Free At Last

Intro

Have you ever had a situation happen where something seemed too good to be true?

You get notified that you have won something or are going to be given something you weren’t expecting.

And it sounds to good to be true and that is because chances are it is.

Usually there is some sort of catch. It’s all yours if you sign up for this presentation or purchase this one item or enroll in this program.

That is how lot of people end up with timeshares or getting a million emails or things in the mail because you signed up for that one thing.

The New Testament begins with what we call the 4 gospels. Why are they called that though? What is a gospel? The word itself quite literally means “good news”.

In other words by calling Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, gospels we are saying that what you are reading in those books is in fact good news.

These four books contain the historical narrative of the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus. It is these narratives that make up the good news or the gospel of Jesus.

Why? What’s so good about it? What is so good about this news anyway? That is what I want to explore this morning and for the next couple weeks.

Not only do I want to look at what makes it good news, but is it news that is too good to be true? Is there a catch? Do we in some way have to respond in order for the news to be good for us?

Power in the Text

You see the word gospel is not unique to the story of Jesus. In our modern context it usually is, but in the ancient world a gospel might not have had anything to do with God.

In fact, the word gospel or good news is both a noun and a verb in ancient Hebrew.

As a noun it meant a message of good news.

As a verb it meant to announce a message or to share good news.

Usually this word referred specifically to announcements of victory in battle.

So in the ancient world, when a nation’s army won a military battle the gospel, or good news of that victory would be shared with that nation’s citizens.

Jesus and his listeners would have understood the concept of gospel in that context and so when Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth In Luke 4 we see him sharing a gospel message.

The question for them and for us today is what about his message was good? And what did it mean for his listeners then and for us now?

Luke 4:16-22 NLT 16 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. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” 22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Jesus at this point in his ministry had begun to develop a name for himself in Capernaum. He had already been teaching and performing miracles there.

Now the time had come for Jesus to return to his hometown in Nazareth. This was the place Jesus grew up and while he was visiting it was the Sabbath which meant it was time to go the the synagogue.

While he was there he began to teach and as was customary he stood to read from the scriptures. Particularly from the book of Isaiah.

He quotes Isaiah 61:1-2b NLT 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come...

You see Isaiah prophesied in part of a time when Israel would return from their Babylonian exile. However, that came to pass and yet they did not find the freedom that they believed would come with their return to their homeland.

Isaiah was ultimately prophesying of a future time when the messiah would come to do these things. This was a gospel or a message of good news that proclaimed victory over an enemy.

Jesus tell his listeners that he is the fulfillment of that promise. That the good news was being fulfilled in him.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Jesus was bringing good news to those who were suffering.

His people had been under the thumb of an oppressor for generations at this point. It started with Babylon and then the Persians, and then Alexander the Great, and eventually Rome.

They knew what it was like to be oppressed and held captive. They believed a messiah would come and would set them free and give them back their independence as well as make those who oppressed them pay for what they had done.

And now Jesus, one of their own was saying that the time had come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor for them.

It was too good to be true. So what was their response going to be? Was one needed?

The truth is that while Jesus brings good news to those who are suffering, it is a message that demands a response.

Let’s look at what their response was.

Application

He was proclaiming to those in Nazareth, to the very people he grew up with, the ones who knew him and his family that he was the messiah.

Initially their response was one of amazement. How could Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter say such things.

We knew him when he was in diapers and now he teaches with such authority and we hear reports of him performing miracles.

Jesus knew what they were thinking and his response was proof of that.

Luke 4:23-24 NLT 23 Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.

He knew that what they wanted was proof. They wanted to see this carpenter’s son do a miracle. They wanted a messiah that fit into the box they had created in their minds.

Jesus knew that wasn’t going to be him. In fact he knew that is was about more than the fact that he was from Nazareth. He knew that their hearts were hard and that they would not be able to accept the good news he was bringing them because it wasn’t the news they wanted to hear.

Luke 4:25-27 NLT 25 “Certainly 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

Jesus was pointing out the fact that in the past because of Israel’s hard heart and lack of faith God instead reached out to gentiles.

Elijah ministered to a gentile during a famine. Instead of God helping his chosen people he provided for a gentile because of her faith.

Elisha was used by God to heal Naaman of leprosy. A disease that ravaged his chosen people yet he only healed a gentile, and not just any gentile but a commander in the Syrian army. A group that had conducted raids and oppressed the Israelites.

Jesus was pointing out the fact that the good news he was proclaiming wasn’t the good news they wanted to hear.

This good news wasn’t a freedom for Israel from Rome, rather it was a freedom for all people, including the gentiles from their spiritual poverty and blindness.

Freedom from what made them truly prisoners, and it wasn’t Rome, it was their sin.

Look at how they responded to this.

Luke 4:28-30 NLT 28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

They couldn’t believe what Jesus was saying. They believed they did not need salvation. They were already recipients of salvation based on the fact that they were Jewish.

For Jesus to say that salvation wasn’t just for the Jew but for all people was blasphemous to them. Not only was Jesus saying that salvation was for the gentile as well as the Jew, but he was saying that Jews needed salvation just as much as the gentile.

What should have been a message of good news became a source of contention. They were so angry they wanted to kill Jesus, one of their own. This was a foreshadowing of the cross. It was this same mentality that would lead to his arrest and execution, but the time had not yet come.

What does liberation feel like? Imagine you face a terminal illness. Your entire life can seem enslaved to the sickness.

You spend your days mourning the life that may be lost, the experiences that you may never have.

Now imagine what it would feel like to receive an unexpected call from your doctor, declaring that your last tests revealed a complete reversal. The sickness is gone.

You’ve been given a second lease on life. The joy you feel in that moment is an amazing kind of liberation.

What makes the gospel of Jesus Christ or the good news so good is that if offers us that kind of liberation on a cosmic scale.

Closing

But this good news demands a response. Those in Nazareth responded. But their response was one of rejection because the good news required something of them that they weren’t willing to give.

It required them to recognize and admit their need for salvation. They weren’t willing to do that.

As a result Jesus left, and there is no record of him ever returning to his hometown again. They rejected Jesus, and in turn Jesus rejected them.

What is your response to the good news? Have you acknowledged your need for freedom? If you have, are you extending that same message of freedom to others? Especially those whom you don’t believe deserve it?

And what happens once we do acknowledge it? Is that all it takes. I read to you Jesus’s quoting of Isaiah 61:1-2 and I said that he stops short of finishing verse 2. This what it says.

Isaiah 61:2 NLT 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

Jesus isn’t done fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61. What does that mean for us? Come back next week and I will continue to share what’s so good about the news Jesus has given us and what our response needs to be beyond acknowledging our need for it.