The Mission of the Church: Jesus

Luke 4:14–22 KJV 1900

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 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. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

INTRODUCTION

I came across an interesting site on the internet the other day. I could resist looking at it. Because even if I really didn't want to admit it, there were probable a few times when I really could have used the homespun, down to earth wisdom it presented.

Out of wisdom I will not share the site…I don’t need you getting any ideas.

Fun Things to Do During A Boring Sermon

• The site suggests such things as:

• See if a yawn really is contagious.

• Slap your neighbor. See if they turn the other cheek.

• Raise your hand and ask for permission to go to the rest room.

I'm convinced it was never supposed to be that way because of an event that occurred early in the public life of Jesus. It occurred in the Synagogue in Nazareth. The event was so extraordinary the site has still been preserved today.

If you were to make you way through the Nazareth, you could easily miss seeing the entrance to a site marking an event in the life of Jesus that Luke tells. Known as the synagogue church, it is the traditional site of the synagogue in which Jesus read from the scriptures.

In Jesus' time, Nazareth was a small Jewish town of not more than 300 people, and there would have been just one synagogue that served their needs.

Over the previous 200 years, synagogues had begun to appear in different parts of the holy land as well as in Jerusalem itself. The synagogue had developed first as a local meeting place, a place where people could gather and read the scriptures and discuss them together.

Attendance at the synagogue had become a regular routine of Jewish life, practicing Jews would have visited regularly. For years they would have heard the same Scriptures read, the law discussed, principles and commandments embraced.

Nothing new, nothing powerful, nothing life changing. Laws and commands, discourses and meditations produced little transformation, little change in people's lives. Legalism, elitism, pharasism were bred in the synagogues. You went, because you were supposed to, it was tradition. You listened because you were told to listen.

I can picture little boys and young men, forced to sit through those services, those long boring discourses. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, Yada, Yada.

Till one day, Jesus - on a visit back to his home town of Nazareth -- was in the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his custom, and he read out loud from the book of Isaiah. And what he read and what he did afterwards changed everything forever.

So just because I know that each of us could add to the list of things to do when we think church is boring, this morning I want us to look at a story that helps us understand Jesus hearbeat better, and hopefully that understanding holds the promise of so much more in our lives.

Turn with me to Luke 4:14-22

I. Setting

John the Baptist & Baptist of Jesus

Just weeks earlier the Jesus had gather with the crowds where John the baptizer was declaring coming changes, the approach of the kingdom of God, the beginning of the time When all things would change. He goes down into the water, and when he emerges the Holy Spirit is seen in a visible way descending from above, and God is heard. This is my beloved son, with whom I am fully pleased.

Temptation of Jesus

Under the Spirit he ends up in the desert, Satan tempts to do deny who he is, to deny his destiny. But Jesus endures and resists and overcomes. For forty days the Spirit of God prepares him for what is ahead. He is so covered in the Holy Spirit that when he leaves the desert and he begins to roam through the surrounding villages teaching in the synagogues the people are awestruck.

Back in Nazareth

So led by the Spirit he finds himself back in his home town. He enters the synagogue. He goes and joins the same group of men who he had heard argue the points of the law, the details of trying harder to live a righteous life before God. He stands in the place where I'm sure over the years more than a few had nodded off in the heat in the stuffy atmosphere of self-righteous diatribes.

T.S. Here he makes the most outrageous declaration; in there hear four things have forever changed. Four things have come true.

II. Proclaims Good News (Gospel)

Good news, produces in us an emotional reaction. Good news in not something to be merely heard it is experienced.

This last week the Mega Millions reached a jackpot of 1.34 Billion Dollars! One ticket won in Illinois.

Good news stirs, changes us. Jesus declares that day that the Good news had come. The change.

These serious devote Jews had lived under the weight of the law, and everything it could do for 1000's of years. These pour wretched men and women who for so long had been trying to earn God's favor.

Luke 4:18 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,

Poor -- literally the impoverished. Figuratively the word is used for the distressed.

The poor individuals who had carried the weight trying to prove your worthiness to God by your fixing your own life. To them Jesus was announcing that Good News had come. It all changes with Him.

* Good news:

the day of trying hard was over

the day of studying scripture with no relevance for everyday life was over.

the day of making yourselves right was over

the day of failing to measure up to the letter was over

the day of arguing about how to be restored was over

the Day of judging each other and your works was over

the day of second class citizens in the kingdom was over

the kingdom of God is alive and active and we can experience it right now…in His Church Today!

Just so we there are no misunderstandings, three other proclamations help us understand more about this good news.

III. Set free the oppressed

Luke 4:18 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,

I don't know what you think of when you hear the word oppressed.

Women, Children, Muslims, Christians, Jews, The Third World, the poor? I don';t know what you think of.

But I think I know what Jesus thought of when he thought of the oppressed.

He thought of us. And he make stow great proclamations about our past.

A. Proclaims Freedom from our Chains

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

We all have experienced hurt. Parents that were abusive, friends that betrayed., marriages that failed. Left unresolved unhealed those hurts often from chains in our life that keep us bound to the past.

In addition we have all sinned, all failed, all fallen short, all of has done things we regret things we are ashamed of, things we hope the world never knows and those things keep us bound. Because you know yourself and you live with yourself every day you know how hard it is to forgive yourself for all the stuff.

Yet Jesus comes and he declares this day with my coming, freedom form all the hurts of your past, all your failings, all the regrets that could keep you chained is past.

I remember one of times I experienced some of that freedom. I had pretty self worth, fool, jerk, moron, cry baby, those were some of the kinder things I was called. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried at home I was always wrong, never good enough. I remember a day at school when a teacher wadded up a test paper I had taken and threw in may face declaring I had cheated because threw as no way I could have ever have gotten that grade. All those little hurts in my life added up so that after I began my journey with Jesus and found myself in Toccoa and College starting days, fight panic attacks about going to school, about not measuring up.

I remember that night being filled with such rage, such fear such pain, that I literally filled the bed over in our bedroom crying I feel to my knees and allowed god to come into that hurt. I gave that pain, those wounds those fear and were chaining even then. A verse came to my mind, nearly shouted by the Holy Spirit. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God for Salvation to everyone who believes." With that verse the idea of not being ashamed God took the fear, began healing one of the wounds that still chained me.

That's exactly what Jesus came to do freed the chained.

B. Proclaims Recovery for our Handicaps

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

Can there be any greater handicap than to be blind.

What you louse because you cannot see

The smile of your children, the vibrancy of the red, the coolness of blue hues, the majesty of mountains. Imagine what you miss.

Yet Jesus promise recovery of sight for the blind. Recovery for the handicap.

He promises recovery for the handicaps in your life. He promises to enter in and make a difference.

Did you have lousy parents, he'll help you recovery and become better one. Handicapped by dyslexia, ADD, have addictive prone behavior. Recovery!!

Whatever it is that handicaps us he promises to enter in and make himself known in those weak areas of our lives. In our weaknesses he longs to be strong.

T.S. Finally Jesus makes on last great declaration that relates to each day of our future.

IV. Proclaims Opportunity to Experience God's Favor

Luke 4:19 KJV 1900

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

The word “jubilee”—literally, “ram’s horn” in Hebrew—is defined in Leviticus 25:9 as the sabbatical year after seven cycles of seven years (49 years). The fiftieth year was to be a time of celebration and rejoicing for the Israelites. The ram’s horn was blown on the tenth day of the seventh month to start the fiftieth year of universal redemption. The Year of the Jubilee involved a year of release from indebtedness (Leviticus 25:23-38) and all types of bondage (vv. 39-55). All prisoners and captives were set free, all slaves were released, all debts were forgiven, and all property was returned to its original owners. In addition, all labor was to cease for one year, and those bound by labor contracts were released from them. One of the benefits of the Jubilee was that both the land and the people were able to rest. The Jubilee presents a beautiful picture of the New Testament themes of redemption and forgiveness. Christ is the Redeemer who came to set free those who are slaves and prisoners to sin (Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:1; 3:22). The debt of sin we owe to God was paid on the cross as Jesus died on our behalf (Colossians 2:13-14), and we are forgiven the debt forever. We are no longer in bondage, no longer slaves to sin, having been freed by Christ, and we can truly enter the rest God provides as we cease laboring to make ourselves acceptable to God by our own works (Hebrews 4:9-10).

Jesus announced the day of God' favor had come. The day when we could expect him to show up and show off in every circumstance in our life. Favor doesn't equal a pefect life, but life with God making himself evident in every circumstance.

Romans 1:16 KJV 1900

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

SUMMARY

Good News

Freedom and recovery form all that binds us, handicaps us

The opportunity to experience God's Favor

So if Jesus declares what God's kingdom will be, the church should be filled with stories of Good News, Freedom, Recovery, and Favor.

CHALLENGES

1. The Heartbeat of Jesus is all about people experiencing more.

2. Know that there has to be more?

Wounds unhealed,

Still handicapped by your past? Ask God for More.

Seeking? He can be found!

3. Right now today you know you want more. You want unhealed wounds to be addressed, you what to be freed form chains of the past that keep you back, you want to experience more. Pray with me.

God we want more.