By The Rev. Ron Purkey
Guest Columnist

Read: Luke 4:31-44

Jesus said: “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, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord…And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth…” (Luke 4:18-19, 21-22).

The Rev. Ron Purkey

It was customary in synagogue services to ask visiting rabbis to read the Scripture lesson and make whatever comments they felt were appropriate.

By this time, Jesus had ministered about a year and was very popular; so it was natural that the synagogue leader ask Him to participate. The appointed lesson included Isaiah 61:1-2, and Jesus used it as the text for His sermon in which He made three startling announcements.

First, Jesus announced that the Scriptures were fulfilled in him. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit to minister to all kinds of needy people and bring them the salvation of the Lord.

Second, he announced that the Year of Jubilee had begun. “The acceptable year of the Lord” refers to Leviticus 25:8-22, the 50th year when everything in Israel was restored to its proper place. (Notice that Jesus omitted part of Isaiah 61:2, “the day of vengeance of our God,” for that day is yet to come.)

Finally, He announced that all of this was by the grace of God. He gave two examples from Jewish history to prove that God showed mercy to Gentiles (see 1 Kings 17:1-7; 2 Kings 5:1-15).

The miracle Jesus did in the synagogue brought a great crowd to Peter’s door! People brought the sick and afflicted to Jesus, and he healed them.

It was after sundown, so the Sabbath Day was over. Notice that both in the synagogue and at Peter’s house, the demons bore witness that Jesus is the Son of God, but Jesus did not encourage their testimony. In time, his words and his works would convince some people that he was indeed the Son of God and Israel’s Messiah; but he did not want any testimony from the evil one (see Acts 16:16-18).

Jesus proved that he is the Messiah (the “Christ”): the promised Savior. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

As important as it was to meet the physical needs of people, prayer (verse 42) and preaching the word of God (verses 43-44) had higher priorities in our Lord’s ministry; and so should they be in ours.

Read Ron Purkey’s Bible study outlines free at rcpbibleoutlines.com. Purkey has been an ordained Baptist minister for 50 years.