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Sermon Notes for July 13, 2003
The Emotions Of Jesus
The Passion Of Jesus
Luke 4:14-23
Introduction
A. What Is YOUR Passion?
1. What drives you, motivates you? What gets you up in the morning?
a. do you have a passion?
b. do you have a goal in life?
c. or is life to you simply that . . . life?
2. Does this describe your view of your life?
a. One of the most challenging courses at the University of Denver was a business law class in which the professor gave difficult true and false tests. During one of the more exasperating exams, the professor noticed another student flipping a coin. The professor approached him. “Son are you guessing on this test?” he asked. “No sir,” replied the student. “I’m just checking my answers.”
b. In preparation for a similar sermon, a large church went out onto the street and asked that question: “What is your purpose in life?” Here were some of the responses:
· “I can’t say I know the purpose . . . I think after I die I’ll find out what the purpose of life is.”
· “My purpose? I think my purpose is . . . I don’t know.”
c. or as Yogi Berra once said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re likely to end up someplace else.”
B. What Was JESUS’ Passion?
1. The passion and goal of Jesus was crystal clear.
a. never for one day did He wonder about what He was on this earth to be or do.
b. each and every day was a day that He gave Himself to His mission.
c. Jesus was never one to “try to find Himself” – no, there has never ever been a person who both knew Himself as well as His purpose in life more than Jesus Christ.
2. Let’s look at what His passion was.
I. The PATTERN For Jesus.
A. The COMMITMENT Of Jesus.
Vs. 14 – “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.”
1. His return to His hometown.
a. Jesus’ time to fulfill His purpose on this earth had arrived.
1. He was led into the desert to be filled with the temptations of
Satan.
a. I believe this season of temptation would allow Jesus to
experience each and every temptation that mankind
would experience.
b. thus allowing Him to fully identify with each and every
one of us
2. after being assaulted by Satan, He now becomes filled with by
the Holy Spirit
b. He would return to His hometown of Nazareth.
1. here, His ministry would “officially begin”
2. here, He would establish the purpose and goal of His mission
on this earth.
2. His return to His hope.
a. it must have been exhilarating to know that HIS TIME HAD COME
b. after 30 years of living on this earth, IT WAS TIME TO ACT.
B. The CUSTOM Of Jesus.
Vs. 16 – “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he
went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.”
1. In His surroundings
a. there didn’t seem to be anything “special” about Jesus up to this point in His life
b. He went about His daily routines
1. of being the son of Joseph and Mary
2. of being a carpenter
c. this is obvious when people show their surprise to His “new ministry” – Vs. 22 – “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
2. In His synagogue
a. the tradition of the Sabbath Day – the obligation
1. each and every Jew in Israel would be attending synagogue on a
Sabbath Day
2. Jesus would be no exception
3. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS GOD!
a. can you imagine how many services He had to sit
through without saying a word?
b. the lack of teaching of THE WORD THAT HE
WROTE!
c. AND APPARENTLY, UP TO THIS POINT, he never
said a word! That is why the audience was shocked
when He got up to speak.
b. the tradition of the Synagogue – the order
1. there would be the singing of the Psalms (145-150)
2. followed by the recitation of the Shema (Deut. 6:-9) “Hear O
Israel, the Lord is one God, the Lord is one.”
3. next the Eighteen Benedictions – the Tefillah – would be
read aloud in succession
4. then came the reading of the Scripture – the Old Testament
a. an official of the synagogue (chazzan) would go get the
Holy Torah on a scroll to be read – first from the
Pentateuch – the first five books
b. after each reading, a translator (methurgeman) would
translate the Hebrew into Aramaic – (the language of the
day)
5. then another reading from the Prophets – the Haftarah would
be read
6. there might be a teaching from these Scriptures that were read –
very often from various teachers, rabbis or even visiting
teachers
7. then would come the Aaronic benediction with the people
pronouncing Amen at each of its divisions. “The Lord bless
you and keep you (Amen), the Lord make His face to shine
upon you and be gracious to you, (Amen) the Lord turn His
face toward you and give you peace (Amen).
c. the tradition by the Savior – the opportunity
1. it would be during the service of the reading of the Prophets
that Jesus would speak.
2. it would be here and now that Jesus would “drop a bomb” on
this unsuspecting congregation in Nazareth.
II. The PRESENTATION Of Jesus.
A. The TIMING Of The Presentation.
1. The text itself.
a. It is very, very interesting which text Jesus read
1. did the hazzan give Jesus the exact text to read?
2. or did Jesus choose the text?
b. whatever happened, Jesus read FOR HIS STATEMENT – Isaiah 61:1-2
2. The teaching itself.
a. WITHOUT A DOUBT, JESUS WAS SAYING THAT HE WAS THE FULFILLMENT OF THAT TEXT!
b. In a sense, Jesus was saying that THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT WAS ABOUT HIM!
1. prophesied in Genesis 3:15
2. illustrated in the sacrificial system
a. the Tabernacle
b. the Passover
3. prophesied all throughout the Old Testament – AND
ESPECIALLY IN THIS TEXT!
a. the entire Bible is about Jesus – a pop-up cross should
appear anywhere in the Bible
b. G.Van Goningen – Messianic Revelation In The Old
Testament
B. The TRUTH About The Presentation.
Vs. 18 - "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”
1. The anointing of Jesus.
a. Notice what Jesus is saying:
1. not only am I the fulfillment of this passage
2. GOD’S VERY SPIRIT IS UPON ME AND HE HAS
CALLED ME TO DO THIS!
b. the Spirit of the Lord is on ME; He has anointed ME
2. The attitude of Jesus.
a. at this point, Jesus is RESOLUTE, HE IS COMMITTED
b. what He is going to say to this audience is MONUMENTAL
1. so if this is Jesus’ passion . . .
2. shouldn’t this be OUR passion?
III. The PASSION Of Jesus.
A. The PURPOSE Of Jesus.
1. “Preaching the Good News to the Poor”
a. is it the physically poor?
1. is Jesus centering His focus on the physically poor of the day?
2. even though Jesus had a ministry to the physically poor, they
didn’t seem to be His audience here
a. notice what Jesus said in response to Judas when Mary
anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume
1. John 12:5 - "Why wasn't this perfume sold and
the money given to the poor? It was worth a
year's wages."
2. John 12:7-8 - "Leave her alone," Jesus replied.
"It was intended that she should save this
perfume for the day of my burial. You will
always have the poor among you, but you will
not always have me."
b. and what “eventually” happened to Jesus’ ministry to
the poor?
1. He established no organization to take care of
the poor
2. what happened to the poor when He left this
earth?
3. this seems to be the focus of the so-called
“social gospel” of the theologically liberal
b. is it the spiritually poor?
1. this seems to be His audience
2. what does Jesus say?
a. the “good news” is not directed at the physically poor
1. the good news is the word euangellion – “the
gospel”
2. how can the saving knowledge of Jesus help a
person from being poor – it is a spiritual gospel,
not a physical gospel
b. the gospel is directed at the spiritually poor
1. notice Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:3 - "Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.”
2. to focus on people who are:
a. spiritually bankrupt
b. have no “spiritual money in the bank”
c. to those people who are broken
1. Ruth Harms Caulkins –
“Lord, I’m drowning,
in a sea of perplexity
waves of confusion crash over
me.
Far too weak to shout for help
Either quiet the waves
Or lift me above them,
It’s too late to learn to swim.
2. to whom did Jesus Christ offer
His gospel?
a. it was not “just” the
physically poor
b. it was those who were
spiritually poor
c. my testimony
c. so . . . who are the poor?
1. the poor are those who don’t know Jesus
2. the poor are those who are “spiritually broke”
3. Jesus came to reach those people – DO YOU KNOW
ANYONE WHO IS POOR?
2. “Proclaiming freedom for the prisoners”
a. is it a physical prisoner?
1. while Jesus DID call Christians to visit those in prison
a. Matthew 25 Jesus refers to the Last Judgment. At this
judgment, we will all be judged as to our ministry to
several groups of people
1. the hungry
2. the thirsty
3. the poor
4. the sick
5. the prisoner – Matthew 25:36 – “I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you
looked after me, I was in prison and you came
to visit me.”
b. there is no doubt that “part” of our ministry on this earth
should be to visit those in prison
2. is this what He meant here?
b. is it a spiritual prisoner?
1. once again, was this the essence of Jesus’ ministry?
a. why didn’t He speak more about visiting prisons?
b. why didn’t He leave us with a plan?
2. on the other hand, look at how much emphasis Jesus gave to
those who were “spiritually in prison”
a. the man at the pool
b. the woman at the well
c. Zaccheus
d. the woman caught in adultery
3. we don’t have to look very far to find people who are in a
spiritual prison
a. there are some 14 million alcoholics in America – 1 in
13 adults
b. 15.7 million Americans 12 or older used illicit drugs
c. 1400 college students die from alcohol related injuries
d. some 16 million Americans 12 and older abuse drugs
e. currently there are some 30,000 suicides annually.
· there are 83 suicides every day or 1 suicide every 17 minutes;
§ for ages under 25 there is a suicide every 1 hour and 57 minutes.
§ the fastest segment of suicide attempts are children between the ages of 10-14
f. each year some 1-2 million children will be harmed by
their parents. In 2000 1,200 children died of abuse and
neglect. Of those fatalities, 85% were under the age of
six.
g. 1 out of 1.8 marriages end in divorce
c. so . . . who is in a spiritual prison?
1. LOOK AROUND YOU . . .
2. a person, any person, is in a spiritual prison who cannot make
their own choices, a:
a. “workaholic”
b. “alcoholic”
c. “gamblingaholic”
d. “sexaholic”
e. “rageaholic”
f. “houseaholic”
g. “successaholic”
h. “moneyaholic”
3. you see, true spiritual freedom is when:
a. a person can “choose” not to do evil - but can as
well “choose” to be spiritual
b. and until a person can “choose” to be spiritual, that
person is not truly “free.”
c. look with me at Paul’s comments in Romans 7:21-24 -
1. “So I find this law at work: When I want to
do good, evil is right there with me. For in my
inner being I delight in God's law; but I see
another law at work in the members of my
body, waging war against the law of my mind
and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at
work within my members. What a wretched
man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
of death?”
2. It is reported that near Tarsus, where Paul was
born, (Acts 22:3) a certain ancient tribe of people
lived who inflicted a most terrible penalty upon a
convicted murderer. They fastened the corpse of
the slain person to that of the killer, tying
shoulder to shoulder, back to back, thigh to
thigh, arm to arm, and then drove the murderer
from the community. So tight were the bands
that he could not free himself. After a few
days, the death in the body communicated itself
to the living flesh of the murderer. As he stalked
the land, there was none to help him. He had
only the frightful prospect of gangrenous death.
He could well cry in horror, a wretched man that
I am! Thus, Paul could say, “Who will deliver
me from the body of death?”