Are you in spiritual or physical poverty, captivity, blindness, or oppression? Jesus is your freedom - your release.

Hey GCT!  If you showed up one day and saw that Jesus was preaching at your place of worship what do you think he would be preaching about?  This week we have Jesus’ first documented sermon in the New Testament that He spoke back in His home town of Nazareth to a packed house.  At this point Jesus had a great, encouraging, glorified ministry of teaching respected by all but that was about to change.

In Luke 4:17, Jesus picks up the Old Testament scroll of Isaiah and reads a reference in chapter 61, about the Old Testament Jubilee year that Israel was commanded to enjoy every fifty years.  The Old Testament year of Jubilee was also called “the year of the Lord’s favor.”  During the Jubilee year you would rest from all of your own labors and your own efforts to allow God’s goodness to lead you and feed you.  It was a year that joyfully all the captives and the oppressed would be set free, you would with great joy redeem what was lost and you would sacrificially help others redeem what they had lost.  It was a great year of Jubilee!!

Jesus then declares to all the Jews in the local Nazareth Synagogue where HE was teaching that day that He is the fulfillment of the Jubilee - He basically said I AM THE JUBILEE!  I proclaim this good news to all who are poor physically and spiritually, to all who are held captive by sin and physical chains, to all who are physically blind and spiritually blind, to those who are spiritually and physically oppressed.  I proclaim to you that I have come as the living Jubilee to SET YOU FREE!  Once and for all!  I have come to get you to rest from your own efforts and trust me to be your eternal provider and rescuer.

Church, what holds you captive?  What holds you in chains? Do you seek freedom from your sin?  Are you spiritually blind needing sight?  Do you see Jesus as Lord?  Do you reject God’s Word?  What oppresses you?  Are you spiritually shattered by hard experiences?  Are you dominated by spiritual forces of evil?  Jesus is your Jubilee.  He is an eternal Jubilee.

JESUS HAS COME TO SET YOU FREE - TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY, FREEDOM, RELEASE - TO PROCLAIM THAT HE IS YOUR RELEASE!

Let Jesus be your JUBILEE!  Ask Him to set you free from even that  ___________.

I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday.  With great Love in Christ - Steve