words + power

LUKE 4:1-30

Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan River, and sent into the wilderness to be tested by His adversary, the devil.  The Holy Spirit was resting upon Him now, empowering Him to withstand temptation for forty days and nights.  He awoke on the forty-first day, expectant and strong.  The natural forms of sustenance, like food and water, He had willingly relinquished.  He knew that proper bread and wine could no more protect the spirit and soul from attack than any sophisticated suit of armor could.  The rhythms of His Father’s heart beat within His broad chest, empowering Him to remain steadfast in faith.  His eyes burned bright.  He’d been tempted day and night, by the most wretched of beings, outwitting every test with fortitude and vigor.   His heart was proven pure as it was extensively and thoroughly prodded by that unclean devil, but to no avail.  Every morning He awoke, if there was much sleep at all, the barrage of perversion and lusts began.  Thousands upon thousands of hate-filled whispers, spit, shouts, growls and groans were shot like flaming arrows against the fortress, that is the Son of Man, but none landed upon the ultimate target, His heart.  The enemy’s every whisper was a lie, and every vision a corruption, yet Jesus’ eyes remained faithful and innocent.  His heart and mind were closed, locked, barricaded, and completely equipped with the true weapons of warfare, the Word of God.  He’d known His Father’s heart, therefore secured in His conviction.  

There was one last temptation, and without hesitancy, this Messiah, the Lion of Judah, roared, “GO, Satan!  For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only!’” And that pitiful, fearful worm fled His presence.  Jesus became filled with hunger and thirst, and angels arrived hastily to serve and tend to Him.  

Jesus knew it was now His time to attack the force of darkness by way of preaching His Gospel and working miracles.  So, He began His journey.  

In verse 14, it says that Jesus emerged from the wilderness in the fullness of the power of the Spirit, and news about Him was spreading like wildfire.  He had returned to His home country of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, receiving glory and praise from all that heard Him there.  But when He arrived in Nazareth, His hometown, the story changed.  He knew the streets well.  As a young boy, he ran through the city with his brothers.  The smells were all familiar.  He knew everyone’s name.  

As was custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and per instruction, was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah to read.  He stood up with a smile in His eyes and opened the book, and flipped quietly through the pages to the 61st chapter.  Nerves didn’t flitter like butterflies through His stomach, His palms weren’t sweaty, and His heart did not pound with anxiety.  Peace lay on Him like fresh-fallen snow.  He knew He was the Messiah they’d all been longing for.  His face shone with glory, and He began: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 

He closed the book, handed it kindly to the attendant, and sat down.  The eyes of everyone were locked on Him; their hearts had been gripped by His authority.  After He said, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” they all spoke well of the gracious words that fell from His lips.  It was a moment of reverence and awe.

But suddenly, a few began to whisper, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”  The others began to chatter amongst one another, considering Joseph’s lack of education and inferior lineage a valid element of concern toward this Man.  But, Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “I suppose you’ll quote me the proverb, ‘Doctor, go and heal yourself before you try to heal others.’ And you’ll say, ‘Work the miracles here in your hometown that we heard you did in Capernaum.’ But let me tell you, no prophet is welcomed or honored in his own hometown.”  

Their jealous hearts began churning.  Their itching ears began burning.  

Jesus then decided to take His authority, as the sword of the Spirit, and drive it deep into the souls of every hearer in that room.  He said, “Isn’t it true that there were many widows in the land of Israel during the days of the prophet Elijah when he locked up the heavens for three and a half years and brought a devastating famine over all the land? But he wasn’t sent to any of the widows living in that region. Instead, he was sent to a foreign place, to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon.  Or have you not considered that the prophet Elisha healed only Naaman, the Syrian, rather than one of the many Jewish lepers living in the land?”  

This may not mean much to us, but to those Jews, it was everything.  The widow of Zarephath and Naaman the leper weren’t Israelites.  They were foreigners.  Sojourners and outcasts of Jewish society.  What He presented to these increasingly angered synagogue-goers was the heart of God; the heart beat of the Father that was for the poor, the captives, the blind and oppressed.  The Gentiles.  He declared Yahweh was rich in mercy toward all.  In full force offense, Jesus confronted their ancestry’s foul-smelling, leaking abscess : lack of faith, hardness of heart.  The foreign widow and leper had shown great faith toward the God of the Jews, more than the widows and lepers of Israel.  And as you’d expect, they erupted with rage.  They screamed at Him, abusively grabbed Him by the arms and dragged Him out of the city.  They approached the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, the very city He grew up in, and agreed to throw Him off the cliff.  Hate was boiling within them.

Somehow, the power of the Spirit entangled their hands, blinded their eyes, or sent confusion among those angry men, and Jesus was able to escape.  He ran away to Capernaum.  

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, approaches us with a heart of compassion, and has preached to us a Gospel of reconciliation and regeneration.  He has offered release from our captivity, eye salve for our eyes, freedom from our oppressions, and favor from Heaven.  Jesus tells us that the words we speak are the waters that pour from our hearts.  Whether the spring is bitter or sweet, it will undoubtedly overflow from our lips.  Later in chapter 6, He assures us that if we become doers of the words we hear from His mouth, we become like the man that built a house, first digging deep to lay a foundation of stone.  That man, who continued in doing what he heard Jesus speak, built his house well.  Storms of all kinds beat against that house, but it didn’t shake.  If we try to build our house, that sits on the landscape of our hearts, on the expertise of men and the words of Jesus, that house will not stand during a storm.  Double-minded faith is unstable in all its ways.  

How often have we consulted the words of others during a storm?  Have we considered the experts of this world more reliable and trustworthy than the One we call, “Lord, Lord!”?  If a house is divided against itself, that house won’t be able to stand (Mark 3:25).  This Prince of peace approaches us with a heart of compassion, driving the sword of His Spirit to the deepest parts of our heart, to divide the soul and spirit, to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  He desires to eliminate double-mindedness.  

Today, He confronts you and I, in unconditional love, beckoning us to the secret place, away from all the men and opinions of the world.  He judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts out of compassion, for He has granted us, according to the riches of His glory, the strength of His power in our inner man, that He can live in the homes of our hearts through our faith, so we can be rooted and grounded in His love, to comprehend the depth and length and breadth of His love that surpasses all earthly knowledge, so that we can be filled up to ALL the fullness of Him, (Eph. 3:-19).

He is able to do far more than anyone could think with a natural mind.  

I N V I T A T I O N / 

There’s a journey from the head to the heart, a learning to live from the delicate seat of rest in the heart.

Where have you relied on human opinions and intellect, instead of the heart of Jesus? As He drives the sword of His Spirit into your heart, to judge it, will you surrender that area of double-mindedness to Him, in faith?

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded,” (James 4:7-8).  

As we submit to the Father, we will hear the frequency of His roar shaking the foundations of our hearts, and of all the earth, bringing us (and all men) down men to the knees, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).  His LOVE shakes the foundations of our hearts, that we may TRULY build a house, alongside Him, that will stand.