Matt.3:16,17 – When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
You wonder how old Jesus of Nazareth was when He began to realize who He was? Luke said that Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature when he was describing an incident from the Lord’s childhood. As Jesus grew in this knowledge of Who He was I imagine He became more enthralled with searching the scripture. In the scripture, He saw His eternal nature, His supernatural birth described by the prophets, His miracle ministry, His death, His heavenly priesthood, and His eternal reign over the universe as King of kings. These scriptures empowered Him and brought direction into His life. In today’s verse, Jesus heard the voice of the Father from heaven declaring His Sonship, this moment would mark the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. As He heard the Father speak He was immediately immersed into the Holy Spirit, the prophetic words were being fulfilled.
After this Jesus began His public ministry ministering the word of God in the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth. In this message Jesus quoted the word of prophesy from Isaiah which described His ministry.
Luke 4:17-19 – And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
This word of prophesy gave direction to the Lord, He would preach the gospel to the poor, bring healing to those whose hearts were broken, He would bring liberty to those bound by sin, He would heal the sick, and break the chains of demonic bondage from those tormented by the enemy. This word also proclaimed He would preach the acceptable year of the Lord, which was an allusion to the Year of Jubilee. The age of God’s favor was being announced through the ministry of Jesus. Jesus lived His life fulfilling these prophecies, this lesson has much in it for us today.