"I was sent for this purpose.”

Luke 4:31-5:11 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

³¹ And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; ³² and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. ³³ In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” ³⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. ³⁶ And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” ³⁷ And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

³⁸ Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to help her. ³⁹ And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and waited on them.

⁴⁰ While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. ⁴¹ Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.

⁴² When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. ⁴³ But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

⁴⁴ So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

5 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; ² and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. ³ And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. ⁴ When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” ¹¹ When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

In today’s text we see and we hear from Jesus what His primary focus and ministry was while He was here on earth. The text says: He was teaching them… they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority… and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. ⁴³ But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴ So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret He got into one of the boats…and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.

Ultimately we know that Jesus came to offer Himself, His sinless life, as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, but while He was here His focus was on teaching and preaching “the kingdom.”  From the beginning of His ministry Jesus message was: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17) Many of Jesus teachings focus on the ways in which the kingdom of heaven is different than any earthly kingdom. In many ways it boils down to what Jesus says are the greatest two commandments.  In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus says:   “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”      Everything we do depends on love, whole hearted love for God and loving our neighbor, others as ourself.  While that is foundational, everything else in the kingdom depends on it we cannot just superficially take that scripture and say that love is all we need.

1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.  Our ability to love God with all our heart, soul and mind is based on the fact that He first loved us. What did God’s love look like?  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:8) It’s more than God’s love being a sacrificial love, while it is that. God’s love for us and so our ability to love God is inseparable from the cross. That is the demonstration of God’s love, it is the basis of God’s love and so it is what enables us to love God. Through Christ we are reconcile to a right, loving relationship with God.

We are to love others, Jesus says, as you love yourself. This too, the love we are to have for others, is dependent on and inseparable from the cross. There are many expressions of love throughout our culture and society today. They are promoted and proclaimed by many human philosophies and many religions. As Christians though, as believers in and followers of Christ our love must include the cross. Jesus says and shows us that His primary focus was to teach and preach the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is different than the kingdom of earth because of God’s love, the love demonstrated on the cross. Many today preach and teach messages from the Bible. They find new meaning, up to date application for scripture. The truth is while our culture and our society has changed, we have had great advances in technology, God hasn’t changed. Malachi 3:6 says:  I am the LORD, I change not. God’s word never changes. Matthew 5:18 says:  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Christ Himself never changes.  Hebrews 13:8-9 says: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings

1 Peter 1:19-20 says: but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.   Revelation 1: 8 says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come--the Almighty. If we would be like Christ, then our message, our teaching should be like His, it should demonstrate the love of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul says:       And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.   

When Jesus called the disciples in today’s text, He said: “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” If we too want to catch men for Christ, if we want to see the power of God, the signs and wonders, which Jesus performed and which He said we would also, then we too must preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That after all is what true love looks like.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.