Dave's Diary

Luke 4:14-30 & Nehemiah 8:1-10

I had the great privilege of preaching at the 6pm service tonight (23-01-2022). These were my notes – nott hat it came out exactly like this …

Tonight’s sermon will end our series on Living with Joy. It’s called “Joyful Liberation” and basically it is going to look at how there are times in our lives when we actually need to be liberated in order to truly experience JOY.

We’re going to hop around the Bible a bit and not just read from one place because I want to show a contrast between:

• some people from a place called NAZARETH who were NOT liberated into joy and ended up full of violent hatred and absolutely miserable … and
• some people from the Book of NEHEMIAH who WERE LIBERATED into the joy of the Lord …
• and then I want to try to point out how we can make sure that we don’t miss out on this liberation for ourselves right NOW.

NAZARETH

The Gospel reading for tonight is one of the most tragic scenes in the New Testament. It’s set in the little Galilean town of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. When Jesus turned 30 He went away for a while having some powerful encounters with God at His baptism and in a time of testing in the wilderness. For the last few weeks before this scene He had been ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit in that region – healing the sick, driving out demons and teaching with mind-blowing authority. But now He has come back to His home town and on the first Sabbath day that He’s back in Nazareth, Jesus goes to the synagogue and Luke 4:17-21 tells us:

Jesus stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’^[f]

²⁰ 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. ²¹ He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’

Now this is phenomenally good news. Jesus is there to usher in a season of good news, freedom, healing, liberation, and supernatural favour from God. So, it’s no surprise that their first reaction was very positive. Verse 22 says that “they all spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips.”

They were genuinely open and really happy. But two problems quickly arose.

First (v.22) someone pointed out that this was Joseph’s son. They knew him. He had worked on their wagons, ploughs and furniture. They had smelled His sweat and seen Him go off to the bush toilet just like them. How now?  Surely this couldn’t possibly be true? That was the 1^st problem.

And secondly (v.23-27), Jesus followed up the Good News just a little confrontationally. He senses that they are going to challenge Him to prove that He is who he says with a miracle (v.23) – and He also knows that they actually don’t have faith for a miracle because they still see Him as beneath them – just the village carpenter. They aren’t looking for a miracle because they NEED one … they just want Jesus to prove Himself. And friends, God is not in the business of proving Himself to any of us.

Jesus looks at their lack of faith and their skepticism … and He confronts them with a history lesson. He reminds them that even the greatest prophets in Israel’s history … Elijah and Elisha … did not perform their greatest miracles among the good Jewish men of Israel. Instead, they did them for a pagan Phoenician woman … and a despised enemy Syrian soldier.

The tragedy of this reading comes in how the people react to being confronted with the truth. Let’s read it from Luke 4:28-30 (NIVUK)

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Let me not beat around the bush … let me just put this bluntly. These people were so full of religious pride and self-righteousness that although they were very happy to receive a nice, encouraging, promise of blessings from the Lord … they reacted with violent hatred when JESUS CALLED OUT their sin of prideful unbelief … when they were confronted with a simple Biblical truth that God is looking for humble faith and trust … even when that humble faith and trust is FOUND in people whom theycategorized as the WORST SINNERS and outcasts.

Jesus was telling them, I won’t be doing any miracles here, because you have no humility and no faith – so I’m going where there are people of humility and faith- to do miracles there.

For these prideful religious men (remember women and Gentiles weren’t even allowed inside their synagogue) it was an absolute outrage for Jesus to suggest that God’s power would come to people like women and Gentiles rather than to them!

They were SO arrogant in their self-righteousness … THAT they were enslaved by it … they were in bondage to their pride and self-righteous arrogance. And they couldn’t admit it … they probably couldn’t see it.

Audrey said this morning in her sermon that only those who are in bondage or oppression can be liberated. Which is absolutely true. But I want to add tonight, that even those who are in bondage cannot be liberated unless they will admit that they are in bondage.

These men were in bondage to their PRIDE AND ARROGANCE and they could not be liberated because they would not admit that they had a problem. They had spent their lives justifying their pride and cementing their sinful attitudes … they were blind to their bondage … they refused to repent … and they remained in their prison of anger and miserable religion.

When they were confronted with the truth about their own lack of faith, and their own pride and arrogance … instead of repenting, they hardened their hearts and flew into an absolutely murderous rage. They were offended … they were angry … they were bitter … they were utterly miserable!! They were everything that joy is NOT.

There are few people as miserable and JOYLESS as those who feel they are spiritually superior … those self-righteous, proud religious people are further from Jesus and His joy than pretty much anyone!

NEHEMIAH’S PEOPLE

Now, let me show you an absolute contrast. Surprisingly it’s in the Old Testament, in the book of Nehemiah.

Please scroll or page to Nehemiah chapter 8.

As you do so let me explain that this is round about 500 years earlier than the Nazareth episode. The people of Jerusalem here (in this passage) were mainly made up of people who had actually been born in Babylon. Their great-great grandparents had been taken out of Jerusalem as prisoners to Babylon back in 568BC. But this exiled Jewish community only returned with the prophet Ezra in 458BC – 110 years later. They had not grown up with temple worship or speaking Hebrew. Most of their ancestors had just been assimilated into Babylonian culture and religion. They had stopped worshiping Yahweh, the Great I Am, and they had accepted the Babylonian idols and so-called gods – of which there were many.

These people couldn’t even understand Hebrew … and they had never heard the Word of God read aloud before. Their culture, religion and language had been all but destroyed by the Babylonian colonizers and oppressors. They were multi-generational exiles … from their land and from their religion … but now God had brought them back.

When the time was right and the City wall had been rebuilt, the people who had returned from exile were gathered together by their leaders into a public square in Jerusalem and their leader Ezra took the Law of Moses – that is the scrolls of Genesis to Deuteronomy and began to read the Word of God out loud. Because many in the crowd didn’t understand the language, the Levite priests stood among the people, ready to act as interpreters and to explain what was being read.

Just like the men of Nazareth, these people were listening to the Word of God being read aloud. As the reading began, verse 6 says that, “All the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. They were in a place of absolute surrender and humility before the Lord. But then as the Word of God was read to them … Let’s read about their reaction:

Nehemiah 8: 8-10 (NIVUK)

⁸ They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear^[a] and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

⁹ Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

Let’s just pause in the middle of the reading to consider why they would have been weeping. What was it that had been read from the word of the Lord that had caused them to break down?

I suppose I could highlight any number of passages, but the best place to look for it in summary form would be the Ten Commandments. Even if Ezra and Nehemiah had only read Exodus 20:1-17 they would have had plenty of reasons to weep.

• Here were people who had worshipped numerous gods their whole lives, hearing that actually their God Yahweh demanded “You shall have no other gods but Me”.
• Here were people who had bowed down to idols of the many Babylonian gods and now they were hearing Yahweh command, “You shall not make an idol for yourself of anything … you shall not bow down to them and worship them”.
• They had never rested on the Sabbath as God commanded.
• Maybe most key was when they started to hear Yahweh command that they should not commit adultery (that is have sex with someone other than your covenant marriage partner) and even more so, don’t even lust after your neighbours wife … but all along they had been living in a culture where sex was regarded as just another natural activity like eating and sleeping.  The Ancient Babylonians weren’t shy about sex. They would have sex on the streets, on the rooftops, at temples to the fertility gods. The location didn’t matter, as long as they had fun. Their dinner parties often developed into full-fledged orgies. They had no limits on what was allowed sexually in their society … and now the people of God back in Jerusalem were cast into utter despair when they discovered that they had been sinning horrendously against the Law of Yahweh all their lives.

And as one, this vast crowd began to weep … in repentant shame and horror at how far short they had fallen of God’s desires for them.

Let’s pick it up n verse 10.

¹⁰ Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’

¹¹ The Levites calmed all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.’

¹² Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

Can you see the absolute contrast here? The people of Nazareth went away from the Word of God imprisoned miserably in violent anger and hatred. Nehemiah’s people went away liberated with great joy!

What was the difference? Unlike the hard-hearted, prideful religious people of Nazareth, Nehemiah’s people had humble, repentant hearts! And they got liberated through God’s forgiving grace … which led to great joy!

In 2 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in the city of Corinth. Now Corinth was a LOT like Babylon. It was one of the most sexually immoral cities in the Roman Empire. And a year or two before this letter, some of the Christians had fallen into sexual sins … sins as terrible as incest. When he heard about it, Paul had written a really strongly worded letter rebuking them and demanding that the ones sinning be excluded from the community until they repented. And by God’s grace, they had repented and turned back to God for forgiveness and cleansing.

In 2 Cor. 7: 9-10 Paul there wrote:

“… I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief … and godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation … (ESV)

What we are witnessing in Nehemiah’s people is the profound power of a humble, repentant heart to bring us liberation … by God’s gracious forgiveness and salvation … into the joy of the Lord.

The people of Nazareth were confronted by the Word of God in Jesus. But they were so blinded to the truth that they were in bondage to prideful arrogance that they hardened their hearts against His words, and they went away that day … violently angry and miserable.

By absolute contrast, Nehemiah’s people were in bondage to idolatry and sexual sin … but when they were confronted with the Word of God in the Law of Moses … their hearts were so soft and humble before the Lord that they not only admitted their sin but they wept aloud in sorrowful repentance … and then God sent them away forgiven and celebrating with great JOY.

NOW

Okay – enough history. The important thing is that you and I understand this and apply it to our own lives RIGHT NOW in 2022.

You and I will often read something in God’s Word which is absolutely clear but also directly in contrast to our prevailing cultural norms … and sometimes directly in contrast to what we want to believe and how we want to act.

We will read about God’s standards of absolute honesty and truth when our culture teaches us to exaggerate our good points, and to tell lies to make our lives easier – just don’t get caught out. We will read about sacrificial generosity to the Lord and to the poor, when our culture is all about acquiring wealth and comfort for ourselves … and sees it as foolish to give so much away. We will read about God’s descriptions of sexual morality and the sacredness of marriage, in a culture where anything and everything goes as long as there’s consent. And then we are going to have a very clear choice to make.

Will we soften our hearts and repent? OR

Will we refuse to repent and harden our hearts?

At first glance it feels so wrong that somehow weeping and mourning in repentance over my sinfulness should lead me to joy. It seems back-to-front.

I think the key to understanding this is to remember a few truths:

1. True Christian joy only ever flows in our lives when we have an unhindered relationship with God. Psalm 16 says “In Your presence, Lord, there is fullness of joy.” There is nowhere else to find limitless, boundless, eternal joy, than in an open relationship of intimacy with God.
2. SIN separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2 says that our sins have separated us from God.
3. This means that there can be no true and abounding joy in the Lord while we are still clinging on to our sin! Sin is the problem that destroys Christian joy in our lives. Of course, sin is not the only reason people go around lacking joy – its far more complex than that. But the joy of the LORD cannot be received for as long as we are choosing SIN over God.
4. The choice really is OURS whether or not we will turn away from sin and turn to God for forgiveness and cleansing and a liberation into the joy of a right relationship with God … where the joy of the Lord can be ours!

EXAMPLE OF MONKEY TRAP

The trapper places a small bottle, or a hollowed out gourd at the foot of a tree where there are many young monkeys. The bottle is tied to the tree trunk with a strand of wire and inside the bottle is placed a nut. The trapper has not long to wait before one monkey climbs down the tree to the ground. He is curious. He sees the nut inside the bottle, and he reaches in to grab it. But once he has grabbed the nut, he cannot get his paw out of the bottle. With his fist around the nut, it will not fit through the bottle’s neck and as he sits there, perplexed, the trapper grabs him by the scruff of the neck.

The monkey has a greedy nature. He wants to get free, but he does not want to let go of the nut, and so he is easily trapped.

That’s what sin is like. As long as we cling on to something God calls sin, we can’t be liberated. We keep ourselves in bondage to that sin. For the Nazarenes it was the sin of PRIDE. For Nehemiah’s people it was sexual sin and idolatry.

What is it for you? What’s got you trapped?

What are you holding onto when in your heart of hearts you actually KNOW that it is not pleasing to God. You know that this thing is hindering your relationship with God? It’s getting in the way and instead of walking in the fullness of God’s abundant joy you’re battling along trying to put on a happy face. But in your heart of hearts you KNOW!

Tonight I am inviting us all to allow Jesus to liberate us into the joy that comes when our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored. Which means I am inviting us to repent of sin and receive God’s undeserved forgiveness. It’s the forgiveness and liberation that Jesus died on the cross to give us – the liberation from the power of sin to deceive us and to destroy our lives and our joy – because it separates us from God.

Will you be free tonight? Will you leave rejoicing. Then search your life under the spotlight of God’s Word and with the help of the Holy Spirit … repent of whatever si you find there … truly turning away from it … asking God’s forgiveness and God’s power to overcome the addiction of that sin.