Luke 4 (Part 2)

Luke chapter 4 is where we are. This is our second part and we're picking it up in verse 16 so follow along with me as we begin reading there. Luke 4:16.

(ESV)

I'm going to have you stop there. Let's pray. Lord, as we delve into Your Word this morning and go through these important verses, we pray for Your Holy Spirit to open and enlighten the eyes and ears of our hearts, that we might receive from You all that You desire to say to us. Minister grace and wisdom and application to Your Word that we might walk out of this place today equipped to take Your Word into our world. Into the things going on in our lives, into our home, family, workplaces, or whatever. Lead us Lord, we pray. We ask it in Jesus name, amen. Our passage this morning, as you notice, begins with Luke telling us that Jesus came back home, back to Nazareth where He'd been raised from childhood. And by the way, Nazareth, don't think of just this little small village, Nazareth was considered a city. During that time it's very possible that there were as much as 20,000 people in this town so this was a good sized place. And by the way this area of Nazareth, this area of Galilee, is a place where some pretty incredible history took place. If you know your Old Testament very well, it was in the plain nearby Nazareth, where Deborah and Barack fought their famous battle against the Canaanites who were oppressing the Israelites. This is the area where Gideon won his famous victory against the Midianites. This is the area where king Saul ended his life and was slain by the Philistines. This is where king Josiah was tragically killed in battle. This is also near the area where Naboth's vineyard was located. It's very close to where Jehu slaughtered Jezebel and where she received the judgment that was coming to her. It was also very close to where Elisha and Elijah ministered. And it's interesting that Jesus made reference to those two prophets here. It was very nearby where Elisha was cared for by the Shunammite widow. And where Elijah fought his epic battle on Mount Carmel against the 400 prophets of Baal and had a great victory over them. So a lot of history goes on in this particular area where Jesus now comes to His hometown, goes to the very synagogue where He was raised, and certainly probably attended since the time he was around 12. ---

And we're told in the middle of verse 16 that in fact it was His custom to do that. If you notice that in your Bible, “it was his custom.” It says, “as was his custom, he went to the synagogue.” Here's the one person probably on the face of the earth that doesn't need to be there and yet it’s His custom to be there. And it says that He gathered on the Sabbath day. Of course, the Sabbath is not Sunday, it's Saturday. It always has been Saturday as far as the biblical Sabbath is concerned. And a typical synagogue service would have opened with prayer and praise, and then they would have paused and read a passage out of the law. And then someone would stand up and open the scroll and read a passage from the prophets. After which, they would put the scroll back together again and whoever was going to share on that particular Sabbath day, and it was often a visiting rabbi or something like that, he would sit down and begin to speak. And we're told here in verse 17, if you look with me there, that “…the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.” Interesting that, I don't know if Jesus asked for the prophet Isaiah to read, but it was handed to Him. And he began to read from what to us is the 61st chapter of Isaiah. Remember that all of the chapter divisions were put in many, many, many years later. And He begins to read this passage from Isaiah. Now, you need to know something. You need to know that as Jesus began to read this passage in Isaiah 61, everybody in that entire synagogue knew that what Jesus was reading was prophetic related to the Messiah. They all knew that. This is what is referred to as a Messianic Prophecy. And everybody, as He read this, would have known that. So they know that Jesus is reading prophetically about the things that are going to be connected to the Messiah. And particularly what's interesting about this passage is that it speaks about this five-fold healing that the Messiah is prophetically going to bring to the people of God at that time. So I want to go through these. I want to talk about these different areas, these five-fold healing, if you will. Verse 18. Look with me in your Bible. And here's where Jesus begins to read.

And this is the first arm of healing that the Messiah was prophesied to bring. He was going to bring good news, but to whom would He bring good news? To the poor? Is He talking about just the financially poor? No, not at all. Because you remember that Jesus makes a very similar statement about poor when He's talking in the Beatitudes on the Sermon on the Mount. It's recorded for us here in a condensed form, actually at a different location here in Luke, we'll get to it. In Matthew, it's given to us over the course of 3 chapters; chapters 5, 6, and 7. And in the beginning of that, Jesus issues these Beatitudes, Blessed are, Blessed are, Blessed are... And the very first Beatitude you'll remember is, Blessed are the poor in spirit,...”

Right? Well, is a pretty simple idea. When we understand our need of a Savior, we're in a wonderful position. A very blessed position, because now we're open to the message of the good news that Jesus is the Savior that we're looking for. He's the answer to our problems. He's the one who comes to save us from our sin. And so we see here that Messiah is prophesied in Isaiah 61 as the One who's going to bring good news to the poor, to those who understand internally that they are sinners. I was sharing with my Biblical Foundations class just this last Thursday that it's really interesting when you talk to people and when I've had an opportunity to pray with people, how you learn pretty quickly whether or not the person you're talking to understands that they are poor in spirit, or whether they have no concept of it. Some people come down for prayer, they want to sit down and talk and just immediately they start talking about how, I know that I've done wrong. I know that I've violated God's Word. I know… And they're not, I'm not even talking to a Christian here yet, but I'm talking to somebody who just knows and understands, I'm a sinner. I know that, I get it. And that they're an easy person to talk to because we can go right to the good news. Now, if somebody, if I'm talking to somebody and I'm just not getting the idea that they understand the idea of sin, we can't go right to the good news. First, we have to go through the bad news and you guys all know what that is. The bad news is, you're a sinner in need of forgiveness. What's really crazy though, and this has happened to me a few times, is when I'll sit down, talk to somebody about their sinful condition and they still don't get it. I was sharing with my group that there was a man who had been encouraged to come talk to a (Pastor Paul shows air quotes) pastor because he was quite ill and probably didn't have a great deal of time to live. And he took up whoever a friend of his challenge to come and talk to, and he came to talk to me. And he started telling me about how he was struggling physically and it didn't look good for the continuation and much longer of his physical life. And so I thought, well, I need to make sure this guy knows the Gospel. So I started sharing with him as clearly as I could, his need of a Savior. And I talked about sin, and how mankind was created without sin, but yet we fell into rebellion and sin, and henceforth we are in need of a Savior, and we are, spiritually poor. I was giving that message and he listened very patiently, very politely to everything that I had to say. And when I finished, I stopped, looked at him, expecting him to respond and he started talking like about his car. I was flabbergasted. I was floored because I just got done sharing that apart from Christ, there is no hope and you need Jesus Christ as your savior to be forgiven of your sins. He came to die for you on the cross. He was huh, anyway, I got this car that I've been working on or something like that. And I was just like, am I in the right room? It was absolutely incredible.

I don't have a whole lot more to say when I'm talking to somebody who has not understood the depth of their poverty of spirit. There's not a great deal more to say, except, Lord God opened their eyes, that they might know, and that they may be open to the good news. Do you remember how we talked that John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Messiah. And remember how he prepared that way? By reminding people of their poverty of spirit. He came and preached repentance. You must repent. You must turn from your sin and so forth. And people flocked and gathered. And we're going to find later on, as we get a couple more chapters ahead in Luke here, that Luke tells us that all those people who were baptized by John in the Jordan, they were open, and they heard what Jesus had to say. But the people who hadn't been baptized, who refused to go into the waters of the Jordan and confess their sin, they had a closed heart and a closed mind related to the Gospel. So you can see here that proclaiming the good news is to the poor is particularly important, right? Next, Jesus read this from the passage in Isaiah. “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives…” And this is the next step of our salvation. We've made this point many times that sin brings captivity. Jesus said,

We know this. This is no big surprise here. Jesus came to proclaim liberty to those who are captive to the areas of their flesh. We call them today addictions, right? That's a big, it's a big word in our culture today. I'm addicted. It's another way of saying I'm captive. I'm captive to the areas of my flesh that I just can't seem to break free from. Jesus came to proclaim liberty but remember, this is not, you don't leapfrog over the first thing. Jesus didn't come to proclaim liberty to those who don't care or to those who are not poor in spirit. First He gives the good news to those who are poor in spirit, who understand their sin. And then, because they understand their sin and they've embraced the good news that Jesus is the Savior, now they're open to be set free from the captivity of their sin. And Jesus comes to bring that liberty, that freedom to those who are caught in the chains of their own sinful habits and addictions.

Let me remind you of what Paul said in his letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verse 1. He writes,

(it means, stand firm those of you who have been set free) and do not submit to a yoke of slavery. In other words, don't go back there. Because you see, Christians can go back into slavery, can't they? We are set free when we come to Jesus Christ, but we can go back. We can go right back into the slave quarters. We can put those chains back on our arms, on our feet, around our neck. And we can live the life of a slave even though we've been set free. Which is an incredibly tragic thing to happen to a believer, but nonetheless it is possible. Yet Jesus comes to proclaim liberty to those who are captive. Next, the prophecy of Isaiah says the Messiah would come for the “recovering of sight to the blind.” Now, obviously this was literally fulfilled from a physical reference point. We know and from the Gospel accounts that Jesus restored the eyesight physically of many people who were blind during that time. However, there's also a larger spiritual reference that's going on in this statement because we know that Jesus comes to open the eyes of our hearts, right? Even though you might see with your eyes physically, it is still possible that you are blind. Let me show you what Jesus said. It's recorded in the Book of John, chapter 9. It says,

Now if you're going to only interpret this passage on a physical plain, you got an issue because it's like, gee, I don't remember Jesus ever striking people blind or going around... He didn't.

This is a spiritual reference to what Jesus the Messiah came to do. He came to open the eyes of the blind, but for those who claimed to already see in their spiritual pride, and their spiritual arrogance, and the Pharisees really epitomized that sort of an attitude. Are you saying that we're blind? We who are righteous are blind? It's like, oh man. In that sort of a situation, they're blinded even further. They don't realize they are blind and yet they're blinded even further because they have come face to the one who can give them sight and they've refused it. You remember what Jesus said to that wayward Laodicean church in the Book of Revelation? Let me put this up on the screen for you as well. He says,

This is one of those fascinating passages where Jesus is making us, causing us to realize that we can be completely oblivious to our spiritual need. And we can think we're doing great. I'm doing good. Yeah. Me and God, we're good. And yet it's anything but good, as Jesus describes in this particular passage to the Laodiceans. Next, the prophecy of Isaiah says the Messiah would come here, check with me there. It says, “to set at liberty those who are oppressed,” Now we're talking again about freedom, but we're talking this time about oppression. Oppressed basically means those who have been victimized. Those who have, well, been oppressed. I mean, I think you know what the meaning of that word is. Jesus says the Messiah comes to set them free. By the way, I found it. I looked this up. I looked up the word oppressed in my Greek dictionary, and it says, to break in pieces, the word oppressed. I've come to set at liberty those who have been broken into pieces. That's an interesting thought, isn't it? Basically, Jesus is talking here about those individuals who've had their lives broken for whatever reason it may have happened. Through whatever circumstances it may have happened. It could just be an issue of life that took place, some sort of a devastating thing that could happen. It could be oppression that's brought into their lives through other people, but oppression is a very real sort of a situation. There's a lot of Christians who walk around burdened with oppression. With the issues of their past life, the issues of their present life, burdened and they need Jesus to set them free. They need to hand them over to Him. But it's worth noting here that Jesus never promised that you and I would not experience oppression. What He promised us is that oppression would not be able to enslave us. He says, I've come to set at liberty those who experienced that kind of oppression, those who have been broken. There's different kinds of broken. I want to be broken in the hands of the Lord. Don't you? I mean, because we're all kind of busted. We're living in a broken world. Boy, there's this lovely song. Who does the song? Somebody say it out. The song about broken together. You guys remember? You have it on the tip of your tongue. You'll remember it tonight about 2:30 in the morning. You sit up in bed and go, I know! Anyway, there's this lovely song called, Broken Together. It's a marriage song. I have the group right here. Mercy Me, is that who does it? I don't know if it is. Casting Crowns does it. Thank you. Good job. The cool thing about that song is it's really a testimony of two people who've gone through marriage problems, but who recognize the only way we're ever going to get through this marriage is if we realize that we're broken together. Because what I have found in marriage situations, particularly marriage partners are usually sitting around policing one another's brokenness. They don't think about their own broken condition, but they're constantly harping on their spouse about the other, their spouse's broken condition. You're broken. You know that, don't you? It's like, and out of the mouth, it speaks the very thing that is your own issue. We're all broken. And so we come to the realization that we live in a broken world. We're broken people. I'm a broken person, but I want to be broken in the hands of Jesus. I don't want to be broken in the world without Jesus because that is a position of captivity and slavery. When I am broken in the hands of Jesus, there is liberty and freedom. And I can just be broken in His presence.

And any oppression that comes into my life, it's no longer going to enslave me because I recognize now that I'm no longer a victim of my circumstances. I am governed by the sovereignty of the eternal God, you see. And now, His sovereignty and His grace and power overshadows whatever brokenness is in my life. And He will still use me in the midst of my brokenness. That's what blows me away, that God actually uses people like you and me. Busted vessels that we are. He uses us. I don't know why exactly, except that it gives glory to His name, because when we get done ministering, everybody knows, that wasn't you, man. That couldn't have been you. You're broken. But look what came forth. Look what sweet ointment came pouring out of this vessel that was cracked. I think about John, the apostle John. Talk about oppression. Here's a man who has is sent to a penal colony on the island of Patmos toward the end of his life so that they will just shut him up from telling people about Jesus, right? And everybody's thinking, well, that'll teach him. We're going to put him on the island of Patmos and he won't have anybody to talk to. And while he's there, he receives a revelation of Jesus Christ, which he writes down. And you and I call it the Book of revelation. But it was while he was incarcerated on the island of Patmos because you see, John understood that whatever oppression comes into my life ,and whatever brokenness it brings into my life, I am broken in His hands. And in the context of His will and His purpose so that the ointment of His grace might flow through my life into the lives of others. What a beautiful picture. We've got to, Christians, we've got to stop walking around being victims. I know you've been through junk. I know you've had hard times. Stop playing the victim. Be broken in the hands of Jesus Christ and let Him use you for His purposes. Let Him use your circumstances. Do you know, whatever you've gone through, whatever issues you've suffered through, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can use you to touch other people's lives who have been through similar circumstances and to give them hope. We Christians, we think that because I've been through this, I've been through that, or I've had this happen to me, now I'm just set on the shelf. I'm just this broken thing that God can't use. Oh, people, He uses broken things. He uses broken vessels. He pours His ointment of healing most readily from broken vessels. So get this other garbage out of your head. God wants to use you. God wants to pour through you upon the hearts and lives of other people. And it's really a beautiful thing. Finally, Jesus says the Messiah comes, verse 19, “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And the year of the Lord's favor is not a literal 365 day year. It's talking here in a more general sense about the day of salvation. In other words, the Messiah comes to proclaim the day of God's acceptance. The day when the gates of heaven are open for all who desire to come. And of course we know how we get there, through the Person of Jesus Christ. The Messiah comes to do that. Now the reason or the fact that Jesus and well Isaiah originally said the year of the Lord's favor probably has an allusion to the Year of Jubilee, which I believe is fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ and what He accomplished for us on the cross to open the doors of salvation. Because you guys may remember that the Year of Jubilee was a celebration that Israel was commanded to participate, that came along every 50 years. After the 49th year, the 50th year would be the year of Jubilee. And on that year, everything was, it was an amazing year. All slaves were released from their bondage. All debts were forgiven. Even if you took on a huge debt or in the 49th year, in the 50th year, the Year of Jubilee, that debt was released. It was completely let go. All property that had been obtained from the original owner went back to the original owner in the Year of jubilee. And all of the people were also commanded to rest for that year. The land was to get a rest. The people were to get a rest in the Year of Jubilee. The year of the Lord's favor is a wonderful term that I believe has this beautiful picture that points back to, this, just this idea of the openness, the freedom, debts forgiven, land restored, things that were taken restored. It's just this beautiful picture of what the Messiah would come to bring the time of favor, openness, receiving. And by the way, that the year of the Lord's favor is still, we're still in it, because again, it's not a literal year. The favor of the Lord is still extended to all those who wish to come. It has not been closed, yet. Now is the time.

Jesus reads this passage from Isaiah that was written 700 years before He was born. This wonderful prophecy. And again, everybody in the synagogue, they knew this was a passage that referred to Messiah. It says in verse 20 that, “…he rolled up the scroll…(He) gave it back to the attendant and (He) sat down.” And again, they sat down to teach in the Jewish synagogues and He begins to speak to them. And it tells us that all “…the eyes…in the synagogue were fixed on him.” Nobody was messing around. Nobody was going anywhere. They were just glued right in on Jesus. And He begins to speak to them in verse 21 and he says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The synagogue didn't erupt at that moment. If you've ever watched any gospel movies, recreations of the gospel, and I, of course, in my mind, I think back to that 1970s production of Jesus of Nazareth, because that's one of the first ones that I ever saw, and it really impacted me at the time. When you see this event take place on the screen, Jesus says, today and you're hearing this, the scriptures are fulfilled and immediately the people in the synagogue in this movie begin to say, what? That's not possible. Well, that's not really what happened. Jesus said that and then He went on to speak and it says here that they marveled at His words because He went on to talk about this. And they were marveling, and His words were gracious, and it wasn't that really caused them all kind of angst. It was when He started talking about Gentiles. But anyway, they're thinking about this guy and they're thinking, wow, this is incredible. This guy, isn't this Joseph's son? The people thought He was the son of Joseph, even though He wasn't, but they're astonished. This is one of our local boys. We've never heard words like this. This is incredible. Verse 23 goes on and Jesus speaks to them. Apparently after He had shared some of these very gracious words. “And he said…, “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 this is where Jesus reveals that He knows what's going on in their hearts. They're astonished, but they're not necessarily admiring. And by the way, Luke doesn't mention anything that Jesus did before this time. You'll remember that

--- in the beginning of this chapter, we basically went through the temptations in the wilderness and then we go right to Nazareth. Well, in John's gospel account, if you read the first 4 chapters, you learn that Jesus actually did some things elsewhere in Capernaum before he came to Nazareth. And some miracles took place and the word gets around when miracles happen. And these people in Jesus's hometown had heard about it and He knows that they want Him to do the same. And that's one of the reasons why all their eyes were fixed on Him. It's like, wow, is He going to do something amazing here? But Jesus never became a sideshow attraction for anybody who was looking for that sort of thing. And He goes on in verse 24, and He says, “And he said, (to them)“Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.” Which is one of the weird things about humankind. I don't know what it is, but we tend to be willing to see greatness in people that we don't know, in strangers. But for some reason, if I know someone, or if I'm familiar with that person, I just, I'm not likely to recognize or admit that someone has something good going on in their lives. I guess it has something to do with familiarity. But anyway, here's when they really get mad. Verse 25, where Jesus begins to remind them of these two incidents from the Old Testament concerning Elijah and Elisha. And he goes through and tells them, hey, there was that time and during the famine that Elijah had predicted. Three and a half years, no rain fell on the land and there was a great drought and a famine that resulted. And Jesus reminds them of something that's in their own Scriptures. And He says, you know, during the time of Elijah, he didn't minister to any of the people of Israel. What he did was, there was this widow in Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, Tyre and Sidon, which is Phoenicia. He says he hung out there. He helped her, but he didn't help any of the other Israelites because they weren't really very all appreciative of Elijah. We think of Elijah today is like, wow, Elijah. The people weren't that crazy about him necessarily at the time. I mean, he brought a famine on the land for heaven's sakes. At his word of the Lord or whatever.

And then He begins to tell them about Elisha during his ministry, which of course came right after Elijah. And he says, during the ministry of Elisha, there were a lot of people who had been stricken with leprosy. But none of those people got healed. Only a man named Naaman, and he lived in Syria. He wasn't an Israelite. So what is Jesus doing? Well, yeah, He's reminding them of things their own Scripture says, but what He's communicating to them is that when someone isn't appreciated, they'll just go elsewhere, right? He just got done saying a prophet isn't accepted in his own hometown. Guess what happens after that? He goes elsewhere and he just finds where he's going to be appreciated. And of course, this is a precursor to the Jews for the most part, rejecting their own Messiah and the Gospel going to the Gentiles. But, the Jews who were there that day should have heard what Jesus said, and they should have said, He's got a point. I mean, this is right here in our own Bible, right here in our Hebrew Scriptures. He's not telling us anything we haven't read a million times. It's true. Elijah went to the widow of Zarephath. And Elisha, he only helped Naaman during that entire time. It's true what Jesus is saying is true. But rather than saying that, rather than humbling themselves and saying, yeah, He's got a point. It says here in verse 28 that “When they heard these things, (everybody) all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.” In other words, they were deeply offended. How dare you say that Gentiles deserve something better than the Jews? That was just the worst thing that Jesus could say. And so we read in verse 29 that “…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.” In other words, He just walked away in the midst of all the clamor and the confusion, which is pretty cool when you think about it. He didn't speak any angry words. And you know what's really interesting about this is that the Jews wanted to see a miracle. Well, they saw one, wasn't the one they wanted to see because I think this was a miracle. ---

--- These people knew how to throw people off a cliff. They knew how to throw stones at people to kill them. They knew how to execute folks and they weren't going to, they weren't about to lose somebody that they had in their grasp. This was a miracle. And you might wonder how Jesus could do it. I mean, just easily walk away when the crowd is pushing and shoving Him toward the edge of the city, to throw Him off a cliff. What can God not do? It reminds me, and I'll close with this, but it reminds me of a lovely story in a Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place that she tells about when she and her sister Betsy were first taken to the Nazi concentration camp called Ravensbrook. A place where women were incarcerated during the war. And she and her sister were there for helping Jews, hide Jews in their home. Hence the name, The Hiding Place. And when they got to Ravensbrook, Corrie had managed to smuggle a Bible in, a very small Bible, which she wore on a string around her neck. And they made these women all strip naked in front of these guards and take an ice cold shower. And she managed to stuff it behind a bench while they were showering and then they were given prison clothes to wear. And she was able to sneak over to the bench and get the Bible and put it back around her neck and under her prison clothes, only to be horrified to find out that the women were once again lined up and they were going to have a pat down search of every single woman. And she knew, I mean she said this, the Bible was small. She wore it around her neck and on her back. And she said, even though it was small it, it was a big lump. I mean, there's no way this guard is going to miss it. And so she prayed, she just prayed. She said, Lord, please send Your angels to surround me. And she got up in line and the woman in front of her was searched and the woman behind her was searched. And they just said, keep going. And she got in with her Bible, and that Bible ended up being one of the most incredible encouragements to all the women there at Ravensbrook that were near where Corrie ten Boom were housed, because they had daily Bible studies with that little book of Scripture, which God allowed them to keep by a supernatural work of His grace. Which is very similar, I assume, to what Jesus accomplished by simply walking through the crowd.

So, nothing is impossible for our God, amen. Let's stand together. We're going to have some people down front here to pray with you this morning if you need prayer so please take advantage of that. Heavenly Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the encouragement. Your Word is always so encouraging, so full of life, so full of healing. I thank You also, Lord God, for that, just that, the healing time of worship that we had this morning as well. Thank You Lord that You use all of us broken vessels that we are. Lord I pray that we would take the brokenness of our lives and put them in Your hands. As we go from this place, Lord, help us to take what you've deposited in us and just pour it out over all whom we come in contact with, that we might live the life that you've called us to live broken and yet whole in Your hands. We thank You and praise You, in Jesus precious Name, amen. Amen. God bless you. ---