Sermon: THE ACTS OF JESUS
First preached: January 15, 2012
This is the second in my series on “IS JESUS WORTH FOLLOWING?” Keep in mind that these sermons were preached to the church I was pastoring at the time - First United Methodist Church in Rapid City, SD.
By the way, instead of reading through the Bible in a year as I have done for the past several years I am going to stick to the Gospels this year. That will involve looking back at the Old Testament as the Gospel readers were steeped in the Old Testament and greatly affected how they put together their various Gospels. I also will be spending a lot of time with Bible Project’s emphasis during this entire year on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). If you are not familiar with the Bible Project check it out by clicking on the underlined words above. You won’t be disappointed.
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:16-30 (NRSVue)
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
In case you weren’t here last week there are some things you need to know as we undertake this sermon series that asks, “is Jesus worth following?” (1) The closest and most dependable accounts of Jesus we have are the gospels, written by those who knew Jesus. In the case of Luke and possibly Mark we aren’t quite sure they knew Jesus but for sure they were only once removed from knowing Jesus; (2) the gospels are reliable and accurate in the main issues of Jesus’ life and teachings. In other words when they record what Jesus said and we can be certain Jesus meant what he said; (3) where the gospels disagree it is because of differing recollections and different emphases as they wrote to their distinct audiences; (4) as much as possible we will cut through what people have said about Jesus throughout these two thousand years of church history and using the gospels try to know Jesus and understand Jesus as if we were actual participants of the those events recorded in the gospels; and, (5) we are going to use the Gospel of Luke as the foundation for these sermons. I’ve asked that you read through the Luke in these next weeks and have split the reading into six chapters per week.
One of the reasons we are using Luke is that according to the opening words of his gospel he did careful research in compiling, as accurate an account as possible, an account of the essentials of Jesus’ life and teaching. He geared his research for an unknown non-Jewish person known as Theophilus. He begins, “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” (Luke 1:3-4 NRSV)
Unfortunately (maybe fortunately) we do not have any portraits or pictures or even written description of what Jesus looked like. However, the gospels do give us the next best thing. They tell us what Jesus said and what he did.
Next week we are going to look at Jesus’ teachings. If we had only Jesus’ teachings we would conclude as many people do, inside and outside of the church, that Jesus was a great teacher. Much of what he said indicates he was much, much more than a great teacher but it is in his actions that we especially become aware that Jesus was more than just a wise human being.
You may have said or thought in regards to another individual, “I really don’t care what they say, what I want to know is how they act.” We call a person who says one thing and does another a hypocrite. We do not find that in Jesus. What he said and what he did were congruent to the max. As we read through the gospels we also find it hard to delineate between the action moments and the teaching moments. Most of the acts of Jesus were intended to teach. Oftentimes even the physical locations to which Jesus took his followers were for a specific reason for a specific teaching. For example, at least a few times Jesus traveled through Samaria on his north-south travels in Israel. Jewish people did not associate with Samaritans. They were looked upon as perverters of the faith. In traveling between the Galilean region to the north and Jerusalem in the south Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid going through Samaria. However, Jesus went through Samaria and he acknowledged Samaritan people to prove the point that no one was outside the reach of God’s love. He deliberately broke the Sabbath laws to point out that above all else God wanted a relationship with the people – that God gave the laws to lead to a relationship with Him, not that the law would become an end in itself.
The acts of Jesus have a wide range from washing his disciples’ feet to raising people from the dead. Jesus strictly observes the traditions of his Jewish faith many times, and then on certain occasions he intentionally breaks the traditions of his faith. Jesus lavishly bestows forgiveness on some people and lavishly lashes out criticism on others.
While is might seem that Jesus is erratic in what he does, it is very clear as we come to know Jesus that integrity weaves itself through it all. There is no double standard or special treatment when it comes to Jesus.
Jesus proved himself by what he did. Jesus revealed why he had come by what he did. John the Baptist and his followers watched what Jesus did in interest. While John was in prison he had a moment of questioning if Jesus really was the Messiah. He sends his disciples to question him. This is Jesus’ response, paraphrased by Fredrick Buechner, “You go tell John what you’ve seen around here. Tell him there are people who have sold their seeing-eye dogs and taken up bird-watching. Tell him there are people who’ve traded in aluminum walkers for hiking boots. Tell him the down-and-out have turned into the up-and-coming and a lot of dead-beats are living it up for the first time in their lives.” (from Luke 7)
All that Jesus says and does has the same message – God loves the human beings he has created – all the human beings. God loves them so much that He came into the world in the flesh to show those who were lost - for whatever reason - how to get on the right road and to have a living relationship with God.
Jesus did what he did to teach some lessons but he also did what he did to prove who he was. Deliberately he performed out-of-the-natural acts, what we call miracles, doing things only God could do to show his authority and power over every area of earthly existence. In the Christianity Explored course that is part of our Discipleship plan we learned that Jesus deliberately showed his divinity through power and authority in his teaching; power and authority over sickness; power and authority over nature; power and authority over death; and, power and authority to forgive sins.
Much of what we can understand of Jesus is shown by those with whom he hung around. Although Jesus related to and was enjoyed by people of all social standings it is apparent that Jesus was more concerned with hanging around with friends in low places than friends in high places. This is shown in the people he chose to be his disciples – fishermen, a tax collector, a religious freedom fighter. This is shown in the people he healed. Among the many healings, four of them were women and eleven of them were lepers – persons seen as less than valuable members of society. The fact that he even healed the sick says something because at that time sickness was seen as God’s disfavor or punishment. Twice, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus is criticized by the religious leaders for hanging out and eating with tax collectors and sinners – in 5:30 and 15:2. The first time Jesus responds by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32 NRSV) In the second instance Jesus responds by telling them some stories about the restoration of lost item – a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son – to make the point, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7 NRSV)
Several years ago the popular theme among Christians was “What Would Jesus Do.” Many Christians, maybe you, wore a bracelet or some other paraphernalia, which read WWJD – again, “What Would Jesus Do.” It is a good rule to live by but only if we are serious about looking at and taking seriously what Jesus did or didn’t do in the gospels and then live accordingly. We can’t make Jesus into someone who he was not so we can do what we want to do.
What is most important to see is that this is all about the Kingdom of God. When Jesus came into the world there was a clash between the very weak kingdom of Israel and the much greater and more powerful kingdom of Rome. Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of God. In the scripture reading this morning we heard how Luke introduces the beginning of Jesus ministry. Mark introduces it like this: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:14,15) Some versions say, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus came to bring into the world the Kingdom of God. He revealed what it was all about through what he said and what he did. Jesus came as the leader of this new kingdom. We pray for its fulfillment every Sunday when pray the Lord’s Prayer – “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” It is this kingdom that must be our first priority. We must make sure that we are citizens of God’s kingdom because it is only this kingdom that will prevail. We enter God’s kingdom by acknowledging Jesus not only as the Lord of the God’s kingdom but as the Lord of our lives.
Read the gospel of Luke. Read all of the gospels. Watch Jesus. Listen to Jesus. Do it as if it was your first time. Who should we be – what should we be like - if this is truly the story of Jesus – the story of God’s kingdom coming into the world – the true story of what God is all about?