Our God and our gracious Father, indeed we
would echo the words of the hymn we
have just been singing.
As we consider the greatness and the loveliness
of our Lord Jesus, no mortal can with
Him compare among the sons of man.
Our hearts bow and worship O God, to
think that He who is verily God, yet
became truly human.
Lower than angels to die in our stead,
we bow O God with wonder and worship,
and again with appreciation that He is the
one who gave Himself for us, who accomplished
the work to God's satisfaction, and who has
brought eternal blessing to our souls.
Father, we're thankful this Lord's Day morning that
with Thy people we can gather, not only
to remember Him later on, but also to
consider Him as we open Thy word together.
We pray Thou give help to all of
our brethren, and each one of us to
appreciate something more of our Lord Jesus and
His passage from this beautiful gospel that presents
to us the Lord Jesus.
Help us, O God, to comprehend something of
the infinite perfection that is found in His
words and His work.
And Father, we are thankful today that again
we have the entirety of the word of
God that would present to us Thy purposes
regarding Him and the place that He will
one day occupy in eternity.
We offer our thanks for coming together this
morning.
Another Lord's Day, we thank Thee, O God,
for the benefits of the weather and the
conditions under which we gather.
We give thanks for the conference.
We thank Thee for the assembly of the
saints here in Blue River, and we pray
Thy blessing upon them as we continue today
and seek to learn more of Thyself and
of Thy word.
So we offer our thanks, commend ourselves to
Thy hand, in the precious name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Our passage to read and to consider this
morning is Luke chapter 4, brethren have selected
this passage, and we'll begin reading in this
chapter from verse 14.
Luke chapter 4 and verse 14.
And Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a
fame of Him throughout the land, through all
the region round about.
And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified
of all, honored or esteemed is the idea.
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.
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, 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, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord.
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, and
He began to say unto them, This day
is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
And all bear Him witness and wonder at
the gracious words which proceeded out of His
mouth.
And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
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 hear in thy country.
And He said, Verily I say unto you,
No prophet is exempted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of
Elias, when the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto
a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the
time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of
them was cleansed, saving Nahum and Assyria.
And all they in the synagogue, when they
heard these things, were filled with wrath, and
rose up and thrust Him out of the
city, and led Him unto the brow of
the hill whereon their city was built, that
they might cast Him down headlong.
But He, passing through the midst of them,
went His way and came down to Capernaum,
a city of Galilee, and taught them on
the Sabbath days.
And they were astonished at His doctrine, for
His word was with power.
We'll stop our reading at that point.
Brethren, I've indicated that this is the passage
you would like us to consider.
And we are dependent upon the help of
our brethren that are here this morning to
help us to glean the maximum from this
passage of the Word of God.
Now, I just want to say a few
words in opening, and then leave it to
the discussion that can follow.
In looking at this passage of the Scripture,
I'd like to break it down into four
different parts.
And I think we'll have sufficient time to
expand and to consider the context of the
chapter as it begins with the testing, the
proving of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness,
and to see how that leads into the
commencement of His public ministry, which began here
in Nazareth, the city where He had been
brought up.
I think it would be helpful to look
at verse 13 through 15.
And in that part, we need to look
at the background that lies ahead of this
moment when it says that He returned in
the power of the Spirit into Galilee and
began, it says, actually He began to teach.
He began a ministry of teaching that would
continue for the three and a half years
of His public ministry.
And in process of that, we find something
about, I believe, a key that would help
us in relation to a spiritual power that
a believer can derive from resisting temptation.
Now, I know the Lord Jesus was not
tempted in the way that we are.
He was tested and proven.
It was the Spirit of God that drove
Him, Mark's Gospel tells us, into the wilderness.
It was for the purpose of proving His
superiority.
And at the commencement of His ministry, He
displayed His power over the devil.
So, we have the background in relation to
this section and how it fits into the
Gospel we can look at for the first
part of our study.
Then in verse 16 through 19, I think
we should look at the way that the
Lord Jesus handled the Scriptures.
We can learn much that would help us
in relation to how we should handle the
Word of God.
How it should be read.
How it should be interpreted.
How it should be applied.
And the Lord Himself displayed perfect ability as
well as wisdom in how He handled the
Word of God in this particular passage.
So, here we have the handling of the
Word of God in verse 16 through 19.
And we also see other things concerning the
Lord's regular practice.
In verse 20 through 27, this is an
interesting use of the Old Testament examples.
And we need to try to understand why
did the Lord Jesus select these two examples
from this particular period of the history of
Israel in the Old Testament.
Why did He select this woman in the
days of Elijah?
Or Naaman the Syrian in the days of
Elisha?
Certainly there's a reason and I believe it
ties in with what He has already been
saying to them.
Then we have the last section which would
have to do with their response, their anger,
the rejection of Him, and of course His
going away and going down to Capernaum.
So, let us try to learn something from
not only the perfection of the Lord Jesus
and to discern something of the intrinsic glory
that was displayed in Him, but also perhaps
things that would help us in our life
as well as our testimony before the world.
Now, we oftentimes say, and I think brethren
would always agree with this, that the one
that leads the Bible reading doesn't have all
the answers.
We're just here to help things move along
and there are brethren here that are able
to contribute very well.
We hope that they will, not only these
men that are sitting in the front row,
but there are others here that can give
help in this Bible reading so there might
be the maximum profit to each one of
us.
I think it's helpful for us to begin
by noticing that Luke's gospel is presenting the
Lord Jesus in such a way that it
ties in very well with the fact that
emphasis is made on the power and the
work of the Holy Spirit in His life.
Maybe my brother would like to comment on
that or bring in other aspects of the
background to this particular section.
In chapter 3, we see the Holy Spirit
descending upon Him at His baptism, verse 22,
and then we have the declaration from heaven,
Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I
am well pleased.
And then there follows, in chapter 4, the
three occurrences or the three temptations that are
recorded of the Lord Jesus.
So, what I'm thinking is God knew beforehand
the absolute impeccability and sinless purity of the
Lord Jesus, otherwise that statement could not be
made until after the temptation, but it comes
before it.
Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I
am well pleased.
And then God proves that to us and
gives us a view of the impeccability.
Yeah, God, He safeguards the person of Christ,
doesn't He?
The gospel of Luke, of course, is a
gospel of the perfect man.
He's going to be baptized.
Others were being baptized onto the remission of
their sins, but the Lord Jesus wasn't, and
God safeguards that by opening the heavens and
descending upon Him like a dove.
So, you find in the scriptures, that's a
principle I think, very often God counterbalances truth
so we don't get on the wrong track.
And then, usually for us at least, that's
when testing comes when we're baptized.
Some people that aren't born into Christian homes
have enough difficulty when they're saved, but it's
usually at their baptism that even the family
seems to go against them.
Well, I think you pointed out that He
was full of the Holy Spirit, and then
the Spirit that led Him into the wilderness,
He was still under control of that Spirit
when He comes into the synagogue.
I think it's very good to notice the
fact that this gospel traces the genealogy of
the Lord Jesus back to Adam.
Adam was the one that failed when it
came to testing, and there is a man
that was instituted by God and put in
a place of responsibility.
He failed to respond to that responsibility, and
as a result we know what has happened
in terms of the entire creation.
But this one who can trace the genealogy
and that side of His heritage back to
Adam was the one who the Spirit of
God Himself led into this position not to
see if He would fall.
We need to make that very clear.
It was not to determine if the Lord
Jesus would overcome temptation or not.
It was to prove that He could not
be.
He was a different order, as it were,
from Adam.
Different altogether, and proving the fact that He
was a superior man, a man of a
new and a different order.
So in the records of the temptation, in
Matthew, it would show that He's competent to
reign.
He's the King.
And then in Mark, of course, He's competent
to be God's servant.
And here it's showing in His manhood the
perfection of His manhood.
You might ask the question, in terms of
verse 1, we're going back there, but does
the Spirit of God ever lead a believer
today into a situation like this?
Or is it our own?
James tells us we're led away of our
own lusts, and our temptation doesn't come from
the Spirit of God.
It seems to indicate this is totally different
than what you and I experience in our
daily life.
As you say, Joel, it's linked with Adam.
When God brought His people into the land,
it was a land flowing with milk and
honey.
It wasn't to be a place where there
was a wilderness.
But because of the disobedience of Israel and
so on, you find you're in the wilderness.
And as you have hinted, that Adam was
tempted under perfect conditions.
Now here you have the Lord in the
wilderness.
And as well as that, I have thought,
tell me if I'm going too far from
what you have in your own mind, but
God says in Matthew, out of Egypt have
I called my son.
So you have the Lord sort of fulfilling,
going the same pathway as the nation of
Israel.
And now he's in the wilderness.
Well, you know what happened to them in
the wilderness?
And they murmured and complained and so on.
And God gave them manna.
And now we have the Word of God.
Man shall not live by bread alone.
So verse 14, commencing at that point, He
returned, not full of the Holy Spirit here,
but in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Is there a sense, and I'm making an
application, I know, but is there a sense
that a believer who resists temptation, I'm talking
about a different thing perhaps than what the
Lord, but we have a pattern of it
here, a believer resisting temptation experiences an increase
in his spiritual power.
Spiritual ability comes from a determination to do
what is right before God, to be subject
to His will, and to be obedient to
His Word.
So we have a sense in which, I'm
just looking at this from my own point
of view, but we have a sense in
which believers that seek to overcome sin, seek
to resist temptation, experience an increase or more
ability in the spiritual realm, ability to be
used of God because of the commencement of
His public service.
Yes.
Yes, that's a good point.
And I was just, it came to my
mind that when God tempted Abraham, each testing
was to increase his faith and to make
him stronger.
I know Abraham failed at least on a
couple of occasions, but the greatest temptation wasn't
the first one, but it was the last
one.
But God was increasing him as he would
overcome, so that when the great test came
of offering up a son, he was equal
to the test.
You take it, Brother Jewell, that between verses
13 and 14, you have the chapters 2
through 5 of John's Gospel?
I believe we did.
Right.
It's interesting then, if you notice the order
of the temptations as recorded by Luke, it's
different from Matthew, but you have that which
is linked with bread, then you have the
thought of dominion, and then cast yourself down,
and as it were, defy gravity.
Chapter 6 of John, immediately following his return
to Galilee after Judea, you have the feeding
of the 5,000 linked with bread.
They wanted to make him a king, but
he departed.
He wouldn't have it.
And then the next thing is Jesus walking
on the sea to meet the need of
the disciples, if you will, defying gravity, so
it seems to be there's a link with
the very order that you have here.
When he returned into Galilee, there went out
a fame of him, there was a repute,
there was a rumor.
Men were increasingly becoming aware of him, and
the Spirit of God that drove him or
led him into the wilderness and returning to
the power of the Spirit of God is
now expanding the area of that ministry, opening
the areas, so that there are those who
are becoming aware that there is a prophet,
or there is one who God has raised
up in the midst of his people.
And so in verse 15, he began to
teach, is the idea of the tense of
Galilee.
He not only taught once, but he was
teaching or began to teach in their synagogue,
and he was being honored of all, but
then he came to Nazareth.
And what a contrast.
The place where he should have been honored
was a place where he was rejected and
despised.
So the gospel of Luke also is the
gospel of the priest.
So you have the Lord as the teaching
priest.
And I think it's, as you say, it's
wonderful.
It comes to Nazareth, the despised place.
That's where he's associated with.
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Well, I'm glad we know, yes.
And when he came to Nazareth, it's where
he was brought up.
That's usually the most difficult part to be
a good testimony for God, right among your
own people.
They know all about you, but here you're
brought up.
And it's custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day.
I would take it that his coming to
Nazareth was done deliberately.
We don't believe any movement of the Lord
Jesus was ever by chance or haphazard.
So he came here to Nazareth, but what
for?
I would take it that he came to
expose the unbelief of those that above all
should have believed him.
They should have seen him growing up.
They should have seen the character of his
life.
They should have marked him out as being
a unique person.
But in that sphere, he comes deliberately to
the place where, again, like John chapter 1,
he came unto his own.
This is the closest to his own, but
his own received him not.
Then he went down to Galilee.
They that received him, as many as received
him, he gave them power, and so on.
But here he comes to Nazareth in a
deliberate movement that he might expose the unbelief
that lay deep in their hearts, the refusal
to receive him.
One of the things that he had done
in Galilee, verse 14, causing the fame of
him to go out throughout that region, was
the healing of the nobleman's son at Capernaum.
And it's interesting, verse 23, when the Lord
comes to Nazareth, instead of appreciating him, like
you're saying, for who he was, it seems
that they drag that up as something of
a mockery.
Whatsoever we have heard Don and Capernaum do
also here in your country, and we believe
you, you know.
Is there a practical principle?
I know that probably John 2 and 3
comes before this, but yet, is that where
we should start our testimony?
Among our own people and in our own
place?
Most would like to go someplace, and it's
easier where you're not known, maybe in some
ways, but we need to begin right where
we were brought up, right where we live.
What about, brother, I want to start with,
he stood up for Tariq.
I'd like to just emphasize this one expression,
as his custom was.
In chapter 2 is it that we find
that his parents went up year by year
to Jerusalem.
That was their practice, a regular practice that
had been established.
We heard about Samuel yesterday, and we see
Samuel's parents, in spite of the conditions that
existed at the tabernacle, where Eli and his
sons were officiating, his parents went up every
year.
Here we find that in the life of
the Lord Jesus, in his perfect manhood, his
custom was, regularly, to go to the synagogue.
Now that just wasn't a matter of habit,
that was a practice that he knew was
right.
The practice of honoring God, and recognizing the
word of God.
I think it's interesting that he begins a
public ministry by doing something that was his
regular custom.
You come to chapter 22 at the end
of public ministry, and Judas knew where he
was going to be, because it was his
habit, it was his practice, to go to
the Garden of Gethsemane.
So, in a sense, can we not learn
that as believers there are good practices that
we need to establish in our lives?
And even though conditions might not be what
we like them to be, and perhaps we
can find fault, and rightly so at times,
yet there are practices to begin in early
life, and maintain, and carry on constantly, because
of the fact they're according to the word
of God, they're right before God, they're honoring
God, and they're seeking to express reverence for
Him.
Even the institution of a synagogue was not
something as such specified in Scripture, but it
was a good practice for people to gather
together for the reading of the word of
God.
It's interesting that seven times in the Gospel
of Luke we find the Lord Jesus on
the Sabbath day.
Six times He was working, or He was
preaching, or He was active on the Sabbath
day.
The seventh Sabbath day it says He rested,
He was in the grave.
And so we have the constant activity, the
Son of Man is Lord even on the
Sabbath day, and He used the Sabbath day
for the accomplishment of God's purposes.
Now you were just going to bring us
into the passage that you read.
Yeah, well I wanted to point out that,
you to point out that He stood, I
think that was a normal practice, but yet
He had a reverence for the word of
God, and I think we can see in
this passage, not only a reverence for it,
a familiarity with it, He knew where it
was, He knew the word, the scroll was
handed to Him, and the book as it
said, the scroll, it wasn't prearranged by Him
that it would be from the book of
Isaiah, but He had that reverence and that
familiarity and knowledge, knew where to begin reading,
and He knew where to conclude His reading.
I would take it that, it's hard to
tell whether this was just simply the passage
that was regularly read, I mean this was
going to be the passage on that particular
Sabbath day, or whether He selected this passage.
If it was the regular passage then He
determined, knowing ahead of time, what Sabbath day
He would be there, so that that would
be the portion of Scripture to read.
He knew the appropriate time to be, to
rise and read the passage, or He selected
it knowing that the time had come, the
day was fulfilled, and the prophecy of Isaiah
was being completed in His coming into public
ministry.
Don't we have a hint that He selected
it?
He unrolled the scroll.
So, Isaiah was handed to Him, that may
have been what was to be on that
Sabbath, but He unrolled it and He found
the passage.
That's the way I would think about it.
That it was a determination on His part,
and it tells us the Lord Jesus knew
the Scriptures.
We know He knew everything perfectly, but He
also knew the Scriptures because He had learned
them and studied them as a boy growing
up.
It tells us, brethren, that we need to
seek to learn more of the continuity and
the flow of Scripture, the way the Word
of God fits together, the way it is
designed by the Spirit of God to give
us instruction.
It wasn't a haphazard reading, it was determination,
and He knew what He was doing.
It's quite a thing that there was prophecy
being fulfilled.
It's quite a thing, too, that a man
should read an article that is about himself.
It's quite a thing for a spiritual man
to read the Scriptures.
But in this instance, you have all those
things combined.
Prophecy fulfilled, he's reading about himself, he's doing
it in the energy and power of the
Spirit of God.
It must have been quite a thing.
And in the temptation, He used the Pentateuch.
Now He's using the prophets.
So, you know, of course, in the temptation,
He selected the readings from Deuteronomy because they
were the ones that were applicable.
And here, of course, it would be handed
the scroll, as you say, it would be
Isaiah.
But he was there every week, wasn't he?
At least that was his custom, to go
into the...
But whatever, he knew exactly where to begin.
The prophet of Isaiah, as he opened the
book and he found the place where it
was written.
And you want to go down some of
these...
It's a good comment, but his use of
the Scripture was perfect.
Yeah.
And the wilderness experience, using the quotation from
Deuteronomy, that was a book in which the
heart of God's people was being tested.
And they had proven, our brother read yesterday
in Deuteronomy chapter 8, this is the way
the Lord led thee to try thee and
to prove what was in thy heart.
And the proving only brought out the failure.
But in relation to the Lord Jesus, He
could take those same Scriptures and He proved
what was in His heart.
And it was such a contrast with what
had existed in the nation of Israel.
Does all these things mentioned in verse 18
and 19 with really the fulfillment of His
public ministry from now to Calvary?
It was the introduction of this day of
grace that began with His coming.
He could say this Scripture is fulfilled.
I would take it it won't be totally,
completely fulfilled until the millennium.
But perhaps you would look at it differently,
that it's being fulfilled at this moment.
That's kind of raising the question.
Yeah.
So what did our brother think about that?
I would notice, brother Joel, that the words
in Isaiah chapter 61 and the day of
vengeance of our God is not recorded in
the words here in the book of Luke.
He came to bring the day of salvation,
not the day of vengeance.
That is a good point to make and
it's been made often, but I think it
should be emphasized in connection with the Lord's
proper use of the Word of God.
He could never say that that part of
the Scripture was being fulfilled.
But certainly anticipating the future, He stopped.
Actually in the middle of a sentence.
He stopped when He knew that that was
not yet present, that was still future.
And the Lord's coming in His public ministry
and fulfillment of the Word of God fulfilled
the messianic promises that were anticipating His arrival.
And this describes, I take it, the ministry
of the Lord Jesus.
What did He come for?
He was first of all anointed by the
Spirit of God for this public work.
And then He commenced the work of preaching
the gospel to the poverty stricken, the totally
poor with nothing.
The gospel, in that sense, was the good
news to bring before them the riches of
God to meet their need and deliver them
from their spiritual poverty.
Then again, He came to heal the brokenhearted.
And you can find different suggestions of that
in relation to the gospel.
He came to preach liberty or deliverance to
the captives.
I understand the word captives here is the
word for those that have been taken in
warfare.
They've been subjugated because of superior power.
And then recovering of sight to the blind
ones and setting at liberty them that are
crushed, bruised.
They're claiming the ear of the Lord, jubilee.
I was thinking about John the Baptist.
He seemed to expect the Lord to quote
scriptures that would bring judgment on their enemies
at that time.
But you see, this fits in so much
with the grace of God.
And these things that you have mentioned, to
preach the gospel to the poor.
Think of the Lord Himself.
He was rich, yet for your sakes became
poor.
And then you have the brokenhearted.
And one of the Psalms said He died
with a broken heart.
Not of a broken heart, but with a
broken heart.
And to preach deliverance to the captive, He
was taken from prison and from judgment.
Recovering of sight to the blind, they blindfolded
Him, prophesied who it was that touched Him.
And of course, when we think of the
bruised, we think of Isaiah 53.
So, it kind of should touch our hearts
that the Lord would preach these things.
It shows the rich grace of God.
They marvel at the gracious words that proceeded
from His mouth.
Is there a way, Brother, I think maybe
you were hinting at this, that we can
use the scriptures wrongly?
Some people can get something out of any
scripture they read.
And the older men, they used to say,
use the proper scripture.
I know we can apply things, but I
don't think we can apply scripture just any
way.
There are definite ways that we can apply
it.
It must fit in with the context and
so on, I think.
It's nice to see that even the Spirit
of God here in control just leads the
Lord to open up the scripture.
And He puts the scripture, opens it up,
and shows that they didn't know the scripture.
If they would have known the scripture, they
would have never misinterpreted that He was the
Messiah.
So, it's important that you and I be
led by the Spirit to the Word of
God, too.
Because the Spirit of God never leads in
contrary to the Word of God.
And you see that as you follow the
Lord Jesus and His movements here.
And even in His normal, everyday experience, it
has accustomed Him.
It wasn't the extraordinary things that He did.
He just did the normal things that need
to be done every day and be led
by the Spirit.
That's very important to see that, because it's
important that you and I be led by
the Spirit in the normal things that we
do.
Not just at meeting, not just time when
we preach or when we speak the Word
of God.
But in our everyday experience, as He was
accustomed to doing it, just the way He
did it before.
No stepping out of the way.
Going back to your point, Bill, about applications,
and you stressed correctly that we can't make
just any application.
Can you give us any guidance as to
when we can make applications and when we
should not?
Oh, maybe I'll help you on that.
If it's an application, it must fit with
the other portions of Scripture.
An application can never be contrary to what
the Scripture teaches us.
Speaking about context, it's always good to remember
to use the Scripture in its context.
If we wrest the Scripture out of its
context, we can make any kind of application.
A brethren that could read almost any passage
of the Scripture and teach whatever they wanted
from it, but it had no relationship to
what they were reading.
Nothing wrong with what they were teaching, but
it did relate to what they were reading.
And so the Lord Jesus is using the
Scripture intelligently and accurately in accord with the
intent of the Spirit of God in giving
it.
And He's applying it in a way that
they recognize the implications of what was being
said.
And so it caused a reaction on their
part.
Brethren, we need to handle the Word of
God with reverence.
And to do so, recognizing that it has
been given to us by the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, intended to be handled in
a way that is appropriate.
And expresses that, because if we take the
Scripture and use it anyway, well, even it
might produce results and there might be someone
saved from it.
But on the other hand, later on, that
individual may learn, well, that Scripture wasn't even
used right.
They should have used it differently.
The Apostle Paul, he used Old Testament Scriptures,
didn't he, and applied them.
Like, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn.
But then he says, does this refer to
the ox only?
And he applies that, but it's in keeping
with the Old Testament Scriptures.
I say this, and maybe I shouldn't.
I'm not trying to be humorous, but I
was at a conference where a lot of
local brethren took part.
And I'm not against that in any way,
if they're able, you know.
But this young fellow got up, and he
had, we were the stones in David's sling.
And I'm not sure what he meant, but
we end up on somebody's head.
You know, you just kind of, it doesn't
make sense.
There's no way that can be a proper,
and I've heard quite a few things like
that, and maybe I've done sometimes, I've done
it myself.
But we need to be very careful.
There's a statement that's often made, there's one
interpretation in many applications.
I don't really believe it.
Sometimes I think even there's maybe more than
one interpretation.
Right.
You know, but as well, it's not just
to take something and just go fanciful in
your own mind and apply it.
These conditions in his verses really should be
recognized and appreciated as what the gospel has
brought to us in a spiritual sense.
I think that the people of that day,
like even today, if the Lord would have
made them rich, physically, they would have been
glad to accept it.
If he would have healed their broken hearts
and made them all happy, that would have
been very acceptable.
But when they recognized that there was something
deeper to that, there was an implication that
this had spiritual meaning.
That by sin we are captives and we're
crushed and we're bruised and broken hearted and
poverty stricken.
They weren't willing to accept that, and neither
are the lost today.
So he was presented here as the answer
to these problems.
Even the problem of poverty, sorrow, bondage, suffering,
oppression.
God had sent him as the answer.
There's a plan, maybe this is an application,
I hope it's a good one.
But you have the message of salvation to
preach the gospel to the poor.
And then you have the result of salvation
to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance
to the captive, recovering of sight to the
blind.
So this is what we preach in the
gospel.
And then you have the time of salvation
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
This is the time.
And then of course you have the rejection
of salvation brought in.
So how long is this year?
Referred to in verse 19.
It's in contrast, wouldn't you say, William, with
what follows in the prophecy.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord
and the day of vengeance of our God.
Until that day.
Yeah, it shows that God is dealing with
his long suffering now, but when he comes
in in judgment, it will be swift judgment.
So there's a prolonged period of time in
which there's deliverance offered.
And then the day of judgment follows.
I think it could be helpful to give
a little background or setting for the scene
that follows at this rejection.
When I look at a map, a map
is flat on the table before me.
And you don't get any feel at all
for the topography.
And I was astonished when we visited Nazareth
12 years ago.
Because Nazareth is built on an incline.
And then they led him to the brow
of the hill.
There's a steep slope.
And had they been able to throw him
over the brow of the hill, he would
have been killed, normally speaking.
But he just made his way through them
to get out of there.
That astonished me when I saw that Nazareth
was built on a slope.
And then to stand at the almost a
cliff to the north.
That shows the condition of the people.
Satan, he wanted him to go off the
pinnacle of the temple.
So here, his children, and they have the
same idea, cast him over the hill.
So in verse 16, the Lord began his
ministry by carrying on what his custom was.
And he ended it the same way.
In verse 21, we have this expression, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
That the anointing of the Lord Jesus and
commencement of his ministry was fulfilling that prophecy.
When you come to the end, you find
in chapter 19 and verse 42, the Lord
entered into Jerusalem.
He says, hath thou just known, even in
this thy day, this day.
So there was another day that would fulfill
scripture.
And so the Lord's ministry was begun and
ended, embraced entirely by the fulfillment of the
word of God.
And so that what he commenced, resulted ultimately
in his rejection at the end of this
public ministry.
Now time is going, how about down here
in verse 22 and going on.
They wondered at the words of grace that
proceeded out of his.
They wondered at these words just as a
result of his reading the scripture.
There seemed to be a power in what
he said.
And what he was announcing to them, that
they, it caused them to wonder.
They wondered, that this man, is not this
Joseph's son?
Just the carpenter.
Why would he say such words as these?
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears.
So their unbelief was being expressed right from
the very beginning.
They had low thoughts of the Lord Jesus.
And they didn't appreciate who he really was.
Do we get a hint that the Lord
was passing comment on what had been read?
Or do you take it that these gracious
words are simply what is recorded in verse
21 period?
You can surmise what you will.
I would think that he likely commented on
them in addition.
The summary of what he said about them
was this day is this fulfilled.
But would he not likely have given them
instances.
And elaborated on the meaning of the different
expressions that are found here.
I would think so.
We can think so, we don't know.
Because it doesn't say so.
But nevertheless there was something about the power
of his word.
There was something about how he handled the
scripture.
How he read it.
If he expounded it.
They marveled.
Where did this man get this knowledge?
How did he know all these things?
He never went to the school of the
rabbis.
And they wondered at the words of grace.
Because what he's reading is the expression of
God's grace.
It's not judgment, it's grace that's being expressed.
And they wondered at it.
So the answer to is not this Joseph's
son is a no.
They thought he's just an ordinary man.
He's a son of Joseph.
He wasn't really the son of Joseph.
Legally I suppose you could say he was.
But that's what they were saying.
How can an ordinary man speak like this?
And their eyes were fastened on him.
It must have been a marvelous sight.
Their conscience was obviously reached as he spoke.
And that reaction that followed.
Where they wanted to throw him over the
brow of the hill.
They refused to acknowledge the truth that he
had set before them.
And they rebelled against the truth of God.
And were going to take this drastic action.
It seems evident from what the Lord says
to them.
Physician, heal thyself.
It indicates to us what was true of
all of his life.
He knew their thoughts.
He knew what was going in their mind.
He knew their reaction.
He knew how they were going to respond
to what he says.
You will certainly say it on yourselves.
Physician, heal thyself.
In other words, those deeds that you have
done in other places, do them here.
Sometimes believers have the idea the Lord Jesus
performed miracles in order to cause them to
believe on him.
Normally speaking, the Lord did not perform any
miracles because of their unbelief.
So they never saw him perform a miracle
in Nazareth.
And it was because of their unbelief that
killed their heart.
There was a comment made when we were
in Israel that I never forgot.
On the north shore of the Sea of
Galilee is Bethsaida.
Standing there, a brother who had prepared to
make some comments to the group.
Said that within a five mile radius, 85
% of the Lord's speaking, preaching, and miracles
took place.
And I believe he was likely right.
Now Nazareth was not in that five mile
radius.
It was further to the west.
But it's an astonishing thing that where he
labored, where he spoke, is where he was
ultimately rejected.
Is that astonishing?
Not really.
Look at the world today.
Name the name of Christ accepted blasphemy.
And you frequently get a very, very bad
reaction.
Verse 24, the Lord says no prophet is
accepted in his own country.
He begins by using an example of a
man who wasn't accepted, that's Elijah.
And we need to look in the third
few minutes that remain at these two examples
from the Old Testament.
Why?
I know that we can see in them
the display of the grace of God going
out to Gentiles.
That's often done to preach the gospel.
Both of these who received blessing in the
days of the apostasy and the unbelief that
enveloped the nation, the northern tribes.
These were both Gentiles.
The woman of Sarepta.
But why does the Lord say this?
How does that fit in with the context
of what he's been announcing to them?
And the evidence of their rejection of him?
These two examples.
Doesn't it show us, I'm going to just
tell you what I think.
Doesn't it show us he's telling them by
these two examples why he was not being
accepted by the people of Nazareth.
Because he is reading from the prophet of
Isaiah.
The kind of people that would receive the
message and receive benefit are the ones that
were poor, poverty stricken, broken hearted.
The ones that recognized their spiritual depravity and
their need.
They were not ready to recognize that.
He says they have to be, in order
to receive blessing, they have to be like
that widow woman.
Who was in a hopeless condition.
Who had nothing that she could look forward
to.
Only destitution and death.
But they weren't willing to recognize that their
condition was hopeless.
In the same way as Naaman.
He was a man that was defiled.
A man that had no ability to cure
or heal himself.
And they weren't willing to accept that either.
So they were not willing to accept him
because they did not realize that they had
any need of him.
They were too good for that.
Right?
So what a change in attitude from verse
20.
When all eyes were upon him.
Moving ahead to verse 28.
And all they in the synagogue, when they
heard these things, were filled with wrath.
It underscores what you're saying.
When he brings before them the self-righteousness.
He's reaching out to the needy to help
them.
It's interesting too that in these examples the
Lord Jesus used.
We have an indication that he refused to
cater to their unbelief.
He could well have said words that would
have soothed them and made them feel comfortable.
And assuaged their anger against him.
But he didn't.
What he said only brought out in full
clear evidence.
What was the condition of their own heart.
He didn't just try to say words that
would accommodate them.
Or make them feel comfortable.
Or soothe them.
He was going to tell them exactly the
kind of message they needed to receive.
Even though he knew they were rejected.
So in the Jewish mind.
The widow, the woman, the widow, the gentile,
the leper.
They were all at the bottom of the
social scale.
As you might say.
But these were the people that were blessed
in the days of the prophets.
But like you're saying.
They didn't see themselves in any way at
the bottom of the totem pole so to
speak.
They had higher thoughts of themselves than that.
That's why we read later on that the
Lord in chapter 15.
He was accused of receiving sinners and eating
with them.
The Pharisees thought that's totally contrary to our
ideas of what he ought to be doing.
He shouldn't be doing that.
But they were the ones that needed him.
They were the ones that saw their need
of him.
They were the ones that were willing to
receive him.
The thing that really would cause animosity with
them though would be the fact that they
were gentiles.
Wouldn't it?
Possibly.
Just like today in the preaching of the
gospel.
Those who will not accept the truth about
themselves will never know the joy of sins
forgiven.
And there is that resistance to that.
We need to recognize that.
We should easily recognize it.
Was that not true of me before God
saved me?
I had to come to that recognition.
I'm hopeless, I'm helpless, I'm lost.
We have an example here as well that
they could not refute his message.
So they attacked the messenger.
And again we find that later on in
the public ministry of the Lord Jesus.
They could not undermine what he was saying.
They tried to undermine his character.
He doesn't cast out demons by the power
of God.
It's by Beelzebul.
In their refusal of him, they're really putting
him in the place of judgment.
They're taking a judgment against him.
Wanted to throw him over the brow of
the hill.
And really the rejection of Christ, it always
involves that.
People are taking a judgment against him.
But interesting, John, as you know, the Mount
of the Precipice, it overlooks the Valley of
Jezreel to the south, to the west, and
to the east as well.
It's the very place likely where they wanted
to throw him down in judgment.
It's the place he's coming back in judgment.
Revelation 19.
The link between these examples and the condition
that was in their heart was that Elijah
and Elisha ministered in days when Israel was
apostate.
It was far from God.
And even their carrying on religious practices under
Jeroboam was totally contrary to the word of
God.
That's basically what they were doing here.
They were carrying on religious practice, but it
wasn't according to the word of God.
And so that they were really in the
same condition as the nation of Israel.
And as a result, the blessing of God
couldn't come with it.
There's a giant fact that the category of
the people that was blessed, he read the
scripture, he showed them, this is the ones
that are going to be blessed from this
day on, from this message that I'm going
to bring to you.
And then he gives the examples in the
Old Testament that actually this is the kind
of people that got blessed in the beginning.
Those that were simple enough to take the
word.
And it's not going to be the high
and mighty.
It's going to be the ones that is
categorized here.
Showing them as well that the nation had
never changed.
It hadn't changed from the days of Elijah
and Elisha.
Just the very same.
And the result was they didn't get the
blessing that God had in store for them.
So again we find that they could not
take him.
John tells us his hour had not come.
So the passage in the midst of that,
even though they tried to lay hands on
him, and the devil would have done everything
possible to take his life at this point.
Yet, it is evident that they could not
take him.
His time was determined by God.
Man was limited in what he could accomplish.
And he came down to Capernaum, where the
majority of his ministry was centered.
A city of Galilee had taught them on
the Sabbath days.
Our brother's been mentioning where the Lord's ministry
was centered.
I think that in the Gospel of Luke,
there's no indication the Lord Jesus was ever
in Jerusalem from this point on until he
makes his journey toward Jerusalem.
And he will have that last week.
So his ministry in Luke's Gospel is entirely
in Galilee, which was really a territory that
was almost considered semi-Gentile by many of
the Jews down in Jerusalem.
Our time is gone.
Our brother should close in prayer and give
thanks for the refreshment.
I trust I've made something of this kind.
Thank you for your help.