(OLD) What Happens When We Get to Know Jesus

Getting to know Jesus is the most important thing in your life. Thankfully for us, a man named Luke, led by the Holy Spirit, wrote an account of Jesus’ life so that we could be sure about the things we hear concerning Jesus. So today we’re going to continue our study in the book of Luke with a new sermon series titled “Getting to Know Jesus.”

Just to catch up a little bit, we’ve already started to get to know Jesus in our study of Luke. We’ve seen how His birth fulfilled prophecies, and how His cousin John paved the way for Him, and how He was baptized and then tempted in the wilderness. But now, full of the Spirit, we see for the first time in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus is beginning to teach about Himself and His mission. And what’s interesting is that we’ll see as we continue in Chapter 4 Jesus coming into Nazareth—a place that, by all rights, should have known Jesus. It was Jesus’ hometown. And Luke chooses this encounter between Jesus and the people who thought they knew Him best as the perfect way to introduce us to what Jesus’ ministry is going to be like.

What we’re going to see is that Jesus returns home to the people who thought they knew Him best so that they can get to know Him for who He really is. My prayer is that the same thing will happen today as we come to the Word of God—that there would be people all over this room, and all across our church who thought they had Jesus pegged, who thought they knew everything they needed to know about Jesus. And that Jesus would come and show us what He’s like, and that we would get to know Jesus. That’s what’s going to happen in Nazareth as we pick up this text in verse 20.

I’m going to begin reading in Luke 4:16. Stand and read with me.

*Read Passage*

*Pray for Jesus to reveal Himself*

“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.”

What isn’t standard is the amount of attention they’re giving Jesus. These people thought they knew everything they needed to know about Jesus. They had watched Jesus grow up, and in Luke 4:14-15, it says that Jesus’ fame was beginning to spread as He was doing ministry in Galilee. What sorts of things was Jesus up to?

We’ve already seen Jesus’ Year in Obscurity AND the early stages of His Galilean ministry:

His first miracle at Cana.(John 2:1-12)

Clearing the Temple in Jerusalem (John 2:13-25)

Nick at night (John 3:1-21)

Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:1-42)

Jesus heals the nobleman’s son in Cana (John 4:54)

Jesus preaches about the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15)

Jesus was calling and baptizing disciples. (Mark 3:7-19)

A series of exorcisms and other healings (Mark 1:21-45)

Jesus heals the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12)

The Healing of the Centurion’s Servant (John 4:43-54)

Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-9, 13-20)

Calming the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

Exorcizing the Gerasene Demoniac (Mark 5:1-20)

Raising of the widow at Nain (Mark 7:11-17)

Healing the Blind men and the dumb demoniac (Matthew 9:27-34)

Rejections in Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6)

And He’s coming to a synagogue near you! I mean, can you imagine? Talk about a hometown hero—this is the most exciting thing that’s happened to Nazareth in the history of the world! They had never been more excited in their life. And initially, it seemed to produce good fruit. I mean, any of us trying to squeeze our way into the synagogue at this point would have seen a bunch of people hanging on Jesus’ words. We might even be encouraged by how attentive they all were. Not knowing the end of the story, we might think that this Jesus thing may be about to pick up some traction. All Jesus has to do is not screw this up and He’d have these people and this town in the bag! His success in Nazareth might have seemed to us a foregone conclusion in the best of ways.

The only problem is that these people did not know everything they needed to know about Jesus. And Jesus knew that all too well. He looked out at His family and His friends, those who had grown up with Him, those who had helped to raise Him, knowing that they had an understanding of Him that was way too small. Really, they had an understanding of Jesus that was all about them. They had a problem. Some of them were painting Jesus as the solution to their small town woes; and for others maybe familiarity was breeding contempt. Maybe they secretly hated Jesus for His success. But whatever the case, they thought they knew everything they needed to know.

Can you believe this morning that we’re the same way? Is there anyone here today who thinks they know everything they need to know about Jesus? That’s a hard question to answer “yes” to, but be honest at least with yourself. Are you content with how well you know Jesus? I know there were times in my life that I was. Whether this is your first time seriously considering Jesus, or whether you’ve known Jesus all your life, there are things that come into your mind when you think about Jesus that don’t reflect who He really is. In other words, every single one of us has room to get to know Jesus better! This isn’t meant to be a knock to your walk with Jesus; those of us who have been in long term relationships understand that you never stop getting to know someone. And when you do, it hurts the relationship. But when it comes to our relationship with Christ, I know you have misconceptions because it’s true of everyone: We all have misconceptions about Jesus. We cast Jesus in the movie in our minds in which we play out our hopes and dreams, and sometimes it’s not true to the source material!

And knowing this, Jesus proceeds in this synagogue service that we’re reading about. And notice something with me: Let’s pay attention to what the text reveals about the crowd’s understanding of Jesus, and let’s pay attention to how Jesus responds.

So let’s go back to the text. The people think they know all about Jesus, and they’re hanging on His every word. Let’s see what He says.

“He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ “

Which Scripture? Well it’s the reading from the scroll of Isaiah—but it’s not just any reading. Let’s take a look briefly at this excerpt that Jesus reads. It’s from Isaiah 61. And first of all, Isaiah is a prophet who had tons and tons of Messianic prophecies. And the people knew this. When you open up the scroll of Isaiah, you open up our hope for tomorrow, our hope for our sons and daughters, our hope for a day when Israel will no longer be under the imperial rule of the Romans, who were the Gentiles messing everything up. And second of all, look at what Jesus is reading—good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, setting the oppressed free, and the year of the Lord’s favor—a reference to the year of Jubilee from the Old Testament where debts would be forgiven—now you’ve got our attention Jesus! This is all the stuff we’ve heard about you doing (for the most part)! And now you’re gonna bring it on home as our little triumphant king, and Nazareth will never be the same! Tell us Jesus, tell us how you’re gonna do it all right here! Should we go get the sick people, or should we wait till you're done—oh, okay, I’ll wait, but I’m ready Jesus! Go ahead and tell us about the coming Messiah. Give us some hope for tomorrow.

But instead, to interpret this beloved text from the scroll of Isaiah, a text that talks about the salvation of Israel from exile and the reversal of their fortunes, Jesus begins by saying to them, THIS IS IT. The time has come. “TODAY this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Not tomorrow any more, but today.

…Hey, I wasn’t paying attention, what did He say? Oh, He said someday soon God was going to fulfill this. Oh really? That’s interesting. Wait, no, did He say today? That can’t be right.

Wait a minute Jesus—Are you saying that… In you, God is bringing about all these things in our very midst?

Yes.

Okay you must not have heard my question. You mean that in Your life and ministry God’s promises to redeem Israel are beginning to come to fruition?

Absolutely.

Friends, we know how to respond to someone like this: We take them to a hospital! What are you crazy? Jesus, listen man you need to calm down. The stuff you’re doing I’ll admit is pretty exciting, and clearly you’re a gifted teacher, but it kinda sounds like you’re claiming to be the Messiah and people are getting freaked out!

Jesus knows exactly what He’s doing here. He knows who He is, and He knows that they don’t. And so Jesus proceeds to give the one sermon that would confront their misconceptions about Him. Why? Why would Jesus do this? It’s because Jesus knows that we all have misconceptions, and that those misconceptions need to be addressed. Jesus is not content to leave us with our misunderstandings of Him. He’s not content to let us continue fantasizing about some person that’s not Him. And this is good news this morning, Amen? Because we all have room to get to know Jesus better, and isn’t it good to know that Jesus wants us to get to know Him better? Because He knows that getting to know Jesus is the most vital part of living! He knows that “in Him is life, and that life is the light of all mankind.” He knows that “to know me is eternal life.” And so Jesus does the hard thing of defying expectations and challenging the understanding of the people of Nazareth.

So let’s keep looking at the text to uncover some of the misunderstandings the people had. In my study I see them falling under these three categories: The people of Nazareth had misgivings about Jesus’ Identity, His Mission, and His Audience.

“All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ they asked.”

In the course of the narrative, this is where the responses begin to take a turn. But at first glance, especially if you’re reading in the NIV, it actually seems like the crowd is still tracking with Jesus. “They were speaking well of Him,” weren’t they? That means they were going along with it, right? Well, not necessarily.

The parallel accounts make this really clear: Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah, and they don’t buy it. Their question is not coming out of their amazement. It’s not a flattered question. It’s a doubtful one. It’s a first class conditional statement which implies that the answer is “yes”--is as if they’re saying, “Ok, come on Jesus, we know who you are. Jesus, you may have become a great teacher, but you’re no Messiah. You’re Joseph's son. And, (cf. Parallels) we know your family too. You guys are disgraced. Don’t rise above your station, Jesus.” Isn’t this Joseph’s son? We all know this is Joseph’s son.

No it isn’t! No you don’t! This is what we call some dramatic irony for all my literary students—Jesus knows and we the readers know that they are dead wrong.

Let’s keep reading.

“Jesus said to them, ‘Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ‘Truly I tell you,’ he continued, ‘no prophet is accepted in his hometown.’ ”

Jesus, apparently perceiving their question exactly as I’ve described, begins to anticipate their response. He knows what they want: They want the spectacle. And, more specifically, they want healing and miracles. Jesus says, “I know what you’re thinking—you want me to bring healing to this place, and yet you refuse to accept me for who I am.” This is borne out in the parallel accounts, where it says that Jesus couldn’t do many miracles in that place because of their lack of faith.

They wanted His miracles, but they didn’t really want Him for who He was. They wanted what He could do for them. They were confused about His mission, thinking that Jesus is here to serve our agenda by bringing the quick fix to our problems.

But Jesus is after so much more than the quick fix. He can heal our wounds and our diseases, but eventually we will become sick again. Because humankind has a problem that goes beyond what we can see and touch and feel. We have rebelled against God by choosing sin, and now we’re blinded more than just physically. We’re oppressed more than just physically. Yet how many of us are more interested, honestly, in what Jesus can do for us than who He is.

Let’s keep reading. Because Jesus is continuing to turn up the heat. He knows they’re not receiving Him, so He references two stories from the Old Testament to call out their response.

“ ‘I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.’ ”

The prophets of old were rejected by their homeland, and were received by those outside the nation of Israel—by Gentiles. And not just by any Gentiles—by Sidonians and Syrians, the enemies of Israel. It’s as if Jesus is saying, in the same way, if you don’t receive me, I’ll continue on to the next town. Jesus is prefiguring His ministry going out even to the Gentiles. Why? Because Jesus knows that they are under the impression that they have some unique claim to Jesus. That Jesus is going to be some special access to God’s grace for them, His hometown. They thought that Jesus would give special preference to certain people, namely us, Israelites and those who knew Him before He blew up. And Jesus is saying, “No, you’ve missed it entirely.”

It’s like the people of Nazareth had this box for Jesus, and based on their experiences and their traditions and their personal desires, they had begun to put things into the box. And in the passage and from a study of First Century Jewish thought, we can get a fairly good idea of what some of these things might have been.

First of all, we can imagine that they were pretty excited about Jesus being from their hometown. I mean, if Jesus was going up into Galilee and doing all these cool things, just imagine what He’ll do when He comes here! He owes us, right? He’ll save the best for us.

And you know what this is actually going to be really good for us because Nazareth doesn’t have that great of a reputation, so having this hip young prophet hang out here for awhile and maybe do some traveling around, you know He could really flip the script on Nazareth! He could really make Nazareth like a destination in Israel. He’s going to bring us a good name. He’s going to bring us wealth. He’s going to bring us healing. Everyone will love us because of Him.

I still wonder when He’s going to start confronting the Romans, you know. Because what would be really cool would be if He could set up a new earthly kingdom and bring us with Him, you know. I mean it’s really sad to see God’s people in such a sorry state. It’s unnatural, really, for Israel to be under foreign rule. So certainly He’s here for us to deliver us from Rome and start a revival of nationalism in Israel.

Because I mean, He is actually a really good teacher. My preference would be for Him to stick more to the miracle stuff, but you know philosophy is really big with the youth so it’s good if He wants to say some provocative things every now and again, you know? I mean everyone likes a good scandal.

But right about now, the box is looking pretty full. Jesus, what do you think? You’ll give special preference to us, and to the nation of Israel, right Jesus? You’re here to help us out and serve our agenda, right Jesus? And I mean you’re clearly a great teacher, but you’re not really serious about this Messiah stuff, right Jesus? I mean, You’re not actually asking us to follow You, are You?

And maybe you’re here and you’re thinking, “Man that’s pretty silly. You’re right Clay they did have some things out of order. But I don’t really believe any of that.” Ok, fair enough. Maybe that’s not your box. So let’s try again.

Maybe in your box you’ve put something like this: Jesus really wants my life to go well. And that means, obviously, that I need a place to live, and a job that really makes me feel like I’m contributing to the world. And also you know one that pays pretty well.

And it isn’t good for man to be alone, so God doesn’t want me to be alone, which means He obviously wants me to get married to somebody who perfectly fits a list I made for myself at age twelve that’s totally realistic and not at all objectifying and unhealthy. And I may have not met this spouse yet, but God really wants me to, so you know I’m going to make sure “Christian” is in bold on my tinder profile and my bumble profile and my hinge profile and my eharmony profile. And obviously God wants me to go forth and multiply, so it’ll be really easy to have kids, and it’ll be even easier to find total sexual fulfillment. I mean, why would God give me these desires unless He wanted me to act on them? And one day when my kids are beginning their successful sports career, my kids football team will beat the other kids football team even though they both say the Lord’s Prayer before and after the game.

And Jesus is here to solve a lot of problems, because problems are the result of sin. And this means that first of all He’s going to solve my long term health complications. It means no one I love will get cancer. It means my husband will keep his job. It means the tide will turn in American culture. Or at the very least He’s going to protect me and my rights from the government. It means God’s going to somehow stop people from having confusion concerning their sexuality, or at least that he’s going to prevent everybody that I like from dealing with any of it. And it means God is going to grow my church to be super big and respected in the community and everyone will like us all the time because of Jesus, and we’ll all basically live forever, or like 115 years at least.

What do you think Jesus? That sounds like a pretty good life to me. Do you think you could make that work? You’ll give special preference to me and my people. You’re here to serve my agenda. Right? And yea I believe that you’re my Messiah, whatever that means, but You don’t actually have a unique claim on my life. Right? Let’s be reasonable about this. This is a fair deal, right? Does that work for you, Lord?

What is Jesus to do in the face of our neat box; our understanding of who He loves, why He’s here, and who He really is?

See, the reality is that we may not know everything that we need to know about Jesus, but maybe that’s good news this morning. It’s good news because we serve a God who is pleased to reveal Himself to us. And so we see that Jesus intentionally confronts our misconceptions because He wants to be known by us. He wants to know us personally. He wants to walk with us intimately. And our misconceptions can get in the way of that because we can end up getting so self-focused that we follow and walk with ourselves and leave Him behind.

And so Jesus looks at our box and says, “I know you want me to do all these things for you. I know you’ve heard of the miracles I’ve done, and you think that all these physical problems are the reason I’m here. But I’m here for far more than just the external! Can’t you see, that though I am here to proclaim good news to those who are poor on earth and to minister to them, I’m here in a broader sense for the poor in spirit, those who are in desperate need spiritually. And yes, I am here to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and for the oppressed—but the imprisonment and the oppression that you can see with your eyes isn’t the most important thing. The need that’s pressing on you is freedom from Rome, but there are needs that go much, much deeper. I want to free you from the imprisonment of your hearts and your souls, and from the oppression of the true Enemy. And of course, I am here to heal the blind. But you must understand that what I want most desperately is for you to be healed from the blindness of sin that has clouded more than just your vision. And that is going to require the biggest miracle ever. Haven’t you read the scroll of Isaiah? Don’t you know how it says, “surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:4-6). This is my mission: I came to be crushed so that you could be healed. But you are refusing to accept the deeper healing I’m here to offer because you’re too married to your ideas of who I am.

What’s more, Jesus was not there to give special preference to certain people. He wasn’t there just for the people already in the community of God. He wasn’t there only for the people who had it together. Jesus came for everyone impacted by the curse of sin—including the Gentiles, the poor, the lepers, and the other social outcasts.

This was a huge sticking point for the people of Nazareth. And I think it can be for us as well. Have we allowed lots of “us versus them” language to make it harder for us to love? Are there groups of people that we are tempted to think, “The Gospel and the church is for us, but not them.” ? Can I just say, if you’re here this morning and you’ve somehow been told the lie that the good news of Jesus’ death, and the life we have together in His name is for everyone else but you, that they couldn’t be more wrong? Jesus’ love is so wide. There is so much room in His embrace. He came to welcome any person who will receive Him as He truly is: He is the long awaited Messiah, He is our savior, and He is our King.

Maybe you and Jesus need to take a long look at this box together. Maybe He’d say, “You know, there’s some really good stuff in there. But there's no room for the people I love. There’s no room for the life I’m calling you to. And there’s no room for the person I really am.

I’m here for everyone impacted by the curse of sin. You think I’m here for you, and to give your people special preference, when in truth you’re here for me, to be my ambassador, and I’m sending You to them! I want you to go in my name to the poor, and the broken, and the weary. There are people out there that I love outside of your nation, and outside of your churches. And how will they know about me unless you tell them? Where will they go if your door is closed to them? Who will hear their story if your ears won’t listen? Who will sit with them in the rain and in the hurt and in the silence and in the cold if your schedule is full?

America is your home, but it isn’t mine. My kingdom is not of this world. And when my kingdom comes, it will mean the reversal not only of sickness and death, but of every brokenness that is caused by sin.

I came to be crushed for your transgressions, and bruised for your iniquities. I came that you might have life, but that life is on the other side of both my death and yours. I know there are a lot of pressing issues in your life, but I didn’t come to always fix the pressing issue; I came to fix the deeper issue. Conquering Rome and curing cancer can’t even begin to capture the depth of healing that I am bringing into this world. The life you’ve planned for yourself seems very safe. I can see you love your life and your family, and you want to protect it. But I didn’t come to this earth because it was the safe thing to do. I came to this earth to die in your place so that you could die to yourself and find life in me. And it’s possible that I want to use your loneliness, and your wilderness, and your wandering, and your failures, and your pain to write a beautiful story that points both you and others to me.

Because I am the I AM. And you can’t put me in a box. I am the one who was, and is, and is to come. No conception could ever grasp my goodness. My love is too big. My mercy is too wide. My compassion is too deep. My faithfulness is too good. My ways are too high, and my thoughts are too great. But you don’t need to put me in a box. You just need to walk with me. I’ve already told you everything you need to know about Me right here in the Scriptures. But all you need to know right now is that I am the One. I am the Messiah. I am the Savior. I am the Lord. And I am the one who’s inviting you into the adventure of a lifetime.”

So what do we do? What happens when we get to know this Jesus? Here’s what happens: We respond. See because whenever we learn something about Jesus, it’s an invitation to respond.

They were too married to their box, and so they rejected Jesus, and continued to serve themselves. That’s the first way we can respond: We can reject Jesus and serve ourselves. I actually believe that this is why Luke moved this story forward in the narrative—because He knows that Jesus’ ministry will be marked by rejection, and end in His death. As it says in the Gospel of John, “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). We can read earlier in the scroll of Isaiah, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:1-3).

He lived a life and died a death of humiliation and rejection for us on the cross to show us what He was really like. Jesus was a stumbling block to the people of Nazareth, and yet the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone of God’s plan to welcome us home. And so we can come to Jesus and respond differently than they. And if we don’t reject Him as Lord, then the other option is surrender.

Now when two parties come to the table to talk about surrender, there are really two kinds: The first is conditional surrender. In this situation, you concede the fight, but you bargain for certain things. And that’s our second option with Jesus—we can surrender to Jesus on our terms, which ultimately amounts to asking Jesus to follow us, to go along with us. The big problem with this kind of surrender is that we get only a fraction of what we really want, and we become embittered. And to everyone else it looks like we’ve surrendered, but we’ve remained on the throne of our hearts.

That brings us to our final response: unconditional surrender. We can surrender to Jesus on His terms. But it may mean that we need to let go of our box. As a matter of fact, it almost certainly means we’ll have to let go of the box. And we can say, “Jesus, I know you’re better! I know your way is better. I know your love is better than anything in this world, and I know that if I have you, and if I lose all the other stuff, I have gained everything.”

Are you willing to let go of your box in order to get to know Jesus? Would you commit to getting to know Jesus with us over the next few weeks? It will be one of the greatest decisions you make. Because only when we get to know Jesus for who He really is can we follow Him as His disciples and surrender to Him as Lord. And I promise you, the reality of who He is—it’s better than you can imagine. But it may require you to give up the box. Actually, it will require you to give up your life. It may not be more comfortable, and it may not be easy, but it will be good. It will be the best decision you ever make. So whenever you learn something new about Jesus. Whenever you face something new, take the opportunity to surrender. That’s what Jesus did! For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross. And therefore God exalted Him. That’s what the adventure is all about. That’s our hope. That’s why we can suffer loss gladly on this earth. Because just like our savior, we will die to this earth, with the confidence that one day we will be raised in glory. And you can have that confidence today. You can have it again, and you can have it for the first time. Today is your day to get to know Jesus. He stands at the door and knocks, and He’s knocking for some of you this morning. And He’ll be knocking over the next few weeks. Bow your heads and let’s open the door together.