The Life and Work of the Lord Jesus

The following notes are a brief summary of the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus’ ministry covered a period of about three and a half years and is summarised as follows.

To gain an overview of his life it is necessary to read the Gospel records of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the above summary Matthew has been used to set out the order of events that took place. The Gospel of John is more of a thematic study, concentrating on selected events rather than following his life in detail.

Some of the main features of Jesus’ life follow.

From Jesus’ Birth to his Baptism

We are told little about the period from the birth of Jesus through to his baptism at the age of 30. Luke mentions an incident that occurred when Jesus was 12. He had remained at Jerusalem after the family had gone there to celebrate the Passover Feast. When Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem and found him they asked why he had remained there. His reply was: “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). Luke summarises the period from his birth through to his baptism in these words: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Details of Jesus’ baptism are in the previous lesson.

The Temptation of Jesus

After his baptism Jesus was led by “the spirit” into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1). Note that it was not “Satan” that led him into the wilderness but “the spirit”.

The word satan means “adversary”. It can be used of people who oppose the way of God. Jesus used it in this way of the apostle Peter when he said to him: “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23).

The word can also be used of the very thoughts which oppose or are adverse to God’s way, and it is used this way by the apostle Peter when Ananias and Sapphira decided to steal money for themselves. Here we read that Peter said to Ananias, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit”; which he explains in the following verse, “Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?” (Acts 5:3–4).

So we see that the word satan is used either of a person or group of people which express ideas opposed to God’s way, or of the deceitful thoughts of our own hearts which can turn us away from His way.

From the way the temptation of Jesus is described in Matthew, Mark and Luke we can draw no conclusive evidence as to whether “the satan” was an external tempter or the internal temptation in Jesus’ mind. We can be categorical, however, about what it was not. The popular concept of a supernatural immortal ‘evil angel’ with power to thwart God’s will has no support anywhere in the Bible. What we have learned so far of the nature and character of the living God makes it inconceivable that such a creature could exist or be tolerated by God (see Isaiah 45:5,7).

If the “the satan” was an external tempter, the fact remains that Jesus had to grapple with the temptation in his own mind and resolve to answer it with the words of God. The apostle James says that “every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust [or, natural desire] and enticed” (James 1:14) and Jesus was a man. He partook of the same nature as ourselves in order to vanquish the power of sin (Hebrews 2:14). Having just been given the Holy Spirit without measure at his baptism, Jesus now had to grapple with the added temptation of misusing it. He now had power which might have been used to satisfy his hunger, or perform some kind of spectacular act such as is used today by those wishing to draw attention to themselves and their message, or gain control of the kingdoms of men there and then, rather than accepting the way of the cross. All these temptations were pressing him into selfish action, which had to be resisted.

As we have noted, Jesus had the same human nature as all mankind. Because of this he could identify with the weakness, the trials and feelings which are common to us all (Hebrews 2:14–18; 4:15; 5:8). However the positive lesson we learn from his temptation is that he overcame the suggestion to sin by turning to the word of God. He prefaced each answer with the words, “It is written” (Matthew 4:4,7,10). It was the word of God fixed in his heart which gave him the key to overcome every suggestion. So the apostle could say of Jesus that he was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). By constantly referring to the word of God, he upheld the very teaching of John the Baptist from Isaiah 40:6–8.

We learn this important lesson from the temptation of Jesus. His victory over temptation was achieved in his mind. The same is true for every one of us—the battle against temptation is fought and either won or lost in our mind. We must strive to bring “every thought” into obedience to the will of God (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Adapted from “The Exploring the Bible Course” by David Evans