Luke 4:32-39

What Jesus did here is signal an attack against the forces of evil. He began a holy war to free mankind from Satan and sin. The demon knew it! That's why it reacted the way that it did. It went into a snit. If we would put what the demon said into modern colloquial terms, it snapped out at Jesus, "Why are You interfering here?" That's basically what it said. And Jesus came right back, with authority, "Shut your mouth! And come out of him."

The demon wasn't about to give up easily. It probably was a pretty strong demon. But it, of course, did obey its Master and came out; but not without thrashing the man around for a good bit, until finally it did come out. But the man was not hurt.

So the first shot that was fired in this "war" was a spiritual healing. Jesus liberated a man from a demon on the Sabbath day. His first public act that was part of His ministry! He might have done some other things before, but this was the first public act that was part of His ministry—to cast out a demon. Does that tell you something? And what day did He do it on? The day of liberation—the Sabbath!

So [this was] the first shot in the holy war for control of the earth, for the right to rule over it after He had defeated their master (Satan). He was going to show that the demons weren't going to fare any better than their master, Satan. Then He casts out the demon; and order and peace is restored to the congregation, because the man was causing trouble there.

The second thing He did, then, was a physical healing that resulted in service to others. And so this unfortunate woman, who was bound by a disease, is relieved of her disease by Jesus Christ. Then she rose and immediately served everybody else. That ought to give us a clue—those of us who are healed—as to what we are supposed to do with our healing. We are to rise and serve.

Although we are going to add a great deal more here—there, in a nutshell, are major principles by which our Sabbath activities can be judged. The Sabbath is for redemption, liberty, joy, peace, and service that comes through fellowship and instruction that reorients our devotion to the right direction.