Rejected | Sunday, April 20, 2025

Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Anthony. Good morning! It is so good to see so many of you here this morning. He is risen! Many of you know that so well.

Before you sit down, would you take out your Bibles this morning? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and an usher will bring you one. We are in the Gospel of Luke this morning. Turn to about the middle of your Bible and start turning to the right; you'll find the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We are going to read from Luke chapter 4, where we left off last week, because I think there's a connection here.

It's interesting that song. I've heard that chorus before, but I don't think I ever heard the whole song. So, that's the first time I ever heard that whole song this morning. Sorry, Luke. Did I say Mark? I'm so confused.

Luke chapter 4, verse 14 says, "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. He taught in the synagogues, being glorified or praised by all."

So, He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. When He had opened the book, He found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Then Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. He began to say to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

So, all bore witness to Him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. They said, "Is this not Joseph's son?" He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.'"

Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah the prophet when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout..."

All the land. But to none of those widows was Elijah sent except through Zarapath, a region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. None of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. They rose up and thrust Jesus out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff.

God, this is a powerful passage of Scripture this morning, and one I think you want to speak to us from. I pray that you would open our ears and our hearts, Lord, that we would hear and receive your word. We ask that you, by your Holy Spirit, would do a work here in our midst. You promise that wherever two or more are gathered in your name, there you are in the midst. So here we are gathered, and we look to you this morning that you would speak to us. Give us wisdom, insight, and understanding into the Scriptures, that your word, your spirit, and your work would transform us by the renewing of our minds. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." Amen. You can be seated.

Yes, I know this isn't really an Easter passage of Scripture, but if you've been around Cross Connection Church for any length of time, you know that I have a tendency to come at things from a different angle. We're certainly going to try to do that here this morning. Typically, on Resurrection Sunday, when we gather together, we would read from a passage like Matthew 28, where we read there the angel saying, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead." That's an awesome passage. There are others like it, and no doubt we'll hit on some of those today.

Hey, I was talking with my daughter Evangeline yesterday about the Easter message, and she said that she could help me. She went on ChatGPT and gave me two messages. She sent me a second one this morning just in case I might need it, so I have a text message if I have to return to that. I'm sure you will all be greatly encouraged by what AI has to speak this morning. Instead of that, I turn to Luke chapter 4 this morning for two reasons. First, because it is where we...

We are at a point in our regular studies here on Sunday mornings. We are making our way very slowly, I'll admit, through the Gospel of Luke in a series that I'm calling "Meet Jesus." I hope that we begin to see Him a little bit more fully and understand Him a little bit better.

In fact, this is an interesting passage because Jesus goes to what would be called His hometown, to the people who you would assume knew Him best. He kind of needs a reintroduction to them, and they are not exactly receptive, as we will see in the text we already read.

The second reason I wanted to come to this passage this morning is that I think it demonstrates that the whole story of Jesus was always going to go the way it did on Good Friday. From the beginning, that was the direction that His life and ministry were headed in. Hopefully, you know some of the story; maybe you know all of it. Many of you were with us here on Friday as we remembered Jesus's crucifixion, which we commemorate every year on Good Friday, just before Resurrection Sunday.

It is important to recognize that this was not just something that arose at the last minute in the story, during the last week of Jesus's life, as everybody seemed to turn on Him. The story was always going to go in that direction. What do I mean by that? I mean that the rejections of Jesus began very early, at the earliest point in His ministry.

In the Gospel of Luke, these are the first recorded words of Jesus to groups of people. This is the very beginning of His ministry. Here in Luke chapter 4, we see those who you would assume would know Him best and maybe be the most receptive to Him. That is not what He finds when He goes to Nazareth. It was never not going to end at Calvary's Cross.

Let me take a step back and explain this more fully. First, I want to welcome you if this is your first time at Cross Connection this morning. Thank you for coming. It may kind of weird you out, but there have been people praying for you that you would come today, and we are glad that you are here.

As I said, we are currently going through the Gospel of Luke. As you go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, one of the things you will discover is that Jesus is, I believe, the most...

Jesus is the most important person who ever lived. We will see some of the things that emphasize that reality as we go through the text of Scripture today. However, from the very beginning, his mission and his message were misunderstood. Not only was he misunderstood, but he was consistently rejected. The story was always going to end on the cross, on that hill we call Calvary, or Golgotha, the place of the skull. It was destined to conclude with his crucifixion outside of Jerusalem.

His own countrymen, those who were nearest to him and whom you would assume would have known him best, were the ones who rejected him. They knew his family in the village of Nazareth. While we could refer to it as a town, it is more accurate to call it a village because it was not a large place. We often conceptualize things through towns and cities filled with multitudes of people, but Nazareth was a small village. It probably did not even number in the tens or, definitely, not in the hundreds of thousands. This little place was located northwest of the Sea of Galilee, making it a tight-knit community. The residents knew each other well; they knew Jesus's brothers and sisters.

This might be news to some, but Jesus's mother, Mary, did have other children after him, as the Scriptures teach. They were aware of who his family was. In fact, in the Gospels, his brothers and sisters are mentioned. They kind of knew who he was, but they did not truly understand who he was. In this first introduction to his true identity, we see an incredible rejection from his own country. They set out to kill him from day one. It was not just the events of the three or four days leading up to his crucifixion that led people to turn against him; people were turning against him throughout his ministry.

We read the first recorded words of Jesus in his ministry in Luke chapter 4. He was among those who, as I mentioned, knew him, but now they were starting to hear rumors about him after he had been away for a period of time. The opening section I read states that he returned to Galilee and began going around the towns and cities in that area. He visited places with names that you may not be familiar with, but in the Bible, they include Chorazin and Bethsaida, as well as Capernaum. When he would go...

To these towns and villages, Jesus would go into their synagogues. On the Sabbath day, he would be given an opportunity to speak and read from the Scriptures, just as he did here in Nazareth. People were hearing him preach these powerful messages. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark fill in some of the gaps, showing that Jesus was already beginning his ministry of healing people and casting out demons. Even before going to Nazareth, the Gospel of Mark tells us in chapter 5 that Jesus raised from the dead a young girl who had died of an illness. Her father, Gyrus, was one of the rulers of a synagogue. When she died, Jesus raised her from the dead. You can be certain that news was spreading; people were hearing about him.

Jesus was not only going to Jewish towns but had also ventured to the east side of the Sea of Galilee, where there were many Gentiles, non-Jews, in that area. The people who thought they knew him well were likely perplexed by the news of this one they knew as Jesus of Nazareth. However, they were probably a little proud too, as the hometown boy was making waves and gaining attention. You can imagine the excitement of the people when news started to spread that he was coming to Nazareth.

On the Sabbath day, they all crammed together in the synagogue, as they normally would. Jesus came home after preaching in Chorazin and Capernaum, and now he was in their town. They were eager to hear what he had to say, figuring that if he had performed great works in those places, he should do even greater works here because they were his family and his people. They wanted to see what he would say and do.

He stood before them, and they gave him the opportunity to read, which was the normal custom in the synagogue. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to him, and he read from a powerful passage recorded in Isaiah chapter 61. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

This is a powerful passage, especially for Jewish individuals in the first century when Jesus was speaking to them. They knew very well that this passage spoke of the long-hoped-for, long-sought-for, and long-prayed-for Messiah. How do we know this is a messianic passage from Isaiah? Notice that word: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me." The word "anointed," the verb in Hebrew, is the Hebrew word "Masha." The noun form would be "Mashiach," or Messiah. In Greek, this text is written using the word "chrio," and the noun is "Christos," or Christ.

They understood that Isaiah 61 was a passage dealing with the Christ, the Messiah, the one they had been looking for. Can you imagine what was happening in the synagogue in Nazareth as Jesus stood and read that passage? They had already been hearing the rumors about what he was doing and saying in all these other places, and finally, he had come home. He reads this powerful messianic passage, gives the scroll back to the attendant, and sits down.

Now, you might think he is done, but they would have known he was not finished. In our day, I stand while you sit and teach, but in their day, when he sat, they were waiting for his teaching. So, he sits down, and they are waiting. He just read this powerful passage, and they all knew it had to do with the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah. They were eager to know what he was going to say.

In verse 21, he began to say to them, "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Imagine the people in the room. Picture them looking at each other, exchanging glances, and thinking, "Wait, did he just say he's the Messiah? We've all been wondering. We've been hearing about him. Wait, that's Joseph's kid, right? Well, you know about that whole thing; it's not really Joseph's kid. Okay, but the carpenter's son. Aren't those his brothers over there? James and Jude? Yeah, we know those guys. They were kind of a problem."

Really good. I don't know about them, but did he just call himself the Messiah? Isn't the Messiah going to be from Bethlehem? Well, Joseph's family is from Bethlehem. Okay, but the Messiah from Nazareth? Really? Now, the Messiah is going to be king, right? Not only is he going to be king, but he's going to set us free. He just read the passage; he's going to set the captives free. We've been captive to Rome, and we have this terrible King Herod over us. The governor, Pilate, went. I've heard that he's been performing miracles. I heard something about wine in Cana. If he's been doing really great things like that in other places, he's come home. He certainly needs to show us a sign. We need to see something from him because I heard something about him going to Gentiles, and that's not what we do.

So, Jesus calls them out after he says, "Today, this is being fulfilled in your hearing." Can you imagine the kind of murmuring in the room? They're waiting, wanting to hear what he has to say. He calls them out in a very powerful way. He says, "You will surely say this proverb to me: Physician, heal yourself. Whatever you've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country." Listen, we've heard about you. Now it's time for you to show us the love. We've heard about what's been happening in other places.

He continues, "I know that's what you're going to say, but I have a word for you. You're not going to like it. A prophet is not accepted in his own country." What is he saying? He's telling them, in a prophetic way, that they are going to reject him. I can imagine they didn't like hearing that, and yet they are going to prove him right in a matter of moments as he continues to call them on the carpet.

We're told here that as he calls them out, all those in the synagogue—catch this—all those. Now, I'm assuming all means all; that's the way I read it. All of those in the synagogue were filled with wrath. That word "wrath" means passionate.

Fierce anger and rage. I know none of you have ever experienced anything like that at all, but they did. Those rabble-rousers in Nazareth were filled with wrath. This word that is translated as "wrath" here is used in another New Testament letter that Paul wrote. It is associated with the works of the flesh—my fallen human nature. Sometimes it has what's called outbursts of wrath. Not mine, none of yours, but other people, like those Dodger fans, the hometown crowd, you know, filled with wrath.

So what did they do? Filled with wrath, they rose up and thrust Him out of the city. This is striking. The people who knew Jesus best, or thought they knew Him best, the people you would assume would know Him best, were the first to reject Him. They will not be the last. They kicked Him out of the synagogue, which has a lot of meaning in the first-century Jewish context. They effectively excommunicated Him with their actions.

But further than that, they removed Him from their village, their town—the one He grew up in. He spent about thirty years there, as we read in the text prior to this. They knew Him, yet they thrust Him out of the city. Fascinatingly, there is no indication in the rest of the Gospels that Jesus ever went back to Nazareth. That's striking. You kind of wonder, is that a practical application of something He would later teach to His disciples: that if a city rejects you, just shake the dust off of your feet and keep going? There is no indication He ever went back to Nazareth, His hometown, after they thrust Him out.

What are they saying when they put Him out of the city? They are saying, "We don't want you here." But even worse than that, they took Him up on a hill that they might throw Him down over the cliff. I've been to this place. There are some people in our church who have been to this place with me. There is a cliff there; I've seen it in Nazareth.

At this point, I’ll forgive you if you’re thinking, "What does this have to do with Easter?" Point number one, from the...

Those closest to Jesus rejected Him. The road to Golgotha, the road to Calvary, began in Nazareth at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. This road of rejection started with the hometown crowd, who were the first to try to kill Him. The mission of Jesus was rejected before it even fully began, right here at the very beginning, by those people who knew Him best and were closest to Him.

There seems to be some serious foreshadowing in this text regarding the rejection and the attempt on Jesus's life in Nazareth. It's just the beginning. We see this theme throughout the text of the Gospels, and we will see it more as we continue in the Gospel of Luke. If you read Matthew, Mark, or John in addition to Luke, you will discover that Jesus was rejected throughout His ministry. He was rejected by the people of Gera in Matthew chapter 8. He was rejected by the religious leaders in the town of Capernaum after He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, as noted in Mark chapter 3. A very large group of His disciples abandoned Him, stating, "We're no longer going to follow Him," because He gave a difficult teaching in John chapter 6. In John chapter 8, a crowd of people stood up and took stones in their hands to stone Him because of some of His words.

The Gospels are filled with narratives of rejection, where people, one after another, rejected Jesus. Sometimes it was individuals, and sometimes it was a mass of people. The story of Jesus is littered with accounts of Him being rejected. Why? For one, people were expressing through their actions what they thought. When they cast Him out of the synagogue, took Him out of the city, and brought Him up onto a cliff to throw Him off, they were saying with their actions, "You are not what we are looking for." They had in their minds who and what the Messiah would be. Now, He stands before them and says very explicitly, "Today this is fulfilled in your hearing." What is fulfilled? He is the anointed one, the Messiah. They responded, "We do not accept who you are, what you are doing, or the way in which you are doing it. We want a Messiah who is going to do something different." And so, they rejected Him. We considered this together.

On Friday, if you were here, we discussed Isaiah 53. It says in verse three, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him." We see this fulfilled right here among His own people. The people who knew Him best rejected Him.

Isaiah 53 is just as much a messianic prophecy as Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 announces the one coming to declare the day of the Lord and to ultimately bring judgment upon those who have turned against Him. However, Isaiah 53 is also a messianic prophecy, but that is not the Messiah they wanted. Why? Because the Messiah of Isaiah 53 is a suffering servant. That is not what we want; we want a conquering king. They wanted a mighty king, a miracle-working master. They did not want a confrontational, convicting messenger or a suffering servant.

The people in Jesus's day were looking for a king who would reestablish Israel as the kingdom above all kingdoms. They wanted someone who would deliver them from Rome, from Pontius Pilate, from Herod, and from the religious establishment that they did not like at that moment. They really wanted someone like the man who rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. That is what they wanted.

When He rode into Jerusalem, they put palm branches before Him and declared, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." They wanted that picture. But then that man, the Palm Sunday figure, went into the temple and cleansed it. He ruffled the feathers of the religious leaders and called them out with His message, which was challenging and convicting. However, He did not forcefully set Himself up as king.

That is what they were hoping for. Here He is; they were going to put palm branches down before Him. He was supposed to come down into the Kedron Valley, up to the temple, and declare Himself to be Messiah and king. He was going to amass a crowd to come against Pilate, Herod, and Rome, and reestablish Israel as the kingdom above all kingdoms. That was their mindset.

Hope. He didn't do any of that. Some Bible teachers believe that Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus's twelve apostles, became the sellout that he was. You may remember he went to the chief priests and offered to deliver Jesus to them for thirty pieces of silver. Some people believe that he was somehow well-intentioned in doing so. They think he did that thinking, "Maybe this will be the thing that will kickstart the program, the agenda." He thought, "I think he's the Messiah, and I believe the Messiah is going to powerfully tear down all of this and reestablish his kingdom."

Some people believe and teach that Judas was trying to prime the pump, thinking that Jesus was moving a little too slow and that they needed to kick this thing into action. Similarly, some people believe that Peter, in the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to arrest Jesus, took forth a sword thinking he was triggering something significant. He assumed that Jesus would have his back, thinking, "Okay, finally."

Now, that may or may not be the case with Judas or Peter, but there are certainly people who believe and teach that. Instead of the conquering mighty king, the Palm Sunday figure, that man ended up arrested in Gethsemane, standing on trial before Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. He didn't challenge them or overthrow them. In fact, just as the prophet Isaiah had predicted in Isaiah 53, like a lamb led to the slaughter, he did not open his mouth.

Point number two: in the end, everyone said, "Crucify him." You can be sure the same people who said "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday said "Crucify him" on Good Friday. Not all of them, though. I mean, Peter, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, and the rest of the gang didn't say that. They ran, fled, and hid. They were not out of town, but they were hiding in town. In fact, of the twelve apostles, we...

We already know that one of them has betrayed Him: Judas. Of the eleven remaining apostles, only one was present when He was crucified—John. The other ten are hiding; they have fled. Following the death and burial of Jesus, we read that another two of His disciples, referred to as followers of Jesus, are seen leaving Jerusalem on the Sunday after His crucifixion. This is the day when a group of His disciples said, "Hey, the tomb is empty."

Among these two disciples, one is named Cleopus. We are told this in Luke chapter 24. In fact, you might want to turn there if you have your Bible. Turn to the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 24. On the Sunday after Jesus's crucifixion, even though there is a rumor circulating among some of the disciples that the tomb is empty and that He has risen from the dead, they respond with skepticism. They leave Jerusalem on their way to a town outside of Jerusalem called Emmaus, which is about seven miles away. The indication is that this is just the first stop on their journey home because He did not show up. They had followed Him because they thought He was going to fulfill the role of the Messiah, and now He is dead.

While they are on this journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a mysterious man begins to walk with them. We know, because we are given insight in the story, that this is not just any man; it is the risen Jesus. As He walks with them, He notices that they look sad. He asks them, "What’s up with your conduct? You guys seem really depressed."

One of them, whose name is Cleopus, answers Him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? Did you not hear the news about the things that have happened there?" The mysterious man replies, "What things?" They respond, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and the rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified Him."

And here is the key...

Verse 21: But we were hoping. We were really hoping. We've been hoping for centuries. We were hoping that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. We were really hoping that he was the one who would redeem Israel. We thought that maybe he might be the Messiah. We heard that several years ago he went to his hometown of Nazareth and he actually said he was the Messiah. But now he's dead, and we were really hopeful. Now our hopes are dead, just like he is dead. The Messiah that they hoped for, the Messiah that they had longed for and thought they needed, is apparently in a grave in Jerusalem at that point in time.

But the Messiah that they and we truly actually need, he rose.

Point number three: the resurrection turned rejection into redemption. His Emmaus road followers said, "We were hoping that he was the one who would redeem Israel." The answer to the question of whether he is the one who would redeem Israel is yes, but it's bigger than that. There's this really fascinating exchange in the book of Isaiah, chapter 49. Please, by all means, fact-check me later. In Isaiah chapter 49, there’s an interesting exchange that the prophet Isaiah reveals, and it seems to capture the internal emotions of the humanity of the Messiah after he is rejected.

Maybe Isaiah is seeing the inner workings of the mind and heart of Jesus after all the people said, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" The internal humanity of Jesus says, "I've labored in vain." Have you ever felt that before? Like you worked really hard for something and then it all fell apart? Isaiah 49 pictures the Messiah in a way that we don't normally picture him. How could that be Jesus? Yet, we are given this interesting insight by Isaiah into the inner workings of the heart of the humanity of Jesus: "I've labored in vain." I imagine that maybe that is what was going through the heart and mind of Jesus.

The mind of the humanity of Jesus is evident when everyone shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!" There is an exchange in Isaiah 49 where it seems like God the Father is speaking to God the Son, who is present in His humanity. God the Father says, "I've labored in vain." He continues, "I have not sent you to be the redeemer of Israel alone. I've sent you to redeem all people, the Gentiles."

The resurrection transforms this rejection into redemption, but not just for the people in Nazareth. Jesus did not come merely to perform miracles or help those in Bethsaida or Capernaum. Ultimately, those places all rejected Him. Interestingly, the resurrection is the point at which many, if not most, people are tempted to reject Jesus. Why? Because the resurrection seems impossible and improbable to us.

I say "seems" because, to all of us, it is essentially impossible and improbable. You probably know someone who has died and has not come back, leading to the belief that such a thing cannot possibly happen. This skepticism is not a modern phenomenon; people in the first century also found the idea of resurrection improbable. There was a group among the Jewish people called the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection.

In Acts chapter 4, when Peter and John preached the resurrection, they were arrested for teaching such ideas. The Apostle Paul, in Acts 17, faced mockery from the wise men in Athens when he preached the resurrection, as they thought it seemed impossible and improbable.

This is the point at which many people are tempted to reject Jesus. They might say, "Listen, I can accept that He seemed like a good guy. He might have been a prophet or a good revolutionary. So, I'll accept Jesus; this is the trendy thing to do right now. I'll be a cultural Christian." The prominent atheist Richard Dawkins stated last year that he identifies as a cultural Christian. I enjoy listening to atheists, and just yesterday, I heard another atheist named James Lindsay. In a recorded conversation that was recently posted on YouTube, he shared his thoughts on this topic.

I listened to it last night. He says, "I am repenting of my atheism." A whole bunch of Christians are like, "Whoa, James Lindsay repented of his atheism." Well, not so fast. He says, "I'm ready to admit there's a lot of great truths in the Bible, and Jesus said a lot of good things, but I don't believe that he rose from the dead."

He continues, "I'll call myself an agnostic. I'll even call myself a cultural Christian, but I can't really grasp this whole resurrection thing because it seems impossible. It seems improbable. But if you can accept the resurrection of Jesus, that's where you find redemption. That's the only place you find redemption."

Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 15: "If Christ be not raised from the dead, we have no hope." Our only hope of redemption is his resurrection. It is the resurrection of Jesus that guarantees our future resurrection and redemption. That's what we look forward to.

Now, many people reject Christ on account of the improbability of the resurrection. Jesus knew and predicted that he would be rejected. It wasn't surprising to him when people rejected him. In Luke 9:22, Jesus said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed." But every time he would say something like this, he would add, "And be raised again the third day."

He warned that those who reject him are also rejecting the Father, and rejecting the Father will invite judgment. In Luke 10:16, he states, "He who hears your words hears me, and he who rejects your words rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." In John 12:48, he says, "He who rejects me will be judged by my word on the last day." There is an eternal consequence to rejecting Jesus.

However, if you accept the resurrection of Jesus, in him you find redemption, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees the redemption and resurrection of those who trust him. That's what the gospel preaches.

We are all left in this place: we will either accept or reject. If you accept him, you accept him as he has revealed himself to be—the resurrected Redeemer. But you have to accept him as he is revealed to be. You can't just...

As C.S. Lewis highlights in his great book, Mere Christianity, don't say the crazy thing that you will believe he is a good teacher, or maybe a prophet or a healer. You are either going to accept him as he revealed himself, or you are going to have to reject him. You accept him as Lord, or you reject him as a liar or a lunatic. But he has revealed himself to be the resurrected Redeemer. If you reject him, then you will miss who he truly is, and there are eternal consequences to that.

On Resurrection Sunday, we see Jesus, who from the earliest point of his ministry was rejected by his own. First in Nazareth, as recorded in Luke chapter 4, then before Pilate in Mark chapter 15 and John chapter 19, and finally by all the people as they cried, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" His disciples were tempted to flee, to hide, and to walk away, thinking that their hopes had been buried with him in the tomb. But then God had the final word. On that third day, the stone was rolled away to reveal what? The angelic messenger proclaimed, "He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where they have laid him."

I have had the privilege, I think, five times to go to Jerusalem, and each time I have gone to both of the sites that are believed to be the historic potential sites for the tomb. One is in a place called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the other is in a place referred to as Gordon's Calvary. I have been to both of those places multiple times, and I can tell you I have seen with my own eyes that the tomb is empty. It says on the door at Gordon's Calvary, "He is not here. He is risen." The tomb is empty.

Now, you can contest whether or not he rose from the dead, but I will tell you this: his fleeing, hiding disciples were radically transformed by the resurrection. On Friday, if you were here with us, I spoke the opening words of the creed, the earliest creed, which is a statement of belief. The earliest creed of the church is believed to be historic to within about a month of the resurrection. Paul wrote it down for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where we read the creed: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." That's all I said on Friday because that was the day of his death. But that's not all it says. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

The statement of belief of Christians within a month of the resurrection is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. He was seen by witnesses, and then Paul gives us a list of all kinds of different witnesses, many of whom were still alive at that point in time. Many of those witnesses died proclaiming to their death that they had seen the risen Lord.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after the mysterious messenger left them, said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He opened the Scriptures to us?" Their despair was turned to rejoicing and joy. The same Jesus who met with them on the road to Emmaus is alive and well, offering redemption to anyone who will turn to Him today.

Let me try to wrap it up in this way. Some of you this morning can, in some ways, identify with Jesus in His resurrection and His rejection because you have felt rejection. You have felt the rejection of people who were near to you and close to you. You thought that they were your friends and your family, yet you felt their rejection as they turned their backs on you, fled from you, or thrust you out from their gathering. You have been pushed out, and maybe you have even felt like you have been led to a cliff before, or mocked, beaten, and hung out to die.

Know this: Jesus suffered rejection and suffered on the cross to take all of your guilt, shame, sin, and suffering upon Himself, and to give to you His mercy, His grace, His love, His forgiveness, His salvation, and so much more. Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, He was rejected so that He might redeem you. That's why He was rejected.

We are presented with a choice to accept or reject. What is it we are accepting when we accept Him? We accept Him as He is revealed in Luke 4:18: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel, good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives."

Recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Today, he said, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

We celebrate the fact that Jesus is alive and the tomb is empty. We celebrate that because he was rejected on the cross and suffered and died in our place so that he might redeem us. That is the good news of the gospel.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank you for the testimony of the scriptures here in Luke. Lord, thank you that you suffered rejection on our behalf. You suffered on the cross, rejected by those who we would have thought would have accepted and received you. You suffered rejection so that you could redeem us.

We praise you, Lord. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love and your mercy. And Lord, I pray that this great good news of redemption and grace would so transform us that we could not help but declare it to others. God, pour out your Spirit upon your church and help us to shine brightly with your love, mercy, and grace wherever we go today and this week. For we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those agreed said, "Amen."