Let’s Proclaim Liberty! (Part 2)

CAN you imagine, on a regular weekend service at your church, the preacher walks up to the pulpit, takes up a scripture, reads it and then gets back to his seat.

You probably prepared your mind to hear at least a 30 minutes to an hour of power packed sermon to motivate and keep you going. I’m sure the congregation will be filled with questions and want to know what went wrong. “Pastor, are you alright?” “Hope you are not angry with us.” “Didn’t you prepare your sermon?” “Oh no, looks like he’s in a bad mood.” And the list may go on.

When Jesus came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when He opened the book, He found the word, read it, and then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all those in the synagogue were fixed on Him. The people marvelled at His gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. They can’t believe that a carpenter’s son can preach like that.

Almost the same scenario but two different responses. Jesus’ short message made an impact. It’s not the length of the message that matters but its impact on the hearers. What actually made the people in the synagogue to be astounded at Jesus’ saying? Let’s see in Luke 4:16- 30.

Now, listen to the voice of Jesus declaring: “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 broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

I believe, when Jesus made this declaration, He actually took the scripture upon Himself and gave life to it by proclaiming the year of Favour (Jubilee) over the people. In verse 21, He said: “Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. Wow!

Do you have the faith to believe this? If you’ve heard it, then believe it. If you believe; you shall surely see the glory of God! The fulfilment of the scripture will be TODAY as you hear it with believe.

Friends, take note of this: The congregation that bore witness and marvelled at the gracious words of Jesus were the same people who transformed into a violent mob with a murderer spirit. They rose up to kill Jesus the next moment. Why? We’ll look into this sometime soon.

Anyway, Situations around us can change anytime or can go from bad to worst - the evil days are here. People are so zealous to establish their own righteousness and not submitting to the righteousness of God. But we have an obligation: Beloved, the word is near you, so proclaim it. Why wait? (Rom 10:8-13)

No matter what happens, perceive the Word of God with God-kind of faith and declare it as your own. My family and I are practicing this (making declarations) and seeing results. You say it, you got it!

Let’s declare: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me to preach; He has sent me to heal; I’m assigned by God Almighty to proclaim liberty to the captives, to liberate those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of favour. Amen!”

(to be continued)