The Word Preaches the Word!

3rd Sunday after Epiphany, 1/24/16
Luke 4:14-21


The Word Preaches the Word!
I. Fulfilling God’s promise
II. Calling sinners to faith


No doubt you’ve noticed that some surnames or last names indicate an occupation. For instance the surname Schneider is a German surname which means the same as Taylor in English. It was given to a person whose occupation was as a tailor, someone who sewed garments. The surname Bauer comes from the German word for farmer. The most common surname among English speaking people is Smith and it was originally given to someone who worked with metal or iron, a blacksmith. Long ago those surnames lost their original significance. But they still hold some interest for some people, especially to those searching their ancestry.

In Bible times, people were often known by their parents. Peter is referred to Simon, son of Jonah. James and John were known as the sons of Zebedee. But people were also known for what they primarily did. John who was the forerunner of Jesus was known as the Baptist or Baptizer. Joseph, who was married to Jesus’ mother, was known as the carpenter.

In the beginning of John’s Gospel, John refers to Jesus by a peculiar name. He calls Jesus “the Word.” “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). We use words to reveal truths. God uses the Word, Jesus, to reveal his truths to us. If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus and listen to him. If you want to know how God wants you to live, live with Jesus. If you want to be close to God, come close to Jesus. He reveals God to us.

And that makes his words unique in all of history. We live in the age of information. Countless words come at you all day long via your mobile devices. Literally entire libraries are at your disposal in the palms of your hands 24 hours a day.

But how unique were the words being proclaimed on this day described for us in Luke 4! On this day the Word preaches the word. In those words are life—eternal life. Listen to the Word as he preaches his word once again this morning.

Part I.

Sad to say, life is full of unfulfilled expectations. You were expecting that social gathering to be enjoyable, but it was anything but that. You were expecting your boss to understand your situation, but that didn’t happen. You were certain you had done well on that test, but when the teacher handed it back to you a day later, it was full of red ink. You were expecting years of trouble-free enjoyment of your vehicle, but your trips to the mechanic seem to occur every other month.

When we meet Jesus here in Nazareth this morning, he has already made a beginning into his earthly ministry. After his baptism at the Jordan River and his temptation in the wilderness, the writer John informs us that he and his disciples went to Jerusalem for a short time. While there he not only preached to the people, he also performed miracles. Then he headed back north to the area of Galilee, and entered his hometown of Nazareth. John informs us that the Galileans were hoping to see him perform some more miracles.

But their expectations were unfulfilled, at least for the moment. Instead, Luke tells us, “On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.” Remarkable, isn’t it? The Word in human flesh and blood enters a synagogue as was his custom to hear the word of God. He had done this countless times in his life. But this day was different. He stood up to read. It was Jewish worship custom for the leader of a synagogue to invite someone who was recognized as rabbi to read a portion of God’s word, which consisted of the books of the Old Testament at this time. Jesus did just that. He chose a portion of Isaiah, the section we heard earlier, and read it to the people. And the people were impressed simply from the way he read those words. The Word was reading the word.

But it wasn’t long before their admiration for Jesus ceased. If you were to read further in Luke 4, you would see that Jesus correctly accused the people of simply wanting to see him perform some miracles. He reminded them how hard-hearted their ancestors were and they quickly got his point—he was stating they were no different. They had come to their synagogue that Saturday expecting to hear and see something vastly different. What they got was the Word preaching the word to them.

But that’s exactly what they needed. Not a single miracle of Jesus ever saved a single sinner. That happens through the preaching of God’s word. Sure, performing miracles was part of Jesus’ ministry. The Old Testament even foretold they would be. But the focus on his ministry here on earth was to preach the good news, to point people to himself as their only Savior from sin, to remind them of the eternal devastation sin wreaks in human lives, to offer himself as the only solution to that devastation. That’s what sinners need to hear. That’s what the Word preaches. Isaiah foretells it. Jesus fulfills it.

The Word preaches the word, fulfilling God’s promise.

So, why did you come to worship this morning? Did you expect to see Jesus here performing some miracles? Not a chance. You came to hear the word, which is better by far. But if only that were always your attitude and mine! Countless times in our lives we want Jesus to part the gloomy clouds in our lives and make something in our lives better. We want him to do something about the problems we’re facing. We want him to heal our loved one. We want him to provide some earthly blessing. We want him to snap his fingers and bring a certain person appear in our lives. We want him to wave his hand and cause on opportunity for us to bloom. Instead, the Word preaches the word. Exactly, because that’s what we desperately need. More than a temporary fix for an irritation during the 80 or 90 years of our lives here on earth, we need an eternal fix to the mess we’ve made with our sins. Our greedy and covetous hearts have dragged us into materialism and discontent. Our anger and vengeance have spilled out in spiteful words. Maybe we didn’t actually hurt that person who was causing us so much trouble, but we spent days wanting to. For all those sins and a host of others, miracles by Jesus will do nothing. His word will. His word of love and forgiveness solves all our sins. His life and death on the cross remove them forever. His resurrection from the dead opens eternal life to us. Those solid truths are in the word. The Word preaches the word.

Part II.

There’s no doubt that drug addiction is a huge problem in our country. The number of deaths due to overdose has doubled in our area just in the last few years. Babies are born addicted. The vast majority of crimes are drug related. So why can’t we seem to do anything about it? Because most of the people who desperately need help don’t want it. You can’t help people who don’t want help.

Jesus was in the synagogue of Nazareth this Sabbath day to help. Listen to his words, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” When Jesus refers to the poor, he’s not talking about those who have no money. He’s talking about people who realize they have nothing to offer God for his love and favor. When Jesus speaks about prisoners, he’s not referring to those locked behind bars of iron, but to those imprisoned by Satan. When he announces that he’s here to give sight to the blind, he’s talking about sinners groping in the darkness and blindness of unbelief. He’s here to enlighten them with God’s saving truth. When he singles out the oppressed, he’s not referring to some social or economic situation. He’s referring to those under the damning oppression of sin and unbelief.

To all of these needy people, Jesus is here to announce the year of the Lord’s favor. That’s a reference to the Old Testament’s Year of Jubilee. Every 50 years all debts among God’s people were cancelled. Every slave was set free. All property was returned to its original owner. It was something like hitting the reset button on modern mechanisms today. This Old Testament observance foreshadowed the grace of God in the New Testament. The year of God’s favor in the New Testament is actually the entire New Testament period. It’s now. It’s today. Today in his grace God forgives our sins. Today in his grace God sets us free from death and hell. Today in his grace God’s gives us spiritual sight and has freed us from Satan’s hellish hold. Jesus entered that Nazareth synagogue that Saturday to proclaim that grace of God. He shares the same word of grace with us this morning. He does that so that we cling to him by faith.

The Word preaches the word, calling sinners to faith.

It seems to me that the mass of humanity is on a desperate search to find meaning and purpose and fulfillment and happiness. And, to some degree, we’re a part of that frantic crowd. We look for meaning and self-worth in the work that we do. We try to find security in the number of digits to the left of the decimal point in our bank account balance. We think we’ll find peace and happiness if we live in the right home, take the right vacations, and drive the right vehicles. If only we can find the right group of people to spend time with, then we’ll be content. But all along, Jesus tells us we’re poor, imprisoned, blind and oppressed. And until we acknowledge it, until we admit that we need help, we’ll never find meaning or purpose or happiness. That’s because true meaning, purpose, security, happiness and contentment are found only in Jesus. Your relationship with him is the only thing that really matters. That saving relationship with Jesus is created and built through his word. The Word preaches the word. Listen to it! Believe it! Find in it all that really matters. Amen.