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Making the Connection

Making the Connection

Words of Faith 3-23-18

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2018

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Luke 4

    [23] Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "

    [24] "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. [25] 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. [26] Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. [27] And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

    [28] All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. [29] They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. [30] But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

 

      Jesus had just arrived back in His hometown of Nazareth.  He had already healed many people in the Capernaum area.  He came to his hometown synagogue to declare that the Messianic age had begun.  The response of the people was polite but insulated. There was no connection. People mentioned that they had known Jesus' father.  But Jesus would not let it sit that way.  He would have nothing of polite religion that insulates.  You see, they didn't know His Father.  

      Jesus confronted the gathering.  "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'   I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown".

     Jesus then pointed out what the problem was.  When people are not receptive, God goes elsewhere to make the connection and do what He wants to do.   "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.  And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman the Syrian." 

       It was a powerful indictment.  Insulate yourself from God and He will work among the people you consider to be pagan idolaters.  You are not getting it and I have no place for your polite responses. 

      By now the people were getting fed up with the Jesus.  They had been polite.  They had been tolerant.  Who was Jesus to make such claims among those who had known him as a child?  All the people in the synagogue were furious. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

       It is fascinating that at the beginning of Jesus' work we see such an encounter about the power of God.  Jesus wanted to make it clear to us that power of God is not a one way thing; it is a circuit that must be completed.  The reason that Jesus "could not do many miracles" in Nazareth was not because He did not have the power. It was because the circuit was not complete.  There was no return.  There was no conductivity. 

      That is the way God works.  God takes the initiative and sends in the HOT WIRE.  But then there needs to be a return wire that is connected.  He calls us to a faith response.  A great example is found in Acts 2:17