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Help the Hurting,
Support the Lame
from sermon series
“Learning from Isaiah”
by
Pastor Dave Strem
Used by
permission
It was early in the
morning on a Sabbath when bearded men with long robes
passed between pillared columns and took their seats in
the room. A room that was lit with low-hanging,
oil-burning lamps. In the very center of the room was
an angled desk atop a low platform and backless benches
were arranged on all sides looking toward the center. A
balcony above was filled with women, with wives and
daughters of the men occupying the room below and a row
of dignified men sat in front of a heavy curtain at the
far end of the room. One of them rose from his seat and
spoke briefly to several others in the room. Finally,
he went over to a carpenter, a young carpenter whose
name was Jeshua ben Joseph, Jesus, son of Joseph. The
room was full with many men standing when Jeshua walked
up to the raised desk in the middle of the synagogue,
the same place where as a thirteen year old boy He stood
during His bar mitzvah. The eyes in the room are
riveted on His lean form that was even more gaunt than
usual because of the recent ordeal He had experienced
during a 40-day fast in the wilderness of Judah. An air
of expectation arose in the room as He ascended the
rostrum. Sensational rumors had been spreading all over
the countryside about Him. The Sabbath appearance in
His hometown of Nazareth today might bring something
special. The carpenter’s strong voice began reciting a
series of prayers and then He waited briefly while the
Chazzan, the man whose duty it was to carry the heavy
scrolls from the cabinet to the rostrum, made his way
over to Him. He unrolled the bulky scroll with skill as
the crowd waited. He found the passage and lifted His
eyes to the congregation and spoke without another look
at the scroll. “The spirit of the sovereign Lord is
upon me,” He said. Immediately, puzzled looks were
exchanged among the men as they recognized this is not
the scheduled reading for the day. Up to that point
Jesus had done everything in the synagogue in a
customary fashion. But this was unconventional. This
was a jarring departure, it was unexpected. The son of
the carpenter was reading from a passage of His own
choosing. The ancient words flowed from His mouth,
ringing in with new meaning. He finished the passage:
“The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the
Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
freedom for the captives and release from darkness for
the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favor.” Then, in surprise and quietness, this carpenter
rolled the scroll up and handed it back to the Chazzan
and sat down in his seat. He looked around the room at
the man and then in the stillness, He said, “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Words that do
not mean a lot to us, but it meant everything to them.
Jewish bible scholars interpreted this passage as
referring to the Messiah. Jesus was telling them,
early in His ministry, that He was their Messiah.
This sermon in Nazareth
was Jesus’ inaugural sermon. Scholars agree that Jesus
had read something that was not the normal reading for
that time. It was not the Haphtarah, the scheduled
reading for synagogue worship. In other words, He did
something that was almost never done, especially by a
layman, especially by a carpenter’s son. He chose his
own text, a specific text for a specific day, for a
specific purpose. Luke (Luke 4:18-19) tells us that He
unrolled that scroll until He found that specific text,
for the specific purpose of announcing his mission.
Isaiah is filled with
warnings of judgment and sprinkled with promises of
hope. In Isaiah 58:1 it says, “Shout it aloud and do
not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion. To the house of
Jacob declare their sins.” Then Isaiah 59:1 says,
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save nor
his ear too dull to hear.” Further down verse 20 adds,
“The redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who
repent of their sins.” These verses promise that God is
going to send His redeemer and deal with sin. Then in
Isaiah 60:1, we find a promise of how good it is going
to be: “Arise, shine, for your light has come and the
glory of the Lord rises upon you. Darkness covers the
earth and thick darkness is over all the peoples, but
the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over
you.” Hope is coming.
After a Hebrew reads
Chapters 58-60 with the general promises for deliverance
and divine action, he reads Isaiah 61 that speaks about
the One who will come to do the things promised in
Chapters 58-60. It was Isaiah 61:1-2a that Jesus read
and applied to Himself. “The Spirit of the Sovereign
Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to
bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort
the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be
released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to
tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor
has come.” That phrase “to tell those who mourn of the
Lord’s favor” rang in the men’s ears. They knew that
referred to something the Old Testament calls the year
of jubilee. God gave Israel a custom that is
interesting. As I tell you about it, keep in mind what
debt has done to many in this country. Every seventh
day God called the Sabbath, a special day of rest. It
was to be a day of focusing on important things, family
relationships, and our relationship with God. Then He
gave them another tradition to follow. Every seventh
year was also called a Sabbath. The purpose was to give
farming land a rest to replenish. They would not farm
that land for an entire year. Then after every seventh
Sabbath year, or 49 years, the 50th year, a
year of jubilee would commence. The year of jubilee was
special year. In that year all slaves would be set
free. All men whose poverty had forced them to sell
their lands would receive them back. All those who had
lost their family members because of slavery or
imprisonment, would be reunited with their loved ones.
Get the picture. If grandpa, who had to sell his land
to pay a debt and then finally himself to provide for
his family, he would get to come home in the year of
jubilee. His house, his land, his family would be
completely restored, a fresh start. God wanted the
people of Israel to have their land continually, and to
see it distributed to all the people, not just the
rich. And so every 50 years it reverted back to its
original owners. Families would be reunited and made
whole again. It was a reminder of God’s grace and
forgiveness.
You can be sure the
Israelites looked forward to that time every 50 years,
especially those who were poor and oppressed. It was
comforting to know that one day all would be forgiven.
Can you begin to grasp the heritage and the power of
Jesus’ selecting Isaiah 61:1-2a to read? Jesus brought
worldwide jubilee, not just for a year, but every year
and every day. Israel was waiting for a temporal,
temporary jubilee, but Jesus brought an eternal
spiritual jubilee, and later will bring new heavens and
a new earth (Revelation 21-22). Until Christ’s blood
covers our sin, we are all slaves to sin. Each of us
has a debt to God and it is a debt we will never be able
to repay. But Jesus proclaimed, “I have come to give
you life and abundance. I am the good news. I bring
healing, forgiveness, liberty and deliverance. I bring
jubilee. Freedom for those who feel controlled.
Release for those who feel trapped.” When you call to
God in prayer, trusting that Christ paid it all for you
and you throw yourself on His mercy and grace, then you
receive pardon. Your record is wiped clean, the ledger
is marked “paid in full.” I hope that is you today. I
hope you can call yourself a “paid up” child of God.
The year of jubilee freedom is still going on, so spread
the good news about it. If it is good news for you,
then it is good news to someone else.
Jesus defined his
purpose at the outset of His ministry and the purpose of
the church is to partner with Him in His purpose. The
purpose of every local church is to equip believers for
worldwide ministry. We are to bring the healing power
of Jesus to broken hearts around us. We are to proclaim
the power of God over evil. That is the purpose and
mission of the church. A church does not exist for its
own benefit, but actually for the benefit of others.
The leadership of a church is not there just to meet its
members’ needs, but to show them what they can do to
meet the needs of those in their community. Like our
master, we are here not simply to be served, but to
serve.
To help you answer the
Lord’s call to ministry, we want to help you think, not
in terms of, how can my church meet my needs and cater
to my preferences? But how can my church help me meet
my neighbor’s needs? Do you see the difference? The
longer a church exists, the more likely its resources
are used for its own preservation rather than outreach
and evangelism. The natural human tendency is to design
ministries that meet our own needs. God’s tendency is
for us to design ministries that meet the needs of a
lost world.
Being a Christian
defines your stance before God. You have accepted
Christ as your personal savior. Being a disciple
defines where you are going with God. A disciple is a
follower of Jesus. We are called not just to make
Christians, but to make disciples. And so our focus is
equipping believers for worldwide ministry. That does
not mean there will not be Bible studies and Sunday
School classes and family fellowship events and youth
and children’s activities and women’s and men’s groups,
but it does mean that we want to be diligent to ensure
that all that we do helps us to achieve our purpose of
equipping believers for worldwide ministry.
Most people miss the
incredible impact of what Jesus said in the synagogue.
After all, there are many texts that Jesus might have
taken for his first sermon. He could have stopped a few
chapters earlier at 42 and simply read, “Here is my
servant whom I will uphold, my chosen one in whom I
delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring
justice to the nations. He will not falter nor be
discouraged until he establishes justice on the earth.”
But that is not the passage Jesus chose. He chose none
of those texts, nor did He choose one of the hundreds of
other passages that speak of His coming. Instead He
chose a simple one with only 24 Hebrew words in it.
Jesus’ mission statement made it clear that people are
His priority. People who are broken, people who are
battered, people who were bruised by the lost world
around them. If you look closely at Jesus’ purpose
statement, you see that it is all about restoring and
strengthening people. And that is the church’s mission,
as well. Our purpose is worldwide ministry. Catch
that. Not church ministry. Not church-centered
ministry, but ministry that takes Jesus to the streets
of your town, of your city, of your country, and finally
the streets, hills, and valleys throughout the world. To top of
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