Luke 4:14-15

Luke chapter 4, verses 14 and 15. And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee, and there went out of fame of him through all region roundabout. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. that God blessed to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. Although C.H. Spurgeon, the famous Baptist minister, died in 1892. For many years after his death, his sermons were still being printed. It seems that through notes that were taken and so forth, they were able to put together volumes and volumes and volumes of sermons, even after he had died, and they were circulated for many years quite widely. So even after his death, his sermons had influence. There was an elderly woman who once lived with a Christian family, who was extremely death, and she spent a lot of time as a passionate reader of Spurgeon’s sermons. They call her Annie. When they ask her why, she almost exclusively read Spurgeon sermons. Her eyes brighten, and she said Spurgeon is pure cream, while the others are merely skim milk. You see here in our text the beginning of Christ earthly ministry. You have an account here of his preaching, not what he preached per se as much. We’ll get into that a little bit when he gets to Nazareth. but right away we just have a general account. Price preaching was much different from the religious leaders around him, the Pharisees and the scribes and so forth. People were amazed by what they heard when Jesus spoke. His wisdom, his depth of knowledge, his application of the text to the life. They were. beyond compared. Never a man spake like this man. At best with everybody else, he got skim milk, but with Christ, he got pure cream. He was very rich and very full in his content. Now, we’ve seen him overcome all of Satan’s temptations, the major temptations, the three in the wilderness. And he begins here on a more offensive. manner to expand the kingdom and preach the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and Christ intends to gather people into it. And so we see him preaching the gospel. Now let me begin, as we look at this text by saying this, that Christ came in the power of the spirit into Galilee. We read here in verse 14, and Jesus returned from the wilderness temptation here and perhaps from Jerusalem, where the last temptation is mentioned for us, in the power of the spirit, into Galilee, the power of the spirit, Jesus Christ was granted a special empowerment as the God man by the Spirit to do this work of the ministry. You know, this verse 18. We’ll get to this in another study, Lord willing. He says here, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And so this preaching is based upon the spirit of God being upon him. And he was gifted. He was motivated to preach by the spirit of the Lord. He’s strongly inclined to do it. Now, Jesus was not trained under the various religious teachers of the day, but he was taught by God, and so he taught with authority when he preached. As he entered his public ministry, he was also enabled to perform miracles and heal the sick, as we shall also see. But the power of the spirit was upon. We also see, we also see. the direction of the Spirit. Because the Spirit guided him and he returned, it says, into Galilee. He was led by the Spirit under the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. And here, he’s led by the Spirit to Galilee. Back to his hometown area. Matthew’s Gospel provides a little further information after the temptation took place. We read this in Matthew 412. Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. So this adds a little more to it. But he was led there by the Spirit, directed by the Spirit. The Spirit led him into Galilee, a remote part of the country, a safe distance from Jerusalem. And so we see this taking place. It was part of the country. It was part of the city. of Christ’s humiliation, I think, that he would begin his ministry in such a humble manner. He doesn’t start out at the temple and, you know, before everyone and all the leaders of the Jews and so forth. He starts out in a remote part of the country. Far from the central hub of religious activity of the day, the temple. While Jesus was born in this area, it wasn’t out of love of country that he went to Galilee, but we see that he went there by a powerful impulse of the Spirit upon him. He was moved to go there. The Spirit wanted him to start here in Galilee. Nor was this merely for his safety, but as the scripture reveals to us, it was fulfilling prophecy. If you look with me at Matthew 4 verses 12 to 16, We see a quotation here from Isaiah 11, which gives us an indication of why he ended up at this point in Galilee. One of the reasons. Matthew chapter 4 beginning with verse 12. Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Copernia. Now, we’ll find out why he left Nazareth. And the next a study or so here, which is upon the sea coast and the borders of Zebulan and Nathfulam. And it might, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah’s the prophet saying, the land of Zebulan and the land of Nephilim, by way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw great light, to them which sat in the region, and shabule of of death, light is sprung up. And so we see here the fulfillment of prophecy taking place. The direction of the Spirit. Now, let me draw a couple of practical implications from what we read here in verse 14. And the first is this. It is the power of the Spirit, which qualifies you to preach above everything else. else. When God calls you to preach, he grants you a knowledge of his word and a burning desire to proclaim it. It is the spirit which stirs up this powerful motivation within people, men, to preach, to declare God’s word. At one point, the prophet Jeremiah became very discouraged. He was being ridiculed daily. people mocked him. It didn’t seem like his message was being received. Well, was utterly rejected. And finally, Jeremiah had enough of the abuse, and this is what he said in chapter 20 and verse 9. Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. I’m done. I quit. Is this the end of Jeremiah’s ministry? No. Is he able to just quit and walk away? No. What was the problem? In verse 10, he says this. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire. Shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing. And I could not stay. I couldn’t hold it back again. I couldn’t hold it in it. The spirit prompted him, motivated him, stirred him to where he, I could. couldn’t keep silent. I had to speak. And so we see this power of the spirit resting upon people. And so he had to vent the flame that was within him. Jeremiah did. When God calls you to the ministry, it is the spirit that compels us to stay in the ministry. Even under all the hardships, many times, the reason why people stay in the ministry is because they feel compelled to do it. Paul, when he was at Corinth, we read that he was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. He was pressed. He was compelled. Remember he was getting some persecution there. God said, stay there. I got many people here. And then he felt compelled. He had prompted by the spirit to continue. It’s like a new one. wine in a bottle. It’s, you know, it has that vigorous, very to burst as spirit to it. I can’t explain this. All I can say is the work of the spirit that motivates men to preach. And Christ here is motivated to preach, gifted to do so and power to do so by the spirit. It is the power of the spirit which qualifies you to preach above everything else. And notice this. You find God sovereignly determined. where and to whom the gospel should be preached. Jesus here does not begin his ministry in Jerusalem, nor does he begin his ministry in Judea. But in the remote region of Galilee, why? Because he was led to do so by the Spirit of God. It’s always God’s choice. It’s his sovereign decision where the gospel is going to be proclaimed. Look with me at Acts chapter 16, if you would. This is an account of Paul in this missionary journey. He is Timothy with him here. But we read in verse 6 through verse 10, these words. Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mitesya, they assailed to go into Bethinia, but the spirit suffered them not. They passed by Micea and came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed to him, saying, Come over in the Macedonian, help us. And after he had seen the vision immediately, we endeavor to go into Macedonia assuredly, gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Here we see that while Paul wished to continue throughout Asia, what we call Turkey, Turkey, Asia Minor, and preached the gospel, God prevented it. The Holy Spirit forbade him to do so. He ends up in Troas. He looks across the strait over to Europe, here and he gets this vision and gives him direction that he’s supposed to go to Greece, that he’s supposed to go to Europe with the gospel. And it becomes clear that just as God causes the rain to fall on one city and not on another, so God sends his gospel and his word upon one area and withholds it from another. Today, no one will be given any extraordinary vision or revelation by God. We’re not going to have a heavenly voice or vision telling us, well, go over here, go over there. However, the Holy Spirit still leads his people by opening and closing doors in his providence and motivating his servants, putting it on their hearts to go to a particular place, country, city, so forth, and preach the gospel. And that’s the way God seems to work. And so we see that God, sovereignly determines where and to whom the gospel should be preached or proclaim. The third thing we see is this. You are taught that harming God’s messengers may lead to the withdrawal, the Word of God. Now, he read that passage from Matthew. When Jesus heard that Herod had put John in prison, he leaves. By the direction of the Spirit, but he leaves, he withdraws. the persecution of ministers of the gospel often leads to them leaving and God pulling away the gospel from a particular area. Christ here departs from the land of Judea and goes to the galley. Remember what Jesus taught his disciples. Anyone who will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. You could say the same thing about land. The shaking of the dust from the city off of you is almost as if we’re not going to have any more to do with you. I don’t even have a speck of dust on me from you. I’m done with you. And you move on. We see this in Acts chapter 13 where Paul was in Antioch of Pisidia and the Jews gave him a hard time, persecuted him. So where does he do it? fine. We’ll go to the Gentiles. And off he goes to Iconium. He just leaves the city. You don’t want to hear it? We’ll go somewhere else. And that’s what we see in Scripture. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 23, but when they persecute you in one city flee ye into another. In the book of Amos, you read of God’s summon a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread, but a famine of the word of God. withdrew the word of God from the northern kingdom. Job declares, I have esteemed thy words, the words of thy mouth or his mouth, more than my necessary food. It’s like, it’s like food. It’s more than that. And the withdrawal then is a famine. So when people despise God’s word and rid themselves as his messengers, God says, fine. I’ll send my word somewhere else for now. Sadly, few people seem to understand this vital truth. This is a plague. This is a judgment when God withdraws His word like this. So Christ came in the power of the Spirit in the Galilee. We see the power and the direction of the Spirit here at work. The second thing we see here is that Christ regularly taught in the synagogues of Galilee. Here in our text, verse 15, we read and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all. At the synagogues is the place where the Word of God, its proclamation, would take place. It was only at the temple that we could bring sacrifices, and some of the various ordinances or ceremonies had to be performed at Jerusalem. But for the every, every weekly gathering and so forth, these often took place at the synagogues. And there would be a synagogue in practically every town. And so we find for the purpose of regular religious instruction in public worship, these synagogues were erected everywhere. There’s no special command that I know of in scripture for synagogues, but evidently it grew out of the need for the weekly worship, since we were going to gather on the same. Sabbath. They had weekly worship and they had to have a place for worship. And so the synagogue signifies here an assembly of the people. Each synagogue had a council for direction, and they had men that were called rulers of the synagogue, who would do a lot of the public instruction that took place. In every synagogue, there would be a chest. And in that chest would be a chest. a copy of the law and the prophets, which could be read, and then someone would expound or teach from them. The synagogues were normally open on the Sabbath, and then two or three other days of the week. It was properly the office of the rulers of the synagogue to teach. Some of those may have been Levites that would do the teaching in these various synagogues. But sometimes they invited persons of experience or note to instruct the people. You remember when Paul and Barnettists were in the synagogue at Antioch in Acts Chapter 13, they were given an opportunity to speak. We read this, Ye men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. They were sitting there in the synagogue, and so one of the rulers said to him, do you have anything you want to address the people about? And of course, you know, Paul had a lot of he wanted to address the people about and he gets up and proclaims the gospel to them. It seems in this way, Jesus also was frequently able to speak at the synagogues. When he went to the synagogue and he became recognized as a teacher, people realized that he could teach the Word of God. He was given an opportunity to speak. And so he would get the book of the law and have it read, and he would make proclamation from it. that from the next passage when he gets to Galilee and what he does when he’s at the synagogue there. And thus Jesus expounded the word of God to all the people that were gathered at these various synagogues throughout Galilee. An example of this, as we said, is the case at Nazareth in verses 16 to 21. So synagogue was a place where religious instruction would take place, and the people would get it. Jesus took advantage of this. The apostles followed Jesus’ lead or example because when Paul went out and Barnabas, what did they do? They went to the synagogue first. And they got an opportunity many times to speak at the synagogue. From that, they often would have a group of people who it would be believers. And from there, they would start an assembly, a little church. And so that’s what they did. So at the synagogues, the teaching of the word of what God could be heard. All who heard Christ teach at the synagogues glorified God. They glorified Him, it says here. We read in verse 14, the fame of Him went throughout all the region roundabout, and he was glorified of all in verse 15. At least at first, an initial saying, stages of his ministry, people who heard him, admired him. They had never heard such lively teaching, such vivid application, such opening of the Old Testament passages with regard to the Messiah as they were going to get from his lips. It was lively, it was enlightening, it was practical, and Jesus gained great, fame in the region. In fact, we read in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 4, that all Galilee, Syria, Decapolis, and even Judea, people came out of these places to hear him preach. He taught with such authority as God’s message. And the people were astonished at his doctrine. And they praised him as a preacher. What a gifted man this man is. Of course, he was gifted by the Spirit. And ultimately, the people glorified him, which as the Son of God. they should be glorifying. Rightly so. It’s interesting, the word glory in Scripture is usually reserved for God. And so this was sort of an indication here, an appropriate indication for one who was God manifested in the flesh, and he received glory. You remember at one point, later on, in his ministry, the chief priest and the scribe sent some of the temple guard, because they had like a little soldiers, like a group of guard soldiers, for the temple. They sent those men out to capture Christ and arrest him. So the officers and the soldiers, the guard, found Jesus teaching the people, so they thought, well, we better wait until he’s done. We’ll catch him when he’s not in such a public situation. And then we’ll arrest him. So they’re waiting for him to finish preaching. So what are they doing? They’re listening to what he has to say. As they heard Christ speak, they were astonished so much so that they didn’t even arrest him. And he goes back to the describes and the chief priest, they say, where is he? Never a man speak like this man. We couldn’t arrest him. All who heard Christ teach at the synagogues glorified him. Now let me take some practical application from this. And the first is this. Today, the church is where you should go to hear the regular preaching of the Word of God. The church, the called out assembly serves the same purpose, really, as the synagogue in Christ’s day. It’s where the people of God gathered to worship God and hear the Word of God proclaimed. Christ has gifted his church with pastor teachers for this very purpose to edify the people of God. Just as Jesus regularly went to the synagogue and worshipped on the Sabbath, so we should regularly be going to church on the Christian Sabbath and worshiping the Lord. This is where you should hear the word of God expounded and the application made your life. That should be the case. Scripture should be given a central place in the worship service. Hopefully it’s taught in a lively illuminating and edifying manner. You might say as Peter once did on the Mount Transfiguration, it’s good for us to be here. When you hear the word of God expounded, it’s good for us to be here. Not too long ago. I was at the dialysis clinic. I was waiting to see the physician’s assistant. I was going around to see the various patients. And I’m undergoing dialysis. So I’m sitting in the chair and, you know, the blood’s being circulated through the machine. But she was delayed because she was caught up in a discussion with the nurses and texts about Lent. And I was seated close enough I could hear the whole conversation. It seems that she was a Byzantine Catholic, and they were the regular Roman Catholic. So there was some difference in how they observed Lent between the two groups of Catholics. So they’re having this debate. So when the doctor’s assistant came to see me, she said this. She said, I’m sorry for the delay we were having a scriptural discussion. I couldn’t help it. It just, it’s one of those things I just blurted this out. I said, no, you were having a religious discussion. I did not hear one scripture mentioned, nor is Lent ever mentioned in the butt. That just came out of me. I just, it was like, no, you’re not having a scriptural discussion. I didn’t hear any word of God being talked about. Sorry, sometimes it just happens. Now, friends, you can go to many churches, where they may have religious discussions, but there’s no exposition of Scripture. That is not a true church, because that’s not where the spiritual food is to be found. You need a Bible, teaching, preaching, church. You can’t settle for anything less than that. And so today, the church is where you should go to hear the regular preaching of the Word of God. and then also let me mention this. Your attention should be focused upon glorifying Christ. Jesus told his disciples, when the comforters come, which is a Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, bringing all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you. Interesting. The Holy Spirit is going to come and he’s going to remind you of what I’ve already taught you. So that when the disciples go out, and they apostles go out and they teach, it’s actually Christ’s teaching that they’re given, right? When we read the epistles and the Gospels and the Gospels and so forth, and we teach from them, we’re actually giving Christ teaching. It’s his message. And as such, it should bring glory to Christ and fame to His name. The Great Commission is this, teaching them to observe what, I have commanded you, Matthew 2820. And therefore, we preach Christ, his person, his work, and his teachings. Years ago, there was a minister who had a smaller church, and he was being elevated to a large church in the city of Boston. Many extended their congratulations to the minister and wrote him letters and so forth, but he said he prized one letter above all else. And it was from a tailor in the town in which he first served. He said, among those many letters that he received, the tailors warmed his heart. And this is what he wrote. He said, I’m a tailor in a little shop near your church. Whenever I have opportunity, I always go to hear you preach. Each time, as I hear you preach, I seem to forget all about you, for you make me think about God. Imagine a scenario. where the preacher, full faithfully proclaims scripture, that your mind is taken off of him, and it’s on the Word of God. It’s on the Lord. Isn’t that what it should be about anyhow? Preachers need to be in more of the mindset of John the Baptist that he must increase, the Lord, and I must decrease. Christ should be exalted in the preaching of the Word. So all the synagogues taught, that’s what you. the teaching of the Word of God could be found, and all who heard Christ who taught at these synagogues would glorify him. Let me close by saying this. The elderly woman said that C.H. Spursians were her favorite because they were full of cream and not skim milk. Whenever a preacher preaches Christ, his person, his works, his teachings, then you’re getting the pure cream. and not skim milk. Let us close with a word of prayer this morning.