Road To Emmaus: Isaiah

Laptop: Hey, good afternoon, Waterweight Church. Today is Wednesday, August nineteenth, and this is Jesse and this is Javon. Hello. And we are sitting here, we are continuing. We've got just about two weeks left on our Road to a Emmaus series as we're talking about I know Summer's Flying, man. Summer's flying right by. I asked the kids getting ready to go to school. Yeah. We've got about two weeks left on our Road to Emmaus series when we've been looking at events and people and and objects of the old testament and how they are types and shadows, how they foreshadow Reality of the New Testament, especially those things that foreshadow Jesus Christ our Messiah. And so today we've been doing some research looking at some prophecy. Now, prophecy is one of those funny things, it's not an item, it's not a person, although in this case God spoke through Isaiah to write this down. and so God was speaking through Isaiah to talk about who the Messiah would be. So it's it's kind of given as an intentional foreshadowing. it's not something that's accidental that, we just stumbled upon. This is Isaiah saying. God says this is who the Messiah would be. And then Jesus affirmed that later in Luke. So we're in Isaiah chapter 61 and Luke chapter 4. Javon, give us some more specifics. What yeah what are we seeing in in Isaiah and in Luke today? Yeah, so as you mentioned, there's all kinds of prophecy in Isaiah and a lot of the prophets, but especially Isaiah. They're called prophets because they prophesy. They do prophecy. Yeah, yeah. Right. And what is prophecy? Give me like a a three-penny definition of Prophecy. Right. So it can include speaking something that's gonna happen in the future. Uh-huh. But that's not it explicitly. Okay. In the in my from what I've understood. So tell me if you if you hear something. Well, if you've understood it, it's gotta be right. Right. About that. so prophecy, as I've understood, is that it's speaking the words of God. Quite simply. If we're gonna boil it down to it simple, it's speaking the words of God. Sometimes. God reveals and plays his hand and says, Look, this is the prophet prophesies a word of God that says, Hey, this is something that's to come that is telling us the future. But also there's times where it's not necessarily always a future thing. Now, one of the things that I've always s seen as a a picture about prophecy too, I don't know if you've ever seen this illustration, and it worked well for me. So if you have a painting of of a of a mountain scene, and on the very front, you might see trees just sitting right in front of you. And then you also might see a field in between. And then way in the distance, you see and maybe immediate mountain. But then also behind that there might be another peak. Yeah. And prophecy can function like that, where in that setting there is a message that is being presented. Then maybe there's even a another second message that that's to come maybe in the near future. But then also there might be a third kind of connotation that that goes way beyond. So prophecy isn't something you just sit down and and you know read and just okay, yep. Yeah, like it's something you need the you need to digest and think about, that's for sure. A lot of layers to that, but I think I think there's some real for me the gold in what you just said is remembering that the prophets wrote down the words of God. Sometimes those words applied to things that were going to happen in the future, right? But not always. that's probably a good thing for us to keep in mind now because oftentimes when we talk about prophecy, we talk about people who are predicting the future or who are who think they have a an idea about what's going to happen. So we're dealing with Isaiah the prophet who wrote down the words of God. Some of them applied to things that were going to happen in the future, including here in Isaiah 61. What what are we doing with Isaiah 61? So so actually to look at Isaiah 61 today, we're gonna jump to Luke 4. go back to the future. Okay. it's catchy. Child of the eighties. There you go. So we're gonna go we're gonna go to Luke four. Uh-huh. And here, so just what just happened in Luke chapter four at the beginning is it starting verse one. So the whole the Jesus goes into the wilderness and is tempted, and tested. And then Jesus comes out of the wilderness and immediately returns to his hometown in the in the narration of Luke. Sure. And Luke's not concerned with giving us in this case necessarily like this is the he you know he made this step. It's not the exact play by play. It's kind of the summary of the things that happened. Right. So here here Luke decides to take us to this return, Jesus returned to his hometown. And I'm gonna just start reading here at verse 14. Read the Bible, baby. Bustle up, here we go. Jesus returned to Galilee in power in power of the spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue as he was as was custom. Quite interesting. Even Jesus made it a custom to go on the Sabbath day to the synagogue. He had some good habits. He had some good habits. And I I think without going down a whole side point, it I mean, if Jesus found value in going to the synagogue, there's value in being together. There's value in us being together. 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. And this is the quote now. Now we're talking about Isaiah 61, verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened to him. He began by saying, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. If if you were in that setting and you heard that message, what does that what what grabs your attention? Heal me, set me free. Right. Hope like okay, you're here, now bring it. Right. And so the content of this message seems seems to be talking about something. God is bringing hope to sick, yep, to blind, to oppressed. There's good news, and we good news is often a word we use to refer to the gospel. Right. The there is good news that proclaimed to those in society that are in pain or even poor who are in and marginalized and oppressed people in society. There is hope for that. But also when we look at this passage, there can be kind of two veins of thought people take. Okay. And one of them being this More of a social movement to kind of Paul Jesus sorry, excuse me, Paul. I'm so used to being in Romans right now. But sorry. It's a big problem. You take so many classes, you don't remember where you are in the Bible. The smarter you get, it's pretty it's a big problem. Pretty soon Paul's writing the whole thing. Right. so Jesus here is talking about how he came to be a savior to the poor, the afflicted, and the humble. And so people people are sorry, the blind and the oppressed. Jesus is they say Jesus is coming to do some kind of like social We're gonna empty out the hospitals, we're gonna we're gonna set all the prisoners free, like literally let them out of jail. Every everything in our society is gonna be made right. Right. Right? That's that social justice piece. Right. And so that's one emphasis. Yep. The other emphasis is no, it has it's not it's not that, it's it's spiritual oppression, spiritual blindness. spirit me free from my sins, set me free from temptation, set me free from myself. Right. You know, kind of that that set my heart free kind of a thing, right? Right, exactly. And I think From my perspective, it's not focusing on either one is is part of the problem. It's both. There's a spiritual freedom, there's spiritual salvation, but also those things are enacted in setting free the oppressed in our world. And certainly not all, right? Like Jesus, even in his ministry, he healed blind people. But he didn't come and just heal the whole world of blindness. And he said, you know, there's the there's the Garrison demoniac, you know, who had the legion of demons inside him, Gemin. Jesus set him free, you know, but he didn't cast out every demon from every person right in all of Jerusalem, you know, or in all of the region. But it's part of his ministry. But it's happening. Right. It's happening. And and so I guess the picture is in in Luke we get a taste of it. Right. Right? Where we're and the gospel stories, we're getting a taste of what's happening and what's gonna be fulfilled in the fullness of time. Right, right. So I think reflecting on that, you know, we Are part of a gospel that proclaims hope to the spiritually lost, to those of us who are spiritually blind. Scripture talks about that when we, you know, outside of Christ, we are blind to truth, we are you know deaf, and we need to be set free from the poor, oppressed state of being in sin. And we have been in Christ. but this gospel is also something that is f finds itself. Real and alive in the midst of those broken and just places where people are experiencing real like livid lividly in their world the brokenness, the physical realities of the brokenness of sin and shame. It comes and it can bring renewed life to those areas. Exactly. So when we think of ourselves as the church, how do we reflect on This is what Jesus is saying he's come to do. And we know as the body of Christ we continue in his mission. How do we how do you think we should think about ourselves then? Mm-hmm in this world. Yeah, it it it reminds me there's kind of two different things going on here that that that hit me individually, is that one of my responsibilities is to receive the Lord's salvation, come to him, and to growing my faith to learn and study and and submit my life to Jesus Christ. That's kind of the spiritual act of worship that I do. But then there's also this opportunity that we have, that I have as part of the church to actually give food to those who are hungry. You know, to provide medical care or help to pay for medical care for those who can't purchase it, maybe alleviating some blindness. you know ours is not just a not just a hypothetical philosophical faith where, well, we just believe. But in addition to believing, we also are full of action and mission where we work out this whole mission of, you know, helping to find justice for the prisoners, helping to, you know, give give aid to the poor, helping to bring medicine to the sick. we get to work at that together. I see that as part of our church, you know, not just growing as disciples ourselves, but also supporting those in need around us, whether or not they believe in the Lord. Ultimately using that, some would call what we're referring to a ministry of mercy, using that ministry of mercy to point people to the ultimate ministry of mercy for their souls. Absolutely. And it's willing to go anywhere. That's the think I think when I think of the challenge to myself. I remember one time someone challenged me. We were talking about evangelism and He was like, I was like, where do I start with evangelism? Where do I start? And he said, Well, you know that place in town where all the folks that sit outside and they all have some sort of counseling need for med you know, for for their severe mental disabilities. And and he's like, Go talk to them, start there. And I think I think there's there's there was something that hit me with that. where it's like, am I willing to go talk to people who in society it says we don't mix. Mm-hmm. Right? Am I willing to cross that boundary and go in and say no the gospel's for all? Right. Right. And I think that's one of the challenges and that's one of the traps that we can fall into is that sometimes in our families or in our groups of friends or even here at church, we might be in a circle where it seems like most people's physical needs are pretty well taken care of. Right. We have plenty to eat. We can get to the doctor. We have we have a home to live in. and a lot of times we rub shoulders with people who are like us. And so maybe we would think, yeah, we we all have spiritual needs in Jesus Christ, but there's this there's this we're all doing pretty good right kind of situation. what I hear from you and and really I feel like you're echoing Jesus here is this challenge to expand your world a little bit. Right. You know, be out among those folks, be among the poor and the blind and the needy and the captive. You know, Jesus said he's here for those people. Are we? Right. You know, are we around them at all? Or am am I just kind of soaking up the the spiritual right the the spiritual healing that I need and then being thankful that I can go home to a nice house at the end of the day. This is one of th this is one of those things that you know, like you're preaching from God's word, you're preaching to yourself, I think, in some ways, like for me at least, it's like I'm sitting there and I'm like, like, yeah. I this is true, but it's also it's a hard reality to to to break out of my comforts. Yeah, and and there's no there's no shame in any of this. You know, we're not gonna despise the gifts that God has given us. If God has given you a a job that allows you to work and and you know, buy a home and and have some nice things and and share that stuff with your family, wonderful. Right. You know, be thankful for that. We don't all need to we don't all need to sell everything we own and but at the same time I think a lot of us have retreated into the comforts that we can purchase for ourselves. Right. You know, and and so we're not mixing with the people who need. And so then we're not delivering the gospel. We're not we're not bringing the presence of Christ among those who are in desperate need. Yeah. of course we all need the Lord, but I'm talking about those who have a real physical, palpable, visible need for the Lord in their physical station. it's pretty easy to just stay home. Right. And it's interesting, I think, thinking about Jesus' work, there's a sense at which we do know that Christ will return and end the suffering once and for all. Right. But I think we need to be careful while we look forward to that day, that we don't how we say, it's like it's like when a preacher goes on a sabbatical and and then I've heard of that. Everything every every time every thing that would pop up, maybe the congregation says, we'll just wait till it gets back. Like, like we don't, we don't when we we shouldn't be doing that with Jesus' return. Like we shouldn't be sitting here and saying, let's just wait till he gets back. Yeah. We are invited to engage in this kingdom of God colliding with the kingdom of the world now. And we can see visibly not only the spiritual ramifications of people's lives being changed, but the physical ramifications of people's lives being changed. By even just the things that God the resources God blesses us to use to bless others with. Well, and that ties into the podcast from last week. You know, if if you haven't listened to last week's podcast, go ahead on back. And we talked about temple and tabernacle and where is God at? Last week we talked about how now through Jesus Christ, you know, God is not just existing in one particular place, but God exists, we're told, in our hearts. You know, we are we are embodiments of of Jesus Christ. And so we need to go. We we need to bodily and and not all of us can go. I understand there's reasons why some of us need to stay right where we're at. But we need to be as the body of Christ, we need to be present with those who are deeply in need and and bring Jesus to their presence. You know, and and sometimes that means that it it's it's a doctor's appointment that we're helping them set up or it's it's a meal that we're purchasing for them or it's a job that we're helping them to get or it's counseling that we're that we're helping them to walk through. You know, these are the kind of things that That we need to do as the body of Christ. Right. Yeah. Well, I think I'll I'll wrap us up there. And it's we thinking about Isaiah and who he was prophesying to the Israelites, and a lot of times that section, that end section of Isaiah, we we see like a post-exilic kind of tone to it. and so while it was written by Isaiah, we we see that post-exilic kind of tone. He's talking to because even in that passage he talks about how Jerusalem is gonna get rebuilt and all that. He's talking about the amazing things that are going to happen when God establishes his people again. Right. Exactly. And I think so there's a hope there for these people that that when when they're in exile, the temple's destroyed, their cities destroyed, everything seems a loss. There still is a hope for God to restore his promise, there's still a gospel for God to re bring restoration. And we to that day in Jesus Christ, He to this day, sorry, in Jesus Christ, we see that that promise of hope being extended to the world, to all nations, which is also a central theme to that last section of of Isaiah is all nations being blessed. And so we we are presented with this gospel that is applicable to the situations of every person in this world. Are we ready and willing when the Spirit calls and leads to go to the ends of the earth and present the gospel. Good point. Great point. Hey, we have an opportunity to come to Jesus Christ both for our spiritual needs, but also in our physical needs. And not just for us to come to him, but for us to show and share that love with all around us. What a good word. Thanks as we look at Isaiah 61, Luke chapter four. Thanks, Javon. And hey, thanks for all you who tuned in. I pray that you will come to the Lord with all your spiritual needs, only he can meet them. And I pray that you will find comfort in his mercy and in his love and in his provision. And I hope that you will look after somebody else too, so that they can find the peace and the provision that they need. It's only in Jesus. All right. Hey, we'll see ya next time.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention Luke 4 · chapter mention Isaiah 61:1