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Intro

Hey y’all how are y’all doing? Everyone good? Y’all ready to “have an online day tmr?” Anyone doing anything cool for winter break?

Cool.

So question for you? What makes a story good? What makes a story a worth while story? You have to have some sort of plot, there has to be at least a character, usually more than one, but one can get the job done.

There also needs to be some of sort of problem or conflict that needs resolving, something has to be done. We would not watch 10 episodes of some who wakes up and does nothing, or just has their life together, like, Bob wakes up bob has a great day, Bob goes back to sleep. Terrible story.

Imagine Star Wars if Luke Skywalker is just like, i’ll stay here. Or think about a Christmas Carol if Scrooge is a good person at the beginning? Think about Harry Potter is if the first chapter is the Boy Who Died. Like fade to black, roll credits. Those story are no good. They’re not really stories.

We love stories, and we don’t have to be trained to know what a good story is, we pretty much all can tell if something is not a good story. Yes there is preference and stuff but all of know inherently what a good story is. We are hard wired to like stories, we crave stories. Look at the whole industries that have come about just to satisfy our need for stories. There are a million book publishers, Netflix is one of the most profitable companies on the planet, every single company now has some sort of streaming service, because they think they can figure out which stories we want to see before anyone else.

Stories need conflict, stories need growth, stories need resolution. Almost all stories start with, “A man comes to town, or a man goes on a journey.” Stories take the status quo and change them, shifting the course of events in that world. Look at the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf comes to town and Frodo goes on a journey.

We crave stories. So what we are looking at in this study of the Life of Jesus we need to see that this is a story, it is written as a story, it is written in narrative form, so when we read this, when we study this we need to see this as a story.

SO that is going to be the backdrop for what we are going to look at tonight.

Context

A man is coming home, a man is coming back to where he was raised. Jesus is coming out from Galilee where he preached the word. Now he is coming back to Nazareth, coming back to where he was brought up, these people may not have seen him in a while, but this is where Jesus grew up.

So that is where we are going to be tonight, still in Luke 4, does anyone need a bible? If you need a bible, throw a hand up and we can get one to you. If you don’t have a bible at your house, you can take that one with you. Anyone need a bible? Okay cool.

So Luke 4:14-30, gonna read through this in chunks, but let me give the gist of what’s going on here then we will look at it in detail. Basically, Jesus begins His ministry, and is preaching in the synagogues in Galilee, everyone liked what said.

So he goes to Nazareth, where he was raised. and he went to the synagogue to read on the sabbath, and he reads form the scroll of Isaiah. So let’s read this first chunk together, but befire we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

pray

Luke 4:14–24 ESV

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 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. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 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. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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?” 23 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.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

Okay so let’s look at this, Jesus just reads the scroll from Isaiah and the way the original language reads it is implying that Jesus picked this section, he wanted to read from this spot. So he reads form the spot. He wanted to to read this passage to the people he grew up with, and then tell them that what he had just read was about Him, that Jesus is who Isaiah was talking about.

So we love stories, like we talked about a second ago, we crave stories. One of the reasons we love stories is we can see our selves in stories. We can feel connected to the characters, we can empathize with them. Some of the themes in stories are present all of our lives. SO when we read stories, we see our selves in the story. We are prone to do this with the bible, but is that the best way to read scripture? Sort of. Think about it, when we read about david and goliath we love to see ourselves in David, but realistically, we aren’t david, we probably are the other soldiers who were to scared to fight Goliath. When we read this story here in Luke, are we Jesus? No, who are we probably most like? We are probably most like the regular people in the congregation that day? Listening to what Jesus has to say. So let’s also keep that in mind. We aren’t jesus, we are the ones listening to Jesus.

So what is Jesus saying here? Why does Luke Include this in his gospel but not Mark? Mark’s gospel which Noah read earlier says, Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

But doesn’t mention Jesus going to Nazareth. Why does Luke include this? Because Luke is writing this to a gentile, a person who is not jewish, a person who didn’t grow up reading under the practicies of judaism. Luke is trying to convey that jesus is who he is.

Jesus is who He says He is

So if you’re writing things down, write that down, Jesus is who he says he is.

See in the last bit of this chunk we see the crowd, marvel at first at what Jesus says, and to them, they are looking for a warrior, they are looking for an earthly king to come and rescue them form earthly oppression. The see that Jesus is basically saying to them, i am the messiah, and then we see the crowd shift, we see them say, “Hey isn’t that Joseph’s son?” and I’m sure they didn’t ask that innocently, as far as they know, there was some discrepancies with the birth of Jesus, remember Mary and Joseph weren’t married before Jesus was born, so Jesus probably had that stigma follow him around. I’m sure they were like, ‘is’ that Joseph’s son?

Jesus sees how they are acting and he knows what they are going to say next, they are going to want to him to prove himself to them and so that brings us to this next bit of this passage. SO lets read the rest of this, Luke 4:25-30

Luke 4:25–30 ESV

25 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, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 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.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 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. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

Okay, so when you first read this you’re kinda confused why they get crazy mad so fast. on the surface all Jesus did is tell them a couple stories from the OT and then they get crazy.

SO question for you, you ever heard a sermon, or even just a talk or podcast, or just a conversation that makes you mad? Like what you heard was right, but you didn’t want to hear it? Like you’re mad at what they’re saying? I have, sermons usually are convicting.

That is what is going on here, Jesus is telling them something that probably would make them mad though, the stories he just alluded too are both stories about God’s people missing out on the provision of God because of their rebellion against God, and not only that the provision went to people who weren’t Hebrew, who weren’t jewish. It went to Gentiles. Zarephath is from Sidon, not hebrew. Naaman had actually killed some Hebrew people, he was Syrian, one of the Hebrew people’s enemies.

What Jesus was telling them is “if you don’t see who I am, then you have already missed out.”

Think about, they have been looking their entire lives for the messiah, they have been looking their entire life for the savior to come. For the Christ to come. And the first thing they’d like him to do is go ahead and do some of those miracles they’ve heard about. Jesus doesn’t have to prove who He is with miracles, he knows that Miracles won’t make them believe. Later in the story, after Christ is raised form the dead their are still people who don’t believe he is who he says he is.

Jesus is comparing those who are hearing him to the Jewish people who will not believe Him, who rebelled against God in the stories he alluded to.

They get super mad and try to throw Jesus off a cliff.

Y’all ever been so mad you would throw someone off a cliff? Yeah only a couple times.

But that is crazy mad

So what do we need to take from this? I have two things and a question for you.

The Gospel is good news for all people.

The first thing is, The gospel is for all people. if you’re writing tings down, write that down. The gospel is good news for all people.

look back at the scripture Jesus Quotes, Luke 4:18-19

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This is what the Gospel does, this is what is good about the good news, We are all captive to sin, we are all spiritually poor, we are all spiritually blind, all living under the oppression of sin. Christ is coming as a liberator, as a savior. This is what makes the good news good news.

This is not what made the people cliff throwing mad, what made them cliff throwing mad is that people outside of Hebrew people are going to also have this good news. The Gentiles, are going to also be able to be saved.

What this means for us is that we cannot limit God. The gospel is not just for us, the gospel is for the world. The Gospel is for all people.

The Jewish people could not believe that the Gentiles, people who had for centuries oppressed the hebrew people were going to be given the same good news, the same gospel. This meant the Egyptians, those in Babylon or Persia, Samaritans, and most recently the Romans would be given the same good news, the same gospel.

This is like telling some diehard republicans that democrats can be saved, or some die hard Democrats that republicans can be saved.

Christ transcends cultural barriers, the Gospel crossed party lines.

The were expecting christ to be a king, a warrior king who was going to over throw earthy rule, but Christ had a bigger goal, liberating the world form the rule of sin and death.

Salvation comes through Christ alone

Second thing, The Gospel is for all people, the Gospel come through the hearing of the Good news, the Gospel removes the blinder of sin, removes the chains of death, but salvation come through Christ alone.

The other thing that made the people in the crowd so made is the way Jesus says Naaman was cleansed, what Naaman had was leprosy, which is a skin wasting illness basically, normally when you were made well you would use the word cure, Christ doesn’t do this, he uses the word cleanse, which has religious connotations, Naaman was made clean, not just cured but restored. God made him clean. Jesus is saying the Gentiles are going to be made clean, these oppressors are going to be cleansed of their sin, they are going to be able to come to the table of the Lord as family.

Jesus is saying that he is the one who is going to cleanse this world. Who is going to wipe out sin, this would have been blasphemous outside of Jesus saying this, only God can forgive sin, Jesus is telling them who he is, and who he is going to save. and that he is the Christ, that he is the Son of God.

Salvation comes through trusting in Christ alone. Salvation being extended to the world should tell us that no matter how bad we think we might have sinned Christ covers that, no matter how far from God we think we are, Christ can reach us. Christ was basically telling the crowd here that Romans can be saved, if the romans could be saved, anyone can be saved through Christ.

P 2 Christ

So question for you, whats the point?

Here is the question that you need to ask yourself in light of this passage.

Which crowd are you going to be? In this story there are actually two crowds, there is the crowds in Galilee, and there are the crowds in Nazareth. one crowd heard what jesus was saying about redemption, salvation, repentance, and glorified him, the other heard the same , and wanted nothing to do with him ,they wanted to throw him off a cliff.

The thing about jesus is that He forces you to interact with Him, to believe him or to dismiss him, by the nature of the gospel, Jesus cannot be dismissed.

Jesus gives you a choice, he either is who He says he is, or he is not, he is either a liar, a lunatic or He is Lord. When you actually interact with who Jesus is, jesus interacts with you, you can come to Jesus just how you are, but Jesus is not going to let you stay there, he is going to call you to follow him, call you to repentance. you can either follow him or not, but if you follow him, you have to take the steps, and leave where you are. Jesus changes you when you follow him.

So if you are a follower of Christ, this passage is calling you look around, who needs to hear the gospel? Who around you needs to meet Jesus? This passage should give you boldness show them to jesus. This passage is calling us to follow jesus closer. To know him deeper.

If you are not a follow of Christ, or you don’t know what you believe, or you are trying to sort out what you believe, this passage is giving you a choice, it is calling you to interact with Jesus, it is calling you to see the gospel as good news, that anything you think you have done is not too bad or put you too far from God. There is nothing you can do that god can’t redeem. This text is calling you to God for who he is.

If you have any questions about what it means to be a follower of Christ, come talk to me, talk to one of the adults, talk to someone. Come see Christ as Lord, come see Christ as king. Y’all pray with me