When
Jesus taught in the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth he quoted from Isaiah
61:1-2 (Luke 4:18-19): "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 proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord." (NKJV)
He
announced that He had been sent to preach the good news of the Gospel; God’s
free gift of forgiveness and salvation through Christ Jesus. He proclaimed or
heralded (preached) that His ministry on this earth initiated the season or age
of grace, when salvation was freely available to all men and women. We still
live in that age!
In
the quotation from Isaiah, Jesus also said that God sent Him to heal the
bruised and crushed, to free those who had been harassed and held captive by
satan and to open the eyes of the blind (physically and spiritually).
Jesus
did all of this in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit who dwelt in Him
(Luke 4:18; John 1:32-33; Acts 10:38). Do you realize that you have the same
Holy Spirit anointing on the inside of you to empower you to continue the
ministry of Jesus (Mk 16:15-18)? Jesus did say go (Matt 28:18-20).