#23 No Prophet is Accepted in His Home Town
On June 13, 2021 by Amy Burgin
Joy:
Episode#23 Luke 4:24-26
Welcome
Amy:
Welcome to The Christgazing Podcast. We are so glad you’re here. I’m Amy Burgin.
Joy:
I’m Joy Burgin
Amy:
Christgazing is the act of looking steadily and intently at Christ. This podcast is just one small tool to help us do that. Each week we focus on one passage from the Bible as Joy reads it several times and creates stillness after each reading to consider who God is and what he wants us to know.
We are in a series that brings us the words of Jesus as found in the book of Luke. We are in Luke chapter 4. Last week, we learned how Jesus began his first public sermon. He boldly declared that he was the one the prophet Isaiah spoke about approximately 700 years earlier, the one sent by God to bring good news to the poor, sight for the blind, and freedom for the captives and the oppressed. At the beginning of his sermon, the people were amazed by him. But as he continued on, the people became so angry with him, they tried to throw him off a cliff. Wonder what Jesus said that made them so furious? That’s what we will look at today.
Pour Out Your Heart to God
Amy:
Before Joy brings us the words of Jesus, take 45 seconds to pour out your heart to God whether it’s thanksgiving, frustration, forgiveness, or anger, name it and bring to the Lord in these next 45 seconds.
What Does This Passage Say About God?
Joy:
I’m going to read today’s passage two times. As I read, consider the question, What does this passage say about God? What does God value?
Luke 4:24-26 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his 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.”
Again?
Luke 4:24-26 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his 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.”
[Pause and know]
What Does This Passage Say About People?
Joy:
As I read the scripture again, consider the question: What does this passage tell you about people?
Luke 4:24-26 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his 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.”
[Pause and know]
Lord, What Would You Have Me Know or Do Today?
Joy:
As I read for the last time, ask God the question, “Lord, what would you have me do today in response to this passage?”
Luke 4:24-26 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his 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.”
Blessing
Joy:
Christgazer, the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. May you turn your face toward his and accept his blessing.
One Response
Amy:
Jesus went on to say, “There were many Israelites with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian.”
After Jesus said this, his sermon ended abruptly when all the people there became furious at his words, got up, and drove him out of town to the brow of a hill with plans to throw him off a cliff! One minute they are amazed by him but as soon as they discover he shares not in their divisions of people, they want to kill him. How deep divisions can run in people without Christ! How we can be so slave to Division, driven by it with such whips it leads us to the very point of murder!
In Jesus’ first public sermon, I see two beautiful things about him:
1. With him, there is no division. As Paul said, in Colossians 3:11, in Christ, “there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised, or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
2. Jesus came that we might have freedom from the murderous, slave-driving spirit of Division.
Closing
Amy:
Joy and I will be back again next week to go Christgazing together. We leave you with our familiar closing. When you put your trust in Christ, you are one in whom he dwells and delights, a dearly loved child of God. You are royalty in his strong and unshakeable kingdom. Though trouble abounds, Christ prevails and so do you.
It blesses me to hear from you! Please leave a reply here.