Getting
Personal
Today's
Three-minute Bible Study
Print,
Study and Apply
Title:
Getting Personal -------------------------------
Date: 10/11/2002
Keywords:
"amazing
teacher" "authority" "demon" "Holy One"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
Passage:
Luke 4:31-37*
31. And He came down to
Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And He was teaching them
on the Sabbath;
32. and they were amazed at His
teaching, for His message was with
authority.
33. And there was a man in the
synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out with a loud voice,
34. "Ha! What do we have to do
with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy
us? I know who You are — the Holy One of
God!"
35. And Jesus rebuked him,
saying, "Be quiet and come out of him!" And when the
demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out
of him without doing him any harm.
36. And amazement came upon them
all, and they began discussing 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 report about Him was
getting out into every locality in the surrounding
district.
Questions
1. If you happen to admire
Jesus, then why so?
2. What do you suppose the
demon/s meant when referring to Jesus as "the Holy One
of God"?
Practical
help
For many, it's easier to
look at Jesus and admire him as an "amazing" teacher
and performer of well documented miracles. To do that
is to pick and choose — incorporating what seems
useful and discarding what doesn't apply. Like the
refrain from the rock opera Jesus Christ,
Superstar — "He's a man. He's just a man..."
so there's no further commitment required.
Today's passage has an
interesting dichotomy of observation. Those who could
have benefited from Jesus seemed satisfied that he was
simply an amazing teacher with amazing authority.
Those who, by their own admission, could have been
destroyed by Him (namely, the demon/s) declared him
"the Holy One of God."
Even after the demon/s
identified who Jesus was, there's no indication that
anyone in the crowd even wondered if Jesus could be
the prophesied Messiah.
Jesus wasn't incarnate among us
to be an amazing "Houdini" or a wise "Confucius." He
came to live the life that we can't.
He doesn't claim to be a
candidate for inclusion in your bag of "assorted
people whose teachings can help." He claims to be the
salvation of the world (even the demons know that) or,
more specifically, the salvation of your life. This is
a message worth taking very personally.
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2002 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation
1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995. Used by permission."
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