Today’s passage is Luke 4:31-44.
Jesus went to Capernaum, preached in the synagogue, and drove out an evil spirit in a man. At Simon’s home, he healed the fever of Simon’s mother in law and she served them. He healed all those brought to him by laying hands on them, rebuking the evil spirits who testified to his identity. When the people of Capernaum tried to keep him in town, he said he had to go to other towns to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Why does Jesus keep rebuking the evil spirits? What does Jesus teach that everyone is so amazed at?
Jesus teaches from the same Scripture that the Jews have heard all their lives from their priests and rabbis yet when he teaches people are amazed.
I’ve heard thousands of sermons, some of them amazing lessons that deepened my understanding of God, the purpose of my life and the way to live it.
Others were blessed food for my hungry spirit. Most were pretty boring with little to say about anything let alone the Bible verses they claimed to expound on.
Kim Yang Jay’s teachings have been consistently excellent because she has a single focus#8212;How to interpret our lives through Scripture#8212;so that people are amazed and healings occur, not instantly as when Jesus preached, but over time, over months and years.
Jesus could preach Scripture like no one else because he was God and he wrote the book.
Pastor Kim preaches like few others because God trained her and anointed her.
She’s not a product of a seminary. She was sent into a desert of suffering to learn God’s word and follow his Spirit’s teaching.
“What is this teaching?” (36) the people of Capernaum asked.
Eventually, everyone else asked the same thing of Jesus.
They still do.
It’s the good news of salvation and therefore the biggest threat to the devil and his evil spirits and the people who chase the fantasy of happiness in this world, making idols and worshipping money.
Evil spirits are real and need to be rebuked, which is why Pastor Kim does that in her prayers, especially on Wednesdays.
Pastor Kim is like Simon’s mother in law.
She had a fever for worldly success, which the Lord rebuked.
When she was restored to health, she got up and served the Lord.
I admire this woman greatly for two reasons:
for sharing her story and for teaching me how to see my life in Scripture and share with others what God gives me grace to see.
Mostly I see my wayward sinfulness which, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, doesn’t depress me because that death lets me go free through my faith in it.
Pastor Kim’s teaching of Scripture helps me see how much I’m like the reprobates and sinners that abound in the Bible.
By understanding them better, I understand myself better and can confess more completely and walk God’s path a few feet further.
If that’s not amazing teaching, I don’t know what is.
Application: review Pastor Kim’s weekly sermons more diligently throughout the week.
Lord, open the ears of my heart to hear your word more truly. Inspire me to act in accordance with your teaching.
