Read Between the Verses

Luke 4:14-15

Turn in your Bible to the space between Luke 4:13 and 4:14. Are you looking at the white paper in the space? Above it is the temptation of Christ before He launches His public ministry. Below it is public ministry, and it is in Galilee. But that is not the beginning of His public ministry. Luke skips over about a year of what is the actual first service of Jesus. Matthew and Mark skip it too. Only John covers it.

Then vv. 14-15 summarize His Galilean ministry, which lasted about 1.5 years. The next several chapters give the details. Matthew and Mark both give it several chapter as well. In Luke 9:51 Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem, which is in the south, and embarks there on a Judean ministry, a ministry in the southern part of the land of Israel.

But for now, let’s fill in the blanks of that space before v. 14. I'm just going to give you the synopsis of these things, for the sake of the big picture.

That first year was in Judea and some have called it the first Judean ministry.  In fact, Matthew 4:12 and Mark 1:14 tell us Jesus didn't even go back to Galilee until John the Baptist was imprisoned.  John gives us what happened in that year before He actually began His Galilean ministry.

When we come to John chapter 1 and verse 29 [Behold the Lamb], in chronology, this happens after the temptation. Some time has passed.  And now He is back at the Jordan river.  John is still carrying on his ministry. Remember the ministry of John and Jesus overlapped until John was imprisoned.  As John continued to call the people to repentance and point them to the Messiah. Let’s continue a fly by of that first year.

Next He begins to collect His disciples.  First Andrew and Peter and Philip and then comes Nathanael and Jesus begins to collect the men around Him who will be what we know as the apostles.

Now they all knew that John the Baptist was a prophet.  Everybody knew that John the Baptist was a prophet and they knew therefore that when he pointed to Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, that he was telling the truth.

Back in verse 42 of chapter 1 it is indicated here that Jesus looked at Simon, just looked at him and said, "You are Simon."  How did He know that?  Not only are you Simon, but you're the son of John, or Jonas, as it's sometimes translated.  How did He know that?  He knew that because He knew everything. Later on in the same section it said in verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, being brought by Philip, “and He said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.'"  How did Jesus know that this man had no deceit?  How did Jesus know this man had integrity?

"Nathanael said to Him," in verse 48, "'How do You know me?'  Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you.'"  Wait a minute, this is supernatural.  How does He know who this other man is that He called Simon?  How does He know his father's name is John?  And why does He change his name to Cephas which means "rock"?  Because He knows who he is because He knows everything.  How did He see Nathanael sitting under a fig tree before Philip ever brought him?  And that's because of His omniscience.

The first element of the person of Jesus Christ that John introduces to us is His omniscience.  He is God.  He is deity.  He possesses divine attributes, one of which is omniscience.  And, of course, Nathanael understood.  Verse 49, "Nathanael answered Him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel.'  Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?  You shall see greater things than these.'"  It's as if He said if you were wowed by omniscience, wait till you see omnipotence.  That's nothing compared to what you're going to see.  And what he saw, the dead raised, the blind given sight, the deaf were able to hear, and the lame were able to walk.  Jesus created food out of His hands or by His command, walked on water, you know the rest.  But John wants us to see the Son of God and so He introduces us to Him as God, possessing omniscience.

Secondly, He possessed transcendence.  Jesus was human but He was not just human.  And His transcendence is indicated in verse 51 in a quite interesting passage.  "And He said to him," still talking to Nathanael who was indicating his belief, of course, Jesus says you're going to see greater things than these.  "Truly, truly I say to you, you shall see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Wow, what He is saying is you're about to experience what it's like to be with someone who is transcendent.  The point is this, that I am going to give you access to heaven, that through Me heaven is going to come down and earth is going to go up.  I am the mediator between God and man, that's essentially what He's saying.  You're going to see heaven open wide, just like Jacob's ladder, you remember, by which he could go up and come down.  Jesus says, "I am the ladder, I am transcendent, I transcend this world, I open heaven and on Me angels come and go."  This is not just another man. "I am the one who has opened heaven to man.  I am the one who as the Son of Man brought down the righteousness, brought down glory, brought down salvation and will lift up sinners to the very throne of God.  I am the one who literally has broken open the veil, as it were, and given sinners access to the Holy of Holies.  I am the one who brings God and man together."  He's transcendent.  Heaven is as accessible to us as a prayer. 

Thirdly, omnipotent.  John wants us to know about the power that He bears which is the power of God.  And so in chapter 2 he tells the story, a wonderful account of a wedding.  After His temptation, apparently Jesus did go back to Galilee briefly.  He went back there and attended a wedding.  Jesus did His first miracle. He created wine without a vine, without grapes, without ground, without sun.  This is omnipotence at its rudimentary level.  This is the power to create. 

Why does John tell this story?  He tells the story because this is at the heart and soul of the character of Jesus.  He knows the person that He's never met.  He sees people that aren't visible to the naked eye.  He opens the way to heaven.  And He is omnipotent to the point where He can create out of nothing.

Next He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers, and disciples and just stayed a few days. They He went to Jerusalem.  He saw the money changers.  He made a scourge of cords and drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, He poured out the coins and overturned their tables.  And here John introduces another attribute, holiness.

Here is righteous indignation.  The Lord of love, yes.  The Lord of grace, yes.  But the God of holiness, yes.  And He will not talk about grace and He will not talk about love until He has shattered the complacency of sin and irreverence.

Next, the Jewish leaders ask, Who do You think You are?  "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, in three days I'll raise it up.'"  Here's the next attribute, eternality.  He says, "I am eternal.  I cannot ultimately die.  I will conquer death."  He is the very living God.  In fact, you could even say, life is an attribute of God.

So we see His omniscience.  We see His transcendence.  We see His holiness.  We see His life and eternality. 

John 2:23-25

²³ Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, ²⁵ And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

You know, this is another attribute of deity and I know this is an obscure word but I want to use it.  It is a very interesting word. “Perspicacity” is the word and the word simply means to see things exactly the way they are.  Now try that around this week because it will really impress your friends, but you need the definition because they're going to ask you.  It is the ability to see things the exact way that they really exist and that is a characteristic of God.  God is never deceived.  He is never wrong in an assessment.  God has perfect discernment, right?  Jesus demonstrates that perspicacity, absolute accurate assessment of reality.  And, of course, it is linked to omniscience, but here it comes in a little bit different way.  Omniscience is this sort of general knowledge of everything.  Perspicacity is: understanding every single issue as to genuine reality.

Jesus is not moved by this apparent success as people are saying they believe in Him because He has a knowledge of every individual and knows the shallowness and the false faith that is so characteristic.  So John is showing us elements of His life.

Next Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus and we learn about regeneration.  We learn about what it means to be born again.  What a blow to educated Nicodemus that was.  You've got to go all the way back and be born all over again.  You need a new heart.  You need to have the stony heart taken out of you and you need a heart of flesh put in you.  And you need the Holy Spirit planted in you.  No more laws, no more rules, no more services, sacrifices, prayers, candles, etc., you need a new heart. 

John’s next intent is to show the mission of Jesus to reach the world because it's a story about Jesus bringing the gospel to a Samaritan woman. This is a classic outcast. First of all, she's a woman and in ancient Judaism that was barely above an animal.  Secondly, she is a Samaritan, the most hated and despised of all people on the planet by the Jews because they were half-breeds, they were the product of Jews who desecrated their birthright by inter-marrying with Gentiles and creating a half-breed race.  A Gentile couldn't help that he was a Gentile, but a Jew could marry a Jew and perpetuate the race.  And to not do that, to marry a Gentile in ancient Judaism, was the worst of all things.  Nobody would even go through Samaria.  Whenever they went through the south, Judea, to Galilee in the north, they went all around the area of Samaria because they didn't want any Samaritan dirt on their feet. They were such a cursed people.  So it's a woman and it's a woman who’s a Samaritan.  Beyond that, it's a woman who is an evil, wicked, sinful woman sexually.  She's had five husbands and she's living in adultery at the present time.

Jesus says, I have come for the people that nobody wants.  I've come for the despised.  I've come for the wicked and the sinful. She believes and she is saved and then she becomes a witness to the people in her town.  That's really the key to understanding the mission or the purpose of Jesus.  He came to be the Savior of the world, not just the Savior of Israel.

"He told me all the things that I have done."  Again it was His omniscience that struck her.  So the first real revival, the first real group of people that came to the knowledge of the Messiah weren't even Jews. And this demonstrates the mission and the purpose of the Messiah to the world. 

John 4:43        This is where He begins to inaugurate His Galilean ministry.

Now the reason I wanted to take you through that is because now you understand why His fame spread abroad.  Now you understand why when He came to Galilee for His official ministry to begin, John was by now in prison, and Jesus comes to Galilee and He finds when He gets to Galilee, the Galileans are receiving Him.  Why?  Because they were down at the Passover when they saw Him do what He did.  They were at the feast.  And they also were very aware of the wedding at Cana.  And He went right back to Cana where He made water wine.  And there was a certain royal official there whose son was sick.  And you know the story.  He heals that child and this cements their confidence.  [Verse 54]

Now back in Luke 4:14 - We just covered what He was doing before this happened.  The Word had spread all over the place because when Passover happened, all the people were down in Jerusalem, two million of them, for the Passover, the great majority of them, so the Word was spreading everywhere.  And it was then in that kind of popular environment that He began teaching in their synagogues [15] and was praised by all.

I’m glad we were able to read between the verses.