This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 21, 1990.
We are reading this evening once more from Luke’s Gospel chapter 4. We will be also reading a little bit from the 5th chapter of Luke. But we are starting with verse 14 of the 4th chapter of Luke this evening. Hear the word of God. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
And news about him spread through all the surrounding districts. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was prayed by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. And they were saying, is this not Joseph’s son? And he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, physician heal yourself.
Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, due here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, yet when the great famine came over all the land, And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many letters in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Nahum the Syrian. And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.
And they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built. In order to throw him down the cliff, for passing through their midst, he went his way. And he came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on Sabbath days. And they were continually amazed at his teaching, for his message was with authority.
And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet and come out of him.
And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he went out of him without doing him any harm. An amazement came upon all, and they began discussing with one another and saying, what is this message? But with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. And the report about him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district.
And then moving down to Luke chapter 5, beginning with verse 1, the first three verses of this chapter. Now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was silent, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And he sat down and began teaching the multitude from the boat.
Oh Lord, would you raise within us that great zeal for your word. May we find afresh that hunger for the things of the scriptures, for true and abiding doctrines We ask you, Lord, that our passions might be excited with respect to the things of our God, and that we might be zealous for your house, for the assembly of your people. Do we not hear from Jesus himself that the zeal for thy house has consumed him. And may it be, Lord, not just here, but throughout the lengths and depths of your church, that your people are thrilled with the expectation of worship and devotion performed before you. and in the presence of that company which you have called. Lord, build our love, our love for you, our love for one another, and build within us that sense of the seriousness of the matters with which we are concerned. O Lord, we ask that we might be reminded again and again that we have been called for sanctification, for holiness, that we might be set apart from the world, distinguished from the world. And Lord, may our paths be straight, may our eye be clear, may our hearts be pure, as we pursue the things of your kingdom.
May we learn well about Your Son. May we store up in our souls and in our minds these wonderful things laid out for us in the Scriptures. And may we draw close to You. And may we be found in Him because of the powerful working of Your Word in our lives. This we ask now, remembering that we are sinners Remembering, too, that we are made of dust, that we come to you with all humility, through Jesus. Amen. We are addressing ourselves tonight to that period of Jesus’ ministry known as the period of popularity.
To ask the question is to answer. Is popularity a snare? Can it be a tragic stumbling block? These were that spirit of adolescence that persists into adulthood with which men and women in every age must battle. That desire to be liked, to be accepted, to be important, to be noticed.
Jesus deals with the most basic level of human psychology. He deals with those matters that concern us all. Those matters with which we have all been faced at one time or other in our lives. Matters that we must straighten out if we are going to be straight with God.
As Jesus was himself. The period, then, of Jesus’ popularity. You are aware that the immediate response to Jesus seems to be one of uniform popularity. That immediate response was uniformly positive. At first, even at Nazareth, the events of which we have read here this evening, at first even there in his hometown, after he had returned from Judea, after the opening days of his ministry in the territory of Judea, the record of which is recorded for us in the first four chapters of John, we find the people speaking well of him. All of the people are speaking well of him.
You’ll notice that fourth chapter, the twenty-second verse. When Jesus moved down to Capernaum, he is literally besieged. Not by those who are hostile to him, he is besieged by those who are taken by him. They are interested in him, positive toward him, drawn toward him. On one occasion, as we have read this evening from Luke chapter 5. We find him standing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, or the Sea of Galilee, as it is called elsewhere. We note the cross.
It must have been a huge multitude drawn to him, pressing hard against him, that so severely that he gets into one of the boats, pushes out a bit from the shore, and preachers from the boat. And another occasion. The crowd numbered so high that those trying to bring to him their paralytic friend on his bed could not even get near him. They couldn’t even get into the house. Of course, you know the rest of that story, how these ingenious friends took him up on the roof and let him down through the roof after having removed some tiles.
That story is also recorded for you in Luke 5. You find it in Mark 2 and also in Matthew 9. We find on other occasions Jesus withdrawing that seemingly deliberately from the crowd, from public life, if you will. We find him withdrawing and the crowd pursue him. Jesus is moved with compassion for them and ministers unto them. For instance, you recall the feeding of the 5,000. On Wednesday evenings, we’re dealing with John chapter 6, and that’s the story of the feeding of the 5,000. And you read in a couple of verses there in John 6 of how the multitudes pursued him. They were drawn to him. Jesus, very popular. And these people are drawn by two things. They are drawn by his miracles, and they are drawn by his teachings.
We are told on a number of occasions how extensive both of these activities were, how extensive and intensive. The classic text is found in Matthew’s gospel. You may want to look at that again, the fourth chapter. At the end of that chapter, verses 23 through 25.
Summing up Jesus’ activity and the popularity that he has now as he moves out into the territory Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogue, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about him went out into all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. And great multitudes followed him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea. and from beyond the Jordan.
Wow. You could get caught up in that stream, couldn’t you? Everybody’s in a rush. You couldn’t wait to see this phenomenon, this remarkable phenomenon. Well, Jesus draws the multitude, and in those early days, extremely unprecedentedly popular. His miracles, his teachings attract. You remember his mighty deeds, the record of them, you have an account here in Luke chapter 4, his healing of the man demon possessed. The kinds of responses that come forth from the multitudes as a result of the mighty deeds, these remarkable acts that he performs.
The people are astonished, literally astonished, dumbstruck. We are told again and again of how the multitudes are filled with awe, how they glorify God. That one instance where the sins of the man are forgiven and he is demanded to take up his bed and walk. There we are told that the multitude marveled that such authority had been given to men.” And here in Luke 4 again, verse 7, is echoed once more. Peter, one who then gives us a picture of individual response.
You remember how it went for him, even here in this fifth chapter of Luke, after Jesus has tossed the multitude, they push out into the sea, and there is that great catch of fish, the miraculous catch of fish, after which Peter falls down before Jesus and exclaims, O Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. recognition of something, the magnitude of who this one is, these responses to Jesus. But as it was with the miracle, these wonderful acts performed by Jesus, so also the multitudes are drawn by Jesus’ words.
Has that ever happened to you? Someone who knows how to form his word wonderfully, powerfully, compellingly. A new spokesman on the horizon. Everybody buzzing about him. Word going out about him throughout the church. You won’t want to miss this speaker.
So Jesus amazes folks. with his teaching. Matthew tells us the reason for the amazement. He tells us at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, 28 and 29, that Jesus was one who taught as having authority and not as one of their scribes. These sentiments echoed again in the passage that we read tonight from Luke chapter 4. Not an ordinary spokesman, not just another speaker, not just another religious personality, but here was one who speaks with authority, not as the scribes, and surely there were great speakers among the scribes of that day. So the multitudes gather for the express purpose of hearing Jesus. His miracles and his words.
Jesus enjoys at the outset this wonderful period of popularity. You might note that as things began and so they concluded, as if the entirety of the ministry of Jesus is compressed into that final week of his ministry. But we note that even the popularity for Jesus extends to that final week, not just at the beginning, but at the final week too. How do things begin with people All of us with the news that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem.
There is the triumphal entry. Everybody speaking well of him. The multitude is teeming and swarming about him. We hear of their acclamation. Then we hear about their gathering. how they come together in the temple to be healed by him there, how they gather in the temple to hear him teach daily. Mark tells us in his twelfth chapter, the thirty-seventh verse, that the common folk heard him gladly. They listened to him and enjoyed what he said.
So even then, there is that note of acceptance and popularity. But that comment made by Mark in that context, the twelfth chapter, the thirty-seventh verse, is of great interest to us, because in that statement that Mark makes, we hear the echo of another statement that he has made earlier.
That earlier statement is in his sixth chapter, the twentieth verse, and there we are told not about Jesus, but of John the Baptist. And it’s not the multitude that are glad to hear Jesus, as it is in Mark twelve, but it’s Herod who enjoyed listening to John the Baptist. And we all know what Herod did to John the Baptist. And Jesus will fare no better. By the end of the week, the multitudes will turn on him, as Herod did had in fact turned on John and delivered him up for execution.
Those who look at Jesus as a personality, those who see in Jesus a religious celebrity, who approach life and religion at that level who look at Jesus as a curiosity, as someone who interests them, who tantalizes them, one who is magnetic, one who is charismatic, a popular spokesman, a popular leader, a wonder worker.
People who look at him along these lines prove to be fickle, unstable, and worse than fair-weathered friends. Will his popularity be the barometer for him? Will he rush after that popularity, the god of popularity, as the people have rushed after him for the sake of the popularity that is attached to him? Will they just want to be near him because everybody wants to be near him? Will they rush out and be a part of the herd, the mass, because everyone else is a part of the herd and the mass? This is what people talk about at parties these days, what Jesus is doing in Galilee.
We have now succumbed to the cult of popularity. We have bought into it in a most debilitating fashion, and our youth are being raised in an era in which the cult of personality and popularity abounds in an unprecedented way. But glory is glory. The goal is the headline. The goal is notoriety, acceptance. The goal is to be liked. The goal is to be someone. The goal is to be a star. From the cover of Weedy’s boxes, to ads for automobiles, to every magazine virtually that you pick up out of a newsstand. The cult of popularity is placed before you in living color.
Has Jesus deceived Has Jesus come simply because He needs to be wanted? He wants to be liked? What a tragic day has overtaken us, and we have not seen the end of it yet. most likely we will see the devastating effects in our children when they are old. Was it possible for us to stand back, to stand aside, to stand alone, to be different, to even choose to be unpopular? for the cause of righteousness and truth and God and Jesus himself?
There are those churches that curry to the cult of popularity. May this church never be such. In the end, you know that these fickle, unstable folk, these devotees of the cult of popularity in their own time, wind up behind those who are opposed to Jesus, and have been opposed to him from the very beginning.
They line up, for instance, behind some of the folk from Jesus’ own hometown in Nazareth. I want you to notice that exchange between Jesus and those folks from his hometown. It is quite interesting in many regards. You will note in the 22nd verse of that fourth chapter, as we’ve already pointed out, that Jesus seems to have the townspeople eating out of his hands. But then you move to verse 23, and it’s almost as if Jesus does something deliberate here. He provokes them. Can you imagine the scene? Hometown boy makes good, comes home, he’s a hero. We’re all going to celebrate. We give the boy the microphone and he begins to insult everyone.
Jesus, then in that 23rd verse, deliberately provokes these people, and they become typical of what he will face in the end from all of Israel. Now you may think that Jesus is a little foolish, that he hadn’t quite figured out matters relating to PR, public relations at this time. You see, Jesus is interested in exposing what lies hidden in the heart, that hidden contempt, that wellspring of jealousy, that as yet suppressed rage within the human soul and spirit.
For these people, in the end, will take offense at him and at the kingdom of God. In the end they will show their true talents, no friends at all. They will join the company that pounds nails into the Savior’s hands and feet. And in many respects, these people at Nazareth forecast not just then the reaction finally of old Israel, but the bitter reaction of Jewish leadership.
They, from the beginning, are suspicious. Less than cool, even hostile. Do you know about these officials? Who they were? description of them. The official leaders, the official teachers in Israel during the time of Jesus, were the scribes who, for the most part, belonged to a particular sect, the sect of the Pharisees. There was another party alongside the Pharisees. You know who they were. They were the Sadducees.
We have two men. basically two parties representing two religious mindsets that arise out of the Jewish impulse. And these two, in the end, will prove to be shaking one another’s hands across a table with respect to the person of Jesus. As much as they are disagreed, they are agreed on this. Jesus must go. Jesus is not naive with regard to the Jewish populace. He is not naive with regard to Jewish leadership. And so when there are these popular strains and choruses, when there are these swells, he understands well what’s taking place. He sees to the heart of the matter. What about these Pharisees? How are we to understand them?
They are the religiously orthodox party of Israel in the first century. Originally they had aligned themselves with the freedom movement out of the second century B.C. They stood with Judas Maccabeus. They supported that revolution against the Greeks. They were freedom fighters. They enlisted others to support their position of Jewish autonomy and freedom, political freedom. They emphasized Jewish separateness and ritual purity. They applied rigorously the Mosaic law and supported the practice of drawing out principles, which they called their traditions, built upon the law that then were applied to the daily life of the people, controlling every minute detail of daily life.
Even if their original intentions were good, you may have a quarrel about that, even if their original intentions were good, they had over the years become terribly corrupt, self-righteous. Jesus is right about that. more interested, hear me now, more interested in the psychology of command than in the commandments of God. How do you control? Not how do you obey. That’s the Pharisees. On the other hand, We have the Sadducees. Who were they? A worldly aristocracy. Wealthy. Very powerful. Powerful because of their money. They were in position of the highest offices religiously in the land, interestingly.
Sadducees, as you know, didn’t believe in the supernatural. They didn’t believe in the spirits. They didn’t believe in spirit angels. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. And yet these were the most highly placed religious officers of their time. They favored Rome. They were established in and satisfied with the existing political order. They didn’t want things to change. If they change, they wouldn’t be empowered. As we’ve already suggested, the Sadducees were naturalistic in their orientation, in their worldview, and they thought in terms of the maintenance of their position in the world.
They opposed Jesus because he was a threat to their position, to their worldview, and to their world order. His claims for himself were in their view, not only blasphemous, who is this one who claims to be God, but impossible. Since the supernatural is in fact ruled out on the plane of this world, how is it possible for God to become flesh, to walk on the earth, on the plane, the surface of the world? The Pharisees, once more, were thoroughly supernaturalistic. They believed in the Spirit. They believed in spirits and angels, in the resurrection of the body.
Yet they joined ranks with these Sadducees against Jesus. Their opposition revolved around the meaning and the place of the law. You remember the arguments that take place over the nature of the Sabbath and its authority. How did they see the law? They saw the law as the way to and guarantee of the kingdom. The kingdom comes by obedience to the law, and we are the officials that determine the significance of the law and its application. that they saw at the same time, despite their differences with the Sadducees, they saw at the same time the kingdom much along the lines that the Sadducees saw it. The Sadducees were, in fact, cosmopolitan and ecumenical. The Pharisees were provincial and sectarian, but both had the same point of reference, an earthly future in this world, a kingdom here.
Do you understand now why Jesus is not enlisted by the acclamations of the crowd? Why Jesus cannot be a figure, a demigod, in the cult of personality and popularity? Because that’s part and parcel of kingdoms that arise out of this world and belong to it. Does not this remain the stumbling block with regard to the person and work of Jesus Christ to this very day?
Isn’t it this matter of earthly kingdom, earthly gain, earthly permanence, earthly stability, earthly no variety, the satisfaction of earthly desires, worldliness, for which too many make too great a place in their hearts. Even the multitudes, the masses, the crowds, stumble at this point.
And for this reason, despite the fact that they are drawn initially to Jesus, they’re thrilled by Him, despite the fact that they are attracted by His miracles and even His words, despite Jesus’ magnetic personality, His charismatic disposition, they fail to penetrate either His mighty works or His message with saving. And to the point, or rather to the extent, that they do grasp what he’s really saying, to the extent that they see that he’s preaching another kingdom, that he’s presenting to them something completely different from what they want, they reject him. They crucify him. They want nothing to do with it. So then, that early period of popularity, intense, powerful, the activity we see in it engaging, magnetic in itself, but it passes. And when it passes, there will be left that small gate and that narrow way, and few there be that find it.
You’re not secretly a therapist, are you? or a Sadducee. You’re not secretly a Jew after the flesh, interested in worldly kingdoms and earthly inheritances. You’re drawn to Jesus with Satan faith. You believe in him, you trust in him for things not seen, don’t you? You are a part of that company along the narrow road, entering in by the narrow gate. To the praise of God’s grace and His glory. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.