The Declaration of Freedom from the Lord Jesus

The Declaration of Freedom from the Lord Jesus

Scriptures: Luke 4:14-21

By Rev. Rong-Hu Lu translated by Howard Chang

January 24, 2010

Gospel is for everyone to spread around. When Jesus started His mission, he often went to the synagogues to speak. Synagogue is the place for Jews to gather, to study laws, and to discuss community issues, just like church is to Christians.

Synagogue was established around BC 586 when Judah was defeated by the Babylon. At that time, Jerusalem was taken and the Holy Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. In addition, most of the middle and upper class Jews were scattered into various provinces. Since Jews no longer had the Holy Temple to worship, to do sacrifice or to study laws, they could only find a home with a larger space to do these things. After a while, when their financial situation improved, they could buy a place to get together and called it synagogue.

70 years later, when Persians overtook the Babylonians, King Cyrus allowed Jews to go back to rebuild the city and the Holy Temple. However, there were few Jews wanted to go back. Those who had returned were under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra to rebuild their faith. They built the so called second Temple. They focused on learning the Judaic laws and cleansing their heritage by divorcing those spouses from other religions or other tribes in order to re-establish the relationship with God.

However, there was no temple outside of Jerusalem, so they continued to worship in the synagogues. Later on, Jews even set the rule that as long as there were 10 or more households in the area, there should have a synagogue. This rule even applied to the area of Judah. That is why in the New Testament, there are many recordings that Lord Jesus went to the synagogue on Sabbath to worship and to teach.

Although Jesus grew up in an ordinary carpenter’s home, He had holy spirits with Him (see Luke 3:22, 4:1, 4:11), therefore, he was able to have far more accurate understanding about the Old Testament than the rabbi. His teachings were widely accepted and praised by everyone and his reputation grew.

In His time, there was an attendant taking care of the synagogue. This person was not a professional teacher or rabbi, but he could invite those who are highly respected to come to speak and answer questions. Since Jesus’ reputation had grown around Galilee, there was no doubt that he must be well known in Nazareth as well. So when He returned to His hometown, it was only nature that the synagogues would invite Him to speak. On one Sabbath day, Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He turned to chapter 61 and declared:” 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 told them that “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Which verses were Jesus referred to? I believe Jesus was telling them that He was the Messiah with the Holy Spirits and He was preaching the good news to them. Gospel is for everyone, but those who are rich would tend to rely on their wealth and would not rely on the Savior, Jesus.

I have a very wealthy friend who lives in California. He has everything and should be very happy. But when his daughter-in-law demanded half of his assets during the divorce proceedings, he was so upset that he could not even sleep. He just could not get over that this woman who had never being able to earn a living is going to get his hard earn money to continue to enjoy a luxurious life. Later on, when his daughter fell deeply in love with a handsome man, he started to worry again. He was afraid that this young man was just going to marry his daughter for the money. I am convinced that if he is not wealth, he would be able to enjoy these 2 youngsters’ happiness and their dreams.

Lord Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We frequently find that those who are poor tend to put their faith in the Lord easier than those who are wealthy.

When Jesus proclaimed freedom for the prisoners, He was referring to those who were being holding prisoner spiritually because Jews were already being set free at that time, and it was their own choice to remain in the foreign land.

Other then being enslaved by money, we are also quite familiar with people being enslaved by alcohol, drugs, and sex. Just look at Tiger Woods; he had ruined his reputation due to his sex addiction. Although he had checked into the rehab center to transform himself, he would be better off to entrust his life to Lord Jesus.

There are people got addicted to politics as well. There was a church member who was busying going back and forth from various churches on Sundays to pass on his political ideal. We can also see that during the campaign season, candidates use negative advertisement and some even use rumors and lies to try to destroy other candidates. Aren’t they all being enslaved by politics?

Let’s look at what have we being praying for Taiwan. Do we pray to the Lord to help the churches in Taiwan to grow stronger, to be sanctified, to roar aloud in waking up those sinners, or to shine a bright light in the darkened society, or to increase the number of those who are willing to repent? Do we pray to the Lord for the people to do the right thing, fight the good fight or run a good race? Probably very rarely! We often pray that the Lord to protect Taiwan’s independence or to establish a fair and righteous society. But think about it, will God listen to our prayers if Taiwan continues to be dominant by various temples and Christians continue to be a distinct minority? We need to seriously inspect ourselves whether we have being enslaved by the love of Taiwan and try blindly of misusing God’s authority. I sincerely hope that we can all fix our sights on our Lord and be set free from various bondages.

Jesus had opened the eyesight for the blind, but He also rebuked those who could not see God’s glory and salvation. These are those people who are mentally blind. They would insist that each chair has its maker, but would not come to believe that there is a great creator that makes the heaven and earth.

There is another kind of people who are blind to the morals. They don’t wee the badness of the evil. They turn right to wrong, turn good to evil, and delight in destruction. They can not appreciate the beauty of generosity and kindness. They can not experience the sanctity of abiding the laws and fulfilling duties. They can never enjoy the holiness of the Godly love and would never be able to taste the joyfulness of belonging to God and the rebirth.

The worst kind blindness is those who are spiritually blind. These people do not experience God’s mercy and believe they can only depend on themselves. They would die with desperations. Sometimes they just so indulged in their own world, setting up their own rules and believe they can be saved through these absurd rules. Pharisees are the example of this kind of people. Doing God’s work is for us to experience God’s love and salvation. It is not to show off personal efforts.

John the Baptist proclaimed that the judgment is coming and “the ax is already at the root of the tress, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” But Jesus came and proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor. Therefore, if we can accept Him, believe in Him then he will erase all our sins free all our debts for us to regain freedom.

There is a Chinese saying that attributing all the wrong doings, big or small, to the nature and there was nothing you can do to atone your mistakes. Therefore, the cumulative guilt feelings will eventually oppress the spirituality and rule ruthlessly on our lives.

Jesus told us that God love mercy and He does not delight in sacrifice. He promised us that whoever believes in Him will be forgiven as he had conquered the death. He called out to us:” Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the gospel bestowed upon us, and it is also the gospel that we should pass on to others. Church is the body of the Christ (1Corinthian 12:12-13). May this church continue to be filled with Jesus’ Holy Spirit. May you and I continue to proclaim Jesus’ declaration of “freedom for the prisoners”. May all the glory and all our devotions belong to Jesus Christ. Amen.