House Church #1

INTRODUCTION Luke 4:18-19

Who is Jesus?

That is the most important question one will ever answer.

Some say He was just a good teacher.

Some say He was just a good man.

Some say He was God but came only as a Spirit.

But the Bible says, Jesus is God who came in the flesh, as a man.

Paul would write Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Jesus, the Son was sent by God the Father, in human flesh, so that the world could see God in the flesh.

This is why the Bible says, in Him dwells the fullness of God in bodily form.

Jesus was a man, fully man, 100% man.

But He was also God, fully God, 100% God.

Fully man, and fully God, Jesus the God man.

It is one of the great mysteries of the Bible.

And it is key to our salvation.

The truth is, you must believe in the Jesus of the Bible if you are to be saved from the wrath of God against sin.

We struggle with the idea of the Trinity, One God is essence that exists in 3 persons.

God the Father

God the Son

God the Holy Spirit.

Each one fully God, each one their own person.

And each one represented here in this great text.

First the Father is the One who sent Jesus.

John 20:21 LSB

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

Jesus was sent by the Father.

Second, the Spirit of God empowered Jesus.

When Jesus was baptized the Spirit of God descended upon Him empowering Him for the work of ministry.

Everything that Jesus did in ministry, He did in the power of the Spirit of God.

We see the Spirit is upon Jesus.

Third, Jesus is present in our text as the recipient of the Spirit’s power.

The power of the Spirit is evident in all that Jesus did.

We see that power in 4 distinct statements.

ANOINTED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL

To be anointed is to have oil poured over your head.

This was an OT practice that symbolized the presence of the Spirit of God upon a person for a work of God’s choosing.

It is symbolic of being chosen by God for a task, in this case to preach the gospel

The Gospel simply means the good news.

The world is full of competing information.

Every religion has its claims.

But only the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly good news.

All other religions end in death.

Only the gospel of Jesus Christ leads to life everlasting.

But what is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that God became a man.

God became a man so that He could die in your place, paying the price for your sins.

The wages of sin is death.

All mankind are sinners, and all deserve to die.

The good news is that there is one, and only one means of escape, through faith in the God Man Jesus Christ.

Jesus laid down His life for the sins of the world.

Once and for all, Jesus died to pay that debt.

Jesus died in your place and mine, for your sin and mine.

And they laid Him in a tomb, set a large stone over that tomb, sealed that tomb, and thought Him gone forever.

What happened next is proof positive that Jesus is who He claimed to be, the Eternal God.

For on the third day, death had to release Jesus.

You see death can only lay claim to those who have sinned.

But because Jesus was the sinless Son of God, death had no hold on Him.

Jesus resurrected Himself from the dead, proving once and for all, He is the Eternal Son of God who came and died in the flesh.

That is the gospel.

That is the good news Jesus preached.

That is the good news we preach still today.

Any other gospel is accursed.

RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES

When Jesus preached that good news, He was proclaiming the captives could be released.

You see man is a slave, he is a slave to sin.

This is why it says He preached the gospel to the poor.

This is not those who lack money.

The poor Jesus has in mind are those who are spiritually poor.

To be poor in spirit as He said in the Sermon on the Mount.

To be poor in spirit is to have nothing to offer God that can earn your salvation.

In that sense all mankind are poor.

It is these that Jesus has in mind.

In your country there are 1.4 Billion people, and 98% of them are spiritually poor, have nothing to offer God, and are doomed to perish.

This is why we preach the gospel.

We are born that way, into sin, with a sin nature, therefore we sin.

We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we were born a sinner.

That is who we were, slaves to unrighteousness.

In Adam all became sinners.

In Adam that first man who sinned, we all became sinners.

But blessed be our God and Savior Jesus Christ, there is a way of release.

It is not enough to know that Jesus is the Son of God who died for sin.

One must embrace Him if he is to be released from sin.

Paul would write if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved.

Confessing Jesus as Lord is to recognize that Jesus is the Eternal God who has the right to rule over your life.

Confessing Jesus is giving your allegiance to Him.

Committing to obeying Him, loving Him, and serving Him.

And if that is what a person wants and does, they can be set free from the bondage of sin, hell, and death.

SIGHT FOR THE BLIND

Next Jesus came to offer recovery of sight for the blind.

The whole world lies in blindness, spiritual blindness.

This is the blindness Jesus has in mind.

The world is spiritually blind and cannot see spiritual truth.

This is why they did not recognize Jesus was the Son of God, they were blind.

In John 9 Jesus healed a blind man.

There is a huge difference between the Pharisees and the man born blind.

Make no mistake, both were blind.

The Pharisees could not see spiritual truth.

The man born blind could not see anything, physical or spiritual.

But after an encounter with Jesus, the man born blind could see.

He could see physically.

But more importantly, his spiritually blind eyes were opened.

He could now see and understand spiritual truth.

He could see Jesus for who Jesus truly was, the eternal Son of God.

And the man worshipped.

Jesus asked, Do you believe in the Son of Man?

The man born blind asked, who is he that I may believe?

Then Jesus revealed Himself to him.

Jesus opened his spiritual eyes so the man could see Jesus.

Then the man responded….

Lord I believe, and then we read he worshipped Jesus.

Now friends, on many occasions Jesus told the Pharisees who He was, but they never believed.

They were spirit

ually blind..

And I might add, they liked it that way.

The truth is, unless Jesus open blind eyes, the lost will never see Him.

You know Him, you see Him, because He opened your eyes.

Do you worship Him?

FREEDOM FOR THE OPPRESSED

Last Jesus proclaims He came to set free those who are oppressed.

This speaks of false religion.

False religion is oppressive.

It enslaves you to a false system of religion.

Oppressed means to be bruised, or crushed.

The weight of false religion bruises and crushes the worshipper.

Judaism had become so perverted that is was a false religion.

They did not believe in a salvation by grace through faith.

They believed you were saved by your good works, and that is slavery.

All who trust in a system of works are enslaved to that system.

You will work your entire life in an effort to justify yourself and will come up empty.

The weight of false religion crushes the worshipper.

This is why Jesus invited all those who are heavy laden to come to Him to find rest.

All those who are weighed down by the weight of legalistic rules and regulation can find freedom.

Jesus offers real rest from our futile efforts of self justification.

Come to Jesus and you will find rest, not oppression.

Come to Jesus because His burden is light.

Come to Jesus and you can cease from striving to try and earn your salvation.

Jesus can release the oppressed.

As I look around India, I see an oppressed people.

They are oppressed by the burden of Hinduism.

it is crushing their soul.

And only the gospel of Jesus Christ has anything of real value to offer them.

THE TIME IS NOW

The favorable year of our Lord is now.

Now is the time to embrace Jesus.

Now is the time to be set free from sin, hell and death.

Now is the time to have your eyes opened.

Which is where you come in.

Did you realize that you have the very same anointing that Jesus had?

Jesus was anointed by the Spirit of God to preach the gospel.

You were anointed for the same.

The very power that empowered Jesus now live in you in the form of the Holy Spirit.

I have met many Christians who feel powerless to make a difference.

Maybe you feel that way, powerless.

So I say to you, believe the truth, and apply it.

I imagine that the disciples of Jesus felt powerless.

Especially after He told them He was going to leave then by dying.

But did you know that Jesus told them that they would do greater things than even He had done?

This does not mean they would do more miracles, that was impossible.

John tells us in John 21:25

John 21:25 LSB

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Friends, Jesus performed thousands of miracles.

The Apostles never did that, not even close.

So what did Jesus mean when He said they would do even greater things than He had done?

There is only one possible answer, gospel ministry.

Those apostles would do greater evangelism than even Jesus did.

At the end of His life, Jesus only had about 700 true followers.

There were only 700 believers.

But then Peter took center stage, and preached the gospel on the streets of Jerusalem, the very streets Jesus had preached.

And 3000 souls were saved that first day.

Wow, in one sermon, Peter saw 3000 souls come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That is in Acts 2.

Then in Acts 4:4

Acts 4:4 LSB

But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

3000 the first sermon, 5000 more the second.

Jesus never had that kind of impact on so many.

But how, why was Peter so successful and Jesus not?

This was the plan of God.

When the time was right, the Spirit of God descended upon those disciples and empowered them for ministry.

This is the exciting part, that same Spirit that moved in the life of Peter and the apostles is in this room right now, in you , in me if indeed you are a true believer.

That same Spirit has the same mandate, as we share the gospel, the Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

As you and I share the gospel today, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, blind eyes are opened, captives are set free, the oppressed find relief, people are born again.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon You!

You can do great things for the glory of God.

CONCLUSION

The Father never intended for thousands to become followers of Jesus while He lived.

The plan of God was always for the church to be born on the day of Pentecost.

In Judaism, there were 7 primary feasts, and each pertains to Jesus and salvation.

The first feast of the year is Passover, Jesus died on that day.

The Second feast is the feast of firstfruits to be observed the first day after the first Sabbath after the Passover.

Passover was Friday, the first Sabbath was Saturday, and therefore the year Christ died, first fruits was Sunday.

This feast of firstfruits was the very day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Therefore Jesus was the firstfruit of the Barley harvest.

Being a firstfruit meant there was more to come later, the full harvest.

50 days after Passover came Pentecost.

This is the day the Spirit of God came upon all those who believed.

Pentecost was also a first fruits celebration, for the wheat harvest.

The first fruits of the church were gathered together that day, 3000 of them.

But they were only the first fruits of the full harvest.

Only a portion of the greater harvest to come.

Then a few days later 5000 more were saved, the full harvest had begun.

And it is still on going.

The harvest is still ongoing.

And it will continue until the return of Jesus Christ.

You and I are part of that fuller harvest that is still in progress.

Right now in India, the Lord is gathering into His barns a harvest.

A harvest of souls to be sure.

And you and I are to participate in that.

Jesus said pray the Lord of the harvest to sent out laborer.

Pray that the Lord will raise up laborers who will take the gospel to their neighbors and friends.

It is my prayer right now, that you realize that you can be part of that great work of God.

God can and will use you for His glory, if you want it.

All you need to do is make yourself available to be used of God.

You don’t have to be highly educated or trained to share the gospel.

Just tell the world how Jesus hanged your life, by dying for your sins, and being raised from the dead the third day.

Jesus started the work, but He wants you to be part of it as well.