Why We Celebrate Jubilee
Introduction
This is the week of Jubilee for our church. It’s our annual celebration of all that God has done and where we set a week apart to say thank you. Many of you are new to Victory Life and aren’t familiar with what this celebration is and so we want to give clarity to everyone as to why we do this every year for 33 years now.
Luke 4:18-19 (ESV)
“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.”
Leviticus 25:10 (ESV)
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.
Leviticus 25:21 (ESV)
I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
We celebrate Jesus as the King of the world and the Head of His church. He is our Jubilee, our liberty and freedom. But we do have an event that specifically celebrates Jesus and is a calibration for our church.
The Event of Jubilee
Why do we do a special event as a church?
Psalm 105:1-5 (ESV)
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
The nation of Israel was commanded to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year for specific feasts and celebrations (Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16) that were designed to make them remember God’s salvation, provision, and guidance for them as a nation. These celebrations were designed to remind the people of God that they were a covenant people under God’s leadership and that they had a history and were part of a bigger story. They were a part of God’s story in His world.
These events were not the whole of being God’s people, but a small microcosm in time of what it meant to be God’s people all the time. A birthday party is not the only time we show appreciation for someone, but is a microcosm of our appreciation and love for someone that we have year round for them.
Jubilee as an event is both a climax for the past year and a launch pad the upcoming year. We do that by celebration and listening.
The Purpose of Jubilee:
- To celebrate and give thanks for all the Lord has done in the past year
- To seek the Lord (listen) for the upcoming year
Celebration and Thanksgiving
The Purpose of Jubilee:
- To celebrate and give thanks for all the Lord has done in the past year
Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
We never want to be guilty of not giving God praise and thanks when He works powerfully for us. Life itself is a gracious gift of God. He showers His blessings and His grace upon us. The miraculous is happening all around us if we have eyes to see. We want our heart to remain postured toward gratitude and thanksgiving. If anything else, what Jesus has done for us in forgiving us, setting us free, and adopting us into the family of God is worth eternal thanksgiving.
Often in our fast-paced lives we tend to forget easily. We forget God’s work and activity because we don’t pause long enough to recognize it and celebrate it. We are not to be caught up in our own stories that we lose our unique place in God’s story. We have an event like Jubilee to mark our calendar for a moment to pause and remember well. We pause long enough to remember what God has done and that we are a part of His story, not just our own, personal, small story.
We live in such a critical, and pessimistic culture. Times are tough, personally and nationally. Mental illness has been on the rise and has sky-rocketed this year with all the disruptive events of 2020. Celebration and thanksgiving is not turning a blind eye to problems, tragedy, struggles, or the evil in the world. It simply recognizes that there is a greater reality than disease, depression, financial struggle, or injustice: Jesus is Lord and we belong to Him. That’s worth being grateful for and will be counter-cultural to a hopeless generation.
Psalm 100:1-5 (ESV)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Celebration is an outward manifestation of the inward condition of faith. Being people of faith does not mean we are blind to problems in our lives or evil in our world. It simply recognizes that the Kingdom of God is our primary citizenship and that the King of that Kingdom is at work in our lives and in our world, and we live with a heart of thanksgiving toward Him. It’s one way heaven invades earth.
How to participate:
- Call to mind what God has done in your life this year. Write it down. Tell someone.
- Ask friends and family (church family) what God has done for them this year.
- Join the party and say “thank you” extravagantly.
- Bring an offering (worship, serving, giving)
Seeking God’s Face, Listening for Direction
The Purpose of Jubilee:
- To seek the Lord for the upcoming year
Genesis 22:9-12 (ESV)
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
We are listening for God’s direction in the upcoming year. We listen with a posture toward obedience. We never want to assume a previous strategy or program or direction from God is permanent. There may be things God wants to prune because He wants us to bear more fruit or because it’s no longer effective (John 15:1-5). We avoid making big decisions until after Jubilee to ensure we are paying more attention to God’s direction rather than just conventional wisdom.
We are in an age of distraction and deception. With competing world views clashing in our country, it is not difficult to get discouraged and even hopeless. When we live distracted and deceived, we begin to be easily tempted away from God and toward the lies being fed to us constantly. It’s the truth that sets us free and makes us free, but the truth is in Jesus. To live in the truth, we have to continually seek Him. There is no cruise control in discipleship. We must remain vigilant in seeking Him or we will be easily swayed from His path.
II Chronicles 12:14 (NKJV)
And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD.
Jubilee is marked on our annual calendar so that we intentionally recalibrate to God’s presence and His will, personally and corporately. We desire to be constantly calibrating to His presence and will, but we all get easily distracted. Jubilee is the time where we prepare our heart to seek His face, and from that seeking we are calibrated you His presence and His will. As followers of Jesus, we live in intimate fellowship with Him and obedience to His leadership. Jubilee is ensuring we are in continued fellowship and obedience, not presuming we are following Him because of something He told us long ago.
How to participate:
- Prepare your heart to seek God.
- Write down what direction you’re needing.
- Come expecting, pay close attention.
Conclusion
Our culture is bereft of joy. Everything is politicized and polarized. People seem to either be trying to make a statement or just giving in to debauchery. There is little celebration and almost no joy.
Joy is not something that happens to us, it sores from living in fellowship with and obedience to the one who gives joy from the abundance of His character. That joy gives us strength. The church needs strength in this hour, you need strength in this hour. Jubilee is a celebration of God’s goodness that brings joy into our lives replacing the apathy and lethargy that is bringing the church down.
Jubilee as an event is both a climax for the past year and a launch pad the upcoming year. We do that by celebration and listening. Join the party.