Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on April 7, 2024.
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Audio Transcript
If you take your Bibles, we are in Luke 4 today, reading in verses 14 through 30, Luke 4, 1430. As we continue in the book of Luke, seeing where Jesus begins his ministry and preaches his first sermon here, please follow along. Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Spirit and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity. He was teaching in their synagogues, being praised by everyone.
He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read the scroll of the prophet. Isaiah was given to him. And unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, today as you listen, this scripture has been fulfilled.
They were all speaking well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth. Yet they said, isn’t this Joseph’s son? Then he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum, do here in your hometown also. And he also said, truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy. And yet not one of them was acclaimed except Naaman the Syrian. And when they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged.
They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way. May we pray? Heavenly Father, as we look at your word today, there are many different things going on here in the passage. I just pray that your spirit would lead each of us as we listen today, Father, to see what it is that you are saying to us individually for changes that we need to make in our life new paths that we might need to pursue or even the opportunity for someone to come to a saving relationship with you through the death, burial and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray. Amen. I’d like to start out by way of introduction, just to look at what a synagogue service was like in Jesus Day. There was a singing of a psalm and then there was the reading of the Shema, which was a weekly reminder that living a life for the Lord did not just happen on the Sabbath. It was a weekly reminder of what they were to do daily in their responsibility to both God and family.
I’d like to read one of the versions of that in Deuteronomy 6:6 4:9. If you want to turn in your Bibles, it’s not going to be on the screen, so you either have to listen or do some work there. Ephesians 6:4,9 but listen to the responsibility to God and the responsibility of the family that we all have, just as the Jews did on a daily basis. Listen Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorpost of your house and on your city gates.
To summarize to love God with all your being and to train your children on a daily basis and have the word of God in your family is something that’s to be ongoing. They were reminded of that every week after they had that they had the reading of a part of the law which would have been from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy. They read it in the Hebrew language in which it had originally been given by the Lord. But there were many in that day that they didn’t speak Hebrew anymore, so they had to use a modern translation just like we have translations today. We don’t come in here and read the Hebrew text and expand you to understand it.
In Jesus Day they read the original language. Then they read from the Targum, which would have been in Aramaic. After they had a reading from the law, they would have had a reading from the prophets in the Old Testament. Again they read it in Hebrew. But there were those that didn’t speak Hebrew or understand it, so they Read it in the translation, the Targum in Aramaic.
Then there was a sermon on the Scripture. And at the end there was a blessing by the ruler of the synagogue. And you should see that our services today still kind of follow a similar pattern. What we did is what we continue to do in our corporate worship time. But then looking at the text today, we’re going to be looking at the text, we’re going to be looking at the prophecy, and we’re going to be looking at the application.
We’re going to be having an explanation, an exploration and an exhortation or an encouragement of how we are to live in light of God’s word. Let’s first look at some things to explain in the text. Let’s go back to verse 14. It says, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. What I want you to see there is the involvement of the Holy Spirit is continual throughout the life of Christ.
The Holy Spirit brought about the conception in Mary. The Holy Spirit empowered him. When he went into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit was there at his baptism. And here we find that Jesus is returning to Galilee not in his own power, but it is in the power of the Spirit. Because he left behind in heaven many things so that he could come and live here just like we live.
And the only way that he could accomplish the Father’s will was to live in the power of the Spirit. And so it is that we have the first example here in the text on what we need to do. We need to depend on the Holy Spirit in our lives on a daily basis so that we can live for the Lord in the way that we’re supposed to. The next thing I want you to see here is the testimony of the prophets. Let’s begin reading.
In verse 16, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Here’s the number two example that Christ gave for us. How often did he go to synagogue? Was it once a year?
Was it just on special holidays? No, he was there on a weekly basis. He had grown up. That was the practice of his life. And it’s an example for us that God desires that we set aside one day every week that we would come together in corporate worship.
He depended on the Spirit. He. He attended corporate worship. And then we find the third thing here. Another example is that he knew his Bible.
Because when he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day, he stood up to read. They had asked him to read that day. And it tells us that the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. And unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written. Now we have to think what a scroll is like.
We have our Bibles today. And I tell you to turn to Mark chapter one. Let’s look at verse four. I might give you a page number. Well, when Jesus was handed this scroll, there were not pages to turn.
There were not chapters, there were no verse numbers, there were no page numbers. You have to imagine it would be like your Bible’s written on a roll of paper towel, okay? And there are no pages to turn to, so you have to unroll the paper towel until you find the place. Now imagine if I told you find a verse about Jesus dying on the cross and you didn’t have any page numbers, you didn’t have a book. You just had to unroll paper towels till you find it.
You would have to know that roll of paper towel pretty well, would you not, to be able to find it. Jesus knew the word of God without pages, without chapters. He was able to turn to this passage that he read from that day. So he sets us three examples. He depends on the Holy Spirit.
He attends worship weekly. And the third thing is that he knows his Bible. But getting back to the testimony of the prophets all along in Luke, we’re seeing all these testimonies over and over and over that Jesus is, is the anointed Messiah. He is the Christ. We had the testimony from Mary.
We had the testimony of Joseph. We had the testimony of Elizabeth in Zechariah. We had the testimony of the angels at his birth. We had the testimony of Simeon and Anna, respected people in the temple. John the Baptist gave testimony to him.
And even at his baptism, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the testimony is just overwhelming. This is the Christ. And now we find here that Jesus is saying that even the Old Testament prophets are telling us who he is. And so Jesus is reading from the text. But we come to a final testimony.
That’s the testimony of Jesus himself. We could have had all these other testimonies. And then if he had stood up and said, I’m not the Messiah, it would have been all for naught. But he stood up and he confirmed that I also testify that I am the Coming One. He rolled up the scroll, he gave it back to the tenant.
He sat down, the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he first began by saying to them, today as you listen, this scripture has been fulfilled. Jesus testified about himself, the prophet Isaiah, as well as the Other prophets were all pointing to the coming Messiah. Let’s look now at the rejection of the Jews so that we understand this. This is where Jesus had grown up.
He had been the perfect child. Now, you may think that you had a perfect child, but Jesus really was a perfect child. He never treated anyone selfishly. He was never mean in his heart to any of his playmates. He would have never grabbed the toy away because he didn’t have a sin nature.
And he had grown up like this.
And they had all witnessed this, but yet they reject him. So we want to understand that a little bit better here today. They were all speaking well of him, and they were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth. The word amazed might not mean a good thing. They might have been just, like, completely surprised.
We can’t believe this is coming from him, because isn’t he just Joseph’s son? They didn’t quite understand it. But after he shares the message, then in verse 28, it says that they heard this. Everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They got up and they drove him out of town.
They brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. The application for this today is that when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it isn’t always going to be accepted. Here we have Jesus Christ himself, God in the flesh, the Messiah. He’s sharing the Gospel with people that have known him all of his life, his friends and his family. And what do they do?
They reject it. So it is in our life. We’re to continually share the gospel, expecting rejection. But just as Jesus did, we continue to share it because there are those people that will listen. And that brings us to the next point, which has to do with why they were upset with him.
And it’s because Jesus points out to them that God has a great concern for the Gentiles. God has concern for the Gentiles. Let’s go back to what he shares that makes them so upset. You’d have to think like a Jew would think to know how it would affect you. He says, truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. Just as the Jews in Jesus day were rejecting him, in the Old Testament, they rejected God, the Father over and over again. And Jesus is reminding them of a time in Israel’s history when they had rejected the Lord. And because of that, he had prevented the rain.
And there was a great famine for three years and six months. They were experiencing this because of their sinfulness. And what he points out is that the prophet Elijah had the opportunity to help lots of widows that were Jewish that would have been the preferred people, those called from God. But he didn’t minister and help any Jewish widow in that day. He went to Zarephath in Sidon.
And you have to understand, Sidon is not in Israel. And the people that lived in Sidon were not good Jewish girls and boys. This was the town that Jezebel had come from. Have you heard that name before? She had a very wicked upbringing where they worshiped idols.
And she brought that when she married the King of Israel or the King of Judah at that time King of Israel, she brought in this terrible idol worship. And she let her husband encouraged him to murder someone just because he wanted a special garden that he was interested in. Not many people name their kids after her. Do you know anybody named Jezebel? I mean, in books, but in real life, she was a terrible person.
And this is what Jesus is pointing out. The prophet went to help a Gentile from a very ungodly place that brought back memories of this evil queen in their history. Because God was concerned for the Gentiles just as much, if not more, than he was for the Jews. And that angered them. But as if that wasn’t enough, he even goes further back in time, Elish, I mean, further forward to Elisha’s time.
And he says that there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. Again, here, God didn’t send his prophet to heal someone that was a good Jewish man or woman. He let his prophet heal someone from Syria. Now, Syria in that day was known as Aram. Its capital was Damascus.
It can’t be confused with Assyria, whose capital was Nineveh. But there was an ongoing, sometimes friendship with, but more oftentimes war between Syria and the people of God. And eventually Assyria took over Syria. And then together they came down and they took northern Israel into captivity. The Syrians had always been a problem for Israel, going all the way back to the judges.
And they would raid the Israelite lands. And the story of Naaman. Naaman had a slave girl that was Israelite. She was taken captive, she was stolen from her people. And it’s through her testimony about God that Naaman was sent.
But what Jesus again is pointing out, God has always had an interest in the Gentiles. And what we’re seeing here in the text is immediately the Jews are going to reject Jesus as a whole. He goes to them first. He goes next to the Samaritans, those that are half Jews and half Gentiles. But eventually he’s going to go to the Gentiles to share His Gospel with them.
And in reading this scripture passage from the Old Testament, we find that the Gospel that Jesus is presenting wasn’t something new that he just came up with. It goes way back in the Old Testament. And what he reads here is the gospel. In verse 18, he says, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
This is what Jesus was offering to them. But it wasn’t what the Jews were expecting. The Jews wanted the Messiah to be a physical person, to return with a physical army to physically overthrow the Romans and physically place a descendant of David on a physical throne in the physical palace at Jerusalem. But Jesus didn’t offer that when he came. Instead, he offered them a spiritual kingdom that would not be temporal, but one that would be eternal.
He offered them not what they wanted, but he offered them what they needed. And what was it they needed? They needed a real relationship with God, not with an earthly king, but with the King of the universe. And he was offering them freedom from the real oppressor. Their real oppressor was not Rome.
Their real oppressor was Satan working through the Romans. And Jesus was coming to offer to defeat Satan, to take away the eternal oppressor. What does he offer them here? Good news to the poor. Release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed.
What do all these phrases mean? Let’s look first at good news to the poor. Does that mean that Jesus came and he looked for people that were poor and he handed out dollar bills? That’s not what he did. Does it mean that Jesus came and he elevated everybody that was poor and had no money by providing everything for them?
That’s not what it means. There are spiritual connotations here. Good news to the poor. What he’s saying here is that the poor are the people that can’t provide for themselves. The poor are those who must look to others to meet their needs.
And in a spiritual context. This is what the gospel says, that we have to be poor. Poor so that we accept what Jesus does for us, that we can’t do for ourselves. We’re poor in spirit because we can’t give enough money to be saved from our sins. We’re poor in words because we can’t give enough words or say enough prayers.
We can’t do enough good things. We have absolutely nothing. We are completely poor spiritually. And therefore we just have to turn to Jesus and say, we accept what you are doing for us. The good news is to us spiritually that he does for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
He pays the penalty of our sins so that we can have a right relationship with the Lord. It’s similar to the verse in Matthew 18:3 where Jesus says, truly I tell you, you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. I can’t be a two year old or a four year old again. But spiritually, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we have to be like a child that mom says, I’m giving you a popsicle after lunch. And that little four year old has what?
No doubt they just accept it. Mom said it. And so it is in the same way we have to acknowledge that we are poor, we have nothing to pay for or to earn our salvation. The next thing is that he promises release to the captives.
He didn’t come and open any jail cells. He didn’t let people out of jail again. It has a spiritual meaning here. Everyone is held captive by sin. We are all un under Satan’s control.
Jesus comes to spiritually release us from that captivity. The word release means to cause, to stand away, to release one’s sins from the sinner. It’d be like a cloth that has a stain on it. You might cover that stain up with a piece of cloth. That’s not getting rid of the problem.
You need to wash that stain out and put it over there, wash it down the drain. That’s what it means here, that God doesn’t just cover our sin so that it’s still there. It’s talking about that he removes it from us and he sets it over there. There are other words that we use to talk about this. Forgiveness or remission.
Now. It doesn’t mean that we’re removed from the presence of sin. We’re faced with sin around us all the time and we suffer the consequences of our sin and of other people. Praise the Lord, one day he will remove us from the presence of sin. That’s not what it’s talking about here.
We’re talking about is the sin is being removed from us. And it’s also not using the Greek word that talks about a temporary bypassing of sin, where God says, oh, I’m just not going to look at your sin right now. We’ll deal with it later. That’s not the way it is. God takes our sin completely away from us, as far as the east is from the west.
Jesus was giving good news to the poor. He was offering release to those that were captive to sin. And he’s giving recovery of sight to the blind. Recovery of sight, meaning they’re going to get their sight back. See, Adam and Eve had a relationship with God.
They walked with him in the garden, and they knew him very personally. They heard his voice. They had a relationship with him. And because of sin and they were separated from God, they were cast out of the garden. Eventually, people lost sight of what it meant to have a true relationship with the Lord.
They were blinded by Satan. But Jesus says, I’m here to explain again to you, to help you to recover your sight, about what type of relationship you can have with. With the Lord. Good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. And then it says, he’s going to set free the oppressed.
The word oppressed means here they are crushed and they’re bruised. What is it that we are oppressed by? We are oppressed by the weight of sin in our life. We’re oppressed by the consequences of sin. We’re oppressed by.
By the guilt and the shame of sin and the hard, sad thing is that we don’t even realize it until we come to Jesus Christ and he removes that burden from us. How much it is weighing us down. Now Jesus places a new burden on our backs. We’re serving Satan before we come to faith. But when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, he takes off this heavy, terrible burden that Satan.
Satan has on us. And he does give us a new burden. But he says, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light service for the Lord. It is a burden, but it’s one that he has allowed us to enjoy and to celebrate. And it’s a light burden. It’s not more than what we can handle. Last thing we see here is he talks about the year of the Lord’s favor.
The year of the Lord’s favor refers to the year of jubilee. The year of jubilee was a Sabbath of Sabbath years. Every seventh year, they were supposed to not plow the land. They weren’t supposed to plant anything. God said, there will be enough, just take a year off to rest.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we could all take every seventh year off to rest and not have to work? And all of our needs we met. That’s what God promised to the Jews, that they would follow him. And they would do that every seventh year until they got to the seventh, seventh to 49. And then the next year was the year of jubilee, and that was different.
Not only did the land rest, but every 50th year, all the slaves were set free. All land that had been leased or mortgaged so that people could pay off their debts was given back to them. So we’re talking about slavery here, where someone would be like more of an indentured servant. I owe so much money to you, so you can take my daughter or my son, and they’re going to work with you for so many years to pay off the debt. Then when the year of jubilee came, everybody was freed.
Everybody received their land back. Jesus is saying that I have come to offer you favor. I have come to offer you grace, and I have come to offer you salvation. This is the good news that was in the Old Testament. He’s just saying, I’m here to fulfill that.
But what’s interesting is Jesus stops in the middle of the of a sentence. It would be like reading a novel that’s really exciting. And you get to the good part, and just before you read the next sentence, you stop reading and you don’t know what happens. That’s what Jesus was doing here. Because in the Old Testament, they were looking for this Messiah to come and do everything at once.
But Jesus came once to take care of our spiritual problems, and he’s going to come again a second time to make a new creation and to go further beyond that and create everything that is physical. So if we want to go back now to Isaiah 61, and let’s see where Jesus stopped. He was talking about favor and grace. But now the next half of the sentence that he didn’t read, but it was in his mind. It was there as he was reading.
And many of the Jews would have known this text by heart. Why did he stop? Stop here? But he stopped before he read this and the day of our God’s vengeance to comfort all who mourn. His first coming was about grace and mercy and salvation.
But his second coming is going to be one of vengeance and a new creation. God’s vengeance will come one day when the Jewish people are all mourning. And then there’s such a bad situation in the most worst of times that finally they will turn back to the Lord. It’s going to be at the time that the Antichrist will be determined to destroy the Jews. And for three and a half years, if we went into the prophecies, they are going to trust this earthly leader.
But at the end of three and a half years, he’s going to set himself up in their temple that he’s built and say, I am God. And they’re going to realize that he’s a liar. And from that point on, he’s going to be out to destroy them. And it’s going to be at that point when the Jews are at their worst that they’re going to cry out to the Lord. And Jesus is going to return.
He’s going to save them. He’s going to set up his kingdom in Jerusalem. He’s going to right all wrongs. He’s going to take evil out of the world. Satan is going to be cast into hell.
There won’t be any more war. There will be plenty to eat. And God’s presence will be on earth with us again in a special way. And I want to continue to read here in Isaiah just so we can see how wonderful that day is going to be. It’s going to begin with God’s vengeance, but it’s going to result in the new creation, the day of God’s vengeance.
To comfort all who mourn. To provide for those who mourn in Zion. That’s Jerusalem. To give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees planted by the Lord to glorify him.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins. They will restore the former devastations. They will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. And strangers will stand and feed your flocks. And foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.
We’re looking forward to a day when the Jewish people are not going to be hated. They’re going to be adored. And we’re going to be rejoicing with them as we worship God. God, Together you will be called the Lord’s priest. And they will speak of you as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches, and in place of your shame, you will have a double portion. In place of disgrace, they will rejoice over their share, so they will possess double in their land, and eternal, eternal joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and injustice. I will faithfully reward my people and make a permanent covenant with them, and their descendants will be known among the nations, and their posterity among the peoples.
And all who see them will recognize that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
Jesus would have gone on to read if he had continued in the passage that I rejoice greatly in the Lord. I exalted my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. There’s much here in this prophetic language. I just wanted to read it that we’re looking forward to a time it’s coming, going to be like a wedding celebration.
For as the earth produces its growth and as a garden enables what is sown to spring up, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. The seeds of sin will no longer be in this world. There will be seeds that have been here all along that will begin to sprout, that will be about righteousness and praise, and it will be worldwide. What are the takeaways today? What are the applications I want to exhort you to?
The first one is follow Jesus example. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit. You can’t have a full, enjoyable, exciting relationship with God unless you’re depending on His Spirit and allowing His Spirit to work in you every day. The second thing is be like Jesus. Follow his example.
Know the Bible. Spend time in it. Be familiar with it so you can find what you need to find there. I didn’t type it in, but the third thing is Attend corporate worship weekly. It was important to Jesus not to come twice a month or twice a year.
He was there and every week, and God desires that of us. The third thing is accept rejection. Not everybody is going to want to hear the gospel, but it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to be discouraged by that and stop sharing. We continue to share because we never know when someone is going to accept. And in Jesus example, it may be the most unlikely person from the most wicked city in the world.
Or it may be somebody from a nation that has always Been against your people as it was with the woman in Sidon and Naaman. Next thing is go to those whom God loves that will receive. Jesus didn’t stop when the Jews rejected him. He said, well, I’ve offered it to you. I’m going to go to the Samaritans.
And then he goes on to to the Gentiles to proclaim the gospel. The next thing is accept God’s salvation and grace. Today we are still living in a period where it is possible to accept the gift of salvation, to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sin. He was buried and he rose from the dead. And when we acknowledge that we’re completely poor in our sin and can do nothing except trust him and we say, lord, I want to follow you now as my Lord and Savior.
It’s more than just a head knowledge that we accept God’s salvation and grace today. And the reason why that’s important is because tomorrow could be the day that God’s vengeance comes and you lose your opportunity to have accepted God’s salvation and grace today. And the last thing I encourage you to is look forward to the end times. Anticipate God’s vengeance because when he comes in vengeance, he’s coming as a righteous judge to make everything right. He’s going to mete out proper punishment.
He’s going to put Satan away. He’s going to put away evil, he’s going to put away disease and he’s going to get rid of all these awful things with a terrible vengeance so that we can have finally the creation that he wanted from the beginning. A new creation that’s coming, coming when we’ll have and enjoy this perfect relationship with the Lord as he always intended. Would you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We thank you that it was in the Old Testament. Father, it’s always been your plan that we would all have a right relationship with you. And we ask that you would move in our hearts, Father, to bring anyone here today to that place that they accept Jesus as their Savior and cry out to you and say, God, I am a sinner. I need your help to do for me what I cannot do for myself and Father, for those of us that do have true faith, Father, that we would follow Jesus example in knowing the Word and attending worship weekly depending on your Holy Spirit. Father, impress upon each of our hearts where we need to grow and what we need to do and give us the power in your spirit to do those things.
In Jesus name we pray Amen.
While you all were walking in.