Jesus Reads from Isaiah: Divine Meaning of the Bible is Ignored and Jesus Christ Discarded

Luke 4:16-30

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.

• Returning in the Spirt of God to a downtrodden hometown.
• Opening the Scriptures to receive a specific word from God.
• God reveals Jesus Christ as being His anointed One.
• Hearing the Scripture through the Holy Spirit is on another level.
• Jesus Christ is not accepted in His own country that He created.
• God wants us to share and believe His Word.
• God wants us to believe and to seek Jesus and to be obedient to the His Word.
• Jesus Christ is discarded by the beliefs which have built the community and churches.

Returning in the Spirt of God to a downtrodden hometown. Nazareth, the place where Jesus was raised, had the reputation that nothing good could come from there. It was left behind by mainstream society and impoverished. As any other day in Nazareth, Jesus attended church and read from the Scripture that was handed to Him to read, “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.” Luke 4:16 It would be like a follower of Jesus Christ returning to their downtrodden, brokenhearted, and impoverished hometown and attending church. Jesus was asked to take part in the service by reading from Isaiah, “And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.” Luke 4:17

Opening the Scriptures to receive a specific word from God. Today, people often pick up a Bible and randomly open to a place, and with astonishment talk about how those Scriptures apply to a circumstance in their life. Unfortunately, it has little to do with Jesus Christ and more to do with worldly concerns. They are missing the Divine meaning within the pages of the Bible. The Bible is little more than a fortune cookie to them. The thing that has power over physiology is able to perform those astonishing page-turning accuracies. However, during the days of Jesus, and before, God was actually doing those type of page-turning astonishments. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Jesus by someone else and Jesus opens to two very relevant verses. They were relevant as applying to Him and relevant to the message given to the impoverished people of Nazareth. “And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor …” Luke 4:18

God reveals Jesus Christ as being His anointed One. The Holy Scriptures gives us revelation as to who Jesus Christ is and His purpose, which is given in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The reading of two simple Bible verses changed everything in the city of Nazareth, and there was not even a sermon preached, no interpretation given. Somehow, the congregation in the church sensed the Scriptures were referring personally to Jesus Christ and to their downtrodden circumstances. Anyone could have read the two verses, without causing a reaction from the hearers, they’ve heard the verses before but this time they were hearing them differently. This time, those words were spoken from the mouth of Jesus Christ who said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me…” Luke 4:18a. The congregation knew it would have to be a very special person to be anointed by the Spirit of God, but when they heard those words coming from Him, their eyes grew wide and mouthed dropped open. They were speechless and shocked, torn between hearing with their own ears the fulfillment of prophecy and fearing the possibility of blasphemy. Jesus went on to read that the anointing was “…to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the downtrodden…” Luke 4:18b Jesus did not expound on those words; He did not clarify that He was the One to bring Salvation to Nazareth and all the world. He could see that the congregation was already hearing that without having to be told. God was proclaiming that the time of their Savior had come, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:19 and He was one of them, Jesus of Nazareth,

Hearing the Scripture through the Holy Spirit is on another level. Today, “hearing” comes through the thing that has the power over physiology to give uncanny knowledge and heightened intuition. When something is said or read, people hear something that gives it much deeper meaning than just the words that are read or spoken. Unfortunately, it only serves those who govern by the mark of the beast and has nothing to do with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. However, in the days of Jesus, and before, God was working in a very similar way. After Jesus read the two Scripture verses from Isaiah, He handed the scroll back to the attendant and sat down. But the hearers of those two scripture verses heard something much deeper than just words from off the page, in fact they couldn’t believe their ears. All they could do was stare at Jesus, realizing that they just heard the unbelievable, that Jesus of Nazareth is the anointed One of God. “Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.” Luke 4:20 Jesus spoke some very simple words to acknowledge that what they thought they heard is actually what they heard, “And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” Luke 4:21 The only issue that kept them from rejoicing that the Messiah was sitting among them was there doubt about His origins. “So all bore witness to Him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Luke 4:22

Jesus Christ is not accepted in His own country that He created. Believing the Word of God without any signs to back it up is the type of faith that leads to Salvation and eternal life. Today, it seems like believing is so easy because of a few signs, and everything seems to be plainly in front of our eyes. For example, global warming is here and is instrumental in destroying the power center of the mark of the beast (Revelation 16). The global government is here which is founded on the mark of the beast (Daniel 8 and Revelation 17). And the mark of the beast is here as described in Revelation 13. Does anyone really expect Jesus to take away global warming, or to reverse the progress of the global government, or to take away the mark of the beast? It’s like asking God to repent of being judgmental to a Christless world that afflicts His people, and this world wants Him to heal Himself. It is not Jesus Christ who needs to repent and to be healed, “He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” Luke 4:23 Those who govern by the mark of the beast are not going to believe the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures, and they sure don’t believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ. This is God’s own country, and Jesus Christ is not accepted in His own country, “Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.” Luke 4:23

God wants us to share and believe the Gospel of Christ. God expects us to share what we have of the Bible through Jesus Christ. Jesus comes to those who share and believe the Word of God. We are living in times where the testimony of Jesus is rarely shared as the Bread of Life. Those who govern by the mark of the beast, in the name of humanism, has caused a famine of the Gospel. During these times, God wants us to continue sharing the testimony of Jesus. That is the story of the widow of Sidon whom Elijah went to. Throughout the land, under a Godless and oppressive government, there was a severe famine, and everyone refused to share food supplies. Elijah went to a widow, who was preparing her and her son one last meal before they starved to death. She was obedient to Elijah’s request to feed him her very last bit of food and believed the promise of God that she would have enough bread to last through the famine. “But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.” Luke 4:25-26

God wants us to believe and to seek Jesus and to be obedient to the Word of God. The ones who receive healing by the forgiveness of sin believe in the name of Jesus and are obedient to the Word of God. That is the testimony of Naaman the leper. There were many lepers in Israel, but it was Naaman from Syria who was healed. Naaman believed in the ability of the man of God to heal him, he looked for him, and when he found him Naaman was obedient to be washed and made clean. “And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” Luke 4:27

Jesus Christ is discarded by the beliefs which have built the community and churches. The congregations of the churches today do not want to hear the Word of God through the Holy Spirit. They have discarded the testimony of Jesus Christ and do not tolerate the words coming from Holy Spirit filled Believers. The community supported churches embrace humanism empowered by the mark of the beast and despise anyone who contradicts their Christless services, “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with rage…” Luke 4:28 The followers of Jesus Christ, like Him, are edged out of the congregation of the churches and there are no Christian leadership. Cities and the churches in them are built on the belief of the human being while discarding the Deity of Christ, “…and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.” Luke 4:29 We hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ and move past the institutional churches of today, “Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.” Luke 4:30

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1