CALLED TO PROCLAIM
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: LUKE 4
Lesson 5 January 2, 2021
Key verse
The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me
Because He anointed Me
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 those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.
Luke 4: 18-19
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
It is always nice to come home even if you know that things are not perfect there. It is of course better when you prepare to go home prepared for what you know is there. When you are filled with power and experience in handling the things of life it makes things easier.
When people have been away from home on a job or at school and they finally come home it is always better for us at home to fill our thoughts and minds with good and kind welcoming thoughts so that we can hear about their experience and what they have done and what their experience has made them into as human beings.
Jesus Christ faced that situation for He had grown up in His own hometown of Nazareth for about 30 years but He had traveled to many towns teaching and preaching, proclaiming or telling the people of the love of God and the Good News that God finally sent Him as a Servant to bring Good News to people. God had promised through the prophets that He would one day send a special person to do all kinds of acts of kindness. He Jesus was that person and so He would help others, would heal people of all different kinds of their illnesses, make blind people see again, and set people free from all kinds of things that had made them tied up and unable to help themselves.
Jesus did all sorts of great and kind things to the people in Israel and so He became famous because He has showed the people that God loves them and would help them and have them overcome their difficulties.
So finally when Jesus came to His home town some of the people there could hardly believe that Jesus was the famous person that the prophets have spoken about. Jesus attended the church or synagogue on the Sabbath and read the Scriptures to them which told them everything that God prophesied that His special Servant or Messiah would do. He had finally come as God had promised and had done exactly what the Scriptures said He would do.
Now Jesus made it clear that all the great and kind things that He had done all through the nation had been done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had given Him great spiritual power so that He could achieve exactly what God wanted Him to do.
So do not forget that God has offered the same power of the Holy Spirit to us who accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour because God loved us and He wanted us to do things with the great spiritual gifts that He would give us to make others understand that they should come to Him for help.
When Jesus proclaimed this message of God that finally He had fulfilled His great prophecy, Jesus expected that the people in His Hometown would be filled with curiosity and want Him to teach them so they would be able, and enthusiastic about returning to God.
Remember that John the Baptist had told the people that Messiah had come and they should follow Him. So they had no excuse. They should recognize the power filled Jesus as Messiah.
But instead of that they simply were amazed at how when He spoke how attractive and gracious His words had been. They could not really believe that this young man that had grown up with them was so talented and so filled with power that they should listen to Him. What they thought in their minds and hearts and what they would therefore say was that His brothers and sisters still lived among them. They could not really believe that Jesus was the Messiah for He did not come from a powerful and wealthy family. They simply wanted to have Jesus perform miracles before them. They were not so much interested in hearing that God really loved them and what God really wanted them to do.
The problem was that the people in Jesus’ hometown were not really ready to accept the love and kindness that Jesus offered to them and to each one of us. Maybe they were afraid of what that would do to them for they would have to change their lifestyle and begin to treat other people differently.
When Jesus told them that God was ready to love and be kind and save people whether they were a Jew or Gentile this annoyed them for they thought that they were the only ones that God should help.
Jesus told people exactly who He was, what He had come for, why He did so many miracles and acts of kindness, what His life was dedicated to, His commitments, His life ministry, and the purpose
of His life. He was not afraid because He was appointed to do this by God His Father and was filled with the power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words in the Church stated exactly who He was and what He was sent to do.
You should ask yourself the question as to what kind of words you would use to sum you up. God has brought you into the world, looked after you from the day you were born, and He has let you become His child, and given you great promises. You should therefore ask yourself who you are and why you’re here and what God wants you to do.
You might not be able to do some of the miracles that Jesus did but Jesus had told us that even the little things that we do on His behalf He will regard them as great and He will give us great rewards and we will be with Him forever.
So you too are called to proclaim or to tell people about the great kindness of God and what God will do for all of those who come to Him. We have listed some of what God has done and will do in our Memory Text or Key Verse. So let us join together and show the kindness of God in our life and actions. Just tell Jesus you will. He will be with you and He will keep you.