The Day Jesus Came to Church – Part 2

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It's active now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, and all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

What things? As Jesus said, guess what? Jews aren't the only ones who are going to be saved.

Your rejection is going to cause Gentiles to be a part of God's family. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, for thousands of years, the prophets of Israel foretold a Messiah who would one day bring salvation to the world. But when he finally arrived, most Jews refused to believe it.

In fact, they crucified Jesus for his bold claims. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explores why so many of God's chosen people rejected Jesus. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Well, we're in the fourth chapter of Luke today. And before we begin, let me say that I know of nothing that will rejuvenate your walk with God any more than spending time with his son.

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And here's the best part. When you give a gift between now and December 31st, your gift will have twice the impact because of the Light the Darkness matching challenge that's active right now. Because of this exciting opportunity, your gift will automatically be doubled in size, empowering Pathway to Victory to multiply its influence many times over in the new year. We'll say more about the matching challenge, my devotional, and other resources later on, but right now it's time to get started with today's message. We're looking at a passage in Luke chapter 4 that describes an intense encounter between Jesus and his critics. I titled today's message, The Day Jesus Came to Church. Luke chapter 4. If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 4 as we talk about what happened the day Jesus came to church.

Look at verse 14. Verses 14 and 15 are summary statements about his ministry of a year and a half in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread throughout the surrounding district and he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. As a part of his ministry, 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. Every Saturday he was in the synagogue. But this particular synagogue that Jesus came to in verse 16 was not just any old synagogue. It was the synagogue in the city where he grew up.

Now let me explain what's going on here. There was no permanent pastor of the synagogue. Instead those duties of leading worship were passed around. And so when Jesus came in, since he was the hometown boy, he was given the task of leading worship on that Saturday. Now verse 17. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Now apparently the book of the Bible had already been chosen. But Jesus apparently had the latitude to pick which passage he was going to read from. So he read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah verses 1 and 2. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 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 those free who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

Every Jew was familiar with this passage from Isaiah. Written 700 years earlier, it was a prophecy of what the Messiah would do when he came. I want you to notice the four characteristics of the Messiah from Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2. Number one, he would be anointed by the Spirit of God.

That's why he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Secondly, he would announce the arrival of God's salvation. And then number three, he would bring God's salvation. The Messiah not only announced it, he actually affected God's salvation. Set free those who are downtrodden. And finally, he would offer forgiveness from sins to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

This is an allusion to the Jewish year called Jubilee in which all of a person's debts, the citizen's debts were forgiven in that particular year. Verse 20 says when he had finished reading that scripture, he sat down. That's what the teacher would do. He would sit down. But notice the last phrase of verse 20. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.

You can just see them nudging one another, whispering. Why did Jesus read this passage today? Is Jesus inferring what I think he's saying? Is he claiming to be the M word? Is that what he's saying?

Surely not. When Jesus sat down for the explanation, he answered that question clearly. Verse 21, and Jesus began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. You've been waiting for the Messiah?

Your wait is over. I am he. But then they started to ask themselves, is this guy not Joseph's son?

I mean, isn't this the same guy who grew up down the street from us? He's claiming to be the Messiah. That's not what we pictured the Messiah to be like. Well, Jesus could read their minds. Look at verse 23.

He anticipated their objection and he said to them, No doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we've heard that was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. That is, Jesus, if you're really the Messiah, why don't you conjure up some miracles for us like you did in nearby Capernaum?

We heard the great things you did there. Why not convince us that you're Messiah? Perform a sign for us. Jesus wasn't interested in doing that. He knows how ineffective signs are to bring about genuine faith. I mean, just think about the Old Testament. God gave sign after sign to the Jews, parting the Red Sea, thundering voice from heaven, manna, you know, till they choked on it and so forth.

He did all of these miraculous things that people didn't believe. And then in verse 24, he said to them, Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. Now, that was a proverb of the day. It wasn't a principle. It wasn't a law. It was just saying it's difficult for people to minister in their hometown.

People have a hard time receiving their message. And then in verses 25 to 27, he gives two examples of the Old Testament that seem at first completely irrelevant to what he's saying. He gives two stories. One about Elijah. Remember Elijah, how God cared for him? He stayed in the home of the widow at Zarephath. Jesus said, remember, this widow was not a Jewish widow. She was a Gentile widow. And he said, and remember the story of Elisha? Remember the lepers?

There are a lot of people with leprosy, a lot of Jews with leprosy, but it was a Gentile named Naaman who received the healing from his leprosy. Jesus' point was, look, those of you who here in Nazareth, if you don't accept me and my message, that's okay. That's your choice. God has plenty of non-Jews, Gentiles, who are ready to accept my salvation.

Now, do you think I'm reading too much into this? Look at how they turned on Jesus in an instant. Verse 28, and all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

What things? As Jesus said, guess what? Jews aren't the only ones who are going to be saved. Your rejection is going to cause Gentiles to be a part of God's family. Now, to understand why they became so enraged, you have to understand something about Jewish tradition.

William Barclay gives us this helpful insight. He said, Jews were so sure that they were God's people that they despised all others. There was a common saying among the Jews that God had created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell. And now you've got this young prophet, one of their own, coming and saying, guess what?

God's not obligated just to bless you. He will bring Gentiles to be fellow heirs with you in the kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus would say, they're going to be in heaven.

You're going to be in hell, outside, clamoring, begging to come in. They couldn't handle that. They were absolutely outraged. You see, the problem with these Jews was, the problem was they had elevated their tradition above the teaching of Scripture. The fact is, Scripture from the beginning had always said Jews were not the only ones who were going to be saved. God said to Abraham in Genesis 12, and through you, Abraham, all the nations of the world will be blessed. God's plan is to save Jews and Gentiles and Muslims and atheists and Baptists and Catholics. He'll save anybody who trusts in Christ for salvation.

There is a wideness in God's mercy. But they didn't want to hear that. Their tradition taught them that no, only Jews could be saved.

So they weren't open to Gentile blessing. You know, there are many, many churches today, unfortunately, that have that same narrow view about who's going to be in heaven. Now look, we have to be as narrow as Jesus was. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

But a lot of people have not been content to make that the only requirement. They've said that to be a member of God's family, and certainly to be a member of this church, you have to not only accept Christ as Savior, you have to look like we do. You have to believe like we do. You have to do everything we do to be welcomed into God's family. And that's why so many people are turned off to the gospel of Jesus Christ, people who've elevated their tradition above the clear teaching of Scripture. I'm so grateful First Baptist Dallas isn't like that. You know, First Baptist Dallas has for 150 years been a church that has been built not on tradition, not on denomination. It has been built upon the immutable, unchanging, and errant Word of God. That is our foundation. That is our only foundation.

And it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is, what your economic background is, it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are. If you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, you are welcomed here at First Baptist Church Dallas. The Jews didn't understand that. They were seeing how tightly they could draw the circle. And so they were enraged by what Jesus said. Verse 29 says, they were so enraged that they took Jesus out of the synagogue, and they led him to a cliff, and they were gonna throw him over the cliff to kill him.

But look at verse 30. But passing through their midst, he went his way. We don't know exactly what happened here. Maybe it was a miracle, God supernaturally delivered Jesus from the crowd. It may have been that simply by his authority and their cowardness, they backed down at the last minute, and Jesus just simply walked through the crowd.

We don't know exactly what happened here. But what we do know is it wasn't time for Jesus to die yet. God had a plan for his life.

And by the way, he has a plan for your life as well. Maybe some of you right now are fearing your own death. Maybe you're facing an illness, or you're fearing the death of somebody very close to you.

I came across some words a few years ago that have been a real help to me in encouraging other people. Somebody has said, every person is immortal until his work on earth is done. Do you know that? You're immortal. Nothing, nothing is gonna take you from this planet one second earlier than God's plan. Nothing is gonna take that loved one of yours away from you one second before part of God's loving, eternal, and wise plan. That was true for Jesus. God had a plan for Jesus. He wasn't to die now, he was to die on Calvary three years later.

You know, you may be wondering, why are we talking about this today? Well, we're spending a year studying the life of Jesus Christ, and we're doing it not because we can't think of anything else to do. But this church is interested in making strong disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. To be a disciple means for me to live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were I. Being a disciple doesn't mean trying to imagine that you lived 2,000 years ago and were walking around Nazareth and Capernaum and wondering, gee, what would Jesus do?

No, that's not it. What it means to be a disciple is imagine Jesus were walking in your sandals right now. He had your job, he had your family, he had your friends, he had your amount of money. What would he do in those areas of his life? That's what it means to be a disciple, to live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were I. Based on that definition, let me suggest to you in closing three practical principles from this passage about what it means to be Christ's disciple. Number one, if we're going to be a follower of Jesus, it means we need to imitate Jesus' disciplines.

We need to imitate Jesus' disciplines. You know, the key to an athlete performing well in a contest is the training he endures before the game. You know, if he waits to start training until the game begins, he's waited too long. No, it's all of those hours of training ahead of time that make him successful or unsuccessful in the game. And that means when he stands up to swing the bat, he does so reflexively.

It's easy. He's been practicing for that. Or when he throws the pass, I mean, he's done it so many times that it's a reflex action. It's the same way in living the Christian life. It was the same way for Jesus. The reason he was able to turn the other cheek, forgive other people, resist temptation, continue courageously in spite of criticism, he did that because he had trained. He spent years training, immersing himself in the Scriptures, praying, making that a regular part of his life, attending worship every week. All of those things were part of his training that made him play well in the game. We need to imitate Jesus' disciplines.

Don't wait until the test comes to begin to train. Secondly, we need to emulate Jesus' courage. You know, somebody has said the measure of our courage is what it takes to stop us. What does it take to stop you in living out your Christian convictions? For most people, it's criticism. They're happy to follow God until they start to be criticized. Then they're not so sure.

But not Jesus. He faced criticism not just from his enemies, but from his friends and his family members, even here, his fellow church members, synagogue members, but he kept moving forward anyway. David Roper in his book, A Burden Shared, talked about four aspects, characteristics of criticism.

I bet you can relate to these. He said, criticism comes, number one, when we least need it. Number two, when we least deserve it. Number three, from people who are least qualified to give it.

And number four, in a form that is least helpful to us. Have you discovered that to be true? Criticism paralyzes lots of people, not Jesus. It propelled him to keep moving forward in his obedience to God. We need to make sure that we emulate Jesus' courage. And finally, to be a disciple means we need to articulate Jesus' message. Jesus said, I have come to announce the favorable year of the Lord. His message was a message of grace. God is willing to forgive anyone and everyone who trusts in me for salvation. And ladies and gentlemen, 2,000 years later, we are still in that favorable year of the Lord. We're in that time that we can announce God's forgiveness of anyone who will believe. And do you realize that's why God has left us here? Jesus said, I came to seek and save those who are lost.

If we're going to be disciples of Christ, it means that is our purpose in life as well. Now, I know I've said this a lot. You probably think I sound like a broken record. If the pastor says that one more time, I'm going to throw up.

I'm going to keep saying it because it is so important we understand this. There is one reason God left you here on earth. He didn't leave you here to build a successful career. He didn't leave you here to accumulate the biggest pile of money you can accumulate.

You're going to leave it all behind anyway. He didn't even leave you here to have a happy family life. Jesus had a lousy family life.

I mean, he was always at odds with his brothers and sisters, sometimes even with his mom, you know. He understood his purpose was to do the will of God. God has left you and me here for one reason, and that is to share Christ with as many people as possible. That's why we're organized as a church, to help Christians become stronger disciples and followers of Christ, but to take the message of Christ to as many people as possible. Do you understand that's why God has left you here? Instead of taking you to heaven immediately, I had to make a day trip to California to preach to 700 pastors on the National Day of Prayer. I wish every one of you could go with me once on one of these trips, just to hear these men and women who are so encouraged by Pathway to Victory in our ministry. You would understand what God's doing because of your faithfulness. But anyway, I was sitting in the departure lounge getting ready to board the plane.

The captain was up at the desk getting his paperwork. He looked over, he recognized me, and he came over, said he was a faithful listener to Pathway to Victory, and he said, would you like to come on board early? I'd like to show you the cockpit before the passengers come on.

This is a brand new airplane. So I said, well, sure. So we went in, he gave me a little tour of the cockpit. We were standing there in the doorway. He said, you know, pastor, my vocation is being an airline captain.

I've done it for 30 years. But he said, my real calling is being a witness for Jesus Christ. And he reached in his pocket, and he pulled out this little silver cross.

He had a whole pocket filled with them. And he said, whenever I see somebody I sense has a need, when it's appropriate, I hand them this little cross, and I give them this card, and he showed me the card that talked about the importance of the cross and the symbol of forgiveness it was for those who trust in Christ. He said, I give as many of these out that I can every day. My vocation is being an airline captain, but my real calling is being a witness for Christ.

That guy got it. That's why we're here, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. But that favorable day of the year won't always last because there is a day of vengeance coming when it will be too late to receive God's grace and instead will be destined to receive his judgment. When is that day of vengeance coming? When is the Lord returning to put an end to everything?

I have no idea when that day is. But I think Paul was right when he said in Romans 13-11, that day is closer today than it's ever been before. That was true 2,000 years ago when Paul wrote it.

Think how much more true that is today. And because the day of the Lord is drawing near, it's critically important to get ready. We know the time is short and nothing will prepare us any more than spending quality time getting better acquainted with the Savior. In that spirit, we have already worked diligently behind the scenes to prepare a brand new daily devotional for you. It's ready, and I can honestly say this is the most beautiful edition Pathway to Victory has ever produced.

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David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous year-end gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'd like to say thanks by sending you the brand-new leather-bound 2025 Pathway to Victory daily devotional. If you'd like to request your copy, call 866-999-2965. Or even easier, simply go online to ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $100 or more, you'll also receive this month's teaching series called Reigniting Your Passion for Christ. We'll send that to you on both DVD video and MP3 format audio discs.

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That's PO Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Learn how a 24-hour period in the life of Jesus can help you discover your God-given mission. That's Friday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your special year-end gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the Light the Darkness matching challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on December 31st. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.