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The Holy Spirit Devotional # 5 – The Holy Spirit Played an Important Role in the Life of Christ

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Luke 1:35 – The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

The Spirit plays a vital role in the infancy and childhood of Jesus.

Luke 1:26–28 show that the Spirit’s important work in the conception of the Savior in the world.

Luke 1:26-28 – In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Verse 35 says that the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary and overshadow her.

Luke 1:35 – The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit is present and ministering to Jesus during His earthly ministry from the womb of Mary, throughout His life, to the cross and grave, to His resurrection and His ascension.

Out of the virgin, the Holy Spirit brings life to the One who will lead His people out of bondage.

The Spirit ministers to Jesus in His childhood

Luke 2:41-52 says that the Spirit ministers to Jesus during His childhood. Jesus’s parents did not know His whereabouts and frantically search for Him in Jerusalem. On finding him, Jesus responds to Mary’s questioning by saying, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Jesus was filled with the Spirit. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature because He was walking step-by-step in fellowship with the Spirit, who was giving Him understanding.

The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus in His baptism and temptations

The Spirit was with Jesus at His baptism

At Jesus’s baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The appearance of the dove harkens back to the account of Noah in Genesis 8:6-19. As Noah and the flood displayed God’s wrath for humanity’s sin, and the dove with an olive branch symbolized new life. As one pastor says, “Jesus’s baptism points to the fact He will receive the flood of God’s judgment for our sin in His final baptism on the cross. And thus, genuinely provide all who believe in Him new life.”

The temptation of Jesus

The Holy Spirit “drives” Jesus into the wilderness so that the Devil might tempt Him (Matthew 4:1-11). The temptation of Jesus parallels the temptation of Adam (Genesis 3:1-13).

While Adam endured temptation in comfort, fullness, and peace, Jesus endured temptation in harshness, want, and hostility.

Where Adam failed, Jesus did not!

The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. In that wilderness experience, Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome the temptations of the Devil. As a result, He took on the role of the second Adam.

The role of the Holy Spirit at the cross

Hebrews 9:14 – How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

This passage says that as Jesus offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice on the cross, the Holy Spirit sustained him. The Holy Spirit enabled Jesus on the cross to bear the sins of the world.

The Holy Spirit and Jesus’s resurrection and ascension

Also, the Holy Spirit vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead (Romans 1:4). The Holy Spirit also played an essential role in the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9).

The same Holy Spirit lives in the Christian today

The same Spirit who played a vital role in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ resides in God’s people today. The resurrection power of God lives in you!

Let that sink into your thoughts!

POINTS TO PONDER: The Holy Spirit played an important role in Jesus’s earthly ministry. The same Holy Spirit lives in the believer.

Prayer

Father, I praise you for the work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to secure my salvation. But this study has reminded me that your Holy Spirit played an essential role in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you for his work as the agent of the virgin birth. Please remind me that through Christ’s life, He was anointed by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and rejoiced in the Spirit. Thank you that He sustained the Lord Jesus Christ to die the death that set me free. Thank you that the Holy Spirit helps to vindicate the Lord Jesus Christ by raising Him from the dead. What precious truths these are! In Jesus’s name. Amen.

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