CHAPTER V
THE MINISTRY OF JESUS
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee— (Luke 4:14)
Jesus’s ministry was to complete the plan of God which was established from the foundation of the world, and along the way to do and say what the Father did and said, or in other words, when He heard God say something, He, Jesus, was to say it. When He saw God do something, He was to do it precisely as He saw it done. This is what caused Jesus to spend a great amount of time alone and in prayer with the Father. This is a great lesson for us. We are to spend a great amount of time alone which God in prayer, in order for us to do and say what Jesus did and said. Amen! Let’s break down what Jesus’s mission was.
- He was to select, then call 12 men to be His disciples, to carry on the work of spreading the Gospel to the known world, after He returned to Heaven. He knew in advance that one of them would betray Him to fulfil Scripture, and had already chosen his replacement. Think about this for a minute. Why would Jesus pick Judas if He knew he would betray Him? Was Jesus condemning Judas in advance? I believe the answer lies in the fact that God knows our hearts and He allows, doesn’t cause, but allows a non-repentant person to live out their destiny and uses that person to fulfil what God wants accomplished. God is always looking at the end “game”.
- (2) He, Jesus, was to minister to the people, train His disciples, He was to fulfil every prophecy concerning the Messiah’s first coming, and, if you will, to prove without a shadow of a doubt to the religious elite,the doctors of the law, that He, Jesus the Nazarene, was indeed the promised Messiah, God’s own Son come in human flesh to redeem the world. He was aware that the religious leaders would not accept Him. but He followed the plan He and the Father had laid out to the “dotting of every “i”, and the crossing of every “t”. (scripture)
- Jesus was to explain in detail the seriousness of sin, the necessity of redemption, and the glory of obedience to God, plus the rejection of all the added rules that were put in place to control the people, rules the elite seldom obeyed, called the Talmud. He demonstrated the Father’s will by following the teachings in the Holy book, the Torah, not the Talmud which was a perversion of the teaching in the Torah, written by people who wanted to either add to or amend the true instrutions of God given through Moses.
- Most importantly, He was instructed to fulfill the law, thereby bring to conclusion the dispensation of the law and to introduce the dispensation of Grace, which only He could bring in by His own death, (the price had to be paid by a perfect and spotless human being), then rise again to introduce the new creation, born of a women, born again by the shed blood of Christ our God and Saviour.
The idea of this new dispensation was abhorred by the hierarchy of the religious rulers because it took away their control of the people, their power and privilege. (scripture)
They lied to the Roman rulers and the general public concerning Jesus, even while some of their ruling members had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. (scripture). However God is the ultimate ruler and He used their actions to catapult the truth of His words, spoken by Jesus and thereafter by His disciples to the whole world. (scripture). Without the advantages of radio, television, telephones, cell phones and social media, the 1st century experienced the greatest revival of all times, and will stay in first place until Jesus’ returns.
No reasonable person can deny that Jesus was, is now, and always will be the one and only Saviour of the world, period! When you compare Him and His life to prophecy, you will find He fulfilled every prophecy spoken of the Messiah from the Garden of Eden (scripture) to the last prophet in the last book of the Old Testament. (scripture). Thus we are assured that He will fulfill every prophecy concerning His 2nd coming. A child will believe when taught the truth, (scripture), and so should we.
To accept what has been taught so far, read your Bible. I suggest you start with the Gospel of John, the 4th book of the New Testament. It is generally accepted that the Apostle John wrote this Gospel,plus first, second, and third John as well as the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ at the age of 80+ and approximately in the year of 95 AD. He had the advantage of growing up in a time when the Jewish nation was expecting the arrival of the true Messiah. Then he met Him and accepted Jesus as the Messiah and spent the rest of his life proclaiming the Gospel, the good news that God loves us, and Jesus died for us so that we, that is you and I, can come to Him in repentance and humility, accept and confess him as Lord and become a child of the living God. Hallelujah!
I also suggest you read the Book of Luke. Dr. Luke was a physician, a well educated man who had accepted Christ, then in answer to an inquiry from a friend of His, a ruler by the name of Theophilus, he wrote an explanation of everything he had seen and heard concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Theophilus expected his friend Luke to tell the truth, and that is why we find his gospel so detailed, almost like an attorney defending his conclusions. Perfect!
Most of the rest of the New Testament, with the exception of those books that bear the name of their authors, were written by Saul of Tarsus, renamed Paul by our Lord. He was an enemy of the followers of “The Way”, which would be renamed Christianity at Antioch, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. You have heard the story I am sure, but that encounter changed Saul to Paul, and from being an enemy of Christ to His greatest evangelist. Perhaps that is what is suppose to happen to each of us?? An interesting note about Paul is that virtually all of his letters, now books of the Bible, were written while he was in prison or under house arrest.
Question. If he had not been detained from his travels, would he have written any of these books? Would Paul have thought that just speaking in sermons was good enough?
God has a plan to move each of us into our destiny. Sometimes the path is difficult and not to our liking, but if we will humble ourselves to His will the end result will be glorious! Thank you Lord! The following if a word from the Lord when I was is great distress.
GLORIFY
I CHOSE TODAY TO GLORIFY YOU,
TO SING A SONG OF PRAISE.
TO SEEK YOUR PRESENCE AND YOUR LOVE,
MY HANDS, MY VOICE, TO HEAVEN RAISE.
IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHERE I AM,
OR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME,
WHETHER GLADNESS OR SADNESS, PLEASURE OR PAIN,
IT’S IN YOUR WILL I SEEK TO BE.
I LOVE YOU LORD, I ALWAYS WILL,
I’LL FOLLOW WHERE`ER YOU GO.
AND IF MY ROAD IS STEEP AND HARD,
YOU’LL BE RIGHT THERE YOUR STRENGTH TO SHOW.
I AM SO BLESSED. I KNOW `TIS TRUE,
THAT NEITHER DROUGHT NOR FLOOD,
WILL STAY YOUR HAND OR BLESSINGS SURE,
FOR ALL WAS PAID BY CALVARY’S BLOOD.
AGAIN I SAY, CHRIST JESUS,
MY SAVIOR AND MY LORD,
I CHOSE TODAY TO GLORIFY YOU,
GOD’S WORD, MY TWO-EDGED SWORD.
Copyright © 2017 John H Dumke