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Thursday 22 August 2013

Luke 4:14-30 - Jesus announces His mission

Following His temptation Jesus returned to Galilee "in the power of the Holy Spirit". Remember that Luke had seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work through his involvement in the events in Acts. He knew the importance of the Holy Spirit. News about Jesus spread. This was at least partly due to the work of John the Baptist in preparing the way and getting people to expect Jesus. Jesus devoted Himself to teaching in the synagogues.
Jesus then went to His home town of Nazareth where He announced who He really was and what He had come to do. He took the scroll and read from Isaiah 61, declaring that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit and had come to proclaim good news and set people free. This seemed to get a favourable reaction, but then some remarked that He was just Joseph's son. Matthew 4:23 records that Jesus had been doing many healings as well as teaching. The people apparently were not seeing many miracles here, but this was a consequence of their lack of faith. Jesus points out that this pattern has been observed before. Elijah and Elisha were both sent to other people to heal them. God never fits into any neat pattern that we try to put on Him. This angered the people (see how quickly there attitude has changed) and they want to kill Jesus but cannot.

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