The dynamics of discipleship (part 35)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” – LUKE 4:19

To preach “The Acceptable Year of the Lord” is the time when God is willing to accept of people, or to receive sinners coming to him.

The gospel assures us that the guilty “may” return, and that God will graciously receive them. There is, perhaps, here, an allusion to the year of Jubilee – the fiftieth year, when the trumpet was blown, and through the whole land proclamation was made of the liberty of Hebrew slaves, of the remission of debts, and of the restoration of possessions to their original families, (Leviticus 25:8-13).

The phrase “The Acceptable Year” means the time when it would be acceptable to God to proclaim such a message, or agreeable to Him under the gospel. Just as all debts were forgiven in the year of Jubilee – so all of our debts of sin, transgressions, trespasses and generational curses have also been forgiven and washed away by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the acceptable time for us to preach the message of forgiveness of sins and God’s ability to receive sinners by His grace and His mercy, regardless of their disobedience.

Our primary mission in this age is to preach repentance for forgiveness of sins and to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The harvest is truly white and the laborers are few, but God is able to raise up workers to go into His harvest. Pray for the lost to come in this “Acceptable Year of the Lord” to be saved and set free in Jesus name.

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” – I TIMOTHY 1:15