May 3 2025

The transition between childhood and adulthood is sometimes a difficult one. This is often seen when a young adult arrives back home after starting a career. Do their parent still see them as a child? Does their church still look at them the same way they did when they were in primary division? Going home can be difficult. Growing up is hard on almost everyone. Today’s lesson will explore what happened when the people in Jesus’ town discover that He has grown up.

Assign each person in your group a color—be creative. After you have done this, instruct them to use their mobile device to find and show the group a picture of an animal that is the same color as you have assigned them.

It’s amazing to see the transformation. Have you ever stopped to wonder how a baby chick breathes in the egg while it is breaking out? Have you ever thought about how difficult it is for them to break out of their shell? It is kind of like that when a young person goes home after becoming an adult. Our lesson today is about Jesus coming home and sharing with His home church that He is the Messiah. How did they take it? Let’s dive into scripture and see what we can learn.

Read Luke 4:16-22.

16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

20 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. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 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. 

Read 1 Samuel 17:26-30.

26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.

David was a young man, who wasn’t old enough to go to battle. He was the youngest of the sons of Jesse. David is asked to go to see his brothers and deliver some food to them on the front lines. While he is there, he hears Goliath making fun of his country and his God.

Read Luke 4:23-30.

23 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.’ ”24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 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.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 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. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. 

The ending is interesting. Jesus just goes away. No muss or fuss, He just leaves. Jesus is like that. He doesn’t stay and fight. He doesn’t force us to take His side. Jesus didn’t condemn the people for their view of Him; instead He went away to stop the fight. He didn’t go very far; those same people continued to hear stories about Him and some of them probably realized the error of their ways and became followers. This is one of those interesting side notes in the story of people becoming aware of Jesus. Hopefully you aren’t one of those people who struggle to recognize who Jesus is and how much He wants to be part of your life.

Find an adult you trust, and ask them about how they became a follower of Christ. Ask them what difference being a Christian has made in their life. Ask if they have any advice about being a Christian now that they wish they had known earlier.

Luke 4:14-30

LEADER’S NOTE

For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.

You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.

Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.

Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.

DOWNLOAD THE HANDOUT

Seventh-day Adventists like to refer to Luke 4:16 as proof that Jesus regularly attended the synagogue on Sabbath. Therefore, everyone should be regular in their church attendance, and that should be on Sabbath, the seventh day (not on Sunday, the first day of the week). While that may be true, it diverts attention from some major elements in the story.

The context indicates this happened early in Jesus’ ministry. Luke has more details about the birth and childhood of Jesus than any of the other Gospel writers. This includes the miraculous birth of John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. In the birth story, instead of reporting the visit of the Magi (Matthew 1), Luke records the visit of the lowly shepherds. Luke summarizes Christ’s childhood and adolescent in Luke 2:52 (KJV), “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Only Luke chronicled Christ’s first visit to the temple in Jerusalem, where the 12-year-old amazed the religious leaders, and mystified His parents.

When it came to Christ’s ministry, Luke wrote about His baptism, followed by the wilderness temptations in which “the Devil temped him for forty days” (Luke 4:2 NLT), which implies more than the three temptations the Gospels record.

Instead of beginning Christ’s ministry with turning water into wine (John 2), or calling disciples and healing the sick (Mark 1), or giving the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Luke begins with Christ’s rejection and attempted murder by all who went to His hometown synagogue (Luke 4). That’s our story for this week.

Who’s someone from your childhood who would be surprised at who or what you’ve become?

Read Luke 4:14-30.

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 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. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 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.

23 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.’ ”

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 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. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 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.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 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. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

1.  What prepared Jesus for this Sabbath in Nazareth?

2.  What was the expectation when Jesus went to church?

3.  What’s the significance of Jesus going to the synagogue on Sabbath?

4.  What made this passage from Isaiah so powerful that day?

5.  What about Jesus impressed and what offended the church people?

   IMPRESSED                                                                     OFFENDED

    ____       Jesus read really, really well.                  ____

    ____       He was one of their own.                          ____

    ____       He left out the end of Isaiah 61:2.       ____

    ____       Claiming to fulfill the Scripture.            ____

    ____       He made Scripture come alive.              ____

    ____       Highlighting Gentiles over Jews.          ____

    ____       Jesus slipped away from them.              ____

    ____       Other:____________________________          ____

6. Why wasn’t Jesus killed at this time?

7.  What Scripture has Jesus “made alive” for you?

8.  What could Jesus say or do that would offend you?

How could something that started so well, go so wrong? Why didn’t the people just ask for some clarification? Were the words of Jesus worthy of death? After that incident, instead of operating from His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus relocated to Capernaum. Jesus offers Himself to us, but He doesn’t force Himself on us. Instead of changing Jesus into the God we want, accept the challenge to recognize Him as God, and then ask Him to change us into the people He wants us to be.

Here are a few application ideas for you to move from Sabbath School into action this coming week. Feel free to adapt this as the Holy Spirit moves you, but, by all means, apply this Scripture study to your life in the coming week and month.

Understanding & Relating to Asian American Youth

By Jane Hong-Guzman de Leon, Kevin Doi & Mike Park

If you’ve read Growing Young, you know how important it is to engage young people in your church. But how? Even when we bring our best intentions to these conversations, the dialogue somehow flops.

This comprehensive 40-page guide is the perfect handbook for any adult looking for a starting point in conversations with today’s Asian American youth. It includes an overview of the reality Asian American youth face, fundamental principles of conversation, plus 30+ questions and ideas for next steps.