14 Jesus returned to
16 He went to
20 Then he rolled up the scroll,
gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the
synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today
this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 22 All spoke well of him and
were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
James
warned in 3:1, “Not many of you should
presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be
judged more strictly.” Teaching and
preaching can be one of the most daunting, rewarding and frustrating things you
can do. When you get through to somebody
it makes you feel great, but sometimes you wonder if you really are
accomplishing anything. I remember
preaching a sermon and mentioning how trying to reach into God’s wisdom and
find out hidden things is like choking on the apple of the Garden of Eden. A visitor came to me after the service and
mentioned, “I liked that part about the apple.
I think God wants us to be vegetarians.”
I was dumbfounded as to how in God’s earth he could have gotten that out
of my sermon. What’s even more
frustrating is when you can preach against something seemingly a thousand
times, yet the same people who hear what you preach proceed to do that very
thing which you clearly said was wrong.
It makes you say, “what’s the use!”
The
challenge comes in how to respond when the message doesn’t seem to be getting
through. The natural response and sermon
would be to “really let them have it - to give them the law.” Indeed, I might be able to get some real
change out of people by laying the hammer down on them and scaring their pants
off. It’s what all people naturally
respond to - because the law - not the gospel - is written in their
hearts. I imagine that with a lot of
threats we could probably get people to do almost anything. Yet do you believe that God is pleased with
such motivated people - who are scared to death and feel no choice but to
comply to orders?
If
we are really going to call ourselves old time Evangelicals, then we need to
trust that only the good news of forgiveness - Christ crucified and risen -
will really effect God pleasing results.
This is what “Evangelical” really used to stand for - “to preach the
Gospel” - before Billy Graham went and hijacked our name and his followers used
it for a political agenda. It is the
gospel - the message of free and full forgiveness in Christ - that is to
separate us from Islam, Judaism, and Mormonism, and every other non-Christian
religion.
This
is what made Jesus stand out and shine more than any other preacher of his
time. It wasn’t just the miracles - like
turning water into wine. It wasn’t just
what happened in the waters of the
Jesus Shines with His
Amazingly Gracious Words
I. They
were based on the fact that we need grace
Jesus
looked at the world differently than most anybody else did - even the religious
leaders of his day. Look at how he
described people. He referred to them as “prisoners, blind,” and “oppressed.” For instance, listen to this interchange
Jesus had with the Jews of His day.
John 8:31‑34 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are
Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say
that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who
sins is a slave to sin.
Jesus considered everyone who SINNED as a SLAVE
to sin. Paul does the same thing in his
letter to the Romans -
Romans 1:28‑32 Furthermore, since they did not think it
worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved
mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind
of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God‑haters,
insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey
their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Today we talk a lot about “addictions.” They come in all shapes and sizes. Internet addictions, alcohol addictions, sex
addictions, drug addictions - some are worse and more destructive than
others. Yet Paul included greed, gossip,
anger and arrogance as to be controlling sins as well. The world - even today’s religion doesn’t
think this way. It is way too extreme to
them. Today’s religion and philosophy
says, “People are basically good. If we
can just show these people five easy steps - perhaps we can get them to live a
truly good and God pleasing life.” But
when Jesus looked at the world - he looked at all as being prisoners of sin -
trapped in it - unable to escape it’s oppression. With a completely vivid and heavenly insight
Jesus said they were all prisoners and blindly oppressed people.
II. Jesus
had a compassionate heart for the oppressed world
When
I go to the
It
stood out because in the Jewish religion - it would appear that the Pharisees
had absolutely no compassion on people.
They felt like the Gentiles were just a bunch of heathens outside of the
chosen people. But when you see how
Jesus responded to these “rejects” - you see a big difference. Think of when Jesus healed people who were
maimed- they didn’t care two hoots for the people who were healed. All they cared about was that the Sabbath was
violated. Even after one man was
healed, all they did was tell him he was steeped in sin at birth. At another time the Jewish leaders were
pumped and ready to stone an adulteress to death. The tax collectors were another class of
people that were absolutely despised by the religious leaders. It was as if they had completely given up on
many classes and races of people and written them off as hopeless and
useless. The only good sinner was a dead
sinner.
It
sounds like a terrible way to look at the world, but if you think about it - is
it really that foreign to us? When you look at where our neighbors and
coworkers are in society, it’s easy just to throw your hands up and say, “I
give up. Everything and everyone is
going to hell in a handbasket.” With
statistics like seventy five percent of Americans living together before
marriage and nine out of ten having premarital sex, half of marriages ending in
divorce - you can’t help but throw your hands up. Look at the fact that a majority of these
kids are no longer going to worship or having two parents in the home - things
are only getting worse. But we are where
we are. What do we do? Sometimes I feel like giving up. It seems
like a lost cause to even try. Sometimes
you and I also carry a lot of self righteousness about us and say to us,
“they’re getting what they deserve.”
Jesus
was different. He recognized the way the
world was - but He still cared about them.
He didn’t give up on us. He even
reached out to the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the Samaritan woman
who had five different lovers. The sad
thing is that many are interpreting what Jesus did and saying - “let’s reach
out to them with love. Let’s just let
them stay in the lifestyle they are in.
As long as they aren’t hurting anybody - let the adulterers commit
adultery. Let the arrogant stay
proud. Let them be who they are.” They too have given up - by giving in. Instead of preaching anything that resembles
God’s Word by calling their actions evil -
they just let anything go. In a
silent way they are giving up on sinners by not pointing out their sin and
letting them slide into hell. For Paul
says that “because of these sins the
wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians
3:6)
III.
Jesus reached out with gracious words
When
we see people addicted to sin - really hurting - if we really do care - how do
we help? How can you really help someone
who has spent himself into an uncontrollable debt? Or who is consumed with alcohol
addiction? The usual attempt to love
them is to enroll them in Alcoholics Anonymous or perhaps Dave Ramsey’s
If
you notice, Jesus offered a completely different approach. He first and foremost told these blind, poor
and oppressed people something they would never have imagined in a thousand
years - something they would have never heard from anyone. Instead of telling them what they had to do
to get better eyesight or how they could free themselves - from the words of
Isaiah He told them they could completely have freedom, sight, and the Lord’s
favor immediately.
But
how could they possess such promises? He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to
the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened
on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus told them that TODAY their freedom and
release was FULFILLED in their hearing - in the voice that was reading that
Word to them - in HIM. Instead of
pointing the people to themselves to find their freedom - He told them to look
outside of themselves - to HIM.
What
was so special about Christ? It was His
WORDS. They were so “gracious” - amazingly
so. When Zacchaeus the tax collector had
no reputation left among the Jews, Jesus said, “come down from that tree! I’m going to your house today!” His words made Zacchaeus feel important -
like Jesus actually cared for him and loved him. For the lady who was caught in adultery and
about to be stoned, Jesus uttered the amazing words, “neither do I condemn
you.” All that she had done was forgiven
by Jesus. The same went with the
paralytic on the mat who was lowered through the ceiling. Jesus even spoke these words for the people
who were crucifying him, “Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do.”
We
all remember the Gospel in a nutshell - coined by Jesus Himself, “God so loved the WORLD, that He gave His
one and only Son - that WHOEVER BELIEVES in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life.” Those words are
written to everyone - no matter what you’ve done - where you’ve been. God isn’t picky with His love. He doesn’t put riders on His
forgiveness. If you are part of the
world, God loves you. Through faith in
Jesus Christ - your sins have been paid for.
Jesus said so much on the cross when He declared, “it is finished.” This
message takes all the oppression of guilt - all of the blindness of sin - which
makes everything seem like a curse on this earth - and makes it look good
again. In the Old Testament - they used
to celebrate a year of Jubilee every 50 years - where all of their debt would
be forgiven, the Jewish slaves would go free, and all of their land would be
given back. Just think, Jesus was saying
that no matter how much you owe God - no matter how much you deserve to suffer
for what you’ve done - it’s all been paid to God by Jesus. Jesus says, “I’ve got the check. Now you get a fresh start!”
This
kind of talk amazed the people. He was
being so gracious with God’s Words - explaining that God was really a merciful
and forgiving LORD. Nobody had ever
heard such words from their Rabbis - such words of promise and love. Those who had given up on themselves because
they were sure they had no hope of heaven or God’s love - were suddenly moved
to repent of their sins and turn to God!
It sounded absolutely wonderful to the Gentiles, tax collectors,
prostitutes and even common every day sinners.
Zacchaeus voluntarily gave half of his riches to the poor - showing he
was repentant. Prostitutes gave up their
lifestyles. With this message of
forgiveness - people felt motivated to get out of what was dragging them down -
to have some freedom from sin again, and everyone was praising him and
spreading the Word about Jesus. It
really is an amazing thing - isn’t it - that God would even care about us -
knowing that we have been so blind - that we are so poor and really have
nothing to offer God - that He would still love us and forgive us and offer us
heaven free of charge!
You
know what scares me - is that this isn’t so amazing to us. We read through this prophecy of Isaiah and
tend to think nothing of it. Isn’t that
amazing! Go up to a poor person on the
street and give him just a hundred dollars - and he will be ecstatic! Give a prisoner a pardon of just ten days -
and he will thank you profusely! But
then we - poor and blind prisoners are given the riches of freedom from the
devil and hell - and the promise to see Jesus face to face on Judgment Day -
and live - how can respond to this message with boredom? God forgive us! Imagine if a sunrise and a sunset occurred
only once a year. I would imagine that
many more people would be outside to watch that pretty sight. But since it happens every day - people
overlook it and ignore it. Even though
you’ve heard this message before, do not let the commonality of this message
bore you. Treat it every day as if you’d
never heard it before. Remember where
you came from. Remember what you were. You were a poor blind prisoner of death and
hell - which means you were bound to burn eternally in a fire. In Jesus, God has promised you that Jesus’
death on the cross paid for what you deserved.
His blood and your baptism gives you free forgiveness and freedom from
hell. Jesus has promised you this.
That’s what made Him so special to the people of His day - that’s what makes
Him so special to us - and that’s what makes Him shine - it’s His amazingly
gracious words. Amen.