Luke
By Joyce Webb 2019
Chapter 4 Vs. 14-32
Jesus has just been in the wilderness—-he went without food for 40 days—Satan came to tempt Jesus to do wrong.
Jesus did not give in to the temptations. For every temptation—Jesus quoted a Bible verse.
Now the wilderness time is over—Jesus comes back into the town.
Vs. 14 “And Jesus returned —-in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.”. What a wonderful thing!
Think about it. 40 days without food—-Satan tempting him—but because of the “power of the Spirit” Jesus was strong and did not give in to Satan.
This is an encouragement to us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have power to do what is right. We can have the power —-in a hard situation—–to do what is right.
This is a wonderful thing to know.
Vs. 14 At this time, word about Jesus, went out all over the area. Many people now knew about Jesus, and the wonderful things he has done.
Vs. 15 Jesus taught in the Jewish churches—called synagogues.
Vs. 16 Jesus came to Nazareth, this is the town where Jesus grew up. He went into the Jewish church there to teach.
Jesus stood up to read from the Jewish Bible. At that time, there was only the Old Testament. Jesus began to read from the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah was a prophet- preacher from the Old Testament times.
These are the verses that Jesus chose to read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.
He has sent me to preach to the captives so they can be free.
(Captives here—means those who have habits that are bad —-but they cannot stop doing them. Captives could also mean the people who were controlled by demons. Jesus sent demons out of many people. The demons controlled the people and make things bad for the people. Jesus set them free.)
He has sent me to heal the eyes of the blind.
To heal those people who have been hurt by other people
He has sent me to preach the year of the Lord.
Jesus closed the Bible, and sat down. All the people were watching him.
Vs.21 Then Jesus said—-Today you have seen these verses happen before your eyes.
In other words, Jesus is telling them—that he, Jesus, was the person the Isaiah was talking about.
That Jesus came to this earth, —–the Father in heaven sent him, to do these things—-and he had been doing these things.
Vs. 22 All the people knew Jesus well. They have seen him grow up there in there town. They knew his earthly father, Joseph.
To them, Jesus was no one special. What did he mean that he was the person that the prophet Isaiah was talking about?
Then Jesus said to them—-a saying—”Doctor heal yourself.”—the miracles that you have done in the town of Capernaum, then do those same miracles here in Nazareth.
Jesus said to them—Prophets are not accepted and believed—- among their own people.
Vs. 25 Jesus tells them—In Old Testament times, when Elijah was the prophet,—-there were many widow women in Israel during the time that there was no rain for 3 years.
All those women needed help. But God did not send Elijah to any of them. God sent Elijah to a widow who lived outside of Israel.
Vs. 27 Jesus said, there were many people who had the skin disease, leprosy—who lived in Israel. But God did not heal them.
He healed a man who was a captain of the Syrian army. He name was Naaman.
Vs.28 As the people in the Jewish church heard Jesus tell about these things, they understood that Jesus was saying that they were like those people in the Old Testament who did not believe Elijah or the other prophets.
Vs. 29 They became so angry, that they took Jesus and pulled him out of the church, and pulled him to the edge of town, to the edge of a hill. They were planning to push him off —so he would fall down.
As they were going, to their surprise, Jesus was able to get free, and he disappeared into the crowd of people. They could not find him.
Vs 31. Jesus came to the town of Capernaum, and he preached and taught in their Jewish church.
Vs. 32 They were surprised at the things he taught, and the power in how he spoke to them.