TOP's Mission Statement

Pastor Gideon

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 taught 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. And he stood up to read. 17 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 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,
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 and 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! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum. ’”
24 “I tell you the truth,” 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 down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

The verses before this passage was about the temptation of Jesus in the desert for 40 days and how he came out victorious.

v14 shows He came in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nazareth was his hometown. Here he often spoke in the synagogues.

He spoke from Isaiah and he stopped at "proclaim the year of the Lord's favour". He did not complete Isaiah's passage where it included judgement. That is because that was referring to the future.

Jesus was actually defining his ministry. And he did it in his hometown. He was outlining His purpose, His mission, His agenda.

But what He said made the people so angry, they wanted to kill Him.

His first reference was regarding the widow in Zarephath. Not the widows in Israel. Elijah asked the widow to feed him first even though it was the last meal the widow had. But God provided for the widow throughout the famine after that.

Next was regarding Elisha wanting a double portion of anointing. There were many in Israel with leprosy yet God did not heal them but Naman who was a Syrian.

The people got angry when they heard this, as they expected a messiah who came only for the Jews. But Jesus said the widows, the oppressed, the imprisoned and the blind were not only from the Jews. They saw Jesus through coloured lenses, they saw him as Joseph's son, a Jew who would come for their own.

But the good news is that God came for ALL OF US.

But we may be guilty ourselves of excluding certain people. That includes our country's majority. We may not be able to preach to them "but if they ask me, I'll tell them why I believe."

We are also guilty in type casting certain races, especially the Chinese. We call ourselves Chinese as "tong yan" meaning human. But other races are labelled "kui" or "kau" which is degrading. We cannot have this in the church.

Our mission statement is to reach out to ALL. The community people can really test our love. We had about 480 that came to the Big Party and more than 300 attended the service. We need to reach out to these as God has called TOP for this purpose. It's not easy but remember what Jesus did, His love had no boundaries, no limits.

How far can our love go? To the cross, to the cross, to the cross.