Christ is Life Podcast

If you were here last week, you know that we started a brand new message series on the book of Luke called Life expressed. And the reason that we're calling it that is because the Christian life really is all about three things. And we talked about this a little bit last week. It's all about life in Christ, life with others in life expressed the moment that we put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. He comes to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit, and we receive new life. We're made new creations in Christ, and that new life with Christ unites us to others who have that same new life, and so then we're joined to a life with others, life in the church. There's really no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. There's no such thing as living the Christian life apart from the church, because you are the church, and we're united together, and it leads to a life with other people. But then finally, if Jesus puts His life in us and unites us together, he then begins to express his life through us in speech and in character and in actions, it affects what it is that we do. And so that's what this series is about. We're focusing on that aspect of the Christian life, life expressed looking at how Jesus expresses his life through us. Now it would be helpful to know what that looks like, though, right? And so one of the things that I think helps us see a little bit of that is what the Apostle Paul says to us in Second Timothy 221, and I want to just read this before we dive into our Luke passage to set again the stage. Paul there says, Those who cleanse themselves from the latter. He's been in this discussion about false teaching and other things. And he's saying, if you, if you get rid of that false teaching, and you, you cling to the true, living Christ in you. Then he says, you'll be used. You'll be instruments. He says, as the verse continues, for special purposes, instruments who are made holy. He says, instruments who are useful to the master and prepared to do any good work. When we're talking about life expressed, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about being in the master's hands, instruments in the master's hands, and how he uses us to accomplish his special purposes, not our purposes, but his purposes. So the question is, then, what's his purpose? If he accomplishes His purpose through us, and that's part of the expressed life, then it would be helpful to know what his purpose is, so we'll kind of have an understanding of what he's going to do through us in that way. Well, Luke is going to answer that question for us. Jesus is going to answer it, but Luke is the one writing about it here in chapter four, which is why I asked you to turn there. And so let's go ahead and dive right in and see how Luke begins. Starting in verse 14, he says, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, underlined in the power of the Spirit, if you're following along in your own Bibles and news about him, he said, spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. I asked you to underline in the power of the Spirit because I think that's important for us to notice. We know that Jesus was born into this world fully God, and that he was born into this world fully man. But we're told in Philippians two, by the apostle Paul, that even though Jesus was God, he set his deity aside. He didn't set it aside in a way where it didn't make him God. He was still God, but he made that aspect of who he was as if it was no account. He didn't use it to his advantages, right? In other words, he lived his life as a human being the same way that you and I live our lives every single day. It's so Jesus therefore, had to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in him for God to express his life through him. I mean, Jesus even tells us a number of times throughout the gospel that he could do nothing apart from the Father. He can only do what the Father is doing in Him and through Him. What are we talking about
life expressed? That's what this series is about. And we see Jesus the ultimate example of life expressed. Luke is saying that he returned in the power of the Spirit Jesus lived his life independent upon God, the Father, to live. Life through him, to express his life through him. And so my question is, is, if Jesus had to operate in the power of spirit, how much more do you and I need to be able to operate in the power of the Spirit as well? Today we live in dependence on Christ through the Holy Spirit. Luke goes on in verse 16 and says he still referring to Jesus, went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, unrolling it, he found the place where it is written. Now, what Jesus is about to read, as we just saw, is from the prophet Isaiah. It's written in the Old Testament of the book of Isaiah. It mostly comes from Isaiah chapter 61 but there are pieces of it that are found in Isaiah six or 58 as well. And these passages, though, were passages that referred to the Messiah who would usher in this new error of deliverance, this new era of salvation. And what Jesus is going to do is he's going to read this passage and then he's going to apply it to himself. In other words, if he reads it and then implies it to himself. What we see is that Jesus is about to declare His purpose. He's about to tell us what he came here for, why he left the glory and riches of heaven, the comfort of heaven when He didn't have to what did he do that for? What's his mission? What was his purpose? And this is going to be great for us, because, again, if we're the instruments that are in the master's hands used for his special purposes, then the more we know about his purposes, the more we'll know about our purpose what we're here to do, if new life in Christ is all about who we are and being able to rest in who we are, in him and as the collective church, then life expressed is about what we do. It's about our purpose. Why he created us? Why are you here? Why are you taking up valuable oxygen on this planet? What did God put you here for this is what we're about to see, because Jesus' purpose is being expressed through us, and it becomes our purpose as well. So let's look and see what Jesus reads, what he says about himself from Isaiah. He says, The Spirit of the Lord is on me. There it is again. Luke says he was in the power of the Spirit. Jesus stands up and says, The Spirit of the Lord is in me. It's being expressed through me. Why? Well, he says, because, and this is the first thing of five things that he's going to tell us. He came to do what His purpose is. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because, first of all, he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. That's the first reason that Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor. Now this term poor that's used here certainly can refer to people who are living in poverty, who are literally poor. But above and beyond that, it can be about those who were spiritually poor. We know Jesus would even talk about that a little bit later in the Sermon on the Mount, Luke records when he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of God. And so Jesus is saying, I came to proclaim, to announce the Good News to the poor, those who were living without, those who are living in need, and to declare to them that I've come to provide for them, to provide for their ultimate needs. And so this is the first thing that we see Jesus came to do what His purpose is. The second thing he continues in verse 18 again, by saying, again, the Spirit of the Lord is on me, and he has sent me secondly, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Now, again, not necessarily literally, people who are imprisoned, right? I mean, maybe so, because it's imprisonment for sin that got you there in the first place, but this is what we're talking about, setting them free from the imprisonment of sin, people imprisoned by the power that's held over them and used in an abusive way, people who are imprisoned by an illness or an imprisoned by an addiction or imprisoned by societal customs and those who are held in bondage. Jesus said, I came. My purpose in coming is to set people free from their illness, addiction, those who are holding power over them, and most importantly, everyone, because we're all imprisoned by sin. So Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor. He came to proclaim freedom. The prisoners. Third is verse. 18 continues. He said that he came to to for those for recovery of sight for the blind. Now Jesus healed blind people in his ministry. And so once again, he did this, literally came to help people recover their sight and meet their need. But again, above and beyond that, he's saying that he came to help people out of their spiritual darkness. People were blind to the situation that they were in because of their sin and how much that separated them from a holy and a perfect God. They were blind. They didn't see it, right? We usually tend to just compare ourselves to other people, right? Well, listen, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as that guy, right? And we can always set the bar somewhere and justify in our own minds why we're doing okay. And so he came to turn the lights on for us all to go. I don't care how good you think you are compared to people, they're not the standard I am, and I'm holy and perfect, and you're not holy and perfect. And so this is what Jesus came to do to help people recover that spiritual truth, that sight, and begin to walk in that truth as well. Jesus came to proclaim the Good News to the poor, freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. Fourth, as verse 18, continues, he says that he's been sent to set the oppressed free. The word that's translated oppressed there in English, in Greek, literally means to shatter, to to to break into pieces, to be crushed. Picture breakable glass vase or something, and you accidentally walk by it and knock it off, and you hit the floor and it just shatters into pieces. That's the the word here. Jesus is using it figuratively for a description of people's lives. Feeling like that you ever felt like your life is being shattered into 1000 different pieces. See a few heads nodding, nodding. I'm not the only one. We've all been there. We've all felt that weight like life was just crushing us, right? And and Jesus is saying, I've come to set people free from their situations and circumstances, which doesn't mean that he's always going to deliver us from those, but he's going to give us what we need to still have life, joy and peace that's so fulfilling that we can still experience those things in whatever situations or circumstances we find ourselves in. Now that's freedom, that's real freedom, which is what he's getting at all throughout here. So that's the fourth thing that we see Jesus came to do. And the fifth is found in verse 19, where he says he God, the Father has sent Me to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now, what in the world. Does that mean? Well, what you need to know is that this language that Jesus is using here is reminiscent from what's called the year of Jubilee. We see this in the Old Testament of our Bibles. It's described in the Old Testament law, in every 50th year, all debts were to be forgiven. All debts were cleared, and people were forgiven of those debts. They were released from the bondage of the crushing weight of debt that was hanging over their heads. It is this beautiful picture of God's grace providing freedom for people whose lives were being crushed due to their debt. And Jesus is saying this and applying it to himself in a figurative sense, saying that he's came to release people from their spiritual debt, the crushing weight of sin. I have come to proclaim a year of Jubilee, freedom from your debts. But it's not just a year and just one literal year. It could also be translated in an era. This is what Jesus came to do to usher in this era of grace, this era of the Lord's favor. Now there's something that we need to point out just quickly here, because Jesus, again, is reading from Isaiah chapter 61 and this comes straight from there, where he says to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. But there's something else in Isaiah 61 that's written in this very sentence, and Jesus just stops. He doesn't continue. He doesn't share it with other people. What it says in Isaiah 61 is to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. That's what he came to do. Why did Jesus leave that out? Why didn't he finish saying that? Well, it's because that's not what Jesus came to do in his first coming. In his first coming, it was to proclaim the year of. Lord's favor, this era of grace, where your spiritual debts would be forgiven and you could be set free from those things, I'm going to give you not just mercy, but grace. But make no mistake about it, when Jesus comes back the Second Time, those who have not accepted His grace will suffer His wrath, which is completely appropriate for a God who is holy and perfect to do it's what he must do, if he's holy, perfect and a just God. So these are the five things though, that Jesus came to do. Number one, proclaim good news to the poor. Number two, proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Number three, recovery of sight for the blind. Number four, to set the oppressed free, and number five, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Five things. But if you could take all five of those things and just summarize them as one thing, because they're all related together in a way, if I could summarize what Jesus is saying his purpose is through these five things it would be this. Jesus came to selflessly serve needy people. That was his purpose. That was His mission, to selflessly serve those who are in need, all of the people that Jesus were referring to in Isaiah 61 when he was reading that were people in need, the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed, those in debt. Jesus is saying, I have been sent. My purpose in being here is to selflessly serve all of these needy people and to bring them grace, new life and a freedom unlike any other that they've ever experienced, bring them hope. All throughout the Gospels, if you go on to read them, after Jesus declares this, what do we see Jesus doing,
selflessly
serving people who are in need? Over and over he says, that's what he came to do, and then that's what we see him doing. It's what he came to do. It's what he did, but it's also what he continues to do through you and I today, Jesus put his life in you so that he could express his life through you. Again, you're an instrument in the master's hands, being used for his special purpose. His purpose is to selflessly serve needy people, and he will do that through you today, as you make yourself available to him, I'm your instrument. Your mission and purpose Jesus is to serve needy people, and you dwell in me. I'm in your hands, the Master's hands. Use me for your purposes, to selflessly serve needy people. It's what he put you on this planet to do. And we long to do that. There's something in all of us that long to be used to be a part of something important. And we we wonder what it is that we are supposed to do. What do I do? I want to be a part of something that really matters. And Jesus gives us the opportunity to be a part of things that really do matter, things that can change people's lives for eternity. This is what he says I've come to do. He continues to do it through us today. And so we look for that. We look for ways that he's going to work through us, to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recover of sight for the blind, setting the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, his grace that's available to all people. Luke continues in verse 20, he says, then after reading all these things from Isaiah, He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Luke says the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began by saying to them, today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, this is who I am. This is my purpose. This is what I came to do.
Can you imagine
the look on people's faces in this moment in the synagogue? Can you picture and feel the tension that's in the air in this moment Jesus is basically telling these people, these Jewish, Israelite people, that he's the long awaited Messiah, the promised one who was going to be sent to rescue God's people. And initially, as Luke continues in verse 22 it sounds like they receive. It says all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips gracious. There in Greek is the word Charis. It's the word grace, saying they were amazed at his words of grace, and they spoke well of him. But then Luke doesn't even finish the verse, and then he says, Isn't this Joseph's son? They asked who? In other words, they were amazed for a second, and then went, Wait a minute, we know who you are. Aren't, aren't you the son of Joseph? Yeah, yeah, you're, you're Joseph's kid. So, so tell me again how you are going to do all of these things that you just read from Isaiah and said applied to you. In other words, they began to doubt, I don't think that's probably who you are. We know who you are. Jesus picks up on that, and we see that in verse 23 because he jumps in. Luke says that Jesus said to them, surely you will quote this proverb to Me, Physician, heal yourself, and I will tell you, or you will tell me, do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. Truly, I tell you he continued. No prophet is accepted in his hometown. In other words, Jesus feels their rejection. He senses their rejection in them. Saying, isn't isn't this? Joseph's son, aren't you Joseph's son? He knows that they're going to demand a sign from him. He already knows that's what they're going to say next. Aren't you Joseph's kid? Hey, if you are and you're this guy that we said we heard about these things that supposedly you did over in Capernaum, why don't you do that for us? Why don't you prove that this is who you say you are? But Jesus knows. Jesus knows that they are rejecting him in this moment, and they will still reject Him in His earthly ministry, no matter how many signs that he does in front of them, guys, that's honestly something that we need to be aware of today in our own lives, if Jesus is going to express his life through you to selflessly serve needy people. And Jesus was rejected in certain situations as he was serving those needy people, then guess what's going to happen to you? Not all people are going to receive your help. You're going to be sent to help needy people, but they're not always going to respond positively to you. They're not going to want your help. Of course, that's not going to feel good. No one wants to be rejected in those moments. But honestly, they're not. Got to remember that they're not. They're not rejecting us. They're rejecting the master who sent us as the instruments in his hands. And so what I'm saying is, is that we can't let those situations and circumstances where people reject your help. I'm going to go do it. I'm going to trust Jesus is sending me and the power of the Spirit to serve needy people. And they they didn't respond well, so I guess I just read it all wrong. I wasn't supposed to do that. It's not really my purpose. I give up, and we can't stop we just need to know that not all people are gonna receive our help, but Jesus is gonna keep sending. He's gonna keep expressing his life through us in various ways. Which brings up another point. We need to keep this in mind. Just because you're called to serve or selflessly serve needy people doesn't mean that you're called to serve all people. I mean, that could be a bit overwhelming, right? Oh my gosh. If I'm here to selflessly serve needy people, there's a lot of people in need on this planet. How am I going to get to them all? Well, you're not expected to, and we kind of see that in what we read next, in Luke chapter four, beginning in verse 25 he says, I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time when the sky was shut down three and a half years, and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha, the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman, the Syrian. In other words, we're pointing out these two different instances where these two different prophets, Elijah and Elisha, were surrounded by widows in need. Were surrounded by people with leprosy, tons of needy people to go selflessly serve, but God only sent them to one widow, only sent them to one person with leprosy. And so part of what we see here is that, again, you're not called. It's not your responsibility to selflessly serve all needy people, just the ones that the spirit sends you to. So we keep our eyes on Jesus and who he is leading us to. Now, the people, when they hear Jesus say this, don't respond very well. They don't like it one bit. Look at verse 28 says all the people in the synagogue were furious whenever they heard this. Why? Why were they so mad? Well, because what Jesus was highlighting here the widow that they were sent to help, the one with leprosy. We're both Gentiles. Jesus is in the synagogue talking to all the Jewish people, and he's picking up on their rejection. And he's given these examples of how the people of Israel, at one time in the Old Testament were rejecting God. So he sent them to. Serve the Gentiles. In other words, he's saying, I'll go to the Gentiles. I'm going to go selflessly serve all needy people, not just those who are Jewish, which is good news for all of us. But this made them fighting, fighting mad. Look at verse 29 they got up, drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on his way. I love that another way. Luke just kind of writes that it makes us and it leaves us going, was that like a supernatural thing? Was that a miracle, or did Jesus go? Listen, listen, I just read about my mission and what it is that I came to do. Obviously, I got a god job to do. Y'all can sit here and argue. You can sit here and gripe all you want to, but I'm going to selflessly serve people in need. And he just goes and walks right through him and does it. That's what he went to do, because that's what he was sent to do, to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And this is what he did as soon as he left them. We read about it all throughout the Gospels. This is what he did. It's what he was sent to do. It's what he did, and again, it's what he continues to do today through you. So the question is, who is Jesus leading you
to selflessly serve today?
If Jesus's mission and purpose is to selflessly serve needy people, and he dwells in you, and he fulfills that mission through you.
Who's he sending you to serve?
My guess is that he's putting someone in your mind, even right now, a neighbor, a family member, someone on your team, someone in the band, someone at school, a friend, close friend, someone you work with. Who is he leading you to selflessly serve today? The thing is, is even though Jesus's purpose remains the same and is the same for all of us. The other thing I want to highlight is that Jesus' purpose, even though it's the same for all of us, will be expressed through us, uniquely, through your personality and through your talents and through your spiritual gifts. In other words, it will not all look the same. Even though it's the same mission, it will look differently through each one of us. In other words, Jesus will express his life through you, as you, the you He created you to be with your gifts, your talents, your personality, and all of the above. So again, who is Jesus leading you to serve? Today, I was visiting with someone a little bit earlier this week about Laura Rocco. Laura Rocco's was one of our members. She passed away earlier in the week, as many of you know, after dealing with battle with lung cancer, and we want you guys, Rocco family, if you're here to know that we are continuing to pray for you. We love you guys, and we're here to support you in any way. And the same time, we're, we're, we're glad for where she's at, we have the assurance of her eternal salvation, and she, believe me, she's just fine, right? I mean, she's, she's doing great, alright? But I was reminded through talking to someone else about her this week, that she selflessly served those who were at kingdom life Academy, people who are in need. This is a school that's for kids who don't fit well into normal school situations, and they just get lost and they get drowned and left out because you can't all the resources to keep up with kids like that, sometimes in normal public schools. And this school was created by, again, one of our members here at Colonial hills to selflessly serve these kids in need in this way. And Laura volunteered her time out there. The person that I was talking to said, Jason, here's what I noticed, because she worked out there as well alongside of her, and she got to see it firsthand how this played out. She said it was amazing that the kids just loved her and they flogged her. Not amazing because she was a loving and encouraging person. But if you know anything about Laura Rocco, you know that she had a side of her that was a little bit rough. We know this to be true about her, and we all loved it about her. And apparently these kids did too. She was the kind of person that would say things like, you can do better than that. Don't settle for just getting by. Give it your best effort. She knew that these kids needed to be pushed sometimes, and she pushed them and she loved them and she encouraged them. What was going on here? I. Was Jesus expressing his life in mission and purpose through Laura. As Laura, you see, I'm saying it was her personality. That's the way she was wired. It's who she was. It wouldn't have been the same way that he led you to do it, but we recognize that's the way he led her to do it. And there were kids that were impacted and came to know Christ because of her making herself available to the master, an instrument in his hands. And their lives have been forever changed because she said yes to Jesus, expressing his life through
her.
Chuck and Janice Edmondson are a couple of our members that usually, I think, attend the first service, and they teach one of our Sunday school classes, and they both work in the medical field. They've been trained, and they enjoy that kind of thing, and they serve in that particular way. And in just a few weeks or a month or so, they're getting ready to go on, like, a month long, I think, medical mission trip to Africa. That's how he's working through them. Jesus' mission and purpose to selflessly serve those in need, and he's going to use them to selflessly serve those in need in medical situations in Africa. Why? Because it's who they are. It's part of their unique makeup. Jesus is doing it, but he's doing it through them as Chuck and as Janice through their unique personhood. David and Sharon riemenstore, for two of our members sitting right here today with us, where they normally sit here, many of you know them. They each mentor someone through one of our missions partners here at Colonial Hill, the mentoring Alliance. And these are kids who live in single parent homes, often without a dad in the picture, and often very in very poor situations. And again, Jesus came to selflessly serve and proclaim good news to the poor. And I see pictures of them with their mentees, going out to eat and taking them bowling and doing fun things. And I hear them talking about their experiences and sharing Jesus and pointing them to Jesus and praying for them and supporting them and their families and all the above. In other words, again, Jesus is selflessly serving these kids who are in need in the Tyler community through David and Sharon. Guess what? As David and Sharon,
maybe he's going to do the same thing through you.
Maybe not. Maybe that's not part of the way he's uniquely wired you and who he's leading you to. But these are examples of how this works. I'll give you one more. Larry Robbins, one of our members, again, he taught for me a few weeks ago. He drives over an hour one or two Saturdays a month to teach a Bible study to men who were homeless and who were struggling with addictions, or maybe are struggling with addictions. It's through another one of our missions partners called the Wiseman ministries, and it's named after a guy whose name was Wiseman. Tim Wiseman, he started this outreach in 2003 to those seeking freedom from life, controlling issues. Wiseman ministries purpose listen to this is to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, provide shelter to the homeless, provide ministry to those in prison and liberty to those controlled by addiction. Sounds a lot like we just read in Luke chapter four, doesn't it? Why does that sound so similar? Well, because Jesus selflessly serves people in need. It's what he said he came to do. And Jesus lives in Tim Wiseman, and so as the instrument of the master's hands, he starts a ministry to do the Master's purpose, mission, what he came to do. It's his way of working through him, and Larry has joined that because he's led him to be a part of those things as well. Again, Jesus selflessly serves needy people through you as you so once again, who is he calling you? Because he's not calling me to do it because, guess what, I'm not you. He's not calling a person next to you to do it, because you're there, not you, it's you. You may think that you don't have anything valuable to contribute, but Jesus has given you a unique personality, unique giftings, unique talents, and when he empowers those and expresses his life, resurrection life through those things, don't you try to tell me that you don't have something to do in the kingdom of God, because he's going to do it, but he's going to do it through you as you you just make yourself available in the master's hands for his special purposes. And watch what he'll do. I.