Jesus is God. Jesus is the Messiah. | Luke 4:14-37
Read Luke 4:14-37
Jesus is God. Jesus is the perfect lamb of God. Luke is making this idea very clear throughout His gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, we learned that through His lineage, and now His earthly ministry begins after he was tempted in the desert and withstood that temptation.
- Jesus lived a life as God in the flesh, both human and God.
--Luke 4:14-21
Jesus is commanding authority here. He is making a BOLD claim in front of a group of Jews (including the high priest) in His hometown synagogue. Notice verse 16 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.”
Jesus went to the synagogue to worship. Jesus had a Jewish family, a religiously Jewish community—he was a part of synagogue family. This shows us that Jesus was indeed born of Jewish descent and He was raised with a Jewish heritage. This story is found in the gospel of Mark where it shows us insight into Jesus’ family and His life growing up in Nazareth.
--Mark 6:1-6
Mark 6:1-6 shows us insight into Jesus’ family, the fact that Jesus had siblings, He had a family and grew up as a “regular” Jewish man.
“’Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?’” And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in this hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.’” --Mark 6:3-4
Jesus lived a normal life, He grew up in a family, had siblings and even went to synagogue on the Sabbath. In Mark’s account, the listeners, question Jesus and they are offended by Jesus. You see Jesus was a human, but He isn’t just a REGULAR human; He is God and Human, God incarnate, God in the flesh.
Luke continues to teach that Jesus is empowered by the Holy Spirit and people are listening intently to His teaching in verse 14 and 15. Jesus had the Holy Spirit fall come upon Him as the dove at His baptism:
“Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’” – Luke 3:21-22
Jesus is given the Tanakh, the Old Testament scroll, and specifically the book of Isaiah. He reads Isaiah 61:1-2 for the reading in His synagogue—remember only men were permitted to go to synagogue and worship, they would then take the teaching home to teach God’s word to their families.
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”
--Isaiah 61:1-2
This text that Jesus is reading is clearly prophetic. Isaiah is writing to the Jewish people of Judah telling them that they will be delivered through their judgement; God is coming to save them through a savior, through a Messiah. Jesus doesn’t read the whole verse because the rest of Isaiah 61 is looking at His second coming, not His first coming. We know this because the rest of Isaiah 61 declares the judgement and full restoration/ salvation of Israel—that has not yet happened and hasn’t happened when Jesus lived on Earth.
“And he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
--Luke 4:20-22
The people listening are in a daze and they react with wonderment, it is interesting to note that Jesus’ word’s are described as “gracious.” Even though God knows these Jews will reject Him His words are filled with grace for them. The gospel of Jesus is gracious, merciful and wonderful to hear. Jesus is saying that He is the saviour, that He is God incarnate and He is here to save the world from sin. But Jesus continues to share a story which enrages the crowd.
“And the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.”
--Luke 4:28-29
What made these Jews so angry? Why did they want to kill Jesus?
- Jesus makes people angry. His own people and many in the world reject Jesus as Messiah.
Jesus rebukes the question “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Jesus answers: “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well…No prophet is welcome in his hometown.” –Luke 4:23-24
Jesus gives two Old Testament examples found in 1 Kings 17 where Elijah is sent to Zarephath because of a drought; a widow, and God works through Elijah to provide her everlasting oil and flour. God also raises her son to life through Elijah. The second example is found in 2 Kings 5:1-14 where God healed Naaman through Elisha by dipping himself in the river Jordan seven times. Both prophets were at first rejected, scorned at yet they remained, they offered a miracle help to both the Zarephath and Naaman and God worked two miracles for these two different people in the face of rejection.
Jesus is saying: I am a rejected prophet. I have a message that will cause many to want to kill me because they will not believe that I am the messiah. Jesus is also hinting at the fact the Messiah didn’t come JUST to save the Jews rather the Jews and the Gentiles who are willing to repent to Him; willing to put their faith in Him for their salvation.
“But I say to you in truth, there were many widow in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was hust up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath…And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
--Luke 4:25-27
Jesus is scoffing at their question: “Is this not Joseph’s son?”. These Jews do not believe Christ in this moment—so they question Him. They are rejecting Jesus has prophet, rejecting Him as Messiah even though Jesus will go forth and lay His authority out for all to see and He will work miracles and ultimately offer salvation to the world through His death and resurrection on the cross.
“In any event, they failed to recognize Jesus as a prophet, and he could only tell them that when the prophets of Israel had been faced with similar disbelief, they had performed their mighty works outside Israel. So it was a word of judgment that Jesus in effect spoke against them.” – D.A. Carson
Throughout the entirety of the gospels many people, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees will reject Jesus or even question His Messianic authority. This account in Luke happens at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and will continue to happen—this disbelief in Him will drive the Jewish high priest to eventually accuse Jesus of blasphemy, thus leading Him to the cross.
“Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
--Isaiah 53:1-3
God knew that He would be rejected; not only did He know that He would be rejected but He used that rejection to redeem sinners, to save them from death, using this persecution to bring Him to death, to bring Him to the cross to die innocently to save the guilty from their sin.
God is so powerful; God is so loving that He will use the hatred of those who hate Him to show His people how much He loves them. Jesus was so confident in these interactions because He knew how this was going to end.
- Jesus is the Messiah. He commands Lordship in our lives, He commands His authority because He is the One True God of the Universe.
--Luke 4:31-37
Jesus teaches with authority in verse 32 and it hits the synagogue in a different way. People are amazed, they are captivated, they are confused, they are intent on listening because Jesus commands a different authority than any other man. Jesus is a unicorn. There will be no man like Him and there has been no man like Him ever! Do not twist these scriptures to think that this text is prescriptive, and it is teaching us how to do miracles just like Jesus—NO! Luke has written the beginning of his gospel with a distinct purpose: To show the world that Jesus is no ordinary man! He is God in the flesh, He will and has done things no other man could ever do.
We can even compare the disbelief of the Jews in Nazareth to the belief that the demons have in Jesus.
“In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Let us alone! What business do we have with each other Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy one of God!’ But Jesus rebuked him saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of Him!’ And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.”
–Luke 4:34-35
“But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”
--James 2:18-20
James is rebuking the church here; He is asking them “where are your works? You claim to have faith in Christ but you aren’t feeding the poor? You aren’t taking care of each other, you are angry towards one another, if you have true faith your works would reflect that.” James makes the insulting assertion that even the demons believe! That is what is happening in Luke 4:32-35. The Jews in Nazareth didn’t believe Jesus yet the demon in Capernaum was fearful of Christ—not only did the demon believe Jesus but Jesus’ authority put fear in the demon.
What happens next…Jesus commands the demon to leave the man’s body and it leaves. Jesus has the victory. Jesus has the authority because He is God. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Messiah.
Who is your God? Who do you worship in your life? Are you worshiping earthly leaders or letting earthly leaders govern your thoughts and your life? Church, this easter season let this be wake up call to worship the One who has all of the authority, worship Jesus, your Messiah.
Our lives are broken, they can hard and they can be easy at times but no matter what we face; we can rest assured knowing that Jesus our Messiah is living with us. Jesus is guiding us, Jesus is giving us peace and comfort during uncomfortable seasons and we can know that Jesus’ will is always going to win the day at the end of our days and lives—this should give us contentment and peace in Christ.
“Sometimes life is so hard you can only do the next thing. Whatever that is, just do the next thing, God will meet you there.” – Elizabeth Elliot
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they would also persecute you;’’
--John 15:18-20