#26 Lu.
4:16-21 JESUS IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT
Introduction:
After His baptism and temptation Jesus went back to
do the work that God had sent
Him to the earth to do. He went from
village
to village and from city to
city. He worked His first miracle in
greater
number of miracles and the miracles with the greater demonstration
of His power were at the city
of
was the headquarters city for
His
year now since He has been back
to His home town,
today
we see Him return to
I.
The return of Jesus to
there
V. 16, "And he came to
his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the sabbath day..." It
appears
that Jesus arrived in
there
at least a day or two before the sabbath. Matthew seems to indicate
that He did a few miracles
there, but states that He did not do any mighty
miracles
there like He had done in
come, as usual, He went into the
synagogue to worship.
I told you last Sunday that when a noted man would come into the
synagogue,
it was the custom of the Jewish rabbi to invite that man to read
the Scripture and to make
whatever comments he might have. I did
not tell
you last Sunday that they
usually had two Scripture readings in the same
service. They would first read some passage from the
law books, Genesis
through
Deuteronomy. Then they would read a
passage from one of the Old
Testament prophets.
On this particular Sabbath day at
read and to speak as had become
common throughout
this very synagogue every sabbath day in His earlier years and had never
spoken
there. He had sat silently
listening. But this time as He returns,
He is no longer just an ordinary worshiper
in the house of God. He is now a
famous
man. He has become famous for the
miracles that He has performed.
He is famous particularly for the miracles
that He had performed in
done in the synagogues
throughout
time, He was asked to read and
to speak even there in His some synagogue.
(V. 16), "...and stood up for to
read."
II. The Scripture that He read
It was the custom of the day that whoever would read would stand to read
the Scripture and then he would
sit down to speak and explain the Scripture.
It is interesting to me that Jesus followed
their customs as long as their
customs
did not violate a principle of Scripture.
It is apparent that somebody else had already read from the law books on
this occasion and had already
concluded their remarks whatever they may have
been. When the Scripture was handed to Jesus to
read it was a copy of the
Book of Isaiah. They did not have just one Book which
contained all of the
Old Testament books in it. Each Book of the Bible was written
separately.
It was written on a scroll. That it, it was written on papyrus or animal
skins
and was rolled into a roll on two sticks.
It was rolled up on one
stick
and the reader would roll it off onto the other stick. Jesus was
handed
the scroll that contained the writings of Isaiah.
V. 17, "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias.
And when he had opened the book, he found
the place where it was written..."
Jesus took the scroll and rolled off a
considerable amount of scroll before
He began to read. Finally He stopped rolling the scroll and He
read from
Isaiah 61:1,2.
Here is what He read: V. 18-19,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent
me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord."
Now note what the prophecy of the Scripture is all about. It prophesied
that the Spirit of the Lord
would come on somebody. That is, the
Holy
Spirit of God would come on somebody to
empower Him in what He would do and
to inspire Him in what He
would say.
The prophecy says that this person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord
would
come would be anointed of God. In Old
Testament times when a person
was anointed, he was anointed
with oil. The prophets of Old Testament
times
were anointed with oil. So were the Levitical priests anointed. Also so
were the kings.
The prophecy goes on to say that the Lord has anointed this person to
preach. He is to preach the gospel to the poor. He is to heal the
brokenhearted. He is to preach deliverance to the
captives. He is to
recover
sight to the blind. He is to set at
liberty those who are bruised.
He is to preach the acceptable year of the
Lord.
III. What Jesus said about that Scripture
V. 20, "And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the
minister,
and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened
on him." It was at this point that
Jesus gave a brief explanation
of this prophecy. V. 21, "And he began to say unto them, This day is this
scripture
fulfilled in your ears."
In other words, Jesus said, "I am the one that the prophecy was
speaking
about. I am the one upon whom the Holy Spirit would
come. I am the one who
is anointed of God. I am the one who is anointed to preach the
gospel to
the poor. I am the one who is to heal the
brokenhearted. I am the one who
is to recover sight to the blind. I am the one who is to set at liberty
those
who are bruised. I am the one who is to
preach the acceptable year of
the Lord." And that is all
that He said to them in explanation of the
passage
of Scripture.
Now in the following verses we are going to see the reaction of the
people
to what Jesus here said about the prophecies of Isaiah. But we will
not go on to see their reaction
in this sermon. Rather, I want us to
stop
and take a look at the prophecy
of Isaiah and see how it applies to Jesus.
First of all we note that it said that the Spirit of God is upon Jesus.
Luke has already called this to our
attention back when he was telling about
the baptism of Jesus. He said that the Holy Spirit of God came down
upon
Jesus in the form of a dove when Jesus was
baptized.
Luke has also called attention to the Spirit being upon Him in the works
of His ministry. He said that Jesus came in the power of the
Spirit into
miracles
that He worked. It was by the power of
the Spirit that He taught
in the synagogues in such a
marvelous way.
Note also that it was by the Holy Spirit that Jesus was anointed of God
as the prophecy had said that
He would be. He was not anointed with
oil.
Rather He was anointed by the Holy Spirit
of God. He was anointed as a
prophet
of God. Moses had said that God would raise up a prophet like unto
him. Jesus is that prophet. Jesus is God's spokesman to the world. Jesus
speaks
with the absolute authority of God in all that He says.
He is also anointed as a Priest.
He is not of the tribe of Levi and so
He is not a Levitical priest. Rather He is a priest after the order of
Melchizedek. The book of Hebrews says that He is our High
Priest. He did
not present the blood of bulls
or goats or lambs or turtle doves before God.
He presented His own blood a sacrifice for
sins. The blood of the
sacrificial
animals could not take away our sin, but the Scripture says that
the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin.
He is also anointed to be the King.
He did not serve as King at His
first
coming. He could have and would have if
that had been in the plan of
God the Father for Him. But God did not intend for Him to serve as
King at
His first coming. God wanted Him to serve as Prophet and Priest
at His
first
coming. As God's prophet He preached and
gave God's message to the
world. Then as our High Priest He gave Himself as a
sacrifice for our sin.
But when He comes again it is in the plan
of God that Jesus will be King.
He will sit upon the throne of David in
thousand
years. Then after the millennium is over
and the New Jerusalem
comes
down to the new earth, Jesus will sit upon the throne of God and rule
the world throughout all
eternity.
The very word, anointed, is involved in the word, Christ. The Old
Testament word, Messiah, means "The
anointed one." The New Testament
word,
Christ,
means the same thing.
Isaiah said further about Jesus that Jesus was anointed to preach the
gospel
to the poor. The word, poor, here is
used in two different ways. It
is used literally and it is
used figuratively.
First of all it is used literally.
God has provided a plan of salvation
that invites all men to be
saved, but it almost exclusively the poor who
will turn to Him and be
saved. Jesus told His disciples that it
is easier
for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to
be saved. It is not that God does not want the rich to
be saved. It is
just that the rich find it hard
to depend totally on Jesus in order to be
saved. They still feel self-sufficient because of
their riches.
The word, poor, is also used here figuratively. It is used to express
the idea that those who repent
of their sins and trust in Jesus have come to
realize
that they have nothing what-so-ever that they can depend on except
Jesus Christ. When one will reach that state in his life he
will call on
Jesus and trust in Jesus and he will be
saved.
Jesus said, "...He hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted..." Those who
are burdened down with the
weight of their own sin can call on Jesus and
have those broken hearts
healed. They will find joy unspeakable
and full of
glory.
Jesus said further, "He hath sent me...to preach deliverance to the
captives." This is an expression that is taken form the
Children of
being
in captivity in a foreign land.
Eventually, God had king Cyrus to
make the announcement throughout
all his kingdom that all of the Jews who
wanted
to could go back to their homeland. They
could go back to
In a similar way God has seen that we were
all held captive by sin. He has
sent Jesus Christ to call us
from that captivity. Jesus has come to
set the
lost sinner free. Jesus said on one occasion, "If the Son
shall make you
free, ye shall be free
indeed."
The prophecy said further of Jesus that He would recover the sight of
the blind. That was true literally for those blind
people who came in
contact
with Jesus during His earthly ministry.
But it is true figuratively
for every lost sinner who will
call on Jesus for the salvation of the soul.
The writer of the hymn has expressed it
this way, "I once was blind, but now
I see." As lost sinners we were spiritually
blind. The Devil had blinded
our eyes lest we should trust
in Jesus and be saved. But when we did
trust
in Jesus to save our souls, we
received our spiritual sight. Now that we
are saved, we will never be
blinded by Satan again.
The prophecy said that the Christ would set at liberty them that are
bruised. Again the picture is that of captivity to
Satan and to sin. But
it is not captivity only. The lost sinner is pictured as being battered
and
bruised
in that captivity. He is severely
battered and bruised by Satan.
In Jesus Christ there is not only liberty
from the bondage, but there is
healing
for the bruise. We find not only liberty
in Jesus Christ; we
find
great
blessings and great joy.
Finally, the prophet says that the Christ would preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. There will come the time of judgment for the
unsaved.
There will come the time when it will be
too late to call on Jesus and ask
Him to have mercy on the soul. But while there is time to repent and while
there
is time to call on Him and be saved, the Lord is busy sending out the
invitation. The invitation is in keeping with what He
said in Isaiah 45:22.
There He said, "Look unto me and be
ye saved all ye ends of the earth: for
I am God and there is none else."
IV. The fulfillment of the Scripture as it
applies to our service here
today
Even right here right now today Jesus is still carrying out His
ministry. It is only I who stands before you and
preaches the word, but it
is the Lord Jesus Christ who
has the power to save. It is Jesus
Christ who
is calling out to those who
are lost in sin and inviting them to be saved.
It is not that lost sinners should respond
to my message today. Rather it
is that they should respond to
the message that Jesus Christ is sending to
them through me and through His
word and through the Holy Spirit. That
is
why men ought to respond to the
message and call on Jesus Christ and be
saved. That is why you ought to turn to Jesus Christ
and be saved.
Let me assure you of one thing.
You will never regret it if you turn to
Jesus and ask Him to save your soul. You will regret it forever and ever if
you don't. You will thank God for the salvation of your
soul throughout
all eternity if you will turn
to Him and trust in Him today.
Won't you come? You who are lost
in sin, won't you come to Jesus Christ
and let Him save your soul?
If you are saved and you have a need of a good church home, I know of a
good one that I can
recommend. I have no hesitancy in
recommending to you
the
Conclusion