To Preach The Year of the Lord’s Favor

To Preach The Year of the Lord’s Favor

During briefing for the summer project we had times set aside where we were supposed to do our devotions. At that time i was reading through the gospels again and was on Luke. I like to write down in my journal verses that stick out to me and sometimes even whole passages. This passage in Luke 4:18-19. Just some context to this passage, Jesus has just went to Galilee where he preached and many accepted and followed him. He then proceeds to go to Nazareth and goes to preach in the synagogues. He stands up to read a passage from the prophet Isaiah, in which this passage is actually from Isaiah 61, read if you have time.

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Reading it again just now reminded me of what we, as Christians, followers of Christ, or little Christs, are to do.

It is through the Holy Spirit of God who has anointed, or chosen, us to preach the good news, the gospel, to the poor. Who are the poor? Im pretty sure its not talking about economically poor people but people who are poor in spirit, poor in the sense that things are not right with the world. Poor in shalom, the way things are supposed to be. He has sent us to heal the broken hearted, and trust me, there are tons of people in this category in college. He calls us to love them with the love of Christ. A love that was extraordinary and remarkable. So a love of a Christian should be EXTRA ORDINARY and ABLE to REMARK OF.

We need to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. There are so many people who are under the chains of sin. we all were or are slaves to sin, slaves to the things of this world. Slaving after grades, money, relationships, trying to please others, making ourselves feel good, running after things that we hope will satisfy us not knowing if they actually will.

Recover the sight of the blind. The gospel is giving sight to the blind, bringing people to see the glory of God and how wonderful He is and to the realization that He desires a relationship with you. The gospel is not the act of salvation, because the good news is talked about way before Jesus was born, in the time of Isaiah. The gospel is the glory of God, the awareness of His infinite love and holiness and the awareness of our infinite sin and need for Him.

To release the oppressed. There are 27 million people in slavery, 100 million homeless, 600 million in threatening shelters, what are we doing about it? If you believe in something, do it. We are called to release the oppressed as Jesus did for us. Love the people around you oppressed by the sayings of the world. oppressed by the view that they have to look a certain way to be accepted, to have certain grades to get a good job, to act a certain way to be loved. God loves for who we are and wants us to recognize our worth in Him, not the things that He created.

To Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Proclaim the Him and all that He is to everyone around you. If you believe in God, proclaim Him. If you love Him, tell others around you. People tell me all the time about how they love this food or that shoe because they love it. If we claim to be Christians who love God, let’s tell people. Let’s do it not only through our words, but our actions.

These two verses state pretty clearly on what we’re supposed to do as Christians. I was listening to this sermon recently and he made a very simple but convicting statement. If you believe in something, do it. Do you believe in giving to the poor? Do you do it? No? I guess you don’t believe in it. Do you believe that as a Christian you’re called to love others? Do you do it? No? I guess you don’t. Do you believe in evangelism? Do you do it? No? I guess you don’t really believe in it.

Do you believe in the goodness of a double bacon cheese burger? Do you eat it and tell people about it? Yes? I guess you really do believe in its goodness.

What i’m saying is that Christians think to much sometimes and come up with all these things that we “believe” but we can’t even do ONE thing that we say we believe in. I guess relates to not exactly directly to summer project but maybe moreso to living missionally, wherever you are and carrying out the demands of the Bible.The one thing I really loved about summer project was the fact that we were doing what we said we believed in and we basically did it on steroids. lol.

For His Glory,

Poonie