The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Luke Series Chapter 4 (EP 152)

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

In this episode, Bryce breaks down Luke 4.

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What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce's Travel Podcast. I'm Bryce. And today we are on Luke chapter four of the Luke series. but as always for this episode before we were getting into it I need my elf hand Dylan Dylan can you come get us a gift yeah let's see let's pick one out let's go with I don't remember what any of these are here you go thank you let's see what's in here a whoopee cushion there you go Merry Christmas price it doesn't even work

maybe it's in five below okay that's okay there we go there you go he got me a whoopie for Christmas. Dylan, thank you for this will be cushion. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. You welcome. As always, we're going to get into the word of God today. We're going to be in Luke Chapter 4. If you open up your Bibles, we're going to be reading about the temptation of Jesus. Jesus starting his ministry. Everything. Let's get into it. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil. and he ate nothing during those days. And when they ended, he was hungry.

The devil said to him, if you're the son of God, command the stone to become red. Now, I think this is interesting. Jesus is going to understand your suffering and what it feels like to be tempted because he suffered and was tempted. The difference is Jesus did not succumb himself to suffering. He did not bite into the suffering.

I mean, sorry, bite into the temptation. He did not succumb himself to the temptation. He did not bite into it. Okay? So if anyone was going to unlawful. understand you better than yourself, it's him. Isn't it crazy that we have a God who is in heaven who doesn't just tell us how to live life? He showed us how to live it. He doesn't just say he understands us. He clearly showed us that he does understand us. The first thing is, yeah, let me see if we can get

him to eat. The devil says, turn that stone into bread and eat it if you're really God. And Jesus says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. This is so powerful. In order to combat the temptation and the lies of the devil, Jesus does. Jesus does. the very thing he says to do. He quotes scripture, man shall not live by bread alone. That's a fact. If you only ate one time a week,

you would starve. And in the same way, if you make God only a God on Sunday, you're going to starve spiritually, fall to sin ten times more, succumb yourself to temptation all the time. But if you make God the God Monday through Sunday, 24-7, 365, every second, every day, every hour of your life,

you will experience his fullness and allow the Word of God to be your weapon. So, Ephesians 6 says. It says it is the sword of the spirit. The Word of God is going to be the only thing that can fight the lies of the devil. John tells us that the devil has only come to steal, kill, and destroy.

No truth can come from the devil. And so because Jesus didn't fall from that. In verse 5, the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. And he said, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me. And I will give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.

The devil says, if you just worship me, I'll give you this entire world. And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God. And him only shall you serve. See, in his mind, oftentimes when we're tempted with things and we're binding a temptation, I think one of the reasons is because we believe that that is the only moment that that opportunity is going to come. Or because we don't understand the bigger macro narrative of God in our life. life. So I've all got to do this thing. I need this immediate hit. Whereas God might be trying to protect you or trying to stop you from doing this thing because he's got something

greater in store. And so to Jesus, he's like, this is all mine. I'm just on a temporary mission. This is mine. So he doesn't need to worship the devil for it. And then he took him up to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you're the son of God, throw yourself down for him. Now also notice, before we get to this point, it's so funny because Satan says, Satan does this thing, worship me, then I'll give this to you. And Jesus' mission is very clear. He's going to suffer first and then enter glory. Jesus came to suffer and take on the sins of the world first,

and then he will enter into glory in heaven. It's the last thing he does. Satan says, if you're the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone. Satan is quoting Psalm 91.

And some many people think, well, wait, wait, that's true. No, no, no. He is quoting Psalm 91 out of context. He is perverting scripture from its initial truth to say something it wasn't intended to say. And it's so funny because we say that we love God in today's day and age, but we go to chat GPT more than we do the actual word of God. We say we love God in today's stay and age, but we want to, we want the spark, notes version of Christian. There's going to be people that are listening and watching this podcast

episode to learn from the Word of God. And I promise you you know, praise God that he's put this on our heart to do this every day, but I am not the Lord. You need to get in the word yourself. That's the whole purpose of this series, to get in the word yourself. Because the only way to combat even the smallest lies of the devil, the only way to combat the smallest lies of the devil, the smallest perversions of truth is if you know the truth of the Word of God yourself, you've got to plant that stuff on the on the tablet of your heart and jesus answers them it is said you shall not put the lord your god to the test and when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time and we just see jesus doing that thing submit to god resist the devil

and he will flee from you you don't have to resist the devil out of your own willpower when you submit to god you naturally resist the devil and he will flee submit to the lordship the precepts and his word and it will naturally have you resist the devil and he will flee from you. And then we see Jesus begin his ministry. Verse 14, he just returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee. And he began to teach in the synagogues being glorified. And then we see Jesus rejected in Nazareth. And I think this is such a personal example because, you know, Jesus is from Nazareth. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.

and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found a place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He's saying, look, Isaiah wrote this, but my time is now. Isaiah wrote this as if the time was coming, well, the time is here. I'm here. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

down in the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said to him, in this Joseph's son, does that sound familiar in your life? God moves in your life, snatches you from the pit of hell, robs you from the devil's hand. And then everyone's like, wait, but aren't you the one that used to have the pornography addiction? Wait, but aren't you the one that you just stabbed so-and-so's back the other day? Well, aren't you the one that made this mistake?

Doesn't that sound familiar? Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace, but a sword, the reality is, is when you submit yourself to the truth, not a-truth, the truth. The truth ruffles people's feathers, and sometimes people aren't going to understand, and that is the radical nature of God's love. It's unconditional, no strings attached, meaning if I'm going to give this love, even if I never give it back, and God so loved you that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life, that you may not be an enemy of God anymore.

And these people are like, aren't this Joseph's son? Don't let the doubt of even the closest people to you rob you from the joy of the miracles and the glory that God has done in your life. He says, doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, physician, heal yourself. What we have heard of you did at Copernum do here in your hometown as well. And he said,

truly, I say to you, no profit is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine, came over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarifath in the land of Sidon and a woman who was a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. None of them was cleansed, but only Naman. when they heard these things all in the synagogue, they were filled with wrath. So Jesus is like, look, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. I'm not welcome here. You guys are going to be the same people that demand signs, miracles, and wonders, and then reject me when it comes to me.

They just want the benefits of the kingdom and not the king himself. When they heard these things, they were filled with wrath and all rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff, but passing through their midst he went away. So he escaped the persecution of his town. And he went down to Copernum, and they were astonished with his teaching for the word, his word possessed authority.

And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried 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. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. and when the demon had thrown him down in their midst he came out of him having done him no harm.

Do you know that the demons have to obey to the name of Jesus? It's not a maybe. It's a have to. You and I can walk in confidence, even in the darkest of situations, confident, knowing that the demons have to obey at the name of Jesus. They have to. It's a truth.

And they were all amazed, and having said to one another, what is this word? For with the authority and the power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out, and reports about him went out in every person. place in the surrounding region. And then we see Jesus, he arose. He entered Simon's house, and they rebuked Simon's mom's fever, and he began to

healing everyone, casting out demons, healing the blind, opening deaf ears. And then in verse 42 to close it out, it says, and when it was day, he departed and went to a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well, for I was sent to this purpose. Jesus is oftentimes seeing running from the crowds more so than he is running to the crowds. Jesus prioritized solitude, getting alone with the father.

And let me tell you something, if you don't get alone with the father, you will burn out. My roommate once told me that the only reason burnout happens, the only reason burnout happens is if an engine takes the wrong fuel or an engine is doing something it's not designed to do. And Jesus was on time. His time has now come, but he understood the reliance on the father, and he had to get alone. And if you're doing things out of your own strength, you don't have the right fuel in your life to keep going, and you will burn out. Or if you're doing something that God has not called you to do, doing something you haven't been designed to do, you will burn out. Let us cling to the words of Jesus as an encouragement.

And tomorrow, we will see you guys for Luke chapter 5. Hey, thank you guys so much for watching the Luke series. I pray that this thing is a blessing to you. and the ultimate heart is so that you go and read this word daily. You don't rely on the podcast. You rely on the word of God and the Holy Spirit. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you like the episodes, subscribe, follow us on social media,

and we'll see you guys in the next episode.