Nations (The 5:15)

Reaching the Neighborhoods, Nations and the Next Generation is the DNA of Grace, and in the next few weeks we will reconnect with what scripture has to say about these core areas. In this “part 3” teaching, we learn from Jesus in Luke chapter 4 about God’s heart for proclaiming the Good News to the nations.

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Grace Fellowship Church
Jon Stallsmith
September 1, 2013

Nations
Luke 4:16-30

August 28 was the 50-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was hugely significant. There were 250,000 people gathered on the Mall there in Washington, DC in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He gave that speech, talking of course about civil rights and helping to forward the cause of equality between whites and blacks and actually all people in America.

I remember when I was in sixth or seventh grade, I think, I was doing a school project and I used a big chunk of that talk. It was really not longer than 20 minutes he was up there. Sometimes I think, “Oh well, he was probably preaching there for like an hour,” but it was in less than 20 minutes he gave the whole “I Have a Dream” speech.

I want to just read you a few more of the phrases he talked about there from that speech. He said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

Then he begins to talk about letting freedom ring across the entire country. “From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!” He was a poet! “Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last!'”

As he was talking about that, he was really reflecting God’s heart for the nations. We’ve talked about this before in here at the 5:15. Especially at Grace, we talk about how we feel God has called us as a church through the Scripture to engage with our neighbors. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. We’ve talked about how God calls us as a church through the Scripture to engage with the next generation. Then of course, throughout the Scripture, how he calls us to engage with nations.

This speech we commemorated the 50-year anniversary, this week actually, is a great speech talking about the healing of the nations, bringing together under God in freedom of people from all different backgrounds. Just a few years later, in 1968, roughly five years after delivering the “I Have a Dream” speech, King was with a group of preachers. For him, this goal of social equality was not just a political movement. It was never just something they needed to get signed into a law so everyone would get a vote or something like that. For him, it was always rooted in the Bible.

He was gathered this day with a group of pastors, and he began talking to them about the direction they’re heading, and he said something really interesting. He said, “Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, and he’s anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.’

It’s all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.”

For King, it wasn’t just that he had a dream; it was that he had a dream rooted in the pages of the Bible. The night he gave this talk, he quoted from Luke 4, the passage we’re going to study tonight. If you have your Bibles, you can open them up to Luke 4. The next day, King was killed, assassinated (many of us know that story), because he stood up on behalf of the heart of God and on behalf of the nations. But if you study his life, the passage we’re going to look at tonight was one of the most important passages in all of his life.

It’s a familiar passage. We even talked about it here at 5:15 I think a couple of months ago when we were doing the One Story. We’re going to revisit it again and see if we can draw out some new insight, to go a little bit deeper than we have in the past. I’m going to read the whole story to you guys.

I’m going to read Luke 4:16-30, but before reading, just try to put yourself in the shoes of a person who had come to the synagogue this day. This is a story that takes place at least at first in a synagogue, which was the building or the place where the Jews would’ve come together to have their meetings, to read the Scripture. It would’ve been a place similar to this room, except probably much smaller.

So put yourself in the shoes of someone who just lives in Nazareth. It’s the Sabbath. Remember for the Jews, the Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday, so this is probably sometime during the day on Saturday. You live in the town of Nazareth, which is a smaller town. It’s only about 20,000 people. It’s about a one-hour walk from the capital of the region, which is Sepphoris.

If you come to the synagogue this day, maybe you’re a little bit distracted because you couldn’t find Jeremiah’s sandals on the way over. Then Naomi is at home with a fever and your wife also. The donkey started limping on the way to the synagogue, and so you’re just kind of barely sitting down, trying to get your thoughts together. Then all of a sudden, this happens.

Luke 4:16 says, “And [Jesus] 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. 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 proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 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. 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.’ 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?’ And he said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’

And he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’

When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.” (Luke 4:16-30)

Do you guys ever wonder what that was like? Here’s this whole crowd of people. They’re furious with Jesus. They want to throw him off a cliff, because when you stone someone, that’s what you would do. You’d first throw them off a cliff and then you’d take big rocks and throw them on top until they were dead. It was kind of a rough culture back then.

So this whole big mob runs him out to the edge of the cliff. They’re ready. Then the Bible just says, “But passing through their midst, he went his way.” Do you think it was just Jesus going, “Not today, fellows”? Or did he just go like invisible for a second. We don’t know exactly what happened, but this is a fascinating and essential story.

It comes right at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, right after Jesus has been baptized. He has been out in the wilderness and now he’s returning to his hometown of Nazareth. He opens up the scroll and he begins to read. If you’re familiar with the gospel of Luke and also with the book of Acts… Remember those two go together. If you’re in KidzLife this year, the book of Acts is going to be our focus, but if you really want to understand the book of Acts, you should read a lot in the book of Luke because that sets the stage for everything that happens in Acts.

Right here in Luke, this is Jesus’ mission statement. This is Jesus showing up and saying, “Here’s what I have come to do.” The thesis actually of the book of Luke right here. Today, we’re going to look at three big things. First, we’re going to look at God’s heart, then we’re going to look at Nazareth’s heart in this story, and the third thing we’re going to look at is going to be our own hearts, which is always the most personal way to look.

1. God’s heart. What we see is Jesus has been led back to Nazareth in the power of the Spirit after the temptation. As Jesus comes into the synagogue and he opens up this scroll of Isaiah, he begins reading. We can see so clearly God’s heart for salvation for people. Verse 18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

God’s heart for salvation. Look at the people Jesus says he is coming to help. The people who are poor, who have nothing to offer. The people who are captive, caught up in their own sin. People who are captive, caught up in the systems around them. People who are blind, who can’t see their way, who don’t know how to go forward. People who are oppressed, beaten down, worn down, stressed out. Jesus is coming for all of these kinds of people. He’s coming to give them good news, the gospel. This is God’s heart for salvation.

In the gospel of Luke, specifically, when you read about that word salvation, you can see it has all sorts of different meanings. It’s not just salvation for the soul in heaven when you die. When Luke is talking about salvation, he’s talking about economic trust, that you can trust God with your money situation, with your basic physical needs. When he’s talking about salvation, he’s actually talking about political impact, about how God, when the kingdom comes into a place, the politics, the systems of a place are transformed.

Salvation is social. Remember the leper who was considered unclean because of his disease he could never talk to people. But then Jesus comes and heals the leper and he says to the leper, “Go to the priest so you can be confirmed that the healing has indeed happened. Then you can return back to your people.” Jesus wants to see people who are outcast from their community and from their family, the people who everybody laughs at, the people who nobody wants to talk to. The gospel, salvation, means that those people are drawn back into relationship.

The gospel, the salvation is also physical. People whose bodies are broken down, who aren’t functioning correctly. When the kingdom of God comes, salvation impacts the physical body. Not every time every person has been healed. We’ve prayed with lots of people who have been healed in their heart with Jesus, but we’ve seen God touch bodies. So this is God’s heart. It’s for total salvation.

Even psychological salvation. People whose thinking and whose minds are not working very well. You think about in the gospel of Luke, you have that demon-possessed guy in the region of Gerasa, remember? He’s so crazy that they try to chain him up. They don’t know what to do with him. He’s totally crazy. They try to chain him up, but he’s like super strong because he has demons in him. He breaks the chains and they’re like, “Uh-oh. Now what do we do?” They took him out and made him hang out by the tombs.

When Jesus healed him, he didn’t just cast the demon out. It says in the gospel of Luke that he was sitting in his right mind. His mind, the way his psychological state was happening, was healed. This is God’s heart for salvation. It’s a total impact on our total way of life, including all of those things, and then of course, salvation of the soul, the spiritual salvation of being born again into God’s kingdom and guaranteed a place with God in eternity forever.

When we talk about salvation, when we talk about the gospel, when we talk about the good news, when we talk about mission, or when we talk about eternity, for Luke and for Jesus as he’s reading here, it involves all of that stuff…the kingdom of God, his rule and reign crashing into every area of our lives.

Then Jesus says something amazing. Verse 20 says, “And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” (Luke 4:20) Can you imagine? If you were there that day, all of your concerns, “Oh, my daughter is sick, and we couldn’t find his sandals, and my donkey is broken down, and I have to pay a lot of takes to the Romans, and everything else,” suddenly here’s this guy who’s reading this text. You hear it, and you’re thinking, “Wow, that’s salvation? That sounds fantastic.”

He rolls up the scroll and everyone is just staring at him. What’s he going to say next? Have you ever had that where you see someone and you think, “What is this person going to say next? It’s so good. Come on. Give it to me. I want to hear the next thing”? All of their eyes were fixed on him.

Verse 21: Their eyes are fixed on him. “And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'” (Luke 4:21) He doesn’t say, “Tomorrow.” He doesn’t say, “In a thousand years.” He doesn’t say, “Oh, in the millennial kingdom.” He says, “Today this salvation is happening.” What?

You can imagine the people in Nazareth had to have been pretty excited. If Jesus had stopped right there, it would’ve been a great Sabbath in Nazareth. You can just imagine after Jesus read the scroll and said, “Okay, today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” all the people coming up afterwards and shaking his hand, “O Jesus, those are good words. Encouraging. I’d like to get some more of that salvation in my life. Wow, that really blessed me, Jesus. That’s a timely word. Thank you for that. That was great.”

Maybe somebody took a picture of Jesus reading the scroll, put it on their Instagram, and put in as the caption, “So glad to have my main man Jesus back in Nazareth. #Nazareth. #Jubilee. #DroppingBombs.” You can imagine if he had just stopped right there, it would’ve been a great day in Nazareth.

Sometimes when we hear this passage and people preach on this passage, we kind of stop right there. We don’t really want to deal with the second half. But Jesus doesn’t stop there, and so we can’t either. We have to keep reading through. What happens? Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s thinking, “Oh, I want to hear what he has to say. Wow, today it’s being fulfilled. This salvation sounds fantastic. Liberty for the captives and for the poor and the oppressed. Sight for the blind. Yes! I want it.”

Then Jesus begins saying some stuff that really makes them mad. He begins telling them about a time in the Old Testament when there was no rain. But Elijah the prophet, who was living in the land of Israel at the time, God did not lead him to stay with any of the Israelites. But instead Elijah went up to Zarephath, which is in modern-day Lebanon. When he went up to Zarephath, he was with a Lebanese woman, not a Jewish woman, a woman from a different nation, from a different people group. That’s who God wanted Elijah to minister to.

Then Jesus mentioned another story from the Old Testament, 2 Kings 5-6, talking about how during the days of Elisha the prophet there were many people with leprosy who were Israelites, but God connected Elisha to a man named Naaman. Naaman was from Syria. In fact, he was the head general of the Syrian army.

If you read that story, Israel and Syria were at war at the time, so the parallel to think about Naaman talking to Elisha would’ve been kind of like World War II was going on and a Nazi general during the time when London was being bombed by the Nazis came up to a British guy, knocked on his door, and said, “Hey, God sent me here because I need some healing.”

Can you imagine if you were the British guy? This guy is standing in front of you, and you’re like, “You’re the general for the enemy. I do not need to be helping you get better. Actually, I kind of wish you were dead.” This is what’s happening, and yet Jesus says, “Hey, this salvation God has such a huge heart for, this salvation is not just for the people in Nazareth.” This salvation, from the very beginning of the story, has been intended to go over the entire earth.

We’ve talked about this here before, especially when we were going through One Story. We saw how at each chapter through the Bible as we journeyed from the beginning in Genesis all the way through to Revelation, at each stop or each chapter or each season of the Scripture in that One Story sermon series, how God’s heart was always not just for the people of Israel, but for all the nations. How God’s heart was to raise up this people who would bear his name and extend his reign into the entire earth.

Remember even as far back as Abraham, “I will bless you so that all the families of the earth will be blessed.” At the plagues, God tells Moses, “Hey, the reason all of these plagues are going down is so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth,” Exodus 9. Joshua 4: The people cross over the Jordan River, and God says, “All the peoples of the earth will know that the hand of the Lord is mighty.” Over and over and over and over again, we see through the Old Testament and into the New Testament that God’s heart is for salvation.

It’s not just for salvation; it’s for salvation for the nations, for all the people groups of the world. As we read through the New Testament, we see the same thing. We come to these classic passages like Matthew 28, “Go into all the nations and make disciples.” Maybe some of us remember Acts 1:8. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” That’s our memory verse for KidzLife this week.

We remember these passages and we think about, “Wow, these are such important passages.” The key thing to remember is that these passages are not new ideas in the Bible. These are actually summaries of the entire Bible story. When Jesus says, “Go and make disciples in all nations,” he’s saying, “The whole story of the Bible, God’s mission to be glorified among all peoples, you guys go do it.” It’s not a new idea. It’s a summary idea. It’s so powerful.

In fact, if you read the Scripture and you miss God’s heart for the nations, you’re really missing the heart and core of the Bible. It’s kind of like this. College football weekend has started, right? Did any of you guys watch the games? How many of you guys are Georgia fans? Yeah, there’s a lackluster lifting of the hands. I know. I stayed up late and watched it too. It was discouraging.

But if you were watching that game, the pre-game was incredible. If you’ve ever been in Clemson on a game day or maybe if you’ve been to Athens on a game day, you know the preparation and the enthusiasm for the game starts long before kickoff. People get dressed in a certain way and some of them have campers and they drive them out and stake their claim. Some of them have tents.

Then they have their big parties before the game, and everybody is cooking out on the outside. Then they go into the game, and everybody shakes their keys at kickoff. As the team runs out on the field (at least last night in Clemson), they release like 10,000 balloons. I don’t know if that’s a health hazard, but I guess it might not be. Hopefully, they’re biodegradable.

But there’s all this stuff going on. If you talked to people and asked them, “Hey, what’s your favorite part about college game day in the South?” some people would say, “Well, I love getting dressed. I love the clothes. I love just putting on my Georgia Bulldogs clothing.” Some people would say, “Oh, I love the community. I just love being with all my friends.” Some people might even say, “I love the hedges in Athens. They’re just beautiful, green hedges. I come to the field to watch the hedges.”

But if you say that’s the point, you’re actually missing the point. What’s the point on game day? It’s the game! If there was not a game on the field, all these people would not be gathered, all these people would not be in community and talking and hanging out and having all sorts of activities. If the game wasn’t there, the people wouldn’t have gathered, the day wouldn’t be exciting.

That’s exactly the same way it is in the Scripture. The reason we gather, the reason we worship, the reason we’re all together and connected is because of the mission of God. God’s mission is the game on the field. What he’s doing in the world is the thing that draws us into the same place and into connection with one another.

If we say, “Oh, no. Actually life with God is really just about the clothes or about the people or about the food,” we’re missing the point. The point is what God is doing in the world among all nations. When you begin to tap into that, suddenly it’s like you’re tapped into the great current of God in the earth.

Have you guys ever been on a lazy river? Have you guys gone like at the water park or something? You get on that lazy river. I think they have one over at the little water center here. Yeah, don’t they? Yeah, it’s a pretty strong flow actually. It’s like getting connected to the heart of God for salvation in all the nations.

When you begin to be awakened to that, it’s like jumping into the lazy river and all of a sudden the current starts carrying you along. Of course, there is some suffering and martyrdom along the way. So it’s not exactly like the lazy river, but it’s like connecting into the current of what God is doing.

I remember for me the first time when I began to become aware of God’s heart for all nations through all history. We were in Lebanon actually, not far from Sidon, from Zarephath, where this story with Elijah and the widow happened. We were driving down from Sidon to Tyre along the coast of the Mediterranean. On one side was this beautiful blue water. Some of you guys may have heard me tell this story before. Beautiful blue water of the Mediterranean. Beaches and fishermen out there cleaning their nets.

On the other side were these refugee camps where people had been living in close quarters for 50 years. These refugee camps were some of the roughest places on the planet. All kinds of terrorists come out of these places and people’s lives are miserable in these places. Here we are driving down along the coast and we’re in one of those vans. Maybe you guys have been in a van when it’s really a little bit too full. It’s like a seven-seater, but you have eight people in the van. We were in a 14-seater, but we had 15 people in the van.

I was kind of squeezed in against the side. I’m not well sized for a van that’s overfull. I’m crammed in like this. We’re just praying as we drive that God will work in all of these different places. We’re praying for the city and praying for that camp and praying for these people over here. As we’re driving, we’re doing a little prayer drive, and I’m crammed in, and something happened, and I just started to cry.

I cried and I cried and I cried. Not just like, “I’m a little misty in the eye because the romantic comedy was heartwarming at the end.” This was like big cries. Have you guys ever really like lost it crying? It’s the ugly cry. It’s when your face gets really ugly. Your eyes get really puffy. Tears are going. You’re not breathing really well. It lasted for almost three hours.

We would stop someplace. People would go out to the overlook or they’d visit some site, and I would just be in the van crying. Then everybody’d crowd back in. It’s like, “Where are we going to go for dinner?” “Well, don’t ask Jon. He’s sobbing.” It was a very strange thing. You can ask Amy. This does not normally happen with me. I don’t just have a good cry every week or two. This was the hardest and longest I’ve ever cried in my entire life.

After it had kind of passed, I remember asking God, “Lord, what was going on there? What was that about? Did I just have low blood sugar and some jet lag and it all kind of came together?” I felt that the Lord just really clearly said to me, “Jon, I just shared with you a portion of my heart and the grief I feel for these people in this land.” Just a portion, a little bit of it, had nearly broken me.

That experience has marked my soul ever since. Maybe you guys know that experience. Maybe you guys know that moment or maybe it has happened over time where suddenly you become aware of how much God loves people and how much it breaks his heart to see them continuing to live in brokenness.

Maybe you’ve had that experience where suddenly you go, “Oh my word, this is the only thing worth living for. It’s to join in what God is doing, the flow, his current on the earth, for salvation to crash into people’s lives, every aspect of their lives, in every nation.” Man, when that happens, it changes you. It drives you. It motivates you. It really helps us find our direction in life. We find our place in the kingdom when we find our place in God’s mission in the earth.

Now unfortunately, at the time Jesus was reading this, Israel had kind of missed out on God’s heart. Israel had missed out on what God was doing and had missed out on the current through the Scripture. God said, “Israel, you’re supposed to be my light in all the nations.” Israel, these people, had not been really much of a light at all. They had really been more like a burnt-out light bulb.

2. Nazareth’s heart. The next question is if this is God’s heart for salvation for all the nations, what about Nazareth’s heart? What happens here with Nazareth? Why do they react so poorly? Why do they want to kill Jesus? What makes them so angry? Well, one clue comes from the verse of Isaiah Jesus was reading. If you go back and read Isaiah 61:1-2 (and there’s a little bit of Isaiah 58 also), you’ll notice something very interesting.

In Isaiah 61, it says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God…” (Isaiah 61:1-2)

When does Jesus stop reading? Right before the day of vengeance of our God, doesn’t he? He stops reading right at the year of the Lord’s favor, and he doesn’t finish the line. The way the poetry of Isaiah works, the way the Hebrew structure of that line works, it would’ve been kind of like if Jesus had been singing a song most of us know. “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak…” And then he just shut the scroll and stopped.

“They are weak…” and all the people in Nazareth are going, “‘…and the day of vengeance of our God.’ Finish the second half of the verse, Jesus. You have to finish the song. You have to finish the quote.” But Jesus doesn’t, does he? Jesus stops it right after he says, “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” But he doesn’t talk about vengeance.

The people in Nazareth actually wanted vengeance. They wanted the day of the Lord’s vengeance. The Romans around them had treated them really poorly. The Romans around them had been mean to them. They’d taxed them. They’d probably killed some of their relatives in some of the wars. They hated the Romans. So what they really wanted was God to show up and deal with all the Romans. They wanted God to get rid of them. They didn’t want to love the nations; they wanted to smite the nations. But Jesus stopped and he didn’t get to the wrath part.

If you’re hungry for vengeance and the person you think is going to be the bringer of vengeance, the bringer of justice, doesn’t say he’s going to do that and instead he says, “No, let’s have mercy there,” it might make you mad. It made the people in Nazareth really mad. It turned their wonder into wrath. It turned their marvel into malice. They’re very upset.

“What is this? Jesus is not going to bring vengeance on all the nations? Jesus wants to see God bring salvation to the nations? Are you kidding me?” Then Jesus says, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.'” (Luke 4:23) The idea of that is basically that the people in Nazareth would’ve said to Jesus, “Hey, Jesus, come. Just do some miracles around here. Stop talking about all those nations over there. Don’t worry about those people over there or that community over there. We have a lot of needs right here. We’d like you to do some miracles right around here.”

I wonder how many of our churches in the United States today look to God and say, “God, I know in the Bible it’s important to reach the nations, but we have a lot of need right here. Would you just do some work right here? We can’t focus out there until we get this fixed up”? This is what Jesus is saying. He’s saying, “No, if you want to be where I am and you want to see what I’m doing and you want to connect to my work among all the nations, turn your eyes to the nations.”

Whoa. But what if I don’t want to? What if I want God to smite my enemies? What if I don’t like the Syrians or the Romans or the Nazis or the Muslims or…insert whoever you don’t like, whoever it is you feel like might be your enemies? Well, if you’re not connected in with God’s heart for the nations, then you’re going to end up with a heart like the people in Nazareth. Before you know it, you’re going to want to take Jesus over to the edge of a cliff and throw him off of it.

The other day a woman called me up and had some questions about Muslims and Jesus and the Qur’an and some of the stuff we’re doing. I was just explaining how we build relationships and we seek peace with them and how we talk about the Lord, how we open the Bible with them. She said, “That all sounds nice, but I just can’t get over the fact that they’re trying to take over America and they’re having all these babies and they’re getting appointed into these positions in the government and they’re really trying to take us over.”

I said, “Well, first of all, if you look at the news right now, most Muslim countries are having enough trouble just running their own countries. I doubt they’re going to show up here and just take over ours. But second of all, do you hear this? You don’t want to love these people who God has brought into our country because you’re scared of them, because you feel like they’re your enemies. That’s not the heart of Jesus.”

She said, “Well, I know I’m wrestling with that.” Then she just kept going and she kept going and she kept going. I was like, “No, you have to get connected to the heart of God for salvation for all the nations.” We don’t need to run from that; we need to run to that. Those are the people who nobody else wants to talk to, and we can!

Even more so, when we do, that’s where we’ll find Jesus. That’s where he’s working. That’s where he’s doing the miracles. Out there on the edges, the points of connection between those of all different nations. That’s where we really see God working powerfully.

3. Our own hearts. What about our hearts? We’ve seen God’s heart. We’ve seen Nazareth’s heart. What about our hearts? What do we do with this? Here’s the thing. There’s an enormous difference between liking Jesus and being like Jesus. Jesus finished his reading, this Isaiah 61 passage, talking about salvation and all this stuff. The people are like, “Oh, this is kind of great.” They’re excited. They want to hear what’s happening. They like Jesus.

But when Jesus starts saying, “Actually, where I’m headed is out across the cultural boundaries. Where this thing is going is into the nations, they’re like, “Oh, I don’t want to be like that. I liked you before, but I don’t want to be like that.” Huge difference. But God’s call to us who are disciples is that we become like Jesus. Actually, imitate his way of life.

If we’re going to do that, one key word just to have in our minds as we wrap up here. Jesus says in verse 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18) Even for Jesus, the way to be engaged with the heart of God and with the mission of God in what he’s doing in the world, it wasn’t just Jesus’ own idea. He says, “It’s the Spirit of God who is leading and anointing me to do this.”

That word anoint, all the way back to the early church, as early as Eusebius of Caesarea, one of the earliest guys to look at that word anointed and connect it to some of the Old Testament usages of the word anointed… In the Old Testament, what kind of people were anointed? Do you guys remember? Do any of the kids know? In the Old Testament, what kind of people got anointed with oil, smeared with oil to be chosen and marked out? Yes sir? The king was one. Absolutely. So you remember King David. He got anointed with oil from the horn from Samuel.

What other kinds of people? Does anybody remember? Prophets and priests. Priests, prophets, and kings in the Old Testament were the three major roles that were anointed by oil. As people have read through Jesus’ life in the gospels, they’ve said, “Wow, look at how well Jesus fulfills the role of a prophet. Look at how well he is like a king. He’s the true King. Look at how he’s the great High Priest.”

They’ve always looked at Jesus’ life and they’ve been able to see how Jesus has done the things a prophet would do, how he’s done the things a king would do, and he’s done the things a priest would do. If we’re called to be like Jesus, connected to his heart in all the nations, we too should have aspects of our life that are kind of prophetly, kind of priestly, and kind of kingly.

So what does that mean practically? Prophets in the Old Testament were an advocate for God before the people. The prophets in the Old Testament were the ones who were going out and they were proclaiming the Word of the Lord. They were performing miracles. They were announcing truth. They were able to see when systems were really broken down.

Think about that speech we just saw with Dr. King. He was bringing this prophetic voice, calling out the fact that the way things are right now between ethnicities in America is not okay. That’s a very prophetic thing to do. Out in the public role. Part of Jesus’ ministry, part of the way he connected with mission was by performing that aspect of the prophet’s life.

But he’s also like a priest. What does a priest do? A priest is an advocate for the people. He helps connect the people to God. Remember in the Old Testament, the priest was the one who would help with the sacrificial system and help them sort out their sin issues and forgiveness and reconciliation in the temple. We read in the book of Hebrews how Jesus is also the great High Priest. He’s the One constantly interceding to God on our behalf.

And then the king. What does a king do? The king creates structures. He creates environments. He creates systems in which people can thrive, where they can be really successful. He helps order the life of the people around the law of God. If we’re going to be like Jesus, we need to ask the question of ourselves…Where’s the prophetic aspect of my life? Where am I engaging publically among the broken, among the lost? How am I seeing where society is breaking down? Where’s God calling me in to proclaim truth prophetically?

But not just that. Where am I engaged in the priestly way? Where am I interceding, praying for people who are lost? Where am I helping them be reconciled? And that kingly piece. How am I helping to organize my family around the law of God and the community I’m a part of? How am I connected with that? Where am I seeing the strategic connections?

We don’t have time to go really deeply into those three areas, but maybe some of us have just, if you’re thinking about your own life… “Wow, I am way more connected to the priestly part. I pray all the time, but I’m never out talking to people.” Or maybe you’re just always, “I’m out. I’m always doing stuff, but it’s not really very structured. It’s not well stewarded like a king.” Or maybe some of you guys have your life all lined up, but you’re never really praying, you’re never really talking.

If we’re going to be like Jesus, we need to think about our lives, not just as individuals, but as families, and also as whole communities. Think about our lives in terms of all of those areas…like the prophet, like the priest, and like the king. I think we’ll revisit that again because it’s really important. It’s really helpful for me too as I’m thinking about my own life and our family’s life and leadership and everything else. How are we like Jesus as the prophet, as the priest, and as the king?

So this is what we’re going to do to finish, and it’ll be something a little bit different than we normally would do. We’ve talked about God’s heart for salvation in all nations, and some folks have really done a lot of research to identify the people groups around the world that don’t have much influence of the gospel, who haven’t really heard much about Jesus. People aren’t sitting there talking to them or living among them or helping, praying, serving so that salvation would come to these places.

The words they use, technically, are these are unreached and unengaged people groups. Unreached means there’s less than two percent believers in this group of people, and unengaged means there’s nobody really working among them to see the kingdom come intentionally. As of 2012, they had counted 193 of these people groups that were more than a hundred thousand people in number and who were Muslim. The Muslim communities of the world make up the vast majority of the unreached and unengaged people groups of the world.

Furthermore, when we talk about nations (I probably should’ve said this at the beginning), in the Greek, the word for nations, ethnos, is what gives us our word ethnicities. When we’re talking about nations, we’re not just talking about Peru as a country or Afghanistan as a country or France as a country. When the Bible is talking about nations and seeing the kingdom come to all nations, it’s actually talking about the people groups, the ethnicities, within any given country.

So when we saw Dr. King’s speech here, he was actually engaging with the nations. Even though everything was happening within the United States as sort of a geopolitical country, he was dealing with the reconciliation primarily between African Americans and Caucasians. These were two different nations, two different ethnos, people groups within the same big country. He was here trying to bring these two closer together. We could say that in the last 50 years so much of that has happened.

On the back of your note sheet, every one of you has a different people group profile. As our closing time here, I want you to flip that over and you can see where this group of people is, how many of them there are, what the name of this people group is, and then a little bit of history or stories about them.

Here’s what I want you to do. If you’re here with your family, I want you to get together with your family, and if there are three or four in your family, well then you probably won’t be able to pray for everybody, all the different people groups you have, but maybe you could take it home. But just get together in groups of two or three or four or five and pray that God’s whole salvation will crash into the lives of this people group in this part of the world.

This is a great way to make sure you don’t have a Nazareth heart and you have a God heart, if that makes sense. Again, these statistics are not perfect statistics. I remember we were in China a couple of years ago. We’re sitting with this Chinese guy and he was telling us about how he was working in this one group of people and he had a whole bunch of believers, and we were like, “Wow, that’s amazing, because according to our research there was nobody working here, and now you have a whole bunch of believers. That’s wonderful. Praise the Lord. We can go back and cross it off.”

I actually got these sheets from an organization that was trying to figure out how many different folks around the world were working with these different peoples, so don’t worry about the part at the bottom, your profile, or whatever it is. Just read the top section there about your people group and then start praying. Go ahead and move right now or turn if you need to turn or just lean into the person next to you, but I just want you to pray.

Do you know what you could do? Just pray the Scripture from Luke 4. “God, would you bring good news to the poor in this place, in this people group? Would you proclaim liberty to these captives? Would you give your favor?” Just pray through that Luke 4 promise. This is what Jesus does.

Amy has a couple of extra gold sheets if you need a people group there. We’re just going to spend a couple of minutes praying for the nations. This is significant. God hears this stuff. It matters to him. Or if there’s a particular country God has laid on your heart, you can pray for that too. It doesn’t have to be one of these, but these are some of the people groups in the places in the world that have what we would consider to be the greatest gospel need. Then we’re going to worship together and we’re going to eat pizza. That’s our plan. But go ahead and pray.