The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
\nJanuary 31, 2016
\nLuke 4:20-32<\/p>\n
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.\u00a0 The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.\u00a0 “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”\u00a0 They asked.\u00a0 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me:\u00a0 ‘Physician, heal yourself!\u00a0 Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0 “I tell you the truth,\u201d<\/em> he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.\u00a0 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.\u00a0 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.\u00a0 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed\u2014only Naaman the Syrian.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.\u00a0 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.\u00a0 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.\u00a0 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people.\u00a0 They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.\u00a0 (NIV1984)<\/p>\n Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,<\/p>\n I\u2019d like you to picture three situations this morning\u2014 situations that may have been true at one time in your life or in the life of someone you know.<\/p>\n Situation #1:\u00a0 You meet someone that you think you might want to get to know better so you ask them if they want to go out for a dinner or maybe to see a movie\u2014 and they say \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so!\u201d\u00a0 Not exactly the response you were hoping for!<\/p>\n Situation #2:\u00a0 You\u2019ve been dating them for a while and then one day\u2014 possibly out of the blue\u2014 they tell you that there is something important that they need to share with you.\u00a0 Then they go on to say that they think it would be best if you both started seeing other people.\u00a0 Not exactly what you were hoping to hear!<\/p>\n Situation #3:\u00a0 Have you ever known someone who had gotten to the point in their relationship where they wanted to marry someone, but when they bring up the subject of marriage or when they asked that person to marry them they said, \u201cNo, I just can\u2019t do that\u201d?\u00a0 Again, not exactly the response they were anticipating!<\/p>\n There are any number of times in our lives when either we are unsure of how a person will respond to what we say to them or they respond in a way that is completely contrary to what we were anticipating.\u00a0 As we continue our study of Jesus\u2019 visit to His hometown of Nazareth the evangelist Luke focuses our attention on the people\u2019s response<\/u> to Jesus\u2019 statement:\u00a0 \u201cToday this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 This morning let\u2019s study the people\u2019s response by looking at the question, Who Is This?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 When it comes to Jesus of Nazareth there are only two possible answers, only two possible responses to this question, my friends.\u00a0 First, there is the response that is born from faith.\u00a0 Then, there is the response that is spawned by unbelief.<\/p>\n At first glance it might seem as though the people of Nazareth had a favorable response to Jesus\u2019 proclamation, \u201cToday this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Luke tells us in our text, \u201cAll spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 From our perspective as the saved children of God that is exactly how we respond when we hear our dear Lord and Savior speak to us through His holy inspired Word.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in their very next breath the people of Nazareth go on to reveal the unbelief that was in their hearts.\u00a0 They say, \u201cIsn\u2019t this Joseph\u2019s son?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n These people had known Jesus since He was a very young boy.\u00a0 They had watched Him grow up into a fine young man.\u00a0 They probably remembered seeing Him out laughing and playing and running around with His brothers and His sisters and His friends.\u00a0 (See Mark 6:1-3)\u00a0 They had possibly been impressed by the quality of the craftsmanship that Jesus displayed as He worked in His father Joseph\u2019s carpentry shop.\u00a0 Now they are supposed to believe that this same Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Messianic prophecies that the Lord their God had revealed to their ancestors down through the ages?\u00a0 No way!\u00a0 Who does He think He is!<\/p>\n Jesus knew just how short-sighted the people of His hometown were being because of their unbelief.\u00a0 So Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter by saying to them, \u201cSurely you will quote this proverb to me:\u00a0 \u2018Physician, heal yourself!\u00a0 Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Jesus knew that the people of Nazareth were expecting more from Him than just a \u201cgood sermon.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus knew that the people of His hometown wanted Him to prove<\/u> who He is by performing miracles like the ones they had heard that He done in Capernaum!\u00a0 When you get home today glance through the first five chapters of the Gospel of Mark.\u00a0 Mark reveals to us that in and around Capernaum Jesus drove out evil spirits, healed Peter\u2019s mother-in-law, healed many people with various diseases, healed a paralytic, healed the woman who was suffering from bleeding and raised Jairus\u2019 daughter from the dead.\u00a0 If Jesus were to do miracles like that in Nazareth then<\/u> perhaps the people just might believe that He is who He claims to be!<\/p>\n Tragically, even a show of miracles will not always enable someone to look at Jesus and correctly answer the question, Who is this?\u00a0 (See Matthew1 11:2-24)\u00a0 There is only one<\/u> way, my friends, only one<\/u> way to look at Jesus and correctly answer that question.\u00a0 It all comes down to\u2014 faith<\/em><\/strong>!\u00a0 Jesus emphasized the necessity of the response that is born from faith when He reminded the people of Nazareth of two examples of faith:\u00a0 the widow in Zarephath and Naaman.\u00a0 When a person has faith<\/em><\/strong> in the Lord then<\/u> they will be able to trust<\/em><\/strong> in His promises!\u00a0 When a person has faith<\/em><\/strong> in the Lord and trusts <\/em><\/strong>in His promises then<\/u> they will be able to \u201csee\u201d that Jesus is<\/em><\/strong> the fulfillment of all those Old Testament Messianic prophecies!<\/p>\n These words of our Lord did not sit well with the people of His hometown, did they?\u00a0 Luke tells us that they were \u201cfurious.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Very literally Luke says that the people were \u201cfilled with rage\u201d<\/em> because of what Jesus told them!\u00a0 In fact, they were so \u201cfilled with rage\u201d<\/em> that they drove Jesus out of the synagogue and dragged Him to the \u201cbrow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 That\u2019s rage!\u00a0 That\u2019s unbelief!\u00a0 But since this was neither the time nor the place for Jesus to die Luke tells us, \u201cBut he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Who is this?\u00a0 It certainly is not very difficult for us to look around in our own society today and see the answer that is spawned by unbelief.\u00a0 You may even know people who \u201csee\u201d Jesus as nothing more than a prophet, nothing more than a teacher, nothing more than an example, nothing more than a social activist.\u00a0 In some parts of the world there are people who would still be filled with so much \u201crage\u201d<\/em> over Jesus\u2019 claims to be the Promised Messiah to be this world\u2019s only Savior from sin that if they had a chance they would still try to kill Him!<\/p>\n As we look at this portion of Scripture there are two applications that I hope we take home with us this morning.\u00a0 First, one of our primary goals as the saved children of God is to be witnesses for Jesus\u2014 to share with others the Truth that Jesus is<\/em><\/strong> the fulfillment of God\u2019s promise to send a Savior into this world.\u00a0 But it should not surprise us if the response that we receive when we strive to share the Truth is the same kind of response that Jesus received here in our text for today.\u00a0 Does that mean that we should hold back from sharing our faith with others because we do not know how they are going to respond?\u00a0 Does that mean that we should avoid witnessing to people because they might respond in the \u201crage\u201d<\/em> of unbelief?\u00a0 Not at all!\u00a0 We certainly cannot control or predict how a person responds to our testimony of the Truth.\u00a0 But we can trust that no matter how they respond the Savior who had the power to simply walk right through this furious crowd will be there to guide us and protect us as we faithfully witness to Him!<\/p>\n At the same time this text also has a very powerful and a very personal application to each and every one of us.\u00a0 It is indeed very easy for us to look out into the world and see so many people whose view of Jesus is still spawned by unbelief.\u00a0 At the same time, however, it is also very valuable for us to spend some time examining how we<\/u> are responding to that question, Who is this?<\/p>\n When you and I are sitting here in the Lord\u2019s house it is pretty obvious how we are answering this question, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 We come here to confess that we do indeed believe that Jesus is<\/em><\/strong> the fulfillment of God\u2019s promises!\u00a0 We come here to confess that Jesus is<\/em><\/strong> our only Savior from sin!\u00a0 We come here to encourage<\/u> each other and to strengthen<\/u> each other in confessing this very same truth!\u00a0 We come here because by the grace of God the gift of saving faith which the Holy Spirit has created in our hearts gives us the ability to \u201csee\u201d that Jesus is<\/em><\/strong> who He claims to be!<\/p>\n However, is our answer to that question just as clear and just as consistent when we are \u201cout there\u201d in the \u201creal world\u201d?\u00a0 When we are at school or hanging out with our friends it is easy for them to see and to hear that we are indeed a Christian\u2014 a saved child of the one and only Living God?\u00a0 When we are at work do we conduct ourselves in such a way that if one of our co-workers asked us a question about what we believe concerning things such as life and death and what comes \u201cnext,\u201d they would not be at all surprised when we tell them that we believe that the only<\/u> way to eternal life in heaven is through faith in Jesus as one\u2019s personal Savior?\u00a0 When we are out on the town or all by ourselves is it a \u201cgiven\u201d that we never have to worry if someone see us or if someone unexpectedly walks in on us because we not only know<\/u> the correct answer to the question we are studying today, but we also live<\/u> that answer no matter where we are, no matter what we are doing and no matter whom we are with?\u00a0 These are the types of questions that we need to be asking ourselves, my friends.\u00a0 These are the types of questions that each and every one of us can only answer for ourselves.<\/p>\n In the little town of Bethlehem so many years ago a young virgin by the name of Mary tenderly held her firstborn Son in her arms, lovingly gazed at His face and humbly pondered in her heart the miracle that had just taken place.\u00a0 Imagine yourself coming up to Mary on the night that Jesus was born and asking her the question, \u201cWho is this?\u201d\u00a0 Her response would have been a response that was born from faith, a response that would have undoubtedly reflected that Christmas hymn we know and love so well, \u201cWhat Child Is This?\u201d, the hymn that answers our question for today with the words:\u00a0 \u201cThis is Christ the King\u201d (Christian Worship, <\/em>#67).<\/p>\n In the little town of Nazareth so many years ago a hometown boy came back to visit.\u00a0 He read Messianic prophecies from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, sat down in front of people who had watched Him grow up and said to them, \u201cToday this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Imagine yourself coming up to any one of the people gathered there in that synagogue, pointing to Jesus and asking them, \u201cWho is this?\u201d\u00a0 Sadly their response would have been a response that was spawned by unbelief and fueled by rage:\u00a0 \u201cThis is Joseph\u2019s son\u2014 and nothing more!\u201d<\/p>\n In your little corner of the world today the Rabbi from Nazareth stands by your side no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, no matter whom you are with.\u00a0 My prayer for you this morning, my friends, is that you not only know in your heart the correct answer to the question, \u201cWho is this?\u201d but I also pray that no matter who might come up to you and ask you about this Person who is obviously such an important part of your life that you smile and respond with the answer that is born from faith, \u201cThis is Jesus.\u00a0 Let me tell you about our<\/u> only Savior from sin!\u201d<\/p>\n To God be the glory!<\/p>\n Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany January 31, 2016 Luke 4:20-32 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.\u00a0 The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d\u00a0 All spoke well of him and were amazed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epiphany","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}