Just one day can make a great difference and bring great acceleration. It did on New Year’s Day 1739 when the Holy Spirit came in great power on John Wesley and 60 fellow disciples, sparking a national and global movement of revival and transformation in society. One day changed everything on the Day of Pentecost when the church grew from 120 to over 3000 disciples. And one day marked history forever when Jesus went to his local synagogue in Nazareth. He had gone there regularly as an observant Jew. Jesus began by reading some familiar scriptures from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:16-21).
Then in a moment everything changed. Surprisingly Jesus did not go on to read the next phrase from Isaiah 61 that spoke of the day of vengeance of our God. That day of God’s ultimate judgement was yet to come. But at this moment in time, Jesus declared that they were living in a special season of mercy and favour.
And today is the day for us too. For sure we should not forget all the blessings and moves of God in the past and we should look forward with faith for what He will do in the future. But we must focus on today; literally this day but also the day and age we are living in. We must be fully spiritually awakened to what God is saying and to what He is calling us to be and do today, now in this moment. We must not be like the foolish virgins who had become sleepy and were not prepared for the sudden arrival of the bridegroom. Nor should we be like those to whom Jesus said ‘you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you’ (Luke 19:44). Rather we must ‘understand the present time’ (Romans 13:11-12).
Understanding the present time means we must have our eyes open to what is presently happening in our nation. For sure we live in serious and rapidly changing times and as British Christians we must be awake to the realities of the day we are living in. We must not live in little religious bubbles. But more importantly, we must wake up to the great responsibilities and possibilities that the church has right now. The church of Jesus Christ can be the decisive agency in bringing hope and healing to our nation. No matter how many people despise the church, God is always at work in His church and Jesus promised that He would build His church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
So today is no time to be discouraged in our spirits or distracted from our calling as ambassadors of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a moment when the greater light of the gospel can overcome great darkness as we align with what Jesus said in these verses from Isaiah.
1. Today is a day of liberation (Luke 4:19; 2 Corinthians 6:2; Leviticus 25:8; John 8:36; Acts 26:17)
2. Today is a day of mobilisation (Luke 4:18; Matthew 4:23)
3. Today is a day of impartation (Luke 4:18)
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1. Today is a day of liberation (Luke 4:19). On Jesus’ arrival He proclaimed, ‘the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Today then is a day favour, not judgement; of good news in a bad news world; of salvation not damnation (2 Corinthians 6:2). The “year of favour” Jesus spoke about was a reference to a Jubilee Year in the Hebrew tradition. The year of Jubilee, every fifty years, was a special year in which everyone’s debts were written off, lands were restored to their original owners, and all slaves were set free. The trumpet would be sounded to proclaim liberty throughout the land (Leviticus 25:8). And that’s what we must do throughout the UK. When Jesus came, He was sounding the trumpet proclaiming that He had come to set people free from captivity of many kinds (John 8:36). The gospel of Jesus is the gospel of power where people can be truly set free in every way. That’s why Jesus is called the Saviour. Salvation comes from the Greek word Sozo, found in the New Testament more than 110 times. It means to be saved, delivered from evil powers and to be healed. Jesus came to break the rule of Satan off people’s lives (Acts 26:17). The powerful and positive message of the gospel is that people can be set free from all the dark works of Satan and everything that enslaves them in their emotions, relationships, minds and bodies. In other words, there’s hope when everything seems hopeless. You don’t have to stay trapped as you are. God can make a way out for you. Jesus can do for you what others can’t do for you and what you can’t do yourself. Jesus can lift you out of your pit of sin and shame and fear and failure. Jesus can free you from all oppression and depression. Jesus can change everything in your life for the better. That’s the essential message of the gospel. And that’s the very good news that we must share.
2. Today is a day of mobilisation (Luke 4:18). It’s not enough to have the best and most positive message on earth; we must go and preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom. When Jesus came on a rescue mission to earth, He began by going out into all the areas in Galilee (Matthew 4:23). Jesus also sent out His disciples on a mission to preach the full gospel of salvation in their home areas and then into all the world where they were to train up real disciples. Jesus insisted in these verses that that the primary focus must be on preaching the good news to the poor. Jesus went to the literal poor, the hurting and the marginalised, the ordinary people that usually no one cared for. And that’s where every movement of revival has found its greatest success. Going to the poor and hurting means going to prisoners, to the captives, literally to prisons. God is concerned for the prisoners. Many prisons are seeing powerful conversions. Go to the abused, the down and outs. The blind and the lame. Go to the people and places no one else is interested in. In Britain today there are vast areas where the church needs to go. In the large cities, the sprawling housing estates, the new towns, a Christian presence is often negligible. We must advance the gospel by going to the people that nobody usually goes to. Today the Lord is calling us to go and confidently declare the good news to our families, friends, neighbours, colleagues, contacts and to have a systematic plan to spread the gospel personally and through multiplying small groups in every neighbourhood, town and city.
3. Today is a day of impartation (Luke 4:18). It’s not enough to have compassion or goals and strategies and depend on human wisdom and resources. We must receive the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit to be effective in our lives and ministries. Jesus needed this anointing. The apostles needed this anointing which is why they had to seek God for ten days in Jerusalem before the Day of Pentecost. All the great Christians in history have needed to know the Holy Spirit as their source of authority. We also need the anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit. All of us need to be FULL of the Holy Spirit just like they were in the early church. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we expect to see great spiritual change in this nation. Today is a day of liberation. Today is a day of mobilisation. Today is a day of Impartation. This is how the U.K. can change. And it starts with each one of us today.
