author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 4. Luke 4. This is a great story that I think helps us to understand the purpose of Jesus ministry and helps to clarify who the gospel is for and teaches us how to receive Christ.
I'm going to get to that point, but I'm going to take awhile to get there as we read and explain this passage.
Twenty-three years ago it was my turn to preach and I was sitting on the floor in the men's room. I was so nervous I was sick to my stomach.
I had gone off to Bible college and came home for the first time and I was asked to preach to my home church. What was just four normal months for the people in that church were the four most transformative months of my life. I was a different person. God had changed me so much and I now wanted to be a preacher - I was excited about the opportunity.
But I was so nervous. A brother in the church had to come find me. To tell me it was time.
Now, imagine if I preached to my home church and they listened carefully, but at the end of the message my message made them so mad that the whole church mobbed me and pulled me out back to throw me off a cliff and stone me.
That's pretty much exactly what happens in our story today in Luke 4.
Jesus has come out of the wilderness. He's filled with the Spirit and anointed for service. He's been tempted by Satan and come out victorious and He has started a very profitable and popular preaching ministry.
Look at verses 14-15 with me:
[!bible] Luke 4:14-15 - KJV 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
So the first thing Jesus did when He came out of the wilderness is to start preaching in the synagogues all around Galilee.
Now, let me tell you something about Galilee that you might not know:
It wasn't very big. If Coles County and Cumberland County were stuck together, that would be Galilee. About 25 miles wide and 40 miles tall. But in that area, there were over 3 million people. There were hundreds of these little villages that were each about the size of Mattoon - about 15,000 people.
And so Jesus is going town to town, village to village, preaching in their synagogues. He's healing people. Doing miracles. And preaching in synagogues.
What were the synagogues? They were essentially just like a church.
During a typical synagogue service they would have a word of prayer, they would recite scripture together, they would have a public reading of some part of the law, they would have a reading of some part of the prophets, and then they would have a sermon and close in prayer.
What does that sound like to you? It's awfully similar to what we do here. It was basically a local church.
And so Jesus is going from synagogue to synagogue - church to church - and he's preaching and his ministry is well received - he's very quickly becoming a famous and sought after preacher.
Then He comes home. Then He comes to His home church - His home synagogue.
Look at verse 16:
[!bible] Luke 4:16 - KJV 16. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Jesus is back home. This is where He grew up. And it was Jesus' custom to go to the synagogue.
Now, let me say this, if there ever was a person who could skip church, who didn't need church, it was Jesus. Yet Jesus made it His custom while on this earth to attend the weekly worship in the synagogue.
Listen, if Jesus went to church - you should go to church. It needs to be your custom too. Make it a habit - something you don't even think about. Make it a priority. Something you do over other things.
Church isn't always good. (We'll see what happened in Jesus' home church in a minute.) If you are looking for the perfect church, you'll never find it. If you do find it don't go there, because it will cease to be the perfect church when you join it.
Church is made up of sinners. We are all a bunch of imperfect people serving a perfect Savior.
So Jesus comes to His home church and now He is a famous preacher. The word of His preaching and miracles has spread around.
Many of the people in this synagogue probably saw Jesus grow up. Maybe they had Him in their home doing carpentry work. Up until very recently, Jesus had lived among them. Now, Jesus has gone away for a few months and suddenly He is a famous preacher. A preacher who can do miracles! Now He is coming home to preach in the synagogue.
I imagine the place was packed!
Let's keep reading:
[!bible] Luke 4:17-22 - KJV 17. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 22. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
So Jesus chose as His text a section from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 61:1-2, which says:
[!bible] Isaiah 61:1-2 - KJV
- The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
- To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
That was Jesus' text. But notice that Jesus didn't read the last phrase. He didn't read the part that said "and the day of vengeance of our God." We'll talk about why in a second.
Jesus reads this text - a text that everyone knew was about the coming of the Messiah.
Then Jesus sat down. He didn't sit down because He was finished. He sat down because in Jesus' day, preachers sat down to preach.
Now listen to how Jesus starts his sermon: "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
This is really the key to this whole passage. Because what Jesus was saying to that crowd is this:
Those verses in Isaiah are about me. I am the one who has been anointed of the Spirit to preach glad tidings and proclaim liberty. I am that liberty. So you are right now listening to the fulfillment of those scriptures. This is the acceptable year of the Lord.
Jesus did not read the part about the vengeance of God because that part of Isaiah's prophecy won't be fulfilled until Jesus' second coming. But this first part was being fulfilled then as Jesus preached to them. He was saying "I'm Him. I'm the messiah. I'm the one who has come to preach to you these glad tidings."
author: Ryan Hayden
Now, let's stop for a second and just consider the position these people in Nazareth were in.
They knew Jesus. They watched Jesus grew up. They knew He was a special child and a special young man. Just a few months ago He was living among them as a carpenter. Now, He is preaching in their synagogue and claiming that these prophecies from Isaiah were about Him! That HAD to be a tough message to hear.
And we can see that in verse 22:
[!bible] Luke 4:22 - KJV 22. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
There were two things going on in their hearts and minds:
- One was "wow. This is an amazing preacher. God is really working in Him."
- The other was "Wait a minute. Isn't this Joseph's boy? I just bowled with him yesterday and he beat me on the last frame."
And Jesus, being omniscient, knew what was going on in their hearts - so Jesus addressed it. Look at verse 23:
[!bible] Luke 4:23-24 - KJV 23. And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. 24. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Jesus is saying here "You are going to say to me" (Because He knew what was in their hearts) "that I should heal you. I should do the miracles I've been doing in Capernaum here, at my home church. But you need to know that isn't how it works. A prophet is not accepted in his own country."
You know, it's understandable that these people in Nazareth would think - we raised this Man, He came from us, He's one of us, He owes us some of these miracles.
But they were missing the whole point of Jesus' life and Jesus' message to them. So Jesus gave them two more biblical illustrations.
Look at verses 25-27:
[!bible] Luke 4:25-27 - KJV 25. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
This is an interesting point:
Jesus said "You know, in the days of Elijah there was no rain for years and there was this massive draught. Don't you think there were widows in Israel that needed help? That needed food? But who did God send Elijah to help? It was a widow from Lebanon - a Gentile."
And you know, there were lots of lepers in Israel during Elisha's time - but none of them go healed, the one who got healed was a military leader from Syria named Naaman.
So what happened? What was the aftermath of Jesus' sermon to His home church?
Let's read the rest of the passage:
[!bible] Luke 4:28-32 - KJV 28. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29. And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 30. But he passing through the midst of them went his way, 31. And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. 32. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
What happened is what Jesus said made those people in His home church so mad that they tried to kill Him. They grabbed Him by force and took Him to a small cliff and were about to throw Him over the cliff. (This was usually the first step in stoning someone - they would throw a guy off a small cliff and then pelt him with stones.) So they were going to stone Jesus. That's how angry they were at what Jesus was saying.
They wanted a miracle and they got one - Jesus miraculously just passed through them and went on His way and went and preached in other synagogues in Capurnaum. Those other synagogues received His message.
John 1:11 says:
[!bible] John 1:11 - KJV 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
That's what we see here. Jesus came to His own people. The people who grew up with Him and they rejected Him.
Now, at the beginning of the message I told you that this story helps us understand the purpose of Jesus' ministry, who the gospel is for and how to receive it. Let's look at those three points quickly and be done:
So let's start with what this story teaches us about...
1. The purpose of Jesus ministry
Jesus told us in His sermon here what the purpose of His ministry was He came:
[!bible] Luke 4:18 - KJV to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
The people of Israel tended to think of the Messiah in only one way: as a king who would restore a kingdom. They wanted a political messiah.
But the emphasis of scripture is that God had a heart for people who were separated from Him, who were in bondage to sin. And Jesus came not only to preach that gospel - He was that gospel.
He came to be the lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. It would be through Jesus and it is through Jesus that we can be saved.
As Acts 4:12 puts it:
[!bible] Acts 4:12 - KJV 12. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Jesus was making this clear from His very first recorded story here - He was coming to save people from their sins.
And look at Jesus message again, because it doesn't just ell us the purpose of Jesus ministry, it teaches us about:
2. Who the gospel is for
Again, look at verse 18:
[!bible] Luke 4:18 - KJV 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
There are five different descriptions of sinners here. Sinners are the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind and the bruised.
Listen, sin impoverishes us. It robs us of God's intended blessing for us. It may be pleasurable for a season, but it leaves us empty and penniless.
Sin breaks hearts. More tears have been shed in this world because of sin than for any other reason.
Sin enslaves and captivates people. Sin is a prison. Most people in the world are imprisoned by their sin. They are held captive by it. Whether it is the sin of ego, the sin of lust, the sin of self-determination. People get locked in because of their sin and they can't get out.
Sin blinds us. When we are in the throws of sin we cannot see what we ought. Our reality is distorted.
And sin bruises us. It wounds us. It crushes us.
Sin is the greatest disease in the world, the biggest robber in the world, and the biggest problem in the world and it was sin that Jesus came to save us from.
Now, do you know what the problem with the crowd in Nazareth was? They didn't see themselves as sinners. They were respectable, religious, synagogue-going, moral jews. They weren't people who were stuck in sin. (At least in their own mind.)
So they rejected the Messiah. They rejected Jesus and they hated Him for pointing out their sin.
People love truth when it enlightens them, but hate truth when it accuses them.
And so this story shows us who Jesus was and who the gospel is for. It is for sinners.
But it also shows us...
3. How to receive the gospel
The stories Jesus used, the widow of Naan and Namaan. Teach us a lot about how to recieve the gospel.
- In poverty.
- In humility.
- In willingness.
