Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Why don't we stand as we go to the Lord in prayer this morning?
[00:00:03] We're going to just pray today. Some of you wonder, you know, we were praying for Darren A. Coyne. I just want to say to you that he's doing so much better. He's out of the hospital. He's actually moving along at a good clip here. He's doing a lot better. So we'll keep praying for him, but he's way better. Thank you, church family, for praying. Let's pray. Let's just lift our knees before God. I'm sure this year begins. It doesn't mean that we're not coming in with some challenges, right? And let's ask God for grace and mercy. We're going to believe God to do amazing things in 2025, but we need to ask him. So, Lord, we lift our burdens before you today. We think of all the challenges that lie before us, but they're not situations that are impossible with you. They may be impossible with us because we're human beings. We have limitations and we cannot change and manipulate people around us because that's not healthy and it doesn't work anyway. So, Lord, we know that the change has to be from the inside out. It has to be a change that you create within the human heart, a transformation and encounter with you. We pray for that end, that it would occur. We pray for those that are battling illness and disease, those that are struggling with loss and grief. We just pray for all of these things. As we look forward to what you are about to do in this new year. Father, help us not to enter into it with fear or trepidation, but Lord, to enter into this new year with faith and hope that you're going to accomplish things beyond what we could even ask, consider, or even imagine. We thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:01:40] I'm excited to turn us to the book of Isaiah. And we're going to look at chapter 61, a very familiar passage, because Jesus actually quotes this in Luke, chapter four. And we're going to talk about that today. This morning, we're looking at how to experience a life of freedom and healing. And I think when we look around us today, there's so many people, they're in despair. There's a sense of hopelessness and distress. You know, pressure can come both from outside of ourselves, like difficult, devastating circumstances, or it could be simply the messaging within our own human hearts. A lot of times, you know, we've been Listening in our minds to a lot of negative things. You know, we listen to the enemy's temptations. We listen to his conversation in our heads. Little tapes that say that we're, you know, there's this going on, or you can't do this or you're not worthy and all the rest of that stuff. So people struggle a lot of times, both externally and internally. And then we have the constant bad news that's being propagated to us over and over again every day.
[00:02:48] You know, when you listen to the news, there's very little good news out there. How many know that's true? It's always bad news. And it's amazing how often they repay. Replay the same story and it's all bad. And after a while, you think everything's bad. You know, it's like the story told of the kids that pulled a prank on their grandfather. They put some Limburger cheese under his nose and he was sleeping. And when he woke up, he says, man, is it ever stinking here? And they looked around and he. Pretty soon, you know, he went out of that room and he went into the other room and he said, man, it stinks in here. He says, eventually he says, the whole house stinks. And when he stepped outside, he said, the world stinks. And a lot of times that's the way we look at life. We're affected by what's going on inside of our minds. It was certainly true in the land of Israel when Jesus burst on the scene. Roman occupation was now nearly a century old when Jesus ministry began. Now, how many know, if you've lived under a certain condition for a long time, you begin to believe that's normal. How many say that's true? That's the way we see life. That's the normality that we're living in.
[00:03:56] The state of mind of the people were mixed. Some were accommodating what was happening, some were resisting what was happening. But I think the majority of people are just trying to get by. And if you look at life today, that's probably what's happening. Taxes were high. Isn't that funny? We always think taxes are high.
[00:04:13] That's just the nature of human beings. You know, they were taxed high. I mean, the Romans were taxing them. They were being repressed. Freedom was limited, and hope for a better future simply was fading in the minds of most of them. And yet, this is what I want you to hear. Scripture was promising something better. And I want to just say this to us. Last week when I talked about getting into scripture, why that was so important, because if we just look at what's happening, sometimes in our current context, we can become very discouraged. But if we read scripture, there's promises that bring hope to us. And I want you to know, eventually those promises become realities in our life just like it was in the first century. Jesus first coming was right on the horizon, and he was about to fulfill many, many of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus came healing sick people, setting people free from pain, torment, hopelessness. Jesus brought a life of freedom and healing into the poor and the afflicted in the land. And so early in Jesus ministry, he goes to his hometown. How many know that when you come back to your hometown, you're not always accepted that? Well, and so Jesus shows up. He'd grown up there in Nazareth as a little boy. They came back, remember the story, you know, Joseph brought him back to Nazareth, and Jesus is living in Nazareth. Probably the only thing abnormal about Jesus was he was really a good kid.
[00:05:42] I mean, if you're not sinning, you got to be a pretty good kid, right? You know, probably the only thing that got his parents excited, we talked about that a few weeks ago, was the fact that he showed up at, you know, stayed at the temple for three days while they went home. They got them a little excited, but other than that, you know, so Jesus shows up, and the Bible says here In Luke chapter 4, verse 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. This was something he did, and he stood up to read. Bible says here, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. How many know this is a setup, you know, God the Father, you know, just set it up because Jesus only said what the Father wanted them to say and do what the Father wanted him to do. How many know providentially, it was no problem for God to actually make sure the scroll was Isaiah. So he opens up the scroll of Isaiah. It says here to a place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set the oppressed free. I like the next verse to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. That's going to be our theme in 2025. Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendants, sat down. The eyes of Everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Now, that got them a little excited. You say, why is that? Because what Jesus is really telling his hometown crowd, his family and friends, he's the Messiah.
[00:07:24] How many know that got him a little excited. As a matter of fact, he told them a few other little stories there that they probably wouldn't accept him and the first thing they wanted to do is throw him over the edge of a cliff. Now, how many know not everybody gets excited when you and I tell people things about Jesus. Jesus himself had a few problems. I read in the Gospel of Mark one day he's teaching in the house and his mother and brother show up and, you know, he's so busy in his ministry, he doesn't have time to eat. And the Bible says they thought he was nuts, you know, that he was mad. Now, I kind of listed this off in our prayer time this morning. You know, Jesus was accused of a lot of things. He was accused of being a drunk, a glutton. He was accused of being insane. He was accused of being demon possessed.
[00:08:11] You know, these are interesting things because none of those things were true of Jesus. So people can get excited when you are bringing something that is a little bit disconcerting in their way of understanding and thinking. And so Jesus certainly challenged people.
[00:08:29] Now, this idea of Jesus telling him he is the Messiah and that he came to bring good news to the poor, freedom to captives, release to prisoners, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Most theologians believe that what Jesus was really doing was declaring a jubilee. And so Warren Wirsbe says this. The background of this passage is really described in the book of Leviticus, chapter 25, verses 7 and onward, when every seven years the Jewish people were to observe what they call a sabbatical year and allow the land to rest. Sabbath means to rest. And they were not to till the soil. They were to let the land lie still and allow the land to rest and recover. And also it was an act of faith. How many know if you're not planting food that year, you're a little bit nervous of what's going to show up. But God promised that he would take care of them if they would only trust him. How many understand that part of the Christian life is teaching us how to learn to trust God? How many know that's true? And so many of the challenges or difficulties that we experience in life are really expression to help us learn how to trust God in our lives.
[00:09:40] Then we read after seven sabbaticals, or 49 years, they were to celebrate the 50th year as the year of jubilee.
[00:09:52] During that year, all debts were canceled, all land was returned to the original owners. The slaves were freed, and everyone was given a fresh new beginning. How many would like to have a year of jubilee? All your debts are now canceled. You know what else? You know what else they did here? Oh, everything is returned to the original owners. Isn't this amazing? It's just all this great stuff. And given a fresh new beginning, anybody would like to have a fresh start? You know, hit the restart button. You know, a year jubilee. And why did God do that for the nation? Because this was the Lord's way of balancing the economy.
[00:10:30] Boy, I think we need help there in our society with. To balance the economy. But this was God's way of balancing the economy and keeping the rich from exploiting the poor. Isn't that an amazing thing that God had a program how to go about doing that? And so Jesus came on the scene saying, this is the year of the Lord's favor. We're going to deal with things that have brought people into the state of bondage and difficulty in their life. And now we're going to move people out of that situation that they're in.
[00:11:00] So when we're speaking of the Lord's favor, we're speaking of a year of rest, blessing, and the experience of freedom and healing in people in the nation's life, but also in a person's life. Now we know that Isaiah prophesied first 39 chapters. It's 66 chapters, kind of like the Bible, but 39 chapters deal with Isaiah warning the nation to repent. And. And then from chapter 40 to chapter 66, it's Isaiah saying, once you've repented, God's going to comfort you and God's going to bring you salvation and God's going to restore you. Once you've been exiled, you're going to be restored back and brought back to your homeland. Very beautiful book of the Bible. It's really the focus then is on God's favor and blessing. So after Judah had gone into captivity, God, eventually they repented, and after 70 years, God brought them back. Isn't it interesting? You know why it was 70 years that God took them into captivity? Because they had never kept the Sabbath for 490 years. So God says, I'm going to make the land rest. So here's what we need to understand. When you and I violate God's moral laws, we're going to suffer for it. But then God is a God of restoration. And I want you to keep that in your mind, because we're going to get there because God wants to restore, even though we mess that up. God is a very forgiving and gracious God. You know, they were restored because the Persians took over from the Babylonians. Cyrus was anointed by God to send the nation of Judah back to their homeland. They even gave them the resources to get the job done, which I think is beautiful. But what is true for a nation is also true for us personally. God wants to do this in our personal life. And this is what Paul says, writing to the Corinthians, he said, in the time of my favor, I will answer you. In the day of salvation, I will help you. I tell you now, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. Isn't that beautiful? You know what I love about this verse? It's present tense. It's today. It's not yesterday, it's not tomorrow, it's now. Now is the day of God's favor. You know, a lot of times we go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know God can do it. I know God will do it. But we have a hard time accepting God is doing it. We have a hard time with the moment we're in to really understand God wants to bring salvation now. And salvation is found actually not so much into the benefits of salvation, but it's found in a person. And a lot of times we get caught up with other things than just the person. We'll look at that today. We're going to look at a text that Jesus actually is fulfilling his coming.
[00:13:59] It's actually this verse. We're going to look at this verse in relationship to Christ, because he's going to quote this verse when he comes on the scene in Nazareth. And we've already seen that. So I'm going to look at three realities to help us understand what was about to transpire and what was now going to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus that can help you and I in the now experience. Now healing and forgiveness and freedom. I think that's important. Okay, let's take a look at the first reality I think that brings freedom and healing into our lives of Satan. Simply the identity of the person responsible for making it happen. Now, these promises could only be fulfilled if we have faith in the Messiah.
[00:14:48] And the word Messiah means anointed. And so a lot of times when we look at the name Jesus, you know, we look at Jesus Christ, we Have to understand something. The word Christ is actually from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means anointed. So Jesus the Messiah or Jesus the Christ, it's not his surname, it's his function. It's who he is and what he was anointed to do. We need to understand that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one that brings freedom and healing in our lives. It's not a program, it's not a method. You know, a lot of times we get into programs and we think, well, okay, this program's going to help me. This method is going to help me. I'm not against programs and methods, folks, but I'm going to just caution us. Here's a little caution.
[00:15:41] If you just lock into a program or a methodology and you don't understand, it's actually Jesus is the one that's doing it, pretty soon you're not going to get the help you need. It's not the program, it's not the methodology. And I think sometimes as Christians, we think it's a program or it's a methodology that's going to help us. No, it's a person. We need to know Jesus. We need to experience his presence in our lives. That's who changes us. It's not do this and this is going to happen to you. We like that kind of stuff because we can kind of control it. But how many know you don't control a person. You just can't control Jesus. Doesn't work that way. You got to get to know him. That's why I encouraged you last week to spend time in the word of God. So you get to know who. Who he is. That's what's going to bring about change in our lives. And we need to respond to him in faith because it always points to Him. Everything's pointing to Jesus. I don't know if you know that. Everything points to him, the person.
[00:16:40] Here we go. In verse one of Isaiah 61, we've already read it because Jesus quoted it. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach or proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from prisoners, darkness for the prisoners.
[00:17:02] So who was this anointed one? And what was his purpose? That's really the question. And throughout the book of Isaiah, we read of the servant of the Lord. Now, I love how Isaiah brings out some beautiful ideas here about what needed to happen for the nation to be brought back to the land, or what it requires of you and I to be restored to God. So in Isaiah 42, verse 5, it says, this is what the Lord says, the creator of the heavens, who stretched them out. Are we confused as to who's talking? We shouldn't be. God is talking and he's saying, look, I am the creator of every everything, you know, he says, who spreads them out?
[00:17:50] The earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on it.
[00:17:58] So who gives you and I life?
[00:18:04] Who gives us life? God does. Life comes from God. Life, you know, your life is being sustained by God. It's all coming from him. Now look at verse six. I, the Lord have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I want you to get this image. God is holding you by the hand. Now can you get that beautiful picture? Isn't that an amazing thought? God's holding us by the hand. You know, sometimes you have to take people by the hand to help them. God comes along and takes us by the hand. I will keep you and I will make you to be a covenant for the people and the light for the Gentiles.
[00:18:45] So I could look at this and say, okay, God's speaking to Israel and he's telling them, I'm going to. I have a covenant relationship with you. And your responsibility is to be a light to people who don't know me, who are non covenant people. How many go? I could interpret it that way, and I think that's the basic way to interpret it. But let me give you another application.
[00:19:05] Who are the covenant people today?
[00:19:09] We are. We are in relationship with God now. So God is saying, I've got you by my hand. I'm going to keep you in my keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the people who don't know you, who don't know him. That's what I'm saying. In other words, what God is saying is we have a purpose. We're going to get to that in the third point. You and I have a purpose, that we are being kept by God. He's walking with us hand in hand and he's making us a light so that people who don't know God come to see God because of our lives. Isn't that a beautiful thing? I think that's what he's talking about here. But now look what happens to open the eyes that are blind.
[00:19:52] Now we could say, yeah, Jesus came along and he healed people that were physically blind. But what was really that? Really a picture of something even more significant. People were living in spiritual darkness. Jesus was trying to open their eyes to who he was and what the kingdom of God was all about. To free captives from prison. Is he just talking about people who are incarcerated now physically, or is he talking about people who are living in a prison within their own souls, who are bound by addictions and negative thoughts and anger and unforgiveness? These are the people who are living in a prison. These are the people that need to be released from those dungeons, who are sitting in darkness because they don't have any sort of an understanding of what's going on in life. There's no real meaning or purpose. Most people that don't know God are just living out their lives, doing the best they can, but really don't understand that they were designed by God for an amazing redemptive purpose. That's what we need to understand. And God says. He says, I, the Lord have called you.
[00:20:54] Then we see that these are poetry. These parts are poetic in nature. Now, if you look through Isaiah, you can really see it there. You have narrative parts and poetic parts. And you go, how do you know which Pastor? It's real simple. Look at the way the interpreters of your Bible are showing you from your Bible.
[00:21:14] The narrative parts are all kind of lined out. But poetry, it's blocked out differently. There's big spaces in between. You ever notice that in your Bible, that's poetry. And you got to understand poetry. So what is poetry meant to do? It's meant for us to focus in on these ideas as symbols. And they have meanings to them, but they're not always. You can't take poetry the same way as you take a literal narrative passage. That's all I'm suggesting here. Now, as we look at this understanding of this part, it speaks of God taking personal interest in our lives, guiding us into truth, into love, and into grace. Jesus is actually the one who's going to bring about this amazing healing and freedom into our lives. So then who are the poor that the Messiah is come to proclaim hope, freedom, and healing to? Who are they? Well, we know that they're the brokenhearted. We know that they're the captives. We know that they're the prisoners. And I've already suggested to you that they're not people like we would normally attribute it to. We're not talking about the physically blind. We're not just talking about that. We're not just talking about people who are incarcerated. In prison. We're talking about something more significant than that. John Oswald describes who they are. He says, those who are broken by life, these are the poor. These are the people who are broken by life, that have no more heart to try. They've given up. Those who are so bound up in their various addictions that liberty and release seem to them to be a cruel mirage. You know, they just. They've tried and tried, but they just can't seem to get set free. He goes on here, those who think that they will never again experience the favor of God. Maybe, maybe, you know, you've messed it up so much, you just think, how in the world can God ever show me, you know, his favor once again? I feel like I'm a total failure. Or see his vengeance meted out against those who have misused him. In other words, we've kind of given up that there's any sense of justice in the world. And it always seems that the oppressors and the bullies and the mean people and the people that abuse people are getting away with it. We've just given up hope that there's any sort of justice. Okay. He says, those who think that their lives hold nothing more than ashes, sackcloth, and the fainting heaviness of despair, these are they to whom the servant Messiah shouts. Good news. I've got good news for you guys. All of you people who have lost hope in your life. I've got good news for you. This is what you need to hear. I love this. He says, can you see this image of being led out by God from our spiritual blindness in which we were. In which we were in a state of darkness? And prior to coming to Jesus, we had no understanding of any of these things. We just couldn't. We didn't get it. We were, in essence, blind to spiritual realities. But the opening of our eyes is not just physical. It speaks primarily of this blindness towards God. We're living in the dark or in ignorance. And then God comes and he opens our spiritual eyes and we begin to grasp the meaning and significance of life. What a powerful thing that is. It is revolutionary. And maybe you've never experienced this before. I'm going to tell you something. It's like opening up your life to a whole new world. It really is. Before I was born again, you know, I was living with a certain framework, a certain mindset. And then all of a sudden, you know, the spirit of God began to open up, you know, my soul. And I came to Christ and the whole world opened up and I began to see past my little framework in my little world, it just opened everything up. It was really powerful. It changes everything. You know, I can still remember the sky was bluer, the grass was greener. I just. I go, where was I? You know, I felt like I was trapped in a little room. Now I was wandering around and seeing all of it for the first time. It's like an awakening. It's an awakening in your soul. That's what we're talking about here.
[00:25:09] Here. The servant Messiah himself is the one who brings the Good News, God's triumph, because he has done what no one else could do. He is not only the preacher of the Good News, he is the Good News able to give what he announces. And I think that is so powerful because Jesus is basically saying, the servant.
[00:25:35] In Isaiah, the servant is actually God says, I will do these things. And so what happens is God comes to earth and he does these things in the person of Jesus. That's what we need to understand.
[00:25:49] I don't think most Jewish people, when Jesus came on the scene, thought that God himself would come to set them free.
[00:25:56] You see, that was a foreign thought to most of them. That's what we need to grasp. That's why they were having a hard time. That's why they thought Jesus was committing blasphemy, because he was identifying with the Father. That's when Jesus, at the end, when he was being tried by the Sanhedrin, he said, I see the Son of man coming in the cloud. Jesus was now identifying as the Son of Man. He was basically saying, I'm going to come back and judge the world. These guys couldn't handle that. They thought, you're a man. How can you be a God? But you see, that's the mystery of the Godhood, that Jesus is actually more than just a man. He's God in the flesh. That's the profound thing. But let me move on to the second reality. First of all, we have to understand the identity of the Messiah. That's Jesus Number two is the ministry of this anointed one. What did Jesus come to do? Well, he came to his people to fulfill God's purposes for all of humanity. Because human beings, we were in a condition of brokenness and pain apart from God. Listen, think about this. If Jesus had never come to this planet and died, can I tell you, our world would be so different. It would be shockingly different. Because first of all, no human being would be regenerated. I want you to think about how much evil that would be happening in our world. I don't even think we would have lasted this long. How many can see that? I mean, think about it. If you've been reading, following along on the Bible plan, you already read through the flood story where every man's thoughts were evil continuously and God finally had to describe the world except for one family that found grace in his eyes. Isn't that amazing to you? This is the world we'd be living in. But because Jesus came and because he opened our hearts and brought grace and healing and forgiveness into our lives, he changed the whole trajectory of the human race. This is so amazing to me. He begins by proclaiming good news.
[00:27:52] He's a messenger. He's anointed with this message, you know, and. And I think sometimes we underestimate the power of words.
[00:28:00] Do you realize words are so powerful? They bring hope and encouragement. They can comfort the brokenhearted. And yet every day we are being bombarded. I looked this up. They're estimating that the Average person hears 20 to 30,000 words a day. That's a lot.
[00:28:17] Now, in those words, I mean, some words are basically neutral. They don't really affect us much. But then there's some that are damaging. Others are insightful, helpful, maybe even encouraging.
[00:28:30] So in our world of high visual stimulation, I think we minimize the importance of words. How many say that's probably true? We think, you know, visual is far stronger than auditory. And so many times we minimize this idea of preaching. Now, when I talk about preaching, I'm not just talking about what I'm doing here today. I'm going to broaden the meaning here in a minute. But when we're preaching, we're conveying God's truths and enabling people to respond to God in a meaningful way. So why is preaching so powerful? Well, Paul says this in the Book of Romans. He said, how then can they call on the one whom they've not believed in? And how can they believe in the one in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
[00:29:19] What is he saying? Is someone communicating God's word to them? People need to hear the message. That's what he's saying here.
[00:29:28] Do you know something is transpiring as we are hearing God's message? You know what transpires when we hear God's word? Faith rises within us. Listen to what it says here. In verse 15, it says, and how can anyone preach unless they're sent? By the way, we're all sent. Did you know that the church is sent? He says, go and make disciples every One of us is sent. So we're all called to be preachers. You didn't know this, but I'm just getting paid to preach. You guys are still called to preach. There's a difference, but not much. We're all called to do the same thing. But look at what happens in verse 17. It says, Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message. And when we hear the message, it's through the word about Christ. In other words, King James says, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Faith comes to us as we're listening to God's Word. And that's why when we come together on a Sunday and we're hearing God's Word communicated to us, there's a transaction happening every single week. How many have noticed it? You see, God's word is being spoken by a communicator, but God's spirit is inside of you that are believers. And you're hearing God's Word and something's being activated inside of you. How many know that's true? So on Sunday, different ones of you are going to leave here today, and you're going to take different things out of this message.
[00:30:48] God's spirit's going to speak to you personally. He's speaking to you collectively, but he's speaking to each one of you personally. Something's made alive in your heart. That's faith arising within you. Faith. You know, your faith is being strengthened. Your faith is being stimulated. Your faith is being encouraged. You are being comforted and strengthened. Strengthened because you're hearing God's word being communicated to you. That's powerful. That's why as a pastor, I've encouraged you so much every day. How do you get to know God? You got to spend time with Him. It's not a method. It's not a methodology or program. It's actually spending time with God. How do you do that? Well, how do you spend time with God? You got to spend time communicating with him. Yes, you pray to him, but you need to hear back from Him. And that's where scripture comes into play.
[00:31:35] You and I need to communicate with Him. It's powerful. And our faith gets stimulated and grows. And then God's anointed was sent to bind up the brokenhearted. And here's the idea that these wounds needed to be bandaged up. And you go, well, how were they wounded? How were people wounded? Well, Isaiah uses a very powerful picture in chapter one, because the people had been disobeying God, they haven't been listening. So here's what Isaiah says. To them, woe to the sinful nation. A people whose guilt is great. A brood of evildoers. That's a nasty way of talking about people. But they weren't listening, and they were doing bad things. Children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel. They've turned their backs on Him. Now, that doesn't mean people have stopped, you know, doing religious service. These people were still going to temple or synagogue or whatever, but they were living private lives. They had turned their back on God and were doing their own thing. That's what he was basically warning them against. And then he says this. Why should you be beaten anymore? In other words, God was trying to discipline them, but they weren't getting it. Why do you persist in rebellion? That's God's response. God would stop disciplining you if he'd stopped being so rebellious. Your whole head is injured. Your whole heart is afflicted.
[00:32:48] From the sole of your foot to the top of your head. There's no soundness.
[00:32:52] Now, let me pause here. If you're a doctor and you're looking at a patient and you look at this person, you go, man, there's no soundness. This person's unhealthy. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet. This is a person in critical condition. How many go? That's probably true. Wouldn't you say that, Vic, you're here. Wouldn't you say that's probably a problem? Yeah, he's nodding his head up and down. Yeah, that'd be bad. Only wounds and welts and open stores. Not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil. In other words, there's been no addressing the problem.
[00:33:23] This is a person that's now in a medical crisis and they're in trouble. Then there's nobody addressing it. He says, that's your condition. Spiritually, you're like that person that's that in trouble.
[00:33:35] You're in that case. Okay, now with the arrival of the Messiah, what does Jesus say? I'm going to bind up. I'm going to bandage you. That's really what he's talking about.
[00:33:48] Rather, it speaks to all. So you know, he's going to bandage them up because they're in no shape to help themselves. The gospel is designed for people to. First of all, we have to recognize our true state. If we don't see that we have a problem, we're never going to become a believer. We're never going to get healthy. I mean, if you're in denial that you're sick, eventually you're going to drop dead. You have to admit there's a problem that has to be addressed. And it's Oswald again, says John Oswald. He says, rather, it speaks to all who are distressed and in trouble. Because who is the gospel for? Well, it's those that recognize their state of poverty, their state of brokenness, their state of unhealthiness, he says, who are in distress and trouble for any reason, including sin. As Jesus would say later, he had not come to announce good news to those who are comfortable and in control, but to those who were in deep trouble.
[00:34:47] So here's the good news. If your life's a mess and you're in deep trouble, you need a Savior.
[00:34:53] And you know, it's really hard to help people become a believer. You say, why is it so hard? Because people don't want to acknowledge they got a problem. You have to admit you're a sinner before you can get saved. You have to admit that you need saving before you can get saved. You have to admit you need a savior before you can be saved. So the great problem in our society today is when we rely upon ourselves and we trust in anything and everything but God, that creates problems in our lives.
[00:35:19] He goes on to say here to such persons, God's victory over all, that is holding them in bondage, is good news indeed. Well, God's anointed came to proclaim freedom for the captives and release of darkness for the prisoners. The idea is tied to the year of jubilee. So what's happening in the year of jubilee? Well, it's a restoration. Remember, they're being restored back to the land. Why is that significant in the Old Testament? Because the land represented God's presence. That's what we need to understand. God was bringing him into the land. They built a temple there. God's presence was there when God exiled them. He was really, in a sense, they were moving away from being in the presence of God. God. How many know that's the biggest problem in our lives? When we have a distance between ourselves and God, that's the problem. God says, but you know what? If you repent, I'll restore you. I'll bring you back to the land. And so this restoration process is so beautiful because it's the idea of restoring purity in our lives or peace or joy in our lives. God's forgiveness gives us a new beginning, new start to our lives. And in the book of Joel, again, another prophet who was warning against the people who had turned their back on God. And God was telling them, hey, you know, these locusts are going to come. Those locuses were actually armies, you know, this destructive force, this bondage, this captivity. But then when they repented, like most of the prophets, he comes back and says to them, hey, guess what? When this. When you do these things, God's spirit will be poured out on you. Isn't that neat? When we repent, God's spirit gets poured out on us. When we repent, God comes and lives inside of us. His spirit comes upon us. And Joel made this amazing announcement. He said, do not be afraid, land of Judah. Be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things.
[00:37:15] Salvation is God's mighty work. It's not our work. It's God's work. It's what God has done. It's what God does in people's lives. Notice the next two verses later. He says, be glad, people of Zion. Rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. What's he saying? I'm removing the curse. I'm bringing the blessing.
[00:37:41] See, you have to understand biblical covenant theology in a sense, because in the Old Testament, God made a covenant with these people. Said, if you will obey me, I'll bless you. If you disobey me, you're going to have these curses upon you. One of them was to be removed from the land. Ultimately, one of them was that the rains would stop falling. Remember the story of Elijah? You know, we read that story, we don't always have an understanding covenantally. Why Elijah could say there's going to be no more rain. Why he could say that was because they were violating God's covenant. And God said to them, I'm going to shut the rains off. I'm going to cut the heavens off. And then when Elijah prayed after they repented, what happened? The rains came back. Isn't that an amazing story? And that's why it happened, because they were now fulfilling their covenant. God says, if you will repent and turn to me, I will restore blessings back into your life. That's what he's talking about here. And then he says this. The threshing floors will be filled with grain. The vats will overflow with new wine and oil. In other words, there'll no longer be famine. There'll be plenty. There'll be prosperity. Verse 25. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. What is God saying here now? God says, not only will I restore, I'm going to restore what was taken from you. I'm going to bring back the good things you once had that you had lost. I'm a restorative God. I love this about God. God is in the renewal business. He's in the restoration business. If we'll come with him with our messed up, broken lives, God says, and you will humble yourself and call out to God. God says, hey, you know what? I'm going to restore you. I'm going to restore your life. I'm going, this is amazing. He says, I'm going to repay you for the years, the lost years that you've wasted. He said, I'm going to repay you for those years. I'm going to restore what the great locusts and the young locusts and the other locusts and the locust worms, my great army that I sent among you. I'm going to restore things to you.
[00:39:36] Wow, I love that.
[00:39:39] Okay, so I'm loving it. And you guys are just quietly sitting there going, you know, anybody else go, hey, if I've really messed up. And God says, hey, forgive. I asked God to forgive me. And he goes, I'm going to start blessing you now. I'm going to go, I'm signing up for this. God says, I'm going to restore what you lost when you were fooling around and doing all the wrong things. I'm going to begin to restore that. If you'll have the right action attitude. I'm going, this is amazing. This is good news. Anybody think it's good news? I think it's great news. Then he says, I'm going to comfort the mourners with a garment of praise. I mean, when you're mourning, it's hard to praise. You don't have the spirit of praise. But listen. He says he goes to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, the day of vengeance of our God. That's going to happen when he comes again to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
[00:40:46] Now I want you to think about those who mourn. Now, I think God wants to restore those who have lost people. I get all of that, but this is talking about mourning for sin.
[00:40:58] Jesus talked about that on the Beatitudes. He says, hey, listen, when you mourn, you're going to be comforted. And he's speaking primarily here of those who, as I said, mourn over their sin, but it includes those who have had losses. Andrew Davis explains the significance of these promises both to Israel and also to those who hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus. He said, the recipients of this good news are pictured as in a dead, desperate condition throughout this chapter. They're poor, brokenhearted captives, prisoners who mourn and are clothed with ashes and despair. They live in ruined cities, devastated by generations. Think about it. In the Old Testament, they were exiled for how long? 70 years? What was happening to the land? It was lying in ruins. That's what he's talking about. He said, they're disgraced and they were mocked by the other nations. They're plundered by robbery and injustice. They're experiencing all these negative things in their lives. It seems difficult to imagine how a verbally proclaimed message could achieve such a triumphant release and lavish enrichment. In other words, just the fact that there's an announcement that this is going to change. But this is precisely what the Gospel of Christ does. This prophecy of Isaiah would have been seen through the lens of the Babylonian exile and the restoration of the remnant to rebuild the promised land. But Jesus took these promises to an infinitely higher level.
[00:42:23] The true captivity that Christ came to destroy was the captivity to sin and to Satan. And that's why people weren't picking it up when he came. They were still locked into this old paradigm where they were just thinking about the land being restored and, you know, physical enemies being taken out. But how many know the spiritual enemies are the bigger problems in our lives? You know, you can be in jail and be free and you can be out of jail and be totally bound. What am I talking about? What's going on on the inside of us? There's a captivity that's inside of people. Some people are so locked into pain in their life, they're so locked into bitterness, they're so locked into unforgiveness, they're so locked into woundedness, they're so locked into offense that your brain is actually controlling it. It's like a circuit, little tape recorder going over and over and over and over again in your brain, telling you, you know, this messaging that's keeping you trapped inside of this jail cell of, you know, self hatred or loathing or anger or hurt or frustration. It's amazing what happens. But when you hear the Gospel of Jesus and he comes along and he preaches forgiveness when he talks about, you can Be set free. And you and I receive Christ's forgiveness. And we begin to forgive people, even though they don't deserve it. Because, folks, you and I don't deserve to be forgiven. And we all need to understand that. And we need to let all that garbage go and let the grace of God flood our hearts and lives and experience a joy that starts welling up within us and a peace and a hope that can sustain us through all kinds of things that this world will throw at us.
[00:43:54] He goes on and says, this proclamation of the Gospel sets captives free. So also, Jesus healing ministry was seen as a work of liberation from the power of Satan, the strong man who guards his captives fiercely. And then he goes on to say, when Jesus healed an older woman that was bent over for 18 years, bound by Satan, Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. Remember that story? He basically set her free. And Jesus is here today. He's here to do the same things. He's here to do what he did then. He's still doing it now.
[00:44:29] Let me move on to the last reality. It's the recipients who receive this ministry that's now entrusted to them. You know, God does not just do a work in us. God's desire is to do a work through us. And what work is that, Pastor? The same work he was doing. You and I are anointed. What does it mean to be anointed? The spirit of the Lord is upon me. The spirit of God is upon us. Is this amazing? So it's not just about you and I getting our sins forgiven. It's more than that. It's you and I being transformed on the inside out. And so the ministry and the life of Jesus flows out from us. You know, it's interesting as he keep reading down this restoration, what he's about to do, there's a New Testament metaphor that I want to bring out to us. And it's kind of powerful metaphor because it's the metaphor of the temple. Now you think about, why did these ancient peoples build temples? Because they believed that the gods lived in the temples. Right. And the Jewish people built a temple, even though Solomon knew that God could not be contained in the temple. And yet, in a very unique way, God said, yes, I will dwell in the temple. Remember that story? Yes, that's what it's about. But look what happens in the New Testament. This is so beautiful. Peter's writing to these believers and he says as you come to him, speaking of Jesus, the living stone, what does that mean? Jesus is alive and he's the stone. He's the foundation of the temple. Rejected by humans, of course. He was rejected by most. But chosen by God and precious to him. It says you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.
[00:46:11] What's he saying? Believers are now part of the temple. That you guys, you and I, are the stones that make up God's temple. Now it's a spiritual temple, but it's being built by people. Yeah. Holy priesthood. Offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen people. A royal priesthood. What does a priest do? Do you understand what a priest's function is? A priest is a go between God and humans. And every time you and I pray for someone, we are doing a priestly function. A. I don't know if you know that. Think about it. You're bringing somebody before God. You are interceding on behalf of this person and bringing them to God. That's a priestly function. And every time you share good news with people about Jesus, you're doing a priestly function because you're bringing God into this person's life. You're the mediator that's doing it. You're a priest at that moment. But we're now all called to be priests so that we could declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into this wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you're the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. He's talking about the people of God. So now let's take a look at what he's calling us to remember. I said Jesus is in the restoration business. So are you and I. We are in the ministry of reconciliation. We are in the restoration business. Look at verse four. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. Who did that? The people of God. God set them out of Babylon. He had Cyrus raised up. He sent them back to Jerusalem. What did they do? They rebuilt the temple. They rebuilt the city's walls. They rebuilt the city. They were in the business of rebuilding. Remember that? Stories. Many books of the Bible talk about that. What's our ministry? It's the same thing. We're in the rebuilding business, you say? What do you mean, Pastor? We're in the rebuilding business? Well, it's. You know, we're going to. It says these. These cities actually were devastated for generations. Then he goes on to say, strangers will shepherd your flocks. Foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. Why? In other words, you will be assisted. God will bring people around to assist the ministry. He wants to get done, even though they may not even be a part of the household of faith. But he goes on to say, say this, and you will be called priests of the Lord. See where Peter's getting his idea from? Peter's saying, look, this is what we're doing. We're the priests of the most high God. We have a royal priesthood. You will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. And what did that mean? That simply meant that God used, back in that time, he used the Persians to bring all the goods back to Israel to rebuild their land with that. Amazing. Read it very carefully. I have verses of scripture that actually say that here in a minute, instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion. Instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance. So you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
[00:49:15] I'm going to stop here. So much to say, but I'm just going to close with this thought because I shared it with the first service.
[00:49:23] You and I have an inheritance. Now you say, what's our inheritance? It's not earthly. You and I have a spiritual inheritance. You and I are heirs with Christ.
[00:49:33] You and I have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. You and I actually have joy. You and I have the spirit. You and I have peace. You and I have hope. You and I have love. You and I have all of these wonderful things that God's put inside of our lives. But I love this last statement. And everlasting joy will be yours. Well, when you have joy, this joy, where does that come from? Joy comes from God in the presence of the Lord. There's what?
[00:50:03] Fullness of joy? Everlasting joy.
[00:50:07] Do you know what?
[00:50:09] You and I, right now, humanly speaking, our physical bodies, we could not take the kind of joy that we're going to experience one day. These bodies won't handle it. Why don't you think about how much joy you're going to have?
[00:50:23] You and I have never known the joy we're going to have until we step into heaven. And at that moment, you're going to have a joy. It's going to blow you away, but you're going to have a body to handle it, because this body will not be able to contain the joy. Because at that moment, there'll be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more struggle with sin, no more temptation. We're going to be in the presence of the living God. Do you have any conception of what kind of joy that will be.
[00:50:52] You know what? When I think about it, I go, wow, I can hardly wait.
[00:50:56] You know what? You would never. Listen to me carefully. I know we have loved ones that we love and we mourn their loss, but let me tell you something. The joy they're experiencing, you'd never in a million years want them to stop having that joy.
[00:51:11] They're in the presence of the living God. There's so much joy there.
[00:51:15] Isn't that amazing? It's powerful. Why don't we stand?
[00:51:25] So a lot of ideas are coming at us, but here's the three ideas that I'm just basically trying to explain to us.
[00:51:33] Freedom and healing comes in a person, comes from a person, comes from the person called Jesus. It's not a program. It's not a method. It's not all kinds of things. I mean, God uses all those. Those are tools. But when we get locked into a tool and we forget the person, we're totally missing the boat. That's what I'm warning us. It's a person.
[00:51:56] Everything is designed to bring you to Jesus. That's what you got to hear. Number one.
[00:52:02] What did he come to do? He come to set us free.
[00:52:05] And maybe some of you here today say, you know, Pastor, I've been struggling with addictions in my life. I'm struggling with bitterness, unforgiveness. I'm struggling with hurt. I'm struggling with offense. I'm struggling with anger. You can blame anybody you want to. You can direct it wherever you want to, but it's killing you.
[00:52:22] You're a captive to those things. You need to let it go.
[00:52:26] You need to let all that junk go.
[00:52:29] Jesus came to heal you and free you.
[00:52:33] The truth frees you.
[00:52:36] And when you experience this grace in your heart, you will become a channel of that ministry, that ministry of grace and healing and freedom and love. It just flows naturally. It's not something you're doing. It's the work of God's grace flowing through you.
[00:52:56] And so, with every head bowed as we close in prayer today, how many here say, you know, Pastor, I'm listening to this. I realize my focus isn't on Jesus. It's on doing this or doing that or making this happen or doing that. I want you to focus back in. All the way back to Jesus.
[00:53:16] That's where it's got to go. He's the forgiver, he's the freer. He's the healer. He's the restorer.
[00:53:25] Where have your eyes been? What it's Been on my problems, Pastor? Yeah, I thought so. Oh, it's been on my struggles, it's been on my loss, it's been on this, it's been on that. But I want you to get your eyes on Jesus today.
[00:53:41] You see, Isaiah was preaching Christ. This is Christ in Isaiah. Jesus said. All of these things that Isaiah said spoke of me.
[00:53:51] Jesus said, I am the one.
[00:53:54] I'm the answer to your problem. I'm making it real simple because he is.
[00:54:00] Maybe you're struggling today with addictions or sin. Whatever the issue is in your life, I want you to just lift your hands and say, okay, Jesus, my eyes are on you now. And I'm just lifting whatever it is I'm struggling with to you. Just lift them up to him.
[00:54:17] I'm struggling with shame. I'm struggling with the fact that, I mean, I've done too many bad things. God can't forgive me or I just feel I can never get past what I'm struggling with. Just lift them to Jesus today. Just lift your hands, say, lord, I give them to you. My eyes are on you, Jesus. You're the hope that I need.
[00:54:39] Maybe you're struggling. I don't have any joy in my life, Pastor.
[00:54:45] I would just say, Jesus, you are joy.
[00:54:49] I've somehow allowed other things to impede this relationship with you. And so I have no joy or I've lost my hope. But my eyes are on you and I'm restored to you. I'm going to have all of those things. They come.
[00:55:04] That's what Jesus said. When you seek me first in my kingdom, all the other things will be given to you. I'll take care of it. So, Father, today you see our need, you see our cry, you see the pain, you see the mourning. Lord, I pray right now, Lord, that we would experience your anointed presence right now and meet with you.
[00:55:26] And that we would experience forgiveness and grace and hope and love and joy, sense of purpose and meaning.
[00:55:40] Lord, I believe that you are going to restore the things that the enemy has taken from us, Lord, in this year of the Lord's favor, this year of jubilee, we are proclaiming a year of jubilee, Lord, where we are learning to rest and trust you to do a great work in our souls, in our families, in our church family, in the churches, in our city, in our community, in our province and in our nation and around our world. Lord, we believe that you want to do a powerful life transforming work.
[00:56:18] And Lord, I pray, help us not to impede it. I pray, Lord, that we'll release our garbage, our baggage, our pain, our sorrow, our anger, our unforgiveness, our hurts, our offenses. And we thank you for it. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
