The Role of the Spirit in the proclamation of the Gospel (Isaiah 61:1)
The passage of our sharing today is commonly seen as the manifesto of our Lord Jesus as seen in Luke 4:18-19.The prophesy presents Jesus as the anointed one, the messiah who was sent to bring Good News to the poor. Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples. Take the gospel to nations and make Christ known. This is not limited to a few people, it is a mandate for the entire church of Christ.
The second point is advancing the redemptive role of our lord Jesus Christ.
Redeeming the world is the work of Christ entrusted to us as believers that when we go out with the redemptive gospel, people are delivered from sin. The Messiah ministered to bodies as well as souls and made preaching his priority so that those with ears would hear and eyes might see his true identity and follow him in faith.
Jesus was sent to heal the damage that sin had caused. The damage can only be healed through the great work of redemption as we see in Isaiah 61:1-3. According to Isaiah it is only by the power of the Spirit that we can do the above. It is only the Spirit of the Lord that can empower us to deal with the damage sin has caused to humanity. Many people are living in bondages of all sorts and have no capacity and power to walk out. Many preachers who are not empowered by the Spirit of the Lord have covered and left people in total bondage. There is need for every believer, preacher and teacher of the word to recognize the holistic role of the Trinity in our lives. The person of the Holy Spirit is charged with empowering and equipping preachers with strength, power, boldness and utterance that lead to complete deliverance. Isaiah was dealing with people who thought that they were children of Abraham, living under captivity in Babylon but forgetting that this was in the physical but the real bondage which had taken them to exile was sin.
Sin had impoverished them and hence the need for the Good News which is the Gospel which Jesus declared the promise as fulfilled in Him alone, He became the great evangelist, and all who follow Him are called to the same office. In Isaiah 40:9, a herald of the Good News is declared to go in strength lifting up is voice in the cities of Judah. Sin breaks hearts and Jesus binds the broken hearted. Sin oppresses that is why Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening the prison to those who are bound an idea drawn from the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, as well as from the concern of the captivity bearing in mind the Babylonian captivity.
Let us all open our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to empower us for the great task of bringing the gospel of deliverance to the broken hearts and lives. May God bless you.
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Rebecca Nyegenye
The Provost