14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” ~ Luke 4:14-15
Having spent forty days in the desert being tempted by the devil, according to v.14, the Lord Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. He returned in the power of the Spirit because He submitted to the Spirit rather than the devil while in the desert. As a result, the Lord Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. In response, according to v.15, good news about the Lord Jesus spread throughout all the Galilean area.
This Galilean ministry of the Lord Jesus, is covered in Luke 4:14-9:51. It lasted about a year and a half. During this time the Lord Jesus, along with His disciples, visited about 240 towns and villages. And, according to Luke 9:51, the scene then shifts to the south, to the area of Judea.
The Lord Jesus ministers in Galilee with a continually similar pattern. And that pattern is given to us in todays text, He taught in the synagogues in the power of the Spirit.
Luke, by the design, goes immediately from the temptation of the Lord Jesus to the afore mentioned Galilean ministry. But, the Lord Jesus had a ministry of about a year that happened between Luke 4:13 and Luke 4:14. This Galilean ministry, mentioned in Luke 4:14f, took place after the yearlong ministry of the Lord Jesus that Luke doesn't mention in his Gospel. The details about this year long ministry are given us by Matthew, Mark and John.
This year long ministry began in December of the year. According to Matthew 4:12 and Mark 1:14, at that time, the Lord Jesus didn't even go back to Galilee to begin His Galilean ministry until John the Baptist was imprisoned.
These events of that interval year are recorded for us in John 1:29, where we read, "The next day, he,” being John, “saw Jesus coming to him, and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'"
Now, at this time, the Lord Jesus is back at the Jordan river. In John 1:35, "The next day John was standing with two of his disciples, looked upon Jesus as He walked and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'" Then we read in John 1:37-39, "And two disciples of John heard Him speak and they follow Jesus and Jesus turned and beheld them following and said to them, 'What do you seek?' And they said to Him, 'Rabbi,' which translated means teacher, 'where are You staying?' And He said to them, 'Come and you will see.' They came therefore and saw where He was staying. They stayed with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour."
Then in John 1:40-42, we read, "One of the two that heard John speak and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, 'We've found the Messiah.' He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon the son of John, you shall be called Cephas.'"
It was during this time the Lord Jesus began to gather His disciples to Himself.
Mostly on the testimony of John the Baptist, these first four men began to follow the Lord Jesus.
So, John the Baptist identified the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God in John 1:29. In addition, John tells the people to follow the Lord Jesus. As a result, Andrew and Peter and later on, Philip and Nathanael are the first four to follow the Lord Jesus. Actually, they follow Him a year after they were initially introduced to Him.
Now at this point in John 1:42, the Lord Jesus looked at Simon, and said, "You are Simon." Later on in John 1:47, when the Lord Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, being brought by Philip, “He said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.'"
"Nathanael said to Him," in John 1:48, "'How do You know me?' The Lord Jesus answered, 'Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you.'" The Lord Jesus is using His supernatural powers here and it is a display of His divinity.
This is the conclusion of Nathanael who said in John 1:49, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these."
After His temptation, the Lord Jesus did go back to Galilee briefly. He, with these disciples, attended a wedding in Cana where He performed His first miracle. Following His first miracle, He also met with Nicodemus and the woman at the well.
Then, in Luke 4:14 we are given a description of when the Lord Jesus went back to Galilee to teach in the power of the Holy Spirit in the synagogues. He went to Galilee immediately after His time of temptation, just briefly enough to have this encounter with the disciples, and to attend a week long wedding. Then He went south to Jerusalem where He met Nicodemus and remained in Jerusalem until John the Baptist was imprisoned and He then went to Galilee to begin His official ministry there.
In Luke 4:14, we read, "And Jesus returned to Galilee." We just covered what He was doing before this happened. "And He came back in the power of the Spirit. And the news about Him spread throughout all the surrounding district." We know that because of John 4:43. The Word had spread all over the place because when Passover happened, all the people were down in Jerusalem, two million of them, for the Passover, the great majority of them, so the Word was spreading everywhere. And it was then in that kind of popular environment that He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
In Luke 4:14, Luke uses the word "news" which is phm in the Greek. This is the word from which we get our English word "fame." The fame of the Lord Jesus was starting to spread. And, His priority was to teach with power from the Holy Spirit.
