The Father’s Mission for the Son of Man
Luke 4:14-21
November 17, 2024
On Monday, April 2, 1739, John Wesley began preaching open-air evangelistic sermons at Kingswood Bristol. That decision and event was the start of a revival in England that the country had never seen before (or since). Wesley later wrote this in his diary about that day:
At four in the afternoon I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people. The Scripture on which I spoke was this…“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
For his introductory sermon, he serendipitously chose the sermon Luke chose to introduce Jesus in his gospel. Last week we noted that throughout His ministry, people wondered who Jesus was — even the disciples didn’t comprehend the fullness of His nature (“who then is this that He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him?” 9:25). Using this sermon of Jesus, the historian Luke explains who Jesus is — explaining both who He is and the mission/ministry for which He is sent. In Luke 4:14-21 the author summarizes the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry revealing the heart of what Christ came to do —
The Son of Man is the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation.
To introduce Christ as the Son of Man, Luke points to a particular preaching experience of Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth. In this story we find His ministry in a microcosm: His preaching of the words of life, His works of authentication, and His rejection by the people He came to save. These verses and this sermon provide the broad picture of Jesus’ ministry and the specific mission for which He was sent.
Observe both the broad and narrow descriptions of Christ’s fulfillment of God’s plan…
- An Overview of the Son of Man’s Mission (vv. 14-15)
- The Son of Man’s Declaration of God’s Mission for Him (vv. 16-21)
- A Message to His People (v. 16)
- A Message from His Word (v. 17)
- A Message of Salvation (vv. 18-19)
- A Message of Fulfillment (vv. 20-21)
Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 4:14-21.
Illustration: Haghe, Louis, 1806-1885, lithographer; Roberts, David, 1796-1864, artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.
Words of Grace 