March 31, 2002

All Hail

Isaiah 61:1-2, Luke 4:14-19

Today is the most wonderful holiday in the Christian Calender, Easter Sunday, or more correctly, Resurrection Sunday. Because Easter was a pagan holiday, and what God has given to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead doesn't have anything to do with the goddess Ishtar.

Christian holidays. Christmas - was when God invaded enemy territory to reclaim what was His.

The Crucifixion was when God fought the decisive battle of the war, and Resurrection Sunday was when the victory was won. Jesus has conquered sin and death and hell, and now is returned to God the Father. All these things are historical facts, truth played out in space and time. God interacting within His creation to change everything.

What are we supposed to do about it? Since these things really happened, since these real events have changed everything, how should we live? Now what? Where do we go from here?

The answer to that is: after Jesus rose from the dead, He told His disciples what to do. Those instructions apply to us as well. Since this is Resurrection Sunday, let's honor the Lord by taking a fresh look at what He said. If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Matthew 28, the last chapter in the book of Matthew, and verse 1.
" In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
:2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
:3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
:4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
:6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
:7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
:8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
:9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him."

Skip down to verse 16: "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
:17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the most wonderful event that there could possibly be. Nothing else in the history of the world even comes close. In all human experience, death is always the common denominator. No matter how beautiful, how wise, how loving or gracious a person may be, death always wins in the end. Until Jesus Christ changed the rules.

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, everything changed. Things could never be the same. The realities of heaven and the spiritual world broke through into our earthly physical existence, and death, defeat and shame gave way to power and glory and honor.

Forty days Jesus stays on the earth after His resurrection, so that His disciples and anyone else who cared to believe the truth would have time to let it sink in, and then; He gives us our instructions, tells us what He wants done. He hands us His credit card that says "Prayer," and leaves. How do we deal with that? What do we do next? How are we supposed to act?

Look at how Mark describes our Lord's great Commission to His disciples: Mark 16 and verse 15 reads: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Both in Matthew's and Mark's gospels, our instructions start out identical. Go into all the world, preach the gospel. Did you ever stop to think that is exactly what Jesus did from day one?! What He tells us to do is exactly what He did His whole ministry.

Turn over to Luke chapter 4 and verse 16. The context is that Jesus has just finished His temptation in the wilderness from the devil, and He is beginning His public ministry. We read: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

Preach the gospel to the poor. Heal the broken hearted. Preach deliverance to the captives. Help the blind to see. Set at liberty the ones who are bruised. I submit to you that these are our instructions from our risen Lord for how we are to minister to the world we live in. Jesus told Phillip: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." I submit to you that this is what we are to be doing.

If these are the things that our risen Lord wants us to do, then I want us to talk about them. What does it mean to preach the gospel to the poor? Why not the rich? Or maybe the middle class, what about them?
When Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue that day, He was reading from Isaiah 61, and in the Old Testament, it reads like this: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;" Maybe that will help us better understand what He meant.

The idea of poor obviously means without money, destitute, but the Bible meaning is also a person who does not have a proud or arrogant spirit. Poor means a person who has no power or influence. A person who doesn't succeed because they have been to the world's universities, or because they're influential, a person who is not preoccupied with measuring up. Not successful in the ways that the world measures success in people.

Jesus told the good news of the gospel to the meek; the ones who would accept it, believe it and do something about it. The ones who would trust in Him for salvation, instead of trusting their own intellect, their own culture or their social position. Or especially their financial status. Probably all of us are aware of certain televangelists that specialize in preaching that if you are a Christian, a King's Kid, then you ought to possess health, wealth, and everything else that the world has to offer. Let me ask you a question: What are the odds that Jesus would especially direct the gospel to those without health, wealth or possessions; and then after they get saved, relocate them into main stream worldly success? I think not.
Probably most of us are smart enough not to fall for that kind of error from some televangelist, but there is a more subtle problem: doing it ourselves in our heads. For instance: when you experienced a spiritual rebirth, when you got saved, (if you ever got saved) you got saved because you surrendered from your rebellion to Jesus Christ.

You believed the gospel that you were a sinner, that you had broken God's holy law, trespassed against His will, and insulted His holy dignity, and that your only defense was to accept what Jesus Christ had done on your behalf. And then because you believed it; you threw down your weapons and accepted His atoning death and resurrection on your behalf.

You purposed in your mind to quit trying to do things your way and you accepted His will for how things ought to be done. And most importantly, you trusted in His atoning death on the cross in your place. You accepted His payment for your sins, and you accepted His righteousness before God imputed to your account.

The Bible tells us: "By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." You accepted that your salvation was all because of what He had done, and nothing because of what you had done, or could ever do.

If you have never done anything pretty much just like that, then you are not a Christian.

But assuming you have done something very much like that; when you did it, you were poor in spirit, if not in money. You were meek. You ignored the world's wisdom, and accepted God's wisdom. The gospel was effectual to you when you were spiritually, mentally, and emotionally poor, in terms of the world's values.

Maybe you have been a Christian for some time, let me ask you a question: How rich are you now? Are you still poor in spirit? Are you still meek? Have you pursued learning more about God's wisdom, or are you compromising and getting more comfortable with the world's wisdom? Because if you are no longer poor, as Jesus uses the term, how will you go out and preach to the poor? Will they care about your power or influence? Will they care about your intellectual or persuasive abilities? Your wisdom in worldly things? Your worldly reputation? Because if those are the abilities and attributes that you are using to win people to Jesus, you need to ask yourself what kind of Jesus it is that you are winning them to. Because it's probably not the Jesus of the Bible. It is a Jesus of your own devising, and those whom you preach Jesus to will think that He is just like you.

The second thing that Jesus told His neighbors that day in Nazareth, was that He had come to heal the broken hearted. The verse in Isaiah which Jesus is quoting uses the phrase; "to bind up the brokenhearted."

When the Bible says to bind up or heal the broken hearted, the word that it uses means to wrap them up or restrain them. Hold them. And you can't do that with anybody unless you get close enough to them that they know that you are there. Just like a hurting child, some times people need to be wrapped up and held close in order to be made whole. Are you willing to be there for the others in your church body? Are you willing to get that close to them?

There is another aspect to this; so many of our heart aches that we have, we bring on ourselves. Sometimes the way we love one another within our families is to lovingly restrain each other from doing the things that will end up breaking our own hearts.

Last week, several of us went to see some old friends renew their wedding vows, all of their kids were there with them, and one of their children has cerebral palsy. That child is in his teens, and has to be restrained in his wheelchair to keep from hurting himself. Even his hands need to be kept in restraint, lest he scratch himself.

Sometimes we need to do that and be that for each other. That is why the Bible says that Christians are to admonish one another, to restrain us from doing things that would hurt ourselves, cause us heart ache. Are you willing to let others be there for you when you need to be restrained? When you need to be wrapped up or admonished? Even Peter needed a Paul to help him get some things sorted out, and then Paul needed Timothy to minister to him. None of us are sufficient unto ourselves. None of us are above reproof or beyond admonishment.

I've got a good friend named Dave that builds his own airplanes. For years, until they closed down, he was a quality control inspector at the Raytheon plant inspecting guided missiles for the military, and he is good. The airplanes that he builds are a work of art. He prides himself on doing everything perfectly, better than the factory could do it.

Several years back, he built a big airplane, twin engine, complicated, and he asked me to inspect it, go over it inch by inch, and see if there was any detail that he had missed. Well, I have another friend named Steve that has spent years around airplanes, he has an Inspection Authorization from the FAA, that is one of their highest certifications for aircraft maintainance, and I asked if I could bring him along to help out. Dave said sure.

Anyway, we get out to the hangar one morning, I introduce Dave and Steve to each other, and we start going over this big beautiful airplane inch by inch. Well, after about 10 minutes, Steve finds this little detail with the wiring that he asks a question about, and Dave explains it. A few minutes later, Steve finds some other little something, and asks about that. Dave explains why he did it that way, but I notice that now Dave has a little body language that wasn't there before. Little tension in the jaw.

And a few minutes later, Steve asks another question about some other little detail, and Dave is getting red in the face. But the good part was when he stood there and scratched his head, pulled on his ear, and said; "Yeah, I probably ought to fix that." And then he relaxed, and got over it. And then he got it in his attitude to take a fresh look, and he and Steve really got serious about looking together for anything that might need changing.

Funny thing was; after that, neither of them could find anything. And when the FAA final inspector from Nashville came and went over the airplane, she couldn't find a single thing wrong. Said it was flawless.
Old flyin' buddy Dave started out having a hard time dealing with the idea that somebody else might be able to find something in his performance that missed the mark. And the idea that there might be two or three things, even if they were almost insignificant details that wouldn't affect the safety of flight, that was almost unthinkable. But once he got over it, and accepted some gracious reproof from someone who knew and cared, it was really no big deal, and a great airplane turned into an almost perfect airplane. (There's a tiny flaw in the paint!)

Getting things right working on airplanes is important. Getting things right in the church - between believers- is even more important, because it involves the honor of Jesus Christ.

The next thing that Jesus told those folks in Nazareth that day was that He had come to "preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
The thought here is that Jesus came to minister to people at the point where they were most needy. He was always willing to heal people physically and meet their physical needs, but even more than this is the idea of meeting their mental, emotional and spiritual needs.

How often have you met people who were in good health physically, but in terrible health emotionally and mentally? Or even in good health physically, emotionally and mentally, but terrible health spiritually?
I am very thankful to have good health physically, emotionally and spiritually. I would also say mentally, but some of you would laugh at me, and others would be embarrassed that the preacher was standing up here lying to you on Easter Sunday...

But while it is wonderful to have good health in all those areas, I suspect that none of us are as completely healthy as we might be. I suspect that each of us might have some area where we are still kinda puny.
Some area of our emotional lives, some area of our mental lives, some area of our spiritual life. I suspect that each of us might have some dark corner where there is mildew and cobwebs, something nasty has crawled off and died, and we don't want Jesus shining His light in there and cleaning things up, our old fleshly sin nature prefers it just the way it is.

Jesus said that He had come to preach deliverance to the captives. Or as it is written in Isaiah, to proclaim deliverance to the captives. When you proclaim something, it is an official announcement, it's like when the government sticks it on a sign out in front of the courthouse, this is what's happening, this is the way it is.

It would be like a proclamation in front of the courthouse that so and so was declared not guilty, and they are set free. That ends it. They are free.

Jesus has proclaimed that the captives are now able to be delivered. He has proclaimed that He has come to release us from those chains that bind us, and most of those chains are of our own making.
He has come to open our eyes to see things in a different light, to see things as He sees them. So many of the things that blind us to seeing our way into a life of peace and joy are things we wrap ourselves up in that are not God's best for us.

God has it in His game plan for us to be free, to live free lives, lives that are not all bound up, lives that are not all bogged down in a bunch of useless junk that we load ourselves down with.

Back in the late 60's, some guys out in California got the idea of taking an ordinary VW bug and removing the body, taking off everything they could possibly remove, and replacing it with a lightweight fiberglass shell with just two seats, a windshield and a roll bar. Even when you didn't do anything to hop up the motor, it ran a lot quicker and handled a lot better than a normal VW just because they got rid of all the extra stuff they didn't need. Those things were fun.

But in contrast to that, most of us as Christians are going around spiritually like the Beverly Hillbillies in their old truck, hauling around a three room shack full of junk strapped down in the back. Lucky to get anywhere without breaking down or creating a hazard to ourselves and everybody around us. The Beverly Hillbillies had a ton of wealth, but they couldn't leave their old stuff or their old ways behind. They felt like they needed to take their old stuff with them to the promised land; California. Or where ever it was.

Well, we're not going to California, we are going to see Jesus, and in the meantime, we are to be growing, becoming more like Jesus. And hauling around our own personal three room shack full of mental, emotional or spiritual junk is not helping things any.

What kind of witnesses for Him can we be as long as we are loaded down with all kinds of worldly, psychological, or emotional junk? When we go to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ, and how He came to deliver them, to set them free, to open their eyes, how effective will we be if we are still hauling around all our old baggage? Probably not real good.

Jesus came to deliver us from our old ways, our old way of seeing things, valuing things, relating to those around us, and we need to let Him get on with His program. We need to let Him reset our priorities so that they are His priorities.

It is not all that hard to get things straightened out. Do you want to see things like He sees them? Read His Word, think about what it says, and then ask the Holy Spirit to apply those truths to your life.

If you spend all your time absorbing worldly values, and worldly ways of thinking about things and looking at things, then you will see things and value them the way the world sees things and values them.
If you will take time to look at things from God's point of view; by reading His Word, then the Holy Spirit can use that to open your eyes and take away the spiritual fog and haze that we all have to look at things through.

Are there things in your life that have got you bruised, beat up, chained down, and you want to get free from them? Spend time in His Word, and ask Him to show you the answers.

Will you always get an exact answer for every difficult situation in your life? Maybe not. Will you get enough answers to set you free from situations that have you bound up and beat up? Yes, you will.
Trusting Jesus Christ as Lord as Savior and following His Word will make a profound difference in your life here and now, and an absolute difference in your life to come.

If you are not experiencing that resurrection power in your life today, you are shortchanging yourself, and shortchanging others, those who interact with you, and would like to have what Jesus is promising.

If we fail to obtain the promises that Jesus has made to us, we are shortchanging ourselves, and failing to cash in on that spiritual credit card that He has entrusted to us. He has incredible wealth and riches that He would love for us to use for His kingdom, and meanwhile most of us are grubbing around under the car seat looking for lost change. And meanwhile, there is a watching world that really ought to see us be what Jesus wants to be. Not just for their sake, but because He is worthy to be glorified in us.

And we don't have all day. This is a limited time offer. Because the last part of what Jesus read from Isaiah were these words: "To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD"

Jesus stopped reading there, He rolled up the scroll and handed it back. He did not continue reading, because the rest of the verse pertains to His second coming, not His first coming. Because the verse it continues: "and the day of vengeance of our God;" or the tribulation period, and then it goes on to speak of Israel in the Millennial kingdom. From a prophetic viewpoint, things will not always continue as they are now. Some day Jesus will come again, remove His church from off this earth, and then will come a time of judgement on the earth.

But even now, the acceptable year of the Lord is right now, today, not tomorrow. There are people that we need to tell about the Good News of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, and they need to know soon, this year, now. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He has become the way of eternal life for all who will receive Him. We need to proclaim that. We need to let it define who we are and how we live so that others will realize that it is truth, and not just a religious theory.

When Jesus' disciples met Him on the road after His resurrection, He said; "All hail" and they bowed at His feet. At was appropriate and proper that they should do so. Then He went on and told them what to do next, and they did what they were told. That's why many of us are believers today, because they were faithful and obedient.

What He told them is still true for us. Go and preach the gospel to the poor. Heal the brokenhearted. Preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind. Set at liberty them that are bruised.
Proclaim that this is the acceptable year of the Lord, and people need to get saved now.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that changes everything, everybody ought to know about it, and we ought to live our lives in the freedom of it. Let's pray.