Eager to Preach The Good News
In Luke 4:38-43, we read a fascinating story in the life of Jesus. Jesus heals many people of sickness, disease, and demon possession. People are coming to Him from all over the surrounding district of Galilee. He is respected, adored and no one wants Him to leave. Most of us would have set up shop, decided to stay there and have people come to us. We would tell ourselves that is the best way to reach everyone with the good news. But Jesus does something different. Luke tells us that He left because He “must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well” (Lk. 4:43). He was eager to fulfill the reason He was sent. He was eager to preach the good news. Why was Jesus so eager to do this? Let’s back up in this gospel a little ways to find out.
In Luke, chapter 4, Jesus has just begun His public ministry. After His temptation into the wilderness, He immediately began teaching in the synagogues about the kingdom of God. The people we amazed and news had spread about Him. There was a buzz in the air. Could this be the Messiah prophesied about that would come to save Israel? Luke tells us that he was “praised by all” in the surrounding district of Galilee (Lk. 4:14-15). That is until He came to Nazareth. When he stood in the synagogue, there, and declared Himself to be the bearer of good news and the Messiah of Israel, the response was much different.
You see, in Nazareth, everyone knew who He was (or at least they thought they did). He was only Joseph’s son, who was nothing more than a carpenter. He was not of noble birth. He was not the son of a great warrior or a king. How could be bring the promised deliverance of God? So, He was not welcome in His home town and they drove Him out of their city (Lk. 4:29). Were they right to do this? What is the good news if it is not deliverance from Israel’s captors? How could a carpenter’s son possibly deliver them from the oppression of Rome? You see, they did not understand the good news because they did not understand who, or what rather, they were truly held captive by. We begin to see a glimpses of the good news as we read on in Luke 4.
Jesus leaves Nazareth and comes to Capernaum. He continues to teach in the synagogue and a demon possessed man starts crying out with a loud voice, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God.” (Lk. 4:34) The demon knows who Jesus is! And he knows that Jesus has the power to destroy him. Then, the scene continues to unfold. Jesus rebukes the demon, he leaves the man, and everyone is amazed at the authority and power of Jesus (Lk. 4:35-36). As we read on we see that Jesus rebukes the fever of Simon’s mother-in-law and the fever leaves her (Lk. 4:38). Jesus had come with power to break the oppression of Satan, sin, and death. That is the good news! Paul tells us in Romans 5-6 that sin reigned over the heart of man prior to Christ coming. When Jesus comes to preach the good news, He comes to preach that He is God and He has the power to overcome our greatest captors. And He was eager to preach this good news because the world needs to hear it.
The apostle Paul says in Romans 10:13 that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Then he says, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Rom. 10:14-15).
Jesus Christ was eager to preach the good news that He had come, sin’s power was crush, Satan’s dominion plundered, and death no longer had victory. How beautiful are the feet of the One who first preached the good news!