Luke 4:31-37
"And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about," Luke 4:31-37.
Jesus Christ was always about His Father's work. Turn to John 6:37-40. "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work," John 4:34. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," II Timothy 3:12. As opposition arises in our lives, we can get tunnel vision and not see the bigger picture. We let that which is opposing us to control us. The problem gets our attention, which means it also gets our time, our thoughts, our energy, and ultimately robs us of our joy. When this happens, life is miserable. We get down and out and the first thing we want to do is find someone else to blame. This comes natural (Genesis 3:6-13). It is also natural for us to withdraw and even run from God. These reactions come natural. So when we find ourselves acting like this, we need to immediately examine our walk with our Lord and Saviour. I must also add here that this does not mean that we pretend we don't have opposition or that opposition is not that big of a deal. Life is not a bed of roses, and we have opposition daily. Sometimes that opposition is severe.
In the previous verses in Luke 4, how much and how severe was the opposition that Christ encountered? In the first thirteen verses we learned that Christ was personally tempted by the devil. Though Christ was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin, we have never been tempted in all points as Christ was. Jesus Christ did not do anything wrong to deserve this temptation, no, this was the perfect will of God. Turn to I Peter 2:18-23. This was Christ's pattern during His life. He always committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. Christ committed His cause to His Father. His life was not His own. Christ came to live a sinless life, and to die a sinners death. Nothing and no one was going to deter Him from this course.
In Luke 4:14-30 we saw Christ was preaching, teaching, and working miracles. All kind of people all over the country were praising God because of what Christ did and said. But when Christ came to those of His own country, Nazareth, they hated Him. How much did they hate Christ? They tried to throw Him off a cliff to kill Him. They physically grabbed Him to kill Him. How many of us have had opposition like this? In Mark 3:20-22, Jesus's own kinsman thought He had lost His mind. They said He was crazy. Christ would not listen to them, so they got His mother and His brothers and sisters to come and try to talk some sense into Jesus (Mark 3:31-36). Even the religious leaders said Christ had a devil. With all this opposition going on in Christ's life, what did He do? Christ stayed on course. Every moment of every day He committed Himself to His Father's will. We see the evidence of this while Christ was praying on the Mount of Olives in Luke 22:39-46 (Mark 14:32-42). "And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," Matthew 26:39. "He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done," Matthew 26:42. Christ's life was not His own.
What grieves us the most is when our own family and closest friends oppose us for the Gospels sake. What do we do when those we love reject the Gospel, and reject us? We stay on course for our Lord and Saviour. What does this mean? We remain a people of prayer. God answers prayers on His timing. While we have breath, we pray. While our family and friends have breath we have hope that the Lord will save them. We must remember that they are what we once were; dead in trespasses and sins and blind to our own spiritual state. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life," Titus 3:3-7.
Are we affected by opposition to the gospel? Yes. It grieves us when those we love reject the gospel. It breaks our hearts knowing if the Lord does not save them that they will spend eternity in hell suffering the wrath of God. Did this truth grieve anyone else in the bible? "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh," Romans 9:3. How wonderful is this love? Paul's own people did not passively reject the Gospel, or him. No; they tried to stomp out the Gospel, and they tried killing Paul multiple times. This was not a "hey good to see you but don't talk about the gospel" at family gatherings. They literally tried killing Paul. Though this broke Paul's heart, he never stopped praying for them. Why, because at one time Paul was just like them.
We see Christ's heart to the nation of Israel in Luke 13:34, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" Though these are hard truths, Christ is worthy to serve, and to suffer for. When we are hit with opposition because of the Gospel, we must continue looking unto our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps," Proverbs 16:9. There is a world of other people who need to hear the gospel. Opposition often causes us to be silent about the Gospel. It helps when we continually rehearse what great things Christ has done for us. Paul continued with his missionary journeys, even though they did not go as he planned. In our text in Luke 4 we see that Christ left Nazareth to preach the Gospel in other cities. Don't let opposition knock you off course, but when it does, remember Who Christ is, what He has done for you, and that He is able to save others. We have been given the greatest message in the world, may we be faithful to proclaim it to the world. Please send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com. Soli Deo Gloria.
