THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 4:14-21
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18)
The Spirit of God represents everything about God: His heart, mind, power, purpose.
Jesus is energized by the Spirit of God, He is on fire for God and for God’s purpose.
This is what God created us to be (in His image and likeness).
And this is what God promised through Isaiah would happen again, with the Messiah.
Messiah literally means ‘anointed one’ in Hebrews (‘Christ’ in Greek).
The one filled with, energized by, the Spirit of God, to do what God would do.
And what does God do… His focus is on the poor, the weak, the suffering, the oppressed.
Human history is a litany of misery and injustice, and we are the cause of it.
God’s anointed humans failed in their mission, so God raises up a new missionary.
In Jesus the world finally sees someone living in the image and likeness of God.
He initiates God’s restored kingdom, the beginning of the time of God’s favour!
Wherever you see poor or needy or oppressed people helped, you are seeing God’s Spirit at work.
We are now anointed by the same Spirit, and are urged to join in the kingdom work.
THIS is what it means to be anointed (‘christian’, literally ‘little christs’).
At the end of time, people will be separated based on what spirit they lived by.
Is the Spirit of the Lord on you?
Are you energized by God’s Spirit, on fire for God’s purpose?
Are you good news to the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the abused?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, fill me with THIS Spirit, the heart and mind and power and purpose of God. May my life also fulfill the words of Isaiah, through Your Spirit on fire in me, Your love showing through me.