THE CUSTOM OF JESUS "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." (Luke 4:16).
1. Jesus went to worship on the Sabbath day. The Synagogues arose in the latter part of Judaism. There is only one passage in the Old Testament they are referred to which is Psalms 74:8 (KJV & ASV). This was a lamentation about the destruction the Babylonians had done in the land of Israel. Tabernacle is the Hebrew "Moed" meaning "appointed place of worship". Wilson's word studies of Old Testament Words states that there were other places of assembly besides the temple like Ramah, Bethel, and Gilgal which were distinguished as seats of the prophets and as high places. There were definitely schools of the prophets from the days of Samuel. However the synagogues arose especially as a result of the Babylonian captivity and thereafter as places of periodic meetings to worship. (Ezra 8:15; Nehemiah 9:1; Zechariah 7:5). By the time of Jesus there were synagogues in every place where there were enough Jews to support building a building and carrying on worship. In the synagogues they read from the books of the law (Genesis - Deuteronomy) and from the Prophets every Sabbath day. Common people only went to the Temple on the three annual feast days, but they assembled every Sabbath day for worship in the synagogues. They would sing Psalms, pray, read from the law and the prophets, and have a box for contributions for the poor. They would use their buildings for schools also for the children to obtain their basic education which included studies of the scriptures. Jesus grew up in this type of worship as can be seen from Luke 4:16. When he went back home at the beginning of his earthly ministry he went to worship at the Synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath day.
2. Jesus Participated in the worship. He stood up to read. The people of Nazareth were used to this because from the time a boy was 12 years of age he was used in the services. On the Sabbath referred to in Luke 4:16-22 he was given the book of Isaiah. Jesus himself turned to what we now know as Isaiah 61:1 ,2 and read it to the people assembled.
3. Jesus showed them from the scriptures his mission. "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has 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 to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." (Luke 4:18-19).
Then Jesus told them "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21). The Mission of Christ is to give the good news of salvation to people who are poor in spirit. These people know they cannot save themselves and are looking for the message of salvation. The mission of Christ is also to heal people with broken hearts. The cares of this world and the troubles that come to people breaks their hearts because they cannot fmd any way out of them.
Jesus offers relief saying "come to me and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11 :28). The mission of Christ is give liberty to those who are captives in their sins. He said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." (John 8:34). Then he says, "he who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16). In Romans 6:17, 18 Paul points out that in obeying a form of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ we are made free from sins and become the servants of righteousness. He had already pointed out that this was accomplished in baptism (Romans 6:4,5). The mission of Christ is also to recover the sight of the blind. He did this to people physically blind but here the real thing was to bring people out of spiritual blindness. The devil blinds people to the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). But it is "God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6). Through Jesus Christ all mankind is called out of darkness into his marvelous light (I Peter 2:9). The mission of Christ is to set at liberty those who are bruised. The bruised are those exposed to the brutalities of men and are warped by the wiles of the devil. Christians are told that in "humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been take captive by him to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:25, 26). Jesus came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The meaning of this is to tell people they can now be acceptable to the Lord. The Christian age is the only time left to become acceptable to the Lord. because Jesus showed that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy he was rejected by his hometown people and he went elsewhere accomplishing his mission.
4. Jesus meets the needs of all men everywhere with his good news of forgiveness and peace with God. The slaves who were oppressed, beaten and abused accepted the gospel and were born again. They then had the hope of a better home after this life with honor and glory. Their outlook on life was changed. They now are told, "With good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord whether he is slave or free." (Ephesians 6:7,8). The sick and dying find real comfort in knowing that as servants of Christ they have a glorious resurrection to look forward to and a home in heaven. The drug and alcohol addicts can know that with the help of Jesus Christ they can overcome their terrible conditions. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." "Humble yourself to God and he will lift you up" (James 4:8,9). When we humble ourselves to Him what a change will come into our hearts and into our lives!! The criminals can know there is forgiveness because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (I Timothy 1:15). The poor of earth can know that their poverty will end in eternity if they live and die faithful to the Lord (Revelation 2: 10). The rich can be saved if they will quit trusting in their riches and put their trust in the Lord (I Timothy 6:17, 18). The proud can know what hypocrites they are and humble themselves to the Lord's will and be saved. Jesus meets the needs of all men -Why not accept him? cd