Stand back and look at the sequence for a moment: Because he is moving in the power of the Holy Spirit, he is completely free to speak the truth with boldness and without fear of what men might do to him. The word “boldness” came to mind, as did the word “certainty.” I settled on the word “freedom” because it seemed to encapsulate the fullness of Jesus’ ministry. I thought about what word to use for this final step in the story and I couldn’t quite make up my mind. When he spoke on the Sabbath to the people, “They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority” (v. From Nazareth, he went to Capernaum, a fishing village on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. 21), but later they tried to throw him off a cliff (v. After finishing the reading, he makes an audacious (and entirely true) claim in verse 21, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” At first they loved his gracious words (v. Standing up, he began to read from Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me” (Luke 4:18). He now goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath in his hometown of Nazareth. He not only defeated the devil, he returned from his victory in the power of the Spirit. However you wish to explain it, something happened to Jesus in the wilderness. PowerĪfter the time of testing is over, Luke 4:14 tells us that Jesus returned to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit.” As news about him spread from town to town, “everyone praised him” (v. Jesus utterly defeats the devil at every turn. As the text reveals, it won’t be a fair fight. The one true “Son of God” will now square off against the archenemy of the universe. Luke inserts the genealogy because he wants to demonstrate that where Adam failed in his great test in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-6), Jesus will now decisively defeat the devil. So the order in Luke’s gospel looks like this: Then we come to the story of the temptation (Luke 4:1-11). Immediately following the story of the baptism, Luke inserts a lengthy genealogy that starts with Jesus and goes back to “Adam, the son of God” (v. What greater assurance could there be that Jesus is truly the Messiah? III. The entire Trinity is revealed at this point: Jesus as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, and the voice of the Father. Second, the Father spoke from heaven with words of divine approval: “You are my Son, whom I love with you I am well pleased” (v. First, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. While Jesus was being baptized, two extraordinary things happened. By submitting to baptism, even though he had no sins to confess, he took a step of obedience that said to the people, “I am one with you.” II. He fulfilled the Father’s will by publicly identifying himself with the nation of Israel. Luke 3:21-22 tells us that “when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” Matthew 3:13-15 tells us that his baptism was an act of righteousness. Our story begins with an act of obedience. Our focus is not on the devil but on the Holy Spirit and the role he played in the life of Christ before, during and after the temptation. In order to fully understand what happened in the wilderness, we need to start before the temptation and continue after the temptation. As we study the story, keep in mind that Luke presents the Lord Jesus as the perfect man and the model we should follow. That’s a huge topic so we will confine ourselves to the events surrounding the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. This Sunday we take the next step by looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ended the service last Sunday on our knees, as hundreds of people came forward to kneel at the front of the sanctuary, asking God to renew the power of his Spirit in our midst. When we pray for revival, we are asking the Holy Spirit to blow upon us in a new and powerful way. Without the Holy Spirit, no one will ever come to Christ, and without the Holy Spirit we cannot live the Christian life. He alone can bring us the new birth we all need. He alone can give life to the spiritually dead. He comes and goes as he wishes no one can control his movements. Last Sunday we talked about John 3:8 and how the Holy Spirit is the wind-invisible, unpredictable, uncontrollable. This is the second message in our new series on the Holy Spirit.
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