The Good News

Introduction: Good news and bad news. It seems you can’t have one without the other. This week at a church camp New Haven MBC had many souls saved, others rededicated their life to Christ. That’s good news. On the other side, Bro. Ryan Carlisle, youth pastor at Longview MBC passed away at the gym. That’s bad news. He new Jesus as his savior and his family will get to see him again one day, that’s good news! The Gospel means good news for a reason!

Background: We can picture the scene. Jesus in his home town, going to the synagogue as was his custom…(we can learn a lot from just that verse).

When the law and the prophets were read in the synagogue, those who read were expected to stand. Not only priests and Levites, but common Israelites were allowed to read the Scriptures publicly. Every Sabbath, seven persons read: a priest, a Levite, and five ordinary Israelites.

Now as he was known as just a carpenter, he was not considered a priest, or a Levite, or a Rabbi at that time to most people, you can just imagine the scene when he is handed the book of Isaiah and opens to this specific passage of scripture and proclaims himself to be the Christ!

They waited for him to finish the section of scripture which ended with “and the day of vengeance of our God. Yet he closed the book. They were hanging on his words and marveled at him. They waited for him to perform miracles, they were looking for Him to pour out vengeance on the Romans. But He said nothing about that. That day still has not come!

Instead he gave them a lecture, one that was bitter to their taste and hard on their ears and hearts and they arose in outrage! They took him to the edge of town whereby to try to kill him and he just simply walks away.

They had missed the good news and only focused on the bad.

We are all guilty of doing the same thing. We focus on the negative in life and miss all the positive things that God has placed right in front of us. If you don’t believe it, do 100 great things perfectly and mess up one time and see which one everyone remembers most.

Let’s read the good news once again and focus our attention today on why it’s called the Gospel:

Luke 4:18–19 KJV 1900

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Transition: This is why it is good news…there is something for everyone. Everyone in this place today fits in one of these categories.

I. The Gospel Came To the Poor-

This means to someone who thinks they have little value

it also means the poor in spirit

This is the the lost person

Is it any wonder why it was first on the list

There is no good news without the Saviour. There is only bad news

II. The Gospel Came To Heal the Broken

Heal is infinitive, means goes on forever

There is no limit to his healing power!

this is also past tense which means he has already done it and it continues on.

He provided a cure to heal you that will never be taken away

Brokenhearted- crushed, shattered, smashed to pieces.

to literally be weakened or destroyed in spirit

Many of you in here today fall into this category.

Your spirit has been weakened or even destroyed by something or someone in your life.

You are not as “on fire for God” as you once were in your life.

You have become more like a Laodicean than a disciple of Christ.

You are broken and broken hearted.

There is a cure for this brokenness. That cure is Jesus!

You wouldn’t break your leg and hope that it heals on it’s own, you would go to a Dr. and have him set it, cast it, and allow it to heal.

So why wont you come to the Dr. when it comes to your spiritual brokenness?

You weren’t meant to be crushed, you weren’t meant to be shattered, you weren’t meant to be spiritually destroyed!

Jesus Christ is the only the answer to heal your broken heart!

Transition: Just the other day I read a post on the ABA Preacher’s forum about the word brokenness. The pastor hated the word. He felt that it allowed the believer to think that they were a victim instead of taking responsibility for their sin. While that is very true there is also the sin of others that can leave you broken. If you are one of those people who have suffered and feel crushed because of their sin, there is good news! Jesus came for you. If you are the one who is guilty of shattering others spirit, there is good news for you! Jesus came for you also, which lead to our next point...

III. The Gospel Came To Free You From Sin

Literally deliver you from the prison of sin

Sin loves to hold you down

It loves to bind you in chains and never intends to let you go

You don’t think you will ever become a prisoner, but the rush you get every time you sin is like a drug and you think you have to do it again and again until you look up and you have hit rock bottom!

Some of you in here today fall into this category

Some of you are dealing with some serious sin in your life and you are afraid to admit it.

You will never be free until you confess it and ask for forgiveness

You will remain a captive, a prisoner to your sin and life is only going to get worse for you

If we could get to heaven on our own, if we could overcome the power that sin has in our lives then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross for us.

But he did, and we can’t so you need to get it right with God today.

The good news: He is waiting to give you the pardon, all you have to do is go to the man who can give it to you and that is Jesus!

IV. The Gospel Came So That You May See

This is by far some of the greatest news given:

Sin will blind you to the things of God

Sin will cause you to focus on the negative in life and miss the positive blessings.

However, when the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to write these exact words that Jesus pronounced that day in the synagogue, he says I have come that you may look up and see once again!

He is the only one who can take the scales from your eyes

He is the only one you are to fix your eyes on

There is good news in this evil world and His name is Jesus!

Closing: This week we celebrate the Freedom of this nation. We celebrate the sacrifice that our forefathers gave in order for us to live in this land. There is a quote that everyone knows and can probably say “Give me liberty or give me death”. That is exactly what will happen when the Lord comes back and the Great White Throne Judgement takes place. You will have either liberty through the blood of Christ or you will have eternal death because you refused to hear the Good News of the Gospel.

Which category do you fit in today? Are you lost and need to admit you are in need of forgiveness? Are you spiritually broken and crushed? Are you being held captive by your habitual sinning and need to come to pray and get things right with God? Maybe you fall into the last category and just need to rededicate your life to Christ. It’s not to late, today is the day.

Bro Ryan didn’t know it was going to be his last day on this earth when he went to the gym the other day, but it was. His heart was right with God. How’s yours?

Freeman, J. M., & Chadwick, H. J. (1998). Manners & customs of the Bible (p. 503). North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers.