The sermon, delivered by Peter Allison, titled 'The Anointed Preacher,' focuses on Jesus Christ's ministry as depicted in Luke 4. It emphasizes Jesus' return to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit, and His role as an anointed preacher. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is described as teaching with authority, healing the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to captives, and giving sight to the blind. The sermon highlights the necessity of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' ministry, noting His reliance on the Spirit for guidance and empowerment. It draws parallels between Jesus' life and our need for the Holy Spirit in understanding and applying God's Word. The speaker encourages believers to engage deeply with Scripture through hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on it. The sermon also discusses the concept of being 'poor in spirit' and the radical message of the gospel, which offers freedom from sin without the prerequisite of forsaking sin. It concludes with a prayer for the Holy Spirit's empowerment in believers' lives, urging them to proclaim the gospel boldly.

Our scripture reading is in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4. I'd like to begin at verse 14. Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of him went out through all the surrounding regions, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. May the hands that have made us and fashioned us grant us understanding that we may learn His Word and commandments. Almighty Heavenly Father, We ask now that your word might be proclaimed in the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask that you might be glorified and exalted in our midst. We ask that your grace and the riches and the wonder of it might be proclaimed to us. And that through a vessel of clay, I ask that you would sanctify this mouth and this body to do what is beyond any human ability to do. Through Jesus Christ we ask. Amen.

First we ask, amen. Jesus has returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. Have you noticed in the text that we read last week and in this text here today, the prominence of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus Christ. Have you noticed that? If you go back to the previous chapter at his baptism, Luke 3, verse 22 says the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Christ, upon Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is coming down in the form of a dove. It wasn't a dove that sat on Jesus. It was the Holy Spirit who came down and rested on Jesus, descended in bodily form. The bodily form was like a dove. This is the Holy Spirit that is coming and resting upon Jesus.

This is the anointing of the Holy Spirit for his work as the Messiah. But then he was conceived, remember, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the beginning of this chapter, as we saw last week, Jesus is being filled with the Holy Spirit, returns from the Jordan, and is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus is filled with the Spirit because the Spirit anointed him, descended upon him, and the voice of God spoke from heaven that said, you this is my beloved son. Jesus was filled with the Spirit and then He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.

He was guided and directed by the Holy Spirit through his temptation. It was the Holy Spirit that brought to his mind the word of God that he used to refute and to turn Satan's attacks away. And then here in verse 14, we read again that he is led by the Spirit in the Galilee. Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, is filled with the Holy Spirit. He is led by the Holy Spirit.

His mind is filled with the Holy Spirit and directed by the Holy Spirit. Where he goes is directed by the Holy Spirit. What he says are words that are brought by the Holy Spirit. There's probably between verse 13 and 14, there's probably been as much as a year and a half that has gone by. If we look over in John, In John chapter 2, we read about the seventh day of John's opening account.

He gives a day by day or sequential account there. Jesus on the seventh day goes to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And then John says that from there he went to Capernaum. And from there John says that he went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And that's the first instance where he cleansed the temple and drove out the money changers.

And then in John 3, we have the record of Nicodemus' visit, this Pharisee coming to Jesus by night. And then a little later after meeting with Nicodemus, Jesus goes into Judea and the surrounding country. And then in chapter 4, Jesus goes into Samaria where he meets the Samaritan woman at the well and he stayed there a few days, remember? And many people believed they asked him to stay and from there he goes back into Galilee where John tells us in John 444 that Jesus testified that no prophet has honor in his hometown. So if we put these two accounts together, there's probably been a year and a half or so that's a year to year and a half that's gone by.

A Passover has been celebrated, Jesus has been all the way down through Judea, Samaria, and back to Galilee. And Jesus is doing this by the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke records that in chapter 10 that Jesus praises the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews says that Jesus offered Himself by the Spirit. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God?

And Romans tells us that he was raised by the Spirit. Peter says the same thing. Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead. This is the ministry of the third person of the Godhead upon the second person of the Godhead by the will of the first person of the Godhead. Jesus is God, And yet in His incarnation these divine attributes are veiled.

They're veiled, they're hidden. And Jesus lives in this time on earth, not in those divine attributes, but he lives in the flesh and he lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now if the second person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, needs the Holy Spirit, needs the power of the Holy Spirit in him to lead him to direct his thinking, to bring to his mind the knowledge of the scriptures, If Jesus needs the Holy Spirit, how much more don't we need the Holy Spirit? Arguing, as you say, from the greater to the lesser. How much more do we not need the Holy Spirit?

Such that we can do nothing. We can do nothing without the power of the Spirit. Without me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. So just so notice then, see and learn from Jesus' life here the necessity of the Holy Spirit in our life if We are to do anything at all. Do anything at all.

Jesus being filled with the Spirit does the work of a Spirit-filled teacher. He being filled with the Spirit begins to pour forth and to teach the Word of God. He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all. Jesus is because he is filled with the Spirit, has the Word of God pouring forth from him and he is teaching. He is teaching in the synagogue.

There is a zeal in him. There is a fire in his bones. And he being filled with the word is teaching with authority and power He's not teaching like the scribes and the people see this difference It's a difference That we see today Preaching that is in the power of the Spirit is alive. It's powerful. It brings change.

It brings transformation. It brings people and cultures and communities and countries out of darkness into light. It requires an understanding of the Word of God, an intimate knowledge of the Word of God. Jesus is continually citing the scriptures. Continually citing the scriptures.

He cites the scriptures here. Remember, He cited the scriptures to Satan in the wilderness. He cites the scriptures a little bit later, citing the time of Elisha and Elijah and how their miracles were done to foreigners. In chapter 6 he cites the example of David eating the showbread. In Luke 7 22 he cites Isaiah 35, 3, and 4 and Isaiah 61, 1, and 2, to describe himself to John the Baptist.

In Luke 27, 27, he quotes Malachi 3, 1. In Luke 8, 10, he quotes Isaiah 6, 9, and 10, Isaiah 6, 9, and 10, and so on. Jesus is filled with the Word of God. He had the people's attention. Their eyes were fixed on him.

He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Verse 20, all the eyes were fixed upon him as he sat down and they marveled they marveled at the gracious words that flowed from his mouth and these words of grace are to be wondered at because Christ's name is wonderful And in nothing is he more wonderful than in his grace, and in the words of grace, and in the power that went along with those words, those gracious words. Jesus was one who was filled with the Word of God. He's filled with the Word of God because he was filled with the Spirit. We become filled with the Word of God as we hear the Word of God, as we hear the Word of God, as we listen to it, as we listen to it being preached, as we listen to it being read, as we read the word of God.

Hearing it, reading it, as we study the Word of God, like the Bereans. They heard the Word that Paul preached, they read the Word, but they searched the Word, they studied the Word. And that's a different activity than reading the Word or hearing the Word, to study the Word, to search the Scriptures, to set things in order, to begin to write notes out about the Word of God to ourselves. That's studying the Word of God. But also to memorize the Word of God.

The Bible says, Thy word have I hid in my heart. Hiding the Word of God in our heart is memorizing the Word and meditating on the Word, to think about it, to ponder it, to reflect on it, to chew on it. How do you eat chocolate? Do you crunch it down? Do you take a bite and crunch it down and swallow it quickly?

Or do you let it dissolve in your mouth slowly so you can savor the flavor? I don't know, maybe when I don't know, maybe when I was young I used to chew it, but now I let it melt and savor it. That's meditating. Meditating on the Word of God. Letting it dwell in our mind and letting our mind think about it.

The Lord brings His truth to us through that word as we meditate upon it. We need to be doing all of these things. We need to be doing all of these things. Hearing the word of God, reading the word of God, studying the word of God, memorizing the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God. So that we can then apply the Word of God.

And this is the fruit of this that we see in Jesus. The Word of God pours forth from his lips graciously, powerfully, transformatively, life-changing transformations. Jesus said that he would send the Spirit and that we would do greater works than he did. We would do greater works than he did because the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Holy Spirit working through His Word. Notice also the pattern of this one whose life is filled with the Spirit.

The pattern of his life. Where is he on the Lord's Day? On the Sabbath. As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. As was his custom, Jesus was in the habit of going to the synagogue, not the temple, but the synagogue.

Our worship today here is patterned after the synagogue worship. The things of the temple are what we do in a spiritual sense, But the pattern of what we do, the mechanics of what we do, are patterned after the synagogue. And you see a very similar pattern to what we have. Jesus opens the Bible. He goes to the synagogue, which is where God's Word is preached.

And we know that from Acts where Moses is said to be preached every week throughout Israel. Moses is preached. The Word of God is proclaimed in the synagogues throughout Israel. And he is handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He's handed a copy of the Word of God.

And he opens the book and he looks for a particular passage, this passage in the book of Isaiah. We call it chapter 61. The chapters didn't exist in Jesus' day. He opened this book without chapter divisions and scrolled through to what we would call the 61st chapter. So near the back, almost at the end of this scroll.

It goes right to the place that he wanted to speak, and he reads this word of God to the people. So they hear the word. And then he closes this book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down and everybody's eyes are fixed on him because they know what is coming next. He is going to expound the Word of God. He's going to explain its meaning and apply it to those who are listening.

And so That's what he does. This is the pattern. This is the pattern of his life. Is this the pattern of your life each week going to hear the preaching of the word of God. Being led by the Spirit, He enters the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

Jesus is the anointed one. The passage that he reads from Isaiah is, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me." That word anointed is the same word as Christ. It's the verb form of Christ. Christ means anointed, the anointed one. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach.

He is anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. That is one word. Preach the gospel is one word that you might recognize. You and Galizma, Galizzo, or in this case it's a different form of it. It's that word evangelize.

We get the word evangelize from. Preach the gospel. Proclaim good news is what that word literally is. It's the work of a herald to proclaim good news. The Spirit of God is upon me because he has anointed me, the Holy Spirit member came upon Christ, he is anointed to evangelize, to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim liberty, to proclaim liberty, caruso, proclaiming something.

He's not sharing, he's not suggesting. He is declaring, he is proclaiming. Proclaim liberty to the captives to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now this is his message. And these are the people that he is preaching to.

He is to preach the gospel to the poor. He's not primarily talking there about people who don't have a lot of money. They're certainly not excluded. But he's speaking of those who are poor in spirit. Poor in spirit.

Those who know that they are spiritually bankrupt in the presence of God, that they have nothing, nothing in their hand to offer to God. That they are completely unable to meet the demands of the law of God. And they are completely unable to pay their debt. Jesus is preaching the gospel to those who are beggars, completely and utterly dependent upon God. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, Those who have nothing of their own to offer, nothing, and they know it.

They can only extend an empty hand. That's humbling, isn't it? It's humbling. When it's humbling to receive help, it's even more humbling when we can offer nothing, nothing to those who are helping us. Absolutely nothing.

I mean, if somebody does something great for you, then it's our, we want to offer something in return, some little token. The poor in spirit of those who recognize we have nothing. There is nothing that we can offer. Absolutely nothing. Not even a little bit.

Remember The Pharisee and the tax collector that went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee said, God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people. I thank you that I am not like this guy over here. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of everything, even the mint, the cumin, and the anise.

That's the opposite of poor in spirit. That's somebody who thinks he has a lot to offer the Lord. The gospel, Jesus didn't come to preach to him, to proclaim anything to him. He doesn't need any help. He's perfectly fine by himself.

But on the other hand, there was a tax collector. Now, tax collectors are generally rich people. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was wealthy. In money.

But this tax collector, this publican, I didn't say he was a tax collector, he was a publican, the sinner, he Recognized that he was unworthy. He didn't even dare to lift up his eyes Why because he was ashamed there was nothing good in him nothing He had nothing to offer, but he just cried to the Lord Lord be merciful to me a sinner That's poor in spirit. He may have had wealth, but he was poor in spirit. Jesus brings good news, Good news to those who are poor in spirit. He brings liberty to the captives.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of are, those who sin are captives. It is a Willing captivity though. Sin doesn't keep us bound against our own will. Rather, our will is bound and held captive to sinful desires.

To sinful desires. Paul said in Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, he describes these people. He's calling Timothy to preach the truth to them and perhaps God will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. Taken captive by Satan to do his will. Jesus died so that we would be liberated from the practice of sin How shall we who have died to sin still live in it?

Well, we've died to the power of reigning sin and our will is changed so that by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we will what God wills. So Jesus has come to proclaim liberty to those who are captive to sin and captive to Satan, in bondage to sin and in bondage to Satan. He's come to bring healing to those who are brokenhearted, those whose consciences are afflicted by the guilt of their sin. He's come to bring sight to those who are blind. See that the Pharisee was blind to his condition.

He was He didn't see himself. He didn't see his sinfulness. He thought that he was all right. He was completely blind to his true condition. And the gospel comes to bring sight to those who are blind, to open our eyes So that we see our true condition.

It's the power of the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus who does that. We preach to those whose eyes are blinded. They can't see. And if we did it in the flesh we would say well, that's futile they why preach to them they can't see they can't understand But the gospel is the power of God To salvation it's the power of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of those who are blind.

It's the power of Christ himself, because Christ is the gospel. It's the power of Christ to open the eyes that are blinded by sin. And Christ comes to preach to those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So In the first case, he comes to preach or proclaim to declare liberty to the captives. But here he's also going to set at liberty those who are captive, those who are in bondage, those who are oppressed.

He does by His Spirit here incline and enable us to make use of the liberty that is proclaimed to us. The Spirit of God stirs us so that we see our condition. But the Spirit of God also moves us, stirs us, so that we are able, so that we are actually set free. He's quoting here from Isaiah 58. He'd quoted from Isaiah 61, and now Luke goes back to Isaiah 58.

Is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke, to let the oppressed go free. That's what Jesus has come to do. Now I have a question for you this morning. Does one need to forsake sin in order to come to Christ? Several hundred years ago in Scotland, this was a creed that was proposed to a man who was being examined for ordination in the Presbyterian Church.

Seems like a rather simple question. We have to forsake sin in order to come to Christ. But it actually created a great division, a great dispute. One that I think sometimes is still going on today. How do you answer this question?

There are certainly dangers on either side. And we have to be clear, and we don't want to communicate falsely, but does one have to forsake sin in order to come to Christ? Well, if we had to forsake sin in order to come to Christ, then there would have to be something that we are offering, that qualifies us to be set free. And that's not the Gospel. Because we are in bondage.

We can't set ourselves free. The Gospels come to those who are poor in spirit who have nothing to offer. We can't forsake our sin in order to come to Christ. We can't make, and we shouldn't make forsaking sin to be a prerequisite to coming to Christ, because it is Christ Himself who is the power of the gospel. It is Christ that sets us free from sin.

And if we could forsake sin, then we wouldn't need Christ. We wouldn't need to come to Him. This message that Christ is proclaiming is a radical message. He has come to preach the gospel to the poor, to set, to proclaim liberty to those who are in bondage. Recovery of sight to the blind.

Said at liberty those who are oppressed. Now that is good news. If we have to forsake our sin in order to come to Christ, there's no good news in that. Because we are in bondage. We are captive.

We are under the dominion of sin. We are blind. We are dead. And Christ, in the power of the Spirit, sets us free. Come to Jesus Christ to be set free from sin, to break the power of reigning sin, to be declared righteous.

Come to Christ. The power of the gospel is Christ. And it is a power that is at work and alive today. The power of the Holy Spirit. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your power, for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We pray that you would deliver us from seeking to save ourselves, even in small ways that creep into our thinking and our theology that creep into our evangelism. Father, we long to see this power of your gospel brought to those who are blind around us, those who are destitute, those who are in bondage to Satan, who are witches practicing occult, for such, Lord, you are able to save. To those who are bound in homosexual fornication, in all manners of perversions, Lord these you have come to set free. We pray that our proclamation to them might be the true gospel. That they come to Christ in order to be set free of these sins.

Father, we ask that the power of your Holy Spirit may rest in us. That we might be led by your Spirit, that our emotions might be guided by your Spirit, informed by your Spirit, that the petitions of our prayers might be born of your Holy Spirit, forming them within us. Lord may our obedience be in the power of your Holy Spirit and not in our flesh and not in our own strength. May your Spirit, Lord, sanctify us, empower us, equip us for the work of the ministry, of serving you, of serving one another in whatever calling you have placed us. May our feet be guided by your Spirit, may our decisions be made as we are led by your Spirit.

May the Spirit fill our mouths as well, that our words to one another might be Spirit-filled words that exalt our Savior Jesus Christ, that are bold, that call the dead to life. Father, we ask all of this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.