You can’t go home again. Have you ever heard that? I think it is really true. I have gone back to my hometown – now 30
years later – and things are different. Businesses are gone, houses are abandoned, people have moved away or died.
Some things are the same, but even those things don’t have the same feel. The furniture store is completely gone and is
now a WalMart. The lumber yard is now a factory. The youth center sits empty. You can’t go home again.
Except that home is now a different place. My hometown is not my home any more. Plattsmouth is my home and my
house is home and this church family is home. The concept of “home” has a very recent quality about it. You can never go
home again IF “home” means what you USED to feel. But when we are willing to interact with new things, new people,
new circumstances, home happens. It won’t be the same. But someday the new home will bring those good feelings.
We are in a series in the Gospel of Luke called “A REAL Human Life,” looking at the life of the Lord Jesus. Jesus deals
with this feeling – you can never go home again – in what we’re looking at today. But God gives us much deeper insights
into the truth as we see the Lord Jesus go through this circumstance. We are going to be in Luke 4 this morning, but before
we get into what God has for us, let’s ask for His help to understand. PRAY
Last Sunday we looked at Jesus as He went through 40 days straight of temptation by the devil. Jesus WAS tempted in
every way as we are – Hebrews 4:15 – and He came through this intense period of testing without sinning. And He came
out of that time more devoted to the things of the Kingdom of God. Luke 4:14,15. READ.
It says in verse 14 that news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. Jesus did things and said things – some of
which we will see in the following verses today – and news of Him went out to the surrounding area. This is first century life
in Israel. There was no texting, no radio, no TV, no internet, no real postal service or UPS. How did this news spread? It
happened in a way that used to take place all the time. People didn’t use to have to depend on any machines for
communication – they used to talk to one another face to face. Instead of a picture of the person you were communicating
with – a picture the size of dollar bill – you used to see the real FACE of the person in actual size. I actually have great
concern for us – God made us as social beings and our social networking makes us very unsociable much of the time.
Anyway, news about Jesus spread around the geographic area as He started preaching and doing things. He went around
teaching in the synagogues – the Jewish houses of worship – and the result was that people glorified Him. People were
excited about what He was teaching and people were connecting with His teaching. Apparently they were hearing and
seeing things they hadn’t been hearing and seeing.
Let’s take a look at our impact on our area. As people hear and see you and look at your relationship with Jesus and your
life of faith, do they come TO you or turn away FROM you? Are we the salt and light Jesus predicted we would be? As
people interact with you and me, do they thirst for righteousness and truth? Do they see into the dark areas of their lives
and know that Jesus can clean those up?
As people come visit our church family, do they get the impression that we are real or fake? Do they see the real God
really working in the lives of real people? Do we promote “Come as you are” on our sign, but when people come do we
shun them because they aren’t churchy enough? If we do, shame on us. We will never reach our community if we treat
people like that. People come hoping to find the kind of stuff the Bible talks about happening in the lives of people –
miraculous things, amazing things – and they hope that they might experience some of those miracles and amazing things in
their lives. God reached out to you – if you’re a believer, God rescued you from your pitiful, messy life. Don’t deny Him
the opportunity to work the same changes in someone else.
And, by the way, if you are sitting here this morning hearing this and thinking, boy I wish THIS person would hear that, I
want to warn you, this encouragement is for YOU. God can do His work in others. Allow God to do His work in you and
let Him worry about others. Is MY life the kind of life that draws people to Jesus and shows His power? Do people
glorify Jesus by looking at ME? That’s the question.
Jesus read this passage from Isaiah 61:1,2 and then, as Rabbis do, He sat down to teach. Everyone was waiting to hear
what the carpenter boy would say about this passage. He began to teach, “Today this Scripture is brought to fullness – it is
completed, it has completely come true – in your hearing. I am the fulfillment of this promise.” Before we think about that
statement, let’s go back and look at the passage He read and what He was saying. It is full of great news for all of us.
Verse 18 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon – we saw in verse 14 that Jesus came away from His temptation by the devil in
the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. The gospel is good
news, glad tidings – that is what Jesus came to proclaim to the poor. And this is not only to the financially poor – it is to the
poor in spirit, as Matthew tells us in chapter 5. But Jesus preached good news to the poor, which we’ll see in Luke 6 –
Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. People who need good news will be glad Jesus came, if they hear
the news.
The Spirit of God has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. Some of your versions may not have that part of the verse. It is
in Isaiah 61, too. Jesus was sent to bring healing to those who are sick and those who are in pain. We will see many
examples of healing as we go through Luke. You may have a personal example of healing of sickness or of heartache by
the Lord. That’s why He came.
The Spirit of God has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives. I don’t think He means that people who have broken
laws get out of jail free. Those are not the captives He came to tell of liberty. What captivates us? What enslaves
mankind? Sin and sorrow. What binds us and restricts us? Guilt and doubt. Whatever it is that enslaves us and binds us
spiritually, Jesus came to announce freedom and deliverance and release.
He also came to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind. We will see some examples of blind people receiving their physical
sight as we go through the book of Luke. But we will especially see spiritually blind people who have the scales fall from
their eyes and they are able to see truth. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, YOU have seen the truth where once you
couldn’t. That’s why Jesus came.
Also to set at liberty those who are oppressed or downtrodden – stepped on by life. You may feel trapped by life. You
may feel like you will never get free of the chains that hold you. Jesus says that He came to set you free. We saw this in
Galatians a few months ago. If you are crushed or bruised by life, Jesus promises deliverance.
And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Isaiah 49 and 2 Corinthians 6 say that NOW is the acceptable time –
now is the day of salvation. As Jesus opened His earthly time of ministry, He made it clear that NOW the time had come.
Do you struggle with enslavement – maybe to a habit or an addiction? Maybe you can’t keep yourself from going to
websites you know you shouldn’t. Maybe there are places you know God is not pleased that you go, but you go anyway.
Jesus came to set you free.
Do you carry the sorrow of many hurts in life? Are you barely holding on because the pain of relationships or words or
actions of others have destroyed you? Jesus came to heal you.
After His public baptism and public identification with the things of God and after an intense time of temptation, He returned
to life in the power of the Spirit. I don’t think Jesus ever sinned – from age 12 to age 30 when we know nothing about
Him, or at any time. He did human life the way God wanted it done. We’ll talk more about what this means later. At this
time, He came back to Galilee – the area where He grew up. Verses 14 and 15 are kind of a summary and then the
following verses give some specifics about what He did
So Jesus came to Galilee and went around teaching in their synagogues and people, for the most part, glorified Him. Luke
tells us about a specific place where the reaction wasn’t quite that positive. Luke 4:16-20. READ. Jesus returned to His
hometown in a different role than He had previously been known. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and
stood up to read. When the Scriptures are read in the synagogue, the people stand. But this gives the impression that
Jesus stood up volunteering to read the Scripture that day. Jesus had not gone to Rabbi school – He was a carpenter. But
He had trusted God and done what He said for His whole life to this point. As Jesus stood to read the Scripture that day,
the people in His hometown synagogue had no idea what they were in for.
Do you feel like you are missing the whole point of life? Do you have a hard time seeing what you’re supposed to do? Do
you suffer with uncertainty about what to believe and where to look for answers? Jesus came to help you recover your
sight.
He came to proclaim the good news. He came because it was God’s time to set salvation in motion for mankind. The time
for YOU is NOW. I’m glad we’re all here this morning! You came to the right place. And you don’t have to clean
yourself up or put on your Sunday best or have all the right words. Jesus knew what He was getting into. Come as you
ARE and you will meet Jesus as HE is. And God will do the work of salvation in you to make you into what God always
intended you to be.
As Jesus closed the book of Isaiah and sat down, the people looked at Him waiting to hear what He would say about that
passage. I think many of us have heard about this Jesus life and these Bible things and we come waiting to see some of it
happen. Some of us have been coming for a long time and maybe some of us are about to throw in the towel and give up.
Look at how Jesus starts His response to this passage.
Luke 4:21. READ. I think He continued to speak after that, but that’s all Luke gives us – as Luke is inspired by God what
to write. What a gutsy thing for a human being to say – What I just read in the Bible, you’re hearing it from the Person who
fulfills it. How could Jesus say that and not sin? Doesn’t that sound kind of prideful? If you and I had said it, it would have
been prideful – so we put our motivations on Jesus.
But Jesus was NOT prideful or conceited. He did not have an inflated view of Himself. Turn over a minute to John 8:
28,29. READ. In John 5 Jesus says that He can do nothing except what He sees the Father do. Here in John 8 He says
He says nothing except what the Father teaches Him to say. The Father told Jesus in Luke 3:22, “You are My beloved
Son, In You I am well pleased.” Jesus, because of His relationship with the Father as a human being, knew who He was
and He knew why He came. As Jesus went through temptation from the devil, He put God’s Word into practice and used
the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God – as a weapon against our enemy.
Jesus could say He was the fulfillment of this prophecy because it was TRUE. Jesus was not afraid to speak the truth. He
was not afraid to offend people. Jesus was not afraid of endangering His own life. Obviously, to live that way, Jesus had
to know who He was and know why He was there and know where He was going because He trusted God who DID
know. He knew He was to be about His Father’s business (Luke 2:49). As He grew up and as He studied God’s Word
He was certain of the calling God the Father had for Him. He knew His Father. He knew Himself.
The people in the Nazareth synagogue seemed to have a fairly positive response after the message. They marveled at the
gracious words He spoke, it says in Luke 4:22. This message from Isaiah 61 is full of grace. But they also tied something
else to it. This is Joseph the carpenter’s kid. We’ve heard all these great things about You – do some of Your stuff here.
Let Your good works start at home. The attitude seems to be that because You are one of us, You owe us.
Jesus responds immediately to that. Luke 4:23-27. READ. You won’t accept Me because you think you have Me
pegged. But God is going to do great things in other places – things you wouldn’t believe or imagine. Quit focusing on
who YOU are and focus on who GOD is. If you would stop thinking about yourselves and focus on what God is doing,
you may experience some of those things.
This quickly changed the mood of the synagogue meeting. Everyone became enraged because of this young man’s
disrespect of who they were. So they jumped up and, in a huff, hauled Him outside and out of the city and up to the highest
hill where they intended – on their Sabbath day, their worship day – to throw Him off the cliff. But Jesus, trusting in and
relying completely on God the Father, and not using His God abilities, escaped.
Someone asked me this week about my assertion that Jesus lived a completely human life and did not use His God powers
while He was on earth. How could He escape a circumstance like this? How could He do miracles, which we’ll see in the
coming weeks? How could He know what people were thinking and doing when He couldn’t see them? How could He
do that without using His God abilities?
We’ll continue to answer those questions as we look at a REAL human life in the Gospel of Luke, but I’ll throw this out
today. What if the life Jesus lived while He was on earth is exactly the kind of life God wants ALL of us to live – no matter
how unusual?
As we wrap it up today, let’s look at our response to the truth. The people in the synagogue in Nazareth got pretty upset
with the truth. How do I respond – how do you respond to the truth?
- Do I slough it off and ignore it?
- Do I reject it and turn away?
- Do I hear it, but rationalize my actions so I don’t have to deal with it?
- Do I seek to kill the messenger?
In our culture and even in our church we have a tendency to ignore things. When we hear or see truth, we respond in ways
that probably aren’t what God was hoping for. For example, last Sunday, we heard a message on how vital it is that
EACH of us study and know God’s Word. What was your response?
- I know God’s Word
- I know enough
- I don’t need to actually study to know God’s Word – He will show me stuff in other ways
- Some other response?
It is so clear from looking at people who we KNOW know God’s Word and have a living personal relationship with Jesus
that the more you know of God’s Word, the more you see you don’t know – you see the need to study more. One of the
men I consider a model for me as a pastor preached for 50 years and started several churches and saw thousands of
people come to Christ. And until the day he died, he kept studying God’s Word because there was more there.
Do you claim to be comfortable with where you are as it regards your faith and your response to the truth? Yep, I really
have the Christian life together. I hate to break it to you – GOD is not comfortable with where you are. Let’s put it
another way – are you like Jesus yet? Is it the life of Jesus you live? We want to see Bible things, Jesus kinds of things
happen in our lives. But if we’re comfortable with where we are, that explains why we don’t see those things. God wants
those Bible things for us. Let’s not reject the truth, but let’s respond in submission to what God wants to do in each of us.
Jesus told us why He came – let’s take Him up on His offer to give it to us.
Jesus couldn’t go home again. But He wants to make His home in each of us right now. Will you let Him?