Good News for the Broken

Luke 4:14-30

Whereas Matthew and Mark begin their accounts of Jesus’ public ministry with a general description of his teaching, Luke goes into detail about one of Jesus’ first sermons. Though it seems pretty innocuous at first, Jesus eventually strikes a nerve, and his audience tries to kill him! What exactly did he say that was so explosive? And why does Luke see this sermon as a critically important point in the story of Jesus? We find that in this short story, we see the heart of the mission of Jesus as well as one of the primary offenses to him and his ministry.

“Jesus’ mission is directed to the poor in a holistic sense… those who are for any number of reasons relegated to the positions outside the boundaries of God’s people. Jesus refuses to recognize those socially determined boundaries and asserts instead that these outsiders can now belong to God’s family.” – Joel Green

Prayer Points

1. Pray that God will help you and the members of your group grow in poverty of Spirit.

2. Pray that our church would stay aligned with the heart of God and mission of Jesus revealed in this passage.