St Michaels Church Podcast
A different King, a different Manifesto | Andrew Baughen | 15.09.24
The reading this morning is from Luke 4. It's on page 1031 of the Church Bibles. If you don't have a Church Bible, they are just at the back, so please do feel free to grab on it and follow along. It will also be on the screen, I think, beginning at verse 14 and going through to verse 30. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching 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. He stood up to read and 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 proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 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. He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself. And you will tell me, do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in a larger time when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there were severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Sarafath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman the Syrian. All the people in the sonic synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. This is the word of the Lord. Well, it's a great privilege and pleasure to be with you this morning. My day job is teaching ethics at business school in the city, and I'm also researching the intersection of faith and business. So it's great to be with you as we look at this passage, and I'm conscious that this passage is holy ground. This is Jesus presenting his mission, his purpose as the savior of the world. And I'm also conscious that it's holy ground, and yet it's grounds where the temperature changes a bit like English weather. There is a sudden drop in the temperature from people being amazed and greeting Jesus and speaking well of him to wanting to throw him off a cliff. And I'm conscious that we need the fullness of the Holy Spirit to enable us to hear God's word this morning. So we're going to pray as we begin and pray that the Lord Jesus will present to us a fresh, that amazing news of his favor and grace. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. You are a God who is slow to anger and abounding in love. And we thank you that you loved us so much that you sent your son, the Lord Jesus, as our savior to die in our place, to pay for our forgiveness so that we could be raised to your sight. We thank you that as we pray now, we can look you in the eye as forgiven children know your delight. And we pray that you will fill us a fresh with news of your favor, fill us with an urgency to be proclaiming your favor and the willingness to be changed as we hear your words. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I don't know if you've ever had to launch a ship. Maybe you own a ship and you've launched it, but I went on to Google and looked up how do you launch a ship? What are the steps in launching a ship? Ebony, there are three steps. Step one is the naming ceremony where the Queen or whatever says I named this ship, whatever, and throws a jereboim of champagne against the hull. And stage two is the sea trials. So the ship then goes into the water and checking the navigation system, the engines, and all the other systems. And then finally, after that, stage three is the handover party. It's handed over to the owners, the people who are going to actually use the ship. And I imagine at that party there was some reception and the owner will think his or her glass and get people's attention and give a little speech about that the ship and all that's going to happen as a result of a bit setting sail. Well, those three stages are very similar to what Luke describes for us in terms of the launching of Jesus' ministry on this earth. Jesus isn't suddenly launched as a person. Jesus was the word at the beginning, through whom all things were created. But this is very much the launch of his ministry on earth. And Luke, who as we see in chapter one of the Gospel gives an orderly account from eyewitness statements of Jesus' life and ministry, gives us an orderly account also of Jesus' opening chapter of his ministry on earth. And we begin as we looked at last week in the series on a different king by looking at a different kingdom, that the naming ceremony, as it were, was God the Father saying to the Lord Jesus, "You are my son whom I love." So right at the beginning, the key identity of Jesus is given. And the declaration of that identity is given by God, the Father. But then after that declaration, the next stage is the sea trials, as it were. The 40 days that Jesus straight away after that goes into the desert, and it's tempted by Satan for 40 days. And what is the temptation? Well, it's basically the question being asked to Jesus, "What sort of Messiah are you going to be?" Yes, he'd be named as God's son whom he loves. But how are you going to use that identity? What is your mission are going to be on earth? So is it going to be personal comfort? Or is it going to be worldly power? Or is it going to be the Savior who saves people from sin? And as the angels declare, "At Jesus' birth." That is the challenge. And Jesus works that through, prays that through. It's challenged by Satan. Yeah, make this into bread, this stone in into bread. I can give you a kingdom. He offers power. He offers comfort. But Jesus knows my purpose is clear. And I observe the purpose that was set and promised all the way back at the beginning of the Bible and made in a covenant with Abraham. And that is the covenant Jesus comes back to in this opening statement. So we've gone from the baptism to the temptation. And now we have the homecoming. This is stage three, as it were, where Jesus comes to his hometown. And he sets out his purpose, his mission statement. Now, as I said before, I work in a business school. And I deal with business clients and in teaching them. And purpose is all the rage. You know, if you open up a Harvard business review, any basically any document these days is all about purpose, isn't it? And companies have to have a purpose statement. And even people, individuals are now encouraged to have a personal purpose. I don't know if you have one. And maybe you can talk about that over lunch later on. But in our passage, Jesus gives his purpose. And the fascinating aspects of this purpose is he doesn't make up something completely new. The our sermon series implies, and this is a different kingdom, a different king. This is different, but it's actually a continuity with the original purpose that God gave. What did God say to Abraham? He said, I will make you a father of a great nation. I'll give you a land. You will be my people. I will be your girl. You will live under my rule, a people in God's place under God's rule. That was the plan. That was the promise. And God said, I will bless you to Abraham, and you will be a blessing to all nations. So it's not an accident that Jesus opens up a covenant passage in the book of Isaiah. He's handed Isaiah as he speaks in the synagogue, and he turns very deliberately to Isaiah chapter 61, which gives this covenant promise afresh through the prophet, Isaiah. And what do we learn about this promise as the Lord Jesus speaks it? Well, we learn that the promise is based on reversal of poverty, reversal of captivity, reversal of blindness, and it's based on removal of the barriers that are causing that blindness. Let's look at chapter 4 and verse 16 as Jesus begins to teach, "The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, good news, reversal of poverty. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, reversal of captivity, and recovery of sight for the blind, a reversal of blindness to set the oppressed free." And that is the key sentence there at the end, to set the oppressed free. That is a word that talks about forgiveness. This is not just about oppression and freedom for a few prisoners in a physical jail, but it's about material, social, and spiritual barriers to shallow. It's about reversal of decay, and it's about renewal of shallow goodness, God's blessings for the nations. And that's what the people of God work to be. It's to be a people living on the God's rule, demonstrating shallow, demonstrating relationship with God, and the blessings of God, and being a light, so all nations in the world. And Jesus speaks, he reads out that passage from Isaiah, and the tradition in synagogues at that time was you stood to read, and then you sat to preach. And so he sat down, and then the eyes of everyone in the synagogue, verse 20, were fastened on him. What's he going to say? Yes, we know this promise very, very well. How's he going to respond? And verse 21, "He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Today is the year of the Lord's favor. Today this new era of grace and favor isn't just a promise anymore. It's a reality. It has come to be." And that is the central theme of the Gospels, isn't it? And that's why this summon series, the word doing here on Luke's Gospel, is about kingdom and about the king. He's heralding in the kingdom that is near and available. Repent and believe the good news Jesus says as he begins his ministry in Mark's Gospel. The kingdom is available. I am proclaiming that the year of the Lord's favor is now. And so far, so good in this passage. Jesus has read out a familiar passage to people. They knew that promise. They were anticipating Messiah coming, and that promise being fulfilled. They were intrigued about Jesus. It says at the beginning of our passage that people knew about Jesus, and users spread throughout the whole countryside. So there was anticipation. And we read there that as he sits down to preach, the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. And then as he preaches, and we only have one sentence of his sermon, which is today that this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. But presumably, he said it a little bit more than that. But then things are going really well, aren't they? Verse 22 also spoke well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. Isn't this Joseph's son they asked? But then the weather changes. Jesus knows what's going on in their hearts. He knows they may be saying nice words, lovely sermon vicar sort of attitude, but actually in their hearts, they won't enjoin the year of the Lord's favor. They won't actually understanding that at all in any real and spiritual sense. And Jesus therefore gently or not so gently challenges that they're thinking. He says, surely you will quote this proverb to me, physician heal yourself, and you will tell me, do in your hometown what you have heard that you did in Capernaum. In other words, Jesus is saying, actually, in your heart, what you want is for me to do a magic trick. You've heard about those, and you want to see, well, prove it to us as well, do your stuff for us. His celebrity come back, he's got an Instagram following or whatever. They want to see him do one of those YouTube videos in person. And interestingly, Jesus says, you will tell me, do here in your hometown, what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. And the commentators stress that Jesus is pointing out. They say, we've heard about this, but we don't really believe it. We're willing to have our mind change, but basically we're still doubting. And this is the first example of many examples of Jesus encountering unbelief, and encountering hearts that are so hardened, so blind, that they can't see when Jesus says, I can open the eyes of the blind, that he's talking about them. In Mark's Gospel, again, Jesus encounters this hardness of heart, and he says to his disciples, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, beware of this teaching that is actually poisoning people's thinking and hardening hearts. They have eyes to see, but cannot see. Jesus says, ears to hear, but cannot hear and do not understand. Beware of you becoming hardened of heart as well. He says to his disciples, and what is that teaching? It's that teaching that we deserve God's grace. We're part of the people of God. We get it as a birthright. We don't need to do anything other than obey a few rules, and we obey those, and we're quite proud of that. We're quite happy, thank you very much, and we'll keep it to ourselves. So Jesus goes on, he turns up the temperature, and he shows them what grace is actually about, and he does that, by giving two examples from Isaiah's time of Elisha and Elijah. I remember there was a famous story of a theological student, like I was at one time, who was doing it his exam, and the exam question was, can parents contrast the great prophets of Elijah and Elisha? The students had learned lots of things, but not that. He'd been very focused in his learning, so he said, far bit for me, to draw a comparison between these two amazing men of God, but I will give you a list of all the prophets in that chronological order, or whatever, because that's all he'd learned. But the key point that Jesus is making from the lives of Elijah and Elisha is, in a time of need, the only people that God blessed were people outside of the people of God. So Jesus is giving historical example of how God shall own his favor is actually shown outside of the people who would expect to receive it. And why is that? Well, because the people on the inside weren't asking. They were in need, there was a famine, there was leprosy, there was real need, but they weren't asking God. They were just assuming. The people who came in desperation came in humility to Elisha and Elijah, people on the outside, people who wouldn't normally deserve grace, and they receive grace. Jesus is saying, "Open up your thinking about what Grace is about. I'm announcing the year of the Lord's favor, but do you understand what that means? Are you willing to actually inhabit that, to enter that season of favor and grace?" It reminds me of the amazing story of Ruth in the Old Testament, and Ruth, who is a Moabite, and comes to, that Israel brought by her mother-in-law to Israel when her husband dies in Moab, and she's brought there, and she meets this great business tycoon. That's why I like the story, because it's about business. There's business tycoon, Boaz, and Boaz shows Ruth incredible grace and favor. It says you can take not just the gleanings, the extras on the edge of the field, help yourself to as much as you need. Boaz shows grace and favor, and Ruth says, "Why me, a foreigner?" And Boaz says, "Because that's the God of promise that I believe in. That's the God of covenants that I run my business by. Because that's the God I love and honor." And Jesus meets at his announcing ceremony, at his manifesto ceremony. He meets people who don't get that, and not living grace, not living favor. And therefore, when Jesus says, "I'm now is his favor," they say, "Well, I'll keep that to myself, but no further." And I wonder, therefore, going straight into applying that to ours, I wonder, is that a challenge that we need to hear? It's, I think, very easy to keep faith, and God's grace and favor, and a relationship is God at arm's length. It's to use another business term. It's like an MVP, a minimum viable product. We can take forgiveness and treat it like a minimum product. It's viable. We get what we need from God's forgiveness, i.e. forgiveness when we die, and when we face God and the judgment seat of God. But don't need it now. We'll take the minimum amount that we need in order to get salvation at the end of our life. Rather than, you know, what does Jesus say? Now is the era of favor. You will blind see the prisoners released. There's a reversal of decay. There is shallow in relationships in our workplaces and our families. Jesus says, "That is the kingdom that I'm announcing. That is the kingdom that you're entering, and that is the kingdom that you're going to share with all people who turn to me and receive the forgiveness that is by grace." Why don't we not take this to heart? Well, I think sometimes, is because we don't see our need for grace. Interestingly, Jesus, when he quotes from Isaiah 61, he stops short of what the verse goes on to say. So at Isaiah 61, it says to proclaim freedom from the captives and release from darkness, for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. In other words, yes, this is the year of the Lord's favor because without that favor, we face judgment. Actually, the reason we need favor is because our sin separates us from God for all eternity. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. We have to, like in the lighter and luscious time, plead with God, come to him with open empty hands and receive his grace, not with pride and performance, but with a personal acceptance of our need. Sin leads to judgment, but God's grace leads to a removal of judgment and a gift of being God's innocent children made right by Christ. That is the gospel, isn't it? That is the good news. That's what Jesus is announcing. My mission is to announce that. My mission is to invite people to receive that, but to receive that starts with understanding our need. And secondly, grace is relevant to all people. All people need to know this grace. The opposition that Jesus faced and the temperature turns because Jesus was implying that Gentiles, others outside of the fold, could be included in the year of the Lord's favor. And they hated that. Hated it so much, they wanted to push Jesus off the cliff. And I wonder, taking this to heart means knowing this news is too good for us to keep to ourselves. Too good to just mention slightly. I don't want to hurt people. I don't want to talk about sin or people's need of forgiveness from judgment. No, I don't want to upset people. But actually, when we understand grace, we love people by proclaiming God's favor is available. And it's available to you and available to me. I love this idea that grace that Jesus is announcing here is for a time, isn't it? He says a year of the Lord's favor. It's an era of a favor. But it's an era that will end on that final judgment day. So it's a grace period. It's not forever. It's an until judgment. And in that grace period, are we going to receive grace, announce grace and live grace a day by day? Jesus says, "The era is here. Enjoy grace. Practice grace. Hold on to grace day by day." Lots more, I could say, but I just feel strongly that I need to preach this to my heart. My heart can get cold. It can get completely changed by all the pressures of this world. And I can stop believing grace is possible. But Jesus says, "I'm announcing it. I am it. I'm the gateway to it." So let's just spend a moment in quiet just thinking about the eras of our life where we don't quite trust in God's grace and in favor to reverse, reverse, brokenness, relationship or spiritual or physical barriers that we face. And let's just ask Jesus. Jesus says, "How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?" So let's ask for God's favor and grace afresh in our lives. Father, pray that we will know more of the the lengths and the breaths and the heights of your love, the extent of your grace, the beauty of your mercy, the delight of your forgiveness, the freedom and release of not knowing condemnation but knowing grace. Help us to be wowed by that. Help us to live in that, to savor that and help us to proclaim that in our relationships and our workplaces and our families, to be people of grace. And we pray that in Jesus' name. [MUSIC PLAYING]