Unplug Q and A
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We are winding down this series on the Sabbath. Today I want to switch things up just a little bit.
One of my downfalls as a teacher is that I often try to accomplish more than I should in our time here on Sunday mornings. So, this morning I don’t want to add new content, but bring some clarity on things that we have already covered. I want to bring Cameron up to help with this.
Cameron and I worked through this on Thursday and he is going to help me with some Questions and also you can hear a summary from him on what we have covered.
As Cameron is coming, next week Justin Sharp will teach on Jesus healing on the Sabbath next week. The following week I plan to wrap this series up.
Cameron start by giving us a summary of what we have covered in this series of unplug.
16 He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”
(1) In the history we’ve covered of the Jewish people and the Jewish Scriptures, unpack just how profound Jesus’ statement is here
We read about the events of the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus. This is roughly 1400 years before Jesus comes.
In 1400 years, we don’t read of any recorded history where the Year of Jubilee took place as an economic reset for a society or community.
1400 Years and Jesus comes here in Luke 4 and unrolls the scroll of Isaiah and finds this passage. He reads Luke 4 then sits down and with all eyes on him he says the Year of Jubilee is here and I am the one bringing this!
I will preach good news to the poor, I will proclaim liberty to the captives, I will recover sight to the blind, and I will release the oppressed.
This statement causes others to take him to a cliff and want to throw him off.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
So Jesus making this statement in Luke 4 he is either lunatic or he is the Son of God. What you see Jesus doing is exactly these things he says in Luke 4 from here on. He is truly Lord.
(2) Is this only a Spiritual statement from Jesus? We might be tempted to read the words of Jesus here and our only takeaway is “My sins are forgiven” - is Jesus promising more than this?
Let’s not make light of the spiritual that Jesus does. He forgives our sin! The blood shed of Jesus is the one sacrifice that makes it so that sacrifices are never required again. We can now enter into the presence of the Holy of Holies because of the Spiritual.
Absolutely , this is more than just the spiritual. Anyone who has ever chosen to follow Jesus has experienced freedom from oppression, healing, good news and being set free. True obedience brings these things out.
Health and wealth do improve from following Jesus.
Here is an example of wealth improving for all people
Zaccheaus in Luke 19.
2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!”
9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
This is Jesus setting free the oppressed and bringing good news to the poor. What I think is cool and absolutely amazing is that he is doing this through the salvation of Zacchaeus. Jesus is caring out the Jubilee mission through Zacchaeus.
Later Paul in Romans, talks about we are ambassadors for Christ, that is we are representatives for Jesus. How cool is that? Romans also says how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. We get to share in Christ Jubilee mission and I think it is absolutely amazing.
Cameron:
But we aren’t suggesting a Prosperity Gospel reading…
Last week, a friend of mine was sharing at Southgate Baptist Church. He has been a missionary in Africa for over 15 years. He shared about a dish that they eat is a bowl and everything is cooked in a large bowl. As you eat the bowl, you stick your hand in the bowl with everyone else to get your food. He was eating with 3 other guys who had walked from a neighboring country that recently changed their laws that if you renounce Islam that you no longer have to wait 3 days to see if they change their mind but now you can kill them on the spot. These guys are champions of the faith living out the Jubilee mission setting people free in their country knowing if they are caught they can die on the spot.
Our consumerism society and age of technology has our minds so messed up on what it means to experience Jesus’s Jubilee mission. We think if we don’t have everything every one else has then Jesus is not meeting our needs.
Jesus has set these guys free. Don’t forget he has set you free too!
**so it isn’t a self-focused prosperity idea, and it’s also not only spiritual (my sins are forgiven).
***True sabbath rest in Christ includes a wholistic “release” from the power of sin and death.
So, as the church… we want to be a part of this mission!
(3) What does it look like on the ground for the church to practice Sabbath? For the people of God to practice Sabbath?
32 Now the large group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.
33 And the apostles were giving testimony with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.
34 For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,
35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed for each person’s basic needs.
36 Joseph, a Levite and a Cypriot by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas, which is translated Son of Encouragement,
37 sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real.
Yeah, sort of like how people donate their material goods to the Thrift Store and the church is able to make those items available at 25% of the normal cost… and to give things away in times of emergency or crisis.
Can you add more to this about our ministries / what we strive to do as a church?
Can you bring some clarification to what you said about Churches and nonprofits?
Bridge of Faith Mission / Stigma slide
Employing students, Bridgefit, Greenhouse/garden, Block parties, Wednesday night meals every week, Summer feeding program, sports scholarships, sports outreach, giving vehicles away, Connect recovery, OneHeart (Biblical counseling), and Thrift store was selling clothes for $.25 and...
The church is actually working to meet the physical needs.
Some models that are working have church as what we do on Sundays and then nonprofits to do all this other stuff.
From the very beginning, I believe Jesus wants to do this through the local church here in Rockaway Beach. We have not yet separated any of this out from the church. We believe this is all part of the mission of Jesus and it is bringing Good News. It is also bringing many into Salvation with Jesus.
Jesus set up the church as His very hands and feet. He said the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
The mission for the world is the local church.
(4) Sabbath practices and not becoming legalistic about what we do or don’t do…
2 Weeks ago my Sabbath practice was a more set out. Amy and I rested throughout the morning. It was Macy’s birthday weekend and we as a family wanted to go to SDC Friday night.
I mentally prepared for SDC to continue our Sabbath.
It was not rigid we can’t do that because it is our Sabbath.
I rode Timetraveler and I was feeling a little off after that.
Amy was in the all natural store and she told me about a motion sickness potion so I went looking for this stuff.
I found it and I was smearing it on my ears and sticking it up my nose. The lady working said uh it goes behind your ears and not in your nose and starts laughing at me.
We ended up getting some. I share this because I was a little more relaxed and just trying to enjoy the evening. Anytime you are at SDC it is amazing the amount of conflict families are in during a trip to a theme park. You can be miserable at the theme park or you can Sabbath and enjoy!
(5) So, to wrap up this morning, can you share as Pastor… How do you see this impacting our community? What is our takeaway?
Jonathan:
Final summary:
reflections from REACH this week.
228 ppl. 129 under 18.
Youth experiencing oppression.
J.I. Packer: “The purpose of the church is to make the invisible kingdom visible through faithful Christian living and witness-bearing”
Jesus wants to set free the oppressed.
He wants to use the church for this!