Lost and Found: Meet the savior

Luke 4:14-30

 

We are beginning a series in the gospel of Luke entitled, “Lost and Found: Stories of Redemption from the Gospel of Luke”.  In this series we are going to take a look at Jesus Christ’s amazing interactions with various individuals throughout the gospel of Luke.  We will visit his interaction with the Fisherman, the Paralytic, the Prostitute, the Pharisee, the Rich Man and 5 others. I anticipate there will be much fruit as God blesses our time in His word. 

Let me tell you some of the results I am praying for.  Most of all, I want us to know Jesus Christ.  There is no more important relationship and no more important person than Jesus.  And we get to know Jesus through the word of God.  The gospels were given to us that we might know the Savior and in him to have eternal life – “and this is eternal life”, John 17:3 says, “that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  Folks, the greatest thing I can do for you is help you get to know Jesus and find and enjoy eternal life in him and for him.  I trust our time looking at Jesus in the book of Luke will do that.

The gospel of Luke, like the bulk of the bible, presents truth in story form.  While explicit instruction is vital for us, often we get the right sense of truth and its proportion via stories.  I believe this is the reason most of the bible is in story form.  And Luke is a masterful collection and synthesis of stories, true stories about Jesus.  Take a look at the very beginning of Luke.  It says: " Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. " (Luke 1:1-4, ESV) So we know that Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, compiled all the accounts of Jesus life and presented these stories in an orderly form.  The gospel of Luke has the most material of all four gospels with 37 pages in my bible compared to 31 for Matthew, 27 for John, and 21 for Mark.  There are many unique stories in Luke that are not in the other bibles.  Some scholars think the unique accounts of Jesus’ birth and early years in Luke are derived from Aramaic accounts due to the change of language Luke employs there.  Regardless of these details, we have a wonderful account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ before us, full of wonderful stories of Jesus.

The Jesus we see in Luke is the same as seen elsewhere but it seems Luke has a special sensitivity to Jesus’ mission of redeeming the lost.  Jesus, as seen in Luke, comes to rescue sinners.  Luke 19:10 stands as the summary statement of the whole gospel, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:10, ESV) .  We see in story after story Jesus bringing salvation to undesireables and the outcasts of society – known sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, Samaritans, women and children.  Jesus personally invites himself over the house of Zaccheus, the vertically challenged tax collector, something unheard of in his day – eating with a cheat and traitor like Zaccheus.  He reaches out and touches the Leper and heals him in Luke 5.  He receives the grateful prostitute’s worship and forgives her publically in Luke 7.  He tells parables that communicate the heart of God for the lost in Luke 14 & 15 – like the Parables of the Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep and the Lost Son – that is the prodigal son.  We see him ministering to women and receiving their financial support in Luke 8, blessing children in Luke 18, all this in a day when women and children were second class citizens.  The word for save, salvation of Savior occurs frequently in Luke with the specific words, Savior and salvation unique to Luke’s gospel. Jesus is certainly seen as the seeker and saver of the Lost through Luke’s gospel.

Guys, I want us to know him this way. I want us to know him personally this way.  And I want you all to see that the most unworthy sinner, the most serious sinner, the most needy sinner, the one most desperate for a Savior is the one you see in the mirror each morning.  I want us to put ourselves in these stories and see what sort of person Jesus is, that He alone is the seeker and savior of the lost.  I want us to see that he saves to the uttermost those who come to God through him!  He will never leave us, he will never reject those who come to him in faith and desperate humility, repenting of their sin and putting their confidence in a kind and merciful and powerful savior.  I don’t know about you but I need a Savior like that!  Thank God he lives!

We are in this series because I want us to enjoy our wonderful salvation that he has provided. I want us to encounter Jesus in a fresh way through the wonderful stories of Luke. I am trusting God the Holy Spirit to breath on this time and warm cold hearts, encourage the discouraged and refreshed the weary.  My prayer is that this series will be way more than just a review of old bible stories you already know.  I am asking God to manifest his presence in our midst through this sermon series.  I am asking for nothing less than a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ, the seeker and Savior of the lost.

And I don’t want it to end there.  I pray that God will show us his amazing love for lost sinners and change the way we see God and change us.  This amazing gospel is given to us not that we might merely know God is an awesome savior, not that we might merely encounter him, as glorious as that is, but also that we might be like him and act like him. In particular, that we might love the lost like God does.  That we might find our hearts burdened with a deep compassion for those without Christ, that we might find ourselves motivated to step through our fear of man because of our love of man and the awesome God who first loved us.  That we declare the gospel and demonstrate the love it brings to our families, friends and neighbors.  That we might go to great lengths to win people to God.  That we might be like our Lord – the seeker and saver of the lost. 

Folks, my prayer is that God radically changes us through fresh encounter with him via the proclamation of his word under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  With this in mind, let pray and jump into the first part of our series.

“14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 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. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 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. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:14-21 (ESV)”

Jesus has just come to Nazareth after a year of public ministry. His baptism and temptation have taken place and he has been gaining disciples.  He also has done some things to get him great notoriety.  Walking in the power of the Holy Spirit he has healed people in Judea and Capernaum, he has changed water to wine in Cana.  He is now embarking on a lengthy ministry in the province of Galilee, north of Jerusalem and he comes to his home town.  Now his home town had heard all about him. It says that a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.    He taught frequently in the synagogues and he was glorified by all.  That is, he is being highly acclaimed. 

Amidst all this excitement Jesus says something very radical about himself.  Let’s set the scene.  He is in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  Listen to how Alfred Edersheim describes it: “Sabbath morn dawned, and early He repaired to that Synagogue where, as a Child, a Youth, a Man, He had so often worshipped in the humble retirement of His rank, sitting, not up there among the elders and the honoured, but far back. The old well-known faces were around Him, the old well-remembered words and services fell on His ear. How different they had always been to Him than to them, with whom He had thus mingled in common worship! And now He was again among them, truly a stranger among His own countrymen; this time, to be looked at, listened to, tested, tried, used or cast aside, as the case might be. It was the first time, so far as we know, that He taught in a Synagogue, and this Synagogue that of His own Nazareth.[1] “

He is in the synagogue, as the rabbi of the day, he has participated in the prayers, he has heard numerous reading from the law and now he is handed the reading from the prophets for this day.  I’m sure every eye was fixed on him at this crucial moment.  Amazingly he is given the book of Isaiah and amazingly he picks Isaiah 61 to read. ““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.”

This passage is right in the middle of a section of Isaiah full of promise to Israel, God’s chosen people.  These promises in Isaiah are made to a people who are experiencing God’s discipline and will ultimately experience brutal invasion and dismal exile from God’s chosen land.  Yet God promises to redeem them from their exile and punishment.  More than that, Isaiah is full of promises to bring them into a greater promised land than they had known – even to restore them from all the effects of sin.  Every good Jew would be familiar with this passage and aware of its pregnant promise of redemption and the strong indication of a future messiah.  So he reads it, rolls it up, gives it back to the sexton and than sits down at the head seat in the front of the synagogue.  The passage says every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop, if they had pins back then.  Total silence and then he says it. “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  What a way to start a sermon!

We will talk about what happened next in a bit.  But first, I want to talk about what this choice of text means.  I want to probe what Jesus meant by presenting himself as the one who has fulfilled this promise and also what God meant by the promise in the first place.  You see, I think this text for this morning teaches us four things: 1) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost AS PROMISED, 2) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost AS DEMONSTRATED, 3) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost FOR TODAY and, 4) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost FOR YOU.

1) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost AS PROMISED

So first, let’s talk about the promise and what it means. Jesus’ ministry was a Spirit anointed ministry.  Throughout the gospel of Luke we see Jesus acting in the power of the Spirit of God.  His ministry is one of anointing with the power of God through the Spirit of God.  But what is the intent of this anointing?  It says, “because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  This anointing on the messiah is to proclaim good news – news of redemption for the needy and oppressed.  Not only is it to proclaim goodnews but it is to declare that the year of the Lord’s favor has commenced.  Do you see that?  Let’s take a look in your bibles at Isaiah 61.  Flip to the middle of your bible and turn right a few books and you should find Isaiah.  Turn to chapter 61 – near the end.  Look at verse 2.  Where did Jesus stop?  That’s right – he stopped before “the day of vengeance of our God;”  He read up to this part.  Now Isaiah 63 talks about that day of vengeance but that is actually a future event.  The day of vengeance comes when Christ comes back.  That day is a day where God pays back all his enemies with his perfect and wise and glorious justice.  When all who are his will say “amen” to his just judgments.  But that day is not this day.  Jesus is proclaiming that on the day that he read this in that synagogue in Nazareth, the year of the Lord’s favor commenced.

Now what is the year of the Lord’s favor?  Well, obviously, it has something to do with helping the poor, binding up the broken hearted, releasing captives, enabling the blind to see etc.  But it also points to a practice that God implemented among his people Israel of every 50 years celebrating the year of Jubilee, a solid year of rest and celebration where all debts were canceled and all inheritances were restored.  It is not clear that Israel ever celebrated the year of Jubilee.  Regardless, the Messiah Jesus has come to declare this year of Jubilee and commence the celebration.  That is what is promised in Isaiah 61 and that is what Jesus is fulfilling.  And the bible teaches us that the time between Jesus’ ministry and his return is the year of Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor.  The time when all those under a burden of oppression and weakness, blindness and sin can find deliverance.  And this deliverance comes at the hand and through the life of the anointed one – the messiah, the Christ – for that is what Messiah and Christ mean – the anointed one.  And what was he anointed to do – to proclaim and bring the year of the Lord’s favor.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost according to the promise of Isaiah 61.

2) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost AS DEMONSTRATED

And he not only said this at Nazareth but he demonstrated it throughout his life and especially through his death and resurrection.  We will spend time examining all these stories of particular redemption in various peoples lives.  We will also see how he demonstrated this ultimately through his righteous life and his death on the cross.  This deliverance cost the Savior everything.  He did not come to be served but to serve and give his very life on the cross as a ransom for many.  He suffered and died on the cross to the sins of outcasts like me and you.  And he rose victorious on the third day to declare that his work of rescue is totally accepted and effective – he is living proof of that.   He demonstrated that he indeed has come to seek and save the lost. He has demonstrated it and he is demonstrating it – even today.

3) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost FOR TODAY

Notice what Jesus says in verse 21, “today this Scripture has been fulfilled.”  Throughout the gospel of Luke this word, “today” is repeated.  When Jesus brings salvation to Zaccheus he says, “today salvation has come to this house”, and when the thief on the cross repents and puts his faith in Christ, Jesus says, “today you will be with me in paradise.”  Now, why do you think God would have Jesus and therefore Luke phrase things this way?  What would I mean if I said, Today, salvation has come to King of Grace church! What do you think?  Good.  Yes, it means that it is a reality to be experienced right now.  It is really here and it is tremendous.  And God wants us to know that this is not about theory, this is not about some high and mighty concept that is ethereal and abstract.  God wants you and  I to feel with the characters in the bible the immediate and wonderful impact of being sought and saved by the Messiah.

4) Jesus came to seek and to save the lost FOR YOU.

And that brings us to my last point.  Jesus has fulfilled the scripture and is through him the year of the Lord’s favor is now.  What are you going to do about it? If we read down through the rest of the story we see that although the people were amazed by the accounts of Jesus’ miracles of redemption, although they experienced Jesus gracious words through his synagogue sermon, although he came to fulfill the promise of an anointed deliverer and King, they ultimately rejected him.  Let’s take a look at Luke 4:21-30. “21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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?” 23 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.” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 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, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 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.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 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. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.“ Luke 4:21-30 (ESV)

They said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s boy!” and then proceeded to be filled with indignant anger to the point of mob violence and attempted murder.  Pretty sad to see your home town, you neighbors and friends turn on you to the point of wanting to throw you off a cliff.  What a picture of rejection.

But what did Jesus say to them to get them so upset?  Now they were already indignant but indignancy turned to murder in reply to what he said about the type of people God rescues.  Who were they?  That’s right – they were gentiles.  Gentiles were outcasts.  Gentiles were dogs, rejected by the self-righteous among the Jews.  Jesus had the audacity to say that God was more interested in gentiles than in Jews.  Now why did Jesus say this?  Was he just interested in a good fight?  Did he just like the sport of public debate and controversy?  No.  He said it because he was teaching them something very important about he type of people the messiah comes to rescue – then and now.  He comes to rescue outcasts.  He doesn’t come to rescue those who think they have it all together.  For a matter of fact, those who think they have it all together and don’t really need a Savior will push Jesus away, even to the point of wanting him eliminated, even to the point of murder of the very son of God.  What was it about the widow of Zeraphath and Namaan that made them examples of the type of people the Messiah would rescue.  One, they were outcasts and they knew it.  Two, they humbly acknowledged their need for rescue.  Three, they put their faith, not in themselves but in God.  Now these stories in 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5 are wonderful pictures of God’s redemption of outcasts – take some time today or this week to read and reread them.  What I think you will see is what we see in Luke – the Savior seeks and saves the lost, that is outcasts who know they have no hope in themselves of rescue, who no they are not worthy and who know that only God can rescue them.

What about you?  Does that describe you?  Do you more resemble the people in Nazareth or the widow and Namaan?  Are you like Jesus hometown neighbors?  Have you grown so familiar with Jesus that he no longer is your Savior but just a normal part of life?  Is he just another commodity in your life to be enjoyed at certain times and ignored at others?  Have you stopped seeing that you indeed are an outcast in desperate need of someone stronger and truer to rescue you?  Have you stopped acknowledging and depending on the Messiah who has come to bring the year of the Lord’s favor?  This year of Jubilee only means something to those in debt.  Are you in debt?  Do you know that your sins have put you in debt?  Do you see you need someone to come and cancel your debts and bring salvation?  To bring reconciliation with a holy and perfectly good and glorious God?  Or are you “all set”?

Well, Jesus doesn’t come to those who are “all set.”  Those sort of people reject him and even hate him.  Are you like those in the crowd in Nazareth or are you like those in Isaiah 61?

Let us run to this Savior today and everyday, recognizing that we need to be rescued from our sins.  We need a daily Savior and rejoicing that one has come and has rescued us and now it is the year of the Lord’s favor. Let’s pray.

 


[1]Edersheim, A. 1896, 2003. The life and times of Jesus the Messiah (1:430-431). Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Bellingham, WA