St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Epiphany 3 -- January 22^nd and 25^th, 2004

Luke 4:14-21

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. ¹⁶He 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. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

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, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Dear Children of God.

Let’s begin with a little history about my self. I grew up on the north side of Milwaukee. My mom and dad were both Christian Day School teachers. I was like any other boy. I like playing sports with my brothers and my friends. I liked riding my bike with my friends. I attended a Christian Day School. Also, each an every Sunday my family and I would go to Church. I attended a church called St. Marcus, which was in the inner city portion of Milwaukee. Most of childhood was spent in this church. Now let’s fast forward a few years. I was attending classes at the Seminary as I was studying to be a Pastor. I had written my first sermon and was preaching it at church’s who need someone to preach while a pastor was gone on vacation. But I remember the first time that I was asked by my pastor to preach at my home church. What would it be like to preach to all the people who had seen me grow up? What would it be like to preach to those who had known me for most of my life? What would they say? Would I mess up in front of them all? I was quite nervous. As best as I can recall the sermon went fine and nothing unusual happened. What a day that was for me!

The same could be said but in a greater degree the day that the people heard Jesus, the hometown boy, speak at the worship service in Nazareth. What a special day! This morning I want us to let the words from Luke guide us to truly understand how wonderful it is to be in God’s house hearing the Son of God also speak to us as we use the theme:

Theme: Today Is the Day!
1. Today Jesus still comes to us
2. Today the good news is still preached to us

It was just another ordinary Sabbath Day or was it? The people of Nazareth were making their way to the synagogue in their customary fashion to worship God on the Sabbath Day. At first glance, there was nothing unusual about this Sabbath. Jesus also honored this day of the Sabbath. He went to the local synagogue where we can assume he had attended many times before. The people of Nazareth had probably watched Jesus grow up from little on and were used to seeing him in the synagogue. At the synagogue he would have joined his neighbors whom he had known all his life. That Sabbath Day started just like all the other Sabbaths. Yet what a day it turned out to be!

When the people of Nazareth saw that Jesus was among them, they asked him to read from the Scriptures. It was their way of showing Him respect. After all in a very short time, this Son of Joseph the carpenter had made quite a name for himself. Reports of Jesus' exciting teachings and His great miracles had come back to Nazareth. Here was a hometown boy who was making a name for himself. Now the home people had a chance to see Him in action. In a short while, this seemingly ordinary Sabbath would be turned into an extraordinary Sabbath. Jesus, Himself would show them on the basis of Scripture that this Sabbath was of great significance to them and all people. In simple terms he told them he was the Savior promised from the time of Adam and Eve..

As we said before it was a special day, and we can see how this day was special for the people of Nazareth. What a rare privilege to have someone of this great honor and wisdom here in their midst. In v. 14, 15 it says, "and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in the synagogues, and everyone praised him." Jesus’ name and reputation had become popular among the land of Israel. Now he had returned to his hometown of Nazareth. They asked him to read the Scripture for them that morning. Jesus took the scroll for that day which was like taking the bible that we use today and read a portion from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.

This reading may have started out like any other reading in the synagogue, and the people probably didn't think much of the selection for that day. They most likely had heard these words preached before, but they were not preached quite like they were on this Sabbath Day. This reading was one of great importance. This Old Testament selection prophesied about Christ Himself.

¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 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, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

Isaiah spoke of one who was coming who would free God's people from the many bondages of slavery and captivity. Most of the people there that morning knew that it referred to the coming Messiah. The key word is they were waiting for the coming Messiah. They were waiting for this Messiah that Isaiah spoke about who would free them from their problems. As Jesus read these words, it seemed like another one of those typical readings talking about Christ and his work. It seemed to fall into that same category of things that we are accustomed to hearing every week. You know what I mean! Everyone knew this reading was important, but we've already heard that one. This reading by Jesus may have sounded the same, but that is where the similarity stops.

Now comes the bombshell! When he finished this reading he said, "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Imagine the commotion and excitement, the confusion and delight as these words were heard and thought about. The words of the Old Testament writer Isaiah were fulfilled before their very eyes. This man was the one whom they had been waiting for all these years. This meant that the words of Isaiah had a greater significance than they had thought.

They had heard how Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. They heard that he had been sent to preach the Good News of the Gospel to the poor. We all are poor, not because we lack physical wealth, but because we all live in the spiritual poverty of sin. Jesus then looks to the words of Isaiah which talk specifically of our spiritual condition and the work, which Jesus did for us as sinners. Isaiah writes, "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Let us take a closer look at these beautiful pictures and see how these pictures show the work that Jesus has done for us.

We as sinners are prisoners. We are prisoners to Satan and his evil ways. We are prisoners to sin and to the ways of this world. Without Jesus we have no hope of seeing spiritual freedom. We are exiled to the doom of eternal death. Isaiah then tells us we are blind , because the ways of sin have clouded our vision. We do not know who Jesus is on our own, nor can we come to him on our own. We cannot see the saving message of the Gospel, without the help of the Holy Spirit and the Means of Grace. We wander around as if we cannot see where we are going. We are the oppressed when we see all that sin has brought us. We are in a sorry state of affairs without Jesus and his saving work. Jesus set us free. That is what we call our redemption. Redemption means to set us free from our slavery, and that is exactly what Jesus did for us by his death on the cross. He set us free. He gave us the sight to see all the glorious blessings of his suffering on the cross. He has given us a new life, which is not under oppression. Our lives seem free because Jesus has taken away our sins and tossed them aside. They are no longer with us. Today was the day for those people of Nazareth. In person they had heard these words. Straight from the mouth of the Savior. Jesus had come down to this earth, just as it was promised to them many years before.

Today is the day for us also. How many of us when we woke up this morning and started to get ready for church said Today is the Day? Did we say to ourselves, This day is special, because we are going to hear God's Word?" Did we have the felling, I am eager to get to church and be filled with the mighty words of comfort and strength?" When we come to church, we many times fall into the rut of thinking we are going to hear the same message over and over. We fall into the rut of doing the same thing week after week. We know exactly what is supposed to be said and at what time. We can do the service in our sleep. It has the possibility of becoming boring. It has the possibility of not being special anymore. It has the possibility of not being the highlight of our lives. We forget how special it is to hear God's Word over and over again. And yet as we go through these words of our text, they are very similar to the words we hear every other week. These words however tell us something which ought to make this day special, something which will lead us to say, Today is the day.

We know how those words of Isaiah aptly describe our condition before the Savior worked in our hearts and lives. We were lost and condemned sinners, and we never want to forget that all that we have has been given by our heavenly Father. Each and everyday we need to be reminded that we are sinners. We can't hide from this, and we definitely don't want to forget about our sins. We don't want to say I've heard this all before. We want to realize and appreciate where we truly were before God saved us. We want to truly think about and remember the many sins which we commit every day. We do not want to become callused to these words of God. We do not want this to be another ordinary worship service. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions. Do we truly appreciate all that Christ did for us? Do we daily ask God for forgiveness for our many sins? Do we truly appreciate the words of our text when they say, "Today the scripture are fulfilled in your hearing?" Just picture ourselves sitting in the synagogue of Nazareth. What would have been our reaction to these words of Jesus?

We pray that with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, every worship service is special, but today we want to remember all the more who fulfilled all the scripture promises for us. It was Christ our Savior. Let us receive all that Christ has offered us in these words this morning by letting Him transform our hearts and lives to be holy lives. And when we truly think about it, let us always say Today is the day, because God is with us everyday. His work of salvation is with us everyday. His love as our Savior is there for us everyday. His promise of forgiveness is there for us everyday. Plain and simple God is there for us everyday of our lives. With this in mind we can wake up every morning with the great assurance and joy of knowing what Christ has done for us. We can with confidence and joy wake up and say Today is the day. In fact everyday is the Day when we remember what Christ has given us. Amen