You are listening to the sermon podcast from Rocky Creek Church. Find more resources online at Rocky Creek dot church. Well I invite you to turn with me to one of my favorite passages of scripture. We're going to be in Luke chapter four looking at verses 14 through 30 tonight.
And as you turn it there really quick, we need you to roll call. How many of you are typically at the nine o'clock service everybody? Okay, I was hoping for a little bit more like, yeah, okay. How many of you are at the nine o'clock service everybody?
Okay, where are my 10 30 folks at? Alright, where are my five o'clock folks at? Let's see, okay, that's what we're talking about. They're five o'clock a while.
I'm just telling you, alright. So we got our spaniel down the whole way and it's just a wonderful thing. So you probably like, I don't typically see these people. So while this is a little bit different, I'm so thankful that we get together here tonight.
And so before you leave, make sure you say hello to somebody that you don't know. It's just good to kind of be a part of our church family. I do want to go ahead and just forewarn you. I know you've been watching the things I know you've been praying for me because of my disdain for meteorology and all general kind of stuff.
Right. And I've been really doing good. The Lord's really been working on me. And we decided to make the call if you didn't hear us.
Obviously the spiritual distance conference is not happening this weekend. We have pushed it back to February 27th and 28th. Dr. Whitney is already signed on.
So for those who've already signed up, you get the first right. But if you were like, I can't come this weekend, but I could go at that time. That's going to be available. So that's the goal.
We were trying to push them out and hopefully the snow will have melted by them. Okay, that's what our hope is. But also I just want to go ahead and forewarn you. I know that we're having service tonight.
But if tomorrow does like the South Carolina thing, I'm showing up here on Sunday with or without you folks and I'm going to talk about something. Okay, I don't know. But if that happens by the small chance, well, we'll send you out a message. But I hope you know my heart and I think most of you guys would.
I'm going to do whatever we can together because I think it's important, support it for our souls. You got to be in the same room to sing together. And if COVID taught us anything, search on Friday night, but I'm going to search online. You know what I'm saying?
It's just a lot better. Do it when you can however you can. So I'm thankful for everybody jumping in here and it's just good to see your face. I'm thinking about how funny it is because as we're looking at this passage of scripture tonight, there's going to be this.
Here goes everything mentality to what Jesus is going to do. And Jesus is going to really start his ministry in a unique way. It kind of turns this corner, if you will. And it made me think about because we're really going to see the first time that Jesus goes back to his hometown and kind of shares a message.
And I can remember that growing up in Greenwood, South Carolina, I was one who got called on to do the youth Sunday, if you know what I'm talking about. Okay, the youth Sunday back of the day was if there is a teenager who knows where his Bible is, let him preach. You know what I'm saying? That's really how it worked.
Okay? I was not trained. No one had any kind of insight, but they're like Travis knows where his Bible is. He answers a couple questions at Sunday school and every year we need to have some teenager get up for a high-level pulpit and share something.
I am so thankful we did not live stream those services. You know what I'm saying? I'm so thankful we didn't have CDs. Now there might be a cassette tape somewhere.
If you don't know what that is, ask your grandparent. But we had cassette tapes back then. And it was so scary, but I can remember the first time I was about to preach, I was actually preaching in another church and they kind of said, hey, we're wanting somebody's a teenager to come preach and we hear that you'd be willing to do it. I'm like, sure, I've never done it before, but okay, let's see what happens.
And right before I get up to preach, you know, you're hoping to get some encouraging words like, hey, brother, I've been praying for you so excited about your hard to deliver. Some lady walks up to me. I have no idea if she is, but apparently she knew me. And she says, you know, it's going to be weird listening to you preach because I used to change your diapers in church.
That's the moment you go, you know what? I'm not going to preach in the city ever again. I'm out. You don't say like this is not going to work.
Okay? And so for this, that kind of made me think through when Jesus goes back to his hometown, ministry has begun in kind of the surrounding vicinity. And then also he shows up home one day and he was like, ah, Jesus is back. Hey, why don't we let him read today?
Oh, and boy, did he read. And he did something that something moved in the crowd because at first they're like, oh, we're so glad Jesus is here. Oh, our hometown boy is back. Listen to him read that scripture.
I tell you what, I used to teach him in Sunday school and then all of a sudden by the end of it, they're ready to kill him. So I want everybody to learn what happened here today, okay, for fair warning, but to see something significant because Jesus is going to draw a line in the sand at the very initial moment of his ministry. And what we're going to see in this passage today is this right here. The gospel doesn't ask us to sample Jesus.
It calls us to surrender everything. It's not just, I want a little bit of Jesus and let me do my life. This is not what for us. We cannot just simply sample Jesus.
It is a surrender everything. This is our 11th sermon out of 115 that we're going to be in the gospel Luke. We are turning the corner of the second major section. The first, first 10 sermons were all about Jesus preparation.
Now we're going to go into this moment where he's inviting other people into this, calling the disciples. And it starts here in this moment and he's going to be gathering the disciples in the next few chapters of scripture who understand very quickly that following him is not a hedge bet, but a willingness to count the cost. To give up everything and to follow him. His ministry will begin this passage and the world is yet to recover from it.
So let's read chapter four, starting in verse number 14. Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity. He was teaching in their synagogues being praised by everyone. And then he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up out of his line.
And as usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. And then rolling the scroll, he found a place where he was written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He then wrote up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue fixed on him. And he began by saying to them, today as you listen, the scripture has just been fulfilled.
Now pause here for a second. I know every single week that I preach if you haven't caught on, I typically say, hey, I want to invite you to one of my favorite passages of scripture. I really do mean it. But there are certain scenes in the Bible.
I just wish I could have seen. You know what I'm saying? I wish I could have just been there. This sounds like the ultimate mic drop moment, right?
Okay? Jesus has been preaching on one section. He comes back and delivers it like this. And you can just tell the weight of the moment, like how kind of tense this was.
Everybody's going, wait, what is he saying here? What's he doing? You notice there in the first two verses 14 to 15, he's in the region of Galilee. Ministry of starting, people are starting to really respond to him.
And it says everybody's praising him. And then he came to Nazareth and well, they seem to be at least initially excited about him. And some of you read this passage, no, that's going to change really quickly here. But I want you to notice something very interesting that those far from Jesus proved more open than those closest to him.
Okay? Those that were far from Jesus proved more open than those were closest to him because Jesus ministry was initially celebrated in the vicinity of Galilee. And so those that were in different places, they're receiving this, right? Now in this, we're looking at everything that Jesus is going to reveal here.
You tell that there are folks that love him and that he comes home and at first they're initially responsive to him. But I love it. It says in verse 16, he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. This was coming to his hometown and it says, as usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
Now why is that important? Because Jesus made it a priority to be in worship. Jesus had a habit of weekly gathering of God's people to sing, to pray, to hear God's word. And that might sound old-fashioned.
But you know what? If you've ever grown up thinking, what would Jesus do? He'd just talk you. He'd be among God's people.
He would be consistent. He wouldn't just find something else to put in. He would be consistent. And you can't become like Jesus while remaining inconsistent in worship.
You can't do it. If that's his habit, if that's how usual it was, as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read. One of Jesus' all the habits was public worship.
It was not seasonal for him. That's why snow and ice in South Carolina are the bane of my spiritual existence, right? Okay? That's why I get so angry because it's not about...
I just know, folks, there are sometimes... Most Sundays, if you don't know this, we're going to get here a little bit before 8 o'clock in my family now because obviously some of my boys are playing in worship and then my wife is teaching with children and my daughter's helping out all kinds of different areas. So we get here typically before 8 o'clock and then I'm going 9 o'clock service and 1030 service and I try to put some counting sessions and different meetings and different things in the afternoon. Then a lot of times I get to have a wonderful new members class or something like that.
5 o'clock, we have another time of worship at 615, I teach a class, try to hang out with people and by the end of the day I'm in the fetal position and I'm so happy though, you know? I'm exhausted but it's such a wonderful day and sometimes this will happen. We're going home and I'll just ask my family going, hey what's stuck out to you today? And we'll just start thinking about what God did among us.
Like we pulled in to Winterfrode and we've seen like this person, you know, really had an incredible moment kind of pray with them and this person received Christ and this person. And we just start thinking about all the wonderful, glorious things that happen when we just get together. Folks, I know there's a thousand things in the world, but I'm telling you this, there is a battle for our minds, our attention and our calendar right now to deprioritize anything of the Lord. And oftentimes we're also being trained in so many subtle ways, you don't need to be in the room, you can just watch it online, okay?
You can connect through content and folks, there's podcasts, there's live streams, there's all kinds of things. But one of the things that we need, we need to be elbow to elbow with other worshipers who are hearing them sing out, know how to pray for us, know that we're not alone, it's important and Jesus made it his custom to do this. And so they're like, well, Jesus is home, right? Well, of course I'm home, so what am I going to be doing?
I'm going to be here. So they give him the scroll and he just goes, I go to chapter 61 before there was chapters, you know what I'm saying? He opens that scroll all the way down and he finds a place that was just, I say chapter 61 verses 1 and 2 and he reads these words. And I love what happens because he basically, he creates the thesis for his entire, his entire ministry right here.
He says before it starts, let me tell you what the next three years of my life is going to be about, how the world's not going to recover. I'm going to tell you what I'm about to do. He says the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me, catch this in the Old Testament, men would anoint kings or priests or different people, who anointed Jesus? Spirit did.
Not a man, this is something God isn't. The Spirit has anointed him to do what? To preach good news to the poor, says he has sent me to proclaim release of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I love that Jesus defined his mission by God's word, not public expectation.
Jesus defines it by what God's word. What he's going to do is prophesy seven centuries before he quotes it, right? Before he reads it here, seven centuries old, it is a chapter that is full of messianic expectation and he pulls to that just so they know exactly what he's doing. He identifies himself with the person in Isaiah chapter 61 that was prophesied about, that all of the Jews in that synagogue that day were going, this speaks about the coming Messiah and Jesus is like, you're right.
What you like to meet him today? And so this is more than them getting through the Babylonian captivity that Isaiah was thinking about. This was something deeper. This was addressing spiritual brokenness and real world suffering where nothing is untouched.
Jesus said, I'm going to preach good news. By the way, if somebody says they're speaking on behalf of the Lord and it sounds like bad news, that's not the gospel. The good news is that God loves us even when we're a mess and he has a path for us to get back to God. That is good news of what he has done.
It says also to proclaim freedom. If we had a time to have test the morning service right now, I would ask how many of you have found freedom in Christ? You once were in bondage and shackles and he has set you free. It says, sight to the blind.
How many of us used to navigate life feeling like things that make sense? We couldn't see from one place to the next. And just as Jesus would physically give sight to certain people who are physically blind, he also illuminates our eyes so we spiritually can see. It says freedom to the oppressed.
Many of us have found ourselves in oppression in different types of ways and he's saying, I'm going to set you free from that and also announce the Lord's favor. Now what do these mean? It's really speaking about an Old Testament celebration that was called the Year of Jubilee. Year of Jubilee is talked about on Leviticus 25 where every 50th year something would reset in the people.
Every 50 years it was kind of like, all right, whatever you've been dealing with in the last 50 years, it's a fresh start. How does that sound? Some of you are like, can we institute that in America? You're really going to like what I tell you exactly what's in there.
In the 50th year, all debts were cancelled. Bring it back in the name of our... All debts were cancelled. All slaves were released.
Any land that had been taken was restored and reset lives that had been crushed by loss or poverty and on the 50th year among us people he said, let's just start over everybody, fresh day. And Jesus says, today that just happened. They're like, but this is not exactly the year of Jubilee. We're not going to celebrate it in 50 years because it's every day now.
What I'm about to do is about to cancel the debt of sin that you have against God. I'm about to release you from the slavery that you have to the enemy himself. I'm about to restore to you and give you a path to the promised land and I'm about to reset your life that was then crushed by loss and poverty. Jesus says, today that guy fulfilled and you're hearing.
I'm here in every thing changes earlier in the Bible reading plan. I was reading the Exodus chapter 12 verse 40 and this jumped out at me where it said that when the Israelites left Egypt, they had been enslaved for 430 years, which in my mind, I don't know why I think I was preparing for this and thinking about it. I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, what would that mean? And I'm not going to be very careful.
I'm not going to just say, oh, okay. But if you think about 430, how many of you remember when we've been going through some of this stuff together, what happened in the Bible or didn't happen for 400 years? Do you remember that page in between your Old Testament and New Testament? 400 years of silence and that's broken by somebody coming on the scene, right?
His name was? Okay, again, if you're like, is that a trick question? No, no, no, that's a trick question. His name is Jesus.
And when does this happen? When is Luke 4 when Jesus starts his ministry? He would have been how old? 30 years old.
And 430 years, it's time for the captives to go free. That's where it's supposed to go. And so here they are. This is essentially the year of Jubilee.
And it's amazing though, they don't exactly know what to do with it, right? Because I just, I just, I just imagine just rolling it up and everybody's staring at him. He's like, oh, I'm bad. Do not finish it.
Oh, yeah, that just got fulfilled. Any questions? And look what happens next. First 22, they were all speaking well with him.
They were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth. Yet they said, isn't this Joseph's son? No, Luke has been telling us numerous times. This isn't Joseph's boy, is it?
Who's son? Is he? He's God's son. And there's no way, no, no, there's no way he can be the Messiah.
Like this is Carpenter Joseph. We're looking for somebody else. This can't be the one we're talking about, right? And so this is what they continue to say.
They say to him, then he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Doctor, heal yourself. What we've heard that took place in Capernaum do here in your hometown. Also, he also said, truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
So he starts off by saying, I know what you guys are thinking. Hey, we heard that you did some stuff in the neighboring area. Show us some proof. Give us a little dazzle here and maybe we'll follow you, right?
He says he had a prophet's not accepted in his hometown. It's not going to work exactly like this. So what Jesus is acknowledging to them is that Jesus would rather stay prophetic than be popular. In this moment, he could be popular by just amazing them with all the incredible tricks that he could do.
But instead, he's just going to say, fake what God's called him. I didn't come to just amazing people and get them to line up about what I can do for them. It's more about what I can be for them and what he's going to prepare through his life and eventually his death. And you know, what happens here is the grace that Jesus is going to bring sounds really good until he's about to take this turn because it does not meet their expectations.
If no one's ever told you this, the Jews who are waiting for Messiah were waiting for somebody strong with military power, with political acumen to be able to come in, kick the Roman Empire out of their land, be an international powerhouse again. And here comes this carpenter son talking about preaching good news to the poor. I mean, I know the Messiah talks about that, but where's the army, right? Why don't you do something special and prove it to us?
But that's not why he came. Now, continue on verse 25. Jesus says something here that enrages them. And at first glance, you may not see it, but I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah's days.
When the sky was shut up for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land, it Elijah was not sent to any of them except the widow at Zephaph and sat on. And in the prophet Elisha's times, that was his minty. There were many in Israel who had leprosy. And yet now one of them was cleansed except Naaman, the cerium.
Jesus, what does this have to do with anything? Now, let me give you some context before we read what happened. Jesus pulls out two of their favorite prophets that were hundreds of years ago at going to pass this point. And he mentions two times where they ministered to people that were not Jewish, but were Gentiles.
Luke being a Gentile thinks this passage is pretty or this story is pretty incredible to walk onto. So you remember all those widows over there and yet he helped the Gentile widow? You remember all those guys had leprosy and he helped the Gentile with leprosy? You remember that?
And what happens verse 28, when they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They got up, drove them out of town and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way. I mean, I just got to see a videotape of this.
You don't say him. I just want to see the whole thing. And don't miss this. They're listening to him.
They love him at first. He starts preaching. They get some question marks. And then he says, I know you're not going to accept this because I'm a prophet.
I'm in the hometown and you aren't going to want to receive this from me. But you remember when that whole testament prophet you loved bypassed all the people who were close and the miraculous happened to somebody on the outskirts? And you know what happened again another time? And they wanted to kill him.
Why would that enrage them so much? Because it shows something about the human condition of how territorial we are, how elitist we can be. Now, sometimes even prejudice is of different sorts and kinds completely cloud our view of what Messiah has come to do. They want to kill him because he wants to help people outside the religious elite.
And they want to put him to death. And Jesus is saying at the very heart of his ministry that the grace of Jesus refuses to stay confined to expected people or places. He is not confined to Israel. He was not confined to the Jewish elite.
He was not confined to those who found their home in the synagogue. This good news was going to move past those walls to the ends of the earth. So far, by the way, it would make it to such a different ethnic people group. One day there would be people in Greenville, South Carolina on a Friday night talking about it.
That's how many cultural barriers he would get through. This is shocking. Jesus says he points to Elijah and Elijah serving the Gentiles. Elijah the widow of Zeraphath.
Elijah showed name in the Syrian. Think about it. God bypassing those needy widows and Israel sustains the Gentile woman with Elijah's case and name in the Syrian in 2 Kings 5. God healed a foreign military commander through humble obedience.
You know what's so funny about naming? He was so mad eventually or initially at Elijah because he thought I thought he was going to come and do something cool. He was standing around doing some magic tricks and I'd be healed. He said, just go get in the water and dip seven times.
That sounds basic. I thought I was more important than that. I thought I was going to do something cool. What's Elijah doing?
You don't need anything special. You just need to do what the words already taught you to do. Leviticus 14 says, if you have leprosse you need to watch seven times. We go to the river seven times and do what the word commanded.
Sometimes we don't want to listen to what the word tells us to do. We want spectacle. We want the big moment. Jesus is like, actually the guy who got it just obeyed.
What God told him to do. God's grace moved beyond preferred people, protected boundaries, continued to do this. They like the mic drop moment at first. But they didn't like his ministry to the Gentiles.
Let me just say this as clearly as I can say to everybody here. There's not some type of ethnicity or socioeconomic group or gender that God loves more than anybody else. I don't care where you've come from. I don't care what your background is.
When we get to heaven, there are not different neighborhoods for different types of people. We might look differently, but the only way any of us gets in there is through the blood of Jesus. Your skin color may be different than somebody next to you, but the red blood of Jesus is the only way that we get in there. We've got a lot more in common with each other when we are in Christ than with those people who look exactly like us.
They were so frustrated. How dare you even bring up those situations? We're looking for a messiah to fix our government, to get our politics right, to get our nation exactly where it needs to be. We're going to go out to other people and they wanted to kill them.
You know, in this situation, it's just mind-boggling to me because there's a few times in the gospel you're going to see something and Jesus just slips through the crowd. It's hilarious to me. I don't know why, I just think there's this whole crowd and you just imagine everybody's going to push him there and I'm like, where did he go? By the way, he's already back at the house.
He's done. He just slips through this situation. You might go, all right, three years after this, right? Not after 430 years, not now, 433 years.
When that time comes, will Jesus die for those people who are trying to push him off cliff? They will, but not in these situations. Jesus wouldn't die on a cliff when he was destined for a cross. This was not the way Jesus was going to die.
He was not going to be pushed off by an angry mob. He was going to surrender himself for the mob. Now, the crowd's anger here unwilling to accept grace for others. The minute he rebukes them, they want to kill them.
And this religious pride just begins to turn violent. And what happens? They want to push him off a cliff. Now, stay with me just for a second, okay?
Last week, it was a few verses back, we looked at Jesus' temptation, right? Satan tempts Jesus. Jesus responds with scripture. Satan tempts Jesus second time.
Jesus responds with scripture. Second time, Satan tempts Jesus and then says, by the way, it is what? Written. I got to buy the words too, right?
I got you, I got you. And in that temptation, look back at verse 9, what does he want him to do? Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem, had him stand on the pinnacle of a temple and said, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. Do you not see the correlation here?
Hey, just jump off the cliff, Jesus, so everybody can see how powerful you are. And moments later, there's an angry mob trying to kill him before his ministry starts. I don't know if you believe in spiritual warfare or not, but you should. What do I think is happening here?
I think Satan's trying to kill Jesus before the ministry starts. I think he's inciting this mob and he is so overwhelmed by this, Satan is trying to push him off the ledge. Now, I failed preaching to you, folks, last week. We were in our gospel group and talking about this passage and I saw something, I hit my leg.
I cannot believe I missed this. I am an idiot. I quit. But anyway, I said, if I get a chance to fix this, and here you are tonight, okay, because I told you last week that what happens in verse 9, hey, jump off the temple, verse 10, it is written, he will give us angels orders concerning you to protect you and they will support you with their hands, they will not strike your foot against the what?
Soam. You look in your Bible and if you have references, it says he's quoting from Psalm 91. If you've got, I want you to turn over to Psalm 91 because this is where I failed you last week, okay? Psalm 91.
And once you see exactly what Satan is quoting in this moment. Satan does take this verse out of context, twisted and all this kind of stuff. But Psalm 91, written as a beautiful song that these are like what's seen. Talking about when you're under the protection of the most high, you dwell in the shadow of the almighty and it gets down to verse number 11 and says, he will give his angels orders concerning you to protect you in all your ways, they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.
Oh, you heard that. Satan quoted that, but he stopped short. Look at what verse he stopped short with. You will tread on the lion and the cobra, you will trample the young lion and the serpent.
All right, Bible nerds, what do you think that's referencing? Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. God, Adam, Eve, fall is taking place and God looks at Satan and says, you're going to hit the woman's, the child that's going to come from a virgin birth, the seed of a woman, you're going to hit that boy in the heel and at that time he's going to crush your head. It was prophesied about.
And Satan is really good at quoting Psalm 91 verses 11 through 12. He stopped short of verse 13. He don't want to talk about that. Why?
Because there's a prophecy how Jesus was going to crush him through the work of the cross. So instead, let's push him off a hill, but keep reading the next verse verse 14, because he has his heart set on me. God has his heart set on his person talking. I will deliver him.
I will protect him because he knows my name and when he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor. I will satisfy him with a long life and show him my salvation.
How did Jesus get through that crowd untouched? Because Jesus knew the rest of Psalm 91. He's not just quoting little parts of it, is he? He goes all the way through it.
And calling on God, protect me. This is not how I'm supposed to die. I'm supposed to lay my life down. Psalm 91 is being fulfilled here to angels, do deliver Jesus in this moment.
In this place where the same way Satan is trying to push him off the cliff, he goes forward towards the cross. Now this is what it reveals about Jesus really quick. I want everything that this passage reveals about us because I think something happened inside of this that calls everybody to panic. And I think the reason why is because all of a sudden the stakes got higher really quick.
You know? It's kind of like, okay, this is fine. Jesus is here. We love hometown Jesus.
You know, it's great to see him back. Look how he's growing up. And all these wonderful things and wait a minute, something happened here. I can remember the first time I was in college and someone said, hey, try out.
Do you want to play paintball? And I said, what's it like? Have you ever played with Nerf guns before? I'm like, yeah.
It's kind of the same. They lied. Okay? I grew up and you'd have these Nerf guns, right?
And you'd be chasing each other around and you'd be taking these little things around and you'd shoot each other and it just wouldn't hurt. You'd be close and they never got painful. Now these days, there's like 14 double D batteries and slaves. I'm not leaving Mark.
You don't say him. But nothing like what it used to be. But I was like, I grew up and you had these Nerf guns and you'd go around. And so I said, yeah, paintball's just kind of like, you know, Nerf guns and you'd be fine.
Like, you know, I'm going, so it's just like paint coming out of the gun. They're like, yeah, just flatter. You have paint. I'm like, cool.
If you ever played, it's not just like paint being put on you. I'm saying, it's like this hard rock that they put a lot of paint on and they just shoot out of this gun really quick at your back. And you're like, and the first time it hits you, you go, I don't want that to happen again. You know what I'm saying?
Like, shoot me 23 times with this. I'm like, bring it on. Like, there's no problem. I'm not scared.
I'm not nervous if I get hit again. I will charge at you. That first hit with the paintball gun, I'm like, I'm done. I am out.
I'm carrying under a tree. Like, please don't do it. I'm like, call my mom. Can you pick me up?
Like, I don't want to do this anymore. Right? Something happened where I thought I was doing this and also the state's got higher, right? Like that.
This moment. Jesus lays out this position. And everybody thought they were just kind of playing this whole game and how to big deal and all of the sudden the state's got really, really high. And they knew that Jesus meant business with this.
And so what happens here is they thought he was just playing games in the synagogue that day. And all of a sudden he realizes they realize he's calling for surrender. Do something that's not natural for them. And open-heartedness that sees everybody the way God sees them.
So they act like they've been suddenly dropped into a war zone and they want to go to war. Problem was that Jesus hadn't changed the stakes did for them. And so they wanted to play for keeps. I've learned this in my life.
I'm comfortable with Jesus until he asked me to give him something. When obedience starts to cost, that is when there's a problem. Now I want to make sure we see about this passage to understand a couple of things. I want to give you this word.
The first word I want to give you is justification, to clarify this passage. And justification basically means this, okay? That salvation required everything from Jesus and nothing from us. Let me explain what this situate for us.
Because in this passage, Jesus is calling them to lay everything on the line. And I don't want you to think that before you come to Christ, you have to do that. Salvation, justification is when the courtroom in heaven, the gavel falls. And because of the good news that you trust in Jesus, I don't care how sinful you've been, this is what has heard through the halls of heaven.
Travis Agnew is not guilty. And that's a day right there. That is a day. Now, Mike, are you sure?
You mean you heard about that? And you know about this? And you know how we got it? But I'm just telling you, Jesus paid the punishment.
You are not guilty. Salvation requires everything from Jesus, nothing from us. We contribute nothing to our salvation other than the sin that it takes to get it. Salvation is receiving, it's not achieving, and grace is not earned by commitment, it is granted through Christ.
Okay, we got that? Makes sense. You don't work your way to Jesus. You don't go on missions.
So Jesus will love you. You don't give generously so that Jesus will love you. You receive the gospel of what he has done, that he was willing to live the life we could not live, die the death that we deserve to die. He's risen victoriously.
And so now when I trust in him, I realize that my salvation for me to be justified, everything fell on him. Nothing came from me. Now, as a result of that, that's what motivates me for my life to be different. The reason why I say that is this passage has taught me something so foundationally clear this week that you can't stay neutral about Jesus forever.
There is a progression in this passage that happens. People in the outskirts of Nazareth love Jesus. Whoo, come on back anytime. Heal anytime.
Preach anytime. Come on back. We want you to come as soon as you can. Then he gets closer to home and they go, oh, we kind of like you.
We got, but why aren't you Joseph's son? Now, what exactly do you mean by that? And there's just kind of backpilling a little bit. And then it turns just to outright, let's push him off a cliff, right?
And so the reason I'm saying this, if you right now in your life are going, you know what, I'm interested in what Jesus is saying. I'm intrigued by it, but I'm not all in. You will not stay in that position forever. You will either end up like the people that were in Galilee or the people who were in Nazareth.
That will be where you're at eventually. One day or the other, this will take place. And so, I find that familiarity with Jesus doesn't equal faith with him. Just because you know about him doesn't mean you know him.
And so these people are in the middle kind of stay neutral, but this avoidance will eventually lead them to the opposition. And what I have seen, at least in our day, as I walk through South Carolina and I meet people around this country and different situations, right in the heart of our city, I have realized there are a lot of people who want Jesus as an option for retirement, but not their choice for a vocation. We want to make sure that when I die, I'm going to the better place than the worst place. And they think because of poor preaching and poor discipleship and poor church mentalities, that's all it is.
So, somebody told you one day, say a prayer, get baptized, and then you don't have to worry about anything. False advertisement, fake gospel, not true. Jesus said a tree is no by its fruit. Roots start there, but eventually fruits got to come out, right?
It's eventually got to. Jesus was never meant to be a part-time anything for us. So, here's what you think about. Okay, let's take a line across this of they start off an adoration.
It moves to a group of people in hesitation and then it moves to rejection, right? So, you think about it, in these passages, it starts out there's an adoration that takes place. These people in the outskirts love Jesus, and then all of a sudden it gets a little bit closer. He starts sharing a little bit more of his message and they begin to hesitate.
I don't know exactly what he's talking about here, and then eventually it moves to an outright rejection. And if you're at a place today where you are unsure and you haven't found out where you are, I need you to know this, hesitation about Jesus always moves towards adoration or rejection, always. Sometimes it's slow, but you are moving one way or the other. So, today if you're like, I mean, I'm interested in a tree, I'm somewhat compelled, I like the stories, I like some of the situations, but you know, I don't know if I'm going to buy into all the things that Jesus calls us to do, because, well, I want fire insurance after I die, but I don't want him to change how I live.
You don't understand this. In the next few chapters when Jesus invites people into a relationship with him, he's not going to say, believe me, he's going to say, follow me, lay the most important things down of your life and come after me. And how would you know if you're following Jesus, you are near him in the hard moments, the beautiful moments, and the unknown, what's going to happen moments, that's what would take place. Pestation can feel safe, but it's not permanent.
You will move and the longer we delay surrender, the harder our hearts become. Exposure to the truth always produces something you will get closer to Jesus or you will move further away. It will, you will drift one way or the other. You will end up loving him and cannot wait to talk to him again or you will try to push him off the proverbial cliff.
Get away from me, Jesus. I want to live my life. This is where all of us will be. So, justification starts where we are saved.
This is where this passage lands into this other theological term that you know is sanctification. This is how we grow. And this is what we see from this, that because Jesus gave everything for us, he deserves everything from us. So, to be justified, I don't have to do anything.
It is by faith and faith alone, right? I can't work it out. I can't earn it. It's only by faith.
So, I'm justified by faith. Well, how am I sanctified? You're motivated by the grace he has shown you. And when you think that he's given everything for us, he deserves everything from us.
The gospel never invites us to try Jesus. There is a mentality I think a lot of people have when it comes to Jesus, like a here goes nothing mentality. No? Maybe this will work.
I don't know. I give religion a try. That's not what Jesus is offering you. It's not a last ditch effort.
It is a complete and full surrender. A few weeks ago, I saw an interesting article about the creator of a cartoon named Dilbert. His name was Scott Adams. Cartoon for years.
We love a lot of people because it showed kind of white collar, office life and what that's supposed to look like. Scott Adams had been an atheist all of his life until cancer was kind of rearing its ugly head. And he knew he did not have long. He made a video that kind of went viral where he spoke about embracing Christianity near the end of his life, framing belief as the most reasonable option rather than an act of surrender.
No, I don't know this man, and I pray he is in heaven. But when you listen to it, it sounds like, you know, I'm weighing the options. And it kind of feels like if I accept Jesus, I mean, it's real, I'll be in heaven. But if I accept him and there's no heaven, no loss.
But if I don't accept him, and then, well, yeah, what was then I go to hell, right? But what's what's the harm? And just doing this, I want a lot of people who've been sharing the gospel for the years. I'm going to profess to be a Christian before I die.
I pray that was legitimate, but it sure doesn't smell like it. It kind of sounds like Pascal's wager if you've ever heard about this. Believing seems like a smart bet when the potential gain is everything and the loss is nothing. So if I'm leaving Jesus and if it's real, I go to heaven.
But it's not what's the loss. This is not a here goes nothing mentality this is a here goes everything opportunity. Jesus is not saying just try me. Last ditch effort spare tire case things don't work out.
It's a steering over lives. Choosing Jesus as a contingency plan is still a here goes nothing posture. The gospel does not call us to manage our risk with Jesus. It calls us to surrender everything to him as Lord.
Jesus does not demand us to give him everything in order that he would love us. But once we are captured by that love, oh yes, he calls for everything to lay down this life to give it him and surrender. It's not payment for salvation. It's just a proper response to it.
So the question tonight is, if Jesus rolled up into this house and spoke to us, how would you respond? And have you ever got the point in your life where you say here goes everything. I am following at him not as a last option, but my complete life you deserve everything that I have and whatever you ask belongs to you. Let's pray together.