God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. If you are going to grow in your walk, you must be willing to allow God to help you to change, to be more and more like Jesus.

       Do you love your child with sand in their mouth? It’s a silly question, isn’t it? Of course you love them! Are they any less your child with sand in their mouth? Of course not! But your next step is an obvious one; there is no way you’re going to allow them to keep sand in their mouth. You love your child right with sand in their mouth, but you refuse to leave them that way. So you carry them over to the water fountain and wash out their mouth. Why? Because you love them!

       God does the same for us. He holds us over the fountain and says, “Spit out the dirt, I’ve got something better for you” And so He cleanses us of the filth, the immorality, the dishonesty, the prejudice, the bitterness, and the greed. We don’t enjoy the cleansing; sometimes we even opt for the dirt over the ice cream, “I can eat dirt if I want to!” we pout and proclaim. Which is true, we can. But if we do, the loss is ours. God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. God has a better offer and if you are going to grow in your walk, you must be willing to allow God to help you to get the dirt out of your mouth so He can give you something so much better. After being baptized by John the Baptist (Luke 3:22), Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil and then returns to his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee in the power of the Spirit. His family, friends, and neighbours were anxious to see Him, because news about him doing miracles had spread through the whole countryside, and He was now somewhat of a celebrity. And so on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom and He stood up to read.

       Now there was probably an air of expectation and a sense of anticipation. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. 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”. Luke 4:18-19. And then He said something that literally blew their socks off, verse 21 – “today this scripture fulfilled in your hearing”. They went ballistic! Both Matthew and Mark record their response; “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at Him. But why? If we look at what Jesus said to them, we can begin to see that they likewise had dirt in their mouths and God wanted to help them get it out. By using this text out of Isaiah, Jesus hits on 4 main types of people that need God’s help.

       The 1st are the “poor”. Jesus said He came to preach good news to the poor. The word poor can cover poverty of every kind, but in this context, it’s referring to something much deeper than financial poverty. Jesus was referring to their moral and spiritual poverty. In fact the word for “poor” is the same word Jesus used in the first beatitude “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Matt. 5:3 (In other words, those who see their need) We might say that these people went to church, but that they were morally and spiritually bankrupt; praising God on the outside, but doing totally ungodly things on the inside.

       The 2nd type of person is the prisoner. Now there were no prisoners in Nazareth, but the word for prisoner in this context means “prisoner of war”, and Jesus saw how these people He knew well were under spiritual bondage and prisoners of things like money (Matt. 19:1-10); guilt (Matt. 7:41-50) and a whole host of other things. Satan had a stronghold in their lives and they didn’t even know it (Matt. 8:26-39). It was this very thing that the Spirit of God lead Charles Wesley to write that wonderful Hymn, “O For 1,000 Tongues to Sing”, further in verses he says, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.

       The 3rd type of person Jesus talks about is the blind. There were not only those who were physically blind, but as 2 Cor. 4:4 says, The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. In fact, Jesus used it again to explain Paul’s ministry to Him: I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ Acts 26:17-18. Jesus was showing them the blindness they had to their own need. They had dirt in their mouth, but were blind to it.

       The 4th type of person is the oppressed, which means “broken in pieces, shattered and crushed”. Jesus came to those whose lives were squashed by life’s crushing load and couldn’t see a way out.

       And so Jesus in one full swoop announces His ministry and proclaims His mission. “I have come for your spiritual poverty, your spiritual bondage, your spiritual blindness and your spiritual brokenness”. Jesus Christ is ready to deliver you from these bondages, get ready to receive His deliverance.