It is natural to want to be loved and accepted. We like acceptance. It is lovely to be loved. We don’t like rejection.
One might think that if anyone would be loved and accepted, it would be the perfect Son of God, who always did what was right, who never did anything wrong. Messiah was loved and accepted by His God and Father. He communicated this to humanity when He stated: This is My beloved Son. I am very pleased with Him.
But, even though Immanuel was sent by God to be welcomed, loved, accepted by the specially prepared people, Messiah was rejected by the majority – especially those who knew the most, and were the best trained in the Judaism of that day.
We don’t like rejection. We want to be accepted. Our unwillingness to endure rejection is one of the main reasons we are not more faithful servants of God.
Like Yeshua, if we are to truly please God, we will be misunderstood, opposed, and rejected. Let’s see how Yeshua responded to rejection, and what we can learn from Him that will help us deal with rejection.
The Lord had just been teaching us about prayer. We need help talking to God. Because of sin, our relationship with God has been ruined. We don’t know how to pray. It’s like we are mute. God can’t hear us because we pray for the wrongs things. We pray with the wrong motives. We need the Son of God to deliver us from our muteness.
Next Luke gives us an account of the healing of a man who couldn’t speak. And Yeshua was casting out a demon, and it was mute; when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed.
Removing a demon who prevented a human being from being able to speak, and live a normal social life among other human beings, was a great thing. But not all were favorably impressed with the young Rabbi who was being used by God to bring blessing and healing to so many people in our nation. In fact, some of them believed that Yeshua was not being used by God at all, but by God’s adversary.
The sinless Messiah’s opponents didn’t deny that a miracle had just taken place. But, they did not believe that God was working through Yeshua, enabling Him to do miracles. They attributed the source of Yeshua’s supernatural power to the Devil.
But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul (the lord of the flies. Maggots – flies in their immature state, and flies in their adult state, live off of unclean and dead things. Satan is the lord of the flies because he and his demons are unclean and connected to death and decay. We need to be freed from their corrupting influences), the ruler of the demons”.
Satan and the demons are real. These fallen, rebellious angels are intelligent. They are organized. They have an authority structure. They have a leader.
So, some of the people rejected Yeshua, accusing Him of being a false prophet who was empowered by the Devil. Others rejected Him as well. They didn’t trust Him. They wanted to make Him look bad. They tried to discredit Him by asking Him to do a great miracle. Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from Heaven.
Maybe they were hoping that Yeshua would be unable to do a great miracle in public; or maybe, if a miracle did happen, somehow it would put Yeshua in a bad light and cause Him to fail – like what happened when Moses struck the rock.
The ones who accused Him of being a demonically empowered false prophet, and those who demanded that He do a miracle, both rejected Yeshua. How did the Son of God, who created this beautiful planet and everything on it, and the magnificent sun and the silvery moon and the billions of starry galaxies, deal with rejection? Did He become angry and strike out at the stupid and puny unbelievers? Did He try to accommodate Himself to them? Did He tone down His message? Did He compromise with them? No. He tried to reason with them, to educate them, to help them understand the truth.
But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. King Messiah reasoned that if those who accused Him of forming an alliance with the Devil, and operating by satanic power were right, and if Yeshua was using satanic power to remove demons from human beings, it meant that a civil war was taking place in the kingdom of darkness. And, the end of the dominion of darkness would soon take place, and humanity would be set free from their destructive control! Unless that happened in a very short time, those who accused Yeshua of being in league with the Devil were wrong!
Yeshua then came up a second argument: And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. Yeshua wasn’t the only one removing evil spirits from our people. First there was one. Then there were 12. Then there were at least 70 others. Were so many all in league with the Devil? Not likely. Were the 70 also to be accused of being part of a vast satanic conspiracy? That would dishonor and alienate many Jewish people and their families and friends.
Now Yeshua gave the true explanation: But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. The truth is that Yeshua was not empowered by the Adversary! It was the Mighty God who was at work, working through Messiah. God the Father, the High King, was filling and empowering King Yeshua, using Him to overcome the kingdom of darkness! Yeshua continued explaining what was really going on: When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.
Satan and his demons are real and they are strong and they hold sinful humanity captive. They are too strong for sinful and weakened humanity to overcome on our own. But God the Father working through God the Son is stronger than Satan and the demons. That is the real reason why Yeshua was able to remove the evil spirits from so many of our people. The Redeemer had come! Immanuel! God with us! The Messiah! The long-awaited Seed of the woman was in the process of crushing the head of the ancient serpent. The chosen people certainly must understand this! We could not be against the King!
He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.
Yeshua is the Messiah. We can know that because He fulfilled the prophecies. He is the Messiah because of His perfect, sinless life. We are to know He is the Messiah because of His unparalleled miracles. We are to know that Yeshua is the Messiah because the voice of God declared that truth from Heaven. We can know that Yeshua is the Messiah because of His death and His burial and His resurrection. We are to know that Yeshua is the Messiah because of the apostles who followed him, who also did miracles. God sent the Savior into the world who accomplished His great mission of redemption. No one can afford to ignore that! In this great cosmic battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the adversary, between good and evil, Heaven and Hell, life and death, no one can remain neutral, and not take a position regarding Yeshua. We must be actively, positively for Him! It is our responsibility to find out who He is, and go over to the side of the King!
Here is the truth: because of the Fall of man, we joined the satanic rebellion against the Father and the Son. If we do nothing in this life, we remain part of the dominion of darkness. We must choose to be with Yeshua, positively and consciously, or the reality is that we are against Him. We must choose to gather with Him, take our orders from Him, and assist Him and work with Him.
There are some false teachers today, even within the Messianic Movement, who teach the opposite; who teach that non-Messianic religious Jewish people who oppose Yeshua are OK; who teach that the non-Messianic religious Jewish person who is not with Yeshua is actually for Him, and the non-Messianic religious Jewish person who does not gather with Yeshua, doesn’t scatter – he is gathering for God! This false teaching that directly contradicts our Supreme Rabbi is terribly wrong and destructive, and must not be tolerated.
We can’t reject the Son of God, and we can’t even afford to remain neutral toward Messiah, just like the man who is delivered from an evil spirit can’t remain neutral to God and religion and the spiritual disciplines. When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
If a demon is removed from a human being, the person who has been freed from its corrupting influence must not remain neutral toward God and true religion. He must get closer to God. He must start doing the right things on a consistent basis. He must start reading the Bible, and praying, becoming an active member of the community. He must begin serving the Lord actively and positively. If he doesn’t, he will be reacquired by the powers of darkness, and he will be worse off than he was before.
In this matter, what is true of individuals is true of nations, particularly the nation of Israel. The Savior, who is stronger than the Adversary, had come and had began liberating the nation. He had started sweeping us clean. He was telling us the truth that could save us. He was teaching us great things! He was removing demons from many of us. He was healing us physically and spiritually. The nation needed to recognize these truths, and embrace the King who was endowed with salvation, and welcome Him and get closer to Him. If we didn’t, we would be worse off than before He came.
And, sadly, that is exactly what happened. The nation as a whole did not accept Messiah. We did not recognize the time when Immanuel visited us. We rejected the Son of God. We rejected the truth. God punished us for our great wickedness. The Temple was destroyed. The sacrifices, which were so helpful, so instructive of the principles of salvation, ceased.
The Messiah-Sent-From-Heaven-rejecting leaders then radically restructured Judaism, and led us farther and farther from God, from Messiah, from truth, from atonement, from salvation. We were much worse off than we were before. We were scattered among the nation, practicing a man-made religion that can not save. We were persecuted and wandered from nation to nation. And, we have remained in that desolate condition since that time.
We need to admit our mistakes, embrace the truth, believe all of the Word of God, recognize that Yeshua is the God-sent Messiah, apologize to God, apologize to Messiah, apologize to the nations whom we have failed. Then we need to actively, positively, enthusiastically begin to serve the Messiah, like no other nation has served Him before!
It was obvious to many who were listening that Yeshua had responded to those who rejected Him with graciousness and wisdom. That caused a misdirected blessing. While Yeshua was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.”
What a wise and good man Rabbi Yeshua was. Certainly the woman who gave Him birth deserved to be praised. But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” It is not natural activity that is praiseworthy, but supernatural activity. It was an honor for Mary to have been chosen to be the mother of the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. But, that honor is insignificant compared to the honor that comes to any human being who hears the Word of God, recognizes it as the Word of God, embraces it and puts it into practice. That man, that woman, is truly blessed and advantaged, even more than Mary! Is that you?
That woman did not reject Yeshua, but many did. Remember there were those who rejected Yeshua, and were testing Him, demanding that He do a great miracle in front of the crowds; hoping that He might fail in some way and be discredited. Here Yeshua responded to them, reasoning with them, telling them who He is and how important He is; pointing out and clarifying their rejection; and warning the rejecters of the Messiah about the terrible consequences that would befall if they persisted in their rejection of Him.
As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. Wicked Nineveh was worthy of the judgment of God, and the prophet Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in the stomach of a huge fish and lived, and went to Nineveh and told them to turn from their sins, listened to the prophet who miraculously survived that ordeal.
Yeshua’s response to those who were demanding a sign was to tell them that they would get a great sign – but not the kind of sign that they were asking for. The sign that Israel would shortly receive, and need to pay very careful attention to, and understand, and respond to, was Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection. That is God’s great sign, the Lord’s super-important message to the Jewish people, pointing us to Yeshua, and letting Israel know that Yeshua is a true prophet, and the righteous Messiah who came with a true message from God.
If Nineveh didn’t pay attention to the resurrected Jonah, and rejected him, Nineveh would have been destroyed. And, Yeshua is far greater than Jonah, and the consequences for rejecting Him are worse! To whom much is given, much is required. And, the consequences and punishments are worse for failure. Israel was given much more revelation than Nineveh! If Israel didn’t listen to Messiah, even after His resurrection was witnessed to and proclaimed by the apostles and more than 500 others, Israel would be destroyed with a great destruction.
The Yeshua-rejection generation would be judged more harshly than God-honoring, Word of God-embracing Gentiles! The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The Gentile Queen of Sheba will be far better off than the Jewish generation of Yeshua’s day. She had less revelation in the person of Solomon, but responded to it with faith. Yeshua’s Jewish contemporaries had more revelation, but rejected it.
The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Gentiles of Nineveh will be far better off than the Jewish generation of Yeshua’s day. They had a lesser prophet, a lesser revelation in the person of Jonah, but they responded to it. The Jewish generation of Yeshua’s day had far more revelation and didn’t.
Yeshua’s statements were unpleasant, annoying, infuriating to many of the Chosen People, who prided themselves on being good and wise and religious, and superior to the Gentiles – but who in reality, weren’t. These things were not easy to say to these people, but Yeshua had the courage to speak the truth – to clarify the issues, to warn people when they needed it, no matter the rejection it might cause.
Speaking the truth and enduring rejection is more important than pleasing people, than massaging the message, than backing down before error, than compromising. Don’t hide the truth! If God has let you know about salvation, eternal life, Messiah, Heaven to be gained, and Hell to be avoided, that Yeshua is the only way, that the whole world is perishing, you must tell others! No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.
You must tell a dark, confused, satanically captivated and dying world the truth! You must not hide your light! You are a witness of the only salvation of God! Let you light shine! Speak the truth! Tell people the Good News! Be bold, be courageous!
There is so much spiritual error in the world! There is so much false religion! Human beings are so confused about God, about truth. There is so much in error and confusion and false teachings about salvation and the way of redemption. Each and every individual must make absolutely sure that they know the truth. Make sure you are seeing reality clearly! Make sure you know the truth! Don’t assume that your leaders know. Human beings are too confused! Don’t simply trust others, even religious leaders! Don’t even trust yourself! You yourself might be seriously confused! Make sure the knowledge you have believed is true knowledge that will save you. You don’t want to discover on the day of judgment that you were deceived, that what you believed was false, was wrong, that you were part of the darkness, and it’s too late. Make sure the truth is radiating throughout you!
The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”
If you can’t trust religious leaders, or even yourself, who can you trust? The supremely trustworthy religious leader! The wisest man who ever lived! The greatest prophet! The Son of God who is never wrong! Messiah Yeshua! You must make sure that you really know who He is, and what He has accomplished, and that you are in a right relationship with Him, and because of Him, with God the Father.
How do we deal with rejection? The same way Yeshua did. Speak the truth, educate, inform, clarify, reason, point out the error, warn of the consequences of continued rejection. Be bold. Don’t back down, don’t cave in, don’t wimp out. Don’t compromise.
Expect rejection. Endure rejection. Know that rejection is sends a good message to us, letting us know we are doing what is right, that we are following the Rejected Yet Victorious One, the One Rejected By Men But Accepted By God. If we are not experiencing any rejection, it is probably because we are not doing what we should be doing.
If we do follow the Lord and are rejected by men, like Messiah was, remember that He was also vindicated and honored and elevated and rewarded – as we will be! We too will be warmly welcomed and rewarded by the good and eternal God one day, and that will make all the rejection pale into insignificance!