Hey. Good morning, Crossland. Let's stand as we worship together this morning. Come on. Sing this out together.

Father God, you are good and you are holy, Lord. And we praise your name this morning. Father, we love you before because you first loved us.

I guess I'm supposed to be out here. Good morning. Welcome to Crossland Community Church. We changed things up this morning. Let me hold the communion elements. I'm so glad you're here. The TV will be out here shortly.

Today, we are actually starting a new series entitled Going Public. We're still in the Gospel of Luke. So for the next seven Sundays, we will be in Luke chapter 4 through Luke chapter 9, verse 52.

Hey, Seth. I need a new loaf. I got you.

It's a new year, we don't have our act together yet. We've been off for about eight days. It's actually quite pitiful.

So the sermon series is gonna take us through the next major section of the Gospel of Luke. So we're gonna be from chapter 4 to chapter 9, verse 52. And then after that, we'll do seven weeks from 9:53 all the way to the end of the Gospel of Luke. So for the next 14 Sundays, we will be in the Gospel of Luke.

So if you want to start a reading plan, do a reasonable reading plan instead of Bible through the year, which is fine if you do that. I don't understand why people do that. And if you wanna know why I don't understand, you could ask me privately. But I would encourage you over the next fourteen plus weeks, just read the Gospel of Luke. And since we've got like six chapters remaining over the next seven weeks, just read 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and you'll be right where I'm going to be. Okay?

And don't forget also—thanks, Seb. On the website every week, there's a weekly devotional that gets plugged in. Alright? It’ll be on there probably tomorrow by noon. Some weeks they’re there by 2:00, 3:00 on Sunday, and it is a five-day devotional that goes back over the sermon from today, and in the questions and some of the teaching that's in there, you'll see time markers that'll take you to the message back on YouTube TV. So if you wanna refresh what I said about a certain subject, you can go watch it, and then there's devotional questions for those areas that are combined within it. So you have a life group, a small group—I know we got a men's group that's doing it every week—very easy for you to follow up with what's going on here and further carry that on.

As I said, today, we're gonna start in a new section of the Gospel of Luke. We've been in the prologue, and now we're gonna watch Christ go public. What we basically been experiencing is the private workings of God in and through the life of Christ and the people of Christ that brought him onto the earth. And today in Luke's gospel, you’ll see the journey of Christ until he literally—it’s all the way down to the time that he enters Jerusalem in chapter 9.

Some Sundays, it's really hard to come up with an introduction, and the point of an introduction of any sermon is to get you on the bus. I wanna take you for a ride; I gotta get you on the bus, and you try and do that through contemporary circumstances that I can connect to ancient truths. It's what Jesus always did and that's what we try and do. And some weeks, it's really hard; and some weeks, it's really easy. So I've sent a thank you note to President Donald Trump for making my introduction this week extraordinarily easy.

Because every now and then, you go public and you go big. And when you go public and you go big, it's rare that there isn't controversy. It's rare that some people don't have an opinion. Like, most people are going to have an opinion based upon what has happened in Venezuela. People around the world are gonna have an opinion about what's happened in Venezuela. I think you could probably already pigeonhole how people in America are gonna align with what's happened in Venezuela. I think, you know, people are already pretty much predisposed to their political worldviews, and they're gonna have a really hard time seeing this in a different way, and it just—it happens. I mean, it's just what it is, and it isn't always political circumstances that go public that cause people—see, what it does more than anything is it forces you in some ways to respond. Even if it isn't publicly, you're already asking yourself some internal questions about the right and wrong of it, the timing of it, the why of it, what are we gonna benefit from it, was it wise, was it foolish, and I think that's extremely normal. That's what happens when events that were unexpected actually burst onto the scene and then you find out they've been planning it for a while. Right?

Well, wait till you see what happens when Christ goes public. When he goes public, it is full of controversy. Everyone in Luke chapter 4 is going to stake a position. They're going to share their opinion. They're going to respond in ways which is very interesting that you would never expect.

See, I think we can predict politically how it's gonna go this week. Like, it's not gonna be hard to see that Fox News is going to agree and CNN is gonna disagree. Right? I'm not telling you something you don't already know. Right? But how checked up would you be if you woke up tomorrow and Fox was totally in disagreement and CNN was totally in agreement? You're like, that never happens. Would you be surprised?

Because when Christ goes public, you'll learn that number one, there is no middle of the road. There's no not responding. So when the gospel hits people, when the presence of Christ invades people's private space, so to speak, they respond. And because that's what the power of Christ's presence and the power of God's word does, it’s either comforts you or conflicts you. It's gonna put you in a position where you have to respond because the word of God is alive and active and sharp as any two-edged sword. It's able to divide both bone and marrow. It's that capacity. It's gonna penetrate your soul, and Luke knew that.

And Luke, writing to his audience of converted people, he's not writing an evangelical gospel as much as he's writing kind of a transformational gospel for people—for the most part, not exclusively, but for the most part—have been saved, but now they're confused. And remember his intent in writing this was to make sure that Theophilus and everybody else who would hear it could live with a level of certainty based upon fulfillment. You heard Isaiah 61 today, and we'll do a lot of this throughout the series when there's direct prophetic statements that are obviously fulfilled in the life of Christ. Okay? And Luke knew that if he could show people direct fulfillment in past promises, we could live with certainty and confidence in future promises.

And when Luke is writing this, he understands that people are living in controversial times. A lot of the people he's writing to are confused why people aren't responding to Jesus the way they did. They're confused why there's still so much controversy. Why don't other people see what we saw? Why don't other people live like we live? And are we wrong? Did we believe the wrong thing? Or was he a mirage? Was he just a good man? Was he really a great teacher, but not the son of God? And so he writes because Theophilus is symbolic of pretty much every believer. There's gonna be moments when what you believed is challenged, and you and I have to be able to live with a certainty in what we believed.

And so as he goes to, again, like the last sermon series, to ask the question, did you hear what I heard? He's going to tell us a story, but he tells it for different reasons than Matthew will. And much of what he writes—and even Mark covers it; Mark's gospel starts with this scene, to be quite honest with you—Luke tells the same story for different reasons. He has his own theological purposes. So if you're reading Matthew, what I would do is dive into all the individual details. Today, it's not that. It's four scenes coupled together in one—well, we've made it a chapter—but one chapter. And the four scenes are showing us four different responses, if you will, to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the person of Christ, the presence of Christ. And part of it is to ask us, how have you responded? Part of it is to give you comfort when you see people in the world not responding the way that you did. And I think the other part of it is to make sure we're not shocked when we see the people we thought would didn’t and the people you never thought would did. Who were the first ones to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord?

So today, chapter 4 is going to say to us: when Jesus went public, what he proclaimed and how he performed caused a variety of responses. There was no neutrality. And what I would say to you today, if you're here—or good morning Glasgow, I'm on screen. Good morning Glasgow. Good morning Morgantown. God bless you. If you're online watching us, whatever it is—you will no longer be in a neutral position. You're going to respond. Okay? You absolutely will. And you're gonna respond in probably one of these four ways, and it's so crazy to see the people you never would have thought responded the way they respond respond the way they did. It's really quite powerful.

Okay? So we're gonna begin actually—because there weren't chapters and verses in the original writing—we're gonna go back a little bit in 3 because the beginning of Christ's public life starts with what many of our public lives start with. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Okay? The beginning of the public life of Jesus Christ, the transformative private-to-public life—but the catalyst of that was baptism. We obviously know that it wasn't the catalyst of salvation. How do we know that? Because he didn't need to be saved. He's already saved. But what we can see is that everything publicly changed when he came out of the water. And that's what we believe biblically happens when you come out of the water. Like, the beginning of a transformative public life for Christ starts with baptism. And once you do that, I promise you this: the world around you is going to respond to that. Some people are gonna clap and applaud; some people aren't. Okay?

So the beginning of his public ministry is his willingness to be baptized. So he's now going fully public. Remember last week we saw John was gathering crowds down at the Jordan River and he was saying to some of them, what brings you here, you brood of vipers? Okay. Now he sees Jesus coming, he's like, I'm not—I'm not baptizing you. And Jesus said, no, you gotta do it. John's like, I'm not doing it. I can't—I don't even know where you untie your sandals. But I'm not gonna tell you what it says in Matthew because that's the same story, but for different reasons.

So, [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] So there's this audible proclamation that happens at the moment of his baptism. And it obviously isn't just Jesus who hears it. So the minute he is baptized, the Spirit of the living God descends upon him, like the Spirit of God did in creation, like the Spirit of God did at the temple, like the Spirit of God does on Pentecost, like the Spirit of God does every time someone is saved—the Spirit of God descends to indwell them. He now has come on Christ to empower him, and [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Okay? So the first proclamation in public actually comes from heaven. So the first response to the public actions of Jesus, the first audience is heaven, and this is what heaven has to say about him: [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Okay?

So everybody there is hearing the proclamation of heaven about who this is, that this is the living Son of God, and God the Father is well pleased with him. Now, Jesus himself is about 30; he's gonna have about three years of ministry. So he's now going from private to public. First thirty years of his life approximately were lived in the privacy of Nazareth. When he began his public ministry, he was the son—or so it was thought—of Joseph. You see the two responses? What heaven had to say and what the earth had to say. What heaven had to say and what the earth had to say. What heaven had to say is he's the Son of the living God. What people saw in him was he's the son of Joseph.

Immediately, you see that you're forced to make a decision about who you say he is. Is he the Son of God or the son of Joseph? Is he merely human or is he—“in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form.” So once you start talking about Jesus, you gotta make a decision. Is he the Son of God or the son of Joseph? And I'll be the first to—maybe the first to tell you, maybe not—but he is not Joseph's son. He's Joseph's stepson. Joseph adopted him. He has a Father and it is not Joseph.

So they're evaluating Christ from purely a human level, and don't many people do that. Not everybody who doesn't accept Jesus is verbally abusive when they hear his name. There's a lot of people who think well of Jesus. The Islamic faith thinks well of Jesus. The Islamic faith thinks he's a prophet. The Islamic faith thinks he's a great teacher, but they will not embrace the fact that he's the Son of God. They don't believe that God would actually come in the flesh. There's many people in eastern religions who have complimented Jesus on the morality of his teachings. They almost idolized the Sermon on the Mount for its moral teachings, its social effectiveness in changing societies if you just obey to it, but they don't think he's the Son of God. There's very few people you will run into in South Central Kentucky that think that, you know, he's just a wretched, horrible, wicked human being, nothing more than a myth to be ignored. You don't run into a lot of those people. Okay?

So you see the two responses. These are the first two. What heaven has to say and what the earth has to say—what heaven has to say with the earth. But ultimately, what Luke would say: do you remember what you had to say? Remember that day you said he's the Son of God? Live with that conviction. Don't be shocked that the earth is still saying he's the son of Joseph. Listen, they can't get over the virgin birth. They still haven't gotten their head around the possibility that Mary actually conceived a child through the presence and the overcoming and overwhelming of the Holy Spirit. They're like, come on, Mary. And you know what they're doing? You know what they're believing? There's only a human means by which this guy became a human. But what did you believe?

And you can see how it is slightly evangelical, but it's more to give you conviction. Right? Most people don't argue with seeing him in a cradle. But when you put him on a cross, that becomes the issue. Were you able to get to the Son of God who died for the sins of the world? That's it. And that certainty is what carries us through a world that is going to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ one way or another.

So his identity, I love this, was declared and defined by heaven regardless of their responses on earth. And note this, he did not become the Son of God, which some people believe—that he worked his way into that position. That what makes the crucifixion so profound is what was said after his baptism. Not all the miracles, not all those other evidentiary expressions that he is the Son of God. What validates the crucifixion is what was said at his baptism, because he already was that. Before he did anything—hadn't done anything yet. You haven't heard a word out of the mouth of Christ yet. You've heard from heaven and you've heard from earth. So don't forget that. He didn't become anything. He just displayed who he always was.

So there you got heaven and earth. Now, would you like to see what hell had to say? Right? Did hell have an opinion? Well, you might be surprised because they did have an opinion. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] This verse was added—that he ate nothing and he was hungry at the end of it—that came from Captain Obvious. That was added later. Like Luke, give us a little credit, bub. I think we could figure out that he hadn't eaten for forty days; the boy's gonna be a little hungry. But it's there to show us something about vulnerability. It's there to show us something about the exposure in this world can make you and put you in vulnerable positions where what you originally believed can be challenged. That's the key to that verse, is that you will find yourself in this world and through the greatest testings comes the greatest temptations. In fact, testing and temptation in the New Testament are the exact same word. The greatest trials produce the greatest temptations. They're the same word. You just gotta understand the context of what they're being used.

So when we've got Christ, you know, going into the wilderness like Israel did, facing the devil like Adam and Eve did, this is what's going to be said. It's pretty interesting what hell has to say about Jesus. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Now, we already saw his identity was declared by God. So we know from the Garden of Eden, what does the devil always start with? Doubt, not outright denial. He does not say, you are not the Son of God. He comes back with if. If you are the Son of God. So we got hell already agreeing to the fact that he might just be that. And when's the last time you thought, well, I think hell's response to the declaration of who Christ is is great evidence for my faith. Like, don't wanna offer hell as evidence. I don't. It makes me feel creepy. What did he say to Eve? Did God really say? What's he saying to Jesus? Did God really say? I mean, really, if, if, if—

Now in Matthew's gospel, we'd be talking about this temptation slightly differently. That's not how Luke has compiled this chapter. So it is, [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Very similar to the experiences of Israel, if you will, in the desert, needing manna. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] I think that's Deuteronomy chapter 7, but 7 in Deuteronomy finishes, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. That's what we live on. We live on the word of God. We live on declared truth. We believe what God says, not the questions that the world has.

Is it possible that there's people who are walking around wondering, is he really the Son of God? Every day. I'm not saying they're demonic, but I'm saying the question being asked is really compelling evidence that somebody must have declared that previously. And the declaration of heaven is going to be challenged here on earth. It is—not only in his life, but your life. And as we try and promote the gospel and live out the gospel, you're gonna have people be like, is he really this? Okay. Yes, he actually is.

This is hell's response. And I took some of the verses out of this for expediency. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Once again, I don't wanna use the devil as evidence, but he already knows that Jesus Christ is gonna be given all the kingdoms of the earth. And his response is to ask Jesus to take a shortcut because the Father's going to do that. All the kingdoms and everything will be under his feet, but he's gotta go through the cross first. The devil's already acknowledging that this is true because he's saying, I'll give it to you. But the problem is he knew he had to pay for it.

Is it blow your mind that hell has an opinion about Jesus? Does it blow your mind that hell has a very accurate opinion about Jesus? Does it blow your mind that—shouldn't hell be outright denying who Jesus is? I mean, seriously, think about it. Shouldn't the challenge be: you're not the Son of God; if you say you are, I'll kill you. Not it. Okay. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

[COPEYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] And that will be the Garden of Gethsemane. Okay? By the way, that'll be the next time there's a direct confrontation from the devil.

So point number two: when his identity was confronted by evil, Christ just began to continue to declare the absolute truth, and that our identity in God is protected by understanding who we are in Christ. That as the conflictions of the world and the confusion of the world—and not often, but there will be times where your confession of Christ will be confronted by the world—never forget what God declared about who you are. No matter how crazy and scary and upside down it might seem, and the church seems to be losing her mind and the pastors this and the people that; it’s like, oh my God, the church isn't growing anymore. We're gonna be extinct. No, we're not. The gates of hell can't prevail. But we could take a hit, you know, and maybe your life has challenged you to such a thing where you're asking yourself, if I really am a child of God—if I really am—how do I combat that? By understanding what God says to be true about you, that your identity is not even affected by the opinion of hell about you, that you are absolutely, undeniably saved once and for all. You're a child of the living God. Therefore, there's no condemnation for you. Now, God will never leave you nor forsake you. Okay? You are absolutely safe in the hands of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's found in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38. So live with your—

Lord have mercy. Is that me? Live with your God-ordained identity. I can't believe that's me. Little guy like me making that much noise. Maybe it is me, Cam. My identity has just changed, I tell you that much.

So after Christ is in the wilderness, the next of the four scenes, he goes back to his hometown. He goes to where he's from. He goes to Nazareth. And going to Nazareth should have felt very comforting to him because he's been there pretty much thirty years minus a couple when he was in Egypt. As Matthew tells us that God led Joseph, Mary, and Jesus down to Egypt because Herod was doing everything he could to kill all the boys under the age of two in Bethlehem, Christ being one of those. So he went down to Egypt, then he comes back from Egypt, and he is raised for the next twenty-eight years or so in Nazareth.

And I don't know what you would expect from Nazareth, but when you hear what Luke heard and he returns home, I expect a parade. I mean, Jesus—the, like, the Son of God being raised in Nazareth—like the King of kings, the Lord of lords is from Nazareth. He just punched the devil in the face three times. He went into the wilderness, was tempted for forty days. He held firm and true to his identity because of the truth and the word of God. Let's have a parade. It would be like Cleveland winning the Super Bowl, which probably ain't never gonna happen. Right? And if it did happen, you think that city would have a parade? Of course they'd have a parade. They'd have a Super Bowl trophy over his head, and so Jesus comes to town—it should be a parade. That's what you would expect, but that's not what you get.

You see, isn't it opposite? Shouldn't the devil have just been cursing his name, trying to kill him in the wilderness, and do all those horrible things? And the people who knew him really, really well, who were very familiar with him, had proximity to him—shouldn't they have been the one that was embracing him? And it's the complete opposite. And there's a reason why this happens. This response can happen and is very familiar here in where we live in the South.

He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, not born—brought up. Because where was he born? Bethlehem, the city of David, because he is of the line of David. And on the Sabbath day, which is Saturday, he went into the synagogue as was his custom. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] Exactly what you just heard. Isaiah 61 verses 1 through 3. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

And Christ is now going public where he's most well known, but not most popular, where people are most familiar with him because he grew up there. Okay? So this is what Jesus is saying about his mission and his purpose. I have fulfilled this in your hearing. I've come to proclaim Euangelion, which is the gospel, the good news to the poor. The poor in spirit, and certainly those who are materially poor because they were the most downtrodden people. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Anything that has ever imprisoned a person, from bad habits to bad hang-ups, to bad behavior, to inabilities, frustrations, incapacities, people who won’t—you will never set you free from your history, people who believe your story was already written when you were born—Christ has come to set the prisoners free from that. He's come to write a new story now. And whatever has ever imprisoned anyone, Christ has come to set you free from that which was to begin writing a beautiful story of that which can possibly be, is what that means.

Recovery of the sight for the blind. So few people had vision. Everybody had sight for the most part. But when he heals the blind, he isn't just giving them the physical capacity to see, he's giving them a spiritual ability to have vision. And what he wants to do is, when he comes, he wants people to be able to see things that aren't even visible. Like the truth about the other dimension, where there's powers and principalities of darkness. The other dimension where there is this beautiful reality, a physical location that is just other dimensional, where God the Father is, where Christ the Lord is right now, seated at the right hand of the Father. You need more than sight to believe that which is proclaimed. You need vision. And where do you get that vision? From Christ the Lord.

And to set the oppressed free, the people that have always been held back from getting ahead. The people where society just has never given them a shot. Christ has come to break that off of you, the weight that is oppressing you. It's these external things that are just choking off the possibilities in your life. And last but not least, to proclaim Jubilee, the year of the Lord's favor. This is the fiftieth year. Every fiftieth year in the Old Testament. Israel did not follow it and that's why they ended up in Babylon. But every fiftieth year was the year of Jubilee. And in the year of Jubilee, all debts were wiped off. Okay? If you owed anybody anything, it was gone. If you were an indentured servant because you borrowed money and didn't pay it back, were trying to work it off, you were set free. So my philosophy was borrow all you can in year ‘49. Right? Just go on and do it. But actually, what you would think would really happen is, I'm not giving you anything in ‘49. I'm not loaning you any money in ‘48 because I know in two years I gotta set you free. And you know, God took care of that by saying, don't let me catch you doing that. Don't ever do that. If they're in need and you got it, you give it. And if you're fifty—six months away, you're letting them off the hook because that's basically an expression of the gospel.

Is that me, Cam? Yeah. I'm standing still.

See, God wants to set you free, and he wants freedom to be immediate. He wants that debt to be lifted. He wants you to know that there is a debt you cannot pay, and when the moment comes, he's willing to wipe it free. It's the year of your debts being removed. No matter how much you think you owe, it's gone. And God will do it at any moment. In fact, he will take your debt away with your last breath—thief on a cross. Christ has come to do these things. This is what he's told the town folk.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I grew up in Nazareth at that time, I'd be jumping up and down. But praise God, you're one of us. I cannot believe it. Thank you. I know it is very funny.

[COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

It's kinda like on some Sundays when I preached a sermon and we're on the way out, it's like, that was a nice word, Brother Greg. Right? Just a gracious sermon. Just gracious words. Gracious words. Not powerful words, not words of authority. That was nice, Jesus. That was very nicely done. Because you know how I know their response was that? Because then they're like, but isn't that Joseph's son. Immediately, they go right back to the humanity of Christ. They're like, no, no, we saw you grow up. We remember you at 12. You know, aren't we all glad that we didn't see the life of Christ at 16? ‘Cause then your parents would have held you accountable to that. Ain't not possible. But they saw him grow up in wisdom, stature, and favor of man—Luke 2:52.

Christ declares it. What is their problem? They're too familiar. They're too close. Their proximity around him has caused them an inability to see beyond Nazareth. And many times—think about it—there's a lot of people. I don't know the number and I hope none of you are here today, but I've heard people say, I've been a Christian since I was born. No, you hadn't been. You were born a sinner, condemned to death. The only way you're saved is if you confess. But, no, man, I've been in church every time the doors were open. We were in there, man. I've gone to church my whole life. You could still be going to hell. And I go, what are you talking about? It's because your proximity your whole life has lessened your capacity to understand the totality of his identity. You say, oh, it's Jesus. Oh, I love Jesus. Yeah. Which Jesus do you love? Do you love the one that was crying on a cross or do you love the one who has fire in his eyes in the book of Revelation? Do you love the one who came with a word to heal or the one who's gonna come with a sword to destroy? Do you love the one who has the keys to death and Hades? You love that one who's gonna unlock that at the end? And all those who haven't accepted him, he is going to send them straight to hell for all eternity? Is that the one you know? Like, I like Sunday school Jesus. Well, everybody likes Sunday school Jesus because those are gracious words. Oh, I love that he walked on water. Oh, a great story. I know.

And the familiarity of—and you'll know who this is, you can almost see it—it’s the Jews of that day. They were too close to the law. They could no way possibly see the love. They couldn't respond appropriately because they were overexposed to the familiarity of God. And we, as the people of God, have to understand, like, just being in church doesn't get you in heaven. Just getting in those waters will not get you in heaven. There's only one thing that gets there: faith. That you believe he was born of the virgin Mary and became man, that he suffered, died, and was buried. And on the third day, he rose again from the dead under his own power, strength, and authority. That on day 40, he ascended into heaven. He's now seated at the right hand of the Father. He's coming again to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will know no end. Do you believe that Jesus? And when you're ready to rest your soul eternity upon that truth and that truth alone, then you still have to confess Jesus Christ as Lord because the devil agrees with you up to that point. As we saw in the temptation, he's got a lot of truth to declare. But every single solitary person's response is their responsibility. And please don't be deluded into thinking you've been delivered because you spent your whole life close to the message.

Right after that, Jesus—they went—let me go back. After they said, isn't this Joseph's son? Jesus responded to them. I didn't put it in here. I'm just gonna tell you really quick. He looked at them, and I have a new mic if that happens again; it's on the back screen. Thank you. No, I'm not putting it on right now. I ain't got time for that. Thank you. You can put up with it. Right? I can't stop. I can't stop. I just can't stop.

So Jesus said, [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] He knew what was happening. And he then says, as it was with Elijah, as it was with Elisha, so it is with you. And he said, I'm actually gonna do things in Capernaum that I will never be able to do here. And that made them very mad and angry. You see, because they couldn't accept who he was, so they couldn't accept—I’m about to go without a mic—what he said. And it is always the first most important thing: accepting who he is.

[COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

The home folk wanted to kill him. The devil just wanted to challenge him. And see, it's imperative. Like, it is far more important that Jesus died for you than you kill him. It's far more important that you see him on a cross than throw him off a cliff. And a lot of people are never gonna get to the crucifixion. And so they'll try and kill the message as early as possible. And don't be surprised when that's people who seemingly have been exposed and extraordinarily familiar with the beliefs of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what was your response if you were raised in the church? Were you really confronted or were you just comforted with gracious stories? I almost said a bad word. Lord, forgive me. Don't ever wanna do that. How did you respond? And how's the world gonna respond? You see it right here. But Christ just walked away—walked right through them. I know this is gonna sound harsh, but people who don't want anything to do with him, he isn't gonna have anything to do with them. People's disbelief is not gonna stop him from expanding and proclaiming and moving and going. It's true.

Then he left and went to Capernaum—or Capernaum is the other appropriate pronunciation—a town in Galilee. And on the Sabbath, he taught the people. So very similar scene. Now he's in a town he's never been to before in a region that probably barely even knows him because he's just gone public. And on the Sabbath, he taught the people. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] See the difference? Now you got a group of very unfamiliar people who probably have never heard his name till this moment. He shows up and goes public, and it isn't, oh, what gracious words. They were amazed at something very important: the authority. And one of the things that will keep people away from Christ more than anything is they don't wanna surrender to the authority of God's word. They wanna pick and choose what parts they're going to surrender to, that they're going to adhere to. They don't want authority over them. But these people heard authority because they were amazed at the teaching because his words had something. Doesn't say clarity. It says authority.

And it is imperative that we understand that that is today's greatest challenge. It's refusal to accept is being driven by the reluctance to surrender. The refusal to accept is being driven by the reluctance to surrender. People don't wanna surrender to the word, and truth be known—let us all take our own inventory—many of his people do not wanna surrender to his authority.

There's a story. It happened in Kentucky. It's in the news today. A woman in the vicinity of Louisville or south was arrested by the state police because on December 26 she had received, across state lines, an abortion pill that would end the life of the child that was in her womb. And it did. And on December 27, she had a miscarriage and she took the baby and she buried that child in a rag in her backyard. Being sickened by the process, which you've often heard—not under proper medical care—she went to the hospital. It didn't take them long to figure out what had happened, and she confessed. And the reason she did it is because the baby that was within her was not her boyfriend's child. That's what it means to not wanna surrender to the authority of God's word. Life is to be cherished from conception to death. And what's crazy is there's more than 50% of American citizens who would agree with her right to make that choice. We're somewhere in the mid sixties percent of American voters who agree with her right to do that. Well, the truth of the matter is, far less than 60% are voters—a good percentage though—are followers of Christ. And if we're right down the middle fifty-fifty in all elections—you see how close they are—that means that of that 10 or so percent higher than a presidential election, if it's 65 or whatever percent, there's 10 or 15% of those people that are born again believers who believe she had the right to do that. Like, you gotta be kidding me.

I'll straight up tell you, how you vote should be deeply affected by what God says. Pro-life matters, matters deeply to God. And we've got pro-choice followers. No. No. I mean, you could be saved, but I don't know how you get there. I actually do. You deny his authority.

Is it just the world that doesn't come under his authority? How often are his people in adulterous relationships? Often. It's all about this. We don't wanna come under it. We don't wanna surrender to it. You see the truth—the choice that we have ultimately is, you're either gonna be saved by this sword or destroyed by the next. Because you need to read Revelation and see what he kills everybody with. A sword. And the Bible very clearly says, this is the sword of God. The word of God is his sword. And this is intended to heal. The next one is intended to destroy. And far too often, we've heard the gracious side of the message. What about the authority side? And I know how uncomfortable it is to live in this world pro-life. But at the end of the day, it's not your choice. Your choice was when you accepted Christ that you were gonna fully come under his authority. And not everybody's amazed by his authority. Bottom line.

[COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

Guess who recognizes his authority? Immediately, a demoniac. The first one to acknowledge the full authority of Christ right there in the synagogue. This is like, this is the church I wanna be. I wanna be a church where people possessed by the devil himself feel welcome to come in here. This is a great synagogue. The one in Nazareth—mm-mm. They just didn't want people that didn't look like them, talk like them, think like them, act like them, believe like them, vote like them. Now, I wanna be their synagogue because they all knew. And here they are on Saturday Sabbath services, Jesus shows up and we got this dude who's possessed by a demon and an impure spirit. He cries out at the top of his voice: [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] It's not the man speaking. [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

How did you respond when you heard that Christ had all authority under heaven and earth? [COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED] I'll tell you how hell responded. They had unquestioned clarity to who Christ was. What confuses us as followers is, how did hell get it and not the rest of the world? Because there's always going to be different responses when something goes public. And it's not nearly as predictable as you might like to think.

[COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

Amazing. The authority he has is so overwhelming that hell surrendered to it. What about you? What about me? Don't be shocked when normal human beings— but don't you give up because they didn't either.

And communion is this meal that does exactly what Luke chapter 4 does. It confronts or it comforts. Because in this meal is the restriction: if you have not yet recognized his body, you cannot come. You're like, I'll come if I want. I would seriously suggest you not do that. Because then you take the judgment of God upon you. And that attitude is one of, I still haven't recognized his authority. Don't tell me what to do. Right? And it is—it’s evangelical because it's that sword that's penetrating our own soul, able to divide rightly bone and marrow. Sure, it hurts going in, but praise God almighty, healing’s coming out. And if you're feeling that pressure, that's not my preaching. I promise you. That's the Holy Spirit. And he's basically right here, now saying Jesus has just gone public in your life. What are you gonna do? Did you just hear a good story? Or do you believe you just heard the truth? Who are you gonna say he is? The son of Joseph or the Holy One of God?

And can you possibly believe that it was a demon straight from hell who first proclaimed who he really is. And you know what that tells us? Then you're able to do it too because you ain't from hell. You were created by that very God who's longing to save you. But you gotta believe in your heart—born of the virgin Mary, became man, suffered, died, was buried, ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, coming again to judge the living and the dead. And when you believe that, which is to rely fully on it, and confess with your mouth he is Lord, you will be saved. You will be, once and for all. Because God's word declares that to be true. And you know what I love about God? He just doesn't care what we think, and he really isn't up for debating what he said. You either submit to it or you will surrender to it. And I pray God this day, you submit to its authority so you don't have to surrender to his destruction. Please.

If you're serving communion today, if you would, please come to your stations.

[COPYRIGHTED BIBLE PASSAGES OMITTED]

At Crossland, we practice rip and dip. It's called intinction. You take from the common loaf, you dip into the glass, and you participate. This section will go from front to back and you'll come to your left into the aisle. You'll be served by anybody who's open, then you loop back on the other side and come in. You all will do the same thing. Okay? This row, it's probably easier for you to come right here instead of there. I know it's a little confusing—then you go right back. The rest of you will go out into the aisle, loop around anybody who's open. Y'all will go to the right. Okay? Loop all the way around against the wall and go back in. Everybody's front to back up there. We'll come to you with bowls. If you have a gluten allergy, we have gluten-free containers and wafers. They're on the right and left side of the stage, and they'll be in every bowl that is being served up there. Okay?

Let's come and declare what we believe to be true about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Father, we see in that text that in a couple situations before Jesus ever said a word, people were overwhelmed in his presence. And distance is no match for his presence. He doesn't have to be here physically in order to be here powerfully. And it isn't that his word is not powerful on its own. It is. But when you get proclamation and presence together, power of heaven's unstoppable. And I pray that over everybody that's in this room and in any of our campuses this day. Father, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. And all of God's people together said, amen.

Alright. May the God of heaven richly bless you. Happy New Year. Go start the New Year well. We'll see you again next week. You are dismissed.

Subject: Going Public: Four Responses to Jesus' Ministry

Dear Crossland Community Church,

I hope this note finds you thinking about what it means when Jesus “goes public,” because last Sunday we saw that when Christ shows up there is no neutral ground.

We kicked off our new series, Going Public (Luke 4–9:52), and walked through Luke chapter 4 as a set of four scenes that show how people respond when the presence and proclamation of Jesus hit the public square. At his baptism heaven declares him Son of God, on the earth some only see “the son of Joseph,” in the wilderness even hell questions and tempts him, and in the synagogues responses range from hostile familiarity in Nazareth to immediate submission to his authority in Capernaum—there is either comfort or conflict, never neutrality. Communion this week reminded us the same thing: the meal both confronts and comforts, and it asks the same question Luke asks—who will you say he is?

So here’s my pastoral word to you: don’t drift into familiarity with Jesus where you only like the nice stories but won’t submit to his authority. Read Luke chapters 4–9 these next several weeks, sit with the text, and ask the Spirit to show you whether you’re responding like heaven, like Nazareth, like the demoniac who immediately knew, or somewhere in between. If you have never rested your soul on who Jesus truly is—born of the virgin, suffered, died, rose, now Lord—today is a good day to do that and to confess him as Lord.

Blessings,
Crossland Community Church Team