Bible Study Notes for Lord’s Day,
May 30, 2010 - Memorial Day
Luke 4:28-30
“Filled with Wrath or Love?”

Luke 4

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
       18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.   30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Introduction  Jesus is teaching in His hometown synagogue in Nazareth, and has just declared all the kind and loving things He would do for hurting people in His ministry.  But notice, the congregation was ready to take His life because they didn’t like the way He said it.

There are people like this in the world - from Cain until the present day.  Human life is cheap.  They are selfish, brutal, violent, ruthless.

On Memorial Day we remember another kind of person - those who have given their lives to protect us from these kinds of people.  They have died to save the lives of others.  They are unselfish, loving and kind.

The world should not be like this, but it shows us the evil side of human nature.  What possesses someone to think they can take away the precious life of another person?

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He gets people to agree with him, to brutalize and cheapen the lives of other human beings through greed, racism, fear, hatred, crime, abortion.

What the world needs now is love sweet love.  Agape = putting others ahead of yourself.  Self sacrificing love.  The love Jesus demonstrated on the cross.

If you have love, you don’t try to take what belongs to someone else.

You don’t attack them or try to hurt them.

You don’t try to kill them because of something they said, or what they believe, or because they made a cartoon of Mohammed.

You don’t make up rules or laws which benefit you and hurt others.

You carry the baby to term and do an adoption.  You don’t kill the baby.

If you have agape love, you don’t demand to have your own way at home.

You don’t drive like a maniac on the Lake Road.

You don’t make other people’s lives miserable with constant complaining.

This is just basic human decency.

But because we have not had basic human decency, love for our fellow man, respect for their lives and property, some have stepped up to pay the ultimate price of love, sacrificing their own lives to help curtail evil in the world.

Military people do this, law enforcement people do this, ordinary citizens too.

Jesus describes the conflict between good and evil in John 15

John 15

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
  
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

Many times the reason America has been attacked and we have had to defend ourselves, was because we are a Christian nation, and the devil has used ungodly nations, groups or individuals to try to bring us down.  Whether they have been imperialistic, communist, fascist, or muslim, they have been motivated by the enemy of God.

We live in a very dangerous world.  I have often wondered, why can’t we just live in peace?  Live and let live?  Each family have their own home, own way of providing, own place of worship, schools, communities, and just be left alone?  Why does there always have to be someone bent on conquering the world?  Someone who is not content with his own stuff, but wants to take away his neighbor’s stuff too?

How many wars have been fought?  How much bloodshed?  Lives ended?  Widows and orphans?  How many police?  Courts, judges, juries and jails?  How many people are in prison because they do not have basic respect for the rights of other people?

All because there is a devil, who comes to steal, kill and destroy, and because some people are actually on his side.

Praise God for those who have willingly put themselves in the line of fire to try to stop evil people in the world. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.”  This is agape love.

This is what Jesus did, and others have followed in His train.

The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood-red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.

The martyr first, whose eagle eye
Could pierce beyond the grave,
Who saw his Master in the sky,
And called on Him to save;
Like Him, with pardon on his tongue
In midst of mortal pain,
He prayed for them that did the wrong:
Who follows in his train?

A glorious band, the chosen few
On whom the Spirit came,
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew,
And mocked the cross and flame:
They met the tyrant's brandished steel,
The lion's gory mane;
They bowed their necks the death to feel:
Who follows in their train?

A noble army, men and boys,
The matron and the maid,
Around the Saviour's throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed:
They climbed the steep ascent of heav'n
Through peril, toil and pain:
O God, to us may grace be giv'n
To follow in their train.

    18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Jesus is filled with love.  Some people in the world are filled with selfishness and wrath.  They wanted to thrown the Lord Jesus off the cliff.  I want to be on His side.