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Jesus & His Mission
Luke 4: 1-30 & Isaiah 61:1-2
Author: Arthur Bardis Course: B.Min
The Gospels of Mathew, Mark & Luke all place Jesus’ temptations at the very beginning of His public work, His ministry. The temptations are clearly an aftermath to the baptismal identification and anointing. His filial obedience is tested in the wilderness before His ministry begins. The issues that are raised in this chapter and more specifically with Jesus’ temptations act as a statement of His basic aims and objectives, as His mission. Or as best summarized in Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." So, let us look at the Lord’s temptations very quickly. The first one: He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus was in the desert, he had not eaten for a long time and He became extremely hungry. Note that he was in the desert for forty days. A correlation or similarity of the Israelites being in the dessert for forty years. But Jesus did not complain, grumble or had unfaithfulness but instead trusted and obeyed God the Father in everything - To reject the providence of God the Father, not to trust the Father - To bring about a Messianic age by economic means (a time of great material prosperity, i.e as in the people that were following Jesus to be fed) - To deny the very essence of what God the Father was calling Him to do, (the suffering Servant) The second one And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." Satan tempts Jesus to be a political type Messiah. All the Jews expected a political Messiah. One that would destroy the Roman rule over them and establish a kingdom that would rule over all the other nations. Jesus rejected this temptation of a political Messiah-ship because - He rejected the devils terms/ offers. Jesus does not share sovereignty with the devil. - The nature of the Kingdom of God is totally different from the Satanic one. - He denied the glory of Himself (John 8:54 Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, ..) The third one And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, `HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,' and, `ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" Jesus could have confirmed to the Jews that indeed He was the Messiah. If he was to throw himself down and survived, all the crowds at the temple and all the Jews would have been amazed. It would have been a dramatic act and demonstration of His powers. 1 Cor 1:22 For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
But He rejected that sitting Scripture from Deuteronomy 6:16. God’s promises in Psalm 91 of safety and security were valid were for those who were prepared to live obediently under God’s will. For Jesus that was to mean service and suffering.
So vv 1-13 demonstrates 1/ how the Spirit guided and empowered Jesus in His task and life 2/ how Jesus, as the Son of God was obedient to God in His humanity 3/ the attempt of the devil to deflect Jesus from obedience to God, and hence from the fulfilment of the messianic task that is laid upon Jesus, by God the Father. Now, let us move to the second part of the story (verses 14-30), which is very much integrated with the first part as shown in vv 1-3) 4:14 is a subsection of Chapters 4 to 9 depicting “The Good News of The kingdom” Jesus ministry was one that was proclaimed in the power of the Spirit by word and deed. Jesus was teaching with authority and power. In Greek the word didasko is frequently used in the Gospels and has much the same meaning as kirriso. The story begins by emphasising that the ministry of Jesus is to be a fulfilment of the Old Testament. Jesus’ ministry is eschatological in the sense that this day the Scriptures have come to fulfilment and the last days have begun. MT 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." MT 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 2 This is what Jesus was preaching in Galilee, and he continued to preach that eschatological message. The euangelion. In the synagogue, Jesus read from the sixty first chapter of Isaiah. The anointed Jesus has been sent to: - Proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, and especially to the poor. These are the people who are most in need of divine help and who wait upon God to hear His word. It is faith in this message that will bring healing to the broken hearted, to those that receive it. Then there is also the announcement of release to prisoners, (captives). That is the salvation. Jesus sets free, breaks, the chains of sin. Finally, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. The year which God has graciously appointed in order to show His salvation. Or more accurately, the era of salvation. The people of Nazareth reject Jesus as the Messiah and His message of salvation. The "year of the Lord's favor" is reminiscent of the Jubilee (one year in every fifty) when debts were forgiven and slaves set free (Lev 25:8-17). It defines the time in history when God in sovereign grace brings freedom from the guilt and effects of sin. The inclusion of this quotation is consistent with Luke's stress on the dawning of the new age of salvation. Mark 1:14 And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, Jesus was often heard warning that the “kingdom of Heaven was at hand.” (a) The raw untechnical meaning of euangelion for the Hellenised Culture: This was an announcement of a new kingdom taking over. It was not uncommon for those ancient times when kingdoms were in a constant state of flux as they fought and conquered each other. Two neighbouring kingdoms, for example, might send out their armies to settle a border dispute. The victorious army would chase home the enemy survivors to their home city-state. If the battle had been very decisive, the conquering general might not bother continuing that pursuit into an actual siege of the city of the defeated army. Rather he might just send an ambassador with a message of his great victory and the terms of peace whereby the conquered peoples would be allowed to live on, in his kingdom. This message of the victorious battle and the offered terms of peace was called the euangelion. The victorious general sent the gospel to that city! Sometimes the term “gospel” was even used of the reward the brave messenger would get if he survived the taking of it to the conquered peoples. It was a dangerous mission and if they rebelled against the idea of opening up their city for the conquering general to ride right in, then the messenger might pay with his life. They might communicate their turning down of the offer by throwing his carcas out the city gates. In any case, “the gospel” was only “good news” from the perspective of the kingdom that had won the battle and if the terms of peace were accepted. Consistent with all of this are Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15 above. God was the conquering general (through His Messiah introducing the Kingdom of God) and the gospel was the announcement of that victory sweeping over the people and calling for them to shift their allegiance (repent) and to accept the offered terms of peace (believe the gospel). This is exactly what Jesus meant with the words: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” So the mood with which the gospel came through Jesus was not one of polite discussion but rather the outright announcement of a takeover and offered terms of peace about which there was to be no discussion. The gospel then is delivered in the imperative mood. It is a command to be obeyed. The sweep and spread of the first Christian message, as depicted in the Book of Acts, includes how a great many of the priests became “obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Today the same is true: the listeners to the gospel announcement can either disbelieve or obey! The mood of the message is that it comes as an urgent demand from Heaven as to how we must get in line with what He has done in the sending of His Son to be our Lord and Saviour. It is like a fireman bursting into your office block and saying a large bomb was about to explode and everybody had to leave. Your response is limited to either disbelief, perhaps with joking to relieve the tension, or running for your life and taking with you all other people you can impress to go. Jesus was sent (like Elijah and Elisha). The shadow of rejection hangs over in Nazareth. People became hostile and wanted to kill Jesus, but Jesus passes through the midst of the crow and goes His way To bring the message of Salvation. 1 Cor 15:1-4 presents these twin facts as at the heart of the gospel: 1Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, 2by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. 3For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; These twin facts are that Christ died for our sins and that Christ arose from the dead. They are at the heart of the gospel and are here stated to be “of first importance” because they are central to how Christ achieved His victory. By how He died for our sins and rose from the grave, He defeated all other lords of our lives and having become the conquering general now sends us the news of His victory and the terms of peace whereby we can survive under His domain.
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