Proclaimer Blog
Jesus’ manifesto and our plumb line
We're away at the Younger Ministers Conference with a really good group of guys, eager to grow and learn and keep going in gospel ministry. This evening we've kicked off with William Taylor outlining Jesus' manifesto in Luke's gospel. It's good stuff. We started off in chapter 4:
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, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."
William is explaining how this is Jesus' manifesto and in the chapters that follow that we see this manifesto being worked out in Jesus' ministry. Jesus' actions, especially his desire to preach and proclaim is always in line with his manifesto and we could do a lot worse than preaching through these early chapters of Luke to make sure they are our manifesto too – or, to put it another way, this chapters can be our plumb line for ministry.
If you're interested, we've tackled this section in three parts:
- the priority of Jesus' word – he came on earth to be a preacher and teacher and this must be our priority too. Luke 4.43, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose."
- the power of Jesus' word – Luke 5.4-8, "at your word I will let down the nets" – Jesus is the one who can command the fish to come (and heal and cast out and cleanse and call etc)
- the purpose of Jesus' word – to summon poor sinners into Jesus' service. Even Peter responds to a theophany the same way most people do in the Old Testament: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man O Lord." But Jesus speaks a gospel word to him: "Do not be afraid."
So, here is our plumb line. How does your ministry measure up?