GLIMPSE OF JANUARY1, 2007

YEAR OF JUBILEE'2007

The Year 2007 is the Year of Jubilee for Nepali Christian Fellowship. This is a special event for us."We have lots of reason for celebration," Ultimately, we are not celebrating what we have done over the last sixty years, but what God has done over sixty years. Actually, it is a celebration of what God did 2007 years ago, by sending Jesus Christ to work salvation for all true believers."
"Jubilee" is an interesting word. It’s the source of the English word jubilation—fervent rejoicing. In the spirituals of the Negro slaves in America, the Year of Jubilee became a code word for emancipation.
According to Leviticus 25, the Year of Jubilee is a year for

• forgiving debts,


• a year of release from bondage,


• a year of thanksgiving to God and


• depending on God for provision.
  The Hebrew word for Jubilee, yobel, is also the word for trumpet, particularly the ram’s horn trumpet. At the close of the Day of Atonement on the 49th year, the trumpet was sounded throughout the land to announce the coming Year of Jubilee (Lev.25:8-11). This was a year of holiness unto the Lord (25:12,17), when God’s people were reminded that they were aliens in the land (25:23) who belong to the Lord.
  Jubilee- “shout of faith”- acclamation of joy, victory shout
  The probable root of yobel (Jubilee, trumpet) is yabal, meaning "to bring forth." Just so, the prophet brings forth God’s word to the people. Amos gives us a vital teaching on this subject:
  When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plans to His servants the prophets. The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy? (3:6-8)
  God is calling people to trumpet shout.
  In all these ways, the Year of Jubilee foreshadowed the New Covenant. As Nepali Christian Fellowship celebrate the true year of jubilee. Because it is not true that the year of jubilee now comes only once every fifty years. Jesus Christ said that "today is the acceptable year of the Lord." That "today" is ongoing. It's still the year of jubilee. We live in the ongoing year of jubilee, that began with the coming of Jesus Christ.


• In Christ, all our sin-debts are forgiven, and just as we have been freely forgiven, so we are to forgive anyone who wrongs us. The good news of liberty: Christ pays for your sins. He gives you a new beginning! Your sins may burden you, but He takes away sins. The inheritance promised in your baptism is not lost, for He clears your debts, allows you to hear the promise.


• We have been released from bondage to sin and Satan: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36) This spirit of jubilee, of freedom from sin and the restoration of life is also to be put into practice in your life. The elders have a role, in encouraging the congregation in the fight of sin, to no longer live in slavery to sin. The deacons have a role, in making sure that people of the church are not burdened by financial needs, by loneliness, by sickness. You all have a role, in making sure all your fellow members live in the joy and freedom Christ gives, a life without burdens. Sometimes recipients of the deacons' care find Christ's love in the spirit of jubilee too good to be true. They ask: "When do we have to pay it back by? What's the interest rate?" But this is a free gift, it's part of the jubilee and reflects Christ's love who freely gives grace and liberty to His people.


• We are to give thanks to God in all circumstances (1Thess.5:18); we belong not to ourselves but to God, who bought us at the costliest price (1Cor.6:19-20).


• God provides for all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Php.4:19). We are aliens and strangers in this world; our citizenship is in heaven (Heb.11:13-16, 1Peter 2:11-12, Php.3:20). We are to be living, in Christ, a perpetual Year of Jubilee.
  
  How is the Liberty of Jubilee enjoyed?
  It's not automatic.
  


• The liberty of jubilee is enjoyed through faith. By believing and applying the announcement of freedom. That's why you want to be in church every Sunday - to hear this good news announced, to embrace it in faith. God's people remain in slavery if they don't come to hear and believe the gospel of jubilee. And so come you will, every Sunday, to hear the gospel of freedom. Sometimes you and I come to church with a heavy heart. Burdened with sins and struggles. A weight on our shoulders. Baptized we are, with the promise of a heavenly inheritance, but look what we've done with it in our life. More debts. You and I see sins in our life, and sometimes we have to live with the consequences of them for the rest of our life. We feel in the hole.But on Sunday, you come to church and you hear the gospel of jubilee.(11) The good news of liberty: Christ pays for your sins. He gives you a new beginning! Your sins may burden you, but He takes away sins. The inheritance promised in your baptism is not lost, for He clears your debts, allows you to hear the promise of your baptism anew. To start afresh. The chains of sin are gone, you are free!
  
  


• This spirit of jubilee, of freedom from sin and the restoration of life is also to be put into practice in your life. The elders have a role, in encouraging the congregation in the fight of sin, to no longer live in slavery to sin. The deacons have a role, in making sure that people of the church are not burdened by financial needs, by loneliness, by sickness. You all have a role, in making sure all your fellow members live in the joy and freedom Christ gives, a life without burdens. Sometimes recipients of the deacons' care find Christ's love in the spirit of jubilee too good to be true. They ask: "When do we have to pay it back by? What's the interest rate?" But this is a free gift, it's part of the jubilee and reflects Christ's love who freely gives grace and liberty to His people.
  
  


• 
  
  Yet it gets better still. Because today you still live in a broken world. Some consequences of sin face you every day of your life. There is still brokenness. Even as we hear the message of jubilee, you still have to face troubles and trials. But not forever! Because Scripture tells us that the trumpet sound that marked the jubilee year will be sounded again when Christ returns (Mt 24:31; 1Cor 15:52). Then you will enter the eternal sabbath (Heb 4), the eternal super sabbath, the eternal jubilee. Then all of life will be totally freed, even creation will be freed from bondage (Rom 8:18-25). You will be freed from the last chains of bondage that still tie you down now. Then the believers of 2007, and the believers of 1947 will be united with the believers of all time, in the celebration of an eternal jubilee. An eternal celebration.
  God’s jubilee affects every area of our life
  Amen.