Sermon Guide
GOD COMES WHERE HE’s WANTED | THE HEART
Teaching Text
Luke 4:14-34
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, 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 is 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 recovery of sight for 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.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn't this Joseph's son?” they asked. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 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.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 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 off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Sermon Recap
This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our January sermon series, God Comes Where He’s Wanted. There is one thing we can be certain of throughout the Scriptures and stories of Church history: God comes where He’s wanted. Hunger for the Lord’s presence is the true secret to revival, and we believe cultivating that hunger is one of the most important things we can spend our days doing. We believe this is a defining marker of our church community, and will begin each year in this series to cultivate hunger in our hearts, homes, church, and region for the presence of God to come down.
The wound of rejection is one of the most profound wounds the human heart can experience. We have all felt the pain of being unwanted at some point in our lives, but we rarely consider rejection as a part of God’s story. However, when we look through the Scriptures, we see angels, humanity, and even God’s chosen people reject God as Creator, Lawgiver, Provider, King, worthy of worship, Lord through the prophets, and eventually as the Incarnate Savior in Christ Jesus. This pattern continues in Jesus’ ministry as He is rejected and despised by His hometown, the teachers of the law, His disciples, and the people He came to save. God knows what it means to be unwanted, but we have the choice to cultivate a heart that rejects Him, or a heart that welcomes Him
Pastor Jon broke down these opposing cultures of the heart by highlighting two different villages Jesus spent time in during His life: Nazareth, where He was rejected and driven out, and Bethany, where He was welcomed and wanted. Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown, but suffered from over familiarity with Him to the point they could not see the Holy Spirit resting on Him. This led them to take offense at His teaching, too self-righteous to receive what He came to offer them. They went on to reject and dishonor Jesus, eventually driving Him out of the village to try and kill Him for His claims. They did not recognize what Jesus carried, and ended up missing out on His anointing and power because of their lack of faith. They wanted the kingdom without the King, and ended up creating a culture of rejection that reduced revelation and the release of miracles when Jesus was with them.
The reality is that Western civilization has focused on rejecting God’s presence and separating Him from every aspect of life, and it has ushered in a time of radical, spiritual decline. However, when we examine the Scriptures and Church history, we see that in times of the culture rejecting God, He will raise up a remnant of devotion for Himself that will reverse the narrative. Pastor Jon has deeply studied the revivals throughout Church history, and has found that the common theme across denominations and time is that God comes where He’s wanted.
The village of Bethany was marked by hunger for Jesus’ presence. It is here that we see Mary sitting with wonder at Jesus’ feet, submitting herself under His word instead of standing above it to judge it. We see her desperation during the death of her brother Lazarus, inviting Jesus into the brokenness and pain instead of accusing Him for it. Their friends and family respond in celebration with a feast in Jesus’ honor, placing their attention for all He has done for them, and not questioning what they do not understand. Finally, we see Mary’s unmeasured devotion as she breaks a bottle of costly perfume to anoint Jesus before His death. In Bethany, Jesus was welcomed as the Teacher, the Healer, an honored guest, and the Anointed One, and it unleashed category defying discipleship, resurrection from the dead, and Jesus’ direct defense. This was the place Jesus chose to ascend into Heaven after His resurrection, because this was the place where He was wanted.
Before we can ask Jesus to come to our homes, church, or city, we have to want Him in our hearts, and become ourselves, a place where He's wanted. Behind every move of God, there is a small group of hungry people, crying out to Him, “We want you here." We want to be a people committed to a culture of wanting God, filled with wonder, driven by desperation, committed to celebration, and overflowing with devotion to Him.