Take Hold of the Year of the Lord’s Favor
Luke 4:14-21
Chinese food is one of my favorites. Since this is so, I have been to quite a number of Chinese restaurants through the years. But, no matter how many restaurants you go to in any number of cities and states, you begin to notice some similarities among them. First of all, it seems like every one of them has the same light up pictures on the walls. You also may see that the waitresses and waiters in every one of them dress alike. They also tend to have the same menu board and pictures of food on it. And, there is one other similarity. They all seem to have the same placemats.
How many of you have seen the placemats proclaiming what each year is? This year, it is the year of the pig. I don’t know if that is an improvement over last year since it was the year of the dog or not. However, there are 12 different animal names that represent different aspects of each year. I was born in 1977 which means I was born in the year of the snake. When doing some research, I found that those born in a year of the snake are “wise, philosophical, calm, and understanding”, but they can also be “treacherous creatures who delight in intrigue and who wouldn’t think twice about double-crossing someone in order to save their own skins.” Apparently, I get along well with the monkey, dragon, and rabbit, but you better watch out if you are a horse or a dog because we do not get along.
Now, do I believe all of this? In a word - no. We do things differently in the United States. We wait until the year is over and determine the name of the year by the events that happened in it. Let’s give a little bit of a history quiz this morning and see how you do.
• 1492 – Columbus discovers America
• 1620 – Pilgrims land in Plymouth Rock
• 1776 – Year of Independence from Great Britain
• 1861 – Beginning of the Civil War
• 1929 – Crash of the Stock Market and beginning of the Great Depression
• 1941 – Attack of Pearl Harbor and entrance into WWII
• 2000 – Y2K and millennium
• 2001 – 9-11 Attacks
Now, even though I don’t agree with the Chinese philosophy that goes along with each of their years, I want to take a page out of their book for this year. Instead of reacting to the events of this year and remembering 2007 for what happened in it, I want to name it beforehand. I want to proclaim it as the year of the Lord’s favor. What do I mean by that? Let’s take a look at Luke 4:14-21 to find out.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in the synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
This morning, Jesus has made it possible for us to experience the year of the Lord for 2007. Let’s take a look at this Scripture and others to see first of all, what it means to experience the year of the Lord, and secondly, how we can bring it about. Before we go any farther, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
What is the Year of the Lord’s favor?
Let me start off by saying that Jesus was not offering up a new teaching by proclaiming the year of the Lord. It was first set up by Moses in the exciting book of Leviticus. In Leviticus, the Lord tells Moses that the Israelites are to observe a Sabbath year every seventh year. This would be a year of rest similar to the rest God took on the seventh day of creation. There would be no working of the fields – you could just skip work and take what the land produced as food.
Now, seven is a special number unto the Lord and is one of the most significant numbers in the Holy Bible. In his book, Biblical Mathematics, Evangelist, Ed F. Vallowe explains a bit about it.
“When man began to analyze and combine numbers, he developed other interesting symbols. He took the perfect world number FOUR and added to it the perfect divine number, THREE, and got SEVEN, the most sacred number to the Hebrews. It was earth crowned with heaven -- the four-square earth plus the divine COMPLETENESS OF GOD. So we have SEVEN expressing COMPLETENESS through union of earth with heaven. This number is used more than all other numbers in the Word of God, save the number ONE.
So, seven is a very important number to the Hebrews, so God uses it to get their attention in His Word. So, if seven is special, what could be more special? It would be taking seven times seven which would be 49. After the forty-ninth year, which is called seven Sabbaths of years in Leviticus, there was to be a year which stood out above all others. Leviticus calls it the year of Jubilee. This is what is to occur in this year according to Leviticus 25:10. “Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be jubilee for you; each of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.” Every fifty years was a time to celebrate. The year of Jubilee meant that you got back all land that belonged to your family even if it had been sold or taken. All the slaves and people who had sold themselves to try and take care of their families were set free. And, any debt that you had that was outstanding was marked off as paid in full and was completely forgiven. No wonder it was called the year of jubilee which means a celebration of rejoicing and festivity. I would party too if MasterCard and Visa were required to take my debt off the book every fifty years! But, even more than getting land, freedom, or debts restored, the year of Jubilee was a reminder of God’s great grace and forgiveness.
Then, in Isaiah, this year of Jubilee is referred to as the year of the Lord’s favor. Isaiah 61 is the Scripture that Jesus read on this day. It states, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” In this Scripture, Isaiah expounds even more upon the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee is something that the Israelites looked forward to with much anticipation, but it is nothing compared to this year of the Lord’s favor that Isaiah writes about now. God is giving the Israelites something more to look forward to in the future that is above and beyond even their blessed year of Jubilee.
That is where Jesus comes in. After reading this prophetic Scripture in Isaiah, I’m sure all the people became excited. Remember, these were people living under Roman law and authority against their will. The thoughts of being released from captors and proclaiming freedom was music to their ears. After all, the Scripture says that the eyes of everyone were fastened on him after he had read this Scripture. And now, Jesus makes the following statement. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Basically, Jesus is saying, “It’s time to celebrate. The year of the Lord’s favor is upon us.” No longer did the Israelites have to wait for another fifty years to roll around to experience the year of Jubilee. The year of the Lord’s favor was started, and it is still going on today if we take hold of it.
When we look at the words of Isaiah, we see that there is freedom for prisoners. This means that through Jesus, we know have the abilities to break out of the bondages of sin such as alcoholism, lust, greed and pride. Nothing in this world can hold us captive any longer as long as we give it to Jesus. We are also promised that the oppressed will be released. This has a direct relationship to a release from slavery. After all, it is Paul who told us that we were once slaves to sin, but now, the blood of Jesus can break that bondage and give us freedom with Him. We are also promised to be released from our debts. These are not worldly debts that God is talking about. He is talking about the sin debt that none of us can pay for. But, when we surrender our lives over to Jesus Christ, God considers our sin debt to be paid in full because His Son paid the price for us all by dying on the cross. We are also promised comfort, beauty, and gladness through all of this if we take hold of the fact that we are living in the year of the Lord’s favor. But, too often, we walk around with a defeatist attitude when we should be celebrating. God has mandated through his Son that we are living in the year of the Lord’s favor. That is awesome news! Now, we need to take hold of that promise. How do we do it? Let’s find out.
How do we experience the Year of the Lord?
The first thing I notice in this Scripture, and it is mentioned twice, is the fact that Jesus was under the control of the Spirit. First in verse 14 it tells us that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and then in verse 18 it tells us the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him. Why is this significant? I believe Jesus is giving us a model to follow that shows us how we can be connected to Him to experience His promises that occur in the Year of the Lord’s favor. We must, also, be filled with the Holy Spirit. I’m not going to get into what all that means, but I want to stress that it is of the utmost importance. We have been satisfied for too long with just being saved and not living out the fullness of the Christian life. Is your Christian life full of power, dramatic testimonies of God at work, and the miraculous? God has promised us these things has He not? So, why are we not seeing these things? I believe it is because we say the prayer and think we are off the hook. Then, we live under our own power, and as long as we come to church and do our Christian duties, we are going to be fine. There is nothing wrong with this except for the fact that we are missing the best parts of the Christian life. We are missing the power and the other promises of this Scripture because we are not allowing ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit. How does that occur? You will find the answer in Acts 4:31. It states, “And after they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.” Prayer is the key. Not just a prayer for our blessing and our well being and for our ailing relatives. I am talking about prayer that comes from deep within us. A longing and a groaning that seeks after the Living God. I am talking about prayer that calls out to God for help and has enough faith behind it that God will hear and answer it. This is prayer that comes not from the mouth but from the soul.
Secondly, we are told that these people listened to the teachings of Jesus. Something so simple and yet so overlooked. Why do we think there are no consequences when we don’t follow God’s plans? The Lord desires righteousness from us which means that we will listen to His word and do what it says. That almost sounds Scriptural – you can look it up in James 1:22. Yes, God’s forgiveness is never-ending but there has to come a point when we declare, “Enough is enough. I will not tolerate sin in my life anymore, and I am going to live for Christ.” I am not saying that you will not fall after this, but we at least need to try. Some of us fall over and over again and make no effort to try to correct our ways.
Finally, those who listened to His teachings did one more thing that we must do to usher into the Year of the Lord’s favor. The Bible simply says, “And everyone praised Him.” It sounds so simple doesn’t it? We need to praise Him. I’m not talking about singing so much. Christians can’t even agree on what type of songs we are to sing, and so, the Spirit that is left does not lead to praise. I’m talking about living your life in a way that is pleasing to God – getting rid of the attitudes, grudges, and pride. I’m talking about a praise that does not come from our lips but from our hearts. It may be in the form of a song or in the simple words of a prayer. But, God deserves our praise, and He requires that praise come from a pure heart. Our song in worship said it best. “Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. Let us not give our souls to another. Oh God let us be a generation that seeks, that seeks your face, Oh God of Jacob.” We must rid ourselves of all unrighteousness if we want our worship and praise to be heard by a truly holy God. Otherwise, it is worthless and just lip service.
This is what William Cooper’s Preface in Jonathon Edwards on Revival had to say about the Year of the Lord’s Favor.
This blessed time of the gospel has several other denominations, which may raise our esteem and value for it. It is called by the evangelical prophet, “The acceptable year of the Lord” ( Isa. 61:2 ). Or, as it may be read, the year of liking, or of benevolence, or of the good will of the Lord; because it would be the special period in which he would display his grace and favour in an extraordinary manner, and deal out spiritual blessings with a full and liberal hand.
The year of the Lord’s favor holds great treasures for those who take hold of it. Will you do it today? Will you take hold of the freedom, liberty, and jubilee it has to offer? You must start by first giving your life to Jesus Christ. If you have not done that, that is your first step and you can do that this morning. This will release you from your sin debt and the bondages in your life. Then, when you are a Christian, you need to plead with the Lord to be filled with His Holy Spirit. You also need to strive for righteousness by listening and following the words of the Lord. Finally, we need to lift up true praise to our Father in Heaven. This morning I ask you, “Where are the prayer warriors this morning that will call on this place to be shaken and their lives to be transformed into what God has planned them to be all along. Will they come and pray this morning to be filled, for the church to be filled, and for the lost to be brought unto salvation this morning.” Or, maybe you don’t consider yourself a prayer warrior. Maybe you need to come and just spend time with the Lord. Whether you want filled with the Holy Spirit, need forgiveness for your actions, or just want to praise the Lord, the altars are open. Or maybe you need to surrender your life to Christ. This time is for you to do that as well. Won’t we plead with God to make 2007 the Year of the Lord’s favor. Join me in prayer as Carrie comes to play softly.
