Luke 4:18 “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,”
With these words Jesus announces the beginning of His ministry. He does not define the meaning of “good news”. He does however identify His audience, the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed.
Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
This passage indicates where Jesus went to declare the good news, but in this passage the word gospel is used, the gospel of a kingdom. Along with those words came the healing of every affliction.
Vine’s defines it this way. Gospel (Noun and Verb: to Preach):
originally denoted a reward for good tidings; later, the idea of reward dropped, and the word stood for “the good news” itself. The Eng. word “gospel,” i.e. “good message,” is the equivalent of euangelion (Eng., “evangel”). In the NT it denotes the “good tidings” of the Kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ, to be received by faith, on the basis of His expiatory death, His burial, resurrection, and ascension,
When we look at the words “good news” as just a proclamation apart from the acts that accompany His Word, then we ignore the larger part of the power of His Gospel to change lives for the better, a removal of afflictions. He changes lives.
At this point we have jumped forward from just delivering a proclamation to the acts of an evangelical message that takes in all the words and works of Jesus. It can be a wondrous thing to know it all and believe it all but in doing that we might overwhelm those who are hearing it for the first time.
In consideration of order, for God is a God of order, let us address first whose words we preach and why those words should be considered life changing.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” He is the one the prophets promised.