Psalm of the Day: Psalm 39
Proverb of the Day: Proverbs 23:1-17
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-22
We should observe a striking account our Lord gave to the congregation at Nazareth, of His own office and ministry. We are told that He chose a passage from the book of Isaiah, in which the prophet foretold the nature of the work Messiah was to do when He came into the world. And when our Lord had read this prophecy, He told the listening crowd around Him, that He Himself was the Messiah of whom these words were written and that in Him and in His Gospel, the marvelous figures of the passage were about to be fulfilled.
We may well believe that there was a deep meaning in our Lord's selection of this special passage of Isaiah. He desired to impress on His Jewish hearers the true character of the Messiah, whom He knew all Israel were then expecting. He well knew that they were looking for a mere temporal earthly king, who would deliver them from Roman dominion, and make them once more, foremost among the nations. Such expectations, He would have them understand, were premature and wrong.
Messiah's kingdom at His first coming was to be a spiritual kingdom over hearts. His victories were not to be over worldly enemies but over sin. His redemption was not to be from the power of Rome but from the power of the devil and the world. It was in this way, and in no other way at present that they must expect to see the words of Isaiah fulfilled.
Let us take care that we know for ourselves in what light we ought chiefly to regard Christ. It is right and good to reverence Him as very God. It is well to know Him as Head over all things, the mighty Prophet, the Judge of all, and the King of kings. But we must not rest here, if we hope to be saved. We must know Jesus as the Friend of the poor in spirit, the Physician of the diseased heart, and the Deliverer of the soul in bondage. These are the principal offices He came on earth to fulfill. It is in this light we must learn to know Him and to know Him by inward experience, as well as by the hearing of the ear. Without such knowledge, we shall die in our sins.
Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, help me to know Jesus with my heart and not just with my mind.
Action Plan: Explain how Jesus' identity as the Friend of the poor in spirit, the Physician of the diseased heart, and the Deliverer of the soul in bondage apply to me?
This devotional was taken from The Gospel of Luke by J.C. Ryle published in 1858
and adapted by Pastor Tim Lewis of New England Shores Baptist Church.
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