Meeting Jesus - Purpose and Rejection
Some people believe Jesus is a republican, a democrat, or an independent. Some people believe that Jesus is like a Genie in a bottle–if you rub the lamp through prayer, you get whatever you want. Still, some view Jesus like a Mascot the church rallies around once a week.Over this next year, we are going to seek to understand who Jesus really was,what he was really like, and how you and I can become more like Him.
If you are at the end of your rope…If you feel broken, crushed and misunderstood…
I want you to know if you begin to read God’s Word and Apply it to you your life, your life is going to change!
If you have ever interviewed for a job and you thought it went well, but never heard back from the employer, you know that feeling of rejection.
In today’s passage we are going to look at one of the moments in his life that Jesus was rejected...and learn how we can Deal with rejection we receive as followers of Jesus.
If you are a follower of Jesus. Meaning, if you had a moment when you understood that God created you to have a relationship with Him. If you believe that the penalty of sin separated you from God. If you believe that Jesus death paid the penalty for sin and through Jesus death and resurrection, you have been forgiven for your sins…and you had that moment when it all clicked and you surrendered your life to Jesus and now have a friendship with God then most likely you have had to deal with rejection because of your faith in Jesus at some level. Maybe you have been rejected by friends, family, or neighbors because of your commitment to follow Jesus.
But maybe you have had to deal with rejection at a different level. Maybe your husband or wife has rejected you and abandoned you. They divorced you when you did not want to divorce them. Maybe the pain of that rejection still lingers. Maybe your adult or teen children have rejected you. You love them. You care for them. But right now, they have rejected you. No returned phone calls or text messages for years…
Even if you are not yet a follower of a Jesus – I think you will discover some heathy ways that you are able to overcome the feelings that rejection can bring in your life.
At this point in his life, the ministry of Jesus was just beginning. People were just beginning to talk about him. He had been baptized. As we looked at last week, he had faced 40 days of temptation and fasting in the desert. Then he returned to Galilee, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and reports about him began to spread quickly through the region. The people were excited and there was a “buzz” about him wherever he went and as Jesus traveled, he came to Nazareth, the town he grew up in. Initially people spoke well about him – but after he began telling the churched-Jewish people that God loved those outside the Jewish faith – he experienced rejection.
Luke 4:16-30
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: 18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed 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, 19 and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” 20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” 22 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?” 23 Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. 25 “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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.
This passage of scripture prophesied or predicted the purpose of the life of Jesus. It predicted his mission. It summed up what his life was going to be like. After he read this passage and began to explain his purpose – the people – his friends and family from his hometown – rejected him.
REJECTION HAPPENS TO THOSE LIVING WITH PURPOSE
Jesus said: I have come to open the eyes of the blind, set captives free, bring Good News to the poor, and set the oppressed free…
But then he said to the “churched people” – not just for you! God wants people outside the walls of the Jewish faith to experience hope! He loves and cares for ALL people – including the broken, the blind, the oppressed and the rejected outside the walls of the church.
That’s what made the Jewish people so upset!
There are many churches that say they want to reach those without Jesus, but they don’t want “those types” of people in the church!
Now, rejection still happens to all of us whether it is because we are a follower of Jesus or because of our occupation:
If you are a Real Estate agent, rejection is going to happen.
If you are a mechanic, people aren’t always going to be satisfied, rejection is going to happen.
If you sell insurance, cars, and are self-employed – you know rejection is going to happen.
If you are going to live with purpose, not everybody is going to like it and some people will reject, you. If you are wondering about how people will continue to react to you if you do continue to live with purpose, look at how people reacted to Jesus. The very same people that spoke well of Jesus in one moment, were ready to throw him off the cliff the next moment.
PEOPLE ARE FICKLE – THEY CAN BE FOR YOU, THEN AGAINST YOU
Luke 4:22
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?”
Luke 4:28-29
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
Because you and I are broken – sometimes we treat people wrong. Sometimes we are like this group of people that rejected Jesus.
After I had surrendered my life to Jesus, was baptized, reading my bible and growing in my faith, I sat down with my grandmother to explain what had happened to me and how I had surrendered my life to Jesus. My Nana looked at me and said, “You have been brainwashed.”
She was FOR me if ever a person was! When I was going to be sent to a boys home after I had run away from home, Nana opened up her home to me and let me live with her for four years throughout high school. She fed me and clothed me and supported me. Then she didn’t like what I had to say about Jesus changing my life – and she said I was brainwashed.
You may hear this and think that I am suggesting we should not trust people. That is not even close to what I am saying, I am saying that when people are fickle about supporting you – it hurts. So don’t be like that!
Do you like it when people are for you, or against you?
It is always better to be like Jesus and be FOR others than AGAINST others. Sadly, it is in our sinful nature to fail other people and sometimes the same people who are for us one moment, can be against us the next moment. That’s what happened to Jesus. The same people who were pleased with him one moment tried to push him off a cliff and stone him the next – not because of what he did, but because of what he said.
So how do we deal with rejection?
How do we deal with rejection when we know sometimes people will be for us and against us, because they are human sinners too?
Be CONFIDENT IN YOUR CALLING AND IDENTITY
If you are going to live in this world for any period of time, you will be rejected.
Your ideas will be rejected.
Your presence will be rejected.
Your personality will be rejected.
If you are convinced that your calling is to sales – be confident in your calling to sales, and in your identity as a salesperson.
If you are convinced that your calling is to cook great food, be confident in your calling to cook, and in your identity as a chef.
And...if you are a follower of Jesus – your main calling and your main identity is not found anywhere else but in Jesus.
Remember, your calling is to be the salt and light of the earth.
Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
You are called to bring flavor and preservatives to this world by following Jesus – others are not like you and the world needs your flavor mixed in with it!
You are God’s PARTNER.
2 Corinthians 6:1
As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it.
You are a partner with GOD! You can be confident that He is your Co-Worker and you are His. He is working right alongside you caring for others, ministering to others, and loving others.
You are God’s masterpiece.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
When you feel like more of a MESS-terpiece than a masterpiece, be confident that you may have messed up and sinned, but sin has not ruined your story. God calls you a Masterpiece of Grace, mercy, and forgiveness. You are beautiful and wonderful, a work of art.
You God’s child and the evil one cannot touch you.
1 John 5:18
We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.
If you are a follower of Jesus, the devil cannot touch one hair on your head. You are protected, cradled, loved, and guarded by Jesus Christ – Live confidently in that truth!
Jesus was confident in his calling and in his identity. He knew what his purpose was and even when people rejected him and rejected his message – he kept on going. He kept on moving forward – because his calling compelled him and his identity strengthened him.