Christ The King Ministry International.org

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Have you ever seen a person with self-confidence? They almost seem cocky don’t they?

One such person was Queen Victoria when the British fleet sailed into battle in the first year or two of the 20^th Century. At one point when people were asking her about the fleet’s probability of success she replied, ‘The possibility of failure doesn’t exist.”

That’s confidence.

Today we’re going to talk about a way to almost guarantee our success as witnesses for the Lord and we find it in Luke 4.14-21.

Before we start out today, I want to remind everyone that the Lord is full of surprises and He frequently doesn’t do things the way we want Him to.

Not only that, frequently, when He wants to teach us something, He will lead us to a place where it’s pretty uncomfortable.

Before his ministry, John spent a while out in the wilderness. Before he began his apostolic ministry, Paul spent some time in the desert. And of course, in our passage today, Jesus has just returned from 40 days of fasting in the Wilderness.

So the Lord’s time of teaching and training is sometimes not always comfortable. Now, we may not like it, but when this happens, we can rest assured that the Lord is allowing it for our good and we ought to trust Him with what He is trying to do.

The Passage

¹⁴ Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. ¹⁵ And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Let’s remember here that Jesus has just returned from His 40 days in the wilderness. He spent time out there, just the Father and Him. Then the enemy tried to test Him and of course Jesus passed the test.

Yet let’s not forget that this section represents another part of the things that Jesus went through to accomplish deliverance and redemption for us.

So let’s look at the results. Jesus is full of the power of the Holy Spirit. We’re tempted to say, ‘Well, He’s God, of course He’s full of the Holy Spirit.’

Yet that’s not what we’re supposed to get from this. Yes, Jesus was a man, but He was a perfect Man.

The point here is that He’s showing us that if we want to be full of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s power, we need to engage in those spiritual disciplines.

Jesus no doubt spent lots of time in prayer to the Heavenly Father out there while He was fasting.

No, none of us are going to be called to the same level of ministry that Jesus did, but there’s a lesson here in that principle of surrender to the Lord’s authority, dying to self and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

To do that, we have to commit ourselves to the devotion, the lifestyle, and the depth that Jesus wants to give us.

Next Section

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

¹⁶ 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.

The Lord is again modeling the life of a follower of the Lord. In the town where He had been brought up, He went to the synagogue.

The text tells us it was His custom to do that. The Greek word is eiothos meaning custom or habit, but it also has a bit of the, ‘Because it was His desire to do so’ in it.

So what this means is that He deliberately made going to the synagogue a custom or habit. He desired to do it so He made it a part of His life. And this is the example He gives  us.

The text also tells us He stood up to read. This means that Jesus is modeling participation in worship for us.

For us, this means that we need to make worship a part of our lives. I realise that we have a highly devoted group of people here, but I don’t think anyone should mind being reminded.

Next Again

¹⁷ 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:
¹⁸ “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,

He says the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him. This means that He’s full of the Holy Spirit. This teaches us that the Holy Spirit wants to fill us up. He wants to abundantly give us the fullness of all that the Lord has to give us. We can be full of the Holy Spirit.

Remember that Paul tells us that we’re to desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He tells the Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians and the Thessalonians that they should want to be filled. That doesn’t mean we look at those other letters and say, ‘Well, it can’t be too important because Paul didn’t tell the people in all of the churches to be filled.’

Since the Scriptures are for our teaching and instruction, it’s safe to say that we’re supposed to want to be filled.

Don’t get scared by that because it doesn’t mean you’re going to be weird.

It means you’re going to have the power and strength to be a wonderful witness for Christ.

Because He has anointed Me

Jesus tells us Who has done this anointing. It’s Him. So the source of this love, power, and strength is God.

What has He done? He’s anointed Jesus.

What is the anointing? The Greek word is echrisen. That word means to touch, to anoint. It’s a consecration of one with the power necessary to do the task the Lord has called upon you to do. It’s the giving and conveying of the presence and the fullness of God’s power, strength, will and ability to live and be a skilled and powerful servant of the Lord.

Again, the word contains the meaning of a touch. The Lord wants to touch each of our lives and impart to us the power and strength necessary for effective, powerful, strong and enduring ministry service.

So what was Jesus anointed to do?

To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”^[k]

Let’s remember something. The Lord has superintended that His Word be preserved and that, as Paul teaches us, to be suitable for teaching and instruction. So the Word of God can speak on more than one level because it’s powerful enough to be dealing with all of us at the same time.

The passage speaks on at least three levels. First, it’s prophetic because the passage tells us that Jesus read from the book of Isaiah. This passage, as Jesus tells them, was a Messianic prophecy.

The Lord can and does use this passage to call someone to serve Him or to confirm a calling, or both.

How does that work? Well, you pray to the Lord and ask Him about something. Or, maybe He’ll speak to you in the many ways that Scripture tells us He can speak to us. We’ll get the deeply powerful sense that He’s leading or calling us to do something.

Then in our programmed readings, or through someone else who will suddenly feel the leading to share a passage with us, He will use a passage to confirm that sense we’ve been getting.

If you look at the words of this passage, it’s pretty comprehensive in the mission Jesus is to carry out.

Yet, these things can also speak to us about a certain aspect of ministry. It can speak to the issue of preaching, witnessing or evangelism. It can speak to us about having a prayer or intercessory ministry. It can speak to medical missions or counseling, working with the homeless or social justice.

The possibilities of what we may be called to do are limitless because our God is an eternal, powerful and everlasting God.

Conclusion

Don’t get freaked out by any of this. Some of the church’s great lions have felt the call of God through this passage or some others.

Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Dwight Moody, and Spurgeon all had that inner stirring that turned out to be a call to ministry. Later, that ministry was confirmed through reading the Word of God and the Holy Spirit speaking to them through the Word.

This church has been born out of such a sense of calling.

So, remember, the call comes with the power.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Have you ever toured a factory or some facility where something is made?

On the course of the tour, you will be shown what the raw material looks like. Then the tour guide will show you the process by which the raw materials are transformed into that new product.

I think the last tour I took of a facility like that was the Orion Brewery in Okinawa.

The tour guide was extremely meticulous to describe the detailed process by which the beer is made. You could tell she took great pride in how the process attends to even the minutia of the process.

She was certain that that factory produced the greatest brewed product in the world.

Folks, that’s how Jesus is with His process of making new life out of our old. If we get out of the way, Jesus will do the greatest work in making something new of us too.

The Passage and the Process

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

That’s interesting. This is sort of like John the Apostle is telling us, ‘Three days later…”

There’s possibly not much to this reference to three days, but it is interesting that three days after Jesus actually calls His first disciples, there’s a wedding feast.

Get called to serve the Lord, commit to follow Him, and you know that you too will be invited to that great, grand and glorious wedding feast in the Kingdom!

Three Things

In these next few verses, there are at least three things that should leap off the page at us.

The first of these is found in verse three:

³ And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Why is it significant that Mary is the one who tells Jesus that they’ve run out of wine?

Mary is Jesus’ earthly mother. She knows who He is and she believes that He has the power to do something about their situation.

She is coming to Jesus knowing that He is the One who can do something about their predicament. However, she’s also the one who recognizes the problem.

Why is this important? Mary was in fellowship with Jesus. She was the one who knew Him best of those at the party, but she saw that the people had run out of wine.

Now, we know that the wine in the Bible means that new life, a life in Christ. The ones who are in fellowship with the Lord are the ones who recognize the problem and go to the Lord about it.

But you see, we also have the scenario that Jesus is with them when they run out.

Folks, we all will feel like we’re out of that new wine, that new life. On occasion, we all feel like we’ve run dry.

Never fear, Jesus is right here with us. In fact, He may allow us to sense what it feels like to run out of wine. He may let us go through a time when life seems dry.

Remember though, He’s right here. He’s with us and like Mary, we can ask for the refill.

So let’s keep going to the Lord’s table and getting that refill.

The second point is that sometimes, Jesus will continue the test to see if our attitude and heart is right.

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

Jesus gives this enigmatic answer. He says that His wra or hora is not yet come. Jesus is alluding here to the fact that the hour for Him to bring deliverance is not yet. He’s in the world, but His time for death has not come.

However, it could also be that He’s checking to see if we really want to be filled by Him; do we want the new life? Do we want it badly enough to obey Him and do as He asks?

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

This is the third point: Whatever Jesus says do, do it. Listen to Him; hear the word He speaks into your heart. Listen to His instructions and you will be filled!

In her profound faith in who He is, she tells them to do whatever He says. She knows what He can do and she’s also telling us she looking to Him for that ‘New Wine.’

New Wine

Here are the results of those three points:

⁶ Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of

purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.

Why is it important that the waterpots are stone?

Because… Before the Holy Spirit comes in and begins the renewing of our lives, our hearts and minds are like stone. We’re hardened to the things of God.

We’re unreceptive to the new things He wants to teach us.

Until the Lord has actually begun that new work in our lives, we’re just like the empty waterpots. We’re cold stone, hard and empty.

Then Jesus puts His living water in us, washing us clean. He works with us and speaks a word over our lives. Then, that living water becomes new wine.

And in the same way that new wine expands and stretches and grows, we’re supposed to be like a new wineskin. We’re to be expandable, stretchable and willing to grow.

We need to be stretched.

Sometimes, we have parts of our lives that stay pretty hard. Sometimes, it takes a while for the living water to do its initial work of washing out the old so the new wine can become evident.

Then there’s the line, ‘according to the manner of purification of the Jews.’

The waterpots are sitting there, cold, hard and empty because by the time Jesus enters the physical picture, the Jew’s rituals had become cold, hard, and empty, void of any ability to do any great work in the lives of the people.

That’s why is was so fabulous that John the Baptist entered the scene as

we discussed last week. John stirred up the scene and was so revolutionary in his approach to preaching and teaching that people were draw to the new sense of life that he could give them.

Folks, that’s how people are drawn to the Lord.

We need to be those new wineskins. We need to be filled with the new wine that is a product of the life Christ has given to us. We need to be energetic reflections of the work of Christ in our lives.

And when the work of Christ becomes evident in us, people will be drawn to who we have—Jesus!

⁷ Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

When Jesus fills us up, we’re going to filled to the brim—so much so that the living water has to spill over and it has to come out!

⁸ And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. ¹⁰ And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

The world is meant to draw out that new life in us. We’re pressed from all sides and it’s intended that we see the world’s situation and that the situation should draw us to the place that we share the new wine with the world.

¹¹ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

And folks, with that new wine, it should be just the beginning.

Conclusion

In closing, we need to be filled with Jesus’ living water that becomes new wine.

Our winekins should be filled to bursting, and the new life should spread, like and expanding wineskin.

Every week, we have the opportunity to come to church, to be filled with the Word and Sacrament, so we can go out into the world and let our expanding wineskin spill over with the Lord’s new life being shared with others.

Let’s pray.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

It was in the film Forest Gump that Forest quotes his mother as saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Many of us are like that. We go through life not knowing who or what we’re getting. We wonder; we wait. We hope; we dream. We pray, plead and petition. We ask God about our future, hoping that something good will happen at some point.

So, there’s a bit of uncertainty in life.

If you think about it, and stretch the details a bit, this is kind of what’s happening in our Gospel passage. The people were wondering what they were getting. Yet, instead of this being an entirely unknown quantity, those in the know knew that a Messiah had been prophesied.

From that standpoint, even though there was an element of the unknown, the people were wondering if John was the coming Messiah.

The passage today as we read is Luke 3.15-16 and 21-22.

The Passage and More

¹⁵ Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, ¹⁶ John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The people were expecting something. They were hoping; they were wishing.

Paul tells us in Romans 5.5, “ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Do we see the qualifier Paul puts on this positive statement about hope/expectation. He says that the ‘love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.’

So this hope isn’t wishful thinking. It’s Christ-centred hope fueled by God’s Spirit who has been given to us.

Now if the people were waiting expectantly in the Lord, their hope and their sense of expectation would be met.

The verse also tells us that they were reasoning in their hearts about John.

The Greek word for that reasoning in their hearts is an interesting one. The Greek word is dialogidzomen which should sound familiar, because it’s the word from which we get the word, dialogue.

This means that the people are carrying on a dialogue with themselves. They’re actually chatting with themselves and reasoning in their minds about what’s happening.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever in a sense carried on a dialogue with yourself? That’s OK; it’s only when you start arguing with yourself, and then losing the argument that you might be in trouble.

So John was a hot topic of discussion in ancient Judea. The people are going, ‘Who is this guy?’ And, ‘Is he the Messiah?’

John’s well-formed identity is a tremendous blessing and asset here. As I’ve said before, he could’ve gotten the big-head and gotten way too proud of himself. He could have started soaking up all of that attention and drinking in all of the popular acclaim.

That’s what kills so many of our celebrities and pro athletes. They get famous; they get popular. They draw crowds and then a loyal following; then they start reading all of the press about themselves and forget who they are.

John could have done that but he didn’t. Instead, he was obedient to the Lord who had called him. He pointed the people to Jesus, which was His most pressing purpose.

He said, ‘No, I’m not the Messiah. I’m just a messenger. But after me there is One who is coming who will baptize you with the “Holy Spirit and fire.”‘

It Gets Interesting

²¹ When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. ²² And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

Jesus shows up. All of the people who were in that mob were baptized. They had turned their lives over to the Lord’s control, or so we hope.

Here’s a sequence issue again.

Jesus shows up, the One for whom they’ve been waiting, when they had been baptized and confessed their need to turn their lives back to the Lord.

I think we should be able to see the relationship here. If we want the Lord to show up in our lives, we need to turn our lives over to Him. We need to seek Him. We need to have that God-formed, Christ-centred hope and look to Jesus. It is then that He comes.

That makes sense doesn’t it? Jesus comes to us when we’ve humbled ourselves and turned ourselves over to His control.

Now Jesus is baptized. I’ve gone over this many times. He was baptized as a sign of the fact that He was beginning His earthly ministry. What we need to see this time is that the Greek word for it is, baptisthentos.

This ordinarily wouldn’t be much of an issue except that the form used is a passive, participle and it’s in a form that doesn’t indicate if the act was completed or not. This means that Jesus’ baptism is to be understood as a continually renewing action.

This means that Jesus was wholly dedicated to His commitment, but He was to continually renew His commitment. Jesus was wholly and completely dedicated to His mission, but He was in a state of continual renewal of His commitment to this mission.

We can take a lesson from this. When we come to Christ, it’s not a one time thing where we say, ‘Well that’s done.” We’re called upon to continually renew our walk with the Lord and to keep it fresh every day.

We daily consecrate and set apart ourselves for the work to which the Lord is calling us. Just as the mercies of the Lord are new every morning, we continually renew our life with Jesus every day because it’s a living, ongoing relationship that is fresh, new and alive every day. And in this same way, we need to make sure we’re consecrated to the Lord every day.

Let’s take a look at what happened when Jesus prayed.

When Jesus prayed, “the heaven was opened.”

Yes, I know that this is Jesus and the Father in heaven is making a huge point here. The Father is telling us that He’s pleased with His Son.

Folks, this is cool. When we pray, we should expect an answer, but we can also know that if we’re in the lifestyle of continually renewing our walk with Him, the Lord will say, ‘in you I am well pleased.’

Conclusion

Folks, I think we need to be aware of the fact that the Lord smiles on us and about us. When we follow Him in obedience, He is well pleased with us too. We need to know that we have the Lord’s favour.

The Lord is not angry with us. He’s not mad. If we’re hungering for more of Him, then He’s smiling on us saying, “I am so pleased with My child.”

Let’s pray.

By Rev. Michael Carl

I know that the famous Andy Williams song, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year begins with Halloween and pretty well ends with New Year’s Day, but we’re still in the most wonderful time of the year!

For one thing, did you know that the Christmas season actually ended the day before yesterday?

Wednesday was the celebration of the Epiphany, the moment when the magi from the east actually found Jesus. Wednesday was also the Eastern Church’s Christmas Day.

Epiphany is situation at about the 12^th Day of Christmas, one of the reasons for the lengthy song, the Twelve Days of Christmas.

This Sunday is the Festival of the Baptism of Christ.

Why would Jesus have to be baptized? Baptism is a visible sign of conversion or of the regeneration of a person by the Spirit of the Lord.

So why would someone with no sin have to be baptized?

In Jesus’ case, it was the outward act to show His obedience to His Father’s will. He was baptized to show us His fidelity to the plan and to give us an example.

In a few weeks we enter the wonderful season of Lent, which leads us up to Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Resurrection Day.

And fifty days later is Pentecost.

So what’s the point of all of this? It’s a time to marvel at all that God has done for us. It’s a time to celebrate our redemption in Christ and to rejoice at His mercy and grace.

Just look at what Jesus did for us. Not only was in born in a stable and later died on the cross. To begin His public ministry, He was baptized and then fasted for forty days. To gain the full spiritual power necessary to do the human side of His earthly ministry, Jesus fasted for forty days.

What an amazing sacrifice for us. What an amazing act of self-denial so that He could faithfully complete His mission. Jesus didn’t want to falter in His precious life-saving mission. Jesus didn’t want to miss a beat. So, He willingly wandered in the desert and fasted for forty days. He did it so He could be perfect in His mission on our behalf.

So, why not revel in the depth of meaning of this time of year? Why not celebrate our redemption?

That’s the point. So, Merry Christmas, Happy Epiphany and Happy Jesus’ Baptism Sunday everyone!