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Jasper's First Baptist Church
"The Mission of the Savior" (Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-21
God enables Isaiah the prophet to listen in on the Messiah's own words as he describes His mission among us. It was Jesus he was overhearing, for our Savior spoke these very words in His hometown synagogue. Nothing has been the same since!
Locations & Times
Jasper's First Baptist Church
1604 4th Ave, Jasper, AL 35501, USA
Sunday 10:15 AM
As a soon-to-be new parent knows, everyone goes out of their way to tell you how a baby changes everything. Isaiah is doing the same thing, only the One he's speaking about is no ordinary baby!
First, Isaiah told us what to look for with the sign of the Messiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). Then he talked about the character of the Messiah, that "His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
Today, we're hearing another truth about our Savior and Deliverer, the mission of the Messiah.
First, Isaiah told us what to look for with the sign of the Messiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). Then he talked about the character of the Messiah, that "His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
Today, we're hearing another truth about our Savior and Deliverer, the mission of the Messiah.
Thirty years after His birth in Bethlehem, Jesus entered the synagogue in the town of his upbringing, Nazareth. Since visiting rabbis were customarily asked to read Scripture and teach the people, Jesus was handed a scroll of the word of God. As it happens, the reading of that day was the OT book of Isaiah.
There were no chapter and verse markings in the Bible in Jesus’ day, so when He opened the scroll, He found the passage He wanted to read. It was our text this morning.
There were no chapter and verse markings in the Bible in Jesus’ day, so when He opened the scroll, He found the passage He wanted to read. It was our text this morning.
HIS PURPOSE
Jesus was saying that He was given the greatest anointing in the history of the human race for one single purpose. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me" (notice the Trinity in this phrase?), "because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor." There it is, His goal, His purpose, His reason for coming. Everything else He does is gathered up in this driving, zealous motive.
THE RECIPIENTS
"He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor," says Jesus. The poor are the “humble, lowly, needy, or afflicted.” Jesus defines His ministry as helping people who are in trouble, people in bondage, people whose hearts are broken. And whose heart hasn’t been broken in this life? We live in an age of quiet despair.Jesus isn't looking for people who think they've got it all together, but for those who know they don't.
THE REMEDY
Good news is what our Messiah proclaims. What is this good news? The Gospel announces that Christ Jesus has won the victory over everything that’s against you. If you’ve committed what you think is the unpardonable sin; if you’re broken by your failures; if you fear that your chance in life is over—Jesus announces to you a life so altogether new and free that, if you understand what He’s saying, you’ll have difficulty believing it can be yours. You can because He has done it for you!
Back in the Old Testament, God was already hinting at this. He commanded that every 50 years, the trumpet should sound to introduce a special year called the Year of Jubilee, in which three wonderful things would happen.
First, all debts were completely cancelled.
Second, all slaves were set free. And,
Third, all land that had been mortgaged to someone else in order to pay a debt would come back to the family to which it originally belonged.
Do you know how often this happened in the history of the OT?
There in Nazareth, with all eyes upon Him, Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy about Himself. Did you catch the last part of what Jesus quotes from Isaiah? Believe me, everyone listening to Him that day in the synagogue caught it. Listen again: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim….(in v. 14 of Luke 4) the year of the Lord's favor.
That phrase was the Jewish nickname for the Year of Jubilee. When Jesus rolled up the Isaiah scroll and said the Messiah that Isaiah was describing was sitting in the room with them, in effect He was saying:
"What you cannot do for yourself and will not do for each other, I will do for you. God is ready to forgive all the debts to Him your sin has created. God is ready to set you free from the enslaving powers of sin and self that bind you. God is ready to restore to you the inheritance of eternal life with Him that was lost by your first father, Adam. Today, I am here to blow the trumpet to bring this in. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
This was the mission of our Messiah in your life. This is why He came. It is just that revolutionary, just that hopeful, and just that personal.
Jesus was saying that He was given the greatest anointing in the history of the human race for one single purpose. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me" (notice the Trinity in this phrase?), "because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor." There it is, His goal, His purpose, His reason for coming. Everything else He does is gathered up in this driving, zealous motive.
THE RECIPIENTS
"He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor," says Jesus. The poor are the “humble, lowly, needy, or afflicted.” Jesus defines His ministry as helping people who are in trouble, people in bondage, people whose hearts are broken. And whose heart hasn’t been broken in this life? We live in an age of quiet despair.Jesus isn't looking for people who think they've got it all together, but for those who know they don't.
THE REMEDY
Good news is what our Messiah proclaims. What is this good news? The Gospel announces that Christ Jesus has won the victory over everything that’s against you. If you’ve committed what you think is the unpardonable sin; if you’re broken by your failures; if you fear that your chance in life is over—Jesus announces to you a life so altogether new and free that, if you understand what He’s saying, you’ll have difficulty believing it can be yours. You can because He has done it for you!
Back in the Old Testament, God was already hinting at this. He commanded that every 50 years, the trumpet should sound to introduce a special year called the Year of Jubilee, in which three wonderful things would happen.
First, all debts were completely cancelled.
Second, all slaves were set free. And,
Third, all land that had been mortgaged to someone else in order to pay a debt would come back to the family to which it originally belonged.
Do you know how often this happened in the history of the OT?
There in Nazareth, with all eyes upon Him, Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy about Himself. Did you catch the last part of what Jesus quotes from Isaiah? Believe me, everyone listening to Him that day in the synagogue caught it. Listen again: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim….(in v. 14 of Luke 4) the year of the Lord's favor.
That phrase was the Jewish nickname for the Year of Jubilee. When Jesus rolled up the Isaiah scroll and said the Messiah that Isaiah was describing was sitting in the room with them, in effect He was saying:
"What you cannot do for yourself and will not do for each other, I will do for you. God is ready to forgive all the debts to Him your sin has created. God is ready to set you free from the enslaving powers of sin and self that bind you. God is ready to restore to you the inheritance of eternal life with Him that was lost by your first father, Adam. Today, I am here to blow the trumpet to bring this in. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
This was the mission of our Messiah in your life. This is why He came. It is just that revolutionary, just that hopeful, and just that personal.
But there is one question that is left hanging in the air by Jesus. In Isaiah 61, the Messiah says, "to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God."
What is the day of vengeance of our God? When Jesus read this passage at that service in Nazareth, He didn’t read those last words. Why? Doesn’t Jesus fulfill all these prophecies about the Messiah? Yes He does, but not at the same time.
At His first coming, He announced the year of our Lord’s favor. At His Second Coming, He will bring the day of the vengeance of our God, when the door of grace will be shut forever. There’s a gap in time between the first line of verse 2 and the second line of verse, and we’re living in that interval right now. It’s as if Isaiah looks into the future and sees two mountain peaks far away, one beyond the other. But he can’t see how much distance there is between them.
Neither can we. We don’t know how long the door of grace will stay open. It’s open this morning...for you! How great is the gain of those who have Christ? How great is the loss of those who spurn him? If you have never seen the supreme value of Jesus Christ, if you've never realized all that can be yours in Him, I hope you will seek Him and find Him and that the kindness of God will become yours now and for eternity.
What is the day of vengeance of our God? When Jesus read this passage at that service in Nazareth, He didn’t read those last words. Why? Doesn’t Jesus fulfill all these prophecies about the Messiah? Yes He does, but not at the same time.
At His first coming, He announced the year of our Lord’s favor. At His Second Coming, He will bring the day of the vengeance of our God, when the door of grace will be shut forever. There’s a gap in time between the first line of verse 2 and the second line of verse, and we’re living in that interval right now. It’s as if Isaiah looks into the future and sees two mountain peaks far away, one beyond the other. But he can’t see how much distance there is between them.
Neither can we. We don’t know how long the door of grace will stay open. It’s open this morning...for you! How great is the gain of those who have Christ? How great is the loss of those who spurn him? If you have never seen the supreme value of Jesus Christ, if you've never realized all that can be yours in Him, I hope you will seek Him and find Him and that the kindness of God will become yours now and for eternity.