Good morning and welcome to our
continuing study in the book of Luke and we're in chapter
4. Chapter 4 of the book of Luke and last time we went through
verse 13 in our previous lesson on the Jesus and the temptations which
he was victorious over and for which we could not do for ourselves,
having inherited the sin nature from the fallen, being centered
by nature, choice, and practice. Our Father Adam was presented
with a similar situation and plunged us all into sin. And so Jesus, He did that for
us, which we could not do for ourselves. Today's lesson, starkly
contrasts the difference between the world and the Spirit beginning
in verse 14 of Luke chapter 4, and Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit unto Galilee And there went out a fame of him
throughout all the region round about. And so he was victorious
over sin and temptation in the previous lesson that we looked
at, heeding not the power falsely offered by the prince of this
world. And now he goes forth in the real power, the power
of the Spirit, as it says in verse 14. So a stark contrast
there between what the world offers and the real power that's
through the Spirit. In this study, which possibly
we might extend into a couple of lessons, we'll examine the
purpose and nature of Christ and the actual application of
grace. And we're calling this lesson,
Where the Rubber Meets the Road. And we'll come face to face with
the true nature of man and their idea of God and grace colliding
with the true purpose and truth of God when it's brought forth. The outcome is and always has
been the same. We always find a division there.
And at the time that this was taking place, the people expected
a messiah that was pretty widely expected. But they looked for
a physical one who would lead them physically against the Roman
Empire and usher in their idea of the kingdom, a physical kingdom. But Jesus said, my kingdom is,
in reality, is not of this world. And religion is filled with this
corruption of every aspect of the gospel, universal salvation,
a Jesus who's done all he could, and now the rest is left up to
you. Jesus died for every man. We're saved by repeating this
prayer. Saved by baptism. Saved by communion. Jesus is just a very kind and
loving God. And He is to His people, to His
elect, His sheep, His church. We're saved by doing more good
works than bad works and all those kinds of things that we
find. And here we have this situation where he's coming into the religious
system. And we're going to read on down
through here from verse 15 after there went a fame of him throughout
all the region round about in that Galilee area. And he taught
in their synagogues, verse 15 of Luke chapter 4, being glorified
of all. And he came to Nazareth. And
so he'd been going around to all these different synagogues
throughout that Galilee region. And now he comes to Nazareth
where he was 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 is written. spirit of the Lord is
upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance
under 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 or rolled up the scroll,
the other translations might say, and he gave it again to
the minister and sat down and the eyes of all of 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 wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, You will
surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is acceptable
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 the great famine was throughout all
the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save to Sarepta,
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 Naaman the Syrian. And all they
in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with
wrath." So we'll stop our reading right there, and we'll go back
and kind of take a look at these things. It's really just a very pictorial
of the things we find today, too, in religion. In this record of the Gospel
by Luke, He doesn't really elaborate much on all the places Jesus
went and the miracles that He did at this time. That wasn't
really the point of his Gospel. But he mentions only briefly
in verse 14 and again in verse 23 that there went out a fame
of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in
their synagogues being glorified of all. And in the other Gospels,
there are some things noted. Just a few examples here. the most important thing He did,
we find here in Luke as well. He entered into the synagogue
and taught. Taught them the Gospel. In Mark though, in chapter 1
of Mark, in verse 2-34, we find where I'm not going to read all
those, but I'll just kind of give you the highlights here.
Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man in a synagogue. And the region in that area,
he also healed many with diverse diseases and cast out many devils. So he had kind of this reputation
in that area. And in Mark chapter 2, It says, Jesus entered into the
house, and I think that's just another term for the synagogue
there, and preached unto them the word. And Jesus healed a
man there that was infirm because of the palsy and could not walk.
And remember, he was carried in by four people to carry him
in and set him down there. And Jesus healed him, but He
didn't heal him in what had become the traditional way by just touching
him or laying hands on him or saying something. He said something
totally out of the realm of their thinking. He said, Thy sins be
forgiven thee. And they didn't like that. But
that man stood up and walked. They didn't really credit him
with having the power to forgive sin, though, in that instance.
They just wanted the show. In John chapter 2, at the marriage,
you all remember the marriage at the Cana of Galilee? When
they got there, he changed the water into wine, and they said,
oh, this is the best wine. And then in John chapter 4, Jesus
was healing the son of this nobleman that had a son that was sick
unto death. And he healed him, didn't even go to the man's house. And he said, unless you see signs and miracles,
you won't believe. And even when they did see signs
and miracles, they still didn't believe, as we find throughout
all the gospels, scriptures. They just wanted the show. And
so in verse 14, we find that there went out a fame of him
throughout all the region round about. He'd done all these healings
and miracles and he'd cast out devils and all those kind of
things. But most importantly, His custom
was to enter the synagogue and teach and preach the word. And
I think it's important for us to take a look at the word synagogue
here. was a gathering place, but it
was supposed to be an assemblage of people. It didn't necessarily
have to, just like our church today, doesn't necessarily have
to be, we call the church, the building, the church, but it's
this, the people that are there is the church, not the, the building's
just a building. And here, the synagogue is an assemblage of persons, which
the word is derived from Two words with the idea of a union
to come together with the idea of leading. Well, what were they
to come together about? Lead regarding what? Well, it
was about God, the grace of God. They were to be coming together
to give God the grace, the praise for his grace and his salvation,
total reliance upon Christ for salvation as it was depicted
in all the scriptures. But in reality, the synagogues
had become a useless ceremonial religious gathering where the
religious elite exercised power and authority and they kind of
kept everybody under their thumb that way. According to Matthew
Henry's commentary, the custom of the Jews on the Sabbath day
was to have seven readers of scripture each Sabbath day. They
would have seven people and they were called readers. And they
would have a priest read, a Levite read, and then five Israelites
would step up and read. But it was just a formality.
It was just a ceremony. They were just reading, and then
whoever got to stand up and read, they would be kind of the big
shot for the week. In Acts chapter 13, if you turn
over to Acts chapter 13, we have an example of this. And we find much the same result
here what happens in Acts chapter 13 verse 13. Now, when Paul and
his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia,
and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when
they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And
after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers
of the synagogue, notice that word, the rulers, those religious
folks that were in control of this who should have been directing
the people to God and to Christ and pointing out Christ in all
the scriptures. The rulers in the synagogue sent
unto them saying, ye men and brethren, if you have any word
of exhortation for the people, say on. We grant you permission
to speak. And then Paul stood up and beckoning
with his hand, He said, man of Israel and ye that fear God,
give audience. And then he started out and preached
to them the Gospel and pointed out Christ in all the Scriptures.
And of course, we know how that turns out. You can go ahead and
read the rest of that in Acts 13, verse 17 on. In Luke chapter 4 and verse 16,
it's reported that Jesus 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 then we come
to verse 17. What an awesome verse. And there
was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaias. Or Isaiah
in the Hebrew. And when he had opened the book
or unrolled the scroll, it was actually a scroll kind of a deal,
not a bound book as we would view it. 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. So we find
this roll that was delivered to him. the ruler of the synagogue
would appoint some person in the synagogue. Go get a roll
and bring it out to be read. And it was delivered unto him
the book of the prophet Isaiah, delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, who sovereignly directed
that this very scroll be brought to his beloved son in whom he
was well pleased. Isn't that amazing that He had
directed that that very role was brought. And in fact
though, it could have been any role. It could have been any
Scripture. And Jesus had searched the scriptures
because in them you think you have eternal life and they are
they that testify of me. And we go back in the Old Testament
and we find virtually everything in there is some way depicting
something about Christ and redeeming his people. But he caused this
particular scroll to be delivered to his only begotten son because
The lamb slain from before the foundation of the world to free
his people by paying the debt they could never pay. This lamb,
this Jesus was anointed by the father to preach the gospel to
the poor. That's what it says there in
verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that
are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." To preach to this poor, he said, he has
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And those that are
that he's preaching to are the ones that the Holy Spirit has
made poor in spirit, not poor in terms of physical wealth,
even though they might've been, but certainly everyone falls
into that category when the Spirit moves in them and causes them
to have a new heart and they become poor in spirit because
they see themselves as sinners and they see the cost of that.
And in Matthew 5, verse 3, we know that's the case. He says,
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. He doesn't say blessed are the poor like we would think of poor people,
but the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To heal the brokenhearted, those who have been led to mourn their
condition. That's what happens when you
mourn your condition. Your heart is broken over your
sin and your sin nature. Your heart is broken over sin
and you see the cost that it required to be saved out of it. And as it says in the Old Testament,
when you see all that, then you're going to look at your old ways
that were not good and loathe yourself. And he said, I'm going
to heal that. I'm going to give you the oil
of gladness for the spirit of mourning we found. Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. They'll be given
a new heart, a heart to love Me, a heart to appreciate God,
a heart to love Him, and to declare Him as their Savior. And he said, he sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach. And again, this word preach is
to announce, to declare, to proclaim. Nowadays, preaching takes on
kind of a whiny, emotional intonation that people use to try and apply
people's emotions to get them to make a profession. And they
see it as, well, anything that works is acceptable if the end
justifies the means in their mind. But he's announcing He's
not begging anybody, he's announcing something solid, something that
has happened. To declare deliverance to the captives and recovering
a sight to the blind. To declare deliverance to the
captives. Now this word deliverance, you
see that all the time if you read old western books. Somebody's
in jail, they have a deliverer. They deliver them from jail by
busting them out somehow. And that's what that word means
is to release them, set them free out of prison to deliver
the captives. And in Hebrews, the second chapter,
verse 10 says, for it became him for whom are all things and
by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the church, will I sing praise unto thee, and again I will put
my trust in him, and again behold I and the children which God
hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. And that's what the church rejoices
in. They say, He delivered us. And
to set at liberty them that are bruised. To give sight to them
that are blind. Not physically blind. There's
some situations in the Bible where they actually were physically
blind and He repaired that in them spiritually. Though it pictures
how we are blind to the Scripture. Just as these people. He read
these Scriptures, but to them, It didn't have really any meaning
to them other than, oh, that's nice. He read the Scriptures. He read a lot of Scripture. That's
good. But it went over their head. They didn't see who was talking
to them even though he said, this day the Scripture is fulfilled
in your ears. But to set at liberty them that
are bruised. Now this term bruised here, I
get bruised every once in a while. I bang into something and I get
a little discoloration and a sore spot for a couple of days and
minor damage there. And that nowadays, that's a little
bit different meaning than the one in the Greek from which this
word is translated. In the Greek, it's a verb which
describes to crush. And when you think of it in those
terms, to think of He's setting at liberty them that are crushed,
not just bruised, not just damaged a little bit. And religion says,
well, you're not just clear dead, you're just a little bit dead.
There's still in you a spark that's able to respond, and it's
all up to you. You're just wounded a little
bit. You're not really killed by sin. You're just bruised. But this means crushed. And it's
compared in your Strong's Concordance, it says, compare this to this
other Greek word, which gives the idea to break or wreck or
crack with the idea of being sundered or separated. Crushed
under sin. Unable to get out from underneath
it. Think of a giant boulder crushing you. It's on your chest
and you don't have the strength. You lack the strength to get
it off of you. And it's crushing you and killing
you. And it's separating you from
God. That's what it says in Isaiah
59.2. Your sins have separated. you
and God and so this is a more correct view of them that are
bruised not just a superficial insignificant damage and discoloration
as is now the case and in in spiritual matters as It's much
more serious than than just a mere slight wounding to preach to
announce to declare and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Well, what is that? Acceptable
means the approved. That's what that word means.
Just means, well, that'll work. It's acceptable. A lot of times
we make deals with people and we have something to sell and
they offer us less and we say, well, that's acceptable. But
this really means approved. This is the thing that God has
said is approved. It's the approved time. It's the approved way. Salvation
is of the Lord. In Galatians chapter 4, Even
so, verse 3 of Galatians 4, even so, when we were children we
were in bondage under the elements of the world, being crushed,
as that word means. But when the fullness of time
has come, which is right at that very moment there, He is there. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." So, the
very person that was to achieve that was right there before Him
to relieve them of that crushing burden, and yet they didn't see
it. And when He declared Himself
to be that person, we find that they were filled with wrath. You know, God determines the
time accepted, the time approved, the time when He effectually
works in the hearts of His people. In 2 Corinthians 6-2, where He
saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation
have I succored thee. Behold, now is the time accepted. Behold, now is the day of salvation. That time is the time that God
has foreordained a time when each one of His sheep will intersect
with the Gospel. Then the Spirit will breathe
into them the breath of life. They will be caused to believe
in the Son, believe in His righteousness imputed to them instead of trying
to do their own. As it says in Hebrews 4, to enter
into His rest. That means you cease from your
own work. And so he's determined the time
accepted, the time that's approved, the time when he effectually
works in the hearts of his people. And he's determined the accepted,
approved sacrifice, which is Christ, acceptable to God. He
says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And
the Bible's replete with examples of that. God will provide himself
a lamb. He's the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. Isaiah 53, 11. He shall see the
travail of his soul. God shall see the travail of
Jesus' soul on behalf of his people hanging there on the cross
and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. and that
faith in that is that total reliance on Christ for salvation. So now
we come again to where the rubber meets the road. In verse 20,
and he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister,
the person that was in charge of handing out the roll to read.
And he 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. They physically
heard him say that, and they wondered at the gracious words
that had come out of his mouth. And yet, they applied human reasoning
to it, a reasoning that was defective by fall and sin. And this scripture
He said, it's fulfilled. He was there. I'm here right
now. And all Scripture, every time
we look at those things, we find that this happened to fulfill
Scripture. Everything that was in the Old
Testament, the law, the prophets, everything was fulfilled just
exactly as said it would happen. In Acts 3.18, but those things
which God had before showed by the mouth of all his prophets
that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." And now we
see him suffering as he's sitting there. He just got through saying,
I am the Christ. And He's suffering rejection
and then wrath. And is this not Joseph's son? This can't be the Messiah because
we know where He comes from. To them that were in the synagogue
and to most that are in religious assemblies today, Oh, those are
nice words, religious words, words of history, words of social
behavior, words to guide us in morality, words of works to do,
words heard with no real understanding, and that understanding which
must be given by God. You'd think that when he read
those words and said, this day the Scripture's fulfilled in
your ear, they would've just shouted, Hosanna to the Lord. Hallelujah. But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are spiritually
discerned, and neither can he understand them or he cannot
know them, it says in 1 Corinthians 2.14. He can't know them even. Matthew Henry, I read his commentary, and he
likened it to the Scripture in Isaiah 29.11, and coupled that
with Revelation 5.9. And if we read that Scripture
in Isaiah 29, starting in verse 10, For the Lord hath poured
out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes,
the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. Those people that time and time
again said, you worship me with your mouth, but your hearts are
far from me. On the outside you look clean and spiffy, but inside
you're full of dead man's bones. You say you serve me, but you
don't. Verse 11, and the vision of all.
this vision of the gospel, this story of the Christ redeeming
His people. The vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver
to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to
him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he
saith, I am not learned. Wherefore, the Lord God said,
forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and
with their lips they honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me, and their fear, their respect toward me is taught
by the precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder. For the wisdom of the wise men
shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent men shall be hid. He provided a man that could
open the seals. It's like a book that is sealed. He opened the roll and read to
them and said, this is what this means. I'm here to do these things. Revelation 5-9. There's actually
several verses right in a row that talk about this, but we're
just going to read verse 9 for the sake of time right now. And
they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof, for Thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, people,
and nation. And that verse that we just read
there in Revelation 5-9 becomes very important because he's about
to say, well, I'm taking care of the Gentiles too in Naaman
the Syrian and Sidon. Those are Gentile places. He
said there was a lot of Israelites with the same problem. They were
starving, and none of them was sent anybody to but this widow
over here. And there were a lot of lepers
in Israel. And none of them was healed except
Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. And they were filled with wrath
because they didn't want things of God being applied to others
that were not of them. And so, this Lamb of God was to open
the book, to open the seals and make it plain that I was slain. That's what he's saying here.
I was slain to redeem us to God by his own blood out of every
kindred, tongue, people and nation. And this Easter Sunday here,
For many folks, it's just time to do your annual religious work. Time to hear the nice words read.
Time to do religion. And here in Luke chapter 4 verse
23, He said, you will surely say unto me this proverb, physician,
heal thyself. Whatever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do here also in thy country. And they just wanted
the show. They just wanted the nice word.
They just wanted the magic. Oh yeah, heal somebody here so
we can have something to talk about. The words are nice words,
religious words. Those words of history, social
behavior, words of works to do, and words with that no understanding. And they said, they were filled with wrath.
This is Joseph's sons. He's a carpenter. We want somebody
to tell us something wonderful that's dressed in the right garments. that says the things in the way
that we want them said. They're nice words, but we don't
allow the One presenting them, because He's not what we expect. Jesus mentioned a little further
on in Luke regarding John the Baptist, because he was out there
a leather girdle, kind of a hairy, wild-looking guy. Didn't eat
what normal people ate. In Luke 7, 24, when the messengers
of John departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning
John. And he said, What went ye out
in the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken in the wind. What
went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment. And then he said, Behold, They
which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately and are in
the king's courts." So this guy here in plain clothes is giving
you the gospel. He is the messenger that was
told about in Isaiah and Micah. He's giving you the truth. And
these other guys that are all dressed up and spiffy looking
and important looking, they're not doing it. People say, that's nice, I like
the sound of grace. But then they turn right around
and say, but I don't agree with this part. Or who's presenting
it? Or it doesn't line up with my
idea of who and what God is and how you should operate. You know,
God says, you thought I was such a one like yourself, and I'm
not. I am the almighty, holy God. I'm not like you. They want the
show. They want the magic stuff you
did in Capernaum. What is required to overcome
that is, our pastor was speaking last weekend. about a stirring up in the book
of Ezra, stirring up. He stirred the heart of Cyrus
to do a thing, to issue an edict. And then he raised up the hearts
of the people to go and build the house of the Lord, which
is in Jerusalem. And the Spirit of God did that
in them, or they would not have done it. And that requires a
new heart. A heart to believe God, to believe
the gospel of the death of His beloved Son, to deliver us, to
heal our broken hearts, to save us from our sins, to take that
crushing weight of sin off us. And so now we come to the next
part, again, the part that's hard for the natural man but
is cause for rejoicing among the people whose hearts have
been made new by the Spirit of God, where the rubber meets the
road. He says, but I've read the nice
words to you, and here's the application of them. God is sovereign. God is sovereign, verse 25. And immediately he rose up from
before them and took up that... That's the wrong chapter. I'm
on chapter 5 there. Verse 25, I tell you a truth.
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elisha, 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 Elias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
all those who said, oh, listen to those nice words he's saying.
Listen, he's reading a lot of scripture. That's really good.
And they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, which
were recorded in the Old Testament, which were more nice scriptures,
more nice words, they were filled with wrath. And they rose up
and thrust him out of the city and led him into the brow of
the hill wherein their city was built, that they might cast him
down headlong. That's how angry they were. They
wanted to just kill him. But he passed through them in
the midst of them and went his way. So next time we'll probably
examine this a little bit more of where the rubber meets the
road, where true grace collides with natural man's idea of how
things should be. And so we'll stop there and thank
you for your attention. And as always, be free.