THESE few verses are perhaps ones we read quickly, and pass by in order to get on to a more specific and interesting passage. I believe this to be a mistake. These verses reward time spent on them.

In this chapter we have the account of the opening of the ministry of Jesus to save sinners. He is engaging in his great battle with the devil and all his supporting evil spirits. He is taking on the forces of darkness, in order to defeat them, and deliver sinners from its dominion. These three verses are a quick description of this battle. What do we learn?

Firstly we read that Jesus spent his time preaching. We have been told this already in verses 12-17. This activity was at the forefront of the ministry of Jesus. He engaged in this more than he engaged in the ministry of healing. He went throughout Galilee, and wherever he went he preached in the synagogues. His message was the Gospel, that is the Good News, of the kingdom. The kingdom means the kingdom of God. The Good News of the Kingdom is that Jesus came to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

This is tremendous good news. We are told in the New Testament that this world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19b). This means that every human being born into this world is born under the dominion and rule of Satan. In another place we are told that Satan is the god of this world, and by this we understand that Satan rules and controls all humanity. It is one of Satan’s most clever moves that he has hidden this truth from the world, even though the fruit of his evil and cruel rule is before us everywhere in the world, and all down history. The horror of this dominion is that unless we are able to escape this dominion of Satan, we shall be doomed to suffer it and all its gloom and darkness for eternity, and suffer the ultimate fate of Satan which is to be cast into what is called in Revelation the Lake of Fire and the Bottomless pit. This is the fate God has prepared for Satan and all who follow him, and so is the fate of all of us unless we can escape from his kingdom of Darkness.

Christ preached the good news of the Kingdom. This was and is the good news that there is an escape from the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God. This is the good news Jesus preached, because it was the good news he came to make possible. He came to defeat the devil and free all who believe on him from Satan’s kingdom, and bring them into his kingdom of light, life and love.

This good news is still offered. This good news is still for us. Jesus has won our deliverance from sin, Satan, death and hell. Jesus has freed us from Satan’s dominion and rule, and by believing in Jesus and placing ourselves in trust under his Lordship, we are translated into his everlasting kingdom.

Secondly, we see in the healing ministry of Jesus the fact that Jesus was engaging in the battle against Satan and his principalities and power in the spiritual realm. All the sickness and pain in the world, and all the suffering is the result of Satan’s dominion and rule. Satan’s aim is to cause harm and destruction, and if it was not for what is called the common grace of God in the world, Satan would be making the world a much more vile a place than it is. God in his mercy curbs the power of Satan so that the sinfulness of humanity can be held in check, so that in this life at least the full force of the dominion of Satan may not be known and suffered. The other reason for God’s common grace is that the good news of the kingdom of Christ can be proclaimed and people have the opportunity to hear it, receive it, believe it and be saved.

It is noticeable that as soon as Jesus began his ministry and his battle against Satan, Satanic activity increased. This was to be expected because Satan saw his kingdom being threatened, and he fought back viciously. Satan attacked Jesus in the temptations we have already thought about. He attacked him all through his ministry, culminating in his vicious assault in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. Before Jesus came, in a real sense, Satan, described by Jesus as the ‘strong man’, held his goods in peace. Satan’s goods are us poor sinners under his bondage. Jesus said that a stronger than the strong man, Satan, had come. He was referring to himself and that he would spoil the possessions of Satan, that is deliver people from his cruel rule.

We see the victory over Satan’s kingdom in the way Jesus healed people and delivered them from demon-possession. People suffering from these examples of Satan’s malice flocked to Jesus for deliverance, and were delivered. The sad thing was that many, if not most, only came to be delivered from the bodily afflictions which Satan brings about, and they neglected the healing of their souls, and their deliverance from Satan’s kingdom altogether, and being brought into the Kingdom of God.