PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE: Responding to the Gospel in obedience.

INTRODUCTION

Good Morning Life Church

Stand with me as we read God’s word to us today.

1 John 1:5–10 NASB95

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

TODAY WE CONTINUE IN LUKE 4 AND HEAR JESUS AND RESPOND TO JESUS.

I chose 1 John 1 - as our community reading today to set-up Luke 4 today.

Luke shows us the interaction of Jesus with his hometown

Family

those he loved and loved him

those he should be able to trust

His religious leaders as a child and young man.

Basically his home church.

It is easy to dismiss the words of Jesus to us today

To see ourselves as better than the audience Jesus addresses in our reading.

So, 1 John 1 - I hope sets us up with humility to look historically and then bring His words and revelation to our own church - the here and now.

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LETS RECAP

LAST WEEK:

The Mission of the triune God in and through Jesus.

Luke 4:18–19 NASB95

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Jesus reveales to us that God has come to set us free.

Our response should be two fold.

Believe and trust in Jesus to do what he claims he is doing.

To join Him in this mission by proclaiming it to all the world and building systems of life that are based on His mission.

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JESUS PRESENTS THIS JEWISH WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY WITH HARD TRUTHS AND WITH HOPE.

Hard Truth - You, religious, covenant, worshippers of Yahweh are -

Poor - Materially sure but even more spiritually.

Captives – Captive to Rome sure but more so, to the evil spiritual powers operating through nations, and people.

Blind – Unable to see the truth and therefore unable to fix the problem.

Oppressed – The sickness of sin in you and done against you has caused spiritual brokenness to the point you have no hope.

HOPE - BUT I HAVE COME TO GIVE YOU GOOD NEWS.

I have come to declare that the evil spiritual powers are doomed and will be under my feet. The chains and cells of sin are loosed.

I have come heal your spiritual eyes so you can see the truth and follow me.

I have to set you free from your oppressive sin nature and set you free from the tramma of sin committed against you.

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TODAY, WE EXAMINE THE RESPONSE OF HIS LOCAL SYNAGOGUE TO HIS MISSION

You need to understand

Jesus will confront our self-assurance with the Gospel and our response will demonstrate a heart of worship or rebellion.

Luke 4:21–24 NASB95

And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.

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HISTORICAL SIDE NOTE FOR CONTEXT.

THE EXODUS IS THE APEX STORY AND FOUNDATION FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

Poor - Materially and spiritually as they had lost connection with their faith, culture, and God.

Blind - To their need for Yahweh to save them.

Captive - To the social, religious, cultural, and economic system of Egypt.

Oppressed - Beaten, killed, and forced into slave labor. No hope and therefore no will or imagination to be free.

GOD RAISES UP MOSES TO SET THE PEOPLE FREE.

GOD TELLS PHARO THROUGH MOSES - LET MY PEOPLE GO, THAT THEY MAY WORSHIP ME IN THE DESSERT.

God destroys the spiritual powers that used the human empire to enslave His people.

Leads them through the red sea and then drowns the oncoming Egyptian army.

God then establishes them in the land He had promised Abraham hundreds of years earlier.

NOW IMAGINE -

I don’t need Moses to set me free. i am self -sufficient .

My life is just fine the way it is.

FOOLISH RIGHT!

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THIS IS THE SELF DECEPTION AND SELF RELIANCE JESUS MEETS IN HIS HOMETOWN AFTER ANNOUNCING HE HAS COME TO FREE THEM.

Is this not Josephs boy?

Prove to us who you say you are.

Give us a sign like you did in Capernium.

HIS HOMETOWN PEOPLE ARE REJECTING THE GOSPEL BECAUSE OF THEIR PRIDE.

Who do you think you are to tell us - Sons of Abraham that we are Poor / blind/ captive / oppressed.

Jesus will confront our self-assurance with the Gospel and our response will demonstrate a heart of worship or rebellion.

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TO THIS VERY DAY PRIDE IS OFTEN THE MAIN REASON PEOPLE REJECT JESUS AND HIS DESIRE TO SET US FREE.

The secular person is too proud to admit they are poor in spirit / captured by self harming and society harming sins / CAPTURED BY FALLEN SPIRITUAL POWERS CONTROLING CULTURE, and need a savior.

The atheist is too proud in his own intellect to admit that he is blind to the spiritual reality of personal evil, societal evil, and the spiritual forces that control our world views. BLIND TO HIS OR HER NEED FOR GOD.

The church is often too proud to admit they still need a savior, daily.

Still blind to hidden sins

still captured by socially acceptable sins.

And still need Jesus to save us daily from destructive sinful habits.

LET ME GIVE YOU CHURCH EXAMPLES.

Jesus confronts our love of sin - get angry and mad at the preacher. Or we deconstruct our faith so we can sin without guilt.

The word of God confronts our poverty in worship - I will worship how I feel like it.

HS confronts our bondage to continued sin - make excuses, look for loop holes , then point the finger at others whose sin is not like ours.

The Gospel points out our blindness to our own sinfulness - We call what is sinful righteous so we do not have to confront our own weakness.

Jesus will confront our self-assurance with the Gospel and our response will demonstrate a heart of worship or rebellion.

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JESUS THEN CONTRASTS THE HEART OF THE PEOPLE TO TWO OUTSIDERS GOD CHOSE OVER REBELLIOUS ISRAEL.

Luke 4:24–27 NASB95

And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

1 Kings 17 ) Elijah sent to a Gentile Widow.

Poor materially / oppressed physically by poverty / captive to the curse of death and her own sins. Outsider to the covenant of God

Give up what you hold most valuable and give it to God

God through the prophet feeds her and her family / makes her aware of her sins / raises her son from the dead.

Her response - to Worship Yahweh

2 Kings 5) God uses Elisha to heal a Gentile general.

Poor in Spirit - pride / Blind to who he is and blind to who God is.

Captured by a physical disease

Give up your Pride and need for a big show to validate who you think you are.

God through the prophet heals his body

His response to become a worshipper of Yahweh.

What was their response - Worship and Obedience.

While Israels response in both stories was pride and rebellion.

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WHAT WILL BE OUR RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL?

Luke 4:28–30 NASB95

And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.

THE GOSPEL OPENS OUR EYES TO OUR HIDDEN DEPENDENCE ON SIN.

IT CONFRONTS OUR MIND AND SOUL WITH A REALITY CHECK.

IF WE RESPOND IN ANGER AND REBELLION, WE ARE PUSHING JESUS AWAY.

WE ARE PUSHING OUR VERY SALVATION AWAY.

YET IF WE RESPOND IN HUMILITY / DEPENDENCE / AND REPENTANCE - WE ARE EMBRACING LIFE / FREEDOM / HEALING.

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THE GOSPEL -

TODAY I WANT TO GIVE YOU THE GOSPEL.

It is for both the Saint and the Sinner

The Good News of Jesus is life to both the lost and the found.

The Good news is healing to both those who are far and those who are near.

It is spiritual food that brings life to all of us, even the most saintly person you know and the most wretched sinner.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 NASB95

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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CONCLUSION:

WORSHIP TEAM UP

GIVE THE GOSPEL

ALTAR CALL