Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

FRIDAY November 1^st

 

I am going to return to Luke 4 again today for it is in this chapter that we see two more names / titles given to Jesus, and they were used by a man who had an unclean spirit. They are found in verse 35 ‘Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’

 

As Jesus began to do what he said he would do, which was to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18) he immediately came into contact with one who was a captive, one who was oppressed and the demon possessing the man was not happy. See he knew that although the enemy held some power, Jesus was far more powerful and he began to speak out concerning Jesus. Now, isn’t it interesting that although men and women will deny who Jesus really is, the devil and the demons affirm it! And what is more they know that when Jesus is about then they know that they are in dire trouble!

 

For Jesus rebuked the demon and delivered the man from it.

 

Notice the demon recognised Jesus as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and then as the ‘Holy One from God’.

 

But let’s also notice that as the Holy One from God, Jesus of Nazareth is more powerful than the devil and his demons! They cannot stay when Jesus is about, in the words of one of Charles Wesley’s hymns ‘Jesus the name high over all . . . angels and men before it fall and devils fear and fly’.

 

But again let’s notice that in using these two titles, the demon is declaring the deity of the Lord Jesus! As ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ it points to Jesus as a man, for it points to him as being the man called Jesus that everyone at that time would have known about, and then as the ‘Holy One from God’ it points to Jesus as being God and yet from God. Reaffirming all we read in John 1.

 

I am going to jump ahead a little, and remind us of another occasion where Jesus is referred to as being from Nazareth, with an additional word used which is the title we will turn to in our next devotion. It is in Acts 3 on the occasion when Peter and John are making there way up to the temple at the hour of prayer and they come across a lame man who is begging for alms and in verse 6 Peter says to him ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.’

 

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—there is power in the name of Jesus, power to disrupt and destroy the devil and demons, power to bring deliverance and healing because it is the name of the One who alone has been sent from God to set the captive free.

 

Keep speaking, keep singing, keep declaring the wonderful and the powerful name of Jesus of Nazareth.

THURSDAY October 31^st

 

Today I am going to continue with the devotions by quoting another of the verses from the hymn, ‘Jesus the very thought of thee’ and it is verse 2

 

Nor voice can sing,

Nor heart can frame,

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter name than thy blest name,

O Saviour of mankind.

 

I have already in these devotions considered something concerning the name of Jesus, in particular the name Jesus which the angel instructed Mary and Joseph to call him when he was born. I have mentioned some of the other names and titles which he holds, and you may recall I quoted some hymns that are based on the name of Jesus.

 

As we move forward I will consider some more of his names or titles which help us to understand more of who he is and of what he has done and what he has become to each one of us who know him as Saviour and this is the first we will look at ‘Saviour’. You will recall that he was to be called Jesus because ‘he will save his people from their sins’, Matthew 1:21.

 

It would be correct to say that mankind needed a Saviour more than anything else. For myself, one of the number of reasons why I would say that I love the name of Jesus is because he has done for me exactly what I needed. He has done for you exactly what you needed, and if you do not know Jesus he has done for you exactly what you need.

 

He came into this world as we read in 1 Timothy 1:15 ‘to save sinners’, he came into this world to do all that God would require of him on our behalf, and in our place, he came as a substitute and as the substitute to be the sacrifice that would bring about our eternal salvation.

 

Romans 6:23 tells us that the ‘wages of sin is death’, we are all born sinners and are headlong towards death, not just physical death but spiritual death, but Jesus came from God to become our Saviour, and to offer us the free gift of eternal life and in obedience he went to Calvary, and there as he hung on the cross, he took our sins and our sorrows and he made them his very own. And God accepted this incredible sacrifice and as we have come to believe in him we have received eternal life.

 

As our Saviour, he has taken from us the punishment we deserved, he has taken off us the wrath of God that we deserved, he has granted us forgiveness and he has given or imputed to us his own righteousness and as a result we stand before God justified.

 

No one else has done this, because no one else has been sent from God to be the Saviour of the world, therefore there is no sweeter name than his blest name, the Saviour of mankind.

 

O what a Saviour that he died for me!

From condemnation he has made me free;

He that believeth on the Son, saith he,

Hath everlasting life.

WEDNESDAY October 30^th

 

Now, I am continuing the same theme from the previous devotion within the overall theme of these devotions, ‘Jesus the very thought of thee’, for going back again to Luke 4, after Jesus had read from the prophet Isaiah, it says this ‘And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him’, verse 21.

 

We have already noticed how quickly their attitude changed towards Jesus. On reading this verse I immediately thought of what it says in Hebrews 12 where we are told to keep looking to Jesus, who is the founder and perfector of our faith.

 

See, back in the synagogue, those in attendance took their eyes off who Jesus really was and began to see him from the natural, the viewpoint of who they saw his father to be, Joseph rather than God.

 

The moment we take our eyes off Jesus and begin to doubt concerning who he really is and all that he has done, we will slip back into the old nature. We need to ensure that we firmly fix our eyes on Jesus, determined and resolute to throw off every weight and sin that would so easily stop us or prevent us from finishing the race. For Jesus who is the reason for us starting in this race is also the one who will welcome us as we complete the race! He will be the prize!

 

What are we fixing our eyes upon? What are we allowing to take up our time which could be hindering us on our spiritual journey as we run this amazing race?

What could be causing the sweetness of Jesus to lose his sweetness in our lives?

 

Don’t let anyone or anything change your attitude towards Jesus, always remember that he is the only one sent from God, he is the only one who has given his life for you, he is the only one that has the power to forgive you, and he is the only one who can grant you eternal life. He is the only one through whom you can arrive in the eternal presence of God, so keep your eyes focused and fixed upon him.

 

Don’t allow anything else to fill you nor to thrill you in the same way that Jesus should for, ‘Jesus our only joy be thou as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus be thou, our glory now and through eternity’.

TUESDAY October 29^th

 

I finished the previous devotion off with the 5^th verse of the hymn, Jesus the very thought of thee. And I want to base this devotion on those words, ‘Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.’

 

Remember that we saw how those who were astonished and marvelled at Jesus in Luke 4:22 very quickly had a change of heart and by the time we get to verse 28 they became filled with wrath.

 

In John 6, we have the account that follows on from the feeding of the 5000 where Jesus has declared that he is the bread of life, and after some conversation it says in verse 66 ‘After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him’.

 

Sadly, many who have come to accept Jesus Christ and followed him for a while have chosen to do what these people did, either they have decided they no longer want him and have thrown him out of their lives or have turned back and no longer walk with him. I suggest that in the words of the hymn, they have taken their eyes off the prize, they have chosen to try and get their joy from another source. But I trust that each one reading this can say ‘Jesus be thou our glory now, and through eternity’.

 

I have mentioned before both in the devotions and when preaching that we need to do a regular spiritual health check-up, to ensure that we are still following Jesus as closely as we ought, is he still our hearts desire, is he still the source of our joy. We need to keep ensuring that we are not allowing other things to be the desire of our hearts and other things to give us joy, other things that take up or take away that which should be given to Jesus.

 

‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified’, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27,

 

 ‘I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’, Philippians 3:14.

MONDAY October 28^th

 

As I continue with the theme of these devotions, ‘Jesus the very thought of thee’ I am continuing with Luke 4 and what was said about Jesus after he had spoken the words from the prophet Isaiah. Luke 4:20-22 ‘And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marvelled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”’

 

Jesus has stood up, he had read from Isaiah, he sat down and then he spoke these words, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’.

 

It would have been a great honour to have been in that synagogue on that day and to have listened to Jesus and to have literally seen scripture being fulfilled in front of you, and it says that those in attendance spoke well of him and marvelled at his gracious words. Something about this man Jesus had an impact on them, but then they started questioning concerning who he really was, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’

 

Now Jesus must have heard some of the conversation because he then challenges them in the following verses, which lead us to verses 28-29 where they were no longer astonished, but rather enraged, filled with wrath, and they drove him out of the town, determined to throw him over a cliff. Wow, what a change of heart!

 

When it comes to the message and the person of Jesus, we see the same thing today, there are those who are astonished and amazed such as we whose blind eyes have been opened, and there are those who are full of fury and rage, they may not show it openly, but they show it by their continual rejection of him. They question who Jesus really is, and they reject him out of hand.

 

And we could say today concerning our nation, that whereas in our recent history, Jesus was welcomed in our classrooms, in our families, in our government, and many of us can recall that we could hold a Sunday School or a children’s club and the children in the local community would willingly come in, but not today unless you are giving out social handouts.

See who Jesus is and what he has come to proclaim no longer suits the agenda of our society, his morals, his righteousness no longer fits in with the lifestyle our society wants to live and the ideology it wants to promote. Just as the crowd wanted to throw Jesus over a cliff, our modern secular society has thrown Jesus out.

 

More than ever before we who have come to love Jesus and chosen to live according to his standards need to proclaim Jesus. Reaffirming in our hearts and by the very lives that we live that Jesus is Lord and that in the words of the hymn I am basing these thoughts on, that the very thought of him, with sweetness fills our breast. The same hymn continues, ‘Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.’

FRIDAY October 25^th

 

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

 

I will conclude looking at these verses today and first at the phrase ‘recovering of sight to the blind’. And again, we see this as having a double meaning for we read in the gospels that Jesus did literally give sight or restore sight to those who were physically blind, and as wonderful as that was, it is more wonderful that he came to give spiritual sight to all who are spiritually blind! That’s you and that is me!

 

If we jump forward a little to after Jesus had ascended back to heaven, we are all familiar of the account in Acts 9 where Saul on the road to Damacus was blinded after an encounter with Jesus, and then his sight was restored after Ananias had prayed for him. Later when Saul who became known as Paul was recalling what had happened, he told of what Jesus had said he was being called to do ‘But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me’, Act 26:16–18.

 

The gospel is all about having our spiritual eyes opened so that we come from out of spiritual darkness into the light of the gospel, and to be set free from the power of sin and of Satan.

 

I think we would have to conclude that the manifesto that Jesus was commissioned to fulfil is the best that has ever been written and the best that has ever been fulfilled! Yet like Paul, we too have the responsibility of sharing the gospel so that the eyes of those around us will also be opened to see the wonderful truth of the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The final statement that Jesus made was ‘to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ well, in the words of a hymn we sometimes sing. Praise my soul the King of heaven. . . praise him for his grace and favour’.

 

The time of God’s favour is still upon us, and I end the devotion with some Scripture, words written by the apostle Paul, especially for any who may read this devotion and yet have not responded to the Lord Jesus Christ:

 

‘Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favourable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,”’ 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

THURSDAY October 24^th

 

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

 

As we continue to consider his manifesto that Jesus read out from the prophet Isaiah, the next two phrases which I will combine together are ‘He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. . . to set at liberty those who are oppressed’

 

There is a double sense to this and to the rest of what follows, for we see as Jesus went about the various towns and villages that he did bring liberty to the captive.

 

First, we can say it wasn’t perhaps quite what they were expecting, for they thought he had come to deliver them from the rule of the Roman Empire, but he had come to deliver them from something that was far more debilitating to them. He had come to set those who were oppressed or possessed by the devil and demons free. We can see this on several occasions in the gospels, in Mark 1:34 it says ‘He healed many . . . and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.’ But we will just highlight one of the occasions, found again in Mark’s gospel and it is concerning the man who lived in the tombs who could not be controlled because of an unclean, evil spirit that had gotten hold of him. He was bound by the devil, and he was bound by chains and shackles because the people could do nothing about it. But Jesus met him, and Jesus challenged the unclean spirit, which turned out to be many and at the command of Jesus the unclean spirits left the man. He was set free, a fulfilment of the manifesto of Jesus that he had come to set the captive free. A song I mentioned recently, ‘When Jesus comes the tempters’ power is broken!’

 

But there is an even more powerful application, for each one of us are bound in sin, we are born that way, and we needed to be set free, and because of the precious blood of Jesus being shed at Calvary for each one of us, we can know what it is as captives of Satan to be set free. In the words of another song, ‘It’s your blood that sets me free!’ I was a captive to Satan and sin, but Jesus has set me free, he has given to me a living and a permanent hope, what about you?

 

And in the gospel of John 8:36, we read ‘So if the Son (that is Jesus) sets you free you will be free indeed’! And Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death’.

WEDNESDAY October 23^rd

 

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

 

I wonder how many of us actually read and scrutinized the manifestos which the various political parties published before the recent elections in the United Kingdom, but perhaps more importantly, how genuine would any of them have been in keeping to the manifesto, and how well is the party that won the election doing with regard to what they claimed they would do—I’ll let you answer that last question for yourself, I best keep silent on the matter!

 

In our verses today as I mentioned a few devotions ago Jesus is letting the folk in the synagogue know what his manifesto was, which had been written for him almost 700 years previously through the prophecy of Isaiah. Now although I’ve used the word manifesto, we would usually call it his mission, the reason or purpose for which he come from heaven to earth, and as he completed the mission he returned back to heaven, and the good news is that his short visit of 33 years, and in particular the last few days has resulted in access being made available for men and women who come to believe in him to also be bound for heaven.

 

The first thing that Jesus said that he had come to do was to declare good news to the poor! And to understand who the poor are we need to look and see what Jesus said as he spoke from the mountain as he embarked on the preaching part of his mission, it is in Matthew 5:3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.

 

The poor are those who have known what it is to have become poor in spirit, that is on hearing the good news of the gospel, that we come to realise that in and of ourselves we are nothing, we are hopeless and helpless, but we recognize that all our hope is to be found in Jesus. It is those who have come to an end of themselves, and in the words of the song say ‘Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I cling’.

 

See the good news of the gospel is for all, but sadly not all will believe it or accept it, many in the past, many today and many in the future, have hearts that are too proud to be broken, they will not humble themselves and become poor in spirit and accept Jesus and the incredible offer of salvation, they will not respond positively to the good news which Jesus not only announced he had come to bring, but for which he died to provide.

 

How about you today? The good news is for you, Jesus was true to his manifesto, he suffered and died on the cross to bring about eternal redemption, humble your heart today, come in repentance and accept Jesus as your Saviour.

TUESDAY October 22^nd

 

Luke 4:18-19

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

 

These words that Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah are to be found in Isaiah 61:1-2 and I quote them here ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour’.

 

Now Luke tells us that Jesus rolled up the scroll at this point and gave it back to the attendant, but in Isaiah the paragraph continues with the following, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified’. Now this is just up to the end of verse 3 and it continues with more in the rest of the chapter.

 

Why did Jesus’ stop reading where he did and why didn’t he continue to read ‘and the day of vengeance of our God’. The answer is that at that time, Jesus had only come to fulfil the section that he had read out, he had not at that time come to execute God’s vengeance on the earth, he had come to demonstrate God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s grace, he had come to bring the opportunity for repentance, for salvation and for healing, he had come to be the Saviour of the world.

 

Now if the prophecy of Isaiah is to be fulfilled through Jesus, then it means that there is yet more to be fulfilled, and that which Jesus left out on that occasion in the synagogue in Nazareth will yet be fulfilled as he comes again the second time, not to be a sacrifice for sins, but to bring about that which will usher in the vengeance of God upon the nations and the peoples who have failed to respond and believe for salvation. And if you read the remaining verses in Isaiah 61 you will see that God still has a plan to be accomplished among the nation of Israel.

 

The times we are living in could be considered as frightening times if we see it simply through the eyes of the unbelieving world, but as we see them through the eyes of biblical prophecy, they are exciting times as that which was prophesied many hundreds, even thousands of years ago is being fulfilled literally before our eyes as we watch the news channels each day.

 

The day of God’s vengeance is near, we need to ensure that each one of us has made ourselves right with God, through the offer of salvation that Jesus has and only Jesus has made possible for us. Believe on him, trust him, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

MONDAY October 21^st

 

We have arrived today at what I called the ‘synagogue moment’ a few devotions back in Luke 4 and verses 16-21 ‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”’

 

Jesus had just spent a busy time following on from the wilderness experience teaching in the synagogues in Galilee, but now we see from verse 16 that he had come home to Nazareth. The next couple of words are important: ‘And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day’, I want to include here in this devotion something that I have mentioned often, but bears mentioning again, if Jesus is truly the example we want to follow, then we need to get back into the habit of making it our custom to attend the house of the Lord on the Lord’s day! Too many today somehow do not see the need for and the importance of being regular in fellowship with other believers, and sadly some have gotten into the bad habit of watching online since Covid instead of getting back into a place of fellowship with others. To quote from Hebrews 10:24-25 ‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’

 

In the Old Testament, we read in Psalm 122:1 ‘I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord”’.

 

On this occasion, as Jesus went to the synagogue, we read that he stood up to read and he was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he found a particular portion and began to read it. Can I suggest that he was going to read out his manifesto!

 

As he read it out, he concluded with this ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’. In other words, when the prophet Isaiah spoke these words, he was speaking about me, I am the anointed one, I am the One sent from God, the Messiah whom you have been waiting for. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.’

We will consider this statement in more detail over the next few days, but we can clearly see from these verses, that the Word who had become flesh, who in obedience to the words of the angel had been called Jesus, had a mission to fulfil, and the Spirit had anointed him to fulfil this mission.

 

Again, it reminds me of our verse for 2024, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts’, and we will see how under the Spirit’s anointing Jesus went out to accomplish everything that he had been sent to do.