THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever claimed that you could do something but no one believed you?
READ TOGETHER.
Luke 4:16-21. 16When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” 20He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
On Day 10, we read about the prophet Isaiah and what he said about the Messiah. Do you remember what the Messiah is? The Messiah is the hero that God will send to rescue his people. Rescue them from what? Well, they thought that the Messiah would heal the sick and give sight to the blind. That he would bring an army against the enemies of Israel, fight a great big battle, and take over the world!
In order to do all these amazing things, the Messiah would definitely need to be a great warrior. A king born in a palace. Someone from Jerusalem. Someone who spent their whole life training to lead an army and rule a nation. And someone who had the Holy Spirit!
But Jesus wasn’t any of those things (or at least they didn’t think he was). Jesus was the son of a construction worker from Nazareth. Nobody important ever came from there. So when Jesus returned to Nazareth, went into the synagogue (this is like going to church), took the Isaiah scroll, read it, and then said, The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day, that was very shocking. So shocking that the people tried to make Jesus take it back. And when Jesus wouldn’t take it back they actually tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff (don’t worry, it didn’t happen).
Jesus was claiming to have the Holy Spirit on him like David and Moses did. He was claiming to be their Messiah, God’s hero. But the people in his home town, the people who watched him grow up could not accept what Jesus was saying. In their minds they knew that Jesus wasn’t good enough. He didn’t come from the right family or have the right job. He wasn’t a great king like David. Or a great prophet like Moses.
But actually, Jesus was all of those things and more. Jesus is the greatest king and prophet ever. Jesus is God! That is the real claim that Jesus was making. Jesus didn’t just have the Holy Spirit upon him, he was one with the Holy Spirit. Jesus wasn’t just their Messiah, their rescuer, he was their God!
Do you believe what Jesus says about himself? Do you believe that Jesus is God, our rescuer? Do you believe that Jesus has the Holy Spirit in him and that he wants to give us the Holy Spirit too? (We’ll talk more about that on Day 18)
Because of the Holy Spirit God became our human rescuer, Jesus.
With the Holy Spirit Jesus is the Messiah, the rescuer, for the whole world.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Jesus didn’t read from a book like we do (the Bible), he read from a scroll. Take some paper and roll it up like a scroll. Write one of your favorite Bible verses on it (maybe John 3:16). Read it often, like Jesus did.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, thank you for sending Jesus to rescue us by the Holy Spirit. I know I need it. Amen.
TLICfamily 