The Gospel According To Luke - Week One

It’s the Third Sunday of Epiphany and the beginning of a new sermon series, The Gospel According to Luke.  

For the rest of the Season of Epiphany, we will be studying Luke's Gospel and uncovering what surprises it holds for us when it comes to seeing who Jesus is for us today.   

Epiphany is defined as a realization, a sudden revelation that changes everything.  

Today, we will be learning something that might surprise us, and it has to do with Jesus and what we came to do.  

What Was Jesus Mission?

To make sure we go to heaven when we die?  Because Jesus talked more about money than he did about heaven and hell, we can naturally assume that Jesus' mission was more significant than that. 

To start a religion? To begin a revolution?  Neither one.  He definitely didn't come to start a religion; in fact, he had a lot of critiques for organized religion and what it had become in his day. And he definitely didn't come to start an armed rebellion despite what his disciples may have hoped for. 

To make sure his followers are prosperous?  Not likely.  Following Jesus in the first century cost more of his followers dearly.  

What if I told you that Jesus came to do something different?

What if I told you that the purpose of Jesus had everything to do with freedom?  Freedom from everything within us and without us that keeps us from experiencing the liberating grace of God.  

THE PURPOSE OF JESUS IS TO SET ALL OF US FREE 

Luke 4:14-21

14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread throughout the surrounding region. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read 17, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus comes back to his hometown to deliver a sermon. These are people he's known his entire life.  

He’s been doing fantastic things in Galilee, and they have heard the rumors. 

The nature of the synagogue, the setting, and the setup are all important.  

Isaiah 61 - a prophecy of liberation and restoration. This would have been a fan favorite for people who were experiencing the economic and political oppression of an occupying army.  

And then he says something bold… 

The purpose of Jesus is clearly defined here as an abolitionist purpose—to set people free from whatever has imprisoned them and kept them from living eternally, right here and now.  

A word about salvation.  Christians have many ideas about what it means to be saved, mainly concerning the afterlife.  

Jurgen Moltmann defined salvation as liberation for the "godless" and also the "godforsaken." He believed there is both a personal and a public aspect to the idea of God's saving grace.  

This is what he wrote: 

“If Christian hope is reduced to the salvation of the soul in a heaven beyond death, it loses its power to renew life and change the world, and its flame is quenched.”

Let me put it another way with the words of Harriet Tubman.  

“God’s time [Emancipation] is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.” 

—Harriet Tubman

What Kind of Freedom Do We Need?

1. Freedom from oppression both within and without. 

2. Freedom from being imprisoned by religion that doesn’t work. 

3. Freedom to begin living our eternal life now and forever.  

THE PURPOSE OF JESUS IS TO SET ALL OF US FREE