Please turn with me in the Word of God to the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4. We'll take up the reading at verse 14 and read down through the end of the chapter. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 14. Let us hear God's own Word. And Jesus returned from his time of temptation in the wilderness in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out throughout all the surrounding country, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke well of him, and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth I tell you there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching for his word-possessed authority. And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. Reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. And he rose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. And when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place, and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. and he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. So far the reading of God's Word. In some ways, this passage is a very familiar one. Jesus in Nazareth, Jesus in Capernaum, Jesus preaching, Jesus healing. These are stories we have often heard, and yet there is also something rather peculiar in these stories. Something that perhaps makes us scratch our heads a little bit because we are told that he went and spoke at the synagogue in Nazareth where he'd been raised, where it was his custom to worship when he was in Nazareth. And everyone spoke well of him. They marveled at his gracious words. And, you know, maybe he should have stopped there. Maybe that's what a sensible preacher would have done. If you have everyone speaking well of you, that's a good time to sit down. Actually, you noticed, didn't you, that Jesus as a preacher sat to preach in the synagogue. That was the ancient way of doing things. maybe by tonight we'll have to do it that way. I'll sit to preach, and you can all stand. That's what was done in the ancient church. The preacher sat, and the congregation stood. That's still done in Greek Orthodox churches. They tend to have very short sermons. Well, this looked like it might be a very short sermon, didn't it? He read the scripture, and then he said, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It almost seemed as if that was going to be the whole sermon. They spoke very highly of it. And then he spoke a little longer, and they were ready to kill him. What happened? What was the change? What did they expect of Jesus? Now, this is an important incident in the life of Jesus. Luke puts it here right at the beginning of his public ministry. This incident, Luke intends to be foundational to the meaning of the ministry of Jesus, so that we'll really understand it, so we'll really get it. Because this story in the synagogue of Nazareth is really all about expectations. What do we expect of Jesus? What do we expect of Jesus? What do we want Him to do? What do we expect Him to be? How do we expect Him to relate to us? You see how foundational these questions are. How essential these questions are. And so we want to look carefully at Jesus in Nazareth and in Capernaum to try to understand what we should expect of Jesus. And I want us to think in terms of three words. Gracious words, challenging words, and missing words. As we try to think through what we should expect of Jesus. First of all, then, gracious words. They marveled at his gracious words, we're told. And what were those gracious words? Well, the first part of the gracious words are the Scripture text he chose to read. You notice this here, that they gave him the Isaiah scroll. You know, they didn't have their Bibles in nice, neat books like this. They had them in big scrolls. You had to unroll the scroll to find the place you wanted to read. We don't know for sure where the scroll was when they handed it to him. Whether it was at Isaiah 1, and he had to do a lot of rolling to get to 61. Or if it was someplace else. But he chose very intentionally to read Isaiah 61. And he chose it because it was such a gracious word. It was a word of promise about what the time of the coming of Messiah would look like. Isaiah 61 is really the words of the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Messiah comes in the power and fullness of the Spirit of God. And he comes to do what? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news. Here are the gracious words of the Messiah. I've come with good news. I've come with good news. Do you need good news? I think maybe it's just because I'm getting old and cranky, but I find I can watch just so much news and then I have to turn it off on the TV. And occasionally the thought goes through my mind. There's only so much bad news one can take in a day. We live in a world where there's lots and lots of bad news. And what a glory it is. What a joy it is. That Jesus came. Messiah came. Full of the Spirit of God. To bring good news to his people. Good news for the poor. Good news for the captives. Good news for the blind. Good news for the oppressed. Good news for people with huge problems. That's what he came with. To promise them deliverance from God. To promise them the blessing of God. To promise them the redemption of God. And so these gracious words are spoken by the Savior in the synagogue. All the eyes are on him. He's read these gracious words that they probably knew very well. These gracious words which had long been to them words of hope, words of anticipation. Words that they were waiting to see fulfilled. And that's why those words of Jesus when he sat down were so amazing, so powerful. Today, this scripture is no longer a scripture of hope and anticipation. Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Messiah has come. The one anointed by the Holy Spirit is among you. He's come to proclaim to you the good news of deliverance. How great. And that's how they reacted. They marveled at his gracious words. They all were happy with him. And then Luke records what they said next. And this is where the text becomes a little surprising. A little less clear what's going on. Verse 22. And they said, that is, they're saying to one another. One of the things preachers do learn is that not everyone at every moment is hanging on your every word. There are various other things that go on in pews. Children are pinched. Mints are passed. Distracting thoughts occur. And here, they begin to mutter to one another, is not this Joseph's son? Now, in another context, we might have interpreted this question to mean, who does he think he is, to claim to be Messiah? We know who he is. He's just Joseph's son. He can't be that big a deal. But I don't think that's what this question means here. I think this is not a question of doubt. This is a question of anticipation. Wow! Think about it. This is Joseph's son. Messiah is our hometown boy. Messiah is our neighbor. Messiah is a guy we watched grow up. He knows us. This is going to be great for us. It's like the way it used to be in politics, that if you could elect somebody from your hometown, you could be pretty sure when he got to Sacramento or Washington, he'd send goodies back home. That was the way it worked. Nothing corrupt like that goes on anymore, but that used to be the kind of anticipation that went on. And that seems to be what's behind this statement question being muttered in the synagogue. If this is Messiah, how good will that be for us? You see, they had expectations of Jesus. If he's Messiah, if he's coming with all sorts of power and deliverance, how great that'll be for us. And Jesus knows what's going on in their hearts. And he challenges them. He began with gracious words, but now he moves on to challenging words for what's going on in their hearts. And he begins his challenging words with a proverb. Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. If a physician has the ability to heal, then if a physician becomes sick, the physician ought to be able to heal himself. Healing ought to begin at home, is what that proverb means. If you have some skill, the use of that skill ought to begin at home. We used to have a proverb, all the kids have shoes except the cobbler's children. That's sort of the opposite of this, where you get neglected at home. Here are the ideas, blessings should begin at home. Benefits should begin at home. And Jesus knows that's in their hearts, so he quotes that proverb. And then he goes on as to what they're thinking in their hearts. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. Now that's actually kind of a strange statement. Because at first glance it appears that this sermon in Nazareth is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. So, what did he do in Capernaum? How can they know anything about what went on in Capernaum? If you look earlier in Luke's Gospel, he's never been in Capernaum. And then we sort of can figure out that Luke is not telling this story chronologically. He tells us first about Nazareth and then about Capernaum, not to tell us the chronology of Jesus' life, but to show us this foundational moment at Nazareth, which is then illuminated by telling us about Capernaum where he'd been earlier. So Nazareth has already heard what we read later in Luke 4 about what he did in Capernaum. What did he do in Capernaum? He cast out a demon from a demon-possessed man. He healed all their diseases. Imagine. We spent some time, didn't we, in the congregational prayer this morning, praying for the sick, and we only prayed for some of them. We did that because we don't have time to pray for everybody by name, do we? We do it also because there are some people in this congregation of Dutch extraction and they never like to have their names mentioned from the pulpit. It's one of the few really bad Dutch habits. You should let the brothers and sisters pray for you. But think, if we had the anticipation that all those diseases could be healed, wouldn't that be great? If Jesus could walk the corridors of Palomar Hospital and heal everybody there, that's apparently what he did in Capernaum. What anticipation in Nazareth of what had happened there in Capernaum? If he did it there, how much more will he do it here? Great day's coming. But Jesus is going to set them straight that their expectations are wrong. Their anticipations are wrong. Their understanding is false. And he does that by quoting another proverb. Verse 24. No prophet is acceptable in his own hometown. You're going to be disappointed in me because you're expecting from me what I've never promised. and then he reminds them of their own history. Their history with the prophet Elijah in the time of evil King Ahab and the famine in the land, and their history with the prophet Elisha and the Syrian commander Naaman, a leper. And what do those two history lessons teach them? It shows the extraordinary danger of teaching history. Do you see how mad the crowd comes just from a history lesson? That's why they put pulpits in front of preachers so we can be protected. That's not the reason. But this is a very important point. What's Jesus teaching through this history lesson? he's teaching that there were many hungry in Elijah's day, but Elijah fed only one widow. And there were many lepers in Elisha's day, but he healed only one leper. God has power, but he focuses it for particular reasons, on particular people. And he doesn't do what everyone would like him to do at all times. Think how many who were hungry in Elijah's day that would love to have been fed and were not. God had a purpose. Think how many were sick in Elisha's day and longed to be healed and were not because God had a purpose. God acts some ways with some and other ways with others. And the question is, do you believe he knows what he's doing? That was the challenge that Jesus made here. He made the challenge more profound by using historical examples where the goodness of God came to the clearly undeserving, namely the Gentiles. The hungry in Israel were left hungry, but the widow of Zarephath, a Gentile, was fed. And the lepers of Israel were left unhealed, but the leper of Syria, a Gentile, was healed. Does God know what he's doing? Why the blessing on the Gentile and not on the chosen people? And then, of course, implicit in this is the teaching that Israel was in famine because it had been evil and rebellious against God. That's why. And the lepers were ignored in Israel because of the sin of King Jehoram, the son of King Ahab. That's why. And you can see how this apparently, initially innocuous history lesson is really aggravating these people. Jesus is saying to them, you're not going to get the miracles they had in Capernaum. And you need to face the sovereignty of God, and you need to face your own sinfulness. Jesus says something similar in Luke 11 where he speaks to the hearers as an evil generation and then uses the example of Jonah who blessed Gentile Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba, a Gentile who came to Solomon. And Jesus says, a greater than Jonah or Solomon is here, but you as an evil generation will not hear it. So same message he's preaching in Nazareth. And they got it. We may, in reading it quickly through, not get it. But they got it. Jesus was not going to meet their expectations. Jesus was not going to do what they wanted him to do. Jesus had another purpose. And what happened? You know, when you realize Jesus is not going to meet your expectations, you have one of two choices. in response. You can change your expectations to what Jesus is really going to do or you can reject him because he isn't doing what you want him to do. That's what happened in Nazareth. They rejected him because he was not going to do what they wanted him to do. But they didn't just reject him. But they were furious at him. How could he let them down this way? How could he fail to do what they wanted him to do? And so they rose up to kill him. They didn't just go out of synagogue muttering. That wasn't a very good sermon. They didn't go out of the synagogue saying, I hope the deacons don't pay him for that one. They knew exactly what he was saying to them. That their hearts were set on the wrong things. That their hearts needed to be set on something entirely different. And they refused to hear that word. They were consumed with fury. They took him out to kill him. And here we really see an anticipation of the cross. It was this rejection and this fury that would ultimately lead him to the cross. Because he came for sinners who are in rebellion against God. And this is displayed for us in this passage. There also gloriously is an anticipation here of his resurrection. we're told in the scriptures, death could not hold him. Well, this crowd couldn't hold him either. We don't know exactly how he managed to pass through the crowd, whether it was a miracle or something else, but he did. He passed through the crowd to go on to Capernaum and other cities where he would preach and perform miracles. And the tragedy of this text that is easy to miss is that after hearing the gracious words and after hearing the challenging words, Nazareth never heard any other words at all. At least in Luke's telling, Jesus never returns to Nazareth. Nazareth is never mentioned again in Luke's Gospel. And this is a very, should be, a very sober recognition for us. Jesus came with gracious words that Messiah was there to proclaim good news. Messiah was there to proclaim the kingdom of God. Messiah was there to proclaim deliverance from sin. And when that's not what they wanted, he challenged them to lead them back to the right expectations. And they utterly rejected what they heard. And at least as Luke records it, they never had opportunity to hear again. That should give us pause, shouldn't it? It should give us pause. To ask, what are our expectations of Jesus? And do we come to hear what he really has to say? Because while he comes to say, I have come to deliver you, and in my delivering you, there may be a miracle for one or for another, but there's good news for all. There's good news for all who will hear my voice. There's good news for all who will recognize me as Messiah. There's good news for all that in my death there is the forgiveness of sins. There's good news that God's Messiah is in the first place a preacher. Well, a lot of people don't think that's very good news. We have enough preachers. We have enough preaching. Miracles, that's what we want. You notice how central preaching is in this whole section? It begins with Jesus coming, preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. It ends with Jesus going, preaching in the synagogues of Judea. It's filled with Jesus preaching the good news. He says, it is for this purpose that I came to preach to you. Now, he had other purposes as well. But this is the foundational one. This is the critical one. Will we listen to him? Will we listen to his gracious words as he promises deliverance? Will we also listen to his challenging words where he has to correct us and redirect us? Or will we turn in fury to reject him because he won't do what we want when we want it? We need the Word. We need the Word. There's a reason that preaching stands at the heart of Protestant worship. Because left to ourselves, our minds and our hearts wander away from the truth and purposes of God. They wander away from the essential truth that Jesus came to save sinners. They wander away from the priority of the good news of salvation in our lives. And so we need that word to refresh us and to renew us and to redirect us. And praise God that he sent a preacher. To proclaim good news. And God grant that we not harden our hearts against that preaching. To demand that Jesus do what we want him to do. God grant that our ears will be open. That our hearts will be softened. And that when Jesus says to us what you really need. What you really need. What you really need is the forgiveness of sins and a new life. We say to the Savior, Amen. Amen. Amen. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, we are thankful for your word. We are thankful for the ways in which it comes to us. We are thankful that Jesus came as the great preacher of good news to give his life that we sinners might be redeemed, to give his life that his Holy Spirit might come into us and make us new creatures, that he gave his life that we might live a different life. And so we pray, O Lord, that we would allow him to set our expectations and that we might live for him by faith, trusting him that he is indeed God's Messiah. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.