The Acceptable Year of the Lord - Luke 4:19

Luke the physician shared how Jesus, “came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. 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 has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has 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,...”, and in chapter four and verse nineteen of his book Luke shared how Jesus continued “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” where we read:

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

The verse reads, “To preach ...” Luke began with the words, “to preach” or “to herald, publish and proclaim publicly”. Luke shared how Jesus continued with the prophesy in Isaiah concerning the Messiah as He declared the Christ would also “herald and publicly proclaim” the following.

The verse goes on to say, “... the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke continues with the words, “the acceptable year” which means “the approved, propitious and accepted fixed definite period of time” “of the Lord” or “belonging to the One to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, and the title given to God the Messiah”. Luke shared how Jesus continued reading of Isaiah's prophesy which included the message of the Messiah concerning the “approved” time belonging to the “Lord”.

When we think through Luke's words in this verse, we see how Jesus finished reading this portion of Isaiah's prophesy concerning the Messiah. The Christ was to “proclaim” the “accepted and approved” time that a person could receive Him as their personal “Savior and Lord”, and Jesus was now among them to share that message. God wants people to be in a personal relationship with Him through His Son Jesus, and now is the “acceptable year of the Lord”. There will be a time when people attempt to receive Jesus as their “Savior”, but it will be too late. Only while a person is alive do they have the opportunity to yield their lives to Him, and though some will cry “LORD, LORD”, Jesus will say to them, “depart from me, you worker of iniquity”. (See Matthew 7:23, 25:41; Luke 13:27). Today is the day of “salvation”, and those who are wise will receive Jesus while it is the “acceptable year”.

Next time Luke shares how Jesus, “closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".