Wordeed 6, Being. Doing. Saying. "Higher Expectations" (I was away week 5))

Scripture: Luke 4: 16-30

- "And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan." Matt 4:23-25 (ESV)

- News traveled fast in Galilee, through the villages along the trade routes, but it traveled especially fast to where the trade routes met at the crossroads where the Roman garrison was stationed, the village of Nazareth.

- Anticipation was growing among the people of Nazareth. Jesus had been preaching up and down the countryside at every village and the people of Nazareth expected great things.

- So, on that Sabbath day when Jesus showed up it was only natural that he be invited to read from one of the prophets and explain God's word to the people.

- The scroll of Isaiah was a huge scroll. And like all scrolls in those days it was without chapter and verse, but Jesus unrolled the scroll to the place we call Isaiah 61.

- God’s Spirit is on me;
    he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
    recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
    to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” (The Message)

- The message of Isaiah the prophet in these verses is a message of hope. It is a message that contains the signs of the coming of the kingdom of God. It is a message that announces the year of Jubilee, of freedom.

- Now, while the people of Nazareth were filled with anticipation and expectation, they were also surprised by Jesus' claim that the very Scriptures he read only moments before had just come true among them.

- Jesus knew that the people of Nazareth expected him to take care of his own. They expected him to do the same things in Nazareth that he had done for the people of Capernaum (Evans, Luke, 71).

- But their expectations of Jesus would be crushed. In the rest of Jesus' sermon to the people of Nazareth that Sabbath day, he gave the examples of Elijah and Elisha.

- Jesus reminded them that no widow in Israel received help from Elijah only the widow Zarephath of Sidon. No lepers received healing through Elisha only Naaman the Syrian.

- This reminder deeply offended the people of Nazareth.

- They found Jesus preaching to be unacceptable because they expected their Messiah to deliver Israel from her enemies and crush the Gentiles.

- That was what the common belief about Isaiah 61:1-2; that when Messiah came, he would destroy Israel's enemies while bringing freedom to Israel.

- But in effect what Jesus was saying, 'Yes I have come to bring freedom but not freedom for Israel, freedom for all.'

- Israel's people had misunderstood Isaiah's message of the kingdom of God; that it was a message, which God intended for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the exploited.

- Messiah Jesus does not behave in ways people expect of their Messiah.

- I believe that means at least two things for us: 1) Jesus works in us in unexpected ways; and 2) Jesus expects us to work in the lives of unexpected people.

- Let's break this down somewhat.

- First, Jesus works in unexpected ways. Like Nazareth and Capernaum, Jesus does not work in every community, every church, or every era in the same way.

- We are mistaken if we think that Jesus will work in us the same way he has worked somewhere else.

- We are also mistaken if we think that Jesus will work in exactly the same ways today as he worked in the past.

- Jesus does not expect us to be like the UPC church down the road or the like Maple Ridge Wesleyan church up the road.

- Jesus doesn't expect us to be a clone of some other church, rather he expects us to be the people he has called us to be, doing the things he has called us to do, and saying the things he has called us to say.

- If we are always in the process of moving toward greater maturity in Christ, then Jesus also does not expect us to try to clone a past vision of ourselves, but to become more like the people he is calling us to become today, tomorrow, next week, next year.

- Sometimes we expect Jesus to do certain things for us, in us, and through us. And when those certain things don't happen, we get down and depressed.

- Jesus calls different communities to accomplish different things related to his mission.

- For example, the goal of Maple Ridge is to become the kind of church that unchurched people want to attend, whereas our goal is to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus until the light of the gospel shines in every home.

- Can you see how those different goals show that Jesus will work among each church in different ways?

- The issue is not what do we expect of Jesus; rather the issue is what does Jesus expect of us.

- Second, Jesus expects us to work in the lives of unexpected people.

- How do we know? Well, we know Jesus expects us to work in the lives of unexpected people because that's what Jesus himself did by announcing the good news to the poor; by teaching his disciples; by casting out demons, by healing the sick, the lame, the blind; by eating and drinking with sinners; by confronting religious abusers and powerbrokers; by sending out his disciples; by being crucified; and by his resurrection from the grave.

- Where we put up walls, Jesus is tearing them down. Where we seek to exclude others, Jesus opens his arms wide to include all who would come to him.

- Where are we like the people of Nazareth, offended by Jesus' preaching and actions that we find unacceptable?

- Sally Clarkson writes: "Too often, I think, we are tempted to view outreach mostly in terms of missionaries reaching unchurched people in faraway lands or perhaps an evangelistic crusade for thousands or an enthusiastic youth group rally. But Jesus gave us a very different model of ministry when he took the time to reach out to people he encountered in the course of his everyday life. He happened to go by Simon Peter's home after a trip to the synagogue, and while there, he healed Peter's sick mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31). He went to a friend's house and scandalized the Pharisees by eating and drinking with the people he met there – 'tax collectors and sinners' (Luke 5:39-32). He commended a Roman soldier in front of a crowd of people for his great faith (Matthew 8:5-13).  Wherever he walked, he encountered people in need, he had compassion on them, and he helped them.

        - "Note that the very people Jesus chose as a focal point of his ministry [were not] accepted in the temple courts of his day. The Pharisees rejected them as unworthy, either because they were outsiders in their society (such as Romans or Samaritans) or because they did not keep all of the myriad rules the Temple leaders imposed. Many of the people Jesus reached out to probably would've felt out of place in the Temple.

        - "It's easy to condemn the Pharisees' attitude, but don't we sometimes do the same thing? Are there certain people we find acceptable for ministry and others who seem too threatening to reach? Are we tempted to avoid those who look different from us, who dress differently or perhaps have "unacceptable" life habits like swearing, smoking, or drinking? Do we sometimes avoid reaching out to people simply because they make us uncomfortable?" (Clarkson, the Ministry of Motherhood, 88-89)

- Integral mission is not about our expectations, but about Christ’s expectations.  It's not about what we find acceptable or unacceptable, but about the Lord Jesus through whom all are accepted. It's not about what we want, but what God wants.

- That is why the early church had strong emphases in the areas of community, justice and compassion, hospitality, and in proclamation and confession of the faith. They were eager to please Jesus, meeting his expectations.

- Churches around the globe continue to reflect the values of integral mission. Churches like the African Brotherhood Church which affirms:

·       all peoples on earth deserve respect as exemplified by the holy Scriptures

·       the church's responsibility to is to serve all of mankind, meeting physical, social and spiritual needs equally and without favoritism

·       that a person is saved by confessing their sins and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and shall be rewarded in heaven according to their deeds

- The African Brotherhood Church backs up their values with action, and so must we.

- Now that we have decided to adopt the new mission statement, vision, and structure, we need to truly make them our own by beginning anew with prayerful planning and decisive action offering our words and our deeds for the sake of a broken, hurting, wandering world and for the glory of God.

- As a sign of your commitment to these statements will you stand with me and recite our mission and vision statements.

- Mission Statement:

Our mission is to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in and for our community until the light of Christ shines in every home.

- Vision Statement (w/ Core Values):

As a church, each member will be involved in ministries that reach out to each other, our families and community with fervent commitment, focussed compassion, and fruitful teamwork as we strive to meet needs and grow through evangelism, discipleship, and social action.

- It is time for our words and our deeds to match what we say we believe.

- Jesus expects our being, doing, and saying to go beyond what we expect.