Luke 4:14-30 - Rapid Rejection
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Introduction:
Researchers have spent a lot of time trying to understand the quick changes of crowds. Some call it ‘group think.’ Others refer to it as ‘collective behavior.’ But it is clear that a crowd often reacts differently than a single person would in the same situation.
Today we are going to see how quickly a crowd can change. This seems to be a common theme throughout the ministry of Jesus on earth. Crowds either love Him or hate Him. There is either a group flocking toward Him or a group seeking to destroy Him.
Many today are no different that those in Christ’s time. They are crowd followers. If it is cool to follow Jesus, they continue going along with the crowd. If there is a cost involved, they quickly bolt for the exits.
As we study the rapid rejection of Christ in His hometown today, I want you to ask God to reveal your heart for Christ. I want you to ask that God searches you inside and out and tests whether you truly believe in the Messiah - the Christ - namely our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pray like the Psalmist:
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
May you truly understand and believe in the Messiah.
Join me as we read God’s Word for us today:
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
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 the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
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.”
And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ”
And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,
and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
But passing through their midst, he went away.
Prayer
Today we will see four distinct attributes that Christ showed as He came to earth. The first is…
I. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Power (14-15)
I. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Power (14-15)
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
According to most scholars and chronology experts, there is around a year to a year and a half break between the Temptation of Jesus ending in verse 13 and Jesus’s return to Galilee in verse 14.
This makes sense when we see that a report had gone out about Him in the surrounding country. This was because He had done some private ministry in this time period that had begun to spread abroad.
I have made a slide of a simplified chronological view so that you can see this gap and where we are in Jesus’ ministry currently.
John 1-4 fills in the gaps of this ministry period for Jesus which takes place in Judea with a few months in Galilee as well. During this time period, Jesus ministers with John the Baptist (John 1:19-34), He calls Peter and Andrew and Philip and Nathanael to be His disciples (John 1:35-51), He turns water into wine (John 2:1-11), He meets with and teaches Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), and He ministers to the Samaritan woman and other Samaritans (John 4:1-45).
This first period seen at the beginning of John’s Gospel is considered Jesus’ private ministry. He has begun ministering, but it is more focused as He develops His disciples. It is upon arriving to Galilee in Luke 4:14 that Jesus begins His actual public ministry. He will now have around two years of public ministry after this initial period of a more private ministry.
I hope that timeline helps you understand where we are in Jesus’ life as we begin studying today.
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Moving forward to verse 15, we see that now that He has returned, He starts off His public ministry by teaching in the synagogues of the area. And it becomes obvious to all that this Teacher is coming with power. Luke even asserts that the crowds are even glorifying Him. They notice that His teaching is different than the others.
We see the people of Capernaum recognize the power and authority of Jesus later in this chapter in verse 32:
and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.
Jesus came to earth with authority and power. He did not just come as a good man or as an example for us to emulate - although those are both true statements. But He came as the Messiah - fully God and fully man and came with all power and authority.
May we never miss the truth of Christ’s authority and power. He is not to be dismissed as just another prophet or a good man. He is fully God and has all power and authority as such.
Next we see that…
Scripture References: Psalm 139:23-24, John 1-4, Luke 4:32
II. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Purpose (16-21)
II. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Purpose (16-21)
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 the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
We have been told that Jesus came and started His public ministry in Galilee. He has been preaching in different synagogues and has been recieved positively so far. While in Galilee, He goes to His hometown of Nazareth and continues His custom of going and teaching in the synagogues.
For those who do not know what a synagogue was, it was not a replacement of the temple. No sacrifices could be made in the synagogues. They were, instead, places of worship for local Jews. Interestingly, there were no full-time pastors or teachers but instead there was usually a ruler who would approve different people to teach. Oftentimes, people from other areas would be allowed to give a sermon of sorts. This day Jesus was given the role to teach.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
Verse 17 lets us know that Jesus stood up to read from the scroll of Isaiah. Isaiah is an extremely long book and would been an impressive scroll to read from. The people of Jesus’ day didn’t have chapters and verses labeled like we do, so one had to know the Scripture well to find their place. Jesus goes right to Isaiah 61:1-2 and reads. We see how amazing His knowledge of the Old Testament was with how He picks out this Scripture and reads.
This is not just any average Scripture however. There is purpose in what He reads. You see, Israel recognized these two verses as being Messianic in nature. Listen to what He read:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus has come to:
1. Proclaim good news to the poor.
2. Proclaim liberty to the captives. (Set at liberty the oppressed)
3. Recover sight to the blind.
4. Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Let’s address these amazing, Messianic statements one by one.
1. Proclaim good news to the poor.
It is interesting that the Greek word for proclaim in the following two instances is the word for preach or proclaim while here the word is euangelizō (e-van-gah-leeze-oh) is used. This word is specifically used throughout the Scriptures to mean preaching the Gospel. This is a direct preaching of the Gospel of Jesus of Christ.
So who does Christ preach the Gospel to? Those who are poor in spirit. These are those who are marginalized and excluded - the outcasts. It is more than economically driven, though. It is those without hope. And my friends, if we are not in Christ, we should recognize that we are poor, because it is only those who realize that they are spiritually poor that can obtain the free gift of salvation. Only those who see their hopelessness and need for a Savior can be saved.
2. Proclaim liberty to the captives. (Set at liberty the oppressed)
The word liberty here in Greek is aphesis (ah-pha-sees) which means pardon and forgiveness. Jesus comes to free sinners from the chains of sin. We can be liberated from sin through the blood of Christ. If we repent of our sins and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we can experience true freedom.
3. Recover sight to the blind.
My friends, so many are blind, spiritually speaking, in our world today. They continually fall into pit after pit. They are blind to reason. They are blind to understanding the bad consequences of their decisions. They are blind to the truth.
Jesus did not only give sight to physically blind men and women while on earth, He opened and continues to open the eyes of the blind in spirit.
Christ offers light in the midst of the darkness. The light and truth of His Word can open the eyes of the blind and show them the way of salvation through Jesus.
And finally,
4. Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
This is a reference to the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God has come here and elsewhere. See Mark 1:15
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Note that Jesus does not complete verse 2 of Isaiah 61:2
Isaiah 61:2 (ESV)
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
Jesus makes it clear by His quote that His first coming is to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. It will be His second coming that will begin what we have studied as the Day of the Lord or mentioned here as the Day of Vengeance of our God. There is coming a day that will bring judgment. But right now, we live in the time before the consummation of the kingdom of God. As we have said time and time again, the kingdom of God is here - it has been inaugurated. But it will be fully consummated and complete one day in the future. In the meantime, souls can continue to be saved. People can come to Christ and have their eternities changed forever! We are in a time of the Lord’s favor. We are in a time of hope.
But my friends, this time will come to an end one day and all hope will be lost. I pray that all of us have accepted the gracious offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
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.”
If there was a mic back in Jesus time, this would have been when it would have been dropped. After quoting this Messianic passage, He leaves no room for interpretation of why He read it. He sits down and lets the people know that today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Jesus has clearly articulated to all the people there that He is the Messiah. Now we are left with the question - how will they respond?
Before getting to our next point, how do you respond to this? Do you recognize Jesus as the Messiah? Do you recognize that He the way and the truth and life? I pray that you do.
Moving forward we see that...
Scripture References: Isaiah 61:1-2, Mark 1:15
III. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Perception (22-27)
III. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Perception (22-27)
And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
The people are amazed at His articulation of the Scriptures. They all speak well of them until they start to remember that He is a local. Isn’t He Joseph’s son? The old familiar proverb that familiarity breeds contentment begins to take over. They start to allow their prejudices cloud the facts. They have heard about some amazing things Jesus has done already. And now they see Him in action - articulating the Word of God with clarity and grace.
But Jesus perceives this change of tone from the crowd. He understands their wickedness. In fact, although Luke only gives this short statement about the people’s criticism, Mark adds more to the account:
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Here, Mark fills in some of the gaps for us. We see that the people have in fact taken offense at Him. They are in essence saying, “Who do you think you are? You aren’t any better than us. You are one of us.”
Listen to His response.
And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Anyone who only sees Jesus as a gentle and passive man obviously doesn’t read their Bible. Here is where this interchange goes from positive to deadly.
Jesus sees that they are questioning who He really is since they think they are familiar with Him. They are already doubting what they are seeing because they think they know where He comes from. Instead of looking at the hard facts in front of them and seeing the truth of His teaching, they can’t get past knowing that He grew up in their hometown. He sees that they are doubting and knows that they want Him to do some type of sign to prove He is the Messiah.
Jesus does not proceed to give them a sign due to their lack of faith as filled in by Mark in chapter 1. Instead things get a little testy all of the sudden! Here is where we see the rapid rejection.
But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
And here is where the rebuke gets very personal!
Jesus brings up the account of Elijah and the drought and the widow of Zarephath which is found in 1 Kings 17. After predicting this drought to the evil king Ahab, Elijah flees to the brook Cherith and is fed by ravens sent by God. After the brook dries up, God has Elijah go to Zarephath and he stays with a widow there as God miraculously provides for all of them while he is there. This widow is even blessed with seeing the raising of her dead son by Elijah.
Perhaps most of you do not know where Zarephath is. We are told here that it is in the land Sidon. And it is important to know that the Sidonians were pagans and idolaters. Elijah is sent to Gentile pagans instead of his own people.
But Jesus doesn’t stop His rebuke there. He goes on…
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
There were many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha, but the Lord sovereignly chose to heal Naaman (2 Kings 5). Naaman was not only a leper and a Gentile, but he was the military leader of one of Israel’s worst enemies! Jesus has just mentioned two pagans that were able to see God work miraculously, but it is clear that the people of Nazareth present that day aren’t going to see God work any signs or wonders because their faith is futile.
Jesus has perceived the people’s lack of faith and their condemnation of Him. He came with amazing discernment. He saw what was in the heart of man.
Lastly, we see that…
Scripture References: Mark 6:3, 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 5
IV. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Perseverance (28-30)
IV. Jesus, the Messiah, Came to Earth With Perseverance (28-30)
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
The people of Nazareth quickly catch on to the rebuke that Christ has just given. He had told them that God will bless the Gentiles when Israel refuses to believe and obey. And that is just what is happening right now as well. He has insinuated that those in Nazareth are worse off than a pagan widow from Sidon and an enemy Assyrian commander.
Instead of repenting, the people are filled with wrath. You cannot help but think that Satan and/or his demons are playing a part in this interchange as well because the people get so angry that they seek to kill Jesus by throwing Him down a cliff. In a matter of moments, the people have gone from marveling and amazement at Jesus’s teaching to being ready to kill Him. How quickly the crowd can change.
We started the sermon off today discussing how quickly group think or collective behavior in a crowd can change.
My friends, the broad road that leads to Hell is filled with people following the crowd. They are following the crowd in their hatred of Jesus and His followers. They call evil good and good evil. This crowd had decided that it was good to kill an innocent man. In fact, they thought it was good to kill the Son of God.
We see this same crowd mentality as we come to the crucifixion of Christ. A week before Jesus was crucified we see the following in Christ’s Triumphal Entry:
And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
And a week later the crowd is saying the following:
Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.
How quickly the crowd can turn.
But in our account today, Jesus’ time for death had not come. He still had to complete His path to the cross. Let’s read verse 30:
But passing through their midst, he went away.
And in one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Jesus passes through their mist and goes away. One cannot but see here that this is a supernatural escape. It isn’t His first or last. John 8:59 and John 10:39 both speak of Christ escaping those who sought His life. There was coming a time for His death, but this was not it.
How amazing was Christ’s perseverance. His life was threatened, and as we have seen in these other parallel verses, He continues on His path to the cross. He knew what was ahead and kept walking in obedience to the Father anyway.
We can certainly learn a lot about perseverance from our Savior.
We are told what is ahead for us as well. Christ lets us know that there will be tribulation and persecution. There will be difficult times as we follow Christ. We as believers are not called to run from the fire but to run through the fire. And all of this with the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.
My friends, keep persevering like our wonderful Savior. Don’t quit. Fully rely on God to carry you along the way.
Scripture References: Matthew 21:9, Luke 23:20-23, John 8:59, John 10:39
Conclusion:
As we come to a close…
Today we have seen that…
Christ came with:
1. Power
2. Purpose
3. Perception
4. Perseverance
1. He came with power meaning that He carried the authority and power of God being both God and man.
2. He came with purpose meaning that everything He did was to fulfill His Messianic role as Lord and Savior.
3. He came with perception meaning that He understood what was in the heart of men.
4. He came with perseverance meaning that He never quit even when He knew it would end up costing Him His life on the cross.
Brothers and sisters, may we glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as we reflect on His glorious work as our Messiah and Savior.
Prayer