The Sound of Resurrection

Luke 4:31-37 and 43 is a compelling narrative that is wrapped around the themes of voice, message and authority. “And they were amazed at His (Jesus) teaching, for His message was with authority.” Then, Luke accounts that a demon possessed man cried out with a loud voice, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” When you think about it, this is a peculiar picture!

Notice that the demon does not say anything necessarily bad or wrong. Jesus DID come to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus was and IS the Holy One of God, but Jesus doesn’t want to let this critter occupy the air waves any more than the brief moment it grabs. In fact, Jesus puts a Word on him, “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.” And Luke says that even more amazement came on the crowd 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.’”

Please allow me to take some pains to list what we see here:
1. Jesus puts authority in the air; the greek word for authority here means force, liberty, freedom, mastery, capacity, influence, jurisdiction and a right to enforce. I would call it a field of transcendent supremacy.
2. Demons know church-speak. They love to fill rooms with empty, vacant lifeless religious sounds. Swearing, drooling and threatening are too obvious.
3. The question pregnant with purpose is “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
4. Luke 4:43 answers the above question in the Words of Jesus; “I must preach the kingdom of God….for I was sent for this purpose.”

Psalm 29 says that God’s Voice thunders and is majestic. It hews out flames of fire, shakes wildernesses and makes nations skip like frightened calves when we see that He speaks as the King of Infinity. When Jesus spoke He put a new jurisdiction into the atmosphere around Him. His Voice was an affidavit and a warrant from Heaven’s Kingdom. He put God’s jurisdiction in the environment and even if you did not understand Him, you knew you must hear more.

Remember when Jesus freaked out the well fed crowd in John 6? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Yikes! Talk about a sound bite (no pun intended) that could be used against you! After the thousands left Jesus to find a better preacher, He said to His remaining disciples, if you don’t “get” that, you won’t “get” what’s coming; because, “My Words are Spirit and are Life.”

When Jesus spoke He put a new jurisdiction into the atmosphere around Him. His Voice was an affidavit and a warrant from Heaven’s Kingdom. He put God’s jurisdiction in the environment and even if you did not understand Him, you knew you must hear more. Now, you want to read something that will either bless you or freak you out some more? Luke 10:16 says, “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me…”.

I simply MUST have that Voice! I refuse to fill rooms with vacant religious sounds that leave people unchanged and dominated by the poisons of our culture.

I simply MUST be one whose voice is a carrier of that Voice. I am on this planet to be His warrant officer; the bearer of the King’s Jurisdiction that arrests the darkness, puts it out of commission and fills the atmosphere with “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” And I simply MUST find others who cry out for this mantle, this clothing that can be touched for the healing of those who say in their hearts, “When I touch this, I AM HEALED!”