Jesus... the Hometown Hero?

Introduction

One of the pieces of advice that older pastors often will give younger pastors is “Don’t pastor your home church.”

When you pastor the church you grew up in, people still see you as the little boy that you were growing up there. It makes it difficult for them to take you seriously.

They might even be incredibly proud of the things that you have done in other places, but to many of them, you are still the same person that you were when you left.

Now, I don’t know that this is a hard and fast rule… I would never tell someone to go to a place that God wasn’t calling them. However, the principle stands.

People in your hometown still see you as the little boy/girl you were when you lived there.

In the passage we are reading today, Jesus is preaching to His hometown. Did they believe what He told them?

Read Luke 4:14-30.

Explanation

Luke 4:16-19 “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.””

Jesus has gone home to Nazareth, which is his hometown. We have already talked about hometowns and how they effect us.

I am sure that the villagers were gathering around him.

Wow! The local celebrity has returned. I remember when He was this tall! I remember when I changed his diapers!

I hear he has become a really great teacher.

I am sure Nazareth was quite earnest to hear him teach. Proud and excited.

He stood in the synagogue on the Sabbath to read the Scriptures. He was given the scroll that contained the book of Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and read Isaiah 61:1-2.

This account of Jesus time in the synagogue is the oldest recording of what happens in a synagogue. Later, more fully developed picture of synagogue worship appears later (changes from person to person), but they all included reading of the law in Hebrew, a reading of the Prophets in Hebrew and a sermon on the Scripture.

Jesus has been asked to read the prophet.

To follow, Jesus is to give a sermon on the reading.

Isaiah is one of the longest books of the Bible. Could you imagine a guest preacher, instead of reading the next text - unrolling the scroll to the point that large portions are falling on the floor.

And He reads, “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.”

Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah would come to bring good news to those who were poor and downtrodden and heal those who were hurting.

The people of God were waiting expectantly for this Messiah.

Transition: At this point, Jesus begins to preach a sermon.

Luke 4:20–23 ESV

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.’ ”

Instead of preaching a sermon, Jesus simply says, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Messiah has come. I am the Messiah. You are living the prophecies of Isaiah in real time.

This Messiah for whom you have been hoping, praying, looking, and wishing - It’s me. I am here.

The people responded in a very interesting way.

They marvelled. Not in a bad way. They spoke well of his words.

BUT, they asked “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

They loved Jesus’ words (Sounds good!), but they had seen Jesus grow up. And more than mere words would be needed to convince them of Jesus love.

They enjoyed and marvelled at the words of Jesus, but they didn’t believe in the person of Jesus.

They had a solid grasp of what He said, but they couldn’t grasp who He was.

APPLICATION: This is on the way to where we are going, but this isn’t where we are stopping - it is important anyway.

You can believe the words of Jesus without giving your life to Jesus.

You can find Jesus’ teachings palatable, but if Jesus’ isn’t Lord and Savior of your life, then you are not saved.

Jesus, knowing their hearts, answers (as one commentator says), like a bucket of cold water.

“Doctor, Heal Yourself” means “you need to care for your own before you care for others.”

He understood that they wanted to place conditions upon Him that would benefit them.

Luke 4:24-27 “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.””

Many of us remember the story of Elijah with a widow.

Elijah prayed that rain would not come upon the land for 3 years, then God moved him to the wilderness by a stream. After the stream dried up, Elijah was sent by God to Sidon where he met a widow, and miraculously caused her to have bread for a long season and resurrected her son.

Now we read the passage earlier, why would this passage be incite Jesus hometown so much that they wanted to kill him?

Elijah was going against Ahab who was married to Jezebel, a Sidonian woman. Curiously, God sends Elijah to a Sidonian woman’s home for several years. In the midst of the drought, God saves her life. Jesus makes the point, my Father could have sent Elijah to any Israelite woman’s, but instead, He sent them to a Sidonian woman.

Luke 4:28-30 “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. But passing through their midst, he went away.”

Jesus would be rejected by those closest to Him, but He would save many who were far from Him.

Isaiah 61 was supposed to be good news! Jesus’ hometown just didn’t like the face that it wasn’t good news on their terms.

You don’t get to choose who gets saved.

You don’t get to choose what parts of yourself to keep when you get saved.

God saves and redeems us. It is His Gospel.

The Gospel is for all people.

If the gospel wasn’t for the Gentiles, it isn’t for us.

We don’t discriminate when we share the gospel.

We take the gospel to everyone who will hear.

We thank God that He is willing to save all people.

Invitation

1. The message of Jesus salvation is for you!

2. We are called to share the message with everyone.

3. Join in membership.