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Family Research Council is serving in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, & freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
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The Ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus' Genealogy 0:10 Good morning, and happy fourth of July. Today, we are looking at Luke chapters 3 and 4 verse 32 of chapter 4, and they were astonished at his teaching for his word was0:21 with authority. Now in these 2 chapters, we have accounts of the following. Number 1, we have the detailed account of the ministry of John the Baptist. We have the genealogy of Jesus through the line of Mary. We have the0:33 testing of Jesus by Satan. We have the announcement of Jesus' ministry in his hometown of Nazareth. And then we have the deliverance of demonized people and the healing of Peter's mother-in-law0:45 and others. Doctor Luke provides more detail of John the Baptist ministry than the other gospel writers do. So we're gonna jump right into this chapter 3. The word of God came to0:56 John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, and he went into all region, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of1:08 Isaiah, the prophet, saying the voice of 1 crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain shall be brought low. The crooked1:20 places shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of god. So the the the 1 going before, god is saying, I'm going to make the the1:32 gospel message accessible. It is going to reach people. Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the1:44 wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these1:55 stones. Just because your son of Abraham doesn't give you a righteous standing before God, do the works of repentance. Bear the fruit of rip of a changed heart. So we don't know a whole2:07 lot about John's childhood other than what, Luke wrote in verse 80 of chapter 1. So the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the desert till the day of his2:19 manifestation to Israel. He was born actually to be a priest, but God called him to be a prophet in the spirit and the power of Elijah. John was a kind of a throwback to the Old Testament2:31 prophet. He dressed like Elijah. He lived on locusts and wild honey. Now in case you're you're wondering, locusts, locusts were, roasted, and they were sun dried, and they2:42 were eaten like a parched grain. Now I cannot vouch for this, but I'm told they didn't taste like chicken, that they, they taste like shrimp. I don't know. I'm not gonna2:54 try. According to Jewish historian Josephus, John had a great influence over the people who seemed, ready to do anything that he should advise them to do. I think there was a3:06 spiritual hunger, and he had a hard message. Now oftentimes, we try to avoid these hard messages, but in fact, it is the challenging message that gets to the heart of man's problem that3:18 many will respond to. Verse 10, chapter 3. So the people asked him saying, what shall we do then? Alright. He gave this message, and they're saying, alright. What do we do? Verse3:30 11. He answered and said to them, he who has 2 tunics, let him give to him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise. Now notice a true relationship with God impacts3:41 every aspect of our lives. It changes how we treat others. Now this is not to be confused with today's social justice, which is arbitrary and capricious. This is3:53 principle this is a key principle of kingdom living, but there's more here that he lays out. Verse 12, then tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do?4:05 And he said to them, collect no more than what is appointed for you. Alright? Don't steal. Don't take advantage of people. Likewise, the soldiers asked him saying, and what shall we do? So he said to them,4:17 do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely. Be content with your wages. See, our relationship with god should impact how we do our work. This is a, quite frankly, this is a fundamental4:30 element of religious freedom in our nation. This is why I advocate for and defend religious freedom. It's not religious freedom is not about what church you go to or don't go to. You4:41 know, those who are hostile toward religious freedom are okay with you going to church. What they don't want is you to live out your biblical faith in the workplace or in in your school4:53 or in the broader society. They want you to keep it hidden within the 4 walls of the church, but that is not what religious freedom is. Our freedom to live out5:05 our faith includes in the workplace. It should impact how we do our work. But5:18 military, these are public occupations. You know, what what secular historians have, called the Puritan work ethic is what set America apart in terms of our productivity5:30 and our success because it was rooted in this understanding of religious freedom, of worship, that our work is an extension of our worship. As as we serve the Lord5:42 in in our workplace, we're worshiping we're worshiping him. Paul writes this in Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 says, and whatever you do, do it hardly as to the lord and not to men.5:53 So everything we do should be done for the glory of god. And and and that means we have to be able to take our faith, our Christian faith into the workplace. But that's6:06 that's not what's happening in this country. What we see happening in this country is we see Christians being forced to check their faith at the door of the workplace. And this does 2 very harmful things. First, it6:17 deprives the individual of being able to serve and worship God as God has instructed us to do. And then secondly, it deprives the broader society of a standard of6:28 conduct that benefits everyone and including our economy. Now in the remainder of this chapter, we have the genealogy of Jesus, and this is different than the 1 we saw in6:40 Matthew. This, according to scholars, traces Jesus's genealogy through Mary back to David through his son, Nathan, which is different from Joseph's who,6:52 was connected to David through Solomon. So Mary's Mary's genealogy then goes from Jesus, the son of man, all the way back to Adam, the son of God. Very interesting. Now on to7:04 to chapter 4. We looked at Jesus' testing in the wilderness, by by Satan over in Matthew in in much greater detail. So I'm only gonna summarize some of the key points here. VerseJesus' Temptation and Ministry in Nazareth 7:16 1, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. And in those days, he ate nothing. And7:28 afterward, when he had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. Now, again, I believe what we read in the7:40 gospels about Jesus is he is modeling for us. We need he's our example. We need to be looking at what he is doing. And so right here, he's modeling for us how we are to deal with the tempting and seducing of7:51 Satan. And what we have in these temptations, Satan is targeting the physical, the bread, the emotional, who you are, the psychological needs of Jesus8:03 appealing to his ego, and he does the same same to us. But look at Jesus. He was filled with and led by the Holy Spirit, and he used the word, and that's how8:15 he overcame the tempts temptations of Satan. You know, Paul wrote in Galatians 5 16. He says, I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So we need to be8:27 filled with the spirit. But there's more. Verse 4, but Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. So the word. Now do you think8:39 Jesus told Satan, hey. Hang on just a second. I need to look at my concordance here and find a scripture that deals with what you're talking about. No. He knew the word. He was the word as the8:51 apostle John wrote, but we need to have the word of God in our hearts. We need to be able to respond to these temptations of Satan. And this is9:03 why scripture memorization, I think, is so important. You know, the psalmist wrote in Psalm 1 19 11, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Now look9:15 at verse 13. This is not a 1 time challenge. It's not like you you come up against Satan verse 13. Now when the devil had ended every temptation,9:26 these 3 temptations, he departed from him until, what, an opportune time, until he had another opportunity. He'll be back. Right? So we need to be ready. Satan doesn't give up. He9:38 has to be defeated, and we defeat him through the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. So here we have empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then goes back to Nazareth, takes his9:50 ministry to Nazareth, his hometown. Verse 16. So 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. And he10:02 was handed the book of the prophet of Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He10:14 has sent me me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable10:26 year of the lord. Now I'm just gonna tell you. You want freedom? We celebrate freedom. Our freedom comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. And and as a10:37 nation, we've experienced this freedom because as a nation, we've been built upon the truth of God's word. Jesus said that the truth will make you free. I am the way, the truth, and the10:49 life. No man comes to the father. And by that, if we truly want freedom, we've gotta be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And, unfortunately, those here in his own hometown would not accept the truth that11:01 was before them. Look at verse 28. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. They became angry because he was just a they saw him grow up. How could he how how could he11:13 have such knowledge? How could he offer a way forward? I mean, they they saw him grow up. They saw him play on the playground. And they rose up and thrust him out of the city, and they led him11:25 to the hill on which the city was built that they might throw him down over the cliff. They wanted to kill him, but he just walked through the crowd. I mean, wow. They had the truth, but they couldn't handle it.Deliverance and Healing through Jesus 11:37 So Jesus moves on to Capernaum verse 33. Now in the synagogue, there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, let us alone. What are we to11:49 do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy 1 of God. Wow. Now notice notice this. Notice he says,12:02 he uses the pronoun us. That's because there was more than 1. Alright? This and this is and this happens. The man was possessed by demons. Alright. Verse12:14 35. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him into their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. Now I know this may shock some of12:25 you, but this is more prevalent today than people recognize or want to recognize. And it's increasing with the rise of drug use and sexual perversion12:37 that's being celebrated in our culture. You know, I I I as a police officer, I saw this firsthand. But today, it's even more pronounced as, again, as drug use and12:49 sexual perversion has expanded. I mean, you talk to talk to Christian doctors or nurses who are spirit filled and are working in some of our nation's emergency rooms, and they'll tell you the mental health issues are13:00 filling up our ERs, and a lot of it is spiritual. Spiritual warfare is raging all around us, and we need the power of the holy spirit in us to to13:12 not just stand against this, but to help people find the freedom. Jesus was about bringing these people to a place of freedom and experiencing the abundant life. Alright. Look at verse 36.13:24 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves saying, what a word this is, for with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. Again, this13:36 power is available to the church today, followers of Christ through the Holy Spirit. But we need to abide in him, and we need to we need to be filled with the spirit, abiding in his13:48 word that we might have that power to go along with the authority that we've been given. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for our freedom as we celebrate our freedom today.14:00 Lord, we thank you not just for our political freedom. We're grateful for that. But, lord, we thank you for the spiritual freedom, the freedom from the law of sin and death that we've been redeemed by the blood of the14:12 lamb. And may we take that message and may we share it with others, but, lord, may we live it. Lord, taking full advantage of what you have secured for us that we might walk14:24 in the spirit and enjoy the abundant life. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Again, thanks for joining me this morning, and have a wonderful fourth of July. Until next14:36 time. Keep standing on the word.14:40 Today's study comes from the stand on the word bible reading plan available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you14:52 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at f r c dot o r g slash bible.In this video 0:00 The Ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus' Genealogy7:05 Jesus' Temptation and Ministry in Nazareth11:35 Deliverance and Healing through Jesus
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