B, Easter 3 - Acts 3:14-16, 1 John 3:2-3, Luke 24:45-49 "The Author of Life"

Acts 3:14–16 (ESV)  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,  and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.  And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

1 John 3:2–3 (ESV)  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Luke 24:45–49 (ESV)  Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,  and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

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The Author of life is raised by God from death.  The Author of life opens the minds of those who are gathered before him.  And he calls those gathered to wait;  to wait to be clothed with power from on high.

The power with which the church is clothed is the power of life!  This life-power is the authority of Jesus’ resurrection.  The promise of God is this: we are made his children.  Life is authored within us by the resurrected Author of life, Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

God has placed us in a holding pattern of life.  Although we experience the corruption of dying and death in our daily existence, we are called to expect the revelation of being like Jesus.  But this will only be realised when we see him as he is, at his return, at our eternal resurrection.   Until then, we are dying in this existence!  But we’re dying to live! 

The holding pattern is revealed within us as faith, having been clothed with power from on high.  Faith is not a feeling, although faith can make us feel good at times, for which we are thankful!  But faith gives each of us an expectation of being made like Jesus, despite what our experiences and feelings tell us in this world.

As we age, we experience, the effects of sin on our bodies.  Some of the things we suffer might have come as a result of sinful deeds.  From the sinful things we’ve done!  But the reality is, even if we did nothing wrong, if we did not sin, we would still suffer from our human being, being human, that in its very nature is sinful.

The nature of our being; its feelings, its thoughts, its works, the mechanics of our physical bodies, our senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing, exist and fail in the deconstruction that’s death.  Therefore, we all suffer!   

Jesus came into his own dying creation to reinject it with life, lost when humanity was separated from the tree of life.  For Jesus to fix his creation, he suffered in his creation, suffering that led to death.  The Creator died in his very own creation, so life could be recreated within a creation existing in death.

After Jesus was raised and ascended into heaven, and was hidden from our sight, it may have seemed that all returned to what it was before.  After all, death still exists!  People are still given to following the deadliness of their human nature and hide their sin.  But the reality of true life is now a reality of faith, that exposes the truth about us and the truth about Jesus Christ!

Peter and John are in the temple after the first Pentecost.  The apostles’ minds had been opened by Jesus as he appeared amongst them after the resurrection.  They no longer cowered and hid from the Jews.  In fact, at Pentecost they proclaimed the risen Lord to the Jews, and many became believers.

A man, lame from birth, begging at the temple, walks as a result of Peter’s  proclamation.   They who had their minds opened by Jesus, now open the minds of others.  This was not an act of Peter or John, but rather an act of the Holy Spirit, working with and through the apostles, and within the man who having been healed, “entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” (Acts 3:8 ESV)

The irony of this first healing event should not ever be lost on us!  Here the man whose sinful nature prevented him from entering the temple, now enters the temple.  His inability to enter was not from any sin that he had done, but rather it was the consequences of the nature he received at birth. 

Like him we are lame in every way before God and have no earthly way of entering into his presence.  But now like the lame man who walked and leapt his way into the temple, praising God, we can praise God in his presence too!

But the temple curtain has been torn, and God is no longer found at his mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.  Where is God if he is not in the temple sanctuary? 

Well, God is in his sanctuary!  However, the sanctuary has changed!  God now lives within his children.  He tabernacles within!  God now enters the Jerusalem temple, as Peter and John enter the temple, as the dancing praising healed man enters, and also enters in those who had received the Holy Spirit, as a result of that first Pentecost.

We know that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in seventy AD.  From Good Friday, God no longer sits on his mercy seat in the Jerusalem temple.  In mercy he now rests in the hearts of those who believe.  God now covers the sinful nature of believers, despite the sin that still comes from believers.   By 70 AD, the believers had long been dispersed by persecution from the Jerusalem temple.  God’s mercy now sat in the hearts of the dispersed, and the temple was sacked.   It no longer had a purpose in God’s plan of salvation!

Today, God gathers us as church in Jesus’ resurrection victory.  He gathers us by the power of the Holy Spirit and will continue to do so as he has promised!  The promise we have is that we are God’s children now, called together in power from on high.  Faith in the name of Jesus has made you strong.  Jesus sees and knows you!  The faith that’s received from Jesus, by the Spirit, gives you the perfection of Jesus, for life eternal as we die. 

So, God authors holy life in you now, through his holy word and holy sacraments.  Repentance and forgiveness of sin, confessed, received, believed, and seen only through faith, enlivens and enlightens you, despite the corruption you see working within.

As God opens your mind in his word, he shows you two things, which matures faith within. 

First, he enlightens us with an ever-increasing sight of the sinful nature and its deadliness.  This would drive us to despair and eternal death if he did not graciously and mercifully reveal it to us in a timely manner.  God does not expose us to more than we can bear.

The second thing he does after revealing an ever-increasing sight of our sin is an ever-increasing sight of his merciful presence in his word and sacrament.  This occurs when we are gathered, being forgiven, and fed, so he might continue to tabernacle within us as church.  We then disperse, taking the mercy of God out into the dispersion where others have an opportunity to see Jesus working within us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to confess him and to confess his forgiveness of our sin.

The maturing of faith allows you to witness what Jesus Christ works within your being, despite being sinful.  You clearly see your sin and inability to work your way out of it.  But through knowledge of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the acts of the Holy Spirit, mature faith finds it’s completion in hope. 

Therefore, everyone who hopes in Jesus Christ is purified as he is pure.  The Holy Spirit works this deposit of the pure holy of holies within you, where the Father sits enthroned on his mercy seat.  Jesus is the mercy seat of God, the Author of life within. 

So, as forgiven and covered sinners, we trust less and less in ourselves, and wait more and more, for the Author of life and his eternal lifegiving goodness. 

Amen. 

A, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 14 - Matthew 14:22-33 Romans 10:5-15 "Faith Boat Afloat"

Romans 10: 6–10, 11, 13 (ESV)  “But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Getting in and out of boats is difficult.  Anyone who has ever climbed into a canoe or kayak for the first time becomes aware of the instability immediately!   If sitting in boats is not easy, standing in them is even more difficult.  Standing in a kayak is a sure sign that one is about to get very wet.  Standing in a canoe is not much better!  Even standing in a regular small boat is problematic, not to mention moving around.  One loses their balance very easily in a boat. 

Hopping out of a boat is not much simpler, either at a jetty or at the water’s edge.  Going from the instability of a boat to the unknown of what’s under the surface of the shallows can bring a person unstuck.

Once I experienced getting out of an inflatable rubber dinghy thinking the water was ankle deep.  Awkwardly stepping over the round inflatable edge of the boat one foot descended into the water while the other stayed higher on the floor of the vessel.  At the point of no return one must throw their weight from one foot to the other.  The other foot in the salt water had not touched anything solid. The waves rocked the boat from side to side.  Straddling the inflatable side of the rubber craft meant a moment of uncertainty and lack of control as I couldn’t see what was under my foot.  So, knowing I could see sand nearby, I presumptuously threw my weight and went to stand up on the leg in the water.

I can only imagine what this looked like from the beach.  A man in a trendy blue chambray shirt, cargo trousers rolled up a bit, with sunglasses on and mobile phone on the belt clip, going topsy-turvy head-over-heels into the shallows of the surf.  Apparently, I didn’t see that hole in the sand!  

Total immersed, I stood up quickly, as you do, to see if anyone was looking.  Everyone was looking!  It was holiday time at Byron Bay, the beach was packed from frolicking families to topless tourists sunbaking, and all seemed to be watching the inflatable rubber boat come in to make land fall.  Everyone saw me fall, ego first into the drink!  Embarrassed, everyone watched me walk dripping wet, head down, away from the beach! 

The people of God, gathered to hear God’s word and receive his sacraments, are sometimes pictured as those gathered in a boat, just as were the disciples on the Sea of Galilee.  We call this gathering, church.  Church is the congregation not the building in which it gathers.  In fact, the centre section of the building where the people gather is called the nave, from the same Latin word from where we get navy!

The disciples were having a hard time of it in their nave as they struggled through the night to cross the lake.  They were in the vessel having been made to go without Jesus, while he dismissed the five thousand and went to pray. 

Jesus was alone praying while they were alone at sea.  It was the last watch of the night, the hours between three and six A.M.   This is restless time, the witching hours of the night, when one dreams or has nightmares, or just cannot go back to sleep!  Awake, or dreaming a nightmare, one has their aloneness impressed upon themselves.

So too the disciples as they fought exhausted by the turbulence all around them.  It appeared no one was around to help them!  Then someone does appear, walking towards them.  “Walking!  How can this be?”  Terrified they’re spooked by a phantom, an apparition of calm light walking through the nightmare towards them.

Jesus immediately calms them with his word, saying, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  (Matthew 14:27 ESV) He tells them, “Have courage, be bold, dare not to be troubled, within themselves, with their situation, with the wind or the waves, and with him!”

Peter is invited with a single command by Jesus, “Come!”  But on entering the water and seeing the wind and waves he doesn’t trust Jesus’ word over what is within him, he sinks and sings out to Jesus, “Lord save me” (Matthew 14:30 ESV) Jesus rescues him from the two-timing faith within himself, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31 ESV)

This is the second time Matthew records the disciple’s faithlessness on the Sea of Galilee.  In chapter eight Jesus was amongst his disciples in the nave of the boat.  While the disciples were nauseated by the thoughts of perishing, Jesus slept.  The fishermen woke Jesus calling him to fish them out and save them from this stormy situation.

Little did they understand these were previews of the greater seismic event of the cross when they would all be faithlessly scattered in fear.  But even before going to the cross Jesus tells of troubled waters ahead where the church will be shaken.

Jesus tells his disciples, “See that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.  And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.  “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:4–14 ESV)

So, we continue to gather in Christ, knowing trouble is coming, but so too is the end.  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would soon forget that Jesus Christ is the ballast in the boat.  We like Peter would quickly revert and return to trust our own spirit, what we see, hear, and feel!  If it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, we would not know Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us! 

God the Father’s church is one of Law and Gospel!   We are in a community of commandments and faith.  One in Christ, believers gathered as one by the Holy Spirit!

Jesus is the ballast in the boat, having fulfilled the commandments.  The Holy Spirit gives us our balance in the boat, having made us righteous with the ballast we need to remain upright in the Father’s eyes.

Saint Paul paints a picture of those gathered in the nave of Christ’s presence.   Those gathered as church by the Holy Spirit in faith do not ponder in their hearts, “who is going to heaven and who is not going to be saved.”  When one does this, they expose their double-timing faith, falling out in fear, and temp finding out just how deep the hole is they’re presumptuously stepping into!

Wondering who has faith and who hasn’t, immediately excludes you from faith as well!  Why?  Because the only way anyone has faith, is through hearing the word of faith.  While one wonders and ponders, the ears fail to hear, and the mouth is mute and unmoving!

So, what do you hear?  And from it, what do you believe and confess?

We hear that Jesus is in the boat!  Not only that, but we hear he’s the ballast having borne the burden of fulfilling the commandments and our failure to fulfil them. 

Those in church who appear as “good people”, we no longer believe are going to heaven because of their goodness.  That dethrones Jesus from heaven!

Those in church who appear as “not very good people”, we no longer believe are condemned by their deeds.  That brings Jesus up from the dead as if he was never raised in victory over sin and death.  Your sin and death or any other “not very good people’s sin and death”!

No!  Those very people with which you and I are called together, by the Holy Spirit, are called to confess with our mouths that, Jesus is Lord, believing he is in the boat, and we are with him in it.  The Holy Spirit gives us balance in the boat.  That balance is faith, trust in Christ our ballast!

That faith fills our hearts and our mouths so the faithful confession of those gathered to be forgiven and fed the Word of God, as it’s preached, prayed, sung, confessed and consumed, will fulfil the full cycle of faith.

Let us persevere in this holy faith feeding faith, even when we experience trouble and restlessness in the last watch of the night, seemingly falling out of the boat topsy-turvy head-over-heels.  Let us not walk away from the boat ashamed of the Gospel.  But rather let faith empower faith.  Let the Holy Spirit balance the boat and keep you afloat! 

As the Holy Spirit inspires the Romans through Pauls words of faith at the beginning of his letter to them, let it empower you as you hear his confession of faith, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16–17 ESV)

It is the last watch of the night!  Faith reveals Jesus in the boat.  Faith waits for Jesus’ return.  Faith hears Jesus say, “Surely I am coming soon.” Faith says, “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!”  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.  Amen”.  (Revelation 22:20–21 ESV)

Those who have ears, let them hear!  Amen. 

C, Post-Pentecost 11 Proper 16 - Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 Hebrews 12:22-25 "Pleasure"

Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 (ESV) If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Tina Arena wrote and released a song called, It’s time to go to church, on  April 30, 2021[1].  In it she sings, “I forgive you for everything.  For all the nights I couldn't sleep.  I forgive you for surfacing.  When I was looking for what I need.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

Being a listener of her music, I must say I was surprised by her song when it came out.  After all, she sings, it’s time to go to church.  And being a pastor in a church, thought, “Okay!  That’s a pretty good thing to sing!”  I was tempted to justify it as a wholesome song.  But the lyrics are vague and unclear.  Who is she addressing in the lines of the song, and what is the church to which she believes it’s time to go?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the song very much.  But because I do, there’s a strong desire within me seeking to justify the ambiguity, as I like both the song and the artist.

She sings on, “Love forgive me for not listening.  To myself and to my truth.  I forgive you for questioning.  I'm still breathing, that's my proof.  Now I tell you everything.  Now I know my worth.  It's time to go to church.  It's time to go to church.”

The “you” she addresses in this verse reveals itself as “love”.  She asks love to forgives her for everything.  Tina forgives love for the nights she couldn’t sleep, for surfacing, for questioning, and now tells love everything.  Because of love she now sings, “I know my worth.  It’s time to go to church.”

What is one’s church?  If you are thinking of a building or a denomination, yes, these are what you could consider as a church!  However, I invite you to think broader of what church can be in one’s experience as well as what kind of church God is seeking to bring you into.

In Tina Arena’s song, she addresses love.  Love here is still ambiguous, and I believe it is most likely unclear for a deliberate reason.  To make it pleasing to the ear, love is vague so the listener can make love anything they want.  Love could be a person, an object, an animal, or even the self.

Love in our age is left unclear so we can love whatever or wherever we find pleasure.  One can go to a church, a creation within, for worship of what one loves.  Or, what pleases the person.

On any given Sunday one can drive around and see people attending to activities of pleasure.  These activities of love don’t just happen on a Sunday, but over the years have invaded our lives.  Sundays have become increasingly busy, diverting people from coming to rest in God’s presence, in his church.

All people find time to go to church!  However, the church most seek, and most attend is the place of their pleasures.  This actively involves turning one’s back on God because it requires one’s pleasure to be above God.

One could say they, “find church in themselves”.  They stimulate their feelings of pleasure by gathering around themselves things that give them pleasure.  

The problem is these things kill.  Whereas, trusting God, letting him serve you and bind himself to you, gives life.  All other pleasures in which we put our trust become yokes, burdening, and binding us to unhappiness and uncertainty.  They make us anxious and eventually they lead to death.  

Look what happens in humanity’s first worship event without God, when they seek not to rest with him, in his pleasure. 

“…when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”  (Genesis 3:6–7 ESV)

In these two verses from Genesis three, we see the extremes of desire and shame.  Knowledge of good and evil in the one event!  What appeared to be good was also evil!

Eve sees the fruit is good, it delights her, and the promise of wisdom also stimulates desire.  Did it taste good?  We’re not told!  However, immediately there is knowledge, and a wisdom that leads to shame of their nakedness. 

Over the years humans have continued to worship without God.  In these times our worship of the self, plays out in the same theatre of good and evil.  This is not without effect on our conscience as conscience literally means, “with knowledge” or “knowing within”.

Like Eve, we look and delight in what we see.  A feel-good chemical is released, and we want more.  Ironically one of the devices used to get the feel-good release is called an apple device.  But it’s not smart phones that are the issue.  No, it’s the yoked and bound individual who can’t let go of the electronic apple.  Why?  Because it gives the feel-good hormone, leading one on the path of least resistance to pleasure.

It’s not just the phone that yokes us in addiction to pleasure.  We get something new – we get the feel-good kick.  We eat chocolate or something else we like – we get the feel-good kick.  Receive a phone or snap chat notification – there’s the feel-good kick.  Coveting in the catalogue – O, it feels so good.  Look at porn or lust after someone you’ve seen in the street – and there’s an injection of feel-good hormone that gives pleasure.

Tina Arena sings, “Something within places I've been.  Blood running thin, I'm sorry.  Somewhere between Heaven and sin.”

So, the chocolate becomes guilty weight.  The pleasure of porn turns to shame and hatred of self.  The joy of the app, computer game success, the social media message, a Facebook like, or a product purchase; they don’t last, they don’t give the pleasure we sort from them.  To get that feel-good buzz.  You want more, more, more! 

These things all act like drugs because they produce a natural drug within you, called the dopamine hormone.   Eventually you’re yoked and addicted to the feeling this pleasure hormone gives, becoming no longer an isolated want, but a need you can’t do without.  Your worth is now reliant on the thing you love, and one must worship what they love, even when one hates it and dislikes what it’s doing.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people and yet they, like Adam and Eve, and us, were always being drawn away from God to other pleasures, and Isaiah was sent to proclaim God’s word to them.

He says, “If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.  If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” ( Isaiah 58:9b,13–14 ESV)

We live in a time when the pleasures of this age have drawn our children away from God’s church.  Also, many who are brought into God’s church, resist, because they’re under the bondage of the pleasures to which they are yoked for the other six days and eleven hours of the week. 

How am I to break freed from this bondage?  How can my children be freed too?  How can we look on God once again as the one and only true God?

We need to let our brains and our bodies rest with God from busying ourselves from the pleasures we’ve become addicted to.  We need put aside our pride and no longer be the rulers of our synagogues of sin, the creators of our own churches, and let the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ deliver us into the holiness of God’s Church.  This only happens when the Holy Spirit can lead you to the stillness of Jesus on the cross.

There is hope only in your Lord Jesus Christ.  It was his pleasure to endure the cross for your victory.  There too is forgiveness, when you have perverted God’s church into a church of selfish pleasure as did the ruler of the synagogue. 

If Jesus can heal a woman bound by Satan for eighteen years, Jesus can make you straight by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the support of others whom he is healing too.

Are you coming to church but not allowing the church of God to come to you.  Are the things you worship so powerful they are rewiring your brain, away from resting in God, being busied pursuing pleasure and its deadly trap?

You have a pastor that struggles to rest in God too.  He along with all of us are products of the fallen world in which we live.  He will not condemn you in your struggle or confession.  But, in love for the Lord and you, he will name God’s forgiveness in your confession and assist you to keep your eyes on Jesus and what the Holy Spirit brings you into when you come to God’s church.

“…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.  For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.  (Hebrews 12:22–25 ESV)

Amen.

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ9Y7jif1C8

C, Epiphany 3 - Luke 4:14–21 "It's Time to Come to Church"

 Luke 4:14–21 (ESV) And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.  And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”  And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  And he began to say to them,“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This is the start of Jesus’ ministry.  And where does he find himself?  In a congregation, amongst God’s people with God's Word!  He's been brought there by the Holy Spirit.  And there he does not bring them new word but Word from Scripture which they would have heard and considered many times before.

The Holy Spirit rested on him in his baptism.  Led him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  And now brings him into the synagogue to proclaim the Word of God; to fulfil the Old Testament Scriptures.

Jesus announces he is the one to bring good news to the poor; freedom to slaves and those afflicted; sight to the blind, and favour or a holy jubilee from the Lord.

But first to the pattern.  This pattern is easily overlooked!  The Holy Spirit works within a very precise structure.  He does so because he is God, he proceeds from God the Father and God the Son, and he inspired peopled to write down the Word of God.  Therefore, the Holy Spirit chooses to work through the Word of God!

All the way through his ministry, Jesus goes from synagogue to synagogue and on the Sabbath day, finds himself in the presence of God’s people and God’s Word.

In the synagogue at Nazareth, he is given Isaiah to read, and he reads from chapter sixty-one, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)

When Jesus finishes the reading from Isaiah, he gives the scroll back and preaches a one sentence sermon, saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21 ESV)

Unfortunately, I cannot preach a one sentence sermon.  Not because I have more to say than Jesus!  But rather, because I am not Jesus.

All the Old Testament pointed forward to the Messiah.  A Messiah anointed by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus preaches a one sentence sermon, but its preface is everything written about him beforehand under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. 

But what is it the Holy Spirit is anointing the Messiah to do?

First, he is anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor.  The poor are beggars, and beggars beg for mercy.  With outstretched arms those who truly know their predicament and trust Jesus over all things will cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38 ESV)  Just as the blind beggar Bartimaeus did, when Jesus of Nazareth was entering Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem and death on the cross.

But it was not just a word of good news that the poor received, it was also release from captivity, a recovery from clouded sight, and deliverance from the madness of being overlooked.  The poor and the blind and the oppressed would have a new start in the Lord’s favour. 

This favour was greater than the jubilee of the Old Testament.  Every fifty years was a jubilee, debt was released, and people got their property back.  Here, Jesus was led by the Spirit to declare the eternal release to the poor, the captives, the blinded, and the oppressed.  All those held down by their sin and the sin of others. 

People get their life back through the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus, our lives in Christ are led in the pattern of the Holy Spirit.  And through the Holy Spirit’s work, we get our lives back.  The Holy Spirit wills those to trust in Jesus for sight and faith, for release from captivity and oppression, and to cry out for mercy!  The Holy Spirit wills us with his pattern and we see the pattern at work in Jesus.

What is the pattern of the Holy Spirit for you?  What is the Holy Spirit’s will for you?

We get a glimpse of what it is when Jesus sends out the seventy-two followers and they return to him having been given power over Satan.  We hear from Luke ten… 

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I  thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21–22 ESV)

Just like the seventy-two sent out by Jesus, you have been sent out from this place in the Word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Just as Jesus went out and came in, by the power of the Spirit you too come in as beggars but go out rich in the Word of God.  Jesus reveals his Father to you!

You have come in as captives but have been free from eternal death in the forgiveness of sins.  You have sought mercy to be released from the depression and maddening oppression of your old Adam.  You have been given the promise of an eternal inheritance in the glory of God the Father.

Just as Jesus came into the synagogue and the seventy-two came to him, you have come here to church, led by the Holy Spirit, gathered together in our Messiah, Jesus Christ, all forgiven members of the one body under our head, Jesus Christ. 

The Holy Spirit has brought us here to be taught by Jesus Christ in the Word of God, and through his word the Heavenly Father is revealed to us, his little children, his church.  We his children in his church are his weak ones – poor, captives, blind, and oppressed. 

Today is the first day of the new week.  Today is the first day of the new creation in Christ.  It is also the eighth day of the old week.  It is the day of resurrection from sins of the last seven days of the old creation.  We are sent out bearing his victory.  The sin which we all carry; the poverty, the captivity, the blindness, and the oppression, is now covered under his cloak of victory over sin.

When you have doubt about the power of God to cover and forgive your sin, Jesus tells us to ask for the Holy Spirit.  “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”(Luke 11:13 ESV)

If Jesus is led by the power of the Holy Spirit!  If he tells you to ask for the Holy Spirit!  If Jesus praises God in the joy of the Holy Spirit!  And, if you are his child and we are his children!  If Jesus was led into God’s congregation on the sabbath, if he fulfilled the Sabbath by resting in the grave and descending into hell between Good Friday and Easter Sunday!

Then surely, we will receive the greater gift of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins and peace with God the Father, when we come to church to be forgiven and fed on the day of his resurrection. 

Jesus finds himself with his people on the Sabbath.  Find yourself with Jesus and his other forgiven sinners on the day of his resurrection.  Let the Holy Spirit place you in his weekly pattern, in church.  It’s time to come to church!

In church you receive the will of God the Father, the will of God the Son, and the will of God the Holy Spirit.  Amen.