Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

March 3, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO HELP ME SHARE CHRIST WITH OTHERS (part 5)

 

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.

In both Isaiah and Luke, we are given this exclamation point at the end. “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” One of the most powerful parts of our faith, that we are to share, is the fact that Jesus is coming. In the Old Testament they were proclaiming that Christ would come. In the New Testament Christ came. You and I are now to proclaim that Christ is coming again. May we never get over or beyond that. May we never overlook or forget that. It is the foundation of our faith. Christ is not leaving us here, He is coming back to get us. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. (Colossians 1:27)

How exciting to share to others that Jesus came to earth, was born of a virgin, died on the cross for our sins, resurrected from the grave, ascended back to Heaven, gave us the Holy Spirit, and is coming back to take us to Heaven to live with Him for eternity. God has anointed us to share that. We have a special power from God on high to proclaim that to others. We are to “preach”, “reach”, “teach”, and “beseech” people to know the Lord. And then we have the privilege to tell them the wonderful truth that Jesus is alive and coming again. According to Luke chapter 4, we are to preach the Gospel, and we are to preach the second coming of Christ.

My favorite part of this passage is verse 20. Jesus closed the book, gave it to the minister, and sat down. In our day that would be the moment where you cue the mic drop. Jesus hands him the word, as if to say, “now what are you going to do with it”.

Well God‘s Word has been completed. The “Book” has been closed. Now what are you going to do with it? Let us not forget the day will come when another book will be opened, “which is the Lamb’s Book of Life”. Our priority is to make sure our name is in that book. Our responsibility is to give our best to get as many names in that book as we can. He is able!