Jesus Christ had experienced a very busy Sabbath-day in Capernaum (vv.14f / Mark 1:21-31 / Luke 4:31-39). His activities had included teaching in the synagogue, delivering a demoniac, and healing a woman suffering with fever. These activities had exacted their physical toll. Teaching tired Him mentally if not also bodily. Healing drained power from Him (Mark 5:30).
He now looked forward to resting. Such was not to be. A harmony of the three parallel accounts of verse 16a might read: "When evening had come [Sabbath now over], they brought to Him all who were sick with various diseases, and those who were demoniacs. And all the city was gathered together at the door."
He was looking at a teeming sea of infirm people begging Him to heal and deliver them. We might envision a man restraining his demoniac son pleading, "Lord, deliver him!" A deaf one pleads, "Lord, open my ears so that I may hear!" A blind one pleads, "Lord, open my eyes so that I may see!" A mute one points to his mouth and pleads with his eyes, "Lord, open my mouth so that I may speak!" A paralytic placed before Him by others pleads, "Lord, restore strength to my legs!" A woman pleads, "Lord, I beg you to cleanse my leprous husband who is outside the gate of this city!" And there are others ....
What would He do? Would He tell them that their infirmities were the just desserts of the sin of the human race? Would He advise them to "take an herb and call Me in the morning"? NO!
I. JESUS CHRIST DELIVERED THE DEMONIACS.
1. He manifested divine authority: "He cast out the spirits with a word." The only authority in this world able to exercise control over Satan and his demons is God's. And God here exercised it. The subjected demons therefore exclaimed at Him, "You are the Christ, the Son of God!" (Luke 4:41).
2. He manifested divine power: "He cast out the spirits with a word." The Son of God who brought the universe into existence with the mere fiat "Let it be!" (Genesis 1:1ff; Hebrews 1:10; 11:3) surely has the power to exorcise demons with the fiat "Come out!" How different is the divine exorcist from the modern counterfeits in religious sects and Hollywood films.
3. He was beginning to manifest His Messianic kingdom. He Himself declared
on the occasion recorded in Matthew 12:22-29: "But if I cast out demons by
the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or else how
can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first
binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house" (vv.28f). Jesus Christ
has entered the strong man Satan's house and bound him, and begun to plunder
Satan's house by delivering His own people from satanic control. Here is
proof that Christ has established His kingdom. Revelation 20:1-3 is history, not
prophecy! Revelation 20:4-6 is a present reality, not a future expectation.
(See also Luke 10:17-19.)
1. He healed unfailingly: "He healed all who were sick." Even one failure would have been an utter disgrace to Him, and a denial of His deity.
2. He healed entirely: "He healed all who were sick." Even a mere partial healing would have been a disgrace to Him. Those who are healed by the Great Physician are completely and immediately restored wholly (as in vv.3,13,15).
3. He healed indiscriminately: "He healed all who were sick." Even "untouchable" and incurable and terminal infirmities were within the healing authority and power mercy of the Great Physician.
1. What joy there must have been in Capernaum! The delivered demoniac is now "sitting and clothed and in his right mind," and his mind is surely set to praise His Deliverer (as in Mark 5:15ff). The healed deaf one now rejoices to hear the words of Jesus Christ. The healed blind one now rejoices to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The healed mute one now rejoices to speak the praises of Jesus Christ. The healed paralytic one is now "walking, leaping, and praising God" (as in Acts 3:8). The cleansed leper praises Christ the Cleanser, and is restored to the bosom of his family to whom he was formerly an untouchable outcast.
2. How different is the healing ministry of the Great Physician from that of today's charlatan "faith healers." His healings, unlike theirs, are extemporaneous, unrehearsed, 100% successful, conducted without fanfare and the obligatory passing of an offering plate, and to the glory of God and not man.
3. Jesus Christ heals sinner's souls in the same manner in which He heals bodies.
i. He heals sinner's souls unfailingly. He has "obtained eternal redemption" for every sinner for whose sins He died (Hebrews 9:12). Not one sinner for whom Christ died shall fail to be saved for all eternity.
ii. He heals sinners' souls entirely. Every one for whom He died to save will be completely purged of his sins and completely clothed in His own righteousness, and therefore justified (i.e. declared righteous) by God (Romans 3:21-26).
iii. He heals sinners' souls indiscriminately. He saves even those whose sins are so great that we may consider them spiritually "untouchable" and incurable and terminal (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). He saves even those whom He Himself considers the worst of sinners – the self-righteous (Philippians 3:3-11). Regardless of who you are, He will heal your spiritual infirmity if you will but come to Him.