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Jan 03, 2021

A New Hope

A New Hope

Passage: Luke 4:16-30

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: All Things New

Keywords: mercy, healing, leprosy, distance, outsider, foreigner

This series will begin January 3. As a reminder we will be online-only. There will be no in-person outdoor service on January 3.

1.3.21 GMR Online Service from Grace Mills River on Vimeo.

Order of Worship

WELCOME  / C&C  / OPENING PRAYER: The Lord’s Prayer
CALL TO WORSHIP: Romans 12:1-2a & Psalm 95:1
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Isaiah 61
MESSAGE: A New Hope—Bound to Ruffle
CENTRAL TEXT: Luke 4:16-30
BENEDICTION: Revelation 21:5

Readings & Scriptures

WELCOME  / C&C  / OPENING PRAYER: The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

For Thine is the Kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever Amen.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Romans 12:1-2a & Psalm 95:1

LEADER: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

ALL: 1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  

OLD TESTAMENT READING: Isaiah 61
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 broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

CENTRAL TEXT: Luke 4:16-30

And he 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. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 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. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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?” 23 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.’” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 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, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 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.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 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. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

BENEDICTION: Revelation 21:5

Leader:     And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.                     

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

 

  • Leviticus 25:10
  • 1 Kings 17:1-24
  • 2 Kings 5:1-24
  • Isaiah 58:6
  • Isaiah 61:1-5
  • Matthew 5:12-16
  • Luke 1:51-52
  • Luke 1:77-79
  • Luke 3:21-22
  • Luke 4:31ff
  • Luke 6:20
  • Luke 7:18
  • Luke 7:47
  • John 1:11
  • John 1:45-46
  • Revelation 21:5

 

ILLUSTRATIONS:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Worst things about last year for you? Unexpectedly positive things out of last year? Greatest hope(s) for the coming year?
  2. At first they invite him to be the guest “preacher;” by the end they’re ready to murder him. Why the dramatic change do you think?
  3. The text from which Jesus quotes is one of the “servant songs” from Isaiah (remember those?). Why would those have been particularly encouraging words to those who first heard them (think exile)? Why might they have been encouraging words for those listening to Jesus in the synagogue? 
  4. How does the deliverance Jesus appears to be promising in Himself (as he quotes Isaiah) a spiritual nature to it? But how would that spiritual deliverance (transformation) naturally have very social implications for how we live? (cf. what happens to Zaccheus and what doesn’t happen in the rich, young ruler)? How are spiritual transformation and social concern inextricably bound?
  5. What does Jesus sense in those who are listening which leads him to cite those two bits of proverbial wisdom?
  6. What is his point in referencing those two historical examples of God blessing those outside the covenant community, and passing over those within it? How is that a sobering word for any who are perhaps too self assured of God’s pleasure?
  7. What’s the latest encouraging word you’ve heard from Jesus? What’s the latest “hard” word--one that demanded some reflection and perhaps also, repentance? How do you remain open to both kinds of necessary words from Him?

QUOTES:

  • There may be no way to permanently increase the total of one’s pleasure except by getting off the hedonic treadmill entirely. Philip Brickman
  • I believe–whatever one school of moralists may say—that we depend for a very great deal of our happiness or misery on circumstances outside all human control. A right to happiness doesn’t, for me, make much more sense than a right to be six feet tall, or to have a millionaire for your father, or to get good weather whenever you want to have a picnic….C.S. Lewis
  • Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. C.S. Lewis
  • Jesus does not read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the affluent middle classes who want enough religion to make them feel secure with God, but nothing too cumbersome that is going to unsettle their consumerist and hyper-individualist way of life.” . . . If the gospel is not good news to the poor in Nairobi slums, to the Maori of New Zealand, to engineering students in Norway, to Walmart employees in Nashville, to inmates in a prison in Nova Gama, then it ain’t really good news in the biblical sense. Michael Bird
  • Keep back Nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. C.S. Lewis

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: