WJre ~ t a r t H t r g J:rem:Jring

xrf i/le$lt$ in mmretJr

The Response of
the Audience to Jesus'
Teaching on Isaiah 61
(Luke 4:14-15) "And He began
teaching in their synagogues
and was praised by all."
The general public enjoyed
Jesus' preaching, because it was
lively, authoritative,
well-organized, practical,
interesting, bold and true in
contrast with "the lifeless
repetitions
and senseless
trivialities" of
the ordinary
rabbis and
other
teachers.-
Plummer
(Luke 4:20)
" ... and the
eyes of all in
the
synagogue
were
fixed upon
Him."
This vivid description of Jesus'
preaching is obviously that of an
eye-witness from whom Luke
obtained this infonnation. The
intense interest of His hearers was
"fixed" on Jesus as He spoke
because of His fame as a powerful
teacher and miracle-worker,
because he was brought up among
them, and because of His
countenance and manner of
reading the Scripture.
"The atmosphere in the
probably crowded synagogue is
surcharged with curiosity.
Everybody in the audience is
wondering what their townsman,
the former carpenter, about whom
they have been hearing so much
oflate (see verse 23), is going to
say in elucidation and application
of the Scripture passage He has
read a moment ago. He may have
read (and said) more than Luke
repons.... All is quiet, so quiet
that one can hear a feather drop.
Every eye is fixed on Jesus."-
Hendriksen
"There must have been a
dignity and a power in His whole
appearance, in every inflection of
His voice, and in every gesture
and movement, that riveted all
eyes in the synagogne upon Him.
The scene was far above what any
one in Nazareth realized. THE
WORD HIMSELF HAD READ
THE WORD TO THEM."- Lenski
(Luke 4:22) "And all were
speaking well of Him, and
wondering at the gradous
words which were falling
from His lips .... "
The "Praise" and
"Astonishment" of
Jesus' Audience
"Were speaking well" is literally
"bore witness." '''They bore wimess
to Him,' not that what He said
about Himself, but that what
rumor had said respecting His
4 f THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon f Mayl Jnne, 1995
power as a teacher, was true.
They praised Him in an
empty-handed way. What they
remembered of Him led them to
think that the reports about Him
were exaggerations; but they were
willing to admit that this was not
the case .... What follows shows
that they did not believe the
teaching which so stanled aM
impressed them, anymore !pan
those whose attention was riveted
on Stephen, before he began to.
address them, were disposed to
accept his teaching." - Plummer
"the gradous
words which
were falling
from His lips"
'jesus'
teaching was
presented with
such
graciousness,
winsomeness,
power and
conviction that
the irnmediate
reaction of His
heaters was, at
least on the
surface,
favorable; and his audience
verbally testified to His ability.
(Luke 4:28-29) "And all the
synagogue were filled with rage
as they heard these things; and
they rose up and cast Him out of
the dty, and led Him to the
brow of the hill on which their
dty had been built, in order to
throw him down the cliff"
The Cause of the Rage in Jesus'
Audience in Nazareth!
The reaction of the audience to
Jesus changed from praise, to
keen interest, to enthusiasm, to
astonishment, to scepticism, to
envy to blind hare and
bloodthirstiness. people
were [Ulious! What did Jesus say
that made them so hostile? (a).
While showing enthusiasm about
Jesus' remarks about the breaking
in of the blessings of the Jubilee
provisions and the New Era of
God's Kingdom, His audience
took great offense at Jesus' claim
that He was the Messianic Agent
by Whom this jubilant Kingdom
comes. "The progressively
worsening conflict reflected in the
telescoped development of the
incident desclibed by 1.uke
centers upon the challenge of the
people to Jesus' functionally
claimed Messianic status." - Sloan.
They could have said, "How can
you be the Messiah, you are only
Joseph's son." (b). Jesus
precipitated this violent reaction
and attempt on His life by the
Nazareth audience by comparing
them as Jews unfavorably to
believing Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews!
As always]esus was in complete
control of the siruation. They
understand clearly the point of
His illustrations about Elijah and
Elisha in answer to their demand
for miracles. ] esus was com paling
His audience in Nazareth to "those
] ews who were judged less wonhy
of Divine benefits than the
heathen. It is this that infuliates
them, just as it infuriated the Jews
atJerusa1em to be told by Paul
that the heathen would receive the
blessings which they despised,
Acts 13:46, 50; 22:21, 22. Yet to
this day the position remains the
same; and Gentiles enjoy the
Divine privileges of which the
Jews have deprived themselves,
(because oftheir unbelieO."-
Plummer. And (c). Compaling
Himself to such prophets as Elijah
and Elisha, and exalting Himself
over them increased the anger of
His audience.
Lenski makes a wise
application of Jesus' methods at
Nazareth. "Many modem
preachers would regard this as the
gravest kind of mistake on Jesus'
part. They think it the part of
wisdom to be soft and yielding
toward unbelief and presumption
and never to stlike it down with
the cudgel of the law. But Jesus
kept causing commotions like
thiS, and Peter and James followed
His example, Acts 4:10,19,20, so
did all the apostles, Acts 5:30f,
likewise Stephen, Acts 7:51 .
THE HARDER THE UNBELIEF,
THE HARDER THE BLOWS IT
RECENES FROM JESUS, Mat.
23: 12."
The Expression 0/ the
Rage a/Jesus' Audience
The violent and blind rage of
the audience in the synagogue was
out-of-control, vicious, and
murderous. The congregation
turned into a raging mob which
would be satisfied with nothing
less that the brutal death of jesus,
because of what He taught. And
on the Sabbath at that! They
pushed Jesus to a high hill, which
falls into a precipice on the far
side, where they tried to crowd
him over the overhanging rocks to
His death below. The desires and
actions of this crowd in Nazareth
the desires and
actions of the crowds in jerusalem
which later clied out for the
violent death ofJesus. "The whole
attempt to put jesus to death was
perhaps an instance of the fonn of
punishment which the jews called
'the rebel's beating,' which was
somewhat analogous to Lynch
Law. The 'rebel's beating' was
administered by the people,
without liial and on the spot,
when anyone was caught in what
seemed to be a flagrant violation
of some law or tradition."-
Plummer. How humiliating for
Jesus!
Hardening one's heart against
the preaching of the Bible's gospel
can make that one a murderer!
The Miraculous Departure
a/Jesus
It was not yet time for Christ
to die! So He uses His divine
power, perf alms an undescribed
miracle, and frustrates the
murderous desires of the
crowd---"Butpassing through their
midst, He went His way." What a
kingly Savior! He went, not the
way the crowd was pushing Him,
but rather, He went HIS OWN
way! Luke does not tell us how
jesus did this, and so we are left
in silence and in awe. Jesus
tliumphed over Satan in the
wildemess, now He triumphs over
His enemies in Nazareth. But
how did He do it? For the present
we do not know. "Shall we say
that jesus' calm and majestic
bealing, diffeling so sharply from
their boisterous display of
bittemess, made such a deep
impression on these potential
murders that they fTOze on the
spot!' - Hendliksen. Did He blind
them, as God did the Sodomites
and Sylians? Did He strike them
paralyzed to the ground, as He
did the soldiers who came with
Judas to arrest Him? Did He fill
them with confusion as He did
His enemies in O. T. days? His
hour had not yet come! And
when it did come, He voluntalily
surrendered Himself to it!
Remember what He said: "r am
the good shepherd; the good shepherd
lays down His life Jar the sheep. --
No one has taken it away Jrom Me,
Mayl June, 1995 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 5
but I lay it down on My own
initiative."- John 10:14,18.
The people of Nazareth had
asked for a miracle from jesus,
and this was the miracle He gave
them! And, as far as we know,
jesus never returned to Nazareth
again!
Conclusion
This Passage Helps Us
a Great Deal in Looking
at Life in Christ
as Jubilee-Sabbath Life
recreation were thus basic to the
sabbath: man RESTS in God's
finished work of redemption
proclaimed before the time. By
faith, man, anticipating the final
victory and rej oidng in the
present deliverance, lives by faith
in the suffidency of God. ----
"Clearly, the renewal of the
earth is a basic aspect of the
Sabbath. The renewal of all things
is basic to the Sabbath, and the
earth is central to this renewal.
Men can ignore the Sabbath
which is also poverty-free, and
this is only possible in tenns of
His Law, (i.e., the whole Word of
God). ----
'''Man, like God is to work and
to rest; thus human life is to be a
copy of Divine life.'- Oehler. The
work of God's people is to be
instrumental in the restoration of
the divine order to the earth.
... 'Divine labor terminates in
happy rest; not till the Creator
rests satisfied in the
contemplation of His works is His
creation itself complete.
The weekly
Sabbath, the every
seventh-year Sabbath,
and the fiftieth-year
Jubilee Sabbath all
recall the Creation
Sabbath. The Sabbath
institutions in Israel
recalled Israel's
redemption and
recreation by the
Creator. "The goal of
'The Sabbath .. .looks backward to
the creation rest for its pattern and
faithi it looks upward to Ciod in the
assurance of His grace and vidorYi
it looks forward to the great
So, too, hUman labor is
not to run on in
resultless circles, but to
terminate in a happy
harmony of existence.'-
dark. The Jubilee in
part brings out this
aspect of the Sabbath.
Moreover, because 'the
Sabbath Consummation."
the Sabbath, as Hebrews 3 makes
clear, is the promised land, the
new creation in jesus Christ. The
Sabbath therefore sets forth the
restoration and restitution of all
things in Christ. In the jubilee
year, as in each sabbatical year,
debts ran out. The modern
statute of limitations on the
collection of debts is an
adaptation of this Biblical law. In
the jubilee year also, the rural
land holdings reverted to their
original owners; slaves were freed,
as on each sabbatical year. The
Jubilee marked a two-year holiday
in which covenant man celebrated
the foretaste of the great sabbath
of the new creation. Because the
Jubilee began on the evening of
the Day of Atonement, it made
clear the foundation of the new
creation, atonement through the
blood ofthe Lamb of the
Covenant. Creation and
reqUirements of the earth only at
the peril of judgment and death.
"The essence of the Sabbath is
the work of restoration, God's
new creation; the goal of the
Sabbath is the second creation rest
of God. Man is required to rest
and to allow earth and animals to
rest, that God's restoration may
work, and creation be revitalized.
Every Sabbath rest points to the
new creation, the regeneration
and restoration of all things.
God's work of restoration is from
the ground up .... ----
"The Sabbath means rest,
forgiveness, the cancellation of
debt and weariness. It means
fresh life. Since the unbeliever is
by nature a slave, he is not
released from debts, Deut. 15: 1-6.
God's goal is a debt-free society
6 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon Mayl June, 1995
whole course of human
history is not to run on
in dreary endlessness,'
because its goal is a glorious
victory, we too 'are to find a
completion in an harmonious and
God-given order' which 'is
guaranteed by the Sabbath of
creation, and prefigured by the
sabbatical seasons.' The Sabbath
of creation, unlike the previous
six days, is not eI)ded with an
even. 'The Divine rest ofthe
seventh day of creation, which has
no evening, hovers over the
world's progress, that it may at
last absorb it into itself.'
"Work and goal, effort and
result, these are the two concepts
which are basic to the idea of the
Sabbath, according to Oehler.
The Sabbath gives purpose to
man's life, in that it makes labor
meaningful and purposive: it
links it to a joyful consummation.
The Sabbath .. .looks BACKWARD
to the creation rest for its pattem
and faith; it looks UPWARD to
God in the assurance of His grace
and victOlY; it looks FORWARD
to the great Sabbath
Consummation.----
"The Sabbath presupposes
work, work fulfilling God's
creation mandate and perfolmed
under ,God's law, and the Sabbath
is the joyful rest fTom the exerdse
of godly dominion. On the
Sabbath, a man rejoices that the
shall lack faith also in the meaning
and centrality of forgiveness. The
Jubilee realm is one of
cancellation, the cancellation of
debts, slavelY, sin and death.
With those who are the people of
God we share this Jubilee grace,
forgiveness. Forgiveness thus is a
bold step into God's future, into
the world ofthe Jubilee. --
Through forgiveness we assume
the reality of a world and a
heavenly city, a new creation and
mankind. This appears espedally
in the words of Isaiah which He
quoted in the synagogue at
Nazareth and to which He
attached the deepest meaning. He
points to the condition of man as
one of spiritual poverty,
brol1en-heartedness, captivity,
blindness and mutilation. This
spiritual distress is caused by the
sin of mankind. For sin makes
man inwardly, (and outwardly)
poor, sows
earth is the Lord's, and
all the fullness thereof,
Ps. 24: 1. In that
confidence man rests,
and in that joy he
surveys the work of his
hands, knowing that
his 'labor is not in vain
in the Lord,' I Cor.
15:58, .... because the
sovereign God makes
ALL things work
together for good unto
"The gospel of Christ affects
and transforms the heart and
the society of mankind,
globally, comprehensively,
definitively, progressively,
perfectly and eternally,"
desttuction in his
heart and life, makes
him a captive in its
stranglehold, makes
him spiritually blind
so that he loses all
~ s i o n and all power
of clear judgment, and
crushes his
personality." -
Geldenhuys
How wonderful it
them that love Him .... " - R.].
Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical
Law, pgs. 140-149, (Nutley, N.].,
The Craig Press, 1973).
"The Jubilee means liberty,
healing, comfort, joy, beauty, and
forgiveness to the redeemed of
the Lord, and vengeance to God's
enemies. The purpose is that God
might be glorified.. When our
Lord read these verses in the
synagogue, Lk. 4:16-20, He
concluded by declal1ng, 'This day
is this SC11 pture fulfilled in your
ears,' Lk. 4:21, which was the
beginning of His open declaration
to them that He was the Messiah.
The proclamation of the Kingdom
of God and of the Jubilee were
one and the same thing, and the
prelude was the remission of sins,
Mk. 1:3-5; Mat. 3:1-6. If we lack
faith in God, in His Kingdom and
its glOl10US Jubilee world, then we
the King thereof, an d we institute
the reign of that world here and
now, although we see it only
through a glass darkly." - R.].
Rushdoony, Salvation and Godly
Rule, pg. 292, (Valledto, Cal.,
Ross House Books, 1983).
This Passage
Reveals a Great Deal
About Fallen Man's
True Condition
"No one will ever be able to do
much for mankind unless he has a
deep realization of the ten1ble
need of the human race. An
imperfect insight into the actual
needs and miselY of man results
in giving inadequate prescriptions
for finding relief. Now it is
characteristic of the Savior's
preaching that He refelTed in a
remarkably plain manner to the
unfathomable spiritual need of
is, therefore, to Imow
that Jesus Christ came not merely
to tell us about solutions to our
problems, but actually to BRING
deliverance from our sin and total
renewal of our selves into our
lives as our Redeemer and King,
as we repent of our sins, rest in
Him alone as our Savior, and
sunender our hearts and lives to
Him. See Ephesians 2:8-10.
This Passage Reveals
a Great Deal
About the True Nature of
the Salvation Christ Came
to Earth to Bring to Us
Salvation is personal, global
and comprehensive: it affects and
transforms evelY aspect of man's
life, inside and out, spititually and
physically, individually and
socially, past, present and future.
It is not merely a subjectivistic
expel1ence, nor is it simply
political change; and it is not "pie
Mayl June, 1995 'I' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 7
in the sky by and by." The gospel
of Christ affects and transfonns
the heart and the sOciety of
mankind, globally,
comprehensively, definitively,
progressively, perfectly and
eternally. It is addressed to man
in his spiritual life, as well as in
his intellectual, emotional,
physical, social, political and
economic life. It gradnally
"leavens" everything, until the
whole loaf of human experience
has been "leavened" by the power
of the gospel of Christ. Salvation
is a New Order, a new creation, in
which the old is passing away and
everything has become new, II
Cor. 5:17.
Christ came to bring real,
substantial, and lasting change
into a person's heart, family, and
in every one of his personal
relationships and daily endeavors
in this life as well as eternal life
and moral perfection in the
presence of God after death. He
came to bring the presence and
power of God into the hearts of
lives of men and women and
youth. Believe in the LordJesus and
you will be saved, and your house.
Jesus came to restore all the
underlying prindples illustrated
in the provisions of the Jubilee
Year to all His true Israel, Gal.
3:29.1 (1). He came to liberate
His people from all forms of
slavery. (2). He came to restore
the earth to His people, who are
to repossess it as their covenant
inheritance, as they dispossess
the false heirs, (the reprobate),
by the carrying out of the Great
Commission. (3). He came to
give His people rest from their
labors, that they might live in the
enjoyment of the abundance of
God's bleSSings. (4). He came to
bring spiritual renewal and
regeneration to all His people.
(5). He came to forgive His
people of their sin and to heal
them of all sin's effects.
This Passage Tells Us
a Great Deal
About the Importance and
Power of the Preaching
of the Gospel
Jesus told His hearers in
Nazareth that Isaiah 61 and the
promises of the Jubilee Year, the
New Order of righteousness, the
jUbilant Kingdom of God in all its
saving power and blessedness,
were being fulfilled as He was
preaching the gospel from Isaiah
61, just as He was explaining what
these things meant and how they
were related to Him. The point is
this: the jubilant kingdom of God
and its comprehensive salvation
come into our hearts, homes and
societies through the preaching of
Jesus Christ! As Christ's Church
and her God-sent ministers
faithfully preach the gospel of the
Bible, the resurrected and reigtIing
Jesus Christ Himself preaches
through them into the heans and
lives of His people; and WHAT
JESUS PREACHES HAPPENS!
When He preaches the New Age
of the Jubilee, the Jubilee comes,
Lk. 4:21. As He preaches the
Kingdom of God, the kingdom
comes, Mark 1:15. As He
preaches repentance, people
repent and believe, Acts 5:31. As
He preaches peace, peace and the
restoration of God's order are
established, Eph. 2:17. In the
preaching of the resurrected
Christ through the faithful
preaching of men is manifested
the sovereign rule of God in
power and grace, with the
establishment of a new order
(civilization) of righteousness and
8 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ;. Mayl Jnne, 1995
blessedness in Christ in fulfillment
of God's covenant promises. The
pulpit is Christ's throne from
which He rules the world.
"Whoever will call upon the name of
the Lord will be saved. How then
shall they call upon Him in whom
they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him Whom
they have not heard? And how
shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they
preach unless they are sent?"
Romans 10:13-15.
This Passage Tells Us
a Great Deal
About the Authority
of the Bible
The entire Bible in all its verbal
expressions was received by Jesus
as His final authority for
understanding all life, truth and
duty. For Him the Bible is a
unified whole, with no dichotomy
between the Old Testament and
the New Testament. The Old
Testament is the root from which
the New Testament grows. The
Old Testament defines the
tenninology and concepts of the
New Testament; and the New
Testament fulfills the promises
and hopes of the Old Testament.
This Passage Tells Us
a Great Deal
About the Nature
of the Christian's Mission
in the World
In his calling from God, the
Christian is not to be
church-oriented but
kingdom-Oriented. o. Palmer
Robertson's comments are helpful
on this pOint. "The
'fundamentalist' may conceive of
the significance of Christianity
more narrowly in tenus of the
salvation of the 'soul.' Too often
he may fail to consider adequately
the effect of redemption on the
total life-style of man in the
context of an all-embracive
covenant. (or kingdom). That
view results frequently in a
by-passing of the responsibility of
redeemed man to cany fOlward
the implications of his salvation
into the world of economics.
politiCS. business and culture.
"The total life-involvement of
the covenant. (or kingdom).
relationship provides tlle
framework for considering the
connection between the 'great
commission' and the 'cultural
mandate.' Entrance into God's
kingdom may occur only by
repentance and faith. which
reqUires the preaching of the
gospel. This 'gospel,' however.
must not be conceived of in the
naHowest of possible tenns. It is
the gospel of the 'kingdom.' It
involves discipling men to Jesus
Christ. Integral to that discipling
process is the awakening of an
awareness of the obligations of
man to the totality of God's
creation. Redeemed man. remade
in God's intage. must fulfill---even
surpass---the role originally
determined for the first man. In
such a manner. the mandate to
preach the gospel and the
mandate to form a culture
glorifying to God merge with one
another."- o.P. Robeltson. The
Christ of the Covenants. pgs.
82-83. (Phillipsburg. N.J..
Presbyterian and Reformed
Publishing Company. 1980).
lUThe reactions of scepticism!
wrath and murderous hate disclosed
at Nazareth are viewed as exceptional
and isolated within the developing
Galilean ministry. Although l uke
presents the rejection at Nazareth as
quite exceptional. it is nevertheless
extraordinarily arresting that this
discordant note is struck at the very
beginning of his narrative of our
Lord's public ministry. Its prominent
position exhibits forcefully and even
spectacularly the fact that Jesus would
not win universal claim. And one may
also recognize that, in the context of
the entire Gospel. with the
overpowering accent which ill in
common with the other Gospels,
places upon the passion and death of
Christ, the rejection at Nazareth serves
to prepare the way for the
understanding of the more
encompassing rejection which lay
ahead."- Stonehouse. Tlte Witness of
Luke to Christ , pg. 9l.
'Wh1le the moral demands of the
Jubilee legislation remain binding on
us in Christ, the ceremonial and
sacrificial aspects of the Old
Testament calendar of feast-days and
the cyclic observances of these feasts
were "put out of gear
ll
by Christ's
work of redemption. As Greg
Bahnsen writes: "Colossians 2:16f
looses us from the ceremonial
elements of the sabbath system ... and
passages such as Romans 14:sf and
Galatians 4: 10 teach that we need not
distinguish these ceremonial days any
longer. As Christ provides for
entrance to the eternal Sabbath rest of
God by His substitutionary death
upon the cross, He makes the
typological elements, (e.g., offerings)
of the Sabbath system irrelevant
(things which were a SHADOW of the
coming substance according to
Colossians 2:17; Heb. 10:1.8. By
accomplishing our redemption Christ
also binds us to the observance of that
weekly Sabbath which prefigures our
eternal Sapbath. Heb. 4."- Tlteollomy
ill Christiall EthiCS. pg. 229-230,
(Nutley. N.]., Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Company.
1977). R.]. Rushdoony believes that
the observance of the fifty year
sabbatical cycle is st!ll binding upon
the Christian as an enhancement to his
l!berty in Christ. See his Institutes of
Biblical Law. pgs. 140[[. Q
Christ College Press Release
On Thursday evening, May 25th Christ College of Greenville, SC, graduated it first
class in special ceremonies at Reedy River Presbyterian Church. Three students
were awarded the1r degrees. two the Associates of Arts LWO year degree and one the
Bachelor of Arts four year degree. Noah Telling of Willis. VA and Tim Martin of
Greenville, SC both members of the peA received the A.A degrees upon success-
fully completing the two year academic program. Jay Nelken of Sacramento, CA,
member of the Reformed Church US was awarded the B.A degree with Summa
Cum Laude honors.
The graduaUon exercises were held at Reedy River Pres. Church in a worship
service led by Dr. Jeny Crick. Rev. Dick Knodel. Rev. Michael Mang and Dr.
Kenneth Gentry. The graduation message "Two Perspectives" was preached by Dr.
Gentry and pointed out the dlstinctives of the Christian worldvlew as contrasted to
the non-Christian world view . In the process, the message nOled Christ College's
commitment to a distinctively biblical, reformed, and VanTillian theological
perspective. The tape is available for a gift of $20 to Christ College.
Also Miss Sarah Bogue was awarded ,he annual Golden Quill award for best paper
produced in the Research and Publication course. Her paper was a study of the
Christian's obligation to the civil government. She was given a certificate and a $50
award.
The first graduation class of Christ College
Mayl u n ~ 1995 l' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon l' 9