Introduction: Welcome to Expound our verse-by-verse
study of God's Word. Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining
the Word of God in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Skip Heitzig: Father, you know the needs,
you know the hearts, you know deepest thoughts of every one of us, and we commit everything
in our lives, Lord that concerns us. You know our concerns; we commit them to you. And,
Father, we lay our lives down before you in a way where we acknowledge your lordship over
us, and we believe you desire to do a work inside of us tonight. You have things to tell
us in particular, individually. We want to learn, we also want to be challenged. We do
need the information, but, Father, we crave and pray for the inspiration that comes by
the Holy Spirit, taking what we read together and applying it individually to our hearts
and our conditions. I pray for my brothers and sisters who have gathered. You know what
they're struggling through, and I pray you would lift their spirits and encourage them
in this place with these words, in Jesus' name, amen. "Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." By reading just
the first verse, it sounds like the rest of the chapter is going to be peaceful, doesn't
it? Jesus, filled with the Spirit, and then led by the Spirit out into the desert. It's
like, ahhh! It sounds like it's going to be just a great, wonderful, peaceful chapter.
And we might even think by reading the first verse, "Great! Jesus is going to get some
R & R out in the desert." Maybe you'll picture Jesus in Palm Springs by a pool with a Diet
Coke, [laughter] little umbrella in the glass. Well, far from that, Jesus is walking right
into oppression and affliction, conflict. We're going to find out that as soon as Jesus
is baptized, which we read about the last couple of weeks, he goes out into the desert
and for forty days he is tempted by the devil. And wherever we read of our Jesus, we find
him in conflict with Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, eventually the Roman leaders, and
here, the source of all conflict, Satan himself. But by just reading the first verse, it sounds
like it's just going to be a smooth skate into the future. No, no. He's going out into
the wilderness and will face the temptation of his archenemy the devil. We're going to
see not only that, but we're going to see Jesus in the synagogue where he is opposed
by his own countrymen. Not only that, but we're going to see him in yet another synagogue
where he is opposed by a demon-possessed man, and the demon speaks out of this man in the
synagogue service. We're also going to discover the power of punctuation. My English teacher
would love to hear those words, "the power of punctuation." In this case, the power of a comma, the power
of a comma in a single sentence that made all the difference. I'll explain in a moment.
There was once a woman who was traveling overseas, a wealthy gal. Her husband was wealthy and
she felt it was her calling to spend his money. And so she was overseas, and she had her little
iPhone. And she found a bracelet, and the price was $75,000. She thought she had to
have it, so she texted her husband to clear it with him, to get permission. She said in
her text: "Found the perfect bracelet, only $75,000. May I buy it?" Question mark, good
punctuation piece at the end, question mark. Well, he read the text, immediately re---he
was in a meeting, but he said, "Excuse me, I have to respond to this now." And he wanted
to respond, "No, price too high." But he left the comma out between the "no"
and the "price," so it sounded to her, she read it as: "No price too high." [laughter]
Missing the comma made him miss $75,000 in his bank account. See what I mean by the power
of punctuation? Keep that in mind as we get into this chapter. "Jesus, being filled with
the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterward,
when he---when they had ended, he was hungry." Never think that if you are filled with the
Holy Spirit, you will not be afflicted by the devil. Never think that if you are "led
by the Spirit," words in this text, you will not be lambasted by the devil. In fact, I
think it's safe to say if you are led by the Spirit, you are going to experience the attacks
of the enemy. Jesus, filled with the Spirit, Jesus, led
by the Spirit, will face opposition. So don't assume: "I'm a child of God, I'm a Christian,
I love Jesus, so it's going to keep me safe from all that evil and all that temptation."
And here is the example of that. Not only that, but notice it's for a season, it's not
like a day. It's not like it's over after the first week. There are forty days of this,
almost six weeks. That's a season of temptation that Jesus is walking into. I think it's important
that you recognize when our Lord is tempted: it was after he was baptized. He was baptized,
a miracle happened during his baptism. The affirmation of the Father happened at his
baptism. The heavens opened, they parted, the Spirit came down like a dove. And there
was an audible voice that said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And
immediately after that he is tempted. Is there something to be learned in that?
Yes. Every time God gives you a blessing, your enemy the devil would love to steal that
blessing. Just be aware of that. You don't have to be frightened of it, just know that's
how he works. "We are not ignorant of his devices," the Bible says. Don't be ignorant
of that. Don't think that, "Wow, I'm under the spout where the glory comes out, so that's
going to happen perpetually. I'm going to have my daily miracle." Can I just say, if
it's daily, it's really probably not a miracle. It's a daily occurrence; it's not out of the
ordinary. You think back in the Old Testament, the children of Israel miraculously delivered
out of Egypt by that final plague, followed up immediately by the pursuit of Pharaoh to
destroy them. Think back to King Hezekiah inaugurating the
Passover, rediscovering the Passover, and celebrating a glorious feast in Jerusalem.
Talk about wanting to be in the will of God. Talk about doing everything right. And as
soon as they celebrate the Passover, it's then that the Assyrians under Sennacherib
surround the city of Jerusalem and threaten to destroy it. The transfiguration of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the three disciples, Peter, James, and John, saw that. They just thought,
"Wow! Can you believe it? This is like the---it doesn't get any better than this." And maybe
they thought they were now living at a plane above the rest of the disciples. As soon as
they got that blessing, they went down the mountain. The first person they met was a
demon-possessed boy who challenged the authority of the disciples. "We asked your disciples to cast him out,
and they could not." Now they were going from up here, to depleted down there. So, that's
a pattern of attack. God gives a blessing; the enemy would love to rip that blessing
off. When you're in the will of heaven, expect the wrath of hell. You're a target, you see.
Again, not to make you afraid. I say, "Okay, that's part of the deal, bring it on." "Greater
is he that is in [me], than he that is in the world." But I don't want you to be naive
of it. These things happen; they did even to our Lord. I don't know if you've heard
the name J. C. Ryle. Probably not, because he lived, like, over a century ago. But he
was a bishop of the Anglican Church in Liverpool, England. And he was a great teacher, good
expositor, and he said some pithy things. And here's one of the things he noted about
spiritual warfare. He said, "Sometimes Satan is more active in church than anywhere else."
Now just think of the times you've come and maybe the Lord gave you some blessing at church,
you heard something you needed to hear, you received a word from the Lord through his
Word, the Scripture, in just the community gathering like this. And so you go, "I got
my answer. I feel so good. Man, I'm on cloud nine. That's so good!" And then you get out
in the parking lot or out on Osuna or you get up on the freeway and some crazy driver---and
the Lord knows this place is filled with them---[laughter] aims to cut you off or run you off. Now your
joy is challenged. Now I wonder what comes out of your mouth. Is it, " 'O bless the Lord,
O my soul; and let all that is within me,' run him off the road"? [laughter] Or you go out to the parking lot after the
service and you discover your car has been broken into. We've had a few of those, even
though we have security that go through the parking lot and they keep this place safe,
such a great security team. We've had that happen and I just wonder, "Oh Lord, what they
must be thinking, 'Great, I come to church only to get ripped off.' "Well, he was "being
tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing." He was fasting.
That's a long time not to eat. Can you make it four days? I don't know if you've tried
to fast. Let me just explain fasting. I have fasted; I have not gone on any prolonged fast.
I've done a few days and it's been very difficult. What I'm told---I can't tell you by experience,
only what I've read---that when you fast at first it's hard, then it gets harder, then
it gets harder. But then eventually if you withhold yourself
from food and your stomach begins to shrink and your body gets used to it, eventually
you lose your appetite. I do not know that by experience. I have not made it that far.
But I'm told by what I read that you actually lose your appetite, and you're doing okay.
Now, you're feeling weakened physically, but you lose your appetite. But then your appetite
returns. When your appetite returns and you're experiencing hunger again, like Jesus was
after forty days, now you're on the verge of starving to death. You will die if you
don't soon remedy your condition with food. That's the condition we're dealing with, with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He was hungry now after forty days. He's now on the verge of being
so physically deprived that he is starving to death. In the Bible, in a nutshell, people would
fast for a few different reasons. Reason number one, mourning for the dead. Grief causes you
to lose your appetite anyway. And sometimes to identify with another person, you withhold
from food as an act of mourning. A second reason people fasted in the Bible was as an
act of repentance. You've heard of Yom Kippur, yes, the Day of Atonement? They would fast.
The biblical term for that both in the Torah, as well as the prophet Isaiah, chapter 58,
is to "afflict your soul." That's a synonym for not eating: "afflict your soul." It's
hard, but you're doing it out of repentance. A third reason it was done was for dependence.
Dependence: I'm depending on the Lord; I'm getting in touch with him; I'm trying to learn
his heart; I'm trying to ascertain his will. And I'm adding to my prayers and my worship
this aspect of fasting to show that I'm not dependent on physical nutrition as much as
spiritual nutrition. Now, let me warn you about fasting. It is not spiritual diet. "Oh,
I need to lose some weight, so I'm fasting today." It's good that you want to lose some
weight, it's good to fast, but do it for the right reason. It's not a sanctified diet,
nor is fasting simply a way to twist God's arm to get what you want. "Well, if I really
show him that I'm serious and I mean business, and he'll see it in my fasting, then he'll
give me what I want." Why would God want to let you have what you want if it's not good
for you in the long run? What kind of a "good" God would that be? So all of your twisting
of his arm won't help, rather it's simply a way to tune out the flesh and tune in the
Spirit, to say no in order to say yes. Acts 13, "As they worshiped the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I've called
them.' "So those three reasons principally we find in Scripture: mourning---what was
the second one? Yeah, thank you---repentance, and then dependence. "And the devil said to
him, 'If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.' "Now that makes sense
that that would be the first temptation. If he is weak physically, the devil is counting
on him being vulnerable emotionally. You know how that works. When you are weak, when you're
physically weak, you're very vulnerable emotionally. You will try anything to cure what ails you.
You'll do anything to get that strength back. So capitalizing on his physical weakness,
and hopefully his emotional vulnerability, is this first temptation. Now in this first temptation, Satan is questioning
God's provision in saying, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
You see, the little word "if"? It could be translated "since you are the Son of God."
It's not a supposition, it's an affirmation. The Wuest's translation of the New Testament
puts it this way: "In view of the fact that you are the Son of God, command this stone
to become bread." "Since you have all power, use your power to satisfy yourself." Why is
that a temptation? It's really a slur, it's really a slam, it's really a question on God's
provision. "Hey, since you're the Promised One, you're the Son of God, since that's true,
why isn't your Father providing for you out here? Why would he let his own Son, the Messiah,
starve to death? So, use your power to satiate yourself, to satisfy yourself." We find that same kind of temptation in the
garden of Eden, do we not? There's the tree. There are many trees. Satan comes along and
says, "Why don't you eat of this tree?" And Eve says, "Look, we can eat of any of the
trees of the garden; this is the only one we can't. That's what God said." And the devil
said, "Has God said that you will only eat of that tree?" Now he's questioning God: "Why
would God keep something good from you? What kind of a God do you serve?" Or what about
Abram and Sarah? God promised them a son, but it seemed like years went by and they're
not getting any younger. They weren't spring chickens to begin with. They're old folks.
So Sarah suggests, "Hey, not gonna happen. Take my handmaiden. Let's help God out a little
bit." Really, questioning God's ability to provide what he said. So, it's questioning God's provision. "Jesus
answered," verse 4, "saying, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word of God." '" He's quoting Deuteronomy, chapter 8. Just tuck that in your mind, Deuteronomy,
chapter 8. It's the whole manna incident in Deuteronomy. "Man shall not live by bread
alone." How many times have you had the feeling or the thought inside your little head: "Hey,
I'm a child of God. I'm a Christian. I believe in Christ. I've devoted my life to him. Why
isn't God taking care of me?" Have you ever had that thought? Has that ever been whispered
in your head? "How come God isn't taking better care of you?" Second temptation, verse 5,
this is now questioning God's promise: "Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain,
showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time." One has to wonder, can I just say, when you're
out in the wilderness there, what high mountain is there? Now, I've been to this area. It's
about thirty-five miles by twenty miles, the Judean Desert. You're going to laugh when
I tell you this: most scholars will point to a mountain near Jericho, and they call
that the ""Mount of Temptation," because it's the only high mountain in the area. You know
how tall it is? Twelve hundred feet. You know how high Sandia Mountain is? Almost 11,000,
ten thousand six, seven hundred feet. That's a high mountain. And, yet, keep in mind when
the Bible speaks about the Sea of Galilee, it's not like wow, it's a sea, an ocean. Oh,
it's a little lake, but "sea" in the language simply means a body of water, and "mountain"
doesn't necessarily mean---it just means an elevated place, an elevated place. And so this "high mountain" in comparison
to that area, which is mostly below sea level, 1,200 feet above sea level, it's a pretty
high mountain. So, anyway, just thought I'd throw that in, 'cause if you ever go there,
you're going to go, "Now, where is that high mountain that the Bible tells me about?" [laughter]
And we'll show it to you, and you can laugh as well then. "The devil, taking him up on
a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the
devil said to him, 'All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been
delivered to me.' "He is called "the prince of power of the air," "the god of this world."
"'And I will give it to whomsoever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me,
all will be yours.' "This is questioning God's promise. Can I paraphrase it? "Jesus, I know why you've
come. You've come for the whole world. You've come to rule the whole world?" You know that
one of the promises of the Messiah is that he would have world domination. Psalm 2 is
your key verse for that, and you can write that down, look at it later. Psalm 2, the
Lord speaks, "You are my Son, this day I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you
the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession." The
Bible says that one day Jesus will rule and reign over the whole earth; first, he came
to redeem it by his death on a cross. Satan is suggesting this: "Why go it the hard way?
Why go it the painful way? You came for the earth. You came to redeem it back. I know
why you've come. I know what the promise is. "If you'll just worship me now---let's strike
a deal---I'll give it to you. No fight involved. No pain involved. No cross involved. Just
indulge me." It's what he's always wanted: "I will be like the Most High." "Just the
satisfaction of having the Son of God bow before me, ahhh! It's yours. I'll give it
to you. You don't have to go the painful way of the cross. You can have immediate gratification."
Ever heard those words? "Why are you waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled? Just
do something for yourself. You know that if you only did this, you'd be happy. Do something
to be immediately gratified." The child of God will say, "No. I'm going to wait on the
Lord for that. I'm going to wait for his promise to be fulfilled. If he wants me to have it,
he'll do it and he'll do it in his time." And so notice what Jesus says, "Get behind
me Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you
serve.' "Now this comes out of Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Remember the first one was Deuteronomy
8? This is Deuteronomy 6; Deuteronomy 6 is the passage where Moses warns the people of
Israel, "When you get into the land the Lord your God is giving you, don't think that you
are here because you're such a great group of people. And don't forget the Lord your
God, but you will bless the Lord and depend on the Lord, and thank the Lord." It was a
warning chapter, Deuteronomy, chapter 6. "Then he brought him," verse 9, "to Jerusalem, and
set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, 'If you are the [or since you
are] the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.' " Now, in this third temptation he is questioning,
I believe, God's protection over him. " 'Throw yourself down from here, for it is written'
"---now the devil's quoting Scripture. Now the devil throws out a few verses of his own.
You know that the Bible---or that Satan knows the Bible better than we do. You know, he
was trained in the best seminary in the universe, right, heaven. And he's had long history with
humanity. So, he knows the Bible and he knows what to bring in and what to leave out. Now,
he's going to quote, but he's going to take it out of context. He'll leave out a very
crucial part of the verse. You'll see it. Verse 10, " 'It is written: "He shall give
his angels charge over you, to keep you," and' "---that's where he missed out, because
the original text says, "He will keep you"---here's the rest of it---"in all your ways." What Satan was suggesting was not the way
of God. It was not the way the Scripture predicted. It's just your own personal protection. "'"He
will keep you," and, "in their hands he shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against
a stone." '" "Okay, you're the Son of God, okay, God the Father protects his Son sending
his Son into the world, prove it! Let's give the Father a chance to fulfill what he promised.
For it is written: 'You can jump and you won't stub your toe,' "I'm paraphrasing," 'God's
angels will bear you up.' "Any text, any text of Scripture, any text taken out of context
can become a pretext. You can prove just about anything you want with the Bible simply by
taking it out of its context. That's how cultures started. That's how people use proof text
for the weirdest, wildest, crazy schemes; they quote a verse of Scripture. I see it in the secular news media, people
quoting the Bible, and I think, "Out of context." Many examples; don't have to get into it.
Now, please notice in verse 9, he was set "on the pinnacle of the temple." The pinnacle
of the temple is the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. You can see a picture of it
here before you. You see the little corner there? It's not shown in this picture, but
below this is a valley called the Kidron Valley. You've heard that name, the Kidron Valley.
The measurement from the top of that retaining wall, in Jesus' day, to the bottom of the
Kidron Valley was over 450 feet. It was impressive. For Jesus to jump off that, past where the
picture is being taken, down into the Kidron Valley, and have angels protect him as we
goes down, that would make the nightly news. That would be on YouTube before night fall.
Right? Everybody would be tweeting that. That would
make national news. You know, "Do something incredible to prove that God will protect
you," that's the idea. Now, let me just sew up a few loose ends. The rabbis had predicted
that when the Messiah comes, he will come to the pinnacle of the temple, or he'll come
to the Temple Mount in this corner. And here's why they believed that. They said this before
Christ. There's a text of Scripture, Malachi, chapter 3, it says this, listen carefully:
"And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of
the covenant." So there was this belief among some of rabbis that the Messiah will come
to the temple, and he will reveal himself in this area where there are throngs of people
and where people below on the road would be able to see him, and there'll be some demonstration. So probably capitalizing on that interpretation
of Malachi 3, that is where Satan's suggestion comes: "Let's make a show out of this. Let's
make a display out of this." "And Jesus answered and said to him, 'It has been said' "---now
quoting the Scripture once again---" ' "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." '" Again,
he quotes Deuteronomy: " ' "You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' "Now when the devil
had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time." Notice that.
He ended his temptations for now, at this time. There were three times he did it. Now
he's done. There will be more times. And when will that time be? Just the right time, "an
opportune time." It's as if---can you get the picture?---that the devil looks to find
the weakest moment, the right time, the opportune time. The word the Greek is kairos, not chronos,
not chronological time, but just the right showing of time. "Ah, that person is weak,
right there,"---temptation, for "an opportune time." Please notice: "You shall not tempt
the Lord your God." I'm wondering something. Let me throw this out at you. It's my belief
that we test the Lord our God all the time. Example: we exceed the speed limit, and then
have the audacity to pray that we won't get a ticket. [laughter] "Lord, please, just keep
me. Oh, there's a police officer---O Lord, just don't let him see that." [laughter] We
walk into a bar and we pray, "Lord, don't let me drink." We watch porn and we pray,
"Lord, help me with my lust." You cannot expect to walk into temptation and then ask the Lord,
"Deliver us from evil." He will. Stay away from it. Don't deliberately test the Lord your God,
place yourself in that kind of a position. What are the two ways that Jesus handled temptation?
There are two ways, and here's two ways for you: number one, stand your ground. Stand
your ground. Don't run away. Stand up to him. Stand your ground. The Bible says in James
4 "to resist the devil." It's a military term. Stand immovable. "I'm not going anywhere.
I'm standing right here. I'm not afraid of you." Stand your ground, number one. Number
two, study your Bible. Stand your ground and study your Bible. Those two things will help
you in temptation. Face it head-on and know the Scriptures. Do you realize---and this
is why it's so great that you're here. You have an advantage. You're learning God's Word. I pity those who have become so biblically
illiterate that in times of temptation they have no reference point, they have no source
of authority. Remember what Jesus said to the religious leaders? "You do err, not knowing
the Scriptures nor the power of God." You'll never know the power of God until you know
the Scriptures; they go hand and hand. Stand your ground. Study your Bible. Now, I just
planted some thoughts in your mind along the way about Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy.
Right? Jesus keeps quoting Deuteronomy. All that happened when the children of Israel
were out in the wilderness. Jesus is out in the wilderness. He's quoting what happened
to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Now, here's the---here's the corollary: in
the wilderness, Israel failed; in the wilderness Jesus our Lord succeeded. He was successful even in the wilderness,
even during this time of temptation. "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit
to Galilee, and news of him went out through all the surrounding region. And he taught
in their synagogues, being glorified by all." Jesus went to Galilee. I love Galilee. It's
one of my favorite places to go. If you go there today, it's pretty rural. It's pretty
much like it was. In fact, I would say it's less crowded today than it was back then.
Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian said this: at the time of Christ there were no
less than 204 little towns or villages---not "little towns"---towns or villages in Galilee,
204, each of them having "a population of no less than 15,000" per village or town.
So we're dealing with a population of about 3 million people in Galilee, heavily populated. Galilee, named after the Sea of Galilee principally
is a region in that northern part of Israel. It goes by several other names though. Number
two, its second name is the Lake of Gennesaret. You're going to find that name in chapter
5. I think it's verse 1, chapter 5, "the Lake of Gennesaret." Gennesaret is a little piece
of land where they grow stuff, farms, right there to the left, the west of the lake. So
Galilee is one name, Gennesaret is another one, a third name is the Lake of Kinneret.
Today in Israel the Jews call it the Kinneret Lake, and that's because of the Hebrew word
kinnor, which means harp. And why is it called "harp"? Well, look at a map at the back of
your Bible and look at the shape of the lake. It's shaped like an ancient harp. It looks
like a kinnor, so they call it Kinneret, named after a harp-like body of water. The fourth name of this lake or area is Tiberias,
named after a Hellenistic town that became a Roman---it became named for a Roman emperor.
But it was a town that's still there today on the southwest shore of that lake. So all
four names are given. Here it's called Galilee. The region with the lake is called Galilee.
So, he returned---that is, from the desert, to the northern part, Galilee. "And news of
[Jesus] him went throughout all of the surrounding region." Why Galilee? Well, he was raised
in Nazareth, that's part of Galilee, but he will spend his headquarters, his days around
the lake at a little town called Capernaum. He's going to move his residence. Why? Isaiah,
chapter 9, predicted that the Messiah would arise out of Galilee. "Those who sat in darkness
have seen a great light." And it identifies that place as the "Galilee of the Gentiles." It was a place that was populated more than
any other place in the land with outsiders, non-Jewish people. Wars had been waged in
the past and Gentiles surrounded that region for a long time. And because of that, there
were mixed marriages between Jew and Gentile in that region more than any other part of
the land. That is why the people down in Jerusalem snubbed the Galileans, considered them outcasts,
second-rate citizens, hicks, if you will. Did you know the Galileans even had an accent,
a certain kind of a pattern of speech that gave away that they were from Galilee? When
Peter was down in the courtyard of the high priest, and the servant girl said, "You were
one of his disciples, for your speech betrays you." "I can hear by your hick accent that
you're a Galilean." Now, I'm not going to point to any part of
the country that would have that kind of an accent, but you can use your imagination and
have a lot of fun with it. Jesus headquarters himself in Galilee. "And," notice verse 15,
"He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So he came to Nazareth, where he had
been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day,
and he stood up to read." I hope you don't mind, but I want to give you as much background
information as I can. We read here of a synagogue and the synagogues. You know why that's important?
Because you never read about a synagogue when you read your Old Testament ever once. There's
never a synagogue in the Old Testament. It doesn't appear. They don't exist. Suddenly you start opening up the New Testament
and you keep reading "synagogue," "synagogue," "synagogue." So I hope you ask questions like:
"Where'd that come from?" In the Old Testament there was a tabernacle, then a temple, no
synagogues. What happened? The temple got destroyed, that's what happened; 586 BC the
Babylonians destroyed the temple, right, and then took the children of Israel captive into
a foreign land? Now as captives in Babylon, they cannot practice ceremonial law. Priests
can't offer sacrifices. They're in captivity. So now that they cannot practice ceremonial
law, having no priesthood to offer sacrifices in a Jewish temple, being in captivity, they
can only do one thing: study written law. The synagogue develops in Babylon. They decided to have little meetings, little
home Bible studies, let's call them that, that they called beit knesset, which means
the house of gathering. "Come to my home. Let's gather. Let's talk about Scripture."
The Greek word for beit knesset is sunagógé. Did I say that right, Steve? sunagó---he's
my Greek professor, so he'll check me on this stuff. It means the same thing: you're gathering
people together in one commonplace. The synagogue develops in captivity. So here's what goes
on: they meet together, they can't offer sacrifices, they can't atone for their sins, so they start
reading and studying Scripture. And this is where the office of the scribe develops. They
start asking questions like: "H'm, what would Moses do in this situation?" "How do we apply
these Scriptures to our lives?" And they talk about it, and they argue about
it, and they deliberate about it. And they right that stuff down and that eventually
becomes the oral law: rulings, the Talmud divided into two---well, there's two of them,
the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud---volumes of literature all developed because of the
absence of a sunagógé, a beit knesset, a synagogue. Now that the absence of a temple,
they gather together in these studies, and they try to figure that out. So when they
come back, and they build their temple, they still maintain the office that never was a
part of the Old Testament, but it came from the captivity, and they still meet in synagogues.
So now every village in Galilee, in Judea, has a synagogue facing toward the temple.
And enough said on that. "So he came to Nazareth," this is his hometown,
"where he had been brought up. As"---and this is---please notice this in verse 16, "And
as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read."
Jesus had a custom to be in fellowship every weekend. We would say, to go to church every
week. It was his custom. He didn't look for an excuse. He didn't say, "Well, you know,
that rabbi's just a little too dry. I'm just not into it. I don't like the music in that
synagogue." [laughter] "I'm worshiping God. I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. That's
my custom." That's how he was raised, with an emphasis. Now I've heard people, not live
as examples, but look for excuses. "Well, I worship God, but I just worship him a little
bit differently. I worship him on the golf course, in nature. "The smell of that green grass just causes
my spirit to rise up." [laughter] Well, I think there's a big difference between an
admirer of God and a worshiper of God. Thirty-seven percent of Americans will go church this weekend.
Ninety-six percent of Americans claim to be believers in Christ, Christians. Admirers
or worshipers? When somebody says, "I worship God, but I'm on the golf course," I would
honestly say, you're probably just worshiping golf. It was his custom. He was there. It
was important to him. Now I don't think that the synagogue services were all that stimulating.
It would be easy to say, "It's kind of boring. And we kind of stand up, do this little invocation,
this little chant, sit down, read a Scripture, take on offering. Somebody kind of comments
on the Scripture, not always too polished." But it was his custom. He did it. "And he was handed the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when he opened the book, he found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovery
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord.' And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat
down." Are you noticing something interesting? When they would read the Scripture, they would
stand up. Jesus stood up, opened the scroll, and read the Scripture. Then he closed the
book and he sat down. That was how they did services: You stand up, saying, "I respect
and revere the Word of God." Then you sit down and you hear from the preacher.
The preacher would sit down like I'm doing here, and he would give an exposition of what
he read. So he sat down. "And he began to say to them"---he didn't get to finish the
message. You'll see why. "'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.' "He's quoting
Isaiah 61. The readings in the synagogue were prescribed. It's not like Jesus said, "I'm
going to preach Isaiah 61 today." It was already what the ruler of the synagogue had prepared
to be read. It was read on certain days. Jesus happened to be there that day. I use "happened"
loosely. He walked in there, he opened up the Scripture to Isaiah 61, read it. That
was the prescribed Scripture. And then he addresses them, and here's his message: "This
Scripture has happened today, you're seeing it before your very eyes." Quite a sermon. "So all bore witness to him,
and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said"---now they're
whispering to each other---" 'Isn't this Joe's kid?' " [laughter] "This is Joe's boy, right?
This is the carpenter's little boy. This is Yeshua. This is Jesus. We know this guy. Did
he just say what I think he just said? He's claiming to be what Isaiah 61 is all about?"
They knew that was a messianic passage, by the way. They knew that. It was well established
in their interpretation. "He's claiming to be what we've known that passage to mean,
that he is God's chosen Messiah? He's saying it's fulfilled today in our hearing?" So it
creates a little bit of stir in this synagogue service. "And he said to them, 'You will surely
say this proverb to me, "Physician, heal yourself! Whatever you have heard done in Capernaum,
do also in your country." ' " "If you're such a good doctor, Jesus, and
heal---us here, we've heard about your miracles in Capernaum. Pull off a few here, just don't
preach us a sermon, give us a miracle." "And he said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was
a famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath,
in the region of Sidon," up in modern-day Lebanon, "to a woman who was a widow." Notice
two things there: it's a Gentile region, she's a Gentile widow; and she's a woman. Right?
Just notice those things. Those are important. "And many lepers were in Israel in the time
of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian," a Gentile.
Women, lepers, Gentiles---the lowest rung of the Jewish ladder 2,000 years ago. They
did not esteem lepers, they were outcasts. They did not esteem women, second-class citizens.
They certainly hated Gentiles. Their saying was: "God created Gentiles as kindling wood
for the fires of hell." And Jesus says, "You know, let me tell you about two prophets misunderstood
by the Jewish nation in their time: Elijah and Elisha. And God didn't send them to the
Jewish people, but to Gentiles who received them, and he did a miracle." There were plenty
of lepers in Israel, there were plenty of widows in Israel, but these two prophets were
sent to Gentiles regions. So what he's doing, he's taking these second-class
citizens---women, lepers, Gentiles---and saying they are better than unbelieving Israelites.
You need to know that so you understand their response to his sermon. "Then all those in
the synagogue," verse 28, "when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and
they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and led him to the brow of the hill on which
their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff." Augustine---you've
heard his name, I've quoted him before---speaks about some people, even some people in churches
who, like these people---he said that---he said this: "They love the truth when it enlightens
them; they hate the truth when it accuses them." Jesus gets up and preaches a sermon:
"Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Was it the truth? Yup. Did they like the truth?
Absolutely not. "That's Joe's boy." Then he says, "Unbelieving Gentiles in your history
received God's favor," and they're rejected him. They're rejecting Jesus, and they are
rejecting his words, because he brings this up. "They love the truth when it enlightens
them; they hate the truth when it accuses them," and Jesus is doing that here. Okay,
we're coming to a close, and I wasn't able to get through it all. No problem. We'll do
it again. But I'll say this: I've been on the brow of this hill outside of Nazareth
where they attempted to throw Jesus off. In fact, usually when we're there, we have a
worship service on the brow of that hill, and we recall this scene, and it's an incredible
view. Can I just let you know that Jesus, when he
grew up in Nazareth, it's a hilly country, and from Nazareth looking out over the valley
all of Old Testament history was displayed before Jesus as a young boy. He could look
up north and see Mount Tabor and think about Deborah and Barak and the battle with Sisera
that happened there. He could look at Mount Gilboa a little bit further down and think
about Saul and Jonathan being killed on Mount Gilboa and the battle with the Philistines.
And so much of it was just laid before him, all of the history of Israel, where Abraham
came and Isaac lived. But also what Jesus was looking down at was a very interesting
valley called the Valley of Armageddon. You see, Nazareth is attached right up to the
north, and Jesus could look right down at the city of Megiddo and the entire Valley
of Armageddon. And what thoughts must have filled his mind
as he could see not only what happened in the past, but what would happen in that valley
in the future when all the world would come against Jerusalem in the last days and actually
try to fight against the Lord. You know, Zechariah says that all the nations of the world will
be against Jerusalem, so don't be surprised when you see this happening day by day in
the news, and even what's happening in our political structure in our country. It's not
happy, but it's predicted. Well, we're out of time. We're actually a minute over time,
and I didn't even get to get into really the best part, which is Isaiah 61 and how Jesus
incredibly put a period where Isaiah put a comma. But it's the most important comma in
the entire world, because you're into it right now. More on that next time we meet. Let's
pray. Father, we believe this to be your Word. I
think it was afternoon when Billy Graham at Forest Home opened his Bible on a stump and
confessed that there was much of the Scriptures he did not understand, he did not grasp, he
couldn't make sense of. But he said, "I believe that this is your Word and I believe that
you can change a person's life by the preaching of your Word." And he committed himself there
and then to the proclamation of truth. We thank you, Lord that in the hearing of your
truth there is freedom. "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." And
not only are we freed by it, our faith grows because of it. "Faith comes by hearing, and
hearing comes through the word of God." We have heard your Word. We have heard these
stories. We've imagined it in our mind's eye. And I pray, Lord, with these principles, again,
not only would we have the information, but have received the inspiration by your Spirit,
especially as we deal in our temptations, in our struggles, to stand our ground and
to study our Bibles, in Jesus' name, amen. If you've missed any of our Expound studies,
all of our services and resources are available at expoundabq.org.
