Luke 4:14-44: Jesus Begins His Public Ministry”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verse 15 of chapter 3 through verse 13 of chapter 4.
1.1.1. We observed that John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
1.1.2. We observed Luke’s genealogy of Jesus.
1.1.3. We observed the temptations of Jesus that occurred when the Spirit
drove Him into the wilderness after His baptism.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verse 14 of chapter 4 through the end of the chapter.
1.2.1. We will see that Luke chronicles the beginning of Jesus’ ministry
occurring when Jesus came back to His home town of
1.2.2. After this, Jesus went to
1.2.3. As Jesus begins His ministry we will see that there were a variety of
responses to Him. Some accepted His
ministry and others rejected Him.
2. VS 4:14 - “14 And Jesus returned to
2.1.
The reason that Jesus came
to
2.1.1. At Jesus’ baptism He had also been baptized in the Holy Spirit when the
Spirit had fallen upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
2.1.2. Jesus had successfully rebuffed Satan’s temptations and was
strengthened and encouraged in the Spirit thereby.
2.1.2.1. We hate to go through temptations, in fact we are taught by Jesus in
His model prayer to pray that we be not led into temptation, however when we
are victorious over temptations then we are strengthened and encouraged greatly
in our faith.
2.1.2.2. Public ministry should always be preceded by a period of testing with victory
otherwise God’s servant may easily fall into sin while in the ministry and many
be hurt thereby.
2.2.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke
begin discussion of Jesus’ ministry with the events recorded from Galilee, one
of the reasons these gospels are called the Synoptic gospels and are believed
to come from common source(s). However,
the gospel of John begins Jesus’ ministry with the things that Jesus did in
Judea prior to coming to
3. VS 4:15-21 - “15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by
all. 16 And He came to
3.1.
Darrell Bock writes the
following which describes the synagogue services in Jesus’ day, “The Hebrew
Scripture would be read in a standing position in one- to three-verse
units. Then the text was translated into
Aramaic, the local language, an oral procedure that often involved targumic
renderings of the text (i.e., Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew OT), though the
translator did not read from a text in the assembly (Ne. 8:8-9; Acts 13:15, 27;
15:21; m. Meg. 4.1-5, 10). The Torah was always read and often a reading
from the Prophets followed (m. Meg. 4.1-2; b. Meg. 31a-b). After the reading came an invitation for
someone to instruct the audience. Based
on texts already read or on new texts, this instruction could be done by any
qualified male in the audience, provided ten males were present.”
3.2.
In the synagogues when an
invitation for a man from the audience to instruct the people from the
scripture reading or share a teaching from another passage of scripture, Jesus
would take this opportunity to teach.
3.3.
As was the norm for
synagogue teachers, Jesus’ sits down as he begins to teach.
3.4.
Jesus had a great love for
His family and friends, plus all of the rest of the people in
3.5.
Isaiah 61 was an appropriate
passage for Jesus to expound upon. On
this particular Sabbath in the synagogue in
3.6.
At this time, Jesus
evidently preached much more than is recorded in any of the gospels for it says
here that He ‘began to say to them.’
3.7.
Isaiah 61 prophetically
foretells the ministry of the Messiah and reveals that His ministry will be one
of mercy and grace for He is One who will reach out to the ‘poor,’ ‘captives,’
the ‘blind,’ and the ‘oppressed.’
Plus, the Messiah will preach about the good news (gospel) of the ‘favorable
year of the Lord.’
3.8.
When we consider the content
of the ministry of the Messiah as described in Isaiah 61, we see that the
Messiah was bound to offend the religious Jews of Jesus’ day for religion to
them had nothing to do with mercy and grace.
To them religion was about memorizing and performing rites, keeping
rules and regulations, external righteousness, and, a man’s righteousness was
judged by his works.
3.9.
This passage from Isaiah 61
virtually contains what Jesus will later preach in His Sermon On The
Mount.
3.10.
The ‘captives’ to
whom the Messiah is to proclaim release are those who are “spiritual
captives” to their own sin.
3.11.
Though Jesus healed men of
physical blindness, His much greater ministry is to heal men who are
spiritually ‘blind’ with a
blindness caused by being under the deception of the enemy of their souls.
3.12.
Though in the gospels Jesus
performed spectacular acts of healing on those who were demonized and thus ‘set
free those who are oppressed,’ there are multitudes throughout history who
have being ‘set free’ and given victories over every kind of stronghold
of the enemy imaginable.
3.13.
What is interesting about
Jesus reading from Isaiah 61 is that He then began to tell the people in
essence that this passage from Isaiah was written about Him and that He was the
fulfillment of the Isaiah 61.
4. VS 4:22-27 - “22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words
which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s
son?” 23 And He said to them, “ No doubt you will quote this proverb
to Me, ‘ Physician , heal yourself ! Whatever we heard was done at
4.1.
The people were very
impressed with Jesus being able to preach so clearly and with authority on this
day, however they stumbled because of the fact that Jesus told them plainly
that He was the fulfillment of these Messianic passages. The people had a certain expectation of what
type of parentage the Messiah would come from when he appeared. They thought that the Messiah would come from
an affluent family, one of the Jewish religious rulers. Yet, Jesus was from the family of a commoner,
for his father was just a lowly village carpenter.
4.2.
Jesus read the people’s
thoughts as they were sitting there in the synagogue. He knew that they had heard the widespread
new of His successful healing ministry.
They wanted to see Jesus perform healing for them, and in reaction to
this Jesus speaks this parable to them, ‘Physician , heal yourself ! Whatever we heard was done at
4.3.
The problem on this day
though was that the people did not want to believe in Jesus, and for Him to
perform a miraculous attesting miracle for them (something that He will do a lot
of during His public ministry) would be to cast pearls before swine. Jesus in most cases required faith on the
part of people before He would heal them, and this was because faith in the
Lord pleases and honors the Lord. It is
an emblem signifying that salvation is the Lord’s work, His sanctifying the
unjust and unworthy. Faith in Jesus
brings glory to God. One person once
remarked that, “faith is the conduit that the Lord works through in our
lives.”
4.4.
The people at this synagogue
in
4.5.
There was also a problem
with familiarity with Jesus there in His hometown of
4.6.
Jesus reminds the people at
the synagogue of the consequences of unbelief in the nation of
4.6.1. Elijah could have ministered to a lot of widows in Israel during the
horrible famine that came across the land in his day, however the people’s unbelief
kept him from doing this and caused him to instead help only a Gentile widow in
Zarepath, in the area of Tyre.
4.6.2. Elisha, Elijah’s successor, could have healed many lepers in Israel in
his day, however the people’s unbelief kept him from doing this and instead
cleanse only Naman, the Syrian, of his leprosy.
5. VS 4:28-30 - “28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they
heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the
city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built,
in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their
midst, He went His way.” - The people at the synagogue in
5.1.
It is interesting to see how
quickly Jesus, a hometown raised young man known by all, instantaneously became
hated by the people in this synagogue in Nazareth on this day. Jesus was surely a man who though of common
descent was known as being a good, God fearing and honest young carpenter there
in
5.2.
Darrell Bock writes the
following, “The desire to execute Jesus might seem excessive, but there is
some precedent for the attempt. In all
likelihood, Jesus is the object of the
”lynch law,” where a person who is seen as flagrantly violating the law is
executed on sight and without a trial (John 8:59; 10:31;
Acts 7:54-58; 21:31-32; Plummer 1896: 129). If Jess is viewed by the crowd as a false
prophet, he could be subject to such a slaying according to Deut. 13:5 [13:6
MT] (also Jer. 11:21: Danker 1988: 110;
Schurmann 1969:239). Such a
situation might presuppose a stoning (Blinzler 1970).”
5.3.
Notice here that this crowd
was able to drive Jesus out of the city and up to the brow of some hill that
they intended to push Him off of, however the Lord overrode their plans because
it was not Jesus’ time to die. The only
way anyone would ever be able to kill Jesus was if He willing laid His life
down, as Jesus Himself told His disciples in John 10:17-18, “17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that
I may take it again . 18 “ No one has taken it away from Me, but I
lay it down on My own initiative . I have authority to lay it down , and I have
authority to take it up again . This commandment I received from My Father.””
6. VS 4:31-32 - “31 And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching
them on the Sabbath; 32 and they were amazed at His teaching, for
His message was with authority.” - Jesus comes to the city of
6.1.
6.2.
We see that Jesus again
began teaching in the synagogues.
7. VS 4:33-37 - “33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean
demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Let us alone! What
business do we have with each other, Jesus of
7.1.
As soon as Jesus has been
anointed by the Holy Spirit and begins His public ministry, He immediately has
a confrontation with evil from the spirit world. Should it be any surprise that a demon
possessed person would be led right into the synagogue on this Sabbath and
confront Jesus? Satan immediately is
seeking to thwart God’s plans for Jesus by direct confrontation with Him.
7.2.
It is interesting here that
this demon is called an ‘unclean’ spirit. In the Greek the Genitive usage of this word
leaves the interpretation wide open as far as in what sense this spirit was ‘unclean.’ Why was this demonic spirit unclean?
7.2.1. We need to consider the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day when we ponder
this. Living under the Jewish covenant
of law there were many ways for a person to become ‘unclean.’ In a general sense, to be considered ‘unclean’
meant to somehow to have become defiled or polluted such that a person was no
longer allowed to participate in public worship until the regulations for
cleansing were properly (according to the Law) carried out by Him.
7.2.2. The demonic defilement of demons is actually a defilement due to their
character. Having been eternally
disowned by the Almighty because of their rebellion the demonic forces have
long ago been given over to evil with no potential of redemption or restoration. They are totally separated from good and
righteousness.
7.3.
Luke’s strategy in this
gospel of Jesus is to demonstrate the many witnesses of Jesus. We have already seen many witnesses such as
Gabrielle and the angels, Mary, Zacharias, Elizabeth, shepherds, Simeon, Anna,
John the Baptist, etc. Now, we are going
to see the witness of demons. Throughout
Jesus’ ministry we see that demons consistently recognized Jesus as being the
Son of God and Messiah.
7.4.
This demon recognizes Jesus
as being, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and ‘the Holy One of God,’ which was
a title that directly attests to Jesus being the Messiah.
7.5.
Luke’s strategy in revealing
Jesus in the gospels is also seen in the fact that at will Jesus exercised
power over all demonic forces. Further, unlike
Jewish or pagan exorcists who performed various chants and incantations to cast
out demons, Jesus simply spoke to rebuke the demons and cast them out. Darrell Bock writes, “Jesus is no mere
moralist. Neither is he merely a great
motivator and psychologist. He is one
with authority to defeat the evil forces that can dominate humanity.”
7.6.
This particular man in the
synagogue was actually possessed by multiple demons for they say to Jesus, ‘Let
US alone!’ and speaks throughout in a plural voice.
7.7.
It is curious that in the
gospels demons were always bearing witness to Jesus. This was not stupidity on their part, rather
it is the case that they knew that the testimony of demons cannot persuade the
souls of men to salvation. Thus, we see
that Jesus was constantly forbidding the demons to continue to testify of Him.
7.8.
Further, we see in the
gospels that whenever Jesus confronted demons in someone that the demons were
afraid of Jesus. They were afraid of
what Jesus might do to them because they knew that the destiny promised to them
is that of eternal hell. Here these
demons ask Jesus if He is here to ‘destroy’ them.
7.8.1. Darrell Bock writes, “Evil has severe angst in the presence of
righteousness ready to be exercized.”
7.8.2. James 2:19 says, “19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the
demons also believe, and shudder.”
7.9.
When Jesus rebukes this
demon (actually demons) telling him to be quiet and come out of the man, the
demon throws the man down however no lasting harm came to the man.
7.10.
Now, notice the reaction of
the crowd on this day, it says ‘amazement
came upon them all.’ This is the common reaction to Jesus’ works
of power which the gospels refer to as “attesting signs.”
7.11.
Jesus is now getting big
press because of the miracles He is performing for it says here that the word
about Jesus went out into ‘every
locality in the surrounding district.’
7.12.
This miracle was performed
by Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath.
We will see soon that controversy began to swirl around Jesus because of
the fact that He performed acts of healing and casting out of demons on the
Sabbath.
8. VS 4:38-39 - “38 Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home.
Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him
to help her. 39 And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it
left her; and she immediately got up and waited on them.” - Jesus heals Simon’s
mother-in-law of a high fever
8.1.
After healing the demoniac,
Jesus left the synagogue in
8.2.
John 1:44 tells us that
Peter’s hometown was Bethsaida, though we see here that he now lives in
8.3.
This person named ‘Simon’
is so familiar to the reader that no introduction is deemed necessary. This of course means that Simon Peter, one of
the 12, is the one who is being mentioned.
8.4.
These verses also confirm to
us that Peter had a wife, for it is his mother-in-law who is ill. That Peter has a wife is not surprising in
light of 1 Cor. 9:5, “5 Do we not have a right to take along a
believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord
and Cephas?”
8.4.1. By the way, the Roman Catholic dogma concerning Peter as being the
first pope erroneously includes the fact that Peter was celibate, as is
required of all of their priests.
8.5.
Here we see that this woman
who was Peter’s mother-in-law was ‘suffering from a high fever.’ We are not told that this fever was in any
way the result of her being demonized.
If there had been a demonic cause for this illness we think that Luke
would have told us this important information.
Though we will see that some sickness is the result of demonizing,
sickness in people is the natural result of the fall of mankind and virtually
every person who ever lives experiences at least a degree of sickness at some
point.
8.6.
Jesus’ healings were a
testimony to who He is. As we read the
gospels we also note that when Jesus healed people of physical illnesses that
the healing is “always complete and immediate.” There is no prolonged period of time that occurs
where the person gradually begins to get well, and there are no partial
healings that occurred.
8.7.
The fact that Jesus was
continually performing healings in this way should lead one to the conclusion
that these stories were either fabricated at a later date or that Jesus was in
fact the eternal Son of God incarnate, the Messiah, for no man has ever
performed healings such as Jesus performed.
8.8.
Here it says that after
Jesus rebuked this woman’s fever that ‘it left her; and she immediately got up and waited on them.’
I know that in my own case that when a fever has left me after I have
been sick that even though I have no more fever I also have no energy and I
just go to bed and sleep it off. This
woman was healed miraculously by Jesus such that she felt none of the after
effects of the fever after being healed.
9. VS 4:40-41 - “40 While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick
with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of
them, He was healing them. 41 Demons also were coming out of many,
shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them
to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.” - Jesus healed people with all
kinds of disease and cast demons out of many of them
9.1.
Since word of the incredible
works of healing that Jesus had performed on this day had spread far and wide,
at the end of this day people from all of the surrounding districts began
bringing to Jesus ‘all those who had
any who were sick with various diseases.’
9.2.
Luke tells us here that
Jesus was 100% successful in His healing attempts here, there was no hit or
miss. The ability of Jesus to heal every
single one He attempted to heal is another testimony to who Jesus is, the Son
of God and Messiah.
9.3.
Notice again that demons did
not come out of all of the people whom Jesus healed, for not all of the
sickness was the result of demonic activity.
9.4.
Jesus was rebuking all of
these demons which He faced and disallowing them to speak to Him and thus
testify as to who He was. The testimony
of demons was not desirable to Jesus for they make horrible evangelists for
truth and righteousness.
10.
VS 4:42-44 - “42 When day came,
Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him,
and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. 43 But
He said to them, “I must preach the
10.1.
Note here that Jesus left
the crowds and ‘went to a secluded place.’ This was surely to spend time in prayer and
fellowship with the Father. Jesus knew
the importance of having those daily quiet times for they gave Him the fuel and
power to minister freely and fully as God would want to use Him.
10.1.1.
If Jesus needed to spend
time like this with the Father daily, how much more should we Christians realize
our need to spend time with the Lord daily in this way! These times should be our power source as
well. Should we not be so in love with
Jesus because of all that He has done for us that we cannot but spend these
quality times with the Lord daily.
10.2.
Opposite to the reaction of
the people of
10.3.
Jesus refused to stay with
the people there in the city of Capernaum because He knew that to be obedient
to His calling by the Lord that He had to be on the go and testifying to people
all throughout the land that He was the Messiah and that the kingdom of God was
at hand.
10.4.
We see here that Jesus left
Galilee and was now ‘preaching in the synagogues of
11.
CONCLUSIONS:
11.1.
As we consider this study
and the many witnesses in Luke that now have testified as to Jesus, plus the
fact that Jesus has power over every sickness and evil demonic spirit, my
question to you is this, “Can you trust Jesus to be the help that you are
needing in your life and with the problems you are facing today?” If Jesus can heal and cast out demons merely
by His word is He not able to handle every crisis in your life with ease?
11.2.
Trust in Jesus, believe in
Him, and look to Him in all things.
Consider what Paul wrote to the Colossians about Jesus in Col.
2:1-3,8-10, “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I
have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who
have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be
encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the
wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in
a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge… 8 See
to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception,
according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of
the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the
fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been
made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”