HOSTILITY AT HOME

LUKE 4:15-30

      After leaving the wilderness of temptation, Jesus taught the Word with enthusiastic response until He returned to the home in Nazareth.

•          Springtime of receptivity in Galilee

•          Sabbath of rejection in Nazareth

  I. Jesus’ home opposed the message of grace (4:15-22)

      Jesus returned to the synagogue in Nazareth among those who knew Him so well. David Smith wrote, “His appearance excited much interest. His fame had reached Nazareth, and its people were curious about their distinguished townsman.”

      Edersheim wrote, “Sabbath morn dawned, and early He repaired to that Synagogue where, as a Child, a Youth, a Man, He had so often worshiped in the humble retirement of His rank, sitting, not up there among the elders and the honored, but far back. The old well-known faces were around Him, the old well-remembered words and services fell on His ear.”

      A. Reading the Scripture

      On this Sabbath the synagogue officer asked Jesus to read and give the sermon. Jesus read a Messianic passage from Isaiah the prophet.

      Edersheim described the order of the synagogue service.

•          Friday’s sun closed

•          Double blast of the trumpet

•          Trumpet sounded again to lay aside all work

•          Entered into the Synagogue by the east

•          Ark would be at the south end

•          Elders and honorable sat in front facing the people with their back to the Ark

•          Lectern of the reader would be in the center

•          Began the service by two prayers

•          After this followed the shema

•          Officiator repeated eighteen Benedictions or eulogies

•          After this, prayers as suited the day

•          Following the order of the service, concluding Eulogies

•          Then the priests spoke the blessing, elevating their hands

•          Public prayers closed with an Amen, spoken by the congregation

•          Liturgical part completed

•          Minister, approached the Ark, and brought out a roll of the Law

•          Taken from its case and unwound from those cloths which held it

•          On the Sabbath, at least seven persons read portions from the Law, none of them consisting of less than three verses

•          Then a reading from a section by the Prophets

•          Reading from the Prophets immediately followed by a sermon

•          Preacher at the close of the sermon would answer questions or meet objections

•          When a popular preacher was expected, men crowded the area of the Synagogue, while women filled the gallery.

      B. Delivering the Sermon

      Each time Billy Sunday preached the gospel, he turned to the same passage that Jesus opened that day. Homer Rodeheaver wrote, “Invariably he opened the Bible and placed his sermon notes upon the passage in Isaiah, first verse of the sixty-first chapter. . . . Many people wanted to possess the Bible Mr. Sunday had used during a campaign. When he granted the request it would be found that these pages in the book of Isaiah were almost worn out.”

      Jesus announced that day why He came.

•          Evangelist (Is. 52:7)

•          Liberator (Lev. 25:10)

•          Physician (Jer. 8:22)

•          Comforter (Ps. 51:17)

•          Prophet (Is. 63:4)

          1. Gospel to the poor

Lk. 14:13, 21. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:

 21. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

          2. Release to the captive

Acts 26:18. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

          3. Sight to the blind

Jn. 9:25. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

          4. Freedom to the oppressed

Ps. 34:18. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

          5. Grace to the hearer

Mk. 12:37b. “And the common people heard Him gladly.”

Jn. 7:46. The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.

      Edersheim wrote, “And yet such was the power of these ‘words of grace,’ that the hearers hung spell-bound upon them. Every eye was fastened on Him with hungry eagerness. For the time they forgot all else - Who it was that addressed them, even the strangeness of the message, so unspeakably in contrast to any preaching of Rabbi or Teacher that had been heard in that Synagogue. Indeed, one can scarcely conceive the impression which the Words of Christ must have produced, when promise and fulfilment, hope and reality, mingled, and wants of the heart, hitherto unrealized, were wakened, only to be more than satisfied. It was another sphere, another life. Truly, the anointing of the Holy Ghost was on the Preacher, from Whose lips dropped these ‘words of grace.’ And if such was the announcement of the Year of God’s Jubilee, what blessings must it bear in its bosom!”

      David Smith remarked, “Grace was the keynote of the sermon from the first sentence to the last.” Jesus stopped short of reading “the day of vengeance” in Is. 61:2 which will come later at His second coming to those who reject the message.

2 Cor. 6:2. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

      Edersheim explained, “Both the omission of a clause from Is. 61:1, and the insertion of another adapted from Is. 58:6, were evidently intentional.”

      Robertson commented, “The mood of wonder and praise quickly turned with whispers and nods and even scowls to doubt and hostility, a rapid and radical transformation of emotion in the audience.”

Mk. 6:3. Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jn. 6:42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

      David Smith said, “Their souls were stirred, yet they would not yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Prejudice asserted itself, and their hearts rose up on rebellion.” People who hear the Scripture regularly can miss the message and Messiah completely.

Acts 13:27. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

 II. Jesus’ home objected to miracles with gentiles (4:23-27)

      Jesus then read the minds of the hearers that day and quoted a popular proverb that described their thinking. Robertson explained, “The proverb means that the physician was expected to take his own medicine and to heal himself.”

      A. Elijah and the widow with the jars

      B. Elisha and the leper in the Jordan

      Robertson wrote, “The people of Nazareth at once caught on and saw the point of these two Old Testament illustrations of how God in two cases blessed the heathen instead of the Jewish people.”

      The truth of Jesus’ two Old Testament illustrations brought reality to an established congregation.

•          The land that once sent missionaries now needed missionaries sent to it.

•          The message once preached here became more popular over there.

•          The miracles of the Lord occurred more elsewhere than where it began.

•          The place where God was at work existed outside the place of its historic roots.

•          The Lord did not erect barriers to those outside–He included everyone.

      Frank Stagg wrote, “This was too much for those who thought that they had prior claims on God.”

“There are always people who want God on their own terms, but one cannot have God while rejecting God’s people.”

      David Smith wrote, “Who was He that he should advance such claims?”

“Jealousy is strong in the human breast, and they were angry at His manifest superiority to themselves.”

III. Jesus’ home organized a murder from guilt (4:28-30)

Acts 7:54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with [their] teeth.

      A. Cause of hatred

      Why did the congregation who met weekly for Bible study get angry with Jesus?

•          Conversed without anointing

•          Classes without application

•          Conviction without admission

•          Calloused by age

•          Came for amusement

•          Condemned for arrogance

      The synagogue in Nazareth did not have room for the power of Christ. Christ unsettled the operation of things as usual so the synagogue did not want Him. The congregation rather keep the order of service than allow Christ to order the service.

      B. Could not harm

      Edersheim noted, “The first time He taught in the Synagogue, as the first time He taught in the Temple, they cast Him out.”

      Jesus walked out of the midst of His accusers. In reality the synagogue did not cast Jesus out, they cast themselves out.

      David Smith commented, “They all knew Him, and they knew His kinsfolk; and their knowledge of Him after the flesh was like a veil that hid from them His glory.”

Mk. 6:4-6 [ESV]. And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household."

 5. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

 6. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

      Luke opened the book with this episode from Nazareth to illustrate who Jesus came to save and why some rejected Him. The account cuts to the heart of real religion and examines the authenticity of religious activity.

•          Why the gospel never penetrates some

•          When a congregation cannot learn

•          How a service can make some worse

•          What kind of worship turns into vain idolatry

•          Who can experience a relationship with Jesus