Book of Luke - Ch. 4, Vs. 13-30 (02/02/2003)

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:03

Talking about singing acapella, once years ago

00:09

I was in the deep woods of eastern Oklahoma in the middle of the

00:17

Cherokee Nation and I visited a church way down in the woods.

00:24

I don't know what brand the church it was. I didn't understand the service.

00:32

The men sat on one side and the women sat on the other and their music consisted of somebody that just started singing and they all joined in.

00:49

You talk about goosebumps. A bunch of Cherokees in the woods can really really sing.

01:00

They could. All right, we want to take up Luke.

01:08

I have a few words I'd like to say about the first few verses and temptation.

01:18

God is the originator of everything. We need to get that fixed in our minds.

01:28

Satan originates nothing except sin. He can use only what

01:38

God sends. Now remember, Satan is a fallen angel.

01:44

He's nothing special. He's a special fallen angel. So everything that comes to us, first of all, is good.

01:55

Has to be if it's from God. Everything is a test or trial for us, designed to cause us to grow closer to him.

02:07

Now in our minds we have a will. Satan uses the test from God to get us to serve him and not

02:17

God. If we, in our minds, give in to Satan then we have been tempted to do that which we should not do.

02:30

If our thought is to serve God and use the test as a God sent test, we recognize the blessing and thereby we grow.

02:41

From Jesus's viewpoint, he was not tempted. From Satan's, that's all he can do.

02:53

Our will is the only thing we have that's bearable. We can change nothing.

03:00

God is sovereign. We need the Holy Spirit in order to do the pleasing of God or displeasing.

03:13

If men can be tempted, it means there's something in them that responds to the temptation.

03:23

Jesus had nothing. He was led by the

03:31

Spirit, meaning he did not seek that. God will do that which we cannot do, but we must be willing to do all that we are able to do.

03:53

To doubt the Word of God is the first step to sin. The Scripture or the written

04:03

Word of God is the only sure weapon wherewith we have to vanish

04:08

Satan and beat back all of his fiery temptations. The only instrument you have is the

04:15

Word of God. So the Scripture is God's armory out of which all our weapons are war must be taken.

04:30

So put it on and go about your business. We're not told to fight. We do not fight

04:38

Satan. We do what is right. The Lord will see us through.

04:49

Now, looking at all of the temptations, doubtless there is no sin so black and foul, so horrid, monstrous, but the

05:01

Christian may be tempted to do it. When Christ himself was tempted to worship the tempter, even the devil himself.

05:12

That if to worship before the devil be to worship the devil, then to worship before an image is to worship the image.

05:26

The pomp and grandeur of the world is made use of by Satan as a dangerous snare to draw men into compliance with him and his temptations.

05:43

What an imprudent liar and proud boaster the devil is. He was a liar from the beginning.

06:04

He is the prince of the world, but not absolutely, and is the sovereign of it only by permission and request, and therefore he does not truly say that he can give the countries to whom he will.

06:25

We should never presume upon God, if you do you can wait for your supper for some time and you'll starve to death.

06:37

That Satan, by God's permission, may have power over the bodies of the best of men.

06:42

Satan has power to set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, yet he had not power to cast him down.

07:05

The temptations, in the last verse 13, and when the devil had ended all of the temptations, he departed from him for a moment.

07:19

Had emptied and ended all of the temptations, he was ordained to tempt

07:30

God, Jesus. He had a prescribed number of temptations for him for a season.

07:40

We know he'll be back. Now why is it that Jesus had to go through the temptations?

07:57

Why was he tempted? Well, that's pretty good.

08:12

That's one aspect of why. David, can you give me another?

08:55

All right. I'm reminded of the new railroad bridge that was built over the

09:03

Cimarron River in 1935. They finished the bridge and they had two locomotive engines.

09:18

They run them both out on the bridge, tied the whistles down, tied the throttles wide open, didn't put it in gear, made an awful racket, and somebody asked one of the engineers, what are you trying to do, tear the bridge down?

09:44

He says, no, we're testing it. We're trying to prove it.

09:51

This is one reason Jesus underwent the temptations, was to prove who he was, and he passed.

10:01

Not to be tempted by Satan is the greatest temptation of all.

10:09

Sometimes his cart does not rattle because it's oiled with the oil of carnality.

10:21

Now, verse 14, and Jesus returned in the power of the

10:30

Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

10:43

Roger, why did Jesus first go through baptism and then temptation?

11:17

All right. Bill, what do you think?

11:36

That's right. All right.

12:20

All right. David, you have any thoughts on it? That's right.

12:58

Verse 15, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all, praised by all.

13:07

All were well pleased with his instructions and admired his wisdom.

13:16

That's not going to last long. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the

13:27

Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of Prophet Isaiah.

13:45

And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the

13:52

Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

14:00

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

14:18

Now he does nothing by the selection of man or the advice of man.

14:25

We learn from this, no matter how moral and upright you are, how kind the neighbors, you may tithe your income, you may be faithful in church, even have family devotion, pay your debts, love, read the

14:50

Bible, but unless you have an anointing of the

14:58

Holy Spirit, to have the power of God, you cannot do the work of God.

15:10

Nineteen, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the time when

15:18

God's willing to accept men or to receive sinners coming to him, is the acceptable year of the

15:28

Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all of them were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

15:44

I thought it's interesting where it says he sat down. This was the usual custom,

15:52

I find, in the Old Testament, for the way they taught in synagogues.

16:02

Virge, what does it mean, all the eyes were fastened on him? All right, intently waiting to see what explanation he would give to these words.

16:24

And he began to say to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears?

16:34

And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

16:44

And they said, is this not Joseph's son? They were utterly flabbergasted.

16:55

The effect of our Savior's ministry at Nazareth that created wonder, but it didn't produce faith.

17:06

They marveled, but they didn't believe. They admired the wisdom of his discourse, but were not only him to be the promised

17:17

Messiah because of his poverty. Christ's condition is not this

17:30

Joseph's son. They expected the son of a prince, not the son of a carpenter.

17:40

23, and he said unto them, ye will surely say unto me, the proverb, physician, heal thyself whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

17:56

And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

18:05

Those that knew you as a child, watched you grow up, very, very seldom can you have very much influence on them.

18:24

But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all of the land.

18:42

Thus the prophet of God, like some fishermen, catch least in their own pond, do more good by their ministry among strangers, their countrymen.

19:01

24, and he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

19:11

Those who've known him as a boy, especially in circumstances beneath their own, if he was more poor than they, they're less likely to honor him.

19:26

But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days, I repeated that, but unto none of them was

19:55

Elias sent, save unto Seraphim, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

20:08

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed save Nahum, the

20:20

Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these words, were filled with wrath.

20:29

He's not coming over very well to them, is he? Or too well. And they rose up and thrust him out of their city and led him unto the brow of a hill.

20:45

Virg, what's a brow? Roger, it's at the top,

21:03

Virg. The brow of the hill whereupon the city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

21:15

David, it looks like he's going to end his ministry right here. But he passed through the midst of them and went his way.

21:27

Why? It wasn't time for him.

21:40

The horrid end that they had in mind in thrusting their

21:46

Savior out of their city, and their barbarous and bloody cruelty in bringing him to the brow of the hill, with full intent to cast him down headlong.

22:04

But that wasn't how Christ was to die, was it? Wasn't to be thrown down, but by lifting up.

22:15

I'm going to have to quit here. My voice is gone. The miraculous escape of our blessed

22:23

Lord from the murderous hands of the wicked Nazareth. He just passed through.

22:33

We're not told, so we cannot reason. Start with verse 31,