“Rejecting Jesus”

Sent by Almighty God in Heaven Jesus Christ came into this world for a very specific purpose. He came to represent His Heavenly Father and to offer a way in which people can have a relationship with Him. As Jesus began His earthly ministry, however, many people rejected Him. They did not believe He had come from God and could not understand His purpose on earth; in fact some even tried to kill Him. But Jesus never gave up or got discouraged. He trusted God and He pursued His purpose. In today's lesson on “Key to the Kingdom” we will look at Jesus’ first sermon. In the minds of many it didn't go so well. They took offense at Him and quickly decided to throw Him off the cliff. I wonder if we tend to do the same thing, to reject Jesus even before we consider His message? Oh, I hope you will listen to Jesus’ words today and not reject Him to quickly but take time to consider His message; a message that sets you free. Please open your heart and your Bible now, as we study together.

>>LESSON

Our lesson today comes from the New Testament Gospel of Luke chapter 4, and I hope that you will join me in that chapter. Reading scripture as part of a worship service has been a long standing tradition. Someone is selected to read a passage of Scripture as the worship begins, or as an important part of the minister's message for the day. But I want you to think with me about such an individual reading a Scripture passage and then before he sits down he announces to the assembled crowd, “What I have just read applies to me.” Yes, the Word of God is talking about me and my life. Now I don't know about you but where I attend worship a few eyebrows might be raised. People might question whether or not this man really knew what he was talking about. Well, it happened one day, according to Luke chapter 4. One of the Jewish men in the synagogue of Nazareth, a town of probably no more than 500 people, a Man was selected to read a passage of Scripture and as He finished reading He handed the Scroll of Isaiah back to the attendant, He sat down, and He said, “What I have just read applies to Me.” Well the interesting thing about that story is that the Man's name was Jesus; and we find that story here in Luke chapter 4. Let's begin reading with verse 14. – Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him. He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s Son?” they asked. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, Heal Yourself!' and you will tell Me, 'Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’” – As Jesus was there in the synagogue, in Nazareth, on this particular Sabbath all of the people spoke well of Him and they were amazed at the message that came from His lips. They praised Him for what He shared. Oh, these people must have been very proud of one of their own. No doubt many of them saw Jesus grow up right there in Nazareth and perhaps some of them had purchased tables and chairs that He had built in His Father's carpentry shop. But Jesus has a message to share with them that day. He starts out with some things regarding Isaiah chapter 61, and He reads from that passage. And according to those verses a Messiah is coming, and this Messiah will come from God and He will do some very specific things according to God's purposes for Him. And we have a list of that here in the 4th chapter, this Messiah will proclaim good news. He will have a message of hope and reconciliation as He opens the eyes of those who are spiritually blind. He will set free those who are guilty and those who are under the crushing power of Satan. He will offer a new life to those held captive by a love for money and those who find themselves in moral and spiritual poverty. He will come to release those Held captive and He will deliver the poor, and the prisoners, and the blind, and the oppressed, and all of those who recognize their need to depend upon God. But then we notice the Messiah will also come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, or the year of the Lord's favor; and this will be a time when God will bring freedom from the guilt and the effects of sin. It will be a time for the people to start all over again. But there's something I want us to notice here in this passage of scripture. Did you notice the active involvement of this Messiah in people's lives? Did you notice all of those action verbs? He will proclaim, and preach, and set free, and heal, and give, and give signs, and bless the lives of people. Oh, no doubt the people were aware of this message from Isaiah chapter 61, and probably have heard it many times before. They too were looking for the Lord's Messiah to come and to set them free, and to do good and wonderful things in their life. And as Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61 perhaps you could hear the words of the people, “Amen, Amen, that's right, continue to speak, continue to preach.” Well after reading from Isaiah 61 Jesus makes a dramatic statement. He says very simply, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. What I have just read to you applies to Me.” Oh, what these people did not realize was that Jesus was God's anointed servant; that He Himself was the Messiah and He had come to earth to give salvation and the forgiveness of sin. He had come to release from guilt and spiritual bondage those who were Held captive, and those who were poor, and those without any hope or direction for their lives. And these were the very things that happened throughout Jesus’ ministry. In fact, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John records story after story of Jesus making a difference in the physical and in the spiritual lives of many people. Oh, throughout His ministry Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be the Anointed One who had come from God. But evidently that did not sink in on this day in the synagogue in Nazareth. The people continued to speak well of Him. They continually were amazed at His message and they praised Him for the wonderful words that flowed from His lips. And then the people want Jesus to do for them what He had already done for people up in Capernaum. And if we were to go back to Mark's gospel we would find that very early on in Jesus’ ministry He was doing some very special things. We notice that He healed unclean spirits and He cast out demons. He even healed Peter's mother-in-law of a high fever. Yes, immediately Jesus became involved in the lives of the people who needed Him. And the folks here in this Nazareth synagogue on this day were excited Jesus was there. They were glad He had come back from His travels up north to be with them on this Sabbath, and they were excited to hear His message. But maybe they were not ready to hear what He had to say. Maybe they weren't really listening to that message. Sometimes that happens with us, doesn't it? We might hear a message from the preacher. We might hear what our spouse will ask us to do but we really don't listen to those words. We don't allow those words to infiltrate into our hearts and to make a difference in our lives. That's what was happening here with the people in Nazareth and so things began to change rather quickly. Beginning with verse 24, Jesus continued. – “Truly I tell you,” He continued, “prophets are not accepted in their hometowns. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him off the cliff. But He walked right through the midst of them and went on His way. – Now, why would Jesus say something about 2 prophets from the Old Testament? And then why would He say something about a prophet not being accepted in His own hometown? Well, there was a connection between those 2 things. Let me share with you what’s happening here. In the time of Elijah there evidently was a great famine for some 3 1/2 years and there were no doubt many widows who needed something to eat. But instead of Elijah, one of God's prophets, going to one of those Israelite widows, Elijah went over to a widow in the region of Sidon and took care of her. And likewise, in the days of Elisha there were many lepers who needed cleansing, but none of them received that except Naaman the Syrian. A foreigner received cleansing. And as Jesus is telling these stories the people are familiar with them. The hometown crowd, gathered here at the synagogue, thought they were the insiders. Kind of like these Israelites of old, that they had a special connection with God. But Jesus is saying to them that's not right. You are like those widows and those lepers over in Israel that rejected the word of the Lord and so the Lord sent His prophets to other people. And He is telling them that if they reject Him right here in His own hometown then His message and His ministry will be offered to the outsiders; just like in the time of Elijah and Elisha. If they refuse to hear Him then they will no longer be considered the insiders and have a special connection with God, and Jesus will take His ministry to those who will receive it. Well, naturally the people here in the Nazareth synagogue became more and more enraged because they realized they were not about to receive any special favors from Jesus. He wasn't going to do anything special for them and they viewed Jesus as thinking of Himself more highly than He should; thinking of Himself in greater ways than any of the rest of them. But Jesus’ ministry was not a rejection of the Jews. He was to carry out His Father's purposes as He went to all people, to both the Jews and the Gentiles. His ministry was to affect the lives of anyone who needed Him and who needed the salvation of the Lord. Well, by this time the congregation there in Nazareth had had enough. Oh, they did not have to be told twice. They knew Jesus was talking about them. And to be told they were spiritually blind, and helpless, and poverty-stricken was bad enough, but now they were hearing Jesus say that they were just like the Gentiles. One group was not any better than the other. And for them that was just intolerable. They could not handle that kind of message from Jesus. They were beginning to realize that their most hated enemies, the Samaritans, or the Gentiles, were also recipients of God's grace; and that did not sit very well with these people. And so what did they do? They drove Jesus out of the synagogue to the edge of the town, there on the brow of the hill, and they were about to throw Jesus off the cliff. They refused to hear His message any more. They wanted to have nothing to do with Him from this time forward. But the problem was the people refused to face their spiritual condition. They refused to listen to the message of Jesus. They refused to repent of their self-righteousness. They refused to humble themselves and get rid of the pride in their hearts. Oh, they thought they were the only ones who had that right connection with God. They thought they had that special track of a relationship with the Lord. And Jesus said you will never have that unless you listen to My words, and repent, and humble yourselves in the sight of God. I wonder what we might do today if someone said something about us like Jesus said about these people. What would be our reaction? Perhaps we too might respond like these people did; drive Him out of our midst, have nothing to do with Him anymore, to say that He is a false teacher and a false prophet, and to simply throw Him off the cliff. Well, this was only a for-taste of what was to come in Jesus' life. He experienced all kinds of negative reaction. The people He encountered continually questioned His authority, and who He was, and where He came from. They wanted Jesus to back up His words, and to prove His claims, and to perform some miracles; all because Jesus said some things that challenged them to consider who they were and their relationship with God. But the fact still remains, Jesus was the Messiah. He had come from God and He was the fulfillment of Old Testament passages like Isaiah 61. He had come to offer the free gift of salvation to everyone who would receive it. And yet these people in Nazareth did not seem to understand. Oh, at times Jesus’ message may be hard for us to listen to today, as well. We don't want to accept that message. We don't like what it says about who we are, or our attitudes, or our behaviors and so we tend to reject Jesus. We tend to tune Him out and not pay attention to His teaching, or choose to live a different way than what He has called us to live. We might even be tempted to throw Jesus off a cliff and to not have anything to do with Him anymore. But what did Jesus tell us to do? Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when we have the opportunity and the privilege to hear His message that is what we are to do; to not only hear it but to listen to it and allow it to infiltrate our hearts and to change our lives. And when we open our ears to His message we find that He has the words of eternal life. His message is one of redemption and freedom, a message of love and forgiveness, one that is filled with grace and mercy. Jesus, I believe, has something very important to say to us today, but we have to be humble enough to receive it. We are to eliminate the pride in our life. We are to humble our self and eliminate that self righteousness, thinking that we are above everyone else, and to humbly receive the words of the Lord. And when we do we will hear a life-changing message. We will discover freedom from sin and the gift of salvation which Jesus has come to this earth to provide for all mankind. The world in which we live today is not all that different from the world in which Jesus lived almost 2000 years ago. Jesus still preaches and He still teaches a life changing message. He still offers freedom for those held captive by sin and guilt. He still extends a loving hand to those who are morally impure and broken. He still sees those in need of spiritual salvation and the forgiveness of sin. He still takes away the crushing power of Satan and He proclaims a message of good news. And even though Jesus still offers all of this to people today there will be some who will reject Him, just like His fellow Jews in Luke chapter 4. When we hear and listen to the message of Jesus sometimes it makes us wonder about who He is. It might even cause us to wonder if that message really needs to be applied to our lives and if it can be trusted; because sometimes His words are convicting. Aren't they? Sometimes the message of Jesus is challenging and it is hard to hear. In fact the words of Jesus might even break our spirit and cause us to reevaluate our lives. And if that is the case then that is exactly what Jesus wants to happen for it is then that He can offer to us a good news message. And what is that good news? The good news is that He died for each of us. He has taken away the guilt of sin and the shame of a broken relationship with God. Oh, all of our sinful pride and all of our self-righteousness is forgiven by Jesus’ work upon the cross. The death that He died upon the cross sets us free and gives us the promise of a new life in Him. We who are slaves to sin, we who are held captive by Satan, can now find freedom in Jesus; and that gives us every reason in this world to rejoice. Oh, some 2000 years after Jesus read and fulfilled the words of Isaiah they're still fulfilled once again. His good news comes to people who need to hear it. His message is proclaimed. His blessings are freely given. And again, it might be a message that offends us, it might be a message that makes us a little bit uncomfortable. And in fact it should if we have not received His salvation and if as Christians we are not living our lives in accordance with His Father's will. But at the same time His message is one that is filled with good news. Good news that gives us hope. Good news that offers salvation. Good news that gives us a way to have an eternal life with God. Oh, just like He did in Luke 4, in that Nazareth synagogue, Jesus offers a life-changing message for all who will hear and respond to it. In Luke chapter 4 God wanted to accept the people to whom Jesus came to minister, but they refused to hear and listen to the good news of Jesus Christ. They refused to receive God's wonderful free gift of grace. And likewise today, God wants to do the same. He wants to receive all of those who will come to Jesus and receive that salvation. He wants to receive those at His banquet table who have responded to the good news message of Jesus; who recognize that He is the source of their salvation. He wants to welcome all of those who have not turned a deaf ear to the words of Jesus and He wants to spend an eternity with us. But we have a choice to make. We can reject Jesus like these people in Luke 4. We can turn our back on Him and on His message or we can accept Jesus, receive with humility those wonderful words that will change our life and that will make a difference in our eternal destiny. Oh, I encourage you today to not reject Jesus but to receive Jesus; to receive His wonderful good news message, and the salvation that He offers to you today.

>>CLOSE

Thank you for taking time to hear this message from God's Word. I trust that it gave you the opportunity to think about the importance of accepting Jesus and His message. It is so easy for us to dismiss and reject Jesus, like people did long ago, but I hope we never forget that His message is one that sets us free. My prayer for you today is that you will not quickly reject Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Listen to and understand His message. Accept His teaching and become His follower.