Psalm 7:11

God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

In Luke chapter four we are given the account of Jesus reading Isaiah chapter sixty-one verses one and half of verse two, and not reading the last part which states “and the day of vengeance of our God:  to comfort all that mourn”.  After he read this portion of scripture he stated, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”  The portion that was fulfilled was the anointing he received to preach the gospel to the poor, and to heal the broken heart.  This message of preaching deliverance to the captives and recovering the sight to the blind, and to set free those that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.  To put these verses in context we must look at the events before and after this his reading of Isaiah.

Several days before this reading he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan and reply to John’s statement “I am the one that needs to be baptized by you” with the words “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.”  After the baptism Christ was lead by the spirit in the wilderness for forty days of testing by the devil.  He defended himself against Satan by quoting the Word of God to him by stating “It is written”.  It was the scriptures that Christ used against Satan and proclaim to all who witnessed his baptism “to fulfill all righteousness” that guide his ministry.  As believers we have Jesus as the perfect example of why we need to know and hid God’s Word in our heart.       

The account of Jesus’s reading from the book of Isaiah and his statement “this day this scripture has been fulfilled” marks what I believe was the start of Christ’s ministry on this earth.  His message was to “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”.  This message of the acceptable year of the Lord is to us who are held captive by sin and are blind and bruised by the results of this sinful nature which we were born into.  After spending three years with Christ this message was finally realized by his disciples in Luke chapter twenty-four.  In this chapter we see Christ explaining to his disciples all the things concerning his ministry from the scriptures starting with Moses and all the prophets.  This message was simply “It was written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

However, the Jewish leaders at this time took it as the promise of the coming Messiah who deliver them from all of their enemies, instead of being the voice of one crying in the wilderness.  The Jewish nation at that time wanted the kingdom, but they could not find a need for repentance.  In Matthew chapter twenty-three Christ preached a message of “woe to you” to the leaders of Israel at that time.  After this message to the leaders, he departed their presence.  He then explained his coming and the end of the age to his disciples in Matthew chapters twenty-five through chapter twenty-six. In Acts 4:11 Peter told the priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees that Christ was the fulfillment of Psalms 118:22 “He is the stone, which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very cornerstone.”  Of course, this message to the Jewish leaders from the disciple of Christ was also rejected by them. 

This part of Christ’s ministry on this earth was completed when he received the vinegar and said, “it is finished” and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.  Next will be the day when God’s judgment on this earth.  In II Peter chapter three Peter writes about this judgment.  He writes about the coming of the last days, and how even in these times there is a rejection of God’s coming judgment on this earth.  However, there is a coming day where the present heavens and earth will be judged, and the destruction of all ungodly men will take place.  In between these two event the message is preach that whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life.  This message of salvation from the judgement of God is for all to either accept or reject.  The chose is yours.