Jesus Talking Straight.

Sermon preached on Sunday, 31^st January, 2010.

Luke 4:21-30

Jesus grew up in the little village of Nazareth –– far from Jerusalem, the big city –– far from the bright lights –– far from the temple.

There wasn't much going on in Nazareth.

It was just a village of a few hundred people.

Jesus' father, Joseph, was a carpenter ­­–– but there wouldn't have been many houses to build in Nazareth.

Much of his work would have been building yokes for oxen and other agricultural tools.

When Jesus grew up, he moved to Capernaum –– a larger town –– a seashore town. Capernaum was located on trade routes, so lots of interesting people come through town.

There were lots of Gentiles in Capernaum.

By our standards, Capernaum was still a small town, but by Nazareth standards, Capernaum was a really bustling centre.

Jesus worked several miracles in Capernaum:

He exorcised an unclean spirit there (Mark 1:21-28).

He healed a paralytic (Mark 2:1-12).

His second miracle was healing a Capernaum boy (John 4:46-54).

Capernaum was only about 20 miles (30 k.) from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up.

The people of Nazareth would have heard of the miracles that he performed in Capernaum.

He was the local boy made good –– no doubt about it!

In our scripture today, Jesus has come home to Nazareth and is teaching in the synagogue there.

People would have been interested in what he has to say.

They expect him to say nice things –– like "I'm glad to be back home!"

This is a great place – “God’s own country down here!”

After all, when you go back to somewhere, people expect you to be friendly and positive and affirming.

But Jesus didn't spend a lot of time playing "nice" when he spoke in the Nazareth synagogue.

He started out by reading a prophecy from the book of Isaiah –– a prophecy that had to do with the coming of the messiah –– and then he said:

"TODAY this scripture HAS BEEN FULFILLED in your hearing" (v. 21).

In other words, it sounded as if Jesus was claiming to be the messiah.

At this point the local people could have found that offensive, but didn't.

Instead, they "all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth" (v. 22).

But they didn’t stay friendly for long–– and with good reason.

Jesus preached a sermon that sounded hostile to their ears –– hostile and heretical.

First, he told them that they expected him to work miracles as he had done in Capernaum, and then he said:

"Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown."

That sounded like he was having a go at them.

Then he reminded them of two incidents from their history where God favored Gentiles over Jews.

In the first instance, (in v.25) there was a great famine,

but God sent Elijah, the great prophet,

to a Gentile woman to get help

and this Gentile woman showed great faith by giving her last bit of food to Elijah.

That story was right there in their scriptures

but the people of Nazareth didn't appreciate being reminded of it

being reminded that God sometimes favors Gentiles over Jews.

Then Jesus reminded them that there were many lepers in Israel, but God sent Elisha, another great prophet, to cleanse Naaman, another Gentile, of his leprosy.

That was in verse 27.

What Jesus was saying was something like this:

"You consider yourselves special because you're Jews

but your own scriptures show that God loves Gentiles just as much as God loves you."

That might not seem like a big deal to us, but it was a big deal for the people of Nazareth.

They had come to celebrate a local boy made good

but the local boy preached a sermon that made them feel bad.

Jesus had obviously become a Gentile-lover.

His time in Capernaum had changed him into some sort of liberal

When Jesus launched himself into his Gentile-loving sermon,

it made the people of Nazareth so angry that they got up,

drove him out of town,

and tried to throw him off a cliff.

But, by the grace of God, Jesus escaped and went on his way.

Verses 28,29,30.

Jesus was challenging what they thought – their system of belief.

He was telling them what they needed to hear rather than what they WANTED to hear

Jesus was that sort of preacher.

The people of Nazareth tried to kill Jesus when he preached in their synagogue. Jewish leaders plotted to kill him –– and they finally succeeded!

But the cross was not a sign that Jesus was evil.

It was evidence of the evil that lurks in our hearts –– in all of our hearts.

The Apostle Paul said,

"All have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:32).

There is that word ALL.

We have ALL sinned.

You know that you have sinned, and I know I have sinned.

We try to keep it a secret from each other, but it is hard to keep it a secret from ourselves.

We have sinned –– each and every one of us.

I had a lady at Newport who was adamant that she had never sinned.

A very blind and dangerous position to be in.

Jesus death can’t cover the unrepentant.

What did Jesus say that made them so angry?

Why were they so upset with this hometown boy that they wanted to kill him?

What Jesus said seems pretty innocent to our ears

but we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the people of Nazareth.

All of their lives, they had believed that God loved Jews and NOBODY ELSE.

In his sermon, Jesus reminded them that their very own scriptures proved otherwise.

Jesus could have mentioned other passages in their scriptures that made the same point, but the people of Nazareth didn't give him a chance.

They decided that he was a Gentile-lover, and tried to kill him.

What Jesus said might not seem like much of a provocation to you, but Jesus knew what he was doing

and he knew what to expect.

He was challenging their assumption that God loved them and NOBODY ELSE –– and he knew they wouldn't like it.

I think there are two points of application that we would do well to consider.

The first is this:

We have come to accept that God loves lots of people

not just Jews

not just white anglos

we still need to be reminded of the radical nature of God's love.

God does not just love US.

God does not just love people WHO ARE LIKE US.

God does not just love people WHO LOVE US.

God loves even OUR ENEMIES –– people who hate us –– people who hurt us.

Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who suffered through seven years in a German concentration camp during World War II, put it this way. He said:

"It took me a long time to learn

that God is not the enemy of my enemies.

And then he added this. He said:

"God isn't even the enemy of God's enemies."

"God isn't even the enemy of God's enemies."

Jesus on the cross is the proof of that

What did he pray?

Did he pray for release? No.

Did he pray for revenge? No.

He prayed:

"Father, forgive them;

for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:24).

When Jesus preached in his hometown synagogue, he reminded the people of two stories in their scriptures that suggested that God loved Gentiles

people whom the Jews despised,

as much as he loved Jews.

The people of Nazareth became so angry that they tried to kill Jesus.

When we look at that story, we are not likely to try to kill Jesus, but we are likely to decide, "That story doesn't apply here.

It doesn't have anything to do with me."

We are likely to say:

I don't have to make room in my life for others apart from my family and circle of friends.

But Jesus' sermon in the Nazareth synagogue says,

"Yes, you do! Yes, we do!

We need to make room in our hearts & life for people who are difficult to love

because that's what God does

and that's what God wants us to do.

The second point of application is this:

Jesus Himself was not accepted as a prophet in his hometown.

Many people have the same attitude.

Don’t be surprised if your Christian life and faith are not easily accepted by those who know you well.

Because they know your background,

Your failures,

Your foibles,

They may not see past these, to the person that you have become.

What can we do about that?

Let God work in your life,

Pray that you might a positive witness for him,

And be patient.

Wanting To Be Great!

In my life, for right or wrong, I have wanted to be GREAT.

I have wanted to be a great husband, a great father, have a great ministry.

Whether I have achieved this, I will have to leave for others to judge.

Has it been right to even desire being great?

Jesus speaks about being great in Matthew 20:26-28:

"...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

TFTD: It is not the end result ("being great") that is important, but the PROCESS of serving.

In the end this is what makes one great.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Looking Beyond Today

At the moment I am reading through Job (thought to be one of the oldest books in the Bible).
I came across this verse (14:1)

"Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure."

It is a bit of a cliche, but life is short and we need to remember that and regard this life as preparation for the next, helping others be informed about the next and caring for this world and other people.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

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Generosity Is The Key.

This verse was a part of our Bible Reading this morning at our prayer group. It made quite an impression on those of us who were there (me included).

Mark 4:24,25

"Listen carefully to what I am saying—and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on your own. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes."

TFTD: It is so obvious isn't it?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Don't Be Distracted!

Mark 3:1-6 – The Man With The Withered Hand Healed.

Sermon preached on Wednesday, 27th January, 2010 @ 11am.

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

It is very easy to be distracted from our following of Jesus, and from our calling to serve Him.

We need the wisdom of Solomon and the tenacity of a terrier to stay completely on the rails.

Let's look at this Bible passage.

“A man was there who had a withered hand”

This man with the withered hand still had legs to take him to worship in the synagogue.

It was here that he was going to be healed.

The critics of Jesus “watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath”

They expected Jesus to heal this man with the withered hand.

By their expectation, they admitted that Jesus had the power of God to work miracles.

Knowing this, they watched Him closely (for what purpose?) . . so that they might accuse Him.

They knew what Jesus could do yet their knowledge didn’t draw them to Jesus.

It was as if a man could fly, but the authorities wanted to know if he had a pilot’s license.

They had no heart of love for Him.

They knew about Jesus, but they did not know Him.

They also knew Jesus would do something when He saw this man in need.

In this sense, these critics had more faith than many of us, because we sometimes doubt that Jesus wants to meet the needs of others.

“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” Jesus asks

In His question to the religious leaders, Jesus emphasizes the truth about the Sabbath,

there is never a wrong day to do something truly good.

According to their Sabbath traditions, if you cut your finger, you could stop the bleeding - but you could not put ointment on the cut.

You could stop it from getting worse, but you weren’t allowed to make it better.

Jesus looked around them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts:

This is one of the few places where Jesus is described as having anger, and He is angry at the hardness of men’s hearts.

We know what anger is, but we are rarely angry for the same reason Jesus was angry.

Our anger usually comes from feeling injured, not from the outrage that a good man feels in the face of evil.

Jesus was angry because this was a perfect opportunity for these critics of His to change their mind about Him and their traditions.

But they refused to change their minds, and rejected Jesus instead.

In this we can see that Jesus deliberately used this occasion to provoke a response.

Jesus could have done this the next day.

Jesus could have done it privately.

But He chose to do it at this time and place.

Jesus says, “Stretch out your hand”

In this, Jesus commanded the man with the withered hand to do something impossible.

How can you stretch out a paralyzed hand?

But as the man put forth effort, God did the rest.

God never commands us without enabling us.

We need to pause – and remember that.

The Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him:

Jesus did nothing but a wonderful miracle.

In response, two parties of former enemies (the Pharisees and the Herodians) can agree together in one cause: to destroy Jesus.

Luke 6:11 says that the critics of Jesus were filled with rage when Jesus healed this man.

Which was more a violation of the Sabbath?

When Jesus healed a man, or when these hate-filled men plotted the murder of a godly man who never sinned against anybody?

A verse from My Song Is Love Unknown catches this irony:

Why, what has my Lord done,

To cause this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run

And gave the blind their sight.

What injuries! Yet these are why,

What injuries, yet these are why

The Lord Most High so cruelly dies.

This passage today we see the religious leaders loosing sight of their goal,

To point people towards God,

And to do it in a loving and compassionate way.

We need to be careful that we do not get distracted from our great calling to be followers of the Lord Jesus,

Pointing others in His direction.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Taking Too Much For Granted.

I use a daily prayer diary for the persecuted church.

Today, Australia Day, I prayed for Christians in Iran and particularly for two Christian women who have just been released from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. They are not fully free yet and their health was seriously affected during their detention.

Their only "crime" was being faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.

(TFTD) We tend to take our faith and freedom very casually.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

The WAY To Go!

This verse was a part of my reading yesterday.

Proverbs 3:5,6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Going Through Bad Times.

Sermon preached Sunday 6pm, 24^th January, 2010.

James 1:2-4 Patient endurance in trials.

“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials”

James regarded trials as inevitable.

We notice that He said when, not if you fall into various trials.

At the same time trials are occasions for joy, not discouraged resignation.

Is that what it is like for you?

That is an odd thing to say but,

We can count it all joy in the midst of trials, because they are used to produce patience.

It can be translated, Greet it as pure joy,

Patience/perserverence is the ancient Greek word hupomone. This word does not describe a passive waiting, but an active endurance.

It isn’t so much the quality that helps you sit quietly in the doctor’s waiting room as it is the quality that helps you finish a marathon.

Hupo means (under) and meno (to stay, abide, remain).

It means to remain under.

It has the picture of someone under a heavy load and resolutely staying there instead of trying to escape.

Verse 3 tells us that “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”

Faith is tested through trials, not produced by trials.

Trials reveal what faith we do have.

We don’t have trails because God doesn’t know how much faith we have.

We have trials so that our faith will be evident to ourselves and those around us.

If trials do not produce faith, what does?

Romans 10:17 tells us: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Supernaturally, faith is built in us as we hear and understand and trust in God’s word.

James doesn’t want anyone to think that God sends trials to break down or destroy our faith.

He will come back to this point in James 1:13-18.

Trials don’t produce faith.

But when trials are received with faith, they do produce something?

What is it?

That’s right - it produces perseverance/patience.

There is an exception though.

If difficulties are received in unbelief and grumbling, trials can produce bitterness and discouragement.

This is why James exhorted us to count it all joy.

Counting it all joy is faith’s response to a time of trial.

The work of patient endurance comes slowly, and must be allowed to have full bloom.

Patient endurance is a mark of the person who is perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

In the next section –verses 5-8 James writes about - How to receive the wisdom you need from God.

He starts “If any of you lacks wisdom”

When trials come upon us we know it is time to seek wisdom from God.

We often didn’t know we needed wisdom until our time of difficulty.

Once in a time of trial, we need to know if a particular trial is something God wants us to eliminate by faith or persevere in by faith.

This requires wisdom

Wisdom is a lot more than knowledge.

Knowledge is raw information, but wisdom knows how to use it. Someone once said that knowledge is the ability to take things apart, but wisdom is the ability to put things together.

To receive wisdom, James says we simply ask of God.

And God will give it generously (liberally),

Without despising our request (without reproach).

Knowing God’s generosity – that He never despises or resents us for asking for wisdom – should encourage us to ask Him often.

We understand that He is the God of the open hand, not the god of the clenched fist.

Wisdom begins in the Bible.

And ends in the Bible.

True wisdom will always be consistent with God’s word.

But like any other request –it must be asked “in faith”.

There is to be no doubting God’s ability or desire to give us His wisdom.

James said, that the one who doubts and lacks faith should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

This lack of faith and trust in God shows that we have no foundation, being unstable in all our ways(v.7)

James describes these people like “a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind”

He also describes them as a “double-minded (man), unstable in all their (his) ways”

To ask God, but to ask Him in a doubting way, shows that we are double-minded.

It is like being in no mans land.

If we had no faith, we would never ask at all.

If we had no unbelief, we would have no doubting.

To be in the middle ground between faith and unbelief is to be double-minded.

In verses 9-11 James makes a sudden shift from trials and wisdom to riches and humility.

I don’t want to be distracted and so I will skip down to v.12 where James speaks of a blessing for those who endure temptation.

“Blessed is the man” - sounds like one of Jesus’ Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

We learn here that we can be blessed as we endure temptation.

It does not say, “Blessed is the man who is never tempted.”

Nor does it say, “Blessed is the man who finds all temptation easy to conquer.”

Instead the promise of blessedness is given to the one who endures trials/temptation.

Temptation is one of the various trials (James 1:2)

There is a special gift of blessedness from God to the one who can say “no” to temptation/trials, thereby saying “yes” to God.

V.12 tells us the purpose of God in allowing temptation.

The purpose is to approve us.

That through the testing, we would be revealed as genuine and strong in our faith.

As we persevere through temptation, we are approved.

This results in us being rewarded, as the work of God in us is evident through our resistance of temptation.

James reminds us that it really is worth it to endure under the temptations we face.

Our steadfastness will be rewarded as we demonstrate our love by resisting temptation.

We will be given The crown of life which the Lord has promised (v.12).

Those last 5 words of verse 12 describe the motive for resisting temptation,

because of our love for God.

The passions of sinful temptation can only really be overcome by a greater passion, a passion for the honor and glory and relationship with God.

This is important.

Some resist temptation because of the fear of man.

The thief suddenly becomes honest when he sees a policeman. The man or woman controls their lusts because they couldn’t bear to be found out and thus embarrassed.

But the best motive for resisting temptation is to love Him;

to love Jesus with great power and greater passion than your love for the sin.

In Verses13-16 we see how temptation comes and works.

Verse 13 tells us temptation does not come from God.

Though He allows it, He Himself does not entice us to evil, though God may test our faith He does not lead us into to evil (God doesn’t tempt anyone).

James knew that most people have an evil tendency to blame God when they find themselves in trials.

But by His very nature, God is unable to either be tempted (in the sense we are tempted, as James will explain), nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

How does temptation come?

“Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” God doesn’t tempt us.

Instead, temptation comes when we are drawn away by our own fleshly desires and enticed.

The world and the devil provide the enticement.

Drawn away: “It is either a metaphor taken from a fish enticed by a bait, and drawn after it.

Satan certainly tempts us, but the only reason temptation has a hook in us is because of our own fallen nature, which corrupts our God-given desires.

We often give Satan too much credit for his tempting powers, and fail to recognize that we are drawn away by our own desires. Some people practically beg Satan to tempt them.

We learn of the progressive nature of sin.

When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin:

Springing forth from corrupt desire is sin.

Springing forth from sin is death.

This progression to death is an inevitable result that Satan always tries to hide from us, but we should never be deceived about it.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren:

Satan’s great strategy in temptation is to convince us that the pursuit of our corrupt desires will somehow produce life and goodness for us.

If we remembered that Satan only comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10), then we can more effectively resist the deceptions of temptation.

In these next couple of verses - 17-18 God’s goodness stands in contrast to the temptations we face.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

It comes from God the Father in heaven.

The ultimate goodness of any gift must be measured on an eternal scale.

Something that may seem to be only good (such as winning a lottery) may in fact be turned to our destruction.

We see that God’s goodness is constant.

There is no variation with Him.

Instead of shadows, God is the Father of lights.

This means that God never changes.

Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth: James understood that the gift of salvation was given by God, and not earned by the work or obedience of man.

It is of His own will that He brought us forth for salvation.

And so, if we endure through trails and temptations we will take on that salvation and the crown of life.