A
Letter from our Chairman
Dear
Friends,
This
Lent, as usual, I began to read again the account of the beginning of Jesus’
Ministry, this time from Luke’s gospel.
It has come home to me what an amazing new life Jesus began after the
pronouncement of John, and his baptism.
So I have been reading about it in Luke chapters 3 - 6.
We can only speculate about the pain and the cost to Jesus in turning his
back - so it seemed - on all the old life and suddenly appearing almost like a
new person. His family
resented the loss of their brother, “the carpenter of Nazareth, Joseph’s
son”. What had come over him?
The initial surprise, at his gracious words and authority, in the home
synagogue at Nazaraeth, is soon replaced by the desire to kill him, though they
have known him all their lives.
At
once he adopts a new lifestyle with a new base at Capernaum, and he has
evidently already chosen the fishermen disciples who are drawn to him, though
they don’t know it yet. In the next 3½
years, the story will be physically an exhausting one, from 40 days in the
wilderness to constant journeys, and thousands of people demanding help, and
little sleep, and constant hunger.
With these challenges came the constant opposition of those with
religious spirits and the sense that his friends just could not understand.
As
we read these early summaries of Jesus beginning his great work for us, Luke
really wants us to meet with two themes, and I will describe them by various
quoted verses:
“The
Holy Spirit descended upon him”
(3:22)
“Full
of the Holy Spirit” and was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness”
(4:1)
“filled
with the power of the Spirit”
(4:14)
“The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me”
(4:18)
“Today
this has been fulfilled”
(4:21)
“with
authority and power He commands”
(4:36)
“The
power of the Lord was with him to heal”
(5:17)
Every
thing in his life and ministry depends upon
the anointing and filling of “the man for us” by God’s Holy Spirit.
Then
Luke tells us:
“at
daybreak,” (after
a whole night of praying for people and healing them) ”he departed and went
into a deserted place”
(4:42)
“He
would withdraw to deserted
places and pray”
(5:16)
“He
went out to the mountain to pray and spent the night in prayer”
(6:12)
If
the flow of God’s anointing is to be constant, then Jesus needs to get into a
quiet place with his Father.
We
see the truth that the words do not carry power unless they are lit up and
filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is primary and bring everything to life.
As
it was for our Lord Jesus, so it must be for us.
As Christians we struggle to get our life in
line with His. It
takes grace and Him first, but then discipline and effort from us.
We are determined to seek first the Holy Spirit so everything else is
touched by Him and set free and lit up and empowered and
led.
Phil