EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2026
7:36 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Message”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
4:16-21
Message of the verses: “And He came to Nazareth, where He
had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the
synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17And the scroll of
Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the
scroll and found the place where it was written:
18“THE SPIRIT OF THE
LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE
ANOINTED ME TO BRING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.
HE HAS
SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO CAPTIVES,
AND
RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO
SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
19TO PROCLAIM THE
FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” 20And He rolled up the
scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the
eyes of all the people in the synagogue were
intently directed at Him. 21Now He began to
say to them, “Today this Scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.’”
This evening I begin what is a fairly long section
from John MacArthur’s commentary on these verses. We are beginning to look at Jesus ministry as
the first three gospels deal with it, but we have learned that the gospel of
John actually speaks of the first things that Jesus did after coming back from
fasting in the wilderness and being tempted by Satan, and in that first section
of John’s gospel we saw the first of the miracles that Jesus did, which was at
a wedding in Canna where He turned water into wine. Now we will begin looking
at the verses seen above and some of the things that MacArthur has to say about
them.
I know that it is the Holy Spirit
that led the Bible authors to write what He wanted them to write, and so as we
look at the events that Luke, through the Spirit wrote here we see that he had
chosen to begin his account of Christ’s ministry, by picking out His visit to Nazareth. Luke did so because what Jesus said on
this occasion which identifies Him as the Messiah and perfectly defines His
ministry. This first of two recorded visits by Jesus to the city where He grew up too
place near the beginning of His Galilean ministry; and the other visit,
recorded by Matthew (13:54-58) and also Mark (6:1-6), took place near its end.
Nazareth was located in a
hollow in the Galilean hills, just north of the plain of Esdraelon, which is
about half way between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. It was an insignificant village in Jesus’ day
(this city or town was not mentioned in the Old Testament, the Talmud, or by
Josephus), overshadowed by the larger city of Sepphoris just to the North. This out of the way town was where Jesus had grown
up in, and I think that God picked this city out because it was out of the way
so that people would not notice Jesus before His ministry had begun. Now we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem
and later made Capernaum His hometown (Matt. 4:13), Jesus remained associated
with Nazareth throughout His ministry. (4:34;
18:37; Matt. 21:11; 26:71; Mark 1:24; John 1:45; Acts 10:38; 26:9), being
scornfully called, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
MacArthur writes “As was His
custom, Jesus entered they synagogue on the Sabbath. Wherever He was during His ministry, the
Lord attended a synagogue on the Sabbath (cf. 6:6;13:10; Mark 1:21; 3:1-2;
6:2). On this Sabbath, He was chosen to
read from the Old Testament Scriptures.
Out of respect for the Scriptures Jesus, as was customary, stood up
to read. Alfred Edersheim captures the
drama of the moment:
As the
lengthening shadows of Friday’s sun closed around the quiet valley, He would
hear the well-remembered double blast of the trumpet from the from the Synagogue-minister’s
house, proclaiming the advent of the holy day.
Once more it sounded through the still summer-air to tell all, that work
must be laid aside. Yet a third time it
was heard, ere the ‘minister’ put it aside close by where he stood, not to profane
the Sabbath by carrying it; for now the Sabbath had really commenced, and the
festive Sabbath-lamp was lit.
Sabbath
morn dawned, and early He repaired to the Synagogue where, as a Child, a Youth,
a Man, He had so often worshipped in the humble retirement of His rank,
sitting, not up there among the elders and the honored, but far back. The old well-known faces were around Him, the
Old well-remembered words and services fell on His ear. How different they had always been to Him
than to them, with whom He had thus mingled in common worship! And now He was again among them, truly a
stranger among His own countrymen; this time to be looked at, listened to,
tested, tried, used or cast aside, as the cause might be. It was the first time, as far as we know,
that He taught in a Synagogue and this Synagogue that of His own Nazareth. (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand
Rapids; Eerdmans 1974], 1:430-31)
I think
that I will end this SD here and begin with a new paragraph in tomorrow morning’s
SD.
5/12/2026
8:15 PM
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