followHIM - How does the Savior describe himself? • follow HIM Favorites • Jan. 30 - Feb. 5

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the amazing John, by the way. Welcome, John. Thanks, Hank. Yeah. We take apart just one question from this week's Come Follow Me lesson. And the part we're going to take this week is the Savior in Nazareth. How does he describe himself? John, you want to take this one? I love this because they had heard rumors. They didn't know they had heard about healings. We've got like Luke one is what Zacharias, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Luke two, the Christmas story, Luke three, the baptism of Jesus, Luke four, he goes back home.

And I love the wording as his custom was, he went to the synagogue and he stood up for to read. And I guess the way they did it was you read a scripture and then you sat down and made a comment. What I love about this is of all the verses that we might think of to describe the Savior in the Old Testament and maybe we'd even try to pick the best one. Well, we don't have to work. Jesus chose the one. Yeah, he chose it for us. Yeah. So it says the minister gave him the scroll and he stood up and read. This is verse 18 of Luke for the one. Yeah, he chose it for us. Yeah. So it says the minister gave him the scroll and then he stood up and read. This is verse 18 of Luke 4. 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, gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Then he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And how did they react at that, Hank? These are his friends and neighbors, the people he had grown up with. This is back in Nazareth where he had been brought up, according to verse 16.

So you would think they would be so excited and just shocked that the Messiah is from their own little town. But instead, he's almost entirely rejected by these people. Yeah. And when he says this day, it's like this is me. And he has anointed me. Anointed one is Messiah in Hebrew or Christ in Greek. And he's saying, this is me. And what could have been a more beautiful message? But what I love here to answer the question is notice his emphasis on healing. To preach the gospel to the poor, heal broken hearts, preach deliverance to captives. And that could be

all sorts of captivity, emotional addiction, a recovering sight to the blind, spiritual blindness, physical blindness. And so I love how positive that way of characterizing what did Jesus come to do? I came to heal broken hearts. That's a verse that I love and I love that Jesus chose it. Yeah. I think of the Savior's mission and how he says, I'm here to preach the gospel to the poor. Poor in spirit, perhaps afflicted. Those who are meek, to preach glad tidings to the poor. It's been translated that way. The good news to the meek, good news to those who are suffering.

So I think that's exactly what he did. He went and he preached the good news to the meek. I don't know if there's a better way to describe the Lord than Isaiah got there in Isaiah 61. Yeah, he knew exactly where to go. I don't know if they handed him the book or if he chose the one, but I love that that's how it's characterized. I like to say to the teenagers, if Jesus came to your high school, who would he go see? I don't know the answer to that, Hank, but it might be those that feel lonely and are sad. I mean, I guess that's where he'd go. And so if we want to carry his light to others, we ought to be those who lift each other up as well. Yeah. We can look for the brokenhearted, for the poor, brokenhearted, the captives,

the blind, and the pained. We can go look for them just like he would. Yeah. We want to thank you for joining us on follow him favorites. We hope you join us on our full podcast. It's called follow him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We're with Dr. Jan Martin this week, and she does a fantastic job. We think you're going to love her. So come join us there and then come back next week for another follow him favorites.