Disclaimer: This transcription is provided for informational purposes, reference, and convenience. Please note that it may contain errors, omissions, or spelling mistakes due to the nature of live audio transcriptions. While we strive for accuracy, this document should not be considered a fully authoritative record of the sermon. For clarification, we recommend referring to the original source. Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

We return once again this morning to Luke's gospel. So, if you will, take your Bibles, turn to Luke, chapter four, we're going to examine verses 14 through 30 under the heading "The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth."

Before I read the text, I was thinking of the passage that we have in Second Peter 1:3 that says that, "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence through the true knowledge of Him." If you want to experience his power in your life, you have to have a true knowledge of who Jesus is. You young people never get married or even date people until you have a true knowledge of who Jesus is until you understand truly who he is; and all of us need to make this the priority of our life. Remember, Paul said that he "counted all things to be lost in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord." Today we have an opportunity to get to know the Lord a little bit better from a little bit different perspective. And it's amazing, all of these years in my life, all of these years of study, every time I come to some of these passages, I see the Lord in just a little bit different light, it's an amazing thing.

Well, again, before I read the text, let me remind you here the context. It's been about one year since Jesus' baptism, and Jesus has been during that time, he's been ministering in Judea, you learn that from John's Gospel, chapters one through four. In fact, the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke - are silent on that interval of ministry. Synoptic, by the way, just means seeing together or viewed from the same perspective, so John's a little bit different. He gives us that insight. I'll talk more about that in a moment, but here in Luke four, we are going to learn more about Jesus' ministry in the Galilee, how depravity works in the hearts of men. We're going to see how Satan blinds people to the deity of Christ, and how people will believe what they want to believe, even if it is demonstrably false and utterly stupid. Here we're going to see how God judicially hardens people's hearts and how he seals them in their unbelief, and many times abandons them to the darkness that they love more than the light.

But most importantly, we are going to see here a summary of Jesus' messianic ministry when he was here on earth. We're going to see more of his work of redemption that rescues sinners from the eternal punishment of hell that we all deserve, and the implications of this historical narrative are going to impact our lives, because beloved, here we are going to see ourselves, here we are going to see our loved ones, here we are going to have another perspective of how depravity works in the world in which we live, in our culture, and most importantly, here we are going to see the glory of our Savior and our King.

So, with that, let me read the passage, Luke chapter four, beginning in verse 14,

"And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.

"And He began teaching in their synagogues, and was praised by all.

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

"And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

"'THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO e THE POOR. HE  HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM  RELEASE TO THE  CAPTIVES, AND RECOVER OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SE FREE THOSE WHO  ARE OPPRESSED.

"TO  PROCLAIM THE  FAVORABLE YEAR  OF THE LORD.'

"And He closed the book, 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 were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'

"And He said to them, 'No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, "Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well."'

"And He said, 'Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.

"'But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;

"and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to woman who was a widow.

"And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.'

"And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;

"and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

"But passing through their midst, He went His way."

Now, some more historical context here that will make this passage come alive to you Lord willing, remember, Jesus grew up in this little village in north central Galilee, a little village called Nazareth. We have reason to believe from the excavations that have been done, there were about 200-400 people that lived in this little village, so it's just a tiny little place. And other than his dialogue with the teachers in the temple in Jerusalem when he was 12, we know nothing about his childhood, other than, according to Luke 2:52, "He kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." And then suddenly we read of his appearance at the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist and immediately following that the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days. And according to John's gospel, he then returned to the region of the Jordan, where John was baptizing, and you will recall as he came towards John in John 1:29 John says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." And on the next day John repeated that same declaration to two of his disciples, Andrew and John. Then they heard him speak, and they began to follow him. Andrew then introduced Jesus to his brother, Simon Peter, and he said to Simon Peter, "We have found the Messiah." Then Jesus goes into Galilee, and he finds Philip. He tells Philip, "Follow me." Philip then finds Nathaniel, tells him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth." Remember, he said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

 Then Jesus sees Nathanael coming to him. Jesus says, "Behold, an Israelite. Indeed, in whom there is no deceit." And Nathanael says to him, "How do you know me?" And then you remember the story Jesus said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." And so with that, Jesus convinced Nathaniel that he is indeed the Messiah, and then Nathaniel said, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." So you have these repeated testimonies of the deity of Christ, the one who has called us by his own glory and excellence. And then Jesus makes a brief trip into Galilee, and he goes up into the Galilee and performs the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana, which isn't far from Nazareth, and then he has a brief stay at Capernaum, which is on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Then he returns to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and that really launched his ministry in Judea. He cleansed the temple. Remember, he exposed the hypocrisy of apostate Judaism.

And then right after that, we have Nicodemus, the prominent teacher of Israel, that comes to Jesus in John three, beginning in verse two. He says,

"'Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.'

"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"

And so he speaks of the miracle of regeneration, and then John goes on and tells us how Jesus leaves Judea, and he goes into Galilee, but he goes through the region of Samaria, and he comes to a city called Sychar, and we read, being wearied from his journey, he was sitting by the well, and there you have the encounter with the Samaritan woman. He says, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." And then Jesus tells her all about her life, she's astounded, and she says, "'I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ), when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.'" And Jesus said to her, "'I, who speak to you, am He.'" Then we read how others hear what happened, they come and they hear, they believe, and they declare in John 4:42, "...this One is indeed the Savior of the world.'"

Now that's what has gone on, and we know that Jesus then stays a couple of days there in Galilee, word gets around of all that he has done, and then in John 4:45 we read, "So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast."

And with that we come to Luke's account, okay, that's the context. So we look at verse 14 of Luke four, "And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit." Now I want to stop here for a moment, because this is so profound, and it has such implications in each of our lives as believers. Remember that while the Holy Spirit contributed nothing to his deity, he contributed everything to his humanity. You see, Jesus' obedience to do the will of the Father was not animated by his intrinsic divine nature as God, but rather it was solely as a result of the indwelling Spirit. He did not depend upon his divine nature to resist sin, but he depended upon the power of the Spirit of God that dwelled within him; and it's incredible to remember that the same power that he availed himself of, we have at our disposal. Beloved, never forget that. I fact we read what Jesus said in John 3:8, that we have the same resources because we are quote, "born of the Spirit." In other words, we have the supernatural divine enablement available to us.

So Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and it says, "...and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district." And that news, of course, is what I just mentioned, that John summarized. And in verse 15, then we read, "And He began teaching in their synagogue." Now let's understand this a little bit better. While the sacrifices prescribed in the law of Moses had to be offered in the temple, along with the celebration of the feast and the ceremonies, most of the Jewish people gathered together in synagogues to worship.

Now, I might, I might add that synagogues did not exist in the Old Testament until after the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586 BC. So Jews then would gather in small groups to worship, and those small groups eventually became synagogues, as in the day of Jesus. And the term comes from the Greek word "synagōgē", which literally means "bringing together or gathering"; that's what a synagogue really was, and is even today. And then, of course, this would have been crucial for the Jews in the diaspora, in other words, those who lived outside of the region of Palestine, because they had no access to the temple. And a synagogue required a minimum of 10 men were it to be formed, and so what we see historically is that small villages like Nazareth would probably only have one synagogue, larger cities would have maybe a number of them.

In fact, we learned from the Jerusalem Talmud that about 480 synagogues existed in Jerusalem during the days of Jesus. Now, when you look at the Galilee in the days of Jesus, there are about 240 cities and villages, so there existed many synagogues. They were built out of stone. You could go, those of you who have been with me to Israel, we've seen the ruins of many of them, stone buildings that face Jerusalem. I might also add that in the synagogue, they taught their children. In fact, I remember when I was at Moody Bible Institute back in the early 70s, we had what's called PCW - Practical Christian Work Assignment - and every semester you had something that you had to do, and because I was on the basketball team. One of the things they had me do was go to a synagogue in Skokie, Illinois, because Moody Bible Institute is in Chicago, and Skokie is a very Jewish area. I'd get on the train and go to Skokie to teach junior high boys’ basketball, and so I had a little bit of experience with working in a synagogue.

And so we read that that Jesus, "began teaching in their synagogues, and was praised by all." Of course, this is the perfect place. He's got a captive audience here. Go to the synagogue and present the gospel. And then verse 16 goes on and says, "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read." Don't you know, he had many fond memories as he came towards Nazareth. Nancy and I always love it when we have an opportunity to go back to our home church in Moline, Illinois, Bethany Baptist Church. Most of the people that we knew and grew up with are either dead or they're gone, but we still have a few, and we love to go back. I mean, as a church where we grew up together, where we fell in love, where we were married, and a lot of you will have the same memories of Calvary Bible Church, so he would have had the same thing. He grew up in the synagogue. He knew all of those people, but don't you know, his heart was also conflicted, because he knew that after all of the hugs and greetings and all of the wonderful exchange of pleasantries, he was going to have to expose them and tell them that he was their Messiah, and he knew that that wasn't going to go over well, to say the least.

Now, in the first century, synagogues didn't have a full-time pastor, so to speak, or an appointed teacher. It was ruled by elders, and they would have a chief elder of the synagogue that would invite various men to come, for example, and read the scriptures, and they would vet certain people that would be allowed to teach the scriptures. And they also had a man called a "hazzan" who was responsible to keep the scrolls, which upon which the scriptures were written, and he would acquire the proper scrolls for the reading of that day, and give it to the person that was reading them. And then at the conclusion of that, roll them back up and put them in the chest that protected them, and so forth. So that's the background here of what's happening.

So we read in verse 17, "And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written..." Now let me stop here. This is Isaiah 61 verses one and two, and verse six of chapter 58. This is a very familiar messianic prophecy. They were well acquainted with this text, and here's what it said, and what he read, verse 18,

But I want you to notice how the passage that Jesus read really summarized the ministry of the Messiah, and really through the use of four metaphors. First of all, notice verse 18, "'THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.'" To the "ptōchos", in the original language. The term means to bow down timidly, to be destitute, to cower in shame as a beggar. And of course these would have been the kind of people that the Jewish elite would have disdained and ridiculed and rejected because they thought that somehow this person is so sinful, that's why they are in the condition that they are. But please understand, the economically impoverished are not being described here. In fact, I might add that they are far more likely to acknowledge their spiritual poverty than the wealthy. Remember, Jesus said in Luke 18:25, "For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

"'THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.'

"And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him."

I remember the first 10 years of my ministry, I counseled a lot of wealthy people and a number of churches here in Nashville, a lot of artists and people in the gospel music industry, and so forth. And as I say, a lot of them are very wealthy. And I remember one guy in particular, he and his wife, they were kind, but I remember him one time saying, "Dave, why don't you get Nancy, meet us at the airport at, you know, I think 2o'clock in the afternoon, and we'll fly on my jet to Miami to one of our favorite restaurants, and we'll have you back by about 11 o'clock, I mean, that's wealth. And by the way, I turned him down, but I remember that man saying, and this is a bit of a paraphrase, when I was talking to him about his need to bow before Christ in repented faith, I remember he said this, and this is real close to exactly. He says, "Dave, I'm in no need of saving. In fact, I have no needs except one. I need God to fix my marriage."

I'm sure that there were also people looking through the windows; the place would have been packed. Everybody wanted to see Jesus, given his reputation, but they had no idea that he was the Messiah of whom he had just read. They had no idea that that passage describing those people pointed to them. They had no idea that they were the poor prisoners, that they were blind and oppressed by their sin, and even by their mechanical worship, they had no idea that Jesus had come to rescue them from the just wrath of God upon them that would send them to an eternal hell, unless they repented and believed in Him as their Messiah. My, it's going to be a hard pill to swallow for those people. The way people today are equally blind to it all, are they not? They're blind to their sin, blind to Christ, hostile to anyone that would tell them otherwise.

Well, all of that to say: the poor that Jesus is preaching the gospel to has nothing to do with the wealthy, but it's for those who are poor in spirit. So that the imagery here of Isaiah's prophecy captures that idea. He's to preach the gospel to the meek and to the humble and to the lowly, those who are broken over their sin, those who recognize that they have nothing to offer God that would warrant his forgiveness or his love. That's why Jesus said in Luke 6:20, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." You will recall the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee was bragging publicly about his spiritual prowess. What a godly man he was, and all of the great things that he did. And in Luke 18:13 the tax collector, it says, "Standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me, the sinner.'" These are the ones to whom Jesus is preaching the gospel. Dear friends, I hope you grasp this essential truth. Jesus came to save the humble and the contrite of spirit (Isaiah 66:2). The Holy Spirit brings people to the very end of their rope. Those are the ones that will hear and respond to the gospel.

Augustus Toplady expressed this concept so eloquently in his famous line from the classic hymn "Rock of Ages" written in 1776,

"Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

Naked come to Thee for dress, helpless look to Thee for grace,

Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die."

You know this is so radically different from so much of what we hear in modern evangelicalism that essentially offers a Jesus that's going to save people from their mistakes, save people from their from their misfortunes, from their unhappiness, from their unsuccessful marriage or unsuccessful lives, and the average postmodern unbeliever has been given such a sanitized definition of sin, they don't even come close to grasping the dreadful condition of their soul that would damn them to an eternal hell. And most are never told that sin is the defining characteristic of their very nature, that they have an inability to conform to God's moral character and desires, that the wages of sin is death - physical death, spiritual death, eternal death. For too many years, sinners in need of forgiveness have been treated as consumers in need of pandering, but beloved, when sin is whitewashed, the Savior is irrelevant, and that's what Satan wants to do. Only those who acknowledge their spiritual bankruptcy are going to cry out for undeserved mercy and grace. Oh, the danger of self-deception and pride, my friends. As Paul said in Second Corinthians 13:5 and following, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?"

So we see, first, Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor, and secondly, "'HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLIAM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES.'" In the original language, the term "release" is also translated "forgiveness." I'm reminded of Romans 6. I'm going to take you there for just a moment to help you grasp what's going on here in this passage. In Romans six, beginning in verse six, you're familiar with the passage, we read,

"...our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

"for He who has died is freed from sin."

So indeed He has set us free from the penalty of sin. He's paid. Debt that we could not pay on Calvary's cross. Colossians 2:14, he has, "...canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

So Jesus came to proclaim release of forgiveness to the captives to set them free. You know, slavery is a terrible form of wickedness, and it takes on many different forms. We see the scourge of political slavery; we've had it in our country. It exists in a number of countries, even to this day, and it has plagued every ethnic group that has ever existed. There's the slavery of addictions, when one's mind and body becomes obsessed with something that is destructive, and they are in bondage to it; those addicted to media, to nicotine, to alcohol, to drugs, to pornography, gambling, superstitions, like we see in so many false religious fantasies. So many people are confused about their life, they don't really understand why they're here, where they're going, what life is all about, and so they try to anesthetize the pain of an existence without purpose that's going to end in death. How sad. But the worst bondage of all, beloved, is man's slavery to sin, man's innate rebellion against God. What Paul calls "our body of sin." Meaning our unredeemed body in which sin operates. Jesus said in John 8:34, "...everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." You see, every unsaved person is a slave to, shall we say, an inner beast so powerful as to make them think that they are perfectly free.

"Thus says God, The LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, 'I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations,

That's how deceptive sin is; to make them think that they're not enslaved by their sin, by Satan, even by the fear of death; to make them think that they possess inherent goodness that merits salvation, and it also causes them to hate the very truth that will set them free, to hate it with a passion. Paul said in Second Timothy 2:26 everyone is quote, "...held captive by Satan to do his will." The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 2:14-15 speaks of how that unbelievers are "enslaved by the fear of death because of sin," and so forth. Beloved, apart from the glorious emancipator, the Lord Jesus Christ, every person lives their life in captivity. Every person. I love that great hymn by Charles Wesley, "Oh, for A Thousand Tongues to Sing," and I love that phrase, "He breaks the power of canceled sin," and what? "Sets the prisoner free." And it's amazing, according to Romans six and verse five, when by faith we are united to Christ, Paul says, "in the likeness of His death and resurrection," he says, "our old self," in other words, that worthless man that we once were in Adam, our "old self is done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin." It's an amazing passage.

In other words, in some inscrutable way, our sinful body was rendered powerless, it says,  "For he who has died is freed from sin." Amazing, isn't it? Now, although the sinful self is dead, we still remain incarcerated in our temporal flesh until glory, and until that day we will continue to battle our flesh, but not without the power to gain victory over our sin, because of the indwelling Spirit and his word, and so forth. And  all of us who know and love Christ can give hundreds of examples of how that is played out in our life. Oh, what a glorious Savior who sets the captive free. I would hate to think where I would be today were I still in bondage to my sin. Think of Isaiah 42 beginning in verse five,

So God appointed Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, and to proclaim release or forgiveness to the captives, captives like you and like me…"'to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.'"

And thirdly, he says, "'AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND.'" Now here he speaks of spiritual blindness. The inability, and in many cases, the unwillingness, of an individual to perceive divine revelation; to grasp not just intellectually but from the heart the realities of the gospel, and embrace them savingly, because they're ruled by their sinful nature, they have no fear of God. They're at enmity with God. Even as I speak of this right now, in my mind I see loved ones, I see friends. Breaks my heart, doesn't it yours? Jesus said in John eight and verse 12, "'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.'" Isn't it heartbreaking to see friends and family members, and sometimes even our own children walking in darkness and loving it? So Jesus also said in John 3:19, "'This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.’”

There's so many other passages. I'll remind you of yet another sequence of them in Romans chapter one and verse 18. We read of how unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness and I'm confident that even within the sound of my voice, perhaps even in this room, there are some of you who are suppressing the truth of who Jesus is and who you are, and you're doing it in your unrighteousness, because you love your sin; you love the darkness, but try as you may, in the middle of the night, when all is quiet and you're all alone, those feelings of emptiness and loneliness and depression and guilt and fear haunt you like a ghost in the darkness. Well, I know, because I've talked with so many people who are there and who have come out of those dungeons; the irresistible force of truth that there is a God that created you, and that you are responsible to him. The truth that he is the judge exerts itself on your conscience yet again. Ah, but your depraved heart gives you 1000 reasons to mock the whole thing, to reject the gospel, to justify your unbelief, and to convince you of your own righteousness, just in case you know if there is a God, I'm sure I'm good enough to make the cut. But down deep, you know better. Folks, why do you think illicit drug abuse and alcohol addiction are so widespread in our country? Because people live in that darkness. I mean, frankly, the lost live in the realm of the damned, they live for themselves. They live in a self-imposed moral and spiritual darkness, and then they die. All the while, they keep suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, but in vain they spend their lives in a meaningless existence. I look at young people, they're desperate for affirmation, desperate to be praised by their peers, to have some fun, to live the party life, and they will do so for a few short years on earth, only to be separated from God for eternity. Why? Because they're spiritually blind. In fact, they're dead in their trespasses and sins. That's why.

I want you to notice something. It does not say that the mind set on the flesh leads to death. It says it is death. In other words, they are spiritually dead, they're spiritual cadavers, unable to respond to God unless God somehow breathes spiritual life into that spiritual corpse. He goes on to say, "...the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God." And then notice this,

"...for it is not even able to do so,  those who are in the flesh, cannot please God."

"For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.'"

Back to Romans one and verse 21 we read that they, "became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." I mean, folks, how else can you explain people who embrace evolutionary theory? That nothing times nothing equals everything? How else can anyone embrace the gross immorality and the sheer insanity of the alphabet cult in our world today, LGBTQIA, W X Y Z. It seems like they come up with another one every day. But Paul reminds us in Romans eight and verse five,

"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

"For the mind set on the flesh is death."

And folks, if all of that isn't bad enough, in other words, the depraved nature of man, we also learn that Satan blinds unbelievers with all manner of deception and temptations that appeal to a depraved heart. Second Corinthians 4:4 we read that, "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Worse yet, if people continue to harden their heart against the Lord, he will judicially harden them permanently. John 12 verse 40, Jesus says, he has, "'blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.'"

I mean, folks, what I have just described is the incredibly unfathomably bad news of what sin does, which, in contrast, helps you see the glorious good news of the gospel that Jesus came to preach. Jesus was appointed by God to give recovery of sight to the blind, and finally number four, to, "SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED." This speaks of those who are weak, those who are crushed in spirit, because of the great difficulties of life, many times, because of the burden of their own sin, and all the misery that it has brought into their life. Many times I've sat across from people who are absolutely overwhelmed by where they are in their life, and you know what's always interesting? They will never say that, "Well, it all happened when I did this..." No, it was 1000s of bad choices and ungodly decisions, as they were ruled by their lusts, ruled by their sin, and it finally brings them to a place where their marriage is a train wreck, their family is a train wreck, everything about their life is a dumpster fire. It's so sad. But especially for the Jewish people that were hearing this from Jesus. I mean, they were not only living under the oppression of their own sin and how that would haunt them, but they were under the oppressive rule of the Romans, which was hideous in and of itself, and the absurd legalism of apostate Judaism -  all the absurd rules that they were trying to keep, so that they could somehow earn their way into heaven, so that they could somehow impress God enough by the righteous deeds that he would have to save them. Of course all of that is just part of, not just apostate Judaism, but all false religions. That's why Paul said, especially of the Jews in Galatians two verse 16, "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus." In other words, you're not going to be declared righteous because you obey the law, because you're not ever going to be able to do that. You're only going to be declared righteous because of the imputed righteousness of Christ that was given to you by grace. He says, "...even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified. "

Now, given all that they have seen thus far in Jesus' ministry, they could witness this first hand. That's why it also says, verse 19, that He came, "'TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.'" And they were living in it right then. Now, I want you to notice something very important as we begin to wrap this up this morning. The listeners would have been very familiar with this messianic prophecy, and therefore they would have wondered why in the world would he stop in the middle of verse two in Isaiah 61 because that goes on with the great theme of the vengeance of God against the enemies. I mean, that's the Messiah they're looking for, that's the one that they expected. They wanted a conquering king, not a suffering servant.

And in verse 21 says, "And He began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" Now, mind you, that's just a phrase that's summarizing a whole lot of what he was saying, all right? He didn't just say that one sentence. This was utterly shocking to them, because what he just said is that he was the Messiah, and he was suggesting...not suggesting, but essentially saying that they were the ones that were blind.

So, don't you know they're thinking, "That's odd, he stopped kind of in the middle of the verse there." That's what it says in verse 20, "And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down." Now it's important, notice he stood up to read; he sat down at this point. That's what they would do when they were getting ready to teach, and so that's what's about to happen here. This was the custom of a Jewish teacher, and it says, "...and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him." That's got to be one of the great understatements in all of scripture. I mean, they're wondering what on earth has he just done? Has he just said? I mean, this adds new meaning to that phrase, "a pregnant silence." Everyone's wondering about what he's going to say.

Well, it's for this reason - thinking of those that need to be set free, who are oppressed, especially under all of the yoke, the bondage of all of the legalism and Judaism - with this in mind, Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "'Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.'"

Verse 22, "And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips..." By the way, there would have been some believers there too. "And they were saying, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'" What is happening here? Well, praise is about to turn to murder. You know, proud sinners hate to be confronted and exposed. My, how many times have I seen that as a pastor. You lovingly confront people who were dealing with some grievous sin, and they go medieval on you, and that's what's about to happen now. Jesus anticipated the shock, the rejection, and so he knows that they're completely bewildered. So, anticipating that, he's going to give some examples here, and as you're going to see, this is certainly not seeker-sensitive, which, by the way, is a concept totally foreign to scripture. He's going to lay it on them because he loves them.

"And he said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.'" And now he's going to give a couple of examples of godly prophets who were rejected by some of their ancient kinsmen, resulting in God's judgment upon them. And so he begins verse 25,  "'But I say to you, in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah...'" By the way, "the days of Elijah," that was the days of the exceedingly wicked king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel. You remember the story, Jezebel worshiped Baal. Though there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, "...when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them..." none of the Israelites. Oh, how could he possibly be bringing this up? We don't want to hear this, but he says, "...only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.'" They mocked widows, they despised widows, especially a widow from Zarephath in the land of Sidon. These wicked Gentiles that hate us, that hate God. By the way, guess who came from Sidon? Jezebel. I mean, he is really laying it on him here, so he's saying that God sent Elijah to minister to a Gentile woman rather than an Israelite, and of all places to the land of Sidon, where Jezebel is from, but we also know, according to First King 17, that that widow was a believer in the God of Israel. Isn't that interesting? This outcast Gentile woman, who admitted that she fit all of the descriptions Isaiah had listed, a woman desperate for forgiveness and saving grace.

Well, he's going to go on, he's going to give another illustration from the life of another prophet, Elijah's protege, Elisha, verse 27, "'And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.'" Remember Naaman? Naaman was the great military commander of the pagan king of Aram. God granted Aram the victory over the Israelites because of all of their wickedness, (2 Kings 5). And at first Naaman, remember he was too proud to obey God through the words of Elijah, but then he humbled himself, he bathed in the Jordan, and he was healed.

Verse 23, "And He said to them, 'No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, "Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'" In other words, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, you say you're the Messiah, all right, prove yourself. Perform some of those miracles that we've heard you did in Capernaum and other places." But he knew that a lack of evidence wasn't the issue. The real issue was self-deception, the arrogance of the human heart, the self-righteous hardness of their heart.

Well, Jesus' hometown friends saw the parallel, though they weren't his friends anymore. They could see what he was doing, and they were absolutely in no mood to admit their sin, to admit their hypocrisy, their destitution and blindness and oppression because of their sin. They were in no mood to do what the Gentile widow did, and the leprous commander of Israel's enemy did, and so they are outraged. They are absolutely apoplectic.

Verse 28,

"And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;

"and they got up and drove Him out of the city and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

"But passing through their midst, He went on his way."

I've been there, that very place, on several occasions. It's predominantly a Palestinian Arab city, and to get up to where Jesus would have been thrown off, or where they wanted to throw him off, you drive up these switchbacks. Some of you were with me, or have been with me. And on the way up, it looks like you're driving through this massive landfill. All along the road, there's massive amounts of garbage, refrigerators, washing machines, freezers, you name mattresses. And there's some along the side there...they're only allowed three story buildings, and many of them, you will look, and from the third story windows, there's like this ramp of garbage, because they just throw garbage out the window. By the way, I believe that that is a deliberate disgrace inspired by Satan; but that's another story.   But you go up to the top there, and you could see where all of that would have happened. In fact, I have taught from that very precipice where you could look down and it's a long way.

Well, I would have loved to have seen the look on that mob's face when all of a sudden they looked around. Where did he go? It's interesting, isn't it? They wanted a miracle, they got one. Oh dear friends, let's celebrate the person in the work of Christ. Think about what he has done in his incarnation. How He came for you and me to preach the gospel to the poor, to release the captives, give sight to the blind, to set free those who were oppressed.

And I close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon that I thought was especially meaningful. He said this, "I come to proclaim in my Master's name immediate abolition, instantaneous pardon, a present change of heart, the breaking of the chain, and setting the captive free at once. Do not believe that you are to go through all your life only hoping and fearing, doubting and hesitating." He went on to say, "None but Jesus can give deliverance to captive. He makes thee free, but it is by his own bonds. Thou goest clear, because he bare thy burden for thee. Thou art set at liberty, because he has suffered in thy stead."

Oh, dear sinner, if you're here today, and you don't know Christ, I beg you to humble yourself before him, and all of us who know and love him solely by his grace, won't you celebrate that grace today, and tell others about the good news? May all of our lives redound to his glory, that we might experience the fullness of all that is ours in Christ, this side of glory. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word, cause them to bear much fruit in each heart. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.