Luke 4:14-30
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues,and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Luke 24:44-49
Jesus and the Bible
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Matthew 5:17-20
Jesus and the Bible
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said He fulfilled Scripture...He also said this about the bible , "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."...He added this about the Bible and Himself, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them...For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished...Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."...
We learn most about Jesus in the gospels...I believe if we take away the first four books of the New Testament, we have lost our foundation of who Jesus is, what He did, and what He said…The choosing of the Twelve Disciples by Jesus and Him going around with them teaching others is one of the keys to the good news…With Him teaching and His Disciples listening and learning, we then learn much about and from Jesus…
If we never had the four gospels, or if they were never written –exactly how much do we know about Him?...Why one needs to believe in the gospels is that is how we learn about Jesus and who He is and what He said and what He did…So if one does not read or get acquainted with the gospels or Paul’s epistles or the rest of the New Testament, we know very little about Him…And although the New Testament Books are not the object of our faith, nor should they be, we would know little about Jesus without them –who is the object of our faith…
Believers believe in the four gospels, and non-believers do not believe the four authors…If you do not believe in any of the four gospels in the New Testament, then you will have a difficult time in believing in Jesus…The non believers and the atheists who do not believe in any one of the four gospels, which talk about the experiences that Jesus had while He was on earth, don’t have a lot of other sources to rely on to learn and find out about Him…I would also include the writings of St. Paul would not be believed by the non-believer or atheist either and the rest of the New Testament Books too (for that matter), because St. Paul’s thirteen books of the New Testament and the other books support the information of the first four books about Jesus…
And who He is –is incredible…He is the Son of God…What He said is incredible, because He said the greatest words ever spoken…And what He did is incredible…He did miracle after miracle while on earth…He died while on earth…Then He resurrected…Then He taught His Disciples another forty days after His death…Then He ascended to heaven…And by having the four gospels all the generations after His ascension, has a chance to learn about who He is, what He said, what He did, and what He taught...