And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,  (29)  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.  (30)  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,  (31)  And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

Luke 4:28-31

Explanation:

Rejection did not stop him.  The people that knew him the longest had rejected His message, identity and mission.  Imagine the ending of your sermon to your hometown being them coming to the front to grab you and take you out to execute you.  This is what was happening to Jesus.  They grabbed Him intending to throw Him off of a cliff, but Jesus performed the supernatural.  This was not His time to die.  He supernaturally got away from them, “passing through the midst of them” and continued on His mission.  Where did He go?  “And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days”.  This even did not end His teaching ministry.

There are three attitudes exhibited by Jesus’ hometown that caused them to miss the Messiah.  We should be careful to examine our lives and reject these attitudes.

What attitudes cause us to reject the Messiah?

1. Familiarity

And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?  

Luke 3:22

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

Mark 6:3

If we are not careful we can become familiar with Jesus.  We can believe that because we know about Jesus that we have trusted in Jesus.  We can believe that because we are American that means we are Christian.  We can believe that because we do good things we are saved. We can believe that because we go to church and sing the songs and got baptized we know Jesus as our Savior. If there was never a time where we confessed our need for a Savior to God and turned to Christ for salvation we are yet in our sins.  And even for those of us who know Christ as Savior, we can get in the routine and habit of religious practice and miss out on what God wants to do because of familiarity.  Every time we meet we should ask, “God what do you want me to do today.  How should I respond to your word?  How do I need to change?”  We should come to church with expectation.  God, who is going to get saved today? What are you going to do today?

2. Apathy

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;  (15)  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  (16)  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Revelation 3:14-16

Revelation 3″

In Revelation Jesus tells John to write a letter to seven different churches.  The one written to the church of Laodicea encapsulates how they, as believers, were missing out on what God wanted to do in them and through them.  There was an apathy.  They were saved, but they weren’t continuing to grow in their relationship with Christ.  They were lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. They were apathetic.  And Jesus said, in effect, you make me want to vomit!

3. Self-Deception

(17)  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:  

Revelation 3:17

These people were self-deceived.  They had convinced themselves that they were ok when they were not. We can get there, too.  We can believe that we are saved because we believe about Jesus but haven’t trusted in Jesus.  We can believe that we are right with God as believers, when really our relationship with God isn’t what it ought to be. 

Application:

If we are waking up to this reality what do we do?  What is the solution?

Passionate repentance and belief in Jesus!

(18)  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  (19)  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  (20)  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:18-20

Response:

Are you missing out on Jesus because of some wrong attitude?  Repent today!