God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

LUKE 4:14 – 30: IN NAZARETH

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

Read Luke 4:14 – 30. Answer these questions:

In Galilee (verse 14, 15):
What did Jesus do?

How did the people of Galilee respond to his ministry?

In Nazareth (verse 16 – 22):
What was significant about Nazareth?

What is the setting for the events Luke reports?

What did Jesus say about the verses he read from Isaiah 61?

What was the initial response to that?

In Nazareth (verse 23 – 30):
Why did Jesus’ words in 23 – 27 anger the people in the synagogue?

How did they respond?

 

A. JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

What does Luke report about the Holy Spirit and Jesus in these verses?
Luke 1:35

Luke 3:22

Luke 4:1 (x 2)

4:14

4:18

From these verses we learn that:

Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb by a special intervention of God, specifically of God the Holy Spirit. As a result of this divine action the human child born of Mary is also the Son of God, the long-awaited eternal King. In this action we see that the ‘power of the Most High will overshadow you’, parallels ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you.’ Also, as a result of this work of the Spirit of God, this child is ‘holy’, not just because he is God the Son, but because he is born uncontaminated by Adam’s sin. Note that each member of the Trinity is involved in this incredible act of the incarnation of the Son.

At Jesus’ baptism by John, again we have the three members of the Trinity: the Son of God coming out of the water, the voice of God the Father affirming the identity and integrity of the Son, and the Spirit of God taking visible form and descending upon the Son. The Father and the Spirit thus both affirming and identifying the Son.

In 4:1, Luke describes Jesus as ‘full of the Holy Spirit’. Note here that the word translated ‘full’ (pleres) is the word used in the New Testament to describe a person in whom the presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in the quality of their life – a life of submission to God. It is quite a different word from the ‘filled’ (pletho) used to refer to specific empowerment by the Spirit to do something out of the ordinary. (See this study.)

Jesus, being full of the Spirit, was also ‘led by the Spirit’, that is, was led by God. That is how a person who is ‘full of’ the Spirit lives – they live a life submissive to God and his word. As we have seen in the previous study, the Spirit led Jesus into the desert, there to be tempted by the evil one. This was a necessary part of his purpose as our substitute and representative.

In 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee ‘in the power of the Spirit’ and in 4:18 he read the Scripture ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me...’. And here we need to be careful that we do not reduce Jesus – that we do not see Jesus as just an ordinary human empowered by the Spirit. Rather, Luke presents Jesus teaching the truth and performing miracles as the Son of God, teaching and working with the knowledge and authority that was his as God. (This was recognized by the evil spirits – Luke 4:34.)

 

B. THE IMPACT OF JESUS’ TEACHING AND ACTIONS

B.1 In the Galilee region generally
Luke summarizes Jesus’ impact in 4:14 & 15 – that throughout the region people were talking about him, everyone was praising him. Verse 23 infers that during this time Jesus also did miracles.

B.2 In Nazareth, his home town
Verses 16 to 20 report what happened when he went to Nazareth, where he had grown up.

Read verses 16 – 20. Answer these questions:
Where and when did this happen?

What does Luke say that shows us that Jesus deliberately read Isaiah 61:1 & 2?

What four things had God sent his Son to preach/proclaim?

 

 

Whom did the Father send the Son to release?

Consider/discuss: Is the above preaching and release focused on our physical or spiritual needs, or both?

 

B.2.1 Luke 4:18, 19 – Isaiah 61:1, 2
Having been handed the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus deliberately found the passage we know as Isaiah 61 that details the purpose for which God appointed and sent him:

To preach good news to the poor – note that he did not come to make the poor richer, but to evangelize them, to tell them the good news. Luke has already mentioned this ‘good news’ in 2:10, where the angel told the shepherds ‘I bring you good news of great joy’ – the news that a Saviour had been born, a Saviour who was both ‘Christ’ and ‘the Lord.’

[To heal the broken-hearted – this is included in Isaiah 61:1, and the KJV of Luke 4:18.]

To proclaim freedom for the prisoners – note again, he did not break people out of prison, but preached release from the bondage of sin and guilt. [He did not, for example, rescue John the Baptist from prison. This ministry in Galilee occurred after John had been imprisoned. See Matthew 4:12.] The word translated ‘freedom’ is aphesis, which occurs 17 times in the New Testament. In 15 of those, it is clearly understood as forgiveness or remission of sins. Only here in Luke 4:18 is it translated as ‘freedom’ and ‘release’.

To proclaim ...recovery of sight for the blind. While we know that Jesus did heal blind people, this statement is not about the act of physical healing, but a proclaimed message – a message that brought spiritual light into spiritual darkness, knowledge of God where there was ignorance (John 3:19; 8:12; 12:46; 14:6 – 9).

To release the oppressed. (The word translated ‘oppressed’ means broken into pieces or bruised.) Again ‘release’ is the noun ‘forgiveness’ – literally the text reads ‘to send out in forgiveness...’

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. I understand this to be a reference to the year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25:8 – 55: In every fiftieth year liberty was to be proclaimed:

No work was to be done, not even planting crops (25:11, 12, 18 – 22).

Everyone was to return to his own property (25:13 – 17,23, 24).

Property forfeited because of debt was to be returned to its owner (25:25 28).

Bondage entered because of debt ended with the coming of the year of Jubilee (25:39 – 55).

This Year of Jubilee is a prophetic symbol of the release from spiritual indebtedness – the redemption – that the gospel proclaims, and that we have in Christ Jesus. In the coming of Jesus, in this beginning of his ministry that Luke has recorded here, this prophetic symbol begins to be fulfilled.

B.3 How the people of Nazareth responded
The people of Nazareth had heard about what Jesus had been doing in Galilee. Now here he is, back home in Nazareth. They had listened to him read from Isaiah 61, and waited intensely to hear what he would say as he sat down to teach.

Read verses 21 – 30. Answer these questions:
What did Jesus say about the verses he had just read?

How did the people respond?

What did Jesus say that shows he was aware of their negative thoughts?

Why were his words in verses 24 – 27 so offensive to the people?

 

How did they show their disapproval?

 

Suggest why their reaction was so extreme.

 

Suggest how he escaped from them so easily.