There’s a few things I’d love to share with you a few years ago when we moved to the United States my wife started a job and she needed to work and start work very early in the morning so she’d rise at 5:00 a.m. to go to
Work and the first morning she went to work she got up and left and I stayed in bed and we were having dinner with the children that night and I said how was work today and she said it was
Good she’s a midwife and she delivers babies in the labor and delivery ward of a hospital and I said how was it and she said it was good but it would be better if you got up with me at 5:00
A.m. so the second morning I got up at 5:00 a.m. and I did something that I hadn’t done for a long time I did some exercise about 17 years later it’s transformed my life I really enjoy exercise I enjoy getting up
Early in the morning and exercising I walked but then walking got too easy so I bought a a bicycle and in the basement at home I’d put the computer in front of me and look at the computer and do stuff on the computer and exercise I wore out one of those cheap
Exercise bikes and then I bought another one and it rediscovered in me a love for riding a bicycle and I was very afraid to ride a bicycle on the roads of the United States not only do Americans have big gun guns and big trucks but they don’t seem
To be too patient with cyclists and so I was very nervous to ride on the roads but then I discovered that there was a Cycling Club the pic peders and Germany features in this story I went to a bike shop and it was just a kid in
This bike shop who was minding the shop for the boss and I said I’d like to test ride a bike and he put me on this bike and it was just miserably uncomfortable I just rode around the car park and
Handed it back and I thought I’m too old too fat to ride a bicycle again my days are over I had a speaking appointment here in Europe and it took me to constant you know constant
In Germany and I wanted to see Yan hus and the memorial so I went there but then I had 2 hours and I was walking past Constance and there was a BMC shop in Constance now for an Australian cadel Evans had just won the Tour to France on a BMC bicycle so
I thought I’ll go in and have a look and I was admiring these Swiss works of art in bicycles beautiful bicycles and this time the man who operated the shop was highly skilled and he
Said would you like to take one for a ride me can’t you see what I’m like and he said take it and he put me on a BMC a beautiful bike and he saw my face when I came home back to
The shop and he said to me so does it sleep with you tonight or does it sleep here in the shop and so I was flying and I couldn’t take it with me me but as soon as I got back to the States
I found a BMC shop and I bought a BMC bike and it’s transformed my life it makes me feel like a kid again when I ride on a bike the the wind blows through my face it’s a wonderful exercise
And I discovered something about our family history there was a man born in Scotland in 1846 his name was Philip Ricki he was happily married with four children in Scotland and his wife died leaving him with the four children he remarried the second marriage was an absolute disaster and
It ended in divorce so we emigrated from Scotland to Australia looking for a new life not so much a a new wife and he arrived in Melbourne and somebody gave him a book called thoughts on Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith and he became a Seventh Day Adventist he threw in his
Job his job was an engraver you know an engraver on metal and he threw that in and guess what he bought a bicycle he bought bought a bicycle and he became a literature evangelist because he wanted to engrave God’s word on people’s hearts and he rode through cities towns and
Villages and he rode to a middle of nowhere place in Australia that not even Australians have heard of and there was a man plowing behind a horse this is in the 1800s in the middle of nowhere
And he rode up to this man you see this man he was my great great grandfather his name was Tom Tom Kent his wife was 45 they had 11 children this is the 1800s and his wife had caught pneumonia and
She’d recently died from pneumonia and Tom was in a deep dark hole and Philip Ricki rode up to him on a bicycle in the middle of nowhere and sold him the book The Great controversy it transformed
His life he got a Bible you see just before his wife died she asked for a prom promise from my great great grandfather she said Tom I’m going to die promise me that you’ll meet me in heaven
And bring the children with you Tom was seeking and Philip Ricki rode up to him in the middle of nowhere on a bicycle and shared with him the great controversy he wrestled with the book there were things in there that didn’t like but ultimately he accepted it his kids thought he’d gone mad
He was observing the Sabbath and he thought he was the only person in Australia observing the Sabbath eventually all of his children accepted it and he shared the book and gave Bible studies to the neighbors and five other families joined and they planted a church on their Farm they were
Poor people the church was made of pressed Earth but you know from that one book when you look at those six families the pastors The Descendants there’s now seven generations in our family there are more than 20,000 people have become followers of Jesus seventh day Adventists as a result of one
Book and a guy and a bicycle sharing that book it inspired a few ideas so last year there were a group of cyclists we rode bikes from Washington DC to St Louis we chose the back roads it was the
I will go ride and we shared Adventist literature with people we met along the way there were eight cyclists and Tobin Bergland was one of them and myself and six others and we met people and God provided wonderful opportunities on the journey we shared 6,000 pieces of Adventist literature in
Two weeks we did this on annual leave we didn’t want it to look like a junket a a nice idea for tithe tourism if you know what I mean so we paid our own expenses and that too has transformed my
Life I rediscovered the joy of personally sharing I’ve been a public evangelist where I’ve stood on stage and preached and proclaimed the the message but to be reacquainted with personally actively sharing my faith it was a wonderful experience earlier this year in January and February we did
It again this time in Australia one group left from Melbourne and rode to aandal for some Pastor meetings another group rode from Brisbane to aandal we left for Melbourne 1200 kilm we averaged about 150 kilm a day when we see people cutting the grass gardening walking
Or exercising their dog we simply say hi do you have a minute to say hello yeah and they notice we’re all dressed the same in the same cycling uniform and they say what are you doing we say
We’re doing a ride in in honor of Philip Ricki a guy who rode thousands of miles and Shared Hope I tell the story of how it’s impacted my great great grandfather and descendants and this is the book that did it and offering Adventist literature the remarkable thing is that in
Secular Australia more than 95% of the people that we spoke to gladly accepted the literature 95% more than that and so just last month we thought what if we try this in Scotland Scotland in Scotland country of 5 million people we have 700 Adventists on the books of that 700
Adventists 30 are indigenous Scots 30 Scotland is very hard the people are resistant and in the far north of Scotland there are these islands called the Shetland Islands there’s 23,000 people live in these islands and not a single Adventist 23,000 people and it’s totally unentered the weather
When we were there the maximum temperature we encountered was about 10 maybe 12° C it rained a lot it’s quite windy there and it was cold but we got on bicycles and we rode and we wondered what the people of Shetland would be like about welcoming Philip Riki back to Scotland and the
People of Shetland opened their hearts to us more than 95% of the people that we spoke to accepted advertis literature and welcomed us it was a wonderful experience I’d like to encourage you do things that bring health and strength to you find ways to share your faith personally as
Pastors so many times we can be encouraging members to do it but not so much ourselves from my experience rediscovering exercise and rediscovering the joy of sharing Jesus with people on a personal basis sharing you your journey your testimony how Jesus
Has transformed your life it’s a wonderful experience I could talk all morning about the experiences the positive experiences that we had and I just love you to experience those as well this morning I’d like to open God’s word with you as well to Luke chapter 4 in Luke chapter
4 there are three clear important episodes in the life of Jesus the first episode is what happens in the wilderness with Satan the second episode is what happens in Nazareth when Jesus returns to Nazareth and the third episode is what happens at capernium and the
Text invites an inquiry and it ask the reader where would you like to live where would you like to inhabit of those three places the wilderness Nazareth or capernium and these three passages are really about attitudes towards Jesus what we think of
Jesus and our response to him and Luke in a subliminal way invites the audience to look at these three plac places and consider where you belong and where you’d like to inhabit Luke chapter 3 has a real emphasis on the identity of Jesus who is this Jesus if we
Notice Luke 3 verse 22 and it says and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice Came From Heaven you are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased Jesus
Is identified here by that voice from Heaven as the Son of God Luke goes to extreme lengths the very next verse he says he writes Jesus when he he began his ministry was about 30 years of age
Being the son as was supposed of Joseph and then it launches into the genealogy of Jesus and if you recall our worship yesterday there was precious little about the genealogy of Herod do you remember but today it goes into great detail about the genealogy of Jesus the emphasis there
Is this is somebody to notice this is really an important person and you’ll notice how that genealogy concludes in verse 38 of Luke chter 3 it concludes the son of Enos the son of Seth
The son of Adam the Son of God this is Luke’s emphasis Jesus is the son of God and then we go into the Wilderness we read how Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan in
This is Luke 4:1 and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil it can be tempting at times to think that if we’re being tempted by Satan we’re doing something
Wrong Satan will come to us even when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit don’t be too hard on yourself Satan targets pastors we’re going to look at that more on Thursday morning and so he
He targets Jesus here and notice how he comes to him in verse three the devil said to him if you are the Son of God can you believe this if you are the Son of God this is the Satan
That knew Jesus in heaven this is the Satan that was better acquainted with Jesus than we are with Jesus this Saint knew full well the identity of Jesus and he has the tarity
To come to Jesus and say if you are the Son of God and he talks to him about changing rocks to bread an abuse of power using power for his own means Satan will come to pastors and tempt us to use the powers that we have for our own
Benefit Jesus responds and you know the response well it is written man shall not live by bread alone the second Temptation that Satan offers Jesus is we can do a deal we can work this out let’s
Compromise you worship me I’ll give you everything let’s do a deal this is the Age of Reason Live and Let Live and jesus’ response was an emphatic no it doesn’t work that way and then Satan comes a
Third time and tests him again and again it is with the same words if you are the Son of God throw yourself down if you are the Son of God and again Jesus resists but Luke has something unique in account about the Temptations that are different to Mark and Matthew he includes verse
13 and it says and when the devil had ended every Temptation he departed from him until an opportune time there’s an ominous warning in there this isn’t over Satan is going to come back again to Jesus at an opportune time if you’re watching a movie this is
When the violins Play and play that scary warning music and Luke prepares us for what’s happening next so Jesus you’ll notice in verse 14 Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and to report about him went out through all
The surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all Jesus being tempted by the by Satan didn’t diminish his experience with the Holy Spirit didn’t change that and so we come to episode 2 in this chapter verse 16 and every Pastor who’s ever given a bible study on the Sabbath
Normally includes this verse right and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and he’s given the scroll The Scroll of Isaiah he unrolls it and here we have
The first public words that Jesus speaks and he quotes from Isaiah and he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor he has sent me to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blood blind to
Set at Liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor so Jesus goes into the synagogue and he reads this it’s a message of Jubilee a message of Jubilee and this is so important when we look
At the Jubilee year in Leviticus 25 we discover that the Jubilee year was every 50th year the land enjoyed rest every seven years and after seven lots of seven years of rest after the 49th year the year after that the 50th year was a Year of Jubilee another Sabbath year of rest
Rural lands were returned to original owners if they had been sold or mortgaged debts were forgiven slaves were freed but when you read in Leviticus 25 you’ll notice that the Year of Jubilee only applied to Jews if a gentile had a debt the debt remained no land was
Returned to Gentiles if a gentile was a slave they remained in slavery even though it was a jubilee year and here’s the shock my shock in the whole history history of Israel and Judaism there is not one single example of the Jubilee year being celebrated we
Have no record that it was ever observed and Jesus comes to his hometown and announces to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor Jesus comes to his hometown and says now is the Jubilee debts are rowed slaves are free land your land is given back to
You there’s a pregnant PA and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing today he came and announced
The Jubilee and what was the response of the people the response of the people was a polite modest agreement oh isn’t he a nice boy isn’t this whose son isn’t this Joseph’s son they had missed recognizing their own person from Nazareth as the Son of
God isn’t this Joseph’s son and and then Jesus says something really significant to them in verse 23 he says doubtless in other translations it has surely surely or doubtless you will quote to me this proverb physician heal yourself what we have heard you did in capernium do here in your hometown as well
He ask the people and he says to them surely you will say to me to heal the people here and the people stay silent they don’t ask him to do healings in Nazareth it’s not because they don’t have sick people who need
Healing but they think that he’s only Joseph’s son how could he heal there’s a figure that comes around in December each year sometimes earlier in November he’s often dressed in bright red with white and he’s got this big white
Beard and children love him who is he we call him Santa Claus what do you call him I think everywhere’s got a name for him and children write to Santa Claus letters and what are they asking for when they write to Santa Claus they’re asking for gifts but the
Time comes when children stop writing letters to Santa Claus asking for gifts when do they stop writing letters to Santa Claus it’s when they stop believing and they know and they finally discover it’s Mom and Dad that are giving the gifts the the reason they stop is because they
Stop believing and the reason why the people of Nazareth didn’t ask Jesus to hear heal was because they didn’t believe and then he tells them about what happened when Gentiles received the healing in a sense when the Jubilee could be received by the Gentiles and not just the Jews
And the people of Nazareth get angry and rebel and they want to kill him he’s driven out of town unwanted undesired that finishes the second episode and the third episode is a capernium and in capernium on the next Sabbath we’ve had one Sabbath in J in Nazareth the next Sabbath is
In capernium he goes to capernium and what’s the Sabbath result there what’s the Jubilee result he’s speaking in the synagogue as he was a man filled with a demonic spirit is healed he’s invited back to Peter’s home for Sabbath lunch and Peter’s mother-in-law is ill and what do they ask
Ask in verse 38 he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house now Simon’s mother-in-law was Ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf at capernium they ask for a healing and Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law
It doesn’t just stop there it talks how as the sun was setting they brought people of all diseases to him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them they were all healed Desire of
Ages talks about how he worked well into the night and every single individual was healed and then in the morning notice with me Luke 4:42 and when it was day he departed and went to a desolate
Place and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them but he said to them I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well for I was
Sent for this purpose the people of capernium begged him stay with them stay in capernium what a contrast to his hometown of Nazareth and so Luke asks us the question what’s your response to Jesus what’s your attitude to Jesus and it can be a question that comes to pastors
As well in your ministry where is Jesus in your ministry do you truly believe believe in a sense that Jesus does things like he did at capernium do we ask for things that Jesus can do and will do or is our attitude more like the attitude of Nazareth it’s an important
Question but clearly Luke invites us to live in capernium and to have what I would call a capernium Ministry on the son of God let’s pray shall we our father in Heaven thank you thank you for Jesus thank you for his willingness to bring the Jubilee into our lives and into our
Ministries father I pray that we will seek your Jubilee your cancellation of debts your return of our lands our Heavenly lands our removal from slavery Lord we pray for a jubilee Ministry for each one of us here in Jesus name amen