The Rabbi

This is Jesus. This is us.

Today is the 17th day of December.

In 8 more days, the fat guy in the red suit is supposed to make his appearance.

That drove my kids crazy when I said that.

And if you have accepted the Luke challenge

You remember - Luke is 24 chapters long and we are reading a chapter a day until Christmas.

It’s been really cool to hear a staff member or a Deacon reading that day’s chapter on Facebook.

Chapter 10 included a story about when Jesus sent out the 72 disciples - 2 by 2 - to do the very things He was doing.

When they came back ecstatic about the miracles they had been able to do, Jesus said:

Luke 10:18–20 (ESV)

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

He started out by saying Luke 10:3 “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

And He ended by saying “I have given you authority”..essentially so that, “nothing shall hurt you.”

Does this work for us in 2023?

If you would open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah 61.

We’ll look at the first 3 verses and the last 4 verses of that chapter.

While you are looking, let me tell our kids - listen you can be reading a chapter a day of Luke.

Get your mom or dad or someone to read a chapter right before you go to bed.

You can purchase one of the Kid’s Bibles that Hannah has out on the book rack in the vestibule if you don’t have one.

But this is a great way to get ready for the Big Day!

Your three words on your worship guide this morning are Jesus, lord and rabbi.

Try hard to pay attention and maybe you and your family can talk about one of them on your way home from church.

Now, all of us, hear the word of the Lord from the book of Isaiah chapter 61

Isaiah 61:1–3 ESV

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:8–11 ESV

For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

This is the word of the Lord.

We are grateful that He has spoken to us.

Isaiah lived 700 years give or take before Jesus arrived in Bethlehem.

Isaiah talks a lot about the coming Messiah - there are at least 4 extended passages about Him and chapter 61 is one of them.

There are three questions we are looking to answer today.

The first one is

What will the Messiah do?

I wanted to use the question What will the Messiah incontrovertibly do, but thought that might be a mouthful.

But incontrovertible is the right word.

To make it a statement, the Messiah will incontrovertibly do these things.

The Messiah will unquestionably, He will unarguably, He will certainly do these things.

Do you see the first part of verse 1? “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me...”

Notice Lord is lowercase and GOD is uppercase.

We all know that LORD or GOD in uppercase is the name God told Moses to use - it’s YHWH.

The word Lord in lowercase is the word adon - you’ve probably heard the name adonai before?

And adon means Sovereign - and sovereign means unstoppable.

YHWH is both able to do what He sets His mind on - and listen -

He is irresistible when He sets His mind on something.

Isaiah is saying with these two words that - what I am about to say is going to happen.

You can’t stop it - doesn’t matter how you feel about it.

The Sovereign God incontrovertibly is going to do this very thing.

He is going to anoint a Messiah - essentially make Him King and Ruler

But this king is going to do something special.

Don’t turn there but listen to Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Think with me here - when was the last time YHWH physically walked among us?

Right here - they sinned - He killed animals and made the clothes out of skins - and then He made them leave.

From that moment on - He was still their Savior.

But he communicated with visions - and angels - and a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Until Jesus was born as a baby - God with us as the scripture says.

Sovereign God made that happen.

He would not be denied - the Lord was determined to walk among us.

Jesus walked among us and He did 7 things.

Jesus was anointed to bring good news to the poor.

The humble, the afflicted, the oppressed, the needy

Those people who are at the mercy of powerful people

Those people who are suffering under adverse circumstances.

Jesus was anointed to bind up the brokenhearted.

It’s not just good love gone bad, brokenhearted is any human breakdown.

Any emotional breakdown - even conviction of sin.

He came to bind that wound - and why do you bind a wound?

You bind a wound so it will heal.

Jesus came to heal our broken hearts.

Jesus was anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives

He wants people to know that they are no longer under another person’s control.

And “opening the prison to those who are bound;”

He wants us to understand we are not under anyone’s control.

Do you hear that?

Listen - listen - Jesus came to set us free from the fear of what any person, group, government - whatever might say or do.

We are declared free by the One who was anointed King by the One who cannot be stopped.

You are the world’s greatest rebels.

We answer only to the Lord.

Jesus was anointed “to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.”

You know what that means?

That means if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God is not mad at you.

“Does that mean even when I sin?”

Let’s think about this.

When Jesus died on the cross, He died for every sin every saved person would ever commit.

Being God, He knew then every sin you would commit - even those you haven’t commited yet.

So my question to you is, how can He be mad at something He knew was going to happen

And that He already had a plan for?

Doesn’t make sense does it?

Ok, God’s not mad at us, but Jesus is proclaiming the day of vengeance of God - isn’t that mad?

No, that’s justice.

I don’t know about you - it infuriates me to hear criminals being released with no punishment.

But then we will turn around and ask, how can a good God send people to hell?

The answer is clear, right.

There is no one good.

We are all sinners in a fallen world and we either trust Jesus or we don’t.

No one will escape the Lord's justice.

And no one who rejects Jesus will escape the Lord’s vengeance.

And number 7 he will comfort all who will mourn

For whatever reason - mourning is a part of our lives.

Many of you have told me about the death of your spouse or child

You learn to deal with it - but you never get over it.

Jesus came to comfort you.

But maybe you mourn lost innocence

Or lost opportunity

Or lost dreams or hopes

Jesus came to comfort you with something better - “but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

I know that the younger you are in the faith, the less that means to you.

But over time you’ll come to realize that doesn’t just mean heaven when you die.

It mean’s all of these things, Jesus does them all with you right now.

Now skip down to verse 10 and lets answer this:

What is Jesus’ attitude about all of this?

I mean, knowing what suffering it will take for us to be saved?

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD...”

This is Jesus response.

Literally, it reads, “I will rejoice rejoice in YHWH.”

“My soul shall exult in my God...”

Exult is a word you only read in church.

It can be expressed in one of two ways.

It’s that feeling you get when you’ve worked real hard and everything worked out exactly as you wanted it do

And you lean back totally satisfied and content.

That’s exult.

Exult is also being so overcome, so happy that you shout and sing and dance and carry on like a crazy man.

That’s exult too.

Jesus is saying, His mission to save us is His greatest opportunity.

He is clothed in salvation like a most handsome groom.

And verse 11 Isaiah 61:11 “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”

Verse 11 says just as surely as spring follows winter, every word of this will come true.

Every last word.

What is our response?

Jesus was a rabbi.

People called him that - Luke doesn’t record it but Matthew, Mark and John do.

A rabbi has disciples - students - talmidim as they were called.

Almost everyone I’ve told this to lately has yawned at it - you might too.

But a few got it - and I got it - and it matters.

The rabbi didn’t let just anyone study under him - neither did Jesus, did he?

Luke 9:57–58 “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.””

I suspect the man saying he would follow Jesus enjoyed his comfort.

This guy probably has a my pillow and an electric blanket and Jesus say’s “we don’t have room for that here.”

But when you were chosen - when you did follow - truly follow

Your job was to do everything for the rabbi - make sure he was fed

You took care of his clothes - carried anything he needed carrying.

Prayed with him when he asked you too

You did everything except untie his sandals - that was slave work

And as an aside, when John the Baptist said, “I’m not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals,” he was saying

When I stand before Jesus, I’m not even worthy of being His slave.”

But not only did you care for his every need - you imitated him.

You learned everything you needed to know

Not simply by studying under your rabbi

But by imitating what he did.

Jesus sent the 72 out to do what?

Imitate Him.

And what happened when they imitated him?

Satan fell light lightning from the sky, demons were cast out - people were healed.

They had been sitting at the feet of rabbi Jesus - following - imitating His every move.

And then they went out and did what He did.

Jesus says He gives His glory to us - that’s His power, His might, His approval from the Father.

It’s not abracadabra magic - boom - a glittery halo floats over our heads.

No.

We receive honor when we tell the good news to the poor

When we are kind to the broken hearted.

When we live in liberty and teach others what it looks like to live in liberty

When we live our lives free.

We receive honor when we show people that God’s not mad at them.

When we rejoice when evil is punished

When we comfort those who mourn.

We receive honor when we treat people fairly

Because all of that is what love looks like.

That’s what Rabbi Jesus did.

Let me tell you a little story.

Ange Sabin Peter is a ceramicist - she makes ceramics - and she is very good.

But, she wanted to get better.

She was fascinated by Japanese ceramics - specifically the type of work Masaaki Shibata did.

He was the master - rabbi.

He had apprentices - talmidim - who did a 4 year apprenticeship with him.

But Ms. Peter didn’t have 4 years - she was too busy.

Still somehow she managed to wrangle a 6 month term.

When she arrived, she expected to be set down at his wheel and he would teach her his technique.

Instead he sent her out into the rice patties to mine clay for him.

And to work around his house.

She lived, worked and breathed with them for six months

Never once - not one single time - touching his pottery wheel.

She left feeling defeated - like she had just wasted six months of her life.

She went to her wheel and did what she always did.

But when she took her work out of the kiln, she was amazed.

Because she had lived and worked and breathed with her rabbi

She could see marks of her rabbi all over her work.

Her eyes had changed.

She could now see the difference between acceptable and excellent.

As it was reported, “Delightedly she caressed each new vessel, admiring how the influence of her Japanese master had blended beautifully with her own personality to transform each of her new creations.”

When we follow Jesus

When we truly watch what He does and listen - not only to what He says - but how He says it.

When we live with it - we start to do it

Without thought.

People will see us but they will see something different in us.

They will see Jesus - living in me and through me looking like me

Jesus blends perfectly with my personality in order to transform each of His new creations.

You were called - not to be Jesus

You were called to be you - but filled with Jesus.

Walking, talking, working imitating our Rabbi.

And everywhere we go, people will smell the Jesus on our clothes.

And some of them will see Jesus and be made new too.

Some of you smell Jesus in this room right now - and you know He is calling you to follow Him.

In just a moment, we’ll pray and then we’ll sing.

Our song is an invitation for His followers to thank Him and it is an invitation for you to come join us.

Jesus wants you on his team - if He didn’t you wouldn’t be here this morning.

But you are - so when we sing, I invite you to come speak with me about Jesus.

If the crowd is too much, come to me after we sing and we’ll talk.

You need Jesus.

I know - because I needed Jesus - we all did.

But He saved me - and He’ll save you too.

Why don’t you come join us?

Let’s pray.