AC 9204 - "to these the gospel shall be preached" (Luke 7:22)

AC 9209 [4]
Take for example what the Lord said to the disciples sent by John the Baptist to inquire whether He was the Lord who should come; to whom He replied:

Go ye and tell John what things ye have seen and heard:
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, to the poor the gospel is preached
(Luke 7:20-22);

these words were spoken for the external man,
and at the same time for the internal man;
for the external man that such miracles were wrought;
for the internal, that the church is being set up among such as
in the spiritual sense are blind, lame, leprous, deaf, and poor,
thus among the Gentiles who are in ignorance of good and truth,
and yet long for them.
For those are called "blind" who are in ignorance of truth (n. 6990);
"lame," those who are in good, but on account of their ignorance of truth,
not in genuine good (n. 4302);
"leprous," those who are unclean and yet long to be made clean;
"deaf," those who are not in the faith of truth,
because not in the perception of it;
and "poor," those who have not the Word,
and thus know nothing of the Lord, and yet long to be instructed.
Consequently it is said that "to these the gospel shall be preached."