Luke 4:31–44

1) Jesus’ Words Echo Authority! (v. 31-39)

Astonished at His words (for His word possessed authority). (v.32)
- What Jesus said was different from anything they had heard before!
- His words were not empty or passed down rhetoric…
Amazed at His authority and power (v. 36)
- At His Word He cast out demons. (v. 35)
- At His Word He drove out illness. (v.39)
After experiencing Him they shared what they experienced (v.37)
- Because of His impact they spread reports of Him.
- Because of His impact they served Him. (v.39)
What impact does the Authority of Jesus have in your life?
- Are you entertained or merely encouraged by Him, or are you transformed by Him, shaped by Him?
- Do you seek Him for the warm and fuzzies, or are you astonished and amazed by His authority and power so that it moves you to transformation and action?

Jesus laid His hands on every sick and diseased person brought to Him and they were healed.
- Jesus touched the untouchables and their lives were changed.
- Jesus took hold of the broken and diseased and He made them healed and whole.
Jesus’ touch exercised His authority over the fallout of brokenness and despair that sin produced.
- Jesus’ touch brought life to those whose lives were floundering and fading.
The people who experienced Jesus’ touch had their lives forever changed.
- In the midst of their disease and despair the touch of Jesus brought wholeness and hope.
What about your life? Do you allow the hand of the Lord to be upon your life?
- Does the authority of Jesus rest upon your life so that you are touched by Him?
- Are you experiencing wholeness and hope by the righteous right hand of Jesus being upon your life?
- If you are not yielding to the exercised authority of Jesus upon your life you are robbing yourself of His blessings.
It is one thing to talk about the authority of Jesus…it is an entirely different discipline to yield to the authority of Jesus and to allow His touch to be upon your life.
- If we want to experience the hand of the Lord upon our lives we must yield to Him and acknowledge His divine authority over us.

Jesus’ purpose was to do the will of the One who sent Him.
- His purpose was to follow the plan of the Father and not be thwarted by the spiritual nor the physical.
  - The demons were silenced and cast out. They were not allowed to reveal who He was outside of due time.
  - The people of the region were not allowed to “keep Him from leaving” for He needed to go to the other towns as well.
He could have stayed centralized and made the people go to Him, but His purpose was to go to the towns, not make the towns come to Him.
- His purpose was to proclaim “the good news of the kingdom of God” to others.
The preferences of people of Capernaum were not allowed to hinder the purpose of God.
- Jesus, in His divine authority, connected to THE divine authority and kept His mission and His purpose in alignment with God’s purpose.
Does the purpose of Jesus carry authority over your preferences?
- We must be ever watchful and cautious about trying to make Jesus’ purposes fit our preferences.
- Jesus is not to conform to our image, rather we are to conform to His! (Romans 8:29)
- Jesus is not to work around our preferences, rather we are to work in accordance to His purposes.
We are to exalt the authority of God in all that we think, say, and do, and when we do, we will be blessed to experience more and more the majesty of King Jesus!

Don’t be like the people of Nazareth who, though they had a natural affinity to Jesus, denied the divine authority of Jesus.
Let us embrace the authority of Jesus in His Word, in His touch, and in His Purpose.
Let us be a people who commit to yielding to His authority that we may be blessed by experiencing more and more of Him!
Right here…Right now you have a choice that will lead to many more choices: Will you yield your life to the authority of Jesus or will you deny Him?
- For some of you, that may mean you place your faith and trust in Jesus for the very first time.
- For others, that may mean that you start to spiritually grow up and take His Word more serious.
- For all of us, this definitely means that Jesus cannot be just a piece of our lives…He must be the fullness of what our lives are about!
The choice is yours…will you be like the people of Nazareth or will you be like people of Capernaum? What you do with the Son makes all the difference!