The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 24, 2016
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught 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 was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the LORD is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 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 on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“But Mom— you promised!” “I know I promised, but things didn’t work out the way I had planned.”
“But Dad— you promised!” “I know I promised, but you said that you would do this for me and since you didn’t do it, well, that kinda changed things, didn’t it.”
Have you ever been a part of a conversation like that, my friends? Have you ever made a promise to someone and then for some reason you didn’t— or couldn’t— keep that promise? Have you ever had someone make a promise to you and then for one reason or another they broke their promise?
Unfortunately, broken promises are something with which we are all too familiar. Sometimes we are the one who breaks a promise that we made to someone else. Sometimes we are the one who was counting on someone keeping their promise to us and are disappointed when they don’t.
Since broken promises are an all too familiar part of our lives our sermon text for today is especially comforting. As we study this portion of God’s holy Word my goal is to have us look at the promises which the Lord our God has given to us and see why we can confidently trust in each and every one of those promises! With that in mind our sermon theme for today is: Fulfilled! Let’s first of all see how Jesus Himself emphasizes that He came into this world to fulfill all the Messianic promises— all the Messianic prophecies— which the Lord had given to His children down through the ages. Then, on the basis of those fulfilled promises let’s see that we can confidently trust that the Lord will indeed fulfill the promises He has made to us.
Our text for today finds Jesus visiting His hometown of Nazareth. While Jesus may have left Nazareth relatively “unknown,” Luke tells us that by the time Jesus returned to His hometown, “news about him spread through the whole countryside.” Whether it was changing water into wine or driving the money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem, whether it was the sermons that Jesus had been preaching in the various synagogues throughout the land or the fact that Jesus had been publicly gathering His disciples, by the time Jesus went home again His “fame” was quite well known!
I’d like to take just a moment to point out something very important. If you have your Bibles open to our text for today look at verse 16. If you have ever wondered why you keep coming to church since the pastor keeps repeating things you already know notice how Luke brings out the fact that “on the Sabbath Day he (Jesus) went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Even though Jesus is the eternal Son of God, even though for thirty years Jesus had been listening to mere mortal human beings teach and preach the Word which He Himself had given to His people Jesus not only willingly obeyed the Third Commandment (Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy) but He set an excellent example for us to follow by going to church on a regular basis! Now let’s turn back to our text.
As a visiting Rabbi and as a hometown boy Jesus was invited to preach the sermon on that particular Sabbath Day. So after He was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah we’re told that Jesus unrolled it until He got to our Old Testament lesson for today. Then He read these words, “The Spirit of the LORD is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” After Jesus had read His sermon text He sat down, looked at the congregation seated in front of Him and He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Fulfilled! That was the simple message that Jesus preached in His home congregation. But what was fulfilled? In short, Jesus proclaimed to the congregation that He is the fulfillment of all the prophecies, all the promises, which the Lord God had made concerning the Messiah, the Christ, the “Anointed One”! At the heart and core of all those prophecies the Lord revealed that the work of the His “Anointed One” would focus on preaching “good news to the poor.” And to make sure that we understand exactly what He means, we’ll look at three pictures of preaching “good news to the poor.”
The first picture centers on proclaiming “freedom for the prisoners.” The Greek word that is translated here as “prisoners” very literally refers to “prisoners of war.” By nature, my friends, we were indeed “prisoners of war.” We were being held captive by sin, death and the devil— and there was nothing we could do about it, nothing we could do to free ourselves! As the Lord’s “Anointed One” Jesus proclaims to us poor prisoners the Good News: You are free! By fulfilling His promise to send a Savior into this world God Himself has destroyed the power of the devil. God Himself has conquered sin and death. God Himself has set us free!
The second picture is that as the Lord’s “Anointed One” Jesus has the power to grant “recovery of sight for the blind.” You may recall that one of the pictures that the Bible uses to describe our natural sinful condition is that we are “blind” to God’s Truth. By nature we can’t understand the teachings of the Bible. (See I Corinthians 2:14) By nature we consider the message of the cross to be utter “foolishness.” (See I Corinthians 1:18) By fulfilling His promise to send a Savior into this world God Himself has restored our spiritual sight! With the eyes of faith we are now able to read and understand, to believe and accept the teachings of Scripture. With the eyes of faith we are able to look at the cross and see the power and the wisdom and the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness of our God!
The third picture that the good Lord uses to describe us is especially descriptive. Here in our text we are very simply told that the Lord’s “Anointed One” would “release the oppressed.” Very literally the Greek that Luke uses here emphasizes that the Savior whom God promised to send into this world came here to “send out the broken ones in forgiveness.” We are “the broken ones,” my friends. Sin has “broken” us to smithereens! Think of it this way: God created mankind to be like the finest crystal vase there could ever possibly be. Into this crystal vase God poured all of His love and all of His blessings. Then Adam and Eve brought sin into this world. Sin picked us up and smashed us against the tablets of God’s holy Law. We were “broken.” We were “oppressed” by the guilt, by the shame, by both the temporal as well as the eternal consequences of our own sins. By fulfilling His promise to send a Savior into this world God Himself “fixed” us! He “restored” us so that even in His eyes we are once again that beautiful perfect crystal vase into which God once again pours His precious love until we overflow with His blessings. By fulfilling His promise (pointing to the cross) God has taken away the oppressive burden and the overwhelming guilt of our sin. By fulfilling His promise (pointing to the cross) Jesus is able to “send out the broken ones in forgiveness.”
Truly, my friends, when we look at portions of Scripture such as our text for today we are able to revel in the comfort of knowing that all of the Old Testament promises concerning this world’s only Savior from sin are indeed: Fulfilled! It is on that basis then that you and I are now able to trust in the promises that the good Lord has graciously made to us. Why is that such a tremendous source of comfort for us? Just think of some of the things we face in our lives today.
There are times when in weakness we sin against the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. When we realize that we have indeed sinned against our loving Savior we feel “broken” once again. We feel the oppressive burden of our sin. Then in repentance we are led to the promises of our God! We are led to the cross where God Himself promises us, “It is finished!” We are led to come to the Lord’s altar to receive the Lord’s Supper where through His true body and His true blood God Himself promises us, “Your sins are forgiven!”
There are times when in rebellion we think that we can “play” with the fire of sin and not get “burned.” “I’ll do it just this once— and never again. Just one joint. Just one affair. I only hit her once and it wasn’t really all that hard. It was just one little lie. I only cheated on my taxes once.” When our conscience won’t let up on us, when we feel the burden of that “one little sin” weighing us down more and more we can do one of two things. We can simply give up and continue in our life of sin, or we can confess our sin to God and trust in His promise of forgiveness. King David gives us an example of this type of situation when he says in Psalm 32, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
There are days when we are so down and so tired that we aren’t sure if we even want to get out of bed. When we do force ourselves to get out of bed we wonder how in the world are we ever going to make it through the day. When we look at ourselves in the mirror we don’t find what we need. When we look at the promises of our God, however, we find both the hope as well as strength we need! “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
You get home from work, pick up your mail and what do you find? More bills! “How am I ever going to pay all these bills?” you say to yourself. As you are re-evaluating your priorities when it comes to “wants” verses “needs” you can also trust in the promises of your God— promises such as Matthew 6:31-33, “So do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
One day completely out of the blue you don’t feel well. It doesn’t go away so you make an appointment with the doctor. The news is not good. One day your life changes forever when someone you love dies unexpectedly. How do you handle situations like that? You don’t! You entrust yourself to the Lord and you let Him handle it! You listen like you have never listened before to the promises of your Savior— “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3). “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25, 26). Those are just some of God’s promises to you— promises that He will indeed fulfill!
“But Mom— you promised!” “I know I promised, but things didn’t work out the way I had planned.”
“But Dad— you promised!” “I know I promised, but you said that you would do this for me and since you didn’t do it, well, that kinda changed things, didn’t it.”
Thank God, my friends, that you and I will never have that type of conversation with our Savior God! As the saved children of God we have the unparalleled comfort of looking back on all the promises which the good Lord gave to His children throughout the Old Testament era and knowing that in Jesus all those promises are— Fulfilled! That comfort is what now gives us the confidence of knowing that no matter what we may encounter on our pilgrimage through this world, no matter what situations we could possibly face in our own personal life we can indeed trust that our God will fulfill His promises to us!
To God be the glory!
Amen