No honor in hometown; Luke 4: 14-30

This morning we have come in our ongoing study of the Gospel of Luke, to the first sermon that Luke records of the preaching of Jesus Christ.  And yet we should understand that this wasn’t the first message Christ had preached, but simply the first that Luke records.  Actually, Jesus had been preaching the gospel of repentance, the same message that John the Baptist had preached, for about a year already.  So the question arises why did Luke pluck this particular event out of the timeline of Christ’s life to begin his record of Christ’s ministry?  And the answer is that Luke suspends His chronology for the sake of theology.

Luke has been establishing in the preceding passages the credentials of Christ as the Messiah, the Holy One of God that had been prophesied in the Law and the Prophets.  He has given testimony from John the Baptist, from Zacharias, from Simeon, from Anna, from Elizabeth, from Mary and the angel Gabriel that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  Luke also included the baptism of Christ where the voice of God confirmed that Jesus was His Beloved Son, and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit had descended upon Christ in bodily form.  Now, Luke presents this one particular event in the ministry of Christ to give yet another testimony to being the Messiah, and that is of Christ Himself.  Jesus Himself will plainly state that He is the Messiah, sent from God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecy.

So now we understand the purpose of this break in chronology, and if you want to fill in the blanks as to what happened in that year since Satan’s temptation of Christ as Jesus began his ministry to Judea and Galilee, you can find that record in the book of John, chapters 1-4.  For our purposes, Luke has condensed it down to just two verses, that of 14 and 15.

But what I want to focus on today is this event that happened when Jesus had returned to His hometown, and for the first time begins to preach to the very people that He had grown up with.  We see Him returning to Galilee first, and then making His way through all the small villages in Galilee to eventually coming to his hometown, which was Nazareth.  We sang a song today about Jesus the Nazarene.  He spent the first 30 years of his life there, and though He would make his home later in Capernaum, He would forever be associated with Nazareth. In John 1:46 Nathanael said to Philip, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" It was almost a derogatory association that Christ carried for the rest of His life.

Let’s start with verse 16 which sets the stage for this important message that Christ gives in his hometown.  “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.”  Nazareth was a relatively large town, not just a village.  Some historians believe that it contained as many as 20,000 residents at this time.  And this synagogue would probably not be the only one in the area.

Let me say a word about synagogues.  They are not to be confused with the temple.  The law allowed only one temple and that had to be in Jerusalem.  The temple was the only place that the regular sacrifices could be performed.  It was where the priests served and the priestly rituals and festivals were performed according to the law.  But especially during the time of the Jewish exile, and during the time when the temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians, there arose a need for there to be a local gathering place where Jews could come together to learn the scriptures and be taught the law of God.  So there became a tradition in Israel that stated that if you had a minimum of 10 men, you could start a synagogue.  They often were associated with certain rabbis.  It was a place to come to be taught the scriptures.

The scriptures were contained in hand written scrolls, and they would have been very valuable and were stored in the synagogues.  The average person did not have the scriptures available to them.  So they came on the Sabbath usually, but also throughout the week at various appointed times, to hear the scriptures read aloud so that they might learn them, and also to hear a sermon taught by one of the rabbis there.  They sometimes had an elementary school associated with it.  In a large city such as Jerusalem, there could be as many as a couple of hundred synagogues.  There was virtually one on every corner, much like our churches today.  They would be located within a Sabbath Day’s journey in every neighborhood.  So in many ways, the synagogue was a place which was very similar to our modern day churches.

And notice that the verse says that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath as was His custom.  In other words, it was habitual, He was accustomed to go to the synagogue every Sabbath.   I mean, if anyone had a good reason not to go to church, Jesus had a reason.  He was the Word, He was the head of the church.  He didn’t need to be taught anything.  But He went there faithfully.  And notice that when He went there in faithfulness, God opened up an opportunity for Him to present His gospel.

So many times we miss out on divine opportunities because we are not faithful in the little things.  We miss out on spiritual growth because we are not faithful in the custom of coming together with other believers in the church to be taught the Word.  Christ is our example that being found faithful, God gives greater opportunity.  More and more I am convinced of the need for progressive discipleship; that is, a steady progress in our faith, of being faithful to hear, then faithful to obey and apply, then faithful to hear again, then faithful to obey and apply which continues in an ongoing  pattern of perseverance which results in being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  Though postionally our salvation was accomplished at our new birth, practically our salvation must be worked out day after day.  Phil. 2:12:  “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Now there was a custom in the synagogue that when a visiting rabbi was present, he would be given an opportunity to read scripture and speak it’s exegesis.  And word had obviously gotten back home that Jesus had become a preacher and a teacher, and so when the appropriate time in the service came He was handed a scroll to read and explain for the people in attendance.  And I’m sure that the place was packed to overflowing.  Jesus had already become quite famous, so more than likely there were many more visitors than usual who overflowed the building.

Jesus took the scroll of the book of Isaiah and found the passage which was in chapter 61.  Traditionally, the rabbi would stand up to read the scripture and sit down to teach.  So Jesus stands up and reads this scripture which was well known to be a prophecy concerning the Messiah, and then when He finished He rolled up the scroll and sat down to teach.

And I’m sure that what Luke gives us here is a synopsis of Christ’s message and the scripture, there was undoubtedly much more said.  But this is what he records Christ reading.  "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." And He closed the book, 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."

Now before we can understand fully the significance of this event, we must first understand the significance of this particular passage.  First of all, Christ says the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him.  Luke repeatedly emphasizes the Holy Spirit in his gospel, more so than any of the other gospels.  In Luke’s account of Christ’s birth we see Jesus conceived of the Holy Spirit, in His baptism we see the Holy Spirit descending, in His temptation we see Him filled with the Holy Spirit, then led by the Holy Spirit, then return to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and now He says the Holy Spirit is upon Him.

I am reminded that Jesus said in John 4:24 that "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth."  The truth is God’s word, but there is an added dimension which is enabled through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction in men’s hearts.  Paul said in 1Thess. 1:5  “for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

It’s important in this day and age when so many strange things are attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit, to see that the Word which was Christ was working conjointly with the power of the Holy Spirit in all that He did.  Neither Christ, nor the Holy Spirit are out there acting on their own, independently.  But they are One, One with one another, and One with the Father.  So today, when we evaluate whether a work is of the Holy Spirit, then all we need to do is ask ourselves if Christ did it.  And if not, then we need to be skeptical of that spirit, because as it says in 1John 4:1, we should  “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

The Spirit bears witness to Jesus, and John says that Jesus is the Word. 1John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

The point being, we need to preach the word of God, and we need the Holy Spirit working through the word of God to convict men’s hearts and bring them to salvation.  Ephesians 6 tells us that we are to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  They go together, and they work together, not independently of one another.  This is also the reason that if you haven’t been born of the Spirit, then you cannot really understand the Word of God.  You may read the Bible, but it’s true meaning is veiled to the unsaved person.

So Christ is anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel.  I’m amazed at the simplicity of that, especially in light of the modern church entertainment based format today.  Here is the Creator of the Universe, able to bring 10,000 angels to bear at His command, able to cause the sun to stand still, or cause fire to fall from the sky, or do any thing He wants, and yet does something so simplistic as preach the gospel.  To just read from the Bible.  Talk about Power Point displays! Jesus could have done a Power Point display in the sky that would have convinced everyone of His divinity.  Yet He preaches the gospel from the word of God.

I happened upon a video the other day of a mega church in Texas.  And it was filmed from a live Sunday morning service.  They had like 5 satellite churches that were also watching the live feed on big screens.  And the lights come up on stage and this instrumental heavy metal type of music comes on and lights are flashing and there is this big megatron screen shot of a RPM dial like you have in a hot rod revving up center stage in time with the music, and then on the corner of the stage here comes this Rolls Royce being driven on stage by the pastor.  And he’s got another video cam inside the car showing him driving it.  The fans, I mean the congregation is clapping and going crazy, and he finally gets out of the car and introduces his message.  It’s a series on relationships like dating.  I guess relationships are like cars.  I never quite figured out what the association with cars was, but I don’t think it really mattered.  It was an event.  It would keep the people talking for a week and keep them coming back next week to see what would happen next.  The next week the pastor drove out in a Ferrari.  I guess he knows something that Jesus didn’t.

So I guess Jesus is really out of touch.  Not only is He preaching the gospel, but He preaches a message about sin.  You can’t get any more seeker unfriendly than to preach about sin.  Jesus presents through this passage four characteristics of sin.  Number one, Jesus says I am anointed (set apart, consecrated) to preach the gospel to the poor.  Sin makes us spiritually bankrupt.  As the Messiah, He was sent to bring salvation  to the poor. And the Greek word for poor is really speaking of being a beggar.  It’s not talking about the homeless.  Jesus isn’t presenting a social gospel, the passage is talking about spiritual bankruptcy.  Being so spiritually bankrupt and destitute that the only option is to beg for mercy.  That’s the idea.  Jesus would repeat this theme in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew, when He would say, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  The gospel means good news, and so it’s saying that for those that recognize their spiritual poverty, there is the good news that salvation has come.  God in His mercy has provided salvation by grace, that is, you cannot earn it.

Secondly, Jesus is saying through the scripture that the Messiah has come to proclaim liberty to the captives.  Sin makes people captive and enslaves them, and the Messiah has come to set them free. These are captives, or literally prisoners. It can mean prisoners of war, those who have been taken captive by some powerful force, brought into prison for crimes that they have committed and are waiting their own execution. Paul writes about this condition in 2Tim. 2:25 “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”  Make no mistake folks, sin enslaves.  You can’t play around with sin.  You can’t keep it at arm’s length.  Sooner or later, sin enslaves you.

Thirdly,  the passage says Christ has come to preach recovery of sight to the blind: Sin blinds us, and the Messiah has come to heal our spiritual and moral blindness. The sinner is not only made bankrupt, he is not only made a slave of sin, but he is also blinded to the truth. 2Corinthians 4:3 " And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  And as I said earlier, because they are spiritually dead, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, their blindness is even increased, because they don’t have the Spirit helping them understand the Word.

Then fourthly, the Messiah has come to set at liberty those who are oppressed: Sin oppresses its victims, and the Messiah comes to bring liberty to the oppressed. The oppression here is the idea of someone overwhelmed by the pain of life, overwhelmed by relationships that are abusive, overwhelmed by illness, overwhelmed by whatever kind of troubles life can bring to bear, overwhelmed in their souls. This is the person who is so overwhelmed by life that they have lost all joy. This is a person to whom Jesus spoke when He said, " Matt. 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

This is the gospel, the good news, that Christ came to save sinners.  The sinner that trusts in Him for mercy will find rest for his soul.  And when Christ finished reading this passage, He sat down and said, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” : In this statement, Jesus answers two questions. "Who did Isaiah write of?" Jesus answered that question, "Isaiah wrote of Me." "When will this come to pass?" And Jesus answered that question, "Isaiah was writing of right now."

Well, this statement was shocking, to say the least.  These were His own townspeople.  Many of them grew up with Jesus or watched Him grow up from a child.  Jesus, this guy from the neighborhood, if you will, was declaring himself to be the Savior of the world, the promised Messiah, the Chosen One of God.  And right about now they were scratching their heads, or laughing behind their hands, but totally unbelieving.

Jesus knows their hearts, He knows their thoughts.  And so He rightly declares, “"No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'"  See, they thought that He had done well reading the scripture and perhaps explaining the scripture, but this was going to far.  I see that so often in ministry.  They admire the fact that you preach the gospel and that you know the scripture.  They even commend you for being a great Bible teacher, but to follow you?  To become a disciple of your teaching and get in rank and get under the authority of the church?  No, that’s taking it a bit too far.  So many professing Christians know just enough of the gospel to be condemned, but not enough to be converted.  They don’t want this man or any man to rule over them.  They don’t want any authority in their life.  They want to stay in charge of their destiny.  They want to be a free agent, if you will.  But such independence is in contradiction to the gospel.

And so it was in Nazareth.  They were willing to give Jesus his due as a good teacher, but not his due as Messiah, as Lord of Lords, King of Kings.  They weren’t about to bow their will to this carpenter’s son.

So Jesus response is this: "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;  and yet 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 Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."  The message is very simple.  If you’re not willing to confess that you are a sinner, poor, destitute, enslaved to sin, blind to the truth, and oppressed in your souls in need of deliverance, then just like in the days of Elijah and Elisha when your forefathers were unbelieving and rebellious, so it will be in these days.  The gospel will be taken to those who are ready to receive it, who are aware of their need for a Savior, and the good news will be preached to them.

And at that point, the anger that had started to flare up when they were told they were sinners, now came to the boiling point when they were told that the kingdom would be given to another people, and the townspeople of Nazareth “were filled with rage as they heard these things;  and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.  But passing through their midst, He went His way.”

There is one last point in Jesus message which I skipped over.  At the end of the scripture Jesus read in Isaiah is the statement; “To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”  This is a reference to the year of Jubilee found in Leviticus 25.  It was a time set apart by God to bring rest to the land, the land would return to it’s original owners, and all the prisoners would be set free.  It happened at the end of 7 periods of 7 years, after 49 years, the next year would be the year of Jubilee.  It was a time of rest, a time of redemption, and a time of reconciliation.  It was symbolic of the rest that Jesus brings, the rest that He offered to all that are weary, all that are poor, all that are blind, all that are oppressed. This eternal rest is made possible because Christ has paid the price for our sin.  And because God counted our sins against Christ, and put Christ’s righteousness upon those who trusted in Him, we can be made righteous forever.  And because we are made righteous, God sends us His Spirit to live in us.  So that we become the temple of God, the Holy of holies as God’s Spirit dwells in us.

This coming of Christ was the institution of the favorable year of the Lord.  It still is the favorable year of the Lord. Hebrews 4:9  “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”  Today that rest is still available, the favorable year of the Lord, to whoever calls upon the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. 2Cor. 6:2  “for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION."

Listen, those hometown folks in the synagogue rejected Jesus as their Savior.  That was a tragedy for them, but it’s an opportunity for you.  Please don’t reject his offer today.  “"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

This is our seventh year of ministry here at the Beach Fellowship as a church on the beach.  And we’ve been praying every night this week as we walked around town in the Jericho March praying in the spirit that this would be the favorable year of the Lord.  We believe it is.  Today is the acceptable day, the day of salvation.  Come to Jesus today and find rest for your souls.