Being glorified of all. Amazing! He taught in their synagogues and everyone glorified Him. Jesus was honored by all. Again I must liken this to a famous person in our world today- any famous person known for their eloquence, known for their power of public speaking, known for having things to say that are enlightening. When a person of such renown is in our area and we have an opportunity to hear them speak we want to take that opportunity because we too want to hear what this person has to say, we want enlightenment. People may even have a special dinner party for this person- in his honor because they want to celebrate the person's ability to enlighten. We understand this in our day and age and because we can understand it we can understand it in light of Jesus being glorified by all, being honored by all. He was NEW, the things He was saying were NEW. He'd preach from the scriptures and bring enlightenment that hadn't existed before and this made Him worthy of being honored as someone special. Fame spread near and wide about this obviously NOT ordinary man, and just like today when famous people come to our towns to speak- not ALL believed because not all even wanted to listen.
Now Jesus comes to Nazareth- where He lived prior to beginning His ministry.
Luk 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
As His custom Jesus went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up to read.
The book given to Him to read from was the book of Isaiah the prophet.
Luk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD
Luk 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
You can picture this can't you? Jesus closed the book of Isaiah and gave it to the minister- the one who had given it to Him and then Jesus sat down among the others there. However, ALL eyes were FASTENED on Jesus. Why? You know why. Because they knew, all of them there knew, that if the things they heard were true then they could expect something more to come from Jesus than a mere recitation of scripture. He would expound on what He read in some way that would bring enlightenment from the scriptures in a way they'd never experienced before. They wanted to hear what He was going to say, the expectation was there and ALL eyes were on Him and He wasn't going to disappoint. He didn't remain quiet- He spoke...
Luk 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Was it what they expected to hear? No. Or maybe it was. Maybe they weren't there hoping to be enlightened but rather they were there waiting to hear something that would enable them to refute the fact that one of their own, an ordinary man they'd known since childhood, could be anything important.
That scripture fulfilled? That prophecy fulfilled? How could it be?!
Luk 4:22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
ALL bare him witness.
All wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said…
Is NOT this Joseph's son?
This is a man we know, this is the son of Joseph how can he say such things?
Luk 4:23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Jesus knew their thoughts, unvoiced as of yet. Jesus knew they wanted Him to prove Himself the miracle worker they'd heard he was elsewhere. The fame He brought with Him wasn't only for bringing enlightenment to scriptures but healing all manner of sickness, all manner of disease, casting out devils. They wanted Jesus to do more than just preach about what He could do- they wanted Him to do it, to prove Himself.
Jesus wasn't about to *prove* Himself. Jesus knew that the hearts of the men surrounding Him were not receptive to the truth He had to bring to them. He told them…
Luk 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
1Ki 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
Elijah was sent to ONE widow but there were MANY widows.
Luk 4:27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
2Ki 5:8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
2Ki 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
Elisha was to heal ONE man of leprosy but there were MANY lepers.
These two very important prophets to the children of Israel did wondrous things but NOT to everyone. Jesus was a prophet and He too would do wondrous things but not to everyone. God was in control. God was guiding. Not a single healing would be done to prove God, not a one! Satan tempted Jesus to prove Himself and we all know how that went. God isn't mocked. Jesus knew the people in that synagogue who asked Him to read from the scriptures, the people who looked at Him expecting Him to confirm His fame they'd heard about, that they really didn't WANT Him to enlighten them. They wanted to PROVE Him.
Luk 4:28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
All those that had moments before seemed receptive to Jesus' teaching were FILLED with wrath? Why? Why were they so suddenly angry? What had Jesus done? He told them who He was, why He was there and then when they wanted Him to prove Himself He told them that a prophet isn't accepted in His own country. He claimed to be a prophet on the level of Elijah and Elisha. God sent them and God sent Him too. They couldn't allow themselves to believe this. What Jesus was saying was blaspheme to them. The Messiah would be the one that God would send to heal brokenhearts and to set captives free, not the son of Joseph. To them no matter what had been said they couldn't allow themselves to think of Jesus as anything other than the son of Joseph- certainly not a prophet of God. That He claimed to be a prophet, that He claimed to fulfill the part of a prophecy they held in reverence for a future Messiah was pure blasphemy to them and they weren't going to tolerate it, they'd take care of Him- they'd kill this imposter, this blasphemer. It was their duty to kill a law breaker and one claiming such things as Jesus was certainly was breaking their law. God could not approve of such a blasphemous person. He had to die!
Just picture this next scene. Gone was the tranquil Sabbath service in the synagogue- replaced by an angry, violent mob. They grabbed Jesus up bodily and threw him out of the city! They pushed Him along to the top of a hill where their city was built and they intended to throw Him over the cliff head first!
Luk 4:29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
How horrific! Gone was any and all peace in that throng of crazed men. Today, this very day we have thongs of crazed men and women protesting in various countries for a change in their governments- the sight of a violent mob is a reality. The violence of people isn't fiction, it exists and has existed for thousands of years. Blasphemy is a very real thing in some countries- not that it isn't real or shouldn't be real to us all- but right now, recently in Pakistan there is a law for blasphemy - read a bit of it - not all--
(The Islamic Republic of Pakistan uses its Penal Code to prohibit and punish blasphemy against Islam. The Criminal Code provides penalties for blasphemy ranging from a fine to death.
Several sections of Pakistan's Criminal Code comprise its blasphemy laws.[3] § 295 forbids damaging or defiling a place of worship or a sacred object. § 295-A forbids outraging religious feelings. § 295-B forbids defiling the Quran. § 295-C forbids defaming the prophet Muhammad. Except for § 295-C, the provisions of § 295 require that an offence be a consequence of the accused's intent. Defiling the Quran merits imprisonment for life. Defaming Muhammad merits death with or without a fine. (See below Sharia.) If a charge is laid under § 295-C, the trial must take place in a Court of Session with a Muslim judge presiding.[4]
§ 298 states:
Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
Pasted from
This is happening TODAY. Just recently a Christian minister in Pakistan was assassinated.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/02/pakistan.minister.shot/index.html?hpt=Sbin>
Obviously just by being a Christian He would offend the Muslims that hold to this law.
Yes, this is a real, existing way of life and if it exists today we know that this scripture revealing to us the way Jesus was taken up in an angry crowd of Israeli men who literally took Him from their synagogue were truly ready to kill Him and they thought they were doing the will of God. They thought themselves Godly men, men of the synagogue, men with the right to destroy life in the name of God. They believed they were doing a GOOD thing. We KNOW they weren't, we know they were trying to kill the Son of God!
As they were leading Jesus to that cliff intent on murdering Him, Jesus passed through them and went on His way. Jesus escaped them. God protected Jesus. God led Him out of that angry, blood-thirsty mob giving Him safe passage. No one chased Him, no one noticed He'd gone for at least as long as it took for Him to pass through the crowd and walk out of their sight on His way to Capernaum.
Luk 4:30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
Luk 4:31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
Bringing the new covenant, bringing Himself, bringing enlightenment to all didn't mean all would accept what He had to give Him and that holds true today as well.
It's hard to believe but the majority of people in the world do NOT believe in Jesus, truly believe in Him. Many say they do, but He's going to tell them He never knew them. We have to really, really imagine this… seriously! We have to make this REAL to us. The majority of Christians do NOT believe in the Savior, truly believe with a living, real faith. They will say they believe- but we know they don't, and they're deceived into believing they do.
While we sit here and read this, saying to ourselves 'How could they do that?! How could they try to throw Jesus off a cliff?! How could they reject Him?!' We have to be so very, very careful that we are not among those Jesus will one day tell to get away from Him because we have rejected the enlightenment He has to give us, we've rejected Him.
By the grace and mercy of our Savior may we NEVER be among those that don't really know Him! Please God Help us to know our Savior and to be known of Him!
All glory and honor to our God, our King, our Savior!!!!
All praise to Jesus!
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment