Jesus’ purpose to his ministry

Many people imagine Jesus wandering around aimlessly for 3 years. We all know that he intended to end up in Jerusalem at the cross, but most people think of him using the time before that to just ‘go on tour’ and see who he encountered on the way. Our passage today says differently.

In Luke 4 Jesus begins his entire ministry by choosing a passage from Isaiah during a worship service and in his sermon effectively saying, ‘that’s about me- that’s what my ministry is going to be all about.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
       because he has anointed me
       to proclaim good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
       and recovery of sight for the blind,
       to set the oppressed free,

    ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Jesus had a plan and a purpose for his ministry. He set out on his journey to do these things. He still does.

In Mark 1:29-39, when the healing ministry threatened to smother all his other work, he set aside a time of prayer and then refocused his ministry on a balance between healing, and making disciples. If Jesus had need of a time of reflection to ask if he was doing the ministry that God wanted then how much more you and I?

Our busy lives often undermine our purpose to be a servant of Jesus Christ and make our lives degenerate into a series of random events that fill up our days- and we each only have a limited number of them!

Set aside time to ask whether your life and ministry is going the direction that Jesus wants it to be.

And if you are a leader in any ministry at LFC then come along to the leaders retreat 26- 27 Feb. And we’ll do the same thing in regard to the life of our church. For God always has a purpose in mind for us; that’s God’s nature.

Graeme H.