Authority Over Darkness — Luke 4:31–37

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

²for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”

⁵The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

⁶The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I want.

⁷If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”

⁸Jesus answered him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’ ”

⁹He led him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here,

¹⁰for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;’

¹¹and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

¹²Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.

¹⁴Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.

¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

¹⁷The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,

¹⁹and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

²⁰He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.

²¹He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All testified about him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’ ”

²⁴He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

²⁵But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.

²⁶Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

²⁷There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”

²⁸They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue as they heard these things.

²⁹They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

³⁰But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.

³¹He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day,

³²and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice,

³⁴saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

³⁵Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

³⁶Amazement came on all and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

³⁷News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region.

³⁸He rose up from the synagogue and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him to help her.

³⁹He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them.

⁴⁰When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

⁴¹Demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

⁴²When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them.

⁴³But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.”

⁴⁴He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.