Teachings of Jesus Seen in Luke’s Gospel (Part 2) His Return Home
Reading Luke 4:14-30
Our Lesson from Jesus today comes from when He finally returned home after He was baptized and then fasted and was tempted by the devil, and after beginning His ministry in Galilee. Some believe it was almost a year into His public ministry.
Imagine what it must have felt like for our Lord to return home to Nazareth, the place where He grew up. As a child He was born into a very humble home. Jesus may very well have suffered the scorn or rejection of other children, especially those who came from more influential or well-to-do families. As a child who never sinned, He would very likely have been rejected by His peers as a “goody goody,” or by whatever terminology that was used in those days. It must have been a very strange feeling to walk those familiar streets into Nazareth, streets He had walked for years, streets where He had played as a child and later worked a common laborer and handyman. But still, Jesus was coming home. Lets start by reading..
4:14-15 “14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.”
Here we see that news about Him had begun to spread. Exactly what news we are not sure. Maybe what happened at the river when He was baptized, maybe it had to do with His preaching throughout Galilee, or maybe He had begun doing some miraculous signs, or all of the above. Luke does lets us know that Jesus returned to the area “in the power of the Spirit”, or under the control of the Spirit. And people were impressed and started to say nice things about Him.
The Commentator Dr. Constable writes “The Spirit” empowered and enabled Jesus in His words and deeds. Luke would stress His teaching ministry and attributed Jesus’ success to His orientation to the Spirit, not His essential deity. Consequently, Jesus was a model that all believers can and should copy.
The point is, we are told that as disciples of Christ we should also do our best to walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17, Galatians 5:16-25 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.” ) The Spirit of God which indwelled us as baptized believers may not empower us with supernatural abilities, but I believe He helps us by guiding us and teaches us and provides us with the fruits He would have us enjoy (the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) if we would trust Him and give our self over to Him and His will as Jesus did.
So for lesson #1 I can say. We need to get better at walking in the Spirit as Jesus did. And if we do that it may also improve our serve and reputation and bring praise as it did with Him.
Then we read where He returned home 4:16-17 “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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.”
Some don’t feel that going to church on a regular basis is important or necessary. The 2nd lesson I see here from this text is the fact that Jesus did.
The text says that it was a custom (or regular practice) for Him to go to this synagogue in His home town.
I would like to share with you a couple of things that commentators say about this passage:
Wiersbee writes,“It was our Lord’s custom to attend public worship, a custom His followers should imitate today (Heb. 10:24-25). He might have argued that the ‘religious system’ was corrupt, or that He didn’t need the instruction; but instead, He made His way on the Sabbath to the place of prayer.”
And Ryrie writes: “From the start of His public ministry, the Lord made a habit of attending the synagogue worship (Luke 4:16), and he continued that practice to the end of his earthly life. His example speaks to individuals who excuse themselves from attending corporate worship because they ‘get nothing out of the service.’ No defender of public worship should ever try to make his case on the basis of the ability of the preacher. We worship to meet God.”
So we see here another part of Lesson # 2 is that gathering together is more about not what you get out of it, rather from what I see over and over in Scripture, it’s a time we gather together to pay homage to and worship God as a group, and based on what the Hebrew writer wrote in 3:13 and 10 :24-25, it is also meeting together to encourage and spur one another on so that we may not be overcome by all the garbage and evil that this world can dish out. But because our generation is so hungry for entertainment and feel a personal need to reach higher plain of in our worship service I believe that some modern day churches their members have twisted our meetings to make them more about what we get out of the service. Bible worship on Sunday is about paying homage to God and loving others.
Luke continues on Read 4:17-21
“He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 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. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The passage Jesus read was Isaiah 61:1-2a This passage prophesied the mission of the coming Messiah. It seemed appropriate that Luke would have Jesus read this at the beginning of His ministry, and recorded here.
– As the Servant of the Lord, in the context of the Isaiah, Messiah would possess “the Spirit.” And God’s Spirit would make Him the bearer of good news which He would preach to the poor.
– The “poor” to whom He was sent were not just the economically poor, or
the spiritually impoverished, but people low status in society.
– He would preach freedom for the prisoners (especially those who are captives of sin and Satan and He would free those who were oppressed. – Likewise, the “blind” refers to those who need to receive revelation and experience salvation.
– The reference to “the favorable year of the Lord” is an allusion to the year
of jubilee, when all the enslaved in Israel received their freedom (Lev. 25).
It points to the messianic kingdom, but is more general, and includes
God’s favor on individual Gentiles, as well as on Israel nationally.
He concludes by telling them that the scripture He read was fulfilled in their hearing. Lesson #3 is that this is where Jesus makes an official proclamation that the Messiah had arrived and His ministry had begun.
Read 4:22 says “22 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.”
They could not help but admire the way He spoke. It says that they were even amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips. But they also marvels because of who He was. They ask, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Or isn’t this the local carpenter and handyman? They did not understand how He could be the Messiah, since He had grown up with them and they knew Him.
Based on His response I would imaging that they were saying this in a snooty or a mocking manner trying to put Him down because they knew Him.
Because of this statement, and probably how they said it He responds by saying in 4:23-27 “23 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.’”
Maybe he had healed others in Capernaum or maybe he had driven demons out of some individuals. Were they implying that He should do that to Himself? I think so. And so He goes on and says this…24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 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.”
Jesus knew that they were not willing to accept what He was telling them. They refused to believe just like those during the time of Elijah and Elisha refused to believe. And they got upset with Jesus because He was letting them know that they were just as bad as those unbelieving Israelites of old.
Concerning this a commentator by the name of Bock writes, “This remark [of Jesus’] is strong for two reasons: (a) It compares the current era to one of the least spiritual periods in Israel’s history, and (b) it suggests that Gentiles, who were intensely disliked among the Jews, were more worthy of ministry than they were.”
Another commentator writes, “Jesus not only cited the principle that Israel’s prophets were never honored by their own people, He illustrated the fact by showing that the prophets were often more kindly treated by Gentiles, and that the Gentiles received blessings at their hands. He cited the case of Elijah’s stay with the Gentile widow at Zerephath (1 Ki. 17:9) and of the healing of Namaam,
Then in verses 4:28-30 it says, “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 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. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.”
They were obvious so angry with Him they were ready to kill Him, but it was not time for Him to die yet. So He pushed His way thru them.
I see a couple more sad truths and lessons here: #4 ‘A prophet isn’t accepted in their own home town.’ We may not even be accepted or believed by those who have known us for many years, even if your give them proof or a sign. I believe that’s why Jesus was not willing to do a miraculous sign for them.
Someone once wrote, “People are always more ready to see greatness in strangers than in those they know well.” (Morris)
How many times have you tried to share good ideas, health remedies, or even religious instructions with close family and friends but they ignore you or worst. It’s like, “Who are you to teach me something new? I know who you are and where you came from.”
I’ve been preaching and teaching God’s word fulltime for almost 28 years and part time 5 years before that, and not one of my family members have ever heard me nor have they asked any questions related to religion (that is with the exception of my wife & kids.) Why? Because it doesn’t matter what I know, they have not chose to honor what I know because it coming from me. I makes me sad just as I am sure it made Jesus sad that day to be rejected by those He grew up with. But the fact is, if it happened to Him, it’s going to happen to us. And many of you may have experience this already.
#5 Another lesson I see here is the fact that sometimes those closest to us are going to get upset with us when we speak the truth and show them their error of their ways. He spoke the truth (actually quite bluntly) and for that they were ready to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff.
And the final lesson I see here #6 is the reality that sometimes being a devout believer and follower of Christ is not going to be easy. You may feel ignored even rejected at times. If Jesus did so will you. But that did not discourage or stop Jesus, nor should you let others get to you. Just do your best, remain faithful and pray for those who will not listen. But don’t give up on God no matter what.
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
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