Verses 16-21 “16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18The 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,
19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath (Saturday) because as a devoted Jew, He kept the Sabbath. The Sabbath was annulled when Jesus died, and it would not please God if we allow legalists to force Sabbath-keeping upon us today (Col 2:14-16). We are not under law, but under grace.
At the synagogue, Jesus stood up to read the Scriptures. He read Isaiah 61:1-2, and He said that these words refer to Himself. The fact that these words refer to Jesus, points out the principle of Bible interpretation that there is a more complete fulfillment of many Old Testament Scriptures. Isaiah’s words referred to Isaiah in the local and immediate sense, but in the more complete sense they refer to Jesus.
Jesus came to minister to sinful men, and His words, as recorded by Isaiah, reveal the condition of sinful men. All lost people are spiritually poor, brokenhearted and broken in spirit, captured by the Devil and imprisoned by fleshly habits, blind to the truth of God, and bruised and wounded unto eternal death.
“The acceptable year of the Lord,” preached by Jesus, refers to the coming earthly kingdom age when Jesus shall rule and reign in a Jewish kingdom from David’s throne. What a glorious day that will be! He will give us beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and praise for the spirit of heaviness. In that day He will make us into trees of righteousness, and we will be the plantation of the Lord. It will all be for His glory (see Is 61:3).