You need the Holy Spirit | Lessons from Luke 4 (Part 1)

I’m looking at the start of the ministry of Jesus. In Luke 4:14 it says, ‘Jesus returned in the Power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about and He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.’ He’s been baptised by John; and full of the Holy Spirit, He’s been led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted for 40 days by the devil! In v9, the devil takes Him to a pinnacle of the Temple, it’s the last of the temptations, saying, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down!” It was a challenge of course and Jesus resisted him, saying, “It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” There’s a big lesson here that we must be careful we don’t ‘tempt’ God in the wrong way by attempting to do something that is not in His Will for us. And the devil, having finished tempting Jesus, departs from Him – ‘for a time’!

That is very significant. The devil hasn’t left Him – only for a time.

So now Jesus returns from the wilderness, from being tempted, in the Power of the Spirit, and goes into Galilee. I want to emphasise: Jesus Himself NEEDED the Power of the Holy Spirit in order that He could fulfil His ministry. By v16, He arrives in Nazareth, His hometown where He grew up, and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and got up to read. They gave Him the book of Isaiah and He found the place where it is written, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He – the Spirit of the Lord – has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He’s sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those that are bruised, and to preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord.” He closed the book and said, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled!”

What He reads from Isaiah covers the whole of His ministry! For some of us, this is OUR ministry. It certainly is mine! I would say, as an evangelist, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and for 75 years this has been my ministry. 75 years ago, He anointed me to preach the Gospel. To the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance, to heal, to set at liberty those that are bruised – and to preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord. In other words – JESUS IS COMING! This is the whole of the Gospel that we preach! And as I read the New Testament, I find that Jesus spends more time talking about His Kingdom than He does teaching about healing and salvation.