Read Luke 4:1-30
For four years, Rob Ford was the scandal of the city of Toronto. Ford was caught texting while driving. He associated with people of ill repute, including drug dealers and convicted criminals. Ford often showed up drunk to public festivals and city events. What made Ford’s actions even more unconscionable was this: he was the city’s mayor.
Our key verse today reminds us why Scripture forbids drunkenness. We must be filled—not with wine but with the Holy Spirit. In his biographical record, Luke often emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in the unfolding good news of Jesus: the angel promises Zechariah that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit; Mary will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit; Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit when she greets Mary and the holy baby in her womb (1:41); Zechariah, Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist are all filled with the Spirit as part of the long line of prophetic heralds of good tidings.
Jesus, Son of Joseph, is no exception to the witness of the Holy Spirit’s role in the plan of salvation. Filled with the Holy Spirit, He was led into the wilderness. Forty days later, this seemingly ordinary carpenter’s son returned in the power of the Holy Spirit and preached to the gathered crowd at the Nazareth synagogue.
As His ministry began, Jesus was empowered by the Spirit in two important ways. First, though He was weakened by hunger, He resisted the Devil’s temptation and did not seek to prove His identity as God’s Son (vv. 4, 8, 12); second, He resisted the temptation to please the crowd by preaching a gospel other than the one with which He had been entrusted (vv. 24–27). Jesus, the Spirit-filled son of Joseph, was faithful to His heavenly Father.
APPLY THE WORD
Being filled with God’s Holy Spirit makes us stronger to resist temptation and braver to follow God’s calling. We will cherish obedience over personal comfort. May this Puritan prayer be ours: “Raise me above the smiles and frowns of this world, regarding it as a light thing to be judged by men. May thy approbation be my only aim.”
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