Speaker 1: Just like to say it's good to see everybody in the house of the Lord today.
Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's Day week.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, guys.
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day is Friday, just in case anybody forgot.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, ladies, if you're appreciative of me reminding them, you can give a little extra to Peyton.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding, but today or no?
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, but today or no.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, not today.
Speaker 1: Yesterday.
Speaker 1: Yesterday, dean and I got to go out and have kind of an early Valentine's.
Speaker 1: You know it's Super Bowl Sunday as well.
Speaker 1: I know the guys didn't forget that one.
Speaker 1: But with it there you go.
Speaker 1: But with it being Super Bowl Sunday.
Speaker 1: You know they always say that the what is the best defense is good offense, isn't that right?
Speaker 1: And so with that, dean and I've had early Valentine's.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we went to go make macaron cookies.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all know what that is, but it's kind of like a.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a cookie sandwich, right, you have the almond flour.
Speaker 1: I know what this is.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: I knew what it was to eat one.
Speaker 1: I never knew what it was to make one, but you make it with almond flour and a meringue and you have this filling in there, which is really good and that's kind of where your flavor comes from.
Speaker 1: And you know, I could have, if I wanted to have made macaron cookies on my own.
Speaker 1: I could have gotten online and found a recipe and I could have done all the stuff you know.
Speaker 1: But you know what's nice or well, actually, what's not nice about macarons is that they're hard to make.
Speaker 1: If you make macaron cookies you make them one day and they turn out perfect you make them the next day.
Speaker 1: You do exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: You follow exactly the same recipe.
Speaker 1: When you bake them, they crack.
Speaker 1: And what I discovered yesterday because I knew nothing about making a macaron cookie, what I discovered yesterday because I knew nothing about making a macaron cookie, what I discovered yesterday is that macarons are very finicky.
Speaker 1: They're one of those things where the cookie you have to let it sit so that it develops a skin, because when you bake it, the inside's supposed to be chewy and it puffs up, you know, and so it's very particular.
Speaker 1: As far as baking is concerned, you really have to be careful.
Speaker 1: You have to follow exact measurements and you have to follow exact rules, and the instructions are really, really important.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about y'all, but I'm kind of a free spirit, so when I follow instructions, every once in a while I don't quite follow them to the letter, I just get close, and so it would be hard to make a macaron without an example.
Speaker 1: But going through the class, you know she's telling us all the little tricks, For instance, to use grams on your scale, because you have to be so precise you don't want to use, you know, cups or ounces or whatever Grams are the way to go.
Speaker 1: She told us all about how you have to be careful with your moisture content, and so if it's rainy outside and it's really humid like it is right now which is why I'm sweating myself to death you have to let your macarons dry longer before you put them in the oven.
Speaker 1: It was helpful to have a living example.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 4, is where we're going to be at today.
Speaker 1: We're going to be looking at the living example of Jesus being led by the Spirit, and so the living example of Jesus being led by the Spirit is one of those things that, through prayer, I just believe was going to be really helpful for us, because, as you know, we're studying the book of Acts and we're studying the Holy Spirit's empowerment in our lives.
Speaker 1: And if you're like me and you didn't grow up with the Holy Spirit's empowerment in our lives, and if you're like me and you didn't grow up with the Holy Spirit's empowerment in your life, that thing can be a little scary.
Speaker 1: You know, like it's scary to think that the Holy Spirit could use me to speak to a crowd of 3,000 people and they get saved.
Speaker 1: It's scary to think that I could be walking through Walmart and through the Spirit's empowerment, he says, hey, pray for that guy, and I do it and he gets healed.
Speaker 1: You know, it's scary to think that, if I can be honest, that the Spirit's empowerment in my life makes me confront the fact that I can't play church anymore and so it's helpful to have a living example of Jesus.
Speaker 1: So, as we step back to Luke, chapter 4 today, that's what we're going to be looking at.
Speaker 1: We're going to be looking at the Spirit's empowerment of Jesus and how that caused Him to, you know, live out His life, so to speak, and what that means for us as the believer today.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, my main point today is that to be led by the Spirit is actually to follow in Jesus' footsteps.
Speaker 1: To be led by the Spirit is to follow in Jesus' footsteps.
Speaker 1: And so, again, what does this look like in our lives?
Speaker 1: We're going to be studying all of that out, but before we get there, you know what we need to do.
Speaker 1: We need to pray and ask God's help, because spiritual things are understood in spiritual ways.
Speaker 1: The Spirit to help us.
Speaker 1: So, heavenly Father, we come in the name of Jesus and we ask today that you would bless this time together, that as we study your word, that we would learn from it, father, that I would rightly divide the word of truth and as we study it, god, would it change our lives?
Speaker 1: Lord, words on a page are important, but your spirit, helping us to understand those and be changed, is even more important, god.
Speaker 1: It helps us to live lives of faith and to follow you as best we can, and so may we do that today in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: And so let's look at Luke, chapter four.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Luke, chapter four, starting in verse 14 and following Luke 4,.
Speaker 1: 14 says this and Jesus returned, in the power of the Spirit, to Galilee and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Speaker 1: And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.
Speaker 1: Then the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
Speaker 1: He enrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
Speaker 1: He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Speaker 1: And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Speaker 1: And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
Speaker 1: And they said is not this Joseph's son?
Speaker 1: And he said to them doubtless you will quote to me this proverb physician, heal yourself.
Speaker 1: What we've heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.
Speaker 1: And he said truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Speaker 1: But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Speaker 1: And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.
Speaker 1: When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and drove him out of town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff, but passing through their midst, he went away.
Speaker 1: But passing through their midst, he went away.
Speaker 1: And so we come to this passage in Luke and if in case you don't know, again we're studying in the book of Acts and when we go back to Luke, what we're doing is we're kind of getting the prequel.
Speaker 1: You know, Jared and I were talking.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like if Acts of Star Wars.
Speaker 1: You know we're, we're in the force or, I'm sorry, we in the Phantom Menace.
Speaker 1: That's where we're at today.
Speaker 1: We are looking at a passage of Scripture, written by the same author, but focusing on Christ, versus Acts, which focuses on the Holy Spirit and the lives of the apostles and the church, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And so, as we come to this, it says Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.
Speaker 1: Now, where has he been in chapter 4?
Speaker 1: In chapter 4, actually, let's go back just a little bit further.
Speaker 1: In chapter 3, you see Jesus who is baptized, not in the Spirit, but baptized physically in water.
Speaker 1: And then it says too that the Spirit then descends on him like a dove.
Speaker 1: So what we know is that the power of the Spirit comes on Jesus there, so you could say baptized in the Spirit as well.
Speaker 1: But what happens is the power of the Spirit comes on Jesus there at his baptism, and when that happens, a voice from heaven says this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Speaker 1: Right From that moment forward, you have chapter 4.
Speaker 1: And in chapter 4, it is after, over and over, led by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, jesus is sent here and there and everywhere.
Speaker 1: What you see is in verse 14, jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee from the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil.
Speaker 1: If you go to verse 16, and he came to Nazareth.
Speaker 1: If you go on from there, if you go a little bit further, he goes to the synagogue.
Speaker 1: If you go down to verse 31, he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, on the Sabbath, and he goes to their synagogue.
Speaker 1: If you go on from there, he's going to go out to a desolate place and he's going to pray by himself.
Speaker 1: Jesus is going to go lots of places because of the leading of the Spirit, and if you are sitting here and you're going, what does that mean for me?
Speaker 1: What it means is we as people of God, as real followers of Jesus, if we want to follow in Jesus' footsteps and be led by the Spirit, we must follow the Spirit's lead.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, we must follow the Spirit's lead.
Speaker 1: We have to go where he leads and we have to do what he says.
Speaker 1: Jesus goes all over the countryside there, it seems like, and he's going one place to another.
Speaker 1: It's quick and it's sudden, but what he's doing is something that's very intentional.
Speaker 1: If you looked at it from the outside, it may not seem so important, because he's just going from synagogue to synagogue, and yet what we know is that the Bible tells us that is when he started to proclaim to repent and to turn from your wicked ways, so to speak, that the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Speaker 1: What we see is that not only is he led by the Spirit to go from place to place, but he's going to start doing some mighty works.
Speaker 1: And so when it says in verse 14 that a report about him went out through all the surrounding country, it's funny that Luke doesn't mention why the report is going out about him throughout all the surrounding country.
Speaker 1: We actually have to go back to Matthew to kind of get some ideas about that.
Speaker 1: And so in Matthew and I'll just kind of paraphrase it, but in Matthew, if you look up Matthew chapter 4, it gives you the same story and it says that Jesus is healing all who had diseases and afflictions and delivering people from demons.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is teaching in their synagogues and everyone who had an issue, a sickness, was brought to him and they were healed.
Speaker 1: Sickness was brought to him and they were healed.
Speaker 1: Can y'all imagine, like in our day, if that happened, how we would?
Speaker 1: Also a word about somebody would go.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if Hunter Deal over there?
Speaker 1: He's seven feet tall anyway, so he's easy to see.
Speaker 1: But can you imagine if he, like, had the thing right and he could be like you have a broken leg and he prayed for you and your leg was healed?
Speaker 1: And it says that Jesus, even that the paralytics would come to him and they were healed.
Speaker 1: And we pray for Casey all the time.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if Hunter was like Casey, get out of that wheelchair.
Speaker 1: And she just popped up and was like you know, we would talk about Hunter right, like, and not in the way we talk about him now, like we would talk about him, like we would talk about Hunter.
Speaker 1: And that's what they do about Jesus.
Speaker 1: A report about Jesus goes throughout the whole region, but Luke doesn't mention that.
Speaker 1: What it does mention is that he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Speaker 1: It's easy to follow the Spirit's lead when you're being glorified by all, and we'll talk about some stuff here in a minute because, if you remember, at the end of this story they're going to take him out of the town and they're going to try to throw him off a cliff.
Speaker 1: Right, we'll get there, don't worry.
Speaker 1: But what we see is that Jesus is on the move and he is following the Spirit's lead and he's doing these miraculous signs and he's teaching in their synagogues and he's bringing truth where they had misconceptions.
Speaker 1: And he's doing all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And the question that we see kind of asked, it's kind of implied In our lives, is if the Spirit were to call you, would you go?
Speaker 1: If the Spirit were to lead, would you follow?
Speaker 1: And if the Spirit were to command, would you act?
Speaker 1: Would you be the person who, when led by the Spirit, you prayed for the person on the sidewalk, not knowing if that person would be healed or not, not knowing what it would do to your reputation?
Speaker 1: Would you be the person who work, would be bold enough that, when somebody's just having that really bad day, that you could be the person who says man, you may be having a bad day now, but there's a Jesus who loves you and he can fix your brokenness?
Speaker 1: Yes, you've broken the law, but you can be saved and put on a different path.
Speaker 1: Would you follow the Spirit's leading?
Speaker 1: And if he asks, would you go?
Speaker 1: Would you go to?
Speaker 1: You know, in the assemblies we love missions, and would you go to one of the places that we have on our missions wall out there where all of these other missionaries would go?
Speaker 1: Would you go and follow the Spirit's lead in your own life, here, in the grocery store, or even to the ends of the earth?
Speaker 1: Jesus does, and so he goes from place to place, and we must follow the Spirit's lead as well, just as Jesus did.
Speaker 1: And so it goes on from there.
Speaker 1: And it says in verse 16,.
Speaker 1: And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as was His custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.
Speaker 1: Now what does he read?
Speaker 1: Let's find out.
Speaker 1: It says, and sorry, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
Speaker 1: He unrolled the scroll and found a place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
Speaker 1: He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Speaker 1: He reads the prophet Isaiah, and in the prophet Isaiah he is reading a prophecy about himself.
Speaker 1: The scroll of Isaiah has a passage that was written about Jesus hundreds of years before Jesus was born.
Speaker 1: And this is the mission of Jesus.
Speaker 1: He is going to say the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Speaker 1: Did you hear the first part?
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, today, not only do we need to follow the Spirit's lead, but, number two we need to announce the good news.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus does, as being one being led by the Spirit.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and now he's going to go to the synagogue and he's going to proclaim some amazing things.
Speaker 1: He's going to proclaim that there is good news for the poor, that there's liberty for the captives, there's sight for the blind, there's liberty for those who are oppressed.
Speaker 1: And verse 19,.
Speaker 1: We don't understand, as us in America today, but to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor for these people would have meant so much.
Speaker 1: You see, for about 700 years, during that time, the Jews had been conquered by people after people, after people.
Speaker 1: You know, if you read the Old Testament much, you'll hear a lot about David.
Speaker 1: You'll hear a lot about how he was this great king and they had this great time of prosperity and all these things.
Speaker 1: And if you go back farther from there.
Speaker 1: You'll hear about how, when the law, which was the first covenant was made with God's people, what happens is that God says if you'll follow my law, I'll bless you and you'll have this land that I'm gonna give you and you will be my people and I will be your God and I'll take care of you, and the famine won't come upon you and you won't have sicknesses and all these things.
Speaker 1: You see this covenant that God makes with them.
Speaker 1: But he says but if you turn away from me and you worship other gods, I will curse you and I will allow peoples to conquer you over and over and over again, and eventually it'll get so bad that it's like the tree was cut off and I'm even going to burn the stump.
Speaker 1: He says in this first covenant that if you do these things, there are consequences for your actions, and that's what we see for 700 years, before Jesus stands up in their synagogue and reads Isaiah, they have been conquered by people after people after people Assyrians, babylonians.
Speaker 1: Anybody know about Alexander the Great, that guy, actually, that guy, it's funny.
Speaker 1: He came to Israel to conquer them and he actually passed him by, because there's a prophecy about a goat, not like football, the greatest of all time.
Speaker 1: Not that goat, but like there's a prophecy about a goat in the Old Testament and that was like it had a lot to do with Alexander's symbolism and stuff.
Speaker 1: So he actually sees himself in the Old Testament scriptures in in this prophecy and passes by the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1: It's funny, we see and this is just for you, this isn't in my notes but we see that God knows what he's doing through all of these prophecies throughout the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: So when Jesus stands up and he reads the scroll of Isaiah to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor means so much more to these Jewish people than we realize, because what it means is that that time of conquer and conquer and conquer should be over.
Speaker 1: And that's going to be important because it's about to play into why they're going to throw him off a cliff.
Speaker 1: Jesus is coming to announce the good news of the gospel of the kingdom and if you remember, when we looked at Acts, chapter 1 and verse 8, it says that Jesus tells the apostles that he's about to ascend into heaven and he says wait in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit comes upon you, because you're going to have power and that power is intended so that you can be my witnesses throughout Jerusalem and Judea and Sam, samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: You're going to have power.
Speaker 1: But why do we need that power?
Speaker 1: Why do we want that power?
Speaker 1: How is that power not scary for us?
Speaker 1: It's not scary because Jesus was empowered by the Spirit to do the same things.
Speaker 1: He was proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor and, as people led of the Spirit, we must do so as well, and so we announce the good news of the kingdom of God to the world.
Speaker 1: Can I just say what an amazing, just mind-blowing message.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, good news, news that changes your very existence.
Speaker 1: I remember there was a time in my life when I had no good news, and my life wasn't bad.
Speaker 1: My mother was great, I had a good childhood.
Speaker 1: It had nothing to do with that, but I knew something was missing.
Speaker 1: There was good news for the poor.
Speaker 1: Jesus, says he, the Spirit of the Lord, has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Speaker 1: I was bound and I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: I was lost in sin and death and I needed a way out, but I didn't have one.
Speaker 1: He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Speaker 1: I was blind and I couldn't see.
Speaker 1: I didn't know where my next step should even go.
Speaker 1: But he's come to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year the Lord's favor.
Speaker 1: What an amazing, amazing proclamation that we get to be a part of.
Speaker 1: The great thing about the proclamation of the good news, to announce it from the rooftops, is that it's so awesome.
Speaker 1: It's so amazingly wonderful.
Speaker 1: It's so good that how could it be awkward, how could it be strange to us?
Speaker 1: It's such good news that to tell someone about it, even if they reject it, is okay, because at least we got it out.
Speaker 1: I know there are times in my life where it just seems like I'm so thankful to the Lord for the things that he's done in me that it's like it'll burst out of me at times.
Speaker 1: There are times when I, even when I wake up in the morning, that I'm so thankful for the Lord because it says His mercies are made new every morning.
Speaker 1: It's a great privilege that we get to be a part of that story, and so we can take comfort in the fact that, following the same way that Jesus followed.
Speaker 1: We can be filled by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, we can follow His leading, we can participate in the same actions and mission of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so what I would urge you this was a word that was given on Wednesday the leading of the Spirit, the empowerment of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: It's not awkward, it's awe-inspiring.
Speaker 1: And so, going on from there, it says he began to say to them Today this is verse 21,.
Speaker 1: This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Today.
Speaker 1: This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Speaker 1: If you're sitting there and you put yourself in the place of the people in the synagogue, at the time, you go wow.
Speaker 1: And then you go wait, because, in case you don't know what's going on, at this point in history, the Romans have occupied the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1: The Gentiles are there, and so what that should mean, according to their understanding of the Scriptures, is that means that this guy, who is led by the Spirit, is going to kick out the Romans.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're going to get our country back.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're going to get all the things that we lost, but when we turned away from the Lord, we're going to have times of great prosperity.
Speaker 1: This is going to be great.
Speaker 1: And it says verse 22,.
Speaker 1: All spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth and they said is not this Joseph's son?
Speaker 1: Isn't this the son of a carpenter?
Speaker 1: Isn't this kind of the poor boy from the middle of Noblesville, like redneck guy who you know?
Speaker 1: Like he can make cabinets, you know, but like, is that, you know?
Speaker 1: Is that who this guy is?
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't remember him being a king, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't remember him being oh, I don't know a nobleman.
Speaker 1: I don't remember any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Hmm, then they go on and they say and he said to them doubtless you will quote to me this proverb this is Jesus speaking.
Speaker 1: Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb Physician, heal yourself.
Speaker 1: What we've heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.
Speaker 1: And he said to them truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Speaker 1: But in truth, now listen to this.
Speaker 1: I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Speaker 1: What does that mean, pastor Ben?
Speaker 1: What it means is Jesus was doing great.
Speaker 1: They were all speaking about how great he was and then he had to keep going.
Speaker 1: I've been there, I've done that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just want people to hush and unfortunately, that's kind of what they wanted Jesus to do.
Speaker 1: That's not kind of it was what they wanted Jesus to do.
Speaker 1: Jesus goes and he says this thing, he gives them truth and corrects this kind of misconception.
Speaker 1: You know they're talking about how this Jesus guy this is.
Speaker 1: He says this is going to be fulfilled, which means he's going to kick out the Romans.
Speaker 1: But the weird part about what Jesus just said is, in the time of Elijah, the only people that were helped were Gentiles.
Speaker 1: That's a problem for them Because the Romans have conquered Israel.
Speaker 1: That's a problem for them because the Romans have conquered Israel.
Speaker 1: That's a problem for them because the Gentiles, for them, are a sign of God's judgment.
Speaker 1: Every time they look at somebody who's not a Jew, what they see is you have conquered me, and that makes me angry.
Speaker 1: It's a symbol that I didn't do what I should have done all along, which was worship the Lord.
Speaker 1: And the thing about it is these people have probably been worshiping the Lord to the best of their ability their entire life.
Speaker 1: They're not the ones who are responsible for the 700 years of judgment that has happened to them over and over and over again and so feel their frustration.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: They're thinking this is going to be the guy.
Speaker 1: And then, all of a sudden, what is he talking about?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 1: He's talking about the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: Are the ones who are going to get the blessing.
Speaker 1: Hang on there.
Speaker 1: And then Jesus goes on, and if he didn't stop there which he didn't he had to go on a little bit further.
Speaker 1: Verse 27,.
Speaker 1: And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't know about y'all, but I'm a good old country boy.
Speaker 1: I came from Ashland, kentucky.
Speaker 1: I know that's not eastern Kentucky, but it is.
Speaker 1: It's as far east as you can go in your little northeast section and we have a lot of countryisms in Ashland especially.
Speaker 1: You know my family was from Carter County.
Speaker 1: They're a little bit further.
Speaker 1: They're more po-dunky than I am, you know, but you get all these nice country sayings, and one of them is those are fighting words where I come from.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what Jesus just did.
Speaker 1: He just talked about fighting words in the middle of the church.
Speaker 1: So not only was Elijah not sent to the people of Israel, he was sent to this widow woman, which you can kind of understand.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can have some sympathy on a widow woman, even though she's a Gentile.
Speaker 1: But man, now he's going to go that much further.
Speaker 1: And in verse 27, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed.
Speaker 1: But Naaman the Syrian was.
Speaker 1: Naaman the Syrian was a guy who was in the army.
Speaker 1: He was a mighty warrior and commander.
Speaker 1: He was one of those people that conquered Israel.
Speaker 1: I'm just fighting words where we come from y'all.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus is proclaiming.
Speaker 1: He's saying that whoever would listen to his words could be saved, including the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: That's not cool with them.
Speaker 1: They are ready to have the year of the Lord's favor for them.
Speaker 1: But what Jesus is going to tell us is this is a message for the whole world.
Speaker 1: And then they're going to do this crazy thing.
Speaker 1: Crazy thing A crowd that were just singing His praises are going to throw him off a cliff.
Speaker 1: Y'all know that was in the Bible, you do.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to throw him off a cliff because they're so angry at what he just said.
Speaker 1: Now you're going, pastor Ben, that was a lot of words.
Speaker 1: How does that apply to me today?
Speaker 1: People will throw me off a cliff.
Speaker 1: I hope not.
Speaker 1: Here's what I will say, though the Bible does tell us that for the believer, there will be persecutions.
Speaker 1: People aren't always going to like the fact that the Christian message involves turning from sin and turning to the Lord.
Speaker 1: People don't like the fact that I can't do whatever I want with the Christian message.
Speaker 1: People don't like the Christian message often enough for various reasons.
Speaker 1: There was a video I was.
Speaker 1: You know how you doom scroll sometimes and those reels just start coming.
Speaker 1: I was scrolling the other day and it was a video of this guy.
Speaker 1: He's on a bus and he has this sign and he's just proclaiming the gospel and there's this guy really angry about it.
Speaker 1: You know this guy's going hey, you need to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1: He's on the phone has nothing to do with this guy, except that the guy's kind of close and he is kind of loud on this bus and man, that guy stands up and he's on the phone and he's like I'm on the phone, no-transcript out of that guy.
Speaker 1: I can't say that that's going to happen to you.
Speaker 1: I hope it doesn't.
Speaker 1: But what I can tell you is this it can be tough.
Speaker 1: It can be tough to live out your Christian faith in front of people who may be openly hostile to the gospel of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It can be tough to follow Jesus in your workplaces.
Speaker 1: It can be tough that you know, when they offer you something or they do something or whatever, and they want you to join along, that you don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: It can be tough.
Speaker 1: It just seems like everything that we see on TV just tears down the Christian faith.
Speaker 1: It's hard to live this life of faith sometimes, but you know what the Spirit's empowerment helps us to do as much as anything.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, this is number three Helps us to remain steadfast.
Speaker 1: Helps us to remain steadfast, and that's what Jesus does.
Speaker 1: They're literally going to throw the man off a cliff.
Speaker 1: It says verse 28,.
Speaker 1: When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff.
Speaker 1: But passing through their midst he went away.
Speaker 1: And you would think that if he went away he's gonna go hide out for a while.
Speaker 1: Let's just check out verse 30, just for giggle, or 31, rather, just for giggles.
Speaker 1: And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was what Teaching them on the Sabbath?
Speaker 1: Literally, they're going to throw him off a cliff.
Speaker 1: He walks through the middle of them, he goes to the next town and he does exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'd be tough enough to do that, but Jesus is the power of the Spirit, helps him to remain steadfast.
Speaker 1: Just let me give you a couple scripture verses just to just kind of fill in some of the gaps.
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 3.12 says Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Speaker 1: Matthew 10, 24 and 25,.
Speaker 1: A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
Speaker 1: It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.
Speaker 1: If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household.
Speaker 1: How do we remain steadfast in the face of persecution, like Jesus did?
Speaker 1: We need the power of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: Let me just give you a couple more.
Speaker 1: You know, the Bible tells us that we have a couple things, that um, a couple things to encourage the believer in all of this.
Speaker 1: Jude 1, 20 and 21 says but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the holy spirit, keep yourselves in the love of god, waiting for the mercy of of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That leads to eternal life.
Speaker 1: The empowerment of the Spirit, when we can pray in the Spirit, helps us to persevere in times of hardship.
Speaker 1: Did you notice, by the way, that it said building yourselves up in your most holy faith?
Speaker 1: You know how you do that.
Speaker 1: You know one of the ways that you do that it's by being in the church.
Speaker 1: You see, the church was actually intended and Hebrews tells us this that we should come together to be encouraged by other believers.
Speaker 1: Not only do we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit for ourselves, we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to encourage others.
Speaker 1: And so to be led by the spirit is to literally follow the footsteps of jesus.
Speaker 1: It's to do the same things jesus did.
Speaker 1: It's to do this, it's to say the same things that jesus said, whether it's popular or not.
Speaker 1: And if you take it one step further, we're in the book of acts, which talks about the, the holy spirit, in the early church and in the apostles.
Speaker 1: It's to follow in their footsteps because literally they couldn't do it either.
Speaker 1: You see Peter who, at the trial of Jesus, denies Jesus three times.
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, he's got that Galilean accent which probably sounded kind of like my country accent, and Peter just freaks out right, no, I don't know him.
Speaker 1: All kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: The apostles were no better than us in that, except that the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them and helped them to remain steadfast.
Speaker 1: So what have we talked about today?
Speaker 1: Let me just give you a quick recap.
Speaker 1: Number one we need to follow the Spirit's lead.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus did and that's how we should do things as well.
Speaker 1: Number two we have to announce the good news.
Speaker 1: We didn't get the power of the Holy Spirit just to have church.
Speaker 1: We say that all the time.
Speaker 1: We got the power of the Holy Spirit to be empowered, to be His witnesses, and it's our job to proclaim the good news because it's the greatest.
Speaker 1: I don't know about y'all, but it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and I would love.
Speaker 1: Nothing would make me happier than for everybody to have the greatest thing that I've ever had as well.
Speaker 1: And then, lastly, we have the power of the Spirit to help us remain steadfast in troubles and persecutions.
Speaker 1: Maybe it has nothing to do with persecutions, maybe it's just that doctor's call that was horrible.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just that sickness that you have that just doesn't seem to go away.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, it's to help us to remain steadfast in the worst of times and in the best of times when everything seems to be going well.
Speaker 1: May we be people who are led by the spirit of the Lord.
Speaker 1: May we be people who get the great privilege of serving Jesus by the power of the spirit.
Speaker 1: May we be people who are led by God's Spirit in anything and everything that we would say yes to Him and no to everything else.