Sunday Worship Service November 12, 2023

Call to Worship 1 Chronicles 29:12
Hymn JBC # 260 Set my soul afire, Lord
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture Luke 4:38~41
Prayer
Sermon “Jesus lays his hands on each one”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 550 Dying with Jesus
Doxology JBC # 679

As we read through all the verses of the "Gospel of Luke" bit by bit, we hear God's messages spoken to us through this Gospel.
Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Luke begins with Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted by the devil like this:
"Tell this stone to become bread," and "I will give you all their authority and splendor. If you worship me, it will all be yours" and "throw yourself down from the highest point of the temple and ask God to save you.”
Jesus rejected these temptations of the devil by using the words in the Bible, the Word of God.

　This is the intention of the devil's temptation:

"Evangelize in a fancy way, in a way that is immediately obvious to everyone. Why don’t you tell people that they will always have a full stomach, or that they will have power and success, or that they will never get hurt or sick at all - if they believe in God, such things are possible.”
But Jesus knew, of course, that those things were not the essence of God's grace.
As the Son of God, Jesus firmly believed that His mission was not to temporarily capture people's attention and interest by performing some astonishing, fascinating, or miraculous act.
Rather, Jesus came into the world to tell people about God's Word, the Word of God. Jesus came into the world to tell people, not about temporary enjoyment and satisfaction, but about eternal life and eternal peace that comes through the Word of God.

Jesus showed that he himself is the fulfillment of God's Word in both his life and words.
As soon as Jesus was tempted by the devil, he taught in various synagogues. On the Sabbath day (the Jewish Sabbath at that time was Saturday), Jesus went to the synagogues and participated in meetings (worship services), where He taught the words of the Bible.
　It is the Word of God that gives us life. God's Word gives us the strength and comfort to endure and live even in the midst of difficulties and trials.
In the Gospel of John Chapter 6 verse 63, Jesus said:
　The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.

The words that Jesus spoke are spirit and life. God's words contain God's love, grace, and mercy.
Jesus' words contain all of God's love, God's mercy, and God's kindness, which were shown through Jesus' life and forgiveness of our human sins.
For those of us who live today, some 2,000 years after the time when Jesus lived as a man, we are also given the long history of faith that the Word of God has given many people around the world the strength and hope to live and helped them find the meaning of their lives.
As a flock of believers who live by the Word of God, our church, too, is a part of this history of believers, serving in the work of passing on the Word of God from generation to generation.
As we hear God's Word, share God's Word, and live God's Word, each time God's Word continues to be a new and living Words.
God's Word becomes alive through us, and we hope that we will experience that as the joy of our faith, too.
　After teaching the people in the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon in today's scripture scene.

Simon is the Peter who later became a disciple of Jesus and received a new name “Peter” (which means "rock.”)
I imagine that Jesus must have been very tired after teaching people in the synagogue. Because it takes a lot of energy for a minister (messenger) to speak the Word.
I imagine that after teaching the people in the synagogue, Jesus wanted to take a rest right away. But Jesus continued his ministry without resting.
After the ministry of speaking the Word of God to many people in the synagogue, Jesus now went into the home of Simon, an individual person and there he did individual evangelism work.
As a pastor, I have the opportunity to meet with each of you individually and visit your homes when permitted, and it is a great joy for me to do so.
I hope that through personal connections and fellowship, in addition to speaking publicly from the pulpit at worship services and prayer meetings like this, I hope that we can build a relationship as pastor and congregation, and before that, as friends of the same faith in Jesus Christ.
And just as Simon welcomed Jesus into his home, we also would like to welcome Jesus into our private (private) space, our home, too.

Perhaps, even as believers, we have thoughts like "This is my private area, so please don't come in here, even if it is Jesus (God).”
Instead, we want Jesus to come into every area of our lives, and we want to follow His lead in everything we do.
Let Jesus come into each of us, to our daily life, and to our homes. Let us live in the peace and joy of knowing that Jesus is with us at all times.
In Simon's house, where Jesus entered, there was Simon's mother-in-law (Simon's wife's mother), and she was suffering from a high fever.
Simon (Peter) became one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. The Bible does not give much (hardly) personal information like the family background of the disciples (not only Peter but also other disciples).
But what we do know about Peter, at least from today's passage, is that he was married, and his wife's mother lived with him in his home (or perhaps his wife's home).
Therefore, I would say that today's passage is a scene in which Simon (Peter), an important biblical figure, feels very familiar to us today.

　The people (probably Simon's family) asked Jesus to take care of her (Simon's mother). They asked Jesus to heal her, for she was “suffering from a high fever.”
Jesus bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She was healed from the fever.
Jesus was not only a man, but also God, the source of life, and therefore had the power to heal people's illnesses. The fever left Simon's mother because Jesus commanded it.
This does not mean that any disease will always be cured if we pray, even now. If God so wills, the disease will be cured.
But if God has other plans for us, then sometimes our prayers do not work out the way we wish.
But God has a plan far greater than our thoughts and wishes. And God has provided a way for us to pray to Him and know His will through Jesus.

So even if things don't turn out the way we pray, it is still not in vain for our faith that we continue to pray to God through Jesus' name for anything.
It is not in vain, but it strengthens our faith and makes our faith and trust in God even stronger when we continue to pray to God in Jesus' name for what we truly desire.
Let us walk with the faith of hope that we have received through Jesus, believing that "God, the Lord of life, can do whatever He wills to do" and that "if it is His will, it will be done.”
After Simon's wife’s mother was healed of her fever, people still brought those who were suffering from various illnesses to Jesus even after dark.
After dark, Jesus laid hands on "each one" of those who came to Him suffering from various illnesses and healed them.
Jesus must have been tired, but even after dark He faced the sick who were brought to Him.
　Jesus is the One who touches each and every one of us. He does not reject anyone who comes to Him, but touches each and every one of them.
　It is NOT that though Jesus speaks to us from afar but He is the one out of our reach.
　Rather, He is the One who comes to us, touches each of our hearts, and heals our wounds when we are in pain and sad.
We believe even more through the Word of Scripture that there is such a God, and we want to trust in him and bring others to him. In the God of Jesus Christ is the true way, life, and truth.

　Those of us who believe in Christ now must have heard about Him and His Church in the past, either from someone bringing us to church or by some other means.
　Let us not just keep Christ's grace, his healing hand, within us, but let us extend it to those around us, the way we ourselves heard about Him.
Jesus never rejects anyone who is brought to Him, but gives them healing and faith in the Kingdom of God at the best time (timing) and in the best way for them.
Through the images of Jesus and those who believe in Him in today's passage, we are made aware of the grace of Jesus that while we are connected to Jesus as a flock of believers, Jesus’ hand are touching each of us.
　Let us walk with Jesus and with His Word in the days of this week, strongly believing in true healing and eternal salvation coming through the Lord Jesus Christ.