“No Prophet Is Accepted in His Hometown” | Luke 4:16–30

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good Morning, good morning. We talked the whole net through. Good morning, good morning to you and you and you. Yes job, Chris, thank you. I am so happy about that. Hey, I did it on a Tuesday. It's been weeks since I've been having the privilege. Well, we want to say good morning to you on this Tuesday morning. We are the Bible Guys. Thank you, it's right. Thank you for tuning in, and we're excited that Jeff is with us because he took a little bit of a hiatus. Well, I was traveling. I was out of the country, traveling the world. That's right. Only so I took my wife with me, which was neat. You don't get to take Bonnie with me. It's neat, and we had neat. Neat is one of my favorite words. We went to India. I had a project. I was working on it, and then I had a couple of days break there between that project and then I was meeting with leaders in Iraq and in Lebanon. So I only take Bonnie to the nicest vacation place kids, and so during that little break I took her up. We stayed in New Delhi at this palace. It was fabulous, and then we went over to the Taj Mahll. Yeah, she had her phone stolen while we were. Yeah, there's my brother who goes to India often told me how big the thieving happened. You know, Oh, it's huge. Yeah, it's it's it's all over the place. That's so said. Well, anyways, we have today a segment that one of these days it feels to me like we're gonna run out of movies that you don't know that, you know what. That's probably true, but probably not for the next one. We're only like eight hundred episodes in so seven hundred whatever it is, so we probably have several thousand more before we get there. But uh, here we're doing a movie bove movie buff quiz. I get so anxious when we when we enter into these segments. I don't know why. And so he that is, if you're giving me Bible trivia movie trivia, yeah, I know, but you don't want to, he cares. So Desiree wrote, let's test Chris's movie knowledge and see if he can guess the movie on these one line descriptions. So you're going to describe the plot one line line description. So for our listeners, you just try to beat me. Yes, right, you try to shout it out before I do. That's that's correct. Okay. And Chad usually beats me. He said, Chad's at home, and he always goes, hey, guess what he goes. I beat you like three times out of the five. There you go or whatever it is. So Chad, I'm gonna try it. My goal, my personal goal is to beat Chad. Yes, are you ready? Yes, here we go. A man wakes up every morning with no memory, but he's determined. Yes, but he's determined to uncover the truth one tattoo of. One tattoo at a time. That's great. Okay. The way Momento is one of our favorite movies. Oh is it? Yes? Okay? What you got there? You got there? Yes, that's the reason why I knew it right away. Okay. A group of friends must navigate a dangerous world where making a single sound could meet instant death. A quiet place. Okay, that's an intense movie. That's intense, dude, there was there was Actually. I've never seen anything like that. I don't get scared in movies often like you know, you gotta really creep me out. And there was a there was a time where she was in the water like waste deep, and then in the background you saw it slither in the water. And when it slithered in the water, I actually freaked out. I was like, but the idea of you can't make any noise was that that really made the movie good. Okay. A man tries to quit a reality TV show but realizes he's been in it his entire life. The Truman Show. There you go. Okay, dang it, I was I bet you Chad beat me on that one. A woman has an awful job interview, so she steals her dad stuff and joins the army. What that's not mulan, is it? Yes, that wasn't a job interview. Yeah. So it says it was a ceremony of fail because she was actually she wasn't getting paid to be a proper wife. Okay, that is a horrible description. Well, I'm sorry, I didn't write it. I just read it. Okay, desiray, where'd you get those descriptions? Pull it off the internet? Or did you write it? Pull off the internet? Okay, whoever wrote that was that is not correct. Okay, it was not a job interview. Here we go. I'm angry that what made Chris matt. We need to get Desa if we're going to do it here, we should get des a microphone so she can speak in Oh. Yeah, that'd be great. Okay, Ready, here's the last one. Yes, a grown man plays with a toy and sleeps for almost the entire movie. A grown man plays with a toy it's not big. And sleep for almost the entire movie. Sleeps for the entire movie. Yeah, I don't understand this description. Are you saying it's a bad description? I don't know. Have you seen this movie? I think so? I think so. The girl man plays with a toy and sleeps for almost the entire movie. A grown man plays with a toy, plays with a toy, and he sleeps for the entire movie. Yea, for almost the entire movie. It's a tough one, dude. Uh Okay, I don't want to waste the listener's time here, so I think I'm gonna have to just say say it all. I can try to, I can try to work it out in my brain, but honestly, I don't know of a single movie where somebody sleeps for the entire movie. Yeah, well you want, you want to know? Yeah, I guess, so, okay, they didn't sleep at all. Yeah, I know they were induced with chemicals as a part of a process to invade people's dreams. That was not sleeping. And by the way, he didn't play with a toy. Are you really referring whoever wrote this the totem? He actually tested a totem. He had a he had like a totem where he spun a little like a top. He didn't play with it, he tested it. He was testing a total This is. Mad, you mad, broke? I ammely mad because listen, hey, the first one, the first one, it wasn't a job interview, right, but at least I got it from stole her dead stuff and joined an army, because no woman steals dead stuff and joins an army, right in this case, Uh, he wasn't playing with any toy, and and and and he didn't even sleep. Okay, so both descripts. He didn't It was not sleeping, and it was not sleeping. So okay, boo on that, I claim one hundred percent victory. I claim one hundred percent victory and shame on the world for coming up with such ridiculous description. Okay, well. I am make Chris mad. That's it, so so so so. The real question I have in my mind is who out there got it from that descriptor. I don't know because I'm pretty literal, right, and somebody might hear sleep and go oh uh. Probably that reminds me listeners who got it immediately, somebody who. Might say, oh, they're they're describing inception right, because because they're not so literal like I am, right, because I'm thinking literal sleep literal. You feel dishonored, Chris, Uh. No, I don't feel dishonored. I feel I feel I feel like there's an injustice. Jesus felt dishonored. Jesus said a prophet has no honor. That fits right with our saying today. That's a great transition, Jesus said, has. No honor in his hometown. Oh good one. That it was a good one. That wasn't a bad transition, that was actually a good one. Yeah. Well, okay, so you failed. I failed. I failed at my bad transitions. Yeah, because you actually well. So we are in this idea So what we're doing is we're taking key statements that Jesus made. Yes, we're not saying all of them, but we're gonna do like fifty sixty of them something like that. And it's the premise is what if Jesus had his own podcast, what would he be talking about? Yeah, and so here's one, here's an interesting topic that Jesus dealt with, and we find it in Luke chapter four, verse sixteen, and we're going to go through thirty eight. By the way, I just heard this that Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite line from any catchphrase movie he's ever done is get down. Really yeah, he says something, but there's a chopper. There's a chopper. Get down. Oh okay. It was from Predator okay. And actually this would be similar to Jesus reviewing the Gospels himself at a podcast and somebody bringing to his attention all his own his famous quotes. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just reminded me, strangely enough. Of these are his famous quotes. These are his famous quotes. They turned out they've been around for like two thousand years. It's not like we discovered. Them, no, but Jesus made them famous. Yes so. In Luke, chapter four, verse sixteen, it says when he came to the village of Nazareth, his boy home or boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the Prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has annoyted me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. And he rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently, and then he began to speak to them. The scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. How can this be, they asked, isn't this Joseph's son? Then he said, you will un doubtedly quote me this proverbs proverb physician, heal yourself, meaning do miracles here in your hometown like those you didn't coperna him. But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. Certainly, there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner, a widow of Zaraphath in the land of Sidon. Many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but only the only one healed was name in Assyrian. When they heard this, the people in Syitagague were furious, jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They tended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way. Yeah, fickle crowd, Yeah, no kidding. I'm like, man, this guy's a genius. We're killing right right. Well, they realized that he was speaking of himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the way, there are a few I've always mentioned on this podcast that a lot of times when I read the Gospels I tie it back into my movie experience of the Chosen. I say movie, but the film experience of the Chosen. And you know, a lot of times the Chosen they just you know, sort of you know, suppose things that aren't in the scriptures. Well, this particular instance, okay, there's a lot of detail given. And so what they did is they actually filmed this entire scene. And the thing that I loved about it is a lot of times we try to imagine what it must have been like. And the beginning of it was really interesting because Jesus grew up in Nazareth, right, and so the beginning was I hadn't given it this much brain thought at all, But at the beginning, here he is back at his hometown, after you know, going in doing miracles and being famous, he's back at his hometown. And right before they went, there was a bunch of his childhood friends, jesus childhood friends, and they were all standing around doing like a version of like hacky sack, and they were like, they were like, Jesus, join us. They're like, come on, can you still do it? And he jumped in and they were playing, and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, like this is so weird. But this, this is probably sort of what it must have been like hometown for Jesus to go back and see his childhood friends, right, and then then he was asked to read the scriptures and it was a great honor, and and all of a sudden, all his friends were making a big guilvet and they're like, Jesus, can you believe they asked you to read the scroll? Like that's only usually reserved for the for this, you know, the Pharisee or whoever you know, the whoever. It was, Yeah, the rabbi. Yeah, they're probably the rabbi. And and anyway, it was it was like sort of like all of this dialogue that that you really can't see here, but that probably is almost exactly what it must have been. Like I started imagining, I'm like. Com back to his hometown, so very familiar. So it's not like, oh, here comes this famous Jesus. You know, this mysterious person is who's this? Uh you know, he might be from God. It wasn't that way at all. It was Jesus, Joseph's son. It was the guy down the block who lived in the blue hut, right like him, And he's getting to read the scriptures. That's so cool, you know, And it reminds me of when I got asked to volunteer. To not volunteer, but I was at my home pastor asked me to preach and in my church. I was going to Bible College, and he said, hey, do you want to preach on a Sunday morning? And it was different than guest speaking elsewhere, right right, right. I came back and I preached in my home church, and people saw me. You know, they saw the Hoodlam at fifteen years old, right like they saw that kid, and all of a sudden they saw him up there giving a message, and they were like, whoa, this is Chris in a different light, you know what I mean. Yeah, Well, so we started in verse sixteen and verse fourteen that Jesus returned to Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Right, So he came back after his baptism, after having been in the wilderness and temptation, all the stuff Holy Spirit had come on, and he came back very different. And then Jesus references in this passage, I think you're only really interested in me because I've been doing miracles in Capernaum, right, right, So Capernaum. I was going to say, wasn't that far away. So Galilee is not a very big lake, right, it's it's it's a pretty small like we call it to see a galilee, but it's not a sea's lakes. It's a medium sized lake. Well, you can see the other side clearly from one side, right right, you can you can see it. It's not even like Lake Sinclair, which anybody who lives in Michigan knows, like Sinclair, like it's hard to see the other end of like Sinclair. Well, it's substantially smaller, right, substantially. So there's like these ten fishing villages around. And Capernaum is to the noise east of where Nazareth was, And Nazareth wasn't right on the shore, but was near the lake. Capernaum was pretty substantial. There was a military outpost there, there was a lot of trade that would have been there, all that kind of stuff. And so Jesus had already done some miracles in Capernaum. Now he shows back up in Nazareth. And Nazareth was a pretty small village, a few hundred people, a little kind of a backwater kind of a little village. And you know, Joseph. His stepdad was a carpenter there, maybe like a furniture maker or something, a cabinet maker, a carpenter. That they so they were they were well established in the in the village, right, they were important. They their family contributed to the well being of the community. And he was just one of the boys that that's how they do. But then he goes away and he comes back with this power of the Holy Spirit and he's doing miracles. They're like wow. And then the synagogues just so you know, synagogue became kind of the center of worship for Jewish communities when they didn't have access to the temple. So if there were it was a ten if there were ten Jewish men in a community, they could form a synagogue and one man would then become the leader of the synagogue, and they could they would do they would do worship there. Ten Jewish men conform a synagogue, yeah. Huh, And so they could do they would do religious ceremonies there. They would have a special school to teach the children, you know, about the Law of Moses, all these kinds of things. And then when traveling rabbis would come through, then they could read from the scrolls they could teach, and so it's amazing. Jesus opens up the Book of Isaiah and says, hey, just so you know, when it says the spirit of the Lord is upon me, remember verse fourteen had just said the holy Spirit of commani right. And then in verse eighteen he says the spirit he's quoting from Isaiah spirit, the Lord is upon me freeze annoying me to bring good news to the poor. That's great. He sent me to proclaim that captors will be released. That's fantastic, that the blind will be set that the blind will see, and the oppressive be set free. The time the Lord's favor has come, everybody's say, that's great. We like your teaching. Jesus, Wow, you are so smart. And then he goes, yeah, I think you only like it because you're hoping I'm going to do miracles here. But prophets don't really get much honor in their own town. You want me to do tricks. You're not wanting me to change your life. And so he said, not everybody got it. And then he mentions that this widow of Zia Fath and naming the SyRI and they weren't even Jewish and they got blessings when nobody else did. And this now, all of a sudden, what they're picking up on as Jesus is giving that reference is going, wait a minute, you're saying that God is going to use you to reach gentiles. We're Jews. We don't like gentiles, right, And that was kind of the the thing that really ticked them off. And they knew his background, they knew his lifestyle, they knew all these things about him, and then they're like, why are you lecturing us? And a lot of times people have a hard time hearing from somebody they know well, right, we want experts, we want gurus. We just don't want to listen to somebody we know well. But Jesus is shooting pretty straight here. He said this gospel, this good news is for everybody. I looked up real quick while you were talking. The Sea of Galilee is only eight miles wide and thirteen miles long. Oh that's right, but surprisingly deep. Ready for this? How deep you think it is? Three hundred feet? Oh well, no, it's one hundred and forty one. People. It's like your uncle saying, guess how much a hot dog was at the airport. The way to shut them down is be like twenty dollars. Come on, man, it's four bucks anyway. But anyway, just in comparison, LA saying Claire, which is in Michigan, is twenty five or twenty four and a half miles wide? Yeah, yea yeah, yeah, so very double right, almost. Double three times. If it's eight miles wide. No, twenty four, it's thirteen miles. Oh, thirteen miles long? Yeah yeah, yeah, Oh I thought you said it's twenty. Four whatever wide and long. I don't know, okay, okay. Thirteen miles is the Sea of Galilee from It's probably long. Right top to bottom. Yeah, and eight miles wide. Oh yeah, yeah, you're right, this does say wide. There is a difference. Yeah yeah, this. Is twenty four miles long and twenty one miles wide. Okay, anyway, it doesn't matter. But anyway, here's another thing I was going to say, is so when I went home to my family one year, my brother we were in the car and I had just become a pastor. I don't know, it's probably only pastor, like maybe five years or so, and he had suggested that we go to a place that was questionable, okay, and Uh. It wasn't anything super bad or anything. It was just it was quite. It was, but it was it was a restaurant that was a riskque restaurant. There was a legitimate restaurant, right, everybody knows what it is. I'm talking to say, and he goes, hey, let's go have some wings at this restaurant. So there you go, and I said, and I said, no, I'm not going to go there. And he goes, oh, come on, and he goes, there's nothing wrong with going and having wings at this restaurant. I said, yeah, I understand. I said I would just rather not, you know. And he goes, well why, and he goes, that's ridiculous, and I said, well, I said, chuck, he's my brother. I said, I'm a pastor. And I said, I don't. I don't think I want people running into me and seeing me here. And I just don't want to. I just don't want to do it. And he goes, come on. And then I had a thought, and this is legitimately my thought. It goes exactly what we're talking about here. He at the time was attending Highway Tabernacle Church. It was a Pentecostal church in Youngstown. And his pastor's name was Pastor Alfred. And Alfred was an older guy. He was like in the sixties, right. And I said, let me ask you a question. I go, if you walked in there and you saw Pastor Alfred there, I said, would you think that he shouldn't be in there? And he and he paused and he did not know what to say, and he goes, yeah, you're right, I would not expect him nor want him to be in there. And I go, okay, I am Pastor Alfred to everybody else in my church. And he goes, oh, yeah, you never saw you in that one. He never saw me. It was didn't even compute to him, right, a prophet has no honor in his hometown. He literally could not compute that I was Pastor Alfred. Right. And that's funny because he's my brother, right, and so and and so. And another thing that the Chosen added to this story, which I don't know if it's here or not. I don't really know, because what you said is very prominent, right. It's about Jesus saying you just want to see miracles from me. That that that that seems to be the prominent objection. But the other thing that the Chosen added was Jesus said, the scripture you have just heard has been fulfilled on this day. They added the religious leaders they were offended that Jesus was saying that he was the answer to Isaiah's prophecy. Jesus was claiming to be the answer. Well, they liked what he said about that, Yes, they disliked that he compared them to the hard hearted Israelites in northern Israel and that God had to bring the good news to this widow of Zarah Fath and this general of Syria because the Israelites were so hard hearted. So he was saying, I'm here to set you free, but you're heard hearted, just like the Israelites have always been. And that's what ticked them off right right, because he was challenging their heart. What do you mean, we're sitting in the synagogue, we're good, upstanding citizens. What are you talking about? And he was trying to point out the fact that they were going through religious ritual, but they had a hard heart towards God, and you're not ready for this good news. And that's what made him mad. Well, and and and then and then the idea that they they came and they pushed him to the edge of the cliff and they were ready to throw him over, and then it says Jesus walked through. I wonder if he just stared them down and just said this is not happening today, and just walked right through the crowd with this brazen boldness, you know, And and they just they just were overcome, you know, by the Holy Spirit, and and they just froze, you know. So this angry mob couldn't go through with it, because. This happens a few times in jesus ministry where they're going to kill him and he just walks right through the crowd. Yeah, they just they can't lay hands on it because it wasn't his time, right, that was it, And. And this definitely wasn't his time. This was at the beginning of his ministry. I read a quote from a missionary and he said that I am invincible until God has finished with me, right, and then I have no say about the matter. Right. Right. So it's true, right that in this situation Jesus was invincible because God God wasn't done with that part of his ministry yet. And so we can even though opposition comes, we can still walk in confidence knowing you know, we're not really in charge of our life anyways. And while God is using us and for his purposes, we're invincible because He's going to fulfill his purpose. Right, and then when God's done with us, well then we can't prevent what happens next anyways. So, well, you think of missionaries who go to tribes and they were actually killed as martyrs, and then you know that famous story where the wives go back and lead the world. Tribes down a Ecuador among the Aca Indians. Yes, and so you think about that and you think, you know, those those missionaries could have walked in thinking hey, I'm invincible until I'm not, and they were killed. But yet God used that purpose and you know, those lives were brought to heaven, and then you know that's not a bad day, right for the missionaries to be brought to heaven. And then all of a sudden, you know, millions of lives were undoubtedly affected from those stories. Right, So, yeah, I'm invincible until God decides, you know, that he's done with me or wants to bring me home, and then I have no say in the matter, which is pretty pretty awesome because there's a lot of there's a lot of times where people show courage in faith and they are invincible, right and God just you know the people, you know, they're amazed by the bravery of some missionaries. And I've seen it too, I've seen brave missionaries. So that story that you're talking about in Ecuador, there's a book called Through the Gates of Splendor. There's a movie along those. I've seen it, and I've skimmed the book. I've not read the whole thing. It's a fabulous book about Jim Elliott and his team of five missionaries, Nate Saints and some of those guys that went down there and they were all murdered by the aucas and then later on the families went back and converted that entire tribe, and then that tribe wound up becoming missionaries to everybody else through forgiveness. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they were so amazed by forgiving. Really phenomenal. It was at the time, it was the largest rescue mission ever done by the US Air Force at that point. That's awesome to try to go rescue them. It was back in the fifties, I think, but it's really amazing. So hey, the book that looks like our time. But before we go, one last thing that we didn't get to say about this passage. You and I, both at different times, have stood in the in Nazareth, in Nazareth, in the temple. Yeah that that synagogue, that synagogue. Yeah it's a rebuilt synagogue. But yeah, but it's the same piece of real estate. Yeah, yeah, right, isn't any It's the same we stood on the piece of real estate where Jesus said this quote. Isn't it cool? It's really cool? So all right, well, hey, that's our time, and so hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,