St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Pastor Mark Gartner

Sermon for Epiphany 3 -- January 18^th and 21^st, 2007

Dear Children of God.

Not to long ago, some people said they had found some famous paintings in one of the rooms of their parents. As they looked through the belongings after the father died, they came upon these paintings that caught their attention. They were nice paintings, but they didn’t look that great or that special. Upon further inspection they found a name of a somewhat famous painter on the paintings. When they called in a painting expert they then had to decide if they were real or were they a copy. What would you look for in a painting to show that it was real or fake? One of the first things they did was compare the brush strokes with some of the paintings from this artist that they knew were real to see if they matched the paintings. They looked to see if there were tendencies or similarities in design or shapes. They also looked to see if the canvass on which the paintings were painted matched the canvass from the era of these newly found paintings. After all these painstaking searches, it was found that these actually were the real deal. These were paintings that were really painted by the famous artist and were worth quite a bit of money.

As we gather around God’s Word today, we are going to be taking a closer look at Jesus to see if he was real or pretend. Some people might ask how do you know that Jesus actually was the Son of God who came to save people from their sins? Much like the painting, we need to look closely at what God’s Word says about Jesus. We need to compare his words and actions to see if they point out things that show us who Jesus is. And as we do this we will begin to see more clearly that Jesus was exactly who said he was. He is the real deal. He really is our Savior from sin. Today we will look at these words from the Gospel of Luke to show us that:

Jesus had begun his ministry and was traveling around preaching and teaching God’s Word. Since he was from the city of Nazareth in the area of Galilee, he didn’t begin his work in that area. Instead he gradually worked his way to this region of Israel. In our text we see that Jesus went to the synagogue or church as was the custom and sat down for the service. Jesus would have been very familiar with the synagogue and its order of service. He knew that the service would begin with prayer and then praise to God. It would then proceed to the readings from God’s Word. There would be two readings. The first would have been the Law or portions of the first five books of the Bible and the second reading would be from the writings of one of the prophets. When it was time for the words of the Prophets to be read, Jesus volunteered to read. We can understand that there most likely was a little commotion as Jesus got up to read. He read from the portion of Isaiah that was our Old Testament reading for today from Isaiah 61:1ff. In this section of Isaiah we see the prophet Isaiah speaking of the coming Messiah who would deliver the world from sin, death and hell. Having read these words, Jesus put down the scroll and made the important statement, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

As we look back and see what a prophet was, we recognize that a prophet in its basic role was one who preached God’s Word to the people. Jesus was a person who had been given the gift of preaching and teaching, "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, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Jesus as he read these words from Isaiah was not saying something false. The Holy Spirit had come on Jesus when he was baptized and anointed him to do the work of being a prophet who would preach God’s Word. Jesus was sent out by God’s command and was doing exactly what he had been sent to do. The words that Jesus spoke were the words, which the Holy Spirit had given him to speak. These words of peace and forgiveness were very important.

To be a true prophet, it was essential that he be sent by God. People who claimed to be from God but were false teachers had plagued the people of Israel. It tells us in our text that Jesus was anointed by God the Holy Spirit. He was not preaching because he wanted to. God sent him. Numerous other passages talk about the fact that Jesus was God’s own Son. He was true God and true man. He came from heaven to be our Savior. In the Nicene Creed we confess that we believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.

As we living in this world of false gods and false teachers, it is good for us to recognize that Jesus was divine. Jesus was no pretender. He was the real thing. He was God from God. He was true God. As we look at Jesus’ ministry we can see the many instances where Jesus’ divine power showed itself. It showed itself in the miracles. It showed itself in his words. It showed itself in his death and resurrection on the third day. There is no question mark that is Jesus our true prophet.

As we said before a prophet was to preach the message to God’s people. But in order to preach a message, you need a message to preach. As we look back through the Bible it is clear that God gave some very specific words for his many prophets to preach. Some came with harsh condemnation. Others came with soothing comfort and hope. God knew what the people needed and sent the right person to be his prophet. It was the same for Jesus. Let’s take a look at the message that Jesus came to preach. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." Who are these poor people that God is talking about? The poor are those who are lost in their sin. In reality we are all poor because we are all sinners. The riches of this world can do nothing to take away the poverty of sin. The only thing that can make us rich is to hear the comforting words that Jesus has made us rich through his perfect life and death on the cross of Calvary. We are not rich because we are doing all the right things. We are eternally rich, because Jesus did all the work.

Jesus goes on to say, "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed." When we sin and recognize that these sins have separated us from God, we know what it means to be oppressed. We know that we are slaves to sin and that the only freedom comes from knowing that God sent his one and only Son to heal our sin-broken hearts. The gospel message of Jesus is the only thing that can free us from our sin. God’s gospel is the only thing that can lead our blind and sinful hearts to see that Jesus is our Savior. The wall has been broken down. We have access to our God, even though we don’t deserve it.

The other picture was the picture of being freed from prison. The sin that we have in our hearts has made us captive to the Devil and our sinful nature. Sin is kind of like a small snowball that gradually grows as you roll it through the snow. Eventually if you roll that small snowball enough it will become a large ball of snow that becomes to heavy to even move. As we look at our sin and see our sins piling up and piling up, we realize that we are lost. Jesus came to us at this point of doom and gloom and announced that we are free. We are no longer stuck in our sin but have been set free by the blood of Jesus.

Jesus also talks about giving sight to the blind. Sin blinds people from seeing Jesus and what he has done for us. Anyone who has sin is blind in sin. It is easy to see how sin blinds us. Sin tells us that it is OK to disregard parts of God’s commandments like the 8^th commandment. Sin blinds us from the truth, which knows that speaking bad about someone else is wrong. In the blindness of sin we don’t realize that it is wrong to laugh at, harass, bug or stick your nose into other people’s business. In the blindness of sin we seem to think that it is OK to talk about someone else and their problems and shortcomings. Sin blinds us from seeing that gossip is always wrong even if the gossip is true. Sin blinds us from finding ways to speak well of others rather than trying to tear down. Sin blinds us from the truth and tries to lead us down a path that leads to more and more blindness. That is what God came to fix. He came to free us from the blindness of sin. He came to open our hearts to seek to serve God and those around us with forgiven hearts. Jesus is the light that guides our life and guides everything we do as forgiven children of God.

As we live long after Jesus came to live on this earth as a prophet, we realize that Jesus is still our prophet today. Obviously he is not visibly present to preach God’s Word today. Obviously he will not stand up and say that he is the fulfillment of these words we are talking about this morning. But Jesus is just as present today as our Prophet as he was back in Nazareth. Each and every time we hear the Gospel, which is found in God’s, Word and in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is in our presence. The authority and forgiveness that Jesus came with as he lived on this earth is the same authority and forgiveness he comes with to us today. We are still prisoners of sin. We are still blind in sin. We are still poor in our sin. Jesus still preaches to us on regular basis. Jesus can firmly and boldly say that he is communicating to us what it means to be freed from sin and to have our spiritual eyes opened.

Jesus also is our Prophet today as he uses people like us. We are God’s mouthpieces to tell others about the freedom that God has offered through Jesus’ death on the cross. We are God’s mouthpieces to tell others that God has an answer to spiritual blindness and spiritual poverty. Each and every time that we faithfully and boldly proclaim, we can say that Jesus is preaching in that place. Wherever and whenever we open our mouths to reach out with the simple message of God’s saving grace found in his Holy Word, we can see Jesus our true Prophet preaching and proclaiming to the many lost souls of this world. May we always be filled with thanks as we serve our true Prophet. May we use our lips and voices to praise and worship our true God and Savior. May we always appreciate the message that Jesus came to give to us. May we always live in the peace and comfort of these words of grace each and every day. Amen.