Promise Keeper

Can Grand Promises Be True?

Have you ever heard a claim from someone or on the TV and you thought to yourself, “There is no way that is true.” Nobody wants to fall into the trap of believing false claims. Over the years, common brands of products have made big claims and had to pay big penalties for them.

Nutella had to pay out millions of dollars to consumers who bought their product between 2008-12 for their false ads. In its ads, the company claimed that Nutella was a healthy breakfast option for kids and had various nutritional benefits, which was quite the opposite of the information printed on the product label. Nutella actually contains over 20 grams of sugar and 11 grams of fat per serving.

100 million was the penalty Hyundai and Kia had to pay for their false advertising about, what they called, their hybrid car. Due to their false advertising about mileage, the car companies were actually responsible for putting 4.75 million more metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than initially believed.

Red Bull says that they will give you “wings”. Of course, no one literally believed that, but the public did believe their claims that drinking a can of Red Bull would give the consumer more energy, heighten mental clarity, and increase concentration. When no clinical evidence was provided to support these claims, customers went berserk and demanded that Red Bull pay up to the tune of $13 million. The corporation was ordered to reimburse its buyers as far back as 2002.[1]

We live in a world where manufacturers, governmental leaders, and almost everyone else makes promises that they cannot keep. I suppose that some would claim that the promises of faith, specifically faith in Jesus are unbelievable. But, I have found that Jesus was not overselling Himself.

Promise Keeper

In 2015 many churches began singing a song called Way Maker. In that song it talks about the fact that Jesus is a promise keeper. We’ve sung the song many times, but I never knew the author’s back story about why she wrote it. She said that she was flying back to her home nation of Nigeria and she was talking to the Lord on the plane. The Lord spoke to her that He was calling her to something new and she needed to trust Him. She admitted that she was in her comfort zone and didn’t want to change. God spoke to her, “You must remember that I am the one who made a way for you, and I am still making a way”. I hope that each time I sing the song in the future that I realize that God is still making a way for us.

I told you about some companies that promised more than they could deliver. Jesus doesn’t step back from a single claim that He has made. He is the way maker and the promise keeper. I want to look again at some of His first words again, but I want us to really notice the promises that are made in those words.

Luke 4:16–22 NIV

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

I was reading the story in Genesis about Joseph recently. The story of Joseph is a close parallel to what is happening in this passage. Joseph told his family about the dreams that he’d had. If the dreams were true, his family (to include his father) would bow down to him. The family refused to accept it as even possibly being true. ‘Way leads to way’ and eventually Joseph becomes the salvation of the house of Jacob. Jacob’s family is saved from the devastating famine and given possession of the fertile Goshen area of Egypt.

Here in Nazareth is a similar setup. Jesus is saying that on Him rests the Spirit of the Lord and that HE is anointed to bring good news, freedom, recovery of sight, and jubilee to the people. He is saying that He is the chosen one, the Messiah. How would the house of Israel respond to Him? Ultimately, they became furious with Him. They drove Him from town with the intention of murdering Him (parallel with Joseph again).

His promises include that He is the Messiah; He brings the good news to the poor; He proclaims freedom and recovery of sight; He sets captives free; and He brings the favor of the Lord. Could these promises be true? Today people are still struggling to accept Him. Is He legit or not?

Is this Jesus Legit?

As I prepared for this message this week, I’ve wrestled with the relevance of what Jesus is saying. What does it matter? How important are these things in our lives that are filled up with so much stuff going on.

I spoke just this week with a man who knew I was a preacher. He admitted that he could never be a preacher. He had become jaded and suspicious of everything in this world. His childhood pastor turned out to be a pedophile and died while in prison. His experiences as a child and as a youth were now all in question. I shared briefly that our hope was in Jesus and that in Him alone is truth. Ultimately, he was asking the same questions, “Is Jesus legit?” He said that he prays to God, but has he found Jesus to be His promise keeper?

Can His Promises Be True?

His Promise of Freedom

I know that there are many testimonies within this group of people that would explain what freedom in Christ has meant to you. Some of us have experienced abuse, abandonment, fatherlessness, sickness, failed relationships, financial failure, low self-esteem and more. In Christ we have found and continue to find freedom. I have a short video of a man who expresses his freedom through a spoken word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmtu-a8RHjw

The speaker, Michael Agnew, touches on issues that we might not normally think about with freedom – freedom from bullying, freedom from lust, freedom from self-loathing, freedom from having religion but not having a relationship with Christ.

His Promise of Sight

Blindness is a very big problem in our world. Physical blindness is sad but the spiritual blindness of the world around us is an even bigger problem. Physical blindness is temporary, spiritual blindness is eternal. An angel spoke this to the church of Laodicea…

Revelation 3:17 NIV

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

I’m sure this was a slap in the face to the church of Laodicea, but it is still a wakeup call to Christians who do not live in Spirit the way that we ought to be. Billy Sunday was a rough preacher from long ago. He had been a baseball player before becoming a preacher. He was concerned that the people he was preaching to were spiritually blind.

Sunday preached in a sensational style—shouting, jumping, swinging fists, running from one end of the stage to the other. One editor estimated he traveled a mile in every message. As a former baseball player, Sunday had the physique of an athlete, and he used every muscle. He sometimes slid across the platform as if stealing a base, or leaped atop his pulpit or onto the pews. Some of his acrobatics made audiences gasp. Yet his content was hardly spontaneous. Sunday painstakingly composed elaborate notes, bound in large, black leather notebooks. Arriving at the pulpit, he habitually placed his notes atop a Bible opened to Isaiah 61:1—“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings.” Sunday considered most preaching devoid of spiritual power. While at Pentecost one sermon saved 3,000 people, now it takes 3,000 sermons to get one old buttermilk-eyed, whiskey-soaked blasphemer. Ever since God saved my soul and sent me out to preach, I have prayed Him to enable me to pronounce two words, and put into those words all they mean. One word is “Lost” and the other is “Eternity.” Ten thousand years from now we will all be somewhere. I never preach a sermon but that I think it may be the last one some fellow will hear or the last I shall ever be privileged to preach.

The privilege of preaching involves the opportunity to see the blinders fall off. Someone meets the person of Jesus Christ, another learns a truth about forgiveness or holiness. It is because of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that these opportunities come…AND THEY DO!

He Promises the Jubilee

The ‘Jubilee’ is a term that comes from the OT, in Leviticus 25. God instructed the Israelites to cancel debts, free slaves, let fields lie fallow, and restore lands to the original families on the 50th year, after seven sabbaticals, or Sabbath years.[2]

The Year of Jubilee was a party. Mortgages were ended and land reverted back to the original families. It was a big party throughout the nation. The joy and delight of the Jubilee was highlighted with the fact that Jesus emphasized freedom and release from captivity. He also stopped quoting Isaiah before the words, “the day of vengeance of our God.” It highlights the fact that Jesus offers peace to those who are enemies and comfort to those who mourn.

We live in that promised time of Jubilee, our debts have been forgiven. Salvation frees us from oppression and spiritual blindness. We have reclaimed what was lost through sin but gained at Calvary.

Can He Be the Fulfillment of this Prophecy?

The Old Testament contains over 400 prophecies about the coming Messiah. Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled every one of them. Do you know what the odds of that happening are? Think about it: one single man fulfilling every prediction about the coming Messiah, Savior of the world.

A professor named Peter Stoner worked with 600 students to figure out what the probability would be of just eight (of the over 400) prophecies being fulfilled in any one person who had lived up to the present time. The result: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

Lee Strobel, an atheist-turned-Christian, performed some calculations to try to figure out what this would look like in real life. Lee notes:

“I imagined the entire world being covered with white tile that was one-and-a-half inches square—every bit of dry land on the planet—with the bottom of just one tile painted red. Then I pictured a person being allowed to wander for a lifetime around all seven continents. He would be permitted to bend down only one time and pick up a piece of tile. What are the odds it would be the one tile whose reverse side was painted red? The odds would be the same as just eight of the Old Testament prophecies coming true in any one person throughout history!”2

Not only can He be the fulfillment of the prophecy, but He is also the only One qualified to be the Messiah.

Relevant Today

The problem on that day when Jesus stood up to preach his first sermon in Nazareth was credibility and authority. He was making enormous promises and an extraordinary claim. Credibility and authority are still the issues we battle today.

Is this Jesus the One who can give you freedom from…

Fear, loneliness, depression, anxiety, hopelessness?

Is this the Jesus who can give you sight…

Origin, meaning, purpose, and destiny.

Can it be true that you have available through Christ the relationship and rights that were always intended for you but had been taken by the devil?

Jesus is still preaching the same message today! He is the anointed One. Freedom, the restoration of sight, the spirit of the Jubilee – all these things are available today. Ultimately, Jesus would be rejected in Nazareth. Each of us have the choice to accept that this scripture was fulfilled in Him or not. All our eyes should be fastened on Him.

[1]DeGraw, Lee. Our World. June 2, 2016. Accessed https://listverse.com/2016/06/02/10-false-advertising-promises-that-cost-companies-millions/ [2] https://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/Issues/2014/Fall-2014/What-Shall-We-Preach-A-Biblical-Understanding-of-the-Gospel