I have been eager to get to this this morning. If you would, take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 61. I will come back to the Psalms on Sunday mornings, but some of these studies that we’ve been doing in the evening on Messianic prophecy are just too difficult to squeeze into the shorter time frame of Sunday evening, and so that is the primary reason I’ve brought them to the morning service, where I have a few more minutes.
Here we have the servant’s mission, Isaiah 61. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall be built up in ancient ruins, raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks. Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers. But you shall be called the priests of the Lord. They shall speak of you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion. Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot. Therefore, in their land they shall possess a double portion. They shall have everlasting joy. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels, as the earth brings forth its sprouts. And as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a privilege, what a treat it is for us to open the pages of this book and to read the words of our God. In this case, prophecy of your spokesman, given some 700 and some years before the coming of our Lord Jesus, speaking of him and instilling in our hearts a wonderful hope through him. We pray that you’ll give us eyes to see that this morning. In his name we pray, amen.
You’ll remember that we have been looking through the servant songs of Isaiah. We have actually been in a much longer survey than that of Messianic prophecy. We began in Genesis chapter 1. We worked our way through and came finally to Isaiah. We found many prophecies of the coming king in Isaiah. In Isaiah 1 through 39 in particular, we have the prophecies of the Davidic son who will be virgin born—the child who is born, the son who is given to have the government on his shoulders, and he’ll rule the world. The sprout from Jesse in Isaiah chapter 11. We saw descriptions of the kingdom in Isaiah 24 and following. And then we saw the servant songs in Isaiah 42 and following. The servant songs, we saw Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, and then most famously, Isaiah 53.
We’ve been looking through this announcement that the prophet Isaiah gave that God will send his servant to accomplish his purpose in world history. And the outlook has been marvelous. And yet at the same time, we saw that the servant would be abused and would suffer and actually give himself as an offering for sin. And then we saw in Isaiah 55, the message that comes from that: the free offer of the gospel on the ground of what the servant has done, as described in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 55, now the call goes out to all who will come: come to him and be saved freely.
And now we come to Isaiah 61, and we have here the servant speaking. Now, he’s not named here. In the earlier servant songs that we saw, the servant was either named, like, “Behold My Servant,” or just beyond the servant song itself, that poem, we have some comments immediately following, explicitly identifying the servant. Here the servant is not identified as such, but we have to conclude that it is the servant, in fact, who is speaking. His identity is obvious here. The speaker is not Isaiah. Isaiah 61, throughout this chapter, the claims in this chapter are too far over the top. It’s beyond anything that Isaiah himself could have claimed for himself. For example, verse 3, he’s come to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. He’s come to bring the relief that God has promised. So this is more than Isaiah himself.
The speaker here is not the Lord God himself because the Lord God is spoken of in the third person. Verse 1, “the Lord God has anointed me. He has sent me.” So it’s not Isaiah. It’s not the Lord God himself speaking. What we have here is the speaker identifying himself in terms that are exactly the same as what has been told us earlier with regard to the servant in the earlier servant songs.
The Servant’s Anointing
So verse 1 here: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” That is the distinguishing mark of God’s servant. We saw it as far back as Isaiah chapter 11, but we saw it in Isaiah 42 in verse 1 where the servant is introduced for the first time: “behold my servant in whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit in him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.” As I say, we have the same in Isaiah 11, where it’s spoken of in terms of the Messianic King himself, the son of Jesse.
In Isaiah 61 verse one here, we have described for us the purpose of his mission, and that is to free Israel from her bondage. “There shall come forth… well, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” That’s the same as what we saw back in Isaiah 49 and verse five, where it said of the servant, he has been sent to bring back Jacob and to gather Israel back. Verses 8 and 9 of Isaiah 49 says, “I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritage, saying to the prisoners, come out.” Well, that’s what we find in verse 1 here of Isaiah 61. In verse 2 here, it tells us he’s come to defeat God’s enemies and bring the day of vengeance, the day of God’s vengeance upon his enemies. We saw the same in chapter 50 of the servant where he warns those who oppose him, “you will lie down in torment.”
So all of this identifies the servant—not explicitly, but plainly enough, this is the servant himself now coming on the scene and speaking. Isaiah’s successive prophecies give us the identifying marks of the servant and now the servant himself announces his arrival, and he echoes those marks of the servant to assure us of his identity and of his significance.
Now the focus here in Isaiah 61 is, as we have been led to see from the previous servant songs, the focus here is the establishing of the kingdom of God. That’s the theme of the earlier songs. That’s the immediate context here as well. In Isaiah chapter 60, if you want to glance back over the previous page, we have the greatness of God’s kingdom restored to Israel, described for us in some graphic ways. Isaiah 60 verse 1: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you. And His glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you will see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nations shall come to you.”
Verse 6 and following, here in chapter 60, we have the exaltation of Israel herself among the nations. She’ll become the world center. Verse 9: “the Holy One of Israel has made you beautiful.” Verse 11: “your gates shall be open continually, day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their kings led in procession.” That language, by the way, of enjoying the wealth of the nations is picked up in Revelation 21, speaking of the kingdom when it comes in its fullness. Verse 13: “the glory of Lebanon shall come to you.” Verse 14: “the sons of those who afflict you shall come bending low to you, and all who despise you shall bow down at your feet. They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” That’s chapter 60, and then chapter 61 now, it continues echoing the same themes. I won’t take time to work through it, but you see the restoration, the reversal that’ll come about in chapter 60 and verse 17. That’s echoed again in chapter 61 and verse 3.
All of this, speaking of the exaltation of Israel, the arrival of the kingdom of God in its fullness, Israel exalted above the nations—all of that is reflective of what we saw in Isaiah chapter 2 and Isaiah chapter 4, that Israel in Jerusalem or Zion becomes the centerpiece of the world. The beautiful and glorious branch being the center of attraction. The nations of the world streaming to Jerusalem to learn from the king. All of that is echoed here. So Isaiah 61 then continues the theme of Isaiah 60, and that is the in-breaking of the kingdom of God on earth. Only now, in Isaiah 61, the servant himself is announcing its arrival. He is speaking; he describes his mission, that he has come for this purpose.
All right, so much for the context then. Isaiah 61 in verse one, we have the servant’s anointing. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me.” Before we move on with this, it’s worth noting, taking the time to notice it, that this prophecy presents three persons to us. We have the Lord God. This is Yahweh, the Creator, who sent his servant. He’s the Divine Master, the Almighty. And then we have the Spirit of the Lord God, who enables the servant. This is God himself present with his servant, but somehow distinct from the Lord God. We have the Lord God sending the spirit of the Lord God, and then we have the servant himself, who we have seen in previous songs as described in divine terms. Isaiah 49, in verse 12, he’s the first and the last. In verse 16, he is the eternal one, where he claims, “from the time it came to be, I have been there.” He’s the one who takes the descriptive phrases like we saw in Isaiah 53, of “lifted up” and “exalted,” language that is reserved exclusively in Isaiah for the Lord God himself. So we have the Lord God, we have the spirit of the Lord God sent from the Lord to the servant who himself is divine.
Now this is not an outright declaration of the doctrine of the Trinity, but here we have all of the pieces of that, and I don’t think it’s possible to make any sense of the details apart from what we find revealed more clearly in the New Testament, and that is the doctrine of the Trinity—that there is one God in three persons. Somebody has described the Old Testament as a dark room when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity. All the furniture is there; you just don’t see it really well. When we come to the New Testament, the light has shined back on it. You see, “Oh yeah, well of course there it is.” And I think here’s one example of that.
A Sevenfold Purpose Of The Servant
So verse one again: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.” This is the servant’s endowment. God has assigned me, he’s given me a mission, and to fulfill that mission, he has uniquely equipped me with an outpouring of his Spirit, enabling me to do what he’s called me to do. And now, very importantly, the end of verse one through verse three, the servant gives us a description of the mission that he’s come to accomplish. And you’ll see that described in seven purpose phrases here, marked by the word “to.” He’s, if you like—for those of you who like the grammar—these are infinitive phrases here.
He has—”the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me,” one, “to bring good news to the poor.” He has sent me, two, “to bind up the brokenhearted,” three, “to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prison to those who are bound,” four, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,” five, “to comfort all who mourn,” six, “to grant to those who mourn in Zion,” seven, “to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes.” So here’s a sevenfold purpose of the servant. He’s coming to do these things.
Let’s work through them just quickly. Verse 1, he’s come, he’s been sent to bring good news to the poor. This is the good news of deliverance. This has been announced since as far back as Isaiah chapter 40. Remember in chapter 39, Isaiah the prophet speaks to the king and he tells them it’s done, it’s sealed: “You’ll be taken off into Babylon. You’ll go into exile.” And then immediately in chapter 40, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” And God begins to promise that he’ll bring them back. That’s the comfort that is being spoken of here. To bring good news to the poor—that’s the destitute, the weak, the downtrodden, those who through their circumstances in exile and whatever, have been left without hope. God gives them new hope. He comes and brings them good news that “you are no longer being overlooked and disadvantaged. Your day has come and I’m here to preach this good news to you.”
And secondly, “he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” It’s a fascinating metaphor. It pictures people with inward pain, but it describes it as though it’s an open wound. And so he wraps it up with a bandage. So here are these people who are hurting on the inside; their heart hurts. And he wraps it up with a cloth and a bandage, and he seals up their heart to heal it. Doubtless again, he’s speaking of the exiles—that your brokenness and your pain on the inside has now come to an end.
Thirdly, he’s come “to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Again, this is a reference to the exiles in Babylon. They’re captive, they’re imprisoned, they’re bound. As you have learned already to see in these prophecies, surely there’s more to it than just that. We’ll see that as we go along.
Number four, verse two, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Now this is very significant here, the terminology that he uses. “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is an explicit reference back to Leviticus chapter 25. You will remember there in Leviticus 25, we have Moses’ law for the nation of Israel regarding the Sabbath year. We have these cycles of seven years and on the seventh year, the ground is to lie fallow. Leave it. Let the ground, let the land rest. You won’t plant crops on the seventh year. Now Israel didn’t follow that really well and that played into the time of their exile and so on. But this was Moses’ law for Israel. Every seventh year, you let the ground lie. Let it rest, and your ground will have rest, and God will provide for you. And then every seven cycles of those seven years—there would be seven of them—and then on the 50th year, Leviticus 25 outlines, there’ll be a year of Jubilee. And this is a particular kind of Sabbath. This is a year-long Sabbath. And here we have those seven cycles of seven years reaching their climax. And on the year of Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor, all debts are canceled. Those who have had to sell their properties to avoid indebtedness, the property goes back to the clans. Those who have had to sell themselves into slavery because of indebtedness, they’re set free and they’re back and they’re free again. Debts are canceled. All of it’s gone. This is the year of Jubilee.
Now, in Isaiah 61 in verse 2, what we learn is the year of the Jubilee, Leviticus 25, was intended to serve a prospective function. It was prophetic. The Jubilee year itself was prophetic. It was foreshadowing a greater kind of deliverance. And the servant now is bringing to realization what the old year of Jubilee command had foreshadowed and only symbolized. Verse 1, he has come to bring good news to the poor and bind up the brokenhearted. That is the ultimate year of God’s favor. That is the ultimate year of Jubilee—that this deliverance is coming. In Isaiah 49, we saw in the servant song there, God describes the time of the servant as the year, as the time of God’s favor. We see that again back in chapter 60 as well. The time of God’s favor is the time of his blessing to his people and establishing his kingdom on earth. Verse 7 and following, he speaks of it in terms of new covenant blessings and the greatness of the kingdom.
Isaiah 61 verse 10, the servant now is speaking: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” This is the day of God’s favor, when God moves in an unprecedented way for the salvation of his people. God’s promise for his kingdom, his rule moving in on the earth, now comes to its realization, and this he describes as the year of God’s favor.
Now we need to notice something in verse 2. Notice he says, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” and all this positive stuff, and then he throws this in: “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.” So this is going to be a time of blessing for God’s people, but it would entail also a time of judgment on God’s enemies. Notice it says to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. So this is going to be an extended, enduring time of blessing and on the other hand, there’ll be this decisive moment of God judging his enemies. So we have here the servant’s twofold mission: salvation and vengeance. Judgment. This is the twofold aspect of the kingdom of God always—that God comes to vindicate his people and he comes to bring judgment on his enemies. And the servant here is speaking and says, that day has come. Now it’s interesting here that this note of judgment in verse 2, “the day of vengeance of our God,” is only mentioned just briefly, and it’s left aside, and then we move on to these comforting ideas, the day of the Lord’s favor. We’ll come back to that in a little bit.
So now, verse 2, at the very end of the verse, we have the fifth purpose: “to comfort all who mourn.” This is the leading feature of the good news that he brings. God comes to show his compassion on his people, to show mercy, and to relieve them of their burden. And then the last two, verse three: “to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.” So there’ll be this great reversal. God will replace their mourning and their grief with joy and gladness and new life.
All right, so he’s equipped for his task. He describes his mission in verses one through three. Now the very end of verse three, and then in verse four, the prophet expands on that, and he describes the results of the servant’s work. And here the imagery continues. Verse three, they’re given a new name: “that they may be called Oaks of Righteousness.” That they may be called Oaks of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. So they’re given a new identity, a new status. Oaks of Righteousness. Large, sturdy, solid trees. This, by the way, is in stark contrast to something we read back in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 30, where God is speaking in terms of judgment on Israel because of her sin. And God says there, “you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers.” But here now, you’ll be like an oak of righteousness, this sturdy, strong tree. The idea then is you’re called this oak of righteousness; you’re given a new name. Solid righteousness is what characterizes you now. Those who have been exiled because of their sin, now they’re called righteous. And this, he says, is solely a work of God. He says, “the planting of the Lord so that he may be glorified.” This ought to ring a bell. You remember we saw in Isaiah 53, verse 11: “by his knowledge, the servant’s knowledge, by knowing him shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquity.” That is, our righteous standing before God comes simply and only through our association with the Lord’s servant. And here he comes to accomplish that.
Verse four, he speaks in terms of restoration to the people. And here he gives a more concrete depiction of the reversal that will come. Verse four: “they shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” In Isaiah 49, we saw that they will be returned from Babylon to their own land, and here it’s described as now lying in ruins. It will be recovered, it will be restored, and they’ll be given their prominence again. So the servant then has come to fulfill God’s purpose, to proclaim freedom, to bring Israel back, and to establish his people in the world.
As I’ve said, all of this clearly in the context has reference to the return from exile. Israel’s taken off into Babylon in exile because of her sin. God has sent that judgment. And now this comfort is being announced that they’ll be returned. But clearly, again, all of this is prospective. A greater return is in view. We know that because the servant himself, at that time in the 5th century BC, at the return from Babylon, the servant didn’t show up. And there was no judging of Israel’s enemies. The servant has not, at that time, initiated this new covenant that he mentions here. He didn’t bring about all of the promised blessings of the kingdom that were announced here. This didn’t happen in the 5th century BC when they returned. So we’re left with fulfillment, but not.
Keep in mind, this is the servant who is speaking here. He was introduced to us back in Isaiah 42, described for us in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and 53, describing his work. He would be called of God to establish justice in the earth, to triumph. We saw that princes would lie prostrate before him, and yet he would suffer. He would give his back to those who strike. He would give himself as an offering for sin. And by all of that, he would make many to be counted righteous. When he comes, he says, verse 1, he’ll announce good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort those who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. This is the happy prospect of the coming of God’s servant, establishing God’s kingdom. Fulfilled in some measure in Israel’s return, but only in part. And Israel was left with that partial fulfillment and yet waiting, waiting for God to come good on all that he had said he would do.
Now you’ve heard me say a hundred times that the Old Testament is marked by the idea of anticipation. Ever since Genesis chapter three, God promised a champion who would come. He’ll defeat the tempter. Ever since then, the whole note of the Old Testament has been, “He’s coming.” We see it again in Genesis chapter 12, he’ll be the seed of Abraham. We see it again in Genesis 49, he’ll be the descendant of Judah who will hold the scepter and others will bow down to him. We saw it in Balaam’s prophecy: the star will rise out of Jacob and the scepter from Israel and he’ll smash the foreheads of God’s enemies everywhere. We saw it in 1st Samuel 2 and Hannah’s prayer that this king will come and destroy God’s enemies to the ends of the earth. We saw it in 2nd Samuel chapter 7: God’s promise to David that he’ll have a king that will sit on his throne and reign the world over forever. We see it in the Psalms: the king will come and inherit all the nations, Psalm 2. And in all of the interventions that God gave throughout history, all of that prospective saying, “He’s coming, he’s coming.” And God would intervene in deliverance and great moments of power for his people. Bringing them out of Exodus and all that is prospective of a greater deliverance he’ll bring. Defeat of David’s enemies—prospective of the greater deliverance that God will bring for his people. Bringing them back out of Babylon, out of exile—prospective of something that will come. Delivering them from the attacks of the great Assyrian army—just like he promised, but it’s prospective of another greater deliverance that will come. All of it throughout the Old Testament everywhere. There’s this hope: He’s coming. He’s coming in Isaiah’s prophecy itself. It’s in Isaiah 1 to 39. It’s the Davidic son who’s coming. The Messianic king, he’s coming. In Isaiah 42 and following, it’s the servant of the Lord. He’s coming. He’s coming. And the Old Testament closes. And that hope still stands. Fulfilled in measure here and there and glimpses of it. But the fullness of it has not come. And the hope is still there: He’s coming.
Today This Scripture Has Been Fulfilled In Your Hearing
Now with all of that context and background in mind, keep your hand here—we’ll be back to Isaiah—but look at Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. Here we have Jesus; this is early in Luke’s gospel. He’s coming down now from the Mount of Temptation. Luke tells us, this is verse 14, Luke 4:14: “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.” Notice that, “in the power of the Spirit.” Did that ring a bell? “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out throughout all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he’d been brought up. And as was his custom, when he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. And he unrolled the scroll and found in the place where it is written”—and here’s Isaiah 61, verses one and two—”The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
What a spectacular moment. I suppose time travel shows and time travel movies will never go out of date. They’re always fun to go back and look at what has been and look ahead and what will be. If I could go back, this would be one of those moments. Jesus takes the Isaiah scroll, rolls it up and says, “Isaiah was writing about me. I’m the servant that he prophesied would come. His prophecies were given to comfort those in Babylon, but it was prospective, prospective of something more. Those exiles were brought home, but the great promises attending that return were never fulfilled. All that the prophet Isaiah says about his servant,” Jesus says, “that’s me.” He’ll come to establish justice in the earth. He’ll bring vengeance to God’s enemies.
But notice what he says, verses one to three. “I’ve come”—this is echoing or reading Isaiah 61:1-3—”I’ve come to announce good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes.” And then verse 21: “today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I’m here. After all of those long centuries of waiting, I’m here.
I think it’s worth pointing out here—you may have a Jewish friend or a skeptic of Christianity, and you’ll hear this sometimes—”Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah.” At that point, you may smile with great confidence that they have not read their New Testament. Lots of answers to that. The most obvious is why then was he crucified? But here’s one passage, very important to keep in mind for an occasion like that. Jesus takes up Isaiah’s prophecy of the Lord’s servant, who is, in Isaiah’s prophecy, the Davidic son, the Messianic king. And he says, “I’m here.” Quite a moment. You can imagine those who are listening. This was a… at this point in history, there was a high anticipation of the Messiah. Josephus even tells us about it, but we see it reflected in the pages of the Gospels as well. People watch Jesus and the miracles he performs, and they hear him teach. “Is he the one? Is he the one? It can’t be him, can it? Surely no one can do what he does, except it’s got to be him.” Anticipation is high at this point. You’ve got long centuries of hope, and then Jesus takes this moment and says, “It’s me.”
But I want you to notice something carefully here, and here’s where you’ll need both Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 to be open in front of you. Notice where Jesus stopped reading. In Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2, go back there: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.” Now look at Luke 4 verse 18: “He unrolled the scroll, found the place where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Stop. And he doesn’t read that next phrase: “And the day of vengeance of our God.”
The Year Of God’s Favor
So why? Why did he stop here? Well, this is more of what we’ve seen many times, that the prophets saw it all, but they didn’t see clearly how it was always divided up in terms of the timeframe of the fulfillment. They don’t see what we see now with the light of the New Testament going back on it, that the kingdom of God was indeed come in the arrival of Jesus. But it is what we call inaugurated. It doesn’t come in its full consummated form. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is inaugurated. And for this period of time, this is the year of God’s favor. The day of vengeance—that’s later. That will come in the day of his return. But the prophets did not see. They saw it all, but they didn’t see how it was all divvied up—that first there must be the kingdom established by the death of Christ for sin, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all the world for the advancement of his kingdom. But not until his return will we find the kingdom brought in its fullness and all of the prophecies fulfilled in their consummated way.
So Jesus says here, “I’ve come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The day of vengeance is not yet. For now, good news of freedom is offered for all. Liberty to the captives, recovering of sight for the blind, setting at liberty those who are bound and oppressed. This is the year of the Lord’s favor. And this then is the description of this age, this church age. This is the year of the Lord’s favor. And the church’s message is: the servant has come. And he has not only announced the year of the Lord’s favor, he’s not only announced the redemption of God’s people, he’s secured that redemption in his work, in his death given for sin in place of sinners, in his triumphal resurrection, in his triumph over death, his ascension to heaven where he rules at the right hand of the Father over all of his kingdom. He’s accomplished it all.
This is essentially what we find in Luke chapter 24, where Jesus says, following his resurrection, he says to his disciples, it was necessary that the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised the third day, so that—so that—repentance and the forgiveness of sin may be proclaimed in his name throughout the nations. This is the day of God’s favor. Just as we saw in Isaiah 53, where the servant gives himself as a guilt offering for sin in place of his people, establishing righteousness for them. And then we saw in Isaiah 55, the word goes out: come and take it freely. All of you who want it, come and take it. And that’s the message of the church in this age. In Christ there’s freedom. He can open eyes and give you a rescue that is much greater than the rescue of Israel from its exile in Babylon. This is the year of God’s favor.
And yet—and yet the prophecy of Isaiah 61 verse 2, the full verse, still stands. He’s come; he will come to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. The Lord Jesus will bring that about as well. One leading mark of Jesus’ return will be his executing vengeance on the enemies of God. This idea of vengeance being executed on God’s enemies, we picked up in Isaiah 53 that we’ll see next time. God bringing a just judgment against those who have rebelled against him. It’s a major theme in the prophets—the day of the Lord—a major theme in the Psalms. We’ll find it when, in Isaiah 63, “who is this that comes from Edom in crimson garments from Bozrah, who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength?” A question is asked, “why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?” And the servant answers, “I have trodden the winepress alone and from the peoples no one was with me. I trod them in my anger, I trampled them in my wrath, their lifeblood splattered on my garments and stained all my apparel.” He comes in vengeance.
All of that of course comes to its climax in the New Testament in Revelation chapter 19 describing the return of Christ where he comes riding on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth to strike the nations. Paul speaks of it in 2 Thessalonians 1. He speaks of when “the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed.”
But for now, this is the year of God’s favor. You’ll remember Psalm 2 at the outset of the Psalter sets the stage for this. The Lord’s anointed will come. He’ll inherit the nations. Those who oppose him will perish. But the psalmist gives the call: Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Do obeisance before him today while you may, or you will perish. Well, this then is the Christian’s twofold message of grace and judgment. To a world of sinners, we have good news. This is the year of God’s favor. He offers forgiveness and freedom from sin. And he offers it freely to whoever will come. Just come, take it. He’ll have you. But this day of God’s favor will not last forever. The day of vengeance is coming as well.
And all of this comes to what so much of the Bible drives us to see. And that is: your response to Jesus Christ is the most urgent and pressing question you can ever consider. God has announced his purposes for history. In salvation and in judgment, he will accomplish his kingdom. He has sent his servant to bring it all about. Chapter 53, he offers himself to make atonement for the sins of his people. Isaiah 55, the call goes out: come, come. Without money, come freely and be saved. Isaiah 61, the servant himself now announces plainly that this is his mission. Then as I mentioned, next time we’ll see in Isaiah 63, the awful day of judgment of the servant’s return will come and he will bring it about. The whole focus is: Jesus has come. He will bring about all of God’s purposes for history, both in salvation and judgment. And that presses the question for us: what will you do with Jesus? Amen.