December, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
461
Now, John, see whether you can break this bolt. “O f course not; who could?” If there were a flaw or a crack in it, it would be easy to finish breaking it. You never know how strong a piece of material is until it has been tested. When Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, there was not the least tendency in Christ to yield. Satan did everything within his power to get Christ to fall, but all that he could do was to test Christ and prove that Jesus was the Son o f God with power over sin and tempta tion. Although Christ was tempted “in all points . . . like as we are,” yet He was without sin. I f He had been a mere man and not the Son o f God, He could not Lesson T ext: Lk. 4:16-30. Golden T ext: “The Spirit o f the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and re covering o f sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year o f the Lord” (Lk. 4:18, 19). Outline and Exposition I. T he R eturn to N azareth (16). A fter His temptation in the wilderness, / A Jesus returned to His home at Naza- reth “where he had been brought up.” Everybody would know Him in that town, and none would be surprised when He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, be cause that was His habit. The priests and Levites were customar ily in attendance in the temple in the city o f Jerusalem, but since the return of the exiles from Babylon, synagogues for the use of the local people had been established throughout the country. These synagogues were usually in charge of local rulers, or elders. These elders would invite any dis tinguished visitor who happened to be pres ent to read the portion o f Scripture set apart for that day, and to speak to the people. Our Lord Jesus knew this custom, and when He went to the synagogue that special day, He probably planned to read and to preach. II. T he R evelation at N azareth (17-27). The reading in the synagogues was not performed in a hit-or-miss fashion, but each Sabbath had its special portion. When Jesus stood up to read, there was handed to Him the roll o f the prophet Isaiah. It was not mere chance that brought the Lord Jesus to the synagogue on that particular day and caused Him to read this Messianic portion. Probably He would read in the Hebrew tongue, and then translate into the Aramaic or the Greek language. His ac tions awakened the astonishment of the people. The peculiarity of His reading was that, instead o f continuing to the end of a verse or o f a sentence, He stopped in the middle o f a verse and at a comma. But He pur posely stopped where He did. After the comma, the verse in Isaiah refers to “the day of vengeance of our God.” The verse
have resisted the temptations of the devil. This is one way in which He was shown to be the supernatural Son o f God. The temptation of Christ does more than declare Him to be the Son of God— it shows the Christian how to withstand temptation. Christ used God’s Word, the Bible, to answer Satan. We should do likewise. The nearer we keep to Christ, the safer we will be in the hour o f tempta tion. Now take this other pencil, placed along the side of the bolt, and break it without first removing it from the bolt, if you can. If you are to break the pencil, you must break the bolt also, and this is impossible. There is a truth here for you and me: Stay close to Christ, and it will be impossible for Satan to break and ruin your life. reads: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach . . . the acceptable year o f the Lord, and the day of vengeance o f our God . . .” (Isa. 61:1, 2). Between the phrases, “acceptable year of the Lord” and “the day o f vengeance o f our God,” there lies the whole period of this present age, wherein God is dealing particularly with the church. “The acceptable year of the Lord” was included in the time that Jesus Christ was upon the earth, when He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, preaching good tidings to the meek, and binding up the broken-hearted. But the people to whom He was sent rejected that “acceptable year,” because they rejected Him who preached it. Hence that year closed, and they now await the “day o f vengeance” which will come when the church has been caught away from the earth. “And he closed the book” (v. 20). As far as Israel is concerned, the book remains closed until the Lord comes to earth the second time, when it once more will be opened, and that opening will introduce the day of vengeance (cf. Rev. 5:5). Then Jesus “sat down,” intimating that He was about to preach, and the attenion of all the people was fastened upon Him. It was then that He gave to them the revelation o f who and what He was, for He said: “Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears” (v. 21, R. V .). He definitely claimed to be the One o f whom Isaiah w rote: the Saviour, Deliverer, Lord, and Messiah. Standing before them, if they would receive Him, was the One of whom the prophets told, the One in whom
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