Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture- Lk 4-6, Mk 1-3, & Mt 4
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Good to see you today. Welcome to our journey through scripture. name is Philip Thomas, pastor of journey here in Elgin, Texas. We continue our chronological walk through scripture and we are in the beginning of the gospels. So again, it's going to be a little challenging and because the gospels will read a little bit from this chapter and then skip to the chapter in Mark and then skip to the chapter in Luke because they're saying many times saying the same thing. Sometimes it's not in the exact same order, but we're going to work through all of that. So just hang in there. We are going to be looking in Luke chapters four through six today, Mark chapters one through three, Matthews chapter four, and then verses eight and nine. So last week we kind of looked at John, and John had Jesus traveling from Galilee all the way down into Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and that's where Jesus cleared the temple. The synoptic gospels, don't really reflect all of those different trips back and forth that Jesus probably would have made to Jerusalem. And so the synoptic gospels here are beginning with Jesus' Galilean ministry. And remember, the Galilean ministry, Galilee is up in the north, closer to Syria. Then you would come down towards Jerusalem. You would either have to go around or go through Samaria, and then you would reach Jerusalem. So Nazareth is obviously in northern Galilee. So Jesus begins his ministry, Galilean ministry in Matthew, it's chapter four, verses 12 through 22. Matthew, will notice, many times has a connection with the Old Testament and we'll put in ⁓ references to Old Testament verses. Again, is very, it's very important to Matthew to connect that Jesus is the Messiah that was talked about in the Old Testament. So you have Jesus departing, leaving Nazareth and in the Galilee area, it says verse 15 of Matthew chapter four, the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee to the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. So that is from Isaiah, and then verse 17 says, that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then you have the calling of the four disciples. It's calling Andrew and Simon and then James and John. In Mark chapter one, verses 14 through 20, you have the calling of the disciples and Jesus ⁓ is is beginning to preach and saying, time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. That's verse 15 of Mark chapter one. And then it talks about the Simon and Andrew and then James and John. So I want to stop there for a minute because one of the things that's extremely important here is basically the theme. of Jesus' ministry, of His preaching and teaching is what? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. You know, the kingdom of God is a wonderful picture, and we're going to see lots of examples of what that looks like, and people enjoy talking about the kingdom of God, because it's where God desires for us to live. That's where He created us to live, and it's a lot better place than just this world. However, we don't always like to hear the other part of the message that Jesus came to proclaim. He didn't just come to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. He said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Which what that means is it requires a new way of living. It requires a change in direction. That's what repentance means. So it's repentance from sin, but it's doing things differently. in order to be part of the kingdom of God, you can't view things, you can't see things as the world sees them. You have to see them from a kingly perspective, from a godly perspective. And so all of us have things that we have to repent from. And whether it's sinfulness, whether it's mis-held beliefs and understandings, whether it's unhealthy perceptions, certain idols that we all kind of start gravitating towards, we have to be always looking, what are those areas in our life that we need to repent, that we need a change in direction of, so that we can truly experience the blessings of the kingdom of God. And as we've talked about before, Jesus is offering unbelievable mercy and grace and love, but he's also calling to repentance. He is reminding us. that there is a wrong way to live, that we need to live the right way. And that's not a popular message today. We don't want to tell people that they're living a wrong way. But Jesus did. But he did it in grace, and he did it offering mercy and offering the opportunity to repent so that everyone can enter into the kingdom of God. That is His desire and that should be our desire as well. Then you have verse ⁓ chapter four in Luke, which talks about, again, still in Galilee in Nazareth, but sees how Jesus is actually kind of pushed out of Nazareth in a very real and ⁓ interesting manner. You look in chapter four, starting in verse 14 of Luke, verse 15 says, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So Jesus was teaching in Nazareth, he teaching in the synagogues. He opened up the scripture, opened up to Isaiah, and read this in Nazareth. said, 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 proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord. So what's going on is Jesus is opening up and choosing these passages that are talking about the Messiah. And it's very clear what is being portrayed here and says, as Jesus continued, verse 21 of chapter four of Luke, he began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So they all kind of questioned, say, isn't this Joseph's son? What is this guy talking about? This is not good. They do not like what Jesus is saying. Jesus said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself, whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country. Then he said, assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. So they were okay with the healing. But when Jesus started to teach what was behind the healing, they became very uncomfortable to the point that they wanted to throw him over a cliff. But Jesus walks through the crowd. And kind of an interesting thing, it's one of those things I'd like more details on, how did Jesus get out of that predicament? And did he talk his way out? Did somebody stop and allow him to walk through, or was it just a complete miracle? that Jesus was able to escape. don't know fully, but we do know he does escape. And so then we start to see some similar things in ⁓ Matthew, Mark, and Luke ⁓ of different healings that are very significant, ⁓ that kind of escalate Jesus' ⁓ Messiahship, that it becomes very clear that he is not just a normal healer, he is not just a normal teacher. that there is something much bigger about him. So as you look in Mark chapter 1 verses 21 through 28, you have Jesus casting out an unclean spirit and the spirit says, verse 23, now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet, come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then you have in Luke chapter four, verses 31 through 37, the same thing. now Jesus, they've been moving from Galilee, now down into Capernaum, which is in the area of Galilee. Galilee is not a city. Galilee is an area, think of it as a county. ⁓ It's an area there, there are multiple cities. Nazareth is in Galilee, Capernaum is in Galilee, which kind of became Jesus' base of operation. And so you have Luke chapter four, 31 through 37, where Jesus again cleanses the man of the demons and he tells them to be quiet. He doesn't want his, he doesn't, want things to be known yet of exactly who he is. People are already curious enough. He is being strategic. This is important for Jesus. Then Matthew chapter eight, verses 14 through 17, you have Peter's mother-in-law being healed. In Matthew, there in chapter 17, says that this was done to fulfill what was spoken. Spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. again, Matthew always kind of connecting back to the Old Testament. Mark chapter 1, 29 through 34, talks about ⁓ Jesus and Simon as house. And then verse 32, it says that the evening when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick ⁓ and two were demon possessed and the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him. Luke chapter four, verse 38 through 41 talks about being at Simon's house, healing many people from sickness as well as demons. Then you have as they're beginning to depart ⁓ Capernaum, You have Matthew chapter four verses 23 through 25, where Jesus again is healing many people and people are starting to come from all around. And then you have Jesus starting to preach in Mark chapter one, 35 through 39, Luke chapter four verses 42 through into the beginning of chapter five that they, that he is beginning to teach. There's lots of crowds starting together. It's becoming more difficult. And Jesus talks about needing to go to other towns to continue to spread this message. it's going to be get, it's getting more difficult now. Luke chapter five, this is where Luke has the calling of the disciples. And more than likely what is going on is Jesus begins his ministry without calling his disciples. He begins. teaching and there's probably some healings. And then he calls the disciples. So they had heard about him. And then when he asked them to follow him, they made that very difficult and brave choice to actually follow him. But so Luke kind of has it at this point and he attaches a miracle to the calling of ⁓ Simon and Peter and that they're fishing. And Jesus tells them to throw the net out and they catch a ton and Jesus tells them, you're not going to just be a fisherman. You're going to be fishers of men. Right. Just a really powerful scene there as, and you can clearly see ⁓ Peter becoming the leader and kind of, makes sense. Luke is telling how that happened. And I love. In Luke chapter 5 verses 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. So Peter recognizes ⁓ how inadequate he is, but yet Jesus asked him to follow me. Then you have the cleansing of the leper, Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 through 4. ⁓ The leper saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." And Jesus put out his hand, touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately he was healed. And then he told the leper, ⁓ not go to the priest, offer the cleansing, because as a leper, you couldn't even enter into the temple, you couldn't enter and go through that. So Jesus is saying, go through the cleansing process, but don't let them know what's going on. Because again, he's trying to keep things kind of subdued at this point. But of course, the leper. understandably and does not fully listen to Jesus. He goes to the temple and I'm sure what happens is the priest asks him, how did this happen? And he said, Jesus healed me. And so the word starts spreading. You see that in Mark chapter 1 verses 40 through 45 that Jesus, again, heals this leper. ⁓ Luke chapter 5, 12 through 16 also talks about cleansing and healing the leper. And then you have in Matthew chapter 9 and then ⁓ in Mark 2 and Luke 5, the end of Luke 5, things kind of escalate because now it's moving from Jesus being a healer and calling people to follow Him to now He's actually really starting to confront the religious structure ⁓ and because he's starting to talk about sins and forgiving of sins. So in Matthew chapter 9 verses 1 through 17, it talks about how he gets on a boat, crosses the lake, begins teaching, heals a paralytic, says, son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. And at once the scribes said this man blasphemes. And then he goes and meets Matthew, a tax collector, goes and eats with Matthew, calls Matthew to follow him. And they're saying, why are you going to the tax collectors? That's where he says, it is not the well who need a doctor, but it is the sick that he is going to reach out to those who need forgiveness, whose society has turned their back on. And then you have... the religious leaders asking him about fasting, why his disciples aren't following the same principles. says, verse 17 of Matthew chapter 9, says, So what is he saying? He said, the structure needs to be changed, not the message itself. But Jesus' coming, the structure that the religious leaders had made needed to be broken. The message that God has been proclaiming from the beginning was the same, but it needed a new structure. It needed things to change. Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 22 sees the same thing. This is where the friends lower the man through the ceiling and he heals the paralytic and he forgives his sins, forgives his sins first and then heals. and the people get very upset. This talks about Matthew's call. He also talks about the new wine and the old wine and the new wine skins. Luke chapter 5, 17 through 39, Jesus forgives and heals the paralytic. Calling to Matthew talks about the wine skins. Then we get to Matthew chapter 12, and then... The rest of Mark chapter two into chapter three and Luke, the beginning of Luke chapter six, kind of going along with the changing out of the structure. You have the disciples eating grain on the Sabbath or picking the grain, that was against the rules, and Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath. And of course he got in trouble for both of those. he basically, ⁓ in Matthew chapter 12, I'm looking at verse 7, but if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man is Lord over even of the Sabbath. And then Mark chapter 2 to chapter 3 talks about Jesus keeping the Sabbath. There in verse 4 of chapter 3 of Mark, it says, then he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill, but they kept silent. So he's saying, I'm going to heal because that's the right thing to do, not because the letter of the law tells me I'm not supposed to. Following the law, Jesus is making clear it's more about the spirit of the law than the letter of the law. What we usually emphasize is the letter of the law. Jesus is emphasizing following the spirit of the law. Then Luke chapter six, verses one through 11, he is his... conflicts, the Sabbath conflicts, same ones that you have just been reading about. So, Matthew 12, 15 through 21, and then all of Matthew 5. ⁓ Read Mark 3, 7 through 19, and Luke, ⁓ all of Luke, chapter 6. And so we are getting into the Sermon on the Mount. In both Matthew and Luke, we're going to take two episodes to go all the way through the Sermon on the Mount. So that's what we will do. We'll see you then.