After the heavy load that has been precipitated upon you through these past four meetings, you will no doubt be relieved when I say that my message this evening is a very simple one. I trust it is not less important than vital, but quite simple.
It is from these chapters which we have read: Isaiah 61 and Luke 4.
Before we can really come to the point and derive the real value and meaning of these chapters put together, we have to take note of this and of its significance: the Lord Jesus did lift out of the prophecies of Isaiah this section and apply it to Himself.
That is far more significant than it looks to be at a glance, because of the historic setting of the words in the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah. Undoubtedly, these words in Isaiah’s prophecies had a bearing upon, or took their force from, the situation which obtained at that time. It was what existed then that gave rise to, and pointed to, these words:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
Because the Lord hath anointed me.
That the Lord Jesus should have taken them right out of that context and applied them to Himself implies that He gave them another context. I do not mean the context of Himself, although that was true, but another, shall we say, historic context.
These words of the prophet Isaiah, which in his own mind perhaps did not exclusively relate to the coming Messiah, may have done so in a secondary way. But he was himself, the prophet, the Lord’s servant at that time. He was proclaiming these things to the people, saying to them in their condition, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the poor.”
Probably, as I said, in a secondary way and behind it all, he knew that Another was coming; he had the Messianic idea. But for him at the moment, it was contemporary. It was for that time, because Israel was actually in all these conditions to which he was speaking.
Now, while that was true in the case of the Lord Jesus and in the time of the Lord Jesus, there is this extra factor: the Lord Jesus was not making this a prophecy of something in the future. The Lord Jesus said, “Today is this fulfilled.” It was not literally fulfilled for Israel that day, nor has it been ever since—not literally.
Israel has never come into the good of this prophecy in its literal form. But still, Jesus said of it, “Today is this fulfilled.” He was constantly talking like that—about today, about now. He said to the woman of Samaria:
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, and now is,
when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem,
shall ye worship the Father.
This is strange. Well, I wonder if you grasp the import of that. If this prophecy, with all its terms, is now in fulfilment, you cannot make a literal thing of it. You have got to make a spiritual thing of it. It is fulfilled today, but it is fulfilled in a spiritual way and not in a temporal way.
That is the setting of the thing, and it is very impressive and very important to recognise that as you come to what the prophecy means. Jesus took it to Himself and said, “Today.” How today? How today?
There He was, standing in the synagogue in Nazareth, in the personal fulfilment of all the prophecies concerning the coming Servant of the Lord. All these prophecies were in course of fulfilment in Himself, and He stood there as the Servant of the Lord, prefigured by Isaiah.
What we have here, simply, is the manifold ministry of the Servant of the Lord. How manifold—how many-sided—is this servanthood, this service to God and to men?
When you have said that, you are ready to look at at least some of the aspects of this manifold ministry of the Lord Jesus. Then remember that it is transferred to the Church to be His ministry in and through the Church. What is true of Him in these respects is intended, by the same anointing Spirit, to be true of the Church, whether universal or local, the whole or the part.
This is the manifold ministry which the anointing Spirit gives, or desires to give and fulfil, not only in the Christ but in and through the Church. Well now, that may have sounded not so simple, but the rest is quite simple.
The Servant, then, is here presented to us in various ways. First of all, the Servant is a preacher:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach.
The word really is herald. “The Lord hath anointed me” means to herald, to make a proclamation. The full force of what is here is to make a proclamation. Then you go on to see what is contained in the proclamation. You will find there are three things.
First of all, there is a proclamation of good news to the poor—good news. The word “gospel” in the New Testament is just that, as you know: to herald, proclaim, preach, announce good news to the poor.
What does that mean? Well, do you remember when He did come and gathered His disciples, the nucleus of the new nation and the new kingdom? He took them apart. He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now, historically, Israel had lost the kingdom. This is the book, as you know, that sees them driven out and carried away from Jerusalem and their land into far-off Babylon, with their kingdom lost. They were a people without a kingdom.
All that that means to us around this house, it was everything to them—what they were raised up for, that in which all their interests, their possessions, and their hopes were centred. The kingdom had gone. They had been slaves, taken captive.
Jesus steps into that situation and says to these poor, stricken people:
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Not even the recovery or restoration of an earthly kingdom, but the kingdom of heaven—a far greater kingdom, a far more glorious kingdom, a far more enduring kingdom: the kingdom of the heavens.
That is good news: to proclaim that there is another kingdom to be given to those who have been stripped of everything here on this earth, in which their life and hopes were centred. The Spirit has anointed me to say that. That is the good news of the herald: the kingdom offered, far transcending the highest glory and fullest wealth of the old earthly kingdom of Israel.
You probably know how much these Gospels in the New Testament have to say about the kingdom of heaven. You might say that, in one sense, they are mainly about the kingdom of heaven. It is offered to those who have lost everything here in this world.
The second thing that the herald announces or proclaims is the year of Jubilee. That is not stated in those words exactly, but anyone who cares to look into it will find that this is what is in the thought and what lies behind the words here.
It is the year of grace, here translated “the acceptable year of the Lord.” That particular year in Jewish history, the fiftieth year, was the year of Jubilee. Most of you know, but for the sake of those who do not, let me say what the year of Jubilee was.
During all that period up to the fiftieth year, if anybody got into debt, for instance, their house could be taken in lieu of payment, or their property, or their sons, or themselves. Anything that they had, and even themselves, could legally be taken against their debt.
There were those who were in bondage, even in slavery and servitude, because of the indebtedness of either a family or a business, or anything else. But there was a law made by God in Israel that, in the fiftieth year, all debts had to be cancelled. All such confiscated properties and all people had to be released.
All that had been taken in lieu of payment during that time was to be given back. Early, early, with the dawn of the first day of the fiftieth year, the trumpet was sounded—the trumpet of Jubilee sounded forth over the land. Every slave was set free, and everyone who was holding anything belonging to anybody had to return it, or them.
The year of Jubilee—the year of grace over against law. There is the historic side of things. Jesus takes that up and says, in this new dispensation, not one year, but the whole dispensation is the dispensation of grace.
With Me is the trumpet of Jubilee, which will run right on to the end of the age. With Me is the heralding, the announcing. I am the One who sounds the trumpet of Jubilee. All the slaves must be released. All that is in bondage must be let go. All that has been forfeited must be restored—your inheritance, your rights, returned in the year of grace.
That is capable of a lot of time being taken, but I think it is quite simple, quite clear. No doubt about it: that which was true in Israel historically and literally is quite true of the race—mankind.
There is no doubt about it that you and I by nature are all in bondage. We are all slaves. We have, as Paul put it, been sold under sin. We have lost our inheritance. Adam forfeited our inheritance. We have lost everything that God meant man to have by Adam. We have lost it all: wonderful liberty, a wonderful inheritance—all of God. We do not have that.
We are in a state of loss and spiritual bondage. The great Herald has come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of grace—that is, the year of release and restoration, the year of Jubilee.
That is what this Servant does. Dear friends, that is the herald ministry committed to us. Here tonight, as servants of the Lord, as heralds by the Holy Spirit, we can proclaim this: all that you have lost in Adam is restored in Christ. All the bondage in which you are serving and labouring in sin and to Satan is cancelled out in Christ, and your liberty is won.
The year of Jubilee: all restored that has been lost.
But notice here in Isaiah: the herald proclaims “the day of vengeance of our God.” Of course, you do not need to look far to find out that Jesus did not go on to that. He stopped short of it. He stopped with the acceptable year, the year of grace. He did not go further and say, “And the day of vengeance of our God.”
When He reached that point, without saying that, He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and said, in effect, “This day, this Scripture—as far as I have read, as far as the point at which I have stopped—is fulfilled in your ears.” He did not say, “A day of vengeance.”
When He finished His ministry on this earth, He proclaimed the day of vengeance. How? When His message had been given, His life had been lived, His service fulfilled, and they rejected Him, He said, “Woe unto you, woe unto you, woe unto you.” He then did proclaim the day of vengeance.
But you see the point. There is a day of grace in which everything is offered in Him. An opportunity is given for receiving all that He offers—your liberty and your inheritance. But there is a terminal point for that day when, having refused and rejected, another solemn note comes in: the day of vengeance of our God.
The day of vengeance is not the day of grace; it is the day of grace refused, grace despised. So the people in Christ’s own day sinned beyond the day of grace, rejecting Him, and entered upon the day of vengeance of God.
For us here tonight, the day of grace still obtains. You can have all that the herald offers. But make no mistake about it: there will come a day when, through persistent refusal of grace, you will find that you are confronted by the day of vengeance of God.
These are the three things that the herald proclaims. That is the first aspect of the Servant’s ministry. The second is to comfort all that mourn in Zion.
It is easy to see what Isaiah meant by that. What did Isaiah mean by those that mourn in Zion? Oh, they mourn. Why do you put on mourning? Mourning relates to a funeral, does it not?
The people of Zion in Isaiah’s day were mourning the loss of what Zion meant—the funeral of the meaning of Zion. Now, Zion was always a typical or symbolic term for the highest glories and blessings of Israel.
Theirs were the songs of Zion. Theirs were the journeys to Zion. They held Zion as the symbolic embodiment of all the divine blessing and all the divine presence. Oh, Zion, in its great days, was the place of the glory. The glory was there.
Now the glory had gone down. All the signs of ascendancy and victory were gone, because Zion came in with a victory. It was considered to be so impregnable that the original holders just jeered with their lame and blind, as though their poorest could defeat anybody who tried to face it.
Then David challenged his warriors and said, “The one who takes the stronghold of Zion shall be made my field marshal.” Joab did it. He took it. From that time it became the city of the great king, the centre of the nation, symbolic of the great victory over the impregnable place.
That made Zion a very glorious thing for Israel. You can say very much about it, but it is all gone. The victory is gone. The glory is gone. They are mourning over its loss and over its condition.
What could the Lord Jesus mean, so many centuries afterward, taking up these words and saying, “Today is this fulfilled”? Zion is restored today. Zion’s glory is restored to you today. All that is offered to you today.
Well, of course, our letter to the Hebrews gives us the answer:
Ye are not come to Mount Zion,
but ye are come to Zion,
the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem.
There is a Zion, a heavenly Zion; a heavenly city and a heavenly citizenship, which is more glorious than all the glory of any earthly city of Zion; which is mighty and impregnable beyond the strength of anything that is around you; which is an enduring city that will never pass.
You are offered the citizenship of a heavenly Zion. We are offered that today; you are offered that today. Now, you know how much Scripture we could draw in from the New Testament on that. Paul says our citizenship is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for a Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Today is this fulfilled. By new birth from above, birth from heaven by this same Holy Spirit, there is given to you not only the citizenship but the franchise of heaven. All the rights of heaven are offered to you today in the good news of the gospel—to comfort all that mourn in Zion.
Is that a comfort? Well, I think some of us at least do rejoice that our names are written in heaven, that they are in the Lamb’s book of life, that we are born from above. Whatever we have or do not have here in this world, we have an eternal city, and we belong to the New Jerusalem.
It means a lot to us to have our citizenship in heaven and our names written there. Well, I said it is simple. It is a simple message of the gospel.
Thirdly, the Servant is presented in the capacity of a liberator: a herald, a comforter, a liberator.
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
Now, you notice, “the prison” is in italics, meaning that it is not in the original text. There is a marginal note, if you have a marginal-reference Bible, which says, “The opening of the eyes of them that are bound.” Luke quotes it like that.
It is not clear, perhaps, in this translation, but in the original languages, both Hebrew and Greek, it is quite clear that this relates to eyes. This kind of captivity is a different one from that of the slaves of whom we have been speaking.
What is here being referred to and spoken about is a captivity of blindness—a captivity of blindness. This afternoon we were back in Isaiah 6, and the prophet’s commission was, “Close their eyes. Close their eyes,” as a judgment, lest seeing they perceive.
This judgment of blindness has come. Paul says, “The god of this age hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving.” This is a captivity: a captivity of darkness, a captivity of blindness, a captivity of closed eyes. This is a captivity in which they cannot see. They cannot see.
You remember John Bunyan’s Holy War. The great enemy, in his siege of Mansoul, gave instructions that the burgomaster of the city—the understanding—should be put in a dark dungeon where he could not see what was going on. “Having the understanding darkened” is the Scripture.
If you have no sight, no understanding, you are not able to see the Lord. It is a terrible prison to be in. The commission to the apostle Paul at his conversion was:
To whom I send thee,
To open their eyes,
That they may turn from darkness to light,
And from the power of Satan unto God.
The two things go together: darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive their inheritance. The inheritance is the inheritance of people who have had their eyes opened and who have escaped the toils of the one who blinds the understanding.
This ministry of the Servant is a liberation from this blindness and darkness. In another part of Isaiah’s prophecies, concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus, he puts it this way:
The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.
How true that was of the Lord Jesus. Here we are tonight in the good of that. We have seen the light. We have seen a great light. He has opened our blind eyes, and what a new world we have come into and come to possess like that.
Dear friends, the Lord Jesus as the Servant truly did this. He said, “Today is this Scripture fulfilled.” There were those whose eyes were opened when He was here, and He has been doing it ever since. But this ministry is transferred to His Church.
Sadly, we have to say that the Church has not done it too well. There is not the ministry of eye-opening and liberation that there could be or should be. One of the effects of an anointed people is that other people come into the light and see. They leap out of their imprisonment of darkness, able to say, “I see. I see.”
Well, we have come to the end. The Servant is the great transformer.
To give unto them a garland for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
What a change in situation and condition. Why, we could stay long on these things. There it is. We simply sum it all up in this one word: transformation.
The word itself carries its own meaning: passing from one form to another—transformation. Here is the one form: mourning, heaviness, and no song, no joy. That is one condition. Here is the other: the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise, a song for the spirit of heaviness.
Changeover. Well, it is true: the gospel, true what the Lord Jesus has done and is doing, makes this great transformation in life, taking men and women from this sad and sorry state of things and putting them into another, where there is the oil of joy in the place of mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
The transforming ministry of the Servant—and that is committed to us.
Well, that is the message. Again: “Behold my Servant.” You want to know what servanthood is and what real service is? Well, that is it. Look at Him, and that is it.
May the Lord do two things among us: bring those who are not in the good of this good news into it; bring you into the values of this great servanthood of the Lord Jesus.
Then, for those of us who know it, who are in the good of it, may He make us servants of it much more fruitfully and effectively.