Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
With three days remaining till Christmas, I wonder what the condition of your life is today? If you’ve been on this 30-day journey toward Christmas with us, we’ve seen how very often God worked in the lives of people, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, to awaken an anticipation of that great first Christmas. Again today, let’s go back, way back in time, to about 700 years before Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. Now think about that a moment… 700 years! What do you know about your part of the world 700 years ago? That would be the year 1322??
A man by the name of Isaiah, who has had a powerful, life changing encounter with God in the Temple in Jerusalem, is writing as the Holy Spirit leads Isaiah to describe the person who would be born that first Christmas: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD…” (Isaiah 11:1,2) If you’ve ever cut down a bush or a tree, you know what a stump looks like and you probably have seen new growth of green shoots sprouting from that old stump, right? That’s the picture Isaiah saw as he wrote. But who is Jesse? Oh, my friends that name in the ears of Jewish people would stir up their adrenaline, for Jesse was the father of David the shepherd boy who became the great king of Israel, the man after whom the star in the Israeli flag is named.
Everyone knew the story which we looked at a few days ago, of Samuel the old prophet being led by God to the town of Bethlehem, where Jesse’s family lived. Samuel came there to anoint a man whom God had personally selected, to be king over His people Israel. David, a man after God’s heart! Among other things David accomplished was the capture of the city of Jebuz (2 Samuel 5) which became known as Jerusalem, the city of David, the capital of Israel, and the city on a hill where Solomon, Jesse’s grandson, built the great Temple of God. Do you see Isaiah was proclaiming that one day this special man of God, Israel called Messiah, would be born in the family line of David and Jesse! Do you also see Isaiah proclaims that the Holy Spirit of God would be upon this man, this Messiah in a most unusual way: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD...” Look closely my friends, do you see how those words fit perfectly with the four titles we looked at yesterday, found in Isaiah 9:6,7?
Now we know that when Gabriel announced to both Mary and Joseph about the conception of Jesus it would be unique, unlike any other human being, because the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary, and she would be pregnant miraculously and this baby would be the Son of God! (Luke 1:35) Angels would announce His birth making it very clear He is the long awaited “Messiah”! (Luke 2:11) Simeon and Anna would confirm the uniqueness of this child at the Temple when Joseph and Mary brought Him for His dedication to the LORD. (Luke 2:25-38)
Then as a young man, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in a powerful way, and the voice of God from heaven was heard proclaiming: “This is My Son, who I love, with whom I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) And then came one of the most shocking days in the history of that little town Nazareth. Luke records for us in his 4th chapter that Jesus, then a man, went into the Synagogue on a Sabbath, as He had done so many times as a youth. He was given the Scriptures to read, and He turned to the prophet Isaiah, but not Isaiah chapter 9. Instead, Jesus turned to Isaiah 61 which is another very similar prophecy of Isaiah about Messiah. Jesus read these words: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. The LORD has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion…” (Is. 61:1,2)
As Jesus read those words, the heads of all the men in the Synagogue that day, especially the older men, would have been nodding in approval. How good that one of their own young men, raised in their town, would read the Scriptures with such clarity and assurance that one day God would send a Messiah who would fit that description. It was important to the older men that the younger men had faith in God and would join them in their awaiting the advent of the God sent Messiah. But then something strange happened in that Synagogue that day. Something shocking, something beyond radical. Luke records it this way: “Then Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the Synagogue were fastened on Him. Jesus said to them: ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!” Stunned everyone’s eyes widened as they stared at Jesus, then at each other, then a low rumble began as the murmuring started. What could Jesus possibly mean by what He just said?
These men knew Isaiah’s writings very well. The celebrated the truths we’ve discussed the past few days found in Isaiah 8, 9 & 11. Wonderful promises of God that He would not abandon His people, but one day would send from heaven a God anointed Messiah! The men in that Synagogue that day asked each other “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They’d watched Jesus grow up from boyhood at the side of Joseph. They’d long ago rejected any idea of a miraculous birth. This was one of their Nazareth boys, a good boy who seemed obedient and honoring to his parents Joseph and Mary. He seemed to get along fairly well with his brothers, ‘James’, ‘Joseph Jr.’, ‘Judas’, ‘Simon’ and He was kind and came to the defense of His sisters when circumstances required it, according to Mark 6:3. So what could His statement possibly mean today in the Synagogue after He has read Isaiah 61?
Jesus continued speaking: “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself. And you will tell me ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ‘Truely, I tell you; no prophet is accepted in his hometown…” (Luke 4:22-24) Now the murmuring in the Nazareth Synagogue is turning to a disturbance, the volume is rising, the words are getting angry, fists are clenching, men are starting to rise to their feet pointing and now shouting. There is no longer any doubt, Jesus is claiming to be the direct, personal fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic words written 700 years before. Jesus is calling Himself a prophet, a miracle working prophet! Tempers flared and the record says: “All the people in the Synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Jesus of out of their town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on His way.” (Luke 4:28)
As Isaiah wrote these prophetic words 700 years before that first Christmas, I’m sure he could not imagine what it would be like to be among those who would receive the news of this birth, of this miracle, God sent child, Messiah! How would God accomplish this feat of birthing Messiah in our messy world? Nor could Isaiah imagine what it would be like to see a normal looking man who had the Spirit of God so powerfully at work in His life that “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD…”? Nor, if Dr. Luke could go back in time and tell Isaiah about the Nazareth Synagogue uprising, I doubt Isaiah could possibly imagine it!
But my friends, from the vantage point of Christmas 2022 you and I have the benefit of reading Isaiah’s prophecy, then reading the fulfillment in the first Christmas story, then reading of Jesus being rejected and run out of His hometown Nazareth.
So, I ask you, how do you respond to all three major moments in human history? Isaiah’s prophecy, Christmas and Nazareth’s rejection of Jesus? As you look around your busy world, how are the words of Isaiah received? How is Christmas being honored? Is there any evidence Jesus is being rejected, run out of your town or how about your heart? I think we need to spend some time talking with Jesus right now and here’s a worship song to help us consider the true condition of our hearts right now…
Today’s Scripture is Luke 4.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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