I want you to turn your Bibles
to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. And if you don't
have your Bibles, you can follow us in your pastor's commentary. Luke chapter 4. And I do want to say that it's good
to be home in a lot of ways. Not just that I'm glad to be
back here because this is home and it is really true. There
is no place like home. You go on vacations and you travel
and you traverse this world and you are thankful for the opportunity
to experience different cultures and different environments and
different ways of life. They are all absolutely fascinating. If you treasure and you Respect
what God has done in making all the different people groups of
the world. And after you have treasured and respected for a
few minutes, what God has done with all the people groups in
the world is time to come home. Especially when you are flying
on planes where you sitting right up on the back of the pilot and
the co-pilot and on top of the engine, And the plane, you know,
flew back in World War I. And you're headed over these
seas, and you're stuck in the clouds. And you say, Lord, what
in the world am I doing up here? I am glad to be back home, and
I would spend some time explaining to you of the nature of this
particular event, but I was surprised myself at the character of the
things that we had to engage in. The preaching was fine. The
ministry of the word was good as I can assess it. But what
I took away from my journey to the Virgin Isles was that two
things, there is a great need for faithful preaching of the
gospel of God's glory everywhere in the world. It is just as desperately
lost in the Virgin Isles as it is here in the Bay Area. Men
and women are in need of Christ there as they are right here. There is no advantage anywhere
in the world. Men are lost and religion is prevalent and paganism
is prominent and the glory of God in Christ preached and proclaimed
is rare. The other reason I was so glad
to get back home is because God had taught me, once again, how
privileged you and I are here in the Bay Area. You have no
idea how important it is to be part of a ministry that preaches
the gospel and to be blessed with brothers and sisters on
the level with which we are blessed here at Grace. I didn't make
the mistake this time. I generally do when I go places.
I don't take pictures. And people don't really believe
I'm married and they don't believe I have eight kids. They don't
believe it because, you know, you just don't do that these
days. So I have to take my pictures just so I can let folks know
I really am married and I really do have eight kids. But more
than that, I took pictures of our church because we have some
wonderful photographers here and we have lots of pictures
and to be able to allow people to see the beauty of God's grace
in the life of this assembly with the diversity of ethnic
groups and the unity and the fellowship of God's gospel and
his spirit among God's people here speaks for itself. because you don't really find
it a whole lot around the world. Everybody sort of stays to themselves.
So it was wonderful for them to be able to witness that. They
didn't believe it, but they had the pictures, and so they had
to admit something happened here. And I was humbled once again
to know that God has been pleased to use us here at Grace Bible
Church to manifest such and unusually gracious work in our lives. We are truly brothers and sisters
in Christ and we love his glory and his gospel and God has been
pleased to make us meek enough to hang around each other. If
you have your Bibles open to Luke chapter four, I wanna talk
to you today about one portion of the scripture. Next week,
I'll talk to you about the other portion of the scripture that's
before us. Now, the the title of our message
is the model for preaching and worship. We have a model set
before us here in our passage for preaching and worship. If you're going to have a blueprint
for whatever you aspire to do in life, you want to make sure
that blueprint is accurate. You want to make sure that blueprint
is right. We have a blueprint here in Luke chapter four, as
to how preaching and worship should be done. We have a blueprint
given to us graciously by none other than the Lord himself.
So I want you to know, even as you have already been established
in the present truth, and you are well settled with this fact,
what constitutes true vital preaching and real authentic God-centered,
Christ-exalting worship. It's in your text. It's almost
self-explanatory, but I'm hoping that the third person will help
you see it even more effectually as we go through it. Verses 14
through 16 give us a summary of the ministry of our Lord Jesus
Christ as soon as he launched into his calling of preaching. It is a summary and prologue
to what is to be explained in the text before us. And that
is the coming of Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy
Ghost, in the ministry of preaching, being glorified by everyone. Look at verse 14 through 16.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. into Galilee and
there went out a fame of him. Do you see that? Through all
the region roundabout. And he taught in all their synagogues
being glorified of all. It's a compendium. That's a prologue
and it's a commentary on what Jesus did. He returned. Now,
historically, what it means is Jesus has returned back to his
hometown of Galilee after receiving his commission from God the Father
and then being driven into the wilderness for 40 days and 40
nights in the previous passages. Our Savior was in the wilderness
for 40 days and 40 nights by the direct commission of God
and the prompting of the Holy Ghost to be tempted for 40 days. He was there tempted for 40 days
by the devil himself. He was tried for 40 days on these
three fundamental temptations, which the devil brings into every
one of our lives. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life. All of humanity are tried
by these three. All the labor of man is for his
belly. The devil said to the Savior,
I know you're hungry after 40 days of not eating and not drinking. turn these stones into bread
and you can eat. Our Lord says, it is written.
This is what we've been learning in our men's meeting, our women's
meeting. The premise upon which Jesus based all that he did was
the word of God. He said, it is written that man
shall not live by bread alone. We know that passage, don't we?
But do we actually operate out of that principle? Do you know
that God sustains you even though you must eat bread? God is the
one that upholds you, that you live and move and have your being
in God. Do you know that? And do you know that you are
primarily a spiritual being and not a physical being? While indeed
you are a physical being, your physical body is simply a house,
a tabernacle, for your eternal soul and that the Bible says
it is radically important for a man to deal with those things
that persist or persist or addresses his soul for man's life does
not consist of the abundance of those things which he possesses
it's the soul that matters and therefore your relationship with
God is what matters and this is what Jesus taught the devil
it's written Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Do you believe
that? That's how we live. And then the devil came to him
with the lust of the eye. He showed him all the kingdoms
of the world, took him up to a high pinnacle, showed him all
the kingdoms of the world. He said, now, if you just bow
down to me, I'll give you all these kingdoms. Do you know men
and women failed this test every day? every day. And I'm talking
about religious folk. I'm talking about people who
go to church. Every time there's an opportunity to acquire this
world's riches, men and women abandon the call of the gospel,
the glory of God, the path of the just for wealth and fame
and prominence. Our Lord made it very plain to
the devil, very plain to the devil that he should not tip
the Lord, his God. He made it very plain to the
devil that God sits on the throne and God alone shall be worshiped.
See, when God is worshipped, then these earthly things are
kept in their proper perspective. Is that right? And then the third
temptation, he told the Lord Jesus, since you are the son
of God, and he was, jump down off this pinnacle and you'll
be sure that the angels will lift you up. They will bear you
up. They'll keep you from falling. Now, Jesus knew he was the son
of God, and therefore he didn't have to prove it to anybody.
So let me say it to you, children of God. Do you know that you're
a child of God? Then you don't have to prove
it to anybody, let alone the devil. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. If you know him and he knows
you and he's bestowed his grace upon you, walk in that grace,
whether people believe it or not. Am I making some sense?
Our Lord passed that test and moved on into his ministry. And
the interesting thing I want to say about this test as we
move into our text is this. Our Lord was tried and He was
tested by the devil, not for Himself, but for His elect. For the people whom the Lord
had given Him. For His sons and daughters who were chosen in
Him. Do you know Jesus was tried because He was the last Adam?
He was tempted because He was my surety? He was tested because
he was my substitute. What that means is his prevailing
and his overcoming was my prevailing and my overcoming. Because Jesus
overcame the devil, I've overcome him. And that's the joy of every
believer. Jesus never did anything for
himself. Everything he did, he did for
his father's glory and for his people's salvation. So in that
he overcame, we overcome. Now he moves on out into ministry.
This is where we are. The text tells us in verse 16,
verse 14, and Jesus returned. Do you see that? Now, we know
he returned literally, but I want to talk about the application.
Listen to me. It is critical for the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has already assumed a human nature and already died
on Calvary Street, already rose again from the dead and is seated
in glory right now. You believe he's seated in glory?
But it is critical for the Son of God to return to this world
in the person of the Holy Ghost in order for us to be saved. See, Jesus returned because He
must return. And Jesus has returned in the
power of His Spirit in order that men and women might know
Him. And I submit to you right now, Christ must return by his
power and by his spirit in the church in order for the church
to know true vital worship. Except the Lord Jesus come to
us even now by his spirit, our worship is empty. Our worship
is vain. Our worship is worth nothing
unless the spirit of God does something to our hearts right
now. Unless the spirit of Christ comes
In our heart right now, our worship is empty. So, is that an option
for the Lord Jesus? No. The Bible makes it very plain,
for this purpose, very plain rather, for this purpose, did
He send the third person? And when I send to my Father,
I will send the Comforter unto you. And He will come in my name,
and He will take the things of mine, and He will show them to
you. Have you experienced that? Have
you experienced the power of the Spirit of God coming in your
heart and coming in your mind and coming through the word and
coming through the worship to show you the glory of the Son
of God? That's the secret to Christian worship. The secret
to Christian worship is the presence of Christ among us. Do you believe
that? Critical to our worship is the
presence of the Savior. Critical to our worship is the
presence of the Spirit of Christ. No worship is of any substance. You know empty worship, don't
you? You know dry worship, don't you? You know dead worship, don't
you? You know that worship that's
absent of Jesus Christ? You know that fleshly worship,
don't you? And then you also know that worship
wherein the Spirit of God lifts you and brings you into a dimension
of illumination and revelation and unction and anointing that
only comes from God. This is what we're dealing with.
Jesus returns in the power of the spirit and he returns to
do this very thing of which all preaching has its quintessential
honor. He returned to preach the gospel. Did you know that Christ was
a gospel preacher? Did you know our Savior was the
par excellence of gospel preaching? Jesus was a preacher of the gospel. And the Bible tells us his fame
went everywhere. And then it tells us in verse
15, and he taught in their synagogues, this is remarkable being glorified
of all. And I'm going to explain that
more fully next week, because that doesn't mean that everybody
received him, but it does mean that he was glorified by everybody.
So all right, as we deal with this subject of the model or
paradigm for preaching and worship today, I want to deal with next
week, the glory and the offense of the gospel preached. Today,
I want to talk about the model for preaching and worship. The
first thing that must take place, and it's in your outline, point
number one is Jesus must show up. Do you see it in your outline?
Look with me at verse 16. And he came to Nazareth, didn't
he? He came to Oakland. He came to Hayward. He came to
San Leandro. He came to Richmond. He came
to the hood. He came to the ghetto. He came
to poor folks. He came to black folks and white
folks. He came to broke folks. That's where he came. He came
to needy folks. He came to troubled folks. He
came to toiling folks. He came to needy folks. He actually
came back home because Nazareth is where he grew up at. I love
our savior because as he sets the model for preaching, what
he did not do is tell me to acquire my skill sets and go somewhere
where I can make some money. I can trick people 200 miles
down the road as to who I really am. but I can't trick my wife
and my kids and my mama and my daddy and my brothers and my
sisters and the folks I grew up with. The goal of the gospel
is to demonstrate before men and women who know you what God
has done in changing your life. Are you hearing me? So he returned
to his own. He returned to Nazareth. He returned
to that place where he grew up. And the Bible says in verse 16,
Listen to what he said, and it as it was his custom. Do you
see that? He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day. Let me call your attention to
that point. It's not in our notes. Our Lord loved to worship. It was a joy of his heart to
gather together with God's people. He loved to sing the hymns. He
loved to praise God. He loved to hear the reading
of the Word of God. He loved to be with the people
of God. If you don't believe me, read the Psalms. The Psalms
are filled with our Savior's adoration of being in the presence
of God. He loved to be in the congregation
of the saints. Psalm 40 is one of those uniquely
messianic psalms. And you know what it says? He
says, I have not hid your truth from the great congregation.
I've declared your glory to your people. I've not concealed your
truth. I have spoken to the people of God. Jesus loved to be among
the saints. That's one of the evidences that
you've been born again. Oh, I'm touching somebody, but
it's necessary. When God has saved you by his
grace and raised you from the dead and brought you out of the
kingdom of darkness, he puts you in the kingdom of his dear
son. That means he places you into the body of Jesus Christ.
What that means then is if you're properly taught, if you're accurately
taught, what you understand is God is taking you out of one
family, put you in another family, and He has created you to worship
Him. Am I telling the truth? John
chapter 4 around verse 24-25, the Bible says, The hour is coming,
and now is, when they that worship God must worship Him, how? In
spirit and in truth. For such the Father seeketh. God's seeking a people to worship
him. Worship is natural to the people of God. When you're born
again, you love to worship. It's just part of who you are.
Am I making some sense? I'm more comfortable in the fellowship
of the saints than I am anywhere in the world. Am I making some
sense? And so was our savior. He loved
to worship. And the Bible says it was his
custom to go in. And here's the next thing. Not
only did Jesus show up, which is critical to worship, critical
to vital worship necessary for our salvation and understanding
and edification. But the Bible says he stood up.
Notice what it says over in the latter part of verse 16. He went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up for to read. See, it's one thing to show up
to church. It's another thing to stand up
in church. It's one thing for Jesus to show up in our churches.
But if he doesn't stand up in our churches, let me share this
with you. If Jesus only shows up in your
church and don't stand up in your church, your church is under
judgment. Read it for yourself, Revelation
chapter one through three, where our master deals with the seven
churches. If Jesus doesn't show up in the church and makes his
way to this pulpit, your church is under the judgment of God.
Did you hear what I said? If our Savior examines the local
church and does not find that He has access to the pulpit,
that church is under judgment. See, the Bible says that He stood
up. Do you guys see that? He stood up. Now, what that means
is He stood up to read. He stood up to participate in
the worship. Our Savior stood up with this
very purpose in view, to actually lead in the exposition of the
word, in the proclamation of the gospel, so that the people's
worship could be real. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He showed up and then he stood up. Now in that culture, standing
up was customary. That's what you did. They all
did that then. And you know, some folks do that
now. Have you been in churches where
the Bible is read and they stood up to read the Bible? That's
holy, isn't it? Holy. We don't stand up to read
the Bible. Listen to me. What good is standing
up to read the Bible when you sit down when it comes to disobeying
that Bible? What good is standing up to read
the Bible when you cast its precepts behind your back and disregard
the teaching in that book? It's nothing but hypocrisy, isn't
that right? So, be careful. I love customs and customs are
necessary. But we're not gonna perpetrate
a fraud on God Almighty by standing up to read His Bible and then
rebelling against Him, throwing His covenant behind our back
and committing adultery and fornication and all these other abominations
that totally tell us that we're not regarding the contents of
that book. Am I making some sense? It hurts but it's true. It hurts
but it's true. See we can have a form of godliness
or we can have the substance of that godliness. Which one
do you want? I'm not impressed when folks
stand up to read. I'm impressed with what they do with the contents
of that book. But our Lord stood up to read because that was the
common practice in that day. You'll notice that they stood
up in the book of Acts. They stood up to read. They stood
up because they were referencing the Word of God. They stood up
because they recognized that they were standing before God
Almighty. Whenever the law was opened, they realized they were
hearing from God. So they stood up. Stand up, saints,
in your soul. Do you hear what I'm saying? When the word of God is proclaimed
and when the word of God is articulated, when the word of God is vocally
uttered, stand up in your soul and pay attention. Pay attention. And so our Lord stood up, but
he didn't merely stand up, since he stood up To read. Got it? To read. The text says,
and he stood up in order to read. Now, there are a couple of things
I want you to get with that. In that culture, what men did
was to go through an orderly process of worship. We talked
about this in our men's meeting and in our women's meeting. We
are at that point in our systematic theology class of addressing
the subject of systematic theology. Systematic theology is the orderly,
cohesive, cogent, progressive unfolding of divine truth. God
is a God of order. God is not a God of confusion.
The God of the Bible works in an orderly, structural fashion. Therefore, as we saw in the scriptures,
His churches are churches of order. They are churches of peace. They are churches of structure.
The church of Jesus Christ is not a babbling cacophony of confusion. Did you hear what I just said?
There's order and structure to the worship of God. There's clarity
and consistency and unity to the worship of God. For the soul
to be edified, you must be in a state of orderly observance
of the divine truth that's God bringing to you. for the soul
to be edified. The distinct difference between
Christian worship and paganism is chaos versus clarity. When the spirit of God is operating
in the church, what you get is clarity of mind. What you get
is a bold proclamation of the plain truth as it is in Jesus.
If you're born of God, you love it. There's a dynamic that takes
place. Am I making some sense? And so
this is what Jesus is doing. He's standing up to read. So
he is standing up to read the scriptures. And this is remarkable
because in that culture, do you know Jesus would have been the
least likely person to have been given the right to read? I'll
tell you why. Because in that culture, the way the worship
worked is this. They had a hierarchy of those
who participated. The Levites were the men who
read the scriptures and the priest were the ones who participated
in the observance of the scriptures. The Pharisees would have been
the ones who would have interpreted the scriptures. There would have
been seven men in your typical synagogal gathering who would
have participated in the standing up and the reading of portions
of scripture and the interpreting of those passages of scripture.
Jesus was neither a Levite nor was he a Pharisee. So for Jesus
to stand up in the midst of a local synagogue was a unique thing. But more unique was the fact
that he was given audience. And this is what's so critical
in our text. The Bible says here that he stood
up to read. Now the portion of scripture
that you want to keep in mind that Jesus is actually fulfilling
is in Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 8. Don't go there, we'll develop
this more fully when we go into the book of Nehemiah. But in
Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 8, I'm sorry, is it 8? Verse 5, Nehemiah
8, 5, Nehemiah is said to stand up to read the scriptures and
everybody in the congregation stood up with him. And the Bible
says in Nehemiah chapter 8 around verse 7 and 8, as he read the
scriptures, The objective of the Levite and the priest was
to make the scriptures understandable, to give the sense and meaning
of the scriptures. Hence, to read the scriptures
is not merely to verbalize what they say, but to explain what
they mean. We use the vernacular, do you
understand what you're reading? Did you read him right? Did you
read that person right? What it means is, did you interpret
them? Remember the Ethiopian eunuch
riding back home from his excursion to Palestine and his dealing
with the Feast of Pentecost, and he had bought the scroll
of the Book of Isaiah, and he's reading in Isaiah, and God told
Philip to take a ride along the chariot, and Philip's running
alongside the Ethiopian's chariot, and he hears the Ethiopian what?
Reading. And Philip says to him, do you
understand what you're reading? Got it? This is the bridge between
ignorance and revelation. Do you understand what you're
reading? I'm here to tell you that the goal of Jesus Christ
in this context, this historical context, is to explain the scriptures. His job was to preach the scripture. He was the expositor of the Word
of God. And I'm here to tell you, if
Jesus doesn't exposit the Scriptures to us, we remain in darkness.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 29, when God brought
darkness upon Israel because of His continual disobedience,
the scenario was that men would be so desperate that some would
take the scroll and hand it to one person and say, would you
read this to us? And he'll say, I can't read it,
it's closed. And then he'd take it to another
person And that person didn't have any understanding. And he
said, would you read this to us? He says, I can't read it.
I'm unlearned. Here's the point. If the scroll
is open, that's one thing. But unless it's interpreted,
you and I have no avail in the worship. Worship doesn't profit
us at all unless the scriptures are explained. Am I making some
sense? Here's in my proposition to you concerning true and vital
Christian worship. Not only must Jesus show up,
Not only must our Savior stand up, but He must speak out. He must speak to us. Christ Himself must speak to
you in the preaching of the Word. You must hear the voice of the
Son of God in the preaching of Scripture. Am I making some sense?
When you come to church and you come to worship, your job should
be to hear from the Son of God. If you haven't heard from him,
you haven't worshipped. Now that may be your fault, or
it might be the preacher's fault. But it's not the Lord's fault,
because the model is given to us. Am I making some sense? Jesus showed up, Jesus stood
up, Jesus read. Now I want you to see that this
is critical. This moves us into a very important
aspect of what we call the preaching ministry. The job of the minister
in worship. What is the job of the minister
in worship? I'm talking about the preacher.
I'm talking about the pastor. I'm talking about myself. What
is the job of the minister in preaching in relationship to
the presence of Jesus Christ? Is the job of the minister in
preaching merely to have Christ present in the assembly? Or to
have Christ vitally connected to and involved in the preaching
of the word. So that in effect, the minister's
not preaching to you, but Christ is. Listen to the word, saints. It says here in Luke chapter
four, verse 17, and there was delivered unto him the book. Do you see that? And there was
delivered unto him the book. Unto who? Unto Christ. What book? The word of God. Who gave him
the book? If the preacher has any sense,
he was the one who gave him the book. Did you hear what I just
said? The job of the gospel preacher
is to give the word of God back to the one who gave it to him
in order for him to explain the word to the people. Only Christ
can explain this book to you. Only Christ can open this book
to your heart. Only the Son of God can make
the scriptures known to you. If I speak to you or preach to
you or teach you, it will be of no avail. In fact, I have
no handle on the Word of God myself. Only Jesus Christ. Therefore, in this mystery of
the purpose of God, in the preaching of the Word, somehow, someway,
the Son of God must enter in and take the Scriptures and make
them plain to the hearts of men and women. Am I making some sense?
And you know it when He's doing it. You know it when he's doing
it because he's communicating directly to you. It's not me,
it's him. Get mad at me all you want to,
but it's the Lord dealing with you. A human being cannot enter
into the domain of eternity bound souls. I cannot speak to your
soul. I cannot speak to your spirit.
I cannot speak to your heart. Only the God who made you can
do that. Only the God who made you can speak to yourself. And
so the Bible tells us in John chapter 6 verse 63, the flesh
profits nothing. It's the spirit that quickens.
If there's a quickening in our souls, if there's a revelation
in our heart, If there's a communion in our spirit with God's spirit,
it's because God himself has taken the word and spoke to your
heart. Am I making some sense? Therefore,
the job of the preacher is to humble himself before the Lord
Jesus Christ, to take this book which God gave to him and give
it back to him and ask him to feed his people as only he can
feed his people. The revelation of God, the testimony
of God must be opened up by the one of whom this book is about
and by the one from which this book came, and that is Jesus
Christ himself. Notice what it says in verse
17a. I love this. And there was delivered unto
him the book. That phrase is given in what
we call the Aries passive. And what that means is this.
Jesus didn't take the book out of the hand of the minister.
The minister had to give it to him. There are some prerequisites
then that must be understood by every gospel preacher. And
that is this, your job is merely to be a instrument by which Christ
preaches to heaven-bound or hell-bound sinners. The job of the minister
is to know that he is to give the word of God to God himself. I know that sounds oxymoronic
and chaotic, but it's not so. I must pray and I must beg God
to enter into this thing called preaching and teaching and to
do something for you that I cannot do for you. And I do it all the
time. I do it all the time because
I am painfully aware that if I'm up here by myself speaking
to you, nothing will happen. Did you hear what I just said?
Nothing will happen. You will not understand God's
Word. You will not see God's glory. You will not sense his
presence. All you'll do is be entertained
by me. There is then a radical necessity
for the preacher to realize that all he is is a minister. You
know what a minister is? A minister is just a servant
and all he does is whatever the master tells him. Hooperetes
is the Greek word. Hooper means to be under. Retes
means to roll, means to work. It means to toil under. It actually
is a word that in the early Greek culture referred to the slaves
who were under the ship, rowing the ship towards his destination. Do you know preachers are nothing
but alley rowers. All they do is help row the ship
in the direction that the master says row it. Do you know what
that means? The preacher can't see a thing.
He doesn't understand anything and he has no influence as to
where that ship goes. He is completely inept to guide
God's people. Christ must guide you. Am I making
some sense? The job of the preacher then
is to recognize that he is merely to hear the voice of the son
of God and be led by the son of God as an alley roar, a third
row alley roar, just down there in the bottom of the ship with
a whole bunch of other brothers rowing in the direction the master
says row. Now, what's so valid and important
about this particular development of the term minister is that
the minister is cognitive and aware of his inabilities. And
also when he keeps his place, he will not have the people worshiping
him. See, the problem in our church
today is preacher worship. Preacher worship is a prominent
sin in the church because the preacher has left off ruined
and walked up to the top of the ship and thought he could take
a hold to the hill and steal this thing. And if you're an ignorant Christian
and don't know the Bible and don't know the gospel, you'll
think that you're going in the right direction. Am I making
some sense? Here's how this works. And let's
go back to our text because I'll build on this next week. The
Lord Jesus Christ stood up to read. That is, he stood up to
verbalize the text and he stood up to explain the text. And there
was delivered unto him the book. Who delivered him the book? The
minister. Look at verse 20. Are we there? and he closed the
book and he gave it again to who? The minister. See, the minister
don't do much in the worship, but give him the book and take
the book back. If Jesus is the one doing the
ministry, am I making some sense? All right now, let's get on to
the next point because this is radically important. Not only
is it the job of the gospel preacher to hand the book, this here is
a germane part of his qualification. How do you know a gospel preacher?
Because he's operating under the power of Jesus Christ in
his ministry. The gospel preacher recognizes
his utter dependence upon Christ. The gospel preacher has a message
that totally exalts and glorifies Christ. The gospel preacher's
job is to exalt Jesus Christ. His job is to be the helper of
Christ. We talked about this before,
2 Corinthians 6, around verse 1, 2, and 3. Now then, we are
helpers together with God for you. You know what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5? Here's what he said. Who is Apollos?
who is Paul? But alley rowers by whom the
Lord uses for everyone that's going to be saved. Paul says
I'm nothing and Apollos is nothing but means by which God saves
people. Now watch this now, you know
what a means is? A means is a go between the source and the object. Like a cup is a means by which
the water is poured into your body. But the cup is not the
water and the cup is not the source of the water. It's critical
then that the people of God understand the difference between means
and sources. Am I making some sense? The apostle
made it very plain that we are nothing. We are nothing. And
yet, indispensable to your edification and the salvation of your soul
is the preaching of the gospel. So now I want to get to briefly
the content of the preaching of the gospel by the preacher
himself. If Jesus actually gets a hold
to his own word and he has the freedom in his congregation to
speak to you, can I tell you what the subject of his preaching
will be? Are you ready? Himself. Himself. Let's see. Go back to the text
now. I know one man in the world who is worthy to talk about himself
and is never considered megalomaniac or self-centered. Are you hearing
me? The Bible says here in chapter 17, verse A and B, and there
was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when
he had opened the book, do you see it? He found the place where
it was written. Now I want you to understand
what that means in all the practical sense of it. The scroll, that's
what the book is, a scroll that was given to Jesus. and he opened
the scroll himself, and he intentionally landed on Isaiah chapter 61 verse
1 and 2. He intentionally landed there.
Whereas the scroll was given to him passively, he intentionally
opened it up. In other words, he is the one
with the message for the people. That wasn't an accident. Yeah,
some folks say they take their Bible and throw it on the table,
and wherever the page would fly open, that's where they think
the Lord's speaking to them. Jesus didn't do that. Gospel preachers
don't do that. Sound Christians that got a lot
of sense don't do that. See, that's that paganism that
you grew up with. Or just so the Bible opens up. And then
when you read what that text says, go out and hang yourself
and hurry up and do it. Now you close the book back and
throw it again. And you take some time walking over to the
page and looking at it. That's foolishness. He intentionally
opened it up to Isaiah 61. Intentionally. Why? Because that
day the people who heard him were privileged with what we
call the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Do you know the fulfillment of
the Scriptures is a person and his name is Jesus? Christ is
the fulfillment of all Scripture. Do you believe that? Listen to
me then, until Christ is preached, our worship is not fulfilled.
Until Christ is preached, the scriptures have not been fulfilled.
Until Christ himself preaches the word to you, your worship
has not been fulfilled. The fulfilling of the scriptures
is the work of Christ alone. So he takes the book and he opens
it up. And I want to just read this
portion and give you the framework. because there is depth to Isaiah
chapter 61 and 62 worth taking our time and developing. He intentionally
opens the book and it tells us over in verse 18, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me because, listen to it, he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel. Do you see that? You know what
Jesus did in the worship? He took the scriptures, opened
them up, and used them as a mirror. Now, if I had a mirror right
now, you'd all be able to see yourself in that mirror. Isn't
that right? But he would have, more practically speaking, set
that mirror down in a way in which the people could see themselves
and see him. Because what he read is what
he was doing. What he was explaining to the
people was God hath anointed me to preach the gospel. Do you hear me? What he was doing
was taking and demonstrating through the prophetic word the
reality of the dynamic that was taking place right then. What
was happening? Christ was preaching to them.
Why was he preaching? Because the Father had anointed
him. How was he anointed? With the Holy Ghost. Remember
in the earlier chapters of chapter four, the Bible says, and Jesus
was driven into the wilderness. After that, he had been baptized
by John the Baptist. The heavens opened up. The father
spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. Listen to him. The Holy Ghost
descended and sat upon Jesus. And the verb form for descending
and sitting upon Jesus is in what we call the perfect tense.
And what it means is the Holy Spirit resides upon Christ permanently. In other words, in order for
us to get the Spirit, we've got to have the Son. You don't have
the Spirit of Christ if you don't have Christ Himself. You don't
have the Holy Ghost if you don't know the Son. If you don't know
the Son, you don't have the Spirit. If you don't have the Spirit,
you don't know the Son. And you can't know the Father unless
you know the Son. In order to know the Son, you've got to have
the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost is the Apostle of Christ.
Haven't we talked about that? As the Father sent the Son, the
Son sent the Spirit. Am I making some sense? And so
when we say we are filled with the Holy Ghost and we know God,
do you know Christ? Do you know his gospel? Do you
know who he is and what he did and why he did it and where he
is now? If you don't, you don't have
the spirit of God. The purpose of the spirit is
to take the things of Christ, not only show them to you, but
reveal them in you as he transforms you into the very image of the
son of God. Am I making some sense? Therefore,
the ministry of the Spirit is all about the full disclosure
of the God-man Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of sinners. Now
you know that you are operating under the influence of the third
person. He says here, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon who? Me. Now, saints, just as a technical
theological truth, we have here a Trinitarian formula. The Spirit,
third person, the Lord Jehovah is the father is upon me the
son got it the spirit third person of Jehovah the father is upon
me the son because he hath what anointed me the Bible tells us
in Psalm 45 that God hath anointed him above his fellows God hath
anointed Jesus with the oil of what? Gladness above his fellow.
The oil in the scriptures is a symbol and representation of
the Holy Ghost. And what that means is Jesus
is declaring that the Father hath anointed him with the Spirit
of God. This is the only way you can
preach Christ and preach him in power. Operating therefore
in the worship of the people of God are all three persons. God sought you out. God saved
you by the son of God. And God used the Holy Ghost to
bring you and sit you right in front of Jesus in order to get
to know him and love him and adore him. Am I making some sense?
Therefore the triune God is to be glorified and honored and
adored in all of our salvation The father is not dormant The
spirit of God is not absent all three persons are operating in
this dynamic that we call Worship because God has qualified us
to come into his presence Jesus is so fully aware of this. This
is the reason why he brought this text now what I'm gonna
do now in closing is simply articulate the rest of this text and share
with you the effects of gospel preaching. And we're going to
come back and deal with this text next week under the subject,
the glory and the offense of the gospel. Now, listen to what
he said. The Lord hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the whore, to the poor. He hath sent me
to heal the what? Brokenhearted. To preach deliverance
to the what? Captive. and the recovering of
sight to the what? That's a motley crew, isn't it? Now watch this. And to set at
liberty those that are bruised. That's the effectual work of
gospel preaching. Will you listen to me as I wrap
this up? Listen to me. Gospel preaching is not designed
to entertain you. It's not designed to entertain
you. It's designed to do something for needy souls. Christ didn't
come to play games with people. He didn't come to pull rabbits
out of his hat or to gain fame for himself. He came to deal
with needy souls. In fact, may I say this, ladies
and gentlemen, Christ means nothing to you if you don't need him. Got it? And you can sit and hear
him preach as we'll see next week. And it doesn't do a thing
to you. He came to do these things and
he was doing these things. This is how his fame went abroad.
This is how he glorified his father. This is how he confirmed
his Messiah ship. He came to do these things and
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now next week we're
going to unpack that verse because it's glorious. absolutely glorious
but I want to bring you to the last point and that's this the
effect the effects of gospel preaching what does gospel preaching
do when it is operating in its proper fashion and manner look
at verse 20 are you there After he had proclaimed Isaiah 61 verses
1 and 2, the Bible says, and he closed the book and he gave
it again to the minister and he did what? Sat down. Now watch
what I describe as the effects of gospel preaching. And the
eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. Got it? How do I know that I've
been worshiping in a God-exalting, Christ-exalting, Christ-honoring
way? When my eye, when the eye of
faith, when the eye of my heart, when the eye of my understanding
is fixed on the Son of God, when I have seen something of His
glory, when I have comprehended something of His Word, when I
have understood something of His person, When the preaching
has taken my eyes off myself, off of my cares, off of my issues,
off of my burdens, and set them on the glory of the Son of God.
Am I making some sense? Until that has happened, you
have not worshipped. You have not worshipped. The
Bible makes it clear. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. This is the will of my Father,
that all which seeth the Son, got it? believeth on him shall
have everlasting life and I'll raise them up at the last day
you've got to see the glory of the son Jesus in one of his uh
explosive doxologies to the father said father I praise you I exalt
you I worship you I thank you that you have hidden these things
from the wise and the prudent and you've made them known to
babes. You have revealed me to babes. You've revealed me to hungry
folks, to needy folks, to desperate folks. That's what Christ is,
a savior to hungry folks, to needy folks, to desperate folks.
Am I making some sense? When you're done in your worship,
if it's God exalting, Christ centered, if the spirit has actually
brought unction, you've seen the glory of God in the person
of Christ. Isn't that good? Amen.