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The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
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Welcome to "The Bible Breakdown," where we break down God’s Word so we can know God better. I'm your host, Brandon Cannon, and I'm here to guide you through the pages of the Bible, one day at a time.
Each day, we'll read through a section of the Bible and explore key themes, motifs, and teachings. Whether you're new to the Bible or a seasoned veteran, I guarantee you'll find something insightful or inspiring. My hope is to encourage you to dive deeper and deeper.
So grab your Bible, your journal, your coffee, and join me on this journey of faith and discovery. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button to stay up-to-date with our daily readings and breakdowns.
Remember, as we journey through the pages of the Bible together, we're not just reading a book, we're unlocking the secrets to eternal life. The more we dig, the more we find! Let's get started!
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The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
Luke 04 Round Two: Jesus Beats Up the Devil
What happens when God in human form confronts the devil face-to-face? Luke 4 takes us into the wilderness where Jesus, weakened by forty days of fasting, engages in spiritual warfare that reveals the blueprint for our own battles against temptation.
The confrontation is striking not for its supernatural fireworks but for its simplicity. Jesus—creator of the universe—chooses to fight with the same weapon available to us: Scripture. Three times the enemy attacks, targeting physical needs, offering worldly power, and even twisting God's Word itself. Three times Jesus responds with "it is written," demonstrating that standing on God's truth trumps opinion, emotion, or human reasoning. When the devil misquotes Psalm 91, attempting to manipulate Jesus into testing God, we see the danger of Scripture taken out of context—a warning for believers to know not just isolated verses but the heart and context of God's Word.
The narrative then shifts dramatically as Jesus returns to Nazareth and makes the boldest claim imaginable—reading from Isaiah's messianic prophecy and announcing, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." His hometown's response moves from admiration to murderous rage when He suggests God's work extends beyond their narrow expectations. Their attempt to throw Him off a cliff reveals how violently people can reject truth that challenges their preconceptions. Yet in Capernaum, where people receive Jesus with openness, demons flee, fevers vanish, and multitudes find healing—creating a stark contrast between rejection that misses blessing and reception that experiences transformation.
As we journey through this chapter, we're challenged to consider: Do we know Scripture well enough to stand firmly when tempted? Are we open to God working in ways that might challenge our expectations? And are we, like Jesus, clear about our God-given mission despite distractions? Join us as we break down these questions and discover how this ancient text speaks directly to our modern lives.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at thebiblebreakdowncom. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello everybody, and welcome back to your tour through the Book of Luke man. I am so excited about being here, but I'll admit being a little bit offended because just this morning someone told me that you know when you're getting older, when the weather dominates most of your conversation, and that offended me so greatly because I had just finished talking about how cold it was for like 15 minutes. So I don't know how you find yourself with this right now. I hope you are warm somewhere. I hope it is a great day so far and I'm excited to get into God's Word Today at Luke, chapter 4, man. It's going to be a really, really good chapter. I'm excited about this.
Speaker 1:Make sure we remember the overall idea, and that is that Luke has been commissioned by a guy named Theopolis to go and be an investigative journalist, to go and see if he can confirm the stories that he has heard from Paul, from Peter, from the other apostles, and confirm what God's Word says. You know, a lot of scholars believe that Luke was written just a few years after the Gospel of Mark, and you can find much of the Gospel of Mark hidden within the Gospel of Luke. And so I wonder if and there's no, there's absolutely no concrete evidence for this but I wonder if what Luke was doing is he was taking large sections of the gospel of Mark and then confirming it and then adding to it as he was able to confirm these different stories. We don't know exactly, but what we do know is is that the Holy Spirit was inspiring Luke as he went through this and he discovered all of this amazing stuff In each chapter. I just have this question I wonder who Luke was talking to when he was able to confirm these stories. Today we're going to look at how Jesus went, and he had battle with the devil. He was actually rejected in his hometown. He casts out some evil spirits, he heals a flock of people and then he continues to preach the gospel all over the place, and I love the idea that the more we dig, the more we find. The overall hope of this is that, as we learn God's word, what we're doing is we're creating a foundation of understanding so that, as the more difficult parts of life come in, we're not is. We're creating a foundation of understanding so that, as the more difficult parts of life come in, we're not starting from nothing.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of times when you go to college, they make you take an entrance exam so you can be able to take certain classes, and this is not in any way to kind of scale you from. You know your value. It is. Can you handle the coursework of what we're going to be talking about in this class? And if you don't know, then it is a blessing to you to put you in a lower class so that you can gain the information. That's what we're doing right now.
Speaker 1:A lot of times life comes at us hard and seldom are the big issues of life easy to answer. If you don't have the other things figured out, you don't have the base level figured out. You don't have the base level figured out, you're not going to be able to handle the bigger things. So it's like, before you can handle calculus, you need to understand pre-algebra, and pre-algebra for us is just going through God's word, ingesting slowly God's word. And that's what we're going to do today, so that as the bigger issues come. We're going to go even deeper and I've got something special I want to do at the very end of our time together. So let's get started and we'll go from there. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Luke, chapter one, verse one If you've got your Bibles, you've got your coffee, here we go. Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness and he was tempted by the devil for 40 days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Then the devil said to him but Jesus told him no, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, verse 5,. Verse 5, if you will worship me, jesus replied. The scriptures say you must worship the Lord, your God, and serve Him only. Then the devil took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and said If you are the Son of God, jump off. For the scriptures say he will order His angels to protect you and guard you, and they will hold you up with their hand so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. Jesus responded. The scriptures also say you must not test the Lord, your God. When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.
Speaker 1:Now pause, there's so much going on here. I would encourage you to take a deep dive into this and to do some research on this and maybe just think on this idea. First of all, I want you to notice that the Bible says the devil kept saying if you are the Son of God, what the devil was trying to get Jesus to do is to out himself, because he didn't know exactly what was going on. He had been watching Jesus for 30 years. He had saw this virgin birth. He knows the Bible better than we do because he was there when it was written and therefore he knows something's up here. And so he's trying to get, first of all, jesus to admit who he is. Second of all, he's not quite sure who he is, and he's also trying to see what he can get out of this plan that's possibly happening.
Speaker 1:Notice how Jesus answers. Jesus answers on the authority of God's word. I love the idea that Jesus, the visible representation of the invisible God, could have just said on the authority of me being God, go away. But instead, everything that Jesus is doing is a template for us, so that we can walk in authority as we follow him. And so Jesus is telling us in this don't stand on your opinions, stand on my work. That's where the power is, and I love the idea that, no matter what the enemy says, he comes back at him with the word. But what I love about also is verse nine.
Speaker 1:The devil tries to use his own game against him. He actually tries to quote a scripture to use his own game against him. He actually tries to quote a scripture. Here's the difference, though when the devil quoted the scripture, he quoted it to him out of a psalm, where the psalm was actually saying no matter what happens, god will protect me. It's out of Psalm 91. But what the devil is doing is he is saying it as a passive, aggressive, sort of a ultimatum, sort of threat. If you are the son of God, god says he'll take care of you. So he was taking the scripture out of context.
Speaker 1:The context of the scripture is when I go through trouble, god will be with me. The devil is saying create your own trouble and then dare God to deliver you. So it's so important. Why we need to do things like this is to slowly go through God's word. So we don't take scripture out of context, because scripture out of context is. It's hurtful, it's painful, it will mess you up because it's powerful, but we need to put it in the right context so it can do the right things in our life. All right, so the? So the devil got slapped in the face three times. He goes away. He didn't go away forever. The Bible just said he's waiting for another opportunity. But Jesus, he's awesome, okay, he's. It's kind of like he's cheating too, because he is God, you know, but he is setting up a template for all of us. Here we go, verse 14.
Speaker 1:Then Jesus returned to Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about him spread quickly throughout the whole region. He taught regularly in the synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. He wrote up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. The scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. Now pause for a moment.
Speaker 1:First of all, the reason why he stood to read the scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. Now pause for a moment. First of all, the reason why he stood to read the scripture was because in Jewish culture at the time, most of the time in the synagogues which synagogues would be our version of a local church, it was a local assembly of the Jewish people they would have a stage set up, basically in the middle of the room and on a raised platform. That is where they would read the scripture. And then, after they would read the scripture, the rabbi, the teacher of the day, would then sit down beside the podium because nothing was higher than the scripture, and so he would read that. And then what they also do is they read certain sections of scripture and they make their way all the way through the Old Testament over a course of time.
Speaker 1:So it's also amazing to think Jesus knew the process. So he knew that this was coming. So there was a certain level of patience that Jesus waited on until it got to the scroll of Isaiah. And then it got to Isaiah, chapter 61, which is what he just read an excerpt from. So he waited, he waited, he waited.
Speaker 1:The day came, it was his turn to speak. He got up, he spoke, he sat down and then he just said guys, it's just been fulfilled. And they knew exactly what that meant. Everyone knew this was a messianic prophecy and so in doing that, he claims in that moment, I'm the Messiah. So there are some people who say that Jesus never claimed divinity right then. And that moment he claimed I'm God, verse 22,. Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by his gracious words that came from his lips.
Speaker 1:How can this be, they asked isn't this Joseph's son? Then he said you will undoubtedly quote this proverb physician, heal yourself, meaning do miracles here in your hometown, like you did in Capernaum. But I tell you the truth no prophet is accepted in his own town. Certainly, there will be many needy widows in Israel, or there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years and a severe famine devastated the land, yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner, a widow named Zarephath, in the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner, a widow named Zarephath, in the land of Sidon. And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, and only one was healed, and Only one hill was Naaman, a Syrian.
Speaker 1:When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious, jumping up. They mobbed him and forced him to the edge of a hill on which the town was built. Listen to this. They intended to push him off the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way. Now pause, now, what in the world does that mean? Well, first of all, they're excited because they're like, okay, well, if he's the Messiah, we're about to see a show, he's about to do some miracles to prove, because one of the customs and the traditions of the time is that when the Messiah would come, he would come and be a miracle worker and he would have authority over evil spirits. That is why Jesus did so much. Healing and delivering of evil spirits was it was a proof of his Messiahship. However, he just got through saying I'm not going to do it here because it ain't going to work. All you guys do want is you want to see a show. And then, when they didn't, he didn't do what they said. Look at this. It says that they forced him to the edge of a cliff and they wanted to push him over. What does that mean? Well, one of the primary ways that they would stone people is they would push you off of a cliff onto a rocky place, so you were already injured, and then they would throw rocks down at you until you died of blunt force trauma. So what they were trying to do is they were trying to stone him. They were trying to kill him, and Jesus passed through the crowd and went on his way. I don't know what that means passing through the crowd. All we know is they weren't able to stone him, but they were trying to. They were trying to kill Jesus, but it didn't work.
Speaker 1:Okay, pick up verse 31. When he was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit, cried out shouting Go away. Why are you interfering with us, jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus reprimanded him Be quiet and come out of that man, he ordered. At that, the demon threw the man to the floor as the crowd watched. Then it came out of him without hurting him further. Amazed people exclaimed what authority and power. Sorry about that. The news about Jesus spread through every village in the entire region. Now, another thing that is tucked within this is notice how Jesus tells the dude to shut up and come out. Now. The reason why is the demon is notice how Jesus tells a dude to shut up and come out. Now. The reason why is the demon is actually challenging Jesus' authority During that time frame.
Speaker 1:To say someone's name was to assert that you're on the same level as them. You got to think this is not a time we live in now. This is a time of kings and queens and rulers and leaders and all these different things. And so, like you didn't mention the queen by name, you said your majesty, your grace, your honor, this kind of thing. To say her or to say his name if it was a king, that that was considered to be disrespectful. And so for the demon to immediately say I know who you are, you're Jesus of Nazareth. And then also to go even further and also try to reveal his possible divinity was to not only say I'm on the same level as you, but I also know as much as you. And so he was challenging Jesus' authority, and that's why Jesus said me that was like shut up and go away. He was making sure everybody realized this guy's not on my level. Okay, here we go. Let's finish this up.
Speaker 1:Verse 38 Jesus said after leaving the synagogue that day, jesus said Finally, early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. But he replied I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent. So he continued to travel around preaching in synagogues throughout Judea. So the last part we see that Jesus loves even mother-in-laws.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry I couldn't help that, but I love too the idea of remember who the Holy Spirit is inspiring to write this down a doctor. So when the Holy Spirit inspired Dr Luke, he didn't automatically just exclude the gifts, talents and abilities and interests that God gave him, but rather God used those things to enhance his ministry. And so he's talking to us about the fact that she had a fever and it left immediately and that, at the word of Jesus, he healed everyone. Luke is very interested in this idea of healing because he knows how impossible that is, but then he is saying that Jesus is God because he does the impossible. And then Jesus tells him at the end I got to keep going, I got to keep doing this.
Speaker 1:So this is what I want to do differently today. I want to talk about three things, and that is the overall takeaway how I can apply it to my life today, and are there any cultural issues today that I can grapple with, based on what I just got through reading? Well, first of all, the overall takeaway. To me, the overall takeaway is really many things throughout this, but it would be that God's word is so powerful. Notice how, at the beginning, jesus could have just said on the authority of me, go away. But instead he set the template for us that when the enemy attacks, we don't fight him with our opinions. We don't fight the enemy with our good ideas, but we say this is what God's word says, because God's word is powerful. The Bible speaks of itself as a two-edged sword, and so it's so powerful.
Speaker 1:So my application point today would be I need to know what it says. I need to do things like this every single day. Where I am slowly going through the Bible, it's the idea of it raining outside. I don't want to rain so fast, it just washes away but a soft, soaking rain that slowly gets into my heart and my soul so that when the enemy attacks, I've got God's word in my mind. Now, memorizing scripture is one of the best things that you can do, but even doing this right here, it just immediately is renewing your mind, little by little every day.
Speaker 1:Then any cultural things I can look at from this, and that is this yes, make sure it's okay to have an opinion. It's okay to have an opinion, but it must always be submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Therefore, no matter what our opinions are on things, we really need to tell people hey, listen, I have an opinion, but I have an authority, which is the Bible, and that's important, because there's times when people are not always going to agree with the Bible. So what you've got to do is you've got to decide are you going to trust the Bible or are you going to trust yourself? Notice how, when Jesus went to his hometown, they were like I don't want to hear any of that, I don't trust you. And then, because they didn't trust him, they weren't able to see his goodness in their lives. But he goes to Capernaum and they saw the miracles and they trusted him and they were begging him not to leave and they were able to see God's goodness in their life. So trust God's word above all else. Trust Jesus above all else. He'll never leave you astray.
Speaker 1:All right, one more thing I want to tell you, and that is people have been asking me you don't really necessarily want to read the NLT for your personal study. You want to do something a little bit more, just a little different. I want to suggest to you the NET New English Translation. This is a translation from some of my favorite biblical scholars, and actually my Greek professor, dr Daniel Wallace, was the overall editor of the New Testament, and it is completely free online, and so you can go to just look up NET in Google and it should come up New English Translation. It's a really good translation. I highly recommend it. And if you want to go deeper into the Greek word studies and Hebrew word studies. One of the things I love about the NET is all the different footnotes in it, and it's really good to go. Okay, I love you so much. I will see you next time. For Luke, chapter five.
