Better Ministry: Saving

All right, we just finished a series three weeks ago called Understanding Temptation Better. Anybody remember that series? Y' all remember that with me? And what we did in that series is we went through and we broke down and we talked about how Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness to tempt him, okay? And there were three temptations that are recorded there in the Scripture.

And we talked about what each one of those temptations were rooted in, okay? We called them the three Ps. Pleasure, Popularity, and power. And then we talked about how all three of those three P's rooted in something else called pride. Everybody remember that, right?

If you were not able to be here or hear those messages, you can go back and watch that on YouTube or Facebook Live. And they all were recorded then. But then after that series, we had Palm Sunday. And then last Sunday, we had Resurrection Sunday where we celebrated the finished work of the cross of Christ and his resurrection. Can I get another praise for that?

But. But I say all that today to say this today I'm going to start a new series called Better Ministry. Better Ministry. And it's called Better Ministry because we're going to talk about the five main ministries that Jesus did while he was here on this earth. Now hear me out.

These are not the only ministries that he did, okay? But these are what I believe according to Scripture are the five basic or main ministries, foundational ministries that he did. And we're going to pull this from Luke chapter four. So if you have your Bibles, you go ahead and turn to Luke chapter four. They'll get ready to put the things on the screen for me when I get There, but you go ahead and turn there and hold that place.

Luke chapter four is where Jesus. There's an account where Jesus goes to his home church in his hometown where he was raised in Nazareth, and he preaches a sermon to his home church. Okay, and let me just remind you a little bit of what happened in Luke chapter three, the chapter before this. It's basically what we talked about in our Understanding Temptation Better series, right? In Luke chapter three, Jesus gets baptized.

He gets water baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit descended from heaven upon him, right? The heavens open and there was a voice from heaven from the Father that said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And then it says that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. And so after fasting for 40 days, he was tempted.

So this is what we talked about in that series, but this is what I know and you'll remember is in each one of those temptations, Christ said it is written, right? And after the third temptation, it says that the devil departed from him until there was another opportune time. That's how it says it in Luke chapter three. Until there was another opportune time. I think we all need to know that.

You need to know that, that Satan attacks during opportune times. You know, when we're tired, when we're physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually tired. You better be looking for him to show up. And so think about this. Jesus had fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.

He obviously was hungry, right? And then Satan shows up and his first temptation was, hey, I know you hungry. Turn these stones into bread. Right? So that's the way Satan is.

That's the way he operates. He waits for the most opportune or the weakest moments. So we have to stay ready in season and out of season so we too can be able to say it is written. Amen. All right, so we're going to talk about Jesus sermon in his hometown and how he kind of lists out through reading the scripture in Isaiah, five basic or foundational ministries that he is here to do.

Okay? Again, they're not the only ministries of Jesus. They're just the five that is going to be mentioned here. Okay? So we're going to cover the first one this week.

So my plan is to go about five weeks with this because there's five of them. But the first one this week is saving. Saving. Okay, how many know this morning and can testify that Jesus is in the saving business? Amen.

Can anybody testify he saved you? Right? And I just thought this was real fitting since this is the first Sunday since Resurrection Sunday savings. So here's my first point. I got four points today.

Here's my first point today. The delivery. The delivery. Okay? Now I need to let you know that this is not Jesus first sermon.

It's his sermon in his hometown. And I only say that because I've heard a lot of people say that they believe this is his first sermon. But if you read verses 14 and 15 of Luke chapter 4, I don't see how that could be true. Okay, so let me just show it to you. In Scripture, this is after his baptism, after his wilderness journey, after his temptations.

It says this. Luke 4, verses 14 and 15. It says, Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And news of him went out through all the surrounding region. And he taught in their synagogues.

He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So he had already taught in other synagogues. And he had been teaching in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, right after his baptism. And he come back.

He's been traveling around. He's going to these different synagogues, and he's teaching and preaching in the power of the Spirit. And now he's come to Nazareth, his hometown, the town which he was raised. So let's continue and read and see what happened here and see what Jesus had to say. This is Luke, chapter four.

I'm gonna read verses 16 through 20. You follow along. They're gonna throw it on the screen as well. So he, Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, where he'd been raised. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

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. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's 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, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant.

Now, let me just tell you, the attendant was the ruler of the synagogue, okay? And he sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. They were fixed on Jesus. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. All right?

So verse 16 says, Jesus came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Okay. So obviously he's done this before. As his custom was, it wasn't brand new to him, but there was an order to things in the synagogue.

Okay. So I want to talk just a little bit about what the synagogue was. I got some pictures for you to put up on the screen. Okay. One, the first one they're going to throw up is actually kind of a layout, a diagram of what the first century synagogue in the region of Galilee would look like.

Okay. And so you got the synagogue, you've got a water channel over here. This is where they would, they would do. It was deep enough for complete immersion, but this is where they did purification. They would clean up.

Right, but. And I'm not going to go through all this, but it kind of shows you. They had these columns, these seats, almost like an auditorium. So they were these built up columns and people would come in and they would sit around these columns and on these, on these built up benches and they would have gatherings together. There was a place where they kept the attendant of the synagogue, kept the scrolls.

This was all the scriptures of the Old Testament here. They kept it in a closet or a designated place where they could pull it out and do the reading. And so people would come in here and they would gather and that's kind of what it would look like. The next picture if you'll show that is actually the ruins. This is the ruins of the synagogue in Capernaum.

Capernaum was in the region of Galilee, the same region that Nazareth was in. Okay. So these are actual ruins from the synagogue in Capernaum. So you can see what it looked like. They would sit on these columns, they would gather around and people would read and they would have gatherings there.

Okay. So many people don't realize this, but there was only one temple in Israel, okay? And that was in Jerusalem. And that is where they would offer the sacrifices. Okay.

But there were many synagogues. In many towns, in many regions, there were many synagogues. And so the word synagogue is a Greek word that at its root means gathering together places. Gathering together places. So it was, and it currently is even in modern times.

If you see a Jewish synagogue, right, It's a gathering place where the Jews could come together, they could pray, they could sing songs, they could read the Tanakh, the Old Testament together, right? And then they would expound upon, they would read those scriptures and then someone would expound upon and preach on those scriptures. Okay. Does that sound familiar to anybody? It's a lot like we're doing right now.

Church. Right? Right. We come together in here. We fellowship.

Right. And we get together, but we worship, we pray, we expound upon the scriptures and we grow together. That's what would happen in these synagogues. But the synagogues not only were gathering places for worship, but they also used them for the Jewish boys. They did Jewish school there.

They would bring up. They had school inside the synagogues. And a lot of times they were used for public gatherings, even for like a. Like court. They would even have court sessions inside the synagogues.

Okay. So it's kind of like a community center on top of being a worship area. But each synagogue had a leader, not a priest. Okay. Once you understand that the priests had to be Levites, but each synagogue had a leader.

And a lot of times there were elders that helped with that leader, but they called him an attendant. And that's what the scripture says when we just read it. The attendant of the synagogue, and they were in charge of making sure everything was in order. And they would go in order the way the synagogue was supposed to go. Okay.

And if you read about the attendance of the synagogue, they pretty much are like your modern day pastor. They did everything. They cleaned, they took care of the scrolls, they did about anything you could think of in the synagogue that needed to be done, they took care of it. And so each synagogue had a leader and they had an order the way things is supposed to go. And typically, I'm going to give you the order of how our first century synagogue went so we can get a better understanding of what's happening when Jesus goes in here to preach.

Okay? So I want you to understand that all this is going to come together. So the. The synagogue gathering would typically start with something they call the reciting of the Shema. Okay.

And the Shema was basically taken directly from scripture. It's Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. I want to read it to you. They would start with this, and they would recite this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down at night, and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on Your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, man. If we took the word of God that seriously, where we could talk about it with our children.

When we wake up in the morning, the word of the Lord is what's on my heart. When we're walking, by the way, on our way to school, the word of the Lord is on our heart. When we're sitting around the table to eat, the word of the Lord is what's coming out. And when we lie down at night before we. Before we take our rest, the word of the Lord is what's coming out.

Okay, after this recital of the Shema was prayer, they had corporate prayer. After the prayer was the reading of the law and prophets, the Old Testament scriptures. And then a sermon given by a leader or a guest speaker would expound upon those scriptures that were read. And then after all of that, they would typically close with a blessing. And it came from numbers, chapter 6, numbers 6, 24 through 26.

This is going to sound very familiar. Okay. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.

That's why the Carrie Job song that everybody's singing that everybody loves, that's why it's called the Blessing. This was a priestly blessing. And they prayed this at the end of the gathering of the synagogues. Okay? So that's that order.

And this is what was happening when Jesus goes into this synagogue in Nazareth in his hometown. And many believe, okay, it's not 100% confirmed, but many believe that the reading they did each time they gathered most likely involved a regular annual cycle of reading. It's kind of like how Elisha and I, right now we're going through something called the Bible Recap. Anybody ever done the Bible Recap? A few of us, right?

We challenged our church a couple years ago to do that. Maybe beginning of next year, we're going to challenge you to do it again. It's an incredible thing to do. It's reading the Bible chronologically. And so Elisha and I are doing that.

And it gives you. It maps out how much you're supposed to read each day. And you finish the entire Bible in 365 days. In a year, you complete the whole Bible. Elisha and I are doing that together right now.

We fell a little bit behind, but as of last night, we caught up. We're on the right day, 101 days in. And so a lot of people believe, a lot of historians believe that in these synagogues they had annual reading cycles and they did that to make sure all the Scriptures were covered, okay? So Jesus goes to his hometown, in his hometown church, his hometown synagogue. News has been spreading about him and from these other synagogues that he's been teaching and preaching at, and they've been talking about how great it's been and how wise he is and all this really, really, really, really good stuff, okay?

And so here Jesus is, he goes into this gathering on the Sabbath day and the attendant, the leader of that synagogue in his hometown goes and grabs, goes to that closet that we saw on that diagram. He gets the scroll of Isaiah and he brings it to Jesus. And Jesus didn't ask for that, that book. He actually says the attendant brought it to him and handed him the scroll of Isaiah and he was handed it to read. And then it says that Jesus finds the place to read in Isaiah.

It's actually Isaiah 61. And many believe it was just, it just so happened to fall in that annual cycle, the reading for that day. If so that's miraculous, right? That he's the one reading the scripture and it falls on this scripture that day and you'll find out why, right? So he finds a place in Isaiah 61 and he begins to read.

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 oppress, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Jesus finishes that reading. Now that's not the sermon, that's just the reading of the Scriptures, right? He finishes that, he rolls the scroll back up, he hands it to the attendant and he sits down.

Okay? And this was typical. This is what they would do. They would stand up to read the Scriptures and after they read, they would sit down to expound and teach and preach on the Scriptures. Okay?

So here we are. He does that. He reads, he rolls it up, hands it to a tendant, he sits down and it says, all eyes in that place were on him. They were fixed on him and they were waiting. I'm sure the anticipation levels of the people were so, so, so high.

They couldn't wait to hear what Jesus had to say and how in depth it was going to be. And then Jesus opens his mouth and he actually gives them an eight word sermon. Eight words. This is what he says today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing today. Now, this was a messianic scripture, which means it was a scripture about the coming Messiah and everyone in that synagogue knew it, right?

So basically what Jesus was saying is, I'm here. I am the Messiah. This scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing. So Jesus sermon, right? There was eight words.

Today, the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And really, as I thought about that, it kind of made. It gave me some peace. It gave me some peace about the first sermon I ever preached, right? I remember the first sermon I ever preached was at the East Calhoun Church of God youth group.

I was 16 years old. And I remember I wrote some notes on a little sheet of paper. It was probably as big as the palm of my hand. The sheet of paper was. I made a couple points.

I got up and I spoke. And I would be surprised if that sermon lasted three to five minutes, right? If that. I did it and I sat down and it was it. But hey, God moved in it right here, eight words.

But let me tell you something, eight words were enough. Eight words were enough. Eight words right here made more impact than two hours worth of lecture. Listen, not everything we say, or not even everything we pray has to be lengthy. Now, there's nothing wrong with that.

There are times I go into lengthy prayers. Sometimes I get a little long winded up here. Can I get an amen? Ah, y' all turn on yourself. He tells you that y' all think I'm lengthy.

I'm going long today. No, I'm just kidding. But not everything we say, not everything we pray has to be long and lengthy, right? Some of the most powerful prayers I've ever prayed have been short. Like, in the name of Jesus, be healed.

Right? That's a powerful prayer and it doesn't need anything else, right? Then there's this moments where I feel despair, I feel lost. And the most powerful prayer I could pray was, Jesus, help me. Just be my help, Holy Spirit, comfort me, God, do what only you can do.

And it was short, but it's a powerful prayer, right? So what matters most is the heart and the faith behind it, not the length or the vocabulary. Amen. You can praise the Lord. I heard a hand clap.

Jesus gives them an eight word sermon right here. And what happens next? Here's point number two. Number one is the delivery. Here's point number two, their response.

Their response, Luke 4. 22. So all bore witness to him. It sounds great, right? All bore witness to him.

But we don't break this down and they marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? Okay, that starts out, and it sounds really great to us, but spoiler alert, it was not great, right? Let me try to explain it. Let's talk about this.

First, they marveled at the gracious words that came out of his mouth. Now, this word marveled, believe it or not, the past two weeks, the past two Sundays, I've actually talked about from Psalm 118, I took that the Lord has done this thing, and it's marvelous in our sight. And I gave you the definition, the word marvel. Several definitions, right? And does anybody remember that?

Me giving the definitions of the word marvel? Two people. Thank you guys for paying attention the past two weeks. I really appreciate that. I'm glad it stuck with you.

Let me give it to you again. I'll condense it right here. Okay? Marvel means to be surprised or shocked. Taken off guard, right?

Whoa. Okay. So they were surprised and they were shocked. And let me tell you why they were surprised and shocked because Jesus just took a messianic scripture about the coming Messiah they'd been looking for, and he basically said, hey, here I am. This is me.

I'm the Messiah. And this says they marveled, which means they were shocked and they were surprised at the gracious words that he said about himself. Okay, just take a moment, and I want us to think about that. If I got up here on Sunday mornings or if I got up here today and I started saying gracious words about Amanda, right? Listen, Amanda is so kind.

Amanda is so wonderful. She's so beautiful. She's the most amazing mother, the most amazing wife. She's just the best thing in this entire world. You guys probably wouldn't think much about that, right?

Other than some of you would probably be like, oh, that's so sweet. I wish my man would say that about me. I hope he's taking notes. Little elbow, right? So that wouldn't be that big of a deal.

But if I got up here and I started saying, I am so kind.

I am wonderful.

I'm so handsome.

I'm the greatest husband and father this world has ever seen. Look at me, how great I am. Now, if I started saying those kind of gracious words about myself, y' all might think a little something different. Amen. Amen.

That's what this means right here. It wasn't a positive. They weren't thinking great things, okay? They were shocked at how gracious he spoke about himself. Now, again, it says they all Bore witness to what he said.

And that's something we take differently because of what it means in our culture. In our culture, we say, you know, I'll say that a lot. I say, I bear witness with that. Well, that means, yeah, I'm in agreement with that. And I come into agreement with you on that.

I bear witness with that. But that's not what that means. Right here. Bore witness right here means they spoke or they said something. They testified, they gave a testimony.

But here's what they said. Here was their testimony. This is what they said. Isn't this just Joseph's son? Isn't this just the carpenter?

Well, that was their testimony. This is the guy that built my furniture. He helped me on my back deck. I'm sitting at the table he built. This is just the carpenter.

And apparently the carpenter's been going around and preaching. He's had a little bit of success and he's got the big head now because he's coming in here to us and he's reading a scripture we know is about the Messiah. And then he says, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. I'm explaining that to help you realize that's the way they felt. That's what they were feeling in this moment.

And there are two parallel messages about this in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. And they actually describe a little bit more of what they said and how they felt. I'm just going to read from Matthew, Matthew 13, 55, 57. And they said, is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?

And his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters? Are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? Listen, so they were offended. They were offended at him.

Mark, chapter 6, verse 3 pretty much says the same exact thing that Matthew 13 says right here. So this was their response. It was not positive like a lot of people might think when they read it at face value. Okay, so here's point number three. We got the delivery.

We got their response. Now we're going to talk about his response. This is Jesus response to them. So let's go back to Luke. Let's read what he says.

Luke 4, 23 and 24. Then Jesus said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum do also here in your country. Then he said, assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

Or as Matthew puts it, a prophet is not without honor, save his own country. And in his own house. And, boy, I could preach a whole nother sermon on honor that is huge. Here at Remnant Church, we have built and we try to maintain something called a culture of honor, where we honor one another, right? And when you get plugged in here and you start to serve at Remnant, whenever you feel like your time is ready and you feel like this is home, you're going to get to hear all about that in our Remnant Connect class.

So Jesus has already said some things that have offended them, right? But what he said was only the truth, right? So it really wasn't that they were offended by him, they were offended by the truth. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So they were offended by him and the truth that he spoke.

Listen, when you hear the truth of God's word preached and it pricks at your heart, don't be offended at the messenger. You gotta take that to the Lord. I didn't say it, he did. I'm just preaching his word if it's in his word, right? If you got a Bible believing, Bible teaching, Bible preaching minister, and they're preaching the word of God and it offends you in your heart, that's the Holy Spirit revealing something that you need to get rid of and bring it to the Lord.

You don't need to get offended at the minister, the pastor, or whoever he used to. To speak that truth into your life. Billy Graham used to say, the cross of Christ is offensive. Why? Because it confronts our sin.

So when you hear the truth of God's word and it offends your heart, that's because God's revealing something in you. Not to. Not to bring you down, but to say, hey, I need you to surrender this here, lay it at my feet. That's why the truth of God's word is preached. Don't get offended at the people or the messenger.

It's the truth of God's word. And so they thought what he had already said was offensive, but they needed to buckle up because what he says next is even more offensive to them. What Jesus says next is probably one of the most offensive things he could have said to them. And people act like Jesus was politically correct. They need to go understand the culture and read.

Now, he was gracious, but I would say he was far from politically correct. Okay, all right. So Jesus goes on to say this. Luke 4, 25, 27. He says, but I tell you truly, I'm telling you the truth.

That's what he's saying. Many widows were in Israel in the Days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent. What he's saying. He's saying to no widow in Israel was Elijah sent except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

What is he saying? That was a Gentile woman. This is what he's saying, okay? And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the Prophet, and none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. Naaman was not a Jew.

He was also a Gentile. He was also the captain of the Syrian army, okay? And the commander of that army that was invading Israel. Here's why this was so offensive to them. There was this huge rift among the Jewish people because the Old Testament prophesied that not only would the Messiah come from the Jewish people and save the Jewish people, but also he would come and the Gentiles would seek him and he would save them.

And they didn't want that, okay? A lot of them did not want the Gentiles saved because if you put your feet in their shoes, the Gentiles had enslaved them for years, okay? They had oppressed them for years. It was like saying, a Messiah is going to come and he's going to rescue you from the people who have abused you, but he's also going to rescue you abusers, too.

And we, like them, might say, well, you don't need to rescue them, Lord. Just rescue me. Right? And that's the way they felt. So for him to bring this up was a huge, huge offense to them.

I just want to show you one scripture from There are plenty. But I'm going to give you one scripture from the Old Testament about Gentiles seeking the Messiah. But here's this one. It says, Isaiah 11:10, and in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David.

We know if you read the genealogy of Jesus, that he came from the lineage of David. Right? Okay? And that day, there should be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. Now I want you to think about all of this again.

Jesus stands up. He's the carpenter come back to his hometown. They come to hear the carpenter, and he reads about the Messiah. And then he says, today the scripture's fulfilled in your hearing. I am the Messiah.

And they got mad. And then he says, hey, I see that you're upset a prophet's not accepted in his own home country, in his own hometown. But let me just tell you something else about me. While we're at it, let me tell you something else about me. There were many widows in Israel, and Elijah didn't go to any of them.

He went to a Gentile. There were many lepers in Israel, and Elisha didn't heal any of them. He healed a Gentile. So here's what he's saying. I'm not just the Jewish Messiah.

I'm not just the Jewish Savior, but I'm the Savior of the whole world, whether you like it or not. I'm the Savior of the whole world. And guess what? That's really good news for you and for me and for everyone who's not Jewish. But let me tell you something.

God still is for the Jewish people, and he's still saving the Jewish people, right? But praise be to God, as Paul put it, we've been grafted into that through Jesus Christ. But this made them very upset. So what I'm trying to say to you that are hearing me this morning, it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, what nationality you are, where you come from, where you go, what your history is. Jesus came and he died and he rose again to save you too.

He's your Savior as well. This is the announcement that he's making. And he's making the announcement. I came for everybody. I come to save everybody.

I come to save the whole world. And I'm in the saving business. That's what he's saying. So it was really like Jesus at that moment was given an altar call to his eight word sermon. And so I just want to look at it and see how they responded to his altar call.

Because I struggle sometimes. I give an altar call and I don't see a response. But, man, I'm glad I ain't never got this one. Luke, chapter four, 28, 30. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath.

That altar call is not going so well. And rose up and they thrust him out of the city, and they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they may throw him down over the cliff. I would say the altar call didn't go as he had planned. Or maybe it did. But this is.

Listen to verse 30. Then passing through the midst of them, he went his way. I just think that's so intriguing, right? Verse 30's always stood out like a sore thumb to me, right? Like The Bible does not expound upon it, but it almost seems like this was something supernatural and miraculous that took place.

They literally rose up. They're like, what are you saying? You out of here, man. They thrust him out of the synagogue, they push him out of the city. They push him all the way up to a cliff that the city was built on.

Because a lot of these cities were built on the edge of cliffs, and they are literally ready to throw Jesus off the cliff and kill him. And then it says he passed through the midst of them and he went his way. They had every intention of throwing Jesus down that cliff, and then he just passed through the midst of them. It seems miraculous and supernatural to me. Almost like he was saying, not only can I save you, but if I want to, I can save myself as well.

Kind of like a proof that I am the Messiah. I don't know if that's what happened. I wasn't there. The Bible doesn't elaborate, but I like to picture it that way. Right.

It just seems miraculous to me. So here's my last point. Manda, you can come play behind me and I'll try to close. There was the delivery of his sermon, right? He says, I am the Messiah.

Point number two is what was their response to that? It wasn't favorable. Right. Point number three was his response to their response. He says, not only am I your Messiah, but I'm also the Messiah of the world.

I come to save the whole world. And I come. I'm in the saving business. So here's point number four, your response.

Your response, since Jesus is the Messiah and he has come to save the world, what is your response truly to that? Let me give you a scripture that we always tend to use in and around Christmas. But this is not a Christmas scripture. This is something people need to know and to hear every day. Matthew 1:21.

And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus Yeshua. For he will save his people from their sins. He will save his people from their sins. Jesus was sent and he came because he is in the saving business. And he came to save us from our sins.

And Jesus makes two statements in Luke that tell us his first and primary ministry is salvation. Verse 18, Luke 4, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. I just want to remind you what the word gospel means. It means good news.

It doesn't mean good advice. It means good news. Good advice would be you need to try to do better. Good news is, Jesus already done it. All you got to do is believe and confess and then ask the Holy Spirit to come on.

The Holy Spirit will come alongside of you as your constant comforter, as your friend, and he'll be your helper moving forward. And he'll lead you through a life in a process of sanctification. Praise God. Pastor Andrew's still going through that, but he helps me every day. And then that will be better than you could have ever did on your own, right?

He says, I come to preach the gospel to the poor. The good news to the poor. Now that's not talking about the poor financially, it's talking about the poor in Spirit. Matthew 5:3, Jesus is giving the Sermon on the mount, the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest man who ever lived. Alright?

Matthew 5:3, he says, blessed or happy are extremely. Actually, blessed means extremely happy. Extremely happy are the poor in spirit for theirs the kingdom of heaven. This is what we got to know. We're all bankrupt before God.

There are two primary words in the Greek for poor. They are pennies, P, E, N E, S, Pennies. And then there's potahos. Okay? And I'm not Greek, so don't, don't.

I know it's got the ch, but they said it's pronounced potohos actually. So side note, I put those parentheses in there because that's how I remember how to pronounce it correctly. It didn't say in the Greek lexicon, patohos. It didn't say that, but I put that there. Patohos and penny.

It did say pennies though. Pennies, pitohos. Okay, Those are two Greek words that mean poor. Okay? Penis means the working poor.

So you might say, hey, that's me, I'm the working poor. You might work, you might work, work, work. And you still, hey, I feel like I got nothing left. The working poor, you might say, hey, that's me. But I rebuke that in Jesus name you're blessed and highly favored and you have more than enough in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Right? So that's what that means. But potohos means the begging poor. The begging poor.

It means the poor that cannot work. It means that if someone does not have mercy on them, they will die. And that's the word that Jesus uses every time he talks about the poor in spirit or the gospel being preached to the poor, he uses the word patohos. And what he's saying is, you are a people that cannot save yourselves. You're a people that cannot Earn your salvation.

The only way that you'll ever get to heaven is if I have mercy on you. And here's my announcement. Here's the good news. I've come to have grace and mercy on you. That's the first thing he says.

I'm here to preach the gospel to the poor. Then he says this in verse 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. I'm going to ask you a question this morning. What year is it right now? Answer me.

2026. What ad? Typically, right now you're supposed to put ad. 2026 is what the correct way they say is. Do it right.

Ad. AD stands for Anno Domini in Latin, which means the year of our Lord. That's what it means. Now. A long time ago, there was someone come up and said, all right, everything can't be based off Christ.

An atheist come through, agnostic came through and said, everything can't be based on Christ. BC we had before Christ, and then Ad anno Domini, the year of our Lord after. After his death, right? And so they said we got to change it to ce, which is common era, or BCE before common era. All right, that was really something that was pushed really hard.

It started way before that, but it was pushed really hard in the. In the early 90s, early to mid-90s. And they started putting it in academic books and school books and all that. And this is what it says. If you look it up, you just Google it online.

What's the difference in bc, bce, BC and ad? And it'll say that the CE and the BCE was created to give a religious alternative. They were trying to take Christ out of the equation. But this is what you got to know. This whole thing started with Christ, and it all revolves around Him.

And he's going to have the final word, right? Colossians 1, 16, 18. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him, and for Him. And he is before all things, and in all things him, all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church, us, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have preeminence. Preeminence. He's before everything and he is in everything.

He is. He's the Messiah, he's the Savior. So what you gotta know, it is BC before Christ, and it is ad, the year of our Lord. It's very important to understand that that it's the year of our Lord. And let me tell you why.

Because it's the acceptable year of our Lord. It's the acceptable year of our Lord. Look at this scripture, 2nd Corinthians 6:2. For he says, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation. It's now. Hebrews 3:7, 8. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial and in the day of wilderness. Don't harden your hearts when the Holy Spirit is speaking and you feel this nudge and you feel this tug and you don't understand it all.

What God is saying is, listen, today is the day. Don't ignore or harden your heart to what the Holy Spirit is drawing. No man come to the Father unless the Spirit draw him. And if you're feeling that nudge, it's because the Spirit is drawing you to your Creator. He's drawing you.

Now let's go Back to Luke 4:21, his eight word sermon. Today, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Today.

Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you'll hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Today. I'm telling you today he is speaking and whatever you need that today, April 12th AD 2026, is the day and the acceptable year of your Lord. It's today.

I want everyone to just bow your heads and close your eyes.

Father God, I thank you for today.

I thank you that you created all things, you sustain all things. You are in all things.

I thank you that today is the day for some at salvation. Today's the day of salvation because you've heard us in a cry for help. God, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I feel like I'm drowning in life's sorrows and I'm in the wilderness.

But today, God, I thank you, is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation for your souls. Maybe you're here and you know you've never known him. Today is the day. Maybe you're here and you feel like you're drowning in a world of hurt and you don't know how there's an escape.

I'm going to tell you, he's going to hear you in your cry for help and today's the day you find peace. Today's the day you find healing. Today's the day you find forgiveness. Today is the day. So I just want to ask you a question.

If you're here this morning and you say, pastor Andrew, I don't know. I'm not 100% sure. I don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if today my life ended, where I would go, would I be with him in eternity? I don't know. I'm not 100%.

If that's you and you don't know and you want to know, just throw your hand up and put it right back down. I'm not going to embarrass you. Say, today is the day. Today's the day. Today I see it.

You can put it up and put it down. Today's the day, maybe you hear and you say, pastor Andrew, you know I've been saved, but I'm just not on the same path I was when I first got saved. And I've kind of went my own way, and I've veered to the left, and I've veered to the right, and I've been wayward. And today the Lord is. The Holy Spirit is tugging on my heart.

He's calling me back home. And like the prodigal, I'm coming to myself, and I'm going to run to the Father. And I got news for you. There's no shame. There's no guilt in that.

He's looking for you. He's been waiting for you, and he's gonna come and he's gonna meet you. It's the only place in scripture, in the parable of the prodigal, where the Father ran. Where God ran is to meet his child who was coming home from a wayward trip. And so this morning, maybe you said, I've been wayward and I'm ready to come home.

If that's you, just throw your hand up. Today's the day. Today's the day.

Maybe you're here and you say, pastor Andrew, I feel like I'm drowning in health issues. I feel like I'm drowning in financial issues. I feel like I'm drowning in despair and emotional trauma. Things that I just can't seem to crawl out of this hole. And today is the day.

I need the Lord to hear me in my cry of distress and save me. If that's you, you say, I just need. I need a way out of what I'm facing right now. I need his help. If that's you, just throw your hand up, put it right back down.

Come on, y'. All, stand to your feet with.

Today's the day.

If you won't harden your heart.

Listen, that scripture is there for a purpose. There's so many times that the Holy Spirit is tugging at our heart and he's tugging at us, and he's calling to us, and he's saying, daughter, this is the day, son. This is the day I want you to come. I want to set you free. I want to lift you up.

I want to give you joy. I want to give you peace. I want to give you freedom from what it is that holds you bound. All the things that have oppressed you, I want to set you free from. He talked over and over again.

We're going to talk about it. But he said to set at liberty, to bring freedom. And today is the day. Only if you'll not harden your heart.

What does that mean? It says you won't respond.

I feel it. Everything in me is going crazy. I feel the tug in my heart, but I'm staying here. I'm not going to raise my hands. I'm not going to move.

You're hardening your heart to the call. And all he has is good for you. All he has is healing. All he has is peace. All he has is deliverance.

He wants to save you from what you're in. He wants to save you from your sin, but he also wants to save you from your situation. And sometimes he walks through us. He doesn't pull us straight out of that situation, but he'll walk with us. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel even why?

Because you are with me. So even if he doesn't pull you right out, he'll say, hey, you're not going through it alone. I'm with you. And you got nothing to fear. You got nothing to worry about.

The shepherd's here. Only if you don't harden your heart.

So today, would you respond? Would you respond to the pull, to the tug that he's given to you personally? You don't worry about anybody else in this room. It's between you and the Lord. This is not a judgmental church.

This is a church that says, we're going to pray with you, we're going to walk with you, and we're going to see you through. We're brothers and sisters.

This is a church that will tell you the truth whether you like it or not. Though if you get offended, I still love you.

Today they're gonna sing. If you raised your hand, I want you to come. Maybe you should have, but you didn't. That's okay. I still want you to come would you respond?

Would you not harden your heart? Would you come?