642 Scripture is Fulfilled - Luke 4:21

Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of scripture. Let's talk about that today.

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. We've been talking about some of the bold statements that Jesus made and how those bold statements make it difficult for us to treat Him like he's just another good teacher. The statements are so bold in fact that he either must be a liar or a lunatic or Lord of the Universe, as CS Lewis famously stated. 

Today I want to read a passage from Luke 4. We're going to talk about verse 21, but I'm going to read 17 through 21. 

"And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and he opened the book and found the place where it is written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.' And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, 'Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" 

I'm reading from the 1995 New American Standard. "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." What Jesus was doing was He given the opportunity to speak in the synagogue, right at the very beginning of his ministry.

And He read this passage from Isaiah that everyone in the room would've known. And, but he stopped in mid-sentence from Isaiah 61. And I'm not gonna go back and find the original passage in this short daily devotional, but you can look it up using a good reference Bible. Jesus stops in mid-sentence and he closes the book and gives it back to the attendant and sits down to teach.

They sat to teach. And he began to say to them, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." He's boldly proclaiming that He is the Messiah. Everyone in the room knows it. He's saying, "This scripture has been fulfilled. The Messiah is sitting before you." This is a very bold claim. And everyone would've taken issue with this.

And it says in the next verse, "And all we're speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words, which were falling from his lips." But they were also saying, it says, "and they were saying, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'" But don't we know this guy. I mean, isn't this a known person? This isn't the Messiah, is it?  They're actually questioning it.

Later on, the Pharisees would challenge him. And we talked about a couple of other bold statements in the previous episodes. But today I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians. The scripture has been fulfilled. Jesus is Lord of the Universe. He's not a crazy person. And he wasn't lying when he said that this scripture was fulfilled. He wasn't a liar and he wasn't a lunatic.

Therefore He must be Lord of the Universe. And as such, we work for him. We report to him today, and he's in charge of what we do. Let's let these bold ideas about Jesus, and how he confronted the world of his day, challenge us as well. We need to get outside of our job description.

Let's make some extra time. Don't steal from your employer, but do something today that's just above and beyond what's expected of you. When we live like that other people notice because we're following the one who fulfilled the scripture. We're following God, as he came to earth to save us. 

Today, let's live in such a way that we follow the God of the universe.

Thank you for being a marketplace minister.  Thank you for making a difference with your faith in the world. To be a minister means that we just help other people move one notch closer to Jesus. And often we can do that simply by our actions. We don't need to use words. Let's take our actions today and look for ways to bless the people around us.

Let's do a great job for our work and for our customers and for our bosses. And let's also make a difference in the lives of the people that we work with. Also consider checking out our online community, where we encourage one another. It's https://community.followerofone.org. You can create a free profile there and join us on the next Marketplace Mission Trip.

That's a two-week exercise where we practice these daily activities. Thanks for being a marketplace minister.  Check it out at https://community.followerofone.org. Thanks very much.