{"id":250,"date":"2013-08-25T20:19:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=250"},"modified":"2013-08-25T20:19:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:19:42","slug":"who-is-god-going-to-save-luke-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"Who is God going to save? Luke 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Straight after his baptism and period of testing in the wilderness we read
\n14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.<\/p>\n

Jesus FIRST became known for his teaching!!! And to begin with his message was popular. But then the tide turned!
\n28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.
\nRight at the start of His ministry, three full years before the crowds in Jerusalem shouted \u201cCrucify Him, Crucify Him\u201dwe find the people of Nazareth ready to murder Jesus. It was his home town. Everybody there knew Jesus. They loved Him. <\/p>\n

So what on earth had Jesus said to make them that angry? There were three separate sayings \u2013 all making the same unpopular and unexpected point. All starting with Jesus\u2019s first recorded sermon \u2013 his Nazareth Manifesto!<\/p>\n

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:<\/p>\n

And Jesus reads from Isaiah 61. We all remember what Jesus said. And here is the original, in Isaiah 61
\nIsaiah 61 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the blind, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD \u2019s favour<\/p>\n

We all know this is Jesus\u2019s message. Good news for the poor. Binding up the broken hearted, freedom for the captives (especially those trapped by the devil and all his demons) release from darkness for those blinded by sin, the year of the Lord\u2019s favour, the age of blessing which the Israelites had been waiting for and longing for for a thousand years!<\/p>\n

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, \u201cToday this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d
\nWhat an amazing event. To be there when Jesus said \u2013 what you have been waiting for has arrived. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon ME!
\n22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. <\/p>\n

But then the doubts set in. Then the questions started.
\n\u201cIsn\u2019t this Joseph\u2019s son?\u201d they asked. How can the Spirit of the Lord be on Jesus? Our neighbour? Our lad from our village? Where did their doubts come from?<\/p>\n

We know the message Jesus brought. The problem was, so did the people of Nazareth! And they knew that Jesus had not finished the quotation from Isaiah. Because the verse actually goes like this.<\/p>\n

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the blind, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD \u2019s favour and the day of vengeance of our God,<\/p>\n

Surely Jesus had got the quotation wrong! It was the year of the Lord\u2019s favour for God\u2019s chosen people Israel. But where was the day of vengeance of our God on Israel\u2019s enemies. The Messiah was going to bring blessings for Israel. But where was God\u2019s judgment on the Gentiles. That was part of the reason the Messiah was coming \u2013 to punish the wicked. Surely you can\u2019t have one without the other. Jesus had got the message wrong! <\/p>\n

So everybody there was happy at the idea that God\u2019s blessing was coming \u2013 God\u2019s reward for the nation of Israel\u2019s faithfulness. But they were angry at Jesus suggesting that God\u2019s judgment was not coming \u2013 or at least not yet. <\/p>\n

Those who heard that first sermon were happy at the idea of good news for the poor \u2013 as long as it was for them, Israel\u2019s poor, of course. They didn\u2019t like the sound of good news for any old poor \u2013 Gentile poor, Samaritan poor!<\/p>\n

Binding up the broken hearted \u2013 comfort for those who mourn, great for Israel\u2019s broken-hearted. But surely not for those who did not follow God \u2013 their destiny should surely be judgment and punishment. They deserved all the sadness they got!<\/p>\n

Freedom for the prisoners \u2013 if they were Israelites surely yes! But if they were God\u2019s enemies, justly imprisoned for their crimes, why should they get a second chance?<\/p>\n

Sight for the blind \u2013 wonderful for Israelites. But if Gentiles were blind surely that was God\u2019s punishment on them for not believing in the one true God! Surely God would leave them in their darkness.<\/p>\n

The year of the Lord\u2019s favour was great news. But the people of Nazareth just couldn\u2019t believe that Jesus would miss out the second part of the quotation. They couldn\u2019t believe that the day of the Lord\u2019s favour would come without the day of vengeance of our God.<\/p>\n

Perhaps secretly we feel the same. There is something deep within us which wants us to see evil punished. See the wicked get their just desserts. Although we all need mercy, although we are all grateful that God shows his mercy to us, something in us wants other people (or some others at least) to face the wrath of God \u2013 because they deserve it!<\/p>\n

I preached a couple of months ago on that wonderful episode in the life of Elisha when God acted in swift judgment on those who dared to insult his spokesman the prophet.
\n2 Kings 2:23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. \u201cGo on up, you baldhead!\u201d they said. \u201cGo on up, you baldhead!\u201d 24 He turned round, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
\nWe were musing on the fact that God does not seem to bring down that kind of instant justice any more. Here were a mob of ancient near eastern hoodies hassling an Old Age Pensioner. Hey presto \u2013 in comes a bear to teach them all a lesson! We might secretly applaud that kind of justice. I find myself cheering on the bear! You wouldn\u2019t need CCTV cameras or ASBOs if every time teenagers stepped out of line there was a convenient neighbourhood bear to maul them and put them straight! But God does not seem to do things that way so much any more.<\/p>\n

And this is what shocked the people of Nazareth about Jesus\u2019s sermon. The very idea that God might bring mercy and freedom and sight and the year of the Lord\u2019s favour to EVERYBODY \u2013 and miss out on the day of vengeance of our God! <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t misunderstand me. I am not saying that judgment will never come. Just that judgment has been postponed. There will still be a day of reckoning and of righting of wrongs and of punishment of the wicked. But in God\u2019s mercy that day has been delayed.<\/p>\n

2 Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance <\/p>\n

Judgment day is coming! Nor am I saying that nobody will be punished. But what Jesus made very clear at Nazareth is that our preconceptions about who will be saved or who will be punished may be very wrong. The gospel was not exclusively for the Israelites. The gospel is not exclusively for \u201cour kind of people.\u201d The gospel is not for people who are deserving \u2013 by definition it is for people who are undeserving. And if we think we know which people will be blessed in the year of the Lord\u2019s favour and which people will suffer in the day of vengeance of our God, we may well be very much mistaken.<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s the point Jesus goes on to make. He tells the Old Testament stories from the times of Elijah and Elisha of two people blessed by God who you wouldn\u2019t have expected God to bless. Neither were Jews. One was a woman. The other was a leper. God\u2019s blessing did not come to the Israelites of those days. But to the Gentiles. The enemies. Those who were in need.<\/p>\n

25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah\u2019s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.<\/p>\n

We find that story in 1 Kings 17.
\n1 Kings 17:7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 \u201cGo at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.\u201d 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, \u201cWould you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?\u201d 11 As she was going to get it, he called, \u201cAnd bring me, please, a piece of bread.\u201d
\n12 \u201cAs surely as the LORD your God lives,\u201d she replied, \u201cI don\u2019t have any bread\u2014only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it\u2014and die.\u201d
\n13 Elijah said to her, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: \u2018The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.\u2019 \u201d
\n15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.<\/p>\n

Here was a woman God richly blessed. Not because she was an Israelite \u2013 but because she was poor and hungry and God cares for all who are poor and hungry. Truly the gospel is good news for the poor \u2013 for ALL who are poor. Christian poor and Muslim poor and Hindu poor and atheist poor. God blessed the woman because she obeyed the prophet Elijah\u2019s instructions and in doing so put her trust in God and His promises. And her faith was rewarded again when her son died and through Elijah\u2019s prayers God brought that son back to life again! <\/p>\n

God cares about all poor and hungry and grieving people \u2013 not just Israelites. When we think about the poor we must bear in mind that God\u2019s mercy is wider than we can imagine! Like the Israelites we can have some irrational unbiblical prejudices about who God does and does not love. Some Christians think that the poor in Africa in some way deserve God\u2019s mercy because they were born into their poverty whereas people trapped in debt or on benefits on our doorstep somehow deserve their poverty because they have perhaps mismanaged their money. The gospel is good news for the poor \u2013 for ALL who are poor! And we who are so rich must never forget that!<\/p>\n

In the same way Jesus reminded the people of Nazareth of another Old Testament character who was unexpectedly blessed by God.
\n 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed\u2014only Naaman the Syrian.\u201d
\nWe read in 2 Kings 5 that Naaman was a Syrian at a time when they were Israel\u2019s enemies. He was the commander of the army of the king of Aram, but he had leprosy. He came to Elisha and asked for healing. I preached a couple of months ago about Naaman and his example of faith and obedience.
\n 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, \u201cGo, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.\u201d
\n\u2026.. 13 Naaman\u2019s servants went to him and said, \u201cMy father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, \u2018Wash and be cleansed\u2019?\u201d 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
\n15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, \u201cNow I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.
\nGod cares about ALL sick people \u2013 not just Israelites. Not just Christians. God healed Naaman because he was obedient. And God will answer prayers for healing from anybody who asks. Not just the faithful churchgoer. But ANYBODY on whom God chooses to pour his blessings. <\/p>\n

18 \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Are there any \u201cpoor people\u201d for whom Jesus is NOT Good News? Of course not \u2013 the gospel is good news for EVERYBODY.
\nHe has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Can you think of any prisoners God will set free, if they only turn to him? Murderers? Rapists? Paedophiles? The gospel is good news for everybody, whatever our crimes.
\nRecovery of sight for the blind, None are so blind that God cannot make them see?
\nTo release the oppressed, ALL who are oppressed, in any nation, of any religion or none. The glorious liberty of the children of God is God\u2019s gift to ALL who believe.
\n19 to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favour.\u201d God\u2019s offer of forgiveness and new life is for EVERYONE. The day of vengeance of our God is coming. But until then He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
\nIs there anyone beyond the pale? Anyone so lost that God cannot find them? Anyone so wicked that God has given up on them? NO! NO! The gospel is for EVERYONE!<\/p>\n

So we need to seek God\u2019s guidance for him to lead us to the poor and the blind and the captives in North Springfield who He is waiting to save. We need to step out boldly to take this good news to everybody we can! Jesus said it.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!\u201d \u2013 THANKS BE TO GOD!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Straight after his baptism and period of testing in the wilderness we read 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,…<\/span><\/p>\n

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