This Changes Everything

 

 

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

 And He closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips, and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph’s son?" And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard took place at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown as well.’" And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, and they stood up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went on His way."

Luke 4:16-30

Good Morning my beloved,

We are delighted to come together today to worship in the presence of our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a true honor and a privilege to have you with us today. We are grateful for those who have continued to share our ministry's website with their friends, neighbors and loved ones.Your commitment and dedication to spreading the Gospel message has produced remarkable outcomes, it is such a joy to see how God is using this ministry to impact the lives of others in regions that have not been reached previously. We humbly ask for your continued prayers, so that we may proclaim the truth even more boldly, despite the challenges we face in reaching numerous countries, in Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa and Asia, where people are so hungry to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While the journey ahead may be long and full of obstacles, but I am confident that with God's grace, we can triumph, emerging stronger and more resilient than ever before for His glory. 

 

Since I spend a great deal of my time studying the Bible, preaching the Bible, and striving to live by the principles of the Bible, you could say that I have some very strong convictions, convictions that obviously go against the grain of a culture dominated by sin, sin that intends to damn every soul to eternal Hell. Sin has wreaked havoc in our relationship with God, and devastated our relationships man and man, and between man and nature. Because sin rules every heart, it plays a central role in our lives, and is deeply connected to how we perceive wickedness and is therefore, intricately linked to our natural propensity to indulge in them. Men are by nature wicked. I believe that Jesus said it best in John 3:19-20, when He said "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

 

There are many people who claim to be Christians because they believe in God, they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but they do not believe that every word written in the Bible is from God, therefore, they deny its authority. The Bible is the only source of Truth and knowledge about God, Who has chosen to reveal Himself to us through Scripture. I cannot imagine anyone who rejects the Bible as being the revealed Word of God, who scoff at the inerrancy of Scripture, could dare to call themselves followers of Christ. In 

an effort to humanize the origins of Scripture, leaders have rationalized it was written by men, rather than inspired by God. The church has become content with secular entertainment, modern psychology, and philosophy, motivational messages. I can't think of any other time in history when the church has become most like the world. The church was never designed to be a place that attracts sinners to make them feel good, it was designed to preach the Gospel that transforms lives. We have allowed the world to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable to God, redefining biblical values and what it means to love, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit and I believe the church is sitting under the divine judgment of God. And, it's own fault because we've become selfish and self-absorbed, literally consumed with our own wants and desires, we've joined forces with enemy and we're pretending as though nothing is wrong! It's like Isaiah said in chapter 53, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

 

Allow me to carry this one step further, the church was never intended to be a business, ran by paid professionals while we play church, comfortably sitting back on our nice comfortable pews with little or no involvement from the people of God. But it's become clear that we have fallen into that category, the church has become more like a country club than the House of God. If you look at the church today, you will find it extremely difficult to distinguish it from any other highly structured profit-making business with well paid corporate officers, I am thoroughly convinced this is not the church that God intended it to be. We can’t just sit in condemnation of people whose life and lifestyles we disagree with when we've allowed ourselves to become just a bunch of pagans with Christian terminology, hiding behind the walls of the church. I've often heard that people who lack spiritual depth and maturity tend to be the most talkative, often criticizing others, pretending to know what God wants, because they have anything of substance to contribute to a conversation to encourage others to meet Christ from where they are, trusting Him to empower them to become who He wants them to be. It reminds me of the old proverb, an empty vessels make the most noise.

I'm afraid that if we want to fix what's occurring in our society, we must first fix the problems within the church and the professed people of God by preaching the Word of God and becoming the Church as God defines it in His Word, the living, breathing body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Paul describes the church with one of the best metaphors that’s ever been used, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."  

 

I want to preface by saying that I believe it's important to address the issues occurring within the church, from a theological viewpoint. Satan’s attacks against the church are well thought out, much like his deceptive tactics against Eve, or his straightforward attempts to destroy Job, or twisting the Word of God in a moment of weakness like he did with Jesus. The strategy we are experiencing from Satan's playbook  is he has come into the church disguised as an angel of light and his demons masquerading as ministers of righteousness corrupting the creation account in Genesis which is negatively impacting the church today, particularly regarding the ordination and acceptance of LGBT clergy. By the way, there is no scientific evidence or valid test that will to substantiate LGBT even exists. Hell will happily affirm you in your sin, but Heaven will require you to be changed, a new creation in Christ, a people that will represent God's love to the world, reaching out to those who is lost without Christ.

 

The love of God, which is beyond human understanding, is best expressed in the Person of Christ, Who poured His love into His believers.  In John 13:34-35, Jesus reminds us, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." You and I were created to love and to be loved, that's why love holds such significance in our lives, it's the dominating theme in our lives, the essence of our existence is centered around love. As Christians, we are to be the living proof of God's love, both giving and receiving. We are the advertisers of God's love to a watching world. We know that Satan is the great counterfeiter of Christ, he not only counterfeits everything the Lord does, he corrupts it, the Antichrist is the counterfeit of Christ, and the world's system is the counterfeit to the Kingdom of Christ. 

 

God is love, but love is not tolerance, it's not a feeling, or an emotion, love embodies Truth, and to a world that is deceived by Satan's lies is incapable of grasping the true meaning of love, biblical love feels like hate. We know it is only by the Holy Spirit can we even begin to understand the depth and height and breadth of God's love, that's why the unredeemed world doesn't understand what love is, so they humanized God's love, confusing it with lust, sentimentality, and gratification, turning love inward toward ones self, "self-love" because love, like faith, requires an object. Self-love is self-worship which directly opposes God, which is selfless, sacrificial, acting for the benefit of others. Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 1 John 4, tells us no Christian can claim to know the love of God unless that love is extended to those that are without Christ. How we as Christians choose to understand and express God's love to the lost of this world reveals which side of this great spiritual battle we're on. That said, I pray that everything we say and do will be done in love, because He first loved us.

 

Would you pray with me?

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, we thank You for Your Word, for the clear instruction of Your Word, for the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, help us all to not only hear but carefully listen in all faithfulness what it means to be the church, Your Church, may we willingly apply to our lives. Lord, we might know what Your Word teaches, but unless we confess the sins we’ve committed, and renew our commitment to pursue holiness and righteousness, living in obedience it's just meaningless worship from empty hearts. O Father, in Your gracious mercy, forgive us for being the reason people don’t come to Christ, for neglecting to portray a proper image of Christ to a world that is lost, drowning in sin and in desperate need of a Savior to rescue them. Encourage us through the power of Your Spirit to live out our faith as we ought; as the body of Christ and as individuals, before a watching world. Father, we pray that You would touch every heart, those who do not yet know Christ, those who cannot fathom the depths of Your grace, Your mercy and Your forgiveness, grant them the gift of repentance, so they might come even now and experience Your great and gracious love. Father, do as You must with Your people to make us useful for Your glory.

In Christ's precious name

Amen

Today's Message: This Changes Everything

 

Open you Bibles with me, if you would and turn them to Luke chapter 4. I trust that you will follow along with me read these four verses to you, to set it in our minds as we open our hearts and listen for the voice of our Lord. Luke 4:16-30.

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

 

And He closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips, and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph’s son?" And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard took place at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown as well.’" And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, and they stood up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went on His way."

As we look at our text, we'll see Jesus' ministry as Luke records for us, which begins with His preaching at the synagogue in His own hometown, connecting Him with both His birthplace of Nazareth, where He lived for thirty years and the established Jewish synagogue tradition in which He was brought up, making it a natural choice as the starting place for His public ministry, among those who were most familiar with Him. As I'm sure you will remember, we mentioned previously, His ministry was already well under way, a period that Luke omits, as do Matthew and Mark, which is why we looked to the first four chapters of John last time to sort of fill in the gaps that Luke doesn't tell us about. And, Matthew adds that Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum early on in his adult life, so His visit to Nazareth, was just that, a visit. Now, we’re going to pick back up in Luke, where Jesus launches His Galilean ministry.

Let's begin by looking at verse 16, which says, "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read." We've already mentioned that Nazareth, His hometown, would have been the most familiar place to Him, having lived there quietly, in obscurity for thirty years after His family fled Bethlehem escaping into Egypt to avoid the threat of being killed by Herod, and it would have been in Nazareth, where it became a regular practice for Him to accompany His family to the synagogue every Sabbath day. A synagogue, or "sunagógé," is the place where Jewish people gathered together for prayer and to listen to the reading and exposition of the Holy Scriptures throughout the week, but particularly on the Sabbath, making it a regular practice. Since it was customary for the synagogue leader to invite visiting rabbis to speak a message of encouragement, Jesus was chosen to be the reader and the expositor of the Scripture to those who were very familiar with Him. As far as we know, this is the first time that Jesus actually took an official position in the synagogue. Assuming that most of you have never attended services at a synagogue, first the "Shema" from Deuteronomy 6:4, would be recited, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" Then certain prayers would be spoken, followed by a reading from the Law, Genesis through Deuteronomy and a reading from the Prophets, intended to illustrate the law. So Jesus is handed the scroll, and He stood up to read it.

According to verses 17-19, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Typically the text for this particular Sabbath would have been Isaiah 61:1-2, He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

"The Spirit of Lord Yahweh is upon me
Because Yahweh has anointed me 

To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim release to captives
And freedom to prisoners,To proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh"

As you can see is a messianic text, spoken in the first person, even, in the book of Isaiah. However, this Sabbath is unusual because the Messiah Himself is speaking of His own ministry to come, and He says it will be a ministry with the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord. And He stopped there, neglecting to read "And the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn." 

 

Then, in verse 20, "And He closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him." This wasn’t part of the plan, He was supposed to read the full text to the Jews audience who has been waiting for the Messiah to come for centuries, anticipating the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God being together, all as one act rather than two individual acts separated by centuries, as did many of the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah. This really shakes things up, of course all of the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him, they're waiting to hear what He has to say. He would have given them an exposition of Isaiah 61:1-2, we don't have any record in regard to His message being given there, He probably had more to say beyond that, but Luke is obviously summarizing the textual material. 

 

And then, the conclusion to His message, in verse 21, "And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." He is literally announces the favorable year of the Lord has begun with the arrival of the Messiah, saying "I am God’s anointed King and I am the Messiah, Who brings the good news, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s great prophecy. The long-awaited age of salvation is here and the kingdom has now come." This is beyond belief, they've known Him His whole life, He grew up in this tiny village, surely God's chosen Messiah wouldn't come from such humble beginnings. I hasten to add, it's worth noting, this should be clear evidence that He didn’t perform any miraculous acts during His first thirty years, they have no reason to believe that He’s the Messiah, if He had displayed any supernatural abilities, they certainly would have heard about it. If He is God’s anointed King, He’s not who they thought He’s always been. 

 

Reflecting upon this really made me think, how frequently we tend to view those around us in a superficial way, focusing on their physical appearance, mental challenges, or age-related issues. When we look at the homeless, do we truly see their desperation and acknowledge their lack of resources to overcome their predicament, or do we simply perceive them as a nuisance to be eliminated? Do we really see the desperate condition of the sinner, enough to share the Gospel and point them to the only One who can deliver them? The Gospel literally means "good news," we're talking about specific group of people,

those who are destitute being rescued from poverty, spiritual bankruptcy rather than the tradition meaning of being "poor," pertaining to economic poverty. That’s where all evangelism has to begin, with a recognition of your spiritual bankruptcy, that's why it’s not good news for the self-righteous, who think they know God. By the way, the message of the Gospel has never been about health, material wealth and prosperity, that is until the leading televangelism cultist’s that spawned the charismatic movement. 

 

Verse 22, "And all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips, and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph’s son?" And all were speaking well of Him, that's really not surprising, He is no doubt the greatest speaker they've ever heard. No other teacher could match His intensity, His passion. Who could possibly be more captivating, more accurate on the subject that He was addressing, the arrival of the Messiah and the Gospel of salvation, than the Anointed One Himself? No wonder they were literally marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips. Nonetheless, the hair on the back of their necks probably stood up, they couldn't  get past the fact that He is someone they know so well, Joseph’s son.

 

Verse 23, "And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard took place at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown as well.’" If You’re really who You say You are, prove it here in your hometown like you did in Capernaum. If You want us to believe You, do some miracles for us." Everybody knew that He turned water to wine in Cana, nobody denied His miracles that took place at Capernaum, the problem is they want visible evidence. But proof isn't the real issue, it's their spiritual condition, they're blind, and oppressed and they can't seem to recognize that. Self-righteous people get offended because they can’t accept the possibility that they're not saved, counting on their own self-righteousness. Remember, the Pharisee who stood in the temple and was praying these things to himself: "‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get,’" in Luke 18:11-12.

 

Verse 24, "And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown." Jesus understands  that it’s not their fault that they don’t believe, He concedes it’s hard to see somebody that your familiar with in a different way, especially when He's the Messiah, the Son of God. Growing up in the church, it never even entered my mind that the church was full of people who claimed to be Christians but are not, who profess to follow Christ but do not adhere to His teachings. It wasn't until I began really study God's Word for the ministry, that I began to understand that many who claim to be a Christian are deceived, living a life that contradict the clear principles outlined in God's Word, as if obedience was never relevant to being a a follower of Christ. Jesus tells us in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And, in Romans 2:8 Paul tells us "those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger." Then, in 1 Peter 1, Peter writes, "As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." There's probably nothing more true of sinners today than that they think they are free, I'm free to be myself, it's my choice to be what I want to be, we constantly hear those kinds of inane statements in our society. However, the Word of God doesn't define them as the Bible calls the being free, in fact slaves, held captive by sin and Satan. They are indebted to God for a debt they can never pay, so they are awaiting sentencing from the Great Executioner, who is God. You are only truly free when your sin is forgiven, which is exactly what Christ came to do, set the captives of Satan free because He will forgive their sins. I believe that no gift could ever demand a greater response of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ than the gift of salvation. 

Verses 25-26, "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow." Being devout Jews, they were all too familiar with this distasteful story when Israel was under judgment for worshiping Baal and there was no rain for three years and a half years, which produced a great famine, a famine affected both the Gentiles and the Jews. And God sent His prophet Elijah to deliver a widow, not a Jewish widow, but a Gentile widow, who would have been looked upon as the lowest of the low. This fascinating story, but there’s a reason for telling it, an amazing picture of the spiritual condition of desperate people for whom the Gospel is good news and the Savior Who is offering to meet your greatest need, if you are willing to trust Him and do what He says, the blessings will follow. You can read more about this glorious story in 1 Kings 17. Allow me to say, if you’re wondering whether Jesus can rescue you from your desperate spiritual condition, the only thing that makes sense is to reach out to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation that He offers and trust in His Word in faith, and discover the Truth about the Savior of the Gospel.

The point is God always blesses sincere faith, no matter how small it may be. One of the marvels of God's Word, is you don't necessarily have to be looking for His grace to find it, just ask anyone of the many people whose life has been transformed for many years now. But, if in case that story wasn't enough to make them recognize that rather than looking for a miracle as proof, entrust your life to the Messiah and the proof you seek will follow, He has another equally disturbing story found in 2 Kings 5, about God sending the prophet Elijah to another Gentile, instead of the Jews, this time a leper named Naaman to remind them that it's better to humble yourself before the Lord and receive eternal life than to be proud and dead with works-righteousness system.

Verse 27, "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." To make the long story short, this takes place five or six decades later with a man named Naaman, a highly respected commander of the army of the king of Aram, who killed the Jewish people, who took them captive. He is a great warrior, but he was also a leper. There was a little girl taken captive from the land of Israel, who was serving Naaman's wife and said to her mistress, "I wish that my master were before the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy." So, Naaman went in and told his master that the little girl believed the prophet could heal his leprosy. He's going to make sure this happens any way he can, so he sends him to Israel with ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes and a letter for the king of Israel, saying, "So now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy." In other words, he's going to buy his healing. Naaman eventually gets to the prophet Elisha, who didn't even come out to meet him, he sent a messenger to tell him "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean." Needless to say, Naaman went away furious, refusing to acknowledge his own destitution, he was unwilling to wash himself in the muddy Jordan River. One his servants approached him and said, "My father, had the prophet spoken with you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?" So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy and he was clean." The point is you cannot buy or even earn salvation, it comes as a gift to those who are realize the utter hopelessness of their situation and are willing to humble themselves and ask God for His mercy. That is my heart behind every message that I teach.

Look at verses 28-29, "And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, and they stood up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff." What went wrong? This is what happens when you attempt to share the Gospel with "righteous" people, it often leads to offense, because they already know it all, they're relying on their own righteousness. No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 9:13, "But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." So many times, those priceless words of tender compassion fall upon the deaf ears of those are just too blind to see the Truth about spiritual condition, they refuse to see themselves as lost sinners. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, didn't He? That has always been God’s mission, to rescue sinners, the Gospel a series of invitations for sinners to come to Him and He will have compassion on them, forgiving their sin.

That brings us to verse 30, "But passing through their midst, He went on His way." Before they were able to throw Him off the cliff, He disappeared, escaping unharmed. His time to die for the sins of the world had not yet come. Salvation will come to the world, but it’s not going to come by force, you can't make people believe, especially those who are full of themselves, enslaved by their own self-righteousness. Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Humility the only possible way for anyone to respond to the Gospel, to receive salvation, and belong to the family of God, your pride will keep you out. God reveals Himself to many people, in many ways at many times, today the Word of God has come to you, but your response really depends on what group you’re in, a slave to sin, marked for eternal death in Hell or a slave to righteousness, marked for eternal life in His Kingdom. I can tell you this, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. That's the distinguishing factor that differentiates between those who are God’s people, and those who are not.

 

You don’t need a miracle to know whether I’m telling you the truth or not, all you need to do is read the Bible and listen to His voice, everything I've told you is all right there, in His Word. It is my prayer that you will do that today, even now.

May it be so..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name

Amen


                                                          Copyright © 2019-2024 All Rights Reserved