“…we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.” 1 Timothy 4:10
Dear Ones:
The moment when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him, “…like a dove,” was the moment of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, His mission, and His mandate. It was NOT the beginning of the realization of the means by which God would save men. That began before the creation of the world, in the heart and mind of God. God’s provision for the salvation of all men, to be accomplished in a perfect and complete manner, was designed, implemented, and willed, before creation. The apparent “insignificant” day of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry was a day of revelation, the unveiling of God’s WAY, His MEANS, for His GLORY, to meet the eternal need of every man, woman, and child. It would be by the lips of John the Baptist, that the declaration of hope for all mankind would be revealed: “Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn.1:29) Seeing so great a weight of responsibility that would rest on the shoulders of Christ, how then should we grasp something of what He told His mother as a child of twelve: “Did you not know, that I must be about My Father’s business?” What was this business of His Father, and how would He be about it?
We begin our search to understand this subject by seeing Jesus, being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. Why this type of beginning? It is because of the nature of the Father’s “business.” It is primarily spiritual, a matter of knowledge, power and authority, and the accomplishing of the Father’s will. That WILL of the Father, and its accomplishment, is the singular path, direction, and work, determined and declared before the foundation of the world, so that sinful and lost man would truly come to know the reality of his sins forgiven, by the Lamb’s work of taking away the sins of the entire world.
After overcoming the temptation, and opposition of Satan, Christ begins his ministry to the multitudes, and to the individual. We find Him described as “…returning in the power of the Spirit.” (Lk. 4:14) His fame begins to spread. He begins to teach in the synagogues. However, it will be on a certain day that He is in Nazareth, “where he had been brought up,” that, standing in the synagogue, He opens the book of Isaiah, and reads: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because HE has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” (v.18) He goes on to declare: “He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” These words, to a great extent, summarize the ministry of Christ, for He came to SAVE the lost, meeting the desperate needs of the souls, spirits, and bodies of mankind. His ministry was one for the present, and continuing moment, for NOW was “…the acceptable time,” not only for His coming, but for the unveiling of who He was, and what He had come to do. How can we further grasp something of this ministry of Christ, the business of the Father, trusting God to apply it to our lives?
Never has there been one so engaged, completely “sold-out” to the Father as was the Lord Jesus. His “food” was to do the will of His Father. Even in the garden of Gethsemane, facing the certainty of crucifixion, and the judgment for the world’s sin, His desire and will was to do the will of His Father, and accomplish His work. He lived and ministered only by the power of the Spirit, doing only the works that His Father do. He was ever about His Father’s business, overcoming every obstacle, and conquering every foe…by the love of His Father.
Dear Father, Bring us into conformity with Thy Son, according to Thy word, by the Spirit, for Thy glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad