First Words at Home
We have been
looking at some firsts in Jesus' life over the last few weeks. Last week…
Jesus’ first miracle.
This week…
Jesus’ first words as a preacher in His home town.
Our focus
today is on the Word of God, the Bible, and the influence, the authority, we
give to it in our lives.
Our reading
from Nehemiah sets the tone. It is set at
a time when the people are returning from 70 years of captivity/exile in
Babylon. They have
returned to a ruined Jerusalem and a ruined Temple.
All the
people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra
the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.
I love
this… they told the priest what to do. “Bring out the Book of the Law” and
because it was in line with the will of God… he did it. He probably heard the
people had done a survey among themselves and the result of the survey was: We want you to read us the Law.
What did Ezra do with the command he received from his congregation?
So on the first day of the seventh month
Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men
and women and all who were able to understand.
Ezra
listened.
He read it aloud from daybreak till noon
as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women
and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the
Book of the Law.
From
daybreak till noon; men, women and children… listening attentively to the Book
of the Law.
They were
hungry for… the Bible (the Book of the Law, the first 5 books of our Bible, the
Torah, was the only compilation at that stage).
Ezra opened the book. All the people could
see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all
stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord,
the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen!
Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord
with their faces to the ground.
The
reading of the Bible brings about… worship.
Friends,
I encourage you to read your Bible… for many reasons, but not least, this one… reading the Bible, whenever, wherever, leads to worship of the God
who inspired its words.
Jesus returned to Galilee
in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole
countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and
everyone praised him.
Now we
jump forward about 500 years, and Jesus, after His baptism (2 weeks ago), His
first miracle (last week), is now ministering and teaching in the power of the
Spirit in Galilee for the first time.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been
brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his
custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to
him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the
Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery
of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of
the Lord’s favor.”
On the
Sabbath, He went to the Synagogue as was His custom. What a wonderful custom.
As a
travelling preacher and miracle worker, the head of the synagogue gave Jesus the
privilege of reading from the scroll.
This was,
and still is, a huge privilege in the synagogue.
I
Even to
this day in every synagogue, there are the scrolls, which aren't like a book
with pages, but are rather a parchment on a roll. And by the time of Jesus, there
were three sets of scrolls. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. And Jesus
was given the privilege of reading from the Prophets on that day.
There
were set readings for each Sabbath – it’s called a lectionary. On the first
Sabbath of the new year the reading was from the beginning of each scroll. It
was set for each Sabbath and it still is.
We know
what was read in every synagogue around the world on the first Sabbath after , for example, the Battle of Hastings in 1066, or what was read in every synagogue around the world on the first Sabbath after 9/11, etc.
We know
what Scriptures were read in all Christian Churches as well, because the Church
has kept, over 2000 years, to a lectionary as well – it has been revised over the
years so that we now have the Revised Common Lectionary which works through the
whole Bible in 3 years – 156 Sundays.
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it
back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were
fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Imagine
the audacity of that claim.
Jesus
says: “Today, right now, in your ears, in front of your eyes, this word has
become flesh.” Not in some abstract way, but in a concrete, specific, fleshly
way. I am the One, I am the Good News that you have been waiting for."
Three
things for us to concentrate on, reflect on and perhaps commit to:
First: Regular Bible Reading
When we read the bible regularly (and there are many different programs to follow) we become amazed at how God speaks to us. Imagine the affirmation that Jesus felt when as He opened the scroll He found that reading before Him. Many of you have
testimonies to share like this. This is one of the main
ways that God guides us. And as we see how the
Bible speaks to us as we read it regularly, we begin to realize that this book
actually has authority in our lives. This book speaks about… marriage, about
sex, about money, about gambling, about work ethic, about speeding on the roads,
about drunk driving, about how to deal with fights in families and churches etc
etc.
But of course we will
only listen to the Bible if we believe it has authority in our lives and if we become a people
who believe in and submit to the authority of the Word of God.
Secondly: Develop a personal Mission
Statement, define your reason for being.
Here is Jesus' Mission Statement:
“The
Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
“We need a mission statement” – say hospitals, corporations, schools,
churches… and they can spend hours crafting cogent and concise sentences that
express their purposes. Often we emerge with fine statements, but we don’t
always manage to live out the mission that we so eloquently express.
Jesus doesn't bother to craft a new mission statement for Himself. He
let’s God determine His mission statement.
Can I encourage you to
let God determine your mission.
And in the next few
days/week, in the set readings that you might be following, be sensitive to God
defining your mission, your reason for being, at this particular season of your
life.
Thirdly: Choose your words
carefully.
Jesus said: I tell you
that you will have to give account on the day of Judgement for every careless
word you have spoken (Mt. 12:36). I came across this little poem by Emily Dichinson in my reading
this week:
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
This little poem
expresses the Biblical understanding of the Word. The Word is a lively, active
reality that enters the world and accomplishes its work. Words take on a life of
their own; they shape our relationships and our reality. The amount of work that counselors have purely because of words that have been spoken… is huge......“You’re a stupid child…
you’ll never amount to anything.”
Let us watch our words.
So we've looked at Jesus' ‘first words’ in His hometown as a preacher and hopefully we have been challenged to:
Read the word of God
regularly.
Give the word of God
authority in our lives to determine our reason for being.
Watch our own words.
AMEN
