by David Gibson<\/p>\n
“Where are you from?” is often asked when people get acquainted.<\/p>\n
Where is Jesus from? Born in Bethlehem, He lived briefly in Egypt but spent His youth in Nazareth of Galilee. That’s why He is often called the Nazarene. Mary and Joseph were Nazarenes before Jesus was born (Luke 1:26-27; 2:4, 39).<\/p>\n
When Jesus returned to His hometown synagogue and preached, His fellow Nazarenes rejected Him violently (Luke 4:16-30).<\/p>\n
Needless to say, they did not erect a sign at the city limits: “Welcome to Nazareth: Hometown of Jesus the Messiah.” They did not believe in Him (Mark 6:1-6).<\/p>\n
When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had a sign placed on the cross above Jesus’ head: “Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews<\/em>” (John 19:19 NASB).<\/p>\n The Nazarene connection was not lost even after Jesus completed His earthly mission and returned to heaven. Appearing to Saul of Tarsus, He announced: “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting<\/em>” (Acts 22:8). Of all the ways Jesus could have identified Himself, isn’t it remarkable that He chose as His reference point the very place that had rejected Him?<\/p>\n In their preaching, both Peter and Paul refer to “Jesus the Nazarene<\/em>” or “Jesus Christ the Nazarene<\/em>” or “Jesus of Nazareth<\/em>” (Acts 2:22; 3:6; 4:10; 10:38; 26:9).<\/p>\n Though from heaven, He was willing to enter our atmosphere, reside in a very specific location, and be widely known as a citizen of that small community-one that evidently did not have a good reputation. Hearing that Jesus was a Nazarene, Nathaniel exclaimed, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?<\/em>” (John 1:46).<\/p>\n He is universal and local, heavenly and earthly, and divine and human. Jesus had dual citizenship, and so can we (Philippians 3:20).<\/p>\n After the earth is destroyed at Christ’s coming, if we have united with Jesus of Nazareth through faith and baptism (Galatians 3:26-27), we can have a home in “the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).<\/p>\n That’s where Jesus is now, anticipating our arrival.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson “Where are you from?” is often asked when people get acquainted. Where is Jesus from? Born in Bethlehem, He lived briefly in Egypt but spent His youth in Nazareth of Galilee. That’s why He is often called the Nazarene. Mary and Joseph were Nazarenes before Jesus was born (Luke 1:26-27; 2:4, 39).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-70539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/didnt-jesus-have-long-hair\/","url_meta":{"origin":70539,"position":0},"title":"Didn\u2019t Jesus Have Long Hair?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Express an idea often enough and people will assume it is true. The expression can be in the form of words or pictures. Consider the common image of Jesus. Photography did not exist at the time of Christ. There are no drawings or paintings of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Jesus-300x225.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19114,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-am-not-a-nazarene\/","url_meta":{"origin":70539,"position":1},"title":"Why I Am Not a Nazarene","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by J. R. Bronger In June of 1972 my wife, Sue, and I were baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins (Acts 2:38). Like many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we came out of religious error. Our involvement was with the Church of the Nazarene, headquartered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-sinless-perfection-not-expected-of-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":70539,"position":2},"title":"Is sinless perfection not expected of Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read a few posts on the website where you talked about how Christians are not to expect sinless perfection in themselves. This was very encouraging to me! I have been raised in the Nazarene church. Nazarenes have a lot of really great strengths, but sometimes it can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-matthew-fabricate-a-prophecy-to-support-his-claim-that-jesus-was-the-messiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":70539,"position":3},"title":"Did Matthew fabricate a prophecy to support his claim that Jesus was the Messiah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question.\u00a0 It may seem like I am attacking Christianity with this one, but I'm not.\u00a0 I'm just very interested in studying the Bible and every now and then I come across an objection I need help answering.\u00a0 So here is the objection I found on another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28897,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-christian-supposed-to-be-natsarim\/","url_meta":{"origin":70539,"position":4},"title":"Is “Christian” supposed to be “natsarim”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, brethren in Christ, I hope you are well and my greetings to you and the church. 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