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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day two. Come on. We're gonna cover Luke chapter four, five, and six. Today. We got three more chapters. If you have not read today's reading already, how about you pause this podcast episode? I'll be right here. Go do the reading. We just want you to read before you listen to me talk. Okay? If you listen to me before you read, it'll be a little out of context. We want you to read first. Read whatever translation of the Bible you think is the most helpful. I don't care if it's the message. King James, baby. I don't care what version it is. Just read Luke chapter 4, 5, and 6 and then come back. All right? We immediately start with Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit and he's led out into the wilderness where he's tempted. The one thing that I want you to see is that the enemy knows the Bible. Satan knows scripture, okay? Satan approaches Jesus quoting scripture, because Satan does not lie to us. Satan deceives. I don't know if you remember a couple years ago, the Golden State warriors were in the finals, and there's this guy that dresses up like Klay Thompson. Well, this dude was able to get into the parking lot, literally enter into the arena, and was warming up. Okay? This man, who's not Klay Thompson but dresses up like Klay Thompson, was able to get past multiple rounds of security onto the basketball court and is warming up. Of course, he's then apprehended and he is banned from Oracle arena, like, for life. And in a post game interview, the guy says, I never lied to anyone. I didn't tell anyone that I was Klay Thompson. I never said I'm Klay Thompson. And what I would love to tell that guy is like, yeah, bro, you didn't lie, but you deceived. You did something worse than lying. You deceived. And one of the things that we need to know is that every single time Satan approaches Jesus, Satan is quoting Scripture. When Satan appeared to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan appeared to Adam and Eve, saying something that God had said, but misquoting God. So if you don't make it through this year, just know that you're never going to be able to know scripture as well as the devil knows scripture. The reason that we want you to come to this podcast or come to this YouTube channel every single day and actually make it through the year is so that when you are in the middle of temptation, you can say exactly what Jesus said, which right here in chapter four, verse four, this is what Jesus said. It is written, man shall not live on bread alone. Now this exact same verse in Matthew's Gospel says, man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And this is the reason that we are dedicating a portion of our day to reading scripture so that when the enemy quote stuff that sounds like God to us, that will be biblically literate and wise enough and discerning enough to know how to combat the temptation that goes on in our mind. Jesus comes out of the wilderness and has his opening sermon. Okay? He goes to Nazareth and he's brought into the synagogue on the Sabbath. He unrolls the scroll and this is what Jesus reads. The Spirit of the Lord is on me. Here's that emphasis on the Holy Spirit. You're going to find this all throughout Luke's Gospel. Okay, remember, Luke is also the author of Acts. This is why on our Bible reading plan, we don't split up Luke and Acts. Now if you open up any normal Bible, you're going to see Matthew, Mark, Luke as the third book of the Bible and then John and then Acts. That, that actually doesn't make a lot of sense to put John in between Luke and Acts because Luke is, is essentially part one of a two volume work and that second part is the Book of Acts. And remember what happens in the Book of Acts on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out. And so there's a massive emphasis on the Holy Spirit throughout Luke's entire Gospel. Remember Simeon and Anna when they were in the temple on yesterday's reading? They're full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. John the Baptist, Jesus's cousin, is full of the Holy Spirit. So if you are able to kind of see Luke's gospel as the prequel to the Book of Acts or part one to a two part volume, that is a nerdy nugget that is going to help you to understand what's actually happening in Luke's Gospel. Here's what Jesus says. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He. He has sent me to proclaim Freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind and set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Everyone loves this, okay? Everyone is all about it until Jesus starts to give commentary on the Scriptures. Verse 25. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. So what Jesus is saying is that Elijah was called to go minister to foreigners instead of his own people. Jesus is advocating for ministry to the Gentiles right here at the beginning of his ministry. And what happens? What's the people's response? Are they happy with Jesus words? Are they happy? No. They have an ethnocentric understanding of the Gospel. They have an ethnocentric understanding of Jesus. So they want Jesus to rescue them from the Romans because they only see the Gospel as something that's relevant to their people group, to their nation, to their family, to the Jews. And Luke right out of the gate goes, hey, from the beginning, this is not like a Christian add on to the ministry of Jesus. No, from the very beginning, the ministry of Jesus is a fulfillment that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That the outsider is now the insider. And the people who thought they were insiders have been pushed to the outside because they can't get with Jesus's countercultural kingdom. Are the people who hear this in the synagogue happy? No. Here's what the Bible says. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. So right at the beginning of Jesus's ministry, his first sermon, this is like his inaugural message. Jesus is making people upset because what he is saying is that you don't own the people of Israel. Although the Messiah is coming through you, it's not only to you that actually the Messiah is coming through you to bring love and grace and mercy to the nations of the earth. This is Luke. Welcome to the Gospel of Luke. Luke is going to expand on the foundation that Mark and Matthew have built. Mark has a Roman audience. Matthew has a Jewish audience. And for Luke, he's saying that Jesus is not just the Messiah to the Jews, he's the Messiah to All of us. Jesus is then going to go on to preach to tons of outsiders. Levi, who's a tax collector. Now, here's where the word poor. I'm going to give you a nerdy nugget. Okay? This is a nerdy nugget and a contextual clue. So Jesus is going to say in his inaugural sermon that the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. When the Bible says the poor here, that doesn't just mean people who are economically poor. That means people who are disenfranchised, people who are on the fringes of society, people who are on the outskirts. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people, learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community, a community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible member. So the person that Jesus is going to then call to follow him is a man who's actually very wealthy. He's a tax collector. His name is Levi or Matthew. And Matthew is not financially poor, but he's socially poor. And here's where I'm going to bridge the gap for us. I'm black, and so I always like to put things in kind of not just layman's terms, but like black terms. Okay? Levi is a Jew, he's a tax collector, and he's collecting taxes for the Romans. Okay? And he is a puppet of the Romans. In black society, we would call Matthew the tax collector, in any tax collector an Uncle Tom. He is someone who is betraying his own people. By collecting taxes for the Romans. In this historical context, Jews hate the fact that they are being oppressed by the Romans and they want a messiah who's going to go to war with the Romans and throw off the chains of oppression. They would have seen any tax collector as someone who is partnering with the system or partnering with the oppressive regime to keep their own people down. And Jesus says, I love the tax collector. I don't just love the liberal prostitute, but I love the conservative tax collector. Because the timeless truth for today is Jesus cannot fit in any of your boxes. Jesus is bigger than your category. He's bigger than your box. The moment that you're excited that Jesus has gone to a tax collector's house, he will then go to a Pharisee's house, because no one owns Jesus. No one has a monopoly on Jesus. And Jesus is bigger than whatever category we try to place him in. Last thing that's happening that I want to highlight is that Jesus calls 12 disciples to him. And the reason that he calls 12 disciples is because he's communicating that he's building a new Israel in the same way that there are 12 sons of Israel, and those 12 sons create the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus now calls 12 disciples to him because he is starting a new Israel that's not only for ethnic Israel, but that you and I, as gentiles get to be a part of of. So I gave you some context. I gave you some nerdy nuggets, and here is our timeless truth of the day. I told you that Jesus called a man who was a tax collector who would have been the most conservative. Okay. That person would have been known as, like, the. The Uncle Tom. Well, let me give you another, like, black colloquialism. In Luke 6:15, Jesus also calls Simon the Zealot to follow him. A zealot would have been like the black panther of the first century. So Matthew the tax collector, Levi the tax collector, and Simon the Zealot were both following Jesus. Imagine how rowdy and fiery and controversial all the conversations were at the campfire at night after Jesus was done with ministry. Jesus says, I'm not just the God of the tax collectors. I'm not just the God of the zealots. I'm the God that's bigger than both of these categories. Let me give you some context what a zealot would have been. A zealot would have believed in the violent overthrow of the Roman regime. So the zealots believed, we can fight the Romans and win. They would actually sometimes go into crowds with daggers and they would stab Roman centurions and then disappear off into the crowd. They are rebels. Tax collectors are partnering with the oppressor, Zealots are fighting the oppressor and both find commonality in the person of Jesus. Because the timeless truth today is that I cannot follow Jesus without seeing people who aren't like me as brothers and sisters in Christ. There are people who may not vote like me or believe like me or be in the same denomination as me, but we are all following Jesus. And if I'm going to follow Jesus, then it means that I'm going to now get put into proximity to with people that I may not have been in proximity with before. That's a timeless truth that's just as relevant for Levi and Simeon as it is for you and I today. And I hope this overview of Luke chapter 4, 5 and 6 is helpful. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we dig into the next couple of chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Peace. Thank you so much for joining me on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, it would mean the world to me if you'd give us a follow rate and review the show. And don't forget to share. You can learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and find us on Instagram hebible department if you want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.