Affirm
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Psalm 24:9-10
TEXT
Luke 4:16-21 (NIV)
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 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 preach good news to the poor.
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
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, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
READ
“We do not find Him discoursing on the necessity of letting one’s light shine at home among kinsmen and friends–He announced His program of uplift and redemption at Nazareth, His own home, and those who heard “wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth.’
“As He came among men He did not try to prove the existence of God–He brought Him. He lived in God, and men looking upon His face could not find it within themselves to doubt God. He did not argue as Socrates, the immortality of the soul–He raised the dead.
“He did not speculate on how God was a Trinity–He said, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” Here the Trinity–“I,” Spirit of God,” “God”– was not something to be speculated about, but was a working force for redemption-the casting out of devils and the bringing in of the Kingdom.”
-E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road.