The Holy One of God

Well it’s a Saturday and I am home alone. Well not actually alone, I have Maisie and Frieda for company. No they are not exchange students from Denmark. One is my own dog Maisie a black lab and shepherd mix (though for some strange reason she is yellow). The other is a doberman that belongs to my daughter that is visiting us for several days. The two dogs are still trying to figure each other out. I hear a snap and a growl every 5 minutes or so. As you can tell by their names they are both girls so I can't figure out what their problem is. I am reluctant to crate them since I don't want them locked up all day. We will just have to see how it goes.

In previous posts we were exposed to some pretty radical ideas from Luke. You don't hear too much discussion at work or in the store parking lot of Satan, unless its to make a joke. We seem to think that all their is to our world is the things we can see and touch. But at the same time we cling to ideas of love, hope and a seeking to have a relationship with God. We also talked last time about sin. I keep checking the dictionary to see that it is still in the English language. We are uncomfortable with a word that signifies an absolute or that would imply that I am not OK. But as we saw last time their is a spiritual battle going on. Sin is very real. It effects us very deeply in our relationship with God. As we discussed we are prisoners of war, captured by the power of sin.

Some would look at the story from my last post and think that Jesus was referring to our psychological condition. He has come to bring a new teaching that will allow us to think differently and treat each other better. This idea of Jesus being just a good teacher will be blown out of the water by the next set of verses.

Luke 4:31 hen he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. ³²They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. ³³In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴"Ha! 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.
³⁶All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" ³⁷And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

I want to remind you again that Luke writes his narrative with an eye to grounding the events in a place and time. This is not a rough account, sort a "one time something happened" . Jesus went to Capernaum and was teaching in the synagogue.

We learn that there is a man there with an evil spirit. It also appears their was more than one "What to you want with us". The one speaking could have been the spokesman for the rest. I suspect that the folks either didn't know their was a man in their midst with an evil spirit or they didn't know what to do about it. I wonder what we would think if we were aware that someone with an evil spirit was sitting right in our church.

The demon's knew who Jesus was. These demon's proclaimed that Jesus was "the Holy One of God". Their are many references of demons acknowledging Jesus as "Son of God". Their acknowledgement was not one of that would lead to salvation. The demons, as angels, made their choice long ago to be in rebellion to God and their was no turning back. They knew their time was limited and that Jesus had the authority to make them submit to His will.

Now the spiritual battle begins. "Be quiet!!" "Come out of him!!". Jesus is now fulfilling the prophecy brought up in the previous versus. He is setting this captive free. The man is knocked over from the encounter, but is uninjured.

The people are amazed. Jesus didn't set up special sessions, He didn't gather the elders for prayer, He didn't ask the man to leave. He sternly and with authority told the demons to come out of the man and they did. This amazing demonstration of power is what made Jesus popular. This is what got people talking. This person is different that other religious teachers. He has the ability to heal, drive out demons and forgive sins.

If you are searching for a savior isn't this the person you want to come to know? You don't want to be following someone who is just has some clever teaching, is charismatic when speaking or just claims to have authority from God. You want a real savior Jesus Christ "The Holy One of God", "The Son of God", the one who has power over Satan and His demons.

Man With a Mission

Living in Maine is interesting this time of year, if you like to talk about the weather.  You might ask what is so interesting about cold and snow.  Well every year is different.   The amount of snow, how cold can it get.  One morning it was -26 at my house.   I fired off an e-mail to folks at work and someone responded back it was -32 at their house.  We have quite a bit of snow this year, but not anything like what we experienced last year.  Even though I am getting older I still like Maine in winter.  But I will be honest I have been looking forward to getting out and riding my motorcycle.  Maybe in another 3 - 4 weeks (i am optimistic).

Lately in our church we have shown and will be showing the movie Fireproof.  I cannot say enough about this movie.  It has touched and changed lives through it straight forward and honest message.  Well done, action packed, funny and romantic.  Its got it all.  I have been on the volunteer fire company for 20 years.  If you are a firefighter/rescue person the action scenes I found are very real.

Getting back to the topic of this blog which is to provide simple and straight answers from God's Word for those searching for a savior.  What better context than the passage that Jesus read in the synagogue, that we looked at last week in Luke 4:18, 19

18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
  
First of all this passage that Jesus read is from Is 61:1,2.  It is meant as a passage of prophecy, encouragement and hope.  And as we stated in the last post Jesus proclaimed that this prophecy was fulfilled on the day of His reading it.  Jesus was the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Lets look at it a phrase at a time.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me".  God's Holy Spirit the third person of the trinity has come upon Jesus.  We already saw that as Jesus was baptized.  The Holy Spirit descended like a dove.   Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus preached by the power of the Spirit Lk 4:14.  Why do we have so many references as Jesus begins His ministry to the Spirit.  To show that there is real power and authority involved in Jesus ministry.  That this is God's work, His Word and His promise being fulfilled.


"To preach the gospel to the poor".  Is the gospel really to be preached to only those who don't have a bank account, a house and car?  Are rich folks really excluded from the gospel message?  This doesn't seem to be the case given the crowds He preached to.  It would appear that within the context the poor are those who are poor in spirit.  They are downtrodden, discouraged and looking for hope.   The gospel of salvation is for them.

"He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted".  Again we could focus on the healing, as in healing the sick.  But we need to see that the healing is for the brokenhearted.  How many of our hospitals, nursing homes, institutions, apartments and homes are filled with those who are brokenhearted, alone and looking for healing from God.

"To proclaim liberty to the captives".   Some translations use prisoner here.  I like the NKJV because it uses captive.  Jesus did not go into the cities and towns commit a bunch of jail breaks. The idea here is someone that is a prisoner of war.  So what prisoners of war did Jesus free.  The war referred to here is a spiritual war.  The war that Satan has with God.   Satan has made us captive.  He has brought of over to His side.  How has he done that?  This is where the Gospel message becomes an offense to those who accept the lies and deceit of Satan.  We are captives because of our SIN.   Our rebellion against God, our choosing our own way, separates us from a relationship with God.  God is just, good and righteous.  We are selfish and sinful.  We saw with the temptation in the desert that Satan has dominion of this world at this time.  That is why the idea of sin is not a popular one.  If we acknowledge sin than we lose our self worth.  We become discouraged.  But Jesus is coming to proclaim liberty to the captives.  We are freed from our prisoner of war status through our acceptance of Jesus Christ as saviour.

"And recovery of sight to the blind"  Jesus did heal many of blindness.  But given the context of this passage, I think this really is giving sight to those who are blinded by the falsehoods of the prince of this world.  We can not perceive God and His salvation alone.  We need for Him through the Holy Spirit to make clear the gospel message.   Maybe you are reading the blog and saying what is he talking about, none of this makes sense.  In 1 Cor 1:21 it says "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe".  Please pray in faith that your eyes maybe opened to the truth of the Gospel.
 
"To set at liberty those who are oppressed;"  Finally we see that not only are we captive, we are oppressed.  Without a savior there is only a pretense of joy and satisfaction.  We joke around with our friends and say who really needs God, who really needs to be with Christians.   I don't need what they are selling.  But deep down inside you know that isn't true, there isn't any real joy in the things of this world.


I pray that your eyes will be opened, you will be set free and that you will be delivered from oppression.

Ain't that Joe's Boy?

Been a couple of weeks since my last posting, so lets catch up on what is happening here in Luke chapter 4 since Jesus has left the desert and the temptation by Satan.

Luke 4:14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

After resisting the temptation by Satan he leaves the desert and enters the area of Galilee.  Jesus is no longer hungry, weak or alone.  He has been ministered to by angels and has received power through the Holy Spirit.  As he travels about he teaches and makes quite an impression on everyone in the surrounding area.  They are excited.  To glorify is to give to Jesus the recognition that is His due.  Essentially they are praising Him for his ministry in word and dead.  He was healing and doing miracles as we see from the reputation Jesus had when he visited Nazareth.

This is great so eventually he comes into Nazereth.  Basically Jesus home town.

Luke 4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
       18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Jesus went into and taught in the Synagogue because there he would find people gathered together for prayer, the reading of the scripture and exposition of what was read.  This basically meant the reader expressing what the scripture was about.  This wasn't like a lot of churches today.  The reading was done at a table typically at the center of the assembly.  After the reading the person proclaiming what the passage was about sat amongst all the others that were gathered.


It was likely as Jesus entered the Synagogue in Nazereth that he was asked to do the reading because of the reputation he had gained.  So he reads the passage from the Old Testament scripture in the book of Isaiah which ends with the phrase to "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord".  As stated many months ago when we first started studying Luke, the people of Israel were looking for the Messiah.  They were looking for someone to restore them to their former glory, as an independent and powerful nation.  To free them from the rule of the Romans.  This was a passage of hope that someday God would deliver Israel.  The people in the synagogue were anxious to see what Jesus would say about this passage.

Luke 4:20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

WOW!! This is great news from someone the people looked to and respected.  The scripture has been fulfilled.  Jesus is saying His arrival is ushering in the acceptable year of the Lord. He probably went on to explain more about this passage which we will look into more in depth next time.  As he finishes speaking a few things happen.

• They were amazed at His teaching.  They way he taught, the authority and knowledge that Jesus had.
• There must have been encouragement in His words that lifted their spirits
• Now that Jesus was with them they were ready to witness the miracles and healing that they heard about.  Since this was Jesus home town they were expecting quite a show.
  
• Some were wondering about how the son of Joseph could be the person that they have been hearing about. 

Many times around here when something happens in the local news (heard in the Whistle Stop, Dunkin Donuts', Sophia's or parking lot of the IGA) involving a young person good or bad.  The phrase is usually uttered ain't that Joe's kid, the Smith boy, one the kids up on Durginton Road or some such similar phrase.

So it was in this situation.  Jesus was now well known and its was hard to believe that He grew up right here in Nazareth.  Can't wait to see what he is going to do.  Jesus knew what they were thinking.

Luke 14:23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Briefly since this post is getting kind of long.  Jesus knew they wanted Him to have a special ministry right there in Nazareth.  Stick around our town and become famous.  Jesus responded that He really would not be accepted just because of His teaching.  The prophets that God sent to Israel were not welcome.  Examples are given about Elijah and Elisha ministering to foreigners when Israel was in need.  Jesus was indicating that the people of Nazareth were really not ready to receive Him as the fulfillment of scripture.

Needless to say this was not well received.

Luke 4:28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.  

The people had two choices.  They could have made every effort to prove Jesus wrong, by accepting His teaching and inviting Him to continue in His ministry there.  It would have proven that there words of praise were sincere.  However they proved Jesus right that really in there hearts they weren't ready to accept Jesus, the local boy made famous and Jesus really revealed their true hearts as they rose up in wrath to cast Him out of thier town.  Next time we will spend a little personnal update and also look more closely at the passage Jesus read to better understand what is really being fullfilled.