Luke: Message of Good News

Introduction

Quick recap

Celebrity

I’ve talked about “celebrity” pastors but it really pervades our culture, it’s now new.

Remember how the Israelites sang of David,

1 Samuel 18:7 ESV

And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

This is recorded amongst the story of Saul’s Jealousy of David

I wonder why...

For us, we celebrate, honor and at least at times worship some for their superior talents and abilities.

There are many athletes, musicians, artists etc but not all are celebrities

Unfortunately, in many/most cases to the exclusion of their character and/or message

This morning we come into Jesus’ public ministry and Luke starts us off with a bang

Let’s read our passage.

I. Celebrity Jesus

A. Positive

Luke’s account starts with an overall picture of the start to Jesus’ ministry

news spreading, being praised

His “fame” was spreading

We would think that this was good

Jesus’ name and teachings were being heard of and praised

Jesus was becoming a celebrity in a sense

Psalm 72:17 ESV

May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!

But fame and celebrity is not necessarily good.

There is a cost to being a celebrity and a pressure as I see it.

Because once you’ve risen to that, there is an expectation and a pressure to stay there.

And instead of a view of reality, there an expectation to receive from that person.

B. Negative

And so you either keep the crowds, fans etc happy or you have a long way to fall

Compromise

How often do we see musical artists or actors who claim to be a Christian and they are all of a sudden singing or acting in ways that don’t correspond with that claim

Christian teachers/preachers who abandon the gospel or are found in sin

We’ve seen it in many forms

We tend to do this in our lives

And perhaps while we look at the test Jesus just faced in the wilderness as so difficult, it is really only the beginning.

And so, with Jesus are we prepared for our faith, even though unintentional, to offend those we love and know best?

And so Jesus comes to his home town, enters the Synagogue to worship with the people there

II. Good News Jesus

And so Jesus is given the scroll of Isaiah, he turns to what we know as Chapter 61 and he reads the good news.

The good news of a Spirit led person, anointed and sent by God

There are 4 servant songs throughout the later half of Isa (42, 49, 50, 52-53)

This passage(61) is considered by some to be a 5th

There is no mention of the servant but it carries the same tone and picture of his calling and anointing as the other 4

Isaiah initially identifies God’s servant as Israel (41:8; 44:1–2), who serves as God’s witness (43:10) and as a light to the Gentiles. Yet Israel could not fulfill this mission: Israel was deaf, blind (42:19), and in need of God’s forgiveness (44:21–22). Israel failed again and again. By contrast, God’s Servant, the Messiah, faithfully completes all the work He is given to do (cf. Luke 13:32; John 17:4). The Servant of the Lord is God’s faithful and true witness to humanity. Got Questions

This are descriptions of the messiah

B. The Good News

for the poor

release for the captives

sight for the blind

freedom for the oppressed

These were the very things Israel would have felt within the Roman Empire

And we might feel in our hearts and lives

And so Isa 61 verse 2 ends with comfort all who mourn

Isaiah 40:1–2 ESV

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

This was good news

Followed by the declaration of

C. The year of the Lords favor

This all carries the picture of the year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8–12 ESV

“You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

This was not something Israel would have been able to practice or truly experience under Roman rule

And so Jesus, having read these words, sat down and in a one sentence sermon told those there that this was him and what he had come to do.

“They were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth” vs 22

Why gracious?

Jesus here in what Roy B Zuck calls foreshortening, leaves the last part of verse 2 off.

I mentioned the mourning but just before that it says

Isaiah 61:2 ESV

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

No vengeance, at least not right now. This was and is to come but until then the grace of God is available to free people in and through this servant, the Messiah, Jesus

III. Messiah Jesus

A. Joseph’s Son

Though originally amazed, Luke is quick to add their commentary of Jesus

“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Isn’t he from here? Isn’t he the one who...

Why do they say this?

Well it seems that perhaps it’s just part of their amazement, someone from here is making such a claim

Nathanael felt the same way when Philip calls him to follow Jesus

John 1:46 ESV

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

It was not known as a place of significance - small farming community

But Jesus sees something deeper going on.

B. Prove yourself

“No doubt you’ll say… Doctor, Heal yourself.”

Holds the idea of “take the plank out of your own eye first...”

But even more significantly - prove yourself

That’s why Jesus continues with do what you did in Capernaum

What’s interesting again, is that Luke only tells us what happened in Capernaum after this story

Why is that important?

Luke is setting the very nature and purpose of Jesus’ mission and ministry before he shows us the reality of what He did.

And his hometown was missing it

C. Drop your pride

So he reminds them of two stories from their history and Scriptures

The first, the widow in Zarephath(Sidon), found in I Kings 17 and the second the story of Naaman the Syrian in 2 Kings 5

Jesus’ commentary - God passed Israel by in difficult times to help Gentiles

The first a famine due to Ahaz king of Israel’s evil and the second a particularly tumultuous time for Israel, God through Elisha heals the commander of the Syrian army from leprosy.

And so Jesus does 2 things with these stories

He calls out the lack of faith of the people of Nazareth and by extension Israel

Show that this good news is not just for Israel but for anyone who will believe

So drop your pride

This is Jesus’ purpose is dropping that last part of vengeance from Isa 61

The vengeance Israel desired for Rome would not happen at this time but also not for them

It was the time, year of the Lords favor, of God’s grace and mercy

So let’s drop our pride

Nothing disturbs me more than the arrogance of Christians

We treat people outside and inside of God’s family like dirt because of it

Remember, but by the grace of God

Conclusion