One of my favorite texts in the New Testament is found in Luke chapter 4. The chapter begins, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry." Each time he was tempted by the devil he responded with scripture and boldly stood in obedience to his Father. Following the time of temptation in the wilderness we read that "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him."
He went to his hometown of Nazareth where on a Sabbath day he went into the synagogue and was asked to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He read the following Messianic prophecy:
When he finished reading he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down to deliver the morning sermon. The text says, "The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'." This is a clear claim that he was in fact the promised Messiah! The response of the people in his hometown synagogue is surprising to me. Initially they all spoke well of him until he made a clear point in his sermon that God's loving redemptive reach extended beyond the Jewish people to intentionally touch the Gentile people around them. At that point they became enraged and had intentions to kill him.
The remainder of Luke 4 and on into Luke 5 give us keen insight into Jesus' heart for how the message of the Gospel is to be shared with the people who need most to hear it. He went from place to place powerfully teaching the people and lovingly ministering to their needs. This sense of declaring and demonstrating the Gospel was central to the ministry of Jesus and should be central to our ministry as well.
Unfortunately, the fundamentalist/liberal controversy several generations ago left us with a divide that has hampered the message of the Gospel around the world. The fundamentalist/evangelical camp focused on the proclamation of the "true Gospel" while the liberal camp focused on what was called the "social Gospel" of caring for the poor and needy. The result was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not communicated in its fullness by either camp.
The reality is that the good news of the Gospel must be both declared and demonstrated to most effectively touch the lives of lost people. We can't preach the redeeming message of the work of Christ and not show his loving compassion to the hurting and broken without missing a key part of the heart of the Lord. In the same way if we simply care for the needs of the hurting and broken without talking to them about the redeeming work of the Savior we rob them of the eternal hope that is the foundation of why we care for them in first place.
This is why we in ReachGlobal Africa are committed to sharing the good news of the Gospel in its fullness as we both proclaim and demonstrate it to a hurting and broken world. One of our 10 Year Goals for ministry in Africa is to see a complete integration of the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel message through the teaching and ministry of our staff and partners. I believe with all my heart when we see this taking place all across the continent we will see the genuine Gospel transformation that we are longing to see and Jesus will receive maximum glory as individuals and communities are forever changed.
He went to his hometown of Nazareth where on a Sabbath day he went into the synagogue and was asked to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He read the following Messianic prophecy:
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,
to proclaim the year of the Lords favor.
When he finished reading he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down to deliver the morning sermon. The text says, "The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'." This is a clear claim that he was in fact the promised Messiah! The response of the people in his hometown synagogue is surprising to me. Initially they all spoke well of him until he made a clear point in his sermon that God's loving redemptive reach extended beyond the Jewish people to intentionally touch the Gentile people around them. At that point they became enraged and had intentions to kill him.
The remainder of Luke 4 and on into Luke 5 give us keen insight into Jesus' heart for how the message of the Gospel is to be shared with the people who need most to hear it. He went from place to place powerfully teaching the people and lovingly ministering to their needs. This sense of declaring and demonstrating the Gospel was central to the ministry of Jesus and should be central to our ministry as well.
Unfortunately, the fundamentalist/liberal controversy several generations ago left us with a divide that has hampered the message of the Gospel around the world. The fundamentalist/evangelical camp focused on the proclamation of the "true Gospel" while the liberal camp focused on what was called the "social Gospel" of caring for the poor and needy. The result was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not communicated in its fullness by either camp.
The reality is that the good news of the Gospel must be both declared and demonstrated to most effectively touch the lives of lost people. We can't preach the redeeming message of the work of Christ and not show his loving compassion to the hurting and broken without missing a key part of the heart of the Lord. In the same way if we simply care for the needs of the hurting and broken without talking to them about the redeeming work of the Savior we rob them of the eternal hope that is the foundation of why we care for them in first place.
This is why we in ReachGlobal Africa are committed to sharing the good news of the Gospel in its fullness as we both proclaim and demonstrate it to a hurting and broken world. One of our 10 Year Goals for ministry in Africa is to see a complete integration of the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel message through the teaching and ministry of our staff and partners. I believe with all my heart when we see this taking place all across the continent we will see the genuine Gospel transformation that we are longing to see and Jesus will receive maximum glory as individuals and communities are forever changed.
2 comments:
I agree, Kevin, that the fact that Jesus was announcing that his Messiahship was for the Gentiles too, is an often-missed part of Luke 4. I don't know if you ever saw my advent meditation that concentrated on this same text and its parallel in Isaiah, but if not you may want to take a look.
Thanks for connecting me with the link to your advent meditation. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I'd love to set up a Skype call again to get caught up.
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