1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, verses 13-17
13 and last of all to sorrow moderately for the dead, 15 And unto this last exhortation is annexed a brief description of the resurrection, and second coming of Christ to judgmentLuke, Chapter 4, verses 16-30
16 the people of Nazareth admire his gracious words4
4:16 He stood up - Showing thereby that he had a desire to read the Scripture to the congregation: on which the book was given to him.It was the Jewish custom to read standing, but to preach sitting. Mat 13:54; Mar 6:1.
4:17 He found - It seems, opening upon it, by the particular providence of God.
4:18 He hath anointed me - With the Spirit. He hath by the power of his Spirit which dwelleth in me, set me apart for these offices.To preach the Gospel to the poor - Literally and spiritually. How is the doctrine of the ever - blessed trinity interwoven, evenin those scriptures where one would least expect it? How clear a declaration of the great Three - One is there in those very words, The Spirit - of the Lord is upon me! To proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised - Here is a beautiful gradation, in comparing the spiritual state of men to the miserable state of those captives, who are not only cast into prison, but, like Zedekiah, had their eyes put out, and were laden and bruised with chains of iron. Isa 61:1.
4:19 The acceptable year - Plainly alluding to the year of jubilee, when all, both debtors and servants, were set free.
4:21 To - day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears - By what you hear me speak.
4:22 The gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth - A person of spiritual discernment may find in all the discourses of our Lord a peculiar sweetness, gravity, and becomingness, such as is not to be found in the same degree, not even in those of the apostles.
4:23 Ye will surely say - That is, your approbation now outweighs your prejudices. But it will not be so long. You will soon ask, why my love does not begin at home? Why I do not work miracles here, rather than at Capernaum? It is because of your unbelief. Nor is it any new thing for me to be despised in my own country. So were both Elijah and Elisha, and thereby driven to work miracles among heathens, rather than in Israel.
4:24 No prophet is acceptable in his own country - That is, in his own neighbourhood. It generally holds, that a teacher sent from God is not so acceptable to his neighbours as he is to strangers.The meanness of his family, or lowness of his circumstances, bring his office into contempt: nor can they suffer that he, who was before equal with, or below themselves, should now bear a superior character.
4:25 When the heaven was shut up three years and six months - Such a proof had they that God had sent him. In Ki1 18:1, it is said, The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year: namely, reckoning not from the beginning of the drought, but from the time when he began to sojourn with the widow of Sarepta.A year of drought had preceded this, while he dwelt at the brook Cherith. So that the whole time of the drought was (as St. James likewise observes) three years and six months. Ki1 17:19; Ki1 18:44.
4:27 Ki2 5:14.
4:28 And all in the synagogue were filled with fury - Perceiving the purport of his discourse, namely, that the blessing which they despised, would be offered to, and accepted by, the Gentiles.So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So little are their starts of love to be depended on! So unable are they to bear the close application, even of a discourse which they most admire!
4:30 Passing through the midst of them - Perhaps invisibly; or perhaps they were overawed; so that though they saw, they could not touch him.
4
4:13 Now - Herein the efficacy of Christianity greatly appears, - that it neither takes away nor embitters, but sweetly tempers, that most refined of all affections, our desire of or love to the dead.
4:14 So - As God raised him. With him - With their living head.
4:15 By the word of the Lord - By a particular revelation.We who are left - This intimates the fewness of those who will be then alive, compared to the multitude of the dead.Believers of all ages and nations make up, as it were, one body; in consideration of which, the believers of that age might put themselves in the place, and speak in the person, of them who were to live till the coming of the Lord. Not that St. Paul hereby asserted (though some seem to have imagined so) that the day of the Lord was at hand.
4:16 With a shout - Properly, a proclamation made to a great multitude. Above this is, the voice of the archangel; above both, the trumpet of God; the voice of God, somewhat analogous to the sound of a trumpet.
4:17 Together - In the same moment. In the air - The wicked will remain beneath, while the righteous, being absolved, shall be assessors with their Lord in the judgment. With the Lord - In heaven.