THE MAIN IDEA
Miracles are amazing, but it is the word of God that gives life.

THE WORD OF GOD IS FROM GOD
As Jesus went from town to town, the people were amazed by the authority with which He preached the good news of the kingdom of God. He spoke as if His words were from the mouth of God Himself, because the were. Not only that, the signs that He performed proved that His words were indeed from God. But the miracles of Jesus don’t have that much impact on us today. We tend to rationalize and patronize, thinking that these accounts come from a “primitive” mind. Also, these accounts have become so commonplace in the church, we don’t really recognize the reality of the spiritual realm of which they speak. But if Luke presents these events as they actually happened (which he does), then the age of the devil is over, and the age of the Spirit—the age of the church—is here. More importantly, every word that Jesus spoke is from God.

THE WORD OF GOD IS FOR US
We could be cynical and think that Jesus exorcised a demon in the synagogue on the Sabbath just to make the point that He is the Christ and also to pick a fight with the Jewish leaders, since healing on the Sabbath was forbidden. But then, we find Jesus healing the Apostle Peter’s mother-in-law. And we might think that He did this as a favor to a close friend. But then, after the sun went down, crowds of sick people come to Jesus for healing and exorcism. And Jesus helped every single person. He did not “vet” them to see if they were worthy to receive His help. He just helped, even laying His hands on them, which was taboo, too. Whatever kind of suffering we may be experiencing in our lives, we can always turn to Jesus for help and for healing. But more than health or wealth or prosperity, God desires that we may know what it means to have eternal life—an eternal life that begins right here and now. Eternal life comes from the Word of God. What the Word of God gives to every believer is hope for eternal life in Christ and Christ alone.

THE WORD OF GOD IS FOR EVERYONE
The world needs Jesus and the world needs Jesus now. We all need Jesus and we all need Jesus now. That is our testimony. If we live day to day not realizing this, then that is how we become spiritually dry. If we sought Him, we would find Him, and He would satisfy our need. The fact that the people of Capernaum knew that they needed Jesus was good. What wasn’t good, though, is that they tried to keep Jesus for themselves. But Jesus refused to stay because He was sent to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to a world that desperately needs Jesus and desperately needs Jesus now. First of all, we need the Word of God to give us hope for eternal life and power for living life to the full, no matter what our circumstances may be. Second, if they wanted Him to stay with them so badly, they could have just gone with Him to be on mission with Him, which is the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20). If we want Jesus to be with us, we had better go with Him and do what He does. We cannot claim to be the body of Christ unless we are on mission with Him to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. He is with us because we are going with Him.

DISCUSSION QUESTION
In what ways has Jesus helped you in tough times? OR What things in your life give you hope?