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[0:00] Well, turn with me, if you would, in your copy of the Scriptures to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, which has been read in your hearing. And I'm going to be concentrating this morning just on verses 14 through 18 or 19, 21 perhaps mentioned a little bit.

[0:17] Luke chapter 4 and verses 14 through 19 and 20 especially. I want you to imagine the scene with me in Nazareth on that Sabbath day when our Lord Jesus Christ visited his hometown.

[0:37] He was now famous. He had already exercised his ministry in Judea. And the hometown people had heard a lot about this boy who left, now a man, who left to their presence just a short time before that.

[0:55] The whole town turned out. The whole town of Nazareth. Now, Nazareth sits on the top of a mountain. If you were to drive to Nazareth today, you would be driving along the plain.

[1:07] And then, much to your surprise, there's this mountain that just appears in the plain with flat land all around it. So if you're a flat lander, you could be happy. If you're a mountain person, you could be happy as well.

[1:20] It takes about, as I recall, about five minutes to drive from the base of the mountain up to the town of Nazareth. It was not a large town. It's like a rural American town in its size.

[1:34] Nazareth was. Well, Jesus, it's like that except it's different. You know, in our rural towns here in mid-America, there are anywhere from two to seven churches, even in sometimes the smallest of towns.

[1:47] The first church I pastored in Green, Iowa, a town of 1,100 people, had seven churches. But not so in Nazareth. There was just one religion, and it was a synagogue.

[1:58] And everyone would have appeared at the synagogue on that Sabbath when Jesus was there. Who would have guessed that the boy who grew up in Nazareth from a common working family, helping Joseph in the carpenter shop, would now be famous?

[2:26] But indeed, he was. As was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and was given the scroll.

[2:39] And as you recall from your reading, he selected Isaiah chapter 6, what we call Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and following. He read from the scroll, and then he sat down, as was the custom.

[2:56] Well, preachers don't sit down today. We stand up when we preach. But he sat down to preach. And all he said was, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

[3:14] Shockwaves went through the assembled crowd. What was he claiming? Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

[3:27] They questioned the veracity of his claim. They understood that he was really claiming to be the promised Messiah from the Old Testament.

[3:39] Impossible, they thought. In fact, he told them. He understood why they thought it was impossible, because they knew him from his youth.

[3:51] And a hometown boy is not going to be received when he comes back to Nazareth and claimed to be the Messiah. And so they took him and were going to throw him over the edge of that mountain.

[4:04] I don't know exactly where it was on the mountain, but I saw several places when I was in Nazareth where, if one was thrown over the edge, they'd go all the way to the bottom. But he passed through them without any harm.

[4:16] Because his time had not yet come. His ministry must continue. But what our Lord Jesus Christ was telling his hometown people was that he was really the promised prophet that had been promised in Deuteronomy chapter 18.

[4:38] That's the passage where Moses records that there would be a prophet like him that would come, and every word that this prophet spoke was to be heard. And so they couldn't handle it.

[4:53] He was announcing that he was that prophet and that he was on his prophetic ministry. As he read from Isaiah 61. So it is the prophetic ministry of Jesus, which is especially highlighted here, in the words that Jesus read from Isaiah.

[5:12] Isaiah. And so it is the prophetic ministry of our Lord Jesus that I want you to concentrate with me on this morning. And what I want to do in this message is to simply highlight two main ideas or thoughts that are highlighted in this passage of Scripture about Jesus' prophetic ministry.

[5:34] I want you to look with me, first of all, at the power of Jesus' prophetic ministry. And then secondly, I want you to consider with me the hope of Jesus' prophetic ministry.

[5:49] But before I do that, I want to tell you what I hope the Holy Spirit will accomplish as I preach this sermon. It's a dangerous thing for a preacher to tell you what he expects before he preaches it, but I'm going to do it anyway.

[6:05] It's a prayer that I have. My prayer, first of all, is that every Christian here who is exercising his or her spiritual gift, and you know every believer does have a spiritual gift, which the Holy Spirit has given them, that everyone who is a Christian here who is exercising spiritual gift will pray and will see the need for the help of the Holy Spirit in exercising that gift.

[6:31] Whether you are teaching Sunday school, whether you are teaching Sunday school, taking meals to those who are in need, whether you are preaching, whether you are helping with a children's ministry, that you will see the need of the power of the Spirit of God in exercising your gift.

[6:54] A second hope that I have is, I would pray, that all the saints here will be able to rejoice in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[7:09] Because it's that good news which Jesus read from Isaiah chapter 61. And to understand and to know that every sinner, any sinner, no matter how wayward they are, can be saved.

[7:25] By the power of God. And a third prayer I have is that those who are yet outside of Jesus Christ, who have not yet closed with him, who have not yet believed on him, who have not yet come to Christ, that the Spirit of God would open your hearts and that you would come to Jesus Christ this morning.

[7:43] Those are the three reasons I'm preaching this message and three prayers I have as we come to this passage of Scripture. Well, having said that, these two words that I want to use to give insight into the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ.

[7:57] The word power and the word hope. First of all, we begin with the word power. There's great drama in what happened here on that Sabbath morning with our Lord Jesus Christ. I've tried to portray that to you somewhat.

[8:09] He was so well known. He was famous. And what he had done is recorded for us prior to this point in John chapter 1, verses 19 through 42. Luke doesn't cover that period of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:21] But the people in Nazareth knew about it. And I suspect that there weren't any absentees at the synagogue that morning in Nazareth when Jesus came.

[8:35] And they were amazed. They were stunned as they listened to him. In fact, verse 20 says, There was no shuffling of the feet.

[8:49] There was no coughing. There was no looking around. Every single eye was fixed on Jesus. They were just stunned with the power of his presence and of his words.

[9:02] And someday we too will be stunned with the power and presence of his words when we see him face to face. When we see him face to face, we'll be like him.

[9:12] But here his glory was veiled. But even though his glory was veiled, they were still amazed and surprised at this boy that they had known. What made the difference?

[9:25] I suspect that he had read the scriptures before in their presence in the synagogue. I don't know that for sure, but I suspect it may be true.

[9:36] But what made the difference? Well, the difference was he had been anointed from on high with the Spirit of God.

[9:48] And now when he spoke, it was clear to them that there was something different about the way he spoke. And something different about his presence. Because the Spirit of God was upon him.

[10:04] You recall at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Spirit of God rested on him. And shortly after his baptism, the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness.

[10:16] That's recorded in the first verse of this chapter. He was led by the Spirit, driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. And there he was tempted by the devil. And then in verse 14 we read that once he returned from this temptation, it was in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.

[10:37] And it was because the Spirit of God was upon him that news went all around about him and all that he was doing. He had performed miracles.

[10:49] Today, when there's an evangelistic campaign, we have to use advertising. We have to use the internet and the television and try to gather a crowd. Jesus didn't need any of that.

[11:03] The Spirit of God made his teaching and his miracles known. And then in verse 18, you see, Jesus is claiming to have the power of the Spirit.

[11:17] He says, And we know that he meant that personally because he says, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your very presence.

[11:29] I have the Spirit of God. And Jesus had the Spirit of God in a way that you and I do not have the Spirit of God because the Bible says he had the Spirit of God without measure. We are given the Spirit of God for our particular gifts and our particular service and measure as we need it.

[11:46] Not our Lord Jesus Christ. The infinite third person of the Trinity rested upon him to perform all that he needed to do. He is, you see, the very Son of God.

[12:00] And so the purpose of the Spirit of God resting upon him was that he could perform and do this prophetic ministry.

[12:13] If you want to read a profound and summary of the Spirit's work in the Lord Jesus Christ in his prophetic ministry, take up John Owen's volume on the Holy Spirit and read pages 171 to 174.

[12:29] Read it slowly. You have to read John Owen slowly in order to understand him. But it's well worth the read. Owen points out that the whole prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ can only be explained by the fact that he had the Spirit of God upon him without measure.

[12:49] There is no other way to explain the fact that when he taught, people were transfixed by his teaching. You remember at the end of his life, when the soldiers, the temple guard were to arrest him, and they came back, they said, why didn't you bring him?

[13:08] And they said, well, no man ever spoke like this man. Because the Spirit of God, you see, was upon him. How do you explain all the miracles that Jesus Christ performed? He is the Son of God, you say.

[13:19] Yes, that's true. But the Spirit of God was upon him. And remember, he was accused at one point of doing these things in the power of the devil. No. It was because the Holy Spirit of God was upon him.

[13:36] John 3.34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure, John says.

[13:46] He had the complete fullness of the Holy Spirit. And so when he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he's saying, I'm the Messiah.

[14:00] I have the Spirit of the Lord. I have the Spirit of the Lord without measure. I have the full power of the Spirit. Not just to teach, not just to perform miracles, but in everything I do, I have the Spirit of the Lord.

[14:14] Now, what should we take away from this? Well, we are promised the Holy Spirit. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 4, we read that when Jesus Christ ascended on to high, he laid captivity captive and he gave gifts unto men.

[14:32] And the Apostle Paul says, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. According to the measure of Christ's gift. Christ has all he gives to us according to measure.

[14:43] What does this teach us? Everything we do for Christ, every gift we exercise for Christ, is a gift that is exercised with the help and the power of the Spirit of God.

[15:01] And I say to you, since Jesus Christ was conscious of the fact that the Spirit of God was upon him, we must be conscious of the fact that we need the help of the Holy Spirit in everything that we do, in every service that we perform.

[15:18] We can do nothing without Christ, which means we can do nothing without the Spirit of God, which our Lord Jesus Christ gives to us. One of the reasons that we fall so short sometimes of boldness and zeal and endurance in the Christian life is because we have forgotten that we need the Spirit.

[15:46] And we have forgotten to pray that the Spirit of God would come upon us to help us in our service. Preachers need the Spirit of God to preach.

[15:59] Mothers need the Spirit of God to teach and guide their children. Fathers need the Spirit of God to love their wives. We all need the Spirit of God to do what the Lord has called us to do.

[16:13] And we need to remember, we need to remember that our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us that we need to pray for the Holy Spirit. If you turn over just a few pages in the Gospel of Luke to chapter 11, chapter 11 and verse 13, and this is at the end of a section where Jesus says that we need to pray and to seek and to knock until the door is open.

[16:37] At the end of his instruction on prayer, he says, If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

[16:51] You say, well, we already have the Spirit. Why do we need to ask for the Holy Spirit? Because we need not only his presence, we need his power. We need not only the fact that he is with us, we need the truth that he is animating us.

[17:08] I love the trumpet. I played the trumpet in high school and college. And I thought this morning as I was thinking about this message about Rafael Mendez. Any of you know Rafael Mendez?

[17:19] One of the great trumpeters of the 20th century. And I thought, what if I had Rafael Mendez in my home and I had my trumpet sitting over there in the corner on his stand and we ate a wonderful meal together and we had a wonderful conversation and then as the evening waned on, it was time for him to go.

[17:41] And someone would say, you had Rafael Mendez there. Yes. Did you have all of him there? Yes. Did you enjoy him?

[17:52] Yes. They said, did he play the trumpet for you? Oh, no, I forgot to ask that. Ah, you see, we have the Holy Spirit.

[18:04] And to enjoy Rafael Mendez entirely, you've got to give him the trumpet and let him just delight you with his runs and trills and triple tonguing and all those other things that he could do so wonderfully.

[18:20] And so we have the Spirit of God. Oh, yes, we have him. We can have no more of him than what we have now. But are we asking him to use all of his power and all of his help to perform the duties?

[18:37] You see, that's what our Lord Jesus Christ did. The Spirit of God was upon him and he depended upon the Spirit of God to accomplish all these things. So we think of this prophetic ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must think of power.

[18:53] And to think of power, we must think of the Holy Spirit who was given to Jesus without measure. Now, there's a second word that I want to use to give us insight into the prophetic ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the word hope.

[19:07] The word hope. I use this word because of what Jesus read from Isaiah chapter 61.

[19:21] As I see it, there are some five points to the message of our Lord Jesus Christ that he read from Isaiah 61. And we want to look at these five points together.

[19:33] And all of these five points combined give us a sense of great hope. It's the hope of the good news. It is the hope of the gospel that is highlighted in these verses.

[19:45] Well, let's look at them one by one. First of all, the message of our Lord Jesus Christ, his prophetic ministry, is a message for the poor.

[19:58] Notice verse 18. Now, the next sentence or clause that I'm going to read may not be in your Bible.

[20:15] He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Now, when he talks about the poor, certainly it includes those who have very little of this world's goods.

[20:27] But it means more than that. It has a deep and profound spiritual meaning. It is the meaning that is highlighted for us in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount when he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

[20:42] He came to preach to those who are poor. Yes, those who lack the material blessings of this world. But not just them, and not all of them, but rather all of those who are poor in spirit.

[21:00] Now, the heel of the brokenhearted, which may not be in your translation, is in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament from Isaiah chapter 61.

[21:13] And it's also in the Hebrew in Isaiah 61. So whether Jesus read this out of the Hebrew, I don't know, or the Aramaic or whatever he's reading out of in the scroll.

[21:29] But certainly it is there in Isaiah chapter 61. And the brokenhearted gives us an idea as to what the poor mean, who they are.

[21:42] Who are the poor? Who are the poor in spirit? Well, the poor in spirit are those who have a sense of their sin, who have a sense of great need, who have a sense that they need to be forgiven, who know that they need to be cleansed.

[21:56] I think of the woman who was weeping and washing Jesus' feet. You'll see her over in chapter 7 of Luke's Gospel, starting at verse 36 and following, this sinful woman, when Jesus was at the house of the Pharisee, and the Pharisee Simon, and there she was weeping, washing his feet with her tears, wiping them with the hair of her head, which she let down, of course, which was not proper for a woman to do in those days, but she did it anyway because she was so overcome with our Lord Jesus Christ.

[22:34] And Jesus turned to her after he had to rebuke Simon because he didn't give him a kiss, and Simon did not wash his feet. Simon had no sense of being poor.

[22:47] He had everything in order. He kept the law. He did everything that was right. He had a good opinion of himself, but this woman was poor. She knew that she wasn't who she ought to be.

[23:01] And so she wept at the feet of Jesus and kissed the feet of Jesus. And Jesus said to Simon, her sins are forgiven.

[23:14] And to the woman he said, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Ah, you see, that's the people for whom Jesus Christ came to minister.

[23:25] He came to minister for those who are poor, those who are brokenhearted, who have a sense of their sin. Is that where you are this morning? I tell you, it's the very best place to be in the world, to know that you are poor and brokenhearted.

[23:41] The worst place that you can be is to be like Simon the Pharisee, to think you have everything in order. Life is good, LG. Ah, but my friend, life isn't good if you think that you have it all together.

[23:57] Jesus Christ came for poor sinners. And that's the first point of this gospel message. It is for the poor. The second point of this gospel message is, in verse 18 again, it says he, to proclaim liberty to the captives.

[24:15] That is, those who have been dragged away into captivity. Recently, my wife and I have been reading in, in the Old Testament about the end of the kingdom of Judah.

[24:31] Zedekiah, that weak-kneed king who was the last king to reign in Jerusalem. You may recall him that he never could figure out exactly what he ought to do.

[24:43] He'd listen to Jeremiah. He believed Jeremiah, but he didn't believe Jeremiah. Let somebody throw him in a dungeon and then Ebed-Melech, the servant came. You shouldn't let him be there. Okay, Ebed, you can take him out.

[24:54] He took him out and he let him be in the court. He says, tell me the message. Jeremiah says, you've got to surrender. He didn't surrender. And you'll recall that when Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem, he ran away only to be caught and then Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed this punishment for Zedekiah.

[25:11] Killed all of his sons and his princes before his eyes. And then as soon as Nebuchadnezzar had ordered that, then he poked out Zedekiah's eyes so that he was blind.

[25:23] And then he was taken by shackles, captive to Babylon. He was a captive. I hope that he really repented someday. I don't know that. But Jesus here is speaking about the Zedekiah's of his time.

[25:41] Those who have been dragged into captivity. But having been dragged into captivity, they begin to realize that it's their own fault.

[25:53] And they need to be delivered. Or sometimes they don't even know they need to be delivered. But Christ in his power comes and delivers them anyway. I think of the account, the historical account that's given us in chapter 8 of Luke's gospel with the demoniac of Gadara.

[26:13] You'll recall that he was a man who lived in the tombs. He was a man who cut himself. He was a man who when Jesus came begged him to go away.

[26:24] He was a man that could not be restrained with shackles. He was the captive of a legion of demons. According to Jesus, when he asked this man what his name was, he said, Legion.

[26:40] And Jesus commanded the demons to come out. You know the account. You know how it was that the demons begged that they not be sent into the pit, but they be sent to the swine. Jesus gave the demons their request, sent them into the swine, and the swine went capulting over the cliff into the water and died.

[26:59] Ah, but then we read that the man was clothed and in his right mind in the presence of Jesus. The captive had been set free.

[27:10] And there are people today who are chained by drugs and alcohol and sexual addictions and anger and all kinds of other addictions and they cannot control them.

[27:22] These control them. Is there any hope for them? Ah, yes, there is because Jesus Christ delivers the captives. He came, he came from what he said to proclaim liberty to the captives.

[27:39] And my friend of here, here this morning bound by some kind of chains of addiction. Things that you think you can never get rid of.

[27:51] Oh, there is liberty for you. The power of Christ, the power of the Spirit of God can deliver you. And if you have, as believers, loved ones and those who are chained by addictions, you have hope for them.

[28:04] Because the good news is that Jesus Christ came to proclaim liberty to the captives. And there's no one that is outside of the power of Jesus Christ.

[28:17] Christ. No one. I'm thinking of a niece that we have who is worshiping Christ this morning in Des Moines, Iowa.

[28:28] She went deep into sin, addicted in many ways. And the Lord released her. And she's married and has children now, rejoicing in Christ.

[28:43] Oh, there's nothing too hard for Christ. Because this is the gospel to deliver the captives. To deliver the captives.

[28:56] I pray that our churches will be full of former homosexuals, former drug actors, former alcoholics.

[29:09] Because that's the people for whom Jesus Christ came. He can deliver. Well, the third point of Jesus' message was to open blind eyes.

[29:25] We see this in the next statement. And recovery of sight to the blind. There are many people, well, every sinner is blind spiritually, but I think Jesus has a particular category in mind here when he says to open the sight of the blind.

[29:44] It's those who are blind and they may not even realize they are blind. And it sort of has to be pointed out to them that they are blind.

[29:55] They have to come to understand that they can't see. They just can't see. But Jesus came for this class of sinners as well.

[30:06] I think of two biblical examples. I think of the woman in John chapter 4 who was blind. And you'll recall this Samaritan woman.

[30:18] Jesus met her at the well and asked her for a drink of water. And she said, why do you a Jew ask a Samaritan woman for water? He said, well, if you'd have known who I was, you'd have asked, I'd given you living water.

[30:29] And you never thirst again. Oh, she says, give me that water so that I never thirst again. Jesus said, so go call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. Don't you love the answer, Jesus?

[30:40] You're right. That's the truth. You don't have a husband. You have five. And now the man you're living with isn't your husband. And that you said very truly. And illustrating her spiritual blindness, she wanted to enter into theological dialogue.

[30:55] You Jews say we should worship in Jerusalem. We say it should be here in this mountain. Where should we worship? And Jesus said, well, the day's coming when you're going to worship in spirit and truth, neither at Jerusalem nor in this mountain, answering her blindness.

[31:13] And then the disciples came and she went back into town. Her eyes, her blind eyes were open. She got past the theological difficulty and she said, I met a man who told me everything I ever knew.

[31:33] And could this could this no, it's not possible. Maybe it is. I don't know. But could this be? Because that's the idea of the question that she asked. Is it possible that this is the Messiah?

[31:44] Just come and see. And they came and they saw that indeed he was. Jesus came to open blind eyes. People that don't even sometimes know they're blind.

[32:00] But they are. Or I think of another blind man. And that's blind Nicodemus. Nicodemus was blind.

[32:11] He was a teacher in Israel. He knew the Old Testament forward and backward. But he did not understand it. And so when he came to Jesus he said we know you're a teacher come from God because no man can do these things except God be with him.

[32:28] Jesus says you've got to be born again. Oh really what's that mean he said. And Jesus said you mean you've read the Old Testament you don't understand that the Old Testament numerous times talks about this new birth.

[32:43] Oh you must be born again Nicodemus. And we have every reason to believe that his blind eyes were open because he was one of the ones that came to bury Jesus and publicly professed his faith in Christ at the end of everything didn't he?

[33:02] So you see that's the third point of this good news Jesus Christ came to open blind eyes and many of you could give testimony to that today that you were just lo-lo-ling through life and not understanding anything and all of a sudden the light of the gospel came to you and you said oh now I see it now I see it we have a good friend in Carlisle Pennsylvania whose son was not a believer when we went there and but he thought he ought to go to church he went to church one day and the preacher just made one simple statement something about being like a Pharisee I think it was as I recall and the spirit of God struck his heart changed him in an instant although he'd heard the gospel all his life took him out of his blindness now he and his wife and family are members of a church rejoicing!

[34:12] in Christ this is what the gospel does it opens blind eyes then there's a fourth point of Jesus' message and this fourth point is to set at liberty those who are oppressed now interestingly this is not a quotation from Isaiah 61 at least from our from our Old Testament this is this is it's not there but it must be there because Jesus read it from there so I don't know what happened I can never figure those things out and I don't have to because I know it's here in the New Testament so he read it the oppressed it seems to be a statement that comprehends everything we've said up to this point in other words it includes such things as preaching the gospel to the poor and the brokenhearted setting at liberty the captives recovering the sight of the blind and he says now those who are oppressed everyone who is outside of Christ is oppressed they are all the victims of the devil they are all the victims of sin they are all duped by the evil one and all those who are oppressed no matter what their sin is no matter what it is that keeps them from

[35:23] Christ Jesus Christ says I came to deliver the oppressed there's no one that's outside of the gospel in a sense this summarizes the entire prophetic ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ then moving on to the fifth point of Jesus sermon he says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord or the year of the Lord's favor I think is what I heard read this morning that's good too it's all good to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor this is a reference to the year of Jubilee you remember that Jubilee year when all debts were forgiven things were restored everything was made new and those who were in debt had the debt relieved wouldn't it be wonderful to have that in the United States so they didn't have a debtor's prison they just had to work until it was time but there was also a relief every seven years as well in addition to the 50th year for the year of

[36:32] Jubilee I tried to imagine in my mind what this would be like we understand the spiritual application you shall know the truth Jesus says the truth shall set you free so men are set free when they know the truth I imagined in my mind and this is just simply my imagination I have no substantiation for this but I hope it illustrates it a little bit I imagined in my mind there was a young Jewish lad who had recently been married to a beautiful beautiful Jewish girl but although they were young although they were happy they had financial reversals and he lost everything and his only option was to sell himself to his neighbor as a bond servant which was allowed in those days and then to work for him he's very discouraged but his young wife encourages him and says to him it's only six years it's only six years until the year of jubilee just hang in there honey and you'll be free we'll be free in six years and so diligently he works for his neighbor and finally the year of jubilee comes the lad's master is a very kind master and when that year of jubilee comes he releases him he gives him back his land and he has a brand new fresh start on life and there he is with his young bride six years not as young as she was when it all happened but nonetheless his young bride and the young couple and they go back to their land and he's able to start over and able to enjoy the rest of his years with his sweetheart and with the family that the

[38:55] Lord gives to them and isn't this precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ does for those who are oppressed those who are blind those who are captives those who are broken hearted it's not just that he forgives our sin he gives us a fresh start on life and not just a fresh start on life but in the hope and the promise of an eternal life and not just the hope and promise of an eternal life but the hope of the resurrection and not just the hope of the resurrection of our bodies but the hope of a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness where thorns and thistles and sweat and tears and sorrow and pain and death is ended ah this is the greatest greatest jubilee that comes from Christ and this was the message of our

[39:57] Lord Jesus Christ on this Sabbath in Nazareth now sadly they got upset with him evidently they didn't think they needed the good news evidently they thought they were as good as he was evidently they thought that they had everything in order and so they tried to kill him oh my dear friend I hope you don't try to kill Jesus this morning and you try to kill him if you reject him don't reject him believe on him with all your heart and every one of us here this morning who professes Christ and knows the Lord Jesus Christ know for certain in your heart that there is no sinner outside of the power of the Spirit of God to save he's able to save all some of you may ask can he do this for me oh yes he can you come to him

[41:01] I conclude with the words of Joseph Hart come come ye sinners poor and wretched weak and wounded sick and sore Jesus ready stands to save you full of pity joined with power he is able he is able he is able he is willing doubt no more let's pray our father and our God and our blessed Lord Jesus and glorious Holy Spirit we bring our prayers of thanksgiving to you today for the good news of the gospel we pray that this good news may come with power to the hearts of many to encourage saints to convict sinners and to draw sinners to our

[42:10]  Lord Jesus Christ hear our prayers we need your help Holy Spirit only you can bring light where there is darkness only you can open the prison doors where there are captives only you can heal the broken hearted only you can deliver the oppressed only you can give the hope that there is a better world and a better life ahead for all who come to our Lord Jesus so we ask that you do that we pray this in Jesus name amen amen