Message Twelve

Living and Proclaiming Christ
as the Jubilee of Grace for His Second Coming

Scripture Reading: Isa. 61:1-3; 65:17; 66:22;
Lev. 25:8-17; Luke 4:16-22; Acts 26:16-19

Isa. 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me / To bring good news to the afflicted; / He has sent Me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, / To proclaim liberty to the captives, / And the opening of the eyes to those who are bound; ²To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah / And the day of vengeance of our God; / To comfort all who mourn; ³To grant to those who mourn in Zion, / To give to them a headdress instead of ashes, / The oil of gladness instead of mourning, / The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness; / That they may be called the terebinths of righteousness, / The planting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified.

Isa. 65:17 For I am now creating new heavens / And a new earth, / And the former things will not be remembered, / Nor will they come up in the heart.

Isa. 66:22 For as the new heavens / And new earth, which I make, / Remain before Me, declares Jehovah, / So will your seed and your name remain.

Lev. 25:8-17 And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years to yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years. ⁹Then you shall sound aloud the ram’s horn in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month; on the Day of Expiation you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; you shall not sow nor reap its aftergrowth nor gather from its unpruned vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce out of the field. ¹³In this year of jubilee each one of you shall return to his possession. ¹⁴And if you sell anything to your fellow countryman or buy from the hand of your fellow countryman, you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your fellow countryman; according to the number of crop years remaining he shall sell to you. ¹⁶According to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price; for it is the number of crop years that he sells to you. ¹⁷And you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Jehovah your God.

Luke 4:16-22 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and according to His custom He entered on the Sabbath day into the synagogue and stood up to read. ¹⁷And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, ¹⁹To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.” ²⁰And when He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. ²²And all bore witness to Him and marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

Acts 26:16-19 But rise up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen Me and of the things in which I will appear to you; ¹⁷Delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, ¹⁸To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. ¹⁹Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

I. Isaiah 61:1-3 refers to the ministry of Christ as the Anointed of Jehovah in His two comings:

A. Verses 1 and 2a in this chapter refer to Christ in His first coming, in which His ministry was to announce the gospel of grace.

Isa. 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me / To bring good news to the afflicted; / He has sent Me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, / To proclaim liberty to the captives, / And the opening of the eyes to those who are bound;

Isa. 61:2a To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah

B. Verses 2b and 3 refer to Christ in His second coming, in which His ministry will be to avenge Israel that they may be restored.

Isa. 61:2b And the day of vengeance of our God; / To comfort all who mourn;

Isa. 61:3 To grant to those who mourn in Zion, / To give to them a headdress instead of ashes, / The oil of gladness instead of mourning, / The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness; / That they may be called the terebinths of righteousness, / The planting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified.

C. The prophecy concerning Christ as the Anointed of Jehovah was fulfilled as a foretaste at Christ’s first coming, for the age of grace as the acceptable year of Jehovah, the New Testament jubilee, resulting in the producing and building up of the church.

D. This prophecy will be fulfilled as a full taste at Christ’s second coming, for the restoration of Israel unto the new heavens and the new earth—65:17; 66:22.

Isa. 65:17 For I am now creating new heavens / And a new earth, / And the former things will not be remembered, / Nor will they come up in the heart.

Isa. 66:22 For as the new heavens / And new earth, which I make, / Remain before Me, declares Jehovah, / So will your seed and your name remain.

E. The age of jubilee is divided into two periods—one period is the New Testament age, which is the age of grace today, and the other period is the age of the millennium, which is the fullness of the jubilee.

II. The year of jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-17 is recorded as a prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2a and is fulfilled in reality in Luke 4:16-22:

A. In the year of jubilee there were two main blessings—the returning of every man to his lost possession and the liberation from slavery—Lev. 25:8-17.

Isa. 61:1-2a The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me / To bring good news to the afflicted; / He has sent Me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, / To proclaim liberty to the captives, / And the opening of the eyes to those who are bound; ²To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah

B. The Hebrew word for jubilee means a joyful noise, a shouting with the blasting of a trumpet, and a proclamation; it is a proclamation not of sorrow or lamentation but of the gospel, the good news of great joy—Luke 2:10-11.

Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I announce to you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people, ¹¹Because today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord.

C. The year of jubilee is the age of grace, the age of Christ as grace dispensed into us for our enjoyment by His words of grace—4:22; Psa. 45:2; John 1:14-17.

Luke 4:22 And all bore witness to Him and marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

Psa. 45:2 You are fairer than the sons of men; / Grace is poured upon Your lips; / Therefore God has blessed You forever.

John 1:14-17 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality. ¹⁵John testified concerning Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who is coming after me has become ahead of me, because He was before me. ¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.

D. The New Testament jubilee is an age of ecstasy for our salvation—cf. 2 Cor. 5:13-15; 6:2.

2 Cor. 5:13-15 For whether we were beside ourselves, it was to God; or whether we are sober-minded, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵And He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.

2 Cor. 6:2 For He says, “In an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

III. The proclamation of the jubilee in Luke 4 governs the central thought of the whole Gospel of Luke, and the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an excellent illustration of the jubilee—vv. 11-32:

Luke 15:11-32 And He said, A certain man had two sons. ¹²And the younger of them said to the father, Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. And he distributed to them his living. ¹³And not many days after, the younger son, having gathered everything together, went abroad to a distant country and there squandered his estate by living dissolutely. ¹⁴And when he had spent all, a severe famine occurred throughout that country, and he began to be in want. ¹⁵And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed hogs. ¹⁶And he longed to be satisfied with the carob pods which the hogs were eating, and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants abound in bread, but I am perishing here in famine! ¹⁸I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. ²⁰And he rose up and came to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately. ²¹And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. ²²But the father said to his slaves, Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry, ²⁴Because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry. ²⁵Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, ²⁶And calling to him one of the servants, he inquired what these things might be. ²⁷And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has received him back healthy. ²⁸But he became angry and was not willing to enter. And his father came out and entreated him. ²⁹But he answered and said to his father, Behold, so many years I have been slaving for you and have never neglected a command of yours, and you have never given me a goat that I might be merry with my friends; ³⁰But when this son of yours came, who devoured your living with harlots, you slaughtered for him the fattened calf. ³¹And he said to him, Child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But we had to be merry and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life, and he was lost and has been found.

A. The prodigal son left his father’s house, selling his possession and himself:

1. Human life is nothing but labor and sorrow and will be soon gone; the true condition of human life is vanity of vanities, vapor of vapors, and futility of futilities—a chasing after wind—Psa. 90:10; 73:14, 16-17, 25; Eccl. 1:2-11, 14.

Psa. 90:10 The days of our years are seventy years, / Or, if because of strength, eighty years; / But their pride is labor and sorrow, / For it is soon gone, and we fly away.

Psa. 73:14 For I have been plagued all day long / And chastened every morning.

Psa. 73:16-17 When I considered this in order to understand it, / It was a troublesome task in my sight, ¹⁷Until I went into the sanctuary of God; / Then I perceived their end.

Psa. 73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth.

Eccl. 1:2-11 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; / Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. ³What advantage does a man have in all his work / Which he does under the sun? ⁴A generation goes and a generation comes, / But the earth stands forever. ⁵Also, the sun rises, and the sun sets / And hurries to its place where it rises. ⁶Going to the south, then turning to the north, / Turning about continually, the wind goes on; / And following its circuits, the wind returns. ⁷All the rivers run to the sea, / Yet the sea is not full; / To the place where the rivers run, / There they run again. ⁸All things are wearisome; / No one is able to tell it; / The eye is not satisfied with seeing, / Nor is the ear filled with hearing. ⁹What has been is what will be, / And what has been done is what will be done, / And there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say, See, this is new? / Already it has been, in the ages that were before us. ¹¹There is no remembrance of those who were before; / And also those who will come to be afterward, for them there will be no / remembrance / With those who come to be after them.

Eccl. 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

2. Today fallen people have no real dwelling place; they are drifting about and wandering without a home, because God is man’s real dwelling place—Psa. 90:1; Gen. 28:17-19; John 15:4; Matt. 11:28.

Psa. 90:1 O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.

Gen. 28:17-19 And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. ¹⁸And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head, and he set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz previously.

John 15:4 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

Matt. 11:28 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

3. The fall of man is a fall from God; the people of the world have lost God as their possession and enjoyment—Psa. 16:5; Rom. 9:21-23; Eph. 2:12.

Psa. 16:5 Jehovah is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; / You maintain my lot.

Rom. 9:21-23 Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? ²²And what if God, wishing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, ²³In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory,

Eph. 2:12 That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

4. Also, fallen people have sold their members to sin to become slaves of sin—Rom. 7:14; 6:19.

Rom. 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshy, sold under sin.

Rom. 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.

B. One day the prodigal son returned to his possession and his father’s house; that was a jubilee, a liberation, and everything became pleasant and satisfying—Luke 15:20, 24; cf. Lev. 25:10:

Luke 15:20 And he rose up and came to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.

Luke 15:24 Because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.

Lev. 25:10 And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

1. To be saved is to return to our inheritance, to return to God, to come back to God and enjoy Him anew as our possession—Eph. 1:13-14.

Eph. 1:13-14 In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, ¹⁴Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

2. When we have God, we have everything; without God, we have nothing—Hymns, #1080.

3. We must receive the Lord Jesus as the real jubilee in us; if we have Him, we have God as our possession and can be delivered from the bondage of sin and Satan to have real freedom and rest—Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14; Col. 1:12; Matt. 11:28.

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.

Eph. 1:14 Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

Col. 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light;

Matt. 11:28 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

4. Even though genuine Christians have God, many are like lights that do not shine because they do not “turn on the switch” by taking God as their portion—Eph. 4:18; cf. Phil. 2:9-16.

Eph. 4:18 Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;

Phil. 2:9-16 Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹And every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. ¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. ¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and reasonings ¹⁵That you may be blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in the world, ¹⁶Holding forth the word of life, so that I may have a boast in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

IV. The living of the jubilee is a living in the enjoyment of Christ, a living of enjoying God as our inheritance and real freedom—Acts 26:18; John 8:36:

John 8:36 If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

A. In the jubilee all things are pleasant and satisfying to our heart, and we are free from anxiety, at ease, and exultant; hence, everything is to our satisfaction.

B. The secret of a Christian’s enjoyment of rest is his gaining God as his enjoyment; if we have God, everything is to our satisfaction:

1. Paul learned the secret of living in the jubilee, the secret of gaining Christ in any environment—Phil. 4:5-7, 11-13.

Phil. 4:5-7 Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. ⁶In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 4:11-13 Not that I speak according to lack, for I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be content. ¹²I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. ¹³I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.

2. Everything can be satisfying to us only after we have gained the all-inclusive Christ as our enjoyment; it is not outward persons, matters, or things but Christ within who enables us to be calm and free of worries as we face all kinds of situations—John 16:33.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

3. When we receive Christ as our Savior and life, He comes into us to be our jubilee, but unless we allow Him to live in us and unless we live by Him, we are not practically living in the jubilee—8:11-12.

John 8:11-12 And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more. ¹²Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

4. If our heart is set on any person, thing, or matter other than the Lord, this is idolatry, and the end is wretchedness—1 John 5:21; cf. Ezek. 14:3, 5; 6:9.

1 John 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Ezek. 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I be inquired of at all by them?

Ezek. 14:5 That I may lay hold of the house of Israel in their heart, who have become estranged from Me because of all their idols.

Ezek. 6:9 And those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they are carried away, how I am broken with their heart of harlotry, which turned away from Me, and with their eyes that go as harlots after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils that they have done, for all their abominations.

C. The only way to be released from the three kinds of labor in human life—the labor to be a good person, the labor of anxiety, and the labor of suffering—is to take Christ as our enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest—Rom. 7:24—8:2; Phil. 4:5-7; 2 Cor. 12:9.

Rom. 7:24—8:2 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. ^8:1There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

2 Cor. 12:9 And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.

D. The living of the jubilee is a life in which we take God instead of other things as our enjoyment and enjoy only God Himself in every situation; then He becomes the primary factor and center in us to lead us and overrule all the troubles of human life—John 6:16-21; Col. 1:17b, 18b.

John 6:16-21 And when evening fell, His disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷And they got into a boat and began crossing the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸And because a strong wind was blowing, the sea was churning. ¹⁹Then, when they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they became frightened. ²⁰But He said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid. ²¹Then they were willing to take Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

Col. 1:17b all things cohere in Him;

Col. 1:18b that He Himself might have the first place in all things;

E. Our possession is God, and our freedom comes from our enjoyment of God; freedom means release, to be freed from all bondage, all heavy burden, all oppression, and all enslavement—cf. 1 Cor. 6:12:

1 Cor. 6:12 All things are lawful to me, but not all things are profitable; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything.

1. Christ as the jubilee frees us from our poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression—Eccl. 3:11; Phil. 3:8; 2 Pet. 2:22; Luke 12:21; Rev. 3:17.

Eccl. 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its own time; also He has put eternity in their heart, yet so that man does not find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Phil. 3:8 But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ

2 Pet. 2:22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog has turned to its own vomit, and the washed sow to wallowing in the mud.

Luke 12:21 So is he who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Rev. 3:17 Because you say, I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

2. We can be released and have real freedom only by enjoying Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life—Rom. 7:24; 8:2:

Rom. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

a. Only those who enjoy God do not practice sin and are really free—John 8:11-12, 24, 28, 31-36.

John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

John 8:28 Jesus therefore said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing from Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things.

John 8:31-36 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; ³²And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. ³³They answered Him, We are Abraham’s seed and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, You shall become free? ³⁴Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵And the slave does not abide in the house forever; the son does abide forever. ³⁶If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

b. If we do not enjoy God sufficiently, we will still be in bondage in many things; making up our mind will not work; we must learn to contact our living Lord to enjoy Him—cf. 4:24; 1 Cor. 1:9.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

1 Cor. 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

V. We need to be today’s ministers and witnesses by living and proclaiming the gospel—Christ as the jubilee of grace—for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy—Acts 26:16-19:

A. Our preaching of the gospel is our blowing of the trumpet of God’s complete salvation to proclaim to the world, “Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” the year of jubilee—2 Cor. 6:2; Acts 26:16-19.

2 Cor. 6:2 For He says, “In an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Acts 26:16-19 (see reference above)

B. The word jubilee in Leviticus 25:10 means “a time of shouting,” or “a time of the trumpeting of the ram’s horn”; the trumpeting of the ram’s horn signifies the preaching of the gospel as the proclaiming of liberty in the New Testament jubilee to all the sinners sold under sin that they may return to God and God’s family, the household of God, and may rejoice with shouting in the New Testament enjoyment of God’s salvation.

C. Announcing the gospel to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and sending away in release those who are oppressed are the freedoms and blessings of the jubilee—Luke 4:18-19:

Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, ¹⁹To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.”

1. To announce the gospel to the poor is to preach the gospel to those who are without God, to those who are poor in heavenly, spiritual, and divine things; people who live in the world without God do not have hope—12:21; Rev. 3:17; Eph. 2:12.

Luke 12:21 So is he who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Rev. 3:17 Because you say, I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

Eph. 2:12 That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

2. To proclaim release to the captives is to impart Christ as the Emancipator into those who are prisoners of war, as exiles and prisoners under Satan’s bondage; we can be released and have real freedom only by enjoying Christ as the liberating life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18.

1 Cor. 15:45b the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

2 Cor. 3:17-18 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

3. To proclaim recovery of sight to the blind is to open the eyes of those who are fallen and turn them from darkness to light so that they may see the divine things in the spiritual realm; to see these things requires spiritual sight and divine light—Acts 26:18.

4. To send away in release those who are oppressed is to bring those who are being oppressed under Satan in sickness or sin into the enjoyment of Christ as the release of God’s salvation—Luke 13:11-13; John 8:34, 36.

Luke 13:11-13 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent double and could not stand erect at all. ¹²And Jesus, seeing her, called her to Him and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity. ¹³And He laid His hands on her, and instantly she was made erect and began to glorify God.

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

John 8:36 If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

VI. The believers’ enjoyment and proclaiming of Christ as the jubilee of God’s grace will issue in the full enjoyment of Christ as the jubilee in the millennium and in the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth—Acts 3:20-21; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:1-2; 22:1-5.

Acts 3:20-21 So that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send the Christ, who has been previously appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of the restoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from of old.

Matt. 19:28 And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the restoration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Rev. 21:1-2 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more. ²And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev. 22:1-5 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. ²And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³And there will no longer be a curse. And the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His slaves will serve Him; ⁴And they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And night will be no more; and they have no need of the light of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine upon them; and they will reign forever and ever.