Luke 4:14-30
How’s Your Hearing?
Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church
April 2, 2006
Introduction
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 unkempt, 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 disheveled 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."
Just like this priest, too often we can make assumptions about people that can be completely wrong. What is worse though is that too often we can make assumptions about God that can be completely wrong. We try to squeeze the creator God with all his awesome characteristics into a box or into a set of creeds or theological explanations which we can comprehend or handle with our feeble little finite minds. In so doing, we put limits on what we will allow God to do in us and more seriously, we try to limit what God is allowed to do in other people.
This morning as we continue our study in the gospel of Luke we’re going to encounter a group of people who knew Jesus very well and as a result tried to stuff Him into their box. The problem though was that Jesus’ purpose and his whole ministry was way too big to be contained in any box dreamed up by the thoughts of mere men. Isaiah 55:8-9 says,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Luke 4:14-15 serve as a summary of the first year of Jesus’ ministry after He was baptized.
“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.”
Between verses 13 and 14, or between the time of Jesus wilderness testing and the time He appears in Nazareth, the events of the first four chapters of John take place. During this year of ministry He had been introduced as the Messiah by John, called some if not all of His disciples, cleansed the temple in Jerusalem, talked with Nicodemus, and proclaimed the gospel in Samaria where the woman at the well was saved. When He returned to Galilee, a nobleman approached Jesus in Cana while his son was ill in Capernaum. He asked Jesus to heal the boy from a distance, which He did.
In just one year Jesus had done some amazing things, but more importantly, He had taught and preached some amazing things, and the fantastic reports of His ministry had reached the people of Nazareth before He did. When He finally arrived, the level of anticipation and excitement was high.
You can imagine the scene as Jesus returned and began to visit His family and catch up on what had been going on. The townspeople would be curious about the reports they had been hearing, and folk at the synagogue would want to hear His teaching; so when the Sabbath rolled around, Jesus was asked to read from the Holy Scriptures. Verses 18-19 record what He read:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Once Jesus had read this passage, He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down ready to start teaching. And this is what He says in verse 21: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
So far everything had been going fine, but when Jesus made this statement things began to change. Let’s read verses 22-30 and see how things unfold for Him.
“And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.”
What happened? How could this people go from adoration for a home town boy to an attempt to murder Him? They could because of their misconceptions. The Jews had three misconceptions with which we struggle also.
Misconceptions About Jesus
Why would Jesus incite such strong feelings against Himself? Had He just kept quiet no one would have cared, but Jesus will not let you sit on the fence. You’ve got to make up your mind about Him – He demands that you make up your mind about Him. He wants you to care, to have strong feelings about Him one way or the other. He wishes you were hot or cold, and every time you are confronted with the Word of God you do make a decision about Him.
Jesus could have maintained a great following here in His home town, but He wanted the people to be more than slightly impressed with Him. He wanted them to feel something more than simple delight in a few magic tricks.
Jesus was on a mission to change lives; to change hearts; to change futures, and to change relationships with God. But to do that He was going to have to shake things up; He was going to have to rattle their cages and make them reconsider the way they thought about Him and about God.
Everybody has their ideas about God. “I believe this…” “I believe that…” I read one man who said that he converted from Christianity to atheism and he explained it this way, “My experience told me…”
You are no different. Every one of you has grown up believing certain things about God. About Jesus. But are they true? Think beyond the flowing brown hair and blue eyes and nice tan. Think beyond a nice man teaching some nice things so we might become nice people. What wrong conceptions do you have about Jesus? That perhaps He guarantees some standard of living? That He won’t allow you to suffer? That “good Christians” always get blessed? A lady told me one time that God promised abundant life to His people, and that if we really love Him and serve Him He’s not going to make us do without. Listen, that’s just one of many misconceptions people have about Jesus.
But how do you know whether you have misconceptions about Him or not? Would you know it if you did? Here are a few ways you can know:
Get in the book. You need to be studying your Bibles. I can’t hammer that down enough. Don’t rely on what I say or what some writer says. Get in your Bibles for yourselves. I don’t know how much time you’re spending studying your Bibles, but I can tell you that in most cases it’s not enough. Read the gospels over and over. Watch Jesus move among the crowds. Listen to what He’s really saying. Think about how He interacts with other people and dig it out for yourselves.
Try on some new shoes. Let me ask you this: Is Jesus a middle-class white American? Of course not, but too often our view of Jesus is middle-class white American. When you form your ideas about Jesus, put yourself in the shoes of someone else as best as you can. For instance, I have heard it said that Jesus would never condone clapping in church. If that’s true, then why does that same Jesus rejoice over clapping in church in Kenya? Think about another with me. Does Jesus bless those who love Him with more and better material things? I can assure you the people in third world countries love Jesus just as much as we do, and yet they are starving and sleeping in cardboard houses. These are just a couple of examples. There are plenty more that you must ask yourself.
Do His words cause pain? I’m not asking you whether a sermon got on your toes. I’m asking whether when you are confronted with His Word you feel great enough discomfort to change. Some people feel bad about a sin or habit or behavior or thought, but they’ll keep doing it. Some of you are perfectly comfortable with where you are in your relationship with Christ; comfortable with your relationship to this church; with your service and Christian walk. If you are, then I can assure you have a distorted view of Jesus. He will never let you sit on the fence.
Examine Whether You Have Any Misconceptions About Other People
Not only did these people have misconceptions about Jesus, but they had some wrong ideas about other people too. Jesus proclaimed what His ministry was going to be about and made clear that it wasn’t just about the Jews. He goes on to rub salt into their wounds by recalling Elijah’s and Elisha’s miracles. He points out that their miracles weren’t performed in their own town. In fact, they weren’t even performed in the midst of Israelites. Rather, their miracles were performed before Gentiles – Those they called dogs.
To the Jews, the Gentiles were dogs and deserved judgment. They were waiting for the real Messiah, one who brought the guts and glory. The one who would come and live up to their expectations and destroy these Gentiles. Who was this imposter? Before them they saw the young man they knew well. He was the carpenter. But what was he saying?
Jesus challenged the box that the Jews had created for the Messiah. Their box restricted the Messiah’s ministry to Israel. It reserved the Messiah’s victories for the Jews alone. It didn’t have room for the Gentiles in that box. But Jesus’ ministry was far bigger than that. Jesus’ ministry was for the benefit of all people – not just the Jews. His ministry of salvation was for all nations. The Jews had got it wrong, God’s purposes in choosing them was not to save them in isolation, but so that they could be his instruments by which he would bring salvation to the whole world. His plans and his purposes were to save Jews and Gentiles.
When Jesus rode into town these people believed themselves to be special, but after hearing His message they felt betrayed.
I want you to think about the people around us and the way we think about them. Before you say that you love everyone and want to see them all feasting on the glory of God through our church ministries, just ask yourself which groups you exclude by default. When was the last time you asked a Mexican, an Indian, a Middle Easterner, an Asian or a black to come to our church? Just so we don’t make it about race, when was the last time you were proud to be a church that ministered to dirty little heathens that only put a financial drag on the church? Let’s not make this about race or economy. What about age? Some of you feel betrayed because of the emphasis given to young people or old people.
I’ve really been catching it lately. The young people are upset because the old people want so much attention. The old people are upset because the young people need so much attention. And anybody who’s upset about any of these things or can’t be open to every body has some misconceptions about Jesus and other people.
Examine Whether You Have Any Misconceptions About Yourself
Do you know what the problem was with these Jews? I have identified three.
1. They were proud and couldn’t admit it.
2. They were ignorant and didn’t know it.
3. They were in bondage and couldn’t see it.
They were too proud to admit that God’s work didn’t revolve around them. They were ignorant about Jesus, but rather than taking time to investigate and think through what He was saying to them they had a knee-jerk reaction and tried to kill Him. They were in bondage to their misconceptions. So long as they were unwilling to let Jesus out of the box they had created for Him the Jews would never know the freedom Jesus offered.
Are any of these true about you? It takes a person of deep humility to recognize and admit being wrong. These people were wrong. Are you? Are you wrong about Jesus and other people? Have you boxed yourself into a corner but can’t admit it? Is your pride keeping you from enjoying the freedom Christ offers?
Don’t be one of those who has such an elevated view of yourself that Christ has to move on to someone else. Don’t be like these people who thought that everything revolved around them.
Conclusion
It is a difficult thing to do what I am asking you to do today. Everybody thinks they are right, so checking for misconceptions is not an easy task, but it is what every one of you must do if you are to be the person of integrity you want to be.
Have you forced Jesus into your box? Do you really understand that His purpose is to radically transform lives? Can you see that more often than not it is us, not God, which hinders Christ’s ability to reach the people He wants to reach?
You have listened to the message, but have you really heard? What size box have we at Woodlawn Baptist Church constructed for Jesus? What restrictions are we putting on Him here today? The box that we make for Jesus will never be big enough to contain the plans that God has for His Son.
Whatever box I try to force Jesus into is limited to my viewpoint and my experience and the same is true for your box. We need to let Jesus out of our box and give Him freedom to challenge us as He sees fit. To work His perfect purposes as He desires. To reach those he wants to. To use us as He longs to.
