THE YEAR OF JUBILEE & JESUS
Lev. 25:8-12
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: STARBUCK’S JANITOR (reach your potential?)
1. Ole was looking for a job and heard that there was an opening for a janitor at the local Starbucks. After the interview, the manager said, "You have the job, just sign this paper." Ole made a big "X" on the paper.
2. "What's that?" the manager asked. "That's my mark. I can’t read or write." "What? We're sorry – to work here you have to be able to sign your name."
3. Well, Ole finally got himself a job as a mate on a tugboat, and eventually he became captain of his own tugboat. He did well for himself and eventually had a fleet of ships of his own and became one of the wealthiest men in the community.
4. One day the mayor decided to honor him with a plaque. The ceremony involved Ole signing a form. When the mayor found out Ole was illiterate, he said, "You accomplished all of this not being able to read or write?"
5. "Just think what you COULD HAVE DONE if you could’ve read and write!" "Yes," Ole said. "I could have been a Starbuck’s janitor!"
B. CELEBRATION WHEN WW2 WON
1. WW2 was the worst war ever fought on earth. Most of the countries of the industrialized world were destroyed. There were about 40 nations actually fighting with 61 more extensively involved. There were only 6 neutral countries. Not 85,000, but 85 million people were killed. There were 11 million refugees.
2. On Sept. 2, 1945, the war was officially over, with celebration in the streets throughout the world. Church bells rang, sirens sounded, fireworks lit the skies, and massive crowds celebrated the end of the largest war ever fought.
3. What a feeling it must have been that night – when the danger and toil were over! When everyone could go home in peace.
4. We’re going to look at another similar celebration in the Bible and see what effect it has on us.
C. TEXT & THESIS
1. 8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.” Lev. 25:8-12.
2. The title of this message is “The Year of Jubilee.”
I. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE JUBILEE?
A. REVERSAL OF BAD FORTUNES
1. SITUATIONS OF HARDSHIP. When Israel entered the Promised Land, each family received a generous parcel of land as an inheritance. But God knew that troubles might separate the people from their inheritance.
a. Farmers would lose their house and property because of crop failures or drought. Women had their husbands die and their children wouldn’t have food or clothing; they got into debt and lost their property. Others would lost their money in a business venture, or be on the wrong side of a military action.
b. They and their families would be sold for their debts into servitude, like slavery. There wasn’t any “Debt Consolidation” in those days! Whole families, even the children, would work 10 hours a day just for something to eat and a place to sleep. This might go on for twenty years or longer – almost their whole lives!
2. Then after 50 years, something came, called the Year of Jubilee! What hope! But freedom didn’t occur until the 7th month, the tenth day. Don’t you know those trapped people must have counted the days, longing for their freedom.
3. On the 10th day of the 7th month, while the whole nation was fasting and repenting for their sins, for that was the Day of Atonement. The High Priest killed the substitute, and went into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood 7 times before God.
4. If the sacrifice was accepted, he would come out and announce that they’d ALL been forgiven. Everyone would worship and thank God.
5. At dusk the shofar (ram’s horn) was sounded at the Temple/Tabernacle. [Play the video of the Shofar blowing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ht0ailWQf8 ] Then on the surrounding hills, other horns took up the announcement. From mountain to valley in all Israel, they would blow the shofar. (Often trumpets sounded to WARN, this time to DECLARE victory!)
6. And when the debtors and servants throughout the country heard the shofar, they would drop their work where they stood, pack their belongings, and head toward home. As soon as they heard that horn, they were FREE! Can you imagine the feeling!
7. Their houses, lands, orchards, and cattle were all returned. They were poor no more! They were slaves no more! They were homeless no more! Families were reunited. Men hugged their wives and children again. They were free! Praise God!
8. There was shouting and dancing in every town – for whatever mistakes or bad fortune had occurred to them, it was all reversed.
B. DON’T YOU WISH WE HAD A YEAR OF JUBILEE?
1. America’s personal Debts:
a. Credit card debt = $1.04 trillion
b. Home Mortgage Debt = $8.88 trillion
c. Student Loans = $1.5 trillion
d. Personal totals (300m people) = $13.15 Trillion
2. And that’s not counting the Government debt of nearly $22 trillion. We’re swimming in oceans of debt!
3. I think we need to reinstate the Year of Jubilee once in a lifetime and give each generation a chance to start over!
II. JESUS IS OUR JUBILEE
A. JESUS’ ANNOUNCMENT AT NAZARETH
1. Luke 4:16-20 tells a strange story; Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up…went into the synagogue and was asked to speak. He opened the O.T. to Isaiah 61:1-2, and read;
2. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (18-19) Then He sat down to teach and said; “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (vs. 21).
3. The shocking thing is that Isaiah was saying that the Year of Jubilee would be fulfilled by the Messiah. Jesus sermon had three points; “I am that Messiah; the Jubilee Age has arrived; and my mission will be one of deliverance.”
4. And Jesus did just that – He preached to the poor, healed
the sick & possessed, and set people free.
B. WE NEED THIS JUBILEE
1. So the Year of Jubilee is relevant to us because we’ve all made bad choices, we’ve incurred a huge debt of sin, been sold into slavery to the devil, and we’ve lost our spiritual inheritance!
2. We’re just like the people in trouble in O.T. Israel. But thank God our High Priest, Jesus Christ, has gone into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled His blood to atone for all the world’s sins!
3. And the Apostles blew the Ram’s Horns – a the Gospel – to tell us that, if we trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior;
All our debts are Cancelled,
All prisoners are set free,
Our inheritance of salvation and Heaven are restored to us!
4. HUMOR. In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy approached Charlie Brown with a paper and pen and said, “Here, sign this. It absolves me from all blame.” Then she went to Shroeder with the same paper and said, “Here, sign this. It absolves me from all blame.” Finally she went to Linus: “Here, sign this. It absolves me from all blame.” As she walked away, Linus said, “Gee, that must be a nice document to have.”
5. In a dream, Martin Luther found himself being attacked by Satan. The devil unrolled a long scroll containing a list of Luther's sins, and held it before him. On reaching the end of the scroll Luther asked the devil, "Is that all?" "No," came the reply, and a second scroll was thrust in front of him. Then, after a second came a third. But now the devil had no more. "You've forgotten something," Luther exclaimed triumphantly. "Quickly write on each of them, 'Paid in Full with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son!'" [K. Koch, Occult Bondage and Deliverance, p. 10.]
6. Jesus says to you this morning, “I cancelled your rap-sheet with my own blood. I absolve you. I forgive you. I cleanse you!
7. Is 43:25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Ps 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
III. I’M READY FOR A CHANGE!
A. CURRENT APPLICATION
1. Many people today are in “bondage.” Whether it is alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or eating addictions, fear of the future or of failure, or bitterness and anger.
2. Many people are so bound by their sin that there’s no freedom in their lives. They live lives of “quiet desperation,” even within the church. But this is exactly why Jesus came.
3. Jesus came to bring you out of that captivity. Deliverance begins with a decision to let Jesus lead you out of the prison you’re in.
4. BUT JESUS CAN’T SET US FREE UNLESS WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE NEED TO BE SET FREE. WILL YOU DO THAT?
5. 31 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” Jn. 8:31-36.
B. DIDN’T KNOW HEALING WAS POSSIBLE
1. One of the greatest tragedies is for people to live in darkness when they could live in the light… Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. Then she had an operation in an Ontario, Canada hospital.
2. She said, “I just can’t believe it,” as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes. She wept - when for the 1st time in her life she saw a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted her eyes and she could now see.
3. The sad thing about her story, however, was that 20 years of her blindness was unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed, and that an operation could have restored her vision at the age of 30.
4. The Dr. said, “She just figured there was nothing that could be done for her condition. Much of her life could have been different.”
5. Our lives can be different too if we let Jesus heal our blinded spiritual sight
C. DON’T ACCEPT ANY LABELS!
1. Aren't you glad that God isn’t finished with you yet? And God doesn’t take SNAPSHOTS of your life, God takes a MOTION PICTURES. Can you say Praise God?
2. Aren’t you glad He didn’t take snapshots of you when you were at your worst moments? Aren't you glad God doesn't take snapshots of your kids when they’re at their worst moments?
3. Aren't you glad that God didn't take a snapshot of that Prodigal Son and say, "You are condemned to slop pigs forever because that's who you are."
4. But sometimes we don't allow the renewal to come - we don't allow the freedom to come, because we've taken snapshots of ourselves.
5. And we think certain things about ourselves and we don't let God free us to become what he has called us to become. To free us like he freed the land.
6. We need to know that God is bigger than us! He’s bigger than our failures! He’s bigger than our worst natures.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: DEBT PAID
1. A young lady one day was speeding through a small Georgia town. She was traveling 70 mph in a 55 hour speed zone. The police pulled her over and wrote her a ticket that would cost her $100. She didn't have the money to pay for it and ended up having to go to court over the ticket.
2. In the courtroom, the judge said, "You were found guilty of going 70 mph in a 55 mph zone. You have to pay $100."
3. The young lady said, "I'm guilty, but I can't pay it. I don't have $100."
4. "Well, if you don't pay the ticket, we’ll have to lock you up for the weekend."
5. "I can't pay the ticket, but I don't want to go to jail. Can you please just have mercy on me?"
6. The judge matter-of-factly replied, "I can't change the law. The law says that you've got to pay $100 or you have to spend the weekend in jail. Those are the rules, and I can't change the rules."
7. Starting to tear up she spoke in a small voice. "Isn't there something you can do? I don't want to get locked up. Have mercy on me."
8. The judge looked down on her, pushed his chair back from the bench, unzipped his robe, and took it off. He went over to the side, picked up his jacket, and put it on. He walked down and stood beside the girl, reached into his wallet and brought out a $100 bill. He put the $100 bill down on the bench, took off his jacket, and rezipped his robe and got back behind his bench.
9. "Young lady, you've been found guilty of going 70 miles an hour in a 55 mph speed zone. The law is the law. I can't change it; the law says you must pay $100 or spend the weekend in jail! But I see somebody else has already paid the price."
10. God saw us speeding down the highway of sin straight toward trouble. He unzipped the robe of his deity and put on the jacket of His humanity. He came down, died on the cross, and paid the price that you and I could not pay. He picked up the tab, rose from the dead, zipped on his glorified body, and ascended up to heaven! [Tony Evans, p. 138]
11. He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sin away….
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you are ready to say “I need Jesus to do something for me. I’ve been allowing some things; I thought nothing could change, but I want to give Jesus a chance!”
2. This is your Year of Jubilee! You can be set free! You can be healed! You can have a new & FREE life! Come forward and let’s pray.
3. The Year of Jubilee also prophesies of the Sounding of the Last Trumpet, which shall release the dead out of the bondage of the grave, and restore them to their everlasting possessions.
[Some ideas were gleaned from Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Ron Scates, and Pat Hartsock.]
