Prophecy fulfilled

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? – Luke 4.17-22

People didn’t quite know what think about Jesus. There was definitely something about Him, but I don’t think folks quite knew what it was. He had become a teacher in the synagogue. One Sabbath He went to preach in the synagogue in Nazareth, as was his wont. He got up, picked up the scroll, and said ‘open your Bibles to Isaiah 61. (I know, I know, He didn’t really do that J )

When He first started reading His hearers would have recognised it as one of the most clearly Messianic passages in the scriptures. It was a prophecy of something the Messiah would one day say.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.
God has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor

God has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted

God has sent Me to preach deliverance to the captives

God has sent Me to give sight to the blind

God has sent Me to give liberty to the hurting

God has sent Me to preach the acceptable year of the Lord

Then he walked over, handed the scroll to the synagogue minister, and sat down.

You could have head a pin drop. Everyone just looked in amazement.

Then He said, today this scripture has been fulfilled.

The people were stunned because of the authority with which He spoke. Messiah was here, though they would not cop on to it yet.

His message is a blessing. This is what the coming of Messiah means – liberty, salvation, deliverance, healing, and hope. That is the message that we have today for a lost and broken world that offers none of those things. We have the authority of God’s word behind because Jesus sais when He commissioned His disciples that He was passing His authority on to them. The is hope for us and hope for the world because Messiah has come.