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| Chapter 4 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 and for forty days was tempted by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward when they were ended, He hungered. 3 And the devil said unto Him, "If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread." 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’" 5 And the devil, taking Him up onto a high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto Him, "All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them; for this has been delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. 7 If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine." 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Get thee behind Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’" 9 And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto Him, "If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence. 10 For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee,’ 11 and, ‘In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’" 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, "It is said, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’" 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season. 14 ¶ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and His fame went out through all the region round about. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And 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 stood up to read. 17 And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 20 And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. 21 And He began to say unto them, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 22 And all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is not this Joseph’s son?" 23 And He said unto them, "Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal thyself! Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.’" 24 And He said, "Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you in truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. 26 But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Zarephath, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian." 28 Then all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him unto the brow of a hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. 30 But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way. 31 ¶ And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. 32 And they were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with power. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man, who had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee and who Thou art--the Holy One of God!" 35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him!" And when the devil had thrown him in their midst, he came out of him and hurt him not. 36 And they were all amazed, and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." 37 And His fame went out into every place in the country round about. 38 And He arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. 39 And He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and ministered unto them. 40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them. 41 And devils also came out of many, crying out and saying, "Thou art Christ, the Son of God!" And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak; for they knew that He was Christ. 42 And when it was day, He departed and went into a desert place. And the people sought Him and came unto Him and would have stayed Him, that He should not depart from them. 43 But He said unto them, "I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent." 44 And He preached in the synagogues of Galilee. |
The Devil, a very powerful angel created by God, but still subject to God. He became full of pride and chose to oppose God. It would therefore be to his advantage if he was able to get Jesus to give in to temptation. Though Jesus was divine He also had human desires and problems, Satan therefore attacks from both points. Note that Jesus was led into this situation deliberately by the Holy Spirit. v2-4 Physical. Jesus had been exposed to the wilderness heat, He had been fasting, so His body desires for food would be considerable. Satan’s first attack was for Jesus to use His divine power to satisfy His physical needs. "How can you be the creator and be suffering, turn these stones to bread, just a piece of bread, no one will know." The answer by Jesus ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’" shows that physical desires must also be according to the Word of God. v5-8 Power. Satan now offers Jesus the world, because man had sinned this was now under his authority. "Just worship me and it is yours. Why put yourself through all the pain of rejection, the pain of crucifixion, the sin of mankind put on you just to become king of this world?" How easy it would have been, but only God should be worshipped and served. v9-12 Public demonstration of divine nature. Satan takes Jesus up onto the top of the temple. "Show the people below that you are the divine Son of God by throwing yourself off the temple." Satan uses the Bible to carry out the temptation, Psalm 91:11,12 ‘God gives instruction to His angels to protect you, and, use their hands to stop you falling over the rocks on the road.’ If Jesus had jumped off the temple and He was safely carried down to the ground by the angels with all the people in the temple watching, what an easy way to get Him accepted as God. But this is taking God for granted, putting yourself in danger just to prove God will protect you, this also makes you the center of interest and not God. Jesus replies back with scripture, Deuteronomy 6:16, "Do not tempt God." If Jesus had jumped, with God’s protection, He would attract people to Him for the miracle rather than going to the cross, which was the main reason for His coming to earth. v13 Satan withdraws, after not being able to tempt Jesus, but only for a while, the devil would wait in the shadows to make sure he was there if Jesus could ever be open to attack. v14-30 Back Home. v14,15 Jesus returns to the Galilee area and by the power of the Spirit becomes well known with many followers, teaching in the synagogues. v16 Jesus now returns to Nazareth, His home town, where He had grown up. Jesus had lived in this town since He, as a child with Mary and Joseph, had returned from Egypt, Matt 2:13-23. But this is a different Jesus!!! As was normal, He attended the local synagogue. The service at a synagogue would often be in three parts. A worship part, with prayers, then a reading of the scriptures, finally, a teaching time. As there was no permanent teacher this could be anyone the leadership invited to do so. The "book," which contained the Old Testament Scriptures, would have been scrolls mounted on handles, they would be read by rolling up one side while unrolling the other. v17-20 Jesus is given the book of Isaiah and reads Isaiah 61:1,2a, note that He stops at the first comma in verse 2. In the rest of the verse we see that God would be sending the Messiah with God’s judgement, but first the grace of God must be revealed to the people. v21 Jesus now tells the people that He was the one the scripture was talking about. v22 In Mark 1:21-2:12 we are told that Jesus performed supernatural acts in Capernaum, but because of unbelief in Nazareth, He was unable to do any miracles because all they saw was the son of Joseph. v23 Jesus makes another statement for the people of Nazareth, "Doctor, heal yourself," He was prepared for their demands for Him to perform miracles as in Capernaum. v24 "No prophet is accepted in his own country," this not only applies to the people of Nazareth, but will later apply to the Jewish nation. v25-27 Jesus here compares himself with the prophets Elijah and Elisha who were ignored by the Jews, so God reserved miracles for just two faithful Gentiles. 1 Kings 17:8-24; 2 Kings 5:1-14. v28-30 The people in the synagogue, knew what Jesus was saying, Jesus had pointed out that they were like the Jews in the times of Elijah and Elisha, even suggesting that God would prefer the Gentiles instead of the unbelieving Jew, and it made them very angry. There was no trial, just a hate crowd full of judgement, they dragged Him out of the town, planning to kill Him. What a change of attitude only a short while before they were "all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words," v22. But death on the cross was what Jesus was to suffer, so somehow "He, passing through the midst of them, went His way." v31-44 The Ministry moves. Following the rejection by the town of Nazareth, Jesus moves to Capernaum. There He was able to teach and show His power with many miracles. v32 The people were amazed at the teaching of Jesus in the synagogue, the people also noted that "He spoke with authority," Mark also records "not as the scribes," Mark 1:21,22. The scribes were task was to explain the Law, but they always made quotes from other past scribes and past teachers. The people were noting that Jesus was speaking without referring to the teaching of anyone else, He spoke as if the voice of God. v33-36 Satan and his followers were also involved, a man with an unclean spirit meets Jesus in the synagogue one day, the evil spirit has no problems in knowing the true identity of Jesus, "I know you and who you are--the Holy One of God!" Jesus would not allow the evil spirit speak but to come out of the man. This story gives us some important information about the followers of Satan. 1) v33,36 They use people and can create an "unclean" situation, destroying the person. 2) v34,35,41, The know Jesus and respond to His authority. 3) v35 It is physically and spiritually dangerous to have anything to do with those from the demonic kingdom. v38-44 Jesus heals. Matt 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-38. v38,39 Jesus now goes home with Simon(Peter), Luke has not mentioned Peter before but seems to think that all the readers knew that he was a disciple. See John 1:41,42 for introduction of Peter to Jesus, though his call to be a disciple comes later, Luke 5:1-11. Jesus has just returned from the synagogue, this plus the later verses tell us that the healing took place on the Sabbath. Healing was instant, at other times in the ministry the healing took time, showing that we need patience and wait on God for healing. v40,41 "When the sun was setting," sunset marks the end of the Jewish day, now the Sabbath had ended the sick and possessed were brought to Jesus. It appears that Jesus may have been doing this for most of the night. Again Jesus silences the demons, preventing them giving His true identity. v42-44 Often Jesus, following a busy time, removed Himself away from the crowds in order for a time of prayer and rest, Luke 5:16. If Jesus needs a time of peace with His God, then so should we. The people came searching for Him, the people wanted Jesus to remain with them, but Jesus was here to take the Words of God to the other towns and cities. |
Easy English Translation
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