‘But he [Christ] said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.’

So here as the Lord spoke and as he healed people there was a voice suddenly from the crowd and it was clearly heard. It was a voice of adulation paying him a great compliment but it was a compliment that needed to be corrected. It was not just a compliment for him but for his mother. ‘It came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked.’

Well somebody was quite rightly greatly impressed. His teaching was so clear and he talked with such authority. He’d just been giving a great lesson in prayer. And we analyse it and we break it down and we see in its every phrase a great example for prayer. Something very deep, something very profound. His teaching was so clear and then he’d just been teaching them about how to seek the Lord and it’s down here in verse 9 and I say unto you, ‘ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.’ And then there had been great healings and the casting out of demons.

Now in those days there was much demon possession. We don’t come to know what it was then. And it wasn’t just an ignorant explanation for certain illnesses. The descriptions of such possession in the gospels, well they’re very remarkable and there’s nothing to be seen like that quite today. But there were these cases and nothing could be done for people who were possessed. But for Christ to display and demonstrate his divinity and his mighty power, he could cast them out. Conditions that led people to desperation – he could heal them.