to the nations. The Spirit signified the presence and the power of God.
And the very servant that God spoke about would say this himself.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
And so for years the people waited in expectation for the power and the presence of God to come.
Now the promise has become a reality.
Look back to Luke chapter 3 verse 21, which is really the start or the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.
Chapter 3 verse 21, when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.
And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.
Look at chapter 4 verse 1, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 14, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
God is on the move.
Jesus, the Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered King has finally come.
And God is about to do something in the world through Jesus.
Three things we're going to see about this Spirit-filled King.
Who he is, what he has come to do, and why this is good news.
Who he is, what he's come to do, and why this is good news.
So first, who Jesus is.
Chapter 4 verse 1,
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, was led by the Spirit in the desert,
where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil.
Tempted by the devil.
Now where else in the Bible story have we ever come across that?
Well, right at the very start of the Bible story, way back in Genesis chapter 1 and 2,
we are introduced to the first man, Adam.
Now Luke, significantly, has just told us something about Adam.
If you look back to the very end of chapter 3,
in fact, if you go to verse 23,
you get this long genealogy,
tracing the line of Jesus.
So we read in verse 23,
now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry.
He was the son.
So it was thought of Joseph.
Of course, Joseph wasn't the biological father of Jesus.
Luke has already told us back in chapter 135,
that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
However, the point is of this genealogy, for us anyway,
is where it finishes.
Look at verse 38 at the very end of chapter 3.
So it goes through all these lists of names,
where it says the son of Enosh,
the son of Seth,
the son of Adam,
the son of God.
Adam was the son of God.
He didn't have a biological father like you or I,
but God had created Adam out of the earth.
And he had created Adam in his image.
So Adam was to reflect God
and to be some ways God's representative on the earth.
And as God's son,
Adam was to show the whole world
what it was like to live under God's rule.
But then there was the temptation in the garden.
And Adam failed.
Rather than reflect God,
he rebelled against God.
Instead of being God's representative,
Adam wanted to be God.
Adam, the son of God,
failed.
Now the thing is,
we are all sons of Adam.
We can all trace our family line
right the way back to the first man,
Adam.
And we are just like him.
We've all failed.
We all want to be God.
We want to be the centre of the universe.
We want to do things our way.
That's why the world is the way it is.
It's why Stephen Paddock
shot and murdered all those people.
It's why Trump and Kim
are threatening to blow each other up.
It's why our relationships break
and our friendships fall apart.
We want to be God.
We want to rule our own lives
and live as we please.
As sons of Adam,
we have all failed.
Now, with all that in mind,
and I think that's why Luke finishes
chapter 3 with the son of Adam,
the son of God,
and jumps straight in with
chapter 4, verse 1,
verse 1,
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the desert
where for 40 days
he was tempted by the devil.
Verse 3,
the devil said to him,
if you are the son of God,
tell this stone to become bread.
Every temptation,
there were three specific temptations
that Jesus faced in the desert,
was ultimately a temptation
to take the place of God.
If you are the son of God,
go on, Jesus,
take things into your own hands.
Don't be bothered about
what God's word says.
Do what you think.
Well, what would Jesus do?
Well, where Adam failed,
Jesus was faithful.
You see,
Jesus came as the true
son of God.
The obedient,
sinless,
and faithful son
where every other person
in the history of the world
has failed
and crumbled under temptation.
Jesus has been faithful.
Here is one
that we can count on.
Here is one
who we can trust.
By passing the test
of temptation,
Jesus proves
that he alone
is qualified
to be God's
spirit-empowered
king.
Everything that broke
through Adam's failure
can now be put right
through Jesus'
faithfulness.
God is on the move
and he is now at work
through his faithful,
obedient,
sinless son,
Jesus Christ.
So,
what has this
Jesus
come to do?
Well,
following the temptation,
look down
at verse 16.
Jesus went to Nazareth
where he had been
brought up
and on the Sabbath day
he went into the synagogue
as was his custom
and he stood up
to read.
Now,
the synagogue
in some ways
was like your local church.
Yes,
there was the temple
up in Jerusalem
but not everybody
could get to the temple
so they met in these
what were called
synagogues,
these small buildings.
And the usual practice,
similar in some ways
to what we have done
this morning,
there would have been
singing,
but the singing of Psalms.
And then at some point
somebody would read
something from
the books of Moses,
the first five books,
and then a little bit
later on there would be
a reading from
the Old Testament.
And then they would
sit down
and as was their custom,
different to us,
I stand,
but they sat
and they gave
a little mini sermon
about what they
had just read.
And on this particular day
Jesus has come
to the synagogue
to worship
and Jesus has been
asked to do
the reading.
verse 17.
The scroll
of the prophet Isaiah
was handed him
so they didn't have
neatly bound books
like we do,
but these great big scrolls
and maybe divided up
different parts of Isaiah.
And we can imagine
Jesus unrolling
this great big scroll
and searching.
There's no numbers,
no chapters,
no verses,
but he knows his Bible
and he specifically
has turned
to this section
in Isaiah.
Chapter 61,
verses 1 and 2
and unrolling it,
verse 17,
he found the place
where it is written.
He reads from Isaiah,
The Spirit of the Lord
is on me
because he has anointed me
to preach good news
to the poor.
He sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight
for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favour.
Well, you could imagine
everyone nodding their heads
in agreement.
Good choice of reading.
Ah, yes.
The promise of God
to send his spirit-filled servant.
That's going to be someday
when that happens.
We can even hear
the little boy
asking his father,
when's this going
to happen, Dad?
Well, it's been
several hundred years
since Isaiah wrote this.
We hope
sometime soon.
Well, they're in
for the shock
of their lives.
Verse 20,
Jesus rolled up
the scroll,
gave it back
to his attendant,
who would have put it
back into the cupboard
at the back,
and Jesus sat down
to give the mini-sermon.
The eyes of everyone
in the synagogue
were fastened on him
and he began
by saying to them,
today,
this scripture
is fulfilled
in your hearing.
I am the one.
I am the spirit-filled,
spirit-empowered,
promised king,
the one that you
have been waiting for
down through the centuries.
It's me.
I'm the Messiah.
What you've longed for
has now become a reality.
I am the one.
Well, the text
that Jesus reads
explains to us
what he had come to do.
You won't notice it
at first.
Well, maybe you do,
but I certainly didn't.
I needed a very clever
commentator
to point it out to me.
But when you read
what is written
in Isaiah 61,
verses 1 to 2,
we had it read earlier
by Chris,
if you compared that
with the quotation
that we have in Luke,
chapter 4,
verses 18 and 19,
you'll notice that
there was something different.
Something is added
and something is missing.
What's added
is found at the very end
of verse 18
of chapter 4,
where it says,
to release the oppressed.
So Jesus is reading,
but he adds in this line,
to release the oppressed.
It comes from another part
in Isaiah.
And I don't think
Jesus is adding to Scripture.
It seems to be
more of an interpretation.
Everything that this quote
is saying
can be summed up
in the phrase,
to release the oppressed.
That's my mission.
The oppressed are,
as we see at the end
in the middle of verse 18,
the poor,
the prisoner,
and the blind.
They are the hopeless
and the helpless.
Now as we begin
to read through Luke's Gospel,
we'll discover that
the oppressed
become a model
or a symbol
for Christian faith.
Physically and materially,
the oppressed,
well,
they have nothing.
They're people
who are dependent
on outside help.
If it weren't
for other people,
they would die.
And that becomes
a model for how
we should come
to God spiritually.
We come as hopeless
and helpless people,
dependent
and completely reliant
upon God's grace.
So Jesus adds something
to explain something
of his mission,
but there's also
something missing.
If you were to read
Isaiah 61,
verses 1 to 2,
it finishes like this.
You may remember
what it said.
To proclaim the year
of the Lord's favour
and the day of vengeance
of our God.
Now when Jesus
starts quoting Isaiah here,
it finishes like this,
verse 19.
to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favour.
Full stop.
There's no mentions
of vengeance.
There's no judgment here.
Again,
I don't think
Jesus is changing
scripture.
He's simply
wanting to emphasize
that his coming,
his mission
into this world
is a time of grace,
not judgment.
There is a judgment
to come,
but for now
it is salvation,
not condemnation.
The year of the Lord's favour
is jam-packed
with meaning.
It comes from
one of the laws
that God had given
to his people
right back in the Old Testament.
A law that God
had given to his people
about cancelling
debts.
It was a law
that said
at the end
of every seven years,
everybody who had a debt
was released
from having to pay.
Now,
could you imagine that?
All the money
that you owe,
after seven years,
that debt
could be written off,
all cancelled.
If your bank statement
said minus,
it would be made
a zero.
Wow!
But better than that,
in the 50th year,
so get your maths
into order here,
after seven cycles
of seven years,
which is
49,
well done,
you're still with me.
So in the 50th year,
so after seven cycles
of seven years,
anything that you owned
and you had had to sell
because of debt problems
would all be given
back to you.
So not only were
your debts
written off,
but all the property
and land
that you had had to sell
was all restored
back to you again.
What an amazing,
good and gracious
law from God
to the people.
It was,
verse 19,
the year of the Lord's
favour,
a year of grace.
Now,
as one writer
pointed out to me,
in all the history
of Israel,
how many times
do you think
the 50th year
of cancelling
all debts
happened?
Do you think
of all the history
that we have,
the hundreds and thousands
of years
of Israel's history,
how many times
did they celebrate
that 50th year?
None.
There is not
one record
of this ever
happening in the Bible
because God's
people
failed
to obey
God's good law.
They could not
deal with each other
in grace.
They were too
greedy.
If people owed
debts,
they demanded
those debts.
If they had property,
they kept that property.
They could not
deal with others
in grace.
Now Jesus
comes
and stands up
before this
small gathering
and says,
it's me.
I am the year
of the Lord's
favour.
I have come
to give grace
to the oppressed.
Yes,
Jesus is concerned
for those
who are oppressed
economically,
politically
and physically.
We didn't have time
to read it,
but read it at home
the rest of chapter 4
and we'll see
that there
Jesus released
those with an evil
spirit
and he restored
those who were sick.
But he wasn't
coming in a sense
to kind of
write off people's
bank accounts
and put money
into their account.
It wasn't
that kind
of prosperity.
The cancellation
of debt
was not material
but spiritual.
Jesus had come
to cancel
the debt
of our sin
to release us
from the coming
judgment
and to restore
to life.
Jesus has come
to give grace
to the oppressed
to cancel
the debt
of sin.
God
is on the move
and he is
working through
his son
Jesus Christ.
Now this is
good news
for people
like you
and me.
You see
as Jesus
talked
to the crowd
and began
to give his
mini sermon
verse 22
all spoke
well of him
and were
amazed
at the
gracious
words
that came
from his
lips.
But by the
time Jesus
had finished
his little
mini sermon
look at
verse 29
they got
up
drove him
out of the
town
and took him
to the brow
and the hill
of which the
town was built
in order to
throw him
down the
cliff.
What a way
to start
your preaching
career.
I can remember
my very first
sermon.
I don't think
I even got
beyond five
minutes.
I got all
in a tizz
and a panic
and just
had to sit
down.
Thankfully
one very
kind person
said well
at least
you didn't
waffle.
Nobody
came gunning
for me
or trying
to kill
me.
But here's
Jesus
his first
sermon
from stunning
amazement
to seething
anger
trying to
kill him.
What did
Jesus say?
Why did
the crowd
change?
Why are
they so
angry?
Well look
at verse
22
the end.
They asked
isn't this
Joseph's
son?
Well
everybody
knew
Joseph
in Nazareth
it was a
small town
and well
Joseph was
the town
carpenter.
He was
that simple
character.
And now
his son
who had
taken over
the business
is claiming
to be
the Messiah.
God's
spirit
empowered
king.
Well he
doesn't look
much.
He's a bit
ordinary.
I think
he should
just get
back to
cutting wood
and stop
dreaming
dreams.
Jesus
it seems
knows their
hearts.
Verse 23
Jesus
said to
them
surely
you will
quote
this
proverb
to me
physician
heal
yourself.
Do
here in
your
hometown
what we
have
heard
that
you
did
at
Capernaum.
Well you
see they
want a
Messiah
who are
going to
do miracles
who's
going to
do miracles
on demand
and get
people
excited.
You know
all those
healings
you did
over there
do them
here
right now.
they want
Jesus to
do spectacular
things and
get all the
people excited
so he has a
big crowd
following him.
They want a
king who at
least looks
like a
king or
sounds like
a king
and who's
going to
kind of
march into
Jerusalem
and get
rid of
those dirty
Romans who
are taking
our land
and everything
that we
own.
Who's
going to
follow a
simple
carpenter?
verse 24
I tell you
the truth
he continued
no prophet
is accepted
in his
hometown.
It's a
damning
statement
about their
own hearts.
Nobody likes
anyone getting
ahead of
themselves.
We certainly
know that in
our culture
don't we?
We don't
like to
congratulate
people and
say oh
well done
you know
we like
saying
and that's
what they're
doing with
Jesus.
Who does
he think
he is
coming into
our
synagogue
claiming to
be the
Messiah.
We want
a real
king not
some
upstart
with
nonsense
ideas.
Well if
Jesus had
shut up at
this point
and gotten
the hint
he would
have just
sat down
and saved
face and
maybe would
have kept
a few
friends.
But no
Jesus is
on a
mission.
He can't
stay silent.
Knowing that
rejection
lay in
their
hearts
Jesus
shows them
who he
has come
to welcome.
Look at
verse 25.
I assure
you
Jesus
says there
were many
widows in
Israel.
Israel
God's
land
God's
special
people.
There were
many widows
in Israel
in Elijah's
time
God's
prophet
when the
sky was
shut for
three and
a half
years so
there was
no rain
and there
was a
severe famine
throughout
the land.
Lots of
poor widows
who didn't
have anything.
Yet Elijah
was not sent
to any of
them but
to a widow
in Zarephath
in the
region of
Sidon.
Elijah
went to
an outsider
a foreigner
of all
the people
who were
local.
He went
off somewhere
else.
Verse 27
And there
were many
in Israel
God's
land
God's
people
with
leprosy
in the
time of
Elijah
the prophet
yet not
one of
them
was
cleansed.
Only
Naaman
the Syrian
who if we
were to
go back
and read
a bit
about him
was general
of an
army not
only was
he an
outsider he
was an
enemy.
He fought
battles against
God's
people.
So everybody
who's listening
to Jesus'
sermon expects
that Elijah
and Elisha
oh well they
were great
prophets surely
they would go
to God's
people Israel.
After all
they're God's
specially chosen
people.
They deserve
God's favour.
God is on
their side.
But to
their absolute
shock and
disgust
Elijah and
Elisha go
to the
outsider.
You see
the widow
and Naaman
become for
us a
picture or
an example
of the
oppressed
that Jesus
has come
to release.
They are
the poor
the prisoner
the blind
they are
the humble
in heart.
They are
the hopeless
and helpless.
They cannot
help themselves.
They are
dependent and
completely reliant
upon God's
grace to
intervene in
their lives.
The widow
is a
foreigner.
Naaman is
an enemy.
And Jesus
is saying to
the gathering
in the
synagogue
I am the
Messiah and
I have come
to welcome
those with
humble hearts.
I have come
to welcome
outsiders in.
not to
those who
think of
themselves as
morally
respectable.
Not to
those who
have it all
together.
Not to
those who
feel they are
deserving.
No I have
come to
those who
see their
need of
absolute
help.
Now that's
good news
for people
like us.
For Jesus
comes to
those who
know they
fail and
fall.
he comes
to those
who are
desperate and
weak and
cannot help
themselves.
Let's ask
ourselves some
questions.
Would you
describe yourself
as having a
hard heart
or a
humble heart?
Have you
experienced
grace?
or are you
like the
crowd in
the synagogue
pushing it
away?
You see
those with a
humble heart
don't push
people away
because they
keep on
failing.
They don't
reject those
whose sexual
identity is
maybe different
to yours.
they don't
write off
those who
have hurt
you in
the past.
They don't
look down
on those
who have a
different skin
colour to
you.
They don't
distance
themselves from
those whose
life is broken
and messy.
They give
grace
because God
has been
gracious to
them and
they have
come to
experience
and understand
that well
God has
cancelled all
of my sin
debt and
no longer
holds it
over me
or against
me.
They welcome
the outsider
because God
has welcomed
them.
Or look
at it this
way.
Those who
have a
hard heart
pride
themselves in
their own
ability to
do well
in life.
They judge
other people
by their
own standards
and expectations
and nod
disapprovingly.
They're not
like me.
They won't
help the
broken because
well those
people need
to learn to
help themselves
first.
They condemn
the sinners
to hell
because they
can't see
their own
sin in
their own
hearts.
They
withhold
grace from
others because
well actually
it's all
about you
deserve what
you get
in life.
They can't
welcome
others
because they've
never ever
experienced
God's welcome
in their own
lives.
God is
on the
move.
He is
on a
mission.
He is
offering
grace to
the
oppressed.
He
welcomes
the
outsider.
He
welcomes
people like
you and
me who
will only
admit that
I am
helpless and
hopeless.
I cannot
help myself.
I cannot
change my
life.
I need
you to
change me.
And in
response
we are
incorporated
into the
great mission
of God
as we
go
and offer
grace
to those
who cannot
help
themselves.
Welcoming
the outsider
showing
them the
grace
that none
of us
deserve.
let's
pray
together.
Let's
pray together.
Father, we
are astonished
and amazed
at your
grace
towards us
that you
would reach
down even
though we
have
pushed you
away.
Thank you
that you
do not
treat us
as our
sins
deserve.
Thank you
that you
do not
look down
upon us
and say
help
yourself.
thank you
that you
have come
to help
us
through your
son the
Lord Jesus
and have
given us
a way
to life
and a
way to
be changed.
Father,
help us
that we
would have
humble
hearts
and any
hardness
of heart
that you
would deal
with by
your grace
right now.
Change us
so that we
become
welcomers
of all
who are in
need of
you.
We pray
this in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.