Four signs of Power and Identity

Luke 8:22-56

Nov.16

When is God present among people? Worshipers in a village in Portugal, in a village in Yugoslavia and more recently in an Illinois town all said he was present in a unique way. They claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them, sometimes instructing or comforting and sometimes healing them. These locations drew thousands of people, either seeking the physical reality of God or simply curious.
Visions, healing and deliverance services easily draw crowds all over the world. Whether people are believers or skeptics they want to see, and perhaps experience, God’s power—if it’s there.

1. To what extent do we today need unusual displays of God’s power?

2. Read Luke 8:22-25 for the first of four signs of extraordinary power from Jesus. Jesus’ Galilean disciples were used to sudden, violent storms on their sea, but this one was ferocious. What emotions do they experience from the beginning to the end of this event?

3. The discussion afterwards indicates their realization that they did not know Jesus’ true identity after all (v. 25b). Have you ever unexpectedly become curious about Jesus?
What did it lead to?

4. Read Luke 8:26-39 for the second power encounter—this time in foreign territory. What unusual elements do you observe in the interchange between the man and Jesus?

5. We should not get morbidly curious about the subject of demons. But from this text what can you know about them?

6. It seems odd that the people, knowing Jesus had delivered the demoniac, are “overcome with fear” (v. 37). What are reasons that people even today may be fearful or uneasy in the presence of Jesus?

7. Read Luke 8:40-56. Jesus and his disciples are back in home territory, where two more astonishing events take place. How is the healing of the woman different from other Bible healings you know of?

8. Jesus insists on knowing who touched him. How has it helped to witness publicly to what God has done for you?

9. What makes the fourth sign of power a climax for the Twelve (vv. 54-56)?

10. What signs of God’s power in your world move you most to worship and obey Jesus Christ as Lord of the universe?