Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
23, 2012
Introduction
Play trailer
for “The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry”
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
John tells us
that before He was ever born in Bethlehem, Jesus existed since eternity, in
heaven, with God the Father.
(Jn 1:1–2 NKJV) —1 In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in
the beginning with God.
But there came a point in time, when the eternal Son humbled Himself and
took on human flesh, being born in Bethlehem.
(Jn 1:14 NKJV) And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
It’s at Christmas
that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, when He took on human flesh and
was born at Bethlehem.
Yes, it’s THAT
Jesus that we are talking about…
Why did the eternal Son take on human flesh?
It was in Nazareth, the city where Jesus grew up as a child,
that He got His official “start” in ministry, and it was here that He
explained what He was all about…
Luke 4:16-22
Reasons for the Season
:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been
brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day, and stood up to read.
:16 stood up to read
Jesus was raised in the small town of Nazareth. It was His habit to go to the Synagogue each
Saturday.
In a typical service, there would
be seven readers. If there was a guest
of honor, it was a common practice to let them read the final portion called
the masarah.
Because there is a practice of
reading certain books at certain times of the year, and because Jesus is going
to read from Isaiah, it is likely that this is around early September when this
happens.
He is going to
read from Isaiah 61:1-2
:17 And He was handed the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was
written:
:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He
has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me
to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And
recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are
oppressed;
:19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
:20 Then He closed the book, and gave it
back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the
synagogue were fixed on Him.
:20 and sat down
When Jesus sat down, it didn’t mean that He was finished. The rabbis would sit down as they taught. The people are expecting Him to teach.
What He is about to say is His explanation of the passage.
:21 And He began to say to them, “Today this
Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
That was it. That was the extent of
His teaching.
Isaiah had given this prophecy about the coming Messiah 800 years earlier,
and Jesus was saying,
“Hey guys, you can check this one off as being completed”.
He’s not only
telling them that this prophecy has been fulfilled, but the verses themselves
give us the reason why He came.
:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me
The words that
Jesus reads come from Isaiah 61. They
are from a passage that is recognized as being prophetic of the coming Messiah.
It is interesting
to see the entire Trinity involved here.
The
Spirit, the Father
(“the LORD”), and the
Son (“Me”).
:18 He has anointed Me
Anointing is a
ritual involving olive oil.
A special mixture of oil and spices was put on certain individuals like
priests or kings as a sort of initiation or ordination, and was to be symbolic
of the Holy Spirit being on their lives.
When God told the prophet Samuel
that a young boy named David was going to become the next king of Israel,
Samuel poured oil over the boy.
(1 Sa 16:13 NKJV) Then
Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and
the Spirit of the Lord came upon
David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
The Hebrew word
“Messiah” comes from the word
to “anoint”. The Messiah is the
“anointed” one.
The Greek word
“Christ” means the exact same thing, the “anointed” one.
Jesus is claiming to be the “anointed one” of this passage. He is claiming to be the Messiah, the promised Savior of the
Jewish people.
In quoting this passage in Isaiah, Jesus says that He has come to do
certain things.
He is giving us the reasons why He came.
Six reasons.
:18 To preach the gospel to the
poor (#1)
poor
– ptochos – reduced to beggary; destitute of
wealth, influence, position, or honor
preach the gospel – euaggelizo – to bring good news
Lesson
Good News
There aren’t
too many things worse in this world than to be “poor”.
You have nothing. You have no
money. You have no influence. You have no respect.
You are in need. You need help.
Jesus came to
bring “good news” to those who know they need help.
He came to bring help.
Mankind’s greatest need is not actually money.
Mankind’s
greatest need is to know God.
Blaise
Pascal, the 17th century French physicist and mathematician wrote,
“There
is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled
by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”
Whether they realize it or not, people are trying everything they can to
fill that hole in their heart.
They try filling it with all sorts of things –
relationships, drugs, alcohol, material things, and none of it satisfies
because none of it is big enough to fill the hole that only God can fill.
We have a
problem when it comes to knowing God, we simply don’t qualify.
David wrote,
(Ps 15:1–2 NKJV) —1 Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who
may dwell in Your holy hill? 2 He who
walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks
the truth in his heart;
If you want to get honest about this, there is not a
single one of us who qualifies to be living in God’s house.
One of the worst
things about having any money at all is that you can begin to think that you
don’t need God.
But the one who is “poor” knows they have a great need.
Our great need is for God.
Here’s the “good news”:
(Jn 3:16
NKJV) For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God loved you so much that He did what was necessary for
you to have your greatest need met.
God
gave us His Son.
He paid for our sins by dying on a cross, and now we can
know God.
I know people who have a lot of problems.
The worst problem of all is thinking that you don’t really have a problem.
If you are “poor” and realize just how much you need God, I’ve got good
news for you.
You can know God.
:18 to heal the brokenhearted (#2)
heal
– iaomai – to cure, heal; to make whole
broken
– suntribo – break, to break in pieces; to break
down, crush
It’s a “perfect tense”, meaning that the person has experienced a broken
heart, and it’s still broken.
Lesson
Inner Peace
There are a lot of ways in which people can be “broken”, but I’m pretty
sure the worst is when it’s the heart.
When your body is broken, but your heart is still intact, you can survive.
(Pr 18:14 NKJV) The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?
One of the things that Jesus offers us is true inner peace.
He’s the
“Prince of Peace”.
He brings a “peace that passes all understanding.
Illustration
(Mk 5:1–15 NKJV) —1 Then they came to the other side of the
sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had
come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit, 3 who had his
dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had
often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart
by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always,
night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting
himself with stones. 6 When he saw
Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice
and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I
implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said
to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is
your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are
many.” 10 Also he begged
Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large
herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us
to the swine, that we may enter them.” 13 And at once Jesus gave them
permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were
about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the
sea, and drowned in the sea. 14 So those who fed
the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And
they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the
one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his
right mind. And they were afraid.
Now I’m not about to make a simplistic statement that a person who lacks
inner peace is a person troubled with demons.
Life is a lot more complicated than that.
But this story is a perfect illustration of what Jesus can do for you when
you allow Him to work.
He can take the anxiety, worry, fears, and hurts, and replace them with His
peace that passes all understanding.
He came to heal the brokenhearted.
:18 To proclaim liberty to the captives
(#3)
Lesson
Freedom
captives
– aichmalatos – a captive; “captured by a spear”
Paul gives us a hint as to who is holding the spear on us –
(2 Ti 2:24–26 NKJV) —24
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all,
able to teach, patient, 25 in humility
correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them
repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and
escape the snare of
the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Jesus has come to set the captives free.
We can become
captive to the devil when we are enslaved to sin.
Jesus has the power to break the devil’s hold on our lives.
He has the power to help you change.
(Ro 8:11 NKJV) But if the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you.
:18 And recovery of sight to the blind
(#4)
Jesus healed those who were physically blind. Here’s a video of what happened in John 9:
Play “Healing
the Blind Man” clip
Lesson
Insight
As amazing as it would be for a physically blind person to be healed of
blindness, I am beginning to think that there is another kind of blindness that
is worse than physical blindness.
I think that
spiritual blindness is the worst kind of blindness.
There are people in this world who may be incredibly smart, but who are
incredibly blind to the things of God.
They have their convenient excuses all lined up as to why
they can’t believe in God.
And it’s all so very sad.
And like Jesus healing the blind man, sometimes God will
use something as strange as muddy spit to open a person’s eyes and realize who
God is and what He’s like.
(Jn 9:39
NKJV) And Jesus
said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may
see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
I think it’s a marvelous thing for a person’s spiritual
sight to grow – to see more and more the hand of God all around you.
:18 To set at liberty those who
are oppressed (#5)
oppressed – thrauo – to break,
break in pieces, shatter
This may have much of the same idea
as “proclaiming liberty to the captives”, but there’s another concept in these
words to explore.
Lesson
Forgiveness
set at liberty – aphesis – release from bondage or
imprisonment; forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had
never been committed)
He came to set us free from a different kind of oppression.
Guilt
over your own sins.
Bitterness you
carry when you don’t forgive others.
Play “Jesus and
the adulterous woman” clip.
He’s come to
set us free. He’s come to forgive us and
show us how to forgive others.
:19 To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord (#6)
Lesson
Accepted
acceptable
–dektos
– accepted, acceptable
from dechomai
– to take with the hand; receive; embrace, approve, not to reject
God has made a way for us to become “accepted”.
I have this idea in the back of my head that you have to “measure up” in
order to be “accepted”.
I remember in
Jr. High going through a time when I didn’t hit a single ball during the
lunchtime softball games. I don’t think
I got one hit during my days at Ladera Vista.
And I wasn’t usually the “first pick” of the team captains
when they chose teams.
I remember a time when I didn’t “measure up”.
God has made a
way for us to become “accepted” or “chosen” in His sight.
It’s not based on how good we swing a bat.
It’s based on how great His love for us is.
And if you were ever wondering if God could ever love you, let me answer
that question.
The answer is “yes”.
He loves you.
(1 Jn 3:16a NKJV) By this we
know love, because He laid down His life for us.
Lesson
Taking Inventory
How do you measure up when you look at this list of things that He came to
do in our lives?
Good news. Inner peace. Freedom. Insight. Forgiveness. Accepted.
I am learning that while some of these things can be found with a simple
prayer, some of these things are going to take time to develop as I learn to
walk daily with God.
I think that
the key is learning to “talk” to Jesus throughout your life. It’s learning to pay attention and learn from
Him. It’s letting Him work more and more
in your life.
All of these things are available to me.
All of them are available to you.
Illustration:
There is a
story about two people who wanted to immigrate to America. They scraped up all
their money to buy two tickets on an ocean liner headed for New York. With their last bit of money, they were able to buy enough bread
and cheese to live on for the two week journey across the ocean. For the first couple of days, the bread and
cheese were okay. But by the tenth day, the
bread was getting pretty hard and the cheese was starting to mold.
Every day they would take walks out on the deck and wander by the dining
room where they
would watch the other passengers lining up and the huge buffet tables filled
with all sorts of incredible foods.
Finally, they approached one of the cabin stewards and begged if there was
any way they could perhaps work to earn enough to buy maybe one meal up in the
dining room. But to their surprise, they found out that all
their meals were paid for with the price of their tickets. If they had paid attention when they bought
their tickets, they could have spent the entire trip in the dining room
feasting on roast beef instead of cheese and crackers.
I think there
can be a sense in which we as believers do not fully realize all the authority
and benefits that God gives us when we “bought our ticket”.
The first step is to get your “ticket”.
The first step is to open your heart to Jesus, and it DOES start with a
simple little prayer …