E9 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - Heart and Mind of Jesus - Deliverance for the Captives
Hope’s Harbor
Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #9
Title: Heart and Mind of Jesus – Deliverance for the Captive
Date: 5/31/2021
Contact: info@hopesharbor.net
Key verse(s): Luke 4:18c – “…to preach deliverance to the captives,”
Intro: As we continue going through Jesus’ declaration in Luke 4:18 we come to His commission to preach deliverance to the captives.
· It’s interesting that when it comes to healing the brokenhearted or the broken-minded; Jesus said it’s something He does.
· But when it comes to delivering captives He preaches it.
· This tells us that we have a part to play.
· Think of it like this: Jesus makes a way for freedom and expects us to do our part.
· This episode will examine exactly what our part is in becoming delivered.
Devotion focus: (Lesson point)
Becoming free before it’s too late –
· Are you waiting to see Jesus, see Him in the trouble you’re in, the trouble plaguing you?
· Do you want to see Him there with you in the thing holding you captive and then see Him break the chains binding you to sin and misery?
· Then let’s go together and meet Jesus in His Word for He came to set captives like you and me free.
· How do I know? Because He said so in Luke 4:18
· I’m going to give an expanded view of what Jesus was saying by ‘preaching deliverance to the captives.’
· In Col 1:13 Paul writes: ‘He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,’
· Paul is writing to Christians about an event already passed. This infers faith having been placed in Jesus atoning work on the cross.
· Delivered means (through the idea of a current; to rush or draw (for oneself), that is, rescue: - deliver.
· The idea of a current, to rush or draw is like to draw out of a current of rushing water. Captivity can be likened to being carried away by the influences of mind-altering addictions, whatever form or practice they come in.
· It’s being carried away captive by behavior intended as pain-avoidance but leads to becoming trapped.
· This becomes too involved to explore sufficiently, but suffice it to say the verse in Luke we’re studying focuses on becoming free, not the process.
· Understanding all the complexities of captive behavior and/or addictions is part of the process of being free, but our goal in this episode is to develop a belief in what Jesus proclaimed.
· And that means understanding by what authority Jesus made this claim of deliverance.
· The deliverance Jesus proclaimed was made available by His death on the cross.
· I want to read Luke 4:18 all the way through as a review and show a difference in the 2 processes of deliverance/freedom/liberty Jesus proclaimed.
· 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,”
· In this verse Jesus said He came to deliver captives and set at liberty the bruised, or oppressed.
· The timing of the process for the deliverance we’re looking at is when a person is on the way to bondage.
· The other, to set at liberty the oppressed is for those who are in the firm grip of bondage through various means such as addictions and/or mental disorders, or destructive thinking, or circumstances beyond their control, etc.
· I found it odd Jesus differentiated between the 2 processes of freedom until I looked into each proclamation by the words He used and their definitions.
· The deliverance offered first is when a person is just now on the road to captivity. This reveals Jesus’ intimate knowledge of each one of us as to where we are in our lives.
· For His people just beginning to adopt a destructive habit or mindset He states in vs 18 His commission involves letting us know we’re in danger and get off that road leading to being imprisoned by habits, such as numbing or self-medicating mental pain, or destructive mindsets leading to despair and ultimately depression.
· I can tell you from experience when I stayed on the road of captivity and did not listen to the warnings of Scripture to guard my mind I ended up with depression and eventually became suicidal.
· Listen to me – at the end of this devotion pay attention to the Action to Consider and follow through on at least doing a self-assessment of your habits and thought life in accordance with the teachings of Scripture.
· Don’t wait until you end up in a prison camp, trapped by whatever you may see as too insignificant to correct.
· Alright, when GOD set out to make possible our freedom it took holy violence to secure our safety.
To help understand this principle involved in a captive’s deliverance, a captive’s rescue I’ll read an account from 1 Samuel 30:1-1
· 1Sa 30:1 – ‘And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
· 1Sa 30:2 – And had taken the women captives that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.’
· So while David was away and not guarding his family and the families of his men, Amalekites, a long-time enemy of the Jews, raided his home base and took everyone captive.
· His men spoke of stoning him, even as he cried until he had no strength left.
· But then in 1Sa 30:6 a change occurs – ‘Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
· David prayed and asked God what he should do.
· 1Sa 30:8 – ‘So David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all."
· If you believe Jesus was incarnate God and existed as God from eternity past, then in His pre-incarnate existence (before He became a Man) He interacted through prayer with His people.
· I believe when the LORD told David to go and deliver his family and those of his men, it may have been Jesus who spoke to David.
· If so, can you imagine Jesus, as He told David to ‘Go get them,’ thinking forward to the time when He would proclaim deliverance in that synagogue in Nazareth?
· I can.
· Jesus died on that cross a horrible death to make it possible for Him to promise to set us free.
· Then what is it holding us captive?
· We know addictions do it, but there are other powerful forces of the mind also at work.
· These are just a few: worry or anxiety, lust, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, resentment, hatred, vengefulness.
· I don’t have time to name all the captive habits we may have.
· But, let me urge you – keep an open mind and consider carefully the call to action at the end of this episode.
Summary: Jesus made it possible for us to become free. Free from sin’s influences. This freedom involves a process most times, a process we must begin.
It all depends on what is it that has a hold on you. The processes are as varied as the different bondages Satan engineered for the human race.
Here are a few reiterated for reinforcement:
· These are just a few: worry or anxiety, lust, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, resentment, hatred, vengefulness.
Action to consider: When you have time alone this afternoon, think about the one thing you want to be rid of. Write it down. Then pray for Jesus to do as He promised and set you free.
Pray this until you are free, even if it takes years. The years are going to pass regardless of what we do, so isn’t it better, in the end, to have prayed faithfully until the promise is fulfilled?
If you do this you wear the shield of faith close upon your armor.
Next week’s episode: Sight for the Blind – we’ll see what Jesus meant by this promise and see who are the blind.