Heba was a Syrian refugee in Lebanon. There was a church in the area where she had an apartment. One evening her six-year-old son asked ‘why is that building glowing? Can we go in and see?’ Her son, Ali, saw a light every time he looked at that building. But Heba would not let him go in to a church building.
This went on for a month until one day Ali let go of
her hand and ran into the building. Heba
followed but could not see him among the people. What she did see was a group of people
singing and the words of those songs washed over her and touched her
deeply. Her feet felt fixed on the
floor. After a few songs someone touched
her, it was Ali.
Then someone got up to preach. Heba had been told that Christians had
corrupted the scriptures and so shew as not going to listen. They left, but she could not forget the
songs.
Next Sunday evening they were barely out of their
apartment when Ali asked to go to the church again. She agreed to slip in quietly for a few
minutes. She was disappointed that they
weren’t singing, the pastor got up and spoke from Isaiah. What Heba didn’t know was the pastor had changed
the text when he saw her come in. He
looked at her and decided to speak on a passage that clearly spelt out the
beauty of the good news. He spoke Isaiah
61. This is what he said:
‘He [Jesus] has come to preach good news to the
poor. He has come to bind the
brokenhearted. He has come to set the
captives free. He has come to comfort
all who mourn. He has come to give a
crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning. He has come to give you a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair. He has
come to set you free. He has come to
give you life! Come to Jesus and everything
will change. You will start your life
over and be born again.’
He then closed with an invitation: ‘are there any of
you who feel like you are held captive the as Isaiah described? Do you want to be set free? Jesus wants to forgive your sins. Settle all this with Jesus tonight and come
to the cross. Who wants forgiveness and
freedom?’
Heba shocked herself, and everyone else, by shouting
out, ‘I do!’
But her new found faith has not been easy. Her husband reacted sharply. She can’t even hide a Bible in their
apartment, so she learns large passages off by heart. Eventually, memorizing the Word of God became
more important to her than the food she ate.
Her joy was to teach Ali about Jesus.
Her greatest prayer is that her husband would know Jesus for himself.
1.
Jesus
preaches the good news to the poor
Why the poor?
It is not necessarily wrong to be rich, but it is interesting that for
every time the Bible talks of the blessings of possessions it gives nine
warnings of the dangers. Wealth can make
us proud and self-sufficient. In the
book of Revelation, a wealthy church says to the risen Jesus, ‘I am rich, I
have prospered, and I need nothing’, to which He says, ‘you are wretched,
pitiable, poor, blind and naked’ (Revelation 3:17).
This word for poor can speak of poverty of any
kind. It is only when we realize that we
are empty that we come to Jesus to be filled.
It is only when we find that life does not satisfy that we come to Him
for meaning and purpose. It is only when
we see that we are morally bankrupt that we seek His forgiveness.
What about sight to the blind? In the book of Acts the apostle Paul shares his story
of being converted from having being a persecutor of Christians to being a
lover of Jesus. Jesus tells him that he
was being sent to the gentiles [non-Jews] ‘to open their eyes that they may
turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness from sins and a place among those who are sanctified by
faith in me’ (Acts 26:16-18). There is a
spiritual sight that this good news gives.
2.
Jesus binds up the brokenhearted
One of my favorite descriptions of God is found in 2
Corinthians. ‘Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by
God’ (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Notice that
this is not a promise of a life without pain but of a God who is with us in all
we face. Earlier in Isaiah God says,
‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are
mine. When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you …’ (43:1b-2a). There
will come a day when God Himself promises to wipe away all the tears from our
eyes (Revelation 21:4). But as we await
that day there will be plenty of times where our joy in belonging to Jesus will
be mixed with the sorrow of living in a broken and corrupt world.
There is one sorrow in our lives that God wants to
deal with straight away. You see when
the Holy Spirit works in us He convicts us of our evil and guilt. This is different than the work of the evil
one who simply seeks to accuse us.
Unlike the devil, the Holy Spirit points us to God and His infinite
mercy. He gives us hope!
In the most important verse in the Bible on theme of
repentance the apostle Paul writes, ‘godly sorrow produces a repentance that
leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly sorrow produces death’ (2
Corinthians 7:10). Worldly sorrow is
rooted in pride. It hates the fact that
you have been caught. Whereas godly
sorrow realizes that first and foremost the evil we have done has been
committed against the infinitely holy love of God. The Spirit causes us to cry out to God that He
would change us. Delight comes as we
realize that no matter how evil our hearts the mercy of God is greater. On the cross the Messiah was pierced for our
transgressions and the punishment that brings us peace was upon Him (Isaiah:
53:5).
3.
Jesus
sets the captives free
Isaiah was originally addressing a people who had
continually pushed God aside and done what they knew to be wrong. God had repeatedly warned them, but they
would not listen. As a result, their
land was invaded and they were taken into exile in Babylon. Even there they would not turn back to
Him. But God’s mercy did not give up on
them. He continued to speak to
them. He spoke tenderly to their hearts
and He won them back with words of kindness.
Now God is going to bring them home to their land.
Apart from God you are not free! Don’t we all find ourselves doing things that
we don’t want to do? Have you got
regrets? Wouldn’t you like to change? A famous author recently admitted that she felt
a god-shaped hole in her life. All her
success could not fulfil her. Come
home! ‘Though your sins are like
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
shall become like wool’ (Isaiah 1:18).
‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no
money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price’ (Isaiah 55:1).
When Jesus’ birth was announced to the shepherds, the
angel declared, ‘I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
people’ (Luke 2:9). When the apostle
Peter wrote of what it means to know the risen Jesus, even as he faced
opposition and eventually martyrdom, he called it ‘joy unspeakable’ (1 Peter
1:8). Isaiah promises ‘the oil of
gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.’
(3a). The flavor of Christianity is joy
(Ray Ortland).
Conclusion
Remember Heba. The pastor in that church had planned to preach on another passage, but chose these verses when he saw her come in. He chose well, for God had it ordered in such a way that when Jesus spoke in the synagogue of his home town of Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry he would start here.
But when Jesus read these verses in the synagogue at his home town of Nazareth, he deliberately left out the line about the day of the vengeance of our God. Why? Because that day has yet to come! Today is a day when we are to 'seek the Lord while he may be found' and 'call on him while he is near'. He will return and bring perfect justice, and on that day we want him as our saviour and not our judge.
So why have we stopped rejoicing? Maybe we have forgotten how great this good news is! Maybe we have forgotten that we are beggars who have been given bread. Maybe we have forgotten that we are prisoners who have not only been set free but have been taken to the master's house to dine at his table as beloved sons and daughters. Maybe we are not living in awareness of the truth that there is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Maybe it is because we are not preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. Maybe it is because we are hearing the accusation of the accuser of our souls, not realising that while 'while we all stumble in many ways' (James 3:2), nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
May the Holy Spirit cause us to cry out 'abba, Father', and assure us that this good news is good news for us!
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