Season 2 - Going Public
Episode 1 - “Jesus Launches His Invasion”
Pastor Josh McPherson, May 05, 2019
Text: Luke 4:14-30

Intro:

• D-Day (June 6th, 1944) was to WWII Victory, as Jesus’s Life was to Final Restoration (Creation - Fall - Redemption - Restoration)

• The decisive blow! The beginning of the end… Still some skirmishes and battles, but the outcome is secure.

3 Questions: Who Is Jesus? What is His Message? Who is His Message For?

I. Who is Jesus?

1. Spirit-filled preacher (preaching is at the core of Christianity)

2. Hometown Hero (Nazareth, “Joseph’s boy”, but they ultimately reject his message)

3. Regular church goer (it was his “custom” to gather in the synagogue, is it yours?)

4. Promise-fulfilling Messiah (Reads Isaiah 61…“Today, this scripture is fulfilled.”)!!

5. Kingdom Inaugurator (“The year of the Lord’s favor.” Brought mercy not judgment)

II. What is His Message?

Jesus’s came to proclaim good news to the poor. (Isa. 61:1-3)

III. Who is His Message For?

Jesus came for the poor. Who are the poor?

Jesus came only for those who know they are spiritually poor and impoverished.

Biblical Examples Jesus referred to, that infuriated the crowd:

• Elijah & the Widow in the famine (physically poor, gentile) (1 Kings 17)
• Elisha & the leper Naaman (physically rich, gentile) (2 Kings 5)

How to know you’re spiritually middle class:

1. You control God through your obedience

2. You despise poor people 

The Jewish crowd expected…

…a social revolution…give the poor a higher standard of living!

…a medical revolution…heal our sick and diseased!

…a political revolution…overthrow the ones oppressing us in government!

Instead, Jesus offered first & foremost, spiritual freedom.      

“Yes, he fed the hungry, healed the sick, gave physical sight to the blind, but all of this was pointing to the reality of a much bigger kingdom, one that would bring spiritual deliverance from the power of Satan and sin.”

Jesus’s gospel is for us in our:

POVERTY

BLINDNESS

BONDAGE

The Church’s Job…

The church's job is to collectively and individually, organizationally and organically, … proclaim and demonstrate the good news of the gospel to the spiritually and physically poor, disabled, imprisoned, and oppressed.

The year of the Lord's Favor is now, the time to respond and act is TODAY.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor..."

"...and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, 

a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Isa. 61:1-3