Luke 4:18-22 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted… The Lord here, quoting Isaiah, states His mission to be the preaching of the acceptable year of Jehovah. Let us inquire what the acceptable year of the Lord is, and how He preached it. I. THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. This expression corresponds to that of Paul, "the accepted time," "the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2); and means that there is a time when God accepts or shows favour to the sinner. It is what Ezekiel calls "the time of love"; what our Lord calls "the time of visitation" (Luke 19:44); and what we usually call "the day of grace." Every era has its character, and the character of this is "grace." In it the long-suffering of God gets full vent to itself, and His almighty love is pouring itself down upon an unworthy world. II. How CHRIST PREACHED THIS ACCEPTABLE YEAR. This preaching of the acceptable year was to run through His whole life and ministry. 1. In His person He preached it; for His mere presence upon earth among sinful men was an announcement of it. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 2. He preached it by what He did. He went about healing all manner of sicknesses, and all manner of diseases. 3. He preached it by what He did not do. He did no deeds of terror, and wrought no miracles of wrath or woe. 4. He preached it by what He said. His words were all of grace; and even the sharp rebukes against scribes and Pharisees were the warnings of grace, not of wrath. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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, |
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