The Good Good News
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Isaiah lived in a time when everything supposedly was nailed down seemed to be coming loose. The country was divided and its division produced military struggle, false worship, weak leadership, internal confusion and external threat. Boy, does that sound familiar!
The people longed for relief and sought answers for the questions they had. God called Isaiah to help the people find their hope in God. Isaiah sought and found cleansing for his own sins and responded to the call of God to be His spokesperson. Isaiah said the words we have recorded in ,
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah not only shares with the people of Judah God’s redemptive plan, he demonstrates as God’s messenger that everyone needs to be told of God’s redemption. Isaiah reminded the people of Judah that God’s redemptive plan included the Messiah to give us our needed salvation and to walk with us through life’s experiences.
There are many glimpses of the promised Messiah in the Book of Isaiah. We hear them lots during this time of the year. For example that beautiful passage from
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
However, we rarely hear the passage which we will study today. It is one verse packed with good news. Listen to :
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
In this one verse that mentions the good news, let’s examine the giver of the good news, the gift of the good news and the grace of the good news.
The Giver of the Good News
The Giver of the Good News
The giver of the good news is God Himself. In fact, in this one verse we see evidence of the Trinity. We see the Sovereign Lord, the Spirit, and the Anointed One which is the Messiah mentioned here. God Himself, manifested in three parts, the Father, Son and Spirit give us the good news. The word sovereign indicates that God is the supreme ruler and authority. It means that He ordains whatever comes to pass and that His Divine purpose is always accomplished.
tells us He is gracious and full of compassion.
tells us He listens to us.
tells us that He has done marvelous things.
tells us that He is our bondage breaker.
We see in this passage that He anoints. The Anointed One is a direct response to Jesus as the word in the original text is the Hebrew word MASIAH.
We also see in this text that the Sovereign Lord, the giver of the good news, sends out those He has called to carry out His mission.
Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard.
says:
God sent His Son to also carry out His mission.
Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
The Giver of the Good News is a God of love and He desires for us to receive that love! We see that the Giver of the Good News wants His love to be preached to the poor. That is referring to those in poverty alone, but those who are in need of the faithfulness of God. The hardened man or woman my say, “I don’t need God because I am not poor. I have made a name for myself.” My dear friend when that is being said we must not forget Who created in us the ability to make a name for ourselves.
It is God who gives us all things. He gives us life, He gives us talents, He gives us the ability to choose, He gives us opportunities galore, but the greatest gift He ever gave us was His Son Jesus.
That’s Good News!
What a gift that is for each of us!
The Gift of Good News
The Gift of Good News
During this Christmas season, you perhaps will give a gift or two that will have very special meaning. Perhaps you may receive a gift or two that has a very special meaning. Sometimes it is a gift that we want and sometimes it is a gift that we need. The Giver of the Good News recognized that the gift He gave was one that was needed. The more I realize how much I needed that gift, the more I want that gift. You see, I am realizing more and more apart from Christ just how imperfect I am and how I need the gift of His redemption, love and mercy.
God gives to those who are in need, and oh my goodness does mankind ever need a Savior. Isaiah understood that the people to whom he preached needed salvation. Even today, there is not a person alive who does not need salvation. So God in His great plan, sent to us the good news. The good news is the gospel. It is a gift. In fact, it is the greatest gift of all. That is why when we hear in the Christmas story, the angels proclaiming to the shepherds in :
Luke
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Isaiah tells us what will happen when that Good News is received. He binds up the brokenhearted. Jesus came as a baby, He grew in wisdom and stature to bind up those of us who have been brokenhearted.
The word bind means to bandage and soothe. Jesus was sent to us to provide us a ministry of soothing and healing. This binding up is not like putting on a band-aid. It is not something that gives a temporary fix. Jesus came to put a permanent bandage on our hearts that is forever. Isaiah says He binds up the brokenhearted. The brokenhearted is a word that covers every human breakdown we have, anything that has caused us emotional depression or grief. The Lord is able to bind up the brokenhearted in a way that we are healed and restored. A wound is bound up so that healing can take place.
This is consistent with the Lord’s Sovereignty. In , the Lord tells the Israelites that He is “the Lord who heals you.” We are so fortunate that this same Lord remains today as the Lord who heals us! Jesus was born as a baby and grew in wisdom and stature, and according to , He bound up the brokenhearted.
Exodus
He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
He was also, according to our text from Isaiah, a deliverer. The Prophet Isaiah was speaking to the people of Judah during what was known as the Year of Jubilee.
Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
Leviticus
This beautiful prophecy was also proclaiming that for those who claim the Christ child as their Lord and Savior, have forever a spiritual year of jubilee each and every year! We are delivered from the captivity!
For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
You see, our sin buried us with no redemption. Oh how deep that grave is and how our sin separates us from a Holy and Righteous God! We are held captive with no hope on our own. Yet God in His mercy has given us the opportunity to be redeemed and delivered from the depths of the grave!
In one phrase, Isaiah shows us that the gift of Good News delivers us from captivity and in doing so releases us from captivity’s darkness.
Colossians
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
What a gift we have been given!
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
1
Jesus the light of the world, became for us the Good News!
The Giver of the Good News is the Sovereign Lord. The Gift of the Good News is Jesus Christ. Notice now, the grace of the Good News.
Jesus was delivered in a manger so He could relate to both princes and paupers. The feed trough for some cattle became a cradle for a king. Just like that manger was transformed from ordinary to extraordinary, we are transformed when we receive this good news in our hearts.
Jesus has the ability to identify with everyone about anything they face. How? Because He became flesh and made His dwelling among us. He was born in a stable with the humblest of beginnings. He understood poverty and what it meant to come into this world with that disadvantage. He came as a baby and grew in stature and was tempted on every level just like you and I. He was rejected. He was ridiculed. He was oppressed. He was abandoned by His closest friends. Several of His closest friends died. He experienced more physical pain than you and I could ever imagine.
Yet, Jesus understood what His Father was capable of doing. He took His Father at His Word. When the prophet spoke of the Good News, he knew that it was more than just a feel good bunch of words. It was truth and that truth is still truth today.
Jesus took the words of the good news from Isaiah, and made it His manifesto for His earthly ministry.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“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.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The grace of the good news is that this prophetic message spoken by Isaiah, was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Anointed One came as the Baby born in a manger. The Baby born in a manger became the Savior on the Cross. The Savior on the Cross returned to glory so that whosoever calls on His Name shall be saved. That’s Good, Good News!