The Mission of Jesus

Introduction

Good morning please open your Bibles to Luke 4:14-30 that is Luke 4:14-30. If you are using one of the Bible’s scattered throughout the chairs you will find that on page 807 that is page 807.

My coming of age years were smack dap in the middle of Mission Impossible 2 and Mission Impossible 3. If you are unfamiliar with the 8 movie series, it follows the life of special agent Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise. It is a series that lacks plot, good acting, or anything meaningful. But is a great series if you like to watch car chases, fight scenes, and explosions. Which means in my early teen years me and my best friend Jess Barker would watch these movies over and over. Each movie starts the same way, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise is doing some sort of awesome and dangerous stunt and in the course of this extreme situation he receives a communication that typically self-destructs in dramatic fashion. But before this happens the iconic line on Mission Impossible is stated, “Your mission if you choose to accept it…”

This morning Jesus announces that He is the Messiah, the anointed one that was prophesied about by the Jewish prophets, and he does this by reading from the prophet Isaiah, which declares the purpose of the Messiah. Jesus reads from Isaiah and tells us his earthly mission is to proclaim good news, liberty, and God’s favor to those who are poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. This mission seems to be accepted and celebrated at first, but by the end of the text the people reject Jesus, and try to kill him. As we engage with this text this morning we will be forced to come to grips with the mission of the Messiah. And we have to reckon with the reality that his mission is our mission. This is the mission of Christ should you choose to accept it.

The Mission Declared v. 14-22

Luke 4:14–22 “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 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. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 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. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 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?””

Jesus leaves the wilderness and returns to the region of Galilee in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and he was full of the Spirit as he was tempted by the devil, and now in the power of the Spirit he returns to his hometown. While in the region of Galilee, before going to his specific hometown of Nazereth, Jesus teaches in a way in which he is glorified by all. He has a large following of people, and they are impressed with His words. He teaches in the synagogues, which were Jewish meeting houses for Jews who lived far away from the temple in Jerusalem. On the Sabbath, Jews would gather in these meeting houses, pray, sing, and read from the Old Testament and someone would be asked by the ruler of the synagogue to give a teaching on the text that is read. Christians adopted much from the synagogue tradition when establishing local churches that would meet each Lord’s day. We read, sing, and teach from a specific text of the Bible.

Jesus then comes to his hometown, Nazareth, and he continues in his custom of visiting a synagogue and teaching from the Scriptures. He stands up and reads from a scroll given to Him. He takes the scroll, which would have contained the entire book of Isaiah and unrolls it to the place we read about here which is Isaiah 61:1-2. He sits down, as was the custom before giving a one sentence sermon. Now, before you all get to excited Jesus could teach a sermon in one sentence because he was Jesus. I need a little more! In all seriousness, Luke is probably giving us the cliff notes of the sermon. He is summarizing what Jesus read and taught. In fact, in Luke’s quotation is primarily from Isaiah 61:1-2 but also pulls for Isaiah 58:6. And some of you think our Scripture reading of 10ish verses are too long. Well Jesus probably read from 4 chapters ish of Isaiah. But Luke gives us the main point of Jesus’ message.

The main point is the Messiah, or the anointed one, is anointed or sent for the sake of proclamation. Jesus came to proclaim a message. The message of good news to the poor, liberty to the captive and sight to the blind, and a message of God’s favor. This message I believe is meant to be taken both metaphorically and literally. Jesus will literally in the book of Luke feed the poor, cast out demons, and give sight to the blind. He will draw near to the sinner, tax collector, prostitute, and leper. Those considered untouchable and unclean will be made whole in Christ. Yet, we also know that Jesus is up to more that just healing temporal and physical ailments. He is doing more than just changing temporary circumstances. He is also changing eternities as he provides eternal salvation through the forgiveness of sins for all who will receive him by faith. In order to receive Christ we must see ourselves as spiritually poor, blind, captive to sin, and oppressed by our flesh and the devil. We need to be freed from our sinful condition in order to receive the Lord’s favor.

It is no mystery that is it often those who are physically poor and distressed who are also most aware of their spiritual condition. The harsh realities of poverty, disease, consequences, and the like are used by God to soften the hearts of sinners like you and me. God uses our pain and suffering to reveal to us the reality of our spiritual condition. Our souls are impoverished, diseased, and marred by our failures and the temptations of devil. All humans are in deep need of the saving power of Christ, but only those who are humble can receive His healing.

It is also no mystery that those who are aware of their spiritual poverty are able to associate with the physically poor. Those who are aware of their spiritual blindness can associate and sympathize with the physically blind. Those aware of their enslavement to sin can draw near to those enslaved to addiction, those bound in prison, and those trapped and oppressed by the devil. Those aware of their status as a sojourner in this world are able to draw near to the foreigner in our midst. Familiarity with our spiritual condition apart from Christ empowers us to draw near to those who are unlike us in superficial and physical ways, but are like us in the most fundamental of ways. We can point them to the one who can free them, heal them, and bring them the good news they truly need. And this is because He, Jesus, has freed us, healed us, and brought us the good news that He can save us from sin.

Jesus declares this mission and then says the words, Luke 4:21 ““Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” He makes it clear that He is the one that has come to proclaim good news, liberty, and the Lord’s favor to all who are poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. All who will admit their unloveliness are freed to receive the unconditional and eternal love of God through his grace by faith in His Son. And at this teaching the people speak well of Him and his gracious words. They think to themselves, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” They think we know this kid, we knew his Dad. Look how he’s grown up. But they don’t quite see what Jesus is telling them. They like the sound of his gracious words, but they don’t want to accept the primary piece of his teaching. The reality that HE is the one who this text is speaking of. That if they are the poor ones, they are the ones who are blind and captive to sin.

T/S- So Jesus in his preaching clarifies his message and his mission.

The Mission is Clarified v. 23-27

Luke 4:23–27 “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.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 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, and 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 the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.””

The people in the synagogue, while they seem to accept Jesus gracious words about freedom coming to the captive don’t accept Jesus as the Messiah. They instead see him as Jospeh’s son, something that Luke has made clear is only an appearance of the truth. In the genealogy of Jesus Luke says that Jesus being son (as was supposed) of Joseph… but ultimately concludes the genealogy by declaring that Jesus is the Son of God. Which he also tells us through the angel, Gabriel, in Luke 1. We have insider information as we read through the Gospel about Jesus. But the people in the synagogue do not have this information. Rather they have the powerful teaching of Jesus’ word as he teaches through Isaiah. His proclamation that He is the fulfillment of this text. He is the good news, he is the savior of the captives, the healer of the blind, and the favor of the Lord. And they must accept this proclamation by faith, and as Jews who would be awaiting the Messiah this is something they ought to do.

Yet, they do not. They don’t see themselves as the poor and blind, and therefore they do not see Jesus as the Messiah. So Jesus says to them surely you will quote this proverb to me. You will want me to “heal myself” that is to say you will want me to do the works I did in Capernaum here in Nazareth. They will say “heal yourself” which is code for “heal us” as a fellow Nazarene. Don’t just do the miracles for those people, come and them for your people. They will presume that they deserve to witness and experience the miraculous works of God since Jesus is “one of them.” He should be obligated to give them special access to the works of God. But Jesus is saying that is not how this works. Being from the same hometown as Jesus, does not bring about the works of God. The works of God are the result of faith, not being an insider. Receiving the Messiah doesn’t come as the result of knowing a guy on the inside, a fellow Nazarene. It comes from believing that you are poor and Jesus is the Christ.

To illustrate this reality Jesus refers to two prophets in the the OT Elijah and Elisha and how both of them passed over Jews, and instead chose to bless Gentiles. Jesus tells them there were many widows in Israel, yet God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath, Sidon who God commanded to feed Elijah during a drought. This is a Gentile region and in 1 Kings 17 we read about how Elijah left Israel and comes to a widow who is about to die of starvation. She only has enough oil and flour left for one last meal for her and her son. Elijah commands her to make him a meal first, and that afterward there will be enough flour and oil to feed the three of them until the Lord send rains. This woman only has enough food for one last meal, and she has to decide if she will trust the word of Elijah. We will use all of her flour and oil to make him a meal first, and will there then be by some miracle enough for her and her son to eat. She only has is word to go on, and she risks it all, and behold the Lord does provide. 1 Kings 17:16 “The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.”

Jesus also references a story found in 2 Kings 5 about a Syrian miltary commander named Naaman. The Syrians had laid seige to Israel and are powerful enemies of Israel, and a young Israelite girl is taken during one of these conflicts and made Naaman’s slave. Naaman is a leper and desires healing. The slave girl decides to tell her master about the prophet Elisha who can heal him. Taking her word for it Naaman goes to Israel with a letter from his lord which commands the king of Israel to heal Naaman. The king of Israel reads the letter and tears his clothes because he does not believe that God can heal Namaan. Elisha hears about this and says, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So, Naaman goes to the house of Elisha and Elisha doesn’t even come out and see him. Instead he sends Naaman a messenger who tells Naaman to go and wash 7 times in the Jordan river. Naaman at first cannot believe that Elisha won’t come out and see him and wave a hand over him. He wants Elisha to take some action and heal him! And so he decides to go back to Syria. But listen to what happens 2 Kings 5:13–14 “But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

Do you catch the similarities in our three stories. Jesus preaches a word from the prophet Isaiah that needs to be received in faith. The widow listens to the word of the prophet Elijah and in faith uses her last bit of flour and oil. Naaman only gets the word of the prophet Elisha and in faith he must choose to actually go wash in the Jordan. Naaman in healed, the widow is provided for, the people of Nazareth reject the word of the prophet just like the widows and lepers in Israel. Jesus is telling these Jews that since they are rejecting Him, He will go to the gentiles. He will go to those who have faith. In Matthew 13:58 we are told“And he did not do many mighty works there [Nazareth], because of their unbelief.”

This is the crystal clear message of Jesus. He is to be taken at his word, and it is only with faith in the word of God can anyone be set free, healed, receive sight, and rejoice in the good news that the year of the Lord’s favor is now.

T/S- Jesus clarifies his message and in pointing out the true condition of the Nazarenes they respond in wrath and reject Jesus.

The Mission Rejected v. 28-30

Luke 4:28–30 “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 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. But passing through their midst, he went away.”

They are so enraged by his message they go from marveling at the gracious words that he spoke to trying to through him off a cliff. Jesus’ insinuation that they would be passed over for the Gentiles results in a mob that is ready to kill. This gives us an idea of the political climate of the time. The Jews hated the gentiles. It was not a friendly rivalry, a slight distaste, or quiet disdain. They were ready to kill the son of Joesph, the hometown kid, at these words.

The idea that the poor, blind, captive, and oppressed of Isaiah 61 who would be rescued by the anointed one could be gentiles was appalling to these Jews. They were filled with wrath at these words. Our prophecies might be fulfilled in gentiles!? How dare Jesus make such a suggestion. He must pay, he must die.

And yet, Jesus passed through their midst and went away. It was not time for Jesus to die. His earthly ministry was just getting started and he would not die until the Father’s appointed moment came. He more teaching to give and more miracles to perform. He had come to fulfill Isaiah 61 and he would see it done. Jesus escapes their attempt to kill him. He will only die when he is ready.

Now, before we get too judgmental of these Jews I want us to read from Romans 11:19–23 “Then you [speaking to gentile Christians] will say, “Branches [Jews or Israelites] were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”

Why was Israel cut off? Because of their unbelief. Why were we Gentiles grafted in? Because of our faith. We cannot take pride and say to ourselves, at least I am not like those Jews in Nazareth. We must take heed, don’t be proud, but fear. If God did not spare the people of Israel when they fell into unbelief, do not think that he will spare you. God is both kind and severe. He is kind to those who place their faith in Him. He is severe to those who reject Him. And there is no limited to kindness or severity. He will cut off his kindness to any who fall away in unbelief. He will restore his kindness to any who return to Him in faith.

Conclusion

Jesus was a the hometown kid. These people had grown accustom to him. They assumed that they knew him and presumed that he owed them his miracles. They did not see their need for the good news of the Gospel. Though, they were truly blind to the reality right before them. This is a danger for many of us today. Our walk with Christ has become old hat. We can act like we have all we need from Jesus. We already know what we’re gonna get out of church. This community group will just be another community group, this Equip lesson just another Bible lesson. Why should I get up early just to hear something I already know? Why should I show up to a mid-week meeting just ask the same old questions, prayer for the same old prayer requests, come to the worship service and sing the same old songs. I’m an insider, I know what this is all about. And when is Jesus gonna give me what I need. When is Jesus gonna perform the works for me, that he is for those people over there. Is this Christianity thing really even worth it?

These feelings of staleness, frustration, and discontentment stem from our view of ourselves. If we see ourselves as more than we are, we relate to Jesus as if he owes us something. But if we see ourselves as poor, blind, and captive to our sin. Then we see Jesus as the one who brings good news. The one who heals, and the one who will set us free. This is the mission of Jesus if you will choose to accept it? Let’s pray.