Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday, 3rd December 2017

Rev Daniel Poon

Luke 4:18-21

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for he blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 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. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Before Jesus came, no one could face God, because they felt guilty of sins. Year after year, the Israelite made sacrifices, burnt offerings, just to please God. But Jesus came and set us free. He said to us, “Go back and don’t do that anymore.” The Spirit of the Lord was on Jesus, but He was not trying to rule and reign the countries during His ministry on earth. Instead He came for the people in need – the poor, the prisioners, the blind, and the oppressed.

1. THE POOR – TO PREACH GOOD NEWS

Jesus did not look at us as sinner, He saw us as “poor”. As we grow, we start to judge wrong and right, and as a result, we start to worry. We start to compare what we have with others have. We hear bad news every day, we feel we are not good enough, we are poor, and that’s why we want to hear good news. But the Bible tells us, when God created us, He said it was “very good”, how come we have changed and became poor?

Rev Daniel shared that not poor means “no lack”or “complete”, life is like a puzzle, it’s not about outside (e.g. values of this world) but inside (body, soul and spirit). God did not come to satisfy our desires, Jesus did not give people money, but to bring a better message, which is the Good News.

2. THE PRISONERS – TO PROCLAIM FREEDOM

We are “prisoners” in God’s eyes. We are bound by the things we want in the world so we’ve lost our freedom, for example iPhone, position, relationship, finance, etc. we never feel enough and we can’t find peace because we rely on this world. That’s why Jesus came to proclaim freedom and to show us that we don’t have to be controlled by this world.

3. THE BLIND – TO RECOVER SIGHT

The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil could be seen by Adam and Eve. They could also see God at the time. But when man sinned, we also lost our eye sight. Today Rev Daniel reminded us to think about this: are we connected with Jesus? Because if we are, we will be able to see a lot more things in our lives. We will see how God created this world and what it means to each one of us, we will see blessings in life.

4. THE OPPRESSED – TO SET THEM FREE