Today's encouragement comes from Luke 4:20, where we read these words:
"Then He [Jesus] closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him."In this world, the covenantally-unique and special time the people of God col-lectively gaze upon Jesus intently is in church on Sunday—particularly, during the preaching of the sermon. In today's text (above), the Lord Christ is keep-ing the old Sabbath Day. The citizens of Nazareth are doing so, too. They have heard the written Word of God read (by Christ); and now the Messiah is about to expound on it. As He does so, the congregants are totally locked-in on the Redeemer.
This is a good pattern for all of us who would be Christ's followers today. Let *us* "fix our eyes on Jesus," (as per Heb. 12:2a). Then, upon leaving church, let us love and follow the Savior—(rather than to seek to throw Him off the cliff, as the people of Nazareth had hoped to do).
[Puritan quote of the day: "Christ is called grace. He is the grace of God cloth-ed with man's nature.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "Glorious Freedom"]
