Other Towns

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

OTHER TOWNS

Luke 4:42-44

42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."  44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

NIV

So Jesus says the reason he came was to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to all the towns he could. Does this conflict with him being sent to be the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for our sin, the redeemer, the Savior? Perhaps it was too early for his disciples to understand the message of the cross, but they could understand the idea about having to spread the good news to other towns. Do the words of Jesus sort of condemn preachers that set up shop in one church and make no efforts to reach every town or city within their reach? It would seem this is what Jesus is saying, that the good news about the kingdom of God should not be confined to one town but that he must go to the whole of the area, to reach as many people as he can for the kingdom. Toward the end of his ministry he commissioned, commanded his disciples to go make disciples of all nations, all people, every tribe, race, which included everyone. We take this also for our command, to preach to everyone about the kingdom of God. We need to tell everyone in our realm, but also to go wherever we can, not to restrain ourselves to one church, to one town, to one neighborhood. Yes it is true in a sense Jesus pretty much stayed in Judea, although he did travel into Samaria to reach that woman and then all the area. But the point he was making that we cannot stay within the confines of our own little circle of friends. We need to be always expanding that circle to include others who have not heard the good news about the kingdom of God. The rest of what was said about Jesus also speaks to that same issue which is we need to keep on keeping on preaching the good news about the kingdom of God. Does this also sort of condemn those preachers who spend all their time preaching to the choir? That is to say, constantly preaching to believers as to how they should live and never share the good news about the kingdom of God. How are the unsaved to get saved unless someone tells them about the good news of the kingdom of God? Of course it is up to all of us, but if all we do is hang out with the rest of believers in the same church then who is preaching to the other towns? And when we start thinking we are the only church in town, or at least the only one with the real truth, then we are really in trouble because we have truly pinned ourselves to one place instead of all the other towns. Of course we are not saying church is all bad, but maybe it is not all that good either, if all we do is church. The point is we need to follow the example of Jesus, if we want to be more like him. The example he gave us can commanded us was to go into all the world and preach the good news about the kingdom of God. This does not mean we dig into our wallets and pay someone to go to some foreign land, but this means we need to go wherever we can and preach the good news, however we can, in other towns.