Luke's Gospel

Jesus returned to Galile Lee 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, and 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.

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 Capernium. Truly I tell you he continued, No profit is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah time when the sky was shut for 3 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 Sarapheth in the region of sidon And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elijah, the prophet.

Yet not 1 of them was cleansed. Only Neiman, the Syrian. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and they 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 crowd and went on his way. Well, good evening, from me, and may I add my, welcome to to you all.

My name is Rory Conard, and I'm 1 of the members here. And tonight, we are, as Tom said, we're going to, resume our series in Luke. Now, I love Luke because, basically, he's a historian, and I teach history. So I always get very excited about Luke. And and so, hopefully, you like history too, and you're gonna be very it doesn't actually don't need to be excited about history.

Just be excited about this. Right. Let's pray and we'll get stuck in. Good. Father, we thank you so much for this gospel.

We thank you that You used, Luke to record the true events of the lord Jesus. And father, we pray that as we look at this passage now, that you will help us to understand it. But also father that we will be able to apply it to our lives. And so he prayed us in Jesus' name, amen. Okay.

So last week, if you were here, Paul, Paul took us through the the first part of this chapter, part of chapter 4. And we saw Jesus, being tempted, but he stands the test. So he he goes through a number of of of temptations. You can see it there in chapter 4 verse 1 to 13, but he stands to test. He he succeeds where all of this have failed.

And now we're gonna pick up the story from here. And and and once this tendon's been done, it seems that Jesus goes on to engage in a fruitful ministry all around Gallay. Looked looked down with me at verse 14 to 15. Jesus returned to Gallilee in the power of the spirits and news about them spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in the synagogues and everyone praised him.

See, here he is. He's going around. He's preaching He's teaching. He's he's performing miraculous signs. And it's very, very clear from the start that this here is a pretty special man.

This this bloke's got something about him that, you know, we should we should sort of respond to. See, people cannot stop talking about that they're all praising him in verse 15. It's kind of though that they'll be there. They'll be telling the neighbors. They'll be telling the friends that they go down to the to the local cafe for a a full English breakfast and you're gonna have you heard about this bloke Jesus?

The things he's doing is is remarkable. It's true that news spreads, doesn't it? And it spreads very, very quickly. I was, this happened to happened to me, new spreading very quickly, and I didn't want it to spread very quickly when I was on contagious. I I'm a very romantic man, as you can all probably tell.

And, I don't know why you're laughing. And, I decided to get engaged, at Contagio So I asked Derusha to marry me on contagious. She said yes, and we are married. And we said, oh, we'll just tell a few of our friends, tell the family and that'll be it. So that's what we did.

We told the family apart from Susan. I think you got missed out, didn't you? Yeah. Don't care about you. And so There we are.

We we tell them I go off to I think get packed and then I come back and it's it's it's rippled all throughout the camp and I come back and everyone's cheering and clapping at me and I thought, how's this happened? But this is what happens news spreads. I mean, if Jesus was around today, he would be an internet phenomenon. Right? There would be video there'd be like those videos on Instagram.

Look at Jesus. He healed someone. He's preaching. They'll be quoting him, hashtag Jesus speaks. I don't know.

The news spreads like wildfire about the lord Jesus. The whole of the countryside talking about him And and and the news goes all the way back to his hometown Nazareth. And they're probably just as excited, just as amazed that Jesus is doing these things. And actually, they they wanna they wanna hear and they wanna see these things for themselves. And and then they get this news.

Jesus is is coming home. Oh, great. A homecoming. He's coming back to Nazareth. People let's get the, I don't know, get the bunting up get the banners at Welcome Home Jesus.

We love you Jesus. Here he's coming. He's coming back to teach. He's gonna preach to the people that he grew up around. So how is this gonna go?

And this is the question that I want us to think about. What will the response be from his own people? How will they respond? How will they respond? And then how will you respond to the lord Jesus tonight?

So look firstly with me. Jesus, Jesus's message. Jesus's message, the truth read and fulfilled. The truth read and fulfilled. So the day comes, the Sabbath is here.

This is the day when they're gonna all go to the synagogue publicly worship, god. And Jesus goes on, he makes his way to the synagogue, and he comes to speak. And I guess I guess the place is totally packed. I I actually tonight, it's very packed in here. You must have all heard that a great preacher was preaching, and then found out I was here.

It was probably packed. This is probably the busiest sabbath for a long time. They were losing count of who's there and Everyone seems to be ready to see and hear Jesus. What's he gonna say? What's he gonna do?

And that you'll notice here that Jesus is really deliberate in everything he does. I he's just a master at at work at an audience. Can you see he kind of he stood up He the scroll was handed to him, unrolling it. Just very I can just imagine very carefully unrolling it finds his place. There it is.

He reads it out and then he rolls up the scroll again just carefully, hands it back to the attendant. Sits down. And I I just pauses so that we get in verse 20. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. They're absolutely fixated on Jesus.

They cannot look anywhere else. Their eyes on it. It's not like a normal church congregation where people are looking at their nails or dreaming about, what they're gonna have, for tea tonight. They're ready. They're listening.

They're fixated. It's like a laser. What's he gonna say? And so Jesus begins. And he says, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

It's what you're saying. See that message that I just said there that I've just read that Isaiah spoke years ago, it's all about me. And I'm fulfilling it right now. I'm making it come true right now as I speak. So what is this message?

Well, this it's basically Jesus' manifesto, and, you know, part, political parties. I don't really wanna go too much in politics, but they write their manifesto. It says, we're gonna do this, this, and this. And never do this, this and this, but tend to do that, that, and that. But Jesus, this is his manifested.

This is what I'm all about. That's what Jesus is saying. And the passage that he's read is taken from 2 chapters in Isaiah. 1 in chapter 58. And another 1 in chapter 61.

Although interestingly, the 1 in chapter 61 is cut short. So it's it it ends to proclaim the year of the lord's favor, and then it says the day of vengeance of our god, the day of vengeance of our god. And the reason he leaves that out is because it's not time to bring the vengeance yet. See, this here is a prophecy that talks about the coming Messiah, the coming king. The 1 that god said, I'm gonna I'm gonna send him and he's gonna bring salvation.

And Jesus is saying, listen here. I'm the Messiah. I'm the king. You see this in in verse 18, the spirit of the lord is on me because he has anointed me. Look at verse 14.

Jesus return to Galile in the power of the spirit. And beforehand, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit in chapter 4 verse 1. I'm the 1 who the spirits on. He's the 1 who's proclaimed the good news about god's kingdom verse 15. He was teaching in their synagogues.

You look in the other gospel Gospels, he goes proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god. And and these verses are just truly beautiful because they show who Jesus has come for and what he's gonna do for them. Look, is contra proclaim verse 18 the good news to the poor. The good news to the poor. The Bible says that all of us are poor.

All of us are spiritually bankrupt. We can't give anything to god, but Jesus is saying, I'm here for you. There's good news. I can give you riches. But there's more.

He has sent me, it goes on in verse 18, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Now that word prisoners actually is prisoners of war. And I I think that's that's brilliant. My grandmother was a prison of war, so I kinda think I kinda relate to this. But you think about prisoners of war, they get caught in warfare.

They're captured. They're in prison they cannot go home. The only way they're gonna be freed well, unless it's the greatest escape, But the only real way that they can be freed is if the other is if their side wins the war. Jesus is saying, we're prisoners of war. We've lost the war in fact.

We've lost the battle to sin and satan. And we've been captured, but good news. Jesus brings the victory and sets people free. What else? Look, well, look down.

Keep going verse 18. It's loads here. Recovery of sight for the blind. Now, you you look in the gospels and we see that Jesus, yes, heals the physical physically blind, but he also talks about healing the spiritually blind. Those who cannot see god and salvation, he can give you sight so that you understand who he is and what he's come to do.

To set the oppressed free. That word oppressed means bruised, shattered in pieces. I mean, that that's us. The people that are broken and bruised and have suffered, and there are hardships, and there's pain, and there's struggling, and Jesus says I'm here to bring you relief. I'm gonna free you from that.

And then lastly in verse 19, he says I'm here to proclaim the year of the lord's favor. That that's just another way of saying the year of Jubilee. Now the year of Jubilee is a a glorious thing in the old testament. If you go to leviticus 25, you don't have to turn to it, but read to it in your own time. Lavicus 25 is the it talks about the year of Jubilee and the year of Jubilee is where all debts are cancelled.

You had a debt. You're bankrupt. You couldn't pay it back. Don't worry. It's cancelled.

But not only debts are canceled, but slaves are freed. You you you you had to be sold into slavery You're no longer you're you're no longer able to be free. Don't worry. Year of Jubilee. You're free.

And Jesus is saying, that's what I'm here to do. I'm bringing salvation. He's saying, you see that message? Written hundreds of years ago about that Messiah. That's me.

I'm the Messiah and this is my message. So that's the first point. This message, the truth read and the true and truth fulfilled. But secondly, responding to the truth applied. Responding to the truth applied.

So here there's this message. You know, he's done his done his little blurb. He's spoken. He's pre how they're gonna respond? How will they respond?

Well, immediately, it seems quite positive, doesn't it? Look it down at verse 22. All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. Oh, it they they responded. Well, that is amazing.

This Jesus, this sermon that he said. These words of grace But, actually, I think you get the first inkling of doubt in this in this verse. Maybe a bit of debate on this, but You'll see after verse 20 what he says, all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. Isn't this Joseph son? They asked?

It's kind of hold on a minute, lads, ladies, Hold on. Isn't isn't this this the lad that we've watched grown up? Isn't this isn't this isn't we know his dad, don't we? Yeah. This is the the carpenter.

Right? I guess it's a bit like he's not here, so I can I can rib him? Imagine, Matthew Cooper, right? If those who don't know, he's he's grown up in the church. We've watched him.

Grow often. He's got very tall. He went off to Uni, man. He comes back from Uni, and he starts to tell us what to do. I guess that's the feeling There you have it.

To be fair, if Matthew Cooper started doing that, we would ignore him. Yes. And, but I guess they've watched Jesus grow up and they think we've watched him. He's he's kind of an ordinary bloke. He was just a carpenter.

You know, really? Are we really gonna believe him? See, as Jesus announces the bringing in of salvation, this era of bringing in salvation, you get unbelief just starting to do its its ugly, horrible work. And Jesus knows what's going on. Jesus is the nowhere k n o w e r of hearts, the nowhere of hearts, but he's also the exposure of hearts.

Of responses. And and actually, you read throughout the gospels. Jesus always is doing this. He's always exposing people's hearts. That's what he's gonna do here.

So he's he's got them right where he wants them. He's got them in the palm of his hand, really. They're they're hanging on to every words. And they're like, oh, he's quite amazing, and we will flatter him. But he's gonna show them, and he's gonna show us whether they are genuinely interested in the lord Jesus Christ, or if it's just a superficial interest.

If it's just a mile, though, I'm slightly interested in him. And the thing is he knows what their response will be, looked down at verse 24. He knows what's gonna happen. Truly, I tell you he continued no prophet is accepted in his hometown. See, it seems it seems like these people want a miraculous sign from Jesus.

See that again. Look, if you look down at verse 23 to 24, surely you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. And you will tell me, do here in your hometown what we've heard that you did in Capernium. And And then he goes on, he says, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

See, they've heard about him. They've heard that Jesus is doing all these amazing things. He's been preaching teaching miracles, We wanna see a little bit, like, show us a little miracle. Show us a little healing. And so he's starting to expose him straight away.

He knows they want a miraculous sign. He's showing that he knows what's going on here. But then he really goes in on them. And he doesn't hold back here. He knows what's gonna happen.

He knows that he's gonna be rejected. He knows that he's gonna cause offense and he knows that he's gonna cause a riot. I'm actually going into a place and causing a right. He knows what's gonna happen. See, he could.

I I supposed to to have a easier life of avoid this. He could just accept the Flash. Well, thank you very much for calling me amazing. But actually, he's not gonna do that. And as a result of this, Nazareth will be lost.

He's gonna say this because he's the exposure of hearts. And so he tells these 2 stories from the old testament. Read with me from verse 24 to 27. Truly, I tell you he continued. No profit is accepted in his hometown.

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in the largest time when the sky was shut for 3 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 Zarapheth in the region of sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elijah, the prophet, yet not 1 of them was cleansed only naming the Syrian. So here's your 2 stories. You've got 1 about Elijah and 1 Elijah.

These men are 2 prophets of god in the old testament. In both of these stories, you see that god sends them to bless gentiles rather than the people of god's Israel. He he'll they with the widow, the widow gets endless flower and oil in a time of famine. And with naming, he has it. It's a great story, naming.

He goes in washes in the Jordan, a fill the river and he comes out and he's clean of his leprosy. See, who receives the miracle in those stories? Who receives the miraculous sign? It's the gentiles. It's the non Jewish people.

Because that is what God is like. God loves to give us grace to to distress people. And he wants to be gracious to all types of people regardless of race, status, or gender. And what Jesus is saying by These 2 stories he's saying, if you treat me like Israel used to treat me, if you treat me like that, then my blessings will go elsewhere. If you don't have faith, I will give my blessings to those who do have faith.

If you don't have faith and you will not see the sign, the people who have faith will see the sign. See, he knows they want a miracle, but he knows that's all they want. They don't want the Messiah and his message They just want a miracle. And so they don't believe Jesus. They have no faith.

It's interesting if you read this story in Matthew 13, versus 53 to 58. Jesus goes there and he says, he's amazed at their lack of unbelief. That I believe. And as a result, it says not many signs are done there because of their lack of faith. See, he's telling this story to expose their lack of belief.

He's showing that they don't have any faith. And when you expose on belief, when you show that they don't believe, and they're actually not interested in what god has, and actually it's gonna give the the the blessings of god is gonna be given to those they might not like. That only has 1 result and the result is anger. And in this case, in verse 28, all the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They're fuming.

They're filled with rage. How dare you? How dare you Jesus? We don't need your message of salvation. We're were Jews.

We've got the synagogues. We've got the temples. We've got the blessings. We've got the fathers. How dare you come with your message of salvation?

How dare you think that the gentiles are worthy of getting the message. See, their problem is that they think they don't need Jesus' message, but they do think they deserve it. And they think that the gentiles Definitely need this message, but they don't deserve it. They want a little Jewish kingdom their way, done their way, not Jesus' way, and they don't want any outsiders. And when Jesus tells this story about how gracious god is, then we then the anger reveals that irritation with a gracious god.

They're outraged that he could be for the outsider. And so they don't want a god who's gracious. See, when the gospel comes with clarity, then people then people are exposed to the fact that they're undeserved sinners, in need of god's grace. And people don't like that. People don't like the fact that they're sinners.

And they deserve nothing but the judgment of gods. It's interesting, I read a book a few years back. I don't know. Some of you might have heard of it. It's called Warren Grace.

By a bloke called Don Steve. Actually, I lent mine to someone and I've never got it back. It's so if you wanna buy me 1, that'd be great. But there's an an amazing story near near the end of it and it's about an American chaplain and It's it's at the end of the end of World War 2 and then the top Nazi officials are on trial in the Nuremberg trials. Okay?

The the most of them are most gonna be executed for for their crimes against, against the Jewish race. And it's interesting this American chaplain goes to these these these Nazi henchmen, and, he brings the gospel to me, witnesses them, and he tells them about the lord jesus and the love of them. And and, according to that, there are some that are saved. The response of people to that chaplain revealed their hearts of unbelief. Let us send hate mail sentiment.

How dare you do this? Disgusting. You're gonna go to hell. From supposed Christians. People don't like it when their unbelief is shown.

And they don't like it when the people that they don't think deserve to be saved or saved or witnessed to. And so what happens now is you had a worshiping congregation to start off with no longer do you have a worshiping congregation? You've now got a lynch mob with murder in their hearts. And look, look down at this, 28 to 29. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

They got up, drove him out 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. So they grab him, they rush him to the top of this hill to throw him off the cliff Totally kill him. But look at verse thirties. Beautiful. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Just calmly. Big crowds just walk right through. Can't touch me. You're not harming me because Jesus knows that his time is not yet. There's a couple of other occasions when people try to kill Jesus.

It's not happening. He says my time is not yet. It's not my time to die yet. Now I have to go up another hill I have to go by another hill and suffer vengeance on me. Why?

So that I can bring liberation so that I can set people free so that I can bring relief so that I can heal the broken hearted set the prisoners of war free. I'm gonna go to the top of that other hill and hang on that cross to make that possible. So thirdly, what about you? What about you tonight? How will you respond tonight?

Will you accept the Messiah and his message? Or are you gonna reject it? Do you just want his miracles? Do you just want the nice things that he can give you? Where you respond in faith and enjoy the amazing salvation that the lord Jesus has and offer, the liberation, or are you gonna respond in unbelief and harden your heart and go away.

But know that Isaiah chapter 61 is not fully fulfilled yet. And there is a day of vengeance coming. A day when those who do not accept the lord Jesus Christ as their savior will be judged. We sang about it before. He will be judged.

See, Nazareth had an opportunity here and they absolutely blew it. Squandered it. And actually, if you read through the gospels, Jesus doesn't return to Nazareth. So he takes his word elsewhere and he blesses others with it. Although the pattern of unbelief reoccurs regularly, he always gets rejected, but he says, okay, you're not gonna have it.

I'll go and give it to someone else. But if you don't trust, he will return in vengeance. So tonight, if you've never responded to the lord, Jesus Christ, the savior, will you do it tonight? Will you accept him? Will you hear his offer of liberation, of freedom, of relief, In Christian, what about you?

How are you responding tonight? How are you responding tonight? See, we still have to battle unbelief every day. We, and and it's so easy for us to fall into the trap that they fall in mild interest. Okay.

Jesus is okay. A bit of an add on, but actually there's more important things for me to worry about that don't involve Jesus. Now Jesus wants you to have a committed heart to him He wants you to be undivided in your love and in your faith to him. So keep your heart committed. Check it.

Check your heart. Is it committed? Where where in your heart are there places that you're not willing to give up? Is it your job? Is it the the kids that you've got?

Is it the the the wife? The sex life. I don't know. The Bible says we must do all things to glorify God. We need to do all things in faith.

Are you doing that? See, if you've trusted in him, you've confessed him to be king. That means he's lord. That means you do as he says. So if you've experienced the grace of god and that he saved you, then that should bring obedience in your life.

It doesn't bring disobedience. It brings obedience. So we need to take seriously what it commands of us. Are you doing what he says? Are you obeying to him?

Do you listen to what he tells us to do. He tells you to evangelize. Are we listening to that? Are you willing to take the the gospel to all people just as Jesus says, he's about here. Even the people that you don't necessarily like, Jesus isn't just for the middle class.

Jesus is for the working class and the higher class and the higher than them class. How are you gonna respond today? We need help with this. We need to pray father help my unbelief. Put me on the path of faith and repentance.

How will you respond? Will you accept or will you reject? Let me pray. Father, We thank you that you are the Messiah. We thank you that the lord Jesus did come to free us.

He came to climb up that hill, to go to Calvary, to dine across, to set us free. And so father we pray that you will help us to respond in faith. Help us with our unbelief, father. Every day, we find ourselves not believing what you say. And so we pray that you will help us to overcome that and that we will respond in faith.

And so we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.