Welcome to our continuing Bible
study in Luke and we're in chapter 4 and as we went through the last series that we had on Sovereign
Mercy part one and two regarding the widows in the days of Elias
and many lepers in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet
in verse 25 through 27. So today we'll take up in in
verse 28 at the conclusion of his teaching
there. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him out of
the city, and led him down to the brow of the hill, wherein
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
But he, passing through the midst of them, went on his way." And
now we come to verse 31 and 32, the topic for today. in Luke chapter 4. And he 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. And that'll be our subject
for the next several weeks was Astonishing Doctrine. We've come
to this new section in Luke chapter 4, and kind of as so often happens,
a couple of verses like this sometimes we just tend to skip
by. noting that Jesus had just left one place of rejection and
now he travels to another city. And it's interesting that this
name Capernaum means a comfortable city, a comfortable city with
walls. And spiritually, it's interesting
that that's where we find most people dwell, comfortable where
they are, feeling somewhat secure. Natural man and his religion
are kind of typified there. And it would be well to remember
that it takes almighty power to move us out of that place
of comfort. Comfort in our own works. Comfort
in our own beliefs. Comfort in our own false righteousness. In skimming by ostensibly to
get to the next mighty work that Jesus would do, we just miss
so much. When we search the Scriptures
with all our hearts, we usually find that the Lord is most pleased
to reveal Himself. And so we find Jesus came down
to Capernaum, Even the word down has a spiritual significance
if we just pay attention. The Lord God Almighty coming
down to do the Father's will, saving His people from their
sins. And as was His custom, He taught them on the Sabbath
days. And notice that word days is
plural here. So we can gather that he spent
some time in Capernaum at this juncture. And he taught in their
synagogues being glorified of all. It's back in Luke chapter
four, verse 15 and 16. It says, 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.
So his custom was to go to the synagogues on the Sabbath days
and in Luke 4.31 he stood up for the reading, the seven readings
that took place. And so they were astonished at
his doctrine for his word was with power. And it's interesting
that we found that same thing in Nazareth back when he was
stood up for to read. They were amazed at the gracious
words that came out of his mouth. And yet when he taught them and
gave them the application of it, then they rebelled at it. Now we might wonder, what it
was that he taught that was so astonishing. They were astonished
at his doctrines. And if he would have just came
in there and said, you're doing fine, everything, status quo
is good, that wouldn't have been astonishing. What was astonishing
was what he was telling them was practically the exact opposite
of everything they were doing. Everything they were doing physically
was not valuable spiritually. So that's what he did, what he taught. What we find that he usually
taught was that He was the Messiah, that He was the Christ, that
He was here. That's what He told them earlier in verse 18. When He stood up to read, and
He read that portion from Isaiah, that 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 told them after that,
this day, this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears. He just announced
that I am here to do those very things. So, this was astonishing to them. And interestingly enough, this
word astonish is actually a Latin word that means out to thunder. It's a two-part word. Ek, the
first part, means, designates a point of origin from whence
emotion or action proceeds. And in Astonishing, the back
part of that word is to thunder, something sudden, powerful, and
used in a modern sense is to fill with a sudden sense of wonder
or amazement. But the Greek word from which
this is translated, though, is ek in pleso, which means to
pound from the base of word that indicates a molding or shaping
or fabricating by pounding. So this word, this powerful word
that the Lord spoke while he was teaching, He astonished them
with His doctrine and His Word was with power. It astounded them. So, if we were to apply that to our
Lord and then to the people hearing Him teach, we might be drawn
to several verses of Scripture which illustrate this very incident. A very pertinent scripture comes
to mind from Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 28 and 29. Actually, we'll back up to verse
26 there. And in this case, we find similar
circumstances in both places. Now, in Jeremiah's time, he had
false prophets that were not proclaiming the gospel, that
were giving out lies and useless ceremonies and rules and traditions
of men in its place. And that's kind of what was going
on in Jesus' time. Our pastor Wednesday night was
saying, well, the sacrifices that they were doing to honor
Him and to picture His sacrifice that He would bring, they weren't
bringing the best. They weren't bringing the lamb
without spot. They were bringing the lame and
the crippled and the maimed. And they were doing everything
from their viewpoints correctly from a physical standpoint, but
their hearts were not there. In Isaiah's time, or Jeremiah's
time rather, it was the same. The false teachers then as now
could only give out what they knew, which was spiritually nothing. And so in Jeremiah 23, 26, it
says, how long shall this be in the heart of the prophets
that prophecy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the
deceit of their own heart. which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to
his neighbor. as their fathers have forgotten
my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream,
let him tell a dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat,
saith the Lord? Is not my word like a fire, saith
the Lord, like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
So we find this kind of a correlation here is really indeed astonishing. The religious stuff, the chaff
of That's the outer husk of the grain of wheat that protects
it while it's growing and maturing. It's just a shell, but it's really
the outer worthless part of the wheat. In the winnowing process,
they bang it around with threshing tools to break that loose. And
then they would throw the wheat, the kernels up in the air, and
the chaff that would have been broken loose would just be lighter
and would float, and the wind would take it away. And the heavier
kernels of wheat, the valuable food part, would fall back down
to the winnowing threshing floor. And so we have this, this Lord
makes this comparison of these false prophets that were not
bringing anything valuable to the, they weren't bringing the
gospel. He said, they weren't speaking
my word faithfully. And so they were like that chaff.
It was useless. It was, it was worthless of no
value. and the chaff must be separated. peeled away and discarded to
get to the germ of the wheat, the valuable kernel where the
food is. The true gospel brought out as
opposed to the chaff, the husks of works in place of grace. The true Word of God pounds like
a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces and knocks this chaff
loose. You'll find in the Scripture
that this chaff is always considered worthless. Sometimes it's described
as the wind just takes it away and blows it away. Sometimes
it's burned up. It's gathered and burned with
a fire. The Word of God has this effect. He says, my word like a fire
is not my word like a hammer. It has an effect. And it is, in fact, effectual
at accomplishing the purposes of Almighty God. In Isaiah 55.10,
the Lord lets us have this truth through the prophet Isaiah, for
as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the
eater." So he makes an analogy here. The rain accomplishes his
purpose. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void.
It shall come down from heaven. It shall go in water and go where
I send it, it shall not return into me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto
I sent it." So then we might look at this picture given us
of our Lord coming into this comfortable walled city, pounding,
tearing down those walls, disrupting the comfort of those who spiritually
dwell inside. He spoke with authority, it says
in verse 32. And that's mentioned again later
on in Luke 4 and verse 36. What a word is this, for with
authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they
come out. And in Matthew 7, verse 29, it
said when he taught, he taught with power and authority and
not as the scribes who just They just merely read the words on
the page, but it had no significance to them beyond that it was their
duty to accomplish that task, and they had no spiritual understanding
of it. So imagine, all the time, years
even, When religious folks stood up, as was their custom on the
Sabbath days in the synagogue, they had seven readings of scripture,
one by a priest, one by a Levite, and five by regular folks. They all did their duty and they
were happy. But imagine all this time when
the religious folks stood up and read the scriptures, but
as in Wednesday night study from our pastor Norm regarding the
time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and they only read the words. Sometimes
we find they even omit parts of the word. They won't read
certain parts of it. And when they do read it, they read it
with no understanding and no ability to give out what they
themselves lack in the understanding of it. In Nehemiah chapter 8,
verse 8 says, So they read in the book of the law distinctly,
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. So that's kind of a good way
to go in your studies is exegetically going through verse by verse
and trying to glean out what the Lord would have you to understand
from it. And we need need to be caused
to understand the reading. And so our Lord enters this environment,
this comfortable city, and speaking the word with power and authority,
and pounding the walls of souls, of comfort, of works, of self-security. That would have been astonishing.
And what would He have said? We kind of have evidence of what
he always said, even as we found just a few verses back in Luke
chapter 4 and verse 18 there. He read those scriptures and
he said, this day, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears because
he was the Messiah. He was the Christ. He was the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He was the Almighty. He was the One. By Him was all
things made. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He was the Creator. He was the
Son of God. So, what would He have said? We read the Scripture back in
Luke 4, verse 16. Then we can move ahead in Luke
and stay in the same book and move ahead to Luke 2, chapter
24. And if you'll recall, after his
resurrection, he met with the two that were on the road to
Emmaus, and their hearts were dejected. Because remember, their
comfort zone was in a Messiah, a king that would come and relieve
them from the Roman Empire. A physical king that would give
them back their earthly kingdom and have peace in the land. And yet, He was among them, and
they liked what He said, but they didn't quite understand. And as they gathered with the
other disciples after the Lord had left, in Luke 24-25, He said
unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. And those prophets weren't just
like crystal ball seers. They were prophesying or what
we might call preaching the gospel in that day. And they preached
about the coming of Christ. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? How many Scriptures
did the prophets deliver that said exactly what He was going
to do? Psalms gives a very graphic detail of His crucifixion. His
bones have all come out of joint. His tongue is cleaving to the
top of His mouth. They pierced me and pierced my
hands and feet. And Isaiah in 53, a graphic account
of his suffering in the place of his people, satisfying the
righteousness of God for their sins. And so he said, not Christ
who have suffered these things that were written about and to
enter into his glory. And verse 27, very critical verse
here. And beginning at Moses, and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself." And we here, we believe that all
the scriptures in some way tell about the Lord. not just the
quote messianic scriptures that are highlighted in the back of
your Bible. Go here and read this verse, this verse, this
verse. And there's usually maybe a couple dozen. And they say,
these are the scriptures that talk about the Lord. But we find
he's talked about on practically every page. And even in some
connection as, as hard to get through all those sacrifices
in Leviticus. What were they about? All those
genealogies that we read about that linked him back to Adam. So these two on the road to Emmaus,
his word was like a fire. His word pounded them, breaking
their rock of comfort to pieces. In verse 31 it says of Luke 24,
their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out
of their sight. And they said to one another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures. I was speaking with our pastor. We were talking about this very
thing. When a person experiences grace,
our hearts do burn with awe, with joy, with wonder. And that is hard to explain to
someone that has not experienced it. To someone that is, well,
their whole system of works is their thing that they trust in.
And I did this and I did that. There's a guy on TV that tries
to get you to repeat this prayer after me and then phone this
number and sign up to get on his mailing list. That is not astonishing, it's
pitiful. So did not our hearts burn within
us when he talked with us by the way and opened to us the
scripture? What a wonderful feeling when
we read a scripture and we say, oh, now I know what that's about. That's about the Lord. In John
chapter five, verse 39, he said, search the scriptures. For in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me." Search the scriptures. They testify about me, about
the Messiah, about the Christ. So in Luke 24-27, beginning at
Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Astonishing doctrine beginning at Moses. How contrary to what
those folks, well, every Sabbath day I have to go and sit and
listen to these seven people read the scriptures and then
I have to make sure that I turn in my tithes I have to make sure
that I don't do any work on this day because that's against the
rules. There's all sacrifices that I
have to attend three times a year. I have to do this, I have to
do that. All those things that were just
things they had to do, kind of what we call the do-do religion
stuff. It's really, maybe the things
have changed, but the spirit of them is still the same in
our age. So it's astonishing doctrine
that grace is grace alone. Grace is by Christ. And so we'll
look at these astonishing doctrines that were so contrary to what
they were kind of used to hearing. And that's where we'll go next
as we look at the astonishing doctrine of Christ. The first
book of Moses will go, significantly will go back to Genesis chapter
2 where we have the institution of the Sabbath. The very first
mention of it, because this scripture we have here makes a point that
It was the Sabbath days. He taught them on Sabbath days. And He was their Sabbath. He
was their rest. And we'll find if we go to Hebrews
chapter 4 that that very fact is borne out. And it's even linked
specifically back to the creation narrative in Genesis and the
beginning of the first book of Moses. So we'll go there next
time Lord willing and we'll take a look at the creation of the
Sabbath. We'll look at the lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. In other lessons,
we'll look at, as our pastor said Wednesday night, what makes
the difference? between one person and another.
Why does the Lord have mercy on one person and seemingly not
on another? And we'll look at for whom did
Christ die? Who did he come down in Genesis
53? He says, and my servant will
justify many. It doesn't say he'll justify
everyone and then leave it up to them to choose. He says, my
servant will justify many, and I will be satisfied. So we'll
look at those kind of things. And then we'll look at a critical
factor of why doesn't everyone come to Christ? He's such a good
person. He's such a good teacher. Such
a moral guide. Why wouldn't everybody just come
to Him? Well, in the Psalms, it says
there's none that seek God. none righteous, none that seek
God. So we'll look at those things and spend some time on each one
of these astonishing doctrines that tears down our comfort zone,
that tears down the walls of security that we build up by
doing things, works in place of grace. So thank you for your
attention and as always from John chapter 8, my friends, be
free.