Revealed through Scriptures

Luke 4:14-21; Acts 8:26-39

We begin today’s message with the Gospel text.  The first few verses set the scene.

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

It is important to understand that after Jesus baptism and temptation in the wilderness he has gone back to Galilee and he is a hit!  People are listening to him and even praising him.  This has to be encouraging to Jesus.  His ministry has started great!  So then in the next verse we hear that Jesus then heads home to “Nazareth, where he had been brought up.”

How many of you live away from where you grew up?  How does it feel to go home?

How did it feel to go home after you had graduated college or maybe had succeeded at your first job?

I know many people who have not gone back to their High School class reunions because they feel like failures.  I also know many who have made it in the business world and who proudly walk into the reunion feeling pretty self-confident.

Well, it seems that as Jesus heads back to Nazareth he is feeling pretty confident.  Now you and I know that he should be confident…He is the Son of God but remember he is heading into his hometown, the place he grew up.

He heads into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and as the custom he stands to read from the prophet Isaiah…

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So far so good until he sits down and states:

 “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:21

I ended the reading here because the focus today is about Jesus being revealed and it is with those words that he reveals to the people there who he is.  But let me share the following verses to explain how this revealing was taken…

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³ He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” ²⁴ And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵ But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶ yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷ There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Not exactly a hero’s welcome!!

Personally, I didn’t move away from “home” until I was 31 and when I left I was a wife and mother with a simple job as a secretary.  Nothing to dramatic.

After moving away for a few years I began preaching as a lay person and teaching classes in our District.  I was soon invited to come home to Kendall to lead worship one Sunday and to give the sermon.  I was super nervous!  Preaching to a group of people who knew me as the youngest of Dutch and Loie’s girls!  What could I say to these people?

I went and I preached and many people were very kind and complimentary.  On the other hand I had a very good friend who lived there who didn’t come to church that day.

Her husband came but she wouldn’t come.  Why?  I was never given an exact answer but by a few comments I gathered that she could not even consider coming and listening to me preach.  We had known each other a long time and had shared a lot of history.  She just couldn’t imagine me, her friend and confidant, having any right to preach or for that matter having anything enlightening to say.  I was hurt at first but soon realized this was pretty normal.   Some people can’t see beyond the person speaking and simply hear the message of the Gospel.

Jesus was revealed in Nazareth in his hometown but just could not be accepted.  The people couldn’t see beyond the person!

An Encounter between an Ethiopian, Philip and words from the Prophet Isaiah

Let’s move to our reading from the book of Acts.  This includes another reading from Isaiah and a revealing of who Jesus is.  In this reading though, the man Jesus is not familiar to the Ethiopian.

Through divine intervention two humans are drawn together.  An angel sends Philip to an Ethiopian Eunuch traveling along a wilderness road.  When Philip meets up with him, he is reading from the prophet Isaiah.

I love Philip’s question,

“Do You Understand what you are reading?”

Have you ever been reading from the Bible and thought, “I just don’t get it.”?  Not all the scriptures are fun Sunday School stories that we can understand. Sometimes the scriptures make us think deep and sometimes we just can’t grasp what they are saying.

This is where Philip finds the Ethiopian, reading the words but not quite understanding.  Philip being led by the Spirit, Philip begins to unlock the mystery of this scripture.

He explains the good news of Jesus and how Jesus is the Lamb of God who was humiliated and was denied justice.  Jesus is the Messiah that came to save the world.  The eunuch hears the good news and seeks to be baptized.

Revelation through reading, studying and seeking guidance.

Jesus was revealed to the eunuch through the scriptures and through the spiritual guidance of Philip.

Jesus is revealed throughout all of the scriptures.  The Good News of God’s saving grace is right here in the Holy Bible!  Have you understood who Jesus is?  Do you want to know more?  It’s all here!  Take time to read from the scriptures!  Study them!  Seek guidance and you will see and understand fully the revelation of our Lord, Jesus!