Born to set Thy people free.

The Beginning of a New Life (Isaiah 61:1–11)

Introduction:

CHARLES SPURGEON ON JOY

“There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart. This blessed joy is very contagious. One dolorous spirit brings a kind of plague into the house; one person who is wretched seems to stop all the birds from singing wherever he goes . . . [But] the grace of joy is contagious. Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labor. Holy joy will beautify you and give you an influence over the lives of others.”

Isaiah 61:1–11

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the former devastations; they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. 6 But you will be called the Lord’s priests; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches. 7 Because your shame was double, and they cried out, “Disgrace is their portion,” therefore, they will possess double in their land, and eternal joy will be theirs. 8 For I Yahweh love justice; I hate robbery and injustice; I will faithfully reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their posterity among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are a people the Lord has blessed. 10 I greatly rejoice in the Lord, I exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth produces its growth, and as a garden enables what is sown to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

The Lord speaks (vv. 1–9).

Jesus quoted from this passage when He spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth, and He applied this Scripture to Himself (Luke 4:16–21). (Note that Isa. 61:1 names the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.)

However, He did not quote, “And the day of vengeance of our God” from verse 2 because that day is yet to come (34:8; 35:4; 63:4).

The background of this passage is the “Year of Jubilee” described in Leviticus 25:7ff.

Every seven years, the Jews were to observe a “sabbatical year” and allow the land to rest.

After seven sabbaticals, or forty nine years, they were to celebrate the fiftieth year as the “Year of Jubilee.”

During that year, all debts were canceled, all land was returned to the original owners, the slaves were freed, and everybody was given a fresh new beginning.

This was the Lord’s way of balancing the economy and keeping the rich from exploiting the poor.

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are living today in a spiritual “Year of Jubilee.”

You have been set free from bondage; your spiritual debt to the Lord has been paid; you are living in “the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Instead of the ashes of mourning, you have a crown on your head, for He has made you a king (Rev. 1:6).

You have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and you wear a garment of righteousness (Isa. 61:3; 10).

In her days of rebellion, Israel was like a fading oak and a waterless garden (Is. 1:30),

but in the kingdom, she will be like a watered garden (Is. 58:11)

and a tree (oak) of righteousness (Is. 61:3).

But all of God’s people should be His trees (Ps. 1:1–3), “the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (Isa. 61:3).

Ps 1:1–3.

1 How happy is the man

who does not follow the advice of the wicked

or take the path of sinners

or join a group of mockers!

2 Instead, his delight is in the LORD’s instruction,

and he meditates on it day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted beside streams of water

that bears its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

The Scriptures (Luke 4:14–30)

Isaiah 61:1–11

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the former devastations; they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. 6 But you will be called the Lord’s priests; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches. 7 Because your shame was double, and they cried out, “Disgrace is their portion,” therefore, they will possess double in their land, and eternal joy will be theirs. 8 For I Yahweh love justice; I hate robbery and injustice; I will faithfully reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their posterity among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

The events recorded in John 1:19—4:45 took place at this time, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke did not record them.

John the baptist baptizing

Jesus choosing His first disciples

Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael

Jesus changes water to wine. John 2.

Jesus clears the temple John 2:12.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus John 3:1

John the Baptist's testimony about Jesus. John 3:22

Jesus talks with a Samaritan womanJohn 4:1

Jesus heals the officials son. John 4:43

Matthew, Mark, and John moved right into the Lord’s ministry in Galilee, and Luke alone reports His visit to His hometown of Nazareth.

By now, the news had spread widely about the miracle-worker from Nazareth, so His family, friends, and neighbors were anxious to see and hear Him.

Attending public worship. Luke 4:16

It was our Lord’s custom to attend public worship, a custom His followers should imitate today (Heb. 10:24–25).

He makes His way on the Sabbath to the place of prayer.

A typical synagogue service opened with an invocation for God’s blessing and then the recitation of the traditional Hebrew confession of faith (Deut. 6:4–9; 11:13–21).

This was followed by prayer and the prescribed readings from the law and from the prophets, with the reader paraphrasing the Hebrew Scriptures in Aramaic.

This was followed by a brief sermon given by one of the men of the congregation or perhaps by a visiting rabbi (see Acts 13:14–16).

If a priest was present, the service closed with a benediction. Otherwise, one of the laymen prayed and the meeting was dismissed.

Jesus was asked to read the Scripture text and to give the sermon.

The passage He read included Isaiah 61:1–2, and He selected it for His “text.”

The Jewish rabbis interpreted this passage to refer to the Messiah, and the people in the synagogue knew it.

You can imagine how shocked they were when Jesus boldly said that it was written about Him and that He had come to usher in the “acceptable year of the Lord.”

The reference here is the “Year of Jubilee” described in Leviticus 25.

Sabbatical years.

Every seventh year was a “sabbatical year” for the nation, when the land was allowed to rest, and every fiftieth year (after seven sabbaticals) was set apart as the “Year of Jubilee.”

The main purpose of this special year was the balancing of the economic system: slaves were set free and returned to their families, property that was sold reverted to the original owners, and all debts were canceled.

The land lay fallow as man and beast rested and rejoiced in the Lord.

Jesus applied all of this to His own ministry, not in a political or economic sense, but in a physical and spiritual sense.

He had certainly brought good news of salvation to bankrupt sinners and healing to brokenhearted and rejected people.

He had delivered many from blindness and from bondage to demons and disease.

Indeed, it was a spiritual “Year of Jubilee” for the nation of Israel!

The problem was that His listeners would not believe in Him. VS. 22-30

They saw Him only as the son of Mary and Joseph, the Boy they had watched grow up in their own city. Vs. 22

Furthermore, they wanted Him to perform in Nazareth the same miracles He had done in Capernaum, but He refused.

That’s the meaning of the phrase, “Physician, heal thyself.” Do a miracle! Vs. 23

At first, they admired the way He taught, but it didn’t take long for their admiration to turn into antagonism.

Why? Because Jesus began to remind them of God’s goodness to the Gentiles! Vs,s 24-30

The prophet Elijah bypassed all the Jewish widows and helped a Gentile widow in Sidon (1 Kings 17:8–16),

and his successor Elisha healed a Gentile leper from Syria (2 Kings 5:1–15).

Our Lord’s message of grace was a blow to the proud Jewish exclusivism of the congregation, and they would not repent.

Imagine this hometown Boy saying that Jews had to be saved by grace just like the pagan Gentiles!

The congregation was so angry, they took action to kill Jesus! Vs. 28-30

St. Augustine said, “They love truth when it enlightens them, but hate truth when it accuses them.”

This applies well to many congregations today, people who want “gracious words” (Luke 4:22)

but who don’t want to face the truth

John 1:17

17 for the law was given through Moses,

grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:

In spite of the unbelief of the people in Nazareth, the Scriptures declared that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Son, the Messiah sent to fulfill His promises.

The people who do not want Him and who reject “the acceptable year of the Lord” will one day face “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isa. 61:2).

How significant that Jesus stopped reading at that very place!e!