Luke wrote this gospel to a Greek named Theophilus who was apparently an educated and quite sophisticated individual. Luke presents Jesus as a perfect man, one who had been more than a man, but who entered into humanity, so that man could rediscover what God intended him to be and thus obtain proper fulfillment. 

He begins by detailing the birth of Jesus and tracing his genealogy all the way back to Adam, to show that Jesus came to deal with the problem that all men faced.  He showed Jesus’ amazing ability at age twelve when he visited the Temple, showed us the Father's divine confirmation that Jesus was the Beloved Son and then took Theophilus through the story of the temptation in the wilderness, when Jesus was revealed as being absolutely perfect. 

In our lesson today we will look in some detail at how Luke presented Jesus and his mission on Earth.  First we will look at the prophecies of Isaiah made some seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus.  In those prophecies Isaiah spoke of a wonderful Servant of Jehovah, who would be sent by God the Father with the heart of a servant and perfectly equipped for a servant ministry. 

Isaiah served as a prophet of God to both the kingdoms of Judah and  Israel and he called both nations to repentance and to turn to follow the only living and true God.  Unfortunately, Israel continued in their steady path of disobedience and idolatry and in 721 B.C. was taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  Only the small nation of Judah remained to keep the light of God flickering in the face of their enemies.  

Isaiah continued to minister and to live in Jerusalem, warning the people of Judah that they would suffer the same fate if they did not repent.  (See chapters 29, 30, and 31).  Isaiah had to strengthen King Hezekiah to make him stand against the Assyrians, who had come to besiege Judah and Jerusalem to  capture it and exile its people. 

(See Isaiah 36 and 37 and 2 Kings 18 and 19). 

He made it clear to God's people, that they would be forgiven and comforted in their future problems and suffering by the coming of the Servant of Jehovah.  In chapters 60 and 61 he described in detail the Person and Ministry of this coming Servant of Jehovah, who we know as the Messiah. The Messiah would bring blessing and comfort to the faithful remnant of Judah.

In chapter nine, we were told that he would be the child on whose shoulders the government would rest, he would be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, and Prince of Peace. 

He would rule forever in justice, from the throne of David. God had so determined it and it would be done accordingly.

It is made clear that this Messiah Person, the Suffering Servant, would operate with the Spirit of the Lord God upon him. He would be the Anointed of God, and given a special mission. 

First, he would bring good news to the afflicted, those who were lowly, poor in spirit, poor and penitent; we call them meek, for they knew that they had nothing and would place their faith in Messiah to give them all the spiritual and material blessing for which they longed.  This was good news for those facing hard times. 

Second, the Messiah would bind up the broken hearted, all those who suffered personal tragedies, such as those suffering from the loss of loved ones taken away in the Assyrian captivity.  Those broken hearted at their sinning against God and man, would be able to call upon Messiah, confess their sins and be forgiven and their wounds would be healed. 

Third, the Messiah was Anointed and sent by God to proclaim liberty to captives.  Those hearing Isaiah's words would be comforted when they thought of their relatives that were taken into Assyrian captivity.  Those interpreting the prophecies in a spiritual sense, would expect that Messiah would release those taken captive by the satanic gods and goddesses of the surrounding nations. 

Fourth, the Messiah would free prisoners.  This would emphasize the predictions of the work of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 42:7. 

Fifth, the Messiah would proclaim the favorable or blessed year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25:8-16.  That year brought freedom and release from suffering, redemption to the captives and the supply of the needs of the poor and everyone rested from the hard labor of tilling the soil.  The Earth rested and God provided for the people during this time of Jubilee.  Messiah would bring a long and bountiful season of favor from God as well as bringing salvation to his people. 

Next, Messiah would declare the day of vengeance of God, that is, establish righteous rule in Jerusalem, make all wrongs right, eliminate all injustice and make men cease their unrighteous deeds. 

According to Isaiah, the Messiah would bring fabulous power, comfort, and blessing to Zion.  After proclaiming the day of vengeance of our God he continued:

“To comfort all that mourn;

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,

to give unto them beauty for ashes

the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

that they might be called trees of righteousness,

the planting of the Lord,

that he might be glorified.

And they shall build the old wastes,

they shall raise up the former desolations,

and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,

and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

But ye shall be named Priests of the Lord:

men shall call you the Ministers of our God:

Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,

and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.” (Isa.61: 2 to 6)

No wonder then that the people of Israel oppressed under the Roman yoke looked forward to the coming of Messiah.  He would free them, re-establish the nation in power and wealth and make them rulers on the Earth. 

But they forgot the part about the Suffering of the Servant and that the prophecies predicted that the blessings would come following the day of vengeance of God. 

This was the period of his popularity.  Prominent in his ministry was his attendance in the synagogues; the places of public worship where the people met to pray, praise God, show their devotion to Him, read the Word of God and listen to its exposition.  

Jesus’ preaching was great and inspiring and all admired him. He developed a great reputation with the people and was held in high esteem.  There was no one that attacked him or contradicted him. 

But we know that Satan, who had previously tried to tempt him, was always watching to see how he could defeat Jesus in his ministry.  We will now see how Satan chose to attack Jesus.

Verse 16.  Jesus came to Nazareth, the city in which he grew up.  On the Sabbath day, Saturday, the proper time set apart by God in Genesis 2 for rest from work and secular activity, for special congregation and worship, Jesus of course went to the synagogue.  We note as one famous writer puts it:

“It is good to keep Sabbaths in solemn assemblies”.

The usual order of service was that there was an opening prayer and praise, a reading from the Law, (the five books of Moses), then a reading from the Prophets and then a sermon from a learned visitor, or someone duly authorized and respected in the community. 

They called on the ‘famous hometown preacher’ to read from the Scriptures and for the first recorded time Jesus stood up to read.  You can be sure that practically everyone in Nazareth turned out for this occasion and had high expectations. All of them had hoped for Messiah's coming, for every pious Jew was sensitive to their suffering under Rome.  They wanted Israel to be established as the light of the world.  They would have loved to hear Jesus declare that he was a deliverer, a great warrior that would destroy Rome and free the people. 

As was the practice, when the Scriptures were read the reader stood and the people also stood in reverence. 

We note that Jesus is worthy to read the Scriptures and to give us understanding of it.

Verse 17.  The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Jesus and He took the scroll and unrolled it until he came to Isaiah 61.  It could have been that that passage was the appointed reading for that day. If that were the case we would see a display of the providence of God, for everyone would be hearing directly the voice of the prophet pointing to Jesus as Messiah.  They would have no excuse not to recognize that the passage referred to Jesus and they would then have no excuse not to receive him as such.

Verse 18.  The reading began with the declaration that the Spirit of the Lord would be upon the Messiah, providing all the necessary power for the king of Israel to bring deliverance, free the people from prison and helplessness.  He would have all the gifts and graces of the Spirit, supernaturally qualified, anointed, fitted for his ministry and work. 

The Messiah was anointed and appointed to preach good news to the poor, they were the materially, physically, and emotionally bankrupt. The poor of the world were often treated with contempt, they have little to boast of and so were often meek and humble. 

‘Good news’, or the ‘gospel’ for those that are poor includes matters discussed by Isaiah in 2:2-5; 29:17-24; 52:7; Matthew 24:14; Luke 24:47; Revelation 14:6.  

We must be careful not to strip the gospel of any of its elements and remould in the popular interpretation.  Obviously there is quite a lot involved when we speak about the Gospel as we will now see.   

Simply note that we must always deal with the everlasting gospel, not a “ gospel” which is unique to our age and is therefore ‘modern’. Man has been a sinner for a very long time and only the coming of the ‘Seed of the Woman’ could save him. 

We know that sin, even if men do not recognize it, makes men poor and corrupt in the sight of God.  The gospel therefore presents salvation.

Sin in fact really does five extremely damaging things.  It:

-impoverishes

- breaks the heart

-makes men captive

-blinds men

-and oppresses mankind.

Jesus comes as Messiah to actually BE “deliverance”, “sight”, “healing”, “light”, and not to bring deliverance, sight, light, healing.  

The prophecies Jesus read spoke of hope and deliverance and this would resonate with the people who were then in a terrible condition. Given their history and their present circumstance, Israel had experienced the tragedy of many wars, captivity, harassment by many nations, lived in exile, as well as the humility brought by their present state of colonialism.  

The nation was living in shame and guilt and the people in general were brokenhearted.  The pious Jews were particularly troubled.  As well, the very nationalistic among them spearheaded constant rebellions against those that they viewed as ungodly Gentile oppressors. 

The work of the Messiah however had a spiritual component, for he came to loose men from the bondage of corruption and guilt, which in fact are truly worse than being a physical captive. Hence the prophecies of Isaiah 52 and 53. 

Jesus then read of the recovering of sight to the blind, those in the Gentile as well as the Jewish world who were unregenerate.  In 59:9-10 in discussing the cause of the nation's calamity, Isaiah had written:

“ Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, what we walk in darkness.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.” See also Isaiah 60:2- 3.

Because of this darkness the prophecies of Isaiah 9 had told where the Messiah would begin his mission, so dreadful were the circumstances there.  In verse 2, after aiming his comments at certain tribal areas and Galilee of the Gentiles, Isaiah had aptly described the degradation that the Messiah would find when he came:

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

We know that blindness can become the norm among the people of God.  We read the tragic history of men like King Zedekiah, King

Jeconiah, Sampson, Ahab, and many others.  Only the Messiah can bring sight to the blind, physically as well as spiritually.  So we note the importance of the call in Matthew 11:28-30,

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This call or invitation we will see the people of Jesus' hometown of Nazareth totally rejected.

Verse 19.  The Messiah or Servant of Jehovah would preach that God was willing to have them repent and come to him, even though they had sinned against Him with their constant idolatry and unrighteousness.  The year of Jubilee was a year at which servants were set at liberty, actions to recover money from debtors was dropped, mortgages on mortgaged lands were cancelled and the debt discharged and people were able to return to their possessions.  This was a joyous time, an acceptable time, a time of grace, a day of salvation and freedom and good will toward all men.

This was the preaching of worldwide and Jewish redemption.  It was a time that the Messiah would appeal in the words of Isaiah 1:18-

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

God was now ready to be reconciled to them.

Verse 20.  When Jesus stopped reading at this verse, rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the ruler of the synagogue and sat down, all eyes were fixed on him to hear what he would say to them, for now was a time that he would sit to give his exposition.

This of course teaches us something about the nature of prophecy and how it relates to time, for Jesus did not read the last phrase in verse 2 “the day of vengeance of our God”.

Obviously it was not a time for this last phrase.  This was the day of salvation only, for spiritual healing, redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sins, the time to bring peace to the troubled and the guilty, who lived under the dread of God’s wrath.

The great ‘Physician and Deliverer’ was now turned to them and Messiah would take away the debt of poor sinners and free prisoners from divine justice.

Jesus deliberately did not describe what would happen at the second coming of Messiah, for that could be “a day of vengeance”.  The comma before that phrase indicates a time of certainly over two thousand years.  That time was not yet.

Verse 21.  The people waited expectantly, giving Jesus full attention for they certainly admired him.

But then Jesus made a most startling statement.  The Messiah is present today! He was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, the God Anointed, Spirit Filled Messiah.

At that moment the Isaiah passage that was declared seven hundred years earlier and which he had just read, was totally fulfilled.  He was the long-awaited hope of mankind.  He was the revelation of God.

This was something that God had set up and it was fitting that they should note carefully the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

God was now willing to reconcile them to Himself, for the Scriptures as fulfilled in the Messiah pointed unerringly to Him.

Clearly a choice was laid before them, for if Jesus was telling the truth, they should fall on their knees, repent of their sins which were as scarlet, worship Him and then ask Him how they could serve Him in this Day of Salvation and henceforth.

This was a most dramatic point, for his Coming began the Lord's year of favor, but with the day of vengeance lurking in the background to begin at his say so.

The question before them as well as before us is:

“ How should we and would we respond to the open door set before us?”

“Are we going to close our hearts?”

Verse 22.  Everyone felt great admiration for Jesus’ sweet manner and his words which seemed powerful and rich were spoken in such a charming manner. But when they considered what he was saying it was quite another thing.  One writer comments:

“Note, it is possible that those who are admirers of good ministers and good preaching may yet be themselves not true Christians.”

The impenitence of their hearts in the face of their knowledge of Jesus’ miraculous powers and the quality of his words now became clear.

They wondered at how his words were so gracious, considering that he was the son of Joseph, from a poor family and obviously not the recipient of the kind of formal education that would lead him to speak so graciously.  It was perhaps possible that God might have taught him.

But they were equally sure that when closely examined his words could not really be true, for could anything great, noteworthy, or supernaturally excellent come from someone from such a poor and undistinguished family?

They sensed the ministry of Messiah  but they felt within themselves that something must be missing, for surely Messiah’s heritage would be different from what they had seen.  In doing so they fulfilled Isaiah's complaint of unbelief about Messiah and his lack of acceptance:

“ Who hath believed our report?  And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:1-3.

It was amazing how they thought, despite being well aware of the prophecies of Isaiah.  Blindness is a terrible thing.  People will see the truth in Scripture plainly and literally shown and will yet refuse to accept it.  They re-create their own interpretations even when these conflict with the Word of God.  Despite the warning plainly stated they will seek to change times and laws.  They will even reject the Messiah which saves them.

Verse 23.  Satan was fanning the flames.

Jesus read their hearts and he knew what they wanted to see and what was stopping them from accepting him.  They could not accept that this son of a carpenter, himself a carpenter who had turned preacher would say he was the Messiah.

He could at least confirm the truth of the rumours that they had heard about his miracles done in Judah and Galilee, by doing some miracles right here before them in his hometown.  They were certainly some sick people with many diseases in town and he owed it to them to perform signs and wonders right there, if he expected them to accept the Messiah argument.  After all, they knew the truth about him better than anybody else and they were the best judges of who he really was.

This was really a sick society, quite prepared to reject the physician that stood in front of them. So Jesus told them what was on their minds, and he proceeded to give them three short sermons.

Verse 24.  The first sermon dealt with the their evident unbelief by reminding them of the meaning behind the ancient popular proverb,  “Physician, heal thyself”. That certainly suggested that the miracles that he had done in Capernaum and in other districts in Judea and Galilee should be repeated in his hometown.

The truth was that there was a prejudice and unbelief and a pride which people displayed toward their own compatriots and fellow citizens, which made it a real truth that a prophet would be accepted everywhere but in his own country.

The statement reflected the perversity in human nature that resulted in general unbelief and a closed heart.  This was the thing that would stop them from accepting the fullness of life, preferring to remain instead in deception.

Verse 25-26.  Jesus now turned to use the prophets and their experience to illustrate the other parts of the sermons, showing them that his teachings were true.

He showed them that the prophets were not accepted in Israel, simply because the people wanted to keep on enjoying idolatry and their gross misbehavior.  They were behaving in exactly the same way.

In addition, when they showed that they wanted to continue in idolatry and rejected his prophets, in consequence God sent them to the Gentiles to bring spiritual and physical healing to them.

Eight hundred years before God had sent his prophet Elijah to the wicked king Ahab and Queen Jezebel of the ten tribe nation of Israel to tell them that he would judge them for leading the people into Baal worship.  In punishment God would send no rain for three and one half years.

There were many suffering and starving widows in Israel during the drought but God chose to send Elijah not to them but to a Gentile widow who lived in Sidon, who had very little and was facing starvation but she was willing to share the very little she had with Elijah.

God then miraculously gave her enough flour and oil to sustain her, her family and Elijah until the drought ended.  Then in addition, God later blessed her by raising her son from the dead. (See 1 Kings 17 and 18 for this story).

Jesus by this showed the Jews in his hometown of Nazareth that God was offering redemption to everyone, both Jew and Gentile who placed their faith in him.  The local Jews in the synagogue should not think that they were better than anyone else, for God’s plan of mercy and redemption included blessings to different people everywhere and did not have to be shown in the same way to them as was shown elsewhere.  God wanted faith in the Messiah Jesus and the opening of closed hearts.  They had heard enough, seen enough and should believe on him, for the Spirit of God was speaking to them.

Verse 27.  The third part in Jesus' message also reinforced the teaching that redemption was offered to all those, Jew or Gentile, who placed their faith in God the Father and his Son.  This refers to the incident in 2 Kings 5:1-14.

The Jews were in unbelief despite the ministry of Elijah and so to teach them to turn to God, God used Elisha the prophet to heal the Syrian leper Naaman, the commander of the hostile Syrian army.

God wanted to show unbelieving Israel that he would leave them and redeem the Gentiles who believed in him. So in the providence of God, an Israelite slave girl told Naaman that Yahweh, the God of Israel could heal him if he placed his faith in him.

At first Naaman argued but then he repented and followed Elisha's strange and unusual instruction to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River.  He obeyed and was totally cleansed of his leprosy.

Clearly Jesus was warning the people of Nazareth that if they rejected him he would similarly reject them.

At this point his words were not found to be gracious anymore but grated on and irritated their corrupt ears.  They could never accept that God would save people on the basis of faith in him alone.

Note the teachings.  The fact that they did not accept Jesus had nothing to do with Jesus.  Instead it had everything to do with them and their hearts.

It was certain from the evidence before them that he was from God, but still they would not receive him. Therefore their rejecting him showed the truth about their nature.

In addition, man should not believe or expect that God's miraculous power should operate in the way that they want.  God's miraculous power shows itself in unexpected ways determined by the sovereign will of God.

They might have considered that the Gentiles did not deserve salvation and should be classified as the undeserving, but often it is the seemingly undeserving who benefit from God's miraculous power.

Verse 28-29.   Because of their true nature, Satan succeeded in stoking high the flames of hatred and murder.  Those that belong to Satan show this in their hatred and unrighteous thoughts about other people.

They were so provoked that they were filled with wrath and rose up against him. They interrupted him, forgot that they were in a place of worship, pushed him violently out from among them and out of the city in which he had lived for such a long time among them. They pushed him toward the brow of a hill to throw him down to his death.

Note that Jesus was not being really seeker sensitive, tailoring his message to make it easier and more enjoyable for people to hear.

Some of course teach that that is what we should do to attract people to Jesus and also to make those attending the church feel happy.  This is not what the prophets, Jesus, the Apostles, or the early church did.

This is really one of the false doctrines that have spread throughout the church.

Note that when people reject God in their hearts they are well-prepared to be violent, lying, deceptive, full of fury and frenzy and quite willing to do the most barbarous things.  Religious people often look nice on the outside but when given the opportunity they will kill to further their games and ambitions.

Verse 30-32.  They could never succeed in their despicable intentions.  Their house was left desolate, for they wanted to remain and did remain in captivity and blindness, prisoners of the Satan.

They had wanted a miracle and Jesus unexpectedly performed one right in front of them, noiselessly passing through them and going his way, leaving them sure to wonder how come they had allowed him to escape.

Jesus had his mission and his expulsion from Nazareth did not faze him, for he simply went to another city of Galilee named Capernaum and taught them on the Sabbath days.

His mission was to seek and to save those who were lost and he did that with determination and total focus.  There the people were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was filled with power.

Here he would directly face an unclean spirit, a demon, and show the people there that he had all power.  It is strange that the demons recognized Jesus while his own people, who had all the extensive exposure to prophecy, did not.

CONCLUSION

Read the Scriptures, for in them you find Eternal life.  Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life.

Do not reject Him, for then the day of the vengeance of God will come on you.

Do not think that the thoughts of our heart are hidden from God: he knows them all.

Actually, our behavior tells men who we really are.  We might think that we can hide the truth about ourselves, but we can't.

So we should repent and change and God will forgive us and change us, transforming us into the image of his Son. There is nothing that we have done that is so awful that God will not forgive us if we come to him.

So the Spirit and the Bride says Come.  Let everyone who hears come. Let everyone who is thirsty come and receive the water of life freely.

Remember that Jesus will come quickly and will bring his rewards with him, to give everyone according as his work shall be.