This sermon was preached at Our Savior on 1/24/10 for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is Luke 4:14-21.
Fulfilled!
Will the prediction come true? Will the prophecy be fulfilled? Though we might not normally think of them this way, we hear predictions and prophecies almost every day. I'm not talking about horoscopes or anything like that, either. I'm talking about something most of us listen to and trust every day: the weather forecast. Call it a forecast or a prophecy, the point is the same. Weather forecasts attempt to tell the future, at least in a way. They don't use magic or any supernatural power to tell the future. Instead, their scientific instruments observe the weather all around us and use that data to make an educated guess about the weather in the future.
But how often are these weather prophecies fulfilled? How often is the forecast exactly right? I suppose they get it right once in a while, but usually it's just a bit off. Sometimes they're off a few degrees; sometimes they completely miss it. You've had those days when the forecast said bright and sunny and we got a foot and a half of snow dumped on us. The forecasts are not always correct. Those prophecies are not always fulfilled.
Our sermon text for today also includes prophecies. These prophecies are no educated guesses, and they did not use the latest in modern scientific equipment. No, they are prophecies from God's Word. God isn't off a little here or there; his prophecies don't come close. They are fulfilled, perfectly, every time.
Sounds great, until you get out a mirror and see what the prophecy says about us. It does not paint us as basically good people who just need a push in the right direction. It does not tell us we are deserving of God's love because of how nice we are. No, the prophecy shows us as weak, poor prisoners. Locked up, blind, and beaten, we sit helpless, and we're doomed to continue that way forever.
But instead of rejecting that prophecy, we need to look at the one who reads it in our text. It's Jesus. He shows us that despite our pitiful, pathetic condition, he's the Savior who came to rescue us. He's the one that is the fulfillment of all of God's promises. So we can trust him. We don't have to guess, we don't have to hope, we can be sure and certain that when God makes a promise -- in Christ it is fulfilled!
In our text from Luke's Gospel, Jesus' ministry is just beginning. Maybe a few people had heard that this carpenter's son had gathered some disciples, maybe even some had heard rumors about a lot of extra wine turning up at a wedding in Cana, but still, most people hadn't seen Jesus in action. In our text, though, that all changed.
Jesus' hometown was Nazareth in the region of Galilee in the northern part of Israel. Our text shows quite a homecoming that Jesus made. "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him." (Lk. 4:14-15)
Jesus took the whole area by storm. In the power of the Holy Spirit, he went on a preaching tour of the local synagogues. And let's just say people liked what they heard. We hear that "everyone praised him." It seems that no one could say a bad word about Jesus. But the best was yet to come.
That's because Jesus was about to go to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. This was probably the synagogue that Jesus had attended since he was a child. I'm sure there were lots of people in the crowd who knew him, who could remember him as a child. And now here he was, starting to get a reputation as an amazing teacher. So it's not surprising that they'd want him to teach here, too.
It's quite the text, but then Jesus follows it up with what I consider to be the best opening line of a sermon ever. "Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk. 4:20-21)
Fulfilled! Think of it! Jesus didn't say that this text reminded him of something going on at the time. He came right out and said that these words that had been written by a prophet some 800 years before were being fulfilled as he preached them! It's incredible! You can see why people were so impressed with him.
But think about this: by the time Jesus finished his little sermon, he had gotten the crowd there in Nazareth so angry at him that they stormed up to him, and tried to take him outside and kill him. This is his hometown synagogue! But we'll look at that part of it more with the rest of this story next week.
For now, though, we ourselves can look at Jesus' sermon text and the beginning of his sermon, and we can see that there just might be something there that makes us a bit uncomfortable. Jesus said his text from the book of Isaiah was fulfilled when he read it. But look what that text from Isaiah said was happening. It said the Messiah would be helping people who were not in a very good position, they were "the poor...the prisoners...the blind...the oppressed." (Lk. 4:18) That crowd in Nazareth might not have thought those words described them very well.
But do they describe you? Are you like a poor, miserable prisoner stuck in a cell so dark that you can't even see? Are you blind and beaten, unable to do anything for yourself, lost and alone? Maybe you feel that way, maybe you don't. But it's a disturbingly accurate picture of who we are spiritually.
God calls sinners "poor" and that prophecy is fulfilled in us. We are poor, because we're born sinful. We do things God doesn't want us to do. We have nothing in our hands that can make up for our sins to God, no bribe we can give him. We are poor, destitute sinners. We're like spiritual beggars praying for some sort of handout.
But are you a prisoner? Of course you are! Don't you see, your life has fulfilled that word! You're trapped. You're locked up. Did you commit any sins today? Did you have a thought that wasn't one hundred percent good and perfect? Did you speak any words that were less than what God would've had you say? Have your actions (even already today) shown the taint and stain of sin in them? Let me answer for you: yes! You've sinned, already today, probably in all these ways. Don't tell me you're not a prisoner.
Sometimes it's hard to see what a prisoner we really are because we're blind. Yes, that word is fulfilled in us, too. You can't even see what a sinner you are; you don't even notice half of your sins. You're too beaten down by them, too lost, too far gone.
And the worst of it is, God has promised -- he's prophesied -- the harshest of punishments for all these sins of yours. One little sin? It's enough for hell. That's no slap on the wrist. And that punishment is exactly what your sins have deserved.
But look back at that synagogue in our text. Picture the man (who is also God) giving his sermon, saying that the Scripture is fulfilled in him. He has given good news to us poor, miserable sinners. He has set us free from the prison. He has given sight to our blind eyes. He has put an end to our oppression. He has declared now to be the time of God's favor on us!
How can Jesus say this to us? How can he do this for us? Because he fulfilled everything his heavenly Father required. God demands perfection from all people. Jesus fulfilled that perfection for us! He lived in our place. He gives us his righteousness by faith.
God said that sins deserve death and hell. Jesus fulfilled that for us on the cross. He suffered. He died. He paid for hell itself. He did it for you and me. That's our punishment that he paid. That's our eternal life that he won. That's our life that he watches over now. That's our problems and troubles that he cares for. That's our tears he will wipe away forever in eternal life.
Jesus was a popular speaker in our text. Let's let him still be popular with us today. Let's stay in his Word. Let's hear his Good News. Let's rejoice that he has done everything even when we could do nothing to save ourselves. Let's give thanks that Jesus loved us enough to be your Savior, to pay for your sins, to earn you a place in heaven, to fulfill all of God's promises for you.
Not every promise or prediction or prophecy in this world gets fulfilled. According to our local weather people, it's supposed to get to 46 degrees today. Will it? Maybe. But God's prophecies and promises are never "maybe." They're yes! They're fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As the book of 2 Corinthians tells us, "No matter how many promises God has made, they are "yes" in Christ." (2 Cor. 1:20) Yes! Trust in him! Never doubt his love for you. In our Savior, all God's promises of good news are fulfilled!
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