The Word This Week
Luke 4:14...
Having proven to Satan the best of the temptations Satan could bring against Him were nothing in comparison to the power of the Word of God, and the enabling of God's Holy Spirit upon Him, Satan departed defeated.
Satan may have been able to cause man to fall in the Garden of Eden, but his best attempts to detour Jesus fell flat.
Now Jesus began His teaching ministry, leaving Satan in His wake - and entering the battlefield which has always been littered with victims of the enemy He would raise to new life.
Jesus headed to the synagogues of His home region of Galilee as an itinerant preacher. His message was so well received they ascribed glory to His presence in their midst.
Until He came into the synagogue in His own hometown of Nazareth.
In Nazareth, He proclaimed Himself to be Messiah, and was rejected for the first time in His ministry life.
He had been invited to give the reading that day, and it just so happened He was handed the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll to the very place where Messiah's ministry was prophesied. All was well and good until He sat down in the position of their teacher - and declared to them Who He was.
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Only Messiah could be the fulfillment of this scripture.
Jesus sensed their opposition to His words based upon the fact they knew Him. This was the Jesus Who grew up in their midst. How could He now make such a stupendous claim, especially without any proof save for His own words? How could they possibly believe this man whom they knew to be Joseph's son to be the Messiah?
Rather than seeking to prove this was so by performing some sort of miracle in their midst, Jesus took the opposite tack and confronted them in their lack of faith, likening it to the lack of faith the Jewish people expressed during the days of Elijah and Elisha, when Elijah and Elisha served Gentiles rather than Jews, because the Jews were following idolatrous kings rather than God's prophets.
Today being the same as it ever was, their response was to attempt to kill Jesus. But they could not, try as they might.
Pastor Bill
Having proven to Satan the best of the temptations Satan could bring against Him were nothing in comparison to the power of the Word of God, and the enabling of God's Holy Spirit upon Him, Satan departed defeated.
Satan may have been able to cause man to fall in the Garden of Eden, but his best attempts to detour Jesus fell flat.
Now Jesus began His teaching ministry, leaving Satan in His wake - and entering the battlefield which has always been littered with victims of the enemy He would raise to new life.
Jesus headed to the synagogues of His home region of Galilee as an itinerant preacher. His message was so well received they ascribed glory to His presence in their midst.
Until He came into the synagogue in His own hometown of Nazareth.
In Nazareth, He proclaimed Himself to be Messiah, and was rejected for the first time in His ministry life.
He had been invited to give the reading that day, and it just so happened He was handed the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll to the very place where Messiah's ministry was prophesied. All was well and good until He sat down in the position of their teacher - and declared to them Who He was.
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Only Messiah could be the fulfillment of this scripture.
Jesus sensed their opposition to His words based upon the fact they knew Him. This was the Jesus Who grew up in their midst. How could He now make such a stupendous claim, especially without any proof save for His own words? How could they possibly believe this man whom they knew to be Joseph's son to be the Messiah?
Rather than seeking to prove this was so by performing some sort of miracle in their midst, Jesus took the opposite tack and confronted them in their lack of faith, likening it to the lack of faith the Jewish people expressed during the days of Elijah and Elisha, when Elijah and Elisha served Gentiles rather than Jews, because the Jews were following idolatrous kings rather than God's prophets.
Today being the same as it ever was, their response was to attempt to kill Jesus. But they could not, try as they might.
Pastor Bill