Anchored: A Sure Fulfillment

Introduction

Luke 4:14–30 ESV

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

Today is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany means “appearance” and it comes right after Christmas in the Christian calendar. It is marked by Jesus’s baptism, his manifestation as the Son of God, and the launch of his public ministry. Coincidentally, today also marks the final weekend of the NFL regular season. What do those two events have in common? Nothing really. It just serves my purpose in making this point.

Next weekend the NFL playoffs begin and 14 teams will take their shot at a Super Bowl run. And each one of them believes, that is they are certain, that they have a chance to win it all. Professional analysts and everyday fans will debate and discuss each match-up, every injury, every strength, and every weakness. On and on and on it will go for the next month.

When the Super Bowl winner is crowned, every analyst and fan who predicted the winning team correctly is going to say, “I told you so.” And they’ll be recognized for their great insight into the factors that determined the outcome of the game. But the truth of the matter is…they were just guessing. They didn’t know for sure in spite of how smart they appear to be.

My point is this; certainty is a hard thing to grasp. There isn’t much we can say that we’re absolutely certain of beyond the shadow of any doubt all the time. It often seems like we will never overcome the frustration of doubt. We don’t know how things are going to turn out on our job. We don’t know whether we’ve studied enough to perform well on that exam in school. We don’t know what the doctor’s tests are going to reveal about our physical condition. And the lack of certainty can be a frustrating thing.

The Christian life is not a life that is free of doubt. This is simply because the Christian life is a life of faith. It is a life of faith in a God who is infinitely good, a God who is infinitely just, a God who is infinitely wise, and at the same time it is faith in a God who ways are incomprehensible to us because he is infinite in all of those other things. He is a God who lets us know that his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth so are his ways above our ways. We have doubts and we wrestle with his goodness, his mercy, his love, his wisdom when a loved one is taken away from us tragically…Our faith is shaken when we are striving to do what’s right on our job and we end up getting reprimanded, demoted, or even fired because we held on to our integrity. If we were honest this morning we would admit that even if we’ve given our lives to Jesus Christ we still wrestle with doubts and discouragement as Christians. That’s why I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you decided to come by and hear the word of God. The Lord has something to say to you this morning through his servant Luke.

One of the things Epiphany, and this passage, do is remind us that God desires to give us certainty about who Jesus is and what he has done for us and the world. That’s why Luke writes this entire book. He writes to a man named Theophilus, likely a Roman official who had become a Christian. Luke tells him in ch. 1:3-4,

Luke 1:3–4 ESV

3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

We’re going to work through this message with three points, Approval, Anointing, and Animosity.

Approval

As Jesus begins his ministry in v.14, the first word is approval. He returns in the power of the Spirit and the news about him spread (went out) throughout the whole surrounding area. He was teaching in the synagogues and was being glorified by everyone. What is happening here? Luke says, he returned, but where is he returning from?

Jesus is returning from his victory over the devil’s temptation in the wilderness of the Jordan. He was baptized by John the Baptist in ch. 3:21. At the beginning of ch. 4, Luke says that Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. Now, he returns from that victory in the power of the Spirit to Galilee for the launching of his public ministry.

And at the outset there is widespread approval. This approval is significant. That’s because what’s being indicated isn’t just applause for Luke, it’s worship. Luke is the author of the two longest books in the NT; this gospel and the book of Acts. And he uses this verb translated as “glorified” several times. Every time Luke says that someone was glorified, the object of that glory is God. The only time in all of Luke and Acts that the object is not explicitly stated as God is here, where it’s Jesus, and in Acts 13:48 where the object of glory is the word of the Lord.

Here’s the point. Jesus shows up on the scene at the outset of his public ministry as one who is worthy of worship. Luke does not want us to be confused into thinking that we are encountering someone who simply ranks as one of the prophets or a wise sage with good teaching. No, when we meet Jesus we encounter one who is worthy of worship. Think about worship as ultimate allegiance. You see, we are all worshippers. We all give our ultimate allegiance to something or someone that we believe we cannot do without.

I started this message talking about football. I’m a fan of the NY Football Giants. They’ve had my allegiance as a fan for as long as I can remember. I’ve done that thing that all fans do when the Giants won the Super Bowl. I say, “We won the Super Bowl.” I didn’t throw a pass, make a catch, run for a first down, or tackle anybody, but “we won.” And yet, that allegiance isn’t ultimate. If the Giants lose to the Cowboys today they will end the season with at 3-14 record. I guarantee that you will not hear me say, “We lost.” My fandom won’t change, but my willingness to fully identify with the team is conditional.

Here’s the deal. Understand that we are all worshippers. We’ve got conditional allegiances, but we’ve also got an ultimate allegiance. And you and I need to answer that question. Who has my ultimate allegiance? Luke’s message is clear. Our ultimate allegiance must be to Jesus if we’re actually going to be certain about the ultimate things we hope for in this life.

Luke is also clear that this approval of Jesus, this worship that belongs to him, comes through the activity and work of the Holy Spirit. Did you notice that? Luke says that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. In v. 1 of this chapter he is full of the Holy Spirit, and it’s the Holy Spirit who leads him in the wilderness. Let’s go back a little further. At his baptism in 3:22, the Holy Spirit descends on him in bodily form like a dove. As one commentator rightly puts it, Jesus’ ministry was marked by the Spirit’s power. Can we go back a little further? When the angel Gabriel appears to Jesus’s mother Mary in ch. 1 to tell her that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, she asks him, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Gabriel says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). When John the Baptist is born, Luke says his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied (Luke 1:67). When Mary and Joseph bring baby Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord, they encounter a man named Simeon. Simeon recognizes who Jesus is because, the Holy Spirit was upon him (Luke 2:25).

Luke has repeatedly declared that Jesus’ ministry was marked by the Holy Spirit’s power. Can I tell you this? Jesus’ ministry is still marked by the Holy Spirit’s power! The Holy Spirit is the one who, from the beginning, has brought people to recognize that Jesus is the one worthy of our worship. We’re about to move to our second A, but don’t miss this. Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit after going through the wilderness. The wilderness and the Spirit empowered ministry are connected. I said at the outset of this message that the Christian life is not a life that is free of doubt. When do we doubt God’s goodness? We doubt God’s goodness when we are in the wilderness, or when we see others we care about living in the wilderness. This is why there is no life of faith that doesn’t require the Spirit’s power because there is no life in this world that doesn’t include the wilderness. So we praise the Lord that Jesus’ ministry is marked by the Spirit’s power. In Jesus Christ we have a God who knows what it is to come through the wilderness by the Spirit’s power and who is able to minister to you and I through the power of that same Spirit when we are in the wilderness.

Anointing

We move from approval to anointing in vv. 16-21. To say that he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit is to already declare that he was anointed by the Spirit. But what we find in this next section is not Luke’s declaration, but Jesus’ own words. Here is Jesus’ inaugural public message. After making his circuit around Galilee, he comes to his hometown of Nazareth. As was his custom, Luke says in v. 16, he goes to synagogue on the Sabbath. He stands up to read. We don’t know whether he was asked by the ruler of the synagogue to read, or whether he requested permission to read. Commentators note that this is the oldest known account of a synagogue service, and it is lacking in lots of detail. However, it’s not farfetched to think that there’s a sense of hometown pride in the air. “Look at this. Our Jesus is all grown up now. He’s reading and teaching in synagogue.” Luke tells us in v. 21, “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.”

What is earth-shattering for his hometown folks is his choice of passage and his application of it. Jesus opens the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He finds, what for us is Isaiah 61. But, of course, there were no chapter or verse numbers in the scroll. He knew what he was looking for and where to find it. He reads these words,

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He rolls it back up, hand it to the attendant and sits down. This isn’t him sitting back down at his seat in the congregation. This is him sitting in the position of teacher…His application of the passage is, “This is about me.” He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” This is a passage about the Messiah. What will the Christ do when he comes? What will the Spirit’s anointing upon him mean? It will mean liberty. It will mean freedom from physical bondage and spiritual bondage.

Notice with me that the subjects of his focus are people in distress! It’s the poor. It’s the captive. It’s the blind. It’s the oppressed. We can spend hours and days and months discussing the realities and implications of Jesus’ message for those in physical bondage and those in spiritual bondage. His heart for people in this world who suffer from physical poverty; for people who are the victims of oppression and injustice. It’s no small matter that the Savior of the world was born in a manger and not in a mansion. It’s no small matter that the Christ was born to a poor working class family and not to the elite of society. That’s a conversation worthy of our time and attention as it relates to how we move and operate in this world; as it relates to who our eyes are set upon for good.

What I want to emphasize for us in this message on A Sure Fulfillment, in our focus on a sure hope in uncertain times is as one commentator writes,

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary A. The Sermon at Nazareth (4:14–30)

Jesus saw himself as coming with good news for the world’s troubled people.

Are you troubled this morning? Better yet, where are you troubled this morning?

In 1979 Bob Marley released the song So Much Trouble in the World,

Bless my eyes this morning

Jah sun is on the rise once again

The way earthly things are going

Anything can happen

So much trouble in the world

There is so much trouble in the world

We just came through Christmas. In 1966 Stevie Wonder sang

Someday at Christmas men won’t be boys

Playing with bombs like kids play with toys

One warm December our hearts will see

A world where men are free

I woke up yesterday morning to a string of WhatsApp messages from my family in Trinidad, which is right off the coast of Venezuela, about the US strikes on Venezuela. My heart was troubled, not just because of more warfare, but because my cousin’s ex-husband and his family live in Caracas.

It’s not just Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley who sing about the troubles in this world and the hope for something better. I bet it wouldn’t take you too much effort to think of a song or a poem or a work of art you’re familiar with that gives voice to the reality that life in this world is full of trouble.

Jesus declares that he comes with good news for you. He comes with good news that meets you right at the point of your trouble. The good news is a message of freedom, yes. But it’s not only a message. The good news is a message declared by a Savior, anointed by the Spirit, who is full of the Spirit’s power to faithfully deliver on the message.

He doesn’t only proclaim liberty. He liberates! He opens blind eyes. He liberates you from your bondage to sin. He will surely do away with all oppression in every form. His ministry in this very gospel is a testimony to that reality. What do we find in the very next section of this chapter? Jesus frees a man from demon possession. Then he heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law from a deadly fever. Chapter 5, he heals a man with leprosy. Then he heals a paralytic man. His ministry is a validation of the liberty he ushers in by his Epiphany!

Here’s the beauty of his anointing. Jesus’ last words in this book are to his disciples in Luke 24.49

Luke 24:49 ESV

49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

What is the promise of the Father? What is the power from on high that Jesus will clothe his disciples with? It is the same Spirit who empowered his ministry. It’s a promise of our anointing by that same Spirit so that we would be the means by which Jesus continues to proclaim and be good news for troubled people.

This is why you, regardless of your station in life, regardless of your accomplishments or lack thereof, regardless of whether you think you fit in or not, it’s why you’re welcomed here. What you find in the church is a people who, by the Spirit’s anointing, are empowered to be good news for troubled people. So come on in with your doubts and discouragements. Come on in with your struggles and sadness. Come on in. There’s room for you here.

Don’t hear me saying that you won’t find problems in the church. Don’t hear me saying that you won’t find any problems in this church. Do hear me saying that Jesus, on purpose, gave his Spirit to his church for the continuing of this ministry of good news for troubled people that he inaugurated in our passage.

Animosity

Jesus says, I’m a Savior who has come for the world’s troubled people. This message will resonate throughout Luke’s gospel among those who are troubled. But it will also be resisted throughout Luke’s gospel. We find that resistance show up right here in Jesus’ hometown. We go from approval to anointing to animosity.

After Jesus declares that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, Luke tells us in v.22 that, “All spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.” It seems as though this a response of approval like we find in v. 15. However, it’s more nuanced than that. They are awestruck. They are dumbfounded. They are blown away by the power and authority of his message. When Luke says, “the gracious words that were coming from his mouth,” he is indicating, as one commentator puts it, that Jesus’ spoke in

The Gospel of Luke ii. Jesus Teaches at Nazareth 4:16–30

‘words filled with divine grace.’

So we can clearly that there was a shift from amazement to animosity. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Who is he to be speaking this way to us? He doesn’t come from much. We know his daddy and his momma. Their animosity shows up in mob violence. Luke says in v.28 that all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. They are so enraged that they get up from their seats in the synagogue, force him out of town with the intent to kill him. The commentator I just quoted rightly says,

The Gospel of Luke ii. Jesus Teaches at Nazareth 4:16–30

The act envisaged is not a formal execution but lynch law—and on the Sabbath at that.

What we are reading in this passage is an attempted lynching. Don’t think rope and tree, but think mob violence operating outside of the law with the intent to kill. What would drive them to this kind of response? Doesn’t it seem over the top to you? What had Jesus said that could remotely justify this kind of lawless violence?

It is the exact same point I made under our second word, “anointing.” Jesus came with good news for the world’s troubled people, not just for the troubled of Israel. First, they did not respond to his preaching with faith. They responded with amazement, but not with belief. Jesus says to them in vv.23-24,

Luke 4:23–24 ESV

23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

Physician heal yourself. What we heard you did at Capernaum, we demand you do here for us. We heard about your healings and your working of miracles. We demand that you show us. We demand that you perform for us. We will not believe if you will not acquiesce to our demands. We are in control, not you. Mark puts it this way in his gospel book,

Mark 6:4–6 ESV

4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

They are not alone in this posture. People still approach Jesus this way. I will not believe unless you answer this prayer they way I want you to. I will not believe in a God who will not operate the way I want my god to operate. What we say when we have that attitude and what they were saying was, “We will not believe in a god that we cannot control.” Here’s the deal. A god who you can control and direct is no god at all.

Their perspective, secondly, sets them up for rage at Jesus’ response. He takes them back to accounts from the ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. You can find those stories in 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5, respectively. There were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s day and there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha’s day. But God, through his prophets brought healing and grace to Gentiles. Those prophets weren’t simply focused on the needy people of Israel. They extended God’s mercy outside of Israel. Jesus say, “Listen. That’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what I came to do. I will not, indeed cannot, be boxed in by your expectations of who the Christ should be, who he should be for, and how he should act. I am here for the whole world!”

N.T. Wright put it this way about the people’s astonishment,

Luke for Everyone Opposition to Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:14–30)

‘they were astonished that he was speaking about God’s grace—grace for everybody, including the nations—instead of grace for Israel and fierce judgment for everyone else’.

You see, if we read Isaiah 61:1-2, that Jesus quotes from for his inaugural message, v. 2 says, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus stops at “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He leaves out “the day of vengeance.” The day of God’s vengeance is coming when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24) and God’s enemies will experience his judgement. Jesus is declaring that his ministry is the ministry of Jubilee, God’s grace for the nations.

Luke for Everyone Opposition to Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:14–30)

The servant-Messiah has not come to inflict punishment on the nations, but to bring God’s love and mercy to them.

Here’s the deal. We will see this parallel track of approval and animosity running through the gospel of Luke. The responses of approval in this gospel will come from those who know they are the needy; the approval of Jesus’ ministry will come from those who recognize that are deserving of divine judgment, but look to him in faith for favor; approval comes from those who know that they are desperately in need of God’s grace and mercy. And the responses of animosity will come from those who mistakenly believe that they have some inherent right to determine who are the worthy recipients of God’s love, kindness, grace and liberating power. Animosity will come from those who see themselves as the arbiters and dispensers of God’s grace.

Luke tells us that Jesus was able to escape the mob. He doesn’t say how Jesus was able to slip through their midst. Was it a miracle? It’s not information Luke thinks we need to know. The point is this. Jesus’ ministry will be met with approval and animosity. Just because Jesus is the sure fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 61 does not mean that the shadow of rejection is removed. No. It remained then and it remains today.

Family, the troubles of the world will continue. They will continue internally and externally. Those troubles will continue to provide a rationale in your mind to doubt the goodness of God. Hear this. It matters that Jesus inaugurates his public ministry with the message that his mission and ministry is a good news ministry of liberty and healing and grace. You and I can be certain that he will not fail to meet us right in the middle of that trouble; right in the middle of that doubt; with his good news of grace for us so that we would persevere in hope.