Date: Dec. 8th, 2002
Title: Responses to Christ (mas)
Bible Text: Luke 4:16-30
Subject:
Complement:
Main Idea:
Intro:
Have you ever experienced a Christmas where one of your children is ripping through their presents and they open one from grandma only to find of all things! Clothes!?!?!
They immediately say, oh, its just clothes and toss it aside for some plastic gadget or toy that will join all their other toys at the bottom of their toy box or the back recesses of their closet.
The problem is that the clothes have more practical value than anything a child will get. But kids just want to have fun!
As we think about Christmas this year we must take some time to reflect on another gift. The gift of God’s own Son born in this world. Many people just plain miss this present that God has given us. They don’t understand who Jesus really is.
Well, how do you and I help people know the real Jesus this Christmas?
I. We Can Take Our Faith Home For The Holidays. (vs. 16-21)
A. The Holidays are a great time to share our faith. (v.17)
1. Jesus was back home.
ILL. If you ever move away from your childhood home then you know what it is like to try to go back. For me, driving to upstate New York is like going through a time-warp. As I see old buildings and homes of my childhood friends my mind takes me back there. Memories of fun times and sad, victories and defeats…everything is in play back mode.
a) I can almost imagine Jesus, the Son of God, looking at the different homes of people He knew when He was growing up.
b) Seeing the field where He and His friends used to play tag.
c) Perhaps remembering a time when He and His dad worked together in the carpentry shop that now looked a lot smaller than it did growing up.
d) Any of us who have “gone back” know that Nazareth High School looked a lot different too!
2. We can only speculate regarding Jesus reliving childhood memories but the Scripture is clear, He was back in His hometown Nazareth.
3. It says that when the Sabbath came – possibly a few days after He arrived.
a) He went to the synagogue as was his custom.
b) Jesus did what He always did even in the midst of his family.
4. I know that sometimes, when we get back together with our families we revert back to old patterns, not wanting to offend anyone.
a) Perhaps our family doesn’t go to church and so we stay home too.
b) Perhaps the family indulges in language or topics that are contrary to our new way of thinking and living.
c) Should we blend in just like old times or let them see the Light of Jesus in us?
5. Jesus didn’t worry about any of that, He was always consistent in His relationship with His Heavenly Father.
6. We need to ask today, What is our custom? What would others see in us as our usual mode of behavior?
a) A man or woman of prayer?
b) A student of God’s Word?
c) Do people outside the family of God ask in that derogatory way, “Are you going to church again?”
7. On this particular day Jesus stood up to read from God’s Word.
B. During the Holiday Season we need to remember who we are. (17-21)
1. Jesus was always aware of exactly who He was.
a) Jesus turned, or rather rolled, to the words of the prophet Isaiah 61:1-2.
b) God was speaking through His prophet and He proclaimed that a day would come when God would send one who had the spirit of God on Him! His own Son!
c) Jesus read His own prophecy that He was now fulfilling!
d) He came to preach the good news to the poor, He proclaimed freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.
2. Then He rolled the scroll up and went back to where he was sitting on the floor with everyone else.
a) The custom at this time was that the Scripture was read standing and then the person would sit and give His interpretation.
b) Everyone was watching Him as He went back to sit.
c) That word there for fastened gives that sense that every person was waiting to hear what Jesus would say.
3. Then He spoke some pretty shocking words for those people in that Nazarene synagogue.
a) Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!
b) In other words, He was saying, “Don’t confuse my identity with any one else, I am the one Isaiah was speaking of.
Trans: Isn’t it amazing how people can miss identify Jesus. Later on in one of Paul’s letters he told the church to beware of anyone who preached a Jesus other than the one He had introduced them to. The problem started in Nazareth and continues on even today. People mistaking who Jesus was and is.
C. Jesus knew exactly who He was and why he had come to this earth! (18-19)
1. It wasn’t to just be a cute little baby born in a lily-white stable with cuddly stuffed animals.
a) The baby Jesus, all cute asleep in the manger no crib for his bed the little lord Jesus laid down His sweet head! The cattle are lowing the baby awakes, But little Lord Jesus no crying He makes.
b) Baby Jesus. In that manger He is so cuddly and warm and never says anything politically incorrect and most everyone would love to hold Him and hug Him and most importantly, keep Him right there in the manger forever.
c) Because when He is in the manger, He never causes anyone to face their sin or their mortality.
d) No, its all warm and fuzzies!
2. But that is not the real Jesus.
a) The Jesus who stood up in His hometown and identified Himself for everyone there.
b) Jesus didn’t want to encourage any misunderstandings about his identity.
3. Jesus reason for coming to this earth wasn’t to be born in a lily-white stable with warm cuddly animals.
a) No, it was to be born in a stinking, cold, dank hole in the side of a hill called a stable and then spend his adult life showing the way for people like you and me how to be freed from our own personal dank, dark, stinking, hole in the side of life.
b) He came to show us the door, the way out of life’s stinking holes.
c) Freedom for those in slavery to sin, sight for those who are spiritually blind, release from the weight of lives oppressions.
Trans: So we see that Jesus was home and the people were struggling with His identity just as they are still today. The people wanted so hard to like Jesus that they still were missing His identity. Look at what I mean in the next verse…
II. Expect People To See A Difference in You. (22-27)
A. People sometimes like to patronize Christians. (v.22)
1. You can almost hear them between the lines of our text here today. “Oh, isn’t that sweet, Jesus goes off and then comes home and does the Scripture reading on the Sabbath.” His parents must be so proud!
a) He has come a long way from his days as a carpenter.
b) I can hardly believe it! This really is Joseph’s son, right?
c) He speaks so well with such meaning and intensity.
2. Unfortunately people will look at you that way too when you first become a true believer of Jesus.
a) You will tell them about your new life in Christ and how Christmas is more to you now than just baby Jesus in the manger and giving and receiving presents. You will try to help them understand that you are new creature in Christ because God sent His son to die for our sins!
b) And they will Say, “oh, that’s nice honey, now would you please pass the potatoes!”
3. Or they may talk about this new phase your going through, just like acne, long hair, or that music you used to listen to.
4. The good news is that people are seeing a difference.
a) Granted, they aren’t taking it seriously yet, but at least they see something different.
b) It is up to us, to make sure they truly understand what we are all about.
5. We must be sure that we aren’t different just because we have become weird.
a) But instead, people should see a difference in us in that they begin to see Christ in us!
b) The Christmas message communicated throughout the year through our lives!
c) Now that is a worthy difference!
Trans: But how do we communicate that? How do we help them know that our new life in Christ is real?
B. A true follower of Christ is required to help people know who they really are. (23-27)
1. What I mean by this is that we can’t be content to let people have a wrong view of who Jesus is in us.
a) We must help them see Christ in us and get beyond the “isn’t that sweet stage”.
b) We can’t allow them to patronize us!
2. Jesus looked back at all those faces looking at Him with warm admiration and basically had a decision to make.
a) Let them see him as a warm cuddly local boy who did well, or
b) Clearly spell out for them who He was.
3. Taking the first road might have been easier, certainly more comfortable – we all like other people to like us.
a) We don’t want to make waves.
b) We like getting along.
4. Jesus, however, knew the bigger picture.
a) He loved humanity enough to take the hard road.
b) The road that ended in a cross.
5. Sometimes we just have to love people enough to take the hard road with them!
a) We have to love them so much that we can’t allow ourselves the luxury of letting them live in a delusional world.
b) That’s where people see the Jesus of their own making.
ILL. Too many people want to see Jesus that way. He was a great teacher, a good man, a religious man. While He was those things, He was so much more and when He spoke He left no room for error. He wouldn’t allow people to create Him in their own image. Look at what He says to those people that, at first, patronized Him and thought He was so wonderful.
6. Jesus warns them first with the fact that they are not going to like what He has to say.
a) He told them up front that very soon they would turn on him.
b) He reminded them of a well known truth even in Jesus’ day. - "no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
c) All of this was a prophecy to the fact that Jesus’ own people would reject Him and in so doing, reject God.
7. He gave them some well known examples in vss. 25-27.
a) He used the examples of two great spokesmen for God – Prophets Elijah and Elisha.
b) Jesus reminded the people of what God did during the life of these two prophets.
c) How instead of going to their own Jewish people, God sent them to non-Jews, Gentiles to do His miraculous wonders.
8. Jesus was explaining to those in the Synagogue that the same was true today and that by their lack of faith in God, God would choose to reveal Himself through a different path than through His people.
Trans: Well look how quickly popular opinion can change!
III. The Response To Your Faith In Jesus Christ May Not Be Well Received. (28-30)
A. People Don’t like to be reminded of their faults.
1. Just like the emperors new clothes, most people prefer to pretend everything is okay rather than to be confronted with the fact that they are in their underwear.
a) Jesus had just pointed out a couple of the Jewish people’s past failures and in essence said that it would happen again.
b) They were furious at Him for suggesting such a thing.
2. See, Jesus knew that the people’s praise was merely based on faithless recognition of His popularity and power.
a) So Jesus began to expose their motives AND He hit a nerve.
b) The truth is, that whenever you take Jesus out of the manger, people start getting real uncomfortable because Jesus forces people to deal with the faults, their sins.
3. The people who had thought Jesus was amazing and spoke such gracious words were now an angry mob wanting to kill Him.
a) The word there for driving Jesus out is ekballo and it means to throw out!
b) The same word used in Acts 16:37 when Paul was thrown into jail.
c) It has about it the idea of harshness and violence. Not a gentle suggestion.
d) It says they drove Him out of town, like cattle being herded.
ILL. I remember growing up on our farm and herding cows. You used your voice, you waved your arms, whatever you could to drive those cows. Jesus, it says, was driven from the town!
4. They took Him up to the brow of a hill to throw Him off a cliff.
a) Not a very congenial ending to this presentation of who Jesus really was.
b) The people didn’t want to see the real Jesus.
5. The truth is, most people won’t want to see the real Jesus revealed in you and me either.
a) The question is, what will be our response.
b) To stand by the real Jesus or let people continue to keep Jesus in the manger.
6. Jesus warned us not to be surprised when people persecute us because of our connection to Him.
a) Matt 5:11-12 - "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
b) The truth is that the Christmas story results in persecution for those who know the real Christmas, the real Christ.
B. No matter what happens, we must proclaim the real Jesus. (v. 30)
1. Many theories abound as to how Jesus got away from this angry mob.
a) Some say He used supernatural powers and became invisible.
b) Others like the occasion in Sodom in Gen. 19:11 where the angels struck everyone with blindness so they couldn’t find the door to Lot’s house, as a possible explanation.
c) The simple truth is we don’t know how He was able to walk right through that crowd.
2. So, the important thing to remember is what happened after this event.
a) It says, “He went on His way”!
b) He kept doing what God had called Him to do.
3. Suddenly alienated and disowned by his hometown and perhaps even his family who stayed behind.
a) He could have said forget it, the price is too big.
b) But instead He kept on doing what God wanted Him to do.
Conclusion: I want us all to realize today, during this Christmas season that we are God’s Christmas Presents to the world around us. Some will be saved when they unwrap Jesus in us and see the real Lord and Savior. Others, like children on Christmas day opening a gift only to find clothes, will throw Jesus and us aside. This is a fact of life as a believer and we must face it squarely. Ultimately, we have a choice to make.
One road is easy, just let Jesus stay in the manger, don’t make waves, blend in, and just get along.
The other option is to do what Jesus did and not back away from letting people see the real Jesus in us. It will be the salvation for those who see, repent, and accept the gift of eternal life.
Luke 21:12-19
"But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.
