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 Light the Darkness matching challenge. It's active now through December 31st.
To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.
Are we claiming to be the M Word? 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 if he himself never made that assertion? Well, today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress affirms that Jesus did indeed claim to be the Son of God and points to one such instance when Jesus spoke in the synagogue. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Our current study in Luke takes us on a journey, walking right alongside the Savior, Jesus Christ, as he conducts his life and ministry. And to complement this teaching series, I want you to have our brand new leather-bound Pathway to Victory daily devotional for the coming year.
Here's why this resource is so important. You see, there's no such thing as growing in Christ when you're not spending time in his Word. The daily devotional provides a simple and effective way to remain in his light so that you can clearly see the path before you. To that end, I want to send you the leather-bound daily devotional today.
It's thoughtfully written so that you and I can walk together through every season in 2025. So ask for your copy of the Pathway to Victory daily devotional when you give a generous year-end gift today. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus this month, we remember that the light of Christ has overcome the darkness.
And it's our calling, our privilege, to share this good news so that his light will shine even in the darkest corners of the world. This is precisely why we've established the Light the Darkness matching challenge in the amount of $1.5 million. Every gift you're able to send before December 31st will be automatically matched and doubled in size. This is a fabulous opportunity to leverage your special year-end gift by multiplying its impact through the matching challenge. I'll share more details later on, but right now, it's time to resume our study in Luke called, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ.
We're in Luke chapter 4, and I titled today's study, 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 going to 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. 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 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, 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 worshipped 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.
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's 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 him 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, 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.
We read it just a moment ago. 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, as the end comes closer and closer, we need encouragement that comes from other Christians. 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 and 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. 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. 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 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 2. Look at Isaiah 61 verse 2 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 going to 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. In Revelation 19 verse 15, John pictures that future day of God's wrath. Talking about the second coming of Jesus, John writes, And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Now, that is the future coming of Messiah, but right now he has come to offer forgiveness. Verse 20 says, When he had finished reading that scripture, he sat down.
That's what the teacher would do. He would sit down. But notice the last phrase of verse 20. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.
I bet they were. You can just see them nudging one another, whispering. Why did Jesus read this passage today? Is Jesus inferring what I think he's saying? Is he claiming to be the M word? Is that what he's saying?
Surely not. When Jesus sat down for the explanation, he answered that question clearly, verse 21, and Jesus began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. You've been waiting for the Messiah? Your wait is over. I am he.
Man, you can just feel people clutching their chest. I can't believe Jesus is saying that. He's claiming to be the Messiah.
By the way, don't let this fact escape your notice. Jesus is the only religious leader of any major religion who ever claimed to be God himself. Remember John 10, verse 30, he said, I and the Father are one. John 14, 9, He who has seen me has seen the Father.
You can't get much more clear than that. And right here, he's saying to the assembled group, Today, this prophecy about Messiah has been fulfilled. How did they react? Well, on one hand, they were impressed.
They've never heard somebody teach with this kind of authority. Verse 22 says they were impressed by the gracious words falling from his lips, words about forgiveness and healing and deliverance. But then they started to ask themselves, Is this guy not Joseph's son?
I mean, isn't this the same guy who grew up down the street from us? He's claiming to be the Messiah. That's not what we pictured the Messiah to be like. Well, Jesus could read their minds. Look at verse 23.
He anticipated their objection and he said to them, No doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we've heard that was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. That is, Jesus, if you're really the Messiah, why don't you conjure up some miracles for us like you did in nearby Capernaum?
We heard the great things you did there. Do not convince us that you're Messiah. Perform a sign for us. Jesus wasn't interested in doing that. He knows how ineffective signs are to bring about genuine faith.
I mean, just think about the Old Testament. God gave sign after sign to the Jews, parting the Red Sea, thundering voice from heaven, manna, you know, till they choked on it and so forth. He did all of these miraculous things that people didn't believe. Some of you are thinking right now, If God would just give me a sign, if he'd perform a miracle, then I'd believe in him forever. Just think back on some of the miracles God has already done in your life, bringing you into this world to begin with, creating everything around that we see. Think of some of the personal answers to prayers you've already experienced. Why do you keep on doubting the reality of God?
Signs in and of themselves never produce belief. He knew that. And then in verse 24, he said to them, truly, I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. There's much more to learn by watching Jesus stand up to his critics. And I'm asking you to make an appointment with me tomorrow at this very same time when our study in Luke 4 continues. Let me give you one more suggestion for taking your next steps on the pathway to victory. Earlier, you heard me talk about the brand new Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2025.
Now's the time to make your request so that you receive your leather-bound copy in time to begin in January. I've written a brief chapter for every weekday of the new year, and I'd be pleased to send one to your home when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. We're just getting started in the record-breaking Light the Darkness matching challenge, asking God to help us reach the staggering goal of $1.5 million. This means that every dollar you give to Pathway to Victory before the December 31 deadline will be doubled in size thanks to this wonderful arrangement. Your generous gift of $50 becomes $100. A gift of $1,000 would become $2,000.
A gift of $5,000 would become $10,000. And by giving now, you'll be helping others learn more about the light and life of Jesus, some who may not be able to give right now. For example, Myra from Washington recently told me, Pastor Jeffress, I wish I could give to support Pathway to Victory, but I survive on my Social Security check. I just wanted you to know that there are people listening that are moved by your teaching. In giving to the Light the Darkness matching challenge, you actually have a ministry of your own to people like Myra. So thank you for investing generously in Pathway to Victory. Together, we are bringing the light of Jesus to people who are living in darkness.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous year-end gift toward our Light the Darkness matching challenge, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand-new 2025 Pathway to Victory Daily Devotional. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $100 or more, we'll also include the teaching series, Reigniting Your Passion for Christ.
You'll get that on DVD video and MP3 format audio discs. Remember, right now, because of our Light the Darkness matching challenge, your gift will be doubled in impact by another generous donor. So request your copy of these resources today. Call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. If you'd prefer to write, jot down this mailing address, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O.
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 Thursday 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 made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the Light the Darkness matching challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
