The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

Life and Ministry of the Christ in Isaiah

Isaiah 61

1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind;  
2 to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompence; to comfort all that mourn;  
3 that there should be given to them that mourn in Sion glory instead of ashes, the oil of joy to the mourners, the garment of glory for the spirit of heaviness: and they shall be called generations of righteousness, the planting of the Lord for glory. *

Messiah and Christ both mean anointed. Priests, prophets, and kings were all anointed with oil, as a sign of their being set apart for their particular work. The Coming One will also be anointed, but not with oil, he will be anointed with the Holy Spirit. He is the Christ, the one anointed by God.

Now, the New Testament declares Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, that he is the one anointed with the Holy Spirit. Was he really anointed with the Spirit?

Luke 3:2 the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.  3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ... 21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Yes! All four gospels record this. After his baptism, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. Then we read:

Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,  
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.  
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Isaiah said Christ would be anointed with the Holy Spirit. All four gospels tell us that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And now Jesus himself says the prophecy of Isaiah 61 is fulfilled in him. He is saying as clearly as he can, he is the Christ.

Now, let’s briefly consider what he is anointed to do:
preach the gospel to the poor
heal the brokenhearted
to preach deliverance to the captives
recovering of sight to the blind
set at liberty them that are bruised
preach the acceptable year of the Lord

And when we read the gospels, this is what we see him doing. Yes, Jesus is the Christ! But it just keeps getting better – he not only did this when he was on the earth, he continues to do this for us today!

This is good news indeed!

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

* LXX or Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. I’m using the LXX for this because Luke 4:18-19 is a word for word quotation from the LXX. You may have noticed slight differences in the quotes above and wondered, "How can he say they agree word for word?" They are the same in Greek, the differences in English are simply a matter of translation and different translators.