Man With a Mission

Living in Maine is interesting this time of year, if you like to talk about the weather.  You might ask what is so interesting about cold and snow.  Well every year is different.   The amount of snow, how cold can it get.  One morning it was -26 at my house.   I fired off an e-mail to folks at work and someone responded back it was -32 at their house.  We have quite a bit of snow this year, but not anything like what we experienced last year.  Even though I am getting older I still like Maine in winter.  But I will be honest I have been looking forward to getting out and riding my motorcycle.  Maybe in another 3 - 4 weeks (i am optimistic).

Lately in our church we have shown and will be showing the movie Fireproof.  I cannot say enough about this movie.  It has touched and changed lives through it straight forward and honest message.  Well done, action packed, funny and romantic.  Its got it all.  I have been on the volunteer fire company for 20 years.  If you are a firefighter/rescue person the action scenes I found are very real.

Getting back to the topic of this blog which is to provide simple and straight answers from God's Word for those searching for a savior.  What better context than the passage that Jesus read in the synagogue, that we looked at last week in Luke 4:18, 19

18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
  
First of all this passage that Jesus read is from Is 61:1,2.  It is meant as a passage of prophecy, encouragement and hope.  And as we stated in the last post Jesus proclaimed that this prophecy was fulfilled on the day of His reading it.  Jesus was the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Lets look at it a phrase at a time.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me".  God's Holy Spirit the third person of the trinity has come upon Jesus.  We already saw that as Jesus was baptized.  The Holy Spirit descended like a dove.   Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus preached by the power of the Spirit Lk 4:14.  Why do we have so many references as Jesus begins His ministry to the Spirit.  To show that there is real power and authority involved in Jesus ministry.  That this is God's work, His Word and His promise being fulfilled.


"To preach the gospel to the poor".  Is the gospel really to be preached to only those who don't have a bank account, a house and car?  Are rich folks really excluded from the gospel message?  This doesn't seem to be the case given the crowds He preached to.  It would appear that within the context the poor are those who are poor in spirit.  They are downtrodden, discouraged and looking for hope.   The gospel of salvation is for them.

"He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted".  Again we could focus on the healing, as in healing the sick.  But we need to see that the healing is for the brokenhearted.  How many of our hospitals, nursing homes, institutions, apartments and homes are filled with those who are brokenhearted, alone and looking for healing from God.

"To proclaim liberty to the captives".   Some translations use prisoner here.  I like the NKJV because it uses captive.  Jesus did not go into the cities and towns commit a bunch of jail breaks. The idea here is someone that is a prisoner of war.  So what prisoners of war did Jesus free.  The war referred to here is a spiritual war.  The war that Satan has with God.   Satan has made us captive.  He has brought of over to His side.  How has he done that?  This is where the Gospel message becomes an offense to those who accept the lies and deceit of Satan.  We are captives because of our SIN.   Our rebellion against God, our choosing our own way, separates us from a relationship with God.  God is just, good and righteous.  We are selfish and sinful.  We saw with the temptation in the desert that Satan has dominion of this world at this time.  That is why the idea of sin is not a popular one.  If we acknowledge sin than we lose our self worth.  We become discouraged.  But Jesus is coming to proclaim liberty to the captives.  We are freed from our prisoner of war status through our acceptance of Jesus Christ as saviour.

"And recovery of sight to the blind"  Jesus did heal many of blindness.  But given the context of this passage, I think this really is giving sight to those who are blinded by the falsehoods of the prince of this world.  We can not perceive God and His salvation alone.  We need for Him through the Holy Spirit to make clear the gospel message.   Maybe you are reading the blog and saying what is he talking about, none of this makes sense.  In 1 Cor 1:21 it says "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe".  Please pray in faith that your eyes maybe opened to the truth of the Gospel.
 
"To set at liberty those who are oppressed;"  Finally we see that not only are we captive, we are oppressed.  Without a savior there is only a pretense of joy and satisfaction.  We joke around with our friends and say who really needs God, who really needs to be with Christians.   I don't need what they are selling.  But deep down inside you know that isn't true, there isn't any real joy in the things of this world.


I pray that your eyes will be opened, you will be set free and that you will be delivered from oppression.