Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the Proclaim the Gospel matching challenge active right now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. Jesus understood how vital corporate worship was in maintaining his relationship with God. Now think about this. If corporate worship once a week was important to Jesus, how much more vital is it for you and me?
It's not a nicety. It's a necessity if we're going to stay strong in our faith. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Skeptics often argue that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God.
How could Jesus be the Messiah himself if he never made that assertion? Well today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains that Jesus did indeed claim to be God's Son and points to one such instance that took place in a synagogue. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks David and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Even though I serve as a pastor and I'm on the church property nearly every single day, I'm no different than you.
Every day is filled with distractions and I have to fight for quiet time just like you do. For that reason, I've written a brand new devotional for us to follow. Together let's focus our daily attention in the coming new year in a vertical fashion so that we're taking our cues from Jesus himself rather than relying on a horizontal view.
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There's really no limit to how much you can give during this special time that won't be matched and doubled. Look, all of us agree that we're fighting the powers of darkness in our times. Our nation is polarized by politics and fraught with fear. We're concerned about what's happening in the Middle East. Well, God's Word holds the answers, and together we have the opportunity to shine a lot of hope in America and around the world. When you give, you become a part of an army of Christ-followers committed to proclaiming the Gospel to America and to the world.
I'll say more about this opportunity later, so be ready to jot down our contact information. But right now, let's turn to Luke chapter 4 with today's message about the day Jesus came to church. Have you ever noticed how fickle people are? I mean, how they can change in a moment from being your greatest encourager to your staunchest critic. I mean, every athlete knows that reality. One popular NFL player said, every NFL quarterback knows that one week you can be in the penthouse and the next week in the outhouse. It's not only athletes that understand that. If you're an employee, you understand that as well.
One week your supervisor calls you in and says, we couldn't make it in this place without you, and the next month he can call you in and say, sorry, but your services are no longer needed. Parents understand that reality of how quickly things can turn against you, especially if you have adolescents still living in the home. Moms, today, your children may be saying, oh, Mom, you're incredible.
Thanks for all you do for me. By Friday, they're saying, you're the worst mom to ever walk the face of the earth. They change quickly. Jesus understood that reality as well. Remember the last week of his earthly life? On Monday, he entered Jerusalem to the cries of the people, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. That same crowd, by Friday, were yelling out, crucify him, crucify him. Actually, Jesus had experienced a similar phenomenon at the early outset of his ministry, when a group of people who had been praising him turned on a dime against him in the space of just a few minutes. We're gonna see what happened in that instant, because in spite of their criticism, Jesus kept marching forward in his obedience to God. We're going to look at that incident today in Luke, chapter 4. If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke, chapter 4, as we talk about what happened the day Jesus came to church.
Luke, chapter 4. Now, many people assume that what we have in verse 14 is the beginning of his ministry, but most scholars agree it really isn't. It's the beginning of Luke's account of Jesus' public ministry. Now, Luke left out about a year, the first year of Jesus' ministry. Remember, none of the Gospels records everything that Jesus did.
They're selective, according to the theme that the Gospel writer is trying to present. Most probably, what happened was that Jesus, after the temptation in the wilderness, went up to Cana in the north and did his turning the water into wine feat, and then he went down to the south, to Judea, and ministered there for up to a year until he returned back to the northern region of Israel, known as Galilee. And so, what we have in verse 14 is the beginning of his Galilean ministry that would last about a year and a half.
Look at verse 14. Verses 14 and 15 are summary statements about his ministry of a year and a half in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. And Jesus returned, there it is, he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the surrounding district, and he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. Now, let me say a word about synagogues. Synagogues were local houses of worship, literally houses of instruction. The synagogue actually came into reality during the Babylonian deportation.
Remember, in about 586 BC, the Babylonians had come under Nebuchadnezzar and taken Jude captive. And since they had been used to worshiping at the temple, now that they were in Babylon, they had no place to worship. So, they instituted these synagogues, local worship places. Well, after they returned back to Israel, they kept that practice. A synagogue was just a simple place where you went to worship every Saturday. To form a synagogue in your community, you really only needed 10 Jewish men. That was enough to have a synagogue.
And that was the place that they worshiped week in and week out. Interestingly, about 10 years ago, some Israelis were building a new housing development in the town, the village of Migdal, Migdal in the north. Migdal is associated with the ancient city of Magdala. It used to be Magdala. Now, do you know somebody that came from Magdala? Remember, Mary the Magdalene came from Magdala. Well, when they were building this housing development, they were putting the foundation in and they found some stone.
And once they hit the stone, they began to dig further and further and further. They found an entire synagogue from the ancient village of Magdala, Migdal. It was no doubt one of these synagogues where Jesus taught and worshiped. Well, Jesus was teaching every Saturday in the synagogues and he was being praised by all.
Now, that's the summary statement of what was going on during that year or so that he was in the northern region of Galilee. But look at verse 16, as a part of his ministry, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. Every Saturday, he was in the synagogue. But this particular synagogue that Jesus came to in verse 16 was not just any old synagogue. It was the synagogue in the city where he grew up. It was the synagogue where he worshiped as a child and a teenager.
This is the place where Jesus had been brought every Saturday to worship. And you can imagine the emotion Jesus must have felt as he entered this particular synagogue. And no doubt, he saw some of his family there. Mary was still alive, his mother. Joseph had probably passed away by this point. The synagogue was probably filled with his half brothers and half sisters that were the children of Mary and Joseph, they were there. His childhood friends were there as well. Probably the elders who had ministered to him as a boy, they were there as well. It must have been a great moment of emotion for Jesus as he entered his childhood synagogue.
You know, I personally can identify with that. I spent the first 30 years of my life like Jesus spent the first 30 years of his life. I spent the first 30 years of my life growing up here at the First Baptist Church of Dallas. And then I went away for 22 years to pastor in other places. And as long as I live, I'll never forget the emotion almost nine years ago of walking into that old sanctuary to preach my sermon in view of a call here. I'd walk into that place where I'd been saved and baptized and ordained to the ministry. I remember walking up to that pulpit and looking up in the balcony where my parents used to sit before God called them to heaven. Looking out on my friends from childhood, seeing those leaders who had, young men were leaders in our church but were still in their latter years serving God still so faithfully.
It was a great moment of emotion for me. I imagine Jesus felt that way as well as he went into that place not just as a spectator but as somebody who was about to lead the service. He went into the synagogue.
And notice this phrase here, will you? As was his custom. This wasn't a once a month deal for Jesus or a once a year thing for Jesus. Regular Sabbath worship was a part of his routine.
Now you will think about this for a moment. If anybody had an excuse for not going to church, it would have been Jesus. I mean, you know, he could have used any of the familiar excuses today. Oh, I've heard it all before. Oh, Jesus had heard it all before. He knew the scriptures backward and forwards. Heck, he wrote the scriptures.
So he knew them. He didn't use that as an excuse. Or he could have said, you know, I really don't agree with the way the money is being spent there.
Yeah, some of you back there, you got that one. Jesus could have used that argument and he would have been right. I mean, the Jewish religious system was corrupt the way they used the money. By the way, that Jewish religious system would crucify Jesus within a few years.
But he didn't use that excuse. He could have said, well, you know, I don't have to come to church to worship God. I can worship anywhere I am, out on the Sea of Galilee. I can commune with God. Well, yeah, he did commune with God. He had perfect fellowship with God.
But he used none of those excuses. It was a part of his habit to come to worship because, you see, Jesus understood how vital corporate worship was in maintaining his relationship with God. Now think about this. If corporate worship once a week was important to Jesus, how much more vital is it for you and me? It's not a nicety. It's a necessity if we're going to stay strong in our faith. It can't be this attitude, well, yeah, I'll come to church if I'm not out of town or have something else better to do.
Are the kids having a soccer game or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, it was an absolute essential for Jesus. Listen to Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25 about why it's so important for us to worship. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The writer is saying as this day gets more and more evil, the end comes closer and closer, we need encouragement that comes from other Christians. I mean after being battered and bruised by difficult circumstances and difficult people all week, we need a time to come together to encourage one another. After a week of being distracted from spiritual things, we need a time to come together and refocus on God and remember that he's the center not only of our life but of the universe. Corporate worship, fellowshiping, hearing God's word, praying, singing, all of that is vital for us. But listen, another reason it's vital is because of other people. You see, worship once a week not only benefits you, it benefits others. And when you're not here, it significantly impacts other people for the worse, not the better.
Did you know your presence here makes a difference and your absence here makes a real difference as well? When you're not in your place in your pew on Sunday morning, when there's an empty hole there, it really affects other people in the body of Christ negatively. A few years ago, I just broke down some of the consequences of what happens when you and I are not in our place of worship in Sunday. When you're not here, it means, number one, there's one less voice singing God's praises. There's one less prayer being offered before the throne of grace. There's one less person here available to meet the needs of hurting Christians. When you're not here on Sundays, it means there's one less spiritual gift being exercised to help perfect the body of Christ. And it means there's one less believer present to hear the vital instruction from God's Word that will impact the world for Christ.
Your presence here does make a difference, not just in your life, but in the lives of other people here as well. That's why Jesus made it his custom to be in worship every Saturday. Now, look at verse 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and he stood up to read.
Now, let me explain what's going on here. There was no permanent pastor of the synagogue. There was no permanent preacher every Saturday. Instead, those duties of leading worship were passed around. And so when Jesus came in, since he was the hometown boy, he was given the task of leading worship on that Saturday. Now, to appreciate what was going on here, you have to understand something about the synagogue worship service. And there were three components to synagogue worship in addition to the prayer and the singing of the Psalter, three major portions.
Write them down. First of all, it would begin with the invocation. The great Shema, which means here, was read from Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 to 9. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.
That was the foundational belief of Judaism, the oneness of God. And that was followed by a prayer. Then the second major portion of the service was the reading of the Scripture. The leader of the service that day would be handed a scroll and he would read and the people would stand together and read along with him the Scripture. And by the way, 2,000 years later, we do the same thing today. You know, 1 Peter 5, 13, Paul said to Timothy, give attention to the public reading of the Scripture.
That's why we do that every Sunday here. We stand here together and we read from God's Word. And even though the Scripture says we're to do that, there is not one church in a thousand that still does that today. There is something powerful about the public reading of the Scripture. And then once they had read the Scripture, the people would be seated and the leader would be seated as well and he would explain the Scripture and apply it to the lives of the listeners.
Now, that was the structure of the synagogue service. Now, verse 17, Jesus, the leader, was the one who was to read and explain the Scripture. So look at verse 17, and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Now, apparently, the book of the Bible had already been chosen. Maybe they had some regulated reading program they were in as a synagogue. Maybe it was a read through the Old Testament in a year plan they were on.
I don't know. But they had gone to Isaiah, so they handed the scroll of Isaiah to Jesus. But Jesus apparently had the latitude to pick which passage he was going to read from. So he read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, verses 1 and 2. And we see those reprinted in verses 18 and 19 of Luke 4.
That's why it's in all caps. It's a quotation of Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. Here's what Jesus read to the crowd that morning.
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 those free who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Every Jew was familiar with this passage from Isaiah, written 700 years earlier. It was a prophecy of what the Messiah would do when he came. I want you to notice the four characteristics of the Messiah that Jesus was reading about to this assembled crowd. Four characteristics of the Messiah from Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2. Number one, he would be anointed by the spirit of God. That's why he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Secondly, he would announce the arrival of God's salvation. That's what's meant by the phrase, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives. What does he mean, captives?
He wasn't talking about political captives. He was talking about people who had been held captive by sin. You see, all of us are prisoners of sin. The Bible says every one of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And because of our sin, we are on death row, as it were. We've had the death verdict pronounced against us. The soul that sins shall die, that means to be eternally separated from God.
We are like prisoners on death row, awaiting our execution. But Jesus, the Messiah, came to make a payment for our sin so that he could set us free from those chains of sin and death. This is what he would do. He would set the prisoners free. And then number three, he would bring God's salvation. The Messiah not only announced it, he actually affected God's salvation, to set free those who are downtrodden. And finally, he would offer forgiveness from sins, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. This is an allusion to the Jewish year called Jubilee, in which all of a person's debts, the citizen's debts were forgiven in that particular year, the year of Jubilee.
That's what he's talking about here. He came to announce the favorable year of the Lord. That is, it doesn't matter what sin debt you have, it doesn't matter how badly you have disobeyed God, or for how long you've disobeyed God, you can be forgiven. The favorable year of the Lord. Now, what is fascinating is, he left out a phrase from Isaiah 61 verse two. Look at Isaiah 61 verse two carefully. Isaiah the prophet said, Messiah would come to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.
But Jesus didn't repeat that part about the vengeance of God. He said simply to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, period, and then he sat down. Why did he read this second phrase? Did he run out of time?
What was going on here? No, there's a real reason Jesus omitted that second phrase. You see, the Jews could not put all of this together about the Messiah.
How do you come preaching grace and judgment at the same time? How can you say it's the favorable year of the Lord when you can be forgiven, and at the same time, God's gonna exact vengeance for the sins you've committed against him? What the Old Testament prophets didn't understand was, there would be a gap between the first coming of Jesus and his second coming. When Jesus came the first time, Messiah came to be the savior of the world. But the next time Jesus comes, he's not coming as savior. He's coming as the judge of all the world, to judge the wicked and reward the righteous. That is a future coming of Christ. The future day of vengeance is coming.
It just hasn't come yet. I believe the signs of Christ's coming again are obvious today. Like intensified labor pains before birth, the frequency has increased, and the day of Jesus' return will be soon. For that reason, we feel a strong sense of urgency at Pathway to Victory. We're doing everything possible to expand our territory so that more and more people hear the good news about Jesus.
May I count on you to become part of the team? Your special end-of-the-year gift is critically important as we attempt to share the light of God's word with a dark and hurting world. And right now, we're pleased to be recipients of an amazing $500,000 matching challenge. This means that your gift today is automatically multiplied by two. A generous gift of $100 would become $200. A $500 gift becomes $1,000. A $1,000 gift would become $2,000.
There's no limit to what you can give. Your gift will have twice the impact. And when you respond with a generous year-end gift today, I'll be pleased to send you the brand-new 2024 Pathway to Victory daily devotional I mentioned earlier. This is a large, leather-bound volume that's more than 500 pages in length. And I've written daily reflections to guide you through every weekday in the new year. It's not dated.
It's perpetual, which means you'll be able to enjoy this book for many years to come. It would make a thoughtful Christmas gift as well. So give us a call, write a letter, or go online to ptv.org and take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to double the impact of your gift while receiving the brand-new Pathway to Victory devotional for 2024 as well.
Thanks so much. David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous year-end gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand-new Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2024. Call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. And when your gift is $100 or more, we're also going to send you both the CD and DVD sets for our current series called The Incomparable Christ. Plus, you'll also receive a brand-new music CD called Celebrate the Savior Volume 2 with outstanding music from the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra. Again, our toll-free number 866-999-2965. Now today is Giving Tuesday, and as people around the world respond with an extra measure of generosity, I'm pleased to tell you that your gift to Pathway to Victory today will have twice the impact because of the Proclaim the Gospel matching challenge. So contact us right now with your special Giving Tuesday gift and know that your investment will make an eternal difference for God's kingdom.
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Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again next time for the conclusion of this message called The Day Jesus Came to Church. That's Wednesday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You've made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
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