The Revealing and Rejection of the Messiah

Some of you may not have heard or maybe have of the famous American novelist named Thomas Wolfe. Maybe if you've studied some of that, you've heard of him, but he wrote mostly in the late 1920s and 1930s, died at a very young age, only 37 years old, which is super young. And the older I get, the more young that feels. But while you may never have heard of him, my guess is is that you probably heard the phrase that he made popular with one of his most famous books. It was this one: "You can't go home again." Now, you probably heard that phrase before, "You can't go home again." Now the story, and I'm not gonna go through it all, the story was about a fictional novelist named George Webber and he got famous writing about his fictional hometown. And the problem was, is that the people in his hometown ended up turning on him because he felt like or they felt like that he didn't represent them properly in his writing. And so they kind of turned on him. Now, the idea of the phrase "You can't go home again" reveals how sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. In other words, people are so familiar that they're like, "ugh," you know? Or they don't like you for some reason because they're so familiar with you. Or it also that phrase, "You can't go home again," also talks about the idea of being away from home for long periods of time, and then returning, means that there are changes over time and that means you can't go back to what was. In other words, you've left and people have changed and the place has changed, right? Anybody who's ever left their hometown for any length of time, you've left for a long period of time maybe, and then you return, what you know is that time changes people and changes things like the place that you were. Some of you lived in Western New York, and then you moved away, and then you come back and you realize that it's the same place sort of, but the people have changed and the place has changed. And it's not, you're not really coming back to the same place that you were, right? Because "You can't go home again," in the words of Thomas Wolfe. But what would feel awful would be if you were to experience rejection from those in your own hometown. I mean, think about that, right? A person without a hometown would probably feel somewhat adrift in the world, wouldn't you? If you're like, "I don't really have a place. I've been rejected by my own hometown." And you just feel like you were adrift, kind of floating out in the world, at least to some degree. And guess what? That's exactly what Jesus, the very Son of God, the Word made flesh as we learned about last week from Pastor John's great message, He faced this very situation. And before we walk into the fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel and we explore what this looks like, I want to take a moment and I want to ask the Spirit to really help us in the understanding of the Word of God. So Father, in our time together here, we are gathered as Your people around Your word. And we pray for the fresh breath of Your Spirit into our ears, into our hearts so that we might see you, Lord Jesus, the glory of who You are and not just learn about what You did, but about why that matters even now. So would You shape us, change us, draw us to Yourself, through your word, I ask in Jesus name, amen. Now, as the drama of God unfolded over the course of time with promises and covenants like we've been studying in our series, they were all pointing in the direction of a Promised One, a messiah that was going to come. And Jesus, as we learned last week, was born in the flesh. He was incarnated. He was born of the flesh to fulfill that very promise, to fulfill those covenants that were all pointing in that direction. And as Jesus now began to grow into adulthood and was launched out into His public ministry, He was affirmed by both the Father and the Spirit at a time where He was being baptized. You remember that story, right? Then, He subsequently, right? After being baptized, went into the wilderness and demonstrated His sinless nature that this one who was basically talked about as a King, was going to demonstrate His Kingship now as He withstood the temptation of Satan in the wilderness as the sinless Son of God. And then coming out of that, He began to commence His public ministry. That's where we're gonna pick up in Luke chapter number 4. And we're gonna begin in verse number 14. And the scripture reads this way: "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him. And He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue as was His custom." So Jesus comes back to His hometown of Nazareth where He grew up and He heads to the synagogue on the Sabbath, watch this, as was His custom. In other words, as He always did. Now, this is not the message for today, but lemme just pause and remind you of something: Jesus gathered weekly with the people of God to hear the Word, to read the Word, and to worship God. If Jesus did that as a matter of habit, then you and I should do the same even on a time change Sunday. I'm looking at you who are watching online right now. No, no guilt, no guilt. No guilt in life. No fear in death. This is the power of Christ in us, right? No, I love you. Listen, it's not about taking days off or checking out or whatever. The gathering of the people of God is a very important thing. And Jesus, it was His custom that every single Sabbath day, He was together with the people of God. Now, the synagogue worship on the Sabbath was similar in Jewish towns. He was in a variety of those towns and in those synagogues in Galilee, there were leaders and attendance who were helping facilitate what was happening in the gathering in the synagogue. There'd be a reading from the Torah or a reading from the law. There would also be a reading from the prophets. Remember at this time, there's no New Testament at that time, right? So we're talking about just the Hebrew scripture. So there'd be a writing, reading from the law or the Torah, and there would be a reading from the prophets. And then what was read would either be discussed jointly or there would be a guest teacher who would then expound upon what was just read. And these readings would happen sometimes while standing, and then the teaching would happen maybe while seated. That differed in some places, but nonetheless. And on this day in Nazareth, Jesus would be given the privilege of reading and commenting on the scripture. So watch how this unfolds. Pick up with me in the second half of verse 16. Here's how it unfolds: Jesus stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" They asked. You can see how this is playing out, right? This is a pretty remarkable thing that Jesus is getting to participate in and it's a really a glorious part of the journey of the drama of God. Because here, Jesus is unveiling some things really for the very first time, and it's very important for us to see His ministry and how this unfolds. This is a key moment in the unfolding drama of God because it helps us understand how this story is moving forward, the story of the drama of God, and how Jesus' role in it is so central to all that God is doing in the world. So here's what I want to do. I wanna give you like three key ideas from what we're learning about this. And then, I want to talk to us about two important applications of how this matters to us right this moment. Here's the first key idea that I give to you, it's this: Jesus affirms publicly that He's the promised Messiah. This is really important as the unfolding drama of God because there's been this promise of one who's going to be the Messiah, and Jesus here is publicly telling people that He is the Promised Messiah. Now, when He opened the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus specifically found the portion that we know as Isaiah 61:1 and 2. Now, listen carefully. They didn't have the scroll that Jesus was giving, didn't have an address on it. It was just all the words. So there was not like numbers. Those are not inspired, right? We put those there, and I say we like I was a part of that. People put those there so that we could learn how to find our place in those spots, right? But what He unveiled and what He unrolled, He found the place, it says, like He went to it very specifically and He found what we know as Isaiah 61:1 and 2. Now, why is Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth and why is He reading this particular passage of scripture? Well, we don't know exactly, okay? But I do know some things that happened historically, and it's possible that what Jesus was doing was consistent with what I'm about to tell you, though I don't know that for sure. Everybody hear that part? In the Babylonian exile, which you remember, right? You were there. In the Babylonian exile of the people of Israel, they were then taken from their land and they were exiled into Babylon. So they didn't have a temple in which to worship or any of those things. The rabbis grew very concerned. The teachers of the law grew very concerned that the Word of God was gonna get lost. He wasn't gonna be around. So what they did is they assigned by families using tribes. They assigned different families, different portions of scripture that they would hold onto, that they would memorize, that they could represent, so that when they were getting back into spaces and still didn't have temple worship in the synagogues, which were the small places that they would gather in the actual villages, they would be able to, by family, come up and read maybe even from memory some of these passages of scripture because it was a way of the preservation of the Word of God. It's possible that maybe Joseph's family was assigned Isaiah and that Jesus now back in His hometown on a specific day because maybe His family was assigned the specific day from the town that they came from was now the guest in that place and He was going to give a reading on the portion that they had preserved as a family. Now, I don't know if that's exactly what happened here, but I do know that that happened. So whether or not it happened with Jesus in this specific instance, I don't know, but stuff like that did happen. But this portion of the text that Jesus went to in Isaiah 61, everybody would've understood this is a messianic text. It's about the jubilee actions of the Messiah and it was clearly pointing to the Messiah and the hearers would've understood that that's what it was. It described the ministry of the Messiah in Isaiah 61 and it would always feel like an encouragement to the hearers, right? Because they were longing for this. They were praying for the Messiah to come. They were looking forward with hope that a messiah was going to show up. And then notice, after Jesus reads this messianic portion in Isaiah 61, watch, look again in verses 20 and 21. Look again at it. "Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began by saying to them," listen, "He began by saying to them, 'Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'" That's how He started the message. What? This is a staggering thought for the hearers. Jesus, watch this, Jesus reads the passage, sits down in the seed of Moses. That's what they called it, by the way, in the synagogue. There'd be a seat. Sometimes there was also an empty seat, but there was a seat of Moses. Remember when Jesus talked to the Pharisees? He said, "You love to sit in the seat of Moses and make all your proclamations," right? Jesus sits down in the seat of Moses, which was the seat of authority, judgment, the one who is in charge. And He says, "This, what I've just read to you is fulfilled right now in your hearing." Ta-da! That's literally what just happened. He sat down and told them, "I am the Messiah." And here's what they said. "Isn't that Joe and Mary's kid?" "I remember him. He was just a little guy, I remember, he wasn't that great at stickball. I used to wipe the snot off of his nose sometimes, you know?" "Isn't that? That's Joe's kid, isn't it?" It would be hard to imagine that the Promised Messiah of Israel would come from such a small, insignificant, and watch this, and disrespected place like Nazareth. But there isn't any real subtlety in what Jesus says. He says He fulfills the Promise of the Messiah and He's gonna do what the Messiah will do. He reveals who He is in His own home town, wow. It's a key idea. Jesus affirms publicly that He's the Promised Messiah, but watch this, Jesus also affirms that the kingdom of God is for Jew and Gentile. You see, as Jesus continues His teaching, while He's seated there in the seat of Moses and He says, "Today, all of this is fulfilled in your hearing," He then gives an example of how a prophet is not accepted in His own hometown. And He uses two Jewish prophets, Elijah and Elijah, to illustrate that, but watch what He does. Pick up with me in verse number 23: Jesus said to them, "Surely you'll quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself!' And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'" In other words, they've heard that He's been in Galilee doing some wonderful things, right? Healings and miracles and those kinds of things and they're like, "Hey, do some of your tricks here in Nazareth." "Truly, I tell you," He continued, "no prophet is accepted in His own hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years, and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elijah the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman the Syrian." This is a really remarkable illustration that Jesus gives. He takes two Jewish prophets, Elijah and Elisha, and he points out that their ministry was to non-Jews as well. He points out to a pian and to Ayn. He's trying to help them there in Nazareth understand that God has always had a plan for the redemption of all people, not just Israel. This has been God's heart from the very beginning. The Messiah that is coming that He says is now here, it's not just for Israel, it's for everybody. You remember the covenants that we've been learning about, right? In Abraham's Covenant, it was to be about a people that would bless the nations. In the Mosaic Covenant, it was to be about the formation of a people of Israel that would witness to the nations about the truth of the one true God. In the Davidic Covenant, this was about a promise that was made to a king, that there would be a king who would rule for the blessing of the nations forever. This has always been the play by God. And he's reminding them in Nazareth about that, that this is not just for Israel, this is for Jew and Gentile alike. But there's a third key idea here, that Jesus demonstrates that rejection will accompany the kingdom message. Rejection is going to accompany the kingdom message. Look at how Jesus continues this story in verse 28. After Jesus told them all these things, it says, "All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way." That's not a good reception. They are so angry. The Nazarenes who heard this message were so unhappy that they attempted to kill Jesus. This wasn't random, by the way. They may have started happy. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" And maybe that started out with, "Oh, we're so proud of him. This is one of our guys. That's Joseph's kid. We're proud of him!" But then it went to, "Uh, that's just Joseph's kid. He couldn't be," right? And then Jesus, who's revealing their own hearts, He says to them, "Surely you're going to say to Me," like He's revealing their own hearts. And the more He reveals their own hearts that they wanted proof, they wanted a sign, they wanted Him to do some tricks there for them. The more He did that, they turned on Him and they felt He must be blaspheming. He can't possibly be this. And then because they thought He was blaspheming, they thought they were doing the right thing because the law, the Mosaic law, would call for those who are blasphemers to be put to death. And so they felt like they were actually honoring God by taking Him to the brow of the hill and wanting to throw him off the cliff. I've been to Nazareth many, many times and I can assure you that where old Nazareth was, it is on a very large precipice. There is a cliff to which they could take Him and throw Him off that you would, for sure, die if you were thrown off of that cliff. Now, they could have also felt significantly offended that Jesus was suggesting that because of their denial, He was going to bring the message of the kingdom to Gentiles, not just Jews. And that may have thrown them over the edge, so to speak. Either way, Jesus was facing rejection. And as we learned last week, we see the Apostle John reiterate that in John chapter 1. We touched on it last week in John's message. Here's what it says. "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him." This is shown really clearly in Nazareth, isn't it? In fact, in that same chapter of John's Gospel where he says His own did not receive Him, were also shown how Nazareth was actually viewed by those outside of Nazareth. If you remember when Jesus was getting started in ministry and He was calling people to Himself, right? Remember that? He was like, "Hey, follow me," right? Well, this is one of those instances. Here's what it says later on in John chapter 1. It says, "The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. And finding Philip, He said to him, 'Follow Me.' Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida." It was a fishing town. "Philip found Nathaniel and told him, 'We've found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.'" Watch this, "'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?' Nathaniel asked." Philip was just like, he didn't argue with him. He's just like, "Come and see," right? You see, it's this understanding. When we understand how Nazareth is viewed, then maybe we can begin to grasp what Matthew talked about relative to the prophecy about Jesus. If we were to back up into Matthew chapter 2, kind of in the birth narrative, you remember that Joseph had to take his family away into Egypt to avoid Herod and him putting the children to death, and then he was coming back into Israel, right? That's where we pick up, watch this. Matthew 2, it says, "So he got up," this is Joseph. So Joseph got up, "took the child," that's Jesus, "and His mother," that's Mary, "and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. So having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth." Watch this, "So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that He," Jesus, the Messiah, "would be called a Nazarene." Here's what's interesting, friends, listen. Nowhere in the prophets does it make that statement. I looked, feel free to look afterwards. Nowhere in the prophets does it make the statement, "He will be called a Nazarene." So what is it that this prophecy was getting at? It was getting at how Nazareth was viewed and how Nazarenes were viewed. The people of Nazareth, friends, were despised. They were rejected. They were disrespected. They were looked at as a humiliation. This is how the people of Nazareth were looked at. So when Matthew was referring to what the prophets are saying, he's likely, according to the scholars that I was looking at, he's likely referring to what Isaiah was referencing about the Messiah in Isaiah chapter number 53, "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem." Why? Because he was a Nazarene. This isn't about Jesus being like physically ugly and people are like, "Ah! He's the elephant man." That's not what this is talking about. That's how kind of people read that sometimes, "Ah," right? This is about who he is as a Nazarene. It seemed incomprehensible that someone from such low standing and from such a despised and rejected place could possibly be the Messiah. So what Jesus is now here as, as we see Luke put this together for us and show us this, Jesus is now seen here as just another rejected prophet in the long line of rejected prophets. Noah was rejected. Elijah was rejected. Elisha was rejected. Ezekiel was rejected. Jeremiah was rejected. Isaiah was rejected. And now we have Jesus who is also rejected, but He's more than a prophet. He is indeed a prophet, but He's more than that. This event in Nazareth would be a microcosm of what Jesus would face later, a rejection of deathly proportions that would culminate in death on a cross. So that's the story in this drama of God that's unfolding. So how do we then look at this for our purposes today? What can we learn in action from these truths that we see here in the life of Jesus? That we could pick up on and say, "I can make this an application to my own world in this moment." Here's the first. The good news of the kingdom is not just for your people, it's for all people. This is one way we can apply this, that we need to be reminded that the good news of the kingdom is not just for your people, but it's for all people. In Jesus' day, the Jews wanted good things for the Jews. They didn't care so much about the Gentiles. You could see it, by the way, in the way that they set up the temple. In other words, there was literally a barrier straight there that said, "If you cross this line, we're going to kill you." Like literally in history, like we have that. They had nicknames for Gentiles, dogs. They weren't overly concerned with the Gentiles. But what Jesus in Nazareth was doing here, as He unveiled His public ministry in such a way of declaring to his hometown in Nazareth that He is the very Messiah, what He was helping point out to them is that they had lost the plot. And friends, listen to me. We can also lose the plot if we're not careful. We easily form in our hearts who are our people and who aren't our people. I hear that phrase a lot. You gotta find your people. I understand what's being said. You're finding some people that you, you know, connect with, identify with, maybe that have your back, maybe in a Christian framework, maybe they're gonna help you walk with Jesus, they're gonna hold you accountable, all that stuff, and that's all good, right? As far as that goes. But we gotta be careful that that doesn't work its way into every single nook and cranny of our lives. Because listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. The message of the kingdom is not just for your people, it's for all people. We gotta be careful that that doesn't permeate so deeply in our hearts because what we do is we form our people based on certain things. We get our people based on our ethnicity. "Those are my people." We get our people based on our political bent. "Those are our people." Or maybe it's a sports team or maybe it's gym culture people. "Those are my people," right? Or maybe it's, you could figure it out, right? Maybe it has to do with social status. "Those are my people." Or maybe it has to do with economic success. "Those are my people," right? Whatever we form ourselves into, let me ask you this, are we prepared to bring the good news of the kingdom to people that aren't our people? Because Jesus was helping them understand that's what the message was for. The message of the kingdom is not just for your people, it's for all people. We gotta be careful that that doesn't permeate so deeply in our hearts because what we do is we form our people based on certain things. We get our people based on our ethnicity. "Those are my people." We get our people based on our political bent. "Those are our people." Or maybe it's a sports team or maybe it's gym culture people. "Those are my people," right? Or maybe it's, you could figure it out, right? Maybe it has to do with social status. "Those are my people." Or maybe it has to do with economic success. "Those are my people," right? Whatever we form ourselves into, let me ask you this, are we prepared to bring the good news of the kingdom to people that aren't our people? Because Jesus was helping them understand that's what the message was for. And they didn't respond very kindly to it. In fact, we should look again at what Jesus quoted from when He said, "This is the ministry of the Messiah." He was quoting from Isaiah chapter 61. I want you to look again at, and we'll look in Luke 4, but He's quoting Isaiah 61 just so that doesn't get confusing. It says, "and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And unrolling it, He found the place where it is written:" Now, here's where He is quoting Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free." So who's Jesus' ministry for? Who's it for? Well, if you're thinking, well, He just came for poor people or people who are literally incarcerated or whatever, let me pause you for just a second. This didn't just mean materially poor people, even though Jesus certainly brought the message to the materially poor. But He also brought this message to those who had material plenty. In fact, in the illustration that He gave about Elijah and Elisha, He used two different people. One was a widow, materially poor. The other was Naaman the Syrian, a wealthy soldier in Syria. This message of the kingdom is not just for those who are materially poor, even though they're included in that. He didn't just bring the message of the kingdom to physically blind people, even though He healed some physically blind people. It doesn't say that He healed every physically blind person in all of Israel, but He healed some of them. Jesus didn't just bring the message to literal incarcerated people. In fact, just to remind you of this, we have no place in all of scripture where Jesus actually got anyone out of prison, nobody. In fact, quite the opposite. His cousin, John the Baptist, was rotting in prison while Jesus was doing His public ministry and Jesus didn't go get him and take him out. So this means more than just those who are physically incarcerated. And Jesus didn't bring this message just to those who were oppressed by the Romans, even though He did minister to them in that way. See, this is primarily about spiritual need. This is what this passage is talking to us about. This is what Jesus said He came to do. In other words, people are poor in the sense of understanding that they are needy and not self-sufficient. They're prisoners because they are locked up to sin. They're blinded because the enemy of their souls has basically taken a curtain and pulled it over their eyes to be able to see the beauty of the kingdom. And they're oppressed by the wicked ways of the world. Let me ask you something. Are you prepared for those people? Are those your people? Because they may not be like you. They may not be like you. Maybe they wear a MAGA hat. Maybe they burn MAGA hats. Maybe they're new to this country. Maybe they're struggling with the language. Maybe they're in the top 1% of wealth. Maybe they're in the bottom 1% of wealth. Maybe they've had failed relationships. Maybe they've been involved in disordered relationships. Maybe they're a single parent. Maybe they look outwardly like they have it all together. Listen to me, Jesus' message is for them all. The message of the kingdom is for all of them. Let's not make the mistake, friends, of the Nazarenes and think that the message is just for our people. It's always been a kingdom message for the nations that you can come to God through King Jesus. And if we're going to represent Jesus' heart and Jesus' ministry, then we need to be prepared to share this great news with those who aren't like us. But let me show you a second truth that we can apply. Rejection will be a part of witnessing to Jesus. And I go, "Great, thanks for the encouragement, Jerry." Well, stay with me for a moment. Jesus obviously was rejected for the message of the kingdom among his own. And listen to me. If it happened to Jesus, it's gonna happen to you. You think you're better? Well, you know, the way I present it, it's gonna be a little, what? This is the sinless Son of God that we're talking about, who was rejected by His own people. Rejection's gonna be a part of witnessing to Jesus. I learned this kind of early on. I was 20 years old. I'd been a believer for all of the year, roughly. And so I knew everything. I knew nothing. But I did an internship at a church in Atlanta. And in this internship, my entire job, my literal entire job for the summer every single day, was to show up and check in with the guy who was I was responsible to. You're like, how'd you get paid? I'd occasionally I'd get a Whopper, you know, like Burger King. And that's how I got paid and Burger King money. I wasn't doing it for money. I was doing it for, God had called me, and so I wanted to get prepared. And here's my job every day, taking out a map. I'm not talking about this map. I'm talking about this map, right? We didn't have those tools and I don't have to take that map. And I would have to find my way to a neighborhood and just, let's be honest, it's the grace of God that anyone is my age still here with us. Because we had maps and we were driving, right? You guys got your little phone, you know, it's on. You got dashboard telling you what to do and you got a phone, like we were like this, you know? Head out the window that we cranked down. We didn't have, we didn't just push a button, you had to crank it down. That was your air conditioning. And we're looking for a- So I'd find myself to these neighborhoods. And when I got to the neighborhood, here's my entire job, my entire job all summer. Hey, I'm Jerry and I'm from the church here locally and I wanna see if I could take a moment and just talk to you about Jesus? It went about just like this. Exactly your response right now to me. This is exactly how it went. I cannot tell you how many times I was rejected. I can't tell you how many times I was kicked off of people's porches. I wasn't punched in the face, thankfully. And was I threatened? Occasionally. Did I hear people using curse words? In creative ways that I'd never before previously heard, yes. It expanded my ability to work in the English language without those words. Did I hear every excuse given to man? Yes. Did I face rejection over and over and over and over every day? It's not cool in the summertime either in Atlanta and they made me wear a long sleeve shirt. What were they thinking? Just put a tie on me, gimme on a bike, and call me elder so-and-so like I'm a Mormon, right? What are we doing? Like let me wear a short sleeve shirt for crying out loud. No, you gonna look the part, right? And every single day in 90+ degree temperatures with no air conditioning in my car, I'm just going door to door, sweating bullets, getting told, "I don't want to talk to you." "Get away from me." "Don't ever come to my house again." It was just rejection after rejection after rejection. You're like, are you telling us that because that's good? Not necessarily. Did I get to lead a few folks to Jesus? I did. Did I get rejected by way, way, way, way, way more? I did. And it wasn't fun but it built something in me as a young man. It built some resilience in me. And I had to think about, was it worth it? Was it worth it to talk to people about Jesus because of all of these things? And what were the reasons that people rejected Jesus? And why did they do that? Why did they do it to us? I mean, there's a million of them. I couldn't name them all. Apathy is probably one of them. Distraction is probably another one. There's probably a bunch of people that are swept up in bad decisions but pride continues to create a self-justifying and rebellious heart. There's a load of reasons why that's the case. It's also possible that we get rejected because of us, not the message. That's also possible. 'Cause maybe our lives and our choices and our lack of Christian maturity get in the way of people hearing and seeing the beauty of the message of the kingdom of God. That's not the example that we want to be and we need to ask Jesus to help us in that. But for some of you, maybe your issue is, "I just don't feel qualified. I don't feel qualified to be able to do this. That's why I don't talk to people about Jesus because I can't possibly represent His message." Listen to me. We're nobody of great importance, none of us. You're like me. Yeah, but here I'm in Western New York. I've lived here all my life. People know where I came from. They know my parents. They know my grandparents. Like, they know the whole thing. They're not gonna respect the message of Jesus on my lips. That may be true actually. People in Nazareth couldn't get past the fact that Jesus was Joseph's kid. But know this, God has chosen to use those of us who aren't qualified and maybe not overly important or socially revered to be able to bring the message of the kingdom of God into the world that we live in. Paul told us that. Paul encourage us that way. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he said, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." You see, friends, what I'm trying to remind you of is that Jesus was from a despised and rejected place, and God gave Him the name that is above all names. And those of us who are nothing special, He wants to work in and through us by the power of the one who Himself was despised and rejected, but yet now is exalted. And by His power in us, in the foolish, in the weak, and the unqualified, people who aren't special, He wants to display His power. He wants to show His glory in the world through people like you and people like me. It doesn't matter if you feel unqualified. He qualifies you because He lives within you. The one who knows being despised, the one who knows rejection, He lives in you. You see, part of our rejection, friends, is because we've chosen a different residence. We've become citizens of a different kingdom. It's why the world that we live in just doesn't go for it. Ours is an eternal kingdom, not a temporary place that will pass away. That's why we can face rejection like Jesus does. It's why we can do it. See in Nazareth, His hometown, Jesus was rejected for His message of the kingdom and His announcement that He was the Promised Messiah, but He was able to deal with it. Do you know why? Because He knew where He was from, and it wasn't Nazareth. And He knew where He was going, and it wasn't Nazareth. See, He understood that His kingdom was not of this world. And that even though it's not of this world, it would eventually encompass this world. It's a beautiful reminder because this rejection of Jesus in Nazareth was a microcosm, as I said, of what would come. In other words, Jesus would face rejection writ large from the religious leaders of Israel, an ultimate crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. And how did He respond to that? Peter tells us, listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, "When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly." How could Jesus respond like this? He knew the Father judges justly and He also knew the Father had a kingdom that endured forever beyond this temporal existence. Watch this, Jesus knew that death was not the final end and the rejection of people didn't change the Father's love. What if we understood that? What if we understood death is not our final end and the rejection of people does not change the Father's love? Could we then be the witness that we have been called to be? Thomas Wolfe, at least to some degree, was right. "You can't go home again." When we say yes to Jesus, we move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And in this world, we'll never find the home that we long for. No matter where you are, no matter where you move to, no matter where you think you are, you're never gonna find the home that you long for because it's not here, but it's coming. It's coming because of all that Jesus has secured for us through His death and His resurrection. So even when we face rejection for sharing the message of Jesus, we're walking in the fellowship of sharing in His suffering. And our suffering, friends, like our rejection, is temporary. Our suffering, like our rejection, is temporary. It will all be worth it 'cause He's worth it. That's why Paul said this. That's why Paul said these words, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." So maybe today, you need a perspective shift from the Word of God. Maybe the Spirit of God wants you to agree with God, that your heart maybe, maybe, has grown increasingly hardened to the people that Jesus came to save because they're not your people. And maybe He wants to reshape your heart into His. Maybe He wants to remind you that He has the power even though you feel unqualified and you feel weak, He has the power through you to transform lives through the message of the kingdom by His own Spirit. Or maybe He's reminding you today that you need to surrender your life to the only one that can secure you an eternal home with Him 'cause you'll only find home when you find Jesus. Let's bow our heads together. In a moment, we'll be walking out, but just two couple of quick things before we do. The first is this. You may be here and you may say, you know what? I feel like the Spirit of God was speaking to me about a specific area. Maybe it's one that I named. Maybe it's not one that I named, but that the Spirit knows. Will you respond to that? I want you to respond to that, whatever that looks like for you. Whatever surrender in your own heart that looks like for you, whatever action that is that the Holy Spirit asks you to take, I want you to do that. Listen to His voice. Do what He says. Maybe you need to trust your life to Jesus. You've never before surrendered your life to Him. Listen carefully, Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." There's not many ways to God. Jesus is it. Jesus has come to declare that, to show that, to demonstrate that. There's one name under heaven by which people can be saved, and it is the name of Jesus. And if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you too can be saved. And if that's your need today, there'll be some men and women that'll be standing down front. They're making their way here in just a moment. They'll be down here, they'd love to take you by the hand, pray with you to receive Jesus. Maybe you just need somebody to pray with because you need your heart to be softened to what God wants to do through you and in you. That's okay, do that. Whatever your need is, whatever that looks like, just do what He asks you to do. Father, thank You. Thank You for Jesus. Lord Jesus, thank You that You've revealed Yourself and that You, as a man of sorrows, are familiar and acquainted with suffering and rejection and being despised. But the very one, You who was despised, has been exalted by the Father. And that when we trust in You, You live in us. And that though we may face rejection, we can walk through it knowing where we're from and where we're going. So would You help us to be that kind of people in a world sometimes that wants to batter us around? Give us your grace. Draw people to Yourself, Lord, that need You. I ask You to do this now, in Jesus' name, amen.