So we’ll read from our Old Testament reading, Isaiah chapter 61. And let’s give careful attention to this. Because this is the very Word of God. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.
To comfort all who mourn. To grant to those who mourn in Zion. To give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. The oil of gladness instead of mourning. The garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks. Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers. But you shall be called the priests of the Lord. They shall speak of you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion. Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot. Therefore, in their land, they shall possess a double portion.
They shall have everlasting joy. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. Now please turn to the gospel according to Luke where we’ll find our New Testament reading in chapter 4. Luke 4 beginning in verse 14 and going to verse 21. 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. That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray for his blessing upon it now. Father, this is your holy word. And as we Seek to expound it now. We pray for your blessing upon it. We pray that we would hear Christ speaking through his word, that your spirit would be ministering among us. Build us up, O Lord, in our most holy faith. This is our prayer, and we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Many years ago, Hillary and I and our two boys were living in North Carolina. The presbytery of which we were part was having a men’s retreat. And I was asked to give one of the devotions at the retreat. I was honored to accept that invitation. And I went to my pastor, and I asked him if he had any recommendations about what I might speak on, what I might say. And he didn’t really have any guidance for me regarding a text to speak on or anything particular to share with the men at this retreat. His one piece of advice to me when I asked him about speaking, giving a devotional at the men’s retreat was this.
He said, make sure they hear good news. Make sure they hear good news. And that had become a central theme in all of his preaching at that point. And he had become very fixed on this idea that the message of the scriptures is the gospel, and gospel means good news, and people need to hear good news. So that was that was his advice to me. Make sure they hear good news. I’ve tried over the years throughout different stages in my life and different opportunities to to minister, to to adhere to that. And that’s why I titled the the message Preaching Good News, because that’s exactly what we see the Lord Jesus doing in our passage today. Preaching good news. In fact, that’s the purpose for which the anointing of the Lord was upon him.
So this point that we’ve reached in the gospel according to Luke, it follows his baptism. We looked at that, and Christ was baptized. And at his baptism, he heard the affirmation of his Father spoken from heaven. And then immediately after that, He was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and he was tested there. And then after that testing period in the wilderness, immediately after that, that’s the point we’ve reached in Luke.
And so now his preaching and teaching ministry begins. And what we have in verses 14 and 15 is really a summary of his preaching and teaching ministry. He went about all Galilee. The report went out throughout all the surrounding country. He taught in their synagogues, and he was glorified by all. Luke’s first anecdote, beyond that summary statement right there, Luke’s first anecdote from Christ’s ministry in Galilee is his visit to Nazareth. That’s where he starts. That’s the first. snippet that he shows us from the ministry of Jesus.
Now in Matthew’s gospel and also in Mark’s, this event is recorded, not in such detail. Luke gives us some information that the other gospel writers didn’t. But in both of those, Matthew and Mark, this visit to Nazareth where Jesus goes into the synagogue and we’re going to see next time that he’s rejected by his hometown, that happens further on in Jesus’ ministry. It happens, for instance, after the Gospel writers introduce his ministry of parables. It happens after, in both cases, the incident with the demon-possessed man in the land of the Gerasenes. So what we’re reading about, because of where Luke has placed it in his gospel, it doesn’t mean this is like the first thing that happened in his Galilean ministry.
But he’s putting it at the He’s front-loading it for us for a purpose, and it’s to teach us the theme of Jesus’ ministry and why he came. Matthew and Mark also both say that all the people were astonished. They both use that word, the same form of the same Greek word, or similar form of the same Greek word, to say that when the people heard Jesus teach, They were astonished at his teaching. Luke tells us that he is being glorified or praised by all. The word used there is a form of the word from which we get doxology.
They were praising Jesus as he traveled around Galilee and ministered. And this passage shows us that Jesus commenced his spirit-filled teaching ministry in Galilee, proclaiming good news. of salvation. And the three points are printed for you in the bulletin. First of all, the fulfillment of scriptures, we’re going to see that. Empowerment of the spirit, and then announcement of the gospel, proclamation of it. So first of all, the fulfillment of scriptures is a very important theme in this passage.
Jesus told them that he was fulfilling the words of Isaiah in their very presence, at that very time, in their very hearing. The focal point of the passage is this prophecy of Isaiah that he read that day in the synagogue in Nazareth. He read from chapter 61, which was our Old Testament reading. And we read the entirety of chapter 61 of Isaiah, but really themes from throughout the prophecy of Isaiah also have a relevance to what Jesus was doing here and what Luke is emphasizing for us here. Because Isaiah’s prophecy spoke of this anointed one. not just in chapter 61, the spirit of the Lord being upon him and having been anointed, but throughout his prophecy, especially in the latter chapters of Isaiah, we read of this one, he’s gonna be anointed by God. And that word anointing in the Old Testament and in the Hebrew scriptures is where we get the, it comes from the same root as the word Messiah.
So as the anointed one, Jesus is Messiah. Isaiah’s prophecy, and this is very important for our passage today, Isaiah’s prophecy prominently features a servant, a servant of the Lord, a servant of Yahweh. And you have interspersed in some of those later chapters of Isaiah what we call the servant songs. They’re about this servant and about his ministry, about what the Lord is going to send him to do when he comes. And here in chapter 61, that anointing is especially that God’s anointed one might proclaim good news. And the word there is where we get the word evangelize or evangelism.
Now, way back in the 11th chapter of Isaiah, 11th chapter, verse one, it speaks of a branch that’s going to grow up from the root of Jesse. And when, if you were an Israelite living in the days of Isaiah, if you heard the root of Jesse, if you heard the name Jesse, you immediately think of who? David. Because Jesse was the father of David. And when they talk about the house of Jesse, they’re talking about the house of David, their king.
And Isaiah prophesied of a branch that was going to come up from that stump because that stump, the tree had been cut down. And the people of Israel in those days had so little hope because the nation had been divided. And now Israel, that had once been this great tree, put out its branches and was a place for the shade, for people of the nations to gather. Tree was chopped down, but Isaiah said there’s a stem that’s going to grow out of it. There’s still life there. There’s still hope. God still has plans that he’s going to work out. through the house of David.
And this branch, this stem that’s going to shoot up from the stump of Jesse, the text says the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. And that’s exactly what we saw earlier in the Gospel of Luke. If you just turn, you might not even have to turn a page, look back at chapter three, verse 22. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven, you’re my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The Holy Spirit came and rested upon Jesus.
He didn’t alight and then fly away again. He remained on him. And then in the beginning of chapter four of Luke, it says Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. And it was the spirit himself that led him into the wilderness. That spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus at his baptism, and that spirit stayed with him, he abided with him, on him, in him. And what are the attributes of that spirit that we read in Isaiah 11? This is the spirit of wisdom. The spirit of understanding, spirit of counsel and knowledge. That’s the spirit that’s on Jesus. And then we fast forward again to verse 15 of our text today.
And it says that Jesus was in that spirit, preaching in their synagogues, teaching in their synagogues, going from town to town. One writer described it as a preaching tour, and that’s essentially what it was. He went about all the land proclaiming good news.
And at the end of our text, look again with me at verse 21. It says, he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. To put it another way, Jesus was telling them, the passage that I just read is about me. He was telling the people, I am the Lord’s servant, the one of whom Isaiah wrote. Jesus declared without ambiguity that Isaiah 61 verse one was fully and finally fulfilled in him.
Now that might raise a question. It did. It raised a question in my mind as I was preparing this week. Because not only in this place, but in several other places during. In the Gospels and during Jesus earthly ministry, he said things. That made it very obvious that he’s the Messiah. He’s the Christ. He’s the anointed one. He’s the son of David. And yet there are many, many other times, as you know. when if a person came to the knowledge that Jesus was the Christ, the light bulb went off in their heads and they realized that this is the Messiah, this is the Christ, Jesus would say, what?
Don’t tell anybody. You read those almost exact words in more than one place where Jesus says he sternly warns them, tell no one, tell no one that I’m the Christ. So what’s the disparity there? Why can he be so blatantly declaring himself to be the servant of the Lord, the anointed one in some places, and in other places, he says, don’t tell.
Well, I think in the present case, anyway, Jesus could declare himself to be the Lord’s anointed in the context of Isaiah, where the Christ is the suffering servant. Where he’s the one that comes to minister to the poor. Where he’s the one that comes to bind up the brokenhearted and to gently lead God’s flock.
As long as he had control of the narrative in any given situation, they understood that that’s what it means to be the Christ. then he’d freely confess that he’s the Christ. But in contexts where you had that distorted concept and expectation that so many of the Israelites had of who the Messiah would be, and that when the Messiah comes, he’s going to be this great general, and he’s going to rally Israel against Rome, and he’s going to establish a free state in Israel again and make them the head of the nations as they once had been. If people had that understanding, And that kind of expectation, then he would say, don’t tell anyone I’m the Christ. Because if they’re looking for that, they’re going to be disappointed. But what do we have in Isaiah?
We have the suffering servant. And when Jesus was ministering, when he was teaching the people, he said, if your concept of the Christ is the one who humbles himself and becomes obedient even unto death, the one who pours himself out, the one who came not to be served, but to serve, then you’re on the right track.
And in that case, yes, I am the Christ. He’s the fulfillment of scripture. Well, secondly, we’ve got the empowerment of the spirit. The first part of verse 14, says that he returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. So from that wilderness testing, he returned to Galilee. That’s where he spent most of his life. Of course, that’s where he grew up and lived until the beginning of his ministry.
And in the Gospels, we’re presented with a broad perspective on Christ’s ministry. We have many, many accounts of things he did, things he taught, miracles he performed. And the Gospels give us this broad perspective on his work and his ministry. Obviously, Jesus performed many signs.
You don’t have to read very far in any of the Gospels to see that, to see him healing the sick, to see him restoring sight to the blind and opening deaf ears and all of those things, even raising the dead. He did all kinds of things. In fact, so many that John, at the end of his Gospel, would write, Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. You couldn’t count the number of miracles and signs that Jesus performed in all his mighty deeds. And he did all of those, of course, in the power of the Holy Spirit. But he also taught in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And Scripture really lays more emphasis on that than the other. There’s more emphasis in the Gospels on Jesus teaching and how he did that in the power of the Spirit. So that at the end, for instance, of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, three chapters long, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Sermon on the Mount. And then the last little verse at the end of Matthew 7 just says that the people were astonished at his teaching. They were amazed. because he taught with authority. And the reason they perceived his teaching to have authority is because he was teaching in the power of the Spirit. And because he was teaching like that, it says in the end of our text, verse 14, Luke four, verse 14, it says the report about him went out throughout all the surrounding country, word was getting around about him. Notice too, at the beginning of verse 16, take a look at that with me once more.
Now we see how Jesus prioritized synagogue worship. It says, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. That was the practice of the Lord Jesus. He went to synagogue. And One of the reasons that Jews go to synagogue is because the Jewish Sabbath wasn’t just about rest. It was certainly a day of rest. That’s what it was instituted for. That’s why God ordained it. But if you look carefully, you see that it wasn’t simply a day to lay around and do nothing, to take it easy and rest. It was a day for worship.
And so in Leviticus chapter 23.3, You have a revisiting of that commandment about the Sabbath, and it says six days shall work be done. But on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You may hear me use that term from time to time. Maybe I overuse it, but that’s what this day is.
It’s a holy convocation. It’s not simply a day to take it easy and rest from our labors. Praise the Lord that it is that. But that’s not all it is. It’s a day for us to gather and worship Him together. The seventh is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is the Sabbath of the Lord, Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places, Leviticus 23. And Jesus, as the perfect man, as the sinless man, kept the fourth commandment perfectly, and that included not only resting on the Sabbath, but gathering with God’s people on the Sabbath.
And William Hendrickson had an interesting comment to make on that. He said, even though with respect to his human nature, Jesus was far advanced in knowledge, wisdom, and so forth, above anyone else who imparted instruction in the synagogue, he did not stay away. He went. Even if it wasn’t his turn to read or to expound the scripture.
So the power of the Spirit is associated with Jesus’ miracles and with his teaching. Because as to Jesus’ divine nature, he’s the second person of the Godhead. He is fully God. Equal to the Father, equal to the Spirit. But as to his human nature, as a man, he relied on the power of the Spirit. And in that respect, he’s a pattern for us.
And anything we do in service to the Lord, we need to do it in the power of the Spirit. We dare not try to do it in our own strength. Whether you’re leading a Bible study or teaching a Sunday school class, conducting family worship, Even sitting down to read the scriptures on your own in your personal devotional time, we don’t do any of that in our own strength. We don’t do any of that with our own smarts or with our own powers of perception and understanding. We do it all through the power of the Spirit. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
That empowerment of the Spirit that Jesus in his earthly ministry leaned upon and relied upon, that power of the Spirit in which he ministered, we need the same thing. But then finally, we see Jesus announcing the gospel, the announcement of the gospel.
In our ESV Bibles, there are three occurrences of the word proclaim, Proclaim in verses 18 and 19. The second and third instances of that word are based on the Greek word karuso, which means to preach. So when he’s speaking of proclaiming, he’s talking about preaching. And then the first instance, which is not based on that word, it’s actually the proclaim part of the word is actually lumped in with this one word that means to preach good news. So when you see the word proclaim, in our passage today. Think preaching.
That’s what Jesus came to do. His ministry, in fact, can be summed up in that way. He came to preach and to teach. Which is why in the gospel, according to Mark, early on when he had begun his Galilean ministry, as Mark records it, He had preached in this one town, and then after a long, long day of labor, he slipped off by himself to pray, and the disciples couldn’t find him.
And finally, Peter finds Jesus and said, everybody’s looking for you. And they wanted him to stay. They wanted him to keep teaching. They wanted him to keep performing miracles and healing the sick. And all of that and what Jesus said to him was, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also for that is why I came out. What did he come to do? As far as his earthly ministry during his time on earth, he came to preach and teach. That was his mission. And his message was the gospel. And you know very well, gospel means good news. So let’s think for a moment about how is the gospel good? Well, we see it in his readings from prophecy of Isaiah.
In verse 18 of our text, he says, he came to proclaim liberty to captives. Liberty to captives, liberty to those who are oppressed. And that word that’s twice translated in your in your ESV Bible, liberty is a word that means release, and it has specific reference to captives, those who are imprisoned, prisoners of war even.
And Jesus. Came to proclaim release for them liberty. It can. The word can also mean pardon or cancellation of debt. release liberty in that sense. And so in the spiritual sense, this word signifies forgiveness of sins. Liberty means removal of guilt. That burden, like the burden that Pilgrim and Pilgrim’s Progress carried on his back for so long, the removal of it. That’s the liberty that Jesus came to proclaim.
What else did he come to proclaim? How else is the gospel good news? He came to proclaim sight to the blind. Now we know Jesus literally did that. Numerous accounts in the various gospel writers of people who were blind and Jesus restored their sight. There was even a man that John tells us about who had never seen in his life. He was born blind and Jesus restored, gave him sight. And so he did that in the literal sense, but also the fact that he could do that. shows that he had the authority and the power to give light to darkened hearts, to give light to darkened minds, to open the spiritual eyes of people. Liberty to captives, sight to the blind, the year of the Lord’s favor. We saw that phrase both in the citation in Luke and also in Isaiah 61, the year of the Lord’s favor.
That doesn’t mean just literally one calendar year, but a season, a time. But the fact that the word year is used, it’s hearkening back to something that the Jews were commanded by God to celebrate when they took up residence in the land. It was called the year of Jubilee. Every 50th year in the history of their nation, all debts were canceled. property that had been inheritance, somebody that had an inheritance in the land of their tribe, if they had had to sell it for whatever reason somewhere along the way, all property reverted to its ancestral owners. That was the year of Jubilee. There was no plowing or planting or harvesting in the year of Jubilee. God provided for them apart from that. And so this year of the Lord’s favor is probably a hearkening back to that idea of the Jubilee.
It’s noteworthy that Jesus in his reading, at least as Luke records Jesus reading in the synagogue and here in Luke chapter 4, he stopped the reading right there at the year of Lord’s favor, didn’t go on to the next phrase. And do you remember what the next phrase was? The next phrase was the day of vengeance of our God. And it seems that Jesus deliberately stopped before that, or at least Luke’s Holy Spirit inspired record of his reading stopped there.
And this is why. It’s an announcement. The judgment is being delayed. He doesn’t go on to read about the day of vengeance, saying that’s being postponed. Now is the time of salvation. This is the day of salvation. The year of favor. Seek the Lord while he may be found.
So the gospel is good news because Jesus gives freedom to those who are captive in sin and guilt and condemnation, people who are bound by all those things. He loses those chains. The gospel is good news because Jesus opens eyes that have been blinded by sin and corruption, darkened by the fall. The gospel is good news because Jesus liberates those who are oppressed by the devil, those who are enslaved to their lusts and to sin and trespasses. Christ brings sinners out of darkness into his marvelous light. He brings sinners out of spiritual deadness and he gives them life.
Christ turns people from idols. or whatever it is that they serve, to serve the true and living God. So apart from Christ, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, everyone, man, woman, child, on the face of the earth, apart from Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, all would remain right where they are by nature. Hardened in heart, darkened in mind, alienated from God, and without hope. That’s where we would be without Christ. But Christ is the Savior. And it’s from all those things that he saves us.
His salvation comes through the ministry of the Word, because the ministry of the Word is a means of grace that he ordains. The Holy Spirit makes the reading but especially the preaching of the word an effectual means of converting sinners, which leads to the salvation of souls. Let me close with just a few points of application. Firstly, the central and primary ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ is teaching. That’s what Jesus did throughout His ministry.
Now we know He came to save sinners. And in order to be their Savior, in order to be and fulfill His role as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, yes, He went to Jerusalem, He went to trial, He was rejected, He was crucified, and He died. So that’s what He came to do ultimately. But he labored in ministry on earth for three or so years before going to the cross. And during that ministry, what was he doing? He was teaching. He was preaching. Our text says he was teaching in their synagogues, and that’s precisely what the Lord of the church commissioned his church to do.
Go, therefore, make disciples. Teach them. That’s the job of the church. So let that always be the primary focus of Westminster OPC and of all the churches of Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what he commanded us to do. So let’s do that. Let’s stay focused on preaching and teaching. Secondly, I remind you that Jesus showed profound respect.
And demonstrated stalwart commitment to the public means of grace. public means of grace. And what I’m talking about is he went to synagogue. Even though the people who were in charge of most of the synagogues in his day were those scribes and Pharisees, even though they were what we would consider in modern terminology, the church leadership, they, Jesus went to church, so to speak. He went to synagogue.
So no professing Christian in any age should presume to absent himself or herself from public worship, if our very Savior would not do so. And you’ve heard all the tired old adages and aphorisms, you know, oh, well, being in church doesn’t make me a Christian any more than being in a garage makes me a car. Well, I would answer that by saying this. No one ever said that being in church makes you a Christian. It’s a nonsense argument. But if you were a car, you would need to go to the gas station. Going to the gas station doesn’t make you a car either. But if you’re a car, you need fuel.
I could elaborate on that one. But I’ll but I’ll refrain. Another objection. You’ve maybe heard people say something like this, you know, I can worship God just as well while I’m fishing on Sunday morning as I can in a worship service. And the answer to that is no, you can’t. That’s simply false.
If you ever do go fishing, you should do so to the glory of God and you can worship God as you do it. And you ought to glorify God in your fishing. If you go for a run, you ought to glorify God in that. You ought to glorify God when you play golf or when you eat or drink or whatever you do. Do it all to the glory of the Lord. But nothing takes the place of corporate worship in holy convocation with the community of believers.
Christ designed and designated a day for us to engage in that very activity. And by rising from the dead on the first day of the week, he said, this is the day. This is the day that I have made. This is the day when my people will assemble. We must devote it to him in sacred assembly. So whatever excuse anyone may concoct for not coming to church on Sunday, Jesus could have used it not to go to synagogue. But he didn’t. And I praise God that you who are here today love to gather for public worship. I’m so thankful.
It’s a joy to see you each Lord’s Day when we come together. But more importantly, I want to encourage you with this, the fact that you desire to be here, and that very desire is a sign of God’s grace in your heart. Be encouraged by that. It is Christ Jesus, through his spirit, who put it in you to love the sacred assembly. To whatever degree you have any warmth of zeal for public worship unto the Lord our God, it’s evidence of his spirit at work in you. You want to be here because he wrought that in you. Let that be encouragement to your souls, my brothers and sisters.
And then finally, Rejoice with me that when the incarnate Son of God came into the world, He didn’t come to declare the day of the Lord’s vengeance. He came to proclaim good news. He came preaching good news. With the very authority of God, He came proclaiming freedom for those who were in bondage to sin. He came to give the knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins. He came to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Thanks be to God that he’s the light of the world. He’s the way, the truth, and the life. Let’s pray to him now. Thank you, Lord God, for sending your son to be our Savior. And thank you that when he came, He declared good news to us. Our hearts rejoice to hear it. May we hear it afresh daily. Lord, thank you for for him. Thank you for his perfect righteousness. Thank you for his perfect example to us. Clothe us afresh in his righteousness and fill us afresh with gratitude for what he’s done for us. And let us go in your strength to serve you throughout this week. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.