Okay, now, Luke chapter 4 to
begin with. I'm entitling the message, The
Mission of the Messiah. The Mission of the Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ was no
unsent Messiah. He was no unsent Savior. He was no rookie. He was Son
of God. He was the Redeemer, the Messiah
that was sent of God. He was sent of God for a purpose.
Everything God does, He does on purpose. He was sent of God
on purpose to accomplish for His covenant people their eternal,
everlasting salvation. He came to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and He did so as our representative man. As
a surety of that everlasting covenant, the great shepherd
of the sheep was brought again from the dead to the blood of
the everlasting covenant. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. When the Lord Jesus Christ began
His public ministry, at the age of 30 years old, being the priest
of God, One of the first messages he preached was in his own hometown
where he grew up there in Nazareth. After he had preached to the
multitude in Galilee the gospel and healing all those that had
need of healing, on the Sabbath day afterward he went down back
home to his own hometown, his home church we could say, his
home synagogue, And he preached the gospel to those people. The
Lord Jesus, don't turn, let me just read this to you. In Matthew
4 verse 23, the Lord Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogue, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What is
the gospel of the kingdom? and healing all manner of sicknesses,
all manner of diseases among the people. He healed all those
who were in need of healing. The Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher
of the gospel. I think maybe sometimes we forget
about that. He was indeed a preacher of the
gospel. He read when they handed him
the book from the passage that we read just a moment ago, Look
at verse 17, there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written, or where he had written, being God, from
Isaiah 61. He said to them, after he read
the passage, he closed the book, gave it to the minister and sat
down. In the eyes of all of them, verse 20, were fixed upon him.
And then he said, this day is a scripture fulfilled in your
ears. And all bear him witnessed and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And then they said, Wait a minute now. You're the carpenter's boy. We know who you are. We know
your mother. We know your brothers, your sisters.
You're Joseph's son. When he sat down and said, this
day the scripture were fulfilled in your ears, At first they wondered, and then
when they thought about it, they turned on him. Look what it says
in verse 28. Look at the contrast here. All
day in the synagogue, when they heard these things, when they
heard him illustrate what he had just preached, they were
filled with wrath. and sought to end his ministry
and to end his life. Now here's the prince of preachers.
Here's the preacher son of God, with the truth of God, with the
word of God, anointed of God to preach the gospel. And yet,
among this religious crowd, all those in the assembly that day,
everybody in that synagogue, They were all filled with anger,
malice, and wrath against Him to destroy Him. Now what got
them so upset? Truth. Truth. Let us not be surprised when
we get the same reaction from the religious lost, from the
self-righteous who hate what we preach. The reason they hate
it is because they hate God. We should expect it. The natural
man, the carnal mind is not in love with God. The carnal mind
is enmity against God, deep-seated hatred. The natural man will
not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they're
foolishness unto him. It is a marvel of grace if you
love the Gospel, if you believe the Gospel, if you receive His
Word and love it in your heart, That doesn't happen naturally.
It's supernatural. It's a work and marvel of God's
grace in your heart. So let's go back to Isaiah 61
for just a moment. And let's see exactly what the
Lord read to them that day. Isaiah 61 verse 1. Turn back
over there. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
this scripture. Verse 1 of Isaiah 61, "...the
Spirit of the Lord God, the Lord God Jehovah, the Eternal, Everlasting
I Am, is upon me, because for this reason the Lord hath anointed
me, sent me to preach good tidings unto the meek, He sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
opening of the prison to them that are bound, to preach the
year of jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, vengeance of
God being satisfied in Christ, to comfort all that mourn, to
appoint unto them that morning's iron, to give them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified." The Lord
Jesus Christ actually fulfilled all Scripture, didn't He? All
the prophets give witness to Him. As the God-man mediator,
He had unusual power. The anointing of the Holy Spirit
was upon Him without any measure to accomplish and to finish the
work that the Father gave Him to do. He was the anointed prophet
of God. There's an article on the back
of the bulletin. Don't look at it now, but look at it later.
where it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ being anointed to
preach the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ was that
prophet that God promised to Moses that He would raise up,
that would declare the truth of God. And those who will not
hear Him, will be accountable unto God. The Lord Jesus is that
anointed prophet to reveal God unto us. He is that anointed
priest to redeem us from our sin. And He is the anointed King
to rule and reign over us. Aren't you glad He's our Messiah? He is our Savior, prophet, priest,
and King. He described to us here in Isaiah
61 the work of salvation the Lord of glory came to do. Look at verse 1, Isaiah 61, because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good news, good tidings
unto those who are poor and weak. Good news. Heard any good news
lately? You watch the news in the evening
and it's just all bad news, isn't it? I mean, once in a while they'll
throw in something, a good story, but most of the time it's just
bad news. Bad news. The Lord Jesus Christ
had some good news, good tidings, good things unto the meek, unto
the lowly. The Lord came to preach the good
news of the gospel to the poor and feeble, to the weak, to those
diseased, to those sick with sin. He came. to the needy, the
poor, the broken-hearted. The Lord said here through David,
or David said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh
upon me." You see, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to call the
righteous. Those who are well don't need
a physician. Those who are sick need the doctor.
He said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners." That's good news. You know what's good news too?
Sinners. It's good news to sinners. It's
good tidings unto the meek, those who are broken, diseased, and
sick with sin. If you had cancer that was terminal,
and someone told you of a doctor somewhere that had a cure, Would
you ignore that? You would seek it out, wouldn't
you? Oh, that would be, what would that be to you? Good news.
Good news. Good news. Who's it good news
to? The man who's sick. Secondly,
the Lord came, it says here, He has sent me, the Lord God
Almighty has sent the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, He sent
me to bind up broken-hearted to bind them up. To bind is to
heal the broken-hearted. When something's broken, it needs
fixing, doesn't it? Most of the time, the fix that
we try to do is a patch job. We just patch it up, don't we?
The Lord doesn't do a patchwork. He does a good work. He does
a complete work. When something's broken, it's
of no value. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
to fix the problem. He came to heal the broken hearted. Broken because of sin. You see, what we need, we need
the Lord to operate on our broken heart. I can't operate on your
heart. He can. He's the wise physician
that reaches right down into your soul and heals that broken
heart. Ever been broken hearted over
sin? Lord, like David Tapp, sinned against God. Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in my sight." Brokenhearted. He gives us and operates on our
heart and gives us a new heart to cause us to love Him and to
believe Him. He gives us a new heart and regeneration. that causes us to cry out, Lord
have mercy upon me, the sinner. He actually came to bind up,
not to attempt, not to put folks in a condition where they might
help themselves. He came to actually fix the problem.
Where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. He came to
bind up my broken heart. Think about it. The Lord came
to bind up your broken heart. And He has done it by His grace.
He has done it by His power. And then thirdly, we read here
in Isaiah 61, the Lord came to set somebody free to proclaim
liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound. What has bound us? Sin. guilt, death, condemnation, and
judgment, and Adam all died. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
set His people free. Free! Freedom! To proclaim liberty,
deliverance to those who were held in captive to sin, death,
Satan, and the law. To redeem us by power. To redeem us By His
blood we are redeemed and delivered by the precious blood atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how He delivered us. You
see, He took my sin and my guilt and my judgment to Himself and
He set me free. That's good news, isn't it? If
you had a lifetime sentence placed upon you and put on death row
in the dungeon and someone came down, opened up the prison cell
and said, ?Senator, you?re free.? You reckon you?d sit in there?
Ah, no, I like it in here. No, you?d skeedaddle, wouldn?t
you? You?d skeedaddle right out of there. That's exactly what
happens when God saves a sinner. He sets us free. You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ sets us free. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to actually set us free. Opening of the prison house
set us free. Now watch this, verse 2, Isaiah
61, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of
vengeance, to comfort all that mourn, to proclaim how we are
accepted in the beloved. Now if you go back and study
this year of Jubilee, that's what he's talking about, back
in Leviticus 25, verse 9. There were seven Sabbath years. 7 times 7 is 49. On that 50th year was the year
of Jubilee. On that 50th year, everybody
that was in debt, their debts were paid. Everybody that had
lost property, their property was restored. Everybody that
was in trouble was set free. You see, when that trumpet on
the day of Jubilee sounded, everything was restored. You reckon that
was a high day, a big day, and you know what happened on the
Day of Atonement? Every 50th year on the Day of Atonement,
liberty! Jubilee! Set free! That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. He has fulfilled these things
for us because of all He did for us in His life, in His death,
we now have liberty. Freedom peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ now look at verse 3 Isaiah 61 verse 3
to a point you see salvation comes by an appointment by an
appointment Usually when you go to the doctor's
office you have an appointment And when you have an appointment
and you get there, they say, oh, we're expecting you. I've
got an appointment in the morning. And you know what? They called
me on Friday to remind me to be there on Monday morning. That's
a good thing to do. But I have an appointment. Salvation is appointed of God.
Salvation is ordained of God. He appointed His people to salvation. He appointed it. To appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, God's church, all those who grieve
over sin, the Lord Jesus Christ came to give them comfort. To
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. Now watch this, verse
three. To give them, notice salvation's
a gift. Salvation is by His appointment.
He's not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to give them something they did not have. To give them beauty. Beauty. Beauty instead of ashes. Now ashes are not beautiful,
are they? Ashes is a residue of something that's burnt and
destroyed. And that's what we are by nature,
ashes. That's what we are, sinful dust. But instead of ashes, the Lord
Jesus Christ gives us His beauty. His beauty. You see, look right
across the page, Isaiah 61 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God. He hath clothed me
with the garments of salvation. That's beauty, that's His beauty.
He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, as a bride adorneth herself with
jewels. You see the beauty we have before
God. is the beauty of His righteousness
that's freely given unto us. Christ is our beauty. Christ
is our righteousness before God. Beauty instead of ashes. Now watch this. Joy, instead
of the oil of joy, instead of mourning, mourning, remorse,
He makes us joyful in our God. Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus
and we have no confidence in the flesh. He gives us beauty
and joy. What more could we ask for? The
Lord Jesus Christ actually came and accomplished all of our salvation
for us. Read on. Praise, he gives us
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Praise you
the Lord. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Instead of the spirit of heaviness
and guilt and condemnation, He gives us the spirit of praise,
adoration and joy. Look over here at Psalm 34. Psalm
34. Psalm 34 verse 1, I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make a boast in
the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. beauty for ashes, joy instead
of sorrow, praise instead of heaviness, and then he says down
here, and that they may be called, might be called, we are the called
of God, he calls us trees of righteousness, now he's the true
vine, we are the branches, but what's true of the vine is true
of the branches, that we might be called trees of righteousness,
we're planted By His grace. We are the planting of the Lord.
The planting of the Lord. Look up into the next, the previous
chapter, Isaiah 61 verse 21. Isaiah 61 verse 21, thy people
shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that I may be
glorified. You see that, Isaiah 60 verse
21. We are trees of righteousness. planted in the fertile ground
of His grace, made one in Christ Jesus, and it all works to this
end, that He, the Lord, may be glorified in all things. Now I think the Lord, when He
read Isaiah 61, I think He went through all those verses. I think
there's more here than what is recorded in Luke chapter 4. Turn back over to Luke chapter
4. He said to them, after going through those scriptures, and
I believe He I believe he preached the gospel using those scriptures.
I believe he expanded on those different thoughts. And he closed the book, gave
it to the minister, and he sat down. And the eyes of all of
them, verse 20, it says, were fastened in the synagogue upon
him. And he began to say unto them,
Right now, this scripture is being fulfilled. And at first they wondered at
the gracious words, and then they recognized, wait a minute,
this is the carpenter's boy. Notice, this day, the Lord said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled. Not someday it will be fulfilled,
but already had been. He is plainly telling them that
He's the Messiah, Son of God, that He's the Christ of God,
that He's the only Savior of sinners. That's what He's saying,
is it not? Call his name Jesus, he shall save his people from
their sin. Look at verse 23 and verse 24. He
said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself, whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also
in this country. Verily I say unto you, no prophet
is accepted among his own people. No prophet is received, accepted
in his own town. That's usually true. You usually have to go out of
town somewhere to preach, instead of in your hometown. But here's
what I want to focus on for just a moment or two, and I'll let
you go. in verse 25, 26, and verse 27,
when the Lord Jesus Christ illustrated what He said to them, they got
angry. If the Lord would have just said,
if He would have just said that day after reading that scripture,
if He would have just said, well God is sovereign, Those Jews
would have had no problem with that. They believed in the sovereignty
of God. If the Lord Jesus would have
said that day, God elected a people, oh, they would have had no problem
with that. For those Jews believed, didn't they? They were the elect
of God. But the Lord gets right down to the essence of the matter
that He is sovereign in salvation, that He'll have mercy on whom
He will have mercy. You see, it's when the Lord got
right down to where these folks live, that's when they got angry. He illustrated the fact of sovereign
mercy, that God will have mercy on whom He will. On that poor
broken sinner whom He will. The captives crushed by sin to
whom He will show mercy to. Now the first example the Lord
gives here is in verse 25, I tell you the truth, many widows were
in Israel in days of Elijah, this is 1st Kings chapter 17,
when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and
there was a great famine, no rain, three and a half years,
no crops, no bread, no food, everybody was starving out. God
sent his prophet Elijah to one widow woman and her son, and
bless them both. Pass by every other one and have
mercy upon this lady." The first example, Elijah was sent to this
woman in this city. She was not Jewish. She was a
Gentile. You know how the Jews thought
about those people that were outside of Israel? This woman
is an ungodly Gentile dog. And we pay no attention to her,
yet God singled her out and had mercy upon her. They understood
what he was saying. Oh, we see now. The second example,
likewise, verse 27, there were many lepers in Israel in the
time of Elisha. And God cleansed none of them,
but a Syrian captain named Naaman. You can read about it in 2nd
Kings chapter 5. God's prophet cleansed one leper. This man, Naaman, was not only
a Gentile dog, he was an enemy of the nation Israel. And yet
God singled him out and God had mercy upon him. Passed by all
the lepers in Israel that day. Again, what are we seeing here?
God's sovereign mercy. He will have mercy on whom He
will, and whom He will, He will harden. Now, verse 28, Luke chapter
4. And all they, not some of them,
not most of them, all they in the synagogue, when they heard
that, They weren't filled with love and admiration. They were
filled with anger and debate and wrath. So much so, so much
so, that they bodily forced him out of the building, that they
physically carried him out of the city and took him to the
cliff in the city, outside the city rather, and they took him,
hand and foot, headlong, to throw him off. Wow, I thought these
folks loved God. Turns out they didn't. Turns
out they were angry with God, and angry with God's Messiah. the response here of his own
hometown people. You can be the carpenter, but
you can't be the king. Isn't that what they're saying?
Oh, we like the furniture you make, but you're not God. You're
not our God. You see, these people weren't
really poor in spirit, were they? These people needed no healing.
These people needed no deliverance. They didn't need a Redeemer.
Oh, we're Abraham's seed. Ah, we're never a bondage any
man. Turned out they didn't need a Savior, a Messiah. Turned out
these people needed no sight. Turned out these people needed
no freedom from bondage. They thought they were free already.
Now watch this. Verse 30. What's going to happen? He left them in their wrath. He passed through the midst of
them, and went His way." Now, He didn't go their way. He went
His way. His way is the sovereign way.
He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among
the habitants of this earth, and none can say unto Him, Lord
God Almighty, what doest thou? He, passing through the midst
of them, went His way. How did He do that? I mean these
folks were angry. They had him by the hand and
foot ready to throw him off the cliff and he simply walked through
the crowd. How did he do that? He's God. He went his way. He went his
way. Aren't you glad he goes his way?
He justly passed these religious folks by to perish in their own
sin. And he went his own way. And he came down to Capernaum,
a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath day. And
they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power."
Now, I want to make an application to you and me. Has the Lord taught you that
you need Him? I mean, I'm the one that's blind,
poor, and naked. I need Him. Has the Lord taught
you that you need His cleansing, His power to save you? Has the
Lord taught you that it's only His righteousness alone that
justifies you before God? Has the Lord taught you that
you need the true Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ? When the
Lord preached to those in Capernaum, in verse 31 and verse 32, It says, "...they were astonished
at his doctrine, for his word was with power." They were astonished
at the doctrine he declared. What doctrine did he declare?
You remember in John chapter 12, he said, "...the word that
I speak to you, they're not mine, but my Father's which sent me."
He declared the will of God, the testimony of God concerning
salvation. Has the doctrine of God astonished you? Has it taken
hold of you? What is this doctrine of God?
It's the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ as the
way, the truth, and the life. Has the doctrine of God, the
gospel of God, astonished you? Has it taken you? It says, for his word was with
power. You see, the gospel, when it
comes to those who are truly needy, blind, poor, miserable,
naked, in prison, when the gospel comes to His people, it comes
not in word only, but it also comes in power. Power. You remember that scripture,
1 Thessalonians 1? Knowing, brethren, your election
of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but it
came in power. The power of God, the Holy Spirit.
You see, it's not the eloquence of the preacher. It's not the
powerful word that the preacher speaks. It's God's Word, His
truth. The power of God. You see, we
only believe the Gospel according to the working of His mighty
power. What does it take to raise a dead sinner and give him life
in Christ and make him a new creature in Christ? Power. The power of God. We read in
1 Corinthians 4 verse 20, "...the kingdom of God is not in word,
but in power." Romans 1.16 says, "...the doctrine of God, the
gospel of God, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ is the power
of God unto salvation." You see, the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Messiah, the Prophet, Priest and King, You know what we read
in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 4? Where the Word of the King
is, there's power. Has God spoken to your heart
in power? If He has, you love Him. You love His Word. You love His
Gospel. You love His people. You love
everything about the Lord Jesus Christ. You love Him. You love
Him. Oh, may the Lord speak to us
in power. And may we be by His grace overwhelmed,
astonished with His doctrine, His teaching. You see, this is
the doctrine of God. This is not Zebulun Baptist Church
doctrine. This is just not church doctrine.
This is God's message. This is God's gospel.