JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY
| KJV WEB
| Endtime Prophecy
| Parallel Gospels
Page Numbers | Plywood Canoe
OT Commentary | Books
Contact | Gospel Tract

LUKE CHAPTERS 3 & 4 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel See previous page Lk 3-1 -- No Entries Lk 3,2-6 (152ka) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> The Church holds the position of a prophet >> true prophets >> Called as prophets – This was probably not the first word that John the Baptist received from the Lord, for he was earlier led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and ate locusts and wild honey. While he was there he probably communed with God, but then a special anointing came over him; suddenly, the word of the Lord came to John and brought him back to civilization, leading him to inaugurate a new tradition of baptism. Jesus exonerated John as one of the great heroes of the Bible, yet if he were alive today, he would probably not be received by the Church or the world. He was a very sober person who spent his entire adult life living among the beasts of the field. He never let any alcohol touch his lips, yet was continually filled with the spirit, awaiting his ministry that God inscribed in his heart while still in his mother's womb. Lk 3,3-14 (193b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Repent >> Turn from your evil ways >> Turn from sin – An ordained minister dipping our bodies in water does not complete our baptism, unless of course we have indeed repented. These are not just words; we are actually called to repent. God wants us to show the world that we believe in Jesus, and the way we do that is through repentance, which was the subject of John’s baptism. Lk 3,3-6 (8h) Responsibility >> Preparing to interact with God >> Preparing for revival – Jesus went about preaching the gospel and healing every kind of disease and performed many signs and wonders, wherever He could muster faith. The purpose of Jesus’ ministry of evangelism was to prepare the apostles, and that was also the purpose of John the Baptist, to blaze a trail for the Son of God. So there was an extensive process in preparing Israel to receive their Messiah, yet they still rejected Him. However, the gentiles surrounding Israel heard about Jesus, and when the gospel came to them, they readily received Him. God had richly anointed His apostles through their measure of faith. They had a profound anointing, and they were able to perform extraordinary miracles, but not by any extent that Jesus did. We must look at the advantage that Jesus had and the reason He so readily believed in God. He came from heaven; He was the Son of God from past eternity. When the Father conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb, the person who grew in her was the very Spirit of God wrapped in human flesh. Jesus often expressed disappointment in people’s faith, saying that though they lived in the weakness of sinful flesh, still they could do better. Lk 3-3 (120b) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> God forgives us when we become accountable to Him >> When we repent Lk 3,4-6 (104b) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by circumstances >> Purified through dying to sin – After John baptized Jesus, His ministry was preceded by a wilderness experience, suggesting that John’s baptism of repentance is itself a wilderness experience. Therefore, what does that say about Baptism and the pathway to repentance? It is a wilderness experience to our flesh, not fun and games but painful work forged by great effort. These are ways that describe repentance, yet as James said, “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” What else did James say? “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (Jm 4,8-10). Think also about the two witnesses prophesied to come in the last days. They came from the wilderness as John did and preached a gospel similar to John about a wilderness of repentance, which precedes the thousand-year reign of Christ. Verse 5 says, “Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” That sounds familiar, like the earthquake prophesied to shake the earth in the last days. So strong and violent was this earthquake that it removed every mountain and every island and filled every valley. So John’s baptism of repentance brings about a great shaking to the core of the human soul, suggesting that genuine repentance has at its epicenter the Holy Spirit calling us to forsake our sins, shaking the house off its foundation that we built prior to Christ, requiring us to rebuild, this time according to the pattern that God has shown us in the Spirit (Exodus 25-40). When God shakes us to our core, He is giving us an opportunity to repent. He will set us free to understand the level of forgiveness that we have received from God, and set us free to walk on the trail of good works that He has prepared for us from all eternity. (141d) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ ministry >> Jesus as the savior -- When we take a closer look at the way John used this Old Testament prophecy, "Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God," this is describing the last bowl judgment of endtime prophecy that occurs just before Christ returns (Rev 16,17-21), suggesting there is both a spiritual and a physical fulfillment of this prophecy. Hence, we have happened upon a recurrent principle of Scripture, dictating that many statements of the Bible have both a figurative and a literal (spiritual/physical) manifestation. In this example, John used this verse to describe his baptism of repentance, while at the same time Isaiah 40,3-5 describes a tremendous earthquake that will topple every mountain and fill every ravine in the last days. Heb 12,26-29 is saying the same thing. Lk 3,7-17 (191b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Baptism symbolizes death, burial and resurrection >> Baptism is a sign of obedience – The apostle Paul taught that there was only one baptism (Eph 4-5); however, John came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin and also taught that after him was coming one who baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, referring to the anointing. We are seeing two baptisms while we know through Paul that there is really only one, suggesting that John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism are the same, suggesting that to have John’s baptism without Jesus’ baptism is tantamount to legalism. Conversely, to assume we have Jesus’ baptism without walking John’s baptism of repentance is seeking to abuse the grace of God. Also, note the order of baptisms, first John's, then Jesus'. John came to deal with sin, whereas Jesus came for righteousness sake. The following are happening simultaneously: repentance, forgiveness and righteousness. Repentance puts away sin, forgiveness refers to the blood of Christ, and righteousness comes through faith. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 3,7-9 (51b) Judgment >> Church with the world >> Warning about hell – Repentance is absolutely necessary to salvation. John is saying that if we don’t repent and bear good fruit, God will cut us down and throw us into the fire. That might offend some people's religiosity, and there may be a number of ways to interpret the word "fire" but one obvious interpretation is hellfire. We cannot produce good fruit while we are producing bad fruit; we must repent before we can walk on the trail that God has prepared for us. He has called our crooked path to become straight and our rough road to become smooth. Sin complicates our lives, making our way difficult and hard to navigate. Stumbling stones make us sin and sin makes us stumbling stones. Christianity is not an easy trail for those who refuse to put away the flesh. (69e) Authority >> Righteous judgment (outcome of discernment) >> Righteous anger >> Church is angry at sin (179c) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Hypocrisy >> Jesus rebukes the Pharisees >> The world runs into the Church to escape God’s judgment – Had Jesus not died for our sins, God would never have created a hell, because no one could do anything to deserve going there, but now that Jesus died for our sins, rejecting His blood sacrifice merits hell. John the Baptist knew the Pharisees would reject the Lord; in fact, they sent Him to His cross. God already knows who will bear the fruit of repentance and who won't; He knows who is going to heaven and who isn’t. He knew the Pharisees would never obey Him. There is such a thing as prison life, but there is no life in hell. Heaven is incomprehensible to us, and so is hell. In heaven, people have spiritual bodies, both spiritual and physical, which sounds like an oxymoron to us. The same is true in hell; their bodies are physical, but they cannot die. Those in hell deserve to be there. The worst part about it is the angst. (186j) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> The reprobate >> God’s role in forming a reprobate >> Marked out for destruction Lk 3-7,8 (87b) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word from the heart >> We have no choice but to be doers of the word (88c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith produces works >> Relationship between faith and works >> Faith without works is dead – Someone might ask, ‘Why is John the Baptist talking about wrath, since gentle Jesus was not about wrath, but about the grace of God.’ What did John mean when he spoke of the wrath to come? What happened to Israel after they rejected their Messiah? In A.D. 70 they lost their place and their nation, and for the last two millennia the Jews have been scattered like dust, without a homeland, persecuted from nation to nation, ending-up in Hitler's gas chambers. Only recently (1948) were they finally allowed home to Israel, where they have been gathering ever since. Where did God's grace and forgiveness go? Didn’t His sacrifice help? It didn’t help many of the Jews, because it wasn’t met with faith in those who heard (Heb 4-1,2). From these stones God raised up spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham by targeting the gentiles for salvation, after the Jews rejected the will of God for themselves. Gentile converts may not be physical descendants of Abraham, but they are His children just the same through faith. The apostle Paul also wrote about this, stating that it is not those who are physical descendants who are offspring of Abraham but children of promise, children of faith (Rom 9-8). (128j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Bearing fruit >> Living a fruitful life >> Living a continuous life of fruitfulness – There will be a resurrection of the righteous in which we will be given new bodies to enjoy in heaven, and baptism represents this. John’s message was repentance through baptism. His baptism also symbolizes dying to self and coming back to life with the resurrection anointing. God wants to empower us to do His will. John commanded the Pharisees to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and the same goes for us; God gives us an anointing to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Note that bearing fruit is an action phrase, whereas repentance proposes the stoppage of certain actions. Bearing fruit refers to obedience as a substitution of behaviors that we put in place of the sins we stopped doing, and God gives us an anointing to accomplish His will. Repentance is a form of obedience, such as when we are lost, we must retrace our steps and return to the last intersection and try a different direction. It may seem like wasted time and energy, but it is how we find our way. The fruit of repentance is the power of anointing to keep the law; then Jesus, after He entered His ministry, spoke about the fruit of obedience, referring to John chapter 15. We are given an anointing to walk on a specific trail. (159e) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Counterfeit >> Counterfeit godliness >> Counterfeit repentance (172h) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Tares among the wheat >> False doctrine among the truth – If baptism is about repentance, then what is Child baptism? How can an infant repent? Repent of what, the child is innocent? Repentance is more important than baptism, though the person who is truly born of God will want to be baptized to “fulfill all righteousness.” Baptism is not a requirement of salvation, any more than Jesus was saved at His baptism; instead, He was anointed. How many of us fulfill all righteousness? None of us do. Why are we so intent on being baptized, yet leave repentance undone? To say that baptism is essential for salvation is missing the point; instead, repentance is far more essential for salvation. Large groups within Christendom find this difficult to believe; suddenly we realize there are many points of contention surrounding the principles of baptism. This is unfortunate. When there are many disputes surrounding a particular doctrine, it is usually a symptom of a much larger problem. (185a) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Abusing the grace of God >> Dragging God’s Grace Through The Mud >> Operating His grace through religion – There are many people who think that since Jesus saved them from their sins; therefore, repentance is an option. Somewhere in their hearts they are saying, “If I sin, God will forgive me.” While this is true, there is a level of abuse occurring, known as licentiousness. The grace of God does not give us a license to sin. This is why repentance is important: the one who would abuse the grace of God would also abuse the children of God. Resisting the Holy Spirit allows sin to sink its talons deep into our flesh and never let go until we discover that we are unable to repent. There is nothing more pathetic than a person who has been shaken to His core by God, but refuses to repent. The person who inoculates himself from the glory of God is distancing himself from the Kingdom of God, and ultimately from heaven itself. (193f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Repent >> Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance >> Instruction to the Church (195c) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Serving two masters >> You can only believe in one at a time Lk 3-7 (55n) Paradox >> Lose by gaining >> Lose the truth to gain religion (68i) Authority >> Discernment >> Judging truth and error >> Perceiving wicked motives (173l) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s Religion >> Deeds that are not initiated by God >> Deeds that are not initiated by the Holy Spirit KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 3-8 (134d) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Composition of our bodies is from the earth >> We are physically subject to this natural realm – John knew how the Pharisees would boast in their flesh regarding their lineage. Paul said in Rom 2-28,29, “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” John the Baptist told the Pharisees not to brag about their lineage, because God is able to make children of Abraham from stones. God created Adam from the soil of the earth, and what is soil but pulverized rock with organic matter interspersed between sand particles. This is what Jesus meant in Lk 19-40 when the Pharisees told him to silence the praises of the people, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” Ultimately and eventually those rocks will grind into sand and become part of the soil, and some of the atoms and molecules will end up in someone’s body who is a worshipper of Jesus. God sees the end from the beginning, and He sees this scenario happening apart from time. This cycle might take thousands of years to complete, but time is irrelevant to God; He sees all things happening in the present. If we don’t worship God or bear the fruit of repentance, the stones will. God sees our bodies as part of the earth. He knows how we are put together better than we do. We know on a factual basis that when we die, our body decomposes into the ground and things grow from it; other people eat the vegetation, and it becomes part of their bodies, and the process continues indefinitely. God knows how these things work to the minutest detail. The complexity of physical life is unimaginable, yet there are atheists who think that God is not causing it, and the irony is that many of them work in the biological sciences, who become some of the most knowledgeable people regarding the systems that are transpiring in every living thing. Yet, they maintain that there is no God, which is just about as unimaginable as the living things they study. (147c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> God exercises authority over His creation (213b) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> God is all powerful >> All things are possible with God Lk 3-9 (47b) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and his angels >> burning site where people are thrown away -- This verse goes with verse 17 (157d) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Being displeasing to God >> Leading a fruitless lifestyle (202k) Denying Christ >> Running from God >> Wicked men cannot approach the throne of God >> Goats are unsaved church attendants -- This verse goes with verse 17 Lk 3,10-14 (124e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Acts of love >> Do to others as you would have them do to you – The age-old question is “What shall we do to be saved?” John’s answer was the last prophetic voice of the old covenant, which was probably not that different from how Jesus answered that same question. The rich man asked Jesus what he must do to be saved, and His answer was also to repent saying, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mat 19-21). Note that Jesus didn’t stop at repentance; His answer suggested that repentance acted like an arterial light that governed an intersection; so long as it was red the rich man could not proceed. Repentance makes the light turn green, so he could follow Jesus to heaven. Unfortunately, the rich man was more convinced by the value of his wealth than by the words that Jesus was telling him. The ways of God always involve deferring reward, while the rich man’s reward held promise for the moment, which no doubt swayed his decision to abandon the attractive gospel of eternal life. Likewise, those encircling John the Baptist asked him what they should do, and he essentially told them to love their neighbor and stop being so greedy and self-serving, basically telling them to follow the law and pointing out specific sins to abandon, sins that did not require John to be a prophet to know about them. It was common knowledge that tax collectors regularly charged the people more payment than they were required to collect. Lk 3,12-14 (99b) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Enduring the will of God >> Enduring the death of your flesh Lk 3-15,16 (41e) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus knew no sin – Although the fruits of the Spirit define His essence, there is one other thing that defines Him even more than that: His perfection. We think we know what it means to be perfect, but not compared to God. We do some things perfectly, perhaps we hit the bullseye with a bow and arrow, or maybe we are a wood worker and made a dresser without a single mark or scratch on it, and so we say it is perfect. When the Bible says that God is perfect, it goes far beyond man’s perfection to the point of being incomprehensible, yet this is the standard that God places on us (Mat 5-48). Who could be perfect like God? If no could, He wouldn’t have said it; therefore, it is up to us to understand what He meant by that. God is perfect in ways that we don’t understand, much less achieve. This is what John the Baptist meant when he said, “I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals” (Mk 1-7). He was not worthy to grovel at His feet, and in Job it says that He charges the angels with error (Job 4-18), and so if He wants help with anything, whom would He call? God has a perfect plan; He perfectly fulfills it; His reasoning is perfect; He knows all things; He is without sin; there is noting about God that is lacking; He has no weaknesses. He is absolutely perfect. (68l) Authority >> Discernment >> Judging truth and error >> Perceiving false reasoning (77f) Thy kingdom come >> Humility >> Refusing the glory of man >> Rejecting the worship of men (77h) Thy kingdom come >> Tapping into the power of God through humility >> The high position of a humble servant (150e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Confessing Jesus >> Making the good confession (192h) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Gain God’s kingdom to lose the domain of darkness >> Gain integrity to lose the world’s respect – Jesus made the good confession as the Son of God, and amazingly He said it to His enemies, and they murdered Him for it (Mat 26,62-64). He wasn’t as explicit to His followers or to the Jews or even to His twelve closest disciples. This is John making His good confession. All the people were in a state of expectation as to whether he was the Christ, and he only needed to say ‘Yep’, and the people would have believed in him. Instead, he made the good confession and said, ‘I am not He,’ but told the people, ‘I am the forerunner, and when He comes, He will be infinitely greater than me.’ Did anyone see that Jesus was infinitely greater than John? No, it was not apparent, but is Jesus infinitely greater than John? Yes, He is! He is infinitely greater in that Jesus lived in eternity past before He was conceived in Mary’s womb, but John’s life began when he was born to Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias. Jesus spoke day after day to the Jews for 3½ years as the Son of God, and he performed untold miracles that anyone would need to believe in Him as the Christ, but they would not believe; they were ready to believe in John, though. Jesus could not present enough evidence for the people to believe that He was the Christ. Lk 3-15 (121c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope >> Expectation >> Hope is the expectation to receive >> Expectation based on hope KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 3,16-20 (122m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Boldness to rebuke the world for unbelief Lk 3-16,17 (103g) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Spirit like water >> Anointing cleanses you from the practice of sin – This chaff represents one of two things: either sin or sinners. Jesus will either burn sin from the believer through the fire of anointing, or He will burn the sinner in hell. John’s baptism is a call to repentance, whereas Jesus’ baptism is a God-given ability to repent. Walking with God is a scary prospect. There are many unbelievers who are too afraid to venture a step with God in fear that down the road they will change their minds and run back to the world, and their fear is warranted. God doesn’t like quitters. People take Him way too lightly. He is a loving God, but He is also righteous and holy. He doesn’t dislike sin; He hates it. If we receive God’s anointing and we don’t use it to repent, we will lose the ability to repent. “Without holiness,” the Bible says, “no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12-14). As Christians we really don’t have a choice to repent; we made that choice in becoming Christians. God will work with us and there shouldn’t be a problem, but there are those who can’t get with the program and are rebellious. They find Christianity virtually impossible, and it’s only because they are unwilling to walk in His glory as He has commanded us. They are unwilling to deal with sin in their lives; but once we get it under control, He can teach us His ways and lead us on our trail of good works that He has prepared for us. We need John’s baptism as much as we need Jesus’ baptism, for as we repent in the flesh, God will meet us half-way with His anointing to deliver us from the practice of sin. (104d) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by fire >> Purified through the fiery anointing (113h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> The anointing >> Anointed through obedience – We should view baptism as Jesus said, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (Mat 3-15). We should view baptism in terms of repentance, for just as baptism is a natural response to our faith in Jesus, so is repentance. John called it a baptism of repentance because baptism and repentance are both performed on our extremities. John the Baptist came first, then Jesus came stipulating that we first repent before He will bathe us in His anointing. The person who wants to walk in the glory of anointing without repentance does not understand the significance of John’s ministry. We believe in God and are baptized in that order, for baptism is a sign of repentance, and when we are baptized we receive an anointing to believe in God. Therefore, we repent to believe. When we become Christians, we believe through our own human strength, showing God our will to repent; then we are baptized and God superimposes an anointing over our belief that transforms into faith. Lk 3-16 (71k) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We have His seal – According to Paul there is only one baptism (Eph 4-5); therefore, baptism is a twofer calling us to repent and believe. We are baptized in John’s water baptism, which becomes our pledge to God and to our fellow man that we will repent of our sins that hold us in bondage to unbelief, so we can be free to believe in the gospel and be immersed in the fire of His anointing. This is considered a single baptism, not a two-tier process. God anoints our repentance and obedience, and empowers us to serve Him in the joy of our salvation. The Pentecostals, however, believe that when we rise from the water, if our knees don’t buckle, if we don’t speak in tongues and make uncontrollable vocal sounds, if we don’t lose control of our bodies and run around like a mad dog, then there must be something wrong with us. At that point we might be labeled a have-not and need to be re-baptized or something else just as unscriptural. The Bible doesn’t teach that the anointing is given for the purpose of acting like fools. God anoints our repentance and obedience; so receiving this anointing is not contingent on the moment of our baptism, but on the moment of our repentance. Baptism is a pledge of our intention to live a repentant life, so when we decide to make repentance a reality, God will bestow His anointing. Baptism is the new covenant sign of obedience, similar to circumcision, which was the old covenant sign of faith. On the one hand, circumcision was something that a person could inspect to see that we have indeed been circumcised (though the sign was private), in contrast to baptism that once our clothes dried, no evidence remained that we were baptized, except for the witnesses at our baptism, similar to a wedding, who can stand up and testify on our behalf. On the other hand, Jesus fiery anointing figuratively leaves His mark, proving that we belong to Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes 8-1 says, “A man’s wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam.” (111f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Word and the power (meaning) of God >> Word in obedience cannot evade the power of God – The purpose of the anointing is to teach us about God. Most people experience a gradual anointing that grows according to their maturity level, but one thing is sure, if we repent, God promises to anoint our obedience. The purpose of John’s baptism is repentance from dead works, whereas Jesus’ baptism leads us on a trail of righteousness on the narrow way. Jesus’ baptism trains us in the voice of the Holy Spirit, who leads us throughout our lives to the glory and praise of God. (190k) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Baptism of the Holy Spirit – People argue about baptism as a means of diverting attention off its true significance, namely the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not oppose anyone prior to His ministry, but once He was baptized His ministry indeed offended people. When God laid upon Jesus the anointing at His baptism, He received an attribute of the godhead that he surrendered to become clothed in human flesh. It was the anointing that brought the offense along with the words He spoke. His anointing was inversely proportional to His lack of sin, so that as His sin approached zero, the anointing approached infinity. The only divine attribute from heaven that He retained as an infant and throughout his life was to be without sin; He was born with that. Virtually every other attribute of the godhead was stripped from Him prior to His conception in Mary’s womb, but when he entered His ministry He received a second divine trait of the godhead, the anointing. The title “Christ” literally translated means “anointed one;” therefore, the word Christians means “anointed ones.” God offers each of us an opportunity to carry a divine anointing from God; whether we receive it before, during or after our water baptism is irrelevant. (252a) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship Jesus (Because He is equal with God) >> Jesus is worthy of our worship >> Worship Jesus for His inherent worthiness Lk 3-17 (47b) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and his angels >> burning site where people are thrown away -- This verse goes with verse 9 (104e) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by fire >> Hell is an eternal purifying process (202k) Denying Christ >> Running from God >> Wicked men cannot approach the throne of God >> Goats are unsaved church attendants -- This verse goes with verse 9. John was talking about the judgment of God in the last days at the White Throne Judgment. He was also talking about the First Resurrection, when God will gather His elect from the four winds and give them new bodies that cannot die, and they will reign with Christ forever and ever. The rest of mankind who were disobedient will be thrown into the lake of fire. The Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees were the spiritual leaders of Israel, and they were more lost than the people they were trying to lead. Israel represented a church full of unbelievers, starting at the top and trickling throughout the members, who preferred doctrines that scarcely correlated with the Law of Moses, and not at all with the writings of their ancient prophets. They attended their local synagogue to be socially acceptable, to be among their friends and associates, and to maintain an appearance of righteousness, so they can brag to their friends and defend themselves against the true faith among those who would invite them to get saved. (225p) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Parables >> Parables about final judgment KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 3,18-20 (181h) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Self deception >> Imaginary perception of self >> Distorted perception of self – This is what people do: instead of placing their own flesh under subjection to the will of God, they imprison someone else; instead of condemning their evil ways, they condemn the prophet; instead of repenting from sin, they repent from righteousness. People have done the same thing to the Holy Spirit; He tries to teach them the ways of God, and they throw Him in prison, shutting Him out of their lives, lying to themselves that God had ever spoken to them. They pretend their sin is not real, creating a fantasy world and attributing righteousness to it and then saying they don’t need God. Even kings have tiny worlds when they don't serve the Lord in their hearts. Lk 3-19,20 (242d) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecuting God >> Persecuting righteousness Lk 3-21,22 (126h) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Peace >> Anointing of peace – Jesus was anointed for His ministry at this moment. It said that the anointing literally manifested in the form of a dove and rested on Jesus. He received an anointing that was so peaceful that a dove rested on His shoulder. Jesus’ ministry pertained to the last 3½ years of his life. Prior to that He remained aloof, having blended into the crowd; nobody thought anything extraordinary about Him; nothing about Him caught anyone’s attention, but when the moment came and it was time for His ministry to begin, He received the fullness of anointing, as much as the weakness of human flesh could sustain, and by that He performed miracles so long as faith was present, and this brought persecution. He endured an onslaught of the religious establishment and all their insults, always hiding, always having to think ahead. His public ministry was reduced to holding church between towns in wilderness places. Lk 3,23-38 (37e) Judgment >> Judgment of God >> Jesus’ humanity >> He was part of the lineage of David – This wording is interesting, “being supposedly the son of Joseph,” means He really wasn’t the son of Joseph. He was the Son of God based on the words of Gabriel, the angel who came from heaven and spoke to Mary. The people in Jesus’ hometown knew Him as the son of Joseph; His own family and friends rejected him as the Son of God, saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” (Jn 6-42). Then Luke provides the lineage of Christ descending through David, Abraham and the bottleneck of Noah, all the way back to Adam. This entire genealogy was meticulously preserved over the millennia, but when it finally arrived on Jesus’ doorstep, God Himself broke the chain. This genealogical chain suggests that God had Jesus planned from the very inception of man. For example, Isaiah said to King Ahaz, “The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel,” which means God with us (Isaiah 7-14). However, when He was born they called Him Jesus. Therefore, “Immanuel” is His kingly name, whereas "Jesus" is His name as a priest. This resembles the subject of Jesus' ancestry, who had no physical ties to the Davidic kingdom, though being a Levi through the bloodline of His mother Mary. Her tribe was the Levitical Priesthood, making Jesus in the flesh more a priest than a king, and He will remain a priest for the sake of His people, who intercedes for them before the Father, but to the nations He is a king. _________________________________ LUKE CHAPTER 4 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,1-13 (41d) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus overcame sin (46f) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Fall of Satan >> Resisting Satan’s deception – It says that Satan “showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,” suggesting that the devil got into His head, but Jesus had the glory of eternity past with His Father as a comparison. So, this so-called glory was nothing to Jesus as the Son of God, but to the son of man in the weakness of human flesh, it was a temptation. One day His Father will establish His Son as king over a thousand-year reign on the earth that will blossom into eternity where He will reign over God's Kingdom forever and ever. Satan was offering Jesus a kingship as immediate gratification without deferring it to a later date, of course with hidden costs attached, namely reigning over a lesser kingdom and being offered this wonderful promise by the father of lies. Satan was saying, ‘You don’t have to wait; you can have it all right now!’ Does that sound familiar? That is the message of credit cards! Those who buy into the lie pay many times over and suffer financial bondage for years. (46m) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Demons are subject to the word of God (65c) Paradox >> Anomalies >> God helps Satan >> God leads His Son into temptation by the devil – Jesus found Himself in a real predicament, similar to the situation of Esau, who sold His birthright to his brother for a single meal. Jacob, playing the devil’s advocate after Esau returned famished from a failed hunting trip, offered him a bowl of soup, but first asking for his birthright, and his brother agreed. Paraphrasing Gen 25,29-34: ‘I might as well give up my birthright to my brother, since I am about to die of starvation, what good is it to me if I’m dead?’ Satan was essentially asking Jesus the same thing, which was not that different from the scenario in the Garden of Eden that played between the serpent and man. Satan asked Jesus not for His birthright but for his loyalty. He essentially asked Jesus for the one thing that was most valuable to Him, His love and devotion to His Father. Satan asked for Jesus' unity with the Godhead, since He was about to die of starvation anyway. The Father cloaking His Son in the weakness of human flesh had the outward appearance of risking unity with the Godhead, yet Jesus would have never given in to the devil, preferring rather to die. However, from Satan’s limited perspective, he knew that Jesus’ situation was desperate, and this was his opportunity to force a decision that He would not have otherwise made. If Satan could separate Jesus from His Father, like a lion separates a calf from its mother, he could have had his way with Him, and the manner in which he was trying to do this was tempting Jesus to use the power of God for His own selfish purposes, instead of using it for the glory of God. Had Jesus attempted to turn the stone into a loaf of bread, it would have communicated to the Father that His flesh was more important than doing His Father's will, and that would have been devastating to their relationship. It would have been a sin. Paul called Jesus the second Adam, who fortunately did not go the way of the first Adam. Had Jesus listened to the devil and done what He said, He could not have been the savior of the world, and all their plans with mankind would have ended in tragedy. Moreover, He would not have been accepted back to heaven, much less regained his position on His Father's throne, so He would have given up everything for a single meal. You would think that the decision would be an easy one, but the temptations of the flesh are strong as we know all too well. Ironically, He came to know sin on the cross, not his own but everyone else’s sin, but Satan needed Jesus to know sin through personal experience, which would have destroyed unity in the Godhead. Jesus then would have needed a savior, and whom would the Father have sent greater than Christ? The entire Godhead would have crumbled, but fear not; Jesus never fails! See also -- Adam in the Garden: 66e (66e) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> His position with the Father >> Jesus is under His authority – God officially gave the earth to Adam, and commanded him to turn it into a paradise, but instead he imprudently allocated it to the devil. In contrast, Jesus is under the authority of His Father, who ultimately destroyed the devil when Jesus went to the cross. It’s not just that Jesus died for our sins; it is also that He did it under the authority of His Father, which defined the power of the cross. The main objective of the devil was to separate Jesus from the authority of His Father to put Jesus on common ground with Him, so he could fight Him as an equal, but so long as Jesus remained united with His Father He was superman, and as a super hero He saved us from the darkness of evil, and He will come again and save us in a more physical sense. Consequently, had Jesus acted on His own authority, it would have been sin, testifying about this fact in Jn 8-29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” This is what people need to understand about Jesus: He live and walked in submission to His Father. If it were Jesus idea to save us and the Father disagreed, we would not be accepted in heaven. This is why it is imperative we view the plan of redemption as the Father’s idea, “For God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...." (Jn 3-16). Jesus came in obedience to His Father and was completely reliant on Him for everything. He never did anything until He received commandment from His Father and always obeyed Him. This doesn’t mean Jesus was unable to make any decisions at all; He just wasn’t allowed to make any decisions that would infringe on His Father’s plan. Consequently, He was to eat and replenish His body only when the Father dictated it, so after His temptation, He sent angels and ministered to Him, which was far better than eating bread made of stone. See also -- Adam in the Garden: 183j (103i) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God purifies His church >> Jesus goes through God’s purifying process – A wilderness experience is what it takes to rid ourselves of fleshly sins. The fact that Jesus never sinned indicates that wilderness experiences pertain less to past sins and more to present and future sins, preparing our hearts to remain single-minded to the will of God throughout our ministry. Jesus was made of flesh and blood like the rest of us, being tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4-15). The benefit and result of this wilderness experience essentially taught Jesus' flesh that He was boss. During His 3½ year ministry Jesus did not allow His flesh to do anything apart from the will of God. This wilderness experience put His flesh on notice that it was futile to resist Him, for Jesus had every intension of fulfilling the will of His Father to the finest jot and tittle. In other words, Jesus’ wilderness experience drew a straight and definitive line between Himself and His flesh (and the devil), which is what baptism does. Submerging in the water symbolizes drowning, and when we rise from the water, it symbolizes the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to newness of life. It is no longer we who live anymore, but the new creation. (105lc) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Led by the Spirit into the wilderness >> Jesus suffered the wilderness of nature (183j) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >> Truth is the enemy of the spirit of error >> Spirit of error interrogates the truth – Adam handed over the earth and its future kingdoms to Satan when he took the bait and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Jesus is the second Adam. The devil knows the word of God; he quoted it to Jesus; the devil also knows he will fail, but he keeps trying, because he has nothing to lose. He is completely insane and Jesus is not about to take a single step in his direction. Jesus did His Father’s will, which was to sacrifice his flesh to ransom a people for His own possession, but the devil promised to give Jesus “…all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” Virtually every aspect of Satan's statement was a lie. First, the devil would have never given anything to Jesus. Secondly, man gave him the kingdoms of the earth, namely Adam when he sinned in the Garden of Eden, giving up everything in exchange for the knowledge of evil, thus cutting God out of the deal. It was inevitable that Adam would make this choice, thus defining the very mystery of lawlessness, just as it was inevitable that Jesus would make His choice to remain faithful to His Father, thus defining the mystery of godliness. Adam didn’t really blow it; he did what God knew he would do, what any of us would have done. The fact that man gave Satan the earth, means that he does not own the world on any official terms; rather, he stole it, meaning he doesn’t have a receipt, so he doesn't have any real authority over anything. See also: Adam in the Garden: Lk 4,3-13; 40j / Satan lied to Adam and Eve ( Jesus is the (230h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> Mystery of the trinity >> Obey the mystery of godliness like Jesus did – The devil tempted Jesus to turn the stone into bread; had Jesus done this, it would have been sin, for then He would have been obeying the devil instead of God. Had Jesus sinned, it would have alienated Him from His Father for all eternity, and so we see the enormous stakes involved in God sending His Son to earth dressed in human flesh; literally everything was on the line, heaven and earth essentially being placed on the edge of potential catastrophe. Had Jesus sinned against His Father, God Himself would have been divided and His character flawed. Sin would have entered the trinity and Satan would have won the war against God. Being the first to sin, Satan would have become leader and assumed the place of god. So, the Father literally risked everything when He sent His Son to inhabit human flesh, yet He risked nothing. This defines the mystery of godliness, for God knew Jesus would never sin. Jm 1-13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” God cannot be tempted by evil, though in the flesh Jesus was tempted, but did not fail because He was part of God who cannot sin. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4-1,2 (189j) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Masochism (Self-made martyr) >> Fasting simulates dying to self – It says when the 40 days were ended He became hungry, not just hungry but famished to the point of death. Since baptism symbolizes death and resurrection to newness of life, we should associate Jesus’ wilderness experience with His baptism. Lk 4-1 (104d) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by fire >> Purified through the fiery anointing – You would think that after John baptized Him and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove that God would have sent Him to wonderful places to do wonderful things; instead He led Him into terrible places and took away His food. What does a wilderness experience do for someone? There are numerous cases of this in the Old Testament, and every case represents a transition to a ministry that God had prepared for the person or group. Obviously, John the Baptist had a wilderness experience prior to entering his ministry, and when he baptized Jesus, He too was led by the same Spirit into the wilderness. John’s ministry was intended to fall on all Israel, suggesting that God intended to send this nation into the wilderness, so when they emerged, they would have a ministry waiting for them, except that they rejected God’s purpose for themselves, which became their wilderness experience that lasted 2000 years, and they are about to emerge from it with a ministry. In the meantime God has turned to the gentiles, and what should John’s baptism mean to us but a wilderness experience, dying to our sinful flesh and rising from the water to newness of life. (113j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> The anointing >> Filled with the Holy Spirit (216h) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Compelled by the Spirit >> Following God in fear of losing the anointing – Being led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, the same Spirit leading Him strengthened Him. God was transitioning Him from thirty years of life controlled by the Spirit to a life controlled by the anointing. His experience was very similar to Israel wandering by the same Spirit in perhaps the same wilderness for 40 years after their deliverance from the pharaoh of Egypt. He may have visited Mount Sinai and relived the rich history that occurred there. For every year that God made Israel wander in the wilderness, He made His Son wander a day, but unlike the Israelites who were fed manna, Jesus ate no food at all, but probably drank water. He wandered as though lost, not bothering to notice His location, just followed the whimsical direction of the Spirit, who also guaranteed His survival. Lk 4,3-13 (39j) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world system >> Jesus defeated Satan in the world (40j) Judgment >> Judgment of Christ >> God’s word judges the devil – Had Jesus fallen to the devil’s temptation, He would have gone the way of Adam. Did Satan raise Adam as emperor of the kingdoms of the world? On the contrary, that is the position he lost by falling to the devil's temptation. By tempting Jesus, Satan tried to strip Him of His authority. Verses five and six were the bait and verse seven was the hook. In verse eight Jesus said, “It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” He used the word of God on the devil; that is, He didn’t argue with Him. Not even Jesus would have won that battle, because there is no authoritative proof in anyone’s opinion, but to the devil there is authority in the word of God, not so much in the Bible itself but in our faith, for the devil cannot argue with our faith. He may argue with the tenets of our beliefs, but our faith is what will overcome him. In our battles with the devil, if we use the word of God in conjunction with our faith, that settles that. See also -- Adam in the Garden: Lk 4-3,4; 66b (151a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Speak the word >> Speak the logos KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4-3,4 (66b) Authority >> Lordship of Christ >> He is Lord over all creation >> over the elements – For the devil to tempt Jesus to turn the stone into bread means He could have done it, but it would have been His last miracle, just like Adam and Eve eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was their last act of true freedom. After that, they became sinners and enslaved to sin. They still could make decisions, but only within the parameters of their sinful nature. The stone therefore represented the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate at the prompting of the devil, suggesting that every object around Him became a temptation to turn it into food. He had fasted forty days and forty nights before this temptation and He was on the verge of death, and God had not yet released Him from His fast. Had Jesus followed the prompting of the devil, He no longer would have been walking by the Spirit on the basis of faith, “and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14-23). See also -- Adam in the Garden: Lk 4,1-13; 65c (77c) Thy kingdom come >> Hunger for the essence of God >> Doing the will of God is more important than our food Lk 4-4 (80c) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word in spiritual warfare >> To fight in the Spirit -- This verse goes with verse 8. Jesus was the Son of God and co-creator of the universe with His Father, yet Jesus didn’t feel He could answer Lucifer by His own authority, but used the authority of Scripture. Had Jesus answered Lucifer by His own authority, Satan would have quickly turned it into a theological debate, so Jesus quoted Scripture to him instead, which Satan could not challenge. However, there are many scoundrels in today’s world that are more arrogant than Satan (if that were possible), who openly challenge the validity of Scripture, which was something that not even the devil did. Lk 4,5-13 (160f) Works of the devil >> Led by the devil into the wilderness – When we hear what the devil said to Jesus and compare it to what he said to Adam and Eve, the lies are very similar, in that deception was marbled throughout his words. To extrapolate truth from lies would have been almost impossible, and to argue with him would be our opinion against his. Jesus knew that and therefore quoted Scripture to him, because it wasn’t His opinion. Eve quoted the word of God to the devil too, telling him what Adam told her from God. Therefore, the devil’s arguing point was one of mistranslation. Had Eve stood her ground, everything would have been fine; instead, the devil told her another lie, which digressed from the word of God, and she believed it. Satan used the same bait-N-switch trick on Jesus that he used on Adam and Eve, and Satan even admitted as much when he said to the Lord, “it [the world] has been handed over to me.” Had Jesus tried to reason with the devil about this, the devil would have tied Him into knots, especially in his weakened state. Satan got Eve to argue about what he said and took her mind off the word of God, but Jesus never argued with the devil, because He knew it was useless and even dangerous. Jesus chose a passage in the Bible that was most poignant to His situation. The point He made was that we are to worship God and Him only. The devil could not claim to be God, since Jesus lived with His Father from eternity past, and he didn’t expect Eve to believe it either, since he came to her in the form of a snake. Nonetheless, he has managed to convince many people since Eve that he is a god. All of the devil’s lies are half-truths, and almost nothing the devil says is absolutely false. For example, he correctly said that the world had been handed over to him, and He gives it to whomever he wishes, though still it was only half true, in that every king has died, and his kingdom reverted back to the devil. He offered the world to Jesus, knowing that if he accepted it, Jesus would have died too, but the Father would not have rescued Him from death, because of disobedience. That is, he offered his kingdom to Jesus in hope of separating Him from His Father. See also: Satan uses the law of sin and death against man; Jn 16-33; 41d Lk 4,5-8 (196b) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping the devil – In order to receive the kingdom from Satan, Jesus would have had to worship the devil; He would have committed the sin of idolatry, causing an eternal rift between He and His Father that could never be mended. If he could introduce discord between the members of the trinity, he could usurp God as the first step in taking over His throne and His creation, though the devil never had a plan to usurp the Father. John 8-50 says, "I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges." Had Jesus sought His own glory, He would have been tempted to fall for the devil’s trick. Had Jesus taken the devil’s bait like Adam and Eve did and worshipped Satan in the desert, having fasted forty days and forty nights, He was about to die. Remember it says that the angels came and ministered to Him, giving Him something to eat; He was unable to walk out of the desert on His own. Had the devil gotten what he wanted from Jesus, he would have left Him there to die, and the story tragically would have ended right there in the desert. Lk 4-5 (160c) Led By The Devil (Key verse) -- This verse goes with verse 9. For further commentary on Jesus' temptation in the wilderness see Mat 4,1-11 Lk 4-6 (164e) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world system >> Satan’s system of authority >> Satan’s hierarchy of evil Lk 4-8 (80c) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word in spiritual warfare >> To fight in the Spirit -- This verse goes with verse 12 Lk 4,9-13 (109ha) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit the teacher >> Spirit teaches us about the word of God >> Spirit interprets the word for us – The devil misquoted Scripture; everything he said to Jesus was a lie, and of course Jesus was well aware of it. The devil decided, ‘Okay, if you are going to use the word of God in your defense, then I’m going to use it to make my point.’ The assumption is that if the devil uses the word of God, then Jesus can’t argue with Him. The devil would say, ‘I can’t be lying to you because I am quoting the Bible, and we know that the Bible is the truth, don’t we?’ What Satan said was not true, and he was quoting the Bible, so the Bible in and of itself is not the truth. The truth is in the accurate interpretation of the Bible, and the only one who can properly interpret the Bible for us is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must be saved and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and ask Him to teach us God’s word before we can know the truth, and in so doing we will develop a relationship with Him through the truth of God’s word. If this is not happening in our lives, then it is inevitable that our understanding of the Bible is skewed, corresponding with the devil’s many interpretations. Jesus put the word of God back into perspective when He corrected the devil’s theology and said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Lk 4,9-12 (177c) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Distorting Scripture >> Distorting Scripture for personal gain Lk 4-9 (160c) Led By The Devil (Key verse) -- This verse goes with verse 5 Lk 4-12 (80c) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word in spiritual warfare >> To fight in the Spirit -- This verse goes with verse 4 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,14-30 (70g) Authority >> Sin of familiarity >> Familiar with the truth-enemy of discernment >> Familiar with Jesus in the flesh – Jesus read from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue of His own hometown, and He was saying these words among His friends and relatives, “and all were speaking well of Him.” Jesus knew that would not last. Once He started performing miracles and teaching the deep things of God, He would suddenly become unacceptable to them. He knew the closest people to Him would be the first to turn on Him, so He brought out the truth in their hearts and showed them how they really felt about Him. If He healed many people and cast out many demons in their sight, instead of it being a blessing, it would have become a curse through their unbelief. His friends and relatives would have said, ‘We have known this guy since He was a toddler; He is the son of Joseph; who does He think He is?’ They simply would not accept Jesus as their teacher or a healer and certainly not as their Messiah. They all thought He was a wonderful kid and a respectful adult prior to His ministry; everybody in town liked Him, but once Jesus entered His ministry, liking Him was no longer an option. After that people had to either love Him or hate Him, not as the son of man, someone small enough to fit in their back pocket, but as the Son of God, someone the universe itself could not contain! Suddenly Jesus became an offense. What was it about Jesus that so offended people? It is always the same thing, jealousy. He was doing things they couldn’t do; God chose Him and not them; Jesus knew God better than they did, etc. Prior to His ministry people were happy with Jesus, only because they didn’t really know Him. Lk 4,14-21 (41b) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus is without sin >> He fulfilled the law -- These verses go with verses 33-37. Jesus checked off every box as a prophet and their Messiah, in that before He came to the synagogue He had been preaching the gospel to the poor, proclaiming release to the oppressed and healed the blind in the favorable year of the Lord, in essence fulfilling Old Testament Scripture that prophesied of Him. The people did not dispute that He was a prophet, though they tried to kill Him, but they could not even imagine Him being their Messiah, because He didn’t come in the form they expected. The fact that they recognized Him as a prophet should have equipped them with enough respect to at least listen to Him, yet this is the message of the cross, that if God gave us a million reasons not to crucify His Son, we would do it anyway. We are sinful and depraved and in need of a Savior, the very person they crucified; and in doing so they established Him as the Savior of the world. (210d) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our savior >> Jesus is the savior of the world – This was an amazing moment; nobody but Jesus could have truly said these words. Right here He confessed to be the Savior of the world, the Christ whom Israel had longed to see, but a few verses later we see the villagers trying to push Him over a cliff, because everyone in attendance knew that Isaiah had written this about their coming Messiah, and the people didn’t believe Him to be the Christ. It says in the next verse that all the people were speaking well of Him, but after Jesus insulted them by telling them the truth, they sought to kill Him. They recognized that Jesus was born in the natural way, having known Him from childhood. They didn’t think their Messiah would come like this but in great power and glory. They misinterpreted the Scriptures; they didn’t take into account the 2000-year age of grace that was scheduled before His second coming. The fact that they were unaware of this is the reason they never accepted Jesus as their Messiah, even though He fulfilled all the Scriptures that spoke of His first coming. Had they expected their Messiah to come this way, they probably would have received Him, and it would have changed the circumstances enormously, but as it was they rejected Him and had Him nailed to a Roman cross and thus fulfilled the predetermined plan of God. Lk 4,17-21 (141e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ ministry >> Jesus as the healer – There was Simeon who understood the Messiah would come the way he did. God revealed it to Simeon because he was a student of his word and a disciple of prayer. He met Joseph and Mary in the temple when they came to have their firstborn son circumcised on the eighth day. Simeon knew by the Spirit that Jesus was the coming Messiah, for there were no signs to be observed. He knew Jesus was the Messiah solely based on the revelation of the Spirit. In other words, Simeon had a hearing ear, and if he could hear the Spirit, then so can we, because Simeon was no one special, except that he was faithful. No doubt he tried to tell people what he knew about the Scriptures but was met with deaf ears. Nobody listened to him; they didn’t give Him enough attention even to label him a heretic or a false prophet, for they may have stoned him for that. Instead, they considered Him a lunatic because his message was that the Christ must first come as a baby and mature among them and teach them the word of God. At some point he gave-up trying to communicate this and just patiently waited. As an old man he spent decades waiting for this one moment, probably spending his days in the temple, waiting for a man and a woman to bring a child into the temple to be circumcised, and he found them, and now we have the story of Simeon blessing the Lord. Because the Israelites rejected people like Simeon, they also rejected Jesus and it cost them their place and their nation. Lk 4-18,19 (111b) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit and evangelism (119d) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Freedom from satanic influence >> Free from bondage (247c) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> God’s interests >> God is interested in His people >> God is interested in our freedom Lk 4-18 (149j) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Authority of the rhema given to evangelism >> Being prepared by God personally Lk 4-20 (121g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope >> Expectation >> Expecting good things based on God’s character >> Expectation based on His word Lk 4,22-30 (18h) Sin >> Twisted thinking >> Can’t distinguish between good and evil >> Jesus is evil – The townspeople apparently understood what Jesus told them and hated Him for it. They weren’t just angry; they wanted to kill Him, His friends, His acquaintances, His relatives: aunts, uncles and cousins. Just a minute earlier they were speaking well of Him. He really touched a nerve, but what did He say that so enraged them? Keep in mind that the memory of His birth was still alive in His hometown; the people waited for thirty years to see what would come of Him, and when He finally blossomed into His ministry, they got the news that they were excluded from the reward. Instead of basking in their initial acceptance of Him, He was saying, ‘I know you are going to reject me, so I am going to help you hate Me by telling you the truth.’ Jesus wanted none of their acceptance, because it wasn’t based on the truth. (182c) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Self deception >> Lying to yourself (200e) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Rejecting the faith of God >> Rejecting Christ through unbelief – Jesus operates in an environment of faith, but there was a lot of denial transpiring in the minds of his friends and acquaintances. He can do nothing in an atmosphere of unbelief. Jesus was saying to His friends and relatives who didn’t believe in Him that throughout His ministry many people will be overlooked. This enraged his friends and relatives; they thought they should be first in line to receive from His ministry since He grew up among them, completely ignoring the fact that they didn’t even believe in Him. That is, they wanted to receive from God, not by faith, but by association, and Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of God doesn’t work that way. His hometown’s people had a thirty-year opportunity to live with Jesus. They watched Him grow and mature into manhood, and Jesus was saying, “I tell you the truth, you have received your reward in full” (Mat 6,1-16). He was telling them, ‘You will be the last to benefit from My ministry because you know me merely as the friendly kid on the end of the block, as the son of man,’ but for those of us who know Jesus as the Son of God and believe in Him for eternal life, our reward will never end. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,22-24 (20a) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Spirit of familiarity – Jesus prophesied that his own friends and relatives would be party with those who would spit on Him and mock Him while He hung on the cross. Jesus knew His friends and relatives would one day abandon Him and hate Him, but He didn’t lose any sleep over it. “[Jesus] replied to him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' Pointing to his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother'” (Mat 12,48-50). Jesus’ brothers and probably His sisters, his aunts, uncles, cousins and friends all developed a false perception of Him and were unwilling to change their thinking to accommodate the truth that was emerging about Jesus. He adopted a new family with those who would believe in Him. He predicted they would say to Him, “Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your home town as well.” That was not His friends and relatives inviting Him to perform miracles among them; that was His friends and relatives daring Him to perform miracles among them. Essentially they were saying, ‘If you try to perform miracles in our hometown, we will shut you down.’ Other passages of Scripture verify that is exactly what they did (Mat 13,53-58). Lk 4-22 (158j) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Counterfeit >> Counterfeit godliness >> Love sickening sweet >> Loving words that lack action (240d) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Natural disadvantage >> Beware when all men speak well of you >> Natural disadvantage of being popular Lk 4,23-30 (199j) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Unwilling to receive Christ >> Rejecting Christ as the Messiah – Jesus was becoming quite popular from His preaching; they loved to hear Him speak with authority, and they loved to watch His healing power. He was calling the people to repentance and faith toward God, and He was speaking about His Father’s love for them, making Jesus a hit among all the people. They loved Him, because it was obvious He loved them; He devoted Himself to them. His interests were last while everyone else was first in His eyes. People felt secure around Him, knowing that He cared about them, and He had special abilities and could fix any problem. These things were happening in Capernaum and Judea, but in His own hometown they would not have Him; they had all made up their minds about Him, and any proof that contradicted their pre-established beliefs they ignored. His hometown would no doubt be the first to believe the report that after they crucified Him someone came and stole His body. They didn’t want to know the truth but rejected the facts; they didn’t care about the facts but cared only about their view of Him. Their mantra went, “Is this not Jesus, whose father and mother we know?” That and, ‘There is no way this man is a miracle worker; I don’t care what you saw and heard; trust me, I’ve known Him for 30.’ They simply refused to believe their five senses, much less the facts. They say seeing is believing. People worship their five senses; today they reject Christ from a lack of miracles. When Jesus performed miracles, they rejected Him, and when there are no miracles, we embrace secularism and reject Christ, so either way sinful flesh cannot believe in God. (241j) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecution to the death >> Kill Jesus >> Kill Jesus because of what He said Lk 4-23 (152g) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Prophets >> Jesus is a prophet >> Jesus prophesies to the world (243b) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Mocking >> Mocking Christ KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,25-30 (24g) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Envy >> Angry at God because of their poverty Lk 4,25-27 (219e) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> God transforms the world into the Church >> God selects us from the world Lk 4-30 (28l) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> Father protects His Son (147e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Divine works of God >> Signs and wonders – When it says that Jesus passed through their midst, it means He dematerialized or became invisible. He walked on water; He could do anything with His body that He wanted. Later, after His resurrection, He passed through walls. What’s the big difference between walking on water before His resurrection and passing through walls after His resurrection? He was able to walk through walls, not because He had a resurrected body and not even because He was the Son of God, but because He believed in His Father. Jesus said in Jn 14-12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” This is a mind-blowing statement; this is really raising the bar. Even though He was made of flesh and blood just like us, He was able to do anything because of His faith in God, His Father and our Father. If God has performed a miracle through your life and ministry, you haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what God wants to do through you. Imagine the frustration God must have suffered all these centuries, working with a people with such flimsy faith who don’t believe in Him enough to let Him perform miracles among them. Many of us don’t trust or believe in God anymore than His hometown’s people believed in Him. Lk 4,31-36 (66j) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> His words are the authority of God – The next place Jesus visited was Capernaum; He went straight there and performed many miracles. Lk 4,33-37 (16a) Sin >> The sin nature is instinctively evil >> Man’s flesh is related to the devil >> Man's sinful nature wars against God – The demons knew and respected Jesus more than the people of His time. The demons could tell that there was something about Him that was inherently above the natural order of man, even above the angels. Although Jesus was clothed in human flesh, there was absolutely nothing about Him that could relate to demons. In contrast, man and demon have much in common, but then so does man and God. This is the choice that each of us must make: Will we live like the devil and follow after the spirit of error, or will we live like Jesus and follow after the Holy Spirit? Demons and man are like horses and donkeys; they are related, and they can even mate to produce mules, allegorically speaking of the Nephilim, mentioned in the Old Testament (Gen 6-4; Num 13-33), insinuating they were sterile. We don’t know how much we relate to demons in this life, because it is all we have ever known. If we were placed in an environment where demonic influence did not exist; how many differences would we find? (41b) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus is without sin >> He fulfilled the law -- These verses go with verses 14-21. Jesus never once related to demons, nor did He make them an issue until He entered His ministry; then He started casting them out of people and messing with their world and the demons protested saying, “Ha, what do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are—the holy one of God!” The demons know that the clock was ticking against them. Even so, it was clear by their own confession that not even the demons of hell understood God’s plan of sending Jesus into the world clothed in human flesh. Until then, they spiritually monopolized the empires and civilizations of the world. The demons complained that they had nothing in common with Jesus, but He did not consider their question viable, nor was it even permissible for them to speak. (46j) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Demons are subject to Christ – Why didn’t Jesus allow the demons to speak? Answer, who were they to preach the gospel? Everything they say is laced with deception. If Jesus allowed them to speak, people would listen to them, and Satan would soon turn it into an opportunity to distort the gospel. So, there was deception in the demons statement; can you hear it? They essentially asked Him, ‘If we have no relation to you, then why are you bothering us?’ There's the lie. Jesus is not just the king of heaven and of the universe and of the earth and of man and of angels; He is also the king of demons. For them to even come close to saying ‘leave us alone’ is a lie, for they had no business telling Him what to do. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,33-35 (164d) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world system >> Satan rules the world >> Satan is a tyrant over the world – Jesus allowed the devil to speak to Him in the wilderness during His temptation, but after He won that war, He wasn’t about to refrain from exerting His authority over them that He acquired in the desert, just like the devil, after winning the war over Adam and Eve, did not refrain from imposing himself over mankind as a tyrant ever since. To Jesus this was payback. (181k) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Self deception >> Deceiving and being deceived – Demons are always rebelling and meddling in foreign domains, always looking for angles and opportunities to invade and conquer, even with Jesus. Jesus didn’t want people coming to know He was the Son of God based on what demons said, nor did He want the demons to control His level of popularity. For Jesus’ ministry to have lasted 3½ years was a miracle in itself, because the Romans held a tight leash on the Jews, and they were always looking for revolts and attempts to displace their authority. The devil’s malice and calculation challenges the human imagination, except that people have studied his thought process for many centuries now, and have finally mastered it in the last days. The confounding thing of it, this change in covenants that Jesus invoked was so profound that neither man nor demon saw it coming, anymore than man will see coming what God has in store for the world in the last days. Lk 4-33 (145j) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> Their behavior >> Immoral spirits – The Bible speaks of unclean demons as though there were also clean ones. There is no such thing as a clean demon. “Unclean” is suggestive of sexual immorality. There must have been a lot of demon possession back then for this to be common enough for people to be aware of it. It is possible that demon possession is just as common now as it was back then, except that the demons are acting covertly and are not harassing their victims as much, but using people merely as dwelling places, and will become more aggressive as we approach the last days. The demons need an environment of rebellion and spiritual ignorance, which was the case in Israel, and which is quickly becoming the case in our own country. Demons become aggressive for one of two reasons: either they feel threatened as they were around Jesus, or for the opposite reason, they feel more at ease to do as they wish from an environment of evil that increases around them. Lk 434,35 (146d) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> They know the Holy Spirit -- These verses go with verse 41 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Lk 4,38-41 (145a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Methods of healing >> Healed by speaking the word – Peter was fascinated by Jesus’ ability to heal the sick and to perform miracles, signs and wonders, but he was probably most impressed when He healed his mother-in-law, because it had a personal touch. It could be that he was arguing with his wife and her mother about his faith, about being gone so often and following this man. When Peter brought Him to her house and He healed her, it established a relationship with the Lord, and they finally understood what Peter was doing. This happened early in His ministry, and so this went with Peter throughout his walk with the Lord. When Peter asked Him to heal his mother-in-law, Jesus spoke a word over her and she got up. Peter was a blustery man, but that didn’t change the love in his heart, because it was real. Regardless of our personality, if we love the Lord, God will do anything for us if we keep His commandments (Jn 14,12-15). (216a) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> Suddenly >> Being healed without delay Lk 4-40 (115g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Laying on of hands >> Seeing signs, wonders and miracles (145c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Healing >> Jesus healed them all Lk 4-41 (146d) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> They know the Holy Spirit -- This verse goes with verses 34,35. The demons shouted, “You are the Son of God!” (Mk 3-11); they knew Him to be the Christ, and for that very reason He would not let them speak, why not? They were telling the truth, but the problem was they were demons, and they are not capable of telling the truth. Even when they speak the truth they are lying, because their motives are evil. So they had an evil motive for broadcasting that Jesus was the Son of God. He didn’t promote Himself as the Christ; if someone believed it of Him, that was fine, but he didn’t want them telling everybody, partly because He wanted people to come to their own conclusions, but secondly and more importantly because He didn’t want His popularity to make Him a target with the religious establishment before the time, who were already threatening to end Him and His ministry. Lk 4,42-44 (149g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Preaching the word to the world >> Sowing the seed – Isaiah 52-7 says, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation.” That was primarily speaking about Jesus, but it also referred to the apostles and many missionaries who carried the gospel abroad. It was imperative for Jesus to fulfill all prophecy, taking the message to the people, and the leper, spoken in Mk 1,40-45, single-handedly stopped Jesus from doing this. Jesus most likely knew what the leper would do but healed Him anyway. Jesus preached the gospel in the synagogues of Judea, the province of Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. Much as Jesus loved Jerusalem, He didn’t go there much, because He knew it was a hotbed of vehement zealots in the spiritual leaders of Israel who attended the temple, and they were all very fervent for their interpretation of the Scriptures. They were not ready to sit down and let Jesus contradict virtually everything they believed, first and foremost because it confronted their pride. Lk 4-42 (143h) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Popularity >> Sought commendably >> Seeking Jesus for His favor Lk 4-43,44 (2c) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Keep your commitments >> Complete God’s calling in your ministry >> Christ did as our example See next page