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We are launching a new sermon series called Mission Him Possible, inspired by the action film franchise Mission Impossible. Just as those films feature elaborate stunts, special effects, and stunt doubles, Jesus' mission is fundamentally different: all the resources needed are within himself. He has everything required for the mission.
Our theme verse is Isaiah 61:1, which we encourage you to memorize this month:
The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to set the captives free, to heal the brokenhearted, and to bring light to those who are in darkness.
This is Jesus speaking about his own mission. Jesus' mission is possible. Mission him possible.
Things fell apart at the beginning of the story—right in Genesis. The impact of the fall continues to affect us today in multiple ways:
After Adam and Eve sinned, they became conscious that they were naked and felt ashamed, so they hid and covered themselves with fig leaves. They felt bad about themselves. We still carry this brokenness of self today. Psychologists understand that many of our troubles stem from this broken self-image, and we need healing.
The couple began to blame each other, and conflict entered the world. By Genesis 4, there was death—one brother rising up against another. The curse brought unfulfilled desire and domination: you will dominate and you will desire. Today we experience broken marriages, broken relationships between parents and children, violence at work, and violence across the world. The tragic deaths of young people, the violence we see daily—all of this traces back to the brokenness that began with the fall.
Adam was in the Garden of Eden where he could eat whatever he wanted. There were precious stones, wealth, and everything needed for survival. But after the fall, he was kicked out. The ground was cursed, and he had to labor and sweat, facing thorns and thistles. Unemployment began to kick in.
Today we see the same issues intensified: inequality, poor governance, greed, and a few people holding most of the wealth. There is tremendous unrest among young people, particularly across this continent—we are the youngest continent on earth. Many young people are searching for jobs that don't exist, asking what they should do, why leadership can't sort them out. I pray daily for those in leadership that God will give them grace and wisdom.
Man was separated from God, and we still struggle with sin and separation from the Lord. This is a struggle we face every day.
What we are doing every day is crying out for help. When our marriages break, we cry out. When our children go into trouble with drugs, we cry out. When we see economic problems and inequality, we are crying out for help.
What is prayer if not a cry for help—a call for someone to come and save us? That is why Jesus came.
I want to invite you to read the book of Isaiah this month—even just three chapters a day. Written between 739-681 BC during the reign of Judah's kings (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah), Isaiah is a theological masterpiece.
Isaiah has 66 chapters, just like the Bible has 66 books. The first 39 chapters, like the 39 books of the Old Testament, focus on judgment. But interspersed throughout are flashes of deliverance: the virgin will have a child, God will redeem you. There are calls of redemption that point to real hope—the New Testament.
From chapter 40 onward, you see such great hope. Isaiah provides the most comprehensive prophetic picture of Jesus in the Old Testament: his announcement, his virgin birth, the mission he will accomplish, his sacrificial death, and his return to claim his own. As theologian John Oswalt has said, Isaiah is a theological masterpiece that "manages to contain in its 66 chapters virtually the whole of biblical theology."
Let me read the text we will be exploring:
The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me. Because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. You send me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. And they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
There is so much imagery and richness here. Instead of the ashes of burning, there is the beauty of the Lord coming to rescue you.
In Luke 4:16-29, Jesus went to Nazareth where he was raised. He was given a scroll to read, found this text, read it, and claimed it: "This is my mission. This is about me." The people looked at him and wondered—they had been waiting for the Messiah. But after Jesus claimed this was his mission and continued speaking of grace, they became annoyed. People don't like grace. They wanted to kill him, taking him to throw him off a cliff. But then he just walked through their midst and disappeared. It was his first recorded miracle of a different kind—they escorted him to throw him down, and when they arrived, they simply couldn't see him anymore.
Jesus is declaring: This is my mission. This is what I am going to do. The Jews couldn't accept it, so they wanted to get rid of him.
Notice that verse 1 presents this as God's mission: the spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus, because God the Father. This is one of the few places in Scripture where we see the Trinity together. So this is not just Jesus' mission—it's God's mission. It's about good news, healing, freedom, and the kingdom of God invading the brokenness caused by sin.
Poerty is not just about material lack or need. It is about lack, need, unfulfilled longing, and limitation. Throughout the Old and New Testament, God is deeply concerned about the poor. He speaks constantly about widows and orphans. In Isaiah 58, God says: you are fasting and pretending to seek after me, but you have forgotten the poor.
Poverty has a dual nature. One person may be poor, carrying a burden of material lack. But another person may also be poor—though they appear rich—carrying their own burdens. You could be very affluent and be completely poor in other ways.
Let me share some facts about Kenya:
I encourage you to walk through a slum with your family—places like Kibera. Sit and have a soda or water with people there. Have a conversation with them. You will be deeply moved. You will see how poverty takes away people's dignity. It is not just about material wealth—poverty strips away something fundamental from the human spirit.
Let's look at Acts 3:1-10 to understand the different levels of poverty and how God invites us to respond:
Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (three o'clock). A man lame from birth was being carried daily to the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so he could beg from those entering. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for arms. Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." The man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something. But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold. But what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." He took him by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Leaping up and jumping, he stood and began to walk and enter the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Beautiful Gate. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
This is a wonderful text full of richness to explore. Notice the contradiction: a beggar at the gate beautiful. There is so much to mine from this story that time will not permit us to explore it all right now.
As you look at this story, you will see four types of poverty.
The beggar is nameless, carrying shame, always dependent on others for everything. He has personal limitations and challenges. Perhaps he had low self-esteem—all he could do was be carried and placed there. He couldn't even walk or carry himself.
Don't we all have some measure of self-poverty? Feeling less than we should be. Feeling like we are not enough.
He sits there while people are worshiping and doing their business. He doesn't have meaningful relationships. He is isolated into his begging. There is no community, no family, no belonging.
He asks for money—a handout. This is about scarcity mentality: the belief that things are limited, so you must grab before the space goes. When we grow without enough, we are always fighting for something. We won't even let someone merge in traffic because of this poverty mentality.
But stewardship poverty is not only the poor materially. The rich can also have stewardship poverty—they are possessed by their possessions. Many rich people cannot even have the freedom to give to others.
Most fundamentally, this man needed God, not just money. Peter and John recognized this. They said, "I have no silver and gold. But what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." They gave him Jesus.
The good news is that we have the riches of heaven. The currency of heaven is grace and mercy—really, it is one thing: grace. Grace is favor undeserved, unmerited. You get what you would never have gotten because you would never have deserved it.
This beggar was sitting there waiting for a little money. But the next moment, he is praising and walking around, doing his own things. He received more than he asked for. That is grace.
Because of brokenness, we deserve punishment. But God gives us grace and forgives our sins. Consider these words from Scripture:
But God was rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:4–5, 8–9)
Isn't this the good news to the poor? The person waiting to be destroyed because of his own sin—the wages of sin is death—gets a new lease of life. This is grace.
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)
Grace and truth are one word in the original language—one coin with two sides. And they came through Jesus Christ.
The law that came by Moses was about condemnation, about human strength. These are the ten commandments you need to follow and you will be right. But grace came to convict us of sin and give us forgiveness. The Spirit strengthens us. The grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness (Titus 2).
This man was carried all the time because he was lame. But what does grace do to him? Because of grace, he rises up and walks by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We have all been defective from birth because of the fallenness and brokenness of sin. But Jesus himself came so that, despite the way we were born and whatever we carried from birth, there is freedom in Christ Jesus. You don't have to be condemned to whatever you were born with.
He was sitting there in condemnation, just waiting until he breathes his last. But now he has been healed because of the grace of God and is standing in freedom.
He was covered by the shame of being a beggar. But now he has been released and goes into the temple, running around praising God. When the people saw him, they said, "Isn't this the guy who had been begging there? Now he's running around." And they marveled.
Peter had to stand up and say: Man of Israel, listen to me. Why are you looking at us as if by our own power we have made this man walk? It is not about us. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your fathers, longed for Jesus and this day of grace. The prophets—Samuel, Moses—prophesied that someone greater than the law would come. Grace would come. This is what is happening.
Most of the people who passed by were impersonal to this man. They would throw some money and move on. But look at what Peter and John—the grace of God—did. They came close and said, "Look at us."
There is a personal God who through grace knows you personally. You are not just a statistic. He has your name. He knows your name.
The beggar draws pity, but the man now standing up, walking around, brings wonder to the people. They say, "What has happened? What has God done?" I want to say to all of you: I believe God is doing something in your life that the closest of your friends are going to wonder and say, "Isn't she the person we knew? Isn't he the person we knew? What has happened to her? What has happened to him? God has changed things."
Grace makes all things new. Even when the window is closing, even in your sixties or seventies, there is a God who will make you a wonder before your friends. Grace will lift you up.
He was looking for a handout. But Kenyans don't need handouts—they need a hand up, to be able to do something. When you give fifty bob or twenty bob, that is an abuse to the people. But when you help them stand up so they may go and find a job and do things for themselves, you have helped them for a long time.
There is a God in heaven who is reaching out by grace to each and every one of you to lift you up.
It is interesting that this happened at three o'clock—the ninth hour, during the time of prayer. In Genesis 3, it was in the cool of the day, around three o'clock onward, that God came to find the man who had run away because he had fallen. God called, "Adam, where are you?"
At the cross, Jesus cried out "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" at around three o'clock, crying with humanity: "Oh God, have mercy on us. Let the grace come." And of course, God did.
This man was begging, seeking for money. But then he found Jesus, who is greater than money. When we don't worship God, we end up worshiping money, identifying with money and thinking money is riches. But grace—this man was weak and struggling like many of us in our sins and weaknesses. But he was strengthened by God's grace and was able to stand.
I pray today that by God's grace, every struggling person among us will be lifted up and strengthened. May we overcome the sins in our own lives, the challenges in our own lives.
But let me say this: Do not frustrate the good news. It is very easy to frustrate the good news of grace, the good news that you are set free, that God has come to lift you up. You don't have to beg for a few things here and there. You have him. You have the fullness of God.
We frustrate the good news by resisting God, insisting we want to be independent and do it our own way, dulling our conscience, continuing to walk in sin. We are cheapening the grace of God.
We frustrate the good news by feeling that we are undeserving. "I'm just a lady. I'm just a man. I don't have what it takes. I'm not pretty enough." Beating ourselves because we are lacking acceptance or affection or appreciation. May the Lord lift us up from that place.
We frustrate the good news by isolating ourselves, not sharing grace with other people, not being part of a family. This is why I love church. As we did Zindua together, we were building family. We were receiving riches—the riches of relationships, social riches—and abandoning poverty. Sometimes we hinder those relationships because we have not forgiven. We have not let free someone who has hurt us. So we remain in social poverty.
We frustrate the good news through greed—when we are so greedy we want more. The more you have, the more you want, and the possessions possess you.
Let us embrace the grace of God—the riches of heaven in the four areas of our lives.
I believe some of you here are being called by God to forgive, to let go, to reconcile. Some of you are being called to release yourselves from the struggle of sin and realize that God has forgiven you. He is reaching out to lift you up from that place of sin. Embrace the grace of the Lord.
Let us minister to the poor among us—those in our neighborhoods, those near us. Those who are socially poor and lonely. Those who are materially poor. Those in all those areas of poverty.
What if we did what Peter and John did? We stopped long enough to look at them. We listened to their story and appreciated their story. And then we gave them a hand and lifted them up from wherever they are.
Nobody is going to hell because of their sin, because Jesus already died for sin. There is grace. You don't have to allow sin to take you to hell.
People go to hell for rejecting the grace of God, for rejecting love already provided, for rejecting what is freely given. That's how we take ourselves to hell. We keep ourselves in hell by refusing the grace of God that embraces us and says, "You are beautifully and wonderfully made. You belong. You're a child of God."
Let the sound of grace go all over this place, all over our nation. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore.
