Bible Stories for the Young
Green triangles are narrated and fully illustrated and will have simple animation added along the way. Yellow triangles have narration, but the illustrations aren't done yet. Videos with red triangles are planned. New and updated videos will be added very often.
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One day Jesus traveled back to the town where He had grown up — Nazareth. It was the Sabbath day so He decided to go into the religious building where people were reading about God.
The people would read God’s words from the old scrolls that God’s Seers had written long before. Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea — so many of God’s written words had been saved on these scrolls.
Jesus stood up among the people to read. A helper at the building picked out a scroll for Jesus to read to everyone.
(You’re going to be really surprised when I tell you what that helper picked! He picked the scroll of Isaiah! Can you believe it? Of all the scrolls he could have handed Jesus to read — he handed Jesus, the Shining Rescuer Himself, a rolled up scroll about the Coming Shining Rescuer.)
Jesus slowly unrolled the scroll and found the place He was looking for. It was time for people to know, and Jesus knew right where to find what He was looking for. Yes… there it was. Carefully Jesus read the words from the scroll:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has chosen and anointed me to tell good news to the poor. He has sent me to tell those who are all tied up — ‘You’re free!’ To tell the blind that they can see again. To set free, free, free those who are crushed and under pressure. To tell everyone that this is the year of the Lord’s deep Kindness — the REAL Jubilee.”
Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the helper, and sat down.
The eyes of everyone there were fixed on Jesus. You could have heard a pin drop. No one was talking. No one was moving.
Everyone had heard these words many times. Jesus had read them straight from the scroll. But something was different this time… the room was silent.
As all eyes stared, stared, stared at Jesus, He told them, “Today this scripture has come true, even while you heard Me reading it.”
Can you imagine what all those people were thinking? These were the people Jesus had grown up with, people who had known Him as a little boy. Up until this point, everyone spoke well of Jesus and was amazed at the gracious words that came out of His mouth.
But when they heard this, they started mumbling and grumbling, “What? Come true? What was Jesus saying? Was He saying He was the Shining One of God they had all been waiting for? But we thought the Anointed One we were waiting for was going to be a king with oil on his head, a champion from the relatives of King David. This is just Mary’s son. We know His brothers and sisters! He’s not a king or a champion like God promised. He’s just a carpenter, a blue-collar worker. He’s just a normal guy.”
Then Jesus said to them, “I know you want Me to prove what I’ve said with miracles and stuff. But, no Seer is ever recognized and accepted in the town he grew up in. In fact, think about Elijah… It didn’t rain for three and a half years, but he only helped one widow, who wasn’t even an Israelite. And think about Elisha. There were many lepers in Israel, yet Elisha only helped Naaman, who also wasn’t an Israelite.”
When they heard this, all the people in the religious building got boiling, raging mad. They jumped up yelling and stormed at Jesus. Then they forced Jesus out of the town and to the edge of a cliff, hoping they could throw Him over and be done with Him. But somehow, Jesus was able to calmly pass through the crowd and go on His way. Ha!
Do you remember when David was anointed to be king? He had oil poured on his head, didn’t he? Well, the anointing oil that God poured on Jesus was not oily grease. That oily grease was always just a shadow thing.
God’s real anointing oil was Holy Spirit Power. Power to change. Power to overcome sin. Power to love.
The people had wrongly thought their Shining Rescuer would be an earthly king who would save them from their nation’s enemies. Oh no… They didn’t recognize their rescuer; This. Is. The guy! and they had just missed Him… But that wouldn’t stop Jesus, God’s Champion. His LIFE was saturated in God’s Holy Spirit Power and ablaze with God’s Holy Spirit Fire. It was the year of God’s kindness, and God was ready to light it up.