Salvation

poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;

Luke 4:19

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Luke 4:20

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

Luke 4:21

And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

This was His first sermon in His hometown!

They were all excited that they had heard He had left carpentry

And gone into ministry and was preaching great!

In this sermon, He announces who He is!

He was handed the book Isaiah!

He chose Isaiah 61, a Messianic Scripture

They would stand to read from the Torah

Then they would sit down to teach

The Temple was in Jerusalem where there were sacrifices

Synagogues were all over Israel

They were for worship and Torah reading

They were meeting halls and even schools where the Torah was taught

One commentator described the ruler of the Synagogue

“The ruler of the synagogue did not preach or expound Torah, which meant that Sabbath teaching and exposition fell to the laity, and on this occasion to Jesus. The official in charge of a synagogue was the “ruler of the synagogue,” a position that included the responsibilities of librarian, worship committee, schoolteacher, and custodian.”

Sounds like a Pastor of a small church: Worship committee, custodian…

But a Pastor must preach, marry, bury, visit, and counsel everyone!

Then Jesus preaches the shortest sermon ever! 8 words!

“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

This reminds me of the shortest prayer I ever heard

We were about to prophesy, and we were with a father in the faith The pastor prayed and then I and the other guy prayed

We were in our 30’s. Then the Father in the faith prayed

“Lord. Help! Amen.”

His First Response Luke 4:22

So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His

mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

They marveled at the gracious things He was saying about Himself

It’s one thing to say gracious words about others

Debbie’s so kind, wonderful, beautiful. I’m so kind, wonderful, handsome.

Bore witness means to speak or give a testimony

But look at what they were saying, what their testimony was

Isn’t this Joseph’s son. There are 2 parallel passages.

They marveled that He attributed these Scriptures to Himself!

Matthew 13:55

“Is this not the carpenter’s son?”

Mark 6:3

“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

Mark 6:4

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”

Is this not the carpenter’s son?

Is this not the carpenter?

So, they were offended at Him!

Luke 4:23

He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’”

Luke 4:24

Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

That’s what He said in Matthew 13 (end) and Mark 6 (beginning) also

He’s about to offend them some more

Luke 4:25

But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;

Luke 4:26

but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Luke 4:27

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

This made them really mad! Why?

Because He was announcing something

That was prophesied in the OT but still made many Jewish people upset!

Isaiah 11:10

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him”

The belief was that salvation was only for Israel!

When He said there were many widows in Israel

But Elijah wasn’t sent to any of them!

And there were many lepers in Israel

But Elisha wasn’t sent to any of them

Instead, he was sent to the Syrian leader that was invading Israel!

He was saying, I’m not just the Jewish Messiah! I’m the Savior of the world!

He was making the greatest announcement in the history of the world

Salvation is for everyone!

I’m not saying anything against Jewish people or Israel

Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast – Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

Senator Ted Cruz also spoke. We love, bless, pray for and stand with Israel!

But I’m here to tell you that Jesus died for the world 2000 years ago

And that no matter your ethnicity

Jesus can, will, and wants to save you!

Remember, I entitled this point His first response

I could have entitled it His first altar call

Watch how, and how many people responded to His altar call!

Luke 4:28

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

Luke 4:29

and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.

Pretty successful altar call! 100%

Except they wanted to throw Him off a cliff!

They threw James, Jesus’ brother, pastor of the Jerusalem Church

Off the Southeast corner of the Temple, and then stoned him!

And beat him with clubs until he was dead!

His First Ministry

Now we’re getting to the five foundational ministries of Jesus The first one is Salvation!

Matthew 1:21

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Luke 4:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor

… ”

Jesus came to preach the gospel (good news) to the poor

I’ve told you before there are 2 Greek words for poor

Penes (pen'-ace) the working poor. Ptochos (too-khos') the begging poor

The begging poor meant that they can’t do any work

If someone doesn’t have mercy on them, they will die

That’s us spiritually! We can’t earn our way to heaven!

We can’t do enough good deeds! We can’t be perfect!

We’re humans and we make mistakes!

We’ve all sinned therefore we need a Savior

Luke 4:19

“to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

What year is it? 2022 AD! The Year of our Lord! (Before Common Era)

It’s the acceptable year of the Lord! (BCE-CE Common Era)

2 Corinthians 6:2

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

This is a Messianic quote from Isaiah 49! It’s about Jesus

By the way, a few verses before this in Isaiah 49 it says

To restore Israel and bring light to the Gentiles!

It includes everyone! Jews and Gentiles! Rich and poor! Young and old!

The gospel is the greatest inclusion document in the world!

Hebrews 3:7

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice”

Hebrews 3:15

while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Luke 4:21

And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!

Today if you will hear His voice! Do not harden your heart!

Today is the day of salvation!

Today is the acceptable year of the Lord!

Some of you might wonder how long I’m going to talk about my health crisis

For the rest of my life, several times a year!

Mom is at death’s door, and the Dr. is doing his best to pull her through!

4 years ago, I lost over 50% of my blood and was care flighted to Baylor Hospital

They told me that there was no medical reason it happened and

No medical reason I was still alive. It was a miracle

Why did I tell you that? Because 4 years ago Today,

I was released from the hospital!

The doctor told me, “Today, you can go home!”

That today changed everything!

Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing

Today you can accept Jesus! Now is the accepted time!

Today can be the day of salvation for you!

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