Bold Predictions

Good morning and welcome to another week of Church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that we can join together in worship this morning. It has been a struggle these last couple of weeks. We have been meeting virtually and are again this week. Mostly because I had contracted Covid. Thankfully i had mild to almost no symptoms. It is always hard to be quarantined and isolated from others.

I want to share a story with you that many of you will recognize.

Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. Top of the firth inning at Wrigley field and Babe Ruth steps up to plate. Naturally being the visiting team the fans are heckling and booing him. Babe Ruth has in mind to find a way to get these fans quiet. The trash talk continues as the count grows to 2-2. The Babe starts jawing back and Then points a finger to center field. On the very next pitch CRACK! a home run in center field.

We all know the story it goes down into the history of Baseball and really all sports as one of the most iconic moments in the history of sports. Calling his shot.

Do you know what Babe ruth said though about this bold prediction.

No. It isn't a fact. Only a fool would have done a thing like that [...] Then there was that second strike, and they let me have it again. So I held up that finger again, and I said I still had one left. Now kid, you know damn well I wasn't pointing anywhere. If I had done that, Root would have stuck the ball in my ear. I never knew anybody who could tell you ahead of time where he was going to hit a baseball.

I had to clean up that quote a little bit for this morning because the Babe was a little more colorful.

It still goes down as one of the greatest moments because it did look like he predicted his shot. What really happened we won’t know for sure but the truth is that it was a bold prediction and it happened.

There are other predicitons that have happend in this world and even in scripture that sparked some amazing events. Let’s look at one this morning.

Luke 4:14–21 NIV

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus Prediction

As a believing Christian this isn’t that shocking of a story to hear the idea of Jesus saying that prophecy from the OT was about him. If i was reading this as a first time reader or believer i would be like wow that is a bold statement. Jesus Looked at the crowd and was like oh yeah this is about me. Now Luke doesn’t share everything that was said that day but this was a highlight worth noting. It was one that was powerful and had an impact. This is a moment that Jesus was boldly standing before a crowd and sharing who he had come to minister to. Let’s look at what he says.

Luke 4:18–19 NIV

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus came to minister to the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed.

He came to be the Good news that everyone needed to hear. To the people that many wouldn’t never expect him to come for. Remember Jesus was at a Synagogue. He was speaking mostly if not entirely to Jewish people. Jewish people who viewed themselves as the list that he shared. This is why at first they were in complete agreement with what he had said. They thought that they were the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed. They had been suffering under rule of a foreign government and they wanted their freedom and the Messiah was going to deliver it to them. They were loving what Jesus had to say to them in that moment.

Luke 4:22 NIV

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

They recognized who he was and they were excited. Yet, They were in for a surprise. Jesus wasn’t talking necessarily about them.

Luke 4:24–27 NIV

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 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.”

Jesus Makes two very important references in this passage that point to who he came to minister to.

Elijah

The first Elijah and the story where he was sent not to a widow of Israel but to a Gentile.

Elisha

The Second is Elish and the fact that he healed a Gentile Man.

How Could Jesus reference those people. How Could Jesus possibly mean that the people who he came to minister to wasn’t the chosen people of Israel. He came to minster to the Gentiles. Really the whole world. Need evidence that this was Jesus plan look ahead at...

Luke 8:1–3 NIV

1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Jesus was walking around with his disciples and some Women that were not whom you expect an upstanding Rabbi to be with. First they were women in a place of honor and this was not common in Jesus time. Going to share some truth for you that this is one of the times we recognize that Jesus changed the view of women greatly. the second weren’t exactly the women you would pick if you were going to. One was connected to Herod’s house, one was a women cured of eveil spirit and disease.

Really you want to talk about the poor the prisoners, and the oppressed these women fit the bill to a T.

Jesus came to reach those normally we would never expect. Not only that but he came to minister to the whole world. He wasn’t there for just the chosen people but for everyone. He openly shared that the year of the Lord’s Favor was upon them and the time for salvation had come it just didn’t come for who you might expect.

The Crowd

This was Jesus’ home town they had t love this message still. Right? Nope

Luke 4:28–30 NIV

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 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. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

They were ready to teach him a lesson. They were angry because here was man whom they watched grow up and who at first was saying all the right things. They were excited because they were the in crowd they knew what this meant. Than he turned it all on its head when he told them they weren’t the center of the story anymore.

Imagine all the ways that Jesus could have responded in that moment. He was taken out of the town and just when it got real he simply walked through the crowd and left. Surely God could have done something more than that. Jesus was right though no prophet is welcome in his home town.

The Bold Prediction

The reality is that we are faced with some difficult things right now as a church. When i say church i mean the church universally. We are faced with a time that at least here in western culture have placed ourselves in a position that we see ourselves as the chosen people. We have elevated our standing beyond what it might deserve to be. This morning we are called to be reminded that Jesus may not be welcomed in some of our churches because we aren’t really open to his message. I see this in some of our churches today. The way we act toward others. Yet, don’t be fooled this doesn’t mean that the church is lost. There are sill many people who are a part of the church that is active and alive and serving God. There are churches and people who realize that the message of hope that Jesus came to bring is for all people. That anyone who has faith can come to knowledge in him. That any who start following him and rutn from the sin in the lives can be confident that they too can be a disciple of Jesus. That is what Jesus is predicting. The coming of salvation through him and that is what we celebrate this morning.