Luke 4:14-30 Sermon for Feb. 15, 2026

Good evening! Last week, we talked extensively about the temptation of Jesus and now we venture to what’s next. Again, what I’m going to do here is walk us through our passage verse by verse. It’s generally how I like to handle Scripture so that we may not unintentionally miss what the Lord may have for us here. So, if you have your Bibles, let’s turn to the fourth chapter of Luke. Tonight, we’ll be exploring Luke 4:14-30. Let me begin. “Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity. He was teaching in their synagogues, being praised by everyone. (14-15) Alright, so here’s what we need to understand here. What we read last was the temptation of Jesus and now we got this. However, we actually don’t know how much time has passed between Jesus leaving the wilderness and his return to Galilee. By looking at the rest of the Gospel of Luke, we can deduce pretty comfortably that it’s probably been around a year that has passed! A year! Alright, let’s move on. He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it is written: (16-17) According to custom and tradition, every week, a rabbi would read a portion of the Torah or Law, and then another reading from the Prophets. In this case, the prophetic reading is from Isaiah 61. And what’s important to our discussion tonight is that there are over 2,000 prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming Redeemer, the coming Messiah. That’s important. And Jesus is reading from Isaiah 61, which is connected to Isaiah 53. Let me explain. In Isaiah 53, you’ve got a description of the Servant who was pierced for our transgressions, who bored our griefs, who was crushed for our iniquities, who has made many righteous, and who has offered Himself as a guilt offering. This is obviously a prophecy declaring that a suffering Servant will come who will do all of these things. And then in Isaiah 61, the passage that Jesus will read, it talks about what redemption looks like. 53 explains who will provide that redemption. 61 here explains what it is; what it looks like. So, here, we read about the good news to the poor, the freedom for captives, the release from darkness, the year of the Lord’s favor, the comfort for all who mourn, and beauty for ashes…all of that is found in the one who has received Jesus as Messiah, Christ, Lord, Savior, and King! So, Isaiah 53 is the cross. Isaiah 61 is the fruit of the cross. You can’t have one Isaiah passage without the other. There is good news here my friends! Let’s talk about it more. Let’s keep reading. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. (18a) This is awesome stuff here! First of all, it says that the Spirit of the Lord is on me. Jesus is the one in whom Isaiah has prophesied about. In this passage, we see this idea of being anointed. What does that mean? Well, it means to be set apart; to be consecrated. And in this case, it’s Jesus that has been endowed with the power from God. When I came out of seminary and stepped into ministry, whether it was to be called as a pastor somewhere or to be ordained, there is this understanding of being anointed. It’s truly a humbling experience. Why? Because I understood that God has set me apart for this calling and the people have affirmed that calling. For the believer, there is an anointment on you. At least there’s supposed to be. As believers, you are called to be consecrated and set apart for the work of the Lord. The sad thing though is that many Christians today don’t live like it. It’s hard to see who is who anymore. But they will know we are Christians by our what? Love? Yes. But also by our fruit. Too many Christians look like the culture around us and that ain’t right. If someone can’t tell that you’re a Jesus follower, we need to step back and ask ourselves if we really are following the One we claim to love. In our passage here, Jesus is the anointed One. But He is One and we are not. He is the anointed One to be the Promised Messiah that the world has been waiting for many, many years. And the passage says that He has been anointed to preach the good news to the poor. What does this mean? Well, it means those who are spiritual bankrupted. It means those who are poverty stricken spiritually. It means those who know that have nothing to offer as a bargain to get right with God. It’s not the self-righteous. He says that he is going to preach good news to the poor. It’s the poor in spirit. That’s what we read in the Beatitudes when it says, “Bless are those who are poor in Spirit.” Bless they are! Why? Because they have acknowledged their need for a Savior and the Savior has come to meet their need. They have acknowledged their depravity and have understood that they are not good and that they deserved eternal punishment as a result of their cosmic treason. And Jesus is saying, “I am the One you need to be set free, which is what is said next. Let’s keep reading. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (18b-19) In the Bible, the year of Jubilee is a beautiful thing. It took place every 50 years. What took place on that year was this: debts were wiped cleaned from the state! Slaves and indentured servants were set free! There was no sowing or reaping. People lived off what the land produced naturally. Meaning, it was a year of trust in God’s provision. It was a year of freedom, restoration, mercy, rest, return, renewal. And there is a great connection to Isaiah 53 and 61. In 53, it’s talked about the sacrifice that makes Jubilee possible. In 61, it’s the announcement that Jubilee has arrived. And Jesus is saying, “I am the Jubilee.” In Him, there is freedom, forgiveness, restoration, return, rest, and fulfilment. For you and I who have received Jesus, there is a proclamation of freedom from bondage to sin! We are set free from being slaves to the power of evil and sin. There is proclamation of liberty to all of us who by nature are enslaved to the impulses of sin. In the OT, Jubilee was a time when all debts were cancelled. In Jesus, the ultimate Jubilee, He cancels the debt of all His people permanently! Let’s keep reading. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.’ (20-21) So far, Jesus had just read the Scripture passage. Typically, when that is done, the rabbi would hand the scroll back to the attendant. Then the rabbi would give the sermon. Here’s what’s interesting: Jesus’ sermon is the shortest sermon ever recorded. His sermon was, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” Amen. End of sermon. As we already mentioned, what He’s saying is this: the Scripture you just heard talks about the Suffering Servant who will one day come. I am he. And it begs a question of us tonight: Who is Jesus? That is the single most important question you and I will ever answer in our lifetime. You have to start there. You have to be able to answer this question when asked by others. And let’s see what the crowd says: They were all speaking well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth; yet they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ (22) They choked at the words of Jesus. Wait, isn’t this the son of a carpenter of Nazareth? What in the world is he talking about. We have to peel back the layers here and understand that they answered the question of who is Jesus by only acknowledging his boyhood upbringing as a son of an ordinary carpenter. Nothing more. Nothing less. They would not acknowledge him being He that is talked about in the Scriptures. So Jesus goes on. Let’s read. Then he said to them, ‘No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum, do here in your hometown also.’ He also said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarepath in Sidon. And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naama the Syrian.’ (23-27) Jesus knew that in their hearts they would be looking for a sign. Prove it, Jesus! He then says that a prophet is not honored in his home town. With Elijah, he performed a miracle for a widow in Zarephath, not Israel. With Elisha, he cleansed only Naaman the Syrian, not a leper in Israel. So, Jesus wouldn’t give them a sign or miracle in His own town, Nazareth. Jesus is basically saying, “You have not honored or received me as the Messiah. Why should I come to the sinners in Nazareth?” And look at what happens next. Let’s read our concluding verses: When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.” (28-30) So, after Jesus gave two examples of prophets without honor in their hometown, they were f illed with wrath. They didn’t just get up and leave. They rose up to drive him to the cliff to throw him off. They’re intent was to kill Jesus! And an often overlooked portion of this story is the fact that Jesus passed right through the crowd and went on his way. Jesus, with his carpenter muscles and filled with the Holy Spirit, was not deterred! Let me end our time tonight with this and I’m going to have the worship team make their way up here. John 1:10-11 says, “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” This is going to sound hard, but it’s the truth. With Jesus, there is no neutrality. There is no fencing. There is no compromise. There is no adaptation of the Jesus you want. Those who are not with Him or AGAINST Him. And let me be clear on something: if you are with the Jesus you’ve crafted in your own imagination that’s more suitable to your desires and preferences, you are actually AGAINST the true Jesus of Scripture. In your natural state, you are an enemy of Jesus. Until the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of your heart. Accepting Jesus is not the same as receiving Him. To accept is to tolerate. You’ll tolerate until you get convicted and then you have nothing to do with Him. To receive is to embrace. What does it mean to receive Him? Christ stands as the supreme obstacle to your sin. You have to recognize your sin. You have to fall on your face in repentance. One day, you will appear before God. Jesus will either be your judge or your defense attorney. To receive Him is to receive Him as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and 61. Jesus preached, “I am He.” Receive Him.