Jesus Anointed By The Father for Good Works

Luke 4:18 (ESV) … “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed …”

The Lord Jesus, as a man, a preacher anointed for the work by his Father and prepared for the work by the special gift of his Spirit. Preaching, true preaching requires these three things: (1.) the Spirit of God, (2.) the anointing of God and (3.) the message of God.

But our Master was more than a preacher. He is our Savior. We preach what he did. He preached what he himself performed! He preached the gospel, glad tidings and good news, not good advice. Modern preaching is nothing, but advice given to sinners, telling dead sinners what they must do. The gospel of Christ is the proclamation of good news, telling poor sinners what Christ has done.

Our Savior preached the gospel to the poor. Without question, he preached to multitudes who were materially poor; but the word here translated “poor” refers to “the meek”, those poor sinners who are broken before God, meek, knowing that they have nothing to offer the holy Lord God, and have no ability to produce anything he might accept from them. They are poor, meek, humbled and broken by the weight of sin and guilt before God’s glorious holiness.

The Lord Jesus Christ heals, binds up, the brokenhearted. He makes blind eyes to see and gives comfort and liberty to bruised souls. The Son of God opens prison doors and sets the captive free. All this grace he pours out to sinners upon the basis of justice satisfied by blood atonement, proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, the day God’s righteous vengeance and justice was satisfied at Calvary.[1]

[1] Fortner, D. S. (2012). Discovering Christ in the Gospel of Luke (Vol. 1, p. 158). Durham, England: Go Publications.