Jesus’ Ministry in the Gospels
Overview:
In the biblical scriptures, the only books where the ministry of Jesus the Messiah is presented in any detail is that of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Three of these were amongst the disciples of Jesus, so they had first-hand experiences of Jesus’ ministry. The fourth, Luke, was not one of the disciples but was a later convert to Christianity – he was a doctor, and a brilliant historian in his compilation of Jesus’ life. So we get these different perspectives of Jesus and his ministry, whilst at first they may seem not to fit, they actually act as pieces of a larger spiritual scriptural puzzle that provide us with a picture of Jesus and his ministry.
All of the Gospels start Jesus’ ministry with his water baptism by John the Baptist – who was the one in the desert preparing the way for the Messiah – and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, as the dove settled on him. This is significant imagery for believers, as water baptism is an important act and statement of our faith in Jesus – as seen in Acts 2:38. In this way Jesus was modelling for us what we need to do personally, and what we need to bring people to.
Despite the differences of perspective of each of the writers of the Gospel accounts many common themes and actions of Jesus’ ministry emerge.
Each of these acts as both a personal point of contact between Jesus and our own lives, as well as that of our ministry here on Earth. In some way, Jesus will have acted in our lives in each of these areas of ministry – be it provision of physical/earthly needs, healing, spiritual deliverance, when we are saved he forgave the sins we repented of, and by believing in him and his death and resurrection – we will be raised up with Jesus at his return. So too in our earthly ministry, that we share the witness of the work of Jesus in our lives to others.
It is interesting to note that Jesus’ ministry continued all the way until he ascended back into heaven to be with his Father. From the time he was baptised to his ascension, Jesus worked at fulfilling his ministry that his Heavenly father has set about for him to accomplish. Again, Jesus holds himself up as a mirror for our own actions. Here we see Jesus setting an example for us in that we too should set about doing the ministry (be it great or small) that God has set before us, until we go to be with him.
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