What year is it? It’s not a trick question. What year is it? That’s right, it’s the year 2026. But 2026 years since what? 2026 years into what?

When I was a child, you might say, “It’s the year 2026 A.D.” A.D. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Anno Domini, which means “in the year of our Lord.” Of course, as Western culture has become increasingly secular and religiously pluralistic, people have shifted from A.D. to C.E. But the irony is that even if you change the name from A.D. to C.E., the calendar still pivots on the person of Jesus Christ. There is no getting around Him.

It’s 2026, in the year of our Lord.

But what does that mean, and why does it matter for your life and mine? In our passage, Jesus Christ tells us.

Luke 4:18–21 — “He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty …those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What does it mean that we are living in 2026? It means that we are living 2026 years into the year of the Lord’s favor.

And that brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning:

Believe that the year of the Lord’s favor is fulfilled.

This morning, our passage will help us consider two questions:

• What is the year of the Lord’s favor? (4:14–21) 

• How do we believe it? (4:22–30) 

WHAT IS THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOR?

Let’s set the scene for the Lord Jesus’ sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth.

Two weeks ago, we saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus Christ at his baptism, and we heard the Father’s heavenly endorsement: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then the Holy Spirit led the Lord Jesus Christ to retrace Adam’s, Israel’s, and our failed steps. Jesus Christ was tempted by the unclean devil in the wilderness for forty days. Unlike Adam, Israel, and us, Jesus Christ remained faithful to his Father and defeated the devil. He was tempted as we are, yet never sinned, so He can forgive our sin and help us resist the devil too. Hallelujah.

After the Lord Jesus emerged from this cosmic battle with the devil victorious, He began His ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit by teaching in the synagogues throughout the region of Galilee. As a result of His powerful teaching—and perhaps His miracles—everyone began to glorify Jesus. They spoke better of Him than they knew. After all, Jesus is God in the flesh, worthy to be glorified.

After teaching in the synagogues around Galilee, Jesus came to Nazareth, His hometown, where He was brought up. As was His custom, Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day—Saturday.

What is a synagogue? Synagogues likely emerged after God’s people were exiled from their land and their temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the 500s BC. Since the temple could no longer be the central place of worship, synagogues served as places of worship, prayer, and Bible instruction for God’s scattered people. In many ways, churches are patterned after them.

During a synagogue service, a qualified male would stand to read a passage of Scripture and then sit to preach an exposition of that passage. When Jesus came to the synagogue in Nazareth, He indicated His willingness to teach. When Jesus stood up, He could have chosen to read from any passage in the Old Testament. But of all the passages, Jesus intentionally chose to unroll the Isaiah scroll to Isaiah 61:1–2—the passage cited in Luke 4:18–19.

So what does Isaiah 61:1–2 say? What does it mean? What did the Lord Jesus preach? What was His message? Let’s pick things up with Jesus reading the Scripture and explaining it in the Nazareth synagogue—remember, this is Christ speaking in Isaiah 61.

Luke 4:18–21 — “He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty …those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

By saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus claimed to be the Spirit-anointed Messiah speaking in Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; the year of the Lord’s favor is fulfilled in me.” Jesus Christ was preaching a Christ-centered sermon, and the big idea was this: The year of the Lord’s favor has been fulfilled because I am here. “I am here, so the year of the Lord’s favor is kicked off.”

What is the year of the Lord’s favor? How do we get in on it?

One of the reasons that question is difficult for us to answer is that we don’t share Luke’s deep familiarity with the Old Testament. That’s okay. We are here to learn the Bible and be transformed by it—not to be embarrassed that we don’t already know more.

To answer that question, we need to understand that Isaiah 61 is not the first place in the Bible where we learn about the year of the Lord’s favor. The background is found much earlier, in Leviticus—the third book of the Bible. Keep your finger in Luke 4 and turn back to Leviticus 25.

After God saved His people out of slavery in Egypt by grace, He led them toward the Promised Land. Leviticus 25 contains instructions for how God’s people were to live once they entered the land. In Leviticus 25:1–7, the Lord commanded His people that when they came into the land, they were to give the land a Sabbath rest for one year every seven years, reaping only what grew naturally.

But in Leviticus 25:8, the Lord took things a step further. After the seventh Sabbath year—after forty-nine years—instead of observing another Sabbath year, the Lord commanded His people to observe a Year of Jubilee, also known as a year of the Lord’s favor. This year was kicked off on the Day of Atonement.

Look with me at Leviticus 25:9–10 — “Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”

Once God’s people entered the land, every fiftieth year was to be a year of jubilee—a special year of the Lord’s favor. And this special year began on the Day of Atonement.

The Day of Atonement is described in Leviticus 16. One of the clearest explanations I’ve read comes from theologian Kevin DeYoung in The Biggest Story Storybook Bible, a wonderful resource for family devotions. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, DeYoung writes that “the holiest person in Israel would put on his holy clothes and go into the Holy Place of the holy tent to stand before the holy God to make atonement for God’s unholy people.”

On that day, the high priest brought two goats into God’s presence. DeYoung explains: “The first goat died, that the sins of the people might be forgiven. The second goat lived and was led into the wilderness, that the sins of the people might be forgotten.”

The forgiving and forgetting of sins—a clean slate—was the kickoff for the special year of the Lord’s favor.

Throughout the rest of the year, Leviticus 25 tells us that Israel was to remember that the Promised Land belonged to the Lord: by letting the land lie fallow (Lev. 25:11–12), by forgiving debts (Lev. 25:13–17), by returning property purchased during the previous forty-nine years (Lev. 25:25–34), by helping the poor (Lev. 25:35–38), and by releasing Israelite slaves (Lev. 25:39–43). All of this flowed from the reality that God’s people were equally forgiven in His sight.

That was the year of the Lord’s favor that God commanded His people to keep every fiftieth year once they entered the Promised Land: cleansing and brotherly love.

There is just one problem.

The Old Testament never once records God’s people faithfully observing the Year of Jubilee—the year of the Lord’s favor—in the Promised Land. God commanded it, but the people never kept it. Therefore, the Messiah, Christ, in his grace, promised to bring the year to us. In Isaiah 61, the Anointed One, the Messiah, through the pen of the prophet Isaiah, promised that he would come to kick-off the true and great, the ultimate year of the Lord’s favor. However, his kingdom is spiritual, not physical. So…

• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “The year of the Lord’s favor has been kicked off because I am here, and anyone can get in on the favor by grace alone through faith alone in me alone.”
• When the Lord Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61:1–2 and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “I am the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat. Through my death and resurrection, all your sins can be forgiven and forgotten.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “Now that I have come, everyone who is poor in spirit—with nothing to offer God but sin and spiritual bankruptcy—can become eternally rich toward God: Christ’s righteousness for theirs. I am good news to those who know they have no hope of measuring up to God and who fall completely on His mercy.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “Since I am here, everyone who is enslaved to sin and defeated by the devil can enjoy the true freedom of belonging to God by grace.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “Now that I am here, those who are blind to the goodness and glory of God will have their eyes opened.” And He proved it by opening physical eyes as well.
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “Everyone who is oppressed by the law of God that they cannot keep is now welcome into God’s favor by grace.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “This true and greater year of God’s favor will not merely last a year, but will extend forever for all who enter into it by grace through faith.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “This is just the kickoff of the year of the Lord’s favor. I will return one day, and the whole universe will become the Promised Land. Sin and Satan will be gone, and I will dwell with you in the perfect peace of the eternal year of the Lord’s favor.”
• When Jesus Christ read Isaiah 61 and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He was saying, “I am the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The year of the Lord’s favor is the wonderful news that Jesus Christ is King. He came to kick off an eternal kingdom by dying and rising for our sins. Anyone can enter that kingdom by repenting and believing in Jesus Christ. And unlike the miniature kingdoms of this world, our King’s kingdom—the year of His favor—will last forever. If you have repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have already entered the year of the Lord’s favor. It will never end, and it will only get better. That is what the year of the Lord’s favor is.

Let’s now turn to our second question.

HOW DO WE BELIEVE IT?

As you may remember from the Scripture reading earlier, the congregation at the synagogue in Nazareth rejected Jesus Christ. They did not believe that He was the Spirit-anointed Son of God, and they did not believe that the eternal year of the Lord’s favor kicked off with His first arrival and would be eternally completed at His second.

On the contrary, most of you—though certainly not all—do believe that the year of the Lord’s favor has been fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, there is a great deal we can learn about believing and walking by faith from their unbelieving response to Him.

Even if you have believed in Jesus Christ and followed Him for years, we all have places where we don’t believe—or where we don’t apply our belief that the year of the Lord’s favor has been fulfilled to our lives. For example, if I am weighed down by guilt and lack joy in my salvation, that is the result of unbelief—that God has graciously brought me into the year of His favor through Christ’s work, not mine. If I use my words to tear down someone I love, that too is the result of unbelief—that Jesus Christ has kicked off the eternal year of the Lord’s favor, and therefore I feel the need to use my words to gain control, put someone in their place, and so forth.

We need to learn from their unbelief so that we can be strengthened in our faith—so that we rejoice in suffering like we are in the eternal year of the Lord’s favor; treat others like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; honor our parents like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; raise our children like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; relate to the church like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor together; put off sin like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; love our wives like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; submit to our husbands like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; steward our money like we are in the year of the Lord’s favor; and persevere to the end like we are already living in the beginnings of the year of the Lord’s favor.

To do that, we need to put away several faith-killing, unbelieving seeds that tempted the people of Nazareth and were in full bloom among them. To walk by faith in the wonderful truth that the year of the Lord’s favor is fulfilled in Christ, we must put away these four things:

• Put Away Being a Fan of Jesus

Notice how the congregation in Nazareth initially responded to the Lord Jesus when He said that the year of the Lord’s favor was fulfilled.

Luke 4:22 — “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’”

What should we make of this response? As one scholar has put it, “Marveling at his words is a positive response to rhetorical skill, not to his claim.” Initially, they were fans of the rhetoric, but they would not follow Him as Lord.

Some of you are fans of Jesus, but you are not genuinely converted followers. You come to church, you listen to sermons, and you don’t dispute the truthfulness of what you hear. You might even enjoy it. But your relationship with Jesus Christ never goes beyond that. Your version of Christianity has no practical effect on your heart. If that’s you, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from your sin.

But even if you are a Christian, to walk by faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel, you must put away this tendency to admire Jesus’ words, enjoy His people, agree with His teaching, yet remain largely unaffected by Him. Put away being a fan of Jesus Christ and build your entire life on Him.

• Put Away Low Thoughts of Jesus

The congregation responded to Jesus much like you might respond to a politician whose views you reject: “He’s a good speaker, but I don’t accept or believe a word he says.” Why? The answer is found in what they said: “Is not this Joseph’s son?” In other words, “The message doesn’t match the messenger. His heritage doesn’t match the high claims He is making about Himself.” They were incredulous—annoyed and skeptical. The unremarkable messenger didn’t match the remarkable message.

They must have forgotten Isaiah 53:2b, 5 — “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him… But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

Dear friends, to walk by faith, you must put away low thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came exactly as the Scriptures promised—without earthly majesty. And He will return exactly as the Scriptures promise—with full majesty. Think of Him this way: Lion and Lamb.

Give Him your highest thoughts, and you will live by faith in the year of the Lord’s favor. Give Him your highest thoughts, and you will treasure His Word and prize what He says over what you think. Put away low thoughts of Jesus, and you will walk by faith.

• Put Away Irreverent Familiarity with Jesus

In Nazareth, the people responded to the Lord Jesus with irreverent familiarity.

Luke 4:23 — “And he said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”

Their irreverent familiarity with Jesus was at the root of their unbelief. According to Luke 4:24–27, their irreverent familiarity was similar to the way Israel treated the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Because of that unbelief, those prophets did not perform many miracles among God’s people but instead ministered among the Gentiles.

It is spiritually corrupting to become irreverently familiar with Jesus and holy things. To walk by faith, we must put away ungodly, irreverent familiarity with Jesus Christ.

I want to speak to the Citylight youth for a moment—elementary, middle, and high school students. I probably did not grow up in a home like yours. My dad never once prayed for me. My dad never once read the Bible to me. My dad never once led our family in devotions. So when I first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was fresh and unfamiliar. It can be more difficult for you. Jesus has always been part of your life. You may believe His gospel and love Him deeply. But be careful that you do not become irreverently familiar with Jesus. Be careful about offering Him throwaway prayers or giving Him so little of your time simply because He has always been there.

Forge your own relationship with Jesus. Worship Him for yourself. Join His church for yourself. Read His Word for yourself. Ask your parents to take you to the Four class. Build reverent, respectful, honoring familiarity with Jesus, because He first loved you and gave Himself for you.

• Put Away Judging Jesus by Your Circumstances

Put yourself in the shoes of the people in Nazareth. Jesus announced that the year of the Lord’s favor was fulfilled—freedom, sight, liberty, good news! Then they looked at their circumstances and saw suffering, sin, and Roman occupation. That is likely why they demanded a sign: the message did not fit their circumstances.

To walk by faith, you must put away living by sight. You must stop judging Jesus by your circumstances and start living by His promises. No, it does not look like the year of the Lord’s favor has been kicked off. But we walk by faith in God’s promises, not by sight in our circumstances. God has promised that everything is going His way, and that He is working all of history—including your suffering—toward the ultimate and eternal praise of His glory.

So put away demanding signs. Put away living by sight. Put away judging Jesus by your circumstances. Instead, live by faith in the promise that Jesus is risen, Jesus is returning, and Jesus will bring all who repent and believe in Him into the eternal year of His favor.

Walk by faith and not by sight.

Believe that the year of the Lord’s favor is fulfilled.