days (John 11:14-44).”

            Lord willing I will be able to finish this section in tomorrow morning’s SD.

5/20/2026 10:47 PM

 

PT-1 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm” (Luke 4:38-40)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/20/2026 8:09 AM

My Worship Time                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Jesus’ Power Over The Natural Realm”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 4:38-40

            Message of the verses:  “Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home.  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.  While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.”

            This morning we begin looking at what is a fairly long section from John MacArthur’s commentary on these verses which have many things in them to write about.  I want to first begin by writing about something that is near and dear to my heart at this time, and that is the physical effects of the fall are universal and devastating.  Birth is the firs step toward death.  Deformity, illness, weakness,  injury, disease, and death from the universal biography of mankind.  If He is to be the Savior of His people and take them to the perfections of eternal heaven, the Messiah then must have the power to reverse all these natural effects of the fall, and there are many of them as mentioned above.  This passage provides both a specific illustration of and a general reference to Jesus’ power over the natural realm.

            I am learning some things that are making a lot of sense to me this morning, things that I had not realized in my reading of Luke’s gospel in this section before, and it is my prayer that all those who read this will also learn things too.

            MacArthur writes “After preaching in the Capernaum synagogue and casting a demon out of a man in the audience (vv. 31-37), Jesus got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home.  The Sabbath service in the synagogue usually ended around noon and was followed by the main meal of the day.  This is the second Sabbath mentioned in Luke’s gospel (cf. 4:16-30), and both of them featured hostility (either human or demonic) to Jesus (cf. 6:6-11; 13:10-17).

            “Simon Peter had not yet been officially called to be a disciple (cf. 5:1-10; Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark1: 16-20) refer to a preliminary, temporary call; Luke to the final, permanent call to follow the Lord) or an apostle (6:13-14).  Luke did not need to introduce him to his readers, because by the time he wrote his gospel, Peter was known to all of them.  At this point in the narrative, however, he was still a member of the synagogue at Capernaum.  Peter had been introduced to Jesus by his brother Andrew (John 1:35-42).  On that occasion Jesus changed his name to ‘Peter’ (Greek) or ‘Cephas’ (Aramaic) to indicate his future role as part of the foundation of the church (Matt. 16:16-18).  Peter was originally from nearby Bethsaida (John 1:44) and now operated a fishing business in Capernaum with his brother Andrew (Matt. 4:18) and their partners, James and John (Luke 5:10), also recently called to follow Jesus (Mark 1:16-20). Having been present in the synagogue to hear Jesus’ unparalleled exposition of the Word of God and witness the amazing display of His power over the demonic realm, Peter invited Him to his house for the Sabbath meal, along with Peter’s brother  Andrew, James, and John (Mark 1:29).”

I will end this portion of this section and Lord willing will pick it up this evening to continue to look at it, as mentioned this is a long section from Luke’s gospel that MacArthur writes about.

5/20/2026 8:55 AM  

Intro to “Jesus: The Divine Deliverer” (Luke 4:38-44)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2026 10:57 PM

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  Intro to “Jesus: The Divine Deliverer”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference: Luke 4:38-44

            Message of the verses: “³⁸ Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him ^[a]to help her. ³⁹ And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and served them.

⁴⁰ Now while the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He was laying His hands on each one of them and healing them. ⁴¹ Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” And yet He was rebuking them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ.

⁴² Now when day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and they came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving them. ⁴³ But He said to them, “I must also preach the kingdom of God to the other cities, because I was sent for this purpose.”

⁴⁴ So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

            I will do as I have been doing and that is quote the introduction to these verses from John MacArthur’s commentary.

            “The historical records of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ in the Gospels contain all that God has revealed about Him.  Each of the four gospel writers wrote from his own unique perspective and for a distinct audience.  Matthew wrote primarily to a Jewish audience, presenting Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and rightful king.  Thus, while Luke recorded Mary’s genealogy to show Jesus’ physical descent, Matthew gave Joseph’s genealogy, since the royal line came through him.  Matthew frequently cited the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy in Jesus’ life and ministry.  He also referred to Jesus by the Jewish messianic title ‘Son of David.’  Sensitive to his readers’ reverence for and reluctance to use the name of God, Matthew aloe of the gospel writers substitutes the phrase ‘kingdom of heaven’ instead of ‘kingdom of God.’

            “Mark addressed his gospel to Gentiles, particularly the Romans.  Thus he was careful to translate Aramaic words (e.g., 3:17; 5:41; 7:11, 34; 14:36; 15:22, 34) for his readers, and to explain Jewish customs with which they would not have been familiar (7:3-4).  His fast-paced account, marked by the frequent use of the term ‘immediately’ (more than forty times), would appeal to the practical, action-oriented Romans.  Mark presented Jesus as the Servant, who came ‘to give His life a ransom for many’ (10:45).

            “Luke presented a carefully researched, historically accurate account of the life of Jesus Christ.  He addressed a broader Gentile audience than Mark, and presented Jesus as the Son of Man (a phrase he used more than two dozen times), the answer to mankind’s needs and hopes.

            “John was written much later than the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) to supplement and complement them.  Its supreme, overarching purpose, as stated by John himself, is to present Jesus Christ as God, and to encourage its readers to come to faith in Him: “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name’ (20:31).  The same purpose could be given for the other three Gospels.

            “Yet despite their different emphases, all the Gospels present the revelation of Jesus Christ as God in human flesh.  They reveal Him to have been born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died as a substitute for believing sinners, and to have risen from the dead three days later, forever conquering death for all the redeemed.  Repentance from sin and faith in Christ and His work bring complete forgiveness of sin and eternal life.  The divine truths, spiritual realities, singular accomplishments, and glorious promises they record as part of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus demand that the Gospels be studied carefully.

            “Along with the claims Jesus Christ made, the gospel writers also presented convincing evidence for the validity of His assertions.  To that end, Luke marshals the historical evidence to make an extensive, irrefutable case that Jesus is the God-man, Messiah, and only Savior.  Luke’s concern (like the other gospel writers), then, is not primarily with the historical details of Jesus’ life and ministry, but rather with what those accurately recorded details incontrovertibly prove about Him.

            “The closing section of chapter 4 might appear at first glance to be a series of brief, disconnected comments that sum up a certain period of Jesus’ life.  But they are in reality very carefully connected.  The Jewish people wanted to see signs to prove that Jesus  was the Messiah (cf. 11:16; Matt. 12:38; 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:22), and in this brief passage Luke provided some for them.  He revealed Jesus’ divine power over three realms: the natural realm, the supernatural realm, and the eternal realm.”

5/19/2026 11:28 PM

 

“His Power” (Luke 4:35-37)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2026 9:23 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                           Focus:  “His Power”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 4:35-37

            Message of the verses:  “35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, it came out of him without doing him any harm.36 And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another, saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”37 And the news about Him was spreading into every locality of the surrounding region.

            “This passage records a moment in Jesus’ ministry when He confronts a demon-possessed man in the presence of the crowd. His direct command, “Be quiet and come out of him,” demonstrates His authority over evil spirits. The demon’s expulsion without causing harm to the man shows both His power and compassion. The crowd’s amazement reflects their recognition of Jesus’ unique authority, and the spreading news about Him indicates the growing impact of His ministry in the region.”

            Now we have already seen in an earlier SD that Jesus wanted no publicity from a demon.  He therefore rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!”  Now as we can see Jesus did not recite any incantations or perform any rituals; there was no discussion, debate, or struggle as He just spoke, and the demon had no choice but to instantly obey Him.  So when the demon had thrown the man down in the midst of the people in a final, futile act of defiance, he reluctantly came out of him without doing him any harm.  Jesus in His compassion prevented the demon from hurting the man.  Now again as we wrote about earlier we do not know if this man ever became a believer, for he certainly was not a believer as he had a demon indwelling him.

            Now the crowd that was gathered in the synagogue had been amazed at Jesus’ authoritative teaching.  I think that sometime when we look at and study the Bible for a long time that we just kind of not truly think about what is happening and then do not really understand the picture, but think for a moment if you or I was in that crowd and saw what these people saw.  I am sure that our reaction would be much different that just reading about it.  Now the crowd was even more amazed by this demonstration of His absolute authority over the supernatural demonic realm, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message?  For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”  What they had just witnessed was unprecedented.  In Matthew 9:33, which goes along with this section in Luke says “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”  The report of this remarkable, astonishing act on Jesus’ part began to spread like wildfire beyond Capernaum into every locality in the surrounding district.

            John MacArthur writes in his conclusion to this section:  “This demonstration of Jesus’ power over Satan and the demons reveals His ability to deliver sinners from their grasp.  Though the forces of hell made an all-out assault on Him during His earthly ministry, Christ effortlessly defeated them.  And by His sacrificial death on the cross, He accomplished the redemption of His people, delivering them forever from the kingdom of darkness (Col. 1:13).”

(Col. 1:13)

^“13 [For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,”

“Believers share in Christ’s victory over Satan and the demons through their salvation and union with Him (cf. Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20).”

(cf. Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20)

“15  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’”

“20  The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

“Martin Luther expressed that truth in his hymn, ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”:

The Prince of Darkness grim,

We Tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.

            I remember a story about Martin Luther who knew that Satan was against him in all the work that he was doing for the cause of Christ through an ink bottle at what he perceived to be Satan.  A man named Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) was a close friend of Martin Luther.  I think that perhaps he was with Luther when he through the ink bottle at Satan.  You see Luther was used by God begin the Reformation and so this did not make the devil happy and so he was fighting against it but God was then and still is now and has forever been in charge. 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I have this issue of being upset with those in our government who are trying to ruin our country, especially those who are of the party of President Trump, and I know that the Bible teaches that a person has to be born-again in order to get into God’s heaven, and from their actions it does not seem like they are.  Perhaps praying for a great revival in our country would help more than complaining about these people.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Pray for revival in our country and trust the Lord to do this in His own time, but hopefully soon!

5/19/2026 10:01 AM

 

 

"HIs Purity" (Luke 4:34c)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/18/2026 9:31 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                               Focus:  His Purity

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Luke 4:34c

Message of the verse:  I know who You are—the Holy one of God

            This will be another of my shorter SD’s as I am having some trouble with my laptop.

            It is unlike atheists, liberal theologians, and also cultists, the demons know exactly who Jesus is.  In fact, in the first half of Mark’s gospel they are the only ones who are sure He is the Son of God.  Let us think about this for a moment.  The Bible teaches that God created the angels before He created the world, and when He created them they were all perfect.  Now we know that one third of them fell after Lucifer fell too.  Lucifer I believe was the archangel of the Son of God and it was pride that caused him to fall.  Now if one thinks about this they have to come up with the fact that all of the angels that God created knew exactly who the Son of God is.  Now back to our verse we are looking at this evening.  Expressing the sheer terror of one who is absolutely wicked in the presence of the One who is absolutely holy, the demon screamed, I know who You are—the Holy One of God!  Now like the rest of his fellow demons, this one was forced to acknowledge  that Jesus is the absolutely holy Son of God.  If God’s people are afraid of His holy presence cf. Isa. 6:5; Ezek. 1:28; Matt. 17:6; Rev. 1:17), how much more so a vile wicked demon?  Now Jesus however, did not want or need the testimony of hell.  So therefore, He silenced the demons whenever they affirmed His true identity (vv. 35, 41; cf. Mark 1:25, 34; 3:12; Acts 16:16-18).  Now since Jesus Christ lives in believers as seen in Galatians 2:20), demons fear them, because the One they supremely dread indwells them.

            As mentioned this is a very short SD, and I have one more to do in this group entitled “His Power where we will look at Luke 4:35-37.

5/18/2026 9:46 PM

“His Purpose” (Luke 4:34b)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/18/2026 10:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  “His Purpose”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 4:34b

            Message of the verse:  “Have You come to destroy us?”

            Now in this short verse there will be a rather short SD for this morning.  In this verse we can see the fear, or better the demon was terrified, and it was not only because he knew who Jesus was, but also because he knew what His purpose for him and his fellow demons was.  Let us look at 1 John 3:8 “8  Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”  MacArthur adds “Destroy translates a form of the verb appollumi, which means, ‘ruin,’ ‘bring to nothing,’ ‘abolish,’ or ‘bring to an end.’  The demons have been sentenced to eternal torment in hell for their rebellion against God.  This one was terrified that Jesus was going to carry out that sentence right then and there and send him to the bottomless pit (8:31; Matt. 8:29). 

            “The book of Revelation unfolds God’s ultimate plan for Satan and the demons.  In chapter 20 verses 1-3 the apostle John wrote,

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.  And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of ole, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

“After the tribulation, as Jesus prepares for His thousand-year earthly reign, He will imprison Satan (and by implication the demons) in the abyss.  The abyss is currently the temporary place of imprisonment for some of the demons (those who sinned in Gen. 6; cf. 1 Peter 3:18-20); Jude 6).”

(cf. 1 Peter 3:18-20); Jude 6)

“18 ¶  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19  in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20  because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”

“6  And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

“It is not their final place of punishment, which is the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41).”

(Matt. 25:41)

“41  "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

“The abyss will be the holding cell, so to speak, for Satan and all the demons during the millennium.  After one last, desperate assault on God and His people (Rev. 20:7-9), Satan and the demons will be thrown into the lake of fire, where they will undergo eternal punishment (Rev. 20:10).”

(Rev. 20:7-9)

“7  And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8  and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9  And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,”

(Rev. 20:10)

“10  and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Spiritual Meaning for My Life today:  When I look at the world today, as it is getting worse off each day as we speed toward the times that are described in many of the prophetic books of the Bible, including the book of Revelation, I see that times are much more difficult.  By reading and studying the Bible it gives me peace because I know that the Lord is in charge of my life, and that the Lord will care for me as I go through this very difficult time with my wife’s illness, but in the end we will all be with Him, and that comforts me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to bring my wife to a place where she can get good treatment for her cancer.

5/18/2026 11:07 AM