Luke 5:1-6

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1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.  ~ Luke 5:1-6

Luke's gospel is the lengthiest of the four gospels. Today's narrative is set at the lake of Gennesaret which was 13 miles long and 7 miles wide. To the east are low ridges and then the flat lands of the wilderness that goes to the east. To the north are the great high mountains of Lebanon from which the water flows creating the lake. To the west are the fertile fields of grain and crops. 

This was a good place to speak to people because one could be at the shore and the slope would be a place that would create sort of a natural amphitheater and the people could hear. The events of this day were so convincing that these fishermen left everything to follow the Lord Jesus.

According to v.1 the crowds were getting bigger and bigger. This was a typical problem as the Lord Jesus' popularity was fast growing.  And, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, a freshwater lake fed by the snowmelt out of the Lebanese mountains.

So there He is on the shore with this mass of people coming out of towns and villages and cities, crowding around and eventually pushing Him. The people came to hear the Word of God. They were listening to the word that comes from God. This is the first time Luke uses the phrase "the Word of God." 

God is the source of truth. God by nature is truth. And the truth is what He speaks. As the Lord Jesus stands by the lake and speaks the very word of God, the crowd is pushing in on Him. In v.2 we learn the Lord Jesus saw two boats by the waters edge. 

In that area of the Sea of Galilee, it is shallow. The Lord Jesus sat down in Peter's boat and asked Peter to pull it out a little bit. That would give the Lord Jesus a natural amphitheater effect. In the spot where they were that day, there is a natural sloping. There, the water is flat, and then the shoreline goes up, sort of like an amphitheater. In that setting, the voice of the Lord Jesus was amplified. It bounced off the water and was heard easily on the shoreline. His voice, as a result, was projected as the people were pressed on the shore. 

In v.3 we read, "He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat." The Lord Jesus doesn't do anything just by accident.  Everything is intentional and purposeful. His actions here were making it conducive for Peter to decide to follow the Lord Jesus as His disciple.

The Lord Jesus first met Peter back in John 1. Then, later on, as recorded in Mark 1 there was a second meeting. So, Peter had already had a couple of encounters with the Lord Jesus. Peter was with his brother Andrew on that first day, the second day he was with James and John. So, these actions were impacting these brothers, as well.

The Lord Jesus was in the process of getting to know Peter. This explains why Peter is following Him. This is why in Luke 4 after the synagogue service, when it was lunch time, the Lord Jesus went to Simon's house.  

The fishermen had fished at night and they are now repairing their nets. Galilean fisherman typically fished at night because at night when it was cooler out, the fish would come closer to the surface. In the sea of Galilee, the hot sun causes, to this day, the fish to go deep in the middle of the day. So, during the daytime the fishermen would work on their equipment. The nights were for fishing. It was daytime now and the Lord Jesus had begun teaching. The crowd is pushing in and He notices the two boats on the edge of the lake.

According to v.3, the Lord Jesus gets into Simon's boat. And, in v.4 He says to Peter, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." But, Peter and his buds had fished all night and had caught nothing. No doubt, Peter was convinced fishing for that day was over. But, this was not about fishing, the Lord Jesus had much more on His mind for Peter that day.

Then, in v.5, it is as if Peter is saying, "We fished all night, we caught absolutely nothing.  I'm telling you, the fish aren't there. Master, at your bidding, I will let down the nets. That is the least I can do for you for healing my mother-in-law." The lake is seven miles wide by thirteen miles long. The deepest part of the lake in the center is about 141 feet or so. All the fish go there during the day. At night when it's dark, they come to the surface and they feed. But, unbeknown to Peter, the Lord Jesus knew exactly where the fish were.

Peter thought this was about what he was doing for the Lord Jesus. But, in reality, this story is about what the Lord Jesus is doing for Peter. We always benefit when we allow the Lord to be the Lord of our lives, when we are allowing Him to define us. Note that in v.5 Peter calls the Lord Jesus here, "Master."   

In v.6, we read, "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break." Peter, now, has entered into a new adventure with God. Up to this point all the world that Peter knew was the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, maybe going down to Jerusalem a few times a year for a feast, but all he knew, his whole world was wrapped in a fishing business of a little inland lake called Galilee. That was his whole world. But, he has entered into a new realm, now, it has entered the greatest adventure known to man. 

Peter had never caught this many fish. I am sure he is thinking, "With the Lord Jesus involved, my business is about to really take off." But, the main teaching in this passage is that when we follow the Lord Jesus and develop a personal relationship with Him, not only is our lives blessed. Others are blessed, as well. God rarely blesses us with only us in mind. God's goal in blessing us is that others might be blessed through us. And, God sometimes calls us to ministry when our business is at its best, which requires us to turn our backs on our plans, availing ourselves to His control.

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Luke 4:38-44

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38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. 40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah. 42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. ~ Luke 4:38-44

Our text gives a summary of the evidences that Jesus is Messiah who came demonstrating His authority and power over three realms. These three realms are the natural realm, the supernatural realm, and the eternal realm. 

All of us are constantly subject to the devastating effects of the Fall physically. Our birth is the first step in our death. As soon as we are born the clock starts ticking toward death. In v.38-40, the Lord Jesus demonstrates His power over the natural realm, that He can, in fact, break the debilitating, decaying, diseasing, and deadly impact of sin on our human bodies.

In the first half of v.38, we read, "Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon." The Sabbath Meeting at the Synagogue generally ended around noon. Afterwards, they had their major meal of the day. The family would sit together and they would enjoy their time around the provision of food. In this case, the Lord Jesus and His disciples went to Simon Peter's house.

The rest of v.38 reads, "Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her." Peter is not yet been called as a disciple of the Lord Jesus. He becomes a disciple in Luke 5. At this time Peter is just a man in the synagogue named Simon. "Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her." The word was getting around that the Lord Jesus could heal disease and sickness. 

Now, Peter's mother-in-law had some kind of an infection which gave her a fever. According to v.39, "So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them." This term "rebuked" is reserved almost exclusively for people, but here in today's text, it is identified with a disease, or a fever. The intent of the statement is to show that the Lord Jesus has power over what debilitates the human body. He can speak to a fever and it disappears. After being delivered of the sickness, there is no lingering weakness in the body of Peter's Mother-in-Law. Usually when someone has had a high fever, fighting some serious infection, there is going to be a lingering weakness. There is no trace of lingering weakness. Peter's mom-in-law immediately rose up and waited on them.

In v.40, we read, "At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them." In the case of Peter's mother-in-law the Lord Jesus healed with a word. Here we find He laid His hands on them.

Luke 4:40 begins with, "At sunset," which means the Sabbath was over. As the sun goes down on a Sabbath, the people now could do what they couldn't do during the Sabbath. They couldn't travel and they couldn't carry anything. So, now that the sun is setting, they can travel to where the Lord Jesus was and they can carry their sick to Him. 

Mark says the whole town showed up, the whole town. And, the Lord Jesus receives them all. There are no conditions of faith. He just puts His hands on everybody and everybody is healed. And that, folks, is the healing power of Jesus over the human body.

These people wanted healing in their bodies, but they didn't want salvation in their spirits and their souls. In the three-year ministry of the Lord Jesus there are nearly ninety New Testament texts in the four gospels about His healings. He did this everywhere through His ministry. The first healing recorded in the Bible was during the time of Abraham. There are no healings recorded in the first 1,600 years of biblical history up to the Flood, no healings recorded. And there were billions of people alive when the Flood hit. The first healing is recorded in the time of Abraham, that's about 2200 B.C. 

From Abraham to Isaiah would be from 2200 B.C. to 750 B.C., a 1,500 year period, there are recorded twenty healings, 1,500 years twenty healings, five of them from Job, five in Moses' day, two in Samuel's day, eight from David to Isaiah for a total of twenty.  Twenty healings in 1,500 years.

From Isaiah, 750 B.C., to Christ, there were 750 years. There are zero healings recorded. There was sickness, disease, and death, but there were no healings.  That is why when the Lord Jesus began to heal in Matthew 9:33, the people said, "Nothing like this was ever done in Israel." They knew there had never been anything like this. They had no experience of this. They had never seen anything like it.

The healing explosion had a purpose and John 20:31 tells us: "These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believing you might have life in His name."

In addition, the Lord Jesus also demonstrated He has the ability to stop the destructive nature of sin in the supernatural realm. In v.41, we read, "Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah." 

As the Lord Jesus went about preaching, He literally shattered the demonic world. His preaching traumatized the demons. And, these demons were living inside people. When the Lord Jesus showed up this particular day, they were screaming. Luke uses the word, kraugazō, which means involuntary shrieks of terror. The ministry of the Lord Jesus unmasked these fallen angels of the darkness.  

But notice the next line in v.42, "But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah." He would not allow them to speak. He has power not only over the natural, but over the supernatural.  He had the power to shut that demon up, to silence that demon so that that demon can no longer speak. And, the Lord Jesus wanted them silenced because didn't want their publicity. He wants everyone to discover Him for themselves.

Finally, the Lord Jesus has power over the eternal realm. In v.43, we read, "But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 

The Lord Jesus said, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God." Notice the theme "the kingdom of God." This is the first time that phrase is used in connection with Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke, but it will occur again and again in Luke 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23. Over and over, the Lord Jesus will preach and teach about the good news of the kingdom of God.

We get mesmerized by physical healings and demonic exorcisms, but the real deal is the kingdom of God’s reign through God’s people over God’s place. God reigns through His people. This was His design from the beginning. Adam and Eve were commissioned as representatives of the King. Instead, they chose to seek their own path to power and glory, apart from God. Their rebellion fractured humanity’s relationship with God and shattered the goodness of His creation. Ever since sin entered the world, God’s message has been, at its heart, a rescue mission for rebellious sinners, drawing us into His loving rule.

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Luke 4:31-37

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31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority. 33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” 35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. 36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area. ~ Luke 4:31-37

In today's text, Luke continues to introduce us to the Lord Jesus Christ, this One who is the only one who has it all together. Luke directs our attention in on the power of the Lord Jesus over the demonic world.

According to Scripture, demons are fallen angels, banished from heaven with Satan because they rebelled against God. In Revelation 12:3-4, we read, "Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth."

Mentioned in nineteen out of the twenty-seven New Testament books, demons are real. Demon possession is when one comes under the control of the spirits of darkness. It is not a physical disease, but there could be physical torments associated with demon possession. 

Luke mentions the authority of the Lord Jesus in v.32,36, showing His engagement in the domain of Satan. Here, the Lord Jesus displays His power over Satan on the behalf of this one who had availed himself to this possession. One is not just possessed without knowing it. One has to knowingly allow the residence of the demonic within. 

Most do not know that the people of this world who are not saved are under the control of the god of this world. Of course, this is not the same as demon possession. But, we read in 2 Corinthians 4 that "the god of this world has blinded their minds lest the light of the gospel should shine unto them." This means Satan and his followers deceive, lie to, and keep the world of unregenerate people in his clutch of darkness. 

 

In today's text, the Lord Jesus is confronted by a demon possessed man in the Synagogue in Capernaum. The emphasis here is not the demon-possessed, the emphasis is on the fact that the Lord Jesus had power over the demons. He had the power to show that He can break the power of hell and set the prisoners free. 

The Lord Jesus just spoke the Word of God which came with tremendous clarity. No one could escape its meaning. And, it came with tremendous conviction; nobody could escape its application.  And when the force of the Word hit that place, it strangely hit a demon in v.33-34 which reads, "33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

Now, you will notice that the man doesn't even say anything. We don't even see this man repent. We don't even know whether he believed.  A demon spoke out of him and in v.35 the Lord Jesus rebuked the demon and said, "Be quiet and come out of him." Then, after this, "the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him." The Lord Jesus commanded the demons to come out of this man and they did.

Since the Lord Jesus is the Messiah, He has the power over the kingdom of darkness, and so, He delivered the man from the control of the demons. In Colossians 1:13 we read, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son." We, even though we are not possessed by demons, have been delivered like this man in the synagogue that day.

In v.34, we know the demons knew that the Lord Jesus was the Holy One of God. This demon in this text screams in the middle of the Lord Jesus' sermon and it's apparent to everybody that a demon is in this man. The demon knew the identity of the Lord Jesus. He said, "I know who You are, you're the Holy One of God."  The demon panicked because his kingdom is being plundered and Jesus is after the soul of that man in whom that demon lives.

Now, there are four things in this text that gets the attention of the demonic world. The preaching of the Word of God, the purpose of the Son of God, the purity of the Son of God and, the power of the son of God.

The word "amazed" in v.36 means to be stunned or shocked, literally to be out of yourself, to literally lose your equilibrium you're so shocked.  It could be translated “dazed,” or “dumbfounded.” It was in this confusing context that the truth produced clarity and conviction. 

So here is this man just sitting there and this gospel is coming out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus with tremendous force and it hits the demon and the demon screams. Literally the demon screams with a loud voice, right in the middle of the preaching. The proclaiming of the word of God exposed the demon. And the demon felt the power of the word. The Lord Jesus came to provide salvation to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. This demon-possessed man in the synagogue in Capernaum became the recipient of the first miracle recorded in Luke.

The response of the Lord Jesus, recorded in v.35, is "Be quiet!" Even though what the demon said was true, the Lord Jesus did not want the testimony of a demon. We must not base a theological position on the testimony of a demon. The Lord Jesus would not accept the testimony of a demon because Satan is the "father of lies." And if we start taking what demons say as what we ought to do, we'll have a tough time discerning what is true from what is false since Satan is the father of lies. 

After saying, "Be quiet," the Lord Jesus then said, "come out of him!' Notice that there were no theatrics or magical incantations. The Lord Jesus simply commands the demon to be quiet and come out. 

According to v.35, "And the demon, after he threw the man in the midst of the crowd, came out of him and did not hurt him. The implication seems to be that in coming out of the man, the demon tries to hurt him, but failed even in this. Though the demon had threatened to hurt the man, it was unable to do anything other than throw him down in the midst of the crowd. The Lord Jesus is in complete control here, even over the disruptive and destructive intentions of demons.

In v.36, "All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out.” The authoritative word of the Lord Jesus was accompanied by this powerful miracle, but the emphasis is still on His word. It is His word, not His works which changes us. It is through His word that we are defined. Of course, we must allow Him to define us, but this is the emphasis in this passage.

According to v.37, as a result of this event, "And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area." News about Him spread, and questions about Him would be raised. At the end of the day, this is the focal point of all creation, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He is the perfect One, He is God.

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Luke 4:22-30

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22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. ~ Luke 4:22-30

In today's text the Lord Jesus has just read the scriptures in His hometown synagogue. His words, according to v.22 gripped His hearers. After reading Isaiah 61:1-2a, the Lord Jesus declared He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy therein. The result is that salvation is available to anyone who acknowledges themselves as spiritually bankrupt.

In v.22, "All spoke well of Him." This doesn't mean they believed in Him as the Messiah, it just means that they spoke of Him in a positive way. The people who heard the Lord Jesus that day were eager for the Messiah to come and take out vengeance on their Gentile enemies. They hated their oppressors, the Romans. It bothered some of them that the Lord Jesus didn't include the last part of Isaiah 61:2 which is about the day of God's vengeance.

These disappointed Jews heard that day that salvation is available to anyone who acknowledges themselves as spiritually poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed. And they're the only ones who will be saved. These, who were increasingly being made angry, who were unwilling to confess their spiritual poverty, and bondage, they viewed themselves as deserving because they thought they were already righteous.

In v.23-24, the Lord Jesus reveals His understanding of these hometown Jews. His comments in v.23 shows He knew they wanted Him to perform miracles as He did in other cities. But, miracles never change hearts. In v.24, the Lord Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown." He was saying, "All experts are from out of town. I can see that it's hard for you to get past the fact that I grew up here and that I am Joseph's and Mary's boy." 

Then, in v.25-27, to drive home His point, the Lord Jesus strategically uses stories from the Old Testament of Elijah and Elisha. These two prophets were largely hated, and rejected by the people of Israel. Elijah served around 850 B.C. At that time, there were many widows. In addition, in the days of Elijah lots of the Jews in Israel had turned to worshipping Baal. In fact, the King of Israel was married to a Gentile woman named Jezebel who was a Baal worshiper. And, Ahab was a worshiper of Baal, as well, who was the Canaanite god of fertility. 

Elijah comes on the scene in 1 Kings 17. The first thing that he does is he announces a drought. The Lord Jesus says here in v.25 that there was no rain in Israel for three and a half years. The result we see at the end of v.25: "there was a severe famine throughout the land."  In addition, there were lots of widows in the land, and God cares about widows. And, it was a time in Israel of apostasy, they're worshiping Baal. Then, God sends a judgment on Ahab and Israel, and the people start to die. 

In v.26, we learn "Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon." The Jews didn't like hearing this story, and they are angry. And, to make matters worse, according to v.26, Elijah was sent to Gentile territory on the north coast of Israel. That area was the home of the father of Jezebel, Ethbaal, who was so devoted to Baal He named himself after Baal. Ethbaal means "Baal is alive." According to 1 Kings 17, God sends Elijah in this midst of all this famine to this widow who believes in the God of the Bible. She is a pagan Gentile widow in the midst of a pagan godless area but she believes in the true and living God. And so to her goes the prophet of God rather than to Israelites. She was desperate, impoverished and she believed.

The Lord Jesus was saying to those Jews, "You may be Jews, you may be part of Israel, you may be the people of the covenants and the people of the Messiah, but I'll tell you this, God will save an outcast Gentile widow who admits her spiritual destitution before He'll save any of you."

These hearers of the Lord Jesus are getting angrier by the moment. They don't  like the fact that He's telling these stories. In v.27, we read, "And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."  Elisha followed Elijah in 850 to 790 B.C. At that time, leprosy was a major problem in Israel. Leprosy made the victim unclean, cut off from all fellowship, all social activity, cut off from the families and isolated because of the contagion that was believed to be a part of this disease. At that time, the people didn't like Elisha because they were still worshiping Baal.

Naaman was a commander-in-chief of a section known as Aram. He was a soldier who commanded a set of troops that were always raiding Israel. They would come across the border and they would terrorize and raid Israel and they would take prisoners and haul the prisoners back to Syria.  

Naaman was a Gentile who had leprosy. On one of his raids he took captive a girl who became a servant in his house to help his wife.  She knew about Naaman's leprosy and she told him, "You need to go find the man of God, Elisha, because God can heal you." Here is an enemy, a Gentile, somebody who has attacked and killed and plundered Israel and he's a leper. This is the outcast of all outcasts. And Elisha says to him, "The God of Israel is willing to heal you. All you have to do is go over to the river and go down seven times." So, Naaman dips down into the dirty river, and, he was healed, he was made clean! 

According to v.28-29, when the people heard these stories, "they were furious. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the crest of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff." The people's pride led them further into their unbelief. These people were so angry with the Lord Jesus, they could not hear that if they humble themselves like a Syrian leper, unless they see themselves as no better than a pagan Gentile woman, unless they see themselves as no better than outcasts, they aren't going to get saved.  

The people grabbed the Lord Jesus and led Him to the hill on which their city had been built. They meant to throw Him off the hill but they were not successful. These people were so entrenched in their self-righteousness, so unwilling to see their sin that when the Messiah came, they tried to kill Him. There's only one reason why people who know the truth about Jesus do not believe. It is because they do not see themselves as the spiritually poor, blind, and broken. God offers nothing to people who do not recognize their own need of a Savior, except judgment.

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Luke 4:16-21

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16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” ~ Luke 4:16-21

As we pointed out in our last blog, Luke moves us from the temptation of the Lord Jesus to the launching of the formal Galilean ministry of the Lord Jesus. During this time in Galilee, the popularity of the Lord Jesus was rising. According to v.16, the Lord Jesus began teaching in the synagogues which were the perfect place for Him to teach. Every town and village had one. 

All of the synagogues in Galilee faced Jerusalem. And so the speaker would look to the back out the door and would be looking directly toward Jerusalem. Synagogues that were built to the east of Jerusalem faced west. Those built to the south faced north because Jerusalem was always the focal point because that was where the temple was located. For the Lord Jesus, every synagogue He ever preached in faced Calvary, and so He taught in the synagogues.

I find it quite interesting that the Lord Jesus had performed no miracles in Nazareth. He had neither taught there nor had He told anybody He was the Son of God or the Messiah. He just worked in His father's carpenter shop. The people of Nazareth didn't know He was the Messiah. They didn't hear Him speak and they didn't see any of His power.  

At this point of the narrative, the Lord Jesus is back in Galilee and the word is traveling regarding what He had done at the marriage at Cana which is adjacent to Nazareth. The people there had heard about the miracle in Cana and they heard about the cleansing of the temple because it happened at Passover and many of the people of Nazareth were there when it happened. And so there was this growing interest in this local young man who had come back home.

On this particular day, the Lord Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. For the first time He stood up to read. In v.17, we read, "and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

In the synagogue, when they read the Torah, they read it in one to three verse increments and several people would read. And, on this day, the Lord Jesus was the only reader and He was reading the text for the sermon that He would give.  He had been approved by the ruler of the synagogue or else He wouldn't have been given the opportunity. This was the first time the Lord Jesus taught in a synagogue. 

In v.17, we read, "and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him."  And the Lord Jesus reads Luke 4:18-19 which is a quotation of Isaiah 61:1-2. Now, the people knew that this was a messianic passage. They knew that Isaiah's prophecy was largely a prophecy about the Messiah.  And it is a quotation of Isaiah 61:1, which reads "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me." 

Interestingly, in v.19 where the Lord Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:2: "To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." He stops in the middle of the verse because the rest of Isaiah 61:2 says, "And the day of vengeance of our God." The Lord Jesus leaves the latter part out because it was not time to talk about vengeance. It was not time to talk about judgment. It was time to talk about salvation.

After He read that portion, He closed the book, rolled it back up and gave it back to the attendant, sat down, because being seated was the traditional posture for teaching. Then He said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He was saying, "I am the Messiah." 

Another reason the Lord Jesus closed the book and turned the comma into a period is because He will come again. There will be, yet, another coming. Yes, He is coming again. And when He does, he will fulfill the second part, "the day of vengeance of our God," the great tribulation period, the wrath of God upon the earth. 

So the Jews believe the Messiah was coming. He had come. He's announcing, "I've come." What they didn't know yet, and now we know, there's a thing called the "church age" between His first coming and His second coming of Isaiah 61:2. That comma turned into a period has lasted more than 2,000 years. 

We should be thankful for this punctuation the Lord Jesus provided that day when He spoke in that synagogue. Be thankful for the comma, because we were saved by the comma. The church age is the comma. The age of grace is the comma. The worldwide gospel going out to all of creation is in that comma. One day there will be "the day of vengeance of our God." There will be no more comma left.  

There will be a final reckoning, period. But until that period, we live in the comma. We live in the age of grace. It is still the acceptable year of our Lord. So, the Lord Jesus announces, "I'm the Messiah. I'm sent to the poor, to the brokenhearted." And, He turned the comma into a period.

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Luke 4:14-15

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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.

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Luke 4:5-13

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5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. ~ Luke 4:5-13

Luke gives us three examples of the temptations Satan threw at the Lord Jesus. First, in v.3 he says, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Then, in v.5–7 Satan shows him all the kingdoms of the world and says, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours." Finally, in v.9–11 Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

We come to the second temptation in v.5, where we read, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world." Again, the devil is questioning God's promise. Here the devil is offering the Lord Jesus rule and reign over the whole earth without having to go to the cross. All of this only if the Lord Jesus will worship this one who once said, "I will be like the Most High."

Notice the response of the Lord Jesus in v.8 which reads, "It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." The Lord Jesus responds with God's definition of this subject. That's it! That's the key, letting God define us and our lives.

In v.9, we see the third temptation which reads, "The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here." 

With this third temptation, the devil quotes Scripture. In v.10-11, we read, "For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” But, the devil is quoting the verse out of its context. This verse that the devil is quoting comes from Psalm 91. In quoting this verse, the devil is suggesting a way that was not the way of God.   

 

Then in v.12, the Lord Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 which reads, "It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test." 

In v.13, we read, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." The Greek word kairos is used here, not chronos, not chronological time, but just the right showing of time. The devil is waiting to tempt the Lord Jesus at "an opportune time." Perhaps when he perceives that He is weakened.

The Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders, "You do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." We'll never know the power of God until we know the Scriptures; they go hand and hand. 

These temptations are amazingly relevant for us today. Satan doesn't tempt the mature with adultery, fornication, stealing, lying, murder which are all too obvious. When Satan means business with someone strong in the faith, he sticks with religion and he makes the Bible his textbook. 

He says to us "If you are a child of God, why are you living like a pauper? If you are a child of the king, why don't you live like a prince? The children of the king don't drive second-hand clunkers, they drive new cars. The children of the king don't throw their lives away in ministry, living on a shoestring budget, building no reserves. If you are a child of the king, claim your blessings. God has promised to send his angels to make you healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. Throw yourself into these blessings. The best testimony you can be to your status as an heir of God is to be wealthy and have the best of everything."

If only we today could see this new "gospel" as a species of Satan's temptation to Jesus. Satan had one aim in the wilderness: to do whatever he could to keep the Lord Jesus from suffering. He was willing to let the Lord Jesus have all the glory and authority of a world ruler if he just wouldn't gain it through suffering. He was eager to let Jesus use his divine power if he would just use it to relieve his suffering. He was willing to let all the worshipers in Jerusalem see and acknowledge his divine sonship if only the angels of God would keep Jesus from suffering. 

In Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus said to the disciples that he had to go up to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed, and Peter said, "God forbid, Lord"? Jesus responded to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me" (Matthew 16:23). Satan's aim in the wilderness was to hinder Jesus from suffering. Because His suffering and death meant the final destruction of Satan and the salvation of you and me. And Satan's aim in the church today is to hinder us from following the Lord Jesus when he says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (in the path of suffering)." (Luke 9:23).

People sometimes ask, if Satan is real, why don't we see more demon possession and exorcisms in America. Satan holds American Christianity so tightly in the vice-grip of comfort and wealth that he's not about to tip his hand with too much demonic craziness. What Satan fears most in the American church is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that causes us to say with Paul, "I count everything as refuse that I might gain Christ . . . that I might know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."

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Luke 4:1-4

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1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” Luke 4:1-4

Luke 4:1-13 describes the forty day temptation the Lord Jesus experienced in the wilderness. This is the final event, before the Lord Jesus actually begins His public ministry. This conflict with the Devil takes place almost six weeks. In many ways, it is the final exam of the Lord Jesus in the process of being prepared for His ministry. As Messiah, the Lord Jesus came to render sin and death null and void. In order to do this, He had to defeat Satan head to head. If the Lord Jesus is our Savior, He has to conquer Satan. Today, we are just considering the first four verses.

It is important to know that Jesus was a man. Yes, He is God, but He voluntarily set aside His privileges as God. He didn't cease to be God, He is fully God and fully man. He did what the Father wanted Him to do and He did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. So He set aside the use of His divine powers and submitted Himself to true humanness and allowed the Spirit of God to work His work through Him.

According to v.1, the Lord Jesus was fully submitted to the Holy Spirit who led Him into the wilderness. And, "the devil," in v.2, confronts Him. The word "devil" is the Greek word diabolos, which means "accuser," or "slanderer."  "The Devil" is the accuser of the brethren. And, of course, he would want to bring an accusation against Jesus Himself, but he had none that he could bring legitimately.  

Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus. But, the demonic world doesn't. Repeatedly the Devil says to the Lord Jesus, "If” or "since you are the Son of God." He employs the first class conditional sentence which means when you use an "if" followed by a positively structured sentence, it means "since you are the Son of God." Satan knew exactly who he was dealing with, this is why he tried to pressure the Lord Jesus to sin.

Every temptation that came to the Lord Jesus was a temptation from the outside of Him. It couldn't from within because He was sinless. However, this doesn't mean the temptations weren't real. His temptation came at Him to its maximum capacity because He endured the fullest pressure and never gave in to it. 

The devil found him in the wilderness, the area between the Dead Sea, the Jordan river, and Jerusalem. This is an area referred to in the Old Testament as Jeshimon, translated "the devastation." It is mountainous and rocky, with jagged peaks and severe ravines that go down hundreds of feet. It is dry and barren. It is inhabited by wild animals, snakes, and scorpions. 

Before he became know as the Devil his name was Lucifer. According to Luke 10:18, the Lord Jesus saw Lucifer fall from heaven like lightning.  He was the anointed angel. Some of his story is given in Ezekiel 28:11-15, Isaiah 14:12-14.  He was the anointed angel which probably means he was the praise and worship leader of heaven.  He was heaven's chief musician.  He was the one who led all the angelic praise.

For some incomprehensible reason he decided that wasn't enough, that he wanted to be equal with God.  And so the prophets tell us, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, that he said, "I will" five times. Pride was lifted up in his heart and he thought to dethrone God and God threw him out of heaven. In Revelation 12 we learn when God threw him out of heaven, He threw a third of the angels with him because they joined his rebellion. There was a mutiny in heaven. One third of the angels became the demons then.

Then he succeeded with Adam and Eve and plunged all humanity into sin. Now he comes after the Lord Jesus, the incarnate God-Man Himself.  And he must destroy Jesus because He has come to conquer sin and death and offer man a personal relationship with God. 

So into the wilderness comes Jesus, all alone, led by the Spirit of God who has filled Him, to find the devil for the confrontation.  This loneliest of all places, this anti-Eden, this most cursed piece of land where no garden grows and for forty days the devil throws everything he's got at Him.

According to v.2, "He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry."  He had eaten nothing for forty days. The devil has been tempting Him this whole time, and He's felt the maximum power of every temptation. And finally the devil backs away and for the first time in forty days it tells us, "at the end of them he was hungry."  He wasn't hungry during the forty days, the whole deal was too intense.

As the Lord Jesus begins to feel the hunger, the devil senses a new opportunity.  He senses vulnerability, and he moves in yet again. This time he uses a different strategy. According to v.3 he sees an angle in the Lord Jesus being starved and weak. He's now going to exploit that to the max and see if he can't crush the Son of God under the power of his assault.

Luke gives us three examples of the temptations Satan threw at the Lord Jesus. Today, we will just consider the first. In v.3, Satan is questioning God's provision by saying, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." You will remember, he is saying "since you are the Son of God." "Since you have all power, use your power to satisfy yourself." 

This is really a question about God's provision. "Hey, since you're the Promised One, you're the Son of God, since that's true, why isn't your Father providing for you out here? Why would He let His own Son, the Messiah, starve to death? So, use your power to satisfy yourself."  

In v.4, we read, "Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone." He is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 which in effect says, "You obey Me and I'll make sure you have everything you need." Life isn't a matter of what we eat. Life is a matter of realizing the purposes of God in this world and how we fit into what He is doing. 

The Lord Jesus is affirming His absolute confidence in and dependence upon God. He's affirming what Paul says, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  His confident and ours is based on the character of the Father who will always meet our every need.

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Luke 3:23-38

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23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josek, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melki, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. ~ Luke 2:23-38

I know, I know what you're thinking, "this is a long list of genealogy, and it is boring." But, it is not. In fact, by the end of this blog, you will be blown away.

In our text, Luke provides the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. In it, Luke gives a great amount of detail, listing seventy-seven names in the line of the Messiah, all the way back to Adam, and even back to God, who is the last name mentioned in v.38.

The Jews kept precise genealogical records as a matter of public availability and accuracy. And, though they were young, Mary and Joseph were devout lovers of God and of the Scripture.  And they were surely aware of the fact that the prophets had said that the Messiah would come to redeem mankind. This is the purpose of this genealogy, to show the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Now, the ancestry of the Lord Jesus given by Luke takes us back to David, then back to Abraham, then back to Adam and then it goes back to God. Luke shows the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of God's redemptive prophecies and purposes. The Lord Jesus is the hope of all humanity. The fate of everyone who has ever lived and will ever live is linked to the Lord Jesus being the Messiah.

In these first three chapters of his Gospel account, Dr. Luke is amassing evidence to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. And it's irrefutable evidence. The genealogy of the Lord Jesus shows that He is the promised Messiah because He comes through the royal line that goes back to David which was predicted in advance. And it's very important in v.31, the last name is David. The Lord Jesus' lineage comes through the line of David, from Adam down to Abraham down to David down to Jesus.  

Luke, in his genealogy of the Lord Jesus goes from the present to the past. He starts with the grandfather of the Lord Jesus and goes all the way back to Adam and God. Luke goes from the present to the past, whereas Matthew goes from the past to the present. 

Luke's genealogy has seventy-seven names, whereas Matthew has forty-two names. Luke's list is a lot longer because he goes past Abraham all the way to Adam.  Neither of the genealogy lists give all the names.  Not every name is there. We know that by comparing some of the genealogy records of Genesis. 

In Matthew's genealogy and in Luke's genealogy we have different names in the records. In v.31, Luke traces Jesus' line back to David through Nathan. Nathan was David's third son born to Bathsheba. But the first son born to Bathsheba was Solomon. And the genealogy in Matthew goes back through Solomon. So in Matthew's genealogy we go back through Solomon to David. In Luke's genealogy we go back through Nathan to David. So, we have two different lines.

Matthew identifies Jesus' grandfather as a man named Jacob. He writes Jesus' earthly father was Joseph and his father was Jacob. But Luke writes in v.23, that Jesus' grandfather's name was Eli. So, we've got two sons of David, and we've got two grandfathers of Jesus, one being Jacob in the genealogy of Matthew, one being Eli in the genealogy of Luke. Both are royal lines because both come out of David. Solomon comes out of David, Nathan comes out of David. You have both those royal lines.

Interestingly, from David to Abraham the genealogy of Matthew and Luke are identical. From David back to Abraham, the names are the same. But from David down, the names are completely different. When we read the genealogy in Matthew 1 and we go Joseph, Jacob, we go through a list of names back to Solomon. Then we come here, we read Eli, and we go through a list of names back to Nathan. Those lists are different. What we really have then is two grandfathers, going back to two sons of David with different names.

Everybody has two genealogies like that. One is maternal and one is paternal. In Matthew we have the genealogy of Joseph through his father Jacob back to David through Solomon. In Luke we have the genealogy of Mary through her father, Eli.  

In our text, we have the genealogy of Mary which Luke gives under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to prove not only does He have the legal right to rule through His father, but He has the blood of David in his veins because of His mother. So either way, He is a descendant of David. He is the King legally through Joseph, and He is King naturally through Mary.  The credentials are clear, they are detailed and they are irrefutable.

Our text includes the genealogy of Mary, but, there's a problem, Mary is not mentioned. Of course, there aren't any women named in the entire genealogy, Mary notwithstanding. So, the first male would be Mary's father, and that's Eli. So, Luke, through Mary's father Eli traces the line of the Lord Jesus all the way back through Nathan.

To the contrary, Matthew includes four women in his genealogy. In fact, he picked two prostitutes, an adulteress, and an outcast, Gentile. Luke picked Tamar, whose story included having sex with her father. Luke picked Rahab who was a prostitute. Luke picked Ruth, who was a cursed Moabitess. And, Luke picked Bathsheba who conceived a child out of wedlock with David. I love this, because Matthew does this to demonstrate and highlight God's grace. 

Philip Yancey writes about grace by saying, “At the heart of the gospel is a God who deliberately surrenders to the wild, irresistable power of love.” He goes on to write, “Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live. He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions about who God is and who God loves.” 

In v.23, we read, "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry."  The Lord Jesus had been living in obscurity in the town of Nazareth with His family, working in His father's business. He had only made one public appearance in terms of the text of Scripture, that at the age of twelve at the Passover. He spent thirty years in obscurity and didn't have a public ministry.

His public ministry was launched by His baptism in v.21-22. Luke then tells us in v.23 the Lord Jesus then began His ministry. This is verified, by the way, in Acts 1:22 and Acts 10:37 where it says He began His ministry at His baptism. 

Age thirty was the recognized age when people would acknowledge someone in a position of authority. According to Numbers 4, when somebody entered into priestly service, they needed to be thirty years of age. He would have been capable at the age of eighteen, or nineteen or twenty to engage Himself in the way He did in His ministry, but He waited until an appropriate age which the people would acknowledge as an appropriate age, the age of thirty. And He began His ministry. 

But, before we get into that ministry, Luke gives us this genealogy as part of His credentials. In v.23-38, Luke starts with Eli and ends with God. He goes backwards from the Lord Jesus back to Adam back to God.

In v.38, Luke identifies the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. Every one of Adam's descendants has been stained with the sin of Adam and the likeness of God has been corrupted. But, not so with the Lord Jesus who is Himself the sinless, perfect man bearing absolutely perfectly the image of God. But He is not only the Son of God, He's also the Son of Adam. He is like us, tempted, troubled, suffering, persecuted, hated, reviled and killed. He is fully man and fully God, and therefore most qualified to be our Savior.

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Luke 3:18-22

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18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. 19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison. 21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” ~ Luke 3:18-22

John the Baptist's preaching was bold, strong, and confrontative. He called on all people to repent from depending upon themselves to depending upon God.  He told them if they would repent from their sin, God would forgive their sins, and they would enter a personal relationship with God.  John's boldness cost him his life, and he became the first martyr for Christ.

The Jews were tired of the Roman oppression and they wanted the Messiah to arrive and deliver them and liberate them from the Roman rule.  And, when they heard that the forerunner of the Messiah was there, they clamored to hear him. John was preaching the message of repentance and he was baptizing people as an outward symbol of their inward repentance and this was going on for about six months before the Lord Jesus actually showed up to be identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

John was the last representation of the law which spiritually crushes us. John used the law to reveal to the people their wickedness and the reality of eternal judgment.  He preached the reality of eternal hell.  And he preached that men would go there if they didn't repent and believe in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He warned people to flee from the wrath to come.  

At the end of about six months of John's ministry, the Lord Jesus came on the scene. John the Baptist baptized the Lord Jesus.  At that point, God was officially identifying Jesus as the Messiah, but that did not end, as I said, John's ministry. It continued for about six months longer.

At the end of v.18 we read, "John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them."  The people, of course, were the Jews. But John's message. In v.19 we read, "But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done."

Herod was not a Jew, he was an Edomite. This one fact proves John didn't limit his preaching to the Jews. John's ministry overlapped the ministry of the Lord Jesus until Herod put him in jail. John thrived upon preaching the Gospel, the Good News of a personal relationship with God.

Luke 3:19-20 is a parenthetical idea. In these two verses Luke describes the circumstances of John's death. Luke is not chronological here, Herod didn't put him in prison at this point. That came some time later. Luke is just wrapping up the story of John the Baptist, so he reaches forward to tell you how that story ends. 

Luke records the imprisonment of John the Baptist before he records Jesus' baptism because he wants to emphasize the break between John's ministry and the Lord Jesus' ministry. This was a tremendous turning point in redemptive history because the Lord Jesus started preaching in Luke 16:16 says, "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it." 

In v.21 we read, "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened." From this point on, the spotlight is on the Lord Jesus and His teaching. John's ministry overlapped the ministry of the Lord Jesus about six months. He was in prison for up to a year at which time he was executed.

According to v. 21 the baptism of the Lord Jesus was not just a part of John's work, but its climax. The coming of the Lord Jesus meant the going of John who said in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." 

The Lord Jesus was baptized by John not due to His need to repent, He was perfect. The Lord Jesus was baptized by John even though John, in Matthew's gospel, tried to prevent the Lord Jesus from being baptized by saying, "'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.'" He was baptized because it was fitting for Him to do everything that is right. 

According to v.21, the Lord Jesus was praying when the heavens opened and the Spirit came and God spoke? Luke loves to picture the Lord Jesus in prayer. He shows Him praying at all the crucial turning points of His life: here at the baptism, at the selection of the twelve apostles (6:12), at Peter's confession (9:18), at the transfiguration (9:28), in Gethsemane (22:41), on the cross (23:34). He tells us that Jesus went repeatedly to the wilderness to pray (5:16) and that he spent whole nights in prayer (6:12). The point of all this must be to show that even in Jesus' life there is a correlation between earnest prayer and the blessing of God.

Then, according to v.22, God answers the Lord Jesus' prayer by sending His Spirit in a visible form and then declaring verbally His delight in His Son by saying, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." The dove suggests Jesus purity, meekness, and innocence. It was not majestic like the eagle or fierce like the hawk. It was simple, common, innocent, the kind of bird poor people could offer for a sacrifice.

Finally, notice the words from the Father to the Son: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." This is one of two times the audible voice of God was heard. The other was at the Transfiguration in Luke 9:35 which reads, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” In Luke 9 the Father speaks for the benefit of Peter, James and John who were with the Lord Jesus. In our text today, the Father speaks to the Son for His encouragement as He starts this three and a half year journey.

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