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Okay, so Jesus has been baptized, he has faced the temptations of Satan, and we come to verse 14 of chapter 4.
Let’s read our text for today:
Luke 4.14-24
June 23rd 2019
Meat
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
All right, back to verse 14:
Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
The Greek here is written in what is called the imperfect passive tense which means that (at least at this point in his life) he was being continuously lead of the spirit.
Last week our brother Phil suggested that Jesus was not tempted by the temptations being that He was God, but even in the face of this passage I have to personally disagree with this assessment – not saying I am write and Phil is wrong but I cannot help but see God in Him as working out His will in the Man Jesus of Nazareth and therefore conclude two things:
Jesus of Nazareth, born of a woman, born under the Law, had to overcome his flesh by and through the fullness of God in him and did this processionally as a full human being.
The deification of this flesh born of a woman born under the law on our behalf is what allowed him to rise from the grave having victory over sin, death, hell and Satan who had the title deed.
I reject the idea that there was no processional growth in the Son of God and that all he needed to do was walk through the tests handed to him.
In this vein, we now read a description of him that is new – the Holy Spirit was now constantly with him and it seems to me that this constant presence was the result of His water baptism and the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon Him.
Luke here says that in this state, His fame spread through all the region round about. (verse 15)
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
The phrase glorified is better understood by the phrase that he was “praised by all,” or they were very pleased with his instructions, and admired his wisdom.
This was the case when he was young too – twelve years old and in the temple – His wisdom astonished those who heard him speak. We note that this is the first account of his ministry after the baptism and the wilderness experience.
We note that he has yet to teach anything controversial (as far as we can tell) and that His popularity with the people would only snowball from this point for a while.
But we are about to see that the powers that be were going to find Him a WEEE bit much . . . right . . . now.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
The origin of the word “synagogue” is obscure but it seems that Jesus would spend him on the Sabbath therein.
Just because the sacrifices of the Jews were appointed to be held only in Jerusalem did not mean that they could not have religious services in other locations.
According to Rabbinic history, the praises of God were sung in the schools of the prophets; and those who chose were assembled by the seers on the Sabbath, and the new-moons, for religious worship ( this information coincides with 2nd Kings 4:23 and 1st Samuel 10:5-11.)
In time the people saw the necessity of providing convenient places for theses and other services as a means to shelter them from storms and heat and this was probably the origin of synagogues.
When this occurred is unknown but synagogues are mentioned by Josephus as existing quite some time before the birth of Christ and by the time he came along they were not only in Judea but wherever there were Jews.
Before Jerusalem there were some 480 synagogues before it was taken by the Romans. What we do know about them is that they were built in elevated places and in any place where ten men or more were found willing to associate for the purpose of regular customary worship.
In them the Tanakh was divided into portions that were read in whole over the course of the year, and prayers were offered, and the Scriptures were expounded upon which was done either by the officers of the synagogues or by any person who might be invited to it by the officiating minister.
From what we can tell it seems that the Savior and especially the apostles were in the habit of attending these places regularly.
Additionally, many of the synagogues were apparently built in imitation of the temple, with a center building which was supported by pillars, and a court surrounding it.
In the center building (which would be likened to a chapel) there was a place prepared for the reading of the law which was kept in a chest or ark near to the pulpit.
The uppermost seats as they are called in King James scripture were those nearest to the pulpit or that were uppermost close and the people sat round, facing the pulpit.
When the law was read, the officiating person rose and if it was time to expound upon it he would so do then sit.
As we can see from our reading today Jesus imitated this practice. Verse 17-20:
“17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,”(verse 18-19)
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Apparently, there was what we might consider a librarian in every synagogue and they kept the sacred books and he would have been the one to deliver it to him.
We don’t know why the book of Isaiah was delivered to him – perhaps this was the part of scripture that they were in at the time or maybe he requested that scroll.
What we do know is it was not like today where someone is handed a whole old and New Testament. The scrolls and their size prohibited immediate access to a large segment of scripture at one time.
And when he had unrolled the scroll he found the place where it was written:
And what did he find? Isaiah 61:1-2 which Luke in the King James says:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
What we are seeing here is amazing in the annuls of ancient and present day history.
Emmanuel – God with us – goes into a synagogue in his own hometown, and stands up before the crowd, and opens the book of Isaiah, and draws a line in the sands of time that will ultimately end with His death which would ultimately save humanity from eternal separation from God.
I mean this is not just him announcing what He was prophesied to do and accomplish, it was a throwdown on the established order, so much so that the reaction of the people was to kill him then and there.
Isn’t it amazing that he reads what he was prophesied to do – and what was it?
He was to be anointed.
To preach the Gospel to the poor.
To heal the broken-hearted.
To preach deliverance to the captives.
To recover the sight of the blind.
To set at liberty them that are bruised. And
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And in and through announcing these things and openly assigning them to Himself, and then directly insulting them when they challenged him, they unitedly decided to try and kill him?
FASCINATING.
We see a procession in his life, don’t we relative to the first line he reads:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
We just read from Luke that he exited Jordan with the Spirit abiding continually with Him.
Before that we read in Luke 4 “being full of the Holy Spirit he was lead into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
Then prior to that at his water Baptism the Spirit descended upon him like and dove and rested upon him.
Then Luke describes his childhood this way:
Luke 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
And then of course at his birth we know that the Holy Spirit overshadowed his mother and that Matthew said that he is a child of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus was in the temple at twelve years of age it was not yet his time. But standing here before the people of his hometown synagogue, he was fully prepared, so much so that he now goes back to prophecy in Isaiah which begins with
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He had now been washed and anointed to speak by divine appointment.
Now, to apply this passage initially to the Messiah would be incorrect because it first is a reference to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon. And as we know, most scriptures of a prophetic nature from the Old Testament have dual application – first in the time it was given (usually) and then often to a time later.
That is the case here.
In my estimation this is how it is the living Word of God, having application at different times and places – and I believe this to be true today as well – which is why we take the time to teach it – it may not have been written to us, but it can certainly be used toward us, can’t it.
So Jesus directly applies this passage to himself even though Isaiah uses some real poetic imagery to depict the return from Babylon which was a type to describe the work of the Messiah.
Let’s hit the points quickly that Jesus tells them how these passages applied to Him in that day and age (and therefore even today) He says:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
As we have said at his baptism, kings, prophets and the high-priest were set apart to their work by anointing with oil, (we can read about this in 1st Kings 19:15,16; Exodus 29:7; 1st Samuel 9:16) and according to Exodus 30 the oil that was used to do the anointing was a proprietary product that was forbidden to imitate for other purposes.
So was the anointing of the Holy Spirit
This oil or ointment was made of various substances, and it was forbidden to imitate it, Ex 30:34-38.
And those who were truly set apart with this oil were called the Lord’s anointed, (1st Samuel 16:6; Psalms 84:9; Isaiah 45:1).
The word Messiah is a Hebrew term meaning “the Anointed, or the Christ, which is the Greek word signifying the same thing.
Interestingly, Jesus was never officially anointed with the material oil described in Exodus but he was called THE anointed.
Why? Because he was introducing the concept of being truly anointed directly from God to the world, and when that is the case there is no stopping it.
And what, at least according to the passages in Isaiah, was he anointed to do?
“To preach the gospel to the poor.”
Gospel – God or Good and Spell, meaning a revelation or word or speech.
Good News or speech/God Message or News which in the Greek is associated with a joyful message.
Jesus was anointed by God to bring a Joyful Good Word or news. But that is not where Isaiah stops. He actually says:
“To preach the gospel to the poor.”
Of course, this could mean those who are poor or destitute of anything needful in this life- heart, soul, money, health – but the word used specifically all through the Gospels means people materially lacking.
See, organized religion – or the religion of men – even while it may even try to reach out and serve the materially destitute, doesn’t really like the poor.
I’m gonna be straight up here – but it could be that some of the reasons for this
are:
The poor are often lacking in the social graces the affluent have worked very hard to establish as norms.
The poor often have nothing really viable or material to offer but instead are generally needing to take.
The poor’s situation is often not fixable. We can’t solve it because the skills lacking that contribute to their poverty don’t go away when we throw money or support their way.
And so, there is often a recurring, we might say, endless need to constantly help them.
Fill an organization with poor people and you will quickly see that organization fail – if it is built on models of growth, success (as the world sees it) and building a reputation among men.
It is noteworthy when we look at who responds to the message of Christ most readily however, which to me is a fantastic indication of the gospel’s authenticity.
It is also a reasonable way to vet the motive behind the sharing of the Good News by groups in how they relate and interact with the materially poor and destitute.
Remember, the Pharisees and Sadducees hated the poor; ancient philosophers neglected them; but the gospel seeks to bless them–to give comfort in many cases because it is among the poor and suffering where the Gospel is most readily received.
IT is biblically proverbial that material wealth has the capacity to fill the human mind with pride which can lead to the notion that the gospel is not needed. The poor often feel the need for some sources of comfort that the world cannot give.
So again, while the line could mean the poor of spirit, the poor of peace, the poor in heart or soul, the direct meaning is the materially poor – bottom line.
But what is really intriguing to me is that Jesus says the LORD sent him to preach the Gospel to the poor.
Not feed them sandwiches.
Not give them money.
Not solve the issue of poverty in the world.
This intrigues me because I am a committed believer and proponent that the Gospel understood and lived will in and of itself do more to reach into the lives of the poor and make this world more manageable for them than any material handout.
God had His ONLY human Son walk the earth and what do we see? The Son of Man had no place to rest his head – and last week we saw what Satan offered him – all the kingdoms of the world with their praise and power.
Even Jesus said when the disciples accused the woman who poured the expensive oil over his head of being foolish:
“You will ALWAYS have the poor with you.”
Certainly, we share and support them with our bounty – as lead – but the primary purpose of both the Son of God and those who are his is to infuse the hope and peace and solace and strength of the Gospel of Christ into the lives of all who are willing and wanting to hear.
It there is NO mistake in the words or order of them:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor . . .
Additionally, showing that the mission of the Messiah was not just to the Poor Jesus adds . . .
“he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,”
Who of course can be anyone anywhere anytime and not just the poor – “to preach, to heal the broken hearts over situations, sorrows, sins, and the many other pains we experience in this life.
“to preach deliverance to the captives,”
Again, a wide wide range of people right? Of course there are the imprisoned physically, but there are people captive to sin, addiction, this world, captive in bad relationships, captive to disturbed families – whatever takes a soul that was meant to be free and holds it captive, Jesus came to deliver them.
And recovering of sight to the blind
In Jesus day this was accomplished through the miracles of giving actual sight to blind people, which was prophesied of in several places and accomplished in many more in the New Testament.
But spiritual blindness, even in Jesus day as evidenced by Him and His words to the scribes, was far ubiquitous than physical impairment.
And this is the key today. We aren’t looking to heal physical blindness by miracles – come-on now – that was Jesus job to help identify him as the Messiah.
In our day the physical is handled by the children of this world – gifted by God with intelligence! Let’s let them do the healing in His name.
But we are ALL about healing spiritual blindness, in opening up the minds and hearts of the spiritually blind souls who sit in spiritual darkness.
The ability to do this comes in and through the power of Jesus and bringing Him into their lives.
“To set at liberty them that are bruised.”
Do you notice something yet? That The Lord sent the anointed one to do a bunch of fixing of broken, pain-filled things and people. That the results of this world condition brought about by the free will of man – have amounted to pain and suffering:
Poverty
Broken heartedness
Captivity
Blindness
Bruised hearts and bodies
Isn’t that radical and the works of a loving God – who loved the world so much that he gave us His only begotten Son to save us from it all!!
He came to give liberty to those who are bruised, those who are bearing wounds in their hearts and lives and are captive to them and their influences.
And he concludes with verse 19
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
This was that time – the acceptable Year of the Lord. The time when God was willing to accept of men and to receive sinners coming to him by faith in His Son.
The Good News assures us that God has provided an acceptable plan or way, and Jesus announces here and now that this was the acceptable year of the Lord.
In Leviticus 25:8-13, the fiftieth year or Year of Jubilee is described and there could be an allusion to this period when the Trumpet was blown and throughout all of the land the Slaves captive to others, those who had outstanding debts, and a restoration of things back to their original families was made.
It could be that this statement by the Lord from Isaiah is speaking to this very time at the advent of His arrival as a fulfillment of the type.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
When it says that he closed the book I think it means he it up again and gave it to the one in charge of the books or minister (the word means servant).
And he sat down. And the eyes of all who were there were fixed on Him, probably waiting for him to now expound on what he had just done. Remember, they had no idea yet the reason for this reading but the Spirit of God was upon Him and I am sure that it was sensed. (verse 22)
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
This writing that I have just read to you has come to pass in your ears or you have just heard everything I have read to you fulfilled or has begun to be fulfilled.
In all likelihood, Jesus said more, but Luke, by the Spirit, gave us enough to know the point – and what he gave us is certainly dramatic, isn’t it? This was his home town. These were people who watched him grow up. And we have them respond with something really remarkable in my estimation. We read:
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Because of the first line of verse 22 I believe that the Spirit of God was abundant in that place – and all bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
They knew the truth of what he said and they reflected on it – so much so that in contradistinction of what they heart we get the second line of the verse as they said among themselves:
Is not this Joseph’s son?
It is fascinating to me that they knew who he was as a citizen of their town. They knew he was Joseph’s son. That perhaps he worked in carpentry.
But they were surprised by the disconnect between what he said and what their image was of him as a citizen of Nazareth.
To me this further affirms that the bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon him at his baptism truly ordained him – anointed him – to go forth at this time and be revealed.
Jesus sensed their disconnect and so he says at verse 23:
23 Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
The way this is written is a little awkward to our way of thinking – I mean when we hear:
Physician, heal thyself, we tend to think of a guy selling books on how to be wealthy who is broke, or an obese man selling the cure to obesity.
In other words, we naturally think that Jesus is saying, by appealing to this proverb:
Yeah, you all knew me as a kid growing up here in Nazareth and now I am here as the Messiah and you have a hard time believing that God’s message of Salvation is coming through me.
I don’t think this is the case.
To me we discover the meaning of the line, physician heal thyself in the things he says in connection of this proverb which is about his healing people in Capernaum.
Apparently, news had traveled to Nazareth that Jesus had done miracles in Capernaum, something we do not read about here in Luke.
And so there in his hometown they were saying:
“You profess to be the Messiah. You have wrought miracles at Capernaum. You profess to be able to deliver us from our maladies, our sins, our afflictions. Show US (heal thyself – prove thyself to US) that you have the power, that you are worthy of our confidence, by working miracles here, as we have heard that you have done at Capernaum.”
Capernaum was on the north-west corner of the Sea of Tiberias, and was not far from Nazareth so in all probability some heard he had been active there.
But his response to this – what he said they were probably saying in their minds was to say Verse 24)
“Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
And we are going to leave off here and pick up this idea next week.
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