Title: Jesus, My All In All
Bible Book: Luke 4 : 14-21
Author: John Bisagno
Subject: Jesus; Blessings in Christ
Objective:
Introduction
This is Jesus' first public sermon. He took the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah who had predicated five things about the Messiah signs by which you would know that this was He. He would preach good news to the poor. Proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Recover sight to the blind. He would also release the oppressed. Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (and King James adds) and heal the broken hearted. What Jesus promised to do and be for people then He still does for men and women today.
I. Preach the Gospel to the Poor
He came to preach the gospel to the poor. The first words that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount was blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is likely that Jesus was referring to the poor in spirit. There are a lot of people in the world of goods but are very rich in the things of God. It is harder for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. We all find that men and women who are less social and poor are easier to reach for Christ. The rich tend to become self-satisfied and sufficient. And think themselves in need of nothing. But those who are poor are often humble and poor in spirit. It is hard for those of us who have everything to acknowledge that we need Him. Until we come to be poor and broken in spirit and know that we desperately need Him. We will never enter the kingdom of God.
II. Proclaim Liberty to the Prisoners
Proclaim freedom to the prisoners. There are people who are in jail but have come to know Christ. Regardless of the restriction of the bars they are free. There are those of us who are prisoners in our own life. Hopeless addicted to drugs, immorality, materialism or alcohol. Some are in bondage to a bad self-image. To a condemnation that someone put on you or a situation over which you have no control and has humiliated you. When you come to Christ you are no longer guilty. But He sets us free experientially by His grace and through His Holy Spirit.
III. Recover Sight to the Blind
I have come to recover sight to the blind. Purpose of miracles in the Bible always was to arrest the attention of the unbeliever and cause him to believe. Signs, miracles and wonders where used to affirmed the word of God. There is a far greater healing that occurs in the soul and eyesight of a person who at last sees the things of God. You may have 20/20 sight but be blind to your need of Christ. Many are blind because that simply refuse to see.
John Newton author of over 280 songs, (one is Amazing Grace) has on his grave stone: "seller of slaves once an infidel and liberty was by the rich mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had once labored to destroy."
IV. Release the Oppressed
I have come to release the oppressed. They exist in every society. Very often they are the minority. They will be the uneducated, the poor. They often feel like they are nothing and society has passed them by.
V. Proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor
I have come to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The word year in the Bible often relates to an era. In this case it is connected to the first coming of Christ, an era of grace. At His second coming Jesus Christ is coming to establish a year of judgment and retribution on the earth. The first coming is an era of grace. In the Old Testament the Pharisees knew very clearly what He meant because God and the Law was established in the Year of Jubilee. The Year of Jubilee happened every 50 years. In the year of Jubilee every debt was forgiven. Every prisoner set free. Jesus said that I have come to establish the favorable year of the Lord. There is positional grace where we don't go to hell because we received Christ. Experiential grace where by the ongoing grace and power of the Holy Spirit we keep living and enduring successfully in this life. He came to heal the broken hearted.
