The Ministry of Jesus
J esus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth as a man to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), so that all who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The Lord Jesus walked on earth for 33 years, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, performing miracles, healing the sick (Matt. 4:23-24), and bringing the kingdom of heaven and the glory of God to the dark world.
The Ministry of Jesus
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
- Luke 4:18-19
Jesus began His ministry at the age of about 30 (Luke 3:23). In obedience to God's will, Jesus travelled from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptised by John the Baptist. As He came out of the water, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, and God the Father declared that Jesus was His beloved Son (Matt. 3:13-17). The Lord Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ” (John 3:5-6). All those who are baptised into Jesus are children of God (Gal. 3:26-28). “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Gal. 4:4-7). Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, fulfilled the prophecy made by the prophet Isaiah more than 700 years before Jesus (Isaiah 11:2-3).
After Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit took Him into the wilderness to fast for 40 days and be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1-2). The devil tempted Jesus three times in food, faith and the glory of the world, just as he had tempted Adam and Eve in the beginning. But the Lord rebuked the devil with the words of the Bible (Matt. 4:3-10). The apostle Paul encourages us by saying, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:14-16). We must resist the devil (Jas. 4:7). The trial of faith is the crown of our life (1 Pet. 1:6-7), just as Job held on to his faith in God in the midst of his suffering, "But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10). The Lord Jesus was tempted, as the prophet Isaiah foretold over 700 years before Jesus was born (Isa. 28:16).
From then on Jesus began to preach (Matt. 4:17). He called disciples by the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 4:18-21), healed the sick, cast out demons, performed miracles, and preached the Gospel of Kingdom of God and saved the lost (Matt. 4:23-25; Luke 19:10). The Kingdom of God was established on earth through the Ministry of Jesus. Jesus begun His Ministry in Galilee, fulfilling the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah more than 700 years before Christ, “By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isa. 9:1-2), as well as Isaiah's prophecy about Jesus’ ministry “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing.” (Isa. 35:5-6 )
Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth and proclaimed in the synagogue that the prophet Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah, made more than 700 years before Jesus came to earth, had been fulfilled (Luke 4:17-21), "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isa. 61:1). Isaiah also prophesied about God's commission for Jesus’ ministry: "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles." (Isa. 42:1). However, the people in His hometown saw Him only as a neighbour's son. They rejected him and did not believe that He was the Messiah made flesh (Matt. 13:54-57).
Jesus and His disciples were invited to a wedding feast in Cana. When the wine ran out, Jesus performed His first miracle, turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). This was like God made the bitter waters of Marah sweet in the wilderness (Exod. 15:23-25), which foreshadows the sweetness of the new born-again life in Jesus (Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:17). Many Old Testament prophets are types of Jesus. Elisha was a miracle-working prophet who lived over 900 years before Jesus. He performed many miracles that foreshadowed Jesus, such as healing leprosy (2 Kgs. 5:10-14), feeding a hundred people with 20 loaves of bread (2 Kgs. 4:42-44), and raising the dead (2 Kgs. 4:32-35), etc. His first miracle was to heal the bad water, stopping it from producing death and miscarriage (2 K.gs 2:19-22). This foreshadowed the living water of life given by Jesus (John 4:13-14).
When the Passover was near, Jesus went to Jerusalem and saw the temple being defiled by merchants. He was angry and drove them out of the temple (John 2:13-15), and said to them, "Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!" (John 2:16). In the face of the Jews' accusation, Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up... But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19-22). The Father's temple was corrupted, but the Son would cleanse and rebuild it! Jesus made His body a temple, which was torn down and rebuilt in three days, prophesying His resurrection three days after His crucifixion. Like Jesus, our bodies are the temple of God. Jesus’ death and resurrection cleansed and justified us by faith (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Rom. 3:24). Jesus cleansed the temple, just as King David had foretold over 1,000 years before Christ (Ps. 69:9).
Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, performed miracles, and revealed the mysteries of the kingdom of God in parables (Matt. 13:34), which attracted many people to follow Him. He preached the Beatitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven in Galilee, urging people to be humble, to mourn, to be gentle, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers and willing to suffer for His righteousness (Matt. 5:3-10). These are the attributes of the new man, who has been born again in Christ by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:18). There are two kinds of wisdom: earthly and heavenly (Jas. 3:14-18), and two kinds of people: worldly and spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14-16). Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63). Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount echoes Hannah’s song of praise more than 900 years before Christ (1 Sam. 2:3-5, 8-9).
The centurion of Capernaum believed in the supreme authority of the Lord Jesus to do what He said and what He commanded (Ps. 33:9), and that his sick servant would be healed at the word of Jesus (Matt. 8:5 -8). The Roman military officer who was accustomed to giving orders was so humble before Jesus that he was completely convinced of His authority. He believed that when Jesus gave an order, it would be carried out (Matt. 8:9)! No wonder Jesus appreciated the centurion’s faith and fulfilled it for him according to his faith (Matt. 8:10,13). As Jesus promised, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. …without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:1, 6). James also said that faith without action is dead, because faith is manifested in actions that produce good works in our lives (Jas. 2:22, 26).
Many people saw the miracles Jesus performed and followed Him. When Jesus saw them, He had compassion on them and fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish offered by a child (Luke 9:14-17). The miracle of the five loaves and two fish testifies that the Lord Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35), just as God sent manna from heaven in the wilderness to feed the Israelites who followed Him (Ps. 78:24; Ex 16:35). This fulfilled what King David said more than 1,000 years before Christ, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Ps. 23:1). Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ... No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." (John 10:11,18), prophesying that Jesus was commanded by God the Father to lay down His life for us to fulfil God’s redemption plan for mankind (Col. 1:14).
Shortly after Jesus told His disciples that He would be killed and resurrected, the three disciples saw Jesus on a mountain transfigured, with His face like the sun and His clothes shining (Matt. 16:21; 17:1-2). Moses and Elijah appeared in the glory of Jesus to speak of His crucifixion (Luke 9:30-32). God the Father declared again in the clouds that Jesus was His beloved Son (Luke 9:35). The three disciples witnessed the glory of the Lord Jesus coming into the Kingdom of God, just as Jesus had told them before the event, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ...... Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:26-28). This foreshadows that when Jesus returns, all the saints will have bodies that will be like the glorious body of the Lord Himself (Col. 3:2-4; Phil. 3:20-21).
Jesus’ friend Lazarus had been sick and dead for four days when Jesus went to see him. Jesus came to his tomb, prayed and called out loudly: “Lazarus, come forth”, and the dead man came out of the tomb (John 11:39-40, 43)! Jesus also raised two other dead people while on earth (Mark 5:41-42; Luke 7:13-15). The resurrection of Lazarus demonstrated Jesus' authority and Messiahship, showing the world that the Lord Jesus is the Lord of life and holds the keys of death and Hades (John 14:6; Rev. 1:18). As He Himself said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25). When the Lord returns, all the dead will be raised to face the last judgment (Rev. 20:12). Jesus’ ministry was characterised by healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. These works fulfilled the prophecy of the Messianic Ministry of Jesus, prophesized by the prophet Isaiah more than 700 years before Christ (Isa. 35:5-6).
Six days before the Passover, Jesus was at a supper in Bethany. (John 12:1-2), Mary, the sister of Lazarus, broke an alabaster flask and anointed the head and feet of the Lord Jesus with the most precious oil of spikenard (Mark 14:3 ; John 12:3). Some of the disciples were displeased and thought it was a waste (Mark 14:4), but the Lord Jesus said, "She has done a good work for Me.... She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial…" (Mark 14:6-9). The breaking of the flask symbolises Jesus’ sacrificial love, whose body was broken and whose precious blood was shed on the cross for our salvation (1 Pet. 2:24; Hebrews 9:14-15). When we believe in the Lord and are baptised, we let our old life be broken and buried with Jesus on the cross, and live a new resurrected life in Jesus with the fragrance of Christ (Rom. 6:5-6,11). For this reason, we must put off our old life and put on the new life in Christ (Col. 3:5-10).
