Jesus Rejected At Nazareth| Luke 4:14-30 | Week 11

We have been walking through a sermon series that we’re calling the Ministry of Jesus, where we walk through every engagement that Jesus has, every interaction, every conversation. And we do it in order to find ourselves in the receiving ends of Jesus teachings and Jesus engagements, to be on the receiving end of Jesus healings, to be on the receiving ends of the things that Jesus is trying to instruct the people the he came to serve. And so today we continue that idea as we find ourselves in Luke chapter four. If you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn there with me. And I just want to kind of state some things as you’re getting there.

First is we are doing what we call a harmonization of the Gospels, which means we’re taking all of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and we’re trying to piece them together in a chronological order. Sometimes it can be a bit unclear when an event happens. It could be before an event or after an event, and we’re just not exactly sure when it happened. And so we have to make our best guess as to when that event could happen or when that event did happen. And so what we’re reading today could possibly come before John chapter four or just after John chapter five.

We’re actually not exactly sure where it lands in the harmony of the gospel, but we are strategically placing it here because of the subject matter. See, the past few weeks, we have seen Jesus prove himself as not only a miracle worker, but a compassionate teacher and Prophet. And generally, everyone who has engaged with him has accepted him from the woman at the well, even to Nicodemus in some form or fashion. We saw even the people who Jesus turned over the tables in their synagogue or rather in their temple. In John chapter two, we saw even those people curious enough about Jesus that they approached him and had a conversation with him.

Today is the very first time, and it will begin a string of these, where people reject Jesus. He has been well received up until this point. But here in Luke chapter four, he is not only rejected, but he’s also, they attempt to throw him off a cliff. And as we unpack this story and as we read it, we’re going to look at this underlying idea of why do people reject Jesus? What you’re going to find is that it’s always the same reason.

It’s never different. It’s always the same. Everybody who rejects Jesus Christ as Messiah, as savior, rejects him for the same reason. And what the reason is will become clear later this morning by the words of Jesus in the text we’re going to read. And here’s a hint.

It has a lot to do with the relationship of who Jesus accepts. So who rejects Jesus has a lot to do with who he accepts. So we’re going to look at Luke, chapter four. I’m not going to give you any more information because the study is so rich that I don’t want to cloud some of the ideas before we really dive into it. We’re going to look at verse 16.

We’re going to start there. If you’re there, say Amen. All right, here we go. Luke, chapter four, verse 16. He went to Nazareth, that’s his hometown, where he had been brought up.

And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and the recovery of sights of the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.

The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Imagine coming to Church today, of course, excited to hear me preach. But instead, Jesus Christ was standing up here, and he said, hey, you know, all that talk about my second coming and all that talk about the fulfillment of all these prophecies and the ushering in of the Kingdom of God and Salvation. I’m here to let you know that that time is now.

I’m here to let you know that in a few moments I will begin my Ministry for a second time. And you’re going to see the Rapture of people and the raising of the dead. It would be utterly shocking, wouldn’t it? It’s even hard to comprehend. But this is something like what the Jews in that synagogue in Nazareth experienced that day.

They had been in Nazareth all their lives to that same synagogue. And they had heard sermon after sermon after sermon and lesson after lesson from the law and the prophets, from Sabbath after Sabbath after Sabbath. For centuries that a Messiah was coming and he was going to do the things that scroll of Isaiah said, that there would be a Messiah and that he was coming. And then on this Sabbath day in the year, I don’t know, 28 or whatever, that man was standing up, teaching the lesson.

It’s amazing. They all knew him. They knew there was something about him. If you look at the verses a little bit early in verse 14, you read that news about him had spread quickly throughout the whole countryside and that everyone praised him in verse 15. His reputation was growing.

People were like, There is something interesting about this man from Nazareth. And here he is back in his hometown. And I’m going to show you the map that we’ve been looking at. We spent a lot of time in the Southern part of Israel. But today we are up here in Galilee, and we’ll be up here for quite a long time.

We are in his hometown of Nazareth. Hometown of Nazareth here. And this is where Jesus is. This is where he grew up. This is a place of about 20,000 people theologians tell us. They had tons of synagogues, and this would have been like Jesus’s local Church. The people in that Church would have been like his aunts and uncles, his sisters, certainly his half or his halfsisters, his halfbrothers, his descendants, his friends, his neighbors. They would have all knew who he was and then they would have heard the news, hey, that man that grew up in the Church is healing people in Jerusalem. He’s changing people’s lives. He turned water to wine in Cana.

It would have been so shocking. It’s almost like maybe Antonio Siotti, if you know our Church, Antonio Siotti. Imagine he getting up here and being like, I am the Messiah. It’s like, no, you’re not, MJ Peter Luis. I’m pretty sure you’re not him.

But that’s the engagement, right? It’s like one of the kids that grew up in the Church coming here and going, hey, I’m actually the one that the scriptures have promised. It would have been shocking. And yet the Bible says that all spoke well of him and were amazed at his gracious words because no one ever spoke like him. He was an incredible orator. That came from his lips.

And then they asked, isn’t this Joseph’s son?

I’m a little bit confused. Jesus speaks and everyone responds, Well, I mean, they’re engaged by what he’s saying. And what’s his message that day? Well, his message is Salvation is here and it’s available. It’s here and it’s available.

You thought it was maybe a long way off. You maybe thought you had to wait for centuries for it to come. But it’s here and it’s available now. That’s the start of the story. What a powerful story, right?

Like everyone should be like, leaning in just listening to Jesus words, Salvation is here. I am the coming Messiah. I have arrived and I’m the one that the Gospels or the prophets and the law have promised you. And I’m here today. Right?

And everyone’s like, Whoa. And I want to just fast forward to the very end of the story just to share what happens. Verse 28, there’s a massive change. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out to the town and took him to the brow of the Hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff.

Verse 22 says everyone speaks well of him. Verse 29 says everyone wants to throw him off a cliff. What happened between those verses?

Jesus explains Salvation is available, right? Good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind. He set the oppressed free, proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor. How do we go from the message of forgiveness, of riches, of eternal life, of release to wanting to throw this kid who you grew up with or this man who grew up as a kid off of a cliff? It’s shocking.

How did it turn so bad? Let’s see. And by the way, this is the first time, as I mentioned before, that we read in the harmonization of the Gospels that anyone wants to kill Jesus. But it won’t be the last time. From here on out, you will see there are lots of people who hate Jesus and they all hate him for the same reason.

And I would venture to say that if you’re in here today and you have an interesting relationship with Jesus, it might be because of this very same reason. Let’s see what happened. What happened in verse 23 through 28 that made this crowd radically change? Verse 23. No doubt you will quote this Proverbs.

Remember, this is the explanation of the scripture that he read. So he read that passage and now he’s going to expose it. He’s going to talk about it. No doubt you will quote this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we heard was done at Capernum Do here in your hometown as well.

He says, hey, maybe you’re listening to me and you’re thinking, how do I know you can actually set the oppressed free? How do I know that you can actually save people from hell or whatever? What’s your proof? Show us a sign because you’re just Joseph’s son. And if you were to show us a sign, then we would believe you.

By the way, this is so similar to so many passages. Show us a sign, then we’ll believe you. Show us a sign, then we’ll believe you. Up until the cross, right? Jesus is on the cross and people are yelling at him, come down from there and then we’ll believe you. If you do something for me, then we’ll believe you.

By the way, isn’t this like eerily similar to the way a lot of us engage with Jesus? Hey, God, just save my kids and then I’ll give my whole life to you. Just do something for me and then I’ll respond in belief towards you. Anyway, there are so many people who do this in the scriptures.

This is a temptation of all of us to do. And so he says this little proverb, he goes like, hey, it’s true. You just want to see me do something before you say you’re going to believe me. But what’s interesting to me is that miracles don’t prove that Jesus could do what he said he was going to do. Jesus says, I’m going to set the oppressed free.

I’m going to give recovery of sight to the blind, I’m going to heal the poor, I’m going to give Salvation. But miracles don’t prove that you can do that. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus says, Many will do miracles, and then I will turn to them and say, I never knew you. Miracles don’t prove that you can save people’s souls. You can take all the miracle workers. Either they’re fake or real or whatever. You can mix them all together. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything. In fact, if you study at the New Testament, it’s clear that the Jewish population never actually believed that Jesus was unable to do a miracle.

In John chapter eleven, the Pharisees even say, this man is doing miracles. So they don’t question it, that he could do a miracle. And so it’s interesting that Jesus brings up this proverb. And so what’s interesting is he’s also not saying, do a miracle, and then we’ll believe you. He’s actually saying that they’re saying, do it for me, then I’ll believe you. It’s not just like, do a miracle.

It’s do something for me. And then I’ll finally give you my heart. Jesus makes it clear that this is an issue of evidence. It’s actually an issue of selfishness.

He’s trying to make another really interesting point, which is that you’re not rejecting me, or they’re not going to reject him because he is unable to do a miracle. They’re actually rejecting him for something totally different. So we’ll continue verse 24. Truly, I tell you, which is like this word here is the word Amen, by the way. It’s like affirmed.

This is truth. He continued, no Prophet is accepted in his hometown. Familiarity breeds contempt. The expert is always from out of town. And I think this is a moment of compassion, right?

I can say something and then someone can say something after me, and you guys will be like, wow, what that guy said is amazing. I’m like I said it too, but it doesn’t really matter because whatever, you know me, who cares, right? So I don’t have hurt feelings, I guess, about this whole thing. But that’s the way it works, right? The expert always has.

And I think Jesus is just being like, Look, I get it. I get it. A Prophet doesn’t have honor in his hometown. And so then he makes a transition. And brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to listen carefully to the transition, because this is the meat of the sermon.

What you’re going to hear, I believe, is remarkably profound. He makes the transition from this idea of not being accepted in his hometown, and he takes the time to highlight two Old Testament prophets, a guy by the name of Elijah and a guy by the name of Elisha, two prophets who were unwelcomed in Israel, hated, rejected, refused by the people. And Jesus is going to make a point that he is that same person, and it’s because of the people he accepts. So listen in. This is verse 25.

Stay with me, because we’re going to talk a lot of Old Testament stuff. Just bear with me, okay? Truly, I tell you, he continued, No Prophet is accepted its hometown. Verse 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time.

Hang on here again, because we’re going to have to talk a little bit about Elijah. Elijah comes on the scene in approximately 850 BC, and it’s a terrible time in the land of Israel. Jesus says that there are many widows in the time of Elijah. And the reason there are many widows is because there’s a famine in the time of Elijah. Why is there a famine in the time of Elijah?

Well, because everyone in Israel at the time was a worshiper of Baal or Baal. Baal was another God, a false God. He’s actually the son Baal of Ashera. Ashera is like the God of sex, essentially. So it’s a pretty terrible place.

I can explain Baal another time, but just so you know, terrible God, horrible. Not only a terrible God, but also just not a real God. So Ahab is the King at the time. You might remember who he is. And he marries a woman named Jezebel.

Jezebel is a Gentile. Jezebel is a Baal worshiper. And so Ahab becomes a Baal worshiper. So be careful, singles who you marry, because who they worship will probably be who you worship. Just a little note there.

He marries this lady who is a false idolater, worshiper, and he becomes an idolater, worshiper. And not only that, but because he’s King. If you have influence, this happens. Everyone in the whole community begins to worship Baal. It’s a terrible time.

Ahab is so bad that 1 Kings, chapter 16 says that he did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the Kings of Israel before him. Yes, exactly.

Wicked, wretched, Baal worshiping King, his wife. Wicked, wicked, wicked. Anyway, Elijah comes out of nowhere. We don’t know anything about Elijah except that in one King, chapter 17, he drops on the scene and he announces there’s going to be a flood or going to be a famine, and the drought is going to be so bad. Verse 25 actually says it.

The sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. So again, why are there a lot of widows? Well, because there’s severe famine, which means that a lot of people are dying. A lot of people are dying, and this is God’s judgment on the land. But God cares about widows, doesn’t he?

By the way, if you’re a widow here, you have a special place in the heart of God. The Bible tells us again and again that the people of God are supposed to take care of widows explicitly. Exodus 22 Deuteronomy, Chapter Ten throughout the Psalms, Isaiah, chapter one, Psalm 68 says that God is the defender of widows. That God himself, and I think it’s Psalm, chapter 149, it talks about God sustaining widows. He instructs the people of God in James, chapter one, to defend widows.

So God cares about widows. And there are a lot of widows in the time of Elijah because of this Prophet, because of this drought. And this drought happens because of idolatry. You’re with me so far? Yes.

So there’s widows everywhere. And so you would assume that God would send his Prophet to the widows of Israel, but that’s not where God’s Prophet goes. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. Elijah is not sent to a single widow in Israel, but to a widow in Zeraphath in the region of Sidon. Now, the God of the fatherless and the widows, the God who cares about widows.

There’s a severe famine in the land, and God doesn’t send Elijah the Prophet to his own people. Instead, God sends Elijah the Prophet to a Gentile woman in the land of Zeraphath. And specifically, he highlights the region of Sidon. Now, this is terrible because number one, why would God ignore his own people and go to this Gentile person? And of all places, why would he go to the land of Sidon?

Now, you need to know something about the land of Sidon. And I know this is like a history lesson, but I love the Bible. It’s amazing. So Sidon is a Gentile territory in the North Coast of Israel. Tyrene and Sidon are two familiar cities they talk about in the Bible a lot. Zeraphath is a land in the middle of those two places. It’s a Phoenician city. And this is the place where Jeszebel’s father comes from. So Jezebel’s father’s name is Eph- baal, which is Baal is alive.

So he is also a Baal worshiper. And not only that, but you can kind of connect the dots. He is the father of the idolatry in Israel. Okay, so you’ve got the whole story. So think about this.

God sends his Prophet to the people that are creating the idolatry and disregards his own people. That’s intense. This is part of the reason why they wanted to throw him off a cliff because he’s bringing up this story.

So the Prophet Elijah goes over to this widow. This widow is about to die because there’s a severe family in the land. And Elijah says to her, hey, give me some water. And she goes, hey, there’s a drought and I have no water. He goes, Just give me some water.

Basically, you can read the story by yourself. It’s one King, chapter 17. But give me some water. And eventually he’s like, hey, as you’re getting me the water also make me like a biscuit. And she’s like, All I have is for one more biscuit for me and my son and then we’re both going to die. And Elijah says, hey, if you make me a biscuit, you’re not going to die. And so the woman reasons to herself, hey, I’m going to take everything I have and make a meal for the man of God because he represents the God of Israel. And in doing that, maybe if I trust in him, in my poverty, in my poverty, if I trust in Him, she understands that she’s destitute that she has nothing. She has nowhere to turn.

She has no one to trust. She’s dead anyway. And so she gets the point. And she decides to trust. She gives this man this piece of bread and some water, and then God multiplies it so that she has food for the rest of..

It’s like, every time she pulled flour out, there was more. And every time she pulled oil out, there was more oil. It’s an amazing story, but it’s also analogy of a spiritual life, right? She took the little she had and she gave it to God, and then God gave her life that was permanent. She was like, I have nothing.

And God’s like, well, now you have everything. It’s pretty amazing. So what did Jesus say that made these people so angry? Well, you have to hear one more story before we wrap it all up. He transitions from Elijah to the Prophet Elisha, verse 27.

There were many Lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha. Hey, I know this story about people in Israel. We just heard that with the widow, right? God rejecting the people of Israel for the people of the Gentiles. We’re going to hear a story that’s almost exactly the same.

Elijah follows Elisha probably between 850 and 790. Something like that. Disease is everywhere in the land because Israel is an idolatrous nation. People are getting not only leprosy, but also all various skin diseases.

Sorry, this account, I think. I don’t remember where it is now. I think about it, but it doesn’t matter. Listen to what I talk about. So it says this.

It says yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naman the Syrian. This is another one of those stories. Jesus is pointing out an account where God rejects his own people and saves a foreigner. Naman is a commander in chief of a section known as Aram. I think it is.

He’s like a big time soldier, almost like a King, sort of like that. But he terrorizes the people of Israel. He’s a terrible dude. One day he captures an Israelite girl and brings her back home. And the Israelite girls like, hey, I can tell you have leprosy go back to Elisha and he can help you.

And so he goes back to Elijah, after Elisha, after some time and goes, hey, Elisha, will you help me? And Elisha’s like, you have to dunk yourself into this dirty pool seven times, and then your leprosy will go away. And Naman’s like, I’m too cool for that. There’s clean pools back home. So he goes back home.

And when he goes back home, he realizes that he dunks himself in his own pools. And then it’s like this is not healing me. Eventually he submits. This is the second Kings chapter five. That’s what it is.

He submits to the leadership of Elisha, submits to it, and he goes back. He dunks himself in the pool seven times, and he’s restored. Okay, what’s the point? He admits, hey, I can’t heal myself. With all my power, with all my prestige, with everything I’ve been given. I don’t have the power to heal myself.

I don’t have the power to change myself. I am destitute and broken. And in that attitude, God, through Elisha, saves him. So we’re back to Jesus. Everyone’s sitting there, they know these stories, and they begin to connect the dots that Jesus is saying something significant about them that they didn’t capture when he first introduced the sermon.

But at this point, they’ve got it. Verse 28, it says, they’re filled with rage when they heard these things. What’s the message of Jesus? It’s that Salvation is today, but Salvation isn’t for who you think it’s for.

Salvation is here today, but it’s not for the people you think it’s for. The works of God are not for the people who you would imagine they’re for. He’s not here for the healthy. Jesus will actually later say this, that he’s here for the sick. He’s come to preach to the poor and the oppressed and the destitute. In other words, the gospel is for the humble.

Don’t miss the point. Do not miss the point. Here it is. God is only willing to save those who emit their spiritual poverty.

If you’re sitting in the synagogue that day, you’re thinking, I deserve for the Messiah to come to rescue me, to help me out, because I’ve been in the synagogue reading my scriptures. I know it. I memorized it since I was a kid. And you’re sitting there thinking, I am someone who deserves Salvation. And Jesus says, hey, hold up.

I come the way Elijah comes, and I come the way Elisha comes. I have not come for those who think they have it all together. I have come for the poor, the broken, the miserable, the people who realize that they are destitute.

There’s only one reason why people reject Jesus, and it’s because they don’t want to humble themselves, to receive Jesus. That’s the only reason. People don’t want to see themselves as poor, as blind, as prisoners, as oppressed. Do you see it?

That’s always the problem. That’s always been the problem because the gospel has never been for the people who have it all together. The gospel has never been for the people who think they just need a little bit of Jesus on top of their life to make them better people. As a matter of fact, I hear this all the time, and I’m compassionate to the phrase, but like, I’m here to be a better person. What there’s an assumption there is that you’re a good person and you need to be a better person.

That person doesn’t ever get the gospel.

You aren’t a good person who needs a better life. That doesn’t work like that. Brothers and sisters, that’s actually, I would say, with all due respect, it’s nonsense. Everyone who believes they’re a good person actually isn’t a candidate for Salvation.

You cannot be saved with the belief that you’re a good person because you’re not a good person. Romans chapter three says, no one is good, not even one. When someone comes to Jesus and says, Good teacher, Jesus even says to him, Why do you call me good? There is no one good except God alone. Jesus doesn’t even accept the label of good.

And here we are going, I’m a good person. All I need is a little bit of Jesus to make me a better person. If you say that, if you believe that, if you hold on to that, you’re just not a candidate for the gospel. Candidates for the gospel are poor, broken, deprived souls. Jesus comes in the way of Elijah.

Jesus comes in the way of Elisha. If you’re poor and you’re pitiful and you’re broken, then you are the perfect person to receive Salvation. But these people wanted nothing to do with that. Look, I think a lot of Americans don’t want anything to do with that either. Like, I’m not pitiful. I went to grad school. Sure you did. And you’re also pitiful.

I’m just saying we want to educate ourselves beyond our bad status and add money to our account so that we seem like we’re better. And look, I understand all that. I’m tempted to do that all the time. But what I’m seeing over and over again in the scriptures, as Jesus says in Matthew chapter five, right, blessed are the poor in spirit. The Kingdom of God is for them.

It’s for the poor. For the physically poor, certainly, but for the people who are poor in spirit. Anyway, these guys do not want to hear this story. They don’t want to hear any of this. And so verse 28 says, all the people are furious.

All the people are furious. They got up, they drove them out to the town, and they took him on the brow of the Hill. Nazareth is built on like a Hill. And so they’re trying to push him off the cliff. But Jesus, it’s not his time to die yet.

He says he walks right through the crowd and went on his way. Jesus is a G, as I often say.

This, though, is an example of spiritual pride. I come to save the poor. I come to save the prisoners. I come to save the blind. I come to save the oppressed.

That’s all I came to save. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a gentile woman or a Syrian leper. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, Asian, whatever, Hispanic. It doesn’t matter.

I’m here for the people who see themselves as bankrupt, as in need of a total refresh in their lives. That’s what I’m here for. And anybody who doesn’t want that hates Jesus. They have. They always will.

They hate Jesus.

Jesus looks at these people and basically says, hey, you’re no better than a pagan. You’re no better than an outcast, and they won’t accept it. And the beauty of the gospel is this. If you’re able to see yourself as nothing, you are the perfect candidate for the Gospel of Jesus. If you’re able to humble out, to humble out, you are a perfect candidate for the Gospel of Jesus.

I love C. S. Lewis. He has a chapter in the book Mere Christianity called The Great Sin. And the entire chapter is about pride.

It’s about spiritual pride. And this is what he says: in God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that and therefore know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God.

I’m here to try to compel you. You don’t know how to live. Maybe you were taught as a kid how to live. You don’t really know how to live. Maybe you don’t know how to do it.

You need something greater than you to teach you. You don’t know how to raise kids. Maybe you read a bunch of books and you listen to a bunch of podcasts. You have no clue how to raise kids. You need something greater than you to help you raise kids.

You don’t know how to handle money. Maybe because again, you’ve listened to some podcasts and watched some YouTube videos. You think you know how to handle money. You have no clue what you’re doing. You need something greater than you.

You don’t know how to be righteous. You don’t know how to be married. You don’t even know how to love or to forgive. All I’m saying is that God wants to teach you all of that, but he’s only willing to teach you if you are willing to humble yourself out to learn. Be humble. And here’s my encouragement for you today, no matter where you are.

Look, some of you have been in the faith for years and years and years and years. And there is a tendency when you’ve been in the faith for a long time to believe that you’ve arrived. I want to challenge you. You haven’t that the longer you’re here, the more you should believe you’re nothing, right? The longer you’re here, the more you should be like, I don’t know anything about God or scriptures.

I want more of Jesus. Right? Maybe you’re new here and maybe when you’re in middle school, you think you know everything because you’re just out of high school or you’re just at an elementary school. Maybe you’re a middle schooler in the faith and you’re starting to believe you know everything. I want to encourage you.

You don’t know anything. Like you need some help. You need some help. You need some help. You need some help. You need people to help you.

You need a group of people to help you. You need to be in a small group Where people are telling you, that’s not right. You need help. You need help. So maybe you’re brand new and you’re like, I don’t know what I need.

So whatever. You also need help. Amen. We have a place for you if you want to start. You can start a bunch of different ways, but we have a place called the discover class that happens after our services in the back.

If you want to start and learn something about Jesus, go there. Engage. Also, you can talk to people around you. Hey, teach me something about God because obviously I want to learn. I want to know more about Jesus.

Look, the only people who reject Jesus Are the people who believe they are better than they are. Those are the people who reject Jesus and the people that he accepts are the people who humble themselves out. And so here’s my encouragement for you. Practice the humility of Jesus. Cam started the service with the scripture in Philippians chapter two.

It said that Jesus made himself nothing. The author of life made himself nothing. Wow. You should probably do the same thing. If Jesus was willing to take on the nature of a servant and submit himself to death on a cross, you should probably find yourself in a position where you’re willing to submit to the people around you and submit to the gospel and listen to the teachings of God.

And in that man, you will find you will find the gospel of Jesus. Amen. Church? Let’s pray together.

God, we have a moment on Sunday mornings Where we take our Communion and we take it. It’s a little bit of a reflection, right? We take this little piece of bread and this little bit of juice and it’s a reflection of the humility of Jesus. It’s a reflection that Jesus became nothing and took on the nature of a man and then died for our Salvation. And God, I pray that as we’re meditating this morning, as we’re just taking the two or three minutes, I pray that we can meditate in a posture that goes I need to be less so that ultimately the Lord of the universe can be more.

I pray that that’s the position I have in my life. I can humble out I can humble out about everything I know, God, that I can become less so Lord, you can be greater. Dad. What a great example we have in Jesus.

We pray that we will follow that till the end of our days. We love you. We praise you. We ask that this Communion be a time of great reflection. It’s in your son’s name we pray. Amen.