Part One – The First Advent of Jesus, The Messiah
When Jesus returned from the wilderness and being tempted by Satan, the Scriptures say that He came to His hometown Nazareth, in the power of the Holy Spirit. He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath as was His custom and He stood up to read. The scroll of Isaiah was given to Him and He found what we know as Isaiah 61 and read the following:
Luke 4:18-19
[18] “The SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, [19] To PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
and then He said this:
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4: 21
This caused quite a stir in His hometown synagogue. Why?
The Hometown Guy, which is what His old neighbors considered Him to be, had just informed the congregation that He was the Anointed One or Messiah that Israel had been looking for for hundreds of years. At that time Israel was looking for the Messiah to deliver them from Roman oppression.
They could not receive this awesome revelation and ended up trying to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff.
Jesus had declared that He was the Messiah. The title Messiah refers to one who is anointed with oil, symbolizing the reception of the Holy Spirit, enabling them to do an assigned task (Vines). It refers to the consecration of someone or something to a specialized task (Moody).
The Hebrew word for Messiah is masiah and in the Greek it is christos. In the English language it is christ. In English speaking cultures Jesus is known as Jesus Christ which means Jesus The Messiah or Jesus The Anointed One. The word “Christ”, emphasizes the special anointing of Jesus of Nazareth for His role as God’s Chosen One (Vines).
Jesus fulfilled the two qualifications to be the Messiah: 1) the anointing of the Holy Spirit and 2) He was able to fulfill the specialized task.
Please note that after defeating Satan’s in the wilderness, it is said that:
“And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit…”
He was “anointed with oil” so to speak; the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, note that in verse 18 above that Jesus said “…because He [God The Father] anointed me to…” and then He read the specialized task that He was “anointed” to do:
- …to preach the gospel to the poor
- …proclaim release to the captives
- …recovery of sight to the blind
- …to set free those who are oppressed
- …to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
There is a spiritual and physical component to these task. He preached the good news of God’s mercy to those who realized they were spiritually bankrupt (poor) regardless of their financial status. He physically healed the eyes of the blind but He also opened the eyes of the heart (the understanding) of the spiritually blind. He set free people who were held captive and oppressed by sickness and disease. He also set free those who were enslaved and oppressed by the demons, held captive to do Satan’s will.
So we see He had the qualifications of the Messiah: He was anointed because of the Holy Spirit and there were specialized tasks that only He could perform. All through the New Testament we see Him fulfilling these tasks thereby proving that He is the Messiah.
He was the Servant Messiah who died for our sins and was raised from the dead and is seated at God’s right hand as I write this. The favorable year of the Lord has brought eternal salvation from the guilt and penalty of sin. By God’s grace we can be saved from our sins through simple faith in what Christ did on the Cross. During this “year” God remembered us Gentiles and made a Way for us to be reconciled to Him through the Cross of Christ. The Gentiles were welcomed into the kingdom of God.
These are the days we are living in. Next time we will look at the yet-to-come second advent of the Lord Jesus. Hope you will join us for it. You will find it very interesting.
Thank you for your time. I pray you were blessed by the Word of God.
Carl
Psalm 119: 38 