The Unclean Spirit\u2014Mar_1:23-34; Luk_4:33-41; Mat_8:14-17<\/p>\n
The people in the synagogue at Capernaum had seen and had borne witness that Jesus was \u201cmighty in words;\u201d they had also to behold that He was likewise \u201cmighty in deeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was at Capernaum a man known by all the inhabitants to be possessed by \u201can unclean spirit.\u201d Into the facts attending such possessions we shall not this evening inquire, as other instances lie farther on, upon which such an inquiry may more advantageously be grounded. This. man was in the synagogue when Jesus was there, or perhaps entered it towards the close of his discourse. It may excite some surprise that he was admitted to that place. But the Jews were careful that a man thus afflicted should suffer as little as possible on account of his misfortune. He was allowed to go where he pleased, and no restraint was laid upon him, so long as his conduct was not dangerously violent. Such persons were indeed allowed many licenses that would not have been permitted in a man responsible for his conduct. There was no particular reason for excluding them from synagogues more than from any other places; for the Jews did not transfer to the synagogues any of those ideas of sanctity which belonged to the temple at Jerusalem, nor accounted them as in any way sacred places.<\/p>\n
The unclean spirit knew that Holy One, and trembled at his presence. He cried out, through the voice of the man whom he held captive, \u201cLet us alone. What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.\u201d Here, then, the powers of hell avouch the character and mission (\u201cto destroy the work of the devil\u201d) to which Heaven had already borne its testimony. But earth gave no responsive recognition. Heaven had spoken\u2014Hell had spoken\u2014but Earth still was mute. <\/p>\n
Jesus himself, indeed, repelled this testimony, as He did on other occasions. We are told that He rebuked the unclean spirit, and imposed silence upon him: \u201cHold thy peace, and come out of him.\u201d And He was obeyed. After casting the man upon the ground in strong convulsions, the unclean spirit departed reluctantly from him with horrid cries of abortive rage.<\/p>\n
How the wonder-workers of that age\u2014for there were many who pretended to cast out devils\u2014would have gloried in any such testimony to their power as those which Jesus silenced and deprecated! It may, indeed, be conceived, from some points of view, that this testimony might have been useful in promoting the reception of his ministry; and it may be inquired, Why it was always checked and suppressed by Him? Some take it to have been the cry of abject fear, that with fawning and flattery, sought to avert the impending doom; others compare the exclamations before us to those of a fugitive slave, who dreams of nothing but stripes and torments when he meets his well-known lord, and would then, by any means, turn away his anger. But our Lord\u2019s promptitude and decision in silencing this testimony, would seem rather to suggest that He saw it was intended for mischief, and could in the end accomplish nothing else. From such a source, whatever might be its immediate effect, it was likely to injure the estimation of Him in whose behalf it was borne; for the truth itself might come into discredit when the \u201cfather of lies\u201d bore witness to it. It might have given ground for, or sanction to, the charge, that his miracles were wrought by collusion with demons, or by unlawful necromantic arts. As it was, this charge did eventually arise, and is believed by the Jews to this day. It appeared even in his own time, and was more than once cast in his teeth. \u201cHe casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils\u201d\u2014a charge which He met with such awful indignation as may well suggest the importance for evil which He attached to it, and explains the care He took to repress the insidious declarations in his favor of the unclean spirits whom He cast out.<\/p>\n
This miracle\u2014the first of the kind\u2014struck the people with amazement; and rightly recognizing miracles as evidence of Christ\u2019s doctrine and mission, they exclaimed one to another \u201cWhat thing is this?\u2014what new doctrine is this?\u2014for with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits, and they do obey Him.\u201d In fact, a strong enthusiasm was excited about \u201cthe Prophet of Nazareth,\u201d not only in this neighborhood, but throughout Galilee; and this was no unsuitable preparation for that almost triumphant progress which He soon after made in this region.<\/p>\n
Peter and Andrew, although of Bethsaida, had their abode at Capernaum, and dwelt together in a house there. To that house Jesus repaired to partake of their noon-tide meal, after He left the synagogue. It was then that Jesus heard that the mother of Peter\u2019s wife lay in the house ill of a fever; on which, with benevolent anxiety to relieve her from her peril, and to release his friends from their anxiety on her account, He arose and desired to be led to her. Approaching the place where she lay, He took her by the hand and lifted her up; and immediately the \u201cgreat fever\u201d departed from her; and instead of being, as is usual when one recovers from a fever in the natural way, left with exhausted energy and prostrated strength, the woman found herself not only cured but so invigorated by that touch, that she immediately left her bed and hastened to give her aid in providing what was needful for the entertainment.<\/p>\n
The news of this soon got out into the town, and, together with the miracle of the morning, excited a most lively sensation through all its streets. One thought seemed at the same time to take possession of the minds of every sick person in the city\u2014that now at last the means of cure for them\u2014of release from their sufferings\u2014were offered, and that they had only to hasten to Peter\u2019s house to obtain relief from Jesus of Nazareth. With their notions, they dared not go, much less could those who could not go themselves be carried, until the Sabbath day had reached its close. But never, perhaps, was the ending of a Sabbath-day more anxiously waited for. We can conceive how many mounted to the house tops, or put their heads out of the lattice, to see how near the sun was to its setting; and no sooner did its last beams cease to redden the still waters of the lake, and its broad disc disappear behind the up-lands of Galilee, than the houses seemed to empty out all their inmates into the streets, along which presently the sick, the lame, the blind, the paralytic, the possessed\u2014walking, led, supported by crutches, or carried in their beds\u2014attended by numerous friends, streamed along, converging to that one street which contained the obscure dwelling of the two fishermen. Here the crowd became so great that, as the narrator emphatically remarks, \u201call the city was gathered together at the door.\u201d They came not in vain, nor was any one sent disappointed home. Jesus healed them all. And had it been possible for the sick of all the world, instead of all the city, to have assembled before that door, they could as easily have been healed by Him, who even \u201chimself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sun which had set upon an expectant crowd of miserable creatures, arose next morning upon a city from which disease had fled.<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Unclean Spirit\u2014Mar_1:23-34; Luk_4:33-41; Mat_8:14-17 The people in the synagogue at Capernaum had seen and had borne witness that Jesus was \u201cmighty in words;\u201d they had also to behold that He was likewise \u201cmighty in deeds.\u201d There was at Capernaum a man known by all the inhabitants to be possessed by \u201can unclean spirit.\u201d Into … Continue reading ““698. THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT\u2014MARK 1:23-34; LUKE 4:33-41; MATTHEW 8:14-17””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}