Luke 4-Jesus Begins His Ministry: Grace Meets Expectations

FCF: Preferring our expectations of God over his grace.

Geoffrey Send Off

Sermon Opening:

In the last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting. If you ask my wife, she will tell you I am one of the most consistent people she knows. I eat the same breakfast every morning. I order the same thing every time we go to the same restaurant.

I’ve been experimenting. I recently changed from ordering a vanilla latte to getting a breve. If you know, you know. A breve is a latte made with half-and-half or heavy creme instead of milk. I’ve been getting it without flavor. It’s richer and more coffee flavor. Sarah hates it.

It reminded me how we sometimes cling to our comfortable routines, even when something fresh and exciting is right in front of us.

God often wants to introduce new flavors into our lives, but we tentatively sip our old habits instead. This sermon is about not being like an old coffee cup that keeps serving the same old brew when God is offering something new and invigorating!

Text Opening:

Today we will be in Luke chapter 4. We will see the beginning of Jesus ministry.

Our passage today teaches about the danger of familiarity. It’s not just that God has new coffee but sticking with the old is dangerous.

We will see the pitfalls of rejecting God’s grace when it comes in an unexpected form.

These scriptures will challenge our understanding of who is worthy of grace and call us to reflect on our response to God’s message.

This is Luke chapter 4.

Point 1: Proclaim Grace’s Scope

Luke 4:14–19 NIV

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Explain:

The importance of these verses for me and Sarah.

Jesus sets out to Proclaim Grace’s Scope

Jesus is filled with power. The Holy Spirit, his Spirit is filling him with power. He goes around teaching all of Galilee and then he comes home to Nazareth.

He goes into the temple. This was the normal way to worship. Every sabbath people would gather in the temple, they would celebrate the offering. The priest would go behind the curtain.

Then anybody could stand up to pray or speak.

When we hold our open worship - we are worshipping like Jesus did.

Jesus stands and he reads Isaiah.

He proclaims Grace’s scope.

The word grace isn’t used here, but this is a teaching on grace.

Here is the definition of grace:

Grace is not Unmerited favor - that’s the common definition but it doesn’t go far enough.

Grace is God doing our lives what we cannot do ourselves.

Who is Grace for? Good news to the poor Release to the captives Sight to the blind Freedom for the oppressed

Who needs grace?

People who have everything together don’t grace. They have everything.

It’s the people who don’t have it together who need grace.

The scope of grace is people who are broken.

Illustrate:

Imagine two people, one is a soccer dad that loves his job, loves wife, and loves taking his kids to soccer practice. He loves Jesus and serves on his church elder board.

Imagine another man who hates his job, hates his wife’s cat, is unhappy in his marriage, he’s behind on bills and is about to lose his house.

In this story who needs grace?

Apply:

God’s grace is for people are broken.

It is not the gospel unless we speak about that man’s troubles in as much as we speak about his soul.

Any gospel that includes evangelism, but not good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus.

Grace is God doing in your life what you cannot do yourself.

The poor cannot pay to have the good news given to them.

The captives cannot release themselves.

The blind cannot choose to receive their sight restored.

The oppressed cannot just walk free.

God’s grace accomplished in their life, what they cannot do for themselves.

Our gospel must speak the reality that Jesus has come to heal these ailments.

For you, what work are you unable to do in your life. That is where you need God’s grace.

Where in your life are poor, are you captive, are you blind, are you oppressed.

God’s has a gospel message for you in his grace. He can do things that you cannot.

Point 2: Prophet without Honor

Luke 4:20–24 NRSV

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.

Explain:

This section right here is a preparatory section. It prepares the audience for what comes next.

Jesus knows that what he will say next will cause him to be rejected.

Jesus has just quoted the Isaiah verses.

Now he rolls up the scroll of Isaiah and says, “today, this is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Everybody is fired up. They know that this means Jesus is saying God is going to accomplish his work.

The Jews were amazed at his gracious words but they didn’t understand what it meant.

They thought the year of the Lord’s favor would mean that God would be gracious to them and restore Israel to the people.

Jesus never intended to give Israel back to the Jews - Jesus has a higher kingdom.

The Jews have expectations about how the messiah will act. Jesus is beginning to tell them that they are wrong.

In our world, still, most people think that wonderful news consists of success, wealth, long life, victory in battle. Jesus is offering wonderful news for the humble, the poor, the mourners, the peacemakers.

N. T. Wright

The Jews will reject Jesus because they can’t accept this.

This is my Second Point Jesus is a Prophet without Honor

Jesus is preparing the people. He is going to tell them the truth even though it will be hard for them to hear it.

Let me tell a story and I’ll connect it in

Illustrate:

When I was fresh in Cambodia, we had been there a month. We were going to drive in one of host families cars out to church.

I get motion sick, I get car sick. I told them. If I don’t sit in the front, I get car sick. (Knyom chew lan) Knyom - I; chew - sick; lan - car. knyom chew lan

I repeated it. They got frustrated with me.

When we got to church they went and talked with teammates who had been there several years.

They came over and asked what did you tell them.

I said it again. Knyom chew lan.

They said, don’t say that.

I was telling them, if I didn’t get to sit in the front, I would break their car (literally make their car sick).

I needed to say pul lan (I will have car poisoning).

Listen, if I don’t sit in front, I will break your car.

Apply:

I brought my familiar ways with me. My familiar way was the phrase is car sick. That didn’t work in my new context. In my new context I was rude.

The Jews of Jesus day missed the new thing happening in their context.

How many of us hold on to familiar ways and miss the new things happening around us.

We become familiar with God’s message and our familiarity can lead us to miss its transformative power.

Our familiarity can often mean we resist grace that disrupts our preconceived notions and we miss God’s broader vision.

This is why we must resist lower t tradition.

When we establish tradition, we build familiarity that can lead us to preconceived notions of how God works and we miss his broader vision and transformative power.

Jesus understands all of this and he sets up this point to cover his next point.

Here’s how he transitions.

Luke 4:25-30

“But the truth is...”

You know when somebody says, But the truth is that it’s about to get serious.

Point 3: Prevail over Prejudice

Luke 4:25–30 NIV

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Explain:

In this passage, Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth and reads from Isaiah, proclaiming good news, freedom, and the year of the Lord's favor. Rather than receiving Him with joy, the people express skepticism and ultimately reject Him because He does not fit their expectations of the Messiah.

When he explains the year of the Lord’s favor he doesn’t talk about Israel, he talks about prophets who helped Gentiles.

He references 1 Kings 18 where God calls Elijah to the gentile Zarephath woman and God provided for her and Elijah through the drought.

Jesus follows up by referencing Elisha, who healed, not one of the many lepers in Israel, but Naaman the Syrian leper in 2 Kings 5.

How did the Jews view the gentiles? They saw them as enemies to be conquered.

Jesus is saying you think this gospel is for you, but really your thinking is too small. It’s for everybody. That’s why Jesus called them to love their enemies.

When Jesus says it’s for the poor, he means the poor every where.

He means the captives in every cell.

He means the blind on every street.

He means the oppressed down in every valley.

He means everybody.

The Jews in their tradition were prejudiced against such an open gospel.

This is my third point Jesus Prevailed over Prejudice

For the Jews they couldn’t overcome their prejudice so they tried to kill Jesus by hurling him off the tallest hill in Nazareth.

How quickly the people turned from celebration to confrontation. A prophet is has no honor in his hometown.

Jesus showed them, God has always been for the gentiles, the people different from ourselves. God has been for the people that you think don’t belong here.

For showing them that truth they tried to kill him. Luke 4:28-30

Luke 4:28–30 NIV

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Jesus though passed through them and went on his way.

Illustrate:

Let me bring this back to my coffee order:

Imagine a group of friends who have their favorite coffee shop where everyone orders the same drink. One day, a newcomer walks in and orders something truly bizarre – a pumpkin spice latte with extra whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. At first, the group chuckles and rolls their eyes, but soon they find themselves intrigued and eventually, some try it out and it’s delicious.

Sometimes, God’s grace might seem like that odd drink, challenging our norms, but it can lead to delightful surprises if we’re open to it!

Apply:

We are not different. We resist God’s grace when it challenges our societal norms.

God’s grace, his work in our lives that we cannot do ourselves is not limited by cultural or national boundaries.

Closing:

Here’s what we’ve seen today.

Let me reiterate my points:

These points are descriptive of Jesus:

Proclaim Grace’s Scope

Prophet without Honor

Prevail over Prejudice

We often limit God’s grace by confining Him to our expectations and biases. By recognizing the grace God extends to all, including those we might view as enemies, we can learn to embrace a broader vision of His love and mission.

Our mission as Riverside Friends Church is to encourage our community to find hope and transformation in Jesus Christ.

Our community is every person in Mason City and North Iowa. The poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed in Mason City and North Iowa is who God wants to bring here.

The mission is too important to be held back by our tradition, our expectations, and our biases.

All of ministries and our ministers, myself first and foremost, ought to be measured on this mission.

Dan McGavran said, “If it does not work for the glory of God and the growth of his church - throw it out and find something that does.”

If I ever no longer work for the glory of God AND the growth of his Church, toss me to the curb, that’s where I will belong.

The mission is more important than me continuing in leadership.

Closing Application:

As Sarah and Geoffrey come forward, I want to leave you with two questions.

In light of God’s expansive grace:

What is God doing?

What does God want to do?