“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
To announce to the people of His hometown of Nazareth that He was the promised Messiah, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2. They were shocked at this, because they knew Jesus as the son of Joseph, the carpenter. The text gave His reason for coming to earth. As I read this, the thought came to me that I can take this personally. Jesus was talking to a group of people in the synagogue at Nazareth, but He was talking to me and you at the same time. I want to share with you that you can take this promise and all of the other promises of Jesus personally. He wants us to. Let me illustrate what I mean. We can take it personally that Jesus came to “preach the gospel to the poor.” You might be thinking that you are not poor, but being poor is not just a reference to people who are financially poor. Anyone who does not have Jesus as their Savior can be considered poor. In other words, Jesus came to proclaim the good news that God sent Him to earth to save people from their sins. In Matthew 1:21, the angel of the Lord explained Mary’s pregnancy to Joseph and told him: “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” We can take this personally. Jesus came to save us from our sins. We can take it personally that Jesus came to “heal the brokenhearted.” Who of us has not had his or her heart broken at some time in our lives? You might be brokenhearted over something in your life today. You can take it personally that the Jesus who saved you also came to heal your broken heart. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” You can take that promise personally and know that Jesus will give you rest from your broken heart. Whatever, or whoever, has broken your heart is not greater than Jesus. Take your broken heart to Jesus and He will heal it. We can take it personally that Jesus came to preach “deliverance to the captives.” People can be held captive by many things. There might be some prevailing habit or sin that they just cannot overcome. They try and try, but they are still held captive by that prevailing sin. People are held captive to many things, e.g., drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc. We can even be held captive by our dislike for a certain person. Whatever has you in its clutches today; remember that Jesus told you personally that He could release you from it. This would also apply to Jesus’ statement that He came to: “set at liberty them that are bruised (oppressed).” You can take it personally that Jesus came to give “recovering of sight to the blind.” Of course, He can heal physical blindness if that is His will, but all blindness is not physical. There is spiritual blindness as well. Someone has written that “there is none so blind as those who will not see.” There are people who are physically blind who can “see” better than those who refuse to see what God wants them to see. Jesus will help you to see what you need to see to make your life better. Jesus came to preach the“acceptable year of the Lord.” That meant that Jesus came to earth on God’s timing. We are still living in the “acceptable year of the Lord.” It is not too late. You can be accepted by Jesus today if you will just trust in Him and in His power to save and to restore. You can take all of this personally, because as 2 Corinthians 6:2b says: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” Jesus meant every word of this text and He meant it for you too, so take it personally. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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