Principles From The Precipice | Ep11

Transcript

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer. He then went into the wilderness to fast for 40 days, and he was tempted by Satan. He then returned to his hometown, Nazareth. He was now about 30 years of age, and had lived in that town since returning from Egypt as a young child.

That, of course, is recorded in Matthew 2:13-23, and Luke 3:23. He went to the synagogue, as was his custom, Luke 4:16 says. This is the synagogue in his hometown.

He was there all of his life. That was his synagogue. He had worshiped there all of his life, but this visit was different.

He now comes in, having been baptized, having been in the wilderness, having been tempted by Satan. He comes into the synagogue. They handed him the scroll, and he found the passage, Isaiah 61:1-3. That reads this way.

“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 brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of thinking, so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

That’s a great passage. So just imagine this. Jesus comes back to his home congregation, the synagogue there. He’s been there all of his life. He’s now been away a little while because he’s gone to be baptized with John. He spends those days in the wilderness, and now he comes back home, and he read this passage to them.

Let’s think about what this passage says. “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 brokenhearted.” And Jesus says, when he got through reading this passage, this passage is fulfilled in your sight today. Notice what all the passage said. It’s going to be good news for the afflicted.

He’s going to bind up those who are brokenhearted. He was going to proclaim liberty to the captives, freedom to the prisoners. It was going to be a favorable year of the Lord.

The day of the vengeance of God was going to come, and he’s going to comfort all who are mourning, and he’s going to grant those who mourn in Zion going to give them garland instead of ashes. The garland was a wreath, sort of like a lay of flowers instead of ashes. Ashes are what people would put on themselves when they were mourning and sinful.

The garland would be a sign of joy and happiness. And he speaks of the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they would be called oaks of righteousness.

And this man, who is now back in his home congregation, said, This day, this passage has been fulfilled in your sight. Then we go on in Luke 4 and verse 22, it says, And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. He’s read this great passage.

When he went on to mention two Gentile people, the text reads, All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, and they got up and drove 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 down the cliff. That’s Luke 4, 28 through 29. Just think about what happened there.

He comes in, he finds Isaiah 61, 1 through 3, reads it to them, he says to them, This has been fulfilled today in your sight. And they are just glowing and praising the words that he says, and how wonderful that’s going to be, and how great this man is. He’s one of us.

But he went on to mention two Gentile people, and that angered them. They turned against him, and it says they took him to the brow of the hill, a big cliff. They were about to throw him over the cliff, so that he’d die, how quickly they changed, from praising him to trying to kill him.

One of the interesting points that we might think about here is this. This was in the city of Nazareth. It was his home congregation.

It’s the synagogue where he had worshipped all his life. Well, his brothers and sisters also would have worshipped in that synagogue. They had grown up in that congregation, just like Jesus had.

And it’s the congregation, as a whole, who’s now trying to kill Jesus. I wonder if his brothers and sisters were involved in those men with those men who are about to throw him over the cliff. They would probably go along and agree with.

They would have their prejudice, just like the others. As we stop and think about that account in Jesus’s life, I think there’s some great lessons that we can learn. First, Jesus understands our situation when we try to deal with tickle people.

Tickle means to change one’s mind quickly. We saw that in them. They were praising what he said, how wonderful that is.

And now then, they’ve turned immediately and are trying to kill him. That’s what happened to Jesus. That’s what can happen to us.

They were praising him one minute and the next, they were trying to kill him. We should not be shocked when those we’re trying to teach go from loving what we’re saying to hating what we’re saying. You see, people are fickle.

It all depends upon the heart. They like it when they say things they agree with. Quite often, they become violent when we say things they disagree with.

So Jesus understands you when you’ve been in that situation because he was in that situation. As I’ve said several times, this was his home congregation. He grew up in that place from the time he was a young child.

Been there 30 years. He’s now 30 years old. They knew him.

They knew his family. But that didn’t stop them from wanting to kill him. A second lesson that we can see, Jesus understands our situation when people accept what we say until we say something that goes against what they believe.

You see, they liked what they heard until he mentioned something they did not like. They were all for him when his teaching agreed with their beliefs. But they were angered when he supported what they were against.

That is the nature of those who do not love truth. Prejudice can keep people from seeing truth. Preconceived ideas can be stronger than the truth one has not heard before.

That which is old is sometimes believed even when shown to be incorrect. Many don’t like information that challenges their core values or the core values of their parents or their denominational teaching. Truth seekers need to evaluate everything they hear against what the Bible says.

You know, when Paul and his traveling companions came to Berea in Acts 17, 11, it says, those of Berea were more noble than those of Thessalonica. And that they received word diligently and searched the scriptures daily to see whether or not those things were so. They were eager and they wanted to check it out to make sure it was right.

Truth seekers must be willing to give up error no matter how long they’ve held it or who else holds it. That’s a challenge for us. We need to be truth seekers.

There may be some things we’ve been taught in the church that come to find out are not correct. We need to be willing to change. There may be some things that our parents taught us that are not right.

We need to be willing to change. Truth seekers say, I’m going to follow truth. It’s based on truth.

It’s not based on the person who’s teaching you the truth. And so Jesus understood that situation that when people accept what we say until we say something that goes against them. But let’s be people who are willing to evaluate.

No matter what we hear or where we hear it or from whom we hear it. Let’s evaluate it and examine it. Paul said, urge in 1 Thessalonians, examine all things whole, fast, so that which is right.

Another great lesson we can see here. Jesus understands our situation when we’re rejected because he was rejected. No one likes to be rejected.

Rejection is one of the most damaging emotional feelings one can experience. That’s the reason many will not talk to others about important truth. They’re afraid of being rejected.

Jesus was hurt by rejection just like we’d be hurt by rejection. Remember, this was his quote church. He had attended there ever since a young boy.

They did not, they did not just reject his ideas but they were willing to reject him to the point of killing him. There are times in our lives when we are rejected. We’re rejected maybe by friends and family.

I’ve known numerous people who’ve obeyed the gospel, wanted to come to Jesus or dedicated to live for Jesus. But because they left their parents’ religion, they became outcast to their parents. How sad.

But Jesus understands you if you’re in that condition because he became an outcast in his home congregation to the point that they were willing to kill him. Another lesson here for us, Jesus understands our situation when we’re rejected by family because he was rejected by his family. You remember that John 7 and verse 5 says, his brothers did not believe in him.

Jesus grew up with the other children that Joseph and Mary had. They’re named in Matthew 13, 55, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. And he mentions that there were some sisters.

And so he is now back where these folks are there. They are his family members. Remember that Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him, that he was the Messiah.

How sad. The Old Testament taught that anyone who blasphemed was to be killed. In essence, Jesus was claiming to be God.

He was blaspheming by what he was saying. All the people in the synagogue turned against him that day and tried to throw him over the cliff. Isn’t it logical to think that James and Joseph and Simon and Judas with him in that synagogue that day? This would have included his brothers and sisters.

How sad that they maybe have reached the point of being willing to kill their own brother. Many Christians have experienced rejection from their own families because they have become Christians and rejected what the family had believed for a long time. Jesus knew what it was like to have family rejecting.

Later, Jesus taught him this subject and he said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man’s enemy will be the members of his household.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That’s Matthew 10, 34 through 37.

Jesus did not mean that he wants the sword more than peace, but he is not willing to have peace at the sacrifice of truth. We commend those of you who have struggled with family members or friends who have rejected you. You have made the decision that you’re going to follow Jesus no matter what people say.

It takes courage to do that, but I want you to be encouraged by understanding the fact that Jesus knows how you feel. He was in that same position. That his family was rejecting him.

Now it is wonderful that his family, his brothers, and probably his sisters came to believe in him after the resurrection. We find that his brothers were in the upper room after the ascension of Jesus. It seems that the resurrection of Jesus Christ convinced those brothers that Jesus is the Messiah.

They probably struggled with that idea, recognizing Jesus and the power that he had. It was sort of like, you’re just one of our family. We know better than that, but they were convicted that he was not the Messiah.

But now then after his resurrection, they became believers. Two of them, James and Jude, wrote the books of James and Jude. They made quite a turnaround, but at that moment they’re against Jesus because they believe he’s blaspheming.

Jesus understands when your family rejects you, when you have the heartache of mother and father, or brothers and sisters, who are no longer fellowship with you, who no longer won’t have anything to do with you, or who speak harshly against you because of what you do. Just understand that Jesus Christ understands. Jesus understands when we have to escape for our own safety.

The text says when they were ready to throw him over the cliff, that he passed by through them. We don’t know just how that happened, but if that was a miracle or some way of God’s power being used, but he escaped because he knew he needed to live. He didn’t need to die at that time.

He operated on his own time schedule. He left that scene to save his life, that he could live and minister, could prove to the world that he was the Son of God, and that he could die at his own time under God’s guidance and direction he would be willing to be sacrificed. When they were about to kill him, he escaped, Luke 4, verse 30.

He needed to teach others before he died. Sometimes it’s necessary for Christians to escape from those who would kill them so that they can teach others who will listen. Yes, these are some great lessons about Christ and his experience at home.

I call these principles from the precipice. He was about to be thrown over that precipice and die. We’re grateful that Jesus went through those experiences to help us today.

He understands our situation, and he can comfort and strengthen you if you’re going through some of these situations that we looked at in this text. May God give us all the strength to live for him even in adverse situations. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God’s Word.

Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you’re ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we’d love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center. You’re always welcome.

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