The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
The Mission of the Church
Beloved
of the Lord.....It is not Isaiah, but it is Christ Himself who speaks
the words of our text today, roughly 700 years before Christ was born. In Luke four we find these prophetic words of Christ fulfilled. Luke
tells us after the baptism of Christ in Jordan, and His temptation in
the wilderness, Jesus begins to preach the Gospel throughout Galilee. He then goes to His home town of Nazareth. Entering
the synagogue He has attended all His life, they "delivered unto him
the book of the prophet [Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book, he
found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
Likewise
every Sunday when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is here taught and
preached in our Church, again the Scriptures are fulfilled. Christ
sends His Spirit to us through the written and spoken Word, that Word
of Grace, and our hearts which have been broken by sin are healed. As Jesus said of and to the adulterous woman, "Her sins which are many are forgiven". Truly
these are indeed "good tidings unto the meek" for "The Son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many."
Knowing all this by grace through faith, every believer is both a priest and minister before this world. Our
high calling and purpose is to bring Christ to others, to plant and
build His Church by the Means of Grace, "for there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Though
in this wretched world we may not be able to leave behind for our
children a house or inheritance, we do know by God's grace, it is the
the Words of God we speak while living, which will have the most lasting
impression, even everlasting. As Jesus said, so we speak, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And
though we daily mourn our sins, and we daily mourn the many times our
loved ones do not hear or receive God's saving Word, we cannot allow
that to hold us down. As long as we are in this world, Jesus is the Light of our world. They still can be saved, if only they hear and believe. It is then God's work to bear the fruit, and we are happy to be His witnesses. May God thus help us, and let us pray often and fervently, that He will help us to preach the Gospel to every creature. To do so is to give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Therefore "be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I. The Prophetic Office of Christ to preach the Gospel. As
mentioned before, it is the prophet Christ who says in our text, "The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to
preach good tidings unto the meek." In the broad
sense, the entire mission of Christ (from His holy conception to His
glorious ascension), was to save and redeem all mankind from sin, by
giving His life a ransom for many. Hence "The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost" and "Christ came into the world to save sinners". While
this redemption is indeed universal and all encompassing for "Christ
died for all", this reconciliation achieved in the heart of God, MUST BE
UNDERSTOOD AND BELIEVED IF MEN ARE TO BE SAVED. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Jesus then is the one and only Prophet who can really teach this to men's hearts. And
since it is also the Father's will to save mankind along with the Holy
Spirit, during the earthly ministry of Christ the Father anointed Jesus,
or poured out His Holy Spirit upon Jesus without measure, "to preach
good tidings unto the meek." Psalm 45:7 thus says, "God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the Oil of Gladness above Thy fellows." Note the Holy Spirit is called the Oil of Gladness here, for oil was often used as a medicine to heal. When
the Spirit thus brings Christ and forgiveness to broken hearts, such
hearts are mended and healed with the Oil of gladness, happiness, and
joy, in the knowledge all our sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake.
Thus
when we speak of the Son of God taking on flesh and blood, adding to
His divine nature a human nature, this anointing of the Spirit means
Jesus as a Man was filled entirely with the Holy Spirit, even
overflowing. Picture Christ then as a vessel,
into which water is poured into from heaven above, and whenever Jesus
preached the Gospel, this living water was continually poured out from
His sacred lips, quenching every thirsty soul. Those
hearts which had been broken by God's law, those souls who trembled in
the fear of God's wrath and judgment and damnation, such through Christ
were now instead filled with grace and love and joy, knowing through
Jesus all was forgiven. Thus concerning Christ
and His Spirit, the Holy Spirit without measure, we must understand in
the very heart of Christ, yea His very soul, he was entirely bent upon
the earnest mission to save and redeem from the power of the devil, all
men born in sin. For by way of original sin, all children are born in spiritual darkness, even slaves and prisoners of the devil. Yet here comes Christ the very Son of God, our Strong Warrior, who comes to save all mankind in an unconventional way. Jesus
comes in weakness as a lowly Man Himself, in order to make all our sins
His own, even suffer and die on the cross as a Substitute in our place. By earning and achieving this forgiveness for all men's sins, the devil's power over man was forever broken. Forgiven sinners, sinners forgiven and washed clean by the blood of Christ, cannot be damned. Forgiven sinners are loosed from Satan's power. Wherever
then this Gospel is preached today, it is Jesus Himself who is
preaching "good tidings unto the meek", for "He that sent Me to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound!" When any
man, woman, or child hears of Jesus and learns of Him believing, their
redeemed soul is loosed from the shackles and chains of sin. Forgiven sins cannot harm us, and the devil has nothing to say, if we say "Christ is My Redeemer, get thee hence from me Satan!" That
is why dear believer, even today and every day until you die and see
Jesus face to face in heaven, it is so important that you preach and
teach the Gospel to all you know. "In a book
about President Eisenhower it is told that Billy Graham visited him on
his deathbed and the president asked, 'Can an old sinner like me go to
heaven?' And when he was told that if he believed in Jesus Christ he would be saved, tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. A broken heart was bound up." (The Gospel According to Isaiah, Kenneth Miller, 1992)
II. As Priests, our high calling to preach the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. This brings us to the true Mission of the Church, namely your mission dear believer. Jesus said, "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." "Ye are the light of the world" and "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Repentance is necessary in that one must first be sorry for their sins, before they will desire Christ. Thus we first preach the law, that the proud might be humbled, for we cannot cast our pearls before the swine. Yet
even when we admonish and rebuke, we must remember the Gospel is the
chief doctrine, and the Gospel alone gives "them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning." While our bodies then
will fade like a leaf and return to dust and ashes, Christ is and will
be and every shall be our Beautiful Savior. "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."
It
is our job then, indeed our highest calling, to leave to the next
generation this pure and saving Gospel, knowing God Himself will
preserve it. We are thus His priests, even "ministers of our God", "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified." We didn't plant ourselves, but God planted us, so that the barren became fruitful knowing, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Because the Lord Himself has planted us, the True Church of all Believers is like a green and fruitful garden. Our
church where His Gospel is preached is like a green oasis in a dry and
barren wilderness, yet we want all sinners to eat the riches of our
garden, by hearing and believing in Christ, for "by grace are ye saved
through faith." Jesus Himself said, "I am the
living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread,
he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world." To eat this Bread of Life is to believe in His free gift of salvation.
Thus
wherever this Gospel is preached we plant and build the "old wastes"
and "raise up the former desolations of many generations." Though
many churches and congregations long ago stole and destroyed and wasted
the faith of believers so that they fell, by taking Christ away from
them, when we preach Christ and His pure Gospel, especially His two
Means of Grace, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, we plant and rebuild what
had been destroyed, much like Martin Luther. We know Christ was not a lawgiver, but rather a most gracious and merciful Savior, for " the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." By preaching Christ crucified, we open the door to heaven, by grace through faith in Christ.
This
is how the "stranger shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of
the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers." When
our Gospel is heard and received by non-Christians, they too become
priests and also future ministers of our children and the next
generation. We all work together as one Church,
having One Lord, one faith, one baptism, for "ye are all children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus."
In
conclusion, let us remember and rejoice, the Word of God is not without
effect, and wherever it is taught the Holy Spirit is working to
convince. We are in no wise in this work alone, for Christ has sent and given us His Comforter who brings His grace without measure. When
we preach Christ, not only the mountain of our sins, but also our
neighbor's, is swallowed up in the ocean of God's love without measure. Let us therefore by the same grace, do and fulfill our highest calling, preaching good tidings of great joy to all people. For
"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace day nor night; ye that make mention of the Lord, keep
not silence." (Isaiah 62:6) Amen.
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