Luke 4:14-30 - The Blueprint for Kingdom Ministry

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Turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Luke 4.

We have seen recently in Luke's gospel, Jesus as the promised Messiah, the beloved Son of

God.

Seen Him confirmed in that identity through His faithful obedience and temptation, right?

As He succeeded in the wilderness and the places that we have failed.

Ron did such a great job with that, walking us through that.

This morning we look at a passage where Jesus lays out His plan for public ministry.

He gives the blueprint for kingdom ministry, you could say.

This is what I'm going to do as the anointed deliverer, moving the kingdom of God forward.

Here's what it's going to look like.

It's a really helpful outline and list of priorities that the gospel story bears out.

We're going to see themes we talk about this morning time and time again through the gospel

of Luke.

Luke.

And Jesus sticks to His promises in His ministry as Luke 4 becomes a consistent pattern for

Jesus.

And of course then for His church as well.

What does kingdom ministry look like for us?

If we're to be His followers, then our role is to see His kingdom advanced.

And He's the one who shows us and tells us what that's going to look like, right?

What things should characterize the ministry of Southwood Presbyterian Church?

What things should characterize the lives of her members?

That sounds easy and exciting, right?

What's it all going to be like?

Tell us the plan.

Let's go.

Well, listen as we read because some of the people who first heard the plan were excited

too.

By the end of the day though, they wanted to kill Jesus rather than follow His plan.

Read with me this remarkable day, Luke 4 at verse 14.

This is God's holy word.

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and a report about Him went through

all the surrounding country.

And He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.

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.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him.

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

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, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

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.

And He began to say to them,

Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

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?

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.

And He said,

Truly I say to you,

No prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

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.

And Elijah was sent to none of them,

but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon,

to a woman who was a widow.

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.

When they heard these things,

all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

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.

But passing through their midst,

he went away.

Thus far, God's holy word.

Let's pray and ask for His help.

Father, that is our heart.

That is the posture in which we come to Your word,

needing Your help.

We don't just need help to understand the words

and to make sense of them.

We need Your help, Holy Spirit.

That they might have their intended impact on our hearts.

That they might show us our sin.

That they might show us our Savior.

That we might see and hope in Him.

That we might be changed as a result of meeting with You.

Holy Spirit, speak.

Would You speak even through one such as me,

who wrestles and struggles with this passage,

perhaps more than anyone else in the room.

Would You use me to speak?

Would You speak to me by Your Spirit

and also through me,

that we might hear Your voice.

That's our need,

to hear from You.

And so we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So Jesus begins His public ministry here,

traveling around to different towns.

And regularly when He gets there,

He's teaching, right?

Particularly His habit is going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

That's where you find Jesus.

He's showing up to teach.

So many sermons,

Luke doesn't record all of them,

but He gives us one particular account here from Nazareth,

Jesus' hometown.

So this first sermon kind of sets the agenda,

is the blueprint,

His priorities for His ministry,

how God's kingdom is going to come.

There are priorities that are to be hopeful and exciting,

just as we've been promised already in the Gospel of Luke.

There's good stuff coming.

Jesus says,

here's the message,

the time has come.

What you've been waiting for,

those last days you've heard promised

through the Old Testament Scriptures,

they're here.

Salvation is coming,

now,

through me.

That's what He's declaring.

It's really exciting, right?

What they've all been waiting for.

Don't forget these priorities as we go through Luke,

because this is the paradigm that Jesus is setting up.

Priorities for kingdom ministry.

First,

the ministry of His kingdom begins,

and ends,

with a Christ-centered focus.

Look what He selects from the prophet Isaiah,

verse 18.

He opens to Isaiah 61,

and says,

the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And Jesus reads that,

and then He rolls up the scroll that He's been given.

He gives it back to the synagogue leader,

as He would every week.

And then this is what happens.

In these synagogues,

you stand for the reading of God's Word,

and then you sit down to give the sermon.

I'm not going to put that into practice this morning.

You might feel a little awkward.

But you sit down to preach.

So that's what Jesus does.

And everyone's looking to Him.

What's He going to say now?

And He began this way,

today,

this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Notice what He's saying in the passage that He selected from Isaiah.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

He has anointed me.

He has sent me

to do all of these things.

And Jesus, having read that,

says,

today,

this Scripture about me,

fulfilled in your hearing.

That's where the kingdom begins, right?

The anointed one,

the promised Messiah,

the King has come.

And the ministry of the kingdom

never goes forward apart from the King.

That sounds obvious, right?

Well, that was really profound.

But we can never lose sight of that.

Churches can do lots of things.

We can have a lot of fun doing a lot of things.

But if we're not about the worship of King Jesus,

the proclamation of King Jesus,

the demonstration of the impact of King Jesus on our lives and our world,

then it's not kingdom ministry that we're doing.

You can't have the kingdom without the King.

He sets the agenda.

He provides the grace.

He gets the glory.

And no one else.

Everything we do and say corporately must point to Him,

not the preacher.

Everything we do and say individually must point to Him,

not the church member.

We live in His strength rather than our own

and for His glory rather than our own.

Secondly, the ministry of the kingdom features both word and deed.

Constantly, the kingdom has a message to proclaim

and an impact to make.

It sounds like something and it feels like something.

Maybe the most obvious parallel is in the descriptions in verse 18.

You'll see right there Jesus has been sent to proclaim liberty

and then later to provide liberty, to set at liberty.

He is both announcing it and bringing it.

He's announcing that there's good news

and He's actually bringing it into existence to reality.

The word aspect of the kingdom,

constantly present as Jesus, as He is here,

preaches and teaches,

calls to repentance,

offers eternal hope,

proclaims the good news of salvation.

And the deeds accompany the words.

He actually cures sick people

while promising healing.

He actually feeds hungry people

while proclaiming Himself as the bread of life.

He actually eats with the poor and the oppressed

while teaching love for a neighbor, right?

Do you see the priority of word and deed together?

There's a message to proclaim here.

Good news, the King is here.

Forgiveness for the worst sinner.

Freedom for those in bondage.

Jubilee for the biggest debtors.

That's a strange word, right?

Jubilee, where'd you get that?

That's what the hearers in that Jewish synagogue

would have heard when Jesus read

the year of the Lord's favor

at the end of verse 19.

Jubilee, right?

Every 50 years, debts forgiven.

Slave set free.

Land returned to the owner.

All of those things happening

because the message must be accompanied

by an experience of the same thing.

A foretaste of glory.

Let me say it this way.

Forgiveness as the message

can feel like a friend or a family member

who finds you in shame and hiding

and patiently accepts you

and stays with you even in the midst of your struggle.

Forgiveness can feel like that.

Freedom can feel like societal systems

that treat you equally

regardless of your race or your background.

Jubilee as the message can feel

like communities who welcome a refugee

or an outsider

and help him find a place to fit in.

Hearing about King Jesus

and experiencing the reality of King Jesus

must go together.

Think about the priority of word and deed

together in terms of marriage reconciliation.

We know that this would be true.

It's a good picture of it for us.

Imagine Billy and Sally are married

and Billy has an affair

and Sally finds out.

But they want to work things out.

And so the message Billy needs to communicate

is love.

Right?

But we know talk is cheap.

That's what we say.

If Billy just begins to say 30 times a day,

I love you, I love you, I love you.

But nothing ever changes in the way he acts.

He's doing all of the same things

that he has been doing.

His words, the message won't be believed, will it?

It'll fall on deaf ears.

But the opposite is true too.

If Billy starts washing the dishes all the time,

even when they're not dirty,

and he starts doing everything that Sally wants

and trying to be this perfect husband,

and yet he still spews hatred towards her

and says hateful things all of the time,

it won't work.

The deeds will fall flat.

They'll seem fake.

In fact, even if he's just silent

and never once says,

I love you,

she'll start to wonder about the message

all these kind deeds are communicating,

won't she?

If she says to him,

I love you,

and his response is to ignore it

or just to smile and carry on,

she's going to begin to wonder,

what's this game?

What's he up to with all these things he's doing?

He won't even tell me that he loves me.

If the message is love,

word and deed must go together.

You can't neglect either.

In Jesus' kingdom,

it's always word and deed.

We're going to see that

throughout the Gospel of Luke.

So one last priority of kingdom ministry

here in this passage.

It runs graciously toward the needy

to provide help.

Whether it's words or deeds,

who's the object of all of these things

that Jesus is doing in his ministry

here in this passage?

Look at verse 18 again.

Who is it that's going to receive

all of the things Jesus is doing?

Proclaim good news to the poor.

Proclaim liberty to the captives.

Recovering of sight to the blind.

Set at liberty,

those who are oppressed.

The poor,

the captives,

the blind,

the oppressed.

Later in the conversation,

he'll use examples of a hungry widow,

a desperate leper.

This is the reality of the jubilee

Jesus is proclaiming.

The playing field is leveled,

right?

It's reset.

It's another evidence

of what we've been talking about

as the theme of Luke.

Good news of great joy for whom?

For all people.

And that's exciting, right?

Hopefully you feel a little bit

of what Jesus' audience

apparently felt when they heard it.

Awesome!

The Messiah is here.

Good things are happening.

Needs are being met.

This sounds great.

Good news for all sorts of people.

I'm so excited, Jesus.

They all responded that way.

But apparently,

this is also the tipping point

for the Jews in the synagogue.

They're riding high, right?

Excitement is palpable in the pews.

I'm sure they had pews in the synagogue.

In fact,

the guy behind all of this

is Joseph's son, right?

This is our guy.

We know him.

He grew up here.

All of a sudden,

here's our hometown hero.

We're gonna be on the inside.

You used to say,

what good could possibly come from Nazareth?

You won't say that anymore.

The guy we've all been waiting for,

he's our guy.

We're gonna be connected.

This is our big chance.

They're so excited.

He's got them right there.

He could say anything he wanted.

They'd do anything he asks.

And all I can think is,

Jesus must have passed

the magical 30-minute mark

in his sermon,

and they all just turned against him.

Like,

that's not what happened.

It's actually something

much more intentional

in Jesus' words,

because he senses

this opportunistic desire

from the crowd.

He can tell they're thinking,

yes,

good news of great joy

for all of us.

All of us who've been waiting.

We've been promised

that there was something exciting coming.

That's what we've been waiting for,

Jesus.

And he says,

you need to understand,

I mean all people.

Gentile dogs,

as you call them.

Outsiders.

I'm not here to fulfill Scripture

only in Nazareth,

but all over,

and you won't like me for it,

he says.

Let me make sure you're hearing me.

Like the prophet Elijah

bringing the kingdom

to the Gentile widow.

Like the prophet Elisha

bringing the kingdom

to the Gentile leper.

I'm here to run toward

those kind of needy outsiders.

And it sends them over the edge,

doesn't it?

They can't take it.

When Jesus runs graciously

toward needy outsiders,

some who want to be insiders

feel left out.

They're so outraged, in fact,

at this priority of Jesus' kingdom

that they go from cheering him

to chasing him out of town

in order to kill him.

You see, these Jews lived

in a culture of a hierarchical

social order.

Some people were in,

others were out.

Even in the synagogue

where they're sitting

listening to Jesus,

where you sat in the synagogue

was determined

based on your gender,

your birth,

the qualifications

that you had achieved

in your life.

This structure of society

and your social rank

determined where you sat to eat,

to whom you spoke

or didn't speak,

what kind of work you did

or didn't do.

This is the world

in which they lived.

And they,

those listening to Jesus,

they were the religious insiders,

weren't they?

They were there in the synagogue

and that religious insider status

must be maintained.

So they'd been rejoicing, right?

After all these years,

I'm finally getting

what has been coming to me.

And they are finally getting

what has been coming to them.

And then they realized

it was all social outsiders

that Jesus mentioned

coming to bless.

And it wasn't just an accident,

He really meant it.

It was no accident

that Jesus left out

that verse at the end

in Isaiah 61

to proclaim the year

of the Lord's favor

and they know what was next

and the day of vengeance

of our God.

The Jews were ready

for all the outsiders

to get what was coming to them

that day of vengeance.

And Jesus says,

that day is coming,

but not yet.

First, I'm running with grace

towards them.

And the Jews can't stand it.

They're outraged.

They run Him towards a cliff

in order to kill Him.

When I first read this passage,

I thought to myself,

oh, that's good

because I don't struggle with that.

And neither does Southwood.

We love God's grace.

We love to see Him work.

We love needy people

to hear and feel

the reality of the kingdom.

Of course,

we would never begrudge

the kingdom moving

somewhere over there,

would we?

But I love to be an insider.

I love to get special treatment,

even if it's free food

at a football game.

It makes me feel special

and important.

And most of us

are like the people

in the synagogue,

religious insiders.

We were either born that way

or we've become that way.

How do we as insiders

struggle with the priorities

of kingdom ministry

when Jesus runs graciously

toward needy outsiders

and we feel left out?

How does that happen

in our hearts?

Does it?

Often in my heart,

it's comparison.

Here's one example

from your pastor

that I struggled with this week.

I noticed kingdom ministry

happening somewhere else.

Even at another church in town,

people flocking there

and baptisms all over the place

and the spirit seems to be moving

and I say,

man, I don't feel excited about that.

Instead of rejoicing,

I'm resentful

because you see,

they have bad theology

and I have good theology.

God, why are you blessing them

with all their bad theology

when I've got better training

and better understanding

of your word?

All of a sudden,

I'm not happy

Jesus is being praised

over there

because I'm not.

And God says,

oh, by the way,

did you want to talk

about theology?

Because your idea

that my spirit works

only in places

with more accurate theology,

there's maybe the first bit

of bad theology you have.

Maybe your theology

is not so good

as you thought it was.

I think in comparison

to someone else,

I deserve more from God

and I don't.

And I resent Him for that.

So did the Jews

with the Gentiles.

Imagine, ladies,

that girl you competed with

all through high school.

Academically,

athletically,

socially,

you know who I'm talking about.

Y'all were always rivals

and competing for things.

But she was a mean girl

and you were the moral girl.

You always had that on her.

She did things

you never would have spoken of

and you stayed clean.

In fact,

she edged you out

for valedictorian

because she did some bonus work

while you were on a mission trip.

It's terrible.

You've always kind of

held that against her.

But then someone at your church

took the idea seriously

of going and sharing Jesus

with everyone,

especially outsiders.

And they talked to her

and she met Jesus.

And she came to your church

and everybody got so excited

about her.

Like it was such a big deal.

In fact,

when she came to Jesus,

part of that process

was watching God

heal her mom of cancer.

And you lost your mom

to cancer.

Even though you prayed.

Way more.

Not fair, God.

If you're not frustrated yet,

she has a fourth grade daughter

just like you do.

And when she and all of her other

unchurched friends

came to heyday,

they took all the candy

so your kid didn't get

to go home with any.

But you were actually okay with that

because not a big deal.

Their health,

you know,

kids are going to be healthy

so they didn't really need the candy.

But what's worse is

she came to their Sunday school class

and now your daughter's coming home

from church complaining

because she's lonely.

And the other girl

has taken all her friends.

And you're outraged.

God, this was my church.

I prayed more.

I've served longer.

I deserve.

I ought.

It's there in our hearts too,

isn't it?

When we see ourselves

compared to others

and we think we deserve

something more than they do.

It shows up not only in comparison

but in my consumerism.

It's what the Jews say

when they're saying,

physician, heal yourself.

Jesus, do miracles.

Heal people here.

We want our issues handled.

Defeat the Gentiles ruling over us.

Don't rescue them.

You're supposed to be conquering them.

It's about us.

And we today are so trained

to be consumers, right?

Constantly evaluating

what I'm getting out of

wherever I spend my time

and my energy

and my resources.

And so naturally,

I do that at church.

Church becomes about

getting my desires fulfilled,

my needs met,

and becomes about complaining

or leaving when I don't.

And we've already violated

the first priority of the kingdom.

That it has a Christ-centered focus.

That it's about Jesus,

not about me.

My questions need to change.

It's no longer,

do I like how this sounds

or how that is organized?

But rather,

does it glorify Jesus?

Does it exalt His name?

Does it advance His kingdom

in someone's life?

And if so, I rejoice

because it's about Him.

One more way I have this struggle

is in regards to community.

There's a reality about community

and the family of God

that Peter has actually

helped me learn a lot about

in the past few weeks

and understand better.

And the reality of that community

is that when someone comes

into a community,

when an outsider comes in,

that existing family

changes its shape.

Right?

It's no longer the same.

The Jews wanted no part

of these uncircumcised

lower class Gentiles

getting worked into their community.

Think of the analogy

with adopting a new child

into your family.

Some family principles

and practices

may stay the same, right?

But you may now have bunk beds

in your room

and you may not get your own room.

The family may not be able

to do some things

or go some places

in the same way

because it's grown

and the shape of the family

has changed.

You may have to share the remote.

You may have to do some things

that are important

to your new brother

and are part of his background

and his experiences.

And that can be hard.

And it can be beautiful.

I can hear the words

coming out of my own mouth.

Oh, small group is just

so much harder

now that they come.

You may have said,

my church just doesn't look

or smell

or sound the same anymore.

It's too big.

It's too small.

It's too young.

It's too old.

Think back to the mean girl

who met Jesus.

Imagine that she was living

out of town,

nowhere near you

and you read on Facebook

that she'd met Jesus.

You might genuinely rejoice, right?

You love that God works that way.

That He runs graciously

towards needy outsiders.

That He loves them

until she shows up in your church.

That's where the rub is, isn't it?

Until she shows up there

and the shape of your family changes.

It can be hard.

And it can be beautiful.

Don't you love older people?

That God has graciously run

toward crazy young people

in the next generation

who don't think like you do

or look like you do

and He's brought them

into your family

here at Southwood?

Don't you love that?

I know that you do.

Even though it's disruptive

to you sometimes,

I know you love it

because you tell me you love it.

You love seeing God do that.

Even if things change

and the shape of your family

looks different,

you rejoice.

You see the beauty in that.

because y'all have learned

what we struggle to learn.

Wouldn't it be beautiful, Southwood,

if God brought so many new members here

that we had a budget crisis

because the new members coming

were those who needed

financial assistance

rather than those giving

financial assistance?

Wouldn't it be beautiful

if we started singing different songs

because they kept being suggested

by all the new members

who'd come from different

ethnic backgrounds?

Wouldn't that be beautiful?

Southwood Kingdom Ministry

that focuses on Jesus

constantly follows Him

in sharing and showing the kingdom

to those who are outside

and different from us.

It must be absolutely

and exclusively focused on Jesus

and so it must be

intentionally inclusive

of the outsiders

for whom King Jesus has come.

who else needs to be in

here?

In your home?

In your life?

And then maybe even later

in these pews?

Think this morning of a person

or group of people.

How will you welcome them in?

How will they experience

the welcome of King Jesus

in relationship with you?

All of that.

All these outsiders

being welcomed in

would be beautiful

but perhaps hard

for our hearts.

That's the scary reality

of this passage.

We can't avoid it.

How quickly they seek

to get rid of Jesus.

Verse 28.

They heard all these things.

All in the synagogue

were filled with wrath.

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 they could throw him

down the cliff

but passing through their midst

he went away.

They had him there.

Jesus do all these amazing things.

We're so excited.

Here's the big moment

and they chase him out

to kill him

and he walks away.

We are tempted

to get rid of Jesus

to maintain

our preferred status quo.

That's scary, isn't it?

We're capable of that

just as they were.

And we may not

throw him off a cliff

and stone him

as a false prophet

but we might ignore

his commands

for my life.

We might rationalize away

his agenda

for his church

when it doesn't suit ours

or doesn't seem comfortable to us.

We may do whatever it takes

to stay comfortable

on the inside.

Even keeping Jesus

at arm's length.

Oh, I would never do that.

Even keeping Jesus

at arm's length

possibly because

we so want to be comfortable

on the inside.

God, may it never be here

that we would pursue

our agenda

and our glory

and practically

get rid of Jesus.

Might we more and more

share the heart

of Jesus?

You see,

the beauty of Jesus' kingdom

is its inclusive

exclusivism.

It's a phrase

I'm borrowing

from my friend

Dane Ortlund.

Let me explain briefly

as we close.

Our world,

the culture in which we live

is inclusive.

Living under an ethic

of tolerance

where everyone

and everything

is in.

Unless, of course,

you believe

that there's right

and wrong

or things that should

or shouldn't happen

and then

there might be

an outsider.

So the inclusion

is actually rather empty,

isn't it?

Religion,

on the other hand,

is exclusive.

Because only the initiated

or those who measure up

or meet all the requirements

and perform well enough

are in

and everyone else

is out.

Jesus is entirely different

from either of those.

It's an inclusive

exclusivism.

He as always unites

word and deed.

He doesn't merely

talk about salvation.

He actually achieves it.

He meets all the requirements

to be in

and then He's treated

as one who doesn't

and is left out.

When He goes to the cross

in our place

where we deserve

ultimate rejection,

He is left out

away from the Father

so that we can be welcomed in

with all our debts paid,

all our sins forgiven.

That's what He does for us, right?

That's inclusive exclusivism.

We are in

only through Jesus.

And Jesus graciously invites

all to come in

through Him.

You don't have to measure up.

He's done that.

You don't have to get it right.

He has done that.

All can come in

because of Him.

Lifelong outsiders,

those who long to be insiders,

all are welcomed

into His family

because of Him.

May we rejoice

in that gracious welcome.

May we extend it

to many others.

Pray with me to that end.

Father, that's

Your heart.

So often it's not

ours.

Thank You for being a God

who consistently

and in

book after book

and page after page

and story after story

chases graciously

after those

who are far away,

who don't deserve

His love.

Because if You weren't

like that,

none of us would know You.

Thank You.

Father, may it not

stop there.

May Your grace

that You have poured out

on us

overflow

to many.

May we never begrudge

Your generosity,

but may we rejoice

in getting to share

with others

what You have shared

with us.

Do it in our hearts

this morning.

Make it change

the way we approach

this afternoon

and every day

for the rest of our lives.

We ask that You would

do that work

for Your glory.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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