Acts 10:38 tells us that God equipped Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and that Jesus spent his ministry doing good and freeing people who were suffering under the devil’s influence. The verse is part of a sermon Peter preached in the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, in the town of Caesarea. Peter was speaking to a non-Jewish household that had never heard the story of Jesus, so he gave them a short summary of who Jesus was and what he had done.
Even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Acts 10:38 (WEB)
What Acts 10:38 Means
The phrase “God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power” describes a commissioning. In the Old Testament, anointing set apart prophets, priests and kings for a particular task, and Peter is saying that Jesus was set apart in the same way, and that God’s Spirit was the source of the strength he needed. The verse presents Jesus’s ministry as an act of God working through a man, not as something Jesus did on his own initiative.
The description “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” sums up the pattern of the Gospel accounts. Jesus moved from village to village, taught, fed, cleansed and restored people, and confronted the spiritual forces that Peter’s hearers would have understood as the source of suffering. Peter’s point is that the good Jesus did was not vague goodwill but concrete deliverance for real people.
The final clause, “for God was with him,” explains why this ministry succeeded. The verse does not promise that every believer will receive the same power or be used in the same visible way. It makes a claim about Jesus, that his work carried the full presence and approval of God, and it invites the reader to see that work as the pattern of God’s character.
The Context of Acts 10:38
Acts was written by Luke, traditionally identified as the same author who wrote the third Gospel, and it records the spread of the early church from Jerusalem outward. Chapter 10 marks a turning point, because it is the account of the first Gentile household to receive the Holy Spirit and be baptized into the faith, which Peter had to explain to the believers in Jerusalem afterward.
Just before verse 38, Peter declares that God shows no partiality and that anyone who fears God and does what is right is accepted by him, and he describes Jesus as Lord of all. Verse 38 therefore grounds that wider welcome in the life of Jesus himself. The verses that follow confirm that Peter and his companions were eyewitnesses to these events, so the anointing and healing are presented as historical facts that open the good news to everyone, not only to Israel.
Key Phrases in Acts 10:38
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed…
(WEB)
Jesus reads from Isaiah in the synagogue and describes his mission as bringing good news to the poor, freedom to the captives and sight to the blind. It echoes the anointing language of Acts 10:38 and shows that the Spirit’s work in Jesus was understood as liberation from every kind of bondage.
Isaiah 61:1
The Lord the LORD’s Spirit is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound…
(WEB)
This Old Testament verse speaks of a figure anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to bring good news to the afflicted. Peter’s words in Acts 10:38 draw on this same vision, identifying Jesus as the one in whom the promise of an anointed deliverer is fulfilled.
A Short Prayer From Acts 10:38
Lord, you anointed Jesus with your Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good and setting people free from what oppressed them. Thank you that you were with him in every act of kindness and every healing. Help me to notice the people around me who are hurting, and give me the courage to act with the same kind of goodness. Where I feel weighed down or trapped, remind me that you are opposed to every form of oppression and that you are working for my freedom. Fill me with your Spirit so that my life, however small, reflects your care for others. Amen.
