Who Do You Think You Are?
Luke 4:14-30 ·February 19, 2023· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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We're continuing in our sermon series on the book of Luke. Last week, we read about Jesus in the wilderness, facing temptation from the devil himself. In today's passage, his public ministry is getting into gear, finally getting into gear. When I was at VCU, I was involved with a campus ministry called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. You maybe have heard of it. There's different campus ministries, but that's the one that I was involved with and pretty heavily involved.
My time there in college and involved with InterVarsity, it was a really spiritually nurturing time for me. And the biggest idea impressed on me, if I were just to sum up one idea, it would be my real need for God's grace. Around the time of my junior year, I began to realize, through the spirit getting through to me, that my self-righteousness, my critical spirit, my short temper, were just consistently hurting people. My roommates especially. Yeah, I really think that I was a jerk a lot of times.
I didn't consciously believe that I needed Jesus less than other people, but I sure acted like it. And if I acted like it, then somewhere inside my head, somewhere inside my heart, the gospel was just not landing, not taking root. Now, our InterVarsity chapter had a great staff worker. He had just arrived on campus when I was a freshman. His name was Alex, and he discipled me throughout college. He saw what was happening in me. He saw the impact it was having on my roommates, on the community that we were in.
And in truth and with love, he helped me see myself in greater clarity. And he helped me see the gospel with greater clarity. He helped me understand God's grace and God's mercy, they weren't merely good principles. But they were essential realities that I needed. I had to have them. What happened through that process of growth was that the cross got bigger in my heart. But my joy of my salvation increased. The Spirit began to change how I lived and how I treated other people because I was resting in Jesus more.
I was understanding my need for grace, but also the great abundant supply of grace and mercy that God had for me in Christ. He was not ashamed of my great need. He moved into that need. The blessing that I experienced came through being humbled. And that's exactly what this passage is all about. The blessing that comes through being humbled.
Turn with me to Luke chapter 4. Let's find out what happens when Jesus goes back to his hometown. I'm just curious, how many people here that you would call, you'd say, I, Chester's my hometown. I was born and raised here. Okay, we got to, yeah, all right. Maybe I would guess a third of the room or so. Okay, so Jesus is going back to his hometown. Just keep that in mind. Luke 4, starting in verse 14 through verse 30. This is God's word for us today.
Let's pay attention to it. Let's receive it. It's true and trustworthy because that's what God is. He's true and he's trustworthy. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And a report about him went out through all the surrounding county or country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. And recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb. Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you do, you did at Capernaum. Do here in your hometown as well.
And he said, Truly, I say to you, No prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heavens were shut up three years and six months. And a great famine came over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, But only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon. To a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed.
But only Naaman, the Syrian. When they heard these things, All in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up. And drove him out of the town. And brought him to the brow of a hill on which their town was built. So that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went away.
Pray with me. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, be at work in us. As your word goes forth, Lord, Be at work in each one of us. Help us to hear and receive exactly what we need, Lord. Lord, your word is truth. Guide us and lead us in truth. Help us to be not just hearers of the word, But doers. Make us humble. Jesus, we pray this in your name.
The title of my sermon today is, Who Do You Think You Are? Here's the big idea. Jesus brings good news to the helpless and humble. Let's talk about Jesus' homecoming. This is verses 14 through 17. The passage says, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. We know from other gospel accounts that Jesus did some other healings and some miracles in Capernaum before this. But Luke has chosen to skip straight to his return to Galilee, to his hometown.
That's where Jesus is from, Galilee. Galilee, Galilee, just want to remind you in case you don't know this or you've forgotten, Galilee did not have a great reputation. It was looked down on from people from other regions like Judea. Judea is where Jerusalem was. Galileans were considered unsophisticated. They spoke with an accent that other people made fun of.
So he goes back to Galilee, a kind of place that doesn't have the greatest reputation. And a report about him went out throughout all the surrounding country. Word was spreading about him. People are talking. And in this region, his ministry has been a teaching ministry. He's going from synagogue to synagogue, teaching. He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Now, synagogues, they arose as a way to gather and to worship for people who were far away from the temple.
In between people's pilgrimages to the temple, they would gather and they would worship in small communities, kind of like what we're doing in a synagogue. There were no sacrifices in a synagogue. In fact, the format of their worship service was a lot like a church service. There were scripture readings, usually from the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible, and then also a passage from a text of the prophets. There would be singing.
There would be prayer. There would be a sermon on a passage of scripture. So Jesus has an itinerant preaching and teaching ministry throughout Galilee, and he's already become a minor celebrity. Jesus is trending. He hasn't gone viral yet, but he has the potential to. If he plays his cards right, he just might go viral. He finally comes back to his hometown. He comes to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. To help you envision him walking into Nazareth, Nazareth was a very small town, a very poor town.
Based on archaeology, people think that it was about 400 people. Based on that same archaeology, they find a lack of fine pottery and things, but basically all indications would be this is a very poor town, a very small, humble town. Or is it a humble town?
Just like he had been doing elsewhere, he goes to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read. Now that would indicate that not just that he was on the schedule for the scripture reading that day, but that he had been asked to preach. So he stood up to read. There is Jesus. Imagine it. In a simple, a building smaller than this, more humble than this, dirt floors perhaps, people sitting around, friends and neighbors. He is there with people that he has known almost his entire life.
His relatives and his neighbors are there. People that have known him since he was a boy. He's handed the scroll of Isaiah, probably because he asked for it, and he found the place that he wanted. Did you see that in there? The scripture says he found the place where it was written this. So he has something specific in mind that he wants to tell them. And what passage has he selected for his homecoming sermon? One of the clearest prophecies about the Messiah and what the Messiah will do.
He preaches from Isaiah 61. Just the first few verses of Isaiah 61. It's about the dawning of a new age through the work of someone who is chosen by God. Now let's look at it closer. This is his sermon, starting in verse 18. The reading that he chose starts with this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. Isaiah, he's giving this prophecy in a first-person perspective. He's speaking in the place of the one. This coming figure.
This person is spirit-filled, and he's sent by God to people. All the people that are mentioned in this little passage that Jesus reads, they all have something in common. They're all helpless. They're weak. They're afflicted. They cannot lift themselves up. All these conditions also have both a material and a spiritual dimension to them. And we're meant to see both of those things in everything here. He proclaims, this person in this text, he proclaims good news to the poor.
To those who lack material goods, yes, but to anyone who is spiritually poor, who cannot provide for their own spiritual needs. God told his people in the Old Testament, if you treat one another the way that I call you to treat you and each other in this community, there will not be poverty in the community. The people did not do that. They didn't love God, and they didn't love neighbor. So poverty emerged.
The spiritual and the material are connected. He proclaims recovering of sight to the blind, physical healing of people who have been impacted by the fallen world, but also darkness and light. These are spiritual metaphors in the Bible.
To receive light for the blind person to see, that implies salvation. He proclaims liberty to the captives, and he will set at liberty those who are oppressed. This means ending slavery, freeing those who have been unjustly imprisoned, but also more than that, what is more oppressive than being captive to a sinful nature from birth? To being bent away from God in our choices. Finally, he proclaims the year of the Lord's favor. Now, this is really incredible.
In the law of Moses, God commanded that every seven years, debts should be forgiven in the community, in the community of Israel. Every seven years, debts should be forgiven. Every 50 years, which is every seven batches of seven years, so 49 years go by on the 50th year, not only should they forgive the debts, but they should observe what's called a year of jubilee. All the land would be restored to its original ownership, the original ownership that happened when they came into the promised land, where every tribe was given territory.
Any kind of buying and selling that had happened because of bad circumstances or because of sin or because of injustice or whatever, any kind of inequality that had happened in the community would be erased. You'd go back to square one. You would get the original land that your forefathers were given at the year of jubilee. There would be no more uber rich and very poor, no more haves and have-nots. A lot of biblical scholars think that the Israelites never practiced the year of jubilee, not even once.
They didn't even make it that long before they had turned away from God. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor is to proclaim forgiveness and restoration. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians as we see kind of the full biblical meaning of this. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Behold, now is the favorable time. Do you see that? The year of the Lord's favor, the favorable time. Now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation.
So this year of jubilee had taken this meaning of, yes, it had to do with societal harmony, but it had to do with reconciliation with God himself. It's hard to convey to our modern ears exactly what the synagogue would have been hearing at this point. So many generations had looked forward in faith with the help of prophecies like this. So many people held on to this deep, this wide promise that God would do something, that it would have this healing effect on everything, every wrong they would see, that it would have a healing on their own hearts as well.
That's what they were looking forward to. For us, maybe it sounds something like this. I have come from God in the power of the Spirit to say that the time of deliverance is here. Everything evil that afflicts you, that harms you, that you suffer under, is being done away with. Freedom is coming. Salvation is coming. Justice is coming. Peace is coming.
Now remember, so far Jesus has only read the text. He finishes, he puts it back, he hands it back to the attendant and he sits down. We read that he sits down and that he sits down and he's done. That's not the case in this culture. In this case, the rabbi would sit down and people would gather around him for the teaching time. This was sermon time now. That's why the eyes in all the synagogue were fixed on him because they were waiting for his interpretation.
They were waiting for what he would say. Now Luke doesn't give us the whole sermon. I would love to know everything that Jesus said here from start to finish. I think Luke is only giving us a one-sentence summary here and it's this. Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Now just let that sink in. The people were waiting for an interpretation of the passage. What does this mean and how should we live in it? Jesus does more than that. He says, this is happening right now. This is coming true right now as you hear the words coming out of my mouth. Now that's a powerful sermon. He says it's happening today. The deliverance that you've been waiting for people. It's today. It's happening right now. It's taking place at this moment.
And Jesus says, it's beginning through me. Now this is the really bold part. He says, I am the one that this passage was predicting. Go back and read it. Look at it in your bulletin. Imagine every time the word me happens. Imagine Jesus saying that and he's thinking of himself. The spirit and the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.
Jesus puts himself forward here as the complete deliverer. He's the one who's going to make this all come to pass, who brings about this great, glorious, comprehensive redemption. He says he's the one who's going to usher in this state of justice among God's people. Of righteousness on the earth who will liberate, who will heal, who will establish peace.
Now, there's one more thing to mention about this sermon. Jesus stopped the Isaiah reading just a little early. He stopped at mid-sentence actually. Let's look at the original passage here. The full passage says, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor remember, that's where he stopped. Then it says, the day of vengeance of our God. Now, why did he do this? Because the day of judgment is not yet. It's not happening yet. He's deliberately pausing here.
Focus on the year of the Lord's favor. And that's not year as in 365 days. It's like a period of time. It's a season of God's favor. Jesus has a mission of deliverance. Like we heard earlier, now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation. The judgment is forewarned and he does forewarn it, but it is not yet. It's for a later time. Today is the day of the Lord's mercy. That's why he stops there.
Now, Jesus has preached his sermon. He's claimed to be the one spoken of in Isaiah 61. This is a mic drop moment. What's going to happen now? Is he going to stride out of the room? No. He's going to receive what people say and interact with them. Let's look at this. This is his warning. Starting in verse 22. Here's where the story takes a turn. In verse 22, Luke gives us another summary. A summary of Nazareth's initial response to their hometown rabbi.
And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. What they're saying is, man, this guy really speaks well. He really commands the room. He knows the scriptures. He can interpret them. He can talk about them well. He gives a good sermon. The word that's translated gracious means attractiveness, winsomeness. They're so impressed with Jesus' rhetorical skill, but there's something they can't get past, something they just can't get over.
Is not this Joseph's son? We know from the other gospel accounts that they say more than that. They're feeling more than this. Again, Luke's giving us a summary. But Jesus knows what's really going on.
Now put yourself in their sandals for a second. I appreciate that. Thanks. You watched Jesus grow up for three decades in the same small town as you. He lived the same ordinary, plain life that you did. You saw him in the carpentry shop struggling to put nails in a board as he was getting taught by Joseph. You saw him doing the most mundane and ordinary things imaginable. Cleaning up after animals, buying food, fixing his house. You had worshipped alongside of him in this same synagogue, the same one that you are in right now.
He goes away and he comes back and he gets up and says, I've got good news. All you poor people, all you blind and captive people, God has sent me to set you free.
Are you beginning to get a little sense of the indignation that they would have? Who are you to call us poor captives? Who are you to open our eyes and liberate us?
Could deliverance come from someone like you that we know so well? Jesus, who do you think you are? Their stumbling block was their pride. They were judging based on sight.
They just couldn't get past that this is the, we've known him for so long. He seemed just like us. Nothing looks all that special about him. Sure, he can preach a good sermon, but come on, Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord is on you. He has anointed you. Give me a break.
Now, either by keen intuition or just some kind of special insight, he knows what they want. What they want are signs and miracles. Do some things here. We heard you do them elsewhere. Do them here. Then maybe we'll believe you. What we have heard you do at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. He's kind of reading their thoughts now. If you really are the chosen one, then prove it, Jesus. Does that sound familiar? Remember last week? Didn't the devil say that to him?
Now, Jesus doesn't just walk out of there in a huff. He gives them a warning. A warning that they should pay attention to. It's a warning from their own history. The first warning is from 1 Kings 17. It's from the ministry of the prophet Elijah. Israel had turned away in mass from God under the leadership of a really wicked king. The prophet Elijah was sent to a Gentile widow who lived outside the borders of Israel. She received him and she responded to him.
She did what he asked. She listened to him. She received provision during the famine. While people who, based on their birth, were God's people, who received nothing because they had turned away from him. The second example is from 2 Kings 5. I think I heard Kitty say, right, is it the explorers learning about this right now? Alright, this is good. Look at God. In 2 Kings 5, Israel was still worshiping false gods. They still hadn't listened. But when Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, the enemy of God's people, a commander of the army of the enemy of God's people, hears about a prophet and comes to him.
When he finally humbles himself to follow Elisha's instructions, he's healed of leprosy, a disease that would be like a death sentence back then. Jesus' message is this, people of Nazareth, my hometown people, listen to me. The cost of rejecting God's message and God's messenger is high.
God's own people had missed out on blessing because of their pride. Don't be like them. Grace and mercy had been received by people outside the nation because they were humble. If you remember back when I introduced Luke, I talked about one of Luke's themes is God's grace to the outsider. You see that theme happening in this passage. Jesus is pleading with his people, pleading with the people in his hometown, don't be like your forefathers. There's blessing to be had.
There's relief in the midst of a famine. There is healing when you have leprosy. There's sight that you could recover today. There's riches that you could receive because you're poor. But don't turn away because of your stubborn pride. The message is heard loud and clear in Nazareth. They hear him, but they don't respond the way he would want them to respond. They're indignant. They run him out of town and they almost run him off a cliff.
Now, this whole thing has been building up for us to interact with this. Here's the application for us today. The same indignant question that the people of Nazareth might have asked Jesus needs to be turned around on us. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are?
It's offensive to hear the condition that Jesus says that we're in. If we really think about it, it should offend us. It should offend our flesh. It's difficult to accept his help. It stings our pride to look at this passage and see the words poor, captive, blind, oppressed, and to think, could he be talking about me? It stings our pride. Church, we need our pride stung. In fact, we need it to be mortally wounded and put to death so that we can listen to what Jesus has to say.
The only way to experience the good news of this salvation in Isaiah 61 is by identifying ourselves with the people named in Isaiah 61. Yes, I am poor. I have needs that I cannot meet and I am so thankful to receive those needs in you, Jesus. Yes, I am captive to something that I cannot free myself from. Jesus, that you have freed me. Yes, I am blind. I am in darkness. I can't find my own way out, but thank you, Jesus, that you're the light that I have seen that I have come to you.
Yes, I am oppressed. I'm under the thumb of an enemy that I cannot overcome, but Jesus, you won the victory and that victory is for me. That's the state that Jesus wanted the people of his hometown to be in. And that's the state that I'm imploring you and I'm imploring myself to be in today, a state of humility, because that's when the blessing comes. That's when the blessing comes. It's good. It's good to have your priorities straight. It's good to recognize who you really are and what you really need in Christ.
There was a doctor in 1847, Sir James Simpson. He discovered that chloroform could be used to anesthetize people during surgery. Now just think for a second how transformative that is for modern medicine. To not have to feel pain, to not have to fear feeling pain before surgery. The kind of medical advances that happened because people had this simple discovery available to them.
Many, many years after he discovered this and it was widespread and it was being practiced, Dr. Simpson was asked by one of his students, what do you consider to be the most valuable discovery of your lifetime? He replied, my most valuable discovery was when I discovered myself a sinner and that Jesus Christ was my Savior.
That is a great testimony. That's a great answer to that question. That is the most important thing. When we're humble, Jesus is precious to us. His salvation is sweet to us. We experience joy like we've never tasted before. We find it to be good news, good news indeed that he came to the poor like us. We experience joy of being the people that Jesus came to liberate and that's what we are today if you're in Christ. You're the poor who has been handed riches in Christ.
You're the blind that has been made to see by seeing the light of Christ. You're the captives, you're the oppressed that have freedom now and will always have freedom. As David wrote in Psalm 34, my soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad.
Church, if you're humble today, then be glad. Be glad in Christ. Make your boast in the Lord, the one who came, the one who gave you exactly what you needed. Let's pray.
Jesus, your hometown didn't receive you. Lord, I pray that Chester receives you with humility, wave upon wave of confession, that you are exactly what they need. That there could be no other that could set them free, that could give them sight. And Lord, I want myself, God, my friends here in this church. Lord, I want us to walk in humility, not as people who are despairing, but are people who see ourselves correctly, who see ourselves rightly, and who see you rightly.
And we understand the relationship. We understand that, yes, we are needy and helpless, but those needs and that help have been given to us. Jesus, this was an incredibly bold sermon that you gave in your hometown, but it was true. You are the anointed one. You are the one sent by the Father. Thank you that we have salvation in your name and your name alone. Help us to walk in that every day. Jesus, we pray this in your name.