Proclaiming The Best Gift Ever Given

Proclaiming the Best Gift

Luke 4:14-22

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Once again Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas is the time of year when in trying to express our love for others we seek high and low for the very best gifts to give them! We go to crowded shopping malls to find the “right” gift only later to be left in wonder if they truly liked the gift we have slavishly search and found? But what if we were to examine the true meaning of Christmas, is there not a gift we can give that would truly fill our loved ones with wonder, peace, and inexpressible joy? The answer of course is YES, what better gift to give than an introduction to the Babe lying in the manger? Jesus emptied Himself of His glory in heaven, was born amongst us and paid the price for our sins so that we would be offered forgiveness and eternal life! Many of our family, friends and acquaintances are destined to hell and we have glorious news to offer them that the Lord wishes none of them to be damned but saved! While most Christians understand the need for giving the reasons why they have hope in Jesus, many refuse to plant or water seeds of righteousness! While indifference is one reason for not proclaiming the Good News, for most Christians it is not knowing how to proclaim that stops them for giving others such an amazing gift. They fear in proclaiming Jesus they will jeopardize relationships that they hold most dear, family and friends. They also fear they will not know what to say that honors God and reaches them or that the person witnessing too might see the hypocrisy of their living for this world and detract another from even looking at God’s gift! The following sermon is going to examine how Jesus told the Jewish people and his family and friends about the Good News so that we might imitate His example and be the gift introducing ambassadors God wants us to be on His Son’s birthday!

Witnessing in the Spirit

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him” (14-15)

After having been tested and having defeated Satan in the wilderness, Luke tells us that Jesus returned to “his home region of Galilee to begin His preaching and healing ministry.” Luke portrays Jesus not as the “limping survivor of the temptation experience” but as one who being in the Spirit was “righteous and vindicated by God.” From His conception (1:35), to His baptism (3:22), to His temptation in the wilderness (4:1) and now at the start of His ministry; each step Jesus took was in the power of the Holy Sprit. News soon spread about Jesus “through the whole countryside” to the point that He frequently got invited and taught in the Jewish synagogues and “everyone praised Him” (14). While Luke doesn’t give us reasons for Jesus’ popularity when we turn to Matthew and Mark’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, we learn that when in Galilee He “healed every sickness among the people,” casted out demons, and taught the people as one who had authority in word and deed (Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 1:21-28). Considering “first-century Jews believed that the Holy Spirit ceased speaking directly to God’s people at the end of the prophetic era in Israel, to hear One speak with authority of the Spirit would have been truly remarkable! Due to His performing miracles and teaching with authority Jesus soon became famous and earned a “reputation as a respected rabbi and teacher.” The Jewish synagogues asked this “well known” rabbi Jesus to speak at their facilities quite frequently. While Luke does not mention what Jesus taught in Galilee Matthew tells us that His message was the Good News (4:23) that we will hear about in later verses. While hearing about Jesus’ teaching in the Jewish synagogues seems strange to us “after the cross” readers, it was only “after the Messianic hopes of conquest and power” were dashed by the Suffering Servant of Isaiah that the Pharisees made the doors of the synagogue’s hostile to Jesus! For now Luke wants us to know that the response to Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue was the Greek word “doxazo” which was normally reserved for praise only for God Himself.

The Good News

“He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written.” (16-17)

After having moved to Capernaum and spending a year in public ministry, Jesus visits the town in which He was brought up, Nazareth. Even though this village only had about four hundred people and “only dirt roads,” it contained a Jewish synagogue. It is at this point that Luke tells us when the Sabbath arrived, as per His custom, Jesus went to the synagogue. This was apparently the first time Jesus had returned to the synagogue that He attended as a child since His public ministry. A typical synagogue service consisted of singing from one of Psalms 145-150, followed by an opening prayer, confession of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), further prayers, readings from the Law and prophets, a sermon, and then a closing with the Aaronic benediction. Since Jesus was the “hometown boy” with a stellar reputation for doing miracles and being a rabbi who taught with authority, we can safely assume that the synagogue was packed! The crowd was not dismayed for when it was time to read from the prophets, i.e., the Haftarah, Jesus stood up which was the Jewish custom to show respect to the authority of Scripture. You can almost feel the anticipation build for the tone of this reading would dominate the rest of Jesus’ public ministry! The “ruler of the synagogue” or “minister” selected the scroll of Isaiah and gave it to Jesus. Since “there is no evidence that Jewish lectionary readings were prescribed as early as the first century,” those attending were likely wondering, “what passage would Jesus choose?” It was not by chance but by the Spirit that Jesus opened to the Messianic passage of Isaiah 61! The synagogue, i.e., the “religious, social, and educational nucleus of the Jewish community” and the whole world was about to change! It is at this point that I can’t help but wonder if we are excited when we read Scripture and like Jesus do we prioritize attending church above all other things happening in our lives? Did Jesus not say we “are not to live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God and “seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 4:4, 6:33)?