[0:00] Trying to balance. I love that song. I wish I could sing it all the way through. Right? We have the opportunity today to discuss what we've been learning in the last two chapters of Luke.
[0:23] As we like to do every few weeks, we want to step back. We've been looking at the details of each text, and it's good for us to step back and then take a look at the big picture and then reflect on and discuss and consider what we've been learning.
[0:48] How does that apply to us? What difference does that make in our lives? So that's what we're going to attempt to do today. And you all always pull it through, I know, because you all have something.
[1:01] Not all, but many of you have something to say and something that God has shown you. So we get to hear that today. So what I want to read, I'm not going to read the whole of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.
[1:15] I'm going to read snippets, whatever a snippet is. And a lot of it is driven by Luke's summaries.
[1:27] Luke gives us little summaries, little kind of, and the crowds came, and he got more popular, and those kind of things. He gives a little summary. So I'm going to read those.
[1:37] So what we're going to read first is Luke Chapter 4, Verse 14 through 24, and then 31 and 32, and 36, 37, 42 to 44, and then 5, 15, 16, and then 27, 32.
[1:50] Got it? That's what we'll do. So just hang in there and keep up. All right. 4, 14. I will clue you in as we go. If you're able, please stand as we read the Word of God together.
[2:01] Well, I read the Word of God, and you follow along. I'll make it. I don't know. That song did me in. Luke Chapter 4, Verse 14.
[2:14] 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.
[2:29] 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.
[2:42] And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. And he enrolled the scroll. And he found the 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.
[3:03] He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are being oppressed.
[3:17] To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
[3:29] 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.
[3:42] And 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?
[3:58] And he said, Doubtless you will say to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.
[4:11] He said to them, Truly I say to you, No prophet is acceptable in his hometown. We're down now to verse 31.
[4:25] And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.
[4:39] Verse 36. And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.
[4:54] And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. Verse 42. And when it was day, he departed, and went into a desolate place.
[5:09] And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well.
[5:24] For I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Chapter 5, verse 15.
[5:40] Following the cleansing of a leper. Verse 15. Verse 17.
[6:00] Verse 17. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth.
[6:13] And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made a great feast in his house.
[6:24] And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
[6:40] And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
[6:57] So it reads, let us pray. Father, guide us today as we discuss, as we connect some dots, as we put some things together, as we reflect on what Luke has shown us and what Jesus is teaching us.
[7:16] So help open our eyes, help us see, fill us with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and insight so that we might walk in a manner worthy of you in every pleasing way.
[7:28] This we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. So I want to give just a brief introduction, give us some orientation.
[7:40] Do you remember Mission Impossible? Remember the show? Remember that? And then they make movies and Tom Hanks does all these impossible things.
[7:50] Not Tom Hanks. Who's the other guy? The short guy? Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. Yeah, the little guy. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I'm not a big fan. So it usually starts, you know, it starts with your mission.
[8:07] Should you choose to accept it? You know, take out all these bad guys and right all the wrongs, right? Whatever it is. A mission. What's a mission? A mission could be just an assignment given to accomplish a task.
[8:26] A mission can be a combat action with a specific target. A mission can be an aerospace operation with explicit objectives.
[8:45] Organizations have mission statements. Right? They give the purpose or the reason why they exist. What they are seeking to accomplish.
[8:57] How they seek to accomplish that. I forgot to bring the bulletin up here. I was going to give you an example. In our bulletin. I'm just going to walk over here and get one. Here's my song sheet.
[9:12] I was missing my song sheet because I was sitting on it. So on the back of our bulletin, we have a mission statement. We call it our purpose. It says why we exist.
[9:25] What we seek to do. How we seek to do it. And what our goal and target is. We didn't create this. We stole it. From Paul in Ephesians chapter 4.
[9:39] Because he gives the mission statement of every church. Little Log Church exists by the grace of God. For the glory of God. That's why we exist.
[9:50] For the glory of God. Which shall be the ultimate purpose in all its activities. So what do we do? The LLC is a Bible teaching fellowship whose purpose is twofold.
[10:01] To share the gospel through evangelism. And to equip God's people to do the work. To do his work and build up the church. The body of Christ. Christ.
[10:12] We do this. How? How do we do this? We do this by the faithful and careful teaching of God's scripture. Until. What's our target? What's our goal? How do we know when we've succeeded?
[10:24] Until we've come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son. That we will be mature in the Lord. Measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. We're almost there.
[10:36] And then we fall back. And then we strive to get back there. That's what mission is. Mission is about why you are doing anything.
[10:50] How you're doing it. And where's your ultimate target. And that's exactly what Jesus does in Luke chapter 4 and chapter 5.
[11:03] He reveals his mission. He reveals his mission and his methods. Not only why he came. But what he's doing is part of why he came.
[11:16] That's why he hangs out with sinners. That's why he calls fishermen. Tax collectors. His mission. It's his mission.
[11:28] It drives everything that he does. Let me show you just briefly in our outline here. So in our outline, part 2, part 1 is just what we've already looked at.
[11:43] Luke chapters 1 through 3. We see the angels' announcements. And Jesus as a child in the temple. We see John the baptizer preparing Jesus. Right? So then chapter 4, Jesus begins his mission.
[11:56] And so we see three sections in Luke chapter 4. 4, 1 to 14, he's tempted by the devil. Chapter 4, verse 15 to 30, Jesus states his mission in his hometown.
[12:10] He quotes the verses, says, This is what I've been sent to do. This has been fulfilled. This is who I am. I am this Messiah. That mission is stated and rejected by his hometown.
[12:24] And then we come to the end of the chapter, chapter 4, verses 31 to 44, where he is rebuking demons and disease. Is that part of his mission? Yes. It's displaying, it's picturing his call to set captives free.
[12:39] He's doing that in an illustrated way by literally unleashing, rebuking demons, setting people free from demons and from physical disease.
[12:54] Then in chapter 5, so chapter 4, Jesus begins his mission. Chapter 5, Jesus begins to gather his disciples. That's part of his mission. So chapter 5, verses 1 to 11, he calls Peter and James and John, focusing mostly on Peter.
[13:11] He transforms a sinful fisherman. We have a fisherman who knows all about fishing, and then Jesus tells him to do it a different way.
[13:23] And as a professional fisherman, he says, Yeah, Lord, you know what you're talking about. But okay, since it's you, I'll do it. And then he catches him. You know, Peter realizes he doesn't know anything. He doesn't know anything.
[13:34] This is the master of the universe in front of him. Anyway, and it brings Peter to his knees. It is a miracle that transforms his life.
[13:50] It is what causes him to leave everything and follow Jesus. He'd seen other miracles. This one was personal. This one changed him.
[14:03] Okay? That's his mission objective. His mission, right, is to proclaim the gospel of deliverance to the broken.
[14:15] And he's gathering others to do the same. So he tells Peter, from now on, you'll be catching men. Then the second part of chapter 5, 5, 12 to 26, he cleanses a leper and forgives a paralytic.
[14:29] Is that part of his mission? Yes. It's still part of illustrating what he's doing. Again, he's setting captives free. He's releasing those who are broken.
[14:39] Right? It's an illustration. He's really doing those. Those are true miracles. But it's illustrating. In fact, Jesus is doing it intentionally, as we see when the paralytic is lowered before him.
[14:55] And instead of healing him, what does he do? He forgives his sin. What is he doing? That's his mission, to forgive sin. And then to prove that he has authority to accomplish that mission, he tells the paralytic to stand up and walk.
[15:11] Go home. Powerful. Intentional. See, he's connecting his healings to his purpose. His healings are not his primary purpose, but they serve his purpose.
[15:25] They show people his power and his authority. And then the story, and then chapter 5 ends with Jesus calling Levi the tax collector. It's one thing to call fishermen.
[15:37] It's another thing to call a tax collector, because now you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. You're calling somebody who's an outright cheat and liar, who's all out for himself, who only cares about gaining more money and cheating people.
[15:51] In fact, he's such a despicable person that he is a Jewish man who's robbing the Jews and working for the Romans. He has no friends with Jews, except other tax collectors maybe that are Jewish too.
[16:07] Imagine that man. Jesus sees something in that man. It calls him. And he leaves everything.
[16:20] He follows him. How'd that happen? The bigger shocking point is that Jesus calls him.
[16:34] So undeserving. So, right? Remind you of anybody?
[16:52] Right? It means he can call me too. He can call you too. He's willing to go to the lowest level. Right?
[17:04] The most shameful place. So, that's all I want to show you. We can get into particulars wherever you want to go. But what I wanted to show you is that I sat this week and kind of reviewed these two chapters and what struck me.
[17:21] And it only strikes you when you, you know, you're looking at details and walking through the text. You're looking at details. You get focused on all those details. You see all the trees and the color of the trees and all that.
[17:32] You got to step back and see the forest, right? And step back and see where this whole thing is going. And what I saw was here is a man who has a mission.
[17:45] And he will not be diverted from it. He states his mission. When the crowds gather and want to keep him in one place and want him to stay, he restates his mission.
[17:58] No, I have to go preach to other places. This is why I'm here. And then as the Pharisees criticize his methodology of hanging around sinful people, what does he say?
[18:12] Yeah, I got to rethink my methods, right? He says, no, I'm doing this on purpose. This is my mission. This is who I came for.
[18:24] This is what I came to do. So what I see about Jesus is he knows what he's about. He's intentional about everything that he does. And he will not be diverted from his mission.
[18:37] Everything he does is driven by his mission, his purpose, why he was sent. So I just wanted you to see that because that ties everything together.
[18:52] But we can go anywhere you guys want to go. What has God been teaching you? What has he shown you? What has struck you? Is there something in these two chapters that really stands out struck you?
[19:07] You know, how has it impacted you? How has it challenged you? What's going on with my voice here? God doesn't want me to talk very long. That's probably it. Any surprises?
[19:21] Right? So anywhere you want to go. Where do you want to go? What do you want to talk about? What do you want to share? Diane? I just want to point out, and this follows on the heels too, what Greg's prayer today is, what I have to keep in mind of myself is, when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, I came for the sinners, not the right to this.
[19:49] Right. But in that comment, the Pharisees could have taken solace in that, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's us, that's us. But I believe Jesus' point is, there is no righteous person, as the Old Testament also says, there is no good in me, there is no righteousness in me.
[20:13] Ultimately, right. Ultimately, right. And ultimately, until you go to Christ, right? So, but still you rely on his righteousness. So, for me, it's a note that that phrase is the whole gospel.
[20:30] Hmm. And who he is, and for me to remind myself. Yeah. Without him.
[20:43] Yeah, I mean, it's a great statement for sinners, isn't it? The gospel is just for sinners. It's only good news for sinners. It's not good news for righteous people. If you got it all together and you think you're okay, we ain't got no good news for you.
[20:57] No, no, no, no, no gospel for you. It's only for the sick. Yesterday or earlier? Oh, gosh.
[21:11] Oh, what do you think about Jesus hanging out with sinners? Oh. Oh. I think it's wonderful because we all can.
[21:22] Right. Yes. Isn't that great? I'm thankful. Jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors. It's like, there's hope for all of us.
[21:33] Right? Unless you think you're okay and you're, you know, oh, I'm clean, I'm good. Yeah. I think when Jesus says, I did not come for the righteous.
[21:44] What does he mean? What kind of righteousness is he talking about? Self-righteousness. Pharisees. Yeah. The outside's all clean.
[21:55] Remember, he's going to talk to them later. I know who you are. You're all pretty and nice on the outside. You say all the right things. You look right, you dress right. But inside you're full of dead man's bones and you're wicked.
[22:06] I can see your heart. You're hiding it. But isn't that all of us? Oh, absolutely. If we don't rely on Christ, we can do it on our own.
[22:17] Yeah. Oh, I think we're all, until God wakes us up, we're all in that position. We think we're okay. I don't need God. I'll do it myself. I'll fix myself. Yeah. Until God brings me, like Peter, to my knees.
[22:30] You say, okay, I don't know anything. I'm nothing. I need him. I need him. That's when he can give me that gift. Amen.
[22:41] Yeah. What else? Let's see. Crystal? So it kind of just makes me ask the question of today, if this was written today, who would the Pharisees be?
[22:52] And who would the tax collectors be? And which group would I? Do you want to pick them out today in the conversation? Yeah. Well, I'm just saying, like, I honestly. How many tax collectors do we got here? Everybody should be raising their hand.
[23:03] I feel like if we asked, like, Joey, I feel like the Christians, we would be the Pharisees. And. To him. To him. Yeah. And so that just, I don't know, but that's just what maybe my conviction was right this second, is that which group do I feel like I relate more to?
[23:22] Like, where do I feel like, hey, I'm doing great, and I've got Jesus, so I'm good, and I don't need, you know, I got him, so I don't need him. You know? Amen. Yeah. Yeah.
[23:33] So you're talking about we can start out as the tax collector. Right. And the fisherman. And the next thing you know, we're fair to see. And then over time, we think, oh, no, now I'm okay. Right. And we can get there, and then we need to be broken again.
[23:45] Right. But I just, I was just thinking, like, which group would Jesus be eating with today? Hmm. Where would, where would he? You've got a potluck. Who's he going to sit with? You know? I don't know. Good point.
[23:57] Yeah. I mean, it's like that personal, right? How do we hang out the center of this group to? Yeah. Yeah. See the gospel. Yeah. We do that. Daily.
[24:08] Yeah. So he was intentional about that, right? So if I just go through my regular work routine and don't think about that, I may or may not eat with sinners and hang out with, right?
[24:22] But if I'm intentional, then I might think about, how can I do that? You know, I don't know how you do that. I mean, it's different for everybody, but how can I do that? And if I'm going to be intentional about that, then I probably need to change something in my routine or what I do or where I go.
[24:41] Yeah. I don't need to go to the gym. Look at me. I don't need to go. But maybe I should go to the gym just so. Okay. Don't judge me. Maybe I could go to the gym.
[24:52] That's just a way that I can go be with people. You know, I'm a pastor, so I hang out with the righteous all the time, right? So how do I? No, I don't. But I just got to think about that.
[25:04] Yeah, Richard. Oh, gee, I get this. Yeah. Preach it, brother. It's no fun. Now, one of the things I was thinking about after I prayed with you guys this morning is looking at what's going on in the world.
[25:18] I think we, me, I'll say me, I'll let you guys judge for yourself, have a tendency to kind of withdraw into my comfort group. You know, I want to stay with my Christian friends because they have the same worldview that I do.
[25:34] And, you know, we can sit off in a corner. We can have a pity party over, man, the state of the country is terrible, and this is bad, and that is bad. We were made for this time.
[25:47] We are made to be here now. So what are we going to do? And how are we going to execute that? And we can either be kind of like the Pharisees and stay within our own little comfort zone where nothing bothers us.
[26:05] You know, death, sickness, poverty, people who have had life experiences that have devastated them. And we can keep all of this outside these walls and outside the walls of our home, and we can just have a really nice time while the world literally goes to hell.
[26:26] Right. And we don't achieve our mission. Yeah. Well, I struck Dylan. Dylan and I were talking about this a little bit, that everything Jesus does is driven by his mission, right?
[26:40] I mean, everything. So then I put that on me, right? We asked the question about us. What about us? Does the mission of the church drive everything that I do?
[26:51] And I asked that of the church. Does our mission drive everything that you do? Right? How you are at work, right? How you are with people, where you go, et cetera, et cetera, however you need to think that through.
[27:06] That's really challenging. Because I think that's what it means to leave everything and follow him. Right? Because now my focus is that.
[27:18] I still accomplish my work. I do what I need to be doing. I'm a good employee, that kind of thing. But my mission. Right? Yeah. Somebody had their hand.
[27:29] Susan. So two things. One is that, for me, the Pharisees are the ones that think they're better then. Just plain and simple.
[27:40] If you're judging, then you probably may be going the wrong direction. Yeah, we all do that. Yeah. And then the other thing that came to me, which is pretty cool, I meet with different groups and mentor different women.
[27:56] And I've had the experience lately of a Buddhist and a pagan being part of this group and wanting their voice on their beliefs.
[28:09] And I asked the Lord what his desire for me in that situation is, right? Do I just keep pushing? Or does he want me to walk the walk?
[28:21] Not necessarily show the message down somebody's throat. And that's how I feel. And I feel like this just answered that too, right? It's, we're supposed to show his mission, the good news, not just say.
[28:37] So are we? Right. Before people can hear us, they have to know we care about them.
[28:48] Right? And that, it's not a hit and miss thing. It's not a, you know, shotgun, shoot the gospel and leave. It's go spend time and get to know them and they learn to trust you that you actually really care.
[29:04] Yeah. They won't listen until they know you care. Daniel. I have to have Linda hold the mic for me because I've got Bible and pages and everything.
[29:18] What stood out to me last week was he calls the sick and the sick was defined as a sinner who recognizes for himself or herself. They've recognized themselves as a sinner before they can be spiritually healed.
[29:34] But I think there's also a tendency that tends to, well, that would be, right, a tendency that tends to happen. Yeah, yeah. That's very profound. That's good. That's a good definition.
[29:45] I like it. I'm done. No. I think it's really easy for somebody who all of a sudden decides that they're going to follow Jesus, they accept Jesus into their life, into their heart, and they just, they have this holy moment and they're so grateful.
[30:00] They're so thankful. Thank you, Jesus, for changing my life. I thank you for everything that you've done for me. And they think, I think the tendency kicks in there is because it becomes, they think it's a one-time deal.
[30:13] Right. They don't need to do anything after that. But Jesus, it's a multi-level thing, so to speak, with Jesus. And Jesus might, he probably will come back very soon and he's going to say, okay, I appreciate that you are very thankful that I changed your life.
[30:30] But now let's talk about you changing your lifestyle. And that's where you start to lose a lot of people. Oh, yeah.
[30:41] Well, and Jesus did, too. Yeah, exactly. The more Jesus started to push that. No, that's not, that's actually. Yeah.
[30:56] Well. Jimmy over here. I like, they've already touched on the stuff that impressed me the most.
[31:10] But, you know, I like the story of the paralytic a lot because it reflects on how we need those people, other people who trust in Jesus to be in our lives, to help us, to carry us, to bring us to Jesus, to have that kind of faith to know that I don't care what happens, I'm going to dig a hole in this roof and I'm going to put you through it because you need to be down.
[31:44] You need, you need Jesus. And, you know, and I think the different Gospels explain it a little bit different. But Jesus forgave his friends, blessed his friends.
[32:00] It's a little bit different than the other Gospels. So, you know, I think that having the church and the fellowship and other believers in your life for, to help you along the way, you know, when you fall down, when you're stuck in your sin and you're stuck and, and can't move and can't, can't change and can't, you know, to have, to have brothers and sisters in Christ to help you, to get you back to Jesus.
[32:41] It's bringing you to Jesus. I think that's, that is an awesome, an awesome picture of sin and, and friendship and fellowship.
[32:52] What does that look like today? How do we bring somebody to Jesus? I mean, that was a physical act.
[33:06] I mean, physically, if I can get this person in front of Jesus, then Jesus will do what needs to be done, right? How do I do that today?
[33:18] How do I bring a broken person or paralyzed person, a person who's just stuck, right? They don't even have the will to do anything for them, you know, whatever. How do I bring them and put them in front of Jesus?
[33:32] Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. What, and what if you're the paralyzed person? What if you're the person that's so stuck, you can't even, you're in a hole, you can't even get out of that one?
[33:47] Prayer. What do you do? What if you don't even, you're too paralyzed, you can pray? Reach out to someone who will be able to. Yeah, hopefully you got some friends. Would you pray for me, because I can't? Uh-huh.
[34:01] So I don't know if the paralyzed man asked these friends to, or if these friends just took the initiative and did it, were not told, but it could have gone either way. To piggyback, oh, I'm sorry.
[34:14] Just as far as answering the question of what we can do today, instead of cutting a hole in the roof, the concept of sticking with them, don't give up on them, because I think when we know that we are in that low place, isolated and confused and discouraged or even in despair, if our friends or our family are still with us and people haven't given up on us, we can tell, and that speaks the love of God.
[34:53] It speaks the compassion of Jesus to others or to whoever is in that situation. And remember, Jesus saw their faith. Remember the friends?
[35:05] Right? They go to the effort to get above the roof and dig a hole in the roof and get them down. That was no easy task. That wasn't just, you know, two seconds worth of it. That was like, okay, obstacle, obstacle, obstacle.
[35:18] Oh, they kept coming, they kept coming. It reminds me of that woman, right, that kept coming to Jesus, just kept coming, right? And finally, he said, that's what great faith looks like. And it comes through all those obstacles, right?
[35:30] It just keeps coming. So when we're praying for somebody, we may encounter, well, probably will encounter obstacles. Those prayers won't get answered right away.
[35:43] I'm lifting up this paralyzed person and I'm bringing them to Jesus, but I don't feel like I've gotten all the way, you know? So there's a, the great faith is I keep, I find some way to get them in front of Jesus.
[35:59] Doesn't that express their love for him? Oh, yeah. Right? Absolutely. I mean, the bottom line is they love his man. Who's paying for that room? It's a costly love, isn't it?
[36:12] That they went, they could have abandoned him, they could have forgotten about him. They said, oh, the crowds, well, come back another day or whatever. There's just so much love to even think about this man.
[36:22] They were committed. I think that's our new covenant, right? Is love. Yeah. And so much comes from that. Yeah. That's a great illustration.
[36:35] Good story. Amen. Several pictures there. What, what kind of sin paralyzes us? Or how sin can paralyze us?
[36:46] And then how we can bring people to, yeah, it's just great, good stuff. You, you touched on it. Who's paying for the roof? I was thinking about that. Oh. I was thinking about, more than that, the criminal trespass.
[36:59] Oh, yeah. There's probably some Old Testament law there, then, you know? I shall not dig a hole in my neighbor's roof. When people are underneath, especially, because it's a thing.
[37:12] When you consider their own exposure to the atmosphere for this. It wasn't a little hole, either. It might also not address it. It's as big as a stretcher, isn't it?
[37:24] It might address how far we can go to get to Jesus. Well, I say, how far are you willing to go to get somebody to Jesus? Yeah. Yeah. Right? It might be an example.
[37:34] What are you willing to do? Well, you know. But Jesus saw their faith. That was faith. Their faith was, I just need to get them to Jesus. I believe Jesus can fix this.
[37:48] That's all I need to do. I just need to get them to Jesus. That's faith. And I'll do whatever it takes. I'll do it however long it takes. You can plant seeds just by walking up to somebody.
[38:01] And I did this to a guy at work a couple weeks ago. And I said, hey, I just was noticing you haven't seemed like yourself lately. And I just want you to know that I was thinking about you and praying about you.
[38:12] And I hope that you're okay. And there's a bold step that comes in that. And the guy turned around and looked at me. And he says, I really appreciate that. And I said, well, I have a tendency to do this because I'm somebody that cares.
[38:26] And I want you to know that I care. And I walked away and there was a humbleness that came over me. But what it did for this other guy hadn't been profound because he says, thank you for saying something.
[38:40] And you just don't know what the seed is that you planted when you have that opportunity. Right. And it's something simple. Yeah. Susan?
[38:51] I like the other correlation of the sin and sickness. Yes. He connects those, doesn't he? Yes. And in my own life, I've seen that, right?
[39:01] So, showing us the answer and what that is, is the same as what, you know, the answer to somebody who's stuck in sin.
[39:16] And that's prayer. So, the cure for a sick person is a doctor. Cure for a sick person is a cure. He's the physician. He's the physician. Well, it is the physician, but it's called to what?
[39:33] Repentance. Repentance. Repentance is a cure. Repentance is a cure. I had never thought of it that before until I got to that passage and Jesus is connecting those things. You know, the sick and the sinner and the doctor and the cure.
[39:47] Repentance is a cure. We don't think of it that way. I don't know. Repentance, that, yeah, it's not fun. It may not be. But it is the cure. It's the cure. It's the cure. It's his prescription. Exactly.
[39:57] It may not physically cure you, but it will. Oh, no, but it will cure your soul. Exactly. Yeah. It's just an interesting concept.
[40:09] Yeah. What else? Pat? We were talking about the aspect of friendship evangelism. Yes. And the aspect of being with sinners without taking part in their sin.
[40:32] Right. So it's more like inviting them into your world rather than going and hanging out in their world.
[40:43] It all depends, right? Right. I know people that think they can't really participate in anything of the world, even sports, senior sports, because those people swear and they will drag me down.
[41:04] And I'm thinking you're probably not very strong if you're... Well, that's where it depends. You know, if I'm an alcoholic, right, and is it a good idea for me to go hang out at a bar with my friend?
[41:18] That might be a temptation for me. But if I'm not, then maybe I can do that and I can get a non, you know, whatever. I mean, Jesus didn't have any control over the dinner that Levi threw and what he's doing and all that.
[41:35] But he was there. So I think we look at it personally. What ways can I be there that I'm okay, even in their environment, especially in their environment.
[41:47] Go to their environment. If we can, I think that's more powerful. But yeah, great idea. If I did.
[42:01] So Jeremy just said that Jesus was clean. He said, you say it. Are you talking? Are you talking? Come on, Jeremy. Wait a minute. You're talking for Jeremy? You say it. You say it, Jeremy.
[42:11] I don't know. I just, the line has been used on me that Jesus ate with sinners and I thought, well, he also called them to repentance. So it wasn't that he just sat with them and accepted.
[42:24] Left them there. They were doing, yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I would love to know what they talked about if that didn't. Yeah. Right? It's like, how did he talk to everybody? Yeah. So in parallel to the paralytic, having friends and family that surround you that will go to extremes to pull you back to God.
[42:45] I like the, when I'm the paralytic or rather the leper that prays, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And it's the humility of the if and the faith of the can.
[42:59] Yes. That's the attitude I want to have. Yeah. If I know I'm in a pit on how to get pulled out or how to have Jesus help me pull. It's a great balance, isn't it?
[43:09] It's a great way to pray. Yeah. You can do it if you want to. Yeah, it's full of faith. You can do it. Yeah. But I don't, I leave it at your feet.
[43:20] Right? If you're willing. Yeah. What else? I don't know if we talked about it a whole bunch, but the paralytic and the guys that were sick and the blind and everything, they were that, some of them were that way from birth.
[43:46] And, you know, God is in control of everything. So they were put, they were put on this earth with their condition, with their sickness, with whatever was wrong with them.
[43:59] So that everybody would see them in their sickness. For however many years that was. For them to know that they were actually blind or were actually sick.
[44:12] just to glorify God. So that God could show his glory through them. And the first thing they did was glorify God after, after they were healed.
[44:23] And, you know, it's a strong message to people that are out there that are hurting and that are sick and wounded.
[44:35] And, you know, God could be using you for something. I mean, he's in control. He knows what you're going through.
[44:48] He knows what you can handle. He knows. But to trust him in that, that's, we really didn't talk about that a whole bunch.
[45:01] Just that he healed them, you know. But they were hurting for a really long time. Yeah. Mark?
[45:12] I really appreciated the Isaiah quote in verse 18, 418. And reading that, I said, I thought I was all of those.
[45:27] I was poor. I was captive. I was blind and oppressed. And he's helped me read of all of that. Yeah, I love the pictures there, right?
[45:41] Because he talks about poor. And the word means to be totally, like, broken. And then the word for oppressed means to be shattered. Somebody's been shattered.
[45:54] Is it broken and then they're shattered, right? More than anything, I think it was the blindness. That I wasn't aware of. Yeah. Yeah.
[46:05] Yeah, you're blind, you know. I guess, right? And now I see. Yeah. Yeah. That's a gift. Yeah.
[46:20] Anyone else? I appreciate that.
[46:35] Yeah. I appreciate that. Margo appreciates that quote from Isaiah, that Jesus is stating his mission right there in 18 and 19. But it seems like in chapter 4, he is kind of revealing some of his deity and the definite purpose that he has come for.
[47:06] I remember not only in the Isaiah quote, but over in verse 32, his message had authority. He's saying that he spoke with authority.
[47:16] And just the people that heard him noticed that he spoke with authority. And then you see the actions that he is doing, or the words that he is saying, those sound like somebody that is in charge.
[47:35] And that is here to get it done. And he's conscious. He talks about, I was sent for this purpose. So he's conscious. It's not some mission he made up. Right.
[47:46] Yeah. If it happens, it happens. He's very focused. And he sounded like he had authority because he did. He actually spoke like he knew what he was talking about. Yeah. Every time.
[47:57] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[48:08] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[48:20] Have not because you ask not. Any others?
[48:39] Okay. Okay, now I'll start my sermon. No. We've got time. We're having lunch here.
[48:49] No, no, no. I would not do that. Well, I might, but I'm not today. Let's give thanks, shall we? Father, we thank you for Luke.
[49:01] Thank you for how you drew him to yourself, and he was so taken, Lord, with the testimonies and that you put it on his heart to write these things down in an orderly way and in a way that would give us more certainty, that would give us certainty about this gospel.
[49:32] He gives us truth. He gives us truth. He gives us details that only someone who talked with Peter knew what that was like, someone who interviewed the disciples to know what exactly happened, who said what, when, and where.
[49:50] So thank you, Lord, that you drove, you moved this man to record these things for us. And we thank you, Lord, for the time we had today.
[50:03] Thank you for brothers and sisters here who are thinking about what we're hearing, what we're reading, what we're learning, and not just thinking about it, but how does it work in my life?
[50:17] And so continue to do that, Lord, we pray. Bless this body of Christ. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.