What is your life’s mission? Is that a question you’ve ever even considered? Every business school teaches the importance of developing a mission statement for a business or an organization, but have you ever thought about the need for a mission statement in our personal lives?
Jesus certainly did. And this morning, as we wrap up our series that focuses on the foundations that Jesus laid at the beginning of His ministry, we’ll take a look at His personal mission statement and then see why that is something that ought to guide our lives as well.
Last week, we looked at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and this morning we’ll pick up in Luke’s gospel account. So turn with me to Luke chapter 4 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 14:
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Luke 4:14, 15 (ESV)
In his account, Luke makes it sound like he is picking up chronologically right after the temptation of Jesus. But as we discovered in our introduction to the gospels, the gospel writers don’t always follow a strictly chronological pattern. In fact here, Luke skips over much of the first year of Jesus’ ministry.
Based on John’s gospel account, we know that after His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus called His first disciples and then returns north to Galilee to the town of Cana where He performs His first miracle – turning water to wine. He continues to Capernaum, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee and remains there for a short time. At Passover, Jesus travels to Jerusalem, where he drives the moneychangers from the Temple for the first time. There, He also has His encounter with Nicodemus. As He heads back north, Jesus passes through Samaria, where he encounters the woman at the well in Sychar. He then returns to Cana and heals an official’s son who is sick in Capernaum. It is at that point that Luke picks up his narrative again.
Jesus ministers in the area around his hometown of Nazareth by teaching in the synagogues. These synagogues originated during the Babylonian captivity after the Temple had been destroyed. They were never intended to be e replacement for the Temple, but rather were developed as places of worship that would be accessible to people, much like our local churches today.
The typical service at the synagogue would begin with the singing or reciting of the Psalms followed by reciting of the Shema from the book of Deuteronomy. Then there would be prayers followed by a reading from the Law – the first five books of the Bible – and then a reading from one of the prophets. Then one of the qualified men in the service would instruct on the Bible passages and the service would end with a benediction.
Luke continues with his account as he records what occurred on one particular Sabbath:
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:16-21 (ESV)
At first, it seems a bit strange that Luke would skip over nearly a year of Jesus’ life and begin his narrative of the ministry of Jesus with this event. But upon closer examination, it makes perfect sense. Here, Jesus uses the words of Scripture to identify Himself as the Messiah and to define His mission. Although He has already begun that mission, it takes on a much greater degree of urgency from this point forward.
As Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah, he turns to both Isaiah 58 and 61 and reads from the scroll. His audience that day no doubt immediately recognized those passages as prophecies of the Messiah. In fact the word Messiah, a Hebrew word and the Greek word Christ, both literally mean “the anointed One” so the reference to being anointed by God the Father clearly show that the Messiah is being pictured in these passages.
The people in the synagogue that day had undoubtedly heard those Scriptures many times before. And they had heard of the miracles that Jesus had done in Cana and Capernaum and his powerful teaching and they now waited to see what Jesus would say as He instructed them. But I doubt that any of them were prepared with the opening words of Jesus’ sermon that day - Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
And with those words, Jesus reveals to them and to us that His personal mission is to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah and that the people there that day were all witnesses of that.
So let’s take a few moments to look at the Messiah’s mission and then, most importantly, let’s see what that means for our own personal life mission:
THE MESSIAH’S MISSION:
In His personal mission statement, Jesus makes five statements that describe the task for which God had anointed Him and set Him apart. We can further break these down into two sections:
• The first four tasks all deal with sin:
We can clearly determine that Jesus is using figurative language here when we look at some of His other statements in the gospel accounts. While it is true that Luke’s gospel account does focus on the “down and out” in life, the bigger picture here is that Jesus came to turn this world upside down. He was ushering in a new kind of kingdom where true riches, liberty and sight are to be determined spiritually and not physically.
Although, as we’ll see shortly, His audience that day didn’t understand it at first, they were the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed because of the sin in their lives. But Jesus had good news for them. His mission was to provide a way for people to be set free from those effects of sin.
o proclaim good news to the poor.
There are several different Greek words that can be translated “poor.” But the one Jesus chooses to use here is the one that means to be completely destitute, to have absolutely nothing. When Jesus uses that same word in the Sermon on the Mount, He provides us with some further insight into what He is saying here.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3 (ESV)
The fact is that every person is a sinner and that he or she is morally bankrupt. But to those who recognize that they have absolutely nothing of value to offer to God, Jesus proclaims good news. He has come into the world to pay the penalty for that sin and provide them with the true spiritual riches which consist of being considered righteous in the sight of God based on what He is going to do on their behalf.
o proclaim liberty to the captives
Most unbelievers today would consider themselves to be free and believe that Christ followers are the ones who are in bondage. But the Bible clearly teaches that exactly the opposite is true.
Many of you probably know Romans 6:23 by heart. In fact, can someone recite that verse for us? [Wait for answer]. Well, let’s look at that verse in context this morning. I’ll begin reading in verse 20 of that chapter:
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23 (ESV)
Notice that Paul writes that prior to their faith in Jesus they were what? That’s right – slaves of sin. And the ultimate result of that slavery to sin is what? That’s right – death.
But to those who recognize their bondage to sin, Jesus provides the key to unlock the cell and free them from captivity.
o recovering of sight to the blind
Although it is true that Jesus did heal those who were physically blind, his larger purpose was to deal with those who were spiritually blind. Jesus often called the religious leaders blind because their souls and spirits were darkened and they failed to see the truth.
Paul also described this spiritual blindness:
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 (ESV)
One of the effects of sin is that it blinds people to their need for a Savior. But once someone acknowledges his or her spiritual blindness, then Jesus can restore their sight.
o set at liberty those who are oppressed
The word “oppressed” here literally means to “be broken into pieces”. These are people whose lives have been broken in some way – maybe by abuse, or by illness or by trials. But once again in every case those broken lives are all a result of sin – either the sin of the person whose life is broken or by the sin of someone else.
But Jesus’ mission was to pick up the pieces of those broken lives and to set them at liberty. Although He doesn’t always take away the pain and affliction, He does promise to deal with the underlying sin in a way that sets us free.
• The fifth task summarizes the first four
o proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
There is almost certainly a reference here to the Jewish Year of Jubilee, which is described in Leviticus 25. Every fifty years all property was to go back to the original owner, all debts were to be cancelled and all prisoners, or slaves, were to be released. For the Jews it was a picture of release, forgiveness and restoration.
But the problem was is that historical records indicate that Israel never did adhere to God’s command concerning the Jubilee. In fact, there is good evidence to support the fact that the 70 years the Jews were captive in Babylon represented the 70 Jubilees they had failed to keep. By the time of Jesus, the people associated the Messiah with the Year of Jubilee and looked forward to His coming as the final fulfillment of Jubilee – a time when God’s people would experience release forgiveness and restoration. And when the Messiah did appear that would be the year of the Lord’s favor.
This idea of the year of the Lord’s favor is further amplified by the fact that Jesus stops reading Isaiah 61:2 right in the middle of the verse. Let’s look at that verse.
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
Isaiah 61:2 (ESV)
You’ll notice that Jesus stops reading after the first phrase. He does not go on to read the part about the day of vengeance. When Isaiah recorded his prophecy, God hadn’t revealed to him that there would be two separate comings of the Messiah. So many of the prophecies of the Messiah have His two comings all wrapped up together. But Jesus stops reading in the middle of the verse because His vengeance will not be poured out until His future return. So His first coming is certainly the year of the Lord’s favor.
Before we conclude by examining how Jesus’ mission statement should shape our own personal mission statements, we need to continue reading Luke’s account and observe how the people responded to the words of Jesus:
22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
Luke 4:22-30 (ESV)
Although, as it becomes apparent pretty quickly, the initial reaction to Jesus’ sermon was favorable, it was also very superficial. You almost sense that the people of Nazareth were kind of rooting for their home town hero. They had heard of the miracles that Jesus had performed in the surrounding towns and how His teaching had been received and so they had come out to see what all the fuss was about.
And I think that perhaps they were also expecting some kind of special favor from Jesus. After all, He was one of them. And, at least at first, their expectations were met. The people were really impressed with Jesus’ style. But as they began to consider the substance of His message, they began to take offense.
When we read this account, we sense that at first the people were fine with the idea of a Messiah who was one of their own and who had come to deal with the sin of everyone else. But once they realized that Jesus was speaking directly to them and pointing out their need for a Savior who would deal with their sins, they turned on Him pretty quickly.
So Jesus uses two well-known proverbs of the day and two Biblical accounts to point out their hypocrisy. In today’s culture we might sum up the two proverbs that Jesus quoted with this familiar adage: Familiarity breeds contempt. These people had watched Jesus grow up in their town as the son of a carpenter. Who was He to tell them they needed to be saved by Him?
And then Jesus recounts two Biblical accounts that had something in common. Both accounts described times when Israel had turned their back on God and so God chose to bless Gentiles who were willing to humble themselves before Him. The widow in Zarephath was a Gentile woman who acknowledged the God of Elijah and God provided for her by causing her small amount of flour and oil last for many days. Naaman was a commander in the Syrian army. Not only was he a Gentile but Syria was Israel’s enemy. But when he humbled himself and was obedient to the word of God given to him through the prophet Elisha, God healed him of his leprosy.
The people clearly understood the point Jesus was making. If the people of Nazareth weren’t willing to admit their spiritual poverty and humble themselves before Jesus, then He would take the spiritual healing He was offering and take it elsewhere. And that quickly enraged the people so much that they were ready to kill the hometown boy they had been praising just a few minutes earlier.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE RESPONSE TO JESUS:
It is only possible to receive Jesus when we:
o Recognize our true condition
The main thing that keeps people from receiving Jesus is their pride. Like the people of Nazareth, they refuse to see themselves from God’s perspective and to recognize that they are poor, captive, blind and oppressed spiritually and that they therefore need a Savior.
And if you’ve not yet committed your life to Jesus, then I am confident that God is trying to speak to you this morning through His Word. It is His desire that you not be spiritually proud like the people of Nazareth and reject the gift of salvation that Jesus is offering to you today.
But even if you are a Christ follower, it is still possible to have spiritual pride and to look at ourselves more highly that we ought to. That certainly was the case in the church in Laodicea. Their view of themselves was completely contrary to God’s view of what they were like:
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Revelation 3:17 (ESV)
The language that Jesus uses to address the church there bears some striking similarities to Jesus’ mission statement in Luke, doesn’t it?
Before we’re too quick to condemn the people of Nazareth, let’s make sure we aren’t doing the same thing ourselves. How many times do we walk away from a church service thinking, “That was a really great message. I’m sure glad the preacher was addressing all those other people who needed to hear that.” Because of spiritual pride we’re quick to see the sin in others, but we’re not willing to let God’s Word shed its light on our own lives so that we can see the sin that is there and let Jesus deal with it.
We would do well here to heed the words of Paul:
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Romans 12:3 (ESV)
o Accept Him as both Savior and Lord
As we saw with the people of Nazareth, it’s really easy to accept Jesus on a superficial level. We hear that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives – and that is true. But to receive Jesus into our lives, we have to accept the entire gospel message and accept Jesus as He truly is – not just as we want Him to be. That means we don’t get to just receive Him as a nice Savior who is going to help us to be happy. We also have to accept Him as Lord and be willing to submit to His leadership in our lives. And again, if you’ve never submitted to Jesus as both Savior and Lord in your life, I am sure that God is speaking to your heart this morning and that He desires for you to make that commitment today.
And for the rest of us who have received Jesus into our lives, we need to continue to submit to Jesus as Lord of our lives on a daily basis. As this short video demonstrates, that is not always an easy thing to do. [The Hall Closet Video]
MY MISSION AS A CHRIST FOLLOWER:
If you have received Jesus and are His disciple, then He has called you to follow His example. Obviously none of us have the ability to be the one who forgives sin, but there are several aspects of Jesus’ ministry that He has now passed on to us as His followers. Let’s look at this quickly:
o I have been anointed…
The Greek word translated “anointed” literally means “to rub with oil”. Although anointing has several different purposes in the Bible, it is primarily a means to consecrate or set apart a person to serve God in some capacity. As the Messiah or Christ – the “Anointed One” – Jesus was set apart by his Father to come here to earth and die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Obviously none of us has been consecrated by God for that purpose. But every believer has indeed been anointed or set apart by God to serve Him. There are numerous passages that illustrate that truth, but for time’s sake, let’s just look at one of them:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
God has anointed us, or set us apart, to do good works. And without a doubt, one of those good works is…
o …to proclaim good news
The only means that God has provided by which His good news might be proclaimed verbally in this world is through the followers of Jesus. As we saw in Revelation, just before the return of Jesus, God will employ angels for that purpose, but for right now, we are the only ones God has anointed to do that.
And the gospel that we have been given is very powerful, as we see in the words of Paul:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
Fortunately, we are not dependent on our own knowledge, our own wisdom or our own life experiences when it comes to the task God has given to each of us. We have His good news, His gospel, right here in the pages of Scripture to use as our tool.
o I have been sent...
In His final words to His followers, Jesus made it clear that He was sending them out into the world:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John 20:21 (ESV)
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (ESV)
That doesn’t mean that we have to go to a foreign country, or even leave our neighborhood. But it does imply that we aren’t just to wait around for people to come to us. We are to be taking the gospel message to them. We have been sent…
o To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
For those of us who have been the recipients of God’s favor – His grace – in our lives, we should naturally have compassion on those who are lost. Like Jesus, we need to see the people around us as they really are – like lost sheep without a shepherd. And then we need to do everything in our power to help them to see their real lost condition and let them know that in Jesus they can find spiritual riches, freedom, sight and relief from oppression.
All of us have been placed by God into different positions in this world. We are bankers, engineers, teachers, secretaries, chefs, consultants, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, grandparents, aunts and uncles. But for those of us who are Christ followers, we all share the same mission in life: We have been anointed to proclaim good news and we have been sent to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. That is a tremendous privilege, but it is also a tremendous responsibility that we can only carry out with God’s help.
So let’s close by praying and asking God to equip us to carry out that mission.
