Isaiah 61:1-3

you have your Bibles with you take them and open them to Isaiah chapter 61 we're gonna be looking at three verses this morning out of Isaiah have you ever wished that you could go back in time and be a part of or witness an historical event I don't know if you're like me but I think about things like that I think about going back in witnessing these great things I had a good friend growing up that he would let you know that he wished he could go back to the Alamo with automatic weapons and be a part of that experience he was a was a Texas history buff and he loved the the story of the Alamo and the courage and the bravery and you know that was that was one of his desires and we used to talk about those type of things but as I became a believer and began to read God's Word there are so many things that I wish that I could go back and and see with my own eyes I would have loved to seen Adams face when he saw Eve for the first time I'm like most kids I would have loved to see Noah's Ark but I am a man I would have liked to seen Samson kill a thousand men with a jawbone of a donkey I'd like to seen David slay Goliath but for me if I had one choice to see one event I think it would be a New Testament event and it would be found in Luke chapter four you don't have to turn there because Jesus is going to quote the text that we're going to talk about this morning but in Luke chapter 4 Jesus is going to begin his ministry and he's going to begin his ministry by quoting the text that we're gonna read today and I wish that I could have been there and understood the weight of what he said that day he came back to Nazareth after his baptism after his temptation he comes to Nazareth and it says that it was Jesus custom to enter the synagogue and stand up in front of all those there and read when that have been an amazing thing to actually see Jesus and the synagogue reading the scriptures that testified about him and that particular day a scroll was given to him it was the Isaiah scroll it wasn't the Bible but it was a scroll and he worked his way to the place that we come today Isaiah chapter 61 and when he finished reading he gave the scroll back to the attendant and he set down in in those times what you would do is you would stand up at the reading of God's Word and then the one that read God's Word would set down and then he would begin to discuss the word that he just read but today was a different day they were not going to discuss the scriptures Jesus was going to tell them something very significant about the text that he was reading that day he says this about the text in Isaiah he says today as you listened this scripture has been fulfilled what an amazing place to be that particular day and it says in verse 22 that everyone was speaking well of him everyone was amazed at what he had just said the gracious words that came from his mouth you see people in that synagogue knew who was talking in Isaiah 61 if you look in your Bibles there may be a heading in front of the one it may say the Messiah's Jubilee or it may say the servants Jubilee but they knew that 61 was the Messiah speaking and they were amazed at Jesus but then they began to think this is Joseph's son this can't be the Messiah this is Joseph's son Oh to have been there and understood that Jesus was the Messiah that day and to understand the words that he spoke this is the beginning of Jesus ministry his earthly ministry and what he does that day is that he lays out his mission statement right there right at the very beginning he tells people what his purpose in life is most of the time a mission statement refers to a business or a group and it's just a purpose statements and that's exactly what Jesus does it is a formal declaration of his core purpose and his core purpose and focus in life it is why he exists it is his goal and so this morning we're going to look at Jesus mission statements and we're going to see seven aspects or seven purposes of his mission statement and then we are going to see how we as the church should respond to Jesus mission statement my prayer is is that we will not be like those in Nazareth but that we would be people that understand exactly what Jesus came to do and we would respond in obedience to him let's read the text in Isaiah 61 verses one through three the Spirit of the Lord God is on me because the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted he has sent me to proclaim Liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of our gods vengeance to comfort all who mourn to provide for those who mourn on Zion to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes festive oil instead of mourning splendid clothes instead of despair and they will be called righteous trees planted by the Lord to glorify him so this is Jesus mission statement how do we know that well the text tells us in a very subtle way how we know that this is Jesus life purpose first off it says that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him now in the Old Testament when the Spirit came upon you it came upon you too to bring action let's take Samson for example God wanted to communicate to the Philistines and so it said the Spirit of God came upon Samson and he smote a thousand Philistines there is always an action when the Spirit comes upon you and so Jesus says the Spirit is on me and I have a purpose from God the Father and then it says that the Lord has anointed me the Lord has anointed me what Jesus is saying here is it's really what the word anointed means in in the in the ancient times it meant to smear or to rub oil on someone for the purpose of consecrating them for religious service so Jesus says the Spirit is on me it has given me direction and God has anointed me for a purpose for service and so we know from the text Jesus was filled with the spirit the spirit was on him and he was anointed and he had a purpose and his mission statement was his mission for life and so he goes on to tell us what this mission statement looks like he says the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news your translation may say preach okay whatever your translation said that's that was Jesus mission to bring it to preach it to live it to live the good news so the central theme of Jesus mission statement is the good news now when you go to the New Testament you hear the word gospel that's the Greek that's the Greek word for good news good news means gospel so when you go to the to the New Testament you find the first four books in the Bible those are called the Gospels of Jesus Christ that's the good news Jesus came to live that and to bring that to people and what is the significance about this good news listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 he says I'm not ashamed of the gospel I'm not ashamed of the good news because it is God's power to save Jesus mission was to bring the good news and that good news is the power of God to save people and it says first to the Jew also to the Greek so Jesus came to save that was his purpose his name even means God saves so that was his life purpose to bring the good news and all six other parts of his mission statement are contingent upon the good news this is the most crucial part Jesus was gospel centric it was at the center of all of his thinking and all of these other purposes fall out of that gospel look at the second thing that Jesus says in the text he says I came to preach the good news but he says God has also sent me to heal the brokenhearted when we bring the good news there is a variety of things that happen and one of those things that happen one of those purposes of Jesus was to bring the good news so that people's hearts broken hearts were by where it were binded back together they were put back together they were healed they were made complete when we look in our world even look in our church amongst believers heartbreak is everywhere Jesus says my mission my core mission is to bring the good news and to take people's brokenness their broken hearts and to fit them back together and to make them whole again Malachi 4:2 says this but for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go out and playfully jump like a calf from a stall the kind of healing that God wants to bring through the gospel it says that he's bringing healing in his wings and you're gonna be like a calf that jumps after coming out of a stall there's this playfulness there's this joy again Jesus came to put the heart back together so that there could be joy Psalm 107 verse 20 it says that he sent His Word to heal them and deliver them from their destruction the Gospel message has healing the Gospel message heals people delivers people third part of Jesus mission statement he says I came to set captives free the message heals but the message also sets people free your translation may say free from darkness the prisoners you know when you think about this world you think about a world that is that it's captive to sin it is captive to darkness it is captive to false things and when Jesus came he came for a reason he came to set people free and to shine light Matthew 4 verse 16 it says the people who set in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sit in the region of shadow shadow and death light has dawned again that's a passage about Jesus Christ when he came he came to bring freedom and he came to bring light you know this verse gives me a lot of hope I've been discouraged for about two weeks and this verse has just played in my mind over and over and over I got a chance to go visit with my granddad a couple of weeks ago he's been ill and my granddad lives next to my mom just to give you a little history lesson my mom abandoned me and my father went when I was five years old she moved to you know several mile you several hundred miles away and she has lived a broken life she's lived a captive life she's lived a dark life she has used drugs she's been in review abusive relationships and those relationships have made her very paranoid and when I pulled up to my granddad's house I could not park in front of his house I had to park in front of my mom's house because there was too many cars in the way and when you pull up to the house you look at her house and you see something very disturbing you see bars on the windows bars on the doors fences locks you see these thick Indian blankets over the windows blocking out the Sun and I want to tell you that it the physical picture is the spiritual picture it is one and the same and as I stepped out of the car I saw her pull back the blanket look at me and then shut it my discouragement comes from this how much brokenness how much darkness how much guilt and how much shame must she be living with that she would not open the door and come out and talk to me this verse gives me hope because Jesus came to set the captives free that's what the gospel does that is the only hope that I have that is the only hope that we have in this life the gospel sets people free from darkness and from sin that was Jesus message that was his message to that church in Nazareth I have come to set people permanently free from Darkness the fourth thing he says he says I came to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor now this is a reference back to an event that would happen every 50 years called the year of Jubilee you can find it in a lava takus chapter 25 you know that every seven years there was a Sabbath rest but when there were seven groups of seven Sabbath's that's forty-nine years on the fiftieth year they would have a year of Jubilee and this year was similar but different from the normal Sabbath the the normal Sabbath men all the Israelites would get to rest for a year and the land that got to rest but in the year of Jubilee there were some additional perks that happens here was the central theme of that debts were canceled if you owed financially to someone that debt was canceled if you leased out land because you needed to make money that land no matter where that lease was came back to you if you were an indentured servant you were freed and so Jesus said I came to bring a Jubilee and it's a year of Jubilee it's a year of the Lord's favor you are in a favorable condition to have your debts forgiven and your sin cancelled it's an amazing amazing purpose that Jesus had and you ask yourself well how long did the Jubilee last well let me tell you this from the time that Jesus preached that in Nazareth until his second coming we have an opportunity to come to him and have all of our debts canceled and forgiven his year of Jubilee is a very long time but I want to tell you this it's not gonna last forever because Jesus became to proclaim that there can be forgiveness of sins there is this year of the Lord's favor but he also said I came to proclaim the day of God's vengeance now when you hear that that doesn't sound very good does it the day of God's vengeance okay doesn't sound very good but but think about it for just a second some day God is going to come and he's going to avenge every wrong that has ever been committed that means that every wrong that's been committed against you God is going to make that right Jesus is going to deal with every sin and every injustice and that ought to be comforting to us we don't have to live lives when we're trying to get revenge on people we don't have to wonder how it's going to happen because our God tells us I came to proclaim that there's a day coming where God is going to avenge every wrong now you might wonder does that mean believers - well let me say this the difference between a believer and the day of God's vengeance and an unbeliever that they have God's vengeance are very different things you see if a believer trusts in Christ puts their faith in Christ they have had the blood of Christ applied to their life the blood of Christ covers them Christ is has become their substitute and when God looks at you in judgment he sees Christ and you were found not guilty for those who do not believe in Christ this day of God's vengeance is a nightmare because God will judge them based on what they have done and it tells us in Isaiah that even our righteousness even the good things we do are filthy to God so this is good news from the perspective of a believer for an unbeliever it is a warning and it is a loving warning it is a part of the Gospel message that must be there that God is not going to tarry forever there is not always going to be favorable conditions to come to the Lord and have your sins forgiven and all of your debts cancelled it's a part of the gospel and it is good news for us Jesus also came to transform people's thinking look at verse 6 it says keep it not verse 6 so second half verse two Jesus says I've come to comfort all who mourn and I've come to provide for those who mourn in Zion Jesus came to transform our thinking about salvation you know in the Old Testaments you know a lot of times it's our tendency to think that that only Jewish people could be saved okay it seems how it was that was God's chosen people and it seems like the Gentiles were left out but in this text Jesus wants to transform our thinking he says I want to comfort all okay Jew and Gentile I want to provide also for those who mourn in Zion again this is a reference to Israel you know there are some that think that when the church came about that God forgot about Israel but he wants to transform our thinking he wants to say to everyone salvation the good news is comfort to all people Jew and Gentile and I'm not gonna forget my people Israel I want to tell you this God doesn't want to leave anybody out god does not discriminate there are some people that I have met that said why would God save me the Gospel message is meant to transform our minds and it helps us to understand that God came for everyone the gospel message is good for all people Luke chapter 2 starting in verse 30 Simeon is who is speaking in this and Simeon was in the temple the day that the Lord came to be circumcised as a little baby and he holds the baby Jesus and he says my eyes have seen your salvation you have prepared it in the presence of all people a light of Revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel Simeon understood the Gospel message he understood God's plan of salvation it was prepared in the presence of all people and it was going to be a revelation to the Gentiles that word revelation means to unveil to make something known that hasn't previously been known again there was that idea that the Gentiles didn't have a part in salvation Simeon says it's going to be revealed to them it's going to be revealed to them through the preaching in the Ministry of Jesus Christ and God is also not going to forget Israel so he came to transform people's thinking he also came to transform our thinking about mourning okay a lot of times we associate mourning with death death of a loved one death of someone close to us huge loss in our life the scripture tells us that that our greatest foe is death and I want to tell you that a life apart from Christ is a life of death it's a life of mourning here's what Jesus says the gospel transforms our thinking Jesus came to give us a crown of beauty instead of ashes festive oil instead of mourning splendid clothes instead of despair basically he's saying in our worst times our worst possible times in our life we don't have to mourn like those who have no hope we don't have to go around with ashes all over our head and in garments a sack cloth to show that we are mourning instead it says that we can have joy we can have festive oil again this has the idea of anointing someone out of joy there can be celebration again we know that that is the case early on in the church there was a lot of debate about what happens to Christians when they die and I think Paul told us in first Thessalonians that that we should mourn like those who have hope that's what the Gospel message brings it brings us hope in the midst of despair if if you are apart from Christ that's the kind of life you'll if you live a despairing life but you don't have to Jesus came to transform our are thinking about mourning are thinking about death and are thinking about life and then finally he tells us the part of his mission is to plant righteous trees it's kind of weird terminology but if you think about it when you think about Jesus being the the gardener or the vine dresser this this fits so perfectly Jesus came to plant the the good news in people's lives and it's a lifelong process and he's going to tend that seed he's gonna water it he's gonna bring it up and he's going to prune that tree but someday that tree is going to be a full-grown tree your translation may say I came to to plant righteous oak trees yet it has the idea of a full-grown tree that's what Jesus is in the business of doing bringing up and growing up righteous people through his care in his love and those people in turn it says bring glory to God that was his mission that through the gospel he would grow people up into these glorious trees that bring God the glory how should we respond to Jesus mission statement how should we respond well scripture is very clear to us in so many places that we should follow his example listen to mark chapter eight verse 34 jesus said summoning the crowds along with the disciples he said to them if anyone wants to be my follower he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me if we want to be followers of Jesus we've got to do a few things says to deny the self Jesus denied his self when he came to this earth he set the perfect example when you deny yourself you deny what you want and what you need and what you think brings you satisfaction you know how we can do that as believers in Christ the gospel teaches us that God is the provider that God gives us everything we need we don't have to trust and how we're going to get that we can just trust our lives to God submit our lives to God that he will take care of those things so we're to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him we've got to be ready to follow him in life and in death Ephesians 5 says that we should imitate God that we should love just as Christ loved and and become a sacrificial offering just like Jesus Jesus came to serve he came to bring the good news and he tells us that his mission should be our mission I want to tell you we have the universal call of God to bring the good news you may not be a vocational pastor you may not not be called the leadership but God has called every single one of us if you want to follow Jesus he has called us to bring the gospel to bring it to our families if that's the only Avenue to bring it to our schools if that's the only Avenue to bring it to our workplace but he has called us to be gospel centric just like Jesus it should be the reason that we live that's what God has called us to be peep are so focused on the gospel it's the only reason we live and I want to tell you if that is your mindset you're gonna see some amazing things you're gonna see brokenness mended back together you're going to you're gonna be able to be a part of captives being set free you're gonna get to proclaim awesome things to people like your debt can be forgiven had a guy at my and my work that they got saved back in September and it has been amazing to see his transformation from his brokenness being restored and his freedom given and and and that just him realizing how much Jesus has done for him I told him the day that he was saved he had been asking me all these questions and he said hey I got something to ask you how said I'm tired of answering questions you need to respond to Jesus Christ you need to respond to the gospel he says that's what I want to talk to you about I'm tired of talking I want to dive in to Jesus we get to be a part of telling people about the day of the Lord which is not always fun okay but the favorable conditions are going to end someday and we we've got to be people that warn and we can see people's lives transformed and we can be a part of growing people up can you believe that the god of the universe has entrusted us and called us to be like his son Jesus and we get to be partakers and disciple that is amazing you know that day in Nazareth Jesus said these words are fulfilled I think a lot of people take that and they say well it's done Jesus fulfilled everything I think what he really meant was these words were fulfilled in this place I have told you who I am but the Gospel message was far from being over that was a fulfillment but there have been many fulfillments of the Gospel message ever since it was just the beginning listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 14 he says this in verse 12 he says I assure you the one who believes in me will also do the work that I do and he will do even greater works than these because I'm going to the Father a lot of times we we stumble over that that idea of doing greater works then then Jesus what this means is it doesn't mean that we're going to do greater miracles it has to do with volume we have a greater opportunity to do more things because Jesus ministry only lasted three years he only reached a handful of people we have a different life expectancy and because Jesus has gone to the Father we can have the Spirit of God on our lives we have spiritual gifts we have the Spirit of God in our life we have been anointed for service just like him and we have the opportunity to have greater reach the Gospel message changes lives it was Jesus purpose and he calls us to do the same work how will you respond today

Channel: South Side Baptist

Views: 15,276

Rating: 4.6413794 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, South Side Baptist Church, Scottie Squyres, Isaiah 61, Isaiah 61:1-3

Id: bNKCksr1evo

Length: 34min 57sec (2097 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2016