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38th Street Church of Christ 3904 38th Street NW Canton, Ohio 44718 330-492-5523 Fax: 330-493-7119 |
“The Fruit of Spiritual Pride” |
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I. Introduction.
A. The apostle Paul certainly paid a personal price for his
faithfulness as a disciple of Jesus Christ. His suffering, and
his struggles, are well-documented in the New Testament,
by his own writings and by the writings of others, like Luke
in the book of “Acts.”B. Luke also writes about the suffering and struggles, of an
even greater model than Paul. In the gospel that bears his
name, he records portions of the earthly life of the Christ,
the Messiah, the Son of God.1. By the generally-accepted standards of success,
when Jesus began preaching His gospel in His own
hometown, He proved to be a spectacular failure.2. The episode Luke describes in Chapter 4, verses
16 – 21, captures the shock and emotion of that
moment of revelation, when Jesus tells the people
of Nazareth: “I’m the one Isaiah and other prophets
wrote about and for whom you’ve been waiting for
so long.”3. Imagine coming to the assembly next Sunday,
expecting to hear a message from God’s word, and
having someone who grew up in the congregation,
whom you’ve known since childhood, get up and
say, “I am the Christ, and have now come to fulfill
all the prophesies of the glory of God’s kingdom
and for salvation.” That’s exactly what happened
to these Jews at Nazareth that day in the synagogue.C. These people had attended the Sabbath assemblies all their
adult lives, had heard the reading of the Torah, the Law of
Moses, and the prophets, and had heard message after
message about the Law and the prophets. They had heard
teaching about the Messiah, His coming, and His kingdom.
Now, one day like all these other days, in this obscure
mountain town, here is one Who says: “I am He; I am the
Messiah.”1. The stories about Jesus, as a teacher and worker of
wonders, had preceded Him to Nazareth
(Luke 4:14: “Then Jesus returned in the power of
the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out
through all the surrounding region.”).2. Luke 4:15 records that, at various places in Galilee,
“. . . He taught in their synagogues, being glorified
by all.”3. Probably, the hometown crowd was excited that
Jesus was going to speak at his own synagogue.D. Nazareth, as a town of about 20,000 people, no doubt had
more than one synagogue. They were located in various
areas, so people could walk to the nearest meeting place.
When Jesus entered His synagogue, He would have been
greeted by neighbors and friends He grew up with, relatives
He’d lived and worked with, familiar faces from His past.
Here, too, Jesus, as He arrived, would have been
“. . . glorified by all.”E. But, during the course of the service, things went from a
very positive to a very negative atmosphere. After Jesus’
revelation of Himself, in verse 21, the story continues
(read verses 22-30, Chapter 4).1. What was happening? What had gone wrong?
How could Jesus let this revelation turn out
so badly?2. At first, His words were received calmly, probably
because of the state of shock they created. The way
Jesus spoke, the “. . . gracious words which
proceeded out of His mouth. . .” (Luke 4:22), also no doubt contributed to the atmosphere of their initial reception. Jesus had stopped reading from
Isaiah 61 at the middle of verse 2, where it spoke of
the “. . . acceptable grace of the Lord.” He had not
read what followed: “And the day of vengeance of
our God; to comfort all who mourn.”3. Why leave this out? People were eager for the
Messiah’s coming, but they were equally eager for
Him to appear and avenge them against their
Gentile enemies. Jesus’ message was one of
salvation for Israel, not vengeance on the Roman
occupiers. That day of vengeance, in Isaiah 61:2,
was in the future. This is not why Jesus came into
the world.F. A third reason for the amazement of the worshippers that
day was that they’d never really heard Jesus teach before,
even though He was a “hometown boy.” They were
stunned, and questioned one another: “. . . Is this not
Joseph’s son?’” (4:22).1. The people understood exactly what Jesus said.
The message was salvation for the poor, the
prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed (Luke 4:18).2. What they failed to grasp was that if they wanted
salvation, they had to confess their spiritual poverty,
their spiritual blindness, and their spiritual bondage.
That required shedding their spiritual pride.II. True Freedom.
A. What went wrong was that the true gospel, even so
powerfully and graciously preached, was not a crowd
pleaser then any more than it is today. Where’s the self-
satisfaction in admitting we’re spiritually poor and
destitute? What does confessing spiritual blindness and
bondage do for our self-esteem? This is not really what
people want to hear.1. These Jews, like most of their contemporaries, were
righteous in their own eyes. They were, after all, the “chosen people” of God, noble and devout. While others worshipped false, idol gods, they worshipped the true and living God. They gave their tithes. They prayed every day. They fasted. They were anything but poor, blind, or oppressed. And they greatly resented the insinuation that they were.2. Jesus knew how these people would react before He
ever read from Isaiah 61. But, He did not, nor could
not, change the message to please the crowd. He
did not, nor could not, ignore the truth just to spare
their feelings.3. Jesus, here, gives us a perfect example of preaching
the one, true gospel message despite the response of
His audience. What was that response that day?
Look, again, at Luke 4:29 (re-read). One message,
and the people became a mob determined to kill
Jesus!B. They were stirred to such drastic action by self-denial and
spiritual pride. “We can’t accept this message, and the
problem can’t be us, so it must be Him. How do we even
know He’s the Messiah, anyway?” This thinking is
reflected in Jesus’ words in Luke 4:23 (re-read). (“If You
want us to believe in You, then, physician, heal Yourself.
Don’t tell us You’re the doctor if You don’t have some
proof.”). Jesus said He was the Messiah, and the people
insisted He prove it. (“Don’t challenge our view of
ourselves. It’s not our fault we don’t accept You, or
believe in You. It’s Your fault. Show us positive,
convincing, signs like You’ve done elsewhere.”).C. Jesus conceded that it was hard for these people to get
beyond their familiarity with Him, from the past
(Luke 4:24: “. . . ‘no prophet is accepted in his own
country.’”). As examples, Jesus spoke of two prophets,
Elijah and Elisha, whom Israel had hated and rejected.
The widow of Zarephath, and Naaman, the Syrian, were
both Gentiles. The Jews hated both these stories of God’s
mercy toward Gentiles, so it was no surprising that:
“. . . all those in the synagogue, when they heard these
things, were filled with wrath.” (Luke 4:28).D. Such spiritual pride puts a barrier between people and
acceptance of the salvation Jesus came to offer and to
die for us.1. We cannot acknowledge Jesus as our Savior until
we surrender to Him. We cannot have salvation,
and the spiritual freedom it brings, until we give
our life to Him.2. Jesus’ hearers tried to murder Him, but it wasn’t
within their power to do so. It wasn’t in God’s way,
or time. Jesus simply calmly left this mob, how we
do not know. But, it symbolizes the judgment
people bring upon themselves by their unbelief.E. To have true freedom, spiritual freedom, we must, first,
acknowledge our need, our sinfulness and weakness, which
is our spiritual condition. Then, only, can Jesus save us.1. There is probably nothing more common than
people who think they are spiritually free when, in
fact, they are the prisoners of sin. They see
discipleship as “bondage.” (“No one is going to
infringe on my rights. I can be what I want to be.
I’m free to be myself.”).2. We are not free so long as sin dominates our life,
and has us indebted to God. And, that debt we
cannot pay. We are in bondage, a prisoner waiting
for eternal death.a. Read Hebrews 2:14-15.
b. The sinner is a prisoner of Satan, and sin,
but he or she must face the Sovereign Judge,
Who holds everyone accountable who can
know the truth and let that truth set them
free.3. That’s the choice: eternal death, or eternal life.
III. Conclusion.
A. To be set free, and have eternal life, we have to let go of
our spiritual pride, and die to ourself.B. To be rejected for speaking the true gospel message is to
follow the example of Jesus. We have to cast off our own
spiritual pride, first, and walk through the “narrow gate”
that leads to eternal life.