Mercy For Lunaticks

Q: What does the Bible say about Jesus healing spiritual afflictions?

The Bible teaches that Jesus has the power to heal both physical and spiritual afflictions, symbolizing His ability to save sinners. In the accounts found in the Gospels, such as in Luke 9:37-43, we see Jesus healing a boy possessed by a demon. This act serves as a powerful illustration of Jesus' authority over both physical maladies and spiritual bondage. The miracle is not just a display of His power but points to His ultimate purpose—to save sinners from their spiritual afflictions. As the text reminds us, the healing of the boy is emblematic of what Christ accomplishes through His suffering, death, and resurrection. He heals the spiritually dead and brings life through His redemptive work on Calvary.

Q: How do we know the authority of Jesus is true?

Jesus' authority is validated through His miracles, teachings, and ultimately His resurrection, affirming His role as Savior. The authority of Jesus is evidenced through numerous miracles, such as the healing of the demon-possessed boy. In Luke 9:42-43, Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit and restores the boy, demonstrating His power over evil. Additionally, His teachings often emphasized His identity as the Son of Man who must suffer and die (Matthew 17:22-23). The pinnacle of this authority is His resurrection, which confirms His power over death and sin, providing believers with assurance of His sovereign grace. This theme is woven throughout Scripture, underscoring Jesus as the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan.

Q: Why is understanding Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

Understanding Christ's sacrifice is essential as it underscores the gravity of sin and the vastness of God's grace in salvation. The significance of Christ's sacrifice lies at the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus emphasizes this in Luke 9:44 when He urges His disciples to understand the necessity of His suffering and death. This sacrifice is not merely a historical event but the foundation of salvation, demonstrating the depths of human sinfulness and the boundless love of God. By recognizing that the Son of Man had to be delivered into wicked hands, Christians understand that without His atoning death, there is no hope for salvation. This truth is central to the Gospel, reminding believers of the transformation that occurs in those who are redeemed by His grace.

So there are accounts of this same event in Mark and in Luke. And all of these three accounts reveal things that the others do not. So I want us to look at the others. But let's think about the situation here. Remember that the Lord was coming down out of the mountain where he was transfigured before his disciples, Peter, James, and John. And his glory shone from his face, and even his robe was white and glistering, it says, and they saw him in some great manifestation of his glory. And the father spoke from heaven and said, hear him. And then he comes down from that mountain and is met with a multitude And among them, as we'll see, others of his disciples were in that multitude as well.

And they're confronted with this situation. And I want to show you up front here something from one of the other passages that I believe will help us through every word of this study, of this passage. Turn with me to Luke chapter 9. Verse 42. And we may read more. We may read a little bit more of that than this, but I want us to focus on this one brief passage, starting with verse 42. So let's look at Luke 9 and see where this account begins. So we have also there in the earlier verses above 42 of the transfiguration also. So we see the timing of that.

And verse 36, Jesus was found alone and they kept it close and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen because the Lord told him not to. In verse 37, it came to pass that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him.

And behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is mine only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly, departeth from him.

And I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And now let's look at these next three verses very carefully. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him.

And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father. and they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered, every one, at all the things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, let these sayings sink down into your ears. They're excited about the miracle. Of course, they were joyful that a boy that was so tortured and tormented in such a horrible case. And how many times did Did people come with their children to the Savior? And how many times will we see that and not see ourselves there? How many of us have children that we would want to bring to the Master and have Him heal them?

And we see here what's important and what this was all about, what the point of it was. It wasn't just that the Lord would do a miracle and everybody would be amazed at the mighty power that he had to do that miracle. Because once he had did it, he said, now let this sink in. Let this sink down into your ears. And if you're a parent or if you're a kid, you understand that your parents probably said that to you.

I think at times when our children wanted to go do something, can we go over to our friend's house? And I say, yes, we get to go to our friend's house. But then I tell them, no, don't you leave the house. You go to their house, and don't you leave the house. Don't go into the woods. And they don't even hear that part, because I've already told them what they wanted to hear, and they're excited about it. And I have to say, no, listen to me. Don't run off yet. Don't leave their house. You stay in their house, and you don't go in the woods. Now, do you understand me? Do you hear me? You have to say, let this sink now. This needs to sink in. I know you're excited, but you gotta hear me now.

And that's what our Lord's doing here. They were excited about the miracle, but he said, let this sink in and understand what you just witnessed. For the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. What you just witnessed in this miracle is me saving sinners. And how that's gonna happen is I'm gonna be delivered into the hands of men, and I'm gonna be tortured, and I'm gonna be betrayed, and I'm gonna be wickedly treated. and I'm gonna be murdered, I'm gonna be slain. We saw that in our texts, he said that to them. But we see here how he made sure that, yes, be excited and all that, that's great, but you listen to what I'm saying to you now.

This is not just about a spectacle for the flesh to behold and be impressed by. This is about the son of man giving himself for sinners and saving them from demon possession, from blindness, from spiritual blindness, from spiritual lunacy, from spiritual self-destruction, this young boy was engaged in, from spiritual death. Here's the point of it. What you're seeing is the savior saving somebody.

And the way that really happens is by me going to the Calvary and suffering and dying for your sins." And so he said that here. And back in our text, what he said there, Matthew 17, you see the way he said it. While they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, the son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.

And they were exceeding sorry. Is there something unusual about that to you? What were they sorry about? It seems as though all they heard him say was that I'm gonna die. But what about the last part, I'm going to be raised again? What's sad about that? But that's us by nature, isn't it? We'll make up something to worry about and be afraid of if we don't have something legitimate. We think the worst about everything, but the Lord just said, I'm going to be killed and I'm going to rise again from the dead. And they were sorry. You see why they weren't able to cast the demon out? Because the Lord said, because of your unbelief, like us, they were still full of unbelief, full of unbelief.

And in Luke, in Luke 9, 42 through 44, where we concentrated our reading there, when he said, let these sayings, this saying sink down into your ears. The word saying there is logos. Let these words. Let these words sink down. Into your ears. And this was, of course, an exciting scene that multitude around and a little boy who's a horrible victim. and no doubt gruesome to look at if he had been throwing himself into fire. I'm sure he was, he had burned scars from that and was casting himself into the water. The demon was maybe trying to kill him or at least just treat him terribly. And he had that man crying out for mercy, have mercy on my son.

And also, for whatever reason in the scriptures, it's often their only son. Have you noticed that? My only son. He's my only son. And the Lord performs a great miracle. But the miracle itself can be a distraction that can be. That can be taken wrongly, like he said, You know, to that big group of people that followed him because of the loaves and the fishes. He said, you're just following me because of the loaves and the fishes. You don't care anything about me. You just want to see a miracle. You just want to profit from it. You want free food.

If it's not understood, if the purpose of it is not understood, if the teaching in it is not understood, the miracle itself It's not gonna convince you of your sin and your need of a savior. That happens at Calvary. That happens when the Lord reveals himself in his redemptive character to a sinner. Many sought the Lord because of the miracles, but missed the point of the miracle. He could have said these same words, and I'm not trying to change what the Lord said or rearrange it at all, but these same words would have been fitting after he fed the multitudes.

Understand what just happened. The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of men and taken and crucified and rise again the third day. If there's gonna be life, If there's gonna be a miracle of grace, if there's gonna be spiritual food for the soul, then there's spiritual miracle has got to take place.

God has got to, you talk about a miracle, how can the prince of life die? That's the miracle of miracles. How can a wretched rebel that doesn't care anything about anybody but himself, and would nail the son of God to a cross and spit on him, turn into a loving son of God. That's the miracle.

Don't get excited because you're able to cast out devils. He told to them when they did have faith to cast out devils, be excited that your names are written in the book of life. That's the real miracle, that God saves sinners by his grace. And in his Lamb's Book of Life, he writes your name down, because you're redeemed by that precious blood. That's what matters. That's something to get excited about. You can get as excited as you want to about that.

The point is not that you can get a free meal. The point is, I am that bread. Do you remember what he taught them in John 6? I am that bread that came down from heaven. That was the point of the whole thing. They got, you know, all excited. Well, man, we can get free meals. We can, you know, we get in on this program and we're going to be wealthy and we're going to be famous and how exciting.

No, no. I'm the bread. Don't don't seek after the things of the flesh, don't don't rejoice in the fulfillment of the flesh. There's bread that came down from heaven that if you eat of, you'll never hunger again. And he said, I am that bread, I'm the true bread of which you may eat and never hunger again.

So in order that his own disciples did not miss the point of this miracle, he says to them, let it sink in. Let this sink into your ears. Let this word, these words sink into your ears. And that's a an encouragement and an exhortation that we should heed every time we come together. Let these words sink into your ears. We're distracted too, aren't we, by this world and our responsibilities in this world and the stress that comes from more and more from the responsibilities of the world and all of the many attractions of this world. Don't just sit here and say, well, I went to church today.

No, let this sink into your ears. The point of everything is Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary. If you don't have him, you've got nothing. All of your efforts in this world are a waste of time unless you have the Savior and it's for his glory.

And then when Simon Peter, you know, in the previous chapter, he responded to The Lord saying, I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be betrayed into the hands of men and crucified and rise again the third day. Peter said, be this far from the Lord.

The same thing that Moses and Elijah after that spoke about, what did they speak about on the Mount of Transfiguration? The death that he should accomplish. The point of everything, the point of every passage of scripture, Is Christ crucified? He said to them, here, the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. This is the point, the entire message taught by every type and picture in the Old Testament as well, by every miracle performed in the New Testament. Son of man must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and suffer many things and be killed and raised again the third day.

That's the message of the coats of skins that the Lord covered Adam and Eve with in the garden. It's the message of the ark. It's the message of Cain and Abel. It's the message of the serpent of brass in the wilderness. It's the message of the tabernacle and all of the furniture of the tabernacle. It's the message of the priesthood that the Lord established under the old covenant. It's the purpose of the law. The goal of the law is Christ. The law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

And somehow, that the most religious people that probably ever lived on this earth, the Pharisees and Sadducees, completely missed Christ. They knew the Scriptures, you search the Scriptures, you think you have eternal life in the Scriptures, and every portion of Scripture testifies of me, but you won't come to me that you might have life. So again in our text, we see a wonderful miracle, and that miracle pictures what happened on Calvary.

The devil was defeated there. The Lord's able to rebuke this demon and cast him out because he's the Lord. And he bought the right to do with his own what he will in his triumphant death on Calvary. And he won the victory over Satan and all of his demons as a man. As a man, he could rebuke them. And if the disciples were able to rebuke them, they did it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see in the book of Acts, not by any power that we ourselves had.

In this type and picture here in our text, Why must the Son of Man be delivered into the hands of men and crucified and raised again the third day? Why? Because you and I are victims of Satan. And I don't mean innocent victims. We're willing victims of Satan. We're demon-possessed by nature. The Scripture specifically says that Satan had nothing in Christ, because that distinguishes him from all of us. Before we knew the Lord Jesus Christ, we were taken captive by Satan at his will and bragging about our will the whole time when we were puppets of the devil.

And how many millions are doing that this morning in worship houses, so-called? Because we were in the cave, we were self-destructive too, like this boy. We were lunatic. Do we even as believers have any idea how lunatic it is for God Almighty to have made us, breathed the breath of life into us, purposed our whole lives from eternity, sits on the throne of glory in heaven ruling and reigning everything, sent His Son to be the propitiation for the sins of His people. He runs everything. He made everything. He's over everything. He made everything for His glory, for His pleasure. They are and were created.

And for us to not give a thought for Him for days at a time and for this world, the only thought they give for Him is that of disdain, distaste, and disgust. And even we as believers and people that I know and love and some that I don't know, they'll wonder and sometimes ask, you know, why is everything bad happened to me? Well, you know, you spit in God's face your whole life. And he runs everything. and you can't stand him, you don't want to hear about him, it makes you mad to even hear that he's God, and you're wondering why your life's messed up? And that's just with regard to temporal things. But this is the point, this is the entire message taught by everything in the word of God.

The son of man must What was it that Paul went into the synagogues? Saul of Tarsus, he was welcomed into the synagogues, right? He was their hero. He was high and mighty. And then when the Lord saved him, they still welcomed him in because I don't think they understood yet what happened until he opened his mouth. But he was still welcome there. The Lord gave him a unique opportunity to speak in these synagogues because they knew him. Hell yeah, Paul. Saul, come on in. Yeah, teach us something, you know. speak to us.

And then he would preach of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember what it how the description of what he would do opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered. That's not what they came there to hear. And they let it be known that that's not what they came there to hear. But the Lord gave him an open door through his past relationship with these people. to let him have it with the truth of Christ. But that's it. What else would he have spoken about?

When the Son of God comes and gives himself for sinners, what else are we going to dwell on? How can we have a cantata and then tell sad stories about teenagers that lived a bad life and got in with the wrong crowd and they died and went to hell. So everybody's crying. What are we doing? When God's Son came into this world and gave himself for sinners, there's hope for a wretched worm like you and like me.

So we're victims, just like this young boy, we're victims of Satan. We're taken captive by him at his will. Why in the world would a young boy throw himself into a fire? And was it the devil throwing him into the fire or him throwing himself into the fire?

You wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two. We're victims just like that and we're being torn up. And I've seen it. And sometimes you can even see it in the face. Like you would have no doubt of a young boy that threw himself into the fire. It's not that they have glowing eyes and their horns are growing out of their head, but you can see Satan tearing people apart right before our very eyes.

And their hope is not a rehab. Maybe they need that. They're not going to find Christ there. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But I'm saying young people are killing themselves. Satan has something to do with it. And their only hope is that Christ came into this world and was taken by wicked hands and was slain and was buried and rose again the third day.

And that's going to have to sink down into their ears somehow or another. Somebody's going to have to tell them that. Well, if you just go to this rehab, I've got a nephew that's been to rehab probably 20 times. I don't even know, maybe more than that by now. I haven't had contact in many years. You never found the Savior there. Young people have got to hear from God. It's got to sink into their ears. Or there's no hope for them. It's just that simple. It's that simple. And I don't know if we'll have anything to do with any of that or not. If you have any opportunity to speak to somebody, absolutely do it.

We're victims of Satan, and I don't say victims in the sense that Satan is to blame for our sin. Satan didn't force Adam to eat the fruit. Adam defied the authority of God and plunged this entire race into sin and depravity. But it was a satanic act. And we got a lot of those happening all around us. And we're all in this young man's case spiritually by nature. Horrible and pathetic.

You remember the exhortation of 2 Timothy 2.25, "...in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves." They're throwing themselves into the fire. They're throwing themselves into the water. They're their own worst enemy. They're cutting themselves like the Gadarene demoniac.

You have God peradventure. What's your part in it? What can you do about it? Instruct them. Tell them what God said. Tell them the gospel. Tell them that the only hope for a wretch like you is the Savior, the Son of God, who gave himself for sinners and rose again and reigns on high. Give yourself to Him. Bow before Him. Hear of Him. Believe on Him. And have everlasting life.

And I just feel like a lot of the other stuff, and you may still need some chemical help to get over whatever it is you're involved in, or whatever kind of help. But that's just dealing with the symptoms. You need to cure the problem, and that's a heart problem, that's a soul problem, that's a sin problem. that they, for adventure, that God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. God's got to do something for them. You see that? This is such a beautiful passage of scripture, even though we've read it many times. I should have had you turn there, but we'll close with this. In meekness instructos, what do you do?

Somebody's being destroyed by Satan that you love. He's just ripping them apart, absolutely ripping them apart. And a lot of times you can take one look at them and see it in their eyes and in their face that Satan is ripping them apart. Instruct them. instruct them, because God might just do something for them, peradventure, that God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may then recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. God's gonna have to do something, but then they do something about it, don't they? They do something about it by the power and grace of God. that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him at his will.

So don't think of this story of this young man being demon possessed as some rare thing. I can't point to a person and say that person's demon possessed and that one's not, that one's just on the rocks, he's not demon possessed. I don't know about any of that. But I know what our spiritual problem is.

And I know that Christ is the only hope. And the reason he's our hope is because he gave himself to be taken by wicked hands and slain. And he raised again the third day. And he reigns. And we'll bow or we won't. In grace, he may cause us to bow and we'll praise him forever for it.

Mercy For Lunaticks

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Jesus healing spiritual afflictions?

How do we know the authority of Jesus is true?

Why is understanding Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

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Mercy For Lunaticks

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Jesus healing spiritual afflictions?

How do we know the authority of Jesus is true?

Why is understanding Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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