Isaiah Chapter 61 Verses 1 – 2

· These verses are a proclamation of Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, through the prophet Isaiah. God inspiring, filling Isaiah with thought and out comes the very words of Jesus, 700 years before His appearing. This text is proof positive of the Authorship of the Word of God! How so?

· Luke Chapter 4, look with me at verses 16 through 21. “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “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; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.””

· Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Author of Isaiah 61 in Luke Chapter 4. Incredible! Just as Paul proclaimed God to be the Author of the entirety of scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” How is it that we trust the Word of God is the Word of God and not the work of man? So many reasons, honestly. But let this add to the stack! Jesus, 700 years before His coming, Authored Isaiah 61…, THROUGH Isaiah!

· This is the pre-incarnate announcement of the Savior! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” Yes, Jesus was fully God, and to be fully qualified to stand in my place and surrender the price of perfection, to satisfy the law of righteousness, He had to also become and be fully Man. And so, in some mysterious way, He paused, muted, set aside, stilled His deity in some inexplicable manner so that even He was filled and led and covered by the Holy Spirit. Enabling Him and strengthening Him and assuring Him and empowering Him, just as the Holy Spirit desires to do and can do for any of us…

· And the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him for His anointing… Messiah, the word, literally means, “anointed One.” To preach good tidings to the poor, to bring the good news of the gospel to those completely destitute and hopeless on their own…

· Sent by God to heal the brokenhearted… Nothing breaks your heart like a discovered devaluation. You see someone in need, you see a under-nourished puppy, and it breaks your heart… And if that is the extent of your heart break in your life, you are one of the very few lucky ones. But when you believe you are one thing, loved by someone, incalculably valuable, and then you find out you’re not what you thought you were or what you think you out to be…, nothing breaks your heart like that.

· Your parents split. Your boyfriend breaks up with you. Your spouse falls out of love with you. Nothing is more identity shattering or heart breaking. And God looked at His creation and saw perfection lost… What once was, was stolen and taken and all of creation suffers broken-heartedness, those that are aware. And Jesus came and healed that…

· To proclaim liberty to the captives… Captured by sin. Enslaved to the flesh… Understand that Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…” The information or simple statement that today if you are without Jesus then you are dead inside is not made to be a dig or offensive or an attack in any way. The Bible says that Adam was evil and we inherited it from Him. Romans 5:12, “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men…”

· It’s like this. I am Greek. I didn’t choose to be Greek. I’m Greek because my father was Greek. And His father, and his father before him. Likewise, I am born into the sin of a bloodstream that is also my own. I didn’t choose it. It just is… No one on earth has to teach a child what is wrong, they find that all on their own. We have to teach our young ones what is right! And so, no choice here, all that are born are born captives… AND Jesus came to proclaim, the word means to summon, to appoint, to choose liberty for and set free anyone that would align with Him… The opening of the prison to those who are bound.

· Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:18-19, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison…” What does that mean? Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:8 that, “when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive.” The opening of the prison to the those who are bound… This all speaks of the saints of old who died before the finished work of the cross.

· How were the saints of old saved? The exact same way we are saved today. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Isaiah, all saved by grace through faith, not of works lest anyone could boast. But they looked forward to the coming Messiah, placing their faith in Him while we look back to the Messiah that has come, placing our faith in Him. So where did they go before Jesus unlocked and opened heaven, the very presence of perfect God? Well, they went to hell… held there, captive, prisoners, not in a place of torment but in a compartment of hell called Abraham’s Bay or Abraham’s bosom that is entirely empty today. You find all of this clearly in Luke Chapter 16… Jesus looked at the thief on the cross and He said to him, “Today you will be with Me in paradise…” And yet three days later He tells Mary that He had not yet ascended to the Father… So, what is paradise? Abraham’s Bay. And where was paradise? A compartment of hell, apart from the presence of God…, why? The finished work of the cross was not yet finished…

· So, Jesus came to proclaim, to preach liberty (1 Peter 3) to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound… To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…

· That is where Jesus stopped in Luke Chapter 4. Why? Because that is what Jesus came to do in His first coming. The rest of verse two is reserved for His second coming and is yet ahead. “The day of vengeance of our God.” It’s a comma in Isaiah 61, but it’s a period in Luke 4. And let me tell you, we are right now living in the punctuation!

· We are living in the period of the comma! Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world and the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. Joining the perfect presence of God with the newly propitiated presence of man! And that is where Jesus stopped that day and revealed that He had come to fulfill that prophecy. But/AND, when He returns again, Revelation 19, that will be the day of vengeance, judgement on a Satan-aligned world and those who mourn will be comforted…

· So, what does that mean! A ton. But one is that today, this period of grace, this comma of grace, this period or dispensation of grace is indeed the acceptable year of the Lord in which salvation by grace through faith is there and readily available for anyone. And, this holy pause, will one day end… And that day is without a doubt coming very soon!

Isaiah Chapter 61 Verses 3 – 6

· These are wonderful promises and a window of glimpse into the hope that lies ahead specifically for Israel. Not for the church…, although we will share in these promises, because of verse 6 it is clear, God is talking specifically about Israel here…

· Paul wrote with absolute clarity in Romans 11:25-27, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

Isaiah Chapter 61 Verses 7 – 11

· This is the hope that Israel has now and we too share in yes because of what Jesus has done for us and for the salvation we have in Him, the acceptable year of the Lord, AND simply because God has said this is what He is going to do. And the reward of faith, believing all that God has said, the reward of faith is hope!