Rejecting the Redeemer
Luke 4: 21-30 January 31, 2010

Our epiphany this morning is that Jesus the Redeemer is rejected…

1^ST REJECTION: What we see this morning is the continuation of our scripture last Sunday when Jesus was preaching in his hometown church of Nazareth… He had proclaimed that he was the Messiah, the Savior that the great prophet Isaiah had promised the people of Israel…

On the surface, this was good news… but as the words of Jesus begin to sink in, the people began to question their validity… And they begin to question who Jesus really is… and they asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”

In other words, Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah because they knew him as the son of Joseph… Certainly the Messiah wouldn’t come from the family of a poor carpenter… So they begin to reject the message and in doing so, they Rejected the Redeemer…

And it’s easy for you and me to think – how could they do that? How could they be so blind and so foolish as to reject the Redeemer…

1^ST OF MANY REJECTIONS: But this was just the first of many rejections in the life and ministry of Jesus…

When we study the life and ministry of Jesus, we learn that he had many followers, large crowds, faithful disciples, but he also had many enemies… people who were against him and people who had rejected him and his message…

I think about the Rich Young Ruler: He came to Jesus asking how to be a part of the kingdom of God and Jesus told him, “Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, and then follow me.” But the Bible says that he couldn’t accept that so he walked away sad…

I think about Nicademus: He too came to Jesus in the middle of the night asking how to be saved and Jesus told him, “You must be born again and follow me.” And Nicademus couldn’t understand how someone could be born again because his mind was on worldly things but Jesus was speaking about Spiritual things… And Nicademus didn’t get it…

I think about the Crowds: Jesus was trying to teach them how to be part of the kingdom of God… In one teaching he told them that they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood and they thought he was crazy and they rejected his message… In another teaching he told them that they have to hate father and mother, brother and sister, and follow him… And the Bible says, “The teachings were too hard and that the crowds turned away and followed him no more.”

A Recurring Theme: When we study the life and teachings of Jesus we notice a recurring theme… If we want to be a part of the kingdom of God we have to Follow Jesus… And we say to ourselves, “Well I would never reject Jesus – but we Reject the Redeemer when we don’t follow our Redeemer…

And the only logical reason that we don’t follow the Redeemer is because we lack Biblical knowledge… The Bible says “many will stumble in darkness because of their lack of knowledge.”

I hate to say it like this, but many of us who refuse to follow the teachings of Jesus are Spiritual dummies…

Illus: You know, these days they have books for dummies on every subject… Excel for dummies, WordPerfect for dummies, Trading Stocks for dummies… Maybe I should write a book, Spiritual Teachings for dummies… but somebody beat me to it, they’ve already written the book and most of us have a copy of it – it’s called the Bible…

God has given us the knowledge but we refuse to study it and accept it… And one reason that we refuse to accept it is because we’re just like the people in our scripture this morning who thought, “Jesus can’t be the Messiah because he doesn’t look like what they thought a Messiah should look like – so they rejected him…”

Illus: Every one of us here this morning has our own theory, our own idea of what life should look like – we have our idea of what the kingdom of God should look like and if life in the kingdom of God doesn’t match our perception and our theory then we reject it…

The problem is not with the kingdom of God, the problem is with our lack of knowledge because we haven’t studied the kingdom of God…

And because of our lack of knowledge, instead of following Jesus we’re trying to follow the world – our own selfish desires – and in doing so we reject the truth and we Reject the Redeemer…

Illus: Let me ask you something: If you were dying with cancer and the doctor said, “Take this pill and it will cure your sickness,” would you take it… We probably would – just because the doctor said so…

Or, if you were starving of hunger and couldn’t afford to buy food and clothes for your family but the banker said, “here’s a million dollars – take it because it will change your life,” would you take it – of course we would…

Or, if you were homeless and living on the streets and someone from Habitat of Humanity walks up to you and says, “You don’t have to live like this, and hands you the keys to a nice new home,” would you take it – of course you would…

You see, we wouldn’t reject these things because they fit into our ideas of what we think life should look like…

We can relate to these things because they are worldly things… Jesus said, “We are to be in this world but not of this world.” He said, “I am not a part of this kingdom – but I am a part of the heavenly kingdom – the kingdom of God.”

Several weeks ago I told you what the kingdom of God looks like – it’s a life filled with joy, peace, love, and relationships… That’s life in the kingdom of God and when we don’t understand it – we reject it…

Back to my “what if” questions – What if you were living a life in darkness and sin, separated from God – a life without joy, peace, love, and relationships – and God steps into your life and says, “It hurts Me to see you living like this – here, take My Son Jesus, I promise he will give you an abundant life.” Would you take him? Would you accept God’s promise?

Most of us would say, “Of course I would accept God’s promise – and many of us do… We take the initial step and receive Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior but then we refuse to follow him and his teachings…

GOD’S COVENANT: I think the reason that we hesitate to follow Jesus is because we don’t fully understand the covenant that God made with His people…

There are over 700 promises in the Bible that God made to His people… And God can’t break His promise… But His promises are contingent upon us fulfilling our covenant with God…

A covenant is an agreement – it’s a legal binding agreement between two parties that says, “I’ll do this if you’ll do that or if you’ll do that I’ll do this.”

But let me ask, “How can you keep a covenant with God if you don’t understand the covenant? How can you have it and live it if you don’t know it?” You can’t!

I don’t have the time to explain the covenant to you this morning, but you can read parts of it in Deut. 8, Romans 4, and Hebrews 11 and 12… But here’s the problem – If we’re not keeping the covenant with God then we’re not following Jesus and we have Rejected the Redeemer…

FINAL REJECTION: Church, God is serious about His covenant between you and Him… so serious that He signed it with the blood of His Son Jesus… What we see on the Cross is God fulfilling His side of the covenant…

After being rejected in the Temple, and rejected by the Crowds, we know that an angry mob had the final say so; for they were asked by Pontius Pilot, “Who do you want me to free – Barabbas or Jesus? And they rejected Jesus once again and shouted “Free Barabbas and Crucify Jesus!”

SERVE COMMUNION: But we know that that was what Jesus had come to do… He came to die on the Cross for our sins – that was God’s plan…

For the night before he was rejected and crucified, he shared his last meal with his disciples… and after supper, he took the bread and the cup and gave it to his disciples saying, “This bread is my body and this cup is my blood; eat and drink in remembrance of me… for I am filling the covenant between you and My Father in heaven.

As Jesus gave up his life and died on the Cross, his last words were, “It is finished – Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”

He didn’t say, “I am finished…” He said, “It is finished.” You see, Jesus is alive and well today… Don’t Reject the Redeemer – come in remembrance of him – get to know him, trust him, follow him – and restore your covenant with God the Father.

Let us pray!