Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit

Luke 4 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want. ⁷ Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus replied to him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁹ And he brought Him into Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; ¹⁰ for it is written:

‘He will give His angels orders concerning You, to protect You,’

¹¹ and,

‘On their hands they will lift You up,
So that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

¹² And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been stated, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹³ And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

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 stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, ¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. ²¹ Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² And all the people were speaking well of Him, and admiring the gracious words which were coming from His lips; and yet they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” ²³ And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. ²⁵ But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; ²⁶ and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many with leprosy in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. ³⁰ But He passed through their midst and went on His way.

Today’s text says: Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness  for forty days, being tempted by the devil… Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.  And 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. And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,  To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”  And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”   If Jesus, God in flesh, needed the power of the Holy Spirit, how much more do we? In Acts 1:8 Jesus says: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”  Jesus is the one who will: release to captives, give sight to the blind and set free those who are oppressed.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to be His witnesses. In Mark 16:15-20 it says: He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. If we will be faithful to testify of Jesus, He will be faithful to confirm His word, releasing captives, giving sight to the blind and setting free those who are oppressed.

Additionally, the Holy Spirit will also help us in another way. The text says: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus replied to him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” And he brought Him into Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written: ‘He will give His angels orders concerning You, to protect You,’ and, ‘On their hands they will lift You up, So that You do not strike Your foot against a stone.’”  And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been stated, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. Although Jesus walked in the same weak human flesh as we do, He was filled with the Spirit and lead by the Spirit. He overcame temptation through the power of the Spirit and the knowledge of the word of God.  The devil will try to get us to question God’s word, to make subtle changes, manipulate or add to what He said. It is important then that we know the word of God so that we are not susceptible to the lies and manipulation of the devil. In John 16:13 Jesus says: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”  In John 14:26 Jesus says: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.” Through the power and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we like Jesus, can resist the temptation of the devil.

May the words of this song written by Melody Green be our declaration and prayer today:

There is a redeemer

Jesus, God's own Son

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah

Holy One

Thank you, oh my Father

For giving us Your Son

And leaving Your Spirit

'Til the work on Earth is done.  Amen.