THE BEAT e144 A Jesus Heart for God’s Will (I want that)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 2 Episode 144 

THE BEAT | A Jesus Heart for God’s Will (I want that)

Quick Take 

Hey human, consider how Jesus loves his Father, what drives it, and how this clarifies our path. Beyond all the laments for healing, for delivery, for some kind of daily redemption from earthly suffering and strife. This is the path to leaving human gain behind for the mystery of God’s will. We are on to something. E144 is just a start. Join us. Thanks for listening.

How would you describe the heart of Jesus today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

I have one more insight, maybe a spiritual reckoning before I leave the gospel of Luke. I am reading through the gospels with a special focus, to consider experiences, dialogues, examples that show the heart of Jesus. Because the new covenant Jesus fulfilled on earth is centered on what happens in his heart. He makes it possible for God to indwell in our hearts.

What I just said is, well, I don’t know, hard to even grasp.

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus gives an example to the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown. First, he read from Isaiah, a familiar passage to the people, but what happened next tells us that Jesus came to earth to do one thing. God’s will. And this commitment, taken in, will change a heart.

Let’s read first.

Luke 4:14-30

 

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

 

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

 

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

 

18 “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 the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 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. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

 

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

 

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

 

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

I can imagine the people listening to Jesus speak, loving the sound of his voice echoing the words of his Father to the chosen nation in the time of Isaiah, the prophet (Isaiah 61:1,2 Isaiah 58:6). His voice resonated with divine authority, enriched with the Spirit of God. The dove at baptism. His voice amongst his people.

I know that voice.

But when Jesus said in verse 21 that the Isaiah prophecy had been fulfilled “today” they did not understand yet his fulfillment of those words. What a paradox. They wanted to claim his powerful teaching for their community interests, for their gain, seeing him as Joseph’s son. Claiming ownership of all that he grew into being as a young man, hardly 30 years old. Oh, to be proud of one of their “own”, yet so far off the mark.

To fall so short of accepting him for God’s purpose, not theirs.

Jesus Sets the Will of God Apart

Jesus calls them on it. No prophet is accepted in his hometown.

And it is in the historical examples he gave of Elijah, with the widow from Zarephath, and Naaman, a Syrian (both unlikely choices representing a less than holy people), that he sets the will of God apart.

Jesus sets the will of God apart from all human intent.

The will of God manifests through his sovereignty to bring his nature, his power, his divine authority to his providence over every human. We are talkin’ outcomes. We are talkin’ changed circumstances. Or not. We are talkin’ God’s strength given in circumstances that are not changed. All those widows. All those with leprosy.

All of us. All of our scenarios. Because God’s purpose is not to heal, his purpose is to sanctify. To claim providence over us through the blood of his son.

There may be no physical healing. But spiritual healing has been done. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t to help those needing relief from earthly circumstances. We should, but for the purpose of his will to walk in his love for his people.

We all have 100% access to God’s will in our lives. I love this truth. Yet people are so confused by it, distracted by the finding of it.

It isn’t always going to look like a physical healing or rescue in our earthly world. But it will always look like a spiritual strengthening.

The tricky part is our free will. Which is why the examples Jesus’ used pricked the hearts of his hometown crowd. They did not want to be told that Jesus would only heal according to his Father’s will. That he would not exploit the spiritual gifts from his Father at the altar of human intent. The human gain of things.

That his divine nature has a purpose in every given moment.

That Jesus was standing ground on the will of his Father, and his Father’s Kingdom. That it wasn’t about crowd consent, mob rule. It was about his Father’s will.

And his life, his path, every moment like this one in his hometown, looking into the faces he had grown up with—all these moments—led to the moment in the Garden when he was alone, and said four words: thy will be done.

God’s will be done. This changes my mental landscape. It puts my focus on God, not my willful self interest.

Jesus gives us these four words to live by.

The Mystery of God’s Will

If we research God’s will in the digital search box, we find many opinions, interpretations and information because confirming, understanding, responding to God’s spiritual movement in our lives goes against our human nature. There are a lot of opinions, scriptures to call us to obedience. Yet he made us with a place in our heart to understand God’s will beyond our human intent.

Paul goes beyond the earthly banter. Consider what he says in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:7-8

 

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

 

Do we understand what he is saying? The sacrifice Jesus made in accordance with the riches of God’s grace gives us redemption. It took Jesus and his Father in heaven to save us. It takes Holy Spirit to give us a life on earth that we can live toward his glory. That we can live by his will.

God’s will was purposed in Christ, his beloved Son, whom he gave to us.

Jesus told us he saw Satan fall from heaven. (Luke 10:18) So, what was God’s goal according to this passage in Ephesians? Unity between heaven and earth under the reign of his Son. His Son on earth, begins his ministry by confronting Satan in the desert. God’s will be done.

This is how we bear testimony to others. Illuminate the mystery of God’s will by how we are redeemed through his Son and follow what Jesus did on earth.

We reveal the mystery of God’s will, his purpose, and his goal through the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We reveal his grace. The blood of Jesus. Toward unity between all things heaven and earth.

We help others see that God’s will is not so much a mystery. He is our Father.

Let’s get to it, human.