April 20, 2025

THE RESURRECTION PROVES HE CAN!

Luke 4:17-21, “The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to [Jesus]. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” 20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” (NLT)

1. Jesus has __________________________ for you.

Luke 4:18b “[The Spirit] has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.” (NLT)

C.S. Lewis: “When it comes to fame and celebrity and money and success and art and music and athletics, even when we achieve what we think is the ultimate… something is still missing.”

Are there empty places in your life? Jesus has come to offer good news to you.

2. Jesus has __________________________ for you.

Luke 4:18c “He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released…” (NLT)

What imprisons you? Jesus came to proclaim freedom. He came to completely pardon you. You don’t have to be a prisoner anymore.

3. Jesus has __________________________ for you.

Luke 4:18d, “He has sent me to proclaim… that the blind will see…” (NLT)

Helen Keller, who herself was blind AND deaf, once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Spiritual blindness causes us to think something about God or ourselves or others that simply isn’t true. Jesus offers you sight if you’ll let Him.

4. Jesus has __________________________ for you.

Luke 4:18e, “He has sent me to proclaim… that the oppressed will be set free…” (NLT)

The Greek word, oppressed, can also be translated “battered, broken, bruised, crushed.”

You don’t have to stay battered, broken, and bruised. Jesus wants to release you.

Isaiah 53:4-6, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” (NLT)