Tell people what they don’t want to hear, and you can almost count on them being offended. The message may be true and helpful, but when it is not what they are thinking, they will reject it and possibly reject you, too.


In Luke 4, Jesus teaches from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news” (v. 18). The hometown folks heard Jesus claiming to be the Messiah, and they were shocked. “How could this mere carpenter be the Messiah? He’s only Mary’s son. He is just one of us!” Jesus’ own people couldn’t accept His words. They were offended – even furious – and drove Him out of town.


If Jesus was rejected by His friends and neighbors when He preached the Gospel to them, you can well expect the same when you share about Christ with yours. What’s truly amazing is that though we reject Christ daily through our sin, our unlikely Savior – just Mary’s son – stands by us. He endured the ultimate rejection at the cross to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”
(Luke 4:19) for us!