Yesterday in our local church we celebrated Pentecost Sunday – the day the church was birthed. Today the worldwide church goes on thriving with people joining in their millions each year. Why? Because of just eight words:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me
Luke 4:18
You see the church is not dependent on human effort but on the Holy Spirit. So if you’ve ever assumed that God’s work in the world is accomplished primarily by ministers, you need to look carefully at Jesus’ words to His hometown crowd of Nazareth. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me”
This of course was familiar to the audience who Jesus was addressing to, as it is a quote from a word given by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus uttered them. We call it a prophecy as Jesus was applying these words about Himself. Jesus said
Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing
Luke 4:21
The promise fulfilled was that the Messiah had come and would do all of the things that Isaiah said would be done. Was that it? No! We are told the text went on to make more promises about what would happen after the Messiah’s initial work:
You shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God
Isaiah 61:6
This would be a profound change in that no longer would God’s work be done by the priests, rabbis, or ministers, but by all of God’s people. Wow! That includes all followers of Jesus.
In other words, you have that same promise as Jesus had. The Spirit of the Lord like Christ claimed had fallen upon Him would also fall upon followers of Jesus to accomplish God’s work.
- Do you find that exciting that God has empowered you with His Spirit?
- Are you carrying out His assignments for you?
- Do you count it a privilege or a burden?
Remember Jesus, during His earthly life and ministry, recognised His dependence upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We must too if we want to see the expansion of the church increase even more.
So intimate was the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit that in the New Testament Jesus is viewed as endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
So I leave you today hopefully encouraged that the church is in great hands not because of us but because of the Holy Spirit. I also leave you with encouragement that those eight words apply to you too.
Stay safe and blessed.