Untitled Sermon (97)

Have you ever awakened from a nightmare and been in a cold sweat from what you were dreaming? It seemed as real as the day is long, but it wasn’t?

Or maybe you are like me.... I dream about normal things- work, family, etc., I typically dream about conversations, and typically it will be because I have that on my mind when I fall asleep. And I think it’s real. So I think I had conversations with people- that I haven’t. Or sometimes, I will rethink or plan on conversations I’m going to have, and the reality is that they didn’;t happen that way or when they do take place they don’t happen as I thought they would.... but I get the two confused- what happened and what I planned to happen… and I find myself sometimes saying, “Did that happen or did I just dream that happened?”

That’s kind of like a concept I hope you take away in today’s message. Let’s begin.

Luke 4:22 ESV

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?”

Jesus words were grace filled. But this congregation of Jewish people in Jesus’ hometown would not be sucked in quite so easily, so they have to find it in something. The best they have is, “Isn’t this guy Joseph’s son?”

Luke 4:23 ESV

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.’ ”

Jesus is reading their minds… he knows what their rebuttal is going to be to what he said. His words were gracious… but really, today this is fulfilled in your ears? Come on Jesus, if you want to prove that one, you’re going to have to do more than speak gracious words. They wanted to see miracles (and they wouldn’t have believed then either!)

Luke talks a lot about Jesus knowing what was in people’s heads. Believe it. He knew what they were thinking.

How could this poor carpenter’s son ever pass off as the Messiah they were looking for?.... they seemed to be saying, “Jesus, deal with your own problems before you try to deal with ours. Heal your own problems, then we will listen.”

And Jesus knew what they were thinking and what they would say, so he cut them off at the pass..... he told them what they were thinking.

Luke 4:24 ESV

And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

This “parable” he names is simple. If you achieve greatness, you will never be fully trusted in your homeland....but this runs a little deeper than that. Jesus is saying he runs in the line of the prophets that Israel had rejected all along before him.

Luke 4:25 ESV

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,

Look at verse 24 and then 25 with a fair look at the word, “truth”, in both verses. They are the same root, but have different implied meanings. In Verse 24, Jesus is saying this is a truth that is generally accepted- a prophet is not acceptable in his hometown among the people that know him. Okay.

But when you couple it with “truth” in the 25th verse, you see a different meaning- where Jesus is comparing the truth known with the truth in reality. Because in the 25th verse, the word truth would better be understood as “but in reality”....

Jesus is saying, “Compare and contrast” the truth of your reality with the truth of God.

Luke 4:26 ESV

and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Luke 4:27 ESV

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.”

Note that Elijah and Elishah were sent to these gentiles not because they were rejected by the Jews- RATHER, they were sent by God. The message is simple… the grace that jesus spoke about was not only for the Jews,.... but rather for everyone- Gentiles included.

The story in 1 Kings 17:8-16 states that Elijah bypassed all of the Jewish widows in order to help a gentile widow in a gentile town (Sidon).

“Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now 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.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’ ” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:8–16, ESV)

And his successor, Elishah, healed a gentile leper from a gentile place- Syria. 2 Kings 15

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” (2 Kings 5:1–14, ESV)

So what?

As Jesus spoke in this synagogue.... please understand. These Jewish people were proud, exlusively proud.

Here is their truth: They were God’s chosen.

Here is God’s reality: And Jesus’ message is that these Jews had to be saved by grace just like the pagan gentiles.

Luke 4:28 ESV

When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

Luke 4:29 ESV

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.

Jesus has labeled them as those who have rejected the prophets… they are outsiders to what God is now doing. And they are upset.

Luke 4:30 ESV

But passing through their midst, he went away.

In my hometown, a popular judge who was a few years older than me passed away. He grew up in the community and was elected recently to the bench, and unexpectedly passed away. So the local newspaper had some pictures online that I was looking at. And something I never knew is that police will come to a judge’s funeral. A lot of police. Highway patrolmen, sheriffs, neighboring township police. And they have this ritual they go through walking through the alleys of East Liverpool pretty much in a straight line. And they all had their white gloves on.

And it brought me back to 1974 when I was 12 years old because they did the same thing, nearly exactly, that I remember them doing when my dad died. And there was nothing special about it, I’m sure that every cop and every judge that has died since they go through a very similar ritual.

But the reason it is so special to me is because when I was 12 my dad was known by nearly everybody you met. You couldnt’ go anywhwere that people didn’t want to talk to him. After he died, people knew who I was because of him, and I just assumed this dad of mine was known by everybody and always would be.

But as I looked at those pictures of the police the other day I realized something. Time has passed. None of those police left worked with my dad- they are all retired or passed on as well by now. In fact, there are few people left in East Liverpool who probably realize or remember who he was. There are a few.

And I suddenly realized that my 59 year old reality is that of a 12 year old boy, and a lot of the truth is that 47 years has passed and the person I knew then almost no longer exists anywhere but in his children’s heads and a few select people who happen to be living in my hometown. You see there’s truth- and there’s reality.

The truth is he “was” a very popular figure in my hometown. But the reality is that that was 47 years ago and a lot of water has passed under the dam since that time. Right?

Bottom Line:

Your Reality Is Not God’s Truth

Most of the Jews in that synagogue that day would have been able to trace their bloodline back- way back.

They could tell you their grandfather, their grand mother, their great great great grandfather.... they could tell you by memorty.

They could tell you the family stories from centuries before.

They would involve names like Jeremiah, Obadiah, Nehemiah, Amos, perhaps even abinadab or Joshua, or maybe even Aaron or Moses.

They would know what tribe they were from .

They would likely be able to take you back to their great great great great…grandparents. Abraham and Sarah.

And there it is. The story. The story about them being “God’s chosen people.”

The covenant. The Promise. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And you, and everyone else- would suddenly know how special and unique they were. God’s chosen.

But the problem is what they did with that truth.

The problem was how special and unique they thought they were- to the exclusion of everyone else.

And their reality was not God’s truth.

It is true that God loved the people in the synagogue that day in a very special way.

It is true that God loved Israel in a special way.

It is also true that God loved Jeremiah, Obadiah, nehemiah, Amos, Abinadab, Joshua, Aaron, and Moses in a special way.

It is also true that God loved Abraham and Sarah in a special way.

He loved Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in a special way.

But God also loved Sodom and Gomorrah.

He also loved those who died in the flood.

He loved all of the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the people of Jericho.

God loved Nineveh.

And God loved John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald.

And God loved Squeaky Fromme.

And God loved Jeffrey Dahmer.

And God loves you.

And God loves the people lying between their sheets across the street this morning.

And God loves the homeless person who was in a warming shelter last night.

You see- God loves everyone. That’s the truth.

And the reality that you got out of bed this morning and came to church and did all you do to get here doesn’t make you any more special than anyone else I’ve mentioned here today.

Your reality doesn’t make you any better than anyone else in God’s eyes.

God’s truth is the only thing that can make you better.

And here’s the truth that overcomes whatever reality you are trusing in.

Jesus died for all

Your Reality Is Not God’s Truth-Only Jesus Is