June 30


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Luke 3:21-4:44

We are in the Christ Stream reading with the New King James Version this week.

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Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

Thank you God for giving us Jesus. He is certainly fascinating to listen to, follow, be near, and be changed by -because He has touched our hearts.  Thank you.  Amen.

3 – Luke tells of Jesus being baptized, filled by the Holy Spirit, blessed of God, and then Luke lays out more credentials of Jesus: His lineage.  The distinction of this lineage as compared to the one in Matthew 1 is that Matthew starts with Abraham. To a Jewish mind, it all starts with Abraham so Jesus’ direct link to Abraham is displayed. Matthew lists the son of dozens of times … Jewish families are verified by having children, so Matthew lays it out, “and his son was, and his son was, and his son was…

Luke here goes the other direction. Since he is writing to Greeks, who are more concerned with, “well who’s his dad? and who was HIS dad? and so forth. So Luke starts with Jesus … “and his father was, and Joseph’s father was …, and his father was.  And Luke took the genealogy line clear back to Adam. The point is that Jesus is Adam’s direct son and therefore related to all of us.
 4 – Jesus’ temptation by the devil is told by Mt, Mk, and Luke. Mark’s is very brief; two verses, whereas Matthew and Luke tell the greater picture. Luke tells the longest version. Mt, and Luke say that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, where Mark says the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. This is in the Bible to demonstrate to us that the devil is going to offer us many things, it will always be appealing, and it will even appear to meet a need for us. It could be a need for physical satisfaction, a need for power, or a need for a wonderful sign. The Devil wants Jesus to make bread from stone. Would you have found that tempting? a steaming loaf after not eating for nearly six weeks?  Jesus is not against eating at the end of a fast. Jesus is going to eat again. He just won’t do it at the Devil’s prompting. Dumb dares don’t work on Jesus. The Devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will worship him/Satan. Well Jesus is going to triumph through surrendering to God and going to the Cross. Satan is offering Him to skip the Cross and get it now.  Would you have found that tempting? To acquire and rule with no suffering involved?  The last was a flagrant temptation to make a show for the devil by throwing himself off a cliff. Research and such study reveals that it was about 150′ ledge. Well high enough to be fatal! …but the angels will catch you, right? yes? no? Jesus again answers with quoting the Bible and doesn’t ‘play jacks’ with the devil… like we are to do.  quote the Bible and walk away from The Bum.
-Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Luke is particular to quote this theme repeatedly in his gospel about Jesus having power. He wants the Greek world to be convinced that this Spirit that Jesus operates in -it actually embodies Him – it is real and it makes Him far beyond whatever they think of Zeus or Olympus, or Poseidon, or Nike, et al.  All those gods are nothing – so follow Jesus.  .
-His time and teaching in Galilee is fruitful and well received except in Nazareth.  Prophetic people need to take note of this. Comforting and shepherding people are loved by their ‘old-timers’ .  Prophets; not so much.  Jesus read them some poignant scripture and had powerful and precise things to say.  They basically wanted Him dead – gone from there at the very least. So he left.
-He went to Capernaum from Nazareth. This is about 40 miles by a number of routes, and he immediately engages in miraculous ministry as He casts out an evil spirit. Maybe we digress here but we always read from both a Major and a Minor Prophet the day before we read about Jesus from the gospels.  There certainly needed to be evil spirits expelled back in Jeremiah’s and Amos’ day, don’t y’think?!  Then again would they have wanted Jesus to cast out these evil spirits?  Just thinking here, back to …where were we?-  Yes, Jesus is in Capernaum and at Peter’s house.  You can visit that very structure today, btw. Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, [meaning Peter had a wife].  Some branches of the faith are not at ease with this, but it’s true: Peter was married.   Jesus then, as the sun is setting, he heals many many who were brought to him. He heals a myriad of issues both physical and spiritual.  Notice He lets the Sabbath come to a close and then does his numerous healings.  It was a glorious season for Jesus. He taught and touched lives and they didn’t want Him to leave.  A bit different than Nazareth where he is run out ‘on a rail’ so to speak after a sharing a verse and making a comment.

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