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11-Luke-C4-the_Inaugural_Speech.hwp|
Luke 4:14-30 Key Verse 4:18 To Preach Good News to the Poor "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." When a new president takes office, he makes an inaugural speech. In the speech, he announces what he will do for the country during his term. Based on his speech, people anticipate how their life will be in five or so years. So inaugural speech is like a compass or a guideline, which shows the course a nation will take for its safety and prosperity. Today's passage is the inaugural speech of Jesus. After he overcame Satan's temptation, Jesus started his mission as the Messiah. And at the time of the start, Jesus made the inaugural speech in a synagogue. Through the prophecy of Isaiah, he revealed who he is and declared what he would do. Later, as he declared in his address, Jesus preached the good news to the poor, and proclaimed freedom for the sinners. Truly today's passage is the perfect picture of Jesus and his entire ministry on the earth. Thank God so much for granting us the chance to listen to the great inaugural speech of the Messiah. I pray we may have ears for the speech and find our direction of life based on it. I. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. Look at verses 14-15, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. / He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” After defeating Satan, Jesus returned to Galilee. He was the Son of God and the Savior of the world, but he began his ministry humbly in Galilee, the most despised land. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and the power of God was working mightily through him. His Bible teaching was so powerful that all people were deeply moved. They felt the life of God come into their souls, and they praised Jesus. Among the villages of Galilee, Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. In a synagogue there, he took the scroll of the Isaiah and unrolled it to chapter 61. It was the prophecy about the works of the Messiah. Let's read verse 18 again. "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." What is the mission of the Messiah in the prophecy? Is it to fight against Rome and to found Israel as a superpower? The prophecy says the Messiah's mission is to preach good news to the poor. Here the poor does not mean those who don't make enough money for a living. They are the spiritually poor who suffer from sins. They are the ones who have to die to pay for their sins. In the prophecy, the poor sinners are expressed in other words such as the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed. The poor sinners are the same as prisoners in that they are confined in darkness of sin. They are also like blinds because they do not see the truth and are lost in sins. The power of sin abuses them, so they are also the oppressed. The Messiah will preach the good news to these poor people. He will proclaim freedom for the prisoners. He will recover the sight of the blinds to see the world of truth. Also he will release the oppressed from the power of sin. Verse 19 says the ultimate purpose of Messiah's work. Look at verse 19. "to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." In Leviticus 25, God gave Israel the year of Jubilee. It was a time when slaves were set free, debts were cancelled, and property was returned to its original owner. As it was in the year of Jubilee, the Messiah will recover all things to its original state as it was created. He will treat all the weakness and sickness, and restore the world to the condition which is good in the sight of God. After he read the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and Jesus announced, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." What does this announcement mean? It means Jesus is the Messiah in the prophecy. Jesus, the Messiah, would proclaim good news to the poor. He would set free the sinners from their sufferings. It was Jesus who would proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. As he declared in a synagogue in Galilee, Jesus gave freedom to the poor throughout his public life. Levi was a tax collector. He was lost in his sinful desire. He was blind to the true purpose of life. However, Jesus called him as his disciple and taught him the words of God. Finally the tax collector was changed and became St. Matthew. He wrote the Matthew gospel and sacrificed himself to introducing Jesus to others. Mary Magdalene was oppressed by 7 devils. She wandered here and there out of herself. People deserted her like a dirty waste. But Jesus accepted her as his loving daughter. He drove out the devils from her soul and recover her to one of the most beautiful women. The disciples ran away when Jesus was arrested, but she remained at the place of Jesus' passion. She met the risen Jesus first and let the disciples know the wonderful news. Jesus worked for the poor like us, too. We were all sinners who had to die. But Jesus died on the cross as a ransom for us. Jesus canceled all of our debts, restored our relationship with God, and brought us citizenship into his heavenly kingdom. We are here because he set us free from our sins. Here, we can worship God because Jesus opened our eyes. He released us from the devils so we can serve the gospel work with great joy. I was a blind, too. I was interested only in myself. I just ran forward to get a high position in the world. But with severe headache, Jesus stopped me and turned my eyes to the deep water which is not seen but real. He let me know he died on the cross instead of me. In face of his sacrificial love, I changed the goal of my life. I was born again as a child of God and learned to serve the gospel work as a member of church. We may achieve political freedom by fighting against a dictator. We may be saved from economical misery by working more time. But without Jesus, we can never reach freedom from our sins. Without Jesus, we can never find salvation from death. Only Jesus is the Messiah who leads us to ultimate freedom and everlasting life. This time let's praise God who gave us Jesus, the Messiah. Let's praise Jesus who gives us true freedom. Let's praise the Messiah who recovers our soul to the state which is good in God's sight. II. Jesus and his words were rejected. After he finished his address, Jesus might have wanted everyone to say, “Amen! Yes, Amen. We believe. We believe!” But we see they did not react that way. Look at verse 22, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips, ‘Isn't this Joseph’s son? They asked.’” Initially, people responded to Jesus' message well. They were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. But They did not accept his message as the word of God or accept him as the Messiah. It was because they had a prejudice about the Messiah. For them, the Messiah must ride a big horse with a golden sword and rescue them from Rome. Also, he had to show amazing signs in the sky and perform great miracles like Moses did. However, Jesus was far from their image of Messiah. He was just a son of their neighbor, a poor carpenter. His words sounded good and eloquent, but he did not show any miracle. He was just a son of their neighbor, a poor carpenter. His words sounded good and eloquent, but he did not show any miracle. Jesus knew their heart. Then, how did Jesus help them? In verses 25-27, Jesus told two Bible stories from the book of Kings. A widow in Elijah's time obeyed the word of God by giving her last bit of food to God's servant. Then she was blessed with sufficient food, and later, her only son was raised to life by the power of God. General Naaman obeyed the word of God to wash in the Jordan River, curbing his pride that the rivers of Syria were better. As a result, he was cleansed of his leprosy. The widow and Naaman were Gentiles. But they were saved since they humbly obeyed the words of God. Likewise, Jesus' good news is for anybody and everybody. But only with humble faith in his word, can it be received. Like the widow and Naaman, the people of Nazareth should have accepted the words of Jesus. They should not have focused on the miracle or Jesus' human condition. What was the response of people there to Jesus' advice? They only felt insulted by being compared to Gentiles. Their pride was hurt and they still refused to repent. They rejected Jesus and even wanted to kill him. So began the sufferings of Jesus which would not end until his crucifixion on the cross. My first University was a missionary school. All freshmen had to attend the chapel weekly and take the introductory course about Christianity. However, the students could not listen to the pure gospel at the chapel or the theology class. At that time, the president was 전두환 who came to power by military force. Also the theology at the University was severely influenced by humanism and liberalism. In this political and scholarly setting, many instructors for the religion class introduced Jesus as a social agitator for the public. I do remember a theology professor told us we could not go into God's kingdom even if we believed in Jesus. In this terrible situation, the innocent students could not know real Jesus and the true Bible. They were just contaminated with human prejudice or misinformation. Many people said the students at the University must be faithful christians thanks to the christian education. However, in fact, the University was one of the most difficult schools to introduce Jesus. It was because glasses of prejudice were already put on the eyes of students and it prevented them from seeing the Bible as it is and meeting Jesus as their spiritual savior. These days, I saw this tragedy in our society again. Many people criticized Christianity for this or that both online and offline. But among such people, there are few who have ever studied the Bible meticulously. They just heard false or partial information of the Bible or Jesus or the church. And based on this poor or biased knowledge, they refuse great love of Jesus on the cross and just condemn the church and the Bible. As followers of Jesus, one of the most important mission is to fight against this groundless prejudice. One to one Bible study is the very chance to remove this poisonous weed from the students' heart. Through one to one Bible study, we can plant the right image of God into their mind. They look neat, smart and free, but in fact, they are the prisoners, the blinds, and the oppressed because they are occupied with prejudice and don't know Jesus. We should help them to take off their black glasses and see Jesus with naked eyes. They may stick to their foolish imagination or childlike logic. But we should not give up. We should struggle with them until they may be set free from their absurd guessing and meet Jesus as their Messiah. I pray God may grant us patience to struggle with them. I pray God may grant us the words which we plant into our Bible students. Today we learn who Jesus is and why he came to us. Jesus is the promised Messiah who came for the poor. He opens our spiritual eyes and set us free from sin and death. He recovers us and turns us back to the good state in God's sight. Let us thank God deeply from our hearts for sending Jesus. Let us accept Jesus as our Messiah and taste great joy of freedom. Let us do our best to uproot prejudice against Jesus from people' heart and plant his great love into their soul. |
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