Third he announces all this is by the grace of God in God s perfect timing.

Introduction Does it shock you when people reject Jesus Christ as their Savior? For many people, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. When Jesus comes back to his home town after preaching in the Galilee and performing miracles in Capernaum, people were wondering, Who is Jesus? Is he a prophet of God? His claim was rejected by many people in his day. Many people still reject his claims. This passage of scripture paints a stark picture of unbelief, and rejection. Why would anyone refuse the greatest gift ever offered? In the end, pride, self-sufficiency, arrogance. Conviction of sin always leads to two possibilities; repentance or rejection. Jesus makes three startling announcements in his first hometown sermon. First Jesus announces He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus announces he is anointed by the Spirit of God to care for and minister to all kinds of needy people. He announces he is to bring to them the salvation of the living Lord. Second he announced the year of Jubilee had begun. It was the dawning of a new Messianic age. The acceptable year of the Lord refers to the 50 th year when everything is restored to its proper place (Lev.25:8). Third he announces all this is by the grace of God in God s perfect timing. Jesus gives two examples from the Scripture to prove God s grace and mercy, and that grace and mercy extends to the Gentiles. Note the progression in the text. The people begin by being impressed to being offended to demanding proof. The people reject Christ s claim, his invitation, and that rejection results in an attempt to kill Jesus. Rejection is an ugly word. In the end, the citizens of Nazareth reject Jesus because of a heart of unbelief. Carl F.H. Henry wrote; In the NT, unbelief (apistia) is not merely the with-holding of intellectual assent or the complete ignoring of God, nor is it simply lack of belief in God. Rather it is the active rejection of God s self revelation in Jesus Christ. God s Word and Messiah s Mission (vv.15-20) 1

Luke 4:15 (NKJV) 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Luke 4:16 (NKJV) 16 So 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 to read. Why does Jesus stand up to read? Reverence for the Scripture. Luke s gospel is the oldest account we have of a synagogue service in the first century. From later Jewish sources (the Mishna; compiled circa 170 A.D), we can reconstruct a probable order of service. If we could go back in time, and attend a synagogue meeting it would go something like this: Men would gather on one side of the meeting place and women would gather on the opposite side. You had three officers or officials, the chief or the president of the synagogue, an elder and an officer who s job it was to take the scrolls from the ark and present them for reading. The service would sometimes open with the singing of songs, from Psalms 145-150. The congregation recites the Shema, the confession recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-6. Shema yisra l el adonoi elhenu adonoi ehad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. They share in prayer, some set prayers called the Tephillah or the Shemoneh Esreh and the eighteen benedictions. Then comes a reading from the Torah, or God s Law, followed by a reading of the Prophets. The texts would have been read in Hebrew and translated into Aramaic, the local vernacular or the main language of the region. Then someone would bring an exposition, that tied the readings together and the service closes with a benediction. The President of the Synagogue would choose a person to read, either a person within the congregation, or a priest or a rabbi who was visiting the congregation. There is a debate whether there was some freedom on picking the passage, or whether there were prescribed texts throughout the year. Almost certainly the President of the synagogue asked Jesus to read that day. Whether it was a prescribed text, or Jesus choose the text, we do not know. 2

Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-2 and Isaiah 58:6 with a couple of lines left out, one of which is the last half of the final line which adds, And the day of vengeance of our God. I suspect when Jesus omitted that last phrase, it got there attention! (v.20) Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. This is the teaching position of the rabbi, Jesus sat down and everyone wonders what he is going to say. God s Word and Christ s Claims (vv.21-22a) Luke 4:21 (NKJV) 21 And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. You have to understand just how arresting, how outrageous this statement sounded to its original hearers! First Jesus is claiming outrageous as it may seem, that he is the consolation of Israel. Isaiah s promise-find s its ultimate expression in Jesus and His message. The second, while the day of wrath or vengeance of our God would come (Isa.61:2b), it was not being fulfilled that day. What was being fulfilled that day was the year (that is the season) of the Lord s favor. What is Isaiah s promise? Jesus expounds on the four types of people that he has come to reach; the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed. Jesus claims he is anointed that is called and equipped by the Holy Spirit of God. Think about it, when God calls, He anoints, He equips His messenger, He empowers His messenger, He goes with His messenger. To preach the gospel euangelisasthai- it means to preach good news To the poor. Who are the poor? This is not limited to those who are poor in material possessions, but also in poor in spirit. You can be poor in the things of this world yet rich toward God. You can be rich in the things of this world yet poor towards God. Jesus warned the church at Laodicea; Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and 3

anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent (Rev.3:17-19). The word Jesus uses here for the poor is the same used in the first beatitude, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God (Matt.5:3). The poor are those who realize their poverty, they are in desperate spiritual circumstances. To heal the broken-hearted ; the word is sunitribo it means to crush completely, or to bruise, or to shatter into pieces. The broken-hearted include those crushed by grief, shattered, opposed, cut-off, blemished by sin, violated by sin, infected, diseased, weakened, subdued, injured, bankrupt. Jesus comes to those squashed by life s circumstances, who can see no way out, who find living itself an oppression and he gives them freedom. Malcolm Muggeridge wrote, after coming to Christ in his later years, All other freedoms, once won, soon turn into new servitude. Christ is the only liberator whose liberation lasts forever (see R. Kent Hughes p.142). The prisoners aichmalotois these are prisoners of war. These are the captives, those who are in all kinds of states of bondage, enslaved to money, enslaved to Satan, enslaved to sensuality and pornography, enslaved to hatred, bitterness, they are in prisoner s of war camps, The blind Jesus comes to give sight to the blind physically as well as those who are spiritually in darkness. The recovery of sight to the blind means see again. Do you remember what Jesus said to Paul the Apostle? I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Acts 26:17b-18). The Messiah was to preach the age of salvation this present age was a time of grace and mercy. The Roots of Rejection and Unbelief (vv.22b-24) Luke 4:22 (NKJV) 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is this not Joseph s son? 4

The people are impressed, but not necessarily persuaded. We have known you forever Jesus, since you were a boy. Their admiration soon sunk to cynicism aren t you Joseph s boy? The words were scriptural, poetic, powerful, but they seem almost totally unaffected by its meaning. They did not see themselves in any of the metaphors, and they did not see themselves as poor, as crushed, as prisoners as blind, Within themselves they were saying, Show us a sign. We need more than just your word, we need a miracle! Jesus had lived with them for thirty years, he did not have to exercise his prerogatives as deity. He could see it in their smug smiles, there folded arms and their crossed legs. Luke 4:23 (NKJV) 23 He said to them, You will surely say this proverb to Me, Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country. Jesus reads their mail knows their very thoughts, he says openly what all are thinking privately. This is what preachers call, meddling. If he s God s messiah huh! I m Isaiah the prophet. The pious people of Nazareth, safe in the suburbs, are asking Jesus to prove himself with a little miracle show, that s not much to ask of a Messiah! Put on a show. Who does he think he is calling us poor, blind, prisoners, oppressed? The fact is they already had the evidence the very miracles they allude to Capernaum, in Cana. The word was already out. What were they willing to accept as evidence that Jesus is God s Messiah? What are you willing to accept as evidence? Dr. David Gooding writes; It was an irrational or at least nor-rationalinstinctive-emotional bias. It would be difficult for them to overcome this emotional bias; but the difficulty was on their side not on his. They would have to recognize its existence, and overcome it, if ever they were going to be fair to the evidence (see again R. Kent Hughes p. 143). We must put the debate over evidence aside for the moment, because Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter with two examples from the Scriptures, Elijah and the widow, and Elisha and Naaman. 5

At the root of their unbelief was pride, and self-sufficiency. John 16:9 (NKJV) 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; Prejudice and The Results of Rejection (vv.25-30) Luke 4:25 (NKJV) 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; The story is recorded in 1 Kings 17:7-16. A drought caused the brook to dry up. The Lord told Elijah to go to Zarephath, he would meet a widow, gathering sticks, and he would ask her to bring a little water that he might drink. He also asked for a morsel of bread. She said, As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die (vv.11-12). This is our last meal. We are going to eat what we have left. We are poor. Once this goes we are dead. Elijah told her, Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: The bin of your flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day of the Lord sends rain on the earth (vv.13-14). And so she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah. It was a miracle! The starving woman obeyed the words of the Lord! Why in the world did she trust Elijah? If she were like the people of Nazareth she would have demanded a miracle show me the miracle first! Elijah insisted otherwise trust first put your faith in God s Word first and the miracle will follow. The woman realized her poverty, she realized her fatal lack of resources, and what little she had she was willing to share. The application to the congregation at Nazareth was obvious, if they wanted evidence that Jesus had come to preach to the poor, the blind, the crushed 6

and the captives if all that were true all they had to do was trust Him. Just trust Him and there would be ample evidence. And that was the heart of the problem because in their own eyes they were not poor, they were not crushed, they were not blind, they were solid citizens, respectable people, hard-working people, religious people, church going people, praying people, Bible reading people, God loving, focused on the family people. And Jesus comparing them with a Gentile woman a Gentile woman who was willing to trust the Word of God without a miracle was a massive insult. Luke 4:27 (NKJV) 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. If you think the first story was an insult, wait until you hear Jesus second illustration. Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army, and was sent by the King of Syria to be cured of leprosy. The King of Israel thought the King of Syria was trying to create an excuse to go to war by asking an impossible cure no one had ever been cured of leprosy. Elisha calmed the King and reminded him God was still on the throne. Elisha sent a messenger instructing him to go wash seven times in the Jordan and he would be cleansed. 2 Kings 5:11-12 (NLT) 11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. I thought he would surely come out to meet me! he said. I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12 Aren t the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? Why shouldn t I wash in them and be healed? So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. Why did Naaman change his mind? His servants argued, if he had asked to do a great deed, fulfill some great quest, make some great sacrifice, pay some enormous amount of money, you would have done it! So why not just humble yourself and be cured? Naaman was saved because, knowing he was a leper and that there was no hope for him apart from God s grace, he trusted God. There are starving widows and lepers in the church today. They do not know they are spiritually poor, spiritually captive, spiritually blind, spiritually oppressed. Some people are outraged if you suggest they need a Savior, they need God s grace. They think there heritage, and church traditions insulate them from their poverty, their oppression, their 7

perversion. Get rid of Jesus. Substitute Jesus for religion any religion substitute Jesus for rules, regulations, observances, praying, reading, rites, but don t tell me I need Jesus. The solid church going citizens of Nazareth erupted in a demonic rage and panic it was bad enough Jesus the no body accused them of being poor, blind, crushed, enslaved, but now they were less spiritual and less wise than Gentiles. They couldn t make through the rest of the service! Forget about the end of the sermon and the benedictions. Forget about walking out of the synagogue, they attacked the preacher. Think about it, they had known Jesus forever since childhood, they watched him grow up. They never dreamed for a moment he was God, yet they knew his character first hand. No one was nicer, kinder, no one ever saw Jesus do anything wrong before! He was just a loving, boy, intelligent, articulate, he was undoubtly legend for his acts of kinds and his piety. He was in synagogue all the time. But when Jesus cut through their comfortable religious façade, they tried to lynch himppand on the Sabbath too! He would have tossed off the cliff and then stoned had he not walked through the crowd and went on his way (v.30) (R. Kent Hughes p.145). Many people are impressed by Jesus words, Jesus sayings, Jesus the winsome, wonderful, man maybe even the best man. But people are offended by His claims, and then demand proof. In the end may reject Jesus Christ, they reject his invitation. 8