Luke 4:14-30, "Jesus Comes Home"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the March 15 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 6:35 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Luke, chapter 4, verses 14 through 30. And the sermon is entitled Jesus Comes Home, delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Well, good morning, church family. Grab your Bibles. Go to the book of Luke. No surprise here. Go to the book of Luke, chapter number four. And as you are turning there, I just have a question. How many of you Amherst county serves as home? You were born here. You have lived here all your life. You've grown up here. You live here now. How many of you. Amherst or Nelson? We can put Nelson in the picture, too. Amherst or Nelson county are your home. This is your home. Raise your hand. And always has been. Well, praise God. How many of you are transplants? Praise God. Well, here today, this is gonna fit the message perfectly because I wanna take you back a few years when I was trying to figure out exactly what God was gonna do with my life. And at 43 years old, I'm still trying to figure out exactly, God, what are you gonna do with my life? But at the age of 18, I thought I was gonna be a missionary. Excuse me. I went to a trip in Mexico. I thought, man, I could do this. Lord, is this where you're calling me? I was this close to going to Mexico and living. Had an invitation to come. Ah, I got cold feet. And I just take that as the Lord's direction. Not that I was scared or worried or concerned. I just felt the Lord saying, this is not where you need to be. And then I grew up in a Methodist church. I was a lay supply pastor. There was a couple local churches that needed help filling their pulpits, and I just said, okay, I'll do that. So I began to carve that two and a half years of ministry in two different churches, trying to just figure out, God, where do you have me? And then as the Methodist started going left and I needed to stay right, and I said, I've got to go. And so one of the first places that I went was the man who performed my wedding ceremony, Mike Fitzgerald. So I came out to Clifford, and in the process, he was always a mentor to me. But I've never had been in this church other than to speak to the kids and to do a revival. Outside of that, I've never been in the worship Service. And in 2006, Terri and I came here at the beginning of that year, and we have been here for 20 years. I tell you all of that to tell you this little thing. I could have left out all the details. I tell you all that to tell you this here was what I struggled with as a young man trying to figure out, okay, God, where do you want me to serve you? The people of this town know me. There are some people in this sanctuary, remember that through school I was probably a jerk in some ways. They remember that. There are some people sitting in these pews today that watched me grow up. They knew me as a baby, and they knew my family. They knew my story. Maybe they know a little bit of my story, and they know me. One of the hardest things that I've learned over 20 years of ministry is this. It is hard to minister in your hometown. Everybody knows everything and everyone. But here was my prayer to the lord. Lord, if you will let me minister here. I don't want to go anywhere else in the world. If you will just let me minister to my own people. This is where I was born. This is where I live, and this is the place that I pray that they will lay me in the ground as I minister to the people of Amherst County. But what I want you to see today through scripture, Jesus coming home is not an easy thing. Many of you know the story of William Tyndale. He desired to translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew to the English language. It had always been translated to Latin. And here's the reality. In the 1500s, everybody did not know Latin. So he wanted to translate the Bible into the language of the day that common folk could understand it. His desire to translate the Bible into English was one that he desired. Every farm boy would know what God's word said, but that marked him as a hated man. And so he began to run and to flee England, all across Europe, while translating the Bible into the English language. He was eventually caught and he was arrested and he was imprisoned. In 1536, he was executed for heresy simply for translating the Bible. His final prayer was this. Lord, open the king of England's eyes. That was his prayer. Much of the work of William Tinsdale led to the foundation of what we read, or what we know as the King James version Bible. 90% of William Tinsdale work in the early 1500s was used in 1611 to translate into the King James Bible. 90% and the nation that made the King James Bible their Bible killed the man that translated it. I tell you that to say this in chapter four of Luke last week, we have seen the hardships of temptation. And we see in chapter number four that ministry continues to be hard for Jesus, as we thought that he might be Welcomed back home. He was far from that. And so today I want to preach this message, just titled this Jesus Comes Home. And it shows us three things. Luke chapter 4. Starting with verse number 14, here's what God's word says. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance and to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bru. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Point number one. Today, when we think about Jesus coming home is simply this. First off, Jesus leads worship. How many of you look forward to worship service? Don't raise it just because the preacher made you. Okay, I truly I greeted someone this morning and they said we could not wait to get here. I'm grateful for that. I cannot wait for Sunday mornings together with the family of God. But as Luke opens up the section of Scripture, immediately he goes to Galilee. Now we move from the wilderness and temptation and the presence of Satan and. And the power of the Holy Spirit to now and to a familiar territory for Jesus. And we understand this, that he is continuing to be led by the Holy Spirit. And we see that is very important to Jesus life. But I want to tell you this church, for the believers, it's important that you and I live and that we are led by the Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter number five reminds us that we are to walk in the Spirit. And by doing so we he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so we understand the importance of walking in the Spirit, being obedient to God. And because of that indwelling Spirit in Jesus life, he was led around and he was led where he needed to be. But you and I also have the presence of the indwelling Spirit in our lives. And when we yield to his lordship and his leading, God can do some amazing things. That same spirit that led Jesus through the wilderness and through temptation and through his battle with Satan now leads him back to familiar territory. And as we see he walks into Galilee, people have heard about his teaching. They are receptive to him, they are responding to God, and Jesus is being praised. I love what Luke is trying to do. This is my personal opinion. You don't have to write it down. I believe Luke is trying to show Theophilus this. It's important that your life is led by the Holy Spirit. You've gotta give the Holy Spirit a place. Your life can't be so regimented that you factor end up factoring God out of things. I've gotta be here and I gotta do this. And I got the kids and I got mom and dad and I got this. And next thing you know, you leave no wiggle room for the Spirit to use you. And so as we see the importance of living by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit, Jesus becomes our ultimate example. And it seems like things are going well in Galilee. How many of you understand this? When things seem to be going well, you better be on guard. Amen. When things seem to be going good, you better be ready because there's gonna be a bump somewhere. It's coming. And so what we see as he enters into Galilee, and he's got the power of the Spirit. He is there to minister. And people know about him, people hear about him, people are responding to what he has to say. And as he enters that region of Galilee, it encompasses his hometown of Nazareth, but he will be here until chapter number nine of Luke. So we're going to be in this region for a little while. But the people of Galilee and the people of Nazareth have heard what's happened in Capernaum. They've heard what Jesus is doing. They know things are going well. And so he makes his way to, of all places, the synagogue. Jesus in his hometown, in his home church. You think they would fling open the doors to him, right? That's far from the case. But he makes his way to the synagogue. And there we see in chapter number four, as he goes into that, as was his custom or as he was used to, he goes on the Sabbath day and he's going to read Scripture. I want to stop right here and just encourage you this. In this part, let worship be part of your custom. Worship must be a part of what you regularly do. And I'm going to go A step further and say this church needs to be a part in person. Church is a blessing. Now listen, there are people that need online, and I'm not taking away from that, but as much as you can get in the worship and with the people of God, do it. I'm not saying this church. I'm saying if you are with the people of God, where he has planted you, you need to be there. And so Jesus goes and he stands up on the Sabbath day. And as they give him the Bible now, they don't hand him a King James version Bible, okay, let's get that out of our mind. They hand him a scroll. And as that scroll is handed to him, it is the book of Isaiah on the whole entire scroll. And as he. As he understands where he is, he doesn't have chapter divisions and he doesn't have verses marked out like we do. Jesus knows where he's going. Jesus knows what he wants to share with the people that are listening to it, with the people in his hometown. You know, if you could really tell those people back home, really what you want to tell them, where would you go at in the Bible? Well, that's what Jesus has before him. He knows their heart, and he opens to the book of Isaiah and he's able to choose that text. And the people of Galilee recognize something about this passage. It points to the Messiah. It points to that the Messiah is coming and many would know the Scripture. And so as we see that, you need to understand a couple things first before we go. Isaiah, that word, the name Isaiah simply means Jehovah saves. So by them handing him the scroll, here's what they're saying. Jehovah says, but then as he begins to read, it's amazing what God does through his son, Jesus, as he begins to read. And I'm going to read in verse number 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And verse number 20 says this. He closed that scroll up, he gave it back to the messenger, and he sat down, not before saying this, this day. Is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And here's what Jesus is telling them. I am the one that the Scripture is speaking of. I am the Messiah. And as he begins to declare that the scripture becomes fulfilled, what was Jesus trying to really tell them? Number one. That God's spirit was upon him. Yes, but God had set him apart and anointed him as the Messiah, holy and pure. And that he would serve God. Not only that, that he would address those that are poor and brokenhearted and captive and blind and oppressed. And he would be the one to set people free. Praise be to God. He would preach to them, heal them, open their eyes and set them free. The end of that refers to the year of jubilee, which is spoken about in Leviticus, chapter 25, which means this. What is the year of Jubilee? Every 50th year, slaves were set free. They could return back to their family, and debts were canceled. The land rested. Men were to rest and worship God during that 50th year. And Jesus is simply saying this. I am the rest, and I am here to set you free. But here's one thing you need to know. Just at glance, Jesus doesn't read all of what we would label Isaiah 60:1, verses 1 and 2. He only reads half of verse number 2. Here's what he leaves out in Isaiah 60:1, verse number 2. Here's how that whole verse ends. It says this to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. How come Jesus says that he was there to set captives free and he left off about the vengeance. Here's why. Because the vengeance is not ready yet. He came to set people free. Vengeance would come the second time he came. And so he wanted people to understand this. I'm not here to take vengeance of God. I'm here to set you free. As Jesus leads this worship service, can I tell you what he sees from the pulpit? Not many people get to see from the pulpit. Out. It's a hallowed place, a treasured place. And no, Jesus did not stand behind no granite pulpit. Okay, he sat down. But what did Jesus see? Jesus seen beaten down, brokenhearted, bankrupt people. And he knew they needed to be set free. Today, as you have come here for worship, here's what I want you to understand. Jesus will always lead worship at Clifford Baptist Church. No matter who prays or who leads singing or who preaches, Jesus will always lead worship. And when Jesus leads worship, Jesus can look out from this area and he can see those who are binded and brokenhearted and beaten down. And here's the message maybe you need to hear today. Jesus wants to set you free. Something that you're holding onto, something that has you in bondage or in sin or captive. You can be set Free. Every worship service should point to Jesus. And to Jesus setting us free from the ultimate bondage of sin. Through his death on a cross, through his victory over a borrowed tomb, he rose on the third day that you and I could proclaim him as Lord. So as we go back home, Jesus is leading worship. But as he leads worship, he reads scripture. He tells them, I am the fulfillment of this scripture, and I want to set you free. Look at verses 22 through 27. And all bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, ye will surely say to me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also hear in thy country. And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when the great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elias the prophet. And none of them was cleansed, save in Naaman the Syrian. When we think about those verses, point number two about Jesus coming home is three simple words. Jesus, Joseph's son. Point number two is, Jesus is Joseph's son. All attention is on Jesus. They've heard his gracious words. They liked what they heard about being set free. But here's what troubles them. The one thing that gives them the most trouble about anything that he said is this, that he is Joseph's son. They can't get it out of their mind. This is the little boy that grew up here. You know, he belongs to Joseph and Mary. And he could not get that out of his mind. Let me correlate that to you. The other week, I went to a basketball. And at that basketball game was a former professional football player. And so I'm sitting there like, hey, you know who that is? I was taken aback. I was in awe. But he was back in his home area, his home school, and he was there, and everybody treated him just as a normal person. But here I am gawking like, there he is. I seen him on tv. How many of you know that you can be so close to somebody and you can still miss something? I'm gonna say that again. You can be so close to somebody, you can still miss something. And so that's what was happening here. He was back in his hometown, in the home church, around people that he knew. They watched him grow up. And here's all they could say, that's Joseph's son. And they could not separate, that this could be the Messiah. And so on their hearts and Jesus already seen it on their hearts were this. Can you do what you did in Capernaum here? Can you do those miracles here? Can you show us some great and mighty act of God in our hometown? Jesus words to those that he was preaching to was simply this. There were many widows in the days of Elijah, and those many widows in the days of Elijah. But he sent Elijah to a gentile widow during the three and a half year drought. Now why would God not send Elijah to one of the widows that was in Israel? Or the second story we hear about Naaman, Elisha would heal a Syrian leper by the name of Naaman. There were many lepers in Israel. Why didn't he heal his own people? Why didn't God send somebody to heal those people of Israel? God would go outside the borders, outside the nation, outside the boundaries, showing his grace. And that's what infuriated him. Because here's what Jesus is saying. No prophet can minister in his own town. Let me ask you this. How do you see Jesus? My guests, many in this room see him as Savior. But there's also a good guest of my own that whether we're watching, livestream, watching later, watching now in person, that there are some people in this room that just see Jesus as a good man. You know, he's done good things, he's done some great things for people, and Jesus is a good man. There's some people that have sat in church their whole life and that's all they see Jesus as. Jesus is a good person. And if you can't graduate from Jesus being a good person to Jesus being God, Jesus is not Savior. And that's what was wrong in Nazareth. This is just Joseph's son. He was a carpenter, he'd done carpentry work for me. How can he be the Savior? And so as we see Joseph's son proclaim that he will not be accepted in his own hometown and that God worked outside of Israel, the people become infuriated. Now let me ask you this. As you are familiar with the Lord and you know the Lord and you know him in your head, and there are some people that know Jesus here but don't know him here. And so what we've got to remember is it's one thing to know of Jesus. It's a totally different thing to know Jesus as Savior. There's two parts, two different things there that you can be so familiar with Jesus that you miss that he's Savior. Or you can be so close to Jesus that other people reject who you are. And so for the believers in this room, here's what I want to say. There are times in your walk that you will not be liked by people that are close to you. And at some point you've got to get peace with that. There's one more point today. Look at verses 28 through 30. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city, led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong, but he, passing through the midst of them, went his way. Point number three today is this. When Jesus comes to his own town, hometown, Jesus walks away. Jesus walks away as graciously as his words were received. It doesn't last long. People only like you for a little while. That's what Jesus realizes. The honeymoon has worn off very quickly in his hometown. And Luke records this. The synagogue is in an uproar. Was it because Jesus claimed that he was fulfilling the Old Testament promise from Isaiah? Was it because they wanted Jesus to do something fancy, a miracle in their hometown and he didn't? Or was it because Jesus told them that they will miss the blessing of God because he's standing right before them and the answer is yes. To all of those at the heart of this matter was their failure to recognize who Jesus truly was by labeling him just Joseph's Son. They did not believe that he was Jesus, God's Son. Ministry was hard, near impossible in Nazareth because of their closeness to Jesus. And the message of God's blessing is simply this, you gotta move on. I had to do that this week. Someone that I dearly love, that watched me grow up in this town, love him as a brother. I just said it's best if we go our separate ways. He will probably watch the service. And here's what I want you to know. And I want him to know that Jesus loves him and I do too. Just because we differ on a point or two in the big scheme of things, it didn't entail an all out assault on me. The difficulty of ministering in your hometown. Jesus understood it. I'm not leaving you Clifford Baptist Church. But here's what I want you to understand. There's some People that want us out of the city. There's some people that won't claim Jesus as Lord. And we're still called to love those people and minister to those people and put our big boy pants on and go and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so today, the greatest miracle you see, the Nazareth asked for a miracle. Do something that you did in Capernaum. Do a miracle. And guess what? Jesus does that. But they miss it as they're ready to kill this man, as they're ready to take him to the hill in the city. And the Bible says they want to throw him head first off. We read in verse number 30, passing through the midst of them, he went his way. There's the miracle. They couldn't get their hands on him. He didn't run, he didn't flee, he didn't retreat. He walked through the middle of them and kept on going where God led them. And I don't know what God needs to do or is telling you to do in your own life. But there's sometimes, and there's some situation, God just says, follow me. I'll take care of you, no matter what the crowd is saying. And so today we understand, as Jesus walks out of his hometown, he walks away from the people that he loves. He understands that they will not receive him for who he is. Today when we look at our own lives, praise God. He comes to set people free, to proclaim good news. And that might be for somebody here today. I love the words from Luke 19:10. It says this. The Son of Man has came to seek and save that which was lost. And so the whole purpose of the gospel being proclaimed today, the whole purpose of us gathering, the whole purpose today is to worship the Lord. Amen. But there's somebody, maybe even here this morning that needs rescued. That looking out from my point of view, and maybe you looking this direction, you understand this. That you are brokenhearted and you're beaten down and that you need Jesus. Maybe you'll never get it as direct as today, but I want to give it to you directly today. Do you know Jesus? Don't come here Sunday by Sunday, knowing Jesus here. Don't come Sunday by Sunday, listening to the good stories. Don't come Sunday by Sunday, year by year and spend your life in church and miss this. Jesus loves you and he desires to be your Savior. I ask you, do you know him as Savior? And I don't care who looks at you today or who sees it today. Don't leave this place not knowing Jesus as Savior. Because what we see is there comes a time that Jesus will walk away. Believers, today, ministry is not for the faint of heart. It will not be easy. You will have those confrontations, disagreements. You will see temptation one week and you will see rejection the next. But for the name of Jesus, is it worth it? Amen. Praise God. It is. In just a minute, I'm going to send all of you home. That's your greatest mission field. Inside the four walls of your house. That's the greatest mission field. But then we're called to expand our borders a little bit and a little bit more. Take the gospel to the world. So as you are going today, as you are going home, maybe you got a pit stop at El Mariachi's. People need Jesus there. Maybe you got a pit stop along the way at Moms or Dad or Brother and Sister. People need Jesus there. Even though it's hard, it's not impossible because we have the Lord Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you today. Lord, I thank you for my hometown. I don't say that in a sense of pride, but I truly believe that this is where you have planted me. I believe this is the greatest place in all the earth. I don't want to go anywhere else. God, as you see this mission field today, as you see this congregation today, God, you see those who are broken down and beaten, those who need to be set free from a life of sin and the punishment that goes with that for all eternity. Maybe today there's someone that will just turn their eyes to you, recognize their need for you as Savior and Lord. Come believing that you indeed will set them free. That's my heartfelt prayer for my hometown. Not in the midst of ministry that you will save lives and souls, but you will use a little country church in Clifford to change the world for Jesus. And if our hometown doesn't like it, God, expand our borders that we can take your gospel message into this world. God, use the people of this place in a mighty way. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. [00:33:52] Speaker A: You've been listening to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church. You're always welcome to visit Clifford Baptist Church for Sunday School at 9:45, worship at 11:00am and Wednesday evening worship at 7:00pm Join us again next Sunday for Truth for the Journey.