"Jubilee of God"

Luke 4:18-22 "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed (ECHRISEN ME, First Aorist Active Indicative of CHRIO from which CHRISTOS is derived, the Anointed One)

me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, (AICHMALOTOIS = Prisoners of war)

and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (TETHRAUSMENOUS = bruised, broken hearted, broken like earthen pottery)

[19] To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Refers to Year of Jubilee, where God released people from bondage. When Isaiah prophesied this text Israel was returning from Babylonian captivity. Christ frees from captivity)

[20] And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened (ATENIZO = to look intently at. Denotes extreme emotion)

on him. [21] And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled (PEPLEROTAI = to complete a purpose, fill up a deficiency)

in your ears. [22] And all bare him witness, (EMARTYROUN AUTO = spoke well of Him)

and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?"
 

What comprises the "Victorious and Successful Life"?  To some, the key to victorious life is found only in money and power. To others, nominal Christianity  is enough: an occasional trip to Church, throw a little money in the plate, and then go home. To others, the key to "Victorious Living" is the concept that I have walked the aisle and been baptized - therefore I have certain knowledge (I hope) that I am going to Heaven. To yet others, "Victorious Living" is the knowledge that I am a member of a Church - whether I attend that Church or not, whether I'm active in the Church or not.

God wants better for us. He doesn't want us to have a shallow existence where we regard Church as a necessary burden. He doesn't want us just to speak with Him when we need something, nor does He want us to feel that we're orphaned children.  God wants each and every one of us to have a victorious and successful life - but we can only have this type of life -- when we heed His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Slide One

The first step to a Victorious Life in Christ is to realize Who Jesus Christ is. When I say realize I mean that Who Jesus is must go beyond a simple intellectual assertion of truth to a state of absolute trust. Those who heard Jesus speak this day heard His words, but these words did not find their way into their hearts. Jesus started out by reading Isaiah 61.1-2 which starts out:

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed (ECHRISEN ME, First Aorist Active Indicative of CHRIO from which CHRISTOS is derived, the Anointed One) "

Jesus says of Himself, "The Spirit of the Lord has "ECHRISEN ME", 'anointed Me'. Jesus says "I am the Anointed One". Think on that for a minute. "ECHRISEN" is the word from which "Christ", or CHRISTOS is derived. "Jesus Christ" literally means "Jesus the Anointed One", and Jesus is the only One Who is anointed by God. But anointed for what?

When Isaiah made the prophecy that Jesus later quotes, Israel was under Babylonian captivity. God repeatedly called Israel, and called Israel, and called Israel to repentance. He asked His chosen to repent and return to a right relationship with Him - yet she refused. She instead chose to follow her own whims, her own idols, her own ways - until God had to punish with Babylonian captivity. Israel now came to the end of their punishment, and as they did God allowed Isaiah to prophecy of a time when the Messiah, the Anointed One, would come to free them not just from sin, which Babylon represented, but from themselves.

Israel needed to be freed from herself. Certainly she looked at Babylon, and later Rome, and felt that these captors were the problem. No, dear friend, these were not the problem, but only a symptom of the problem. The problem with Israel was Israel - the problem with us is us. God tells us today that Jesus Christ is the Anointed One. Unless you are living your life fully reliant on Christ, not on your own abilities but on God's One Anointing, then you can never reach victory in this life.

And in Babylon death reigns, in Babylon damnation is real, in Babylon there is no salvation. Listen to me - Those who sat and listened to the sermon Jesus preached that day had the Anointed Son of God speaking to them. Did they come away from that sermon changed? NO! For they looked at Christ and said:

Luke 4:22 "And all bare him witness, (EMARTYROUN AUTO = spoke well of Him) and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?"

Yes, they all "EMARTYROUN AUTO", spoke well of Jesus. "Let's go hear this new preacher - I hear he's quite the entertainer". Oh, they enjoyed the sermon, thought well of the message, but the message never came down to where they lived. They looked at Jesus as merely "Joseph's son". But Messiah? "No, He couldn't be Messiah - I grew up with Jesus." They heard the message, enjoyed it while it suited them, then pushed Jesus away when the message was unpleasant. At the end of the Sermon the Bible tells us:

Luke 4:28-30  "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, [29] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. [30] But he passing through the midst of them went his way"

If You regard Jesus as a mere man, Joseph's Son, a Prophet, or a Great Teacher then you will never come out of Babylon. No, never. But if you regard Jesus as He is, the Anointed of God - ah, here's the key. For when I realize in myself that He is the Anointed, the only Key to God, then I begin to heed His words.
 

One of the worst train disasters in history occurred in the El Toro Tunnel in Leon, Spain, on January 3,1944. Over five hundred people died. The train was one of those long passenger trains with an engine on both ends. On this particular day, when the train went into the El Toro Tunnel, the engine on the front stalled. When the front engine stopped, the engineer on the back engine started up his engine to back the train out of the tunnel. At the same time, however, the front engineer managed to get the front engine started again and attempted to continue the journey Neither engineer had any way of communicating with the other. Both engineers thought they simply needed more power. They continued to pull in both directions for several minutes. Hundreds of passengers on the train in the tunnel died of carbon monoxide poisoning because the train could not make up its mind which way to go. The people on that train died because the train had one too many engineers. Many of us struggle as to which way to go with our lives-whether to come to Jesus or to remain in our sin. This indecision can cause us to miss out on the most important decision in our lives. Sometimes we think we can have it both ways, but we can't. We can't serve God and also serve the devil. Jesus Himself warned us against trying to live a double life: "No one can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24a). (Hot Illustrations For Youth Talks Wayne Rice, Zonderzan, pp. 208-209.)

Slide Two

Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel (EUAGGELIZO = to announce good news) to the poor ... to preach (KERUSSO = to herald) deliverance to the captives, (AICHMALOTOIS = Prisoners of war) ... [19] To preach (KERUSSO = to herald) the acceptable year of the Lord. (Refers to Year of Jubilee, where God released people from bondage. When Isaiah prophesied this text Israel was returning from Babylonian captivity. Christ frees from captivity)

Jesus came preaching three things, and all three of these things had one thing in common. What is this "common factor" of His message? Listen to me, the common truth in every sermon that Jesus ever preached is that you and I are unable of ourselves. We are naturally poor, we are all naturally captives, and we all desperately need the Jubilee of God in our lives. If you have come to Church this morning thinking that you're good enough of your own accord to get into Heaven, Jesus Christ demands that you re-think your position. Do you realize how poor you really are? Consider yourself in relationship with the immensity of God.
 

(Illustrations Adapted from John MacArthur) A beam of light travels at 186,000 miles per second, or six trillion miles in a year. Now, that's fast! Let's say you got out of bed at 6:00 a.m. this morning. If a beam of light left the earth when you got up, by 6:41 a.m. while you enjoyed your coffee the beam would have just passed Jupiter. By 11:30 a.m. when I started preaching (give or take a few minutes) the beam of light would have just passed Pluto. This little beam will have to travel 32,000 years before it reaches the center of our Galaxy moving at six trillion miles a year. It will have to travel another 80,000 years to reach the Magellanic Clouds, the nearest Galaxy to our own - and there are some 50 billion Galaxies in our known universe. Feel small yet? Do you understand the meaning of "poor" yet? Psalms 8:3-4  "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; [4 ] What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

Now, let's look smaller. DNA exists in every single cell, in every one of the hundred trillion cells that make up our bodies. Your DNA is your blueprint, God's architectural plan that makes you look the way you are. The color of your eyes, the color of your hair, your skin, your body structure - all is determined by the coding of your DNA. If we were to take just one of those DNA coils and if it were possible to uncoil it, I am told that it would measure 7 feet long. If you were to take all the DNA in your body and place it end to end, it would stretch to the moon and back one half million times. If you were to take all of the densely coded information on your DNA and type it out, the typewritten sheets would fill the Grand Canyon 50 times. Psalms 139:14  "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

Do you feel poor yet? If not, you're not paying attention. Jesus' message is this: You're poor, but you don't have to be. You're captives of Satan and sin, but you don't have to be. The Jubilee of God waits to release you from Babylon, but you must recognize and acknowledge your poor and helpless condition. You must be willing to bend your prideful knees and admit your need.

How arrogant to be prideful before the Creator of all! How empty and vain to hear the Anointed One, Jesus Christ, today and come away unchanged! Jesus cries out "You're poor, you're captive to Babylon --- but here am I, the Jubilee. Here I AM, the Creator God, the Messiah, the Savior. Can I tell you this: unless you admit your need, you will find nothing in Jesus. If you think you are faultless, this Christ has nothing for you. If you go away saying, "Good sermon, but it doesn't apply to me", then you are without Christ. Jesus said:

Luke 5:31-32 "And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. [32]  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Slide Three

Luke 4:18 "... he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, ... and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (TETHRAUSMENOUS = bruised, crushed, damaged goods) "

Jesus promised to do three things for us if we but place out lives in His hands. First, He will "heal the brokenhearted", SUNTRIBO, "those who are broken into pieces". Life often deals harsh blows to each one of us. Our relationships don't work out the way we expected, our friends let us down, our family may push us away. My heart and yours has been broken countless times by harsh and petty people, or by our inability to meet and achieve our expected goals in life. Jesus promises if we bring that broken and shattered life to Him, He will put it back together. God says:

Psalms 34:18  "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."

When everyone is discouraging you and putting you down Jesus waits to be your Encourager, your Healer. Jesus stands just outside of your life waiting for you to invite Him in, to let Him heal your heart. If the whole world be against you, Jesus is still for you.

Second, He will give "sight to the blind". God wants us to have a new vision. He wants us to view things not with our own vision, but through the lens of Jesus. View life through the vision Jesus gives you. Look for Jesus in the trials of life, don't look for defeat. Satan coaxed the first couple into sinning by promising:

Genesis 3:5  "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

And their eyes were opened, but to sin. Jesus says, "give Me all of your life, and I'll give you new eyes. Eyes that look for God in things, eyes that overlook sin, eyes of righteousness.

Third, Jesus longs to "set at liberty" those who consider themselves damaged goods. There is no life so far gone that God won't reach it, through Jesus, if you let Him. You may think you're worthless, that you're without value - but Jesus says He wants to release you from those thoughts. You are worth so much to God that Jesus laid down His life for you. So come, give your life to Him.
 

Not many people enjoy going to the doctor, but according to Reuters, in 1994, one London accountant took that to an extreme. The sixty-three-year-old man knew he needed bladder surgery but he could not overcome his fear of doctors and hospitals. So he self-reliantly did what had to be done: He tried to perform the surgery on himself. Tragically he got an infection from the self surgery and later died. The coroner said, "Unfortunately, [his] drastic remedy went wrong. A simple operation would have solved the problem." Just as this man didn't trust doctors or hospitals, many people don't trust God. In their self-reliance, they destroy themselves. (Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 272.)