Luke 4:16-21

Luke chapter 6, chapter 4, beginning with verse 16 and reading through verse 21. And he, speaking of Christ, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah’s. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this morning. So Sir Ashley Cooper was the famous English doctor. Once visited a counterpart in Paris, who was the chief French surgeon. And the French surgeon asked him about a life-saving feat of surgery and asked Dr. Cooper how many times he had performed this surgery. Cooper replied that he had performed the surgery 13 times, and then he was asked, well, how many of the patients survived? He said, well, 11 out of the 13, I was able to say by this surgery. Dr. Cooper asked his counterpart, the French surgeon, how many times have you done this surgery? And he said, I have done this surgery, 160 times. And then he asked the Frenchman, well, how many times? Were he able to save the life of the patient? And the Frenchman said, Ah, Mazur, I lost them all, but the surgeries were all brilliant. You know, all of the very popular preachers that we have today, the same verdict might be given. They may give a brilliant speech and arouse the emotions of their audience. But the message never saves a single soul. Thousands are attracted to hear people who give out messages that are incapable of even edify the people of God. How different it is with Jesus Christ because he proclaims the gospel, which is the power of God under salvation. He is, he, He is the great physician who has the power to deal with the spiritual condition of those people who are in their sins and be able to save them. Now, Jesus has been going around to the various synagogues in Galilee, and he comes once again to his hometown of Nazareth and goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to preach. We have here something about Christ and the gospel. We see Christ commissioned to preach here in verse 16 through the second part of verse 18. His occasion for preaching is mentioned here because we find that he came to Nazareth were even brought up. He was born in Bethlehem, but we know that he was raised in this city in Galilee, up in the north of Israel, named Nazareth. And therefore he’s called Jesus of Nazareth. And it’s called his hometown. The fame that Jesus acquired, and we saw this last week, by his preaching and his healing, had stirred up multitudes, and so when he gets to Nazareth, people are anxious to hear what he has to say and to see various miracles performed by the Savior. So as his custom was, when the Sabbath day came, he goes to the synagogue, and he stood up to read. According to John Gill, anyone could read, but they had to have permission from the ruler of the synagogue to read the scriptures, but an average person, common person, could actually read the scriptures. Here we see that he stood up to preach. It’s not expressly stated here, but we assumed that he had the permission of the ruler of the ruler of the synagogue to speak to the people. And so he gets up, he has the scriptures brought to him and he evidently requested the scrolls, of Isaiah, and he opens up to Isaiah chapter 61 and reads the first two verses of Isaiah 61. It wasn’t by chance that he picked that passage of scripture. It was by design, and we find that he’s going to deliberately speak on this passage and relate it to himself as he speaks to the people. So here’s his occasion. His qualifications and authority to preach. found in verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he had to an anointing me to preach the gospel of the poor. All the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit were conferred upon Christ without measure, we’re told. Isaiah 11 indicates how the Spirit of God enabled him and empowered him. Now think about this. Jesus could infallibly interpret the scriptures and apply them the people’s lives. He had a depth of understanding of the scripture that far exceeded any other human being. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit as God would those, he would anoint those who would serve him. Prophets and priests and kings were anointed. He’s anointed here by the Spirit to preach. He was extraordinarily qualified to preach the gospel, called to do so by God, and thus he had the right and the authority to preach. Who better to preach the gospel than the Savior sinners himself? Now let me make a couple of practical observations at this point. You should realize the importance of speaking from the scriptures. Notice the pattern that Jesus. Christ sets here. Now, it’s true that Jesus Christ is the Word of God and whatever he said would be true. Not a lie in it. But his example is that he takes care to use the scriptures, to open the scroll of Isaiah, to read from that scroll and then to expound what was found in the Word. of God. That gives us the example that we should follow in the preaching of the word of God. A minister should always begin with a text of scripture to put before the people, this is the word of the Lord to you. Keep the preacher in the capacity of an ambassador for Christ, someone who is just relaying the message. A minister or pastor, shouldn’t just begin speaking and only referencing a verse here or there. He should be expounding the scriptures. Let the minister ground his whole message upon a passage or a text of scripture so that it immediately conveys to the people, thus saith the Lord. It adds weight. It adds urgency to what is said. A minister. is not like a spider who spins everything out of himself. No. We are to proclaim God’s word. He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Oh, a minister may give a beautiful speech, but of what value of it is it if it’s not based on the word of God? All preaching is authoritative and true only so far as is it. It is based upon the scriptures. And we should always keep that in mind. You know, oral tradition, church fathers are not the Word of God. They may be useful. They may be helpful as references. But often they contradict the Word of God. And they’re not to be trusted as the basis for truth. So you should realize the importance of speaking from the scriptures. The second thought. is this. You should realize the Holy Spirit’s power power is necessary for effective preaching. Being filled with the spirit, being anointed to preach makes what the minister says powerfully effective in the hearts and the lives of people. It’s not the minister that can move hearts. It is the spirit that moves hearts. When Paul arrived to Philippi, he spoke to a group of women on the Sabbathe. who met by the Riverside. And Paul sees the moment, and he preaches the gospel of Christ to them. These women were strangers to the gospel. And a certain woman named Lydia heard the message of Paul. But like all unsaved people, her heart was closed to the things of God. There are bars across the door of the whole. of the hearts of unbelievers. There’s the bar of ignorance because you can hear the word of God and not understand it. You can be like the Ethiopian eunuch who’s reading Isaiah 53 and he says, of whom is he’s speaking of himself or someone else. I don’t understand what I’m reading. You have the bar of unbelief which rejects the testimony of the word of God. There’s the bar of enmity because the carnal mind is at enmity. It’s hostile to the things of God. It will not be subjected to it. There’s the bar of pride because the wicked, because of the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. There’s the bar of worldly mindedness where the cares of the world and a deceitfulness of riches will choke the word when it’s proclaimed. There’s the bar of the love of sin because men love darkness rather than light, they won’t come to the light. With all those bars over the heart’s door, you will not come to me. Jesus said that you might have life. How’s Lydia end up believing? We have that phrase in Acts 1614 whose heart the Lord opened that she attended. That she attended. unto the things which were spoken by the Holy Spirit took the bars off the doors. Or the door of her heart, all those bars bars that we mentioned. The Holy Spirit removed those obstacles so that she responded in faith to the message of the gospel of Christ. This is why the Spirit’s power and present. is so necessary when the gospel is preached because you and I cannot remove the bars. We can’t open the doors of a person’s heart. And no minister has the ability to do this regardless of how wonderfully he speaks. So Christ is commissioned to preach. We see his qualifications. We see his authority. We see the occasion. Secondly, Christ preached the gospel. What did he preach? He preached. the gospel. Notice in the middle of verse 18. Innoit me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken heart and to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Christ preached the gospel to the poor. Verse 18. Isaiah’s gospel, his prophecy has the word meek here, but actually we’re dealing with the same group of people, those who are poor in spirit, those who are sensible of their spiritual poverty, those who have low thoughts of themselves and their own righteousness. Now, it’s a fact that the lower classes of people heard Christ gladly. It’s interesting that it’s usually the lower classes of people at times who are more in touch with their own spiritual poverty. For this reason, the harlots and the publicans are more likely to enter it into the kingdom of God than the rich, the religious leaders, the powerful of this earth, the kings, and the rulers, and so forth. Have not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. him. He preached the gospel to the poor. And he became to heal, we read the broken heart. Now, this is not a reference to those who are disappointed in love or disappointed in their aspirations. Maybe you loved and you’re lost and your sweetheart marry somebody else. Maybe you couldn’t get into the college of your choice. Maybe you had a business failure. Maybe you had a failed political campaign. maybe you’re unable to have children maybe you didn’t land your dream job whatever that’s not the brokenheartedness that we’re talking about here Jesus is referring instead to those whose hearts are broken and made contrite by the word of God they see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God by the spirit of God their consciences are troubled they have a sense of their sin they’re wounded they’re humbled by this there’s distress like Mr. Christian because they found they have this great burden on their back that will sink them lower than hell or lower than the grave he says, which means hell. They’re under a dread of God’s wrath. They can’t find peace. I came to heal that, Jesus said. He’s the great physician. A broken and a concrete, trite, trite heart, oh God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51, 17. Isaiah actually in his prophecy says to bind up the broken heart. Here we have the word heal, but he means to heal by binding it up. You notice when somebody has a wound, you pour in the oil and the antiseptic, and you bind it up so that it heals. And the idea is Christ, as the great physician, is going to heal that brokenheartedness of those who are struggling. The way Christ heals the brokenheartedness is by way of his sacrifice on behalf of the sinner. We read in Isaiah chapter 53, verses four and five, surely yet borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet did we esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisman of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed. We’re healed. This is an effective bomb for the sinner who is brokenhearted. These are comforting promises that the gospel gives us. Christ can bind up the brokenhearted, heal them. He came to preach deliverance to the captains. We read in verse 18. as well. Now, you could be like the Jews, and you could say, well, we’ve never been captives. No one has ever enslaved us. If you think in this manner, you’re not going to understand what Jesus is talking about here in this passage. Jesus is not speaking about physical bondage, actual slavery to a human master here. He’s talking about spiritual bondage. He’s talking about being enslaved to sin and to Satan. Remember what Jesus said in John 8, verse 34, verily, verily, I say, out to you, whosoever commit a sin is the servant, is the slave of sin. So when they said, we were never in bondage, he says, you don’t understand what I’m talking about. I’m talking about bondage to sin. You’re fallen in Adam. You’re corrupt. You’re sinful. And you can’t escape it on your own power. Sinners are often presented in Scripture. as a state of captivity or bondage. The Bible says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. 2. Timothy 2.25 and 26. You’re captive to Satan. You’re enslaved. You serve him. sinners are held prisoner. They’re under a sentence of condemnation. Ready, if grace doesn’t intervene, to be executed. But Christ comes and he frees from the power of sin. Frees you from Satan’s entrapment. Frees you from eternal punishment that’s due because of you being a sinner. He came to preach deliverance. to the captains. There is a way in which you can be freed from sin and Satan. That’s the message. He came to recover the sight of the blind. Verse 18 as well. And we read in John 9 about the man that was born blind. Oh, how terrible that is. My friends, we’re all born blind spiritually. Every one of us. Our minds are not illuminated to the things of God. Christ is able to heal the physically blind. That’s true. My friends, the healing of the physically blind is meant really to indicate, portray the cure necessary for the spiritually blind. Blindness to spiritual truth is cured by Christ. Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light to the Gentiles to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison and then that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Open the eyes of the spiritually blind. Christ is able to grant spiritual sights of the blindness that is upon us is taken. taken away. Do you remember when Paul was struck blind when he saw Christ on the Damascus road, and Anonias comes to heal him of his sight, and we read that when he healed him, there were, as it were, scales that fell off his eyes so that he could see again. You read that in Acts 918. In your unsafe state, there’s like a veil veil over your eyes. You’ve got scales over your eyes. You cannot see spiritual things. You cannot understand it. They’re like Paul scales that keep you from grasping the things of God and Christ removes it. Just like he did with Paul in his actual physical blindness. Through Christ’s spiritual death, the veil over the eyes is written too. and we are able to see. Thus the sinner, you have need to pray, open mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. We all pray that, even as believers, but as a sinner, it’s certainly true. Recover the sight of the blind. He came to set at liberty the bruised. We read in verse 18. In fact, the last three phrase, three phrases, here, taken together, refer all to the idea of all the miseries associated with being in prison. You’re in darkness, you can’t see. You’re in bondage. You can’t be said at liberty. You’re in chains. So forth. Prisoners are often cruelly beaten, which adds to the sufferings they endure. How many times did Paul say he was beaten? Five times. times he received 40 stripes, saved one by the Jews. Then he’s put in stalks in prison. Jesus Christ comes, and he restores, and he heals those who are wounded and broken with afflictions. I read in Isaiah chapter 1, verses 5, and 6, why should you be stricken anymore? From the soul of the foot, even under the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your sins take a toll on you. Friends, the way of transgressors is hard. Sin leaves you bruised and battered. This ends when Christ frees you from the prison of spiritual bondage. Set at liberty, the bruised. Preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He says here in verse 19. I think there’s an illusion here to the day of Jubilee. When there’s the trumpet sounds and there’s an announcement of freedom, liberty. Every 50th year, the trumpet of Jubilee was sounded. It would be a liberation from a time, a situation where they were now delivered from bondage of some sort. Debts were canceled. Slaves were free. The poor received their lands back. Every man was returned to his original possession. This might be rightly called the year of the Lord, because it was appointed by the Lord’s command. And an acceptable year endeared. Can you imagine everybody’s looking forward to that day? The year of Jubilee is coming. We’re going to be freed. We’re going to get things back. So the nation at large, especially those in economic distress were looking at this day, when is the year Jubilee going to get here? My friends, the year of Jubilee was meant to portray for us the glorious deliverance that the Messiah would provide for his people when he came. In the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we proclaimed liberty. This was a… period appointed by God to be joyfully hailed by all those who looked for redemption in Israel. It was acceptable also in the sense that the Lord would be gracious, would accept all those who came to Christ. The preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand is the trumpet sounding. The year of Jubilee is here. Deliverance for those who were captives of sin and Satan was proclaimed throughout the land. An inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, was promised. The spiritually poor were freed from their poverty and given everlasting riches. Let me make these observations. What a poor and miserable state you are in by nature. Think about all the things that he says here in this verse of Scripture 18. You are spiritually bankrupt. You have no spiritual life. You are broken broken-hearted because of your sin and the divine wrath that hangs over your soul. You are enslaved to sin and Satan. It’s a, you’re in total captivity here. You are spiritually blind. The truth is concealed from you. And you’re bruised. God’s punishment rest upon it. But what a wonderful and gracious salvation is found in Christ through the gospel. The way of salvation is proclaimed to you in such a way that you enjoy the riches of Christ’s grace. You’re no longer poor. Your broken heart is healed. Your sins are forgiven. There is redemption for your soul in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are set free from Satan’s shackles. He no longer has that domination over you. Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are granted. and at spiritual sight so that the things of God are illuminated to you. Your bruises are healed. You enjoy the peace in the fellowship of knowing the Lord. What do you know of this salvation? Because this is the salvation that Christ proclaims. Christ preached the gospel thirdly and lastly. And this is a crucial aspect here. Christ preached about himself. Notice verses 20 and 21. And he closed the book and he gave it to the minister, the ruler here of the synagogue. And he sat down in the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Jesus read the text. Rolled up the scroll. Gave it to the ruler of the synagogue. And here he sits to teach. Now sometimes, you know, when Paul went to synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. In Acts 13, he stood up and spoke. But here Christ sits and he speaks. And the people were very attentive. All the eyes were focused on him. Now, it’s interesting that the Jews did teach that Isaiah 61 was about the Messiah. And that was a correct interpretation. He’s going to tell us something about the Messiah, maybe. So what does he? He tells them about the Messiah. Jesus began to preach on the text, but his full explanation is not recorded for us. But the thrust of it is. Isaiah speaks of me. This very day, this scripture is being fulfilled in your eyesight. I am the person of which the prophets spake. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I am anointed to preach. all the good that’s mentioned in this text is going to be accomplished in me. I am the Messiah that’s been promised. I fulfill this passage. That’s what he’s telling me. We’ll look further at this Lord willing in our next study. But let me say this. You must not read the Old Testament, Scriptures, and fail to see Christ. When you read about the types, When you read about the various things in the Old Testament, the prophecies, and so forth, it’s about Christ. As Jesus said, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He, Jesus, expounded under them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Read the Old Testament then with an eye to Christ. The symbols, the types, the promises, the prophecies are about our Savior. Secondly, you must realize that Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. Christ’s deliverance is not from Roman dominion here, but from sin and Satan. His kingdom involved ruling over hearts, not enemy territory or earthly territory. What is promised in Isaiah 61, 1, and 2 was presently being fulfilled in the salvation of souls by Jesus Christ. this day is this scripture being fulfilled. What do you know about this? Wonderful salvation? Has it been fulfilled with regard to you? My friends, if you don’t come to the Savior, you’re going to die in your sins, and you’re going to eternally perish. And all the things that he delivers from, you’re going to endure the rest of your days on this life, in this life, and in eternity, you’re going to be suffering all eternity for your sins. but Christ said he came to fulfill these things. He came to give deliverance to you. He came to give it to people. Sinners. So come to Christ because he’s the one that can grant forgiveness of sin. You know, an operation may be considered brilliant, but if the patient dies, what good is it? There’s a lot of fancy preachers. There’s a lot of people who could wow you maybe with their tongue and their flowery oration. But what you need is the gospel. What you need is what Christ preaches right here in this text of Scripture. Jesus, the great physician of souls, preaches about himself as the Savior’s sinners. And every true minister ought to focus upon Christ and the message of Christ that is proclaimed here in this text of Scripture. Let us close with a word of prayer this morning. Thank you.