That Word Above All Earthly Powers

Sermon Transcript

Today most will tell you that if you want to have a successful organization, you ought to have a clear mission statement. Google’s mission statement is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” The American Red Cross’ is “To prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.” Harvard University’s is “To educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society.” What’s Jesus’, though? Does he even have one?

 

Today we’re at an important juncture in our study of the Gospel According to Luke. Luke was an early disciple of Jesus who wrote this account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection within the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, and under the inspiration of the Spirit of God himself. He began with the narrative of Jesus’ birth, in which various angels and prophets identify Jesus as the Son of God, the promised and long-awaited savior of God’s people, who would grant them forgiveness of their sins and reign over them, and over all the nations, in an everlasting kingdom of righteousness and peace. He then included one story of Jesus at age 12, and fast-forwarded from then to when he was about 30 years old. At that time Jesus was baptized, and God himself spoke from heaven and identified Jesus as his beloved Son, and sent his Spirit to rest on Jesus like a dove. Luke tells us this marked the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Prior to then, Jesus lived in relative obscurity, but at his baptism, he went public. Why? Why did God anoint him with his Spirit and send him out from his life of obscurity? What was his mission statement? That’s the question Jesus himself answers in this text. Jesus went public to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. So we’ll see in this passage that good news announced, then that good news rejected, then that good news displayed, and finally, then that good news exported.

 

The good news announced

 

Our passage begins with a summary of Jesus’ ministry in verses 14-15 of chapter 4. At the beginning of chapter 4, we read of how after the Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And now, having emerged victorious over the devil and all his temptations, what do we find happens? Well verse 13 tells us the devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time, but the Spirit? We read in verse 14 that Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. When the first son of God, Adam, was tempted in the garden, instead of expelling the serpent, he followed the serpent, and as a result, Adam was expelled from the presence of the Lord. But here the second son of God, the last Adam, resisted the devil, and it was the devil who departed, while the Spirit of the Lord remained upon Jesus, and went with him to Galilee.

 

Then when Luke summarizes for us Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, look at what he says in verse 15: He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Much like today you might expect to find at least some building in pretty much every town or city in America that is owned by a Christian church, so in Galilee you would expect there to be a Jewish synagogue in every town, in which the Jews of the town would gather on the Sabbath, the last day of the week, and hear teaching from the scriptures God had given to Israel, what we now call the Old Testament. So what did Jesus do when he began his ministry to the public, after emerging victorious over Satan? He went to the synagogues, and taught in them. Now in the verses we’ve just read you no doubt noticed that Jesus did more than teach: He also cast out demons and healed diseases. But it’s interesting when Luke summarizes Jesus’ ministry, he doesn’t mention those things. Instead, he highlights Jesus’ teaching, as if to say that’s the thing that Jesus was really going out to do, although yes, along the way, he also cast out demons and healed diseases.

 

What did Jesus teach in these synagogues, then? Luke begins to show us by telling the story of when Jesus went to one particular synagogue, the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. This was not necessarily the first synagogue in which he preached—Luke organizes his stories thematically more than chronologically, and he puts this story here first because it’s at this trip to the synagogue that Jesus announces what his public ministry is all about. He gets handed the scroll of Isaiah, and he goes and finds the part that we now call Isaiah chapter 61, where it says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant, and sat back down. When someone does that today that usually means they’re done, but in the ancient world teachers typically taught while sitting down. That means he’s getting ready to explain the passage he just read, as was customary in the synagogues. So the eyes of all are fixed on him, and here comes the sermon after the scripture reading, verse 21: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In Isaiah 61, the speaker, the one who says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” is not identified by name. He’s just called “the servant of the Lord.” Well Jesus just named him. He said, “I am he.” Now that the scripture has been read by him, the scripture has been fulfilled. He is the promised servant of the Lord who was anointed with God’s Spirit after his baptism, who has now returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and now he explains why the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, what it is the Lord anointed him to do: To proclaim good news.

 

And this is not just any good news. It’s good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, and here’s the big summary in verse 19: The year of the Lord’s favor. Now remember this is at a Jewish synagogue to a Jewish audience, and they all would have known what “the year of the Lord’s favor” meant: It meant the year of Jubilee, which God had instituted in his law. God commanded there that when Israel dwelled in the promised land, the land God promised to give to the head of Israel, Abraham, and his descendants, they were to rest from farming every 7^th year, and this was called a sabbath year, like the weekly sabbath day. But then after 7 cycles of that, after the 49^th year, the 50^th year was to be a year of jubilee, a year on which they would not only rest from their work, but a year in which, as biblical scholar Benjamin Gladd summarizes: they were to forgive debts, return any land or property procured during the previous forty-nine years, help the poor, and release Israelite slaves. What’s that sound like? It sounds like good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and liberty to all those who are oppressed.

 

When you look at Israel’s actual history, though, it’s not clear they ever observed the year of Jubilee. What is clear is that they disobeyed God’s law in many ways, and God judged their sin by removing them from the promised land and sending them into exile. When God first spoke those words written down in the scroll of Isaiah that Jesus read, it was written to those people in exile, under captivity from the foreign, wicked nation of Babylon, and now when Jesus speaks it, it’s spoken to people under the dominion of the foreign, wicked empire of Rome. But here’s what’s interesting about that: We have the whole story of Jesus’ life and ministry in Luke and in the other Gospels, we know that 10-30% of the Roman Empire was enslaved, but in none of those Gospel accounts do we find Jesus releasing one of those slaves from their earthly slavery. Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Israel remains under the authority of the Roman Empire. He says here that the Lord anointed him to proclaim good news to the poor, but in none of the Gospels do we find Jesus going to a materially poor person and giving them money or making the materially poor materially wealthy. He certainly commands his disciples to give to the poor, but poverty alleviation the way we typically think of it was clearly not his mission statement.

 

Instead, what do we find even in this text? Jesus says in verse 21 that this scripture has been fulfilled…in your hearing. It’s not been fulfilled in your receiving money, or your release from Roman dominion. It’s been fulfilled in your hearing because it’s when someone hears the word of Christ and believes it that they become truly rich, receive true sight, and are set free from true captivity. What will it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? What would it profit anyone if Jesus gave them material wealth that he himself said thieves can break in and steal, and that moth and rust can destroy? As the star actor Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” What good would it do for Jesus to give sight to the blind while leaving them blind to their own sin, and to God’s glory? Most of us in the room today have 20/20 vision or can get close with glasses, and does that really just make our lives sing? What good would it do to make a Roman slave a Roman citizen while their days and Rome’s were numbered, and they remained a slave to their sin?

 

If a change in material conditions was the extent of the good news Jesus was anointed to proclaim, it wouldn’t be very good news. This good news is better than material wealth for the materially poor or social power for the socially oppressed. This good news is the unsearchable riches of Christ for the spiritually poor, sight of the true God and his glory in the face of Jesus Christ for the spiritually blind, and freedom from sin, death, and condemnation for those who were its captives. Of course, that’s also good news for the materially poor, the physically blind, and the socially oppressed—where so much in this world is not available to them, Jesus is freely offered to them as much as anyone else. If they receive him, they will have in him greater wealth, clearer sight, and greater freedom than those at the top of the social ladder who reject him, and one day they will live with him in a world free of poverty, blindness, and oppression. But if the materially poor remains spiritually proud, if the physically blind thinks they see just fine, and if the socially oppressed deny their bondage to sin, they’re no eternally better off than the rich who oppress them.

 

I’ve had the privilege to pastor a few of you who are victims of real, wicked abuse, and one theme I’ve noticed in your stories: Things started to shift in your life and in your relationship with God when he showed you that though the abuse you suffered was not your fault in any way, you are not only a victim of the sin of others: You are a perpetrator of sin yourself. You might think that would make abuse victims even more miserable, but the testimony I’ve heard from multiple saints now is just the opposite: Instead, seeing your own sin clearly opened the door to your hearing the good news of Jesus, which brought joy and peace into your lives you’d never known before. That’s the catch with this good news: It’s for the poor, the blind, the captive, and the oppressed, such that if you can’t in some measure see yourself as poor, blind, captive, and oppressed, then the good news Jesus announced won’t sound very good to you.

 

If you’re here today and you are not a Christian, the rest of us here know to varying degrees what that feels like; I lived 19 years of my life as a non-Christian, though I spent all 19 of those years attending churches that professed Christ. But here’s what I remember about those years: I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I thought I was basically a decent guy. I certainly didn’t think of myself as poor, captive, blind, and oppressed, and so guess what? The good news of Jesus never impacted my heart, and it will never impact yours either if you’re still committed to the illusion of your basic goodness. The Bible’s verdict on you, me, and everyone else in this room is that left to ourselves we are spiritually broke, with no righteousness of our own to offer God, not just occasional sinners, but captive to sin, and not just like we have 20/40 vision where maybe you need some night-time driving glasses, but utterly blind to God and his glory. And Jesus went public to preach good news to those very people. As the late pastor Tim Keller has said, all you need to receive this good news is need; all you need is nothing. But that’s the one thing many don’t have. So let’s look next at this good news rejected.

 

The good news rejected

 

So we read in verse 22 that all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming out of his mouth. That sounds good, right? But then they say, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Sure he was speaking gracious words, marvelous words, good news of riches, sight, and freedom, but hold up…isn’t that Joseph’s son? This reveals that the Nazarenes didn’t really think of themselves as poor, blind, and captive, because when you really think of yourself that way, you don’t usually reject help. I’ve never given to a beggar in Philadelphia who said, “Oh you want to help me? Who do you think you are?” No, a beggar by definition is assuming a humble position—signs often even say things like, “every little bit helps.”

 

No, you only reject help from someone if you think you don’t need help from them. Like I recently finished watching the Australian Open Tennis tournament, in which Novak Djokovic lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final. I play some tennis myself, but imagine if I saw Novak Djokovic, the greatest tennis player of all time, and said, “Hey Novak, noticed you botched that forehand on 4-4 in the 4^th set when you had a break point on Carlos. Mind if I show you a few things to maybe help you next time?” What’s he going to say? Thanks but no thanks; I’m a 24-time grand slam champion and you lose matches on the regular in your mediocre amateur league. That’s kinda what the people of Nazareth are doing to Jesus here: You are going to proclaim good news to us? Aren’t you Joseph’s son?

 

And as if that weren’t already lowly enough, Jesus ends his life even lower: On a cross. As his humble, mediocre status was a stumbling block for the Nazarenes, so his crucified status remained a stumbling block for the Jews of the first century. This guy claims to be the anointed one of God, the Christ, the Messiah, but is not this the one who was nailed to a cross? Why listen to that guy? And don’t we find ourselves almost instinctively drawn to listen to those with the most impressive resumes according to worldly standards? The CEO with the highest earnings, the professor with the most publications, the YouTube influencer with the most followers, perhaps even the Pastor whose podcast has the most subscribers? And the Nazarenes were supposed to listen to Joseph’s son?!

 

Well Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he shows us in verse 23 that he knew what would help: If he did some impressive works there. Surely then they would listen, right? Maybe, but it turns out Jesus isn’t interested in winning those kinds of followers. Insecure leaders feel a need to do that because they get validation from the number of people who applaud them. Jesus isn’t like that, though. He doesn’t cater to our pride; he calls us to repent of our pride, humble ourselves, and receive salvation from him, the son of Joseph and crucified savior. And if we refuse to do that, he’s not going to change the rules of engagement to get us on his team. We need him; he doesn’t need us. Out of love for us he calls us to himself, but if you insist on rejecting him, he’s content to move on.

 

And he appeals to two events from Israel’s history to show that this was God’s ordinary way of dealing with his people. When there was a famine over the land, there were a lot of hungry people in Israel, but Elijah was sent to none of them. Instead, he was sent to a foreign widow in a foreign land. Similarly, Elijah’s successor, Elisha, crossed the path of a lot of lepers in his time in Israel, but the only one that got cleansed was a foreigner—Naaman the Syrian. God didn’t owe the Israelites blessing, nor did God owe the Nazarenes blessing, nor does God owe us blessing. If you think he does, you’ll never get to know the real Jesus. Those who think God owes them blessing respond to the real Jesus the way we see the Nazarenes responding in verse 28: When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. So they rose up, drove him out of town, then brought him to the edge of the hill on which their town was built, and tried to toss him off it.

 

Jesus went public to proclaim good news, but the news itself and the speaker of it are an affront to human pride. You’re calling me poor, blind, and captive, and saying I have to put all my hopes for salvation in what some guy did on a cross 2000 years ago? No thanks; pride says—I’ll stick with my own efforts at self-improvement. Religious people are no less susceptible to it–the Jews in Jesus’ day assumed their pedigree entitled them to God’s favor, and how many today assume upbringing in a Christian home, the size of their donations, or attendance at church gatherings similar to attendance at the synagogue entitle them to God’s favor? Don’t be surprised when people, even seemingly religious people, reject Jesus and his word. Don’t be surprised when they are hostile toward it, and even toward you as one who proclaims it. You can’t make the good news better so that everyone will like it. It’s already the best news imaginable, and yet right here at the beginning, we see there were some who not only rejected it, but hated the one who preached it. For now, though, Jesus escapes and goes to Capernaum, where we see the good news displayed.

 

The good news displayed

 

Verse 31 begins the story of Jesus’ time in Capernaum, which became a kind of home base to him for his ministry in Galilee. Once again, what do we find him doing? Teaching on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. Where often the scribes of Jesus’ day appealed to past scribes and teachers of the law for the authority of their teaching, Jesus spoke as one having his own authority. Well that day at the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and after the demon speaks to Jesus, look what Jesus does in verse 35: Jesus rebuked the demon, saying “Be silent and come out of him.” And what did the demon do? He came out of the man. The people were already amazed that he taught as one with authority, but now look at what they say in verse 36: “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

 

Jesus didn’t just drive out the unclean spirit; Jesus spoke to the unclean spirit. He rebuked it, and the people then said, “What is this word?” At his command, even the unclean spirit obeys. He taught in the synagogues and amazed the people by his teaching. He said the Spirit anointed him to proclaim good news. So what does the casting out of the demon do? It displays the power and authority of the word of Christ. It gives a visible confirmation, a visible attestation, to the good news Jesus said he was anointed to proclaim. He was sent to proclaim liberty to the captives, and now what do we see? We see this man who was captive to an unclean demon set free by the word of Christ.

 

Interesting too that it was an unclean demon. That’s kind of redundant, isn’t it? Like is there really such thing as a clean demon? No, to be a demon is to be unclean, but Luke still adds the label here once again for thematic reasons. What is Jesus doing here? He’s not only proclaiming liberty to the captive; he’s cleansing the people from all their uncleanness. Think back to the year of jubilee, that glorious 50^th year in which all was to be made right. That year began with the day of atonement.

 

On the day of atonement, the high priest of Israel would offer sacrifice on behalf of the people to cleanse them of the defilement of their sins. And then, with the slate wiped clean, they could enjoy new life in the presence of their God in this glorious year of his favor. So here, if Jesus is bringing the year of the Lord’s favor, he has cleansing work to do. He cleanses this man of his unclean spirit, and then he goes on to perform similar miracles and signs for many others. He goes to Simon’s house and heals his mother-in-law of a high fever. Fevers were a big deal in the ancient world; figures from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo died of fevers. And did you catch how Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever? He spoke to it. And in verse 41 we read yet again of Jesus rebuking demons, who then must obey him, though they obviously wish to oppose him.

 

This little cluster of stories here shows us that Jesus wasn’t bluffing when he said the Spirit anointed him to proclaim liberty to the captives, because when he proclaims that liberty, people are set free, and don’t you know that to be the case, brothers and sisters? How many of you can testify to being set free from your sin and shame by the powerful word of Christ? How many of you can testify that he graciously freed you from your rebellion by the word he spoke through whoever he sent to preach the word to you? What a shame it is, then, when people today try to replicate these signs in Jesus’ name instead of proclaiming the good news Jesus commissioned his church to proclaim. Did Jesus rebuke fevers, and they went away? Absolutely. Does that mean if you just have enough faith and use the right combination of words, that you too can rebuke fevers, and they’ll go away? Absolutely not. Did Jesus drive out demons just by speaking to them, and they had to obey him? Yes. Does that mean you need to go read a bunch of bad books on spiritual warfare to master the right techniques so you can drive out demons too? No.

 

If you want to be safe from demons, believe the word of Christ. Jesus performed these signs at specific times with specific people to display the good news he was proclaiming, just like his apostles performed similar signs at specific times with specific people to display that they were indeed the messengers Jesus sent. The response Jesus wants from us to these signs is not that we try to muster up enough faith and learn enough technique to be able to go replicate them ourselves. The response he wants is that we believe the good news those signs display, and then set free from our sins, that we rise and serve him, as Simon’s mother-in-law did in verse 39.

 

I mean you can imagine her situation; with a high fever like that, she’s literally on her death bed. But then this man comes proclaiming good news, and just rebukes that fever that was about to kill you, and it leaves you. How likely would you be to say, “Hey thanks; I’ve got a few other things to do though, so I’m gonna get out of here”? Does it really make sense, then, that we who have been saved not just from death, but from the second death, not just from a high fever, but from the flames of hell itself, does it really make sense that we would look at our savior and say, “Hey thanks; I’ve got a few other things to do though”? I mean, what better is there to give your life to than the service of Christ? Simon’s mother-in-law doesn’t even stop with Jesus; she’s looking to serve everyone in the joint—verse 39 says she rose and began to serve them.

 

Have you lost sight of what incredible grace you’ve received? When we think we’ve been given little, we go out into the world as consumers—we look to our family, our friends, our church, and our city as though we have needs that they ought to meet. But when we are conscious of the salvation we’ve received from Jesus, we go out into our world as providers—we look to our family, our friends, our church, and our city as people we have an opportunity to serve. This church is such a joy to be a part of because so many of you come to these services week-in and week-out on the lookout for opportunities to serve. Then you spend your weeks looking for more ways to serve, because you’ve been set free from slavery to self by the powerful word of Christ. If we could cast out all demons and heal all diseases but have not this kind of love, what profit would that be?

 

And we know, finally, that the healings and the exorcisms weren’t ultimate, because of what Jesus does next. Let’s look last at the good news exported.

 

The good news exported

 

So Jesus is healing people and casting out demons, but verse 42 tells us he departed and went to a desolate place. Even then, the text goes on to tell us that people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. Jesus is healing people and casting out demons, and who doesn’t want in on that? He’s able to do it, and he’s happy to do it. So surely, when they come find him and try to get him to stay, he’ll stay and heal more people, right? He doesn’t, though. Instead, he says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And our text ends right where it began: He was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Jesus healed people, Jesus cast out demons, but the thing Jesus himself says he was sent to do, the thing Jesus says he must do, is preach. That’s why Luke could summarize his ministry as teaching in verse 15. That’s why the summary that ends the passage is preaching. The healings and exorcisms displayed the good news, but Jesus was sent to preach the good news.

 

You’ve perhaps noticed that we spend a good chunk of our worship gatherings on the Lord’s Day preaching the word of Christ. Preaching is intentionally the center of our gatherings, rather than even good things like communion or music, and this is a big part of why: Because preaching was the center of Jesus’ ministry. Just as Jesus went public to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, Jesus has sent his people public to preach the good news of the kingdom, only we have even more good news to preach! We not only proclaim that Jesus has come; we proclaim that Jesus has died on the cross to bear the judgment God’s people deserved. When Jesus read from Isaiah 61 and said that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him to proclaim good news, he ended the quote by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. But if you go back and look at Isaiah 61, the words that follow that announcement of the year of the Lord’s favor are these: “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Isaiah prophesied that the year of the Lord’s favor would be accompanied by the day of God’s vengeance, but Jesus didn’t quote that part because he was coming not to bring God’s vengeance; he was coming to bear God’s vengeance, so that all who would turn from their sins and believe in him would receive God’s favor. And just as here, when they tried to throw him off a cliff, Jesus escaped, so then, even when Jesus’ own people did succeed in putting him to death, even when the demons appeared victorious over him, he escaped when he rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father’s right hand, where he rules now by his word and Spirit over every earthly power, and from where he promises to come again, to usher in the fullness of the kingdom of God. On that day his poor will be rich, his blind will see, his captives will be set free, our cleansing will be complete, and all our diseases will be healed.

 

This is the good news of the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters. And we can hear it today because Jesus went on to the other towns to proclaim it, and then he sent his apostles to still other towns to proclaim it, and Christians since then have received this word, and gone on to other towns to proclaim it. May that not end with us, Citylight Center City. Let’s devote ourselves to good works that display what the kingdom of God is like—we’re happy to serve the Spring Garden School, the Hope Pregnancy Center, and other organizations like them. We’re happy to bring one another meals, help clean up blocks, and pray for the healing of diseases, because the kingdom of God is one in which kids are safe, the hungry are fed, blocks are clean, and diseases are healed. But let’s not display what the kingdom of God is like without telling people how they can enter that kingdom. Let’s not display what that kingdom is like without telling people about the best part of the kingdom: The king himself, who went public to preach the good news of that kingdom. That’s what he sent us out into the world to do.

 

Let’s preach that good news ourselves, and let’s export the preaching of that good news. Jesus wasn’t content to preach only in Capernaum; he said he must go to the other towns as well, and he has sent his church to all the nations. We must go. That doesn’t mean that every individual in this church must go to every nation on the earth, but it does mean every individual in this church must have a concern to see the gospel preached to all the nations of the earth, and it does mean that we, in partnership with other churches, must work together to export the preaching of this good news to all the nations of the earth. This is why we are excited to support Stephen and Alexandra. It’s why they’re giving so much time and energy to just learning the Japanese language, so that they can preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the people of Japan in a way they can actually understand. This is why we want to join ACME, not the grocery store chain, but the Association of Churches for Missions and Evangelism, to work with other like-minded churches to see the preaching of this good news spread to all the nations of the earth. This is why one of the recurrent themes of our prayers should be for the preaching of the good news of the kingdom to flourish in this church in such a way that we have more preachers of that word in this church than this local church needs, so we can export that preaching to other churches and places. This is part of why we have evening prayer services like the one later today in which members of our church get a chance to preach this good news, and why sometimes even on Sundays we have men who are not yet set apart as elders preach this good news. This is why we devote a significant portion of our budget and hope to devote more of our budget in coming years to paying a pastor to preach this good news here, paying a pastoral assistant to get further training in preaching this good news, in the future Lord willing paying interns to train to preach this good news, and to send a lot of that money elsewhere to support the preaching of this good news domestically and internationally in places like Japan.

 

The reason Jesus went public, the reason the Spirit of God descended on Jesus like a dove, according to Jesus himself, was so that he might preach the good news of the kingdom of God. Repent and believe that good news, join in proclaiming that good news, and let’s export that good news to all the nations of the earth.