“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” (Luke 4:18)
After Jesus was baptized, He was led to the desert to be tempted by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught by what He did, the process of going into ministry. He was obedient in all things, being baptized, overcoming temptation by the power of the Word, being filled with the Holy Spirit and teaching with signs following and confirming His Word. But it was in revealing the Truth of Who He was by His own verbal admission, by His wisdom and by His works that the religious leaders, moved by envy and the desire to have things that were working for their advantage remain the same that they made a plan to kill Him. Luke records in the verse above when Jesus reveals to the Pharisees His identity. The Truth will always rile up the devil. And after His revelation, they were filled with wrath and wanted to throw Him off a hill. (Luke 4:28,29)
We cannot just go into ministry on a whim. It’s an inspiration that is initiated by God with the Holy Spirit leading a person. Jesus demonstrated that one must be filled with the Holy Spirit because a ministry must be inspired by the Holy Spirit, led of the Holy Spirit and worked by the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew exactly what His ministry was. It was five-fold. (Luke 4:18)
First, the Good News had to be preached. We wonder why people flocked first to John the Baptist, then Jesus. Remember it’d been 400 years since there had been a prophet in Israel. God hadn’t spoken or revealed Himself at all during that time. Now suddenly God was speaking to His people again. When Jesus began to do miracles, the people now swarmed to Him because they wanted to see these wonders. Others needed miracles and were hoping to get a miracle. Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, righteousness and holy living with power and authority unlike the Pharisees.
Next to the Gospel, the Lord very much cares for those who are broken hearted, for sin in their lives, in the lives of others and in their communities. Ezekiel prophesied how God would spare those who mourn for the unrighteousness around them. “And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” (Ezekiel 9:4) A broken heart moves God. “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)
He preached deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight. Man’s spiritual condition is darkness and bondage to sin without Jesus. Jesus came to free man from the bondages in the natural and in the spiritual. He placed a hope in their hearts and continues to give us an eternal hope. It is the light of the Gospel that works in the hearts of man to dispel the darkness. That darkness has man blinded. He doesn’t know what is driving him, but he only that there is a need in him that isn’t satisfied with all the riches in the world, all the pleasure one can experience and all the accolades that others bestow. All are appointed to death without Jesus. “For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;” (Psalm 102:19-20) But Jesus came to deliver them by the work on the Cross and His shed blood. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:” (Colossians 1:13-14) He is life and gives life. And He is light and gives light. “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:3-4)
Jesus’ ministry is also to bring freedom to those who are crushed. The word bruised means to be shattered into minute fragments. This condition of the soul (mind, will, emotions) can paralyze a person physically. Some situations can place a person in such a state that they are not able to function. But Jesus came to heal completely, spirit, soul and body. In the incident with the ten lepers, they were all healed of leprosy. “And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.” (Luke 17:14) But the grateful one who returned to worship Him was healed completely. (Luke 17:11-19) “And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 17:19)
Jesus’ ministry was then as He walked the earth but continues today with a better covenant that was ratified by His death and resurrection. His kingdom has come to those who have believed the Gospel and have received Him as Lord and Savior. The Light has entered the world and is in every believer, dispelling the darkness wherever we go and whenever we speak the Word of God. The life of Jesus has been fanned out into the entire world to and through the believer. And there continues to be complete healing for the spirit, soul and body.
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