Put Out Into the Deep... Luke 5:1-11 - August 28, 2022

 Luke 5:1-11 Put Out Into the Deep…

Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter five, page 860 in the pew Bibles.

I often find myself hunting after what is clever in this world. Cleverness has always been an auspicious attribute in my mind, to be thought of as clever and to find things that are clever, or people who are clever is always so satisfying to me. That’s partially why I do woodworking, to do things that people don’t expect or can’t figure out how they’re done. But it is also often a temptation in my study of the Scriptures, to find the nugget nobody sees, or to think of the things that are seldom thought about and therefore, seem clever. This is not always a good thing.

Sometimes while mining for nuggets of cleverness I ignore what lies on the surface. This passage is no different. This is the most flannelgraph account in all of the New Testament, this passage has Sunday School songs, it has it all, right there on the surface. And maybe that’s exactly where we should look.

Alistair Begg says, “The main things are the plain things and the plain thing are the main things.”

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Let’s pray.

So to set up our flannegraph scene, here is Jesus, in Capernaum still, standing on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret, also called, Chinnereth, also called the Sea of Tiberius, also called the Sea of Galilee.

There is also a large crowd that has followed Him there wanting to hear the Word of God and they are crowding in on Him so to get a little space to be able to speak to the whole crowd He gets into one of the boats there that happens to belong to Simon Peter, a fisherman with whom He was acquainted having visited his home and healed his mother in law of a great fever that we read about last week.

So in part one of this scene Jesus sits down in the boat and teaches the people, how I wish I could hear that sermon! Maybe I’d just read that to you instead of making you sit through this one!

I said it last week and it bears repeating that Jesus did not just come to die on the cross but He also came to preach and teach. We should always be about the business of listening to His teaching and putting it into practice.

Now the practice of fishing the way that Peter and Andrew, James and John were accustomed to was to fish with nets not hooks in the shallow parts of the lake near the shore at night. That’s exactly what they had been doing when Jesus showed up. Their work day was over and they were cleaning their nets and laying them out to dry for the next night’s work.

It seems a little cliché at this point but I can’t help but point out the fact that this is often how Jesus operates, we’re just going about our business and then Jesus shows up. Whether it’s through opportunities to share our faith or to say a word of encouragement or to serve someone who needs help, sometimes Jesus shows up with something for us to do when we are just minding our own business.

But Jesus doesn’t ask Peter to do something that makes any sense, what He asks him to do is ridiculous.

Here’s Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth saying to Peter the fisherman from Bethsaida, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

This is not only inconvenient, as they had been fishing all night and were cleaning up at the end of their shift and looking forward to going home, but it was also not good fishing practice. It was daytime and He asked to put out into the deep water for a catch instead of the shallows where they typically fished.

I like to fish, I especially like to fly fish. I’ve done it all my life, my dad taught me how to do it when I was a kid, I come from a family of fishermen. And though I haven’t done it for quite a while, I still know that there are the right ways and wrong ways to fish, there are right times and right places and right flies to use. Jesus is asking Peter to use a salmon fly to catch a brook trout in the ocean.

And Jesus is still doing that same thing with His people, asking machinists to become preachers, asking teachers to run restaurants, asking pilots to leave the city and move to the mountains, because that’s where He wants us to fish. I bet we could all share stories of how God has used us for His glory in spite of what it was that we thought we were supposed to be doing. If you can’t think of a story it’s very possible that He is writing one in you right now you just don’t see it yet.

“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Jesus’ request would change Peter’s life.

Peter’s response could very well change ours.

“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” We couldn’t find any fish, we are exhausted, we’re almost done cleaning our nets. We just want to go home and sleep! Peter confronted Jesus with his perception of reality but didn’t make any excuses.

Peter had heard the teaching of Jesus already, he had seen Him heal his mother in law, he had seen Him cast out demons with a word, he knew Jesus was no ordinary person. So though it didn’t make any sense, though he and his crew were tired and ready to go home to rest, Peter said, “At your word I will let down the nets.”

Our list of reasons to say no to Jesus is usually just as long as Peter’s. “If I say something people might get mad, I might hurt somebody’s feelings, what if they laugh at me or reject me? I don’t want to ruin our relationship, I’m too tired, too busy, I’ve got my own stuff to worry about.”

“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 

The message here is not that if you just follow Jesus and put out into your own metaphorical deep that He is going to pound you with a hundred and fifty three large metaphorical fish. That’s a pretty popular message in some churches nowadays but it just isn’t true.

The message is that God works through the coupling of human faithfulness and divine power and the result is His glory not ours.

Jesus said, “Put out into the deep for a catch,” and the result was so many fish that Peter called James and John for help and even with two boats there were too many fish to handle so that the boats began to sink.

The prosperity gospel says that if you come to Jesus, if you do what He says that He will overload you with blessings just like He did for Peter, Andrew, James and John. “He just wants to bless you...”

But the fish were not the blessing, at least not for these men.

 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Peter’s response is the reasonable response, humility. He echoes the words of Isaiah 6:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

If our focus remains as, “I do for Jesus so that He will do for me,” we will miss out on the true blessing of the Lord. Simon and Andrew, James and John left all those fish on the shore, they left their boats, they left their nets, and they followed Jesus. If all they wanted was material blessing they had it but they would miss out on the true blessing and that is the glory of God.

So maybe this nugget of cleverness was not right on the surface but it is no less true that the combination of human faithfulness, simple obedience to His Word, and His divine power wil always result in God’s glory.

Peter left all those fish on the shore, but not three years later in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost Peter would preach the gospel and three thousand souls would be saved, that’s the real blessing.

“I will make you fishers of men if you follow me…”

Amen.

Grace on Display - Luke 4:38-44 - August 21, 2022

 Luke 4:38-44 Grace on Display

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter four, we are going to examine verses 38-44. That’s on page 860 in the pew Bibles if that’s helpful to you.

Let’s pray.

When last we saw Jesus he was preaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. He was teaching with great authority, not like the dry and lifeless legalistic teaching of the Scribes that the people were used to. By His word demons were cast out, His teaching was unlike anything anybody there had ever seen. And after this amazing service, they did what everybody does after such a stirring, life-changing, church service… They went home for lunch.

Let’s read our text.

38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. 

40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 

42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

In my weak, flannelgraph thinking, always when I read this account what I saw on display is the power and authority of Jesus.

Jesus has power over a high fever, Jesus has power over various other diseases, Jesus has power over demons.

Maybe I’m getting old and soft but as I read this account now I see something much more powerful on display than just power, I see grace.

I have been guilty of restricting the grace of God solely to Christ’s work on the cross. After all the Word says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast.” And this is 100% true that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone, but that is not the limit of God’s grace.

Grace is defined as kindness, unmerited or undeserved favor, a gift. We often give gifts based on a date on the calendar, a birthday, or Christmas, but some of the best gifts are given simply because, “I saw this and thought of you.”

Here in our texts we have at least three different displays of the grace of the Lord Jesus, one to the Disciples, one to us, and one to the people of Judea.

38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. 

So after church that day they headed over to Simon’s house for lunch. Incidentally, I’ve been to this house, or the remains of it, in Capernaum. It’s not a big place and now it has a church building built over it to protect it but you can look down through the glass floor to see it.

So this is the Simon who would later be renamed by Jesus, “Peter.” He was the brother of Andrew, who most likely also lived in this house, and, much to the chagrin of our Catholic friends who think that Peter is the great champion of celibacy among ministers, Simon Peter was also married as evidenced by having a mother in law.

Luke, the doctor, describes the fever as a high fever, a great, or terrible fever. This was not a take two Tylenol and get over it kind of thing, this was a life-threatening illness. And knowing that Jesus had power and authority like they had never seen they asked Jesus to help her.

 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. 

I’m sure that there is a, “Jesus did for you, know go do for Him,” sermon in there somewhere but that’s not for today. Instead of focusing on the woman’s response to being healed, which was to immediately get up and make lunch, I think that it’s better to focus on the grace of Jesus on display.

The disciples had already witnessed Jesus heal the man with the unclean demon, but this kindness was much closer to home. The healing of Peter’s mother in law gave them a much more private and familial illustration of the grace of the Lord Jesus. 

In truth every hardship that people face is an opportunity for the grace of the Lord Jesus to be displayed even difficulties that we bring upon ourselves as a result of our own choices.

In John 9 Jesus addressed this issue. 

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

The works of God displayed. That’s His power to heal, yes, but it is also His grace, in his decision to heal.

The second display of the grace of the Lord Jesus happened later that same day.

40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 

The fact that Luke points out that this next scene happens at sundown was not just because he wanted to paint a pretty picture for our flannelgraph. This was the Sabbath day and the Sabbath ended at sundown so people were free to walk around and carry the sick and infirm to Jesus.

It does conjure a great picture though, Jesus sitting on Peter’s front porch and the people gathered around Him listening to His words and being healed by His touch. His grace was certainly on display to those people. The pictures in my mind is usually that of huge crowds but in truth this is a village of only a couple hundred people and this group would have been even smaller than that.

But where Jesus’ grace was on display for us is in what Jesus did to the demons.

The demon in the synagogue declared that Jesus was the Holy One of God, the Messiah, and the demons that were cast out that evening cried out, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus rebuked them and would not allow them to speak. 

He did this for a few reasons, first, the time of His full revelation had not yet come, it wasn’t time for everyone to know He was Messiah. Secondly, Satan and his demons are in, what the scholars call, an irreconcilable state of enmity with Jesus. Their praise could only injure and soil His character and reputation so He refused to allow them to act as His heralds and witnesses of His divinity.

Where His grace to us is on display is that Jesus forbids these powerful, supernatural creatures to speak on His behalf, and instead he asks this of us, frail, fallen, and fallible though we are.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says, 27 …God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

We have been chosen as His witnesses in all the world, to preach the gospel to every creature, and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded, this is His grace on display to us.

The last display of the grace of the Lord Jesus is to the people of Judea.

42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

The next morning Jesus got up early and went to a solitary place on the edge of town presumably to pray and the people of the town found Him there. These people who had been shown great kindness, great grace, wanted to keep Jesus with them. They heard and appreciated His word, they wanted more of His teaching, more of His presence among them, and who could blame them.

After being rejected in Nazareth and nearly thrown off a cliff for His teaching why wouldn’t He want to stay in Capernaum? The people loved Him there, it could become the new religious capitol of the world!

But by leaving Capernaum Jesus displayed His grace to the other towns of Galilee and Judea as well.

“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Jesus was sent, not just to die, but to preach the Good News of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of faith in Him, a kingdom of grace.

Like Jesus, we too must preach the Good News as an act of grace to our hearers. Like the people of Capernaum we tend to want to keep Jesus to ourselves, to keep Him here in our midst where life is comfortable and happy. But that’s not what Jesus was sent to do and that is not what He has sent us to do.

He was sent, and we are sent, to display His amazing grace through the Good News of the kingdom of God.

Amen.

What is This Word? Luke 4:1-37 - August 14, 2022

 Luke 4:31-37 What is This Word?

Good morning! We are continuing our study of the Gospel of Luke, so please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 4:31-37, page 860 in the pew Bibles.

You’ll remember from last week Jesus visited the town of Nazareth where He had been brought up and preached in their synagogue. He preached a message so powerful that it nearly got Him thrown off a cliff as all good sermons should.

Jesus walked through the midst of the murderous crowd and left town and that is where we find Him in our text for this morning in the city of Capernaum on the shore of the sea of Galilee.

So let’s pray and ask the Lord’s blessing on our study.

Capernaum was a small but important town in the region, it was situated on the road that connected the region to Damascus, it was a center of commerce for fishing and trade. It was also a Roman tax polling station. 

The disciples Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew were all called from Capernaum. And it would later become known as Jesus’ hometown as the Gospels reference it 16 different times in connection to Jesus’ public ministry.

Let’s look at the text.

31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

Just like last week’s text Jesus was teaching the people on the Sabbath in the synagogue.

The synagogue was a central part of the life of the Jews for centuries but strangely is not mentioned in the Old Testament at all. The Tent of Meeting and the Temple in Jerusalem are designed by God and laid out very specifically in the Old Testament but directions for the synagogue is nowhere to be found.

The synagogue was invented by the Jews after they returned from the Babylonian captivity which you can read about in 2 Kings 24. The synagogue began as a group of people with no less than ten Jewish men and their families and later became known as the buildings that were built specifically for the synagogue to meet in. They were simple structures with benches for seating and very little ornamentation and every one of them had a chest for storing the scrolls of the Law and the Prophets, what we now call the Old Testament.

The design of the church is very much based on this very practical model for community and fellowship, worship and teaching as we can see throughout the New Testament. 

The Scribes were the primary teachers in the synagogues but their teaching was lifeless and dry, pure legalism and empty religion. People attended out of a sense of obligation not life, they were to keep out of trouble not to keep in touch with God’s Word or His people.

Then along comes Jesus.

For many of us who grew up in the church or grew up being dragged to church by our parents this picture can sound very familiar. 

Everything was boring and dry and lifeless, an endless tirade of legalism and empty religious practices and, “You better go to church or you’re going to go to hell…”

Then along came Jesus.

So here in our text we have a brief glimpse into a meeting of the synagogue at Capernaum where Jesus performed two miracles. The first and most noticeable one is the healing of a man with an unclean demon.

33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

There is a lot to learn here in these brief verses, so here is a quick list.

First, the devil and his demons are unclean spirits. Their nature and aim are directly opposed to the purposes of God. Our culture has sought to minimize the devil and his agents, to make them into cartoons or to make them cool and not dangerous at all, or at least dangerous in the ways that people want them to be dangerous. 

The truth is, the devil wants us dead, not just physically dead but spiritually dead, dead apart from trusting in Christ for salvation.

Secondly, this unclean spirit, as well as many others in Scripture, works in the lives of people. 234 times in Scripture the words, “demon,” “unclean spirit,” or, “evil spirit,” appear. They are very real and work in the souls and sometimes bodies of people.

The third thing to learn, and one that is the most troubling to me, is that these unclean spirits can and do operate on people who are among the worshippers of God. They know and believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God, they believe that He is Messiah. James 2:19 says that “even the demons believe, and shudder.” And yet they are at work among those who agree with the facts about who Jesus is, as they do, but do not trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.

Agreeing with the facts about Jesus is not saving faith, trusting in Jesus personally is how we are saved.

The final thing to learn, at least on my short list this morning, is that Jesus has power over the devil and his demons.

33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent [that literally means to put a muzzle on] and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

The demon had to be silent, it had to leave the man, and it had to leave him unharmed because Jesus said so. And that kind of leads me to the second miracle that Jesus performs.

Jesus has power over the devil and his demons, we’ve seen it right here in the text, perhaps you’ve experienced it personally in your own life.

But when Jesus cast the demon out of the man, how did He do it? He didn’t grab him and shake him out, He didn’t shoot laser beams form His eyes, no ninja moves, nothing like that. He simply said the words, “Phimotheti kai exelthe.” Be silent and come out of him.

Jesus’ power is in His words.

31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.

In Mark’s account of this event in Mark 1:22 he wrote, And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

The people were used to the lifeless, legalistic, empty teaching of the Scribes, and along comes Jesus.

And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

“What is this word?” That’s the other miracle, the people started to listen to Jesus. “For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

He commands the demons and they come out, He says the word and they obey. Jesus’ power is in His words, he is the Word!

Like the people of Nazareth, we still want spectacle, we still want Jesus to do the miraculous for us, we want Him to do for us, to provide peace and comfort and trouble free living.

What we want is spectacle, what we get is the Word of the Lord. Luke would record the words of the Father about the Son when He was transfigured before His Disciples in Luke chapter 9, “This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to Him!”

The real miracle is when people do, when people listen to Him.

Would you commit to listen to the Word of the Lord every day this coming week? Would you commit to reading Matthew 5-7, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and listen to the Word of the Lord?

We can’t lose sight of what Jesus did and is doing, and neither should we lose sight of what He said and continues to say in His Word. Amen.

Jesus AT Nazareth - Luke 4:16-30 - August 7, 2022

 Luke 4:16-30 Jesus AT Nazareth

Good morning! I’m very happy to be back with you this morning. I had a wonderful time at camp meeting, worshipping and fellowshipping with other believers from across New England. I was able to get some much needed projects done on our cabin there in Mechanic Falls, It has a fresh coat of paint and a new front deck that will hopefully get a roof and get screened in someday.

Joel and I were talking about taking advantage of the camp for this church family and maybe going there for a weekend retreat or something in the future so we could enjoy that fellowship and you all could fall in love with that place like I have.

I’m also grateful for Joel delivering God’s Word to the family last Sunday and I was very encouraged by his message of unity in the church family for the sake of the gospel and how that puts Jesus on display for the world.

I can say that this attitude is foreign to the world and is also sometimes difficult to find in Christ’s church but by His grace we are working together towards that unity here in this family and I’m so thankful to the Lord for that.

We are returning to our study in the Gospel of Luke, with chapter four verses sixteen through thirty, picking up where we left off two weeks ago.

Let’s pray and then we’ll jump right into the text.

16 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. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

20 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. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 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, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 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.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away. 

One of the blessings and curses of preachers going to camp meetings is that we get to hear another preacher preach, and since we are a kind of self-conscious breed the temptation is to compare ourselves and our work to that of the one in the pulpit at the time. That was particularly challenging this year because the preacher, Josh Tate, from all the way up in the County, Presque Isle, Maine, was so terrific.

The other temptation is to try and repreach their messages! I’m not going to do that, I’d fail miserably.

Josh took us, one by one, through the eight miraculous signs of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John, and in every case he reminded us that each of these eight miraculous signs that served as a framework for his Gospel Jesus performed to display the glory of God.

One of the things that hounded Jesus throughout His ministry was the desire of people to see miraculous signs as if Jesus was some kind of street performer and here we see that mentality of full display when Jesus goes back to Nazareth, to the town where He was brought up.

I’m not going to reproach my own message from two weeks ago examining Jesus’ sermon that He gave there but we need to reference it in order to get good context.

16 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. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

20 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. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.

Jesus went back to His home church and, as was His custom, he went to service on the Sabbath.

This should have been the old story of “Hometown boy makes good,” here they had the Messiah in their midst, in their synagogue! Nazareth was the backwater town where everybody said, “nothing good ever comes from there.” But here He was, sitting in their midst saying, “This is the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of Jubilee, the captives will be set free, the blind will receive their sight, the poor will hear the good news, Messiah is here and I am He.”

The people of Nazareth had salvation at hand, the promised Messiah, the Savior, right there amongst them, good news, light and liberty, and the Lord’s favor was all right there in the person of Jesus and they had a choice to make.

And we can see in the second half of verse 22 the decision that they made.

They could have said, “Messiah is here! Our Messiah, and He’s from Nazareth! Hallelujah! Nobody will ever say, ‘what good comes from Nazareth,’ ever again!”

Sadly, that’s not what they said. Instead they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

They could have glorified God by accepting His Son Jesus, instead they rejected Him seeing Him only as the Son of Joseph. They should have glorified God all the more because God had made One with such humble beginnings the Messiah. “Praise God the carpenter’s Son is the Messiah, God really can make something out of nothing!”

But instead of believing Him and believing in Him, they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s Son?”

And Jesus, who knows the hearts of people, knew what they really wanted to see. They wanted to see the spectacle, they wanted to see the signs that they had heard about from the other towns in Galilee where Jesus had been. 

23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ”

What they wanted was for Jesus to heal the sick and lame and blind in His hometown and among His own countrymen, make some water into wine here at home among your family. We’ve known you your whole life, we should be the first ones to see the spectacle!

All they wanted was a show. The Nazarenes wanted to see miracles and wonders as if Jesus was just a street magician. They didn’t seek the power of God, they didn’t seek the help they truly needed, which was right there in front of them and they closed their hearts to the Lord. His own hometown rejected Him.

The people wanted something from Jesus but they didn’t want Jesus Himself. There is a lesson there for us.

24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 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, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 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.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

Why would the synagogue be filled with wrath at this statement?

The two stories that Jesus referenced about  Elijah from 1 Kings 17, and Elisha from 2 Kings 5, were about God’s work among the Gentiles. Both the widow of Zaraphath and Namaan the Syrian were Gentiles and God showed His grace and blessed them with provision for the widow and healing from leprosy for the general of the army of Israel’s enemy.

In both of those stories from the Old Testament the nation of Israel was steeped in worship of Baal, as a nation they had turned their back on the Lord and forgotten His Word. Foreigners were preferred above God’s chosen people because God’s people rejected Him.

John Calvin wrote, “The meaning, is therefore, that the same thing happens now as in former times, when God sends His power to a great distance among foreigners, because He is rejected by the inhabitants of the country.”

This continues as a theme throughout the rest of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, on his missionary journeys, would always preach at the synagogues first, and when the Jews rejected his message of Good News he would go to the Gentiles who almost always received the gospel with gladness.

Think of how Theophilus, a Gentile, for whom Luke wrote this Gospel, must have felt when he read this account for the first time.

But instead of receiving Messiah with Joy they were filled with wrath.

28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away. 

Not just wrath, but murderous wrath! But since it was not His time to die, since it had been prophesied that he would die on a tree not be thrown off a cliff, He passed through their midst and went away.

We often lack perspective just like the synagogue in Nazareth, we often don’t see the good thing that the Lord has blessed us with even when it’s right in front of us because it often doesn’t align with our thoughts about what is best and we can’t see it through our pride.

Another thing that the Lord delivered through our speaker Josh Tate last week that has really stuck with me is that God doesn’t call us to do what is hard, he calls us to do the impossible. What is hard, we can do, we can muster up the strength, we can made difficult choices, give up some things that we love and get the job done. 

But when we live like that we don’t need God to intervene because, even though it’s hard, we can still do it ourselves. And when we live prayerless lives that’s exactly what we communicate to the Father, that we don’t really think we need Him involved.

God calls us to do the impossible because impossible things require the intervention of the God of the impossible.

Preaching the gospel to people who don’t think they need it is impossible, telling the truth to people who don’t want to hear it is impossible. Just as filling that widow’s jar with just enough flour and oil to make bread for that day, and healing the commander of the army of your enemy of leprosy by making him wash in your river and not his was impossible. Walking away from a murderous mob trying to toss you off a cliff is impossible.

Saving faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin is impossible. 

It’s impossible for us to do ourselves, it’s impossible for us to get for ourselves, setting at liberty those who are captives to sin and death is impossible, giving sight to the blind is impossible.

And that is why we pray, because we need the Father to work, the One who makes all things possible.

Amen.