I. Introduction
Most of us have learned to live with rejection of one kind or another. Rejection is a nor-mal part of life in this world. Some handle it better than others, but no one likes it. How-ever, rejection can be valuable. It can put our egos where they belong. That is, it can teach us humility. It can cause us to work harder and be more diligent. It can also make us appreciate those times in life when we are not coldly rejected, but warmly received.

Anyone who has ever tried selling for a living understands rejection. I spent a little over thirty-four years in industrial sales and lived solely on commissions for the last twenty of those years. If you’re in that kind of business and you can’t handle rejection, you need to find another line of work.

Some of you who are gainfully employed today were rejected from another job or jobs that you really wanted, and for which you may well have been qualified. That hurt, didn’t it? Some of you who are happily married today were rejected by someone else before you met your spouse. Do you remember what that felt like? For many young people that kind of rejection can be the worst thing that ever happened to them.

It’s no secret that Christians are rejected in many different ways. In some parts of the world today that rejection literally means death. But most of us will never face that kind of rejection. In most cases the rejection you and I face as Christians results in a slow drift away from many of the friends we had before we came to Christ.

While that’s neither easy nor pleasant, it is the natural course of things. It was the case with Ginny and me when we put our faith in Christ. Over time friends and acquaintances came to realize they just didn’t have much in common with us anymore. And we realized it too. There is seldom anger or outright animosity. You just drift apart. Of course, as time goes by, God graciously replaces those temporary friendships with eternal ones.

But what about rejection at home? Those people who come to Christ as members of a Christian family are not rejected upon their profession of faith. On the contrary, there is great rejoicing. But what if you are the first Christian in your family? I was, and I know that some of you are too. What if your whole family – your parents, your grand-parents, your siblings, your aunts and uncles and cousins – what if none of them are Christians?

Please hear me well. I didn’t say, “What if none of them are religious?” I said, “What if none of them are Christians?” What if they are all unbelievers? The vast majority of Americans today say that they believe in God. And the vast majority of those tend to see themselves as religious, or at least “spiritual” in some shape, manner, or form.

So most of them will tolerate what you might call, “religious happy talk.”
You know the mindset of the world today. Religious happy talk is fine because it isn’t specific. Religious happy talk is fine because it offends no one. Religious happy talk is fine because everyone finds their own truth about God in his or her own way. We must be tolerant of other people’s journey, mustn’t we? As long as you don’t upset that apple-cart, everything is just fine.

But when the new Christian brings the Jesus of the Bible home, things usually change. That’s because the Jesus of the Bible talks about things like sin and repentance and judg-ment and God’s wrath and punishment and hell. His claims are exclusive. His claims are narrow. The fact is that Jesus’ claims about Himself and the God who sent Him instantly and completely invalidate every other religious figure and every other religion.
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

If you’re the first born again, Bible-believing Christian in your family, you have already experienced, or you will experience, rejection at home. Jesus spoke of this very thing. He not only spoke about it, He lived it. That’s why I asked Tim to read Jesus’ own words in Matthew to open the service this morning, one verse of which says…
Matthew 10:36
36 “…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

I know these are hard words. I also know they are true. With the exception of Mary, Jesus was rejected at home by His family, rejected in His hometown by His friends and neighbors, and rejected by those whom you’d think would be the first to receive Him, the most religious people in Nazareth. Why? Because He told the truth about Himself!
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II. Review (Turn to Luke 4.)
Before we read the text I want to say a few words about the timeline here. Luke 4:1-13 detailed Jesus’ confrontation with Satan in the wilderness. Then Luke’s story of Jesus’ public ministry begins in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. Normal reading of the text makes it seem that Jesus went directly from the wilderness to Nazareth. “…and Satan departed from Him…” (v. 13). “And Jesus returned to Galilee…” (v. 14).

But Jesus’ temptations took place in the fall of the year and He didn’t go to Nazareth until the following summer. Where was He in the meantime? What was He doing? John’s gospel fills in the blanks for us. In the last part of John 1, Jesus calls His first disciples. They are Andrew and John, and then a little later, Philip and Nathanael.

In John 2, we read of Jesus’ first miracle, the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. He then visits Capernaum, and goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover, where He drives money-changers from the temple. In John 3 He meets with Nicodemus. Jesus tells him, “You must be born again.” (v. 7).
In John 4 He meets the Samaritan woman at the well and revisits Cana and Capernaum. Only then does He go to Nazareth. It’s here where Luke picks up the narrative.
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III. Text
*Luke 4:14-30 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.
15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden,
19 to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”
20 And He closed the book, 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 is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”
24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his home town.
25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;
26 and yet 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 Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;
29 and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him off the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Jesus makes a very bold statement to begin His public ministry here in Luke’s gospel. He proclaims His deity to those in His home town.
Thus Luke presents us with an overall picture of God’s plan for His Son’s ministry.
• First, the gospel will be presented to the Jews.
• Second, the gospel will be rejected by the Jews.
• Third, the gospel will sent out to the Gentiles.

This is what Jesus does in the gospels. It is also what the apostles do in the Book of Acts.
It’s one of those things we sometimes miss because it is so obvious. You know, “I don’t see any forest. There are too many trees in the way.” There is a pattern of rejection here that many Christians have experienced. You’re rejected by those who know you, but you are received by others. Let me give you an example from my own life.

On January 9, 1973, I came to saving faith in Christ. The first thing I did was go to the pastor of the church I had attended. When I told him what God had done he threw cold water on it and said, “You don’t need to be born again. You were baptized when you were a baby. You’d be smart to stay away from those ‘Baptists.’” I had gone to my “home church” with what I believed was good news. It was summarily rejected.

Shortly after that I went to my family. My mother really had no understanding of it at all and thought that much of the Bible was made up of stories that were neither true nor rele-vant in today’s world. My father said, “You were born in America, and raised in a Lutheran church. You’re already a Christian. Don’t be one of those ‘Bible-beaters.’” My sister wouldn’t talk about it. But by God’s grace my brother was interested. Since then both my brother and our mother have become Christians.

Shortly after the rejection by my pastor and much of my family, I shared the gospel with an old friend. God blessed it and Ginny and I saw both him and his wife give their lives to Christ. They raised three Christian daughters and have a strong testimony today.

I tell you all of that, not because I’m unique in any of these experiences, but because some of you need to hear it. You need to be encouraged that being rejected at home, as it were, does not mean you have failed in your calling anymore than Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth meant that He failed in His calling. (Look again at Luke 4:14.)
*Luke 4:14-15
14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.
15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

As John tells us, Jesus’ early ministry got what we might call “rave reviews.” By the power of God’s Spirit He had cleansed the temple in Jerusalem. He had done a miracle at Cana. He had healed the sick at Capernaum. He was a great teacher. And that was just some of it. Here was this mysterious stranger who showed up and did these marvelous things. So in v. 15 we see that He “was praised by all.” But then He went to His home town. He went to His family, His friends, and His neighbors, and His house of worship.
They all knew Him. He wasn’t a stranger doing things that were worthy of praise. He was just, “Jesus, the carpenter’s kid.” So when He told them the truth, He was rejected.
*Luke 4:16-21
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden,
19 to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”
20 And He closed the book, 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 is fulfilled in your hearing.”

In vv. 18-19 Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2. Keep a marker here in Luke and go back with me to Isaiah. There are two points I want to address. First, Jesus didn’t quote all of it. Why? Second, it reads a little differently in Isaiah than it does in Luke. Why again?
*Isaiah 61:1-2
1 The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners;
2 to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God…

In Luke 4:19 Jesus didn’t finish the quote. Why did He stop with, “…to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord…” and go no further? He stopped because the proclamation of the favorable year of the Lord speaks only of Jesus’ First Coming. Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God to lay down His life, to shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins and to offer salvation to the lost. Thus He proclaimed the Lord’s favor.

He didn’t quote the rest of Isaiah 61:2 – “…and the day of vengeance of our God…” – because it prophesies Jesus’ Second Coming. He will come again as the Lion of Judah, not to lay down His life, not and shed His blood, but to usher in God’s judgment of unbe-lievers and condemn the lost. It’s only then that God’s wrath and vengeance will be seen.

So what Jesus says that day in the synagogue at Nazareth is essentially this: “I am pro-claiming the First Coming of the Messiah.” Keep a marker here in Isaiah and go back to Luke 4:18. It’s a short summary of the four things the Messiah would do at His First Coming. First, He would preach the gospel to the spiritually poor. Second, He would proclaim freedom from the spiritual captivity of sin. Third, He would heal spiritual blindness. And fourth, He would release people from spiritual oppression.
The other point about Isaiah 61:1-2 is why it reads somewhat differently in Isaiah than it does in Luke. Most OT quotes used in the NT are taken from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. This is because by the time the NT was written Greek was the primary language read and spoken in Israel. As a result the Septuagint became the most widely used translation of the OT. So in today’s Bibles the OT is translated directly from Hebrew to English, while OT quotes used in the NT are translated from Hebrew through Greek to English. That’s why there are slight variations in the wording.

Now go back to Luke 4:20. “…and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.”

Do you see what’s happening here? Jesus gets up, goes to the front on the room, and reads a passage of Scripture. It’s a familiar passage to all those in the synagogues. In it Isaiah speaks of the Messiah’s coming to Israel. All right, that’s normal. But instead of teaching it, or even commenting on it, Jesus closes the book and sits down. Every eye is on him because everyone expects him to exposit what He has just read, to teach it. You can almost hear the murmuring, can’t you? They say, “What’s going on here?”

Then Jesus “drops the bomb.” From His seat He speaks the words of Luke 4:21. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The impact this had on them can hardly be overstated. It would be like one of the young men of this church coming up here and reading about the Second Coming from Revelation 19, and then saying, “I’m here. This prophecy is now fulfilled in your presence.” Do you think that might get your attention?
*Luke 4:22
22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

It seems that it takes a moment for the shock of what Jesus has just said to sink in. In v. 22 Luke tells us how impressed they all are with his oratorical skills. But again, He’s only Joseph’s son. And what did He just say? He said He is the Messiah! How could this young man, whom they had known virtually all of His life, possibly be the promised Messiah of Israel? In a flash, those kind words are turned into utter hatred. It will be such a venomous hatred that they will try to kill him! Why?

They resent what they see as arrogance. More than that they resent the fact that Jesus has just told them that they are spiritually poor, blind, and oppressed sinners in desperate need of salvation. Jesus has told them the truth and they do not want to hear the truth. “Who does He think He is?” Two years later Jesus will face an even more hostile crowd of Pharisees. In their unbelief they actually accuse Jesus of being demon-possessed.
*John 8:52-59
52 The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he shall never taste death.’
53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make yourself out to be?”
54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;
55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him, and (I) keep His word.
56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 The Jews therefore said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (Exodus 3:14 – Moses)
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.

This happened to Jesus at least two other times in the gospels. The simple fact is that the world hates the truth and is willing to do whatever it takes to silence those who tell it. I’ll say it again. This is not meant to discourage you, but to help you understand the reason for the hostility you face in standing up for Christ today.
*John 15:18-19, 23
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”

If you’re the first person in your family to come to Christ, you need to remember that they will be the hardest to convince of your changed life. That’s because they know you better than anyone else. They know your failures, your weaknesses, your mistakes, and your sins. They know you’re of this world. But Jesus has chosen you out of this world.

I remember well my father saying to me, “Now that you got religion you’re supposed to be different, huh? You’re not fooling me.” Listen, all you can do is pray for them, let them see the new person you’ve become, and then trust God for their salvation. And never forget that God will glorify Himself in all of it!

In the next verses Jesus deals with the cynicism of these unbelievers at Nazareth even before they challenge Him.
*Luke 4:23-27
23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”
24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his home town.
25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;
26 and yet 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 Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

In vv. 23-24 Jesus reads their thoughts and says what He knows they are thinking. “We heard about your miracles in Capernaum. Why don’t you do a few for us here in your own town?” It’s fascinating to me that no one ever questioned the reality of Jesus’ mira-cles. But even that knowledge couldn’t soften hard hearts. In fact, at one point the Pharisees even argued that Jesus’ miracles were done by the power of Satan.

Listen, attributing the Holy Spirit’s power and work to Satan is the unforgivable sin. There is simply no hope for someone whose heart is so hard. After the Pharisees accused Jesus of being demon-possessed, He told them this.
*Matthew 12:31-32
31 “…I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blas-phemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
32 “And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be for-given him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come.”

The point of Luke 4:23-24 is that no matter what Jesus did they wouldn’t believe in Him.
All the miracles, all the so-called proofs, all the intellectual arguments – none of them can produce saving faith. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. So Jesus was being rejected in His own city. He said, “…no prophet is welcome in His home town (v. 24).”

In vv. 25-27 Jesus warns them in terms they fully understand. Let me try to paraphrase it. “I have offered you salvation. I have come to you first. But you have rejected Me and My Father who has sent Me. When Israel’s heart was hard in the past, God blessed the Gentiles through the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Your hearts are hard and so now God will bless them again.”

Here is a hard truth. There comes a point in time when you simply stop trying to reach someone with the truth about Jesus. I do not claim to know when that time comes in each individual case, but I do know such a time can come. The reason makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Jesus said the gospel was so valuable and so precious that it was like an exquisite and priceless pearl. When unbelievers heap scorn and contempt upon it, when they respond to God’s offer of unconditional love and eternal life with hard hearts and mocking,
when they treat the gospel as though it were garbage or worse, when they hate the truth and begin to hate you for bringing it to them, it is time to walk away and let them be.
*Matthew 7:6
6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

In the case of Jesus in His own home town of Nazareth, it’s time to leave.
*Luke 4:28-30
28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;
29 and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him off the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.

The truth! In what seems to be no more than a matter of minutes these religious and even pious unbelievers go from welcoming a young man home and allowing Him to speak in their synagogue to trying to kill Him – to kill Him! Had God not miraculously acted
(v. 30), they would have done so. It’s almost unbelievable. But it is exactly what happens when hypocritical unbelief is exposed by divine truth.
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IV. Conclusion
The people in Jesus’ own hometown rejected Him. The people in His own house of wor-ship rejected Him. His own family, with the obvious exception of His mother Mary, rejected Him. Even His brothers, James and Jude, rejected Him and only came to saving faith after Jesus was dead.

There is a post script to all of this. When Jesus returned to Nazareth about a year and a half later, nothing had changed. Unbelief still ruled the hearts of the people. The lesson is a hard one. There is no one more difficult to reach for Christ than a religious person who is relying upon his or her church or personal righteousness. They are just too proud.

When you are rejected by family and friends and acquaintances because of your love for the truth, your love for the gospel, your love for Jesus, take heart. Jesus knows what it’s like to be rejected. So do many of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Take heart.
*John 14:1-3
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; (you) believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have to told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

~ Pray ~