Luke chapter four. And we'll pick up reading in
verse 16. Luke four, verse 16. And he came
to Nazareth. Where he had been brought up. We could stop right there and
talk about. the time before this, you remember, born at Bethlehem
and then Joseph being warned by God, by an angel, that Herod
wanted to kill the child instructing him to go down into Egypt. It
is an indication that Christ may have been as much as two
years old when this happened. The wise men had come a long
way. The shepherds came that night,
but for the wise men, they were months and months getting there. And also, Herod wanted to kill
the babies. He knew it had been some time.
He wanted to kill the babies two years old and under. So it
had been some time. Joseph is instructed to go down
into Egypt and was there for a time until the Lord again spoke
to Joseph and said, Herod's dead, you can go back now into the
land of Israel. So they return to Nazareth and
we don't hear anymore until Jesus is 12 years of age and you know
that story about them traveling to Jerusalem for Passover, and
he's left behind there in the crowd, and they have to come
back and get him at age 12. Then we don't hear any more until
age 30, 30 years old, when John the Baptist is baptizing, and
he points him out, behold, the Lamb of God. And so he has began
his earthly ministry, He has been teaching, preaching, going
into the synagogues around about the region, and now he returns
to Nazareth where he had been brought up. So he already has
a name as a prophet around the country, and he returns to Nazareth. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of them
all, and the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to say unto
them, this day Is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? And all
bear him witness, and wonder at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's
son? We'll stop the reading there
with verse 22. Now where we began in verse 16, He went into the synagogue, having
come to Nazareth, on the Sabbath day. That's Saturday. And that's what the Jews did.
That's when they met, on the Sabbath, in obedience to the
Old Testament. But when our Lord died and rose
again, Matthew 28.1 says, in the end of the Sabbath, as it
began to dawn toward the first day of the week. In the end of
the Sabbath, that was 6 p.m. Saturday. Remember the Jewish
Sabbath began at 6 p.m. on Friday. So in the end of the
Sabbath, 6 p.m. Saturday, it began to dawn toward
the first day of the week. Now that word dawn, it does not
mean daylight Sunday morning. But the word dawn is used there
means approaching the hour. as it neared 6 p.m. on Saturday,
in the end of the Sabbath. And this time, this time, this
time, it wasn't just the end of the weekly Sabbath. It was
the end of that Old Testament type of rest. That's what the
Sabbath was. It was a type. Christ is our
rest. He is our Sabbath. And so the
Old Testament Sabbath was fulfilled along with the other Old Testament
types, the animal sacrifices, the Aaronic priesthood, national
Israel as a type of God's elect, all that's gone. Our redemption
is in Christ, not in some ethnic background. Our sacrifice is Christ, not
some animal. Our high priest, our great high
priest, the book of Hebrews says, is Christ Jesus our Lord, not
some man with his collar turned backwards. Our rest is Christ,
not the seventh day of the week, nor the first day of the week
for that matter. And after Christ arose, the disciples assembled
on the first day of the week. You find that. John 20 and 19,
Acts 20 and 7, 1 Corinthians 16 and 2, the church, the believers,
assembled on the first day of the week. And so has the church
from then until now. Not to worship a day, no, but
to worship Him who rose from the dead on that day. Actually, Colossians 2, Paul
clearly says not to observe holy days or new moons or Sabbaths. He said those things were only
shadows of things to come, but the body is of Christ. So we
don't worship a day, Saturday, Sunday, or any other day. Christ
is our rest. Christ is our Sabbath. And so
here in Luke 4, it's before Christ died. at the beginning of the
earthly ministry, and along with all the others, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And we read here that he
was appointed to read and to speak on this particular day.
He stood up to read. That's how they did it. Then
they would read standing, and then they would teach or preach
sitting. So he's standing. And there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And then we read here that he
never selected a text by doing what some of you have
probably done, by opening the book with his eyes closed and
taking his finger and pointing him a spot to read. No, he didn't
do that. He didn't do that. But it says here in verse 17,
He found the place where it was written. He did this deliberately
to find this text. He chose these words to read. Verses 18 and 19. The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering a sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book, he hands
it back to the presiding minister, and he sits down. And it's time
now to speak about the scripture he's read. And the people are
very anxious to hear what he has to say about it. Verse 20
says, the eyes of them all were fastened on him. We'd say it
like this, their eyes were glued to him, is the expression we'd
use, listening very attentively. And then he spake nine words
about what he had just read. And these are in verse 21. He began to say unto them, and
here's the nine words he said, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. He told them plainly, this is
talking about me. The prophet Isaiah had spoken
this more than 700 years before Christ was born. And now Christ reads it publicly
in the synagogue, and says Isaiah was talking about me. You're
looking at the one Isaiah was writing about. So now for a few
minutes this morning I have three questions I'll ask and try to
answer for a simple outline of the message and what I want to
say today. Number one, what is it to preach the gospel? What is it to preach the gospel? Well, it is certainly not what
many parents teach their children. And you know that if you'll be
good, God will love you. And if you're bad, he won't.
Of course, that's basically the message for many pulpits today
and how wrong, how sad that is. But Christ is very clear here
about what it means to preach the gospel. In these two verses,
18 and 19, he spake the word preach three times. First in
verse 18, it's to preach the gospel. Further in verse 18,
it's to preach deliverance. And then thirdly in verse 19,
it's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now those are
not three different things, they're all one and the same thing. To
preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is to preach
deliverance. That is, to preach that there
is a deliverance to be had from the guilt and the power of sin. To preach the gospel, is also
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And I don't believe
I've ever heard anybody talk about this statement. To preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. That is a reference back to the
Old Testament year of Jubilee. If you read Leviticus chapter
25, you'll find that word Jubilee 15 times. And the word Jubilee means 50th,
50th. As a part of civil law in Israel,
God had commanded that every 50th year would be a year of
Jubilee, meaning several things. Deliverance. For one thing, land,
property, could not really be sold in Old Testament Israel.
It belonged to a family. It was given by God. It could
not be disposed of entirely. It could only be parted with,
with something like a long-term lease. I guess would be the nearest
way we'd say it to modern day. But in the year of Jubilee, that
50th year, it was to revert back to its original owner. So the
land could not be sold. The Lord said it's mine. It can't
be sold forever. But in that year of Jubilee,
mortgaged land was to return to its original owner. Another
thing in that year of Jubilee, debts were marked paid among
the Israelites. Another thing, if an Israelite
were so poverty stricken that he had sold himself into slavery
to another Israelite, he was to be set free in that year of
Jubilee. So the value of anything, a slave,
a land, the value of things was determined by how long it was
to the next year of Jubilee because the deal was off then. Everything
reverted back, was set free. It's liberation. All these liberating
laws pointed to the liberating power of Christ our Lord by His
work on the cross. And to make the picture clearer,
the exact time of the liberation was in that 50th year and it
was on the Day of Atonement. You can read all about that in
Leviticus 16. the one day of the year that the high priest
alone did any work. Well, Christ is our great high
priest. He's the only one who did any work concerning our being
liberated from sin. And on that day, he would offer
sacrifice for the entire nation. It was on that day that he went
behind the veil in the tabernacle. Only day of the year he did this.
and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. And so this Jubilee,
it's the acceptable year of the Lord. It's the year God released
His people from all the messes they had gotten into in the last
50 years. Well, when Christ our Lord offered
Himself one sacrifice for sin forever by His own blood, He
did that to deliver us. He did that to liberate us from
all the messes we've got ourselves in in the last 6,000 years. See? So all that Old Testament
system points to Christ and His redeeming work. And Christ did
it, just like in the Old Testament, by offering a sacrifice in our
stead, only it wasn't an animal sacrifice. It was Himself, the
Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God. Jubilee,
every 50th year. It was also pointed to the joy
and the deliverance and the jubilee of Christ's work and the Holy
Spirit's coming in power. There was 50 days in between.
Told you it means 50th. It was 50 days from the resurrection
to the day of Pentecost when God poured out His Spirit upon
believers. You remember, He rose from the
dead, walked the earth 40 days, and ascended. Then after the
ascension, it was another 10 days to the day of Pentecost.
That's 50, 50th. Jubilee. So all this points to
Christ and His liberating work for you and for I. He had made
all for whom He died accepted with God. Not acceptable, but
accepted. Ephesians 1.6, He hath made us
accepted in the beloved. Today's modern gospel is that
all Christ did was make us acceptable if we'd do the rest. Uh-uh. No. The Scripture says He made
us accepted. Accepted. He did the work. The sacrifice of God's Son was
no potential means of redemption. It was certain redemption. He paid the price. It's a done
deal. And that's good news. That's
good news to me this morning, that my acceptance with God is
in what Christ did. And when He did it, me and all
His people, every generation, is accepted with God. This is the acceptable year of
the Lord. And Christ said, that's what
I come to tell you about. come to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. It's the one event when Christ
went to the cross, died and rose again. It's the one event in
the history of the world that truly made peace with God in
behalf of sinners. I hadn't done anything to make
peace with God. You say, boy, I have. No, no, you may have
cleaned up your conduct a little bit, but you hadn't done anything
to make peace with God. Oh, no. Our Lord did that. He did that for us. We couldn't
do it for ourselves. Nothing else has or ever will.
It's only what he did. That's the gospel. That's the
good news of Jesus Christ. And it calls for a verdict, a
verdict. Not that we do in order to be
saved, but that we believe. Believe. In Acts chapter 8, the
Ethiopian asked Philip, he said, why can't I be baptized right
now? Here's some water. Remember what Philip said? He never said, no, you've got
to do this, you've got to do that, you've got to do the other,
and all this kind of thing before God will even listen. No. Philip said, if thou believest,
Thou mayest. Let's get on with it. So that's
what it is to preach the gospel. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. That is when all God's people
were accepted. It was in His Son. Now the next
question. To whom is gospel preaching made
effectual? Well, here in verse 18, Christ
names five conditions that the preaching of the gospel is given
to minister to. And in this 18th verse, there's
five things. Number one concerns the bankrupt. Not bankrupt materially and financially,
but bankrupt spiritually. That's what is meant by the word
poor. He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He's not talking about them that
live on the poor side of town. Not that kind of poor. But poor
in spirit. Those with absolutely no righteousness
of their own with which to approach God. Those who have nothing worthwhile
with which to recommend themselves to God. That's me. That's you. It would amaze you to know how many people think that
because they're a better person than somebody else, that's going
to be worth something when they stand before God. Well, somebody else is not the
standard. Christ is the standard. Perfection,
sinlessness is the standard. And if you don't live up to that,
you're no better than anybody else. And not only are you not going
to live up to that, you were born not living up to that. Born
with a sinful nature. But people think like that. If you owed millions of dollars
to some creditor, It would be worth something if
you had just a few dollars to pay toward that. It wouldn't
be worth much, but it would be worth something. Well, with that in mind, see,
spiritually speaking, we owe billions. Never, never, never,
no way. Billions. And we have not won. red scent to go toward the debt
and can do nothing, can pay nothing. It's Christ or nothing. Christ
or nothing. And this is the good news. He
paid that debt, not just a down payment. He paid it all. He paid
it all. Isaiah the prophet that our Lord
just read from. He also said in the first chapter,
Isaiah 1, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow. This is good news to sinners
like me. It excites folks who have no
other hope but this. But now you that have been so
good through the years, and the Lord is so lucky to have somebody
like you, this don't excite you. This won't mean anything to you. This good news is for desperate
sinners. Most folk think they're not so
desperate. Think we've got a few bonus points built up that we
can cash in some day. No. A lot of folks think this
morning that you don't need Christ as much as that man lying in
the gutter or that woman walking the street this morning. Christ said, I've come to do
something for the bankrupt. I'm here to bless them that can't
bless themselves. are the poor in spirit." Those
who can make no contribution, whatever, toward acceptance with
God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And he said, that's who the kingdom
belongs to, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Christ says, I'm not saving any
folks that can work this all out. I'm here for them that have no
hope without me. That's who I'm here for. The
whole need not a physician, but them that are sick. And he went
on to tell them in verse 23, down in verse 23, he said, you're
going to throw this back at me, that I'm the physician of souls.
And they did. When he was on the cross, he
saved others himself. They did not realize that by
his dying, that's exactly what he was doing, was saving others
by his dying. Not only bankrupt, but second
here in verse 18, he said, the broken hearted, he has sent me
to heal the broken hearted. Not broken hearted over some
frivolous something in this world that you wanted and didn't get. Not broken hearted because everybody
don't do what we think they ought to do. But broken hearted over
sin. Sin. One's own sins. Not somebody else's, but broken
hearted over one's own sins. If there's anybody here this
morning, if there should be just one here this morning, broken
hearted. over your sin, God will save
you. He came to heal the broken-hearted. And those He don't are never
really broken-hearted. Thirdly, these bound in sin,
captives to sin, He says to preach deliverance to the captives. Those behind bars, as it were,
bound up in sin. And this preaching is not to
tell them how and when to try to make an escape effort. No,
no. But preaching the gospel is to tell us that Christ has
removed the bars, and in Him we walk away free. Thy sins be
forgiven thee. And fourth, he mentioned the
blind, still in verse 18. Bankrupt, broken hearted, bound,
and blind. He said, and recovering of sight
to the blind. Well, who is that? Not physically blind. Who is it? We all know lots of
folks materially prosperous and physically healthy, but spiritually blind. You say, well, so-and-so is not
blind. They've heard the truth. They know the truth. Well, hearing it audibly and
knowing it mentally does not open eyes. How many people this morning
that you know, what about you and people you know, how many
would be told for certain that they had cancer and not immediately
consult a physician? Well, how many would be told
for certain they have no hope without Christ? and yet ignore him and go on
about their business. Millions do it. They're blind
unless and until God opens their eyes. And filth the bruised. He says to set at liberty them
that are bruised. Of course, he's not talking about
bumping your arm or your shin on something or getting a bruise. Oh no, not that. But the word
bruised here means Crushed by calamity. Beaten up by sin. Not innocent folk. Not those
who have always made the grade, but bruised. As Satan's victim. As having fallen prey, bruised
by sin. He's talking about those of you
that haven't exactly been perfect. You've made some mistakes along
the way. Christ says it's your kind I
came into the world for and it's your kind I died for. Third question, has the gospel
preached ever had an effect on you. Say, well, I really like that
one preacher. Somebody else says, well, I never really cared for
that other preacher. We're not talking about personality.
We're not talking about mannerisms. We're not talking about intelligence.
We're not talking about looks. We're talking about the message
of the gospel of Jesus Christ who came into this world and
died for the likes of you. Do you know that? Do you believe
that? Do you need him or do you don't? Now that's good English. Do you need him or do you don't? You see, if some preacher impresses
you, you can like it. and walk away and forget about
it until the next time you want to be a little entertained. But if the Spirit of God impresses
you, opens your eyes, brings you to look to Christ, you'll
never walk away and never want to. That's the difference. A lot of folks say, oh, I believe
in God. So do the multitudes in hell. And they believed in him, they
believed in him in this world before they got to hell. Believing
in God is not the issue. Believing God is the issue. Abraham,
the scripture says, believed God. And it was counted to him
for righteousness. Abraham believed God, not just
in God. And Isaiah asks in that great
53rd chapter, who hath believed our report? What report? The report that he's giving about
God's Son, about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who hath believed it? When the weather forecaster says
it's going to get down to zero, and I hope that's no time soon,
but when he says that, You ladies will go out on the porch and
bring in a flower pot, and you men, if you've got any sense,
will check the antifreeze in your vehicles and all this kind
of stuff. Why do we do that? We believe the report. It might
not happen, but we believe the report. Do you believe God's report this
morning? Do you believe God's report? If you do, quit trying and start
trusting. If you believe it, you'll quit
thinking, if I do better, God would help me. No, just believe
and He'll help you. Where you are right now. He said
you're the kind He came for. Oh, you ought to do better. But
you can't do better in order to believe. Just believe, and
He'll help you to do better. The crowd that heard this from
Christ's own lips here at Nazareth came on down in verse 22, and
they said, is this not Joseph's son? They said, this is not our idea
of a Messiah. We'd heard some little rumors
that this might be Him, but no. No. They couldn't believe. They couldn't believe. You read
on down through this passage and he speaks clearly about election,
Elisha and Elijah. This crowd got so worked up they
took him out of town and was going to kill him. That's what
happens when those who don't need Christ hear the gospel. I need Him this morning. I need
Him. This whole business, the religious
world that we're in, and I don't say this to be smart, but I'm
telling you, the whole business is in vain unless God opens eyes. Opens eyes to see oneself and
to bring one to cease trusting in self. and trust in Christ
and rest in Him. Oh, may He have favor, may He
grant grace, may He grant faith to some heart today. This is
what it's all about. This is who He came for. I'm
glad I'm in this number. Bless His holy name. Bow with
me. Our Father, we bow in thanksgiving today for Your presence, for
Your precious Word that we've read and spoke from. We thank
You, dear Lord, for the truth of it. And we would ask now for
every heart in this place today, would You be merciful? Would You be gracious
to us? And would You cause each one
of us to hear Thy precious Word? and to confess what we are. Not what we'd have others think
we are, but Lord, what you know we are. To be honest and open
with you. Bring us to that, Lord. We'll die hypocrites if you don't.
But bring us to that, Lord, to be honest with you. and then
be merciful to us in our sin. Point us to that fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, that we may plunge beneath
that flood, lose all our guilty stains. Thank you, dear Lord, for this
day Bringing each one this way, we thank you for those visiting
with us. We pray a special blessing on them. Keep us all, Lord, until
the next appointed time. We'll praise you for it in Christ's
lovely name. Amen.