Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 5 Study # 6
January 14, 2007
Lincolnton, NC
(313)
Authorized Version Translation:
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
1901 ASV Translation:
42 And when it was day, he came out and went into a desert place: and the multitudes sought after him, and came unto him, and would have stayed him, that he should not go from them.
43 But he said unto them, I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also: for therefore was I sent.
44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Luke's Record:
- I. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
- A. The "Content" of Jesus' Preaching.
- 1. He called it "announcing the Kingdom of God" as "good news".
- 2. The only "illustrations" of the content that Luke has given to this point are John the Baptizer's preaching and Jesus' words in Nazareth.
- a. The "core" of Jesus' message in Nazareth is given in 4:18-19 and it is tied to the parallels between Israel's apostate condition in the days of Elijah and Elisha and the apostate condition of the Nazarenes.
- b. The "core" of John's preaching is given in 3:16-17 and it is tied to the twin baptisms that the Christ is going to accomplish -- that of the Holy Spirit and that of fire... gathering the wheat into the barn and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.
- 1) This "core" has a prelude, given in 3:7-9 with explanation in 3:11-14.
- 2) John's "message" was of the necessity of vipers to "repent" because of the "wrath to come" (3:7) when Messiah was to execute His "baptisms".
- c. When these "illustrations" are pulled together, the major issue of the preaching of the Kingdom of God is that Jesus has a solution for a generation of vipers that consists of either conversion or execution in view of the inevitability of the establishment of a righteous rule among men by Messiah.
- B. Given the "sense of destiny" in Jesus' "necessity" -- "I must preach to the other cities" -- how serious should the typical "believer" be about being involved in efforts to make Truth available to others?
- C. Luke's purpose for recording Jesus' "commitment".
- 1. It is a record of Jesus' deliberate selectivity of activity.
- 2. Is it an implied insistence that no one is doing the will of God who is not actively following His example?
- a. Peter wrote that the fact that this world, and all that is in it, is going to burn is to be a guide for deciding "what manner of persons we should be" (2 Peter 3:11).
- b. Paul taught that "we shall give an answer for the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10).
- 1) What shall be the criteria by which those "deeds" shall be evaluated?
- a) Both Paul and Peter taught that we are all participants in the Body and, as such, have a "function" to accomplish and a day of reckoning to come.
- b) 1 Peter 4:10 clearly declares that we are "stewards" of God's grace for the purpose of ministry and 1 Corinthians 4:2 says "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."
- c) Peter's words to Ananias in Acts 5:3-4 must be retained in mind: the "believer" is free to do as he pleases with what is his, but he will be held accountable according to 1 Peter 4:10 and 1 Corinthians 4:2.
- 2) "Good and bad" will be most stringently determined, according to 1 Corinthians 13, by the underlying motivation.