Thursday, January 21, 2016

Luke 4

"So 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 to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:" vv.16-17

Read chapter 4
Jesus was born in Bethlehem but lived most his life in Nazareth and was considered a Nazarene (not a Bethlehemite).  We see in this chapter that his hometown rejected and hated him more than any other town he will visit.  
In this verse we learn a little bit of Christ's childhood in that he was raised in the synagogue; not like Samuel where he literally lived in the temple with Eli the high priest, but more like what someone would say today, "I grew up in the church" or " I was raised a Christian."  Don't forget the fact that Jesus was a Jew, there were no Christians at the time,  Jesus obeyed and lived according to the Law of Israel.  
Another interesting thing we learn here is that Christ could read.  It was very unlikely in those days for many people to read, especially not children of a carpenters son as only the rich usually could read.  Yet the one Who created languages surely enough could read languages.  Today, around 16% of the world's population of adults over 15 years old cannot read, that's about 775 million people today.  Don't take for granted that you can not only read, but read the Bible freely.
So we see Jesus stand up to read Isaiah. "In the other synagogues He preached or proclaimed, whereas here He read. Bullinger suggests in the Companion Bible that this is because He was a member of this synagogue, having been raised in this city of Nazareth, and so had the privilege of being able to participate in this manner, rather than just being a guest, as He was in other synagogues" (https://precepts.wordpress.com).
Were you raised in a church or Christian family?  Has this empowered you to preach Christ?  Why or why not?

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