HOW JESUS BEGAN HIS MINISTRY
From the age of 12 to the age of 30, the Word of God is
silent about the life of Jesus. All we know is that He would have been an
exception son to Mary and Joseph as he grew up into manhood. Since Joseph was
carpenter, we can assume that Jesus spent much of his time helping his father
in this trade as lived in
The Scriptures teach us that around the age of 30 Jesus
began His public ministry by going to the
Matthew 3:13 Then
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the
This great example of
obedience because Jesus had no sin, but He wanted to fulfill all righteousness
by submitting to the Father’s will. His obedience serves as example to all that
would follow after Him. Our goal should always be to do the Father’s will.
As we read, Jesus
obedient act was well received the Father spoke out from heaven and gave His
divine approval of what His Son did for all to hear. His baptism marked the
beginning of His public ministry.
Jesus did many things in
His short ministry. Here is a brief outline of some of the major things He did
in the beginning of His ministry:
Again, these are some of
the major events in the first months of Jesus public ministry. Since we do no
have time to look at each of these in detail, I just want to take a look at
some these events so we can see how much Jesus was interested in the lives of
all kinds of people with different backgrounds.
Our first example comes
from those He chose to be his apostles:
Matthew 4:18 And
Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them,
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 They immediately left their nets
and followed Him. 21 Going on
from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and
John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He
called them, 22 and
immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man
named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow
Me." So he arose and followed Him.
Jesus did not show
partiality. He did not care what these men backgrounds were or what their
social status was. He was simply looking for those who were willing to hear His
teaching and follow after Him.
This is still true today.
No matter who you are or what you have done in the past, Jesus wants you to
know that there is room for in His kingdom if you are willing to listen to His
Word and follow after Him. The Pharisees had different attitude about those
they considered worthy because notice what they said about the people Jesus was
reaching out to and Jesus response:
Matthew 9:10 Now it
happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax
collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax
collectors and sinners?" 12
When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire
mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners, to repentance."
Unfortunately, some
Christians have the same attitude as these Pharisees, but thankfully Jesus does
show partiality and He is interested in everyone that is willing to listen. So,
while man may show partiality at time, Jesus never will and we should be
thankful for that and emulate His example because every person has beautiful
soul that is worth saving from the pits of hell.
Our second example that
shows Jesus interest in our lives was His presence at the marriage feast in
John 2:1 On the
third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there. 2 Now both Jesus and
His disciples were invited to the wedding.
3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to
Him, "They have no wine." 4
Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My
hour has not yet come." 5
His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 6 Now there were set there six
waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews,
containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.
7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with
water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some
out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took
it. 9 When the master
of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it
came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the
feast called the bridegroom. 10
And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine,
and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept
the good wine until now!" 11
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of
While this event marks
the first miracle that Jesus did, it also shows how Jesus participated in such
social events. Though Jesus never married, He knew that most people did and He
approved of the blessed of union of man and wife. While their marriage is much
more than this social event, Jesus showed His concern, by turning the water
into wine so that the newly married couple would not be embarrassed.
While Jesus would never
get to experience marriage, He understood that a marriage that is built on the
foundation of God’s Word is relationship that can provide great joy and source
of comfort and strength. When two people become one, they will help each other
through the struggles of life and help each other remain faithful to God.
Of course another great
benefit of marriage is children. Jesus knew that two people joined that love
God would also raise their children in the way of God, so that the cycle will
continue throughout the generations. So, Jesus honors and respects marriage
between a man and woman without partiality.
Our third example comes
from Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan women at the well. Only John records
this event for us:
John 4:5 So He
came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey,
sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 ¶ A woman of
There are many great
lessons that can be taught with Jesus’ encounter with this woman, but the main
point I want to make is that Jesus broke the social rules of the day to teach
this woman and the people that were like here a spiritual lesson. As I have
pointed out several times in the past, the Jews had nothing to do with
Samaritans. Many of them would not even walk through their city, they would
walk around because of the rabbis of that day said it would make them unclean.
It was also a social no no for a Jewish man to talk to a women in public.
Jesus was not worried
about social customs and he was not concerned with prejudice of the day. He saw
this woman as opportunity to teach a valuable lesson about the future of how we
will worship God and how the He is the Messiah.
In this example, Jesus
shows us that we should take advantage of the opportunities that we have to
teach others about God. It does not matter what their race is or what the
social custom is every person deserves to hear about God and to be invited to
learn more about Him. Let us do our best to set aside our preconceived ideas
and prejudices about others and show the same love and concern for them as
Jesus did for the Samaritan women.
If you read the rest of
John 4, you will see that many others came and believed in Jesus because of His
willingness to love all no matter who they are. The same could happen for us
because we never know the potential of a person and what they accomplish for
the Lord. So, let us do our best to follow Jesus example.
Our final example comes
from when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus
John 3:1 There
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night
and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for
no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered and said to him,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
Jesus did not care what
time of day someone came to Him or who it was. He was always ready to teach
them what they needed to know. Now I could give Nicodemus the benefit of the
doubt and say that he came by night because that was only time he could come to
Jesus, but most likely he came at night so that he would not be seen by his
fellow Jews. Though this man was part of the leadership that was trying to
destroy Jesus, Jesus taught him anyway because He loves us all and wants all of
us to understand what He has to offer us.
In our text, he was
letting Nicodemus know that the Jews were not going to be automatically
transferred into the
This was unheard of by
the Jews because they thought since they were Abraham’s seed, that nothing else
would be required of them. As Jesus said, to enter the
Once again, Jesus example
shows that even the enemies of the cross deserve hear the Good News about Jesus
and what He brings to us at all. While it is easy to hate your enemies and hope
that they will burn up in hell, we should not have that attitude. Instead as
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:44
"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good
to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you, 45 "that you may be
sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 "For if you love those who
love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the
same? 47 "And if you
greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even
the tax collectors do so?
From the beginning of
Jesus’ ministry until the end of His ministry, He took advantage of every
situation no matter where He was, who He was talking to, or what time of day it
was, He treated everyone the same without partiality and we should do the same.
In fact, part of Jesus’ instruction to His disciples was to proclaim the Gospel
to everyone:
Mark 16:15 And He
said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. 16 "He who
believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be
condemned.
Just shortly before Jesus
ascended into heaven, He told His disciples:
Acts 1:8
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in
Starting from the day of
Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was poured out and His disciples began to
proclaim this life saving message of Jesus to all that would hear. It started
in
Sometimes Jesus’ disciples failed to treat others without partiality, but in
the end, God’s Word was proclaimed to all, and salvation is available to
everyone. Since Jesus is so interested in all of us and wants all of us to be
saved, it should cause us to gain deeper appreciation for the love that Jesus
has for us all. We should be encouraged to follow His example especial when we
know that is what God wants us to do:
1 Timothy 2:3 For
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but
is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance.
I hope that everyone of
us will take the examples of Jesus’ early ministry emulate them so that we can
give all the opportunity to know God and obey His will.
Adapted from Ted Cline