Luke Chapter 4
We're going to be in Luke chapter 4 this morning, resuming our study in this gospel. And I'm going to invite you all to stand with me, and we will read the first 13 verses. We'll be talking about verses 1 through 30, but for now we're going to read verses 1 through 13 to start us.
And this is God's word: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command the stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone." And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If then you will worship me, it will all be yours." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." He took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." And Jesus answered him, "It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Let's be seated together. Well, what would you be willing to give or to sacrifice in order to achieve your greatest ambitions, your greatest desires, the greatest accomplishments while avoiding the setbacks, the pain, the hardship that brought you there? Without all the closed doors, without the broken relationships, without the pain that brought you to where you were meant to be.
As painful as it can often be, our sanctification, which is just our spiritual growth in the Lord, is much more valuable than we often acknowledge. If God's plan was to take you immediately from being saved to fully reflecting Christ in your salvation, we would all live much shorter lives. It'd be a very quick transition. But God is not as much concerned about what we do for him as he is in what we are in him. He's concerned about what we are in him. Are we faithful? Are we repentant? Are we dependent? Those are hard marks for us to hit every time, but the Holy Spirit is a near and present help to us.
And in our text this morning, in Luke chapter 4, we will see our Savior come face to face with some of those same questions. So far in the book of Luke, we could easily summarize the message of the first three chapters as simply, Jesus is the prophesied Messiah. He is the one that was foretold. In chapter one, we saw the angel proclaim it. Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Mary affirmed it. In chapter two, the host of angels proclaimed it, and it was the shepherds and Simeon who likewise affirmed it. Then in chapter three, the prophesied forerunner, John the Baptist, proclaims it. And then God the Father himself affirms it through the visible anointing of the Holy Spirit as a dove upon his Son, Jesus Christ.
Which wasn't to say that the Spirit had been absent from Jesus up until that point. Actually, it was to show publicly that from here on out, the ministry of Jesus would be marked by the work of the Holy Spirit. Everything he did from that point on would be something that he did in tandem with the Spirit. He would be full of the Spirit, like many of the great Israelites of the past. And his ministry in the fullness of the Spirit would set the standard for every future Christian ministry still to come.
And our gospel writer, Luke, he wants his readers to know explicitly that Jesus is the triune God and that God is working actively and completely to usher in his kingdom. He is bringing the kingdom of God to earth. So let's look at our text this morning for the sake of growing in our own faithfulness, repentance, and even our own dependence on the Lord.
Our first of two points this morning in verses 1 through 15 is that the better Adam had a mission of submission. The better Adam had a mission of submission. And we'll see with each temptation. We'll have three sub-points under that. In the baptism narrative of Jesus in chapter 3, we saw that Jesus was ceremoniously anointed by the Holy Spirit. And now he goes forth full of the Spirit. And he is going in the power of the Spirit. And the idea here is not that Satan drew Jesus into the wilderness or even that the Spirit dragged Jesus along.
It's actually that Jesus went in the fullness of the Spirit to go to the wilderness in order to engage with the deceiver. The ministry of Christ was to pave the way for the redemption of his people, and that includes his own personal example of holiness. And first on the list was to show Satan just who he was up against.
Luke doesn't just want us to see that Jesus has been tempted in every way like us, although he certainly has, but in this particular narrative, we see that Jesus has actually been tempted above and beyond how we will be tempted. This is a unique temptation to Christ because it is not directed primarily at his humanity or even at his desires; it's directed at his deity. Saying, "Okay, if you are Jesus, the Son of God, then enter the temptations."
While Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, in contrast, Adam was tempted in a beautiful and luscious garden. Adam had his own God-given companion, Eve. Christ was alone. The devil snuck up on Adam, through Eve, and caught him vulnerable and unprepared for that moment. Whereas Jesus marched straight towards his nemesis.
And these three temptations that we will look at are most likely a summary of the ongoing temptation that Jesus faced for that whole time that he was in the wilderness. After the glory of his public baptism, Jesus finds himself in the quiet wilderness with Satan. There was no crowd. It was Jesus and Satan alone. And this interaction has been written down for our benefit, but the event itself was to prove to the powers of darkness just who had the genuine and true authority in this moment.
And here we see the first temptation and also our first sub-point in verses 3 through 4. The better Adam had a mission of submission to God's provision. Picking up in verse 3, the devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone."
Perhaps you remember the last audible words spoken about Jesus was that the baptism narrative. The very last thing we have recorded, verse 22, "You are my Son, and in you I am well pleased." Jesus knew that he was God's Son. So what was the big deal here in having to prove that to Satan? Well, this temptation was about much more than a quick meal. It was about much more than simple bread. It was an opportunity to use his divine power and attributes and position for his own ends, thereby actually rejecting the provision that was already in place from God the Father.
For us, cutting corners often can come so easily. Just take some of those seemingly inconsequential things into your own capable hands, right? Get things done. Circumvent to the end. But we know that when we try to solve our own problems through our own strength, it usually doesn't turn out very well because we don't have the genuine ability or the genuine authority to fix our problems.
But here, Jesus actually has both of those things. He has the ability and the authority as the Son of God to improve his current circumstances. Why go hungry? Wouldn't it be more advantageous to face Satan's temptations on a full stomach? Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He here echoes and reinforces the truth of Deuteronomy chapter 8, that man would not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
To provide for himself in this sense would be to forsake God's loving provision and to separate himself from the very people that he came to save. He didn't need God's provision in the same way that we need God's provision, but he was here to submit himself to that provision for our sake. He came willingly to submit to the Father's will and therefore to show and pave the way of salvation. Because there can be no walking with God without the grateful dependence on God's loving provision.
Second, we see in verses 5 through 8 that the better Adam had a mission of submission to God's plan. The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours."
What an incredible statement for Satan to make. Because we also know, as it says in Proverbs, that the hearts of kings are like a stream of water in the hand of God, directing and correcting them however he wills. But it is also true, this is not an empty offer. Satan has been given temporary and subservient authority over the kingdoms of the world, which is exactly why Satan says it has been delivered to him for a time. It's not a real power. It's not a real authority.
But this temptation is no less than an opportunity for Jesus to gain his future glory—all of the accolades, the titles, the power, king of kings, lord of lords—without the cross. Without the path of suffering. It would be a crossless majesty. This would exchange his loyalty from God the Father to Satan and enable him to avoid the path of the cross entirely and still achieve a glorious outcome. Real authority and real glory, but not real redemption. There would be no winning a people to yourself.
And the devil here is so clever. We know from Jesus' prayer in the garden that just the magnitude, the weight of the suffering and death that awaited Jesus was enough to lead him to sweating drops of blood. It was enough to lead him to ask the Father, "If possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but your be done." Satan knew the crippling weight of the path that Jesus was starting. He knew where he was headed, and he knew he had an opportunity to say something here.
But we see in Jesus' response in verse 8 that his mission was never his own glory. It was not his power. It is not ownership over the kingdoms of the world. He says, "It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." In contrast, in the wilderness, for the people of Israel, they were frequently stumbling, frequently overcome by their own idolatry, their own desires for their own power, for their own provision, for their own plan.
But this was not the case with Jesus, who would be our eternal example. He was on a mission for the Father and for his people, and he knew there could be no salvation without suffering, no power without the power of his shed blood. And that was all the motivation that he needed to completely submit himself to the Father's plan, which would climax in the crucifixion.
But he also saw through the devil's offer to something even greater. What Satan was offering was good, but it was not the best. It was not the most glorious. Because God is not looking for the simple glory of earthly kingdoms who just owe their allegiance to him out of a simple ownership. Well, he's the man. We have to honor him, right? No, he is looking for the glory of worshipers in his own kingdom who have desired to be with him and who rejoice and glorify in him even more. We are not God's subjects in his kingdom. We are his children. And therefore, we are his glory. It increases in our own rejoicing.
And Jesus submitted perfectly to the Father's plan, not circumventing the cross, not avoiding the suffering, not trying to execute his own will, which led him to completely depend on God's power. Number three, the better Adam had a mission of submission. I've already tripped myself up. A mission of submission to God's power.
Verses 9 through 13. And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." And again, Luke wants us to know that the cross is in view here. This quotation from Psalm 91 was a reminder to David, the anointed David, that God's angels would not let harm befall him until his time came. If David merited divine protection from the Lord, how much more Jesus, the Son of God?
But the twist here is subtle. We see in the temple, which was a symbol of God's presence, his provision, his protection, the temptation here was a call to force the hand of the Father in his supernatural protection. "He's not going to let anything happen to you before the cross. Just embrace, engage his protection. Enjoy it. Relish in it. Let the people around you see that you are supernaturally protected." In a sense, the devil is getting at the idea that Jesus shouldn't have to embrace suffering and pain in order to accomplish his purpose. There has to be a way to get there without all of the hard stuff in the middle.
As we saw with the temptation of the kingdoms in the second one, surely there was a way to get things done without the cross. Jesus knew some of the trials that awaited him in the very people that he came to save: mockery, rage, betrayal, suffering, torture, and death. How many of us would give anything to have a supernatural manifestation of God's comfort in our darkest, most painful, most grief-stirred nights? And yet that's exactly what we have in the Holy Spirit. We have God's comfort. We have God's peace. And Jesus acknowledged that God's power really does shine the brightest in our weakness, in our dependence and total reliance on him. And that same power was going to work mightily through every hardship and not in their avoidance. The mission of God was never to keep his only son safe.
As Paul said in Corinthians, Jesus did not count his equality with God as something to be grasped. He submitted himself to God's power and his protection without accomplishing any of it on his own timeline. This was the mindset of Christ. There would be no glory and no redemption, no lasting victory over sin and death without the path of pain and suffering.
He says in verse 12, "It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." And we often read those words and think, "Okay, mic drop. He's just said, Satan, get out of here. Stop testing me. I am the Lord your God." But this isn't about Satan testing Jesus; it's about Jesus refusing to test the Father. He's saying, "No, no, no, I'm not going to play your games and I'm not going to put my loving Father to the test. I will submit intentionally to his will in every respect." He refused to exploit his status and his authority, instead willingly looking forward to bear the humble reality and the path of a servant.
And so we see in verse 13 that when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit in verse 14 to Galilee. And the report went about him out throughout all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
So Satan leaves and he gets to work, crafting and scheming and knowing that that crucifixion date is coming and that his time is limited. And likewise, Jesus sees the same thing and he also gets to work. The contrast is quite stark. Jesus will say essentially, "Thy will be done," whereas Satan says, "My will be done."
And just as Jesus had a message for Satan, he also had a message for his people in his hometown, Nazareth. Which is interesting because in Matthew and Mark, they say that he went to Capernaum after his time in the wilderness. So Nazareth wasn't necessarily the first stop after the wilderness, which means that Luke has rearranged the order here chronologically to show us something. And I think that point is to show us that Jesus was willing to embrace the path of suffering and rejection in the face of Satan.
The Rejected Messiah
And he is also willing to embrace the path of suffering and rejects with his own people, starting in his hometown, Nazareth. So let's look at our final point this morning. From verses 16 through 30, the rejected Messiah came for the lost.
In verse 16, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, as was his custom. He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read to engage the most powerful supernatural force in the world. He also didn't back down from his own people who knew him the best. And it's interesting here that Luke also seems to be inserting the Nazareth narrative in order to bookend the public ministry of Jesus Christ for us. As John 1 says, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
The scene in Nazareth was not striking on its face. It would have been a normal day. It was customary for Jesus and his family to participate in the worship at their synagogue. But he wasn't there to give a testimony about his experience in the wilderness. He was there to proclaim a fulfilled promise of God that had been foretold at least 500 years prior.
Verse 17: And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
And just the fact that he's handed a scroll, it's given to him, indicates some familiarity. They were not strangers to Jesus. He probably even taught in their midst previously, although his sermon today would be quite different from the rest. The book of Isaiah, which has often been referred to as the fifth gospel because it has so many Christological prophecies and passages, has 66 chapters. And Jesus, thoughtfully and intentionally, goes all the way down to chapter 61, without chapter and verse markings. He was clearly familiar with God's word.
In verse 20, after reading, it says, He rolled up the scroll and 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. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is this not Joseph's son?
It's hard to overestimate just how surprising that would have been. They would have been floored. It was the custom in the synagogue to read the scripture while standing, but then the rabbi would sit down in order to preach. So Jesus didn't just go back to his seat and offer a commentary, "Oh, yeah, by the way, today this prophecy has been fulfilled." He sat down in the seat of authority, in the teacher's seat, to teach them and say authoritatively, "I am the one that this was written about."
And this particular prophecy points back to the year of Jubilee in Israel's history. It was a mega Sabbath of sorts. Every 50 years, all the land in Israel was restored to its original owner. Everything reset. Every slave and servant in Israel was liberated. Every debt was erased. There was no planting, no harvesting in the land. There was to be a genuine rest for the people and a genuine rest for the land.
And Jesus... has been anointed by the Spirit to do what? To proclaim, to say, "This has been fulfilled and the kingdom is here." We all know that Jesus did so many miracles and wonderful things, but his power is made known clearly through his proclamation, through the message that he says. They assign meaning to his actions and they enable us to respond appropriately. We know what the cross means because of what God has told us about it.
And just as not long ago, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus as the one who is coming, now he himself, for the first time publicly, says, "I am here." I am here to proclaim the gospel, the good news, that the kingdom of God has come to the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed. God has come to redeem sinners.
And it's no surprise. The congregation at first responds with expected excitement. Okay, this is something. If this is real, this might actually turn out to be a really wonderful spiritual moment, a true revival. Surely the Spirit is going to move powerfully in this moment, and he will. But it's not the way that they expect. The fact that they notice here that Jesus is Joseph's son could be a negative, but the language here from Luke seems to indicate that it was probably positive.
Here is Joseph's boy proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor to us, to his home village of Nazareth, likely just a few hundred people, which means we are going to have front-row seats to this party. We are going to be the favored ones. The year of the Lord's favor is going to start and shine the most brightest right here. Because if Israel were the people of God, then the Nazarethites were the people of Jesus. Oh, this is our guy. This is meaning big things for us.
But Jesus' proclamation was actually going beyond his audience. It was for those who were far off. Those who were closest just wanted it for themselves. And this has been the eternal stumbling block for Israel: this idolatrous attitude of "us first." We deserve this. We've earned it. We've done all of these things to attribute it to us. The same attitude of Satan who said, "Me first." They had their eyes on the physical blessings to them in this life from God. But Jesus was focused on something much more meaningful, something much more glorious, something spiritual.
We noted at Easter last year in the book of John that while Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, he was also the unexpected savior of the world. He was not the one that Israel expected. They wanted their own redemption. And Jesus came to say, "No, I'm bringing redemption to the world, to all who would put their faith in me." So he calls out the lack of faith in their hearts. In verse 23, he says, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb: Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." And he said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown."
But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up for three years and six months, and a great famine came down over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. Again, Capernaum came first, and he knows these people, what they're really after here is signs and wonders. Show us some benefits. But that was not his mission.
Instead, he brings up Old Testament history through Elijah and Elisha to show that the mission of God is going beyond and even around the people of Israel so that it can reach and penetrate the hearts of the Gentiles. In the time of Elijah, there was a severe famine. Doubtless, many starving Israelites. And among them many starving widows. And yet God's mercy reached singularly and purposefully into the life of this Gentile widow and her son. And not long after, similarly with Elisha, God chose to heal Naaman, the Gentile from Syria, of his leprosy rather than the myriads of other lepers who were in Israel.
Here's his point: No longer would God's people be defined by ethnicity. From now on, they would be defined by faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. And this could have been a beautiful, a wonderful moment of faith and repentance. But Jesus knew their hearts, and he knew that he would take many more opportunities to expose the idolatry of man. So in verse 28 we see, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.
Not only would Jesus endure the wrath of God, he would endure the wrath of men. Their intention was likely to stone him after throwing him out of the city to be rid of the son of Joseph forever to end his mission prematurely. But again, here Luke is bookending the public ministry of Jesus with brief celebration followed by raging rejection as he faced in Nazareth with his own people, and he would later face in Jerusalem with cries of "Hosanna" and palm branches, quickly followed by "Crucify him."
But there can't be any mistake here. The mission of Jesus was to proclaim the coming kingdom and in doing so, to convict people of their sin. It came with a cost, and that was repentance from your sin. There was no freedom without faith and no restoration without true repentance. The better Adam and rejected Messiah has always been on this mission. And even now, there is for us also a warning to check our own hearts before we rush to excitement and celebration. Today, what is our response to the proclamation of the kingdom of God, to Christ's fulfillment of being the one to proclaim good news to the blind, to the poor, and to the captives?
Response to the Kingdom
Is it a better life now, or is it life in the kingdom of God? Which includes a life of suffering on earth, just like our Savior. Will we resent him for the hardships of our lives when it seems to us everyone around us is prospering? Will we presume on the mercy of God that we deserve or have even earned his good favor? That we have attended church every week for as long as we can remember, that we prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, or even been baptized?
And those are all good things, but nothing that we have done or could ever do can achieve our citizenship in heaven. That's not the point. Instead, salvation, citizenship in the kingdom, comes by humbly embracing the path of Jesus, his path of suffering and submission to God, and saying, "Not my will, but yours be done."
This is God's mercy to us who are also Gentiles, who were also far off. It's amazing that the gospel has reached us here in North Georgia, and the year of the Lord's favor continues to this day so that anyone who comes to Christ in faith and repentance may be set free from the captivity of their sin, of their despair, of their grief, and of their sorrow.
Like the people of Nazareth, salvation stands before us, the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus Christ. Would he soften our hearts to daily receive it, to embrace it, to willingly submit ourselves to the provision, the plan, and the power of God, not boasting in our own strength, but boasting in our wonderful weakness in order that the kingdom would exceed and go far beyond us?
Let's pray. God, there could be nothing better for us than to rest in the power of your kingdom, to know that our hope in the age to come is secure. It is not freedom from hardships and difficulty in this life. It is the grace and mercy of a Holy Spirit who comforts us in our troubles and our weakness, and a crucified Savior who is acquainted with our griefs and sorrow that will make the glories of heaven that much more sweet.
Would we not too quickly look past the trials of this life? Instead, point us to your Son, who endured every temptation, every tribulation, every difficulty, that he might glorify you and bring many into the kingdom. His blood, his life, is our only banner. We offer every hope, every aspiration, every prayer in His name alone. And so we pray that this morning. Amen.