November 22, 2015
Lord’s Day November 22, 2015
Hymn 358 - Tell me the story of Jesus
Prayer
We have gone through the blessings we receive after salvation, and we have also gone through seven “Jesus is my …“. Those seven things show His services to us right now. In the hymn we sang, it talked about the stories of Jesus. We are going to look at some of the stories. Our title for these stories will be, “When Jesus was here …”
The first recorded words of Jesus were, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” He was twelve years old at the time. But today we are going to discuss Jesus first sermon or message. At the time He gave the sermon, He was thirty. Jesus grew up in Nazareth; and worked with His father, Joseph, in carpentry. Suppose that you lived in Nazareth and that you had a problem with you door. You went to Joseph and told him your problem. He told you he would send his Son to help you. You were there when He came and watched Jesus fix your door.
Sometime when He was older, the Spirit of God lead Him into the wilderness where John the Baptist was baptizing in the Jordan River. After that He never went back to carpentry. Again the Spirit of God lead Him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Luke 4:16-22
After being tempted in the wilderness He went back to Nazareth and went into the synagogue. And He stood up where He was brought up. He, “Stood up for to read.” Remember, to you, this is the Man that fixed your front door standing up to talk as teacher in the synagogue.
He was given a scroll from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah wrote what Jesus read about seven hundred years earlier. He went through the book and found this specific spot.
Isaiah 61:1 & 2a
There is a big difference between the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. What we read in Isaiah is pretty much identical to what is in Luke, but He stopped before, “the day of vengeance…”
After He read, He closed the book and sat down. But everyone was looking at Him. They were all astonished. This was the first time He “preached” and it was what Isaiah prophesied about Him. Then Jesus said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Everyone wondered at the gracious words He spoke.
The last words we read in Isaiah have not been fulfilled yet. There is still a closed book and an open door. But one day the door will be closed and the book will be opened. It is important to know Christ as our Saviour when the door is open and before it is to late.
Ephesians 6
The theme of submission and authority continues here in chapter 6. It’s starts with children: they are to obey their parents. The problem with obedience started way back in Eden: Adam and Eve had one command, and they disobeyed it. Don’t follow their example! We all need to obey God and His word.
Those of us who have Christian parents can be very thankful. Not everyone has parents they can obey all the time, for we are to obey our parents “in the Lord.” When Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem after the passover, it might look like He wasn’t submissive to His parents. However, who was His real Father?
Jesus was God, and yet He needed to develop like all of us. Luke 2:52 shows us that He increased academically, physically, spiritually, and socially. We need to help our children develop in the right areas. Children have the obligation to obey their parents—it’s one of the 10 commandments, and the first with a promise—but parents have the obligation to make the right rules. God will give special wisdom in this area if parents search for it. Paul warns that in the last, perilous, days, children will be disobedient to their parents.
God gives an accompanying word to fathers: don’t provoke your children to wrath. Satan has subtle ways of influencing young people, and it takes special grace and help to train children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Schools these days have gone way down hill, and don’t offer good ideas.
Servants are to obey their masters as well. We need to work for and obey our bosses like we do the Lord. Organizations like unions are opposite to what we have here: they put the workers against the boss. Human nature is quick to revert to things like this. We will quickly work for the praise of man, not the praise of God. Do we work with the same diligence, whether or not the boss is there? Even if they aren’t watching, God is; and He will recognize our work even if no one else does.
We may have masters, but verse 9 shows us that they have a Master, too. Because of that, they shouldn’t threaten those under them. Brother Norm once worked for a man who thought that they best way to motivate his employees was to constantly keep them paranoid about loosing their jobs. It’s very hard to work in a situation like that, which is one reason why verse 10 encourages us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might!
Hymn — Dare to be a Daniel
Prayer