Listen to Him and Obey • Luke 4:14-37

1:07:29 Teaching begins

Notes

If you were the Messiah, the Expected One, God born as a man, how would you prove it? We’re used to thinking Jesus proved He was the Messiah by performing miracles.

Today Jesus presents Himself as the Messiah to God’s people and He uses the Scriptures, the word of God, because He is the One who originally spoke those words. They testify to Him.

Jesus expects His listeners to listen to Him and obey Him because He is God, speaking the word of God, with authority and power.

I’m reading in Luke 4, from verse 14.

1. Jesus preaches the gospel in the power of the Spirit.

A. Luke emphasises that Jesus returns from His trial in the wilderness in the power of the Spirit.

1. Remember that the devil tried to swerve Jesus’ obedience to the Father, to leave His ways of lovingkindness and truth. And he couldn’t do it. Jesus overcame the devil with His zeal for obeying the Father. He only said, “Yes” to the Father, never, “No.”

2. Because Jesus is completely yielded to the Holy Spirit of God He could do anything through Jesus with power.

3. One reason we don’t walk in the power of the Spirit is that we quench Him and grieve Him by saying, “No” to Him. He is not the Lord of our lives.

4. If you want the power of the Spirit to work through you, say, “Yes” to Him. The Spirit is the Lord. Yield to Him continually.

B. Luke skips over about a year from Jesus’ baptism. The Gospel of John fills in some of the details. This ministry of Jesus in Galilee begins after John the Baptist was arrested by Herod Antipas.

C. Jesus is teaching in synagogues throughout Galilee. The gospel is for the Jews first. It is the fulfilment of the promises God made to the Jewish people.

D. He is praised by all because He is teaching in the power of the Spirit.

1. No man ever spoke like Jesus spoke. We read of the gracious words that proceeded from His mouth. It was simple, it was easy to understand. It was organised and not confusing. Jesus didn’t talk about trivial things. He didn’t make jokes, He didn’t do standup comedy. No uncertain word comes out of His mouth.

2. He spoke with authority. He didn’t refer to Rabbi Hillel says this, but Rabbi Shammai says that. You remember that in the Sermon on the Mount He follows, “You have heard it said,” with, “but I say to you.” He spoke as one having authority. He expected His listeners to understand Him and obey Him.

2. In the course of preaching in Galilee Jesus comes to His hometown, Nazareth.

A. Notice that Jesus’ custom was to go to synagogue every Sabbath without exception. He didn’t start going to synagogue when He began His ministry. He was committed to worship, to the Word of God, to being with God’s people. That is how you live if you are godly.

B. A typical synagogue service opened with prayer and the confession of faith (the Shema). There would be prayer, they would follow the set readings from the Law and the Prophets, and then have a sermon, some kind of exposition and exhortation, from a congregation member, a rabbi, or a priest. The meeting closed with prayer.

C. Jesus is reading from the Prophets. He stands to read, He’s given the scroll of Isaiah. He finds the part we know today as Isaiah 61 and reads it. He sits down to teach. That’s the way the teachers taught back then. And everyone’s eyes are riveted on Him. What is He going to say?

D. He begins to say, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” That is a great introduction to a sermon. You want to grab your listeners and let them know that what you’re about to say is worth their investing the effort to listen. You are not going to waste their time. You are teaching the word of God, and this is the most important thing you will ever hear.

E. The Scripture is in the first person, He is talking about Me. Jesus says, this Scripture is about Me: I am the Lord, the Messiah.

1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; when I speak He is speaking through Me.

2. He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

3. By the Spirit of the Lord He is going to save the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the oppressed. He is going to bless His people with salvation.

4. This is the acceptable year of the Lord, the time prefigured by the Jubilee. Every fifty years the Jubilee was proclaimed, all debts were cancelled, slaves were released, nobody farmed, there was a holy reset to the whole land of Israel. What Jubilee was a shadow of, the Messiah was to bring in, the time of God’s favour and blessing that is to last forever.

5. This is no longer future, an promise that is too good to be true and probably will never come. It’s here right now because the Lord, Jesus Messiah is here.

6. It takes someone with power and authority to make it happen. The gospel is about the One who has the power and authority to remove sin and everything that separates people from God. The gospel is not a doctrine, it is a Person, it’s all in Jesus.

3. The people marvel at Jesus, but utterly reject Him as the Messiah.

A. It starts off well enough. All bore witness to Him. That is, wow, He’s really something. The people of Nazareth had heard of Jesus’ preaching in the region of Galilee, that He was impressive, a great speaker. That’s true. It’s practically electric, the things that Jesus is saying.

B. They marvelled at what He was saying. Again, He is laser-sharp, no wasted words, nothing too difficult to understand, they understood Him all too well.

C. They did not believe what Jesus said was true.

1. They were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” The way they put the question demands a “yes” answer. That’s ALL He is, nothing more.

2. Joseph’s son is making Himself out to be the Messiah. Who does He think He is?

3. Who are You to tell us we’re poor, brokenhearted, captives, blind, and oppressed? No, we’re not! They were offended and angry.

D. In verse 23 Jesus answers his hearers’ thoughts.

1. You see Him do this in the Gospel of John. People mutter something while Jesus preaches in the temple, and Jesus begins addressing that very muttering. He knows people’s thoughts.

2. The proverb Jesus quotes means, “Prove it.” Prove that you’re the Messiah. Do something like what we heard you did in Capernaum. They heard about Jesus performing miracles. Do something. We’re watching.

E. Jesus refuses to do anything miraculous.

1. There are people who teach that Jesus needed miracles to prove who He was. But here He refuses!

2. They do not believe Him when He is speaking the word of God, therefore they will not obey Him. If they do not listen to Moses, neither will they believe though someone should rise from the dead.

F. He quotes two times in Israel’s history when God blessed others and not Israel.

1. Through Elijah the prophet God sent a famine on Israel because they were worshipping Baal. They weren’t listening and obeying. Then He sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath, a Gentile, not a Jew. Elijah said to her, “Take that little bit of flour and oil you have left and make me bread first. The Lord says the flour will not run out nor the oil until He ends the famine.” She believed him and she obeyed him. All Israel were starving because of their disobedience.

2. Naaman the Syrian didn’t want to believe, but his servant convinced him to just do what Elisha said to do. He dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River and he was healed. He believed and obeyed.

3. God doesn’t have to bless unbelieving and disobedient sinners.

G. The people are seriously displeased with Jesus, so that they try to throw Him off the cliff where the city is built.

1. This reminds me of what Jesus told the Jews in John 8:39-40 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”

2. Jesus is right in every way. If you have a problem with Him, you are automatically wrong.

4. Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes on to Capernaum where He has been before. He preaches the gospel about Himself, and is opposed by a demon.

A. The people in the synagogue are amazed and astonished at His teaching. Literally, Jesus knocked them out. The teaching has authority.

B. There’s a man in the synagogue who has a demon, an unclean spirit. This demon knows who Jesus is and says awful things about Him.

1. First he screams.  Let us alone! Stop bothering us. You have no business with us. Don’t butt in here. Did You come to destroy us? Making like Jesus is the dangerous one to be feared.

2. I know who You are, the Son of God! He’s saying it in an ugly way that doesn’t express the goodness and wonderfulness of Jesus. This demon is trying to make like Jesus is a creepy guy you want to stay away from.

C. Jesus overcomes the demon.

1. He doesn’t need any acknowledgement or help presenting Himself from demons, they’re not on His side, they are opposed to Him. So He rebukes the demon and makes him be quiet.

2. Only God can rebuke the devil or a demon. Only He has the authority. Remember in Jude 1:9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

3. Jesus rebukes demons, He rebukes fevers and sickness, He even rebukes the wind and the sea and they obey Him. He has the power of God.

D. And the people talk together to try to figure out what is going on: a word with authority, the teaching, and with power to rebuke demons! They are trying to figure out, what does this mean, who is this guy?

5. So what?

A. Jesus said He came for the poor. He meant the poor in spirit, the ones who don’t have enough to get into heaven.

1. When God says to you, “Why should I let you into My pure, clean, heaven?”, and you say, “I don’t know,” that’s a bad answer.

2. You need to be acceptable to God. Will He accept you as you are? Are you pleasing to Him?

B. He came for captives of sin. Do you know what it is to be a prisoner of sin? To not be able to do what you want to do because you keep doing what you don’t want to do, that destroys you?

C. He came for the blind, to give them sight of Him. That’s all you need to see, is Jesus dying on the cross to pay the death that you deserve for your sins. Jesus said John 3:14-15 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. The people complained against God, and He sent snakes to bite them and kill them. They humbled themselves before God and asked Him to take the snakes away. He didn’t. He told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole in the middle of the camp. If anyone was bit by a snake, he was to look at that bronze serpent and he would live. Jesus says, “I am that bronze serpent on the pole. You look at Me, and you will live.”

D. He came for the oppressed, the downtrodden, the broken, the crushed, the bruised. That’s what your sin does to you. It destroys you.

E. Jesus says now is the time to be accepted by God. He is proclaiming the favourable year, the time for all debts to be cancelled, and all slaves to be released.

F. Your future hangs on how you hear and obey Jesus.

1. The people of Nazareth didn’t listen to Him and didn’t obey Him, they tried to kill Him. You are not going to get anywhere by rejecting Jesus.

2. The demon knew Jesus was from Nazareth, and knew that He was also the Son of God. But though he knew correctly it didn’t mean he believed Jesus or obeyed Him. He had to obey Jesus because he was compelled through Jesus’ greater power. He is also headed for judgment.

3. These guys in Capernaum are putting their heads together trying to figure out what this is. They are impressed and scared by this display of authority and power, but it doesn’t say that they believe and so far they haven’t obeyed, either. Believing in a miracle doesn’t make you right with God.

4. If you don’t believe and obey Jesus yet, take time and read about Him in the gospels. Listen to what He says about Himself, and obey Him. Don’t listen to what other people say about Jesus, what your experience has been, don’t listen to the devil, don’t depend on miracles. He only uses the Scriptures to explain who He is and what He has done. Listen to what Jesus says about Himself, and then believe Him and obey Him.

Let’s pray.