Liberty for the Oppressed

As we discovered last week, being part of God’s ministry of reconciliation, Jesus brings freedom to the captives and liberty for the oppressed. Not just liberty in salvation for all eternity, but liberty for us now as we live in this world damaged by evil. As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

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Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

As we discovered last week, being part of God’s ministry of reconciliation, Jesus brings freedom to the captives and liberty for the oppressed. Not just liberty in salvation for all eternity, but liberty for us now as we live in this world damaged by evil. 

However to live in the fullness of the liberty that Jesus brings is a daily journey. A daily journey of surrender and receive. That is taking a moment each day to surrender to Jesus the hierarchical injustices, the emotional hurt and the guilt and shame of this world. 

As we be still in surrender, we receive from Jesus His justice of equality. Living in the reality of the place of honour and equality that Jesus brings.

Jesus paid the highest price for our freedom. He gave everything of Himself for us. Subjecting Himself to the full human condition, He sacrificed His life for us. So that we could be set free. No longer bound by the hurt and pain of this world. Living in His liberty not just in all eternity but in this life journey. 

So as we continue our journey through Jesus reconciliatory mission and His declaration in Luke 4:18-21. Let us read again all that Jesus fulfilled in His coming. 

“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.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus stated that He came to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Oppressed in this context is those who are bruised and crushed by others. Inequality is to keep the powerless down. Oppression is an abuse of power. An abuse of power that is the result of humanity feeding their selfish desires and using power for self gain.

Oppression is where the powerful push others down to raise self up to get what they want. 

Yet the good news is freedom for the oppressed is intricately woven into God’s heart for true justice. Where each one is equal and the powerless are empowered the same as the powerful. 

Jesus came to set at liberty those who are oppressed in this life either spiritually, physically, emotionally or mentally. All of which Jesus states is fulfilled in our hearing. 

Yet we still live in this world damaged by evil. With the abuses of power and the selfish destructive desires of humanity continue to be fed and given power.

However in Jesus, God has made a way for us to live in His kingdom deep within our hearts. Where He set at liberty the oppressed and His justice rules and reigns in us for all eternity.

Centuries before Jesus declared in the temple His mission as a man, there were prophecies of His coming. How the anointed one would be bruised and crushed. How in His coming He will be His justice and equality to all people. 

Let us read the prophecy about the suffering of the coming one that is linked to God’s true justice for all people.

Isaiah 42:1-9 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. 

He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. 

I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Here the prophecy of the coming one is given at a time in human history where there was oppression of others. Even those who claimed they were God’s own people were oppressing others. Spiritually they considered themselves superior to those of non Jewish lineage. They are those referred to in this prophecy as the Gentiles. 

In fact at the time of writing this prophecy, the injustices and oppression of others that was occurring through those who claimed to be God’s own people was abhorrent to God. So in amongst this abhorrent oppression, God declares that He will personally bring forth justice for the truth. 

God states, Behold My servant whom I will uphold. The coming one will bring forth My justice. That is true justice of liberty and equality for all. God continues to state that the coming one will not cease until He has established God’s justice on the earth. The coming one will also establish a new covenant with all people. He will be a light unto the Gentiles and bring freedom to the captives. 

In this prophecy true justice is not only linked with the truth, but more significantly a covenant relationship with the one who created the heavens and the earth and all things good. 

When centuries after this prophecy Jesus announced in the temple that in our hearing He has set at liberty those who are oppressed. Jesus was saying He is the one whom these prophecies spoke about. In His coming and their hearing the prophecies have been fulfilled.

For us today, being fulfilled upon hearing is receiving the truth that Jesus is the one prophesied about. Receiving this truth and accepting Jesus’ right to rule and reign is liberty to the oppressed. It is receiving God’s truth and ways in receiving Jesus And His sacrifice for us.

For Jesus brought in a new covenant in His shed blood. At the hands of humanity, Jesus was bruised and smitten, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. He subjected Himself to the injustices and oppression of humanity to set us free. He did it all for us. He did it all for our peace. So that we could receive and believe He set at liberty those who are oppressed. 

Again centuries before Jesus stood in the temple and announced His mission, through the prophet Isaiah God foretold of that day. 

Isaiah 52:13-53:9 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 

All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 

Jesus suffered all forms of oppression so that we could be set free from it. He was tortured beyond human endurance. Those in power knew He was an innocent man. They even knew He was the anointed one, the Son of God.

He is the one who with the Father in heaven cast the sun, moon and stars into the cosmos. In the beginning God created, Father, Son and Sprit, one eternal God. 

So the all powerful, all mighty eternal one came down from heaven to earth as a man. He was still the Son of God, yet He became the Son of Man. He chose to come at a time of extreme spiritual dryness. For it was in one of the darkest times He came. 

The hearts of humanity were filled with the lowest of moral decadence, inequality and oppression. Those in power not only oppressed others but delighted in it. They even delighted in inflicting pain and bringing public shame. Knowingly they would delight in the abuse of power and sentence to death an innocent man. 

Yet into that time Jesus chose to come. Where He would subject Himself to the worst of humanity, to set humanity free. For what was one of the darkest times of humanity came the most visible demonstration of God’s glory.

Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. For He suffered by carrying all of humanity’s burdens and grief, guilt and shame. He did it all for us. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. So that we are free of the oppression and injustices of this world. 

For humanity cries out for justice. Yet in this world damaged by evil, where humanity has given power to evil and their selfish desires, there is no justice. 

However Jesus made a way for His kingdom of equality and respect be realised.

Therefore, it pleased the eternal one to be the one to personally pay the cost. That is pay the  cost for all offences ever said, thought or done by humanity to self, each other and ultimately God. 

When we are being oppressed, we can look to Jesus and His nail-pierced hands. We can remember that surely He has borne our griefs and our sorrows. Surely the cost Jesus paid in His suffering was more than enough. 

Through the eyes of humanity’s pride and self glorification, it was perceived that Jesus was smitten and afflicted by God. Yet the truth is that Jesus was smitten and afflicted by humanity. He was despised and rejected by humanity. Humanity demands someone has to pay the cost for all this injustice that humanity caused!  

As the fullness of God and His kingdom of equality and freedom has yet to be fully realised,  God is still working.

In the first coming of Jesus, He set at liberty those who are oppressed. Living in this reality is a daily journey. A daily journey of surrender to God’s right to rule and reign and take a moment to receive more of His character. Being transformed by Him, seeing each other through His eyes of love and equality, freedom and healing. Through transformed hearts and minds, God’s kingdom of equality and freedom is realised. 

In Jesus’ second coming the fullness of His kingdom of equality, freedom and healing will be realised. Where there is nothing opposed to God and His right to rule and reign is recognised. 

Praise His mighty name!

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!