Luke 4, and we'll be starting
in verse 23. And this is the point in Luke,
just a little background for you. Jesus is in Nazareth. He's in the synagogue. as his
custom was, and he had just finished reading out of Isaiah about himself. It was about himself. What he
read was, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. And this was a prophecy
from one of God's chosen prophets, and therefore was a declaration
by God Himself. Yet that prophecy had stood unfulfilled
until Jesus. From Isaiah to Jesus. And no
one had ever claimed that it was about Himself from the time
of Isaiah up to the time of Jesus, and even if they had, they were
false and they were a liar. So here's what it says in verse
23, Jesus said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me.
Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in
Capernaum, do also in your country. Do also here in your country."
Then he said, "'Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted
in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heaven was shut
up three years and six months, and there was a great famine
throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah
sent except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon to a woman who
was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed
except Naaman the Syrian. Now, Jesus has just declared
that He has been anointed by God. That's what He read between
verses 18 and 19. And He had been anointed by God,
who, by the way, is also His Father, to preach the Gospel
to the poor. And the Jews were so unprepared
for this eventuality that they immediately questioned Jesus'
sanity. They didn't know what to think. And therefore Jesus says there
in verse 23 that we just read, you will surely say this proverb
to me, physician, heal yourself. In this proverb, Jesus is the
physician, but he's sick in the proverb and no one wants to be
helped by a sick doctor. That doctor needs to care for
his own self, for his own ailments, his infirmities. before he should
help others who are sick. And no one wants to be seen by
a sick doctor who's wheezing and coughing and has open wounds.
That's just weird. But the way Jesus is using this
proverb does not imply a poor physical state, like having a
cold or whatever, but a mental one. It's your sanity. It's another
way of claiming that someone has lied, that they're a liar. or they're just out of their
mind. So they need to show proof before anyone will believe what
they just said. So you're the anointed, huh?
You're the one Isaiah was speaking about all those years ago. And
they said, you're Joseph's son. You're Mary's little boy. Physician, heal yourself. You're a liar and you're crazy.
And Jesus knows what they're thinking. And that's why He says,
I know that you think, and I'm paraphrasing, I know what you
think, I'm not telling the truth, and that you think I'm claiming
to be someone I'm not. But let me tell you this too,
this is in verse 24. Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. Now what does Jesus mean by that,
no prophet is accepted in his own country? I suspect that everyone
was a little bit surprised by that. Because they would say,
how can you say that, Jesus? We're the Jews. We're the Jews. We pretty much made up the word
prophet. God speaks only to us. I mean, look at the scrolls.
Count the number of prophets we've had. God gave us these prophets and
we teach their words in the synagogue. We have Habakkuk, we have Daniel,
we have Jeremiah, we have Isaiah, we have David. There's just dozens. We have so many prophets. Show us one prophet that we haven't
accepted. But, the children of Israel were
a stubborn and rebellious people. And that's not me saying that,
that's God saying it. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 6. They somehow miss this in their
history class, that they want to rebel against their God. And it's not just once or twice.
Not even just three times or four times. Many times. In Jeremiah 6, verse 27 and 28,
it says, "...I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among
My people that you may know and test their way." And this is God talking. He's
speaking to the Israelites, not anybody else. These aren't the
Syrians. These aren't any Gentiles. Because back up there in verse
8, he says, Be instructed, O Jerusalem. This is to them. This is to the
ones he called his people in the past. He says, I have set
you as an assayer and a fortress among my people that you may
know and test the Israelites. They are all stubborn rebels
walking as slanderers. That's God saying that. Now God didn't need to say this
because it was evident anyway. Before Jeremiah was even born,
Israel had lost its way and rebelled against God and rebelled against
His prophets over and over and over. And if you were an angel
with the advantage of watching the Jews over the centuries,
you'd think it was in their nature to rebel. How often they did
that. You think it was in their nature
to reject God. So Jesus says, assuredly, I say
to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Those Jews
were utterly caught off guard by that statement. Yet it wasn't
anything new to the Jews of that day or to that generation or
even to that century. Back in 1 Samuel 8, Samuel was
displeased, if you remember that. He was displeased because the
people had rejected him and had demanded a king instead to rule
over them. Samuel had been doing a fine
job, but they rejected him. They wanted a king. They wanted
to be like everyone else that was around him. That country's
got a king. We should have a king. They begged
him, now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. And this broke Samuel's heart
so much that he prayed to the Lord. And it says, and the Lord
said to Samuel, heed the voice of the people in all that they
say to you. And this is the reason. For they have not rejected you,
but they have rejected me. That I should not reign over
them. That I should not reign over
them. And this is the truth that Jesus
was talking about. Whenever the children of Israel
rejected a prophet or a judge, they were rejecting God. Not that prophet, not that judge.
They would not have Him reign over them. Think of it this way,
why is there so few churches preaching the true gospel, but
so many churches, they're preaching a perverted version of it that
does not offend them, and there's hardly any sin talked about,
and it doesn't accuse men or women of anything? That's the
popular one. Why is the worship service of
the God of the Bible attended by so few? but the worship service of a
false god attended by so many. They have not rejected you, but
they have rejected me, says God. In other words, they will reject
God at any opportunity. That's just our nature. That's
the nature of our hearts. And they'll reject Him in every
place and from every person And this includes from God's chosen
prophets and preachers. It doesn't matter. They will
accept a man that they think is good, and they have, to their
ruin. But they will reject a man through
which God says good things. They don't like that. Now Jesus
so perfectly explains why a prophet is not accepted in his own country.
Look here in the next couple of verses, verses 25 and 26. He says, but I tell you truly
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months and there was a great
famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah
sent except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon to a woman who
was a widow. Now this was not just any famine.
It was a drought so severe that Elijah could not provide for
himself in the wilderness. He couldn't even provide for
himself. He couldn't get enough food. God had to send ravens
to him to feed him. And eventually the brook that
Elijah was camping near, that dried up. So even the famine
affected one of God's chosen. So he sent him to a widow in
Zarephath. But why a widow? Why a widow? If you're thinking, I'm starving,
I've got no food, I've got no water, I've got no money, nobody
likes me, why a widow? Why not some king or a master
of a house or some rich merchant? Because this widow's physical
condition, is our condition in a spiritual sense. In a spiritual
sense. When Elijah finds her, listen
to this, she'd already given up hope. She had gone through
some of this famine just like Elijah had. They didn't have
any ravens to feed her. She wasn't camping near a brook.
She'd already given up hope. Her plan when she met Elijah
was to make one last meal, eat it with her son, and die. So what brings a person that
low? It's the realization there's no hope. There's no hope. Everything your eyes see and
your ears hear and your mind knows is telling you that you're
gonna die. You can't buy your way out. You
can't spend enough money to get out of a famine because there's
nothing anywhere. You can't work your way out.
What are you going to work for? More money to not buy food? You can't plan your way out.
What are you going to plan for? I plan to eat. What good does
that do you? You can't buy, you can't work, you can't plan. Your
death is coming and there's no stopping it. That's the state
of this widow and that's the state of our souls without Christ.
We are without hope. We have no water. We have no
food. We can plan all we want, but
our plans usually don't work out any good. Jesus says in our
text that God knew, He knew of all of the widows in the land
of Israel in Elijah's day. Yet, He didn't send Elijah to
all of them. He sent Elijah to one widow.
one hopeless widow, hopeless widow, that she might be saved
from the great famine. Why didn't the widow reject Elijah? You know, think, get in the mind
of that widow. She just wanted to die. There was no hope. She didn't
want anything. But why didn't she reject Elijah
like Israel had rejected the prophets that God had sent her,
being Israel, because God had chosen that widow. And He had
sent Elijah to save her. That's what God does. When He
calls you out, He's called someone else to go get you first, to
preach. He had not chosen the other poor
dying widows throughout Israel, just this one. And she did not
reject Elijah or God, because she had been saved from the famine. It was through Elijah, but God
had done it. And likewise, Jesus says in our text, it's there
in the next verse 27, and many lepers were in Israel in the
time of Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
except Nahum and the Syrian. That made the Jews mad. It says,
so all those in the synagogue when they heard these things
were filled with wrath. Why would they be mad that Naaman
was healed? That doesn't sound very kind
of them. It was not because they weren't
mad, because God had healed a male leper instead of a female one.
It was not because the leper's name was Naaman. It wasn't anything
like that. It was because Naaman was a Syrian,
a Gentile, and not a Jew. The children of Israel thought
that they alone were the favored of God, the favored sons and
daughters of the Most High God. And God's light shone only on
them, and God's blessings fell only on them, and God's words
came only to them. Forget the other nations. Second
class. Except, the truth was, his blessings
didn't always fall on the Israelites, and his word was spread to the
Gentiles. It's understandable to us why these Israelites would
get mad trying to think how they thought. We've all thought we
were someone's favorite, like a teacher's pet, or a teacher's
favorite, or mommy and daddy's favorite, or a friend's favorite.
We've all learned by experiences that teachers and friends, they
change their minds, and they choose another favorite perhaps,
and we've all come to realize that mommies and daddies do not
have favorite children. Likewise, God is the father of
all His children. He doesn't have a favorite. He chooses all His children out
of all types of people. It doesn't matter skin color.
It doesn't matter how tall they are. It doesn't matter how stout
they are. It doesn't matter if they're born with one leg. The
body doesn't matter. And this means that there are
some people whom he chooses to be with him and there are some
whom he meets on the last day and tells them, I'm sorry, I
never knew you. I never knew you. God said back in Exodus, He says,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. He didn't say, I'll
check with you first to see if it's okay to have mercy and compassion
on this one person or this group of people. He said, it's up to
Me. That is why He chose that one
widow. That's why He chose Naaman only. And this is why Jesus says no
prophet is accepted in His own country. Those prophets that
they rejected were from God, are from God, and God always
reminds people that they're hopeless without Him. And they're blind
without Him. And they're unrighteous, this
one hurts, unrighteous without Him. No son or daughter of Adam
wants to hear that message. Because they thought they were
good. They thought they were doing okay. But they don't want to hear it
and they'll reject it and find someone else who declares an
easier message. One that they find not too offensive. And whatever that message is,
if it lacks God's sovereignty, if it lacks His righteousness,
the truth of it, if it lacks His mercy toward the hopeless,
undeserving sinners that we are, well then it lacks the main ingredient,
hope. It lacks hope. But these Jews listening to Jesus
here in Luke, they do not want to believe that message. They
don't like it. They want Him gone and they form
a mob to try to throw Him over a cliff. It says there in verse 28, So
all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath and rose up and thrust Him out of the city.
And they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city
was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. They were just going to murder
Him. Because he healed a Gentile.
Well, God did. Because he said that a prophet was sent to a widow.
Well, just one. That they're not as favored as
they think they are. People get violent when they're
cornered. And they knew they were cornered. They'll do anything to feel safe
again, and to them, Jesus was dangerous. It's so funny to think that. Compare that now with the image
of Jesus today, just that little baby. He's dangerous. Can't talk about election, that's
dangerous. Can't talk about total depravity,
that's dangerous. But Jesus' message made them
to be equal with the Gentiles to the heathen, the unfavored. Yet God won't let a little thing
like a mob stop Him. Because it says there in verse
30, Jesus walks right on through. I don't know how that happened. And it doesn't matter. It just
doesn't matter. He got out. He walked through
a mob that wanted to kill Him. He can call it a miracle. It
doesn't matter. The truth is, he escapes the mob because he
has an appointment. He has an appointment. He's been
sent, just like Elijah was sent. And his appointment is with a
man who has an unclean spirit in Capernaum. He's got somewhere
to go. He's got unfinished work. So he escapes. And if His work's unfinished,
He will not stop until that work is done. I love to hear that every time
someone says it. I'm pretty sure it's a hymn. I can't bring it
to mind right now. But He doesn't stop until the
work is done. Well, I hope God blesses the message. Drew, will
you pray for us, please? Father, we pray that You would