Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – I ran across a cartoon that shows an old man rocking in his chair accompanied by loud squeaks.

After several futile attempts to get rid of the squeaks, the angry man gets his shotgun and blows the chair to smithereens.

But as the man walks away, the squeaks are still there – in his knees!

Jesus runs into a similar problem in our text when He returns to his hometown as hero, identifies issues of sin He has come to resolve, only to be ridden out of town on a rail because people are blind to the fact that they are the problem!

After Jesus hung up his tool belt for the last time after 30 years as a carpenter, He made His way 70 miles south to Jerusalem to attend the annual Passover Feast.

Shortly thereafter, His public ministry began when He was baptized by His cousin and forerunner, John.

Then He was tested for 40 days in the wilderness by Satan – all under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

That takes us through v. 13 of Luke 4. But there is a large gap in time before v. 14.

For the next 1-1/2 years, Jesus continued to minister primarily in Judea, around Jerusalem.

None of the synoptic gospels (Matt, Mark or Luke) tells us about that, but John fills us in in the first 4 chapters of his gospel.

Jesus does take side trips back to Galilee, like to attend the wedding in Cana recorded in John 2, but mostly He is in Judea.

Eventually things get hot in Judea as religious leaders becoming increasingly jealous of his popularity and hostile to His message.

He returns to Galilee, up north, and begins a year of ministry.

He is greeted with wild acclaim at first, but His popularity diminishes as He presses the spiritual nature of His ministry and refuses the role of political savior that Jews everywhere imagined for their Messiah.

Vv. 14-15 summarize much of this Galilean ministry: “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.

15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.”

Note that Jesus is always being led and empowered by the HS.

If Jesus needed that, how much more we need to follow Paul’s instruction in Eph 5:18 to “be continually being filled with the HS.”

We need to be giving ourselves to Him on a day-by-day and minute-by-minute basis.

Now, Jesus left as a carpenter; He returns as a full-blown celebrity.

His name is on everyone’s lips because of His miracles and His teaching.

Everyone is anxious to see Him and they are not disappointed.

Galilee was a region in the north of Palestine comprised of rolling hills that was amazingly fertile – with a great climate and plentiful water.

It was the garden of Palestine.

It was about 50 miles north to south and 25 miles wide, bordered on the east by the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee.

The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that there were as many as 204 villages, none less than 15,000 people – a population of 3,000,000 –an exaggeration, but representative.

To this region Jesus now gives His attention and Luke records this Galilean ministry from here through Luke 9:50.

Now, notice v. 15: “And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.”

Jewish worship centered around the temple in Jerusalem.

Sacrifices could only be offered there.

But beginning at the time of the Babylonian captivity in 606 BC, the widely dispersed Jews need places to center their worship and community life.

Synagogues were the result.

Much like modern churches, they kept scrolls of Scripture and became the center for learning and social life and worship each Sabbath.

They were governed by elders, though they typically had no permanent pastor or teacher.

Services consisted of reading from the OT in Hebrew (which many people did not understand by that time) which was translated into Aramaic or Greek.

There were prayers, some songs and someone – a visiting Rabbi or respected community leader, would teach.

Synagogues were perfect places for Jesus to center His activity as He went from town to town.

Notice in v. 16 that when He arrived in Nazareth, “And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.”

It’s tempting to camp there.

It teaches us Jesus was a church-goer.

One can only imagine how bad the teaching must have been sometimes from His perspective, as rank amateurs attempted to explain what He increasingly knew to perfection.

Nevertheless, He habitually went.

It seems to me if Jesus found the need to be in church, we need it all the more.

Beloved, don’t let weak excuses keep you away.

We all need the teaching and the fellowship even if it is less than perfect.

That’s why the writer to Heb says in 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”

We have an awesome responsibility to both give and receive in the House of God, and Jesus never neglected either.

Now, in vv.

16-30 Jesus comes home.

Luke includes this account because it precisely captures Jesus mission.

If you want to know what He was about, here it is.

Jesus returns as a hometown hero.

It should have been a glorious homecoming.

It did start that way – He was invited to speak that morning, and the initial response was very positive, but it quickly turned very ugly.

Why?

The nature of His sermon!

Paul told Timothy in in I Tim 4:13, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

That’s the preacher’s job description.

It’s all about the Word.

Read it; explain it; apply it.

Exactly what Jesus does.

The reading and explaining go fine – but it all came apart as it often does in the application.

I think Luke positioned this right after the last temptation of Christ because it illustrates people don’t want the real work of redemption – soul-cleansing repentance.

They want spectacular.

That was the case in Nazareth and it led to disaster.

To understand what happened, our outline is to look at the Exposition, the Exhortation (application) and the Exasperation.

*I.

Exposition*

Vv. 16-21: “16 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.

17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After the preliminaries, the ruler of the synagogue hands Jesus the Isaiah scroll.

Jesus “finds” the passage He wants to teach – a well-known passage on Israel’s future glory from Isaiah 61.

The reading was dramatically appropriate.

Now comes a double whammy.

The first whammy is – Jesus stops right in the middle of the passage from Isaiah.

If you check it out you will see that He reads through the first phrase of Isaiah 61:2, and then He stops.

He reads, “to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor;” He leaves out “and the day of vengeance of our God.”

Everyone would have wondered, “Why did He do that?

Why stop in mid-sentence?”

Well, from our distant perspective, we know why!

What Jesus read perfectly describes the healing, redemptive work of Messiah.

He left out judgment.

We know now that is because these are dealt with in 2 separate comings.

He came the first time to suffer and die and offer salvation to all who would believe; He will come the second time to bring judgment and final reconciliation of all things.

And so, as often happens in the OT, we have a prophecy of the first and second coming of Christ right together in the same sentence.

They could not know that, but Jesus knew, and so He stopped.

Then came the second whammy.

“20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down (typical position for teaching.

He was not rejoining the audience) And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

(What will the hometown hero say?

What He said blew their minds!)

21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Are you kidding me?! How would you like to go to church, having someone read a prophecy and say, “Well, that’s me, Friends.

What Isaiah prophesied 700 years ago – it’s happening, right here, right now, right before your eyes.

It’s a new age.”

Then he explains the text.

Now – there’s a big question here?