Guest Speaker Jim Briggs- What Is The Good News?

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. You know, when we receive good news, it's very rare that we we get angry.

It's very rare that we become disheartened. So I want you to think about what it's like to receive good news. Who is Jesus? Jesus asked his disciples in Luke nine.

He said, Who do you say that I am? And this is the most important question that you and I will ever have to contemplate. And, you know, if we get this answer right, then we will discover the greatest news that we've ever heard. Now, Luke has been meticulously taking us through the events of Jesus life and his ministry. And I think that he's given us a lot of information that helps us to answer two vitally important questions. One is, who is Jesus? And the other is, why did he come? Who is Jesus and why did he come?

Our study this year has already provided a lot of hard evidence for the first part of that. Who is Jesus? You know, our first four chapters presented Jesus as an anointed king, as a mighty savior, as a suffering servant and as a righteous judge. Testimonies affirming all of this information came from angels. It came from Jesus's mother. It came from an elderly priest and a prophetess. It came from shepherds, a group of shepherds, you recall, on the hillside. It came from John the Baptist.

Of course, we read we read that account very recently. It came from Luke himself and it came from God the Father. And last week, we actually saw that the devil himself had to acknowledge that Jesus was the son of God. We learned that Jesus was born of flesh. He was a man. You know, people have really no trouble accepting that Jesus was a man.

He was a historical figure. And in fact, there are a number of people that would believe that Jesus was a good man. But the angel that announced Mary's baby also said that her baby would be called Holy, the son of God. What does it mean that Jesus is the son of God? Well, John the Baptist was identified as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, proclaim the way of the Lord. You remember that?

We just studied that recently. And you remember that this quote was actually from the prophet Isaiah, who said that one day the Lord would come and show the nations his glory and that a messenger would go ahead of him and prepare the way. As it turns out, John was actually preparing the way for Jesus.

Well, why is this significant? Well, you know, this the Hebrew word translated Lord in our Bible is Yahweh. That's the personal covenant name of God. So Luke reveals that Yahweh, God the Father, God himself had come to earth in the person of Jesus, the God man. And he came to bring salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins that we read about that in Luke 1 verse 77. This is the good news that the angel shared and announced to the shepherds. And this good news about Jesus should cause everyone to have great joy. Everyone, everyone receives good news.

This is great joy to all who would receive it. But now listen, if we don't get Jesus' identity and his mission right, we're bound to relate to him in the wrong way and even reject him altogether. In his gospel, Luke has presented the historical evidence that's necessary for us to recognize Jesus for who he really is and why he has the right to be Lord over our life. In Luke 4, 14 through 30, we see Jesus return to his hometown of Nazareth.

This is a homecoming. This is where he appears to start his ministry. In fact, some of you in your Bible, it may say Jesus starts his ministry or Jesus begins his ministry.

But actually, this event takes place a good while after the temptation that we read about last week. Verses 14 and 15 are actually a summary of what he had been doing in Judea before coming to Nazareth. And if you go and take a look in John's gospel, you'll actually see a number of those events that took place.

So the question is, why if Luke had been so meticulous in recording the events of Jesus' life, why would he move this story to the front before all of the ministry work that we hear about in the other gospels? Well, I think one of the reasons that he does this is because he's foreshadowing the kind of reception that Jesus is going to get during his ministry on earth. He goes from town to town of all of his people proclaiming the good news and proclaiming that he is, in fact, the Messiah. And time and time again, he faces rejection and hostility until he's crucified on a cross. This passage helps us to identify some of the reasons why primarily religious people reject Jesus in the gospel. Like all Jews, generations of people in Nazareth had been looking forward to the promised Messiah and God's word gave precise details about how and why he would come. So why did these people who were longing for the promised Messiah fail to recognize him and vehemently reject him?

How could they miss this? Well, I believe we find two main reasons in our passage. The first reason is that religious people tend to reject Jesus because they don't want to submit to him as Lord. And the second reason is because they fail to see their desperate need for a savior. You know, it's strange to think, but being religious actually increases the danger that you might reject Jesus and his gospel.

And that's the issue that we're facing tonight. That's the issue that we see in this crowd that's pictured in this passage that we studied. Not only did the good people of Nazareth react negatively to Jesus, but they shockingly actually left their worship service to try and kill him.

Well, here's the first point. Although they may accept Jesus as a moral teacher, they may accept him as a prophet, they may accept him as a good example, religious people refuse to bow before him as Lord. Well, I've divided this passage up tonight and primarily I'm going to look at verses 18 and 19.

But the entire passage that we studied this week, I divided into three sections. Jesus returns, Jesus reveals, Jesus rejected. And so let's take a look at this exciting return to his hometown. Reports about Jesus and his ministry throughout Galilee had thus far been very favorable. In fact, he was, according to verse 15, praised by all. The people of Nazareth were probably proud of this local boy who's become famous and they're very excited about his homecoming. And you can imagine the scene, can't you, of the synagogue filling up with family and friends and neighbors of Jesus as they're waiting anxiously to hear what he has to say.

Well, a typical service for a synagogue would start out with some blessings and some prayers and then there'd be several readings of the Torah, the law. And then Jewish leaders would typically invite a visiting rabbi or a person of distinction to read from passages from the prophets. So the law and the prophets.

And on this occasion, the local boy, the son of Joseph and Mary stood to read. Take a look with me as we look at verses 17 through 19. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now, immediately the audience would have recognized this very familiar passage from Isaiah in which the Messiah speaks of himself and of his work. So it was probably dead silent. Probably people held their breath as they waited for what he was going to say after this. And what Jesus was about to reveal was pure dynamite. Verse 20 says he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

Now he didn't sit down because he was finished. It was customary to stand when reading the word, reading God's word, and then to sit when you gave the sermon, when you taught. And so he sat down and again, it says the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Well, I know somebody made a comment before I started that just said, you know, let's try and keep it short. And this seems like a very short sermon here. Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

And it says, and then it goes on. But this was actually, verse 21 was actually a summary of probably a much larger sermon. You see, Jesus would take the words that he read and then he would expound on them. He would carefully explain everything that he had just read. So you can imagine Jesus after reading this passage would then go back and unpack that passage.

It's the same thing that Russ does. It's the same thing that your pastor at your church should do is carefully examining God's word, word by word, phrase by phrase to see what God is trying to say to us. And then helping explain that to us. And as he spoke, the audience became enthralled, it says, verse 22, by his gracious words, literally words of grace that he was saying. Well, the initial response, as you read, is is favorable.

The hometown hero has obviously impressed the crowd, but it wasn't long before the smiles and the warm feelings faded into puzzled looks and confusion. Isn't this Joseph's son, they said. Now, if you were a Jew in Israel at the time of Jesus, as I said, you've been waiting for a long time for this Messiah who was promised in God's word. And the message of Isaiah is rich in messianic prophecies, promises of release and reformation and freedom to the people. And now using these very words, Jesus had just claimed to be the Messiah. Well, one might imagine that the crowd would go wild, leaping with joy and singing songs of praises. After all, Jesus just announced that he is the one that they've been waiting for. But that wasn't the response in Nazareth.

The tension increased as the crowd started to whisper and to murmur. Wait a minute. This is this is the same boy that we saw grow up, a carpenter son. Who does he think he is claiming to be able to fulfill scripture? And he seems to be implying that we're we're poor, blind slaves and that and that he's our savior. Who said anything about needing a savior? And anyway, why doesn't he perform some of those miracles that he's been performing all over all over the countryside? Maybe then, maybe then we'd believe in him.

What was initially a favorable impression was starting to turn into anger and then rage and ultimately rejection. But, you know, Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminds them of two important stories from scripture that get right to the heart of the issue. The point of both of the stories that we read this week are the same. We see both these prophets, Elijah and Elisha, and the stories about both of them help us to help Jesus to frame what is the problem that is happening here in this synagogue. You see, Israel was gripped with idolatry and moral corruption, and they rejected God's prophets. In the first story, God told Elijah to pray for a drought that lasted three and a half years, and it led to a very severe famine. In fact, it was so severe that Elijah himself didn't have food. And now God could have picked any number of widows in Israel to provide food for Elijah. But instead, he picked a poor, unnamed widow outside Israel in the region of Sidon. Through this gentile woman, God provided for both her, her son, and the prophet.

Now, similarly, during Elisha's time, many lepers were living in and around Israel. God could have healed any of them, but instead he chose to heal Naaman, a powerful general in the army of, get this, Israel's enemy. Although both stories came directly from scripture, these would have been stories that these people were familiar with, these stories offended this audience deeply.

And I think they were offended for two reasons. First, the stories teach that God sovereignly chooses those on whom he grants his mercy. God is sovereign, and he can choose those on whom he grants his mercy. He's not obligated to anyone because all are undeserving what? Sinners. All of them are undeserving sinners. If God decided to go outside of Israel to bestow his blessings on a destitute Sidonian woman, or powerful, wealthy Syrian general, while withholding his blessing from Israel, well, he's totally free to do that.

He is sovereign after all. And the Jews in Nazareth believed themselves to be deserving of God's favor, and they were outraged, outraged by the suggestion that God would grant such blessings to outsiders. This is a picture of religious pride.

Religious pride causes people to think that they are entitled alone to God's blessings. But the Bible teaches, the Bible teaches something very different. It teaches that there is no one righteous, not one. God owes nothing to sinners except judgment. Scripture declares, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. That's Romans 9 18. Now, this message is incredibly offensive to people who don't understand God's true character. Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed one time that the best corrective against pride is to know God, know his character, and the truth about him. Now, the second reason that these stories offended this religious crowd is because they show that God blesses outsiders.

Not just the inside crowd, but outsiders, specifically in this case, outsiders. The Sidonian widow and the Syrian general were both Gentiles. Outside of the covenant blessings of God's people, Israel. Jesus uses both stories here to show that those who believe God's word and received his blessing were, in fact, Gentiles, outsiders. And they were outsiders, considered inferior. But he was saying that because they knew that they were helpless, they had a superior faith.

You know, it's interesting as we talk about Dominic tonight. This Sidonian woman was destitute, absolutely poor, and same was the fact with Dominic. And yet all of us, all of us as sinners are the exact same. We have absolutely nothing that we can give to God. There is nothing that we can do for our own salvation. The stark message here is that unless the audience became as desperate as these Gentiles, they would never experience Jesus' ministry of freedom.

When the crowd realized what he was saying, they became enraged. Now as believers, it is absolutely essential that we guard against this attitude, that we have some special position or favor from God, and that we are deserving somehow of his blessings and salvation. We can only experience grace, we can only experience grace when we realize how desperate we are. We need to remember that salvation is by grace alone, and we need to maintain the faith and fear before a God of kindness and severity. As we realize that God desires to show his mercy on all sinners, we should reach out with compassion those that we know that are lost.

You know, it's easy to accept that God loves us and that Jesus cares for us, that he cares for all our needs. And while that is true, Jesus' teaching confronts our religious pride and our self-righteousness. Today we may try and avoid the hard truths of Jesus' teaching by attending churches that preach soothing and comfortable messages that meet our needs and satisfy our desires. We might imagine a warm and friendly Jesus who is basically a good teacher or a moral example and keep him at arm's length as we pursue our own agendas. Following Jesus forces us to confront the ugly truth about ourselves and bow before him as our Lord, seeking to understand his priorities and follow his will, not our own.

Well, the second point here is that oftentimes by refusing to admit their need for a Savior, religious people will also reject Jesus. Take another look at this passage and see what Jesus is claiming about himself. Did you notice the three persons of the Trinity in verse 18? Jesus says, the Spirit, that's God the Spirit, of the Lord is on me because he, that's God the Father, has anointed me.

Now the Hebrew word for anointed one is Messiah. So what he's really declaring here is God the Son was sent by God the Father and empowered by God the Spirit to proclaim good news to sinners, good news of salvation and to usher in the year of God's favor. And Jesus was proclaiming good news to the poor, to the captives, to the blind and to the oppressed. Jesus would demonstrate his authority and his power in healing and restoring those who suffered blindness and other physical infirmities and even cast out demons to free people from bondage of evil forces. In fact, he does that in this very chapter.

We'll study that in the coming weeks. But his good news is also for poor enslaved sinners who will stand before God unable to plead their own case on their own merits. The year of the Lord's favor refers to the year of Jubilee. And you may have read about this in your study this week found in Leviticus 25 through 28. During this particular time of celebration, prisoners and captives were set free.

Slaves would be released, debts would be canceled and both land and people could rest. Jubilee, Jubilee is a picture of God's salvation, of redemption and forgiveness. You know, it's interesting, as I was studying this passage, I found that the same Greek word that is translated freedom, liberty and release, maybe deliverance in your Bible, that same Greek word can also be translated forgiveness. Take a look at Luke 3 verse 3 for a minute. Luke 3 verse 3, John the Baptist goes into all the country around Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.

Underline the word forgiveness there. And you don't have to turn to it, but in Luke 24 verse 46, just before Jesus ascends, he tells the apostles that are just about to go out and preach the gospel. He says he wants them to understand that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. This word translated forgiveness is the same word translated freedom and release. By offering himself as God's sin bearer, as the lamb of God who takes away the sins, Jesus paid the price to set sinners free. And the really good news about Jesus' declaration of the year of the Lord's favor is that it includes people from all nations. All people from all nations can be released from the bondage of sin. But you know, to accept God's good news, you must accept Jesus as he is and as he claimed to be, Lord and Savior.

Well, how much are you and I like these Nazarenes? How much do we think about ourselves? Do we think that we're basically good and able to come to God on our own terms? You know, they went to synagogue just like we go to church, many of us or all of us, hopefully week by week.

They were kind and decent and they weren't nearly as bad as some sinners. But not realizing that they're poor, blind captives, incapable of helping themselves, they don't know that they're in desperate need of a savior. Is that us?

Is that you and I? You know, as sinners, we are spiritually bankrupt. We have nothing, nothing to offer for our salvation. We're spiritual captives, enslaved to sin and unable to free ourselves. And we're spiritually blind, unable to see the light of the gospel until Jesus Christ opens our eyes.

Is this how we see ourselves? We'll never relate to Jesus in the right way if we fail to recognize this about ourselves and we fail to recognize him as he truly is. You know, the irony of this story is that even before they finished their religious service, these good people angrily rushed Jesus to the edge of the cliff to kill him. That's because Jesus had exposed the murderous intent of their hearts.

And this, this is the default heart condition of all of us. But I don't want to kill Jesus, you say. I don't have any, I don't have any desire to throw him off a cliff.

I mean, he's okay. But, you know, friends, every time, every time we rebel against Jesus, we symbolically drive him to the cliff and cast him off his rightful place on the throne in our lives. The tragedy in this story is that once the crowd had driven Jesus off, Jesus miraculously passed through their midst and he went away, perhaps never to return to Nazareth. He didn't protest. He didn't fight back.

He just walked away. Well, here are a couple of applications as we finish up tonight. You, like me, maybe grew up in a church and have become very familiar with Jesus. You might be able to explain the gospel in a very convincing way to your friends and family.

But unless you and I have applied this teaching to our hearts, we're just a rebellious rebel. And tonight I urge you, if that's you, repent and ask Jesus to reveal himself as he truly is. And then tell him you want to make him your Lord. Second, if you put off Jesus today, you might not have another opportunity. Jesus says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

The word today conveys an urgency of responding to the gospel. Jesus proclaimed the year of our Lord, the year of salvation. And you know, this year, unlike a calendar year, this year goes on until Jesus returns. Interestingly, Jesus stopped reading the Isaiah passage found in verse 19 mid verse. If you go back to Isaiah, the verse actually reads, he came to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance for our God. You see, Jesus came first to offer good news of salvation. And when he returns, he'll return as a righteous judge over all of those who rejected his offer. The author of Hebrews offers this warning, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

Do not be a rebel. Have you got the identity right? Have you correctly discerned his mission? If so, have you responded? Today is the day of salvation, gentlemen.

Have you received him as your Lord and Savior? There may not be a tomorrow. Rejecting Jesus Christ has eternal consequences. And listen to this, the only escape, the only way out of these of eternal condemnation is to recognize just how desperate we are. We are poor. We are captives. We are blind. We are oppressed, poor.

We have nothing to offer. Captives, we are in bondage to sin, blind. We can't see the truth of the gospel, the light of the gospel until our eyes are opened and oppressed. We are under the control of the God of this age.

That's Satan. We are desperate, you and I, until we make Jesus our Lord, until we ask him into our heart. So the question is, have you done it?

And if you haven't, tonight would be a great night while it's still today. Because there may not be a tomorrow. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.