Key Episode Scripture: Matthew 3-4 and Luke 3-4
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 ESVUK)
Jesus Christ. Forces against Him knew who He was and either questioned Him, made a noise about Him, or patently antagonised Him. These only appeared to reinforce His focus on His Father’s business. The preparation for the mission and its early incidents are worth our exploration. We started by considering the context and previously outlined the content.
The task of considering the concepts in this ministry section is vast. This will be a relatively brief appraisal of some of them that gives us a grounding for understanding what’s going on.
Spiritual Reality
God’s mission is about engaging with people – encouraging them to change their direction and do what is right. This mission, however, also acknowledges the real presence and influence of spiritual realities. The presence of the Holy Spirit will acknowledge the Son. That Spirit will lead and empower Jesus to serve. That Spirit will also lead Jesus to engage with another spiritual being in the adversary. When the devil leaves Him, Jesus is served by spiritual beings known as angels. Afterwards, He comes across other spiritual entities in unclean spirits who will engage with Jesus. There can be a tendency to downplay these spiritual realities. The accounts of Jesus at work don’t. Jesus was prepared for ministry through the beauty of spiritual affirmation, the challenge of spiritual opposition, and the presence of spiritual possessions and obstruction. Preparation for the mission and its effective accomplishment was based on engaging with spiritual realities, even as it did so by interacting with physical issues.
Affirmation of Connection
Mission preparation involves a lovely moment when the Father affirms the Son and acknowledges their connection. This is remarkable because the affirmation is given without much being done to deliver on the mission. It’s not an affirmation that is dependent on behaviour. It’s almost as though the affirmation was the propulsion for activity. Later, when Jesus calls the first disciples, there is something in what He’s doing to affirm those who have done nothing on the mission. He is the one inviting them to be apprentices, and He is the one connecting with them so they will become what He says they’ll become.
Identity and Purpose
Who are you? Why are you here? These issues would be a constant refrain in the ministry, so it was fitting that they would form the mission’s preparation and delivery in its initial stages. John the Baptist had a good idea of his identity and could point out the identity and purpose of the One people were looking for. The Spirit led the Son to be tempted by someone who challenged his identity, especially as it related to His connection to the Father. The genealogy that Luke outlines comes after the affirmation of the Father, and Luke’s tracking back goes back to the Father as well.
The reassurance of identity helped when it came to operating. People looked to keep Jesus in one location to do all His works, but Jesus knew what He was called to do and where. He announced His purpose because of the anointing, and even that announcement brought with it opposition and persecution. Assurance in identity and operating from it can aggravate others and benefit people.
Words and Action
It was one thing to declare the Kingdom of heaven being at hand. It was another to demonstrate that rule with people being healed. This made His teaching – His words – distinctive from what people at the time were accustomed to. The religious rulers of the day could do the pious act and be the authority in their understanding of words. Jesus came with an authority that saw words in action, authority that brought spirits to be rebuked and silenced, and authority that led to healing and deliverance.
Proclamation was very important to His mission – a presentation that reinforced that was just as important, and it made the difference in preparation for the mission and its expression in the early stages.
As I mentioned at the start, this is by no means a comprehensive outline of all the concepts underpinning this scripture section. There is rich material about how Jesus fulfils prophecy and the continuity of what had previously been done in Israel and Judah. There’s the significance of acts such as baptism. All these are worthwhile exploring elsewhere. For now, though, these four concepts help establish firm grounds for what is to come in our exploration.
Next, we will conclude what will be gained from exploring Jesus’ Mission Prep.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
Life With CD 
I love this post, Chris. You have captured the significance of sequence here. What is true for the Son is true for all of his people, Papa affirms us first and the affirmation is the starting pistol for action. As Paul Young puts it, ‘It’s not what you do that makes you significant, it’s who you are’. You are his child, I am his child. And we don’t love our children because of what they have achieved. The day I was born I’d achieved nothing, but Mum and Dad loved me because of who I was – their child!
👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 Yes, yes, yes, yes! 😃