Sunday 30th November 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 30^th November 2025

Speaker: Richard Tan

Sermon Title: Jesus, our promised Messiah

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:12-22

 Chapter four verses 14 to 22. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the seventh day he went into the synagogue as was his custom.

He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, unrolling it. He found a place where it is written. 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 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down the eyes of everyone in the synagogue. We're fussing on him. He began by saying to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. All spoke well of him and were amazed of the gracious words at the gracious words that came from his lips.

Isn't this Joseph's son? They ask, God bless this Reina.

Thank you for the reading of scripture, me and good morning to all of you. You know, when I was young, mom told me, keep your head down, mind your own business and don't matter into other people's affair. And so I grew up and became a pastor.

Life has a lot of twist and turns. But if we trust in a season or where God is leading us, where God is calling us, we always know that he has the power for continue to show his power, to make all things beautiful in his time. You know, this Sunday morning as we gather here. To begin remembering the coming of Jesus to advance to the lighting agenda.

We want to remember also ourselves where we are in our relationship. With the father and where he's taking us. Well, a bit of short history about myself. Uh, Joanne is my lovely wife and, uh, we have been happily married for 31 years. I'm happily married, immediate as whether she is. And, and we have two grown up children.

Amanda, Annette, and Amanda is completing her master in law. Annette is somewhere in America, uh, studying, uh, counseling. And one other thing he loves to do is strict evangelism and uh, hopefully he will coming back soon to join us for Christmas. And I've been ministry for 38 years. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know the age, eh, started at two years old.

And really, uh, if couple of weeks time, I'm gonna celebrate my 60th birthday, but as I look back through life, I can see how God has ordained our season and many times. In the sense of where is God calling me next? Now, for some of us, we are still pretty young. Some of us we feel that our seasons is, is not then anymore.

We don't have the same strength, but yet the word of God tells us in the kingdom there is no retrenchment and there's no retirement. Amen. And so I planted the church 20 years ago and I stepped down at the end of June. And along the way, uh. I'm always trying to mind my own business. And your dear pastor Jamie reached out to me, asked me whether I can help to be part of, uh, what is happening in law Mara.

And my mindset is never about that church. My church, I think in the kingdom. We are in one church. Now, there are times I've been to, been to churches and I love visiting churches. I am the best number one pew warmer or church hper. There is a church shopper. Since, uh, past few years, I visited about 70, 80 churches, right?

And I have own little notes. I make notes about certain how certain church do certain things, and I Oh, yes. I try not to be busy body, but Mom was right, huh? Keep her hair down. But the thing is this, all church are the same. Same in one sense. We are all called to proclaim the gospel. All church are the same because we are supposed to build a community that we can really live up the gospel together.

And all church are the same because we have the spirit of unity. We are not trying to bring unity. We are not trying to create unity. We are manifesting unity. Amen. And, but the thing is, if all churches are the same, then what's next? It's about keep on practicing, not about being a perfect church, but to be a healthy church.

You know, and most time ever going been to church visits, most people do not know me. I fly under the radar. I come in and I just disappeared. That's why I say I'm the best church shopper looking around. But once in a while I go to a church where I have friends there and they're most welcoming. Where they see me, they say, what you doing here?

Wow. Right? I say, uh, are you, are you staying on us? I say, yeah, I'm thinking all the good stuff, you know, and you know, but the thing is this.

There are times I've been to churches. I will tell you, it is amazing. One time I've been to visit a church, first time and after service, I was talking to this elderly couple for half an hour was talking about this, talking about that, and. Afterwards, I asked this elderly couple, so how long have you guys been in this church?

He said, actually, this is our first time visiting this church. And they asked me, how long have you been in this church? Actually, this is my first time visiting this church, you know, and we have a good love, you know, and people were walking past us and we were talking away. But no one actually say this.

Two, maybe two, uh, three person may be just new to the church. But the thing is just many times we do not judge a church by being unfriendly because people don't shake our hand. Or people say to us or greet us, right? Many times we judge a church by that, but along the way I begin to discover sometime people don't want to connect.

It's because they are afraid to connect. People don't connect. It's because you know why? They're just like you and I that some Sunday we come to church. We just want to sit by ourselves. We have too many things on our plate, too many things happening in our life that we just cannot somehow really want to make time to for someone.

We just hope today God will speak to us, and that's okay. But if you allow what the Lord is saying to us, to his words, there will be breakthrough. And here in chapter four of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus just came back from the wildness. Do you know what happened to him for 40 days in the wilderness? Right?

He was fasting, he was praying, and he was tempted by the devil. And what was the devil doing? He was testing Jesus' identity. If you are truly the son of God, if you are truly the Messiah, but we need to go back a chapter earlier when Jesus went to get himself baptized. And then it says, the heavens open, right?

The spirit comes like a daf. I landed on him, and then there's a voice of heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. What a fantastic announcement that Jesus begins his ministry being blessed by the Father. That means Jesus has advantage, a divine advantage, because in those days, if you go back to biblical time, uh.

A father always want the son to succeed, the family business. That son will go to tutelage, go to training, understanding how the business is run, and then they will come and a father will call all the village elders, all his business partner, and then he will do a ceremony and he will say to everyone there, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.

And when the father says that, he's saying to everyone, the village elders as well as the business partners, you can do business with my son because that man has integrity. That man has character, but when a father doesn't do that in a public ceremony. It is hinting the community. Stay away from that guy.

He's up to cheat you. And so when the father announced that this is my beloved son, it is not just announcement to that village or that people, but to whole creation. This is my beloved son and home. I'm well pleased, and I'm going to bring all creation into reconciliation through him. Amen. Amen. The moment you know who you are, you must learn how to live it up.

But Jesus, the you tell us, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The spirit actually led him to the wilderness. And why is this so? Because in Jewish custom. Every great man and woman must go through a time of testing, not because they're not good enough, but this testing is to reveal who they truly are.

And so the devil came and tamed Jesus. Now the devil is a master of bad timing. He did not come to Jesus when Jesus was as his weakest. Yes, physically he was hungry, but he came to Jesus when Jesus was spiritually at his strong, at his best as his strongest. And sometime when we as believers he say, oh, I'm going to spiritual warfare, we often think it's a devil attacking us.

But what if you think about spiritual warfare is very new. Are now invading into the kingdom darkness and the devil is resisting you and Jesus will say later, no gates or hell can prevail, or that he gates or hell will not prevail against you. You see, the truth is this, unlike the father who has limited unlimited budget, the devil has limited budget.

He cannot spend too much time on you. He just want to attack you. And often his method is the same. His method is go back right to the Garden Eden when again, a scripture opened up for us, man and woman was made in the image and lightness of God. But when they went near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what happened did.

God says, this did. God says that. No, the Lord did not want to eat the don't want you to eat this fruit because God was afraid you will be like him. But the truth is, Adam and Eve was already like God, make an image, make the likeness. You see, when the light came in to Adam and Eve was, if God doesn't want you to eat this fruit.

The lie is what we will say today is the lie of you are not good enough, and the devil has been using this same trick over and over again. Remember I told you he has limited budget. And many of us has fallen into that trap on many occasion when we can hear the whisper or we can hear the shouting deep, we didn't ask or around us, you are not good enough.

And this what happened to Jesus in the wilderness. If you are really the son of God, the father has already declared, you are my beloved son, but devil put in one extra word if you are the son of God. And then he went to tell him how he should be the Messiah. A Messiah that performs the spectacular, a Messiah that wis the kingdom to the easy way.

But Jesus said, this is not who I am. And so when he came back from the wilderness into his own hometown, he say he came back full of the spirit. Amen. The willingness is not to test how weak you are. The wilderness is always the hounding of the sound of you are not good enough. But then when you establish yourself in what God has said about you, I am the V child of God.

Everything will come to a pause. And Paul later in Ephesians chapter one says this, right? If you ignore Ephesians one, verse three, four, he say, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He has chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

Hallelujah. Long before you perform in your mother's womb, long before you are given a name, God has retaught of you before the foundation of the world.

That's why I don't believe there is accidental kids. There are accidental parents, but never accidental kids. Because imagine if your parents tells you you were not meant to be born, you are accident. No. What happens your whole life where bad things happen to you? What will you say? That was not supposed to happen to me.

I was supposed not to be around. But if the father thought of you right before the foundation of the world, he say, I ordain John, perhaps, or Luke, perhaps, or Jane, perhaps, or Mary, to be born for such a time as this. And the only thing that I want that child of mine to know is how much he or she's loved by me.

And her or his life was to discover that love. You know what happens? John says later in his, one of his letters, perfect love cast out of yes,

how many, how wonderful it is that we are caught into being to be loved by God. He love us before we exist. He loves us while we are now walking on planet Earth and he will love us much more where we enter into greater glory. But again and again, that lie will come. You are not good enough. And we fight back that lie by knowing like Jesus, we have been given a divine advantage.

We are blessed. That's where when Jesus began his sermon on the mouth, he said, blessed are you.

We are born into a place, a place of blessing. Hallelujah. We are born with advantage already. Many years ago when I was cutting Joanne, I was in Bible school and I wanna give her a special treat, you know, to celebrate our relationship. I was no cheaps skate. I was looking for a place slightly above McDonald's, right, but just a bit below one of this Michelin restaurant.

But as a intelligence student, I didn't have much so. What happened is this, you know, you bring her to that place. You hope she ordered, not the entree, just the main to do, and hopefully not a, these, hopefully how we say I'm full.

But imagine, imagine for a moment if a rich relative bless you with huge finance. When you go to a restaurant, will you not agree? You order differently. If you have been blessed by the highest, the most high, you have been caught by the most high, you have every spiritual blessing from heaven bestowed to you right now.

Will you not order differently in the way you pray? In a way you expect God to move. You do not just believe God, to do the things you know God can do. You trust in God to do the audacious, the impossible because he is God. See, the thing is this, for many of us, when we do not know how love we are, we can pray for someone who is unwell.

We can pray for someone for God to bless, but sometime we wonder what? God bless me.

And this is where Jesus enter into the synagogue, and we can look at the next slide. You have it is this, you know, in chapter four he went to the synagogue and was his custom. He says on the day above, he went to the scroll of Isaiah. Now, today you and I are privileged. We have our Bible in our mobile phones or like, or like me, you could be old school and it's easy to find most other books and chapters and verses because there are chapters and verses.

Why in Jesus time it was one huge long scroll. There's no chapter, there's no verses, but Jesus could find the very spot and say, this is who I am. He say he found the place where he was written. Next slide. He says,

can we in the next slide please? The spirit of the Lord is upon me that he has anointed me where you know your worth. You order differently. And Jesus said, I know my worth. I'm loved by the Father, and his spirit is upon me. He has anointed me. And anointing means something has been bestowed on him. And that is divine authority, divine power and divine ability.

And he says this to preach the gospel to the poor.

What else?

He has sent me to hear the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set a liberty those who are oppressed or proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the scripture. Isaiah had a lot of things to say. Actually when Jesus closed the scroll, it says, the next one was the day of the Lord's Vengeance.

But Jesus first coming was not to announce the day of the Lord's vengeance, but he was declaring the favorable year of the Lord.

Jesus found himself in scripture and said, this is who I am. I think this is a good challenge that have, I find myself in scripture. Have I found myself? How many of you have a favorite scripture verse? Okay. If you have a favorite scripture verse, most likely you're finding yourself there. My favorite scripture verse is Proverbs three, right five to six.

Trust in Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Right? In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your path. That is my lifers. Every time I come to a crossroad, every time, no, I know what's next. The word trust, the Lord comes strongly. One more time. And this was Jesus' life verse.

He, he must have read Isaiah before and there were many times he had read it. Of course we know by the Spirit he inspire Isaiah to write their prophecy. Psalm six, 700 years earlier. But here Jesus say, this is who I am. I have a divine advantage because I'm God's beloved son, and this advantage is when I enter into any space, any situation, I'm here to announce the good news to the poor, and whoever is brokenhearted, I'm gonna heal them.

Right? Whoever has been. A captive, I am going to set them free.

Every one of us here has our heartbroken one time or another, and some of us still carry their brokenness even after many years. Some of us are, you know, some part of the scripture you read the, the, the, the set, the, the, the, the liberate, the captives or the set, the prisoner free is a, it is interesting.

What makes you a captive? Someone kidnap you right in, in the biblical time where you go to war, you can be a prisoner of war. You are, you have been caught. But what makes you a prisoner? I'll tell you. Everyone who goes to prison sentence out there. You know what I mean? They commit a crime. They, they had to pay for their crime.

They got sent into a prison. But the captives is different. The captive is someone who has caught that and put that into bondage.

Like in our society, we can be, be captives of our culture. Now, not everything about culture are bad or wrong. I mean, I've been here for 20 years in Australia. One thing I like about Australians is this spirit of midship egalitarian. No one get left behind and that kind of culture we should receive into the kingdom.

There's good culture, but there's some culture we must reject that in recent time, the cancer culture. Right. Theism has come into Australia. So what happened is people don't, in those days, we can disa we call it, uh, agree to disagree, but literally people lose their job. When they say certain things people don't like, they go to the media, they, they can lose their job, they can now people are canceling them up and that kind of culture we must reject.

But then the other kind of culture that we see, we must redeem. Like alcoholism is very high in wa. In fact, WA drinks more than the national average. Australia is the, have a strong gambling culture, okay? Is the third most what I call gambling, uh, country in the world. Gambling is so rife. You see that 70% of adults actually gamble one way and another.

And gambling is so common that sometimes people think it's as common as brushing our teeth. And that kind of culture we must redeem because we know people has been broken by gambling, by drinking, by substance abuse, by all kinds of stuff. But people are brokenhearted. They have been grieved. And sometimes culture has captured them, but sometimes there are prisoners who are people who are prisoner of their own thoughts.

That must be set free through the renewing of the mind. But Jesus said, I come, I don't care how mess out your life is. I'm here to tell you this is a acceptable year of the Lord in Jewish time. They call it jubilee. Now, if you were a Jew in those days, you better pray. Jubilee is coming soon because every 49 year on the 50 50th year is where you're set free from all your debts.

You're set free from all, uh, uh, so-called your so-called your mortgages, your debts and everything is because debt is called a year of rest. In those days, there were people who had become, were called debt slave. Huh? Inden servants in a sense because they own the debt they have to serve until they pay off their debts.

Imagine you live in those days. Your parent owned a huge debt to a landowner and you were just a little boy. You must wait for 49 years before the debt is paid by the time. You can't play bubbles anymore. I'm back. So I'm saying that when you, you are so young. By the time that debt is paid, you are very old.

But then there is a law called the law of the Kingsman Redeemer means you have a health, a healthy and wealthy relative who came to pay off your debts before Jubilee comes. So that if your parents own the landowner, some huge sum of money, your little boy, the, your rich cousin comes and say, no, I'm not gonna wait for you to, for another 49 years before Jubilee comes.

I'm gonna pay off your debt. You know, the moment that debt was paid, that is Jubilee and Jesus. Then say, come. Those are you who are broken. Those are, you have been captives. Those are you who are prisoners. I am telling you Jubilee here because I am your Kingsman redeemer, the promised Messiah. And once you understand this, you read this text, you must begin to realize it is very confronting.

It is not just a reading, but Jesus is telling us his purpose, his mission, and when all us are in Christ, Isaiah 61 also becomes our purpose and our mission. How do we then see sin? How then, then do we see brokenness? Then you begin to read through scripture. Is sin a crime to be punished or a sickness that needs healing?

If you read the Old Testament law on the surface, often it looks exist. Sin is a crime to be punished. The Old Testament law is a lot about crimes and punishment. Do you agree? But if we go deeper, because the Bible tells us in Hebrew what we see in the old are just shadows because they're pointing at the substance that's in Christ.

The law is a shadow. But the gospel is the better covenant with better promises. Then you begin to see something very different. That sin is not a crime to be, uh, to be punished, but sin is a sickness to be healed.

Read this text with me one more time. Read it through the lens of grace. Go back to Isaiah.

Not this one, the previous text. Thank you. No,

the spirit of the law is upon me. Slide three.

All right, very good. Can we read this together now through the lens of grace, right through the lens of the gospel? Say, let's do it together. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to set a liberty, those who are oppressed.

To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Can you see grace? Can you sense a love of God that the someone next to me right now could be broken, could be a captive, could be a prisoner, but I am here next to this person to announce the good news. How do we do that? Gimme five more minutes. I'll unpack everything and we will close, right?

Every Monday I go to tafe. I'm studying my certificate for in training and assessment. I hope to get a certificate for, so I can do vocational training in the Bible school. In my class. There are many kinds of people from different industries, from the health industry to the mining industry to to beau musicians as well as.

Educators, I'm the only pastor there, so you know, you are a pastor in, in circle. In the marketplace. People dunno how to take onto you. So we, first, first Monday, we are sharing where you're working for. I'm a, I'm an engineer, I'm a doctor, I'm a no, no a nurse. I'm a, uh, uh, education assistant. And here I'm saying I'm a pastor.

Everyone look at me like, oh God. And someone say, here, here, here, here is a religious not, and I'm saying I'm religious, but no, not, you know, and, and. So I was put in teams and this lady was next to me, and this lady swears all the time, it's F this and F that. A lot of effing along the way. Yeah. You remove all the f She's a small doctor, but, and I was sitting next to her and, and every time she f this, F that she looks at me.

Sorry father. Sorry father. I say I'm sorry I'm not Catholic, but it's okay. You know? And second week came and she was effing this and effing that. I say, woman, no. I was like, Jesus woman is obviously you are, you know, under some stress. How can I help you? And she was having some issues with our assignment.

I was helping her this and that. And before a friendship, few, few Mondays later, we were supposed to do a one-to-one training and she asked me, Richard, can you be my student? Oh, what a privilege. Right? And she was actually. Supposed to do a, a simulated training, how to drive one of use huge mining vehicle kind of thing.

So I say, oh, before, uh, I do my presentation before our, our assessor. Can I do some rehearsal with you? So I say, yeah, yeah. So we went to a room she was trying to practice and she just under lost strength and she start to f here, F there again. And about half an hour later, I say to her, I say, look, I'm thirsty.

I wanna have some coffee. Uh, why don't you stay here and start practicing after that, afterward, I come back, I went there. I did have my coffee. I went to the toilet. I said, pray the Lord, you better do something for her. She needs your grace right now. She needs your kindness, your present and everything.

And when I came back in. She was so alive. You say, Richard, I got it. And she drew all the pictures on the whiteboard, step by step, how to do it and say, I'm ready. And then she presented and that was a wonderful presentation. And I told her later that, now technically I know how to drive one of those vehicle because you experience so well.

You see my friend discipling begins at the point of first contact. Don't think you must get people across the line so you can disciple them. You bring kingdom values and kingdom virtues everywhere you go. When you say thank you, when you say welcome, when you say, no worries. When you acknowledge people for what they're doing, you are replanting the kingdom seat.

It doesn't takes a lot of effort, but it takes a lot of conscientious steps in that sense. Some ask me and say, I no longer have the strength. You see, God works at the level of our capabilities. Amen. That boy have five love and two fish, and what happen? Fight thousand people were fed. And I always laugh at, because it said the 12 basket left.

I imagine the mom say, son, go have your own picnic. Here's five love and two fish. At the end of the evening he came, mom, I cho, I got 12 baskets. What happened? What do you do? God think now this is how God's gonna do for us. So asked no longer feel that we have the capability. But the thing is this, you have something that the devil cannot take then that is the power of prayer.

Your prayer can do real damage in the kingdom of darkness. Pray. Ask God how you, how you want me to pray? Teach me how to pray and God will begin to stir our heart believing something is gonna happen. Because Father, as I pray, there are broken people out there as I pray. There are prison, there are prisoners, and there are Cists.

There are people who are lost. Like Father I pray and announce Jubilee will be upon them. You see, your prayer can cross nation Noni visa. It is cheaper though. I learned this from a young pastor many years ago when I was deciding in New Zealand. I will close this. He was a youth pastor and he runs a Friday youth gathering.

But what happened was this elderly lady always come to the youth gathering and he, he just felt she shouldn't be there. And, and she couldn't clap and dance like young people, and she was very awkward. Her present, and, and, and once in a while she's talking to herself. And so this young pastor was a bit perturbed by this elderly lady in his youth gathering, and he went to the senior pastor, he says, he asked the senior pastor, uh, is it wrong to pray for the Lord to take her home?

Then the senior pastor say, why he say it is because I find her present very disturbing. She comes every Friday talking to herself. She can't join into all activities. Now, the senior pastor was very wise. He say before you do anything, get to know her first. And a few days later he woke up. With a grove at the back of his spine.

It was very painful. He couldn't bend. He couldn't walk, but he had to be at the youth meeting. So he told his friends, come and pick me up. Don't tell any

testing. Don't tell anyone that I had this grove on my back. Just put me by the door. I'll just stand up straight. So after the youth meeting, I can shake hands with the youth, this and that. So after the youth meeting, he saw this old lady coming towards him. Now some people walk, but she's su sashay towards him, you know, saw him.

So just imagine the Jaws theme song, turn and Hey, he said, oh no, she's coming towards me. And the old lady told him, the Lord told me that you have a grove at the back of your spine. And the Lord say he's gonna heal you right now. And he told me at that moment, I say to the Lord, Lord, take me home. Anyone can pray for me except this old lady.

Lord, take me home. You know? Of course, God didn't take this young man home, right? And within an hour or so, the grove went away and he could, could walk again, and next day he was excited. He told the senior pastor what happened that night. He said, wow, that's old lady. And he said, wow. He, he just sends God.

He say, wow. How come she's always come to our youth meeting course? The pastor say, you know, she was mattering to herself. She was not mattering to herself. She was praying. She was praying for the young people and the spirit told her about your situation and. Don't you when you are you glad she trust in the Lord and move in the power of God's grace.

And she, next time she saw her, he will hug her and kiss her and then, and then start saying to her, oh, why is a secret? Oh, why is a secret? And this old lady say, well, if you can't see well like me, you can't hear well like me. And your hormones are way down low. The devil cannot tell you, and she'll have a good love.

And from that day on, she'll bring her everywhere to meet people who couldn't come to church, go to the hospital and people get a light to Jesus. And many came into the kingdom. Many received miraculous healing, and she lived for many more years. What I'm saying to you is this. This scripture that we have before us is not for the young, and it's for every child of God to say, Lord, your spirit that is on Jesus is your spirit.

Now living in me, I already have divine advantaged. All I need to do is Lord, lead me to those who are broken hearted. Sit with me, those who are captive, and help me to set free the prisoners that make me like you, oh Lord, that everywhere I go, I can tell people this is the acceptable year of the Lord.

Amen. Amen. Then your neighbor and say, amen. Come. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your glorious word. We thank you for truth. We thank you for the example of Jesus, the promised Messiah, that he comes

and His word to us, he came to seek and save the loss, and what a privilege we have been found by our Lord. And he has saved us that he has called us to be a blessing to sow unto others. So father, I pray for my brother and sister in Christ, that Father in Jesus' name. There anyone who is still brokenhearted, who's still a cap, who's still a prisoner.

Father, I thank you. Your word do not come as condemnation. It comes as life because you not see our sin as a crime to be punished by as a wound to be healed. So father heals the wounds of everyone here right now. But such, so much more. I pray for a fresh stirring of faith that they will pray. They will trave, they will believe that Lord, one more time, you're gonna move in the most powerful and tender, tender way that your name will be glorified.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.