A Prophet In His Hometown
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 4 and focus on verses 22 through 30.
Our message this morning is called, “A Prophet In His Hometown”
.......
As you are finding your place in God’s Word...
I would like to share that this message will focus on three main points:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
And...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
.......
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
.......
Heavenly Father...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
Thank You for xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
Forgive us xxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
.......
And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
.......
Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
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.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) Hometown Rejection
1) Hometown Rejection
Verses 22-24: And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 4:16–21:
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.”
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 7:46:
46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 7:28–29:
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 2:33:
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 2:47:
47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 27:14:
14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
.......
The phrase, “Physician, heal yourself” in the Greek text here could be understood as “heal your kin,” as the rest of this verse indicates.
This proverb is found in various similar forms in book Greek and Jewish literature...
For example...
We find in Greek literature the following proverb, “A physician for others, but himself teeming with sores”...
Additionally, in Jewish literature we find, “Physician, physician heal thine own limp!”
So, this proverb is implying that the people of Nazareth want to experience Jesus’ healing power and are challenging Him to display His power as they are skeptical He actually has the ability to perform miracles or is the long-promised Messiah.
This also reveals that Jesus possessed a unique awareness of others’ thoughts as He knows what they are thinking.
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 23:35:
35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 13:54–58:
54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”
58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psalm 118:22:
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 1:11:
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Isaiah 53:3:
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Isaiah 53:7–8:
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mark 8:31:
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 11:16–19:
16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
17 “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 5:37–43:
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mark 7:5–8:
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Acts 4:8–12:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,
9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,
10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mark 3:21:
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 7:3–5:
3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.
4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”
5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
.......
Regarding the phrase, “Truly, I say to you” the New American Commentary on the New Testament on Luke has this to say:
“‘The truth’ is literally Amen, which can be translated ‘verily/truly.’ This expression is found singularly or doubly over seventy times in the Gospels and only on Jesus’ lips. It was used traditionally in Judaism at the end of a statement in order to confirm what had been said, but Jesus used it to introduce and stress what follows.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 5:12:
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 13:31–35:
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.
33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2) Hometown Comparison
2) Hometown Comparison
Verses 25-27: But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Regarding this section...
New Testament Theologian James R. Edwards says this:
“The preface of verse 25, ‘I assure you’, signals the importance of what follows in the stories of Elijah and Elisha.
Both stories make three crucial points that the Nazarenes must understand if they are to accept Jesus’ ministry.
First, the presumption that salvation is the exclusive privilege of Israel is revoked in both illustrations.
‘There were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time...
Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them’;
‘There were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed.’
Israelites—very needy Israelites who were starving and suffering and afflicted with leprosy—were passed over in favor of others.
Jesus thus echoes the earlier warning of John that Jews should not presume on God’s favor by saying, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’
Second, Israelites were passed over for Gentiles.
Elijah was sent to a widow ‘in the region of Sidon’;
And Elisha, to Naaman ‘the Syrian.’
Not only were the widow and Naaman Gentiles, they were from regions historically hostile to and loathed by Israel.
At the time Elisha was sent to Naaman, the latter was a Syrian general besieging Israel.
Third and finally, Jesus is not citing an abnormality in Israel’s history, but God’s will.
‘Elijah was sent’ and ‘Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.’
Both references are ‘divine passives,’ i.e., ways of referring to the activity of God without using God’s name (for fear of profaning it).
.......
The widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian illustrate the Isaiah text that Jesus just read in the synagogue:
They are the poor who receive good news, the captives released, the blind whose sight is restored, the beneficiaries of ‘the year of the Lord’s favor.’
Most Jews of Jesus’ day identified themselves—not Gentiles—as the poor and oppressed to whom God shows favor.
The widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian emphatically indicate that the divine mercy announced in the Isaiah quotation is extended to Gentiles as well as Jews.
If the Jewish people in Nazareth cannot affirm the Isaiah text for Gentiles, then they cannot claim it for themselves.
It is certainly true, as many scholars recognize, that, as a result of Israel’s rejection of Jesus, the gospel was taken to ‘all nations’ and to the Gentiles.
But the sermon in Nazareth brings a radically new insight to bear on this truth. The extension of the gospel to Gentiles was not an afterthought because Jews rejected Jesus;
It was the result of divine election of Gentiles, already operative in the days of Elijah, indeed, even in the days of Abraham, who at the time of his call was a Gentile.”
.......
Background of verse 25 and verse 26.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 1 Kings 17:1:
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 1 Kings 17:7–16:
7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him,
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”
11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.
14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’ ”
15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
.......
Background of verse 27.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 2 Kings 5:1–19:
1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife.
3 She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
4 So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.”
5 And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
7 And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”
11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.”
16 But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
17 Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord.
18 In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”
19 He said to him, “Go in peace.” But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance,
.......
As the MacArthur Study Bible says:
“Both the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian were Gentiles.
Both lived during times of widespread unbelief in Israel.
Jesus’ point was that God bypassed all the widows and lepers in Israel, yet showed grace to two Gentiles.
God’s concern for Gentiles and outcasts is one of the thematic threads that runs through Luke’s gospel.”
So, Jesus cites examples from the ministries of both Elijah and Elisha...
And He reminds the people of Nazareth that when Israel rejects God’s prophets...
God sends them elsewhere, even to Gentiles.
........
At declaration the crowd becomes very angry with Jesus.
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
3) Hometown Wrath
3) Hometown Wrath
Verses 28-30: When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What seems to have sparked the Nazarenes’ wrath was Jesus’ statement that divine grace might be withheld from them the Jews and yet extended to looked down upon Gentiles.
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 5:18:
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew 26:65–68:
65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.
66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”
67 Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him,
68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 19:6:
6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.......
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx John 6:65-67:
65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Luke 10:16:
16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
.......
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
.......
Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.