So equipping season, two weeks ago I started talking about the fullness of Christ. And there's that if we're going to reflect what Paul calls the fullness of Christ, that there are dimensions of what that fullness looks like. So our, as you know, I always want to keep repeating this until you memorize it. And when I think you memorize it, then I'll probably repeat it some more.
But our mission here at CityReach is equipping the one that knows Jesus so that they can go out and reach the one that needs Jesus. And so the better equipped, the better trained, the better prepared we are at ministry, the more effective we'll be at reaching those that either need Jesus to meet him for the first time, to receive salvation in eternal life, or to meet the ones that need issues in their life broken, or you need restoration, or whatever it might be that we can be equipped. Jesus calls it in Luke 6, 4, he calls it perfectly trained. He says that every disciple who is perfectly trained will be like his master.
So that if we're equipped the way that Jesus wants us to be equipped will actually look like him, act like him, sound like him, talk like him, and then we'll be able to do ministry and reach people just like he did. So our theme is from Ephesians chapter 4, you've heard this numerous times over the last couple months, but Ephesians 4, 11 through 13 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, and that means mature, to a place of maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that the measure of maturity in a believer is not measured against your neighbor. It's not say, well, I'm more mature than she is or he's more mature than I am. The measurement of maturity is Jesus himself.
And so that Paul wants us as we grow in the Lord that the measurement of our maturity is the fullness, what he calls the fullness of Christ. And so I really started out with five points that are going to be five messages, but the dimensions of the fullness of Christ, last week we talked about number one, which is the love of Christ or what we call his nature, the love of Christ, his nature. Today we're going to talk about the Gospel of Christ, which I want to show you today that the Gospel of Christ is the grace of Christ, that the Gospel of Christ is the grace of Christ. We have the word of Christ, which is we're going to get to that, we'll talk about it's his will, the mind of Christ, his wisdom, and then finally the works of Christ which demonstrate his power.
So as we work through those over the next few weeks, let's give you an idea of what to expect, but today we want to talk about the Gospel. So the Gospel is just a very, I want to say it's a simple word that gets very overcomplicated in some ways, some ways it gets very watered down, some ways it gets abused, it gets misdefined. So let's go back to what the meaning of the word Gospel means, it means good news. The word Gospel means good news.
And so a lot of times when people define the Gospel they attach things to the Gospel that aren't actually good news. So what happens a lot of times is we think just because it's true, it must be the Gospel. We've used that term when we tell somebody something, hey, the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl, that's what Drew told me. And he might say, that's the Gospel truth.
We attach those two words together. Well, what I want to tell you is just because something is true does not make it the Gospel. So think about this, if I tell you, now you've got to think about what does the word Gospel mean? Good news.
So if it's not good news, it can't be the Gospel. If I say, if you don't accept Jesus as your Savior and have a true conversion in your heart, you will spend eternity separated from God in eternal damnation that was never designed for you to spend. Is that true? Hell is a reality.
Is that good news? No. So there are things that are true that aren't in fact good news. And so when a lot of times people say, why don't you preach on this?
I'm like, well, it's true, but that's not the Gospel. Or this is true, okay? But it's not the Gospel. In order for something to be the Gospel, it has to be true.
And so as we look today, that I'm going to show you a couple of different things, is that the Apostle Paul equates the Gospel to grace that he actually uses the terms interchangeably. And then I want to look at the Gospel that Paul preached and we're going to compare it to the Gospel that Jesus preached. And we're going to say that, guess what? They're the same Gospel.
And so when we see that the Gospel and grace are interchangeably, what's grace? So if Gospel's good news, grace, and if you were here with her tonight, Whitney said that my definition of grace keeps not necessarily changing but growing. So as we first learn about grace, we learn that grace is unmerited favor. Apart from God, we don't deserve anything.
We can't earn anything that everything he does and gives to us is by grace, that it's unmerited favor. But here's the thing with limiting the definition of grace to just unmerited favor. It's because just like many things, there's many dimensions to grace. There's many aspects that grace also enables.
So as I've walked in my Christian life, I begin to define grace as not just unmerited favor, but it's unmerited favor that enables me to live a victorious life and to actually walk out God's will for my life. That everything that God has designed for me to do and everything that God has designed for you to do, that there's grace available not just to get saved, but there's grace available to live a victorious life and to fulfill God's will for your life. So that grace is unmerited favor that enables you to live victoriously and fulfill God's will for your life. And so here's why, and that's good news, like you can't do it on your own.
So when we add to the gospel and we start adding things to the gospel apart from grace, like it just doesn't work. So Paul says this, he says I marvel, this is Galatians 1. So let me give you a couple of passages if you want to go and mark them in your Bible right now. We're going to look at Galatians 1, 6 through 7, we're going to look at Romans 1, 16 and 17, and then we're going to look at Luke chapter 4 verses 16 to 22 will be our main text today.
So Paul says this, he says I marvel or that actually means I'm astonished. If Paul was living today, he would say you got to be kidding me right now. Like are you serious? He says I marvel that you are so soon turning from him who called you in the grace of Christ to what?
A different gospel. So right now in the gate he says you're turning from grace to a different gospel. And he says which is not another, but there are some who want to trouble you and even pervert the grace of Christ or the gospel of Christ. So I've kind of highlighted here that in Paul in these two verses when he's talking, now the book of Galatians is written to a region of churches and Galatians, not written to a specific church, it's written to this region of churches, and there were people who had crept into their church and were trying to bring legalism back into these churches that Paul was ministering to.
And he says you know what, even in verse chapter 3 he talks about this, he says are you so foolish? Who has bewitched you? Like this is demonic, that you began in the spirit and now that you're going to walk forward in your Christian life in the flesh, it doesn't work that way. That people have commanded to say okay, you're saved by grace through faith and now once you're saved that it's up to you to maintain your righteousness and to establish your favor with God.
He says that's demonic, that's foolishness. He said who bewitched you? Why are you so foolish? And so he opens, that's in chapter 3, but he opens chapter 1, he's like I am shocked and he's shocked because he fully preached what the gospel of grace was.
He says I'm shocked that you are so quickly turning. You know what the word turn means? It actually means to transpose or to switch teams. He's like you've gone from the Jesus team and you're now on the Pharisee team.
You switch teams. He says I'm shocked by it that you would so quickly turn from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different. So the word different, you can't see it here, but you see the word different and you see the word another. Those are two words for the word another.
The King James says, he says the grace of Christ to another gospel which is not another. So the two different words are this, one different gospel is the word heteros, which means one of a different kind or different quality. Right? It's another one, but the quality is different.
The other word for another is allos, which means another one of the same kind. It means identical. What's he saying? He's like I'm shocked that you turn from the gospel of grace to a different gospel.
You've turned to one that's of less quality. It's actually not as much of a quality as the one that I preach to you. And then he says, but actually there's not another gospel at all. If Paul was talking, he would probably talk like this.
He says you turn to a different gospel because in reality there's only one. There's only one gospel. There's only one gospel of Christ and it is the grace of Christ. He says when you turn from grace, you actually turn from Jesus himself.
He says I'm shocked that you're so soon turning from him. Why is that? The reason is when you turn from grace and you're actually turning from Jesus. Remember in John chapter 1 it says this, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.
The glory has only got another father full of grace and truth. And verse 16 says, and of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace. And then it goes on to verse 17, it says, it says the law came by Moses or was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You notice in both verses 14 and verse 17, I don't think I have it up here for you, but it says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
See truth apart from grace cannot equal a gospel because the gospel is good news. And so for something to be the gospel, it has to be true, but it also has to be wrapped with grace. So truth and grace, it says that he was full of truth. He was full of grace.
Of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came. It was a grace as a person. And so grace is not some teaching, grace is not like a doctrinal dissertation to write.
Grace is actually the person of Jesus. And when you turn away from the grace that he is, you actually turn from him. I'm going to just give you a little hint. When you turn from Jesus, it just doesn't work.
See, if things are dependent on you, like there's just doom and gloom. Like there's no good, if my life and the things of my life depended on me, well that's miserable because I can't do it. But when it depends on Jesus and 100% on Jesus, all of a sudden what on me would be bad news now turns into good news because it's his grace. It's his empowerment.
It's his enabling upon me, allowing me to do the thing that he's actually called me to do. Paul says, let's go backwards that verse. He says, I'm a stock that you went to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who want to trouble you. The word trouble means to distress, to actually cause confusion.
It means to put your mind in turmoil. If you've had thoughts like, well, I know God loves me, but am I good enough? Did I do enough? Did I give enough?
Did I go enough? Anytime somebody equates what you do to God's blessing in your life, it creates a disturbance. It creates confusion, commotion. It means to actually toss back and forth.
It gives you a divided mind. Is it grace or is it works? Do I work for it? Am I good enough?
And all those questions that will go in your mind cause it causes trouble. It makes your mind go crazy. When you get to the point where you just receive it and forget about it, it's so much easier. You let all those thoughts of, did I do enough?
Am I good enough? Did I, did all those things? Just cause it's not you. And then he goes on to say that there's some that want to pervert the gospel, which means just to change the nature of it, to distort it.
It's not that they were denying the gospel. They weren't saying there's not a gospel. They're just distorting what it looks like. See, I think most people would agree to this.
Most people would say that you don't get, that your salvation is not dependent on what you do. Would you agree with that? That your eternal salvation, it doesn't depend on whether you come to church. It doesn't depend on whether you tie.
It doesn't depend on whether you are on the worship. None of that stuff matters. But we bring a lesser version of that in and don't even realize it. So what most people will reject those statements, the same people will say things like this.
If you're not obedient, God won't bless you. If you don't fast, God won't speak to you. If you don't give, God won't increase your finding. Like, do you see the if and statements?
So where we reject those statements as it pertains to our eternal salvation, they filter in in our ongoing walk with the Lord. And it's just a lesser version of the same error. See, everything in my life, everything in your life is not dependent on me. See, nothing I do causes God to bless me.
The Bible tells me that I have already been blessed. And the fact that I've been blessed now is the reason that I go out and live an obedient life. It's the reason I live a holy life. It's the reason I witness.
It's the reason I preach. It's the reason I give. All those things are burst out of the fact that I've already been blessed, not as the reason to get God to move in my life. And that's what a perversion of grace looks like.
See, perversions are just a different version of what God actually intended. And sometimes that they're so slight, they look right and they look real, but they're just a little off. See, there's only one gospel, there's only one version of the gospel, and anything that's just slightly off is a perversion. It's a distortion.
It's less than. It's got a quality less than God intended. And so that's the gospel that Paul preached. He says this in Romans 1, verses 16 and 17, he says, for that reason, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as the scripture has said that just shall live by faith. I'll just take a minute and pick that apart. It says, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of, here we go, the gospel of Christ. What did we just learn from Galatians 1?
The gospel of Christ is the grace of Christ. Gospel is good news, but the gospel of Christ is the grace of Christ. They're interchangeable. He says, I'm not apologizing for this.
If you look at Paul's writings, he preached a grace that was so unadulterated and so pure, it actually caused people to think that they should go out and sin to get God's grace to increase. And of course, he refutes that in Romans 6. He says, God forbid, no, we don't sin to get God's grace to increase, but the fact is we're sin to bounce, grace to bounce more. That's a fact.
And so he says, I don't apologize, I'm not ashamed of this because the gospel is the miracle working power of God for salvation. But let's just clarify that. So when we think of salvation, we think of getting saved from the penalty of sin, right? Not going to hell, but going to heaven.
That's typically the first thing we think about. But the gospel that Paul preached when he talks about salvation, he's not just talking about having your sins forgiven so that you don't suffer the penalty of your sins by going to hell. Salvation is an all-inclusive word that not only includes being forgiven of sin, but it includes healing. It includes deliverance.
It includes being rescued. It includes being protected. It includes being restored. So all those things that Paul says that the gospel of grace, the gospel of Christ, is the power of God, the miracle working power of God so that you can be forgiven.
It's the miracle working power of God so that you can be healed. It's the miracle working power of God so that you can be delivered from whatever you're stuck in. It's all those things. And so if you've been around church for a while, you may have heard the term, I've never heard the term like a church described as a full gospel church.
Does everybody know what full gospel means? Because I'm going to refute it just a little bit. I'm going to build on it. In the late 1800s, there was a guy that formed the missionary alliance church.
And he coined the term full gospel. And full gospel is this. There are some people that believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased at the end of the first century. So somebody that's quote unquote a full gospel is somebody that believes that there's more to the gospel of Jesus than just getting your sins forgiven.
That Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That there is healing still available. That there's deliverance still available. It comes from this, well, look at it, I mean that Paul says I fully preach the gospel in word, indeed, in signs and wonders and power of the Holy Spirit.
And so they come up with this term full gospel to mean a gospel that not only included the forgiveness of sins, but a gospel that included the miracle working power of God. Now I believe in that. But even that definition of full gospel is incomplete. Do you realize there's more to the gospel than just forgiveness of sins, deliverance from bondage, healing of sickness, restoration of things that were lost?
There's more to the gospel than just that. Because Paul goes on to define it in verse 17. He says, in it, speaking of the gospel of Christ is what? The righteousness of God revealed.
And so the gospel is not just putting your faith in Jesus to be saved, putting your faith in Jesus to be healed, putting your faith in Jesus to be delivered, putting your faith in Jesus to be restored. The gospel is also living by faith to the degree that God begins to reveal to you the righteousness of God. See any gospel that misses out the abundance and overflow of the righteousness of God is not a complete gospel. In Hebrews it says that you're a baby Christian if you're not skilled in the word of righteousness.
But as you mature in the Lord you should have a deeper and fuller understanding of your righteous position in Christ. See, and here's where most Pentecostals fall off the wagon. They're about the full gospel that includes the miracles, but they're not about the full gospel that says that you stay righteous whether you're act righteous or not. And that's the full gospel the apostle Paul preaches that you didn't become righteous because of anything you did and you don't stay righteous because of anything you did, that it was by grace through faith that you became the way you are and you stay there by faith.
See if I have as I have a fuller revelation of righteousness Paul says this in Romans 5 and he says therefore listen to this past present and future. Therefore Romans 5 1 through 2 says having been justified by faith that past present or future therefore having been passed. Therefore having been justified by how faith we have past present or future peace with God and access into the grace in which we stand past present or future. So we have access, we have it like right now, so having been justified by faith we have peace with God so that's one thing we have.
We have access into the grace in which we stand. So guess what if I don't have a firm standing in grace what chance do I have of accessing the very thing that I'm standing in. See if I switch teams, if I was on the Jesus Christ team standing in grace but then I switch teams guess what I can't access. Paul says because we've been justified by faith we have peace with God, God's not mad at me, God's not mad at you, there's complete reconciliation.
He said and we have access into the very grace that we stand, here's the future and we rejoice at the hope of the glory of God that there's glory coming that we don't have yet. We can, I can actually rejoice in the future because I'm standing in grace. If I'm standing in legalism it's up to me, guess what I can't rejoice over. Like what future do I have?
What present do I have? None. And it's up to me, it's just, it ends up being bad news. But when I stay on the right team and I'm founded in the grace of Christ, I'm founded in the gospel of Christ, then I'm actually it says the just, the people that have been declared righteous, the just shall live by faith.
Like it goes from putting my faith in Jesus to receive salvation, putting my faith in Jesus to receive healing, whatever it is, to now living a life of faith to where I'm not receiving healing, I'm not receiving deliverance but I'm receiving revelation. And do you realize this that there's no enabling grace apart from revelation? If you want the enabling grace of life to come on your life, there has to come revelation from the Holy Spirit where He takes the very scripture of God and makes it come alive in your life and it comes, it's like His super on your natural and now all of a sudden you can do things you never could do before. But when you think that you have to maintain your righteousness, you'll spend your whole life here and not there.
Paul goes on and runs 5-5 to say this, his hope makes not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. The reason I can have confidence and rejoice in the future and it says hope does not disappoint, is because it's based on the love of God. See if I know that God has my best interest at heart because He loves me, can't fail. Can't mess up.
But when it's on me, I wouldn't want to put my faith in me. Anybody? No. Why do you try to do it?
See, all of this is by faith. Faith for salvation says it's the power of God to salvation to everyone who does what? Believes. And then it says that in the gospel, in the grace of Christ, when you really understand grace in the gospel, that there comes a revelatory download from the Holy Spirit that not only, it's not telling you that God's requirement for righteousness, it's actually downloading to you your identity.
What does it say in 2 Corinthians 5, 21? It says that he who knew no sin became sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Look what's being revealed to me as I stand in grace, my identity. I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
The gospel begins to reveal to me through the power of the Holy Spirit who I am in Christ. But that's a part of the gospel that a lot of people leave out. See, is the gospel having your sins forgiven? Yes.
Is the gospel the supernatural miracles? Yes. But the fullness of the gospel also includes the revelatory work of the Holy Spirit telling you who you are in Christ. I call it the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
See, when we think of conviction, we think of what? Sin, right? What does Jesus say in John chapter 16? It says when he, the Spirit of, let me give it to you, truth.
What does truth always have to combine with? Grace. When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin because they don't believe on me. Who are the people that don't believe on Jesus?
The unbelievers. What does the unbeliever need convinced of? That he needs Jesus. He says of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I'm with you no longer.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is not to convince you that you're sinful, it's to convince you that you're righteous. See, Jesus says because I'm not with you any longer, I'm going to heaven, but I'm sending the Holy Spirit and when he comes, his work in you will be to reveal to you that you've been made the righteousness of God. So I get that you're sleeping around. You shouldn't do that.
But while you're sleeping around, if you've accepted Jesus, guess what you still are? The righteousness of God. I get that you're shooting up. But if you've already received Jesus, guess what you still are?
The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I get that you're stealing. Actually, I don't get it. I don't get it.
I don't get it because if you truly had a revelation of grace, you would realize that God has enabled you to live above that. That God's actually enabled you to do the very thing that law could never do. I was telling somebody the other day, Paul says this, he says, I was alive once without the law, but then the law came and sin revived. Actually, the law brings about a sin revival.
Like if you want to sin, go study the law because the thing that tells you not to do, it's going to stir something up in you that wasn't there before and all of a sudden you're going to want to do the thing that you never knew you were supposed to do. Grace on the other hand comes and grace enables you to live holier than the law could ever, even holier than the law is. Like God enables you to do the supernatural. Paul says I just want to say this, when I fully preached the gospel, here's how it was, it was in word and deed.
To fully preach the gospel, there's words. What does that mean? It means I'm going to tell you what the grace of God looks like and then I'm going to live it out as we do life together. You can't talk to me about grace and then live and try to bring legalism in the way that we discipline and correct it and love people.
He said I preached the gospel, the grace of Christ, in word and deed, but also in signs and wonders and power of the Holy Spirit. Those are all part of it. A lot of times we think words don't matter. Think about this.
Paul says this in Ephesians 4, 29, and 30. He says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. What's the first thing we think of? Gosson.
He didn't say don't swear, but that's not what he's saying here. He says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth except that which is good for the edification that it may impart grace to the hearer. Verse 30 starts with the word and do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Guess what grieves the Holy Spirit?
Sin, but those two verses go together. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth except that which is good for the edification that it may impart grace to the hearer and grieve not the Holy Spirit. Any word you preach that's not seasoned with grace grieves the Holy Spirit because he is the spirit of grace according to Hebrews? It matters what you say.
It matters what you do. It matters that you demonstrate the very grace that you preach with supernatural signs and wonders. But along with all that there should be a revelation of who you are in Christ because apart from that you'll live a flip-flop up and down. Anybody ever live a Christian life that's like you're on a roller coaster?
Been there done that. I promise you this, the more you live by faith and get a revelation of grace those highs and lows will smooth out. See God never intended for you to be chasing a miracle only so you could go down again and eat another miracle to get a little bit and then you hit a high and then you crash again. We're not supposed to live from miracle to crisis, miracle to crisis, miracle to crisis.
We're to live in the unending blessing and favor of God. There's a difference. You got to get off of this. Remember what the goal is to present the fullness of Christ?
We're never going to present the fullness of Christ if we preach a half-baked gospel. So you cannot pick and choose the ingredients in the gospel. You can't choose the time that it goes in the oven. You can't choose the time that it needs to marinate and get in there and all the ingredients get like Emeril used to say.
If you guys remember Emeril, bam. He's like, it gets happy. Like everything gets happy in there. But what we want to do, we want to pull out this half-baked pie and say, here you go.
Here's the gospel. You won't go to hell. It's gross. Who wants to eat a deli pie?
It needs a nice golden crust on it. See, if we're going to present the fullness of Christ, we have to understand the fullness of the gospel that it is salvation from the penalty of sin. It is the supernatural miracle-working power of God, healing, deliverance, restoration, but it's also revelation of your righteous standing in Christ. The full package.
It's the same message that Jesus preached. Next slide. Let's go to the next slide. I want to just point this out.
We're going to close with Luke chapter 4, but I want to read this to you first. I want to read the prophecy that Isaiah gave about 700 years before Jesus came. He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good tidings to the poor. That's another word for gospel.
Right? Good news. Good tidings. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives of the opening of the prison of those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord in the day of vengeance of our God.
I want to pay particular close attention to the last phrase. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. What comes between those two statements? To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, what is it?
Okay, come on English. What's that little thing after the word Lord? A comma. Okay.
It means it's a pause, right? And then there's more to it. Jesus, look at Luke chapter 4. I want to read this to you.
So Jesus, when he goes back to his hometown, he just came out of the wilderness. He's just been empowered by the Holy Spirit. He goes back to his hometown. Luke 4, 16 says this.
Let me read this to you. We'll come back and make a couple points and we'll close. It says, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.
So he's a rabbi, right? He goes in. He sits down, he waits his turn, he stands up as rabbi and he's going to read and he's going to teach from the scripture. And it says, they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Now that's a bad translation because it was a scroll. Right? So I've seen like the scroll of Isaiah when I was in Israel and it goes from here to the sound booth. They got it stretched out in his big glass case.
But imagine back then as things like rolled up, there's no chapters, there's no verses. It's just one big long letter. Sixty some, I think it's 66 or 68 chapters long, what we have is chapters. But it says Jesus unrolls this thing all the way to what we now call chapter 60.
It says, and he opened the book. He found the place where he was written, the spear of the Lord is upon me because he hasn't known me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set it liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book.
Go back. What appeared in Isaiah? It says, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, comma, and the day of vengeance of our God. When Jesus reads that, he puts a period where Isaiah put a comma.
Do you realize punctuation matters? If you came over to my house, right? And it's 5 p.m. You guys know what happens at 5 p.m.
My house? We feed the dogs. All right. That's when the dogs eat, 5 p.m.
If I said, let's eat, Grayson, what does that mean? It means that my dogs race like it's time to come eat. Let's eat, comma, Grayson. But what if I said, let's eat, Grayson?
Well, no comma. What's that mean? That means that's what we're having for dinner. We're having Grayson for dinner.
I mean, you can do the same thing at Thanksgiving. Let's eat, grandma, or let's eat, grandma. Two completely different statements changed by one little piece of punctuation called a comma. Punctuation matters.
So Jesus puts a punctuation mark a period where Isaiah put a comma. Here's why. Because the acceptable year of the Lord is the period of the last 2,000 years that we're living in now. The acceptable year of the Lord had to do with the first coming of Christ.
The day, like once a year, it's not a literal year, it's a prophetic year. The year of our Lord, the acceptable year of the Lord has been going on since Jesus came in His first coming. The day of vengeance of our God comes at His second coming. Had He said that, would that have been good news or bad news?
That would have been bad news. It's true, right? See, there's a period of time called the acceptable year of the Lord. It's called the age of grace.
Imagine that. We're living in the age of grace. But there will come a time called the day of vengeance of our God. That's going to happen.
And Jesus could not have gone on to the next, let's go back down here. He could not have gone on to the next thing He said. He said that He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant. All the eyes in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say, today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Had He added the additional phrase, He could not have made the comment that today this is fulfilled in your ears. I am the Messiah. I am the person of grace, oncoming to enact the age of grace that we're going to live in until I come back the second time.
And when I come back the second time, that's when the day of vengeance of our God will come. That won't be good news. What is good news is Jesus came to save the world, not to condemn the world. But He does say in John 1248, He says, I didn't come to condemn the world.
He says, but there is something that will condemn you. The words I speak to you today, they will condemn you on the last day. But the words He's speaking to us are words of grace. But the reality is, if you don't receive what He's speaking, there comes a time when you have to pay for your own sin.
That's bad news. But what He came to say to this, He says, all born witness, David marveled at that. Look at that gracious words. The gracious words.
So that when Jesus releases the gospel, they saw it as what? Words of grace. See the connection? It says the proceeded out of his mouth, it's not Joseph's son.
Let's go back to verse 18. He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. That's what God really highlighted for me this week. I read it different this week.
Did you ever read a verse your whole life? And then you read it different and it stands out different? So I've always read it like this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
That He has anointed me because He sent me to preach. This week I read it different and the Holy Spirit just really kind of blew on this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, comma, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel of the poor, He sent me. Because He anointed me, He sent me.
Like everybody wants to talk about God's anointing on your life. But where are you going with it? Like if God's anointed you for someone, then there should be a sending. Like your anointing is not for you.
Your anointing is for somebody that has lack in their life. Jesus says this, He says that He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He's not talking about preaching the gospel to people that have no money. The word poor means that you're lacking in some area in your life.
It can mean poor in money, but the broader stroke it means is that you have lack in any area of your life. So He said, look, I'm bringing the gospel. I've been anointed to preach the gospel to people that have lack in their life. And because He's anointed me, He sent me.
And what's He sending me to do? He's sending me to do this. He's sending me to heal. Go to this last slide.
He's sending me to heal the brokenhearted. I want you to know, see the word poor? Look at how the Bible describes poor. Brokenhearted.
There's something missing emotionally. Like you are hurt or wounded at some point in your life. Somebody did something to you that caused pain in your heart. Jesus said, I came to heal that.
He said, He anointed me to preach the gospel to somebody that's lacking emotionally. Peter says this in Acts 10, 38, it says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed, the devil. He was anointed with power, but He went about. There was a going that resulted from His anointing.
So if you're going to tell me you're anointed, then I better see some evidence of going in your life. There's going to be a people group that God's calling you to that He's releasing anointing on your life to fill the lack in somebody else's. Like everybody wants anointed, right? But if you want anointing, then you need to receive the responsibility that goes with it.
Oh, it would be anointed. It would be anointed. It would be anointed. But we all want anointed, but we don't want to go do the work of the ministry.
See, there's work that God has for you that grace will enable you to do the thing that you could never do before. But you've got to be willing to be sent. He says, He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Let's just take a minute.
Look at this, captives. Do you know what a captive is? It's somebody who, no fault of their own because a war took place in their country, their country lost, and now they've been taking captive. They're in prison, but not because of something they did.
That represents mankind inheriting Adam's sin. That you all are a slave of sin when you're born because Adam's sinned, and that passed on to you of no fault of your own. You didn't do anything to earn it. You didn't do anything to deserve it.
But Jesus came to say this, I know you didn't deserve the sinful sentence you got, but I came to release you from the slave market of sin. He says, I came to heal the brokenhearted, emotional healing. I came to proclaim liberty to the captives, people that are in prison because they didn't do anything to get there, that's spiritual healing. I came to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind.
Guess what kind of healing that is? Physical healing. That Jesus heals blind eyes. That Jesus opens deaf ears.
That he releases dumb tongues. That he eradicates cancer and all those things that can come on our body. The gospel provides for that. He says that he came to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
In Isaiah, it says that he came to open the prison doors of those who were bound. Do you know there's a difference between a captive and a prisoner? A captive that Jesus sets free. A captive is in prison because of no fault of their own.
They were living somewhere. They got taken captive and put in jail. A prisoner is somebody that's in jail because of their own bad decisions. Do you see the difference?
You can be in sin, the slave market is sin just because you were born, but you could be in bondage to something because of a whole bunch of series of bad decisions that you made. Jesus has grace for that situation too. He said, I didn't come to just set the prisoner out of the sin prison. I came to set the pornography guy and the adultery guy and the back biting gal.
You name it. Whatever you want to put on there. I came to set you free from the bondage of gossip. You can be in bondage to something because of your own decisions.
Jesus came to set that free too. But beyond all that, so we got spiritual healing, emotional healing, physical healing. All those things. Jesus came to proclaim the gospel and the final thing is this, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
You realize that's the same thing as Paul saying this. I came to tell you that in the gospel as you live by faith, there's a revelation of righteousness. The acceptable year of the Lord, Jesus I believe is referring to what's called the year of Jubilee. In Leviticus chapter 25, when he's giving Moses the law, he says this, so every seven years, they let the land rest.
Right? So the seventh year, they can't plant anything. They got to let the whole land rest for the whole seventh year. And then after seven, sevens, or 49 years, they get to the 50th year.
And on the 50th year, they have what's called a year of Jubilee. And here's what happens when the year of Jubilee. If you have a debt, like if you had a credit card and you get your bill every month, guess what happens in the year of Jubilee? The debt's gone.
If you had to sell off your land to make ends meet or you had to sell a piece of property, it goes back to you. If you had inheritance taken from you, it's restored. Everything that was lost is restored. If somebody was enslaved, maybe they had to sell themselves to live in slavery to pay a debt, all the slaves go free.
It's a complete year of liberty. It's a complete year of rest. And Jesus says, I didn't just come to forgive your sin. I didn't just come to heal your sickness.
I didn't just come to heal your broken heart. I didn't just come to release you from the bondage that you put yourself in. But once you're free, I came to declare it's a year of liberty. It's a year of freedom.
And that year took place from the day I resurrected until the day I come back. See, God never intended for you to live like this. He intended you to live in the fullness of all that Jesus provided. That's the fullness of the gospel.
And that's the fullness of grace. I think we'll just end right there. Anybody learn something today? My prayer today was that we would have a deeper grasp so that when we say gospel, so that we see that gospel is not just telling somebody, hey, if you accept Jesus, you'll become new.
That's true. That's like the heart of the gospel. That is so true and it's all by grace. Paul says, four by grace are you saved through faith.
And that, not of yourselves, which is referring to faith. Even the faith you put in his grace is a gift from God. Like you can't even work up your own faith. Everything that he has for you, I guess if I say this, if I had to boil grace down to one verse in the Bible, it would be Ephesians 1, 3.
It says, blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in heavenly places. That all that you'll ever need in life resides in the office of the ascended Christ. That in Christ is every spiritual blessing. All that you'll ever need is in Him.
All that you'll ever need is in Him. If you need your sins forgiven, it's in Him. If you need your body healed, it's in Him. If you need addiction or bondage broken in your life, it's in Him.
If you need emotional scars healed, it's in Him. Like, it's a complete package. And I'm not going to preach a half-baked gospel. I'm going to tell you that the fullness of what Jesus paid for is available to you.
It's not depending on what you did or what you're stuck in right now. It's available. The grace that we stand in is the same grace that we're able to access. You realize we can access the fullness of Jesus.
Do you remember the story of Esther? Do you remember how Esther was an orphan? Her mom and dad died. She was raised by Mordecai, her uncle.
The king's wife, Vashtai, this is Him. He looks for a new replacement queen, long story short. Esther becomes the queen. This evil guy, Haman, wants to wipe out the Jews.
And so Esther decides to go before the king and make a request. And she realizes that no one's allowed to go before the king unless they've been called. And if they come before the king without being called, then you get killed. So if you just happen to chance, I want you to read Esther chapter 5 this week.
And it says, after three days, now there's a whole prophetic message in that because we know what happened on the third day. After three days, it says she puts on her royal robes. Do you know what your royal robe is? It says, he's clothed me with the garments of salvation and with the robe of righteousness.
It says she puts on her royal robes and she stands in the inner court across from king, where he sat on his royal throne. And it says, when he sees her standing, you know what righteousness is? It's right standing. When he sees her standing in his midst, he says, come forward, what do you want up to half the kingdom?
Well, that fails in comparison because your father says, it's my good pleasure to give you all the kingdom. But it says, when she came forward wearing her royal robes, that he extended the golden scepter. She reached out and touched it. Gold represents purity.
Heber says this. It says, it says, it says, it says, it says, it says, it says, the scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of righteousness. It's, I want to speak to somebody today that's feeling unworthy to stand in the presence of a king who's all holy, all righteous, all pure because of something you've done, or maybe something that was done to you. The God today wants to clothe you and wrap you in that robe of righteousness.
He wants to draw you to himself. As we talked earlier about conviction, you know, conviction is picking up and pulling in. Condemnation is pushing away and pushing down. The Holy Spirit wants to draw you into the Father.
And the Father wants to meet you at whatever point of faith you are today. Like, if you just have a little faith, he'll meet you. Like, it's not about the size of your faith, but faith needs to be there. And he wants to bring you in and say, I've clothed you.
I've made you righteous. I've made you holy. I've come into my presence and stand and be proud, not in an arrogant way, but in a confidence that when I stand in grace, like I didn't do anything to, like it's grace I'm standing on. The very thing I'm standing on was given to me.
But the thing that I'm standing on is also the thing that empowers me to do the impossible.