Follow Christ in Good Faith: Luke 4:14-5:32

Review Question: What were there 5 ways a person overcomes sin and temptation?

Big Point: Jesus came and brought good news, will you follow in faith? (Lk. 4:46)

Introduction: Please open to Luke 4:14, and we will read as we go.

There have been times I’ve been a bad person to follow! I am a terrible person to follow in any physical form. if you’ve ever followed me while driving, or going through some sort of building or corn maze you know I’m especially bad with directions. Selecia will tell you—I get lost easily, turn the wrong way, and tend to wander.

One time, I took her little brother—he was about five or six—into a mirror maze. At first, it was fun getting a little lost together, but after a while it got hot, confusing, and we just wanted to get out. Then I realized not only was I lost, but her brother was gone. Panicking, I started searching everywhere until I saw him just a few feet ahead, crying. I took off running toward him—and WHAM!—I slammed right into a mirror. Turns out I had run toward his reflection! When I got my bearings, I saw he was actually to my left. I scooped him up, and we finally made it out.

The point is: I’m not always the best leader—sometimes my leadership literally runs into walls. But there is a faithful, perfect leader who leads perfectly, and you should follow Him!

Let’s Pray

Christ is Faithful! (4:14-15)

transition: Today you will learn about the the beginning’s of Christ’s Ministry and what He specifically came to do. Christ should be regarded as the greatest leader to ever exist. He leads with a clear mission and He leads not only by word (which would be enough), but also through action. He is a gracious leader who shows those around Him what his powerful words mean tangibly. Let’s begin by looking into Lk. 4:14-15

read: Luke 4:14-15

context:

Jesus begins His ministry by returning to His home region of Galilee. Specifically you’ll notice, to His hometown of Nazareth

Jesus at this point had been growing in popularity and fame by His teachings and even His miracles already done (see John 1-2)

People began to talk, and like words of then spread — the talk of Jesus of Nazareth was spreading like wildfire!

He was teaching things in a way that was clear and understandable — people loved His teachings and were intrigued by them.

He was so versed in His speech, that people actually glorified Him.

teaching:

This passage introduces the next stage of Jesus’ ministry as His fame grows and people begin responding to Him. At first, everyone praises and glorifies Him, impressed by His words and deeds.

Yet their admiration is divided—some genuinely believe and trust His message, while others only seek personal benefit from Him. Their praise is rooted not in who He is, but in what they think He can do for them.

This sets the stage for how different groups will respond to Jesus as His ministry continues.

application:

But for now, I want you to be in the right mindset as we explore this next part of Christ’s ministry.

The groups have not changed. 2000 years may of passed, but these groups of people are the same. Thousands of years before Christ came in bodily form and these groups were the same.

There have always been those who are faithful to Christ and those who only want Christ as if He were a tool for their disposal

You today, I pray are part of the group that these passages focus much on. The faithful. The ones who trust Christ, hold fast to His word, recognize their need, and desire to know Him.

But there may be some that are like the others, where Christ is only useful to you when you feel that he benefits you. Some of you do not submit to Him as Lord. You just want Him as an acquaintance when he feel like it.

I pray that as we study, you will recognize which group you fall into and that you’ll be honest with yourself.

If you are part of the faithful, then the call will be clear all throughout this teaching: be faithful. Be consistently faithful — continuing trusting in Christ and knowing your daily need for Him and the good news He has brought. Never grow hardened, but trust Him.

If you are not, then the call is to turn from the wickedness of selfishness and seek Jesus not for what you think he offers, but because of who he truly is: savior of the world, God of the universe, friend of desperate sinners.

The Faithless Reject (4:16-30)

transition: understand I may hop around the story a little for the sake of painting a picture. For now, I’ll read from v.16.

read: Lk.4:16-30

context:

In John 1, Jesus begins His ministry in Capernaum, turning water into wine at a wedding feast.

Now He returns to Nazareth, where it’s His custom to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath and read Scripture.

Jesus reads from Isaiah 61, a prophecy about Himself (v.18).

The crowd listens intently, eager to hear what He’ll say after His growing reputation for wisdom and miracles.

Jesus declares, “This Scripture has been fulfilled today,” claiming to be the Spirit-anointed One sent to bring good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.

The people respond with skepticism and offense — “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” — questioning His authority and identity.

Jesus rebukes their unbelief, saying they’ll demand miracles as proof, but like their ancestors who rejected the prophets, their hard hearts make them unworthy of such signs.

Their unbelief turns to rage; they attempt to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff, showing how quickly admiration turns to hatred.

Yet, by God’s power, Jesus miraculously escapes the mob unharmed.

teaching:

This is a common story in the Bible. God sends a prophet (in this case the greatest of all prophets, the Christ!), the people listen to the prophet, the overwhelming majority do not like what the prophet is saying because the message confronts them in their sin, the people hate the prophet, the people try to kill the prophet.

This story is really foretelling of a future one in Acts. Where this is exactly what happens to Stephen the deacon because he follows the same pattern of Christ and then he is killed.

What is happening is that the faithless show themselves quickly to be faithless.

They don’t accept Christ and His message from God, because they are ultimately dead in sin and have no faith to believe.

So, they are led not by faith but they are led by horrible sin and they in that first instance with Christ in His ministry — try to kill him.

They show exactly the state of their heart in that they downplay who Jesus is, they would demand some form of benefit or sign from him, and then try to kill Him when He calls them out for their sin.

application:

Before the good news, let’s begin with the bad.

Every single person in this room either had that heart at one point or has that heart against Christ now. Before He came you were led by your sin, you were entirely selfish. You desired only the things that pumped you up and grew your pride.

You were totally mastered by sin, and it ruled in you. And for some of you — you won’t hear me mince words, you still are mastered by that sin.

When we read stories as humans, especially bible ones: we like to view ourselves as the heroes or as the ones who do well. But that’s not your natural default. You natural default is like the crowd here: I don’t like what your saying about me, and rather than acknowledge my sinful state I am going to rage and sin all the more.

The gospel is not just the good news of Christ’s love and his victory. The gospel is the good news of why Christ needed to come in Love and have victory over sin. Because sin has messed this entire world up in every facet imaginable.

You if you are in Christ need to be reminded of what you were before you were in Christ so you can glorify God in all that he’s done.

If in Christ your sin is not longer held against you, but when you do sin —God will use it to remind you of what you were apart from Him and He will actually use it for your good.

The Faithful Accept (4:31-44)

In middle school I was picked last for kickball in gym class, and of course everyone hates being picked last.

I didn’t think I should’ve went last, because I knew how to kick a ball well (I played soccer my whole life). The team that could’ve picked me actually said they didn’t want me, and so I was happy to go to the other team and play on their team.

That day I was so motivated by rejection that I scored three home-runs!

Understand, Jesus does not get motivated by rejection, but he DOES take His work and miracles elsewhere when His own people reject Him.

transition: Now, as we move to this next section, notice the very clear contrast. The people of Nazareth did not believe — so Jesus moves on, and the people in this section (the people of Capernaum) do believe and watch what Jesus does.

read: Lk. 4:31-37

summarize: Luke:4:38-41

Then, following this moment that Jesus speaks and they believe — the following verses (38-41) talk about Jesus coming to Simon’s house and healing His Mother-in-law who had a high fever.

Jesus does this, heals many more, and rebukes demons out of people showing further His power and confirming His words of who He says He is.

context / teaching:

Of course, the contrast is clear. The people from Jesus’ home town show no honor, no respect, no care nor desire for the great prophet who has come from their village, and thus Christ moves on.

Notice the flow of events: v.32 comes first! (Read)

The people believed the words of Christ and they were amazed at the things He was saying: AND THEN following this belief: Jesus confirms His word through action.

He actually casts a demon out of a possessed man to show them tangibly that their belief is right!

You’re astonished by words and the authority they carry, now watch and see how they are true.

They ask themselves, like Mary does earlier in Luke 1: How is this possible? This is so great a thing that it doesn’t make sense to our finite minds, but we do believe!

The evidence of their belief comes when they recognize the authority that comes with His words.

application:

The main point here is rather straightforward: Those who are faithful to Christ and His word are those who accept His word and recognize its authority in their lives.

The gospel is the greatest message to man on earth. There is no message that is more authoritative or powerful than the good news of Christ coming to be the atonement for sin and freeing people from their sin!

When those who are Christ’s hear this message their response must be faithful acceptance that this message is true and hold supreme authority in their lives!

Do you hear the message of Christ and accept it? Do you recognize who He is, what he came to do, and where he reigns presently?

He is King of the whole world, and He is supremely worthy to be praised.

The Faithful Follow (5:1-11, 5:27-32)

Sometimes in life there are things that happen that are better than you could’ve imagined. Selecia has been doing a garden for the past couple of years.

Gardens are strange, because one year one plant may not do well, but another it’ll do exceptional.

Last year, we tried to grow Jalepeno’s and basically got nothing. it was a bit disappointing as selecia had grand plans to make jalepeno bread and other things as well.

But this year, not expecting much, we did another Jalepeno plant and it produced so many Jalepeno’s we didn’t know what to do with them all! We expected basically nothing, but had bowls full!

in this section, Peter was blessed way more than he could’ve imagined.

transition: There will be a little bit of bouncing around in this section forewarning, but notice another aspect of those who are faithful to Christ, they not only accept His teaching, but they follow Him.

read: Luke:5:1-11

Summarize: Luke 5:27-32

Jesus calls another like the one’s we just read about. This time, it’s not average fishermen, but a chief sinner according to Jews: a tax collector.

This would be someone who was known to scam and cheat others, and really is a sellout to the Roman government.

Jesus reclines at a table with this tax collector Levi, and the Pharisee grumble that Jesus shouldn’t surround Himself with such filth.

Surely someone like Jesus should not be around someone like Levi. And Jesus brilliantly looks at them and says, if I came to heal the healthy — I’d come for no reason. I’ve come to heal the sick. This man is sick and He’s needs a remedy (this is obviously my paraphrase).

context / teaching:

In both stories, it’s clear that there are those who follow Christ.

Both stories of Jesus calling His disciples deal with common and known sinners embracing Christ, leaving their former lives, and following Him.

Jesus comes to them, he presents them with an opportunity to change their lives, and these disciples recognize their need to change their lives and they leave their, now former lives, and they follow Him.

Simon can see how great Christ is, and although the text doesn’t say it explicitly, it’s clear that Levi can see it too as he leaves riches and comfort to follow this man Jesus.

The pinnacle of these stories of Christ coming is two fold: v. 8 says (Read), and v. 32 says (Read).

Simon-peter recognizes what he is in front of the holy and righteous man, Jesus. He stands before God. He like Isaiah declares in His prophecy is a man of unclean lips.

He doesn’t deserve to the be in the presence of the Christ. He is a filthy sinner the same kind of filthy sinner that Levi also is. And they are unworthy to associate with this man of God.

To that end there is some truth to what the Pharisees say, these men are sinners and why would Jesus spend even a millisecond of time with them? But the issue is that these Pharisees and teachers of the Law are sinners just like Peter and Levi. And the only difference? Peter and Levi recognize what they are, while the Pharisees put themselves at the same level as Christ or even above.

application:

Simon and Levi are far from perfect men, Simon is a fisherman — a blue collar typer worker who clearly has faults. Levi is a tax collector who has built his entire life off of cheating and stealing!

There is nothing to observe on the offset that would lead anyone to want to be like these men.

Except for one thing, they follow Christ. They leave everything that they’ve ever known and the follow Christ.

What a clear message of the gospel.

Your former sinful life is comfortable, it’s familiar, it’s all you’ve ever known. There are delights in that life that you sinfully held near, and you enjoyed that life.

But there is greater life Christ calls upon you to have. There is a life of following Him in which you will have to leave your former life.

and although challenging, it’s the sincere call Christ has on everyone He makes His own.

The greater message here is not simply that Simon stops being a fisherman and Levi stops collecting taxes. The greater message is that Simon will become a fisher of men, and Levi will be healed from his sickness of sin!

This is the wonderful promise of God to all those who would leave their evil life of sin, and follow Christ.

He will make you into a fisher of men. Someone who loves Christ and preaches the gospel so that others may know it and love Christ.

He will rescue you from your sickness of sin. He will provide the medicine and He will heal you. So if you know Christ calls you now, leave you old life and live in one that follows Him!

The Faithful Show Faith (the faithless reveal sin) (5:12-26)

transition: if you follow Christ, you may ask the question — how do I know if I truly follow Him? How do I know that I am like Simon and Levi who left their old ways? And the answer? Because you’ve been changed. We’ll read about miracles in a moment, but on the onset, the greatest miracle Christ does for anyone is forgive their sins, regenerate their hearts by His Spirit, and make them followers of Him. This is then evidenced through the faith one has.

read: Luke 5:12-26

context / teaching:

Of course notice in these sections there is a commonality between the leper and the paralytics friends. They not only believed in Christ and had Faith that He would could heal them: but they actually showed it through their actions.

Lepers of this time were casts outs. They were infected individuals who were not allowed to be around the community at large. They were thought to be physically dirty because of their disease, but also the thought often with disease was that God was punishing them.

The Leper shows His faith in Christ in a similar way to how Peter did as well. He falls to his face, he knows his standing before Jesus and he earnestly pleads that Christ would heal him.

He believes that Christ can heal Him, and Jesus say’s He will heal Him.

Similarly the friends of the paralytic man have such faith in what Christ can do, that they will not give up in seeking Him out despite the obstacles present before them.

They do everything they can to get their friend healed knowing that Christ could do it.

Jesus, however, gives the bigger picture to these healings, and I’ll revisit that in just a moment as I close.

But for now, see simply the point here: The faithful show their faith, but additionally, the faithless reveal their sin.

The Pharisees don’t have faith in Christ, they do not recognize their need for Him, instead they reveal that they are full of sin and they bark out accusations of blasphemy.

They don’t acknowledge His authority from God in what he’s already done. They just begin to point fingers and accuse.

application:

Jesus draws the big picture: the greater issue people have is not sickness or physical ailment, it is sin.

These two stories point to bigger concepts. Yeah, someone is sick with leprosy and another cannot walk which has ailed him for His life.

But the greater concept Jesus presents is that this man who has leprosy needs to be healed from his disease of sin, and this man who is paralyzed needs to be able to walk in the light of God for the first time.

Their problems extend way further than their physical problems. In one sense who cares he has leprosy and who cares that guy can’t walk? They both will die one day!

There is a greater focus that needs to be had. They need saving from their spiritual sickness and their spiritual lameness.

The Pharisees reveal that they are faithless in their lack of understanding what Christ has really come to do.

But the faithful reveal their faithfulness in trusting Christ and believing in Him in the midst of their problems.

Do you trust Christ? Do you follow Him? Do you love Him?

Do you recognize your need for Him, and can you see past the your day to day physical needs and know that there is a greater need you have?

Remember the big point: Jesus came and he brought good news! He brought news that sin would be defeated and man could be made right with God — and the question remains will you follow!?

If you are one who does not follow Him yet, recognize today you need for a savior. He has come to be a doctor for the sick. Are you sick? Come and be healed from your great spiritual disease.

If you are one in this room who follows Him today, GOOD! Continue on in a lifetime pursuit of Him knowing He will provide you faith and sustain that faith.

Let’s pray.