Jesus Is Extravagant » Tonight’s Study

Tonight’s Study – Fill Up, Follow After

–
tonight at Ignite i’ll be doing a 5 minute devotional on Luke 4:14. here are my notes (thus far).

sadly, i have no title for my study. i know, i know…slacking.

watch for audio tomorrow

If you’re on track with our through-the-Bible-in-one-year schedule then tomorrow you will read Luke 4:1-30. I’d like for us to turn there, to verse 14 and prep ourselves for our reading tomorrow.

Luke 4:14 – Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out there all the surrounding region.

Let’s break this verse down and see what insights we find so that we can be watching for them as we read through the Gospels, specifically Luke, in the next few weeks.

‘Then.’ Stop right there. Luke says ‘then.’ What had just happened?

Well, the ‘then’ comes after Jesus’ 40 day fast and temptation in the wilderness. Step back once from the ‘then’ and you see that before this verse Jesus was experiencing some incredible temptation from the Devil. Step back once from there and you see that before His temptation He had been fasting. Step back again and you see that it was the Holy Spirit that had led Jesus into the wilderness. Step back once more and you find that before the temptation, before the fasting, before the leading into the wilderness Jesus had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now that may seem strange or insignificant to us. After all, Jesus was God so of course He had the Holy Spirit within Him, what difference does that make? But the point is that Jesus, though fully God, was fully man. He is the great example of the Spirit filled man. Thus, what He did in the power of the Spirit can be applied to Christians, being filled with the power of the Spirit. The same Spirit that filled and directed and protected and sustained Jesus desires to fill and direct and protect and sustain us today.

Let’s keep moving through our verse.

‘Then, Jesus returned.’

Stop right there. It’s reminder time. Jesus is returning again. He could return for us individually, as it were, by ending our lives, or of course, He can return for His Church any time in the event we know as the Rapture. Meanwhile, Jesus said in John 4:35 that the fields of the earth are white with harvest. We should be busy when Christ returns, not out of fear, but out of excitement that our time on earth is drawing to a close and God still desires to do mighty works throughout our world, on behalf of lost mankind.

Verse 14 continues: ‘Then, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.’

This word ‘power’ is one of those wonderfully rich Greek words. It can be translated ‘in the ability, the abundance, in the strength, in the miraculous power, in the wonderful work’ of the Spirit.ⁱ

And so, Luke says that Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, that 3rd Person of the Trinity, and the word for ‘Spirit’ here is ‘breath’ or ‘current of air.’ ⁱⁱ

See, remember what preceded the ‘then’ at the beginning of the verse…

Jesus had been following the Spirit of God from location to location. It took Him from the Jordan to the wilderness, from the wilderness to Galilee, from Galilee to the cross.

During His temptation, Jesus was sustained by the Spirit. He reminded the Devil, and us as well, that “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word of God.”ⁱⁱⁱ And as He continued setting for us an example of the Spirit filled life, His very air, His very breath was the Spirit of God. He overcame temptation by the power of the Spirit. He fasted in the power of the Spirit. He walked in the power of the Spirit. He returned in the power of the Spirit.

The verse continues. It says, ‘then, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.’ Stop again.

Galilee. Not the place we would establish the Messiah. Not the center of Jewish worship or the most remarkable of regions. But it was the place that God wanted Jesus to be. It was the exact area God directed Jesus to minister to at that time.

Our lives are not about personal greatness or moving upward on some glory scale. Our lives are about filling up and following after. If our work is in a wilderness or a garden, so be it. If our work is in the grandest temple or the smallest synagogue, so be it. Remember, though Jesus’ road eventually led to Jerusalem, it led to humiliation. Jesus’ road led to persecution. Jesus’ road led to sacrifice. If we think that serving the Lord is about jumping through hoops so that eventually we get the really choice ministry, we are just fooling ourselves.

Finally, in verse 14, we read: “Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.”

The word ‘news’ there means ‘rumors’ or ‘fame.’^iv At this point in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus had performed no miracles, He had gathered no disciples. But, His life was Spirit-filled and Spirit-directed. And when He walked into Galilee the presence of God’s Spirit moved mightily. When He walked into Galilee the Good News of God’s salvation went from person to person, house to house, village to village, and the fame of the Almighty spread through the whole region.

Jesus exampled a Spirit-filled life so that we could know what to expect from it. He showed us what it means to be indwelt by that 3rd Person of the Trinity so that we could be effective fishers of men.

The fields of Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth are ripe for harvest and Christ has sent us His Spirit so that we might be filled up and follow after.