“Eight Unique Characteristics of Jesus Christ”
“His Mission”
Luke 4:14-30
Sometimes our words can get us into trouble. A man who smelled like a brewery flopped on a seat at a bus stop next to a priest. The man’s shirt was stained, clothes messy, and a half empty bottle of wine was sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He opened his newspaper and began reading. Needless to say, the priest became uncomfortable at the smell and appearance of his seatmate. After a few minutes the untidy guy turned to the priest and asked, "Say, Father, what causes arthritis?" In his annoyed state, the priest retorted, "Mister, it’s caused by loose living, being with cheap women, too much alcohol and contempt for your fellow man." "Well I’ll be...." the drunk muttered, returning to his paper. The priest, realizing the error of his comment, apologized. "I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rude. How long have you had arthritis?" "I don’t, Reverend. I was just reading here that the Pope does."
It is true that what you say can get you into trouble. Today we are going to see that what Jesus said in his home synagogue almost got him thrown over a cliff. But what Jesus said was not an accident. He intended to say what He said. Let’s read about it in Luke 4:14-30. This morning I want us to go back to that place and time almost 2,000 years ago. Let’s take a seat in the back of the synagogue and see what transpired at the homecoming at Jesus’ church. First, let’s notice:
I. HOMETOWN BOY RETURNS! (14-17)
After the baptism and temptation of Jesus, He had been traveling around the other areas of Galilee preaching and even performing miracles. By this time most of the folks in Nazareth had already heard the story of how Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast 10 miles down the road in Cana. There were also scattered reports of healing. This Jesus of Nazareth had become a hot topic of conversation all over the region. And now, on this Sabbath, there was a whisper among the crowd as they assembled at the synagogue. “Look, there he is. Jesus is here today.” Jesus had returned to His “home synagogue” to preach. I’m sure many of the folks remembered Him and looked forward to hearing what He had to say. They were excited because the Hometown Boy had returned. They were proud of their hometown boy. That would soon change as we will see later.
As part of the worship, a man in the congregation would be asked to read from the Torah (the law), then make remarks. After this, a man would read from the Prophets and make remarks. Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah. He carefully unrolled it from back to front until He found the passage to read. Before we leave this setting there is something important I want you to note:
It was part of the regular weekly custom of Jesus to worship every Sabbath in a synagogue.
Now you can be certain there were things going on in the Synagogue that Jesus didn’t agree with. Yet He still went, every Sabbath! The Synagogue was far from perfect, yet Jesus didn’t excuse Himself from worshiping with God’s people on God’s day. If there was ever anyone who really didn’t need to go to church, it was Jesus. After all, He was God in the flesh. He conversed with His heavenly Father on a continual basis. But when the Sabbath rolled around, where was He? He was in the local synagogue. Do you see the lesson? If the Son of God took time every week to gather with others to worship we should as well. Even if you aren’t 100% pleased with what goes on in your church, you should never get out of the good habit of worshiping with God’s people. When you come to church, the main reason you are here is to worship God. You will have fun, fellowship, and friendship but the main reason you come is to meet God in worship. Don’t miss this important lesson from Jesus. Second, let’s notice:
II. HIS MISSION (18-19)
The text that Jesus chose to read was found in Isaiah 61. Of course, in that time the Old Testament wasn’t divided into chapters and verses, so He had to unroll much of the scroll to find the exact place where these words were written. Jesus used these words to explain His mission, to explain why He came to earth. Jesus came to proclaim the Good News to the weak: The word “poor” literally means “someone who is unable to care for himself.” A better rendering would be the word “needy” or “weak.”
Throughout His ministry Jesus stressed that like a Great Physician, He didn’t come for the “well” but for the “sick.” The point is we are all sick, some just don’t realize it. He came to announce good news to the “weak,” that’s the general task. Then we see some specific areas in which He would help needy people:
1. Proclaim liberty to the captives!
During this time in history, there were some who were actual slaves, but Jesus is also speaking of another kind of bondage. 2 Timothy 2:26 says Satan has “captured many people to do his will.” Jesus came to set people free from all kinds of bondage. Many people in Israel expected the Messiah to raise an army and rebel against the Roman Empire and once again make Israel a free, independent nation. Jesus spoke about another kind of liberty and freedom. In John 8:32 Jesus said, (He said if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples) “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Some of you who are hearing this right now are in bondage to certain sins and attitudes from which it seems you can’t escape. Jesus has the key; in fact, He is the key to set you free today. Will you accept the freedom that He provides?
2. Sight for the blind!
Jesus actually healed many people who were physically blind but He didn’t heal every blind person in Israel. He had the power to do that, but He also has a greater power: to deliver people from spiritual blindness. Until a person comes to know Jesus in a personal way, they are spiritually blind. Jesus came to open the blinded eyes and blinded minds of unbelievers. He is still doing that today.
3. Restore those who are oppressed!
Look at the last word in verse 18. The word “oppressed” literally means to be “bruised or broken.” The Greek word literally means “to be broken in pieces.” It was a word that would have been used for a piece of pottery that had been shattered. Jesus came to repair shattered lives and restore broken hearts.
In Bible times a potter often repaired broken vessels by adding a natural adhesive to the parts. To me it is a beautiful picture to see Jesus repairing broken hearts the same way. He can take the pieces of your broken heart and use the glue of His unconditional love to restore it. The Bible says about the Lord in Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Have you ever suffered from a broken heart? Maybe you have been rejected; a mate left you for another person. Maybe you have suffered discouragement and disappointment. Perhaps your heart is broken because you know you have failed the Lord. There are a million experiences out there that can break your heart. Today Jesus stands ready to do what He said He came to do: Heal your broken heart. In order for him to do that, you must hand Him all the pieces. He can’t fix it if you hold back and hang onto some of the broken pieces. The Great Physician is in today and His specialty is fixing broken hearts—won’t you let Him?
Let me note that Jesus’ mission should also be our mission as a church; we should be doing the same thing that Jesus did. His message of good news should be our message. Sometimes churches forget man’s greatest need is spiritual. It is very important for us to help the poor with money, assist the blind with medicine and feed the hungry with food. It is important to pay attention to the physical and material needs of people. But it is much more important for us to minister to those who are spiritually blind and spiritually bound. The church is the only representative Jesus has left on earth. This is where you ought to be able to come to find healing for your broken heart.
So that’s the text Jesus used for His homecoming sermon. Then He handed the scroll back to the Synagogue attendant and sat down. In the synagogue, the reader of the scripture always stood to read out of reverence to God’s Word but then he would sit down for his discourse. So next we are going to look at
III. HIS MESSAGE (20-27)
When you look at this “sermon” of Jesus, you will see He makes three points and even uses some Old Testament illustrations to support them. Notice His three points:
1. “I’m the Messiah.”
He had the boldness to say this scripture from Isaiah 61 was fulfilled today in their midst. That was a bold claim for Joseph and Mary’s boy! The listeners didn’t get to upset by what He said; instead they were pleased by His “gracious words.” Can’t you hear some of them saying, “Amen!” while others whispered to each other, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” The reason they didn’t get upset is because there was a tremendous sense of expectation for the Messiah to reveal Himself and the Jews in Nazareth thought the main role of the Messiah would be to deliver the Jews. So rather than being skeptical at this point, they were hopeful. But Jesus hadn’t started preaching yet. He was just making an observation about Himself. He could have continued talking about Himself and they would have continued to say “amen.”
Preaching doesn’t become dangerous until the preacher has the guts to use the three-letter word: “Y-O-U.” As long as a preacher talks about Himself or others who aren’t present, his audience is happy. But as soon as the preacher begins to talk about you that’s when you get upset. So what we see next is that Jesus is about to shock them.
2. “You will reject me because I won’t let you use me.”
In verse 23 Jesus uses the Y word, “You will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’” The point of this statement is “You are sick and I’m going to tell you that you are spiritually sick but you aren’t going to believe me and you aren’t going to like it.” He knew they just wanted Him to do a few heavenly magic tricks like they had heard He had done down in
Capernaum. He was basically saying, “I’m not going to do it. You are sick people and I’m not going to let you use me as your puppet, even if I am from your town.” Suddenly there are no more “Amens!” His words were met with a shock, eerie silence. Steam began to rise from the collars of some of the proud men there. But Jesus wasn’t finished yet; he continued His message with a point that really made them mad.
3. “Don’t expect any favors from God just because you are a Jew.”
Jesus observed this spiritual principle: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. The little ladies who used to keep Him in the synagogue nursery were probably grinding their teeth now. The men who taught His Sunday School class may have been regretting they even let Him speak. He admitted He expected to be rejected by them, because God didn’t restrict His grace and mercy to the Jews only.
Jesus supports this point by sharing two Old Testament illustrations that made His audience down right angry. First, He reminded them that when Elijah was around, God completely bypassed the thousands of widows in Israel and showed favor to a Gentile widow in Sidon. God supernaturally extended her supply of grain and oil until the famine passed. God didn’t do that for a single Jewish widow. What’s the point? If the Jews in Nazareth thought God owed them some special favors, think again. God often shows mercy and grace to those who seem the least qualified. You see, the Jews hated the Gentiles. A few years before Jesus, a famous Jewish rabbi stated, “God created Gentiles just to be the fuel for hell.” They hated Gentiles.
His second illustration just drove this sharp point deeper into their anger. He reminded them that when Elisha was God’s prophet, instead of choosing to heal some Israelite who had leprosy, God chose instead to heal a pagan Syrian. And not just any Gentile, but the commander of the Syrian army who had been killing Jews! The prophet told Naaman to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River. At first, Naaman was indignant. After all, he had larger and more beautiful rivers in Damascus. But finally Naaman agreed to believe God’s Word. He dipped six times, still no change. Then on the seventh time, he came up clean. The Bible even says his skin was as soft as that of a newborn baby.
There is something we need to learn about this message today: That is God has the right to show His mercy and grace to whomever He chooses—even those that we think don’t qualify. Sometimes we hear about some drug-addicted rock star who finds Jesus. Our first response is skepticism, sure! Or we learn of some wicked prostitute who accepts Christ. We think, “Well that’s okay, just as long as she doesn’t come to my church.” Here is some stinking, homeless person who accepts God’s free gift of salvation. We think, “Well, if he does come here, watch your purse.” Where did we ever get the idea that God can only save nice, clean, prosperous, respectable folks?
Oh, you’d never admit it out loud. But when someone comes into your class or our church, you often accept them because they are “my kind of people.” But you let someone who isn’t “your kind of people” visit your class or come to your church and you look at them and think, “Who let them in here?” God forbid we should ever ignore any person who needs Jesus. As the church, the
Body of Christ, we must reach out and minister to the hurting, the stinking, the strange, the addict, the drunkard, the pervert, the abuser, the thief, and the liar. Why? Because you look at the very worst example of human misery you can find and say, “There, but for the grace of God, that’s me.” You ought to open your arms to anyone who receives God’s grace. If you don’t, you are guilty of the same spiritual pride that infected the people in the synagogue in Nazareth. Well, after Jesus preached His brief message, let’s notice
IV. THE INVITATION. (28-30)
John Bisagno former Pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church tells the story of his coming as a candidate for the position of pastor many years ago. He said that as he entered the auditorium it was dimly lit, with just a few people huddled together. They were singing some old slow funeral type song that was depressing. Later that day he took a walk in downtown Houston and came upon a jewelry store. It was some sort of grand opening and there were bright lights and a greeter at the door to welcome you in with a smile. Inside there was a celebration going on. There were refreshments and people having a good time talking and laughing with each other. They welcomed him and offered him some punch. He said that after attending both the church and the jewelry store, if the jewelry store had offered an invitation, he would have joined the jewelry store!
Before Jesus could even finish His sermon and give the invitation, many people came forward all right but they didn’t come to join the synagogue or to pray or to tell Jesus, “I really enjoyed the sermon today.” Instead, these people were so angry they rushed forward and it says they “drove him” out of the synagogue, out of the town and to the edge of the cliff. This Jewish synagogue turned into an angry mob and they yelled, spit, screamed, and pounded Jesus with their fists. They didn’t like the message, so they decided to kill the messenger. Why did they want to kill Him? According to their law, He was guilty of blasphemy and he deserved to die. They weren’t just trying to scare him or warn him. They intended to kill him. Can’t you see Jesus standing at the edge of this cliff? On one side is an angry mob; on the other side is a pure drop of over three hundred feet to the jagged rocks below.
Now let’s read verse 30. It says, “He walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” Whoa! What happened? Did Jesus know Kung Fu or something? Or maybe, He negotiated with them until they changed their minds. Now the Bible doesn’t say exactly what happened but I believe this was a miracle. When an angry mob is trying to kill a guy, He doesn’t just ordinarily “walk through the crowd.” Perhaps He just stopped time for a moment and while they were all frozen in time, He just walked away. Or perhaps the members of the mob suddenly became blind. Jesus could make blind eyes see and He could make seeing eyes blind. God did that in the Old Testament. Or perhaps Jesus just waved His hand and they suddenly forgot why they were at the cliff in the first place. Do you think God can make a person forget things? Jesus said the Holy Spirit would “bring all things to our remembrance.” If He can do that, I’m sure He can make folks suddenly forget too. (You may be thinking, “So that’s what’s wrong with me.”)
Just as the waters of the Red Sea parted for Moses to pass through, this angry mob parted for Jesus to pass through. But there is a spiritual reason why they weren’t able to kill Him. Even though Jesus came to die, there was a pre-ordained time and place for Him to die and this wasn’t the time or place. He would die less than three years later, during the Passover, on the slopes of the same mountain in Jerusalem where Abraham offered Isaac. It wasn’t part of God’s plan for Him to die by being thrown off the cliff at Nazareth. However it happened, Jesus was able to slip away, and He headed down to the Sea of Galilee about 18 miles away and based His ministry in Capernaum instead of Nazareth.
We can learn something from the response of the people in Jesus’ home synagogue and that is you will either receive or reject Jesus but you can’t ignore Him. The truth of God will make you mad before it sets you free.
You may not like what you’ve just heard but that’s okay. My job is just to deliver the message. It’s your job to decide what you are going to do with it. When you hear the Word of God it will usually make you mad or glad depending on the condition of your heart.
In just a moment we are going to give the invitation. Even though you may want to do so, please don’t rush forward and run me out of here to the top of the new building and try to throw me off. It’s your job at this point to ask, “Lord, what are you trying to say to me today?” If you are without Jesus, it’s obvious. God is saying, “This is the age of grace. You don’t have to be good enough or do good enough to earn salvation, it’s a gift.” Will you receive Him today? Others of you really are suffering from a broken heart. Jesus is saying, “I know what you are feeling. I understand the pain. I know what it feels like to be rejected. Why, even those people in my home church rejected me. I know how you feel.” Jesus says, “I care that your heart has been broken. You may think nobody cares but I do.” And best of all He says, “I can fix your broken heart, just give me all the pieces.”
Some of us nice, religious, and long-time Christians had better change our attitudes about the kind of people we start loving and accepting. As part of the body of Christ, we need to be on the same mission that He was on. We need to stand up for and help those who are weak and hurting. Let’s be the voice of Christ, proclaiming the Good News to the poor, weak, blind and oppressed. Let’s be the arms of Christ reaching out to those who are hurting.
“Eight Unique Characteristics of Jesus Christ”
“His Mission”
Luke 4:14-30
I. ___________ BOY RETURNS! (14-17)
II. HIS ___________ (18-19)
III. HIS ___________ (20-27)
IV. THE ____________ (28-30)
