Christ's Companion--Luke 4:16-21 (December 29, 2024)

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We can turn in your

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Bibles to Luke chapter 4, Luke chapter 4. And today we are continuing our

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Knowing Christ series and as part of that we are focusing upon Christ's companion this morning,

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Christ's companion that is the Holy Spirit. You see Jesus Christ was a man of the

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Spirit. He was the man of the Spirit par excellence. A careful reading of the

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Gospels will show us the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit that Jesus enjoyed and that Jesus relied upon during His earthly ministry.

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I want to show you this from Luke chapter 4 and from various passages of the Gospels. But let's begin

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Luke chapter 4 beginning in verse 16. Beginning in verse 16 God's word says,

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So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the

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Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet

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Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the

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Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

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He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the

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Lord. And then he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them,

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Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

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Amen. This is God's word to us this morning. I want to summarize briefly what we just read.

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We see that Jesus goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath. He stands up to read. They hand him the scroll of the book of Isaiah.

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He opens it and begins to read. And when he's finished, he says that this scripture that you just heard, this prophecy of the prophet

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Isaiah from seven or eight hundred years prior, this scripture was fulfilled in your hearing.

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He says that this scripture was about me, it was about Jesus.

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He was there. And notice what the prophecy of Isaiah said. It says the spirit of the

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Lord is upon me. Jesus is saying that the spirit of God was upon him.

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Jesus affirms the Holy Spirit's work in his life. Now we are accustomed to thinking about Jesus, thinking about his works, his life and his ministry and attributing his works to his divinity.

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Earlier this month we looked at Jesus as the God man. We looked at Jesus' divinity, we looked at Jesus' humanity and how those go together.

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And we're accustomed to thinking about attributing the works of Jesus to his divinity. But the witness of scripture is that Jesus was filled with the

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Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, encouraged by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the

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Holy Spirit. So I want to show this to you through the life and ministry of Jesus. I want to use verses 18 and 19, that prophecy from the book of Isaiah, I want to use that as kind of a rubric for looking at various aspects of the life and ministry of Jesus and how the

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Spirit encouraged and empowered Jesus through that. I'm going to go in chronological order of Jesus' life rather than the order that they're in in verses 18 and 19.

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But we're going to draw from verses 18 and 19 and then go in order of chronology in the life of Jesus.

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So first we see the Spirit at work in the incarnation of Jesus, which is what we celebrate here at Christmastime, right?

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Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then he said that the

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Spirit sent him to heal the brokenhearted. We see that the Son of God was sent.

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Now properly speaking, the Son was sent into the world by the Father. And then we see that the

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God -man, Jesus Christ, was sent by the Spirit to heal the brokenhearted. And though sent to the world by the

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Father, the Spirit was the operating agent in the incarnation. And so in Luke 1, when

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Mary is told that she will conceive a son in her womb who will sit on the throne of David and be an eternal king, she said to the angel, how can this be since I have not known a man?

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And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

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Therefore also that the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

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You see, Jesus was not conceived in the normal way through Joseph knowing his wife. He said Jesus was conceived by the power of the

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Holy Spirit. In this way, he did not inherit the sinful corruption that befalls all other sons of Adam, all the sons of Adam, and therefore he did not have that sin nature and he could be our unblemished substitute sacrifice because he was sinless.

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Now it should not surprise any of us that the Spirit was involved in the creation, so to speak, of this new life and body.

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The Spirit is always there to give new life. We see this going back to the very beginning of the

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Bible, Genesis 1, in the beginning when the earth was formless and void, the Spirit hovered over the face of the earth, the face of the waters.

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The Spirit was active in creation. The Spirit is the one who regenerates those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, making them alive in Christ Jesus, making them new creations in Christ.

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The Spirit brings new life, new spiritual life to sinners, new physical and spiritual life to Jesus in the incarnation of the

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Son of God. So we see the Spirit's work in the incarnation. Second, we see the

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Spirit at work in Jesus' baptism. Verse 18 says, the Spirit of the

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Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.

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The baptism of Jesus was an anointing. It was an anointing of Jesus as prophet, priest, and king.

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It was an anointing into his public ministry. At his baptism, if you go read that account, you see the

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Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove. The Father spoke out, this is my

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Son with whom I am well pleased. The Father and the Spirit formed two witnesses there to the

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Sonship of Jesus. The Spirit's anointing at Jesus' baptism ordained him to his ministry, gave him strength for his ministry, sustained him in the trials that came during his ministry and the sufferings that he experienced.

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John 3 .34 tells us that Jesus was given the Spirit without measure. The anointing of the

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Spirit would empower him for his life, work, and ministry. Next, we see the

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Spirit at work in his temptation. Right after the baptism accounts in the

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Gospels, we see accounts of the temptation of Jesus. In verse 18, it says that the

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Spirit was upon Jesus to proclaim liberty to the captives. What were the captives to?

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The captives were people who were in bondage to Satan, sin, and death. Jesus came to set these captives free, to proclaim liberty to them.

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To do this, Jesus had to enter into our state, he had to suffer temptation and yet not sin.

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The beginning of Luke chapter 4 tells us of this temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

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I want you to listen to how that account begins. It says, then Jesus, being filled with the

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Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil.

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You see that? Getting ready to go into the wilderness, be tempted for 40 days by Satan.

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He's filled with the Spirit. He is strengthened, enabled by the

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Spirit to withstand this temptation, but also notice he was led by the Spirit into the temptation, or into the wilderness where the temptation would happen.

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The Spirit wasn't tempting him, Satan was tempting him, but he was led into that battle, into that conflict, into that wilderness by the

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Spirit, where he would be assaulted by the devil for 40 days. Let's just pause here and point out that sometimes it is the will of God for us to suffer.

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We often attribute our suffering to the work of Satan. That's not necessarily wrong.

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In the wilderness, it was Satan who assaulted Jesus and tempted him. When we think of Job, Satan stretched out his hand against Job and killed his children and destroyed his property and assaulted

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Job. The Lord's never the active agent in causing our suffering.

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He's not the one causing our suffering in the way that Satan was, but it was the

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Lord who allowed Job to be tried by Satan. Here it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus to the wilderness.

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Now why would God do that? I don't presume to know all the answers to that. Some of you have faced some incredible suffering in your lives, and I don't intend to try to make small of that in any way.

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I don't pretend to know all the reasons for any particular trial that you may have faced.

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But I do think we get some general answers from the Scripture. We can say generally, for example, from Romans 5, that God uses our sufferings and our hardships and our trials and our afflictions, and he uses those to shape our character.

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He uses those to raise us up into maturity. He uses those to draw us close to him.

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He uses those to shape our character. He uses afflictions to make us dependent upon him, to lead us to gratitude and contentment and to drive us to prayer.

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So one application is to be sure to receive all things from God's hands. To not waste your sufferings and your afflictions.

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To receive them from God and grow and mature through them, becoming more like Christ as you suffer with him.

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Now back to Jesus in the wilderness, we see that Christ did not enter that battle alone. The Spirit was with him, and Jesus successfully resisted the devil and his temptations with the aid of the

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Holy Spirit. He was tempted and tried in every way we are, yet without sin,

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Hebrews 4 .15 tells us. He remained sinless, successfully fighting off Satan because the

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Spirit was upon him. You see, Jesus was a man of the Spirit, the man of the Spirit, par excellence.

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And you too, Christian, you are not alone in your temptations. You're not alone in your trials.

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You're not alone in your afflictions. You too have the same Spirit indwelling you. The same

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Spirit that was with Jesus in the wilderness is the same Spirit with you. The same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same

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Spirit with you. That means you too can live holy. You too can fight off the devil.

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You too can resist temptation. You don't have to give in to your old habits. You don't have to give in to your persistent sins.

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You can have victory. You can walk worthy. You can keep God's commandments.

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Why? Because you too have the Holy Spirit. It wasn't that Jesus could fight off the devil because he was

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God, though he is God. He's God, but he's also a man.

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He's the God man. The reason he was able to resist temptation as a man was because the

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Spirit was upon him. And that same Spirit is upon you too. Fourth, we see the

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Spirit at work in Jesus' preaching. We see the Spirit at work in Jesus' preaching.

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Verse 18 says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor.

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Let's also go back to verse 14. It says, Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of him went out through all the surrounding region, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

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He's teaching. He's preaching in the synagogues. He's being glorified. And what we see there in verse 14,

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He returned in the power of the Spirit. The effect of the Spirit in the preaching of Christ is that it always provoked a reaction.

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Mark Jones in his book, Knowing Christ, notes that Jesus was the finest preacher who ever lived and the

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Spirit upon him convicted and converted his hearers to the point that they either hated him or followed him.

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There was no neutral ground. These Spirit -empowered words left people saying, No one ever spoke like this man,

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John 7, 46. Jesus' Spirit -empowered preaching gathered crowds everywhere he went.

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He spoke as one with authority. He taught the words of God. He pierced their hearts, comforting those who were broken by their sin and breaking those who were comfortable in their sin or driving them away.

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His preaching stirred an empire. Kings were curious of this man. Peasants came to hear him and bring him their sick.

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Religious leaders seethed. Tax collectors repented. All were amazed.

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God was glorified. In his preaching, the Spirit of the

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Lord was upon him. And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach good news to the poor.

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Fifth, we see the Spirit at work in the miracles of Jesus. In verse 18, it says,

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The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind.

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Recovery of sight to the blind. That is, the Spirit was upon Jesus to work miracles.

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We often think, again, we often think that Jesus was able to do his miracles because he was

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God. But I think we need to think just a little bit more carefully about that. Now the lesson that we draw from the miracles of Jesus is that he is

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God. This is true. Jesus' miracles demonstrate and prove and give witness to the fact that Jesus is

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God. They authenticate his teaching. That he is the Messiah. He is

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God. He is the one who shall sit on the throne of David. The miracles authenticate this message.

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They're a witness to his gospel preaching. But Jesus performed his miracles as a man.

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He is the God man. He performed his miracles as a man. So we must be careful not to fold up his humanity into his divinity.

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Because once you do that, we lose his humanity and then it affects our salvation.

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Because we need a human savior, which is what we saw two weeks ago. The reason Christ became a man is because it took a man to save us.

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It took a God man to save us because we needed a sinless one. And so if we fold up his humanity and wrap that up into his divinity such that it really kind of negates his humanity, and the only reason he was able to do these things is because of his divinity, we lose his humanity, and that affects our salvation.

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So we must affirm both his divinity and his humanity. That Jesus performed his miracles as a man by the power of the

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Spirit, it also helps us to make sense of other miracles that we see in the Bible that were performed by other men who are most definitely not

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God. Let's look at Matthew 12, 28, gives us an example here that Jesus says he casts out demons by the

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Spirit of God. That he gives witness that the kingdom of God had come.

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We see also in Mark 6, 5 that he could do no mighty works in his hometown of Nazareth.

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As a man he was entirely dependent upon the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit to do miracles.

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And while Jesus could have availed himself of his own divine power to work miracles, he chose rather to humble himself into the likeness of men and only act in accordance with the will of the

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Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, being fully dependent upon God. In the life and ministry of Jesus, we see

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Jesus doing a wide range of miracles. He's healing the sick, he's raising the dead, he's giving sight to the blind, he's giving words to the mute, he's making the deaf hear, he's making the lame leap for joy, as the old hymn says.

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We see him doing all of this as the Spirit -filled man. Jesus is the man of the

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Spirit, par excellence. Then lastly, we see the work of the

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Spirit in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Again Luke 4, the

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Spirit was upon Jesus to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the

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Lord. By his death on the cross and the resurrection from the dead, Jesus bought the redemption and freedom of those oppressed by Satan, sin, and death.

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The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord led Jesus into the wilderness.

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The Spirit of the Lord led Jesus to the cross. Jesus was born to die.

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He came to die as a ransom to set the captives free. It was the

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Spirit upon him that led him to Calvary. So yes, Jesus was killed by the

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Jews and he was killed by the Romans, but we also see from Scripture that it was

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Jesus who gave up his life. John 10, 17, and 18 reads,

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Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

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No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

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And he laid his life down in the power of the Holy Spirit, Hebrews 9, 14.

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How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.

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Did you catch that? Jesus in John 10 says that he lays his life down of his own accord.

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And Hebrews 9, 14 says that it was by the eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot to God.

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It was the Holy Spirit that led Christ to Calvary. Jesus committed his Spirit to God because the

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Holy Spirit enabled him to lay down his life. We read elsewhere that no greater love does man have than to lay down his life for his friends.

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He laid down his life. And so not only was the

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Spirit active in the death of Jesus. We also see that he was active in the resurrection of Jesus.

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Jesus' body did not see decay, Psalm 16, 10, Acts 2, 27, and he did not see decay because the

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Holy Spirit preserved his body. Romans 8, 11 says that the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.

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Paul writes, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

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Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

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And 1 Timothy 3, 16 tells us that Jesus was vindicated by the Spirit, that great

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Christ him. He was vindicated by the Spirit, referring to the resurrection. Now having seen the work of the

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Holy Spirit and the life and ministry of Jesus and everything from his birth to his resurrection and everything in between, what do we conclude from this?

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We conclude that the Holy Spirit was Jesus' inseparable companion.

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We conclude that Jesus was a man of the Spirit. He was filled with the

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Spirit and everywhere you look, you're seeing the work of the Spirit manifested through the life of Christ.

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We conclude that Jesus' obedience was real. That is, he didn't cheat by using his divinity.

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He didn't have a cheat code to life where he invoked his divinity and that was how he obeyed.

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It was by his divinity that he was, you know, it was by the power of the Holy Spirit he was conceived in the virgin's womb, therefore not inheriting man's sinful corruption, but he obeyed as a man by the power of the

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Holy Spirit. He is the true and better Adam. And this is very, very good news for us because this means that we don't have to be

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God in order to live a Christ -like life, that we too can live by the

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Spirit. That's what the passage in Romans 8 that we read from earlier teaches, that the same

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Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that same Spirit dwells in each of us who are believers.

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And that you can live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

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You don't have to have a divine cheat code to live a godly life. Like Christ and because of Christ, you have the

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Holy Spirit. The Spirit was Christ's companion and Christ has sent him, John 14 and John 16 tells us to be your companion.

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Mark Jones notes that the Spirit was first on Christ, giving us a master copy of the religious and spiritual life of the

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Son that the Spirit imparts to the elect. And the good news is because of Christ and because you too have the

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Spirit, you can live a life marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self -control.

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You can live a life conformed to the image of Jesus because Jesus has given you the

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Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that conceived Jesus in the virgin's womb. The same

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Spirit that descended as a dove at Jesus' baptism. The same Spirit that led

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Jesus into the wilderness and sustained him there. The same Spirit that empowered Jesus' preaching.

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The same Spirit that enabled Jesus to work miracles. The same Spirit that led Jesus to the cross and also led

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Jesus out of the grave. You have the same Holy Spirit within you if you are united to Christ by faith.

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Christ's companion is your companion. Praise the Lord for the work of the

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Spirit. May you walk by the Spirit and not by the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5 .16.

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Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the work of your

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Holy Spirit. We thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus that we see throughout the

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Gospels, particularly here in Luke chapter 4, but throughout the life and ministry of Jesus we see the work of the

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Spirit. From the work of the Spirit in his birth, to the work of the Spirit at his baptism, in his temptation, in his miracles, in his teaching, in his interactions, in his death, in his resurrection.

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Lord, we thank you and we praise you for the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ. And Father, we also thank you and praise you for the work of the

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Holy Spirit in our lives. You have given us new life by the Spirit. It is the

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Spirit that convicted us of our sin. It is the Spirit who regenerated our hearts so that we could believe and trust in Christ, who illuminated our souls and gave spiritual sight to us so that we could see the beauty of Christ, so we could see the truth of who we are, who we were in our sin, who we can be in Christ, who we are in Christ, the work of Christ, the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus.

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Lord, it was the Spirit who did that and so we thank you. And Father, we pray that we will, knowing that we are indwelled by the same

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Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that we would live life according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. That we would put to death the deeds of the flesh and cultivate and fan unto flame life by the

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Spirit. That you would help us to live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

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That we would live lives of courage, that we would live lives of holiness and righteousness because the

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Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because we're united by faith to Jesus.

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So if there's anyone here who is not united by faith to Jesus, Lord, I pray that your Spirit would work in their hearts right now.

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May it place their trust, their faith, their loyalty with King Jesus. He is the good news.

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And Father, I pray that you would give us the grace by your Spirit to live lives that please you and that bless others. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.