Hot Time - Trouble In The City Series

Luke 4: 14 – 30

Hot Time, Trouble In The City

14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Let me ask you a question, have you ever been a witness to a crime or an accident? If so, then you are familiar with giving an account to the police on what you saw. If there were four of you who witnessed the occasion, do you think that all of you would give the same descriptions? Most of you probably never thought of this possibility, but the answer is that all the witnesses would give different descriptions. It is all based on your make up and what is important to you. One of you might focus on the general conditions. Others would get into the specifics in more detail. With all this information finally collected, then the police are in a better position to understand what exactly happened.

In our study today, I am going to let you know up front that there were two other listings of the events that we are going to study today. One of the listings comes from a possible eyewitness and that is Matthew. In case you did not know this, Mark received all his information from the apostle Peter, who was also an eyewitness. You will see how these two Gospel writers seem more in harmony that the information that Luke gives us.

Now, this is not bad, where some may say that Luke’s information is not trustworthy. This is not true. Luke was a great investigator. He interviewed, like a policeman, a lot of people who were eyewitnesses to these events and he is able to shed some more light which I for one am very appreciative.

So, let me just list for you the record accounts that Matthew and Mark gave regarding these specific incidents.

Matthew 13, “53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”