Sharing in the Anointing

well I pointed out last week that the
same anointing of the Holy Spirit that
empowered David to fulfill the purposes
of God in his generation in Christ has
also made available to you and me so
that in turn we can fulfill the purposes
of God in our generation and if I want
to ask you this morning what is it that
God is about in this world what would
you say well you'd probably say he does
all kinds of things but underneath all
kinds of things there is an over arching
purpose of God as I trust you now and
that is to reconcile a fallen world back
to himself we read in Scripture second
Corinthians 5 19 God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself no
longer counting people's sins against
them and he gave us this wonderful
message of reconciliation as you know
God created Adam and Eve in relationship
with himself they rebelled against him
this is the world that we have inherited
it labors under sin and brokenness God's
whole agenda in Scripture is to restore
us to himself to bring us back to
fellowship with him and in order to do
that he uses people and so in the Old
Testament as we have been seeing he
raised up David and power David with the
Holy Spirit to serve God in his
generation and today through the holy
spirit by faith in Jesus he empowers you
and me to be about the business of the
kingdom God is seeking to bring people
to himself unite them in relationship
with him unite them in relationship with
each other so that
will will be done on earth as it is in
heaven and what I want to do with you
this morning in the time that is
available to us is try to trace that
process a little bit of how that
anointing that was on King David through
faith in Jesus Christ also comes upon
you in me so that with confidence and
with surety we can know that God is not
only with us but we can step out into
everyday situations of life and we know
that God is there and he will help us to
serve Him as we'll see later as prophets
and his priests and his Kings so let's
go back for a moment to the history of
David if you're familiar with his
history you might recall that after all
the battles that he waged once he was
established in his kingdom God comes to
David through nathan the prophet and God
enters into a very particular covenant
with David and under the terms of that
covenant God promises him two things the
first thing that he promises and we can
have that slight up please the first
thing that he promises is that his
offspring will succeed him as king the
second thing that God promises is that
his throne and his kingdom would last
forever here is how the Prophet Nathan
speaking for the Lord summarizes it for
him in second samuel 716 God says
through Nathan your house and your
kingdom shall endure forever before me
your throne shall be established forever
that is a huge huge promise now we know
from the New Testament that this promise
is fulfilled of course in the person of
Jesus Christ because think ahead to the
Christmas story the angel Gabriel comes
to the Virgin Mary in what is known
theologically
the annunciation you're going to have a
child what does he say to Mary well here
are the words you will be with child and
give birth to a son and you are to give
him the name Jesus he will be great and
will be called the son of the Most High
the Lord God will give him the throne of
his father David and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever and his
kingdom will never end Jesus is heir to
the promise that was made to D vet and
one of the reasons Matthew and Luke in
their Gospel accounts spend so much time
delineating the genealogy of Jesus his
family history is to demonstrate that
Jesus is indeed of the house of David
and therefore is worthy to receive his
throne and his kingdom the promise made
to David let me say it again was
fulfilled in Jesus now think is through
with me how much time do you think
passed between the promise made to David
over here and the fulfillment made to
Jesus over here anybody want to wager a
guess a thousand years give or take a
little bit now what happened during
those thousand years well you know
diagrammatically we can put it picture
it this way again during those thousand
years Israel came to the height of its
glory first under the reign of David and
then his son Solomon the Queen of Sheba
comes from far away because it is just
such an exciting thing to know that God
is at work in Israel but then in the
reign of Rio bölüm solemn
son you will recall the kingdom gets
split in two and the Northern Kingdom
has Kings that are almost all bad and so
in 720 bc they get carted off into exile
to assyria most of them have never come
back to this day then many years later
in 586 BC and years beyond that
Nebuchadnezzar takes Judah and they get
taken into captivity and now for 70
years the land lies fallow follow fellow
and and Baron just as an aside by the
way just this year there has been put up
in the nation of Israel a biblical
display displaying an extremely rare
find of clay tablets that are business
transactions of jewish communities in
babylon during the exile there's a
hundred of them they are incredibly
detailed they show what life was like in
captivity wasn't all that bad for some
of them they really prospered well and
this archaeological find is said to be
the most significant archaeological find
in the Middle East since the discovery
of the Dead Sea Scrolls that's just a
little historical aside for you here so
this is what happens eventually to come
back to the promised land as you know
put that back up they build they rebuild
the temple that's not part of this
picture here but then we have we have
these hundreds of years of silence and
then of course all of a sudden the
silence is broken by the angel coming to
Zechariah who becomes the father of John
the Baptist and the angel coming to
marry that Jesus is going to be born
that is a thousand-year spread but now
remember this remember this that problem
the david received here was originally
made to Abraham and that's an other
thousand years earlier so now you're
looking at a two thousand year history
where God has made promises and people
are just standing by wondering is God
going to do anything about what he is
promised and you thought your faith was
giving you trouble when your prayers
didn't get answered after three weeks
imagine waiting a thousand years imagine
waiting two thousand years it explains
the words of Zechariah the father of
John the Baptist when his mouth is open
and John the Baptist is born here's what
he says praise we need to get these
words of people praise be to the Lord
the God of Israel because he has come
and has redeemed his people he has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in
the house of his servant David as he
said through his holy prophets of long
ago salvation from our enemies and from
the hand of all who hate us to show
mercy to our fathers and to remember
here you get the word his holy Covenant
the oath he swore to our father Abraham
there you've got Abraham to rescue us
from the hands of our enemies and to
enable us to serve him without fear in
holiness and righteousness before him
all our days and those last two verses
really capture the heart and the essence
of Jesus's ministry why does Jesus come
into the world well to rescue us from
the hand of our enemies and to enable us
to serve Him in holiness and
righteousness before him all our days
Jesus is born to complete the promises
that God made throughout the course of
history
that he plans to redeem his people now
here's a big question how does Jesus go
about doing that or a better question is
what enables Jesus to rescue us from all
our enemies and to make us righteous and
holy before the face of God so that we
can truly serve Him and the answer is
the anointing of the Holy Spirit because
what happens when Jesus is ready to
begin his public ministry in the Gospel
story well he goes to John the Baptist
who has been raised up as a forerunner
to prepare the people for the coming of
Jesus he's baptizing everybody Jesus
goes to him for baptism and as Jesus
gets baptized here is how the Gospel
story writes it mark 1 10 and 11 as
Jesus was coming up out of the water he
saw heaven being torn open that phrase
struck me for some reason that's marks
kind of language Marcus is always very
violent it's like stuff is really
happening here people like heaven is
torn open and the spirit descending on
him like a dove and a voice came from
heaven you are my son whom I love with
you I am well pleased now here's Jesus
he is born of the Virgin Mary conceived
by the Holy Spirit he does not share our
sin but shares our humanity without sin
and yet to engage in his ministry
understand this with me please in order
to do the work that God has called him
to he gets baptized with the Holy Spirit
got that he's baptized by the Holy
Spirit
who's going to give him the ability to
do the work of redemption now what does
anointing mean in Scripture we talked
about it last week means two things
you're set apart publicly for service
and number two you are empowered by the
Holy Spirit so when this dove which
represents the Holy Spirit comes on
Jesus this is God's public declaration
this is my son I'm well pleased with him
the implication is you better listen to
him because he represents me fully not
only that but I am anointing him with
the spirit of power so that he can be
about the business of the kingdom and
it's really fascinating to me that
hundreds and hundreds of years earlier
the prophet Isaiah looking forward by
this spirit saw this day coming when he
says in Isaiah chapter 11 a shoot will
come from the stump of Jesse from his
roots a branch will bear fruit Jesse of
course was David's father and the
picture here is that if a tree that has
been cut down because that's what
happened to David and his descendants
there wasn't a king in Israel for all
those hundreds and hundreds of years it
was like God's promises to disappeared
in fact read Psalm 89 and you will see
the struggle of the psalmist trying to
rationalize and explain away that on the
one hand God has made all these promises
that somebody from David's house would
sit on his throne forever and yet you've
abandoned us our armies are gone were
defeated we're lost in captivity Isaiah
says a shoot a shoot will come from the
stump of Jesse from his roots of wrench
will bear fruit and then this the Spirit
of the Lord will rest upon him the
spirit of wisdom and of understanding
the spear
of counsel and of power the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the lord
and he will delight in the fear of the
lord what enabled jesus to know the mind
of God to know the strategies that he
needed to follow to accomplish the
purposes of God what imparted the faith
and the encouragement and the
perseverance that Jesus needed to run
the race so that he could win the
salvation of the whole world it was the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit he was
anointed by the Spirit of God that's why
biblically he is called the Christ when
we say the name Jesus Christ it's not
like Christ is his last name rather it
is his title Jesus The Anointed One the
Messiah and i love the way one of our
confessional standards as a denomination
the Heidelberg catechism puts it when it
asks this question why is he called
Christ meaning anointed now listen
carefully to the answer because you will
see the threefold offices of prophet
priest and King are fulfilled in this
answer why is he called Christ meaning
anointed because he has been ordained by
God set aside are set apart and has been
anointed with the Holy Spirit to be
first of all what our chief prophet and
teacher who fully reveals to us the
secret counsel and will of God
concerning our deliverance remember in
the Old Testament God sent prophets to
declare his will to his people all the
prophetic anointing of history rests on
the shoulders of Jesus who comes to
declare the
word of God concerning our deliverance
but then it goes on our only high priest
who has delivered us by the one
sacrifice of his body and who
continually pleads or cause with the
father remember the priesthood in the
Old Testament they taught the people the
way of God not only but they stood
between a holy God and the sinful people
they made sacrifices so that a holy God
and the sinful people could hang out
together Jesus makes the ultimate
sacrifice of himself so that God in us
can be reconciled that is the second
element of his anointing and then as our
eternal king who governs us by his word
in spirit and who guards us and keeps us
in the freedom he has one for us so
Jesus fulfills this role of David
remember in the old testament was
prophet priest and King David was the
king others were priests others were
prophets they're all rolled into the
Messiah Jesus is all three he declares
the Word of God he offers the ultimate
sacrifice of himself and he comes to be
the boss he delivers us from our enemies
he makes safety and security for us and
he tells us how to live in ways that
honor God and that establish peace Jesus
is anointed by the Holy Spirit into this
three-fold office on some of you are
saying where you going with us well it
has incredibly practical significance
for you and me because if you're a
believer in Jesus in this date what are
you called your call the Christian what
do you think it means to be a Christian
to be a Christian is to be a follower of
Jesus who is the Christ you know that
means that means that the ninth
think that was on Jesus is now on you so
that you can do what Jesus came to do
and what David and the prophets and the
priests did long before him listen to
how the Heidelberg catechism goes on to
answer this question why are you called
a Christian because by faith I am a
member of Christ and so I share in his
anointing I am anointed what to confess
his name what office do you think that
is prophetic you are anointed to speak
for Jesus you are anointed furthermore
I'm anointed to present myself as a lot
as a living sacrifice I am a royal
priesthood I present myself to God and i
interpose between God and an unholy
people pleading the blood of Christ that
God will not judge the world but that
rather he will redeem the world and then
to strive with a free conscience against
sin in the devil in this life and
afterward to reign with Christ over all
creation for eternity I am anointed in
Christ to become an overcomer to be a
man or a woman of courage to step into
the situations of life where God calls
me to step and to know that I can make a
difference because Jesus has said I am
with you always even to the end of the
age this anointing is ours by virtue of
faith in Jesus this anointing is what
equips us to understand the heart and
the mind of
on this anointing gives us the ability
to discern the strategic moves that need
to be made for men and women to come to
faith and for lives to change this
anointing is what gives us faith and
courage to step out and walk on water in
places where everything inside us is I
can possibly do this because this is not
who I am and this anointing gives me the
perseverance to stick it out as Israel
had to stick it out through thick and
thin and ups and downs for a thousand
years before Messiah finally show it up
isn't that something the anointing is
the power tools of the kingdom it's what
Jesus talks about in Acts chapter 1
verse 8 when he says to his disciples
you will receive power Dunamis dynamite
on the Holy Spirit comes on you and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem it on
all Judea in Samaria and to the ends of
the earth look at the early church
before Pentecost before the resurrection
they were cowering in fear Jesus gets
raised from the dead pours out the Holy
Spirit of the early church and one after
the other marches to the ends of the
earth to proclaim the good news of the
kingdom they all historically tradition
tells us end up being martyred but not
until their lives have run the course
and they have accomplished the purposes
of God as i said this anointing this is
the power tool of the kingdom and think
of it this way here's a field and you
want to grow a crop and it's filled with
leads and and brush and whatever else
and and you want to cultivate
now you can do one of two things you can
take a shovel and you can start digging
and if you work hard enough and long
enough you'll eventually get the field
done but it's hard work we have behind
their house a little garden I try to
make it smaller every year it's maybe oh
it's less than 20 feet wide I would say
and maybe only 10 feet deep and as I
said I'm trying to bring in the edges
all the time and every so often my wife
sends me out there with a shovel to dig
it out I'm not a font I may be a
farmer's son but I'm not a farmer and it
never gives me much joy early in the
spring to till that soil with a shovel
so and Vandenberg's one of her good
friends she is one of these little
rototillers and she offers now to come
out every spring and she and in five
minutes she does what takes me hours to
do you see you can dig by hand or you
can get a tractor in a plow and you can
plow the field in a fraction of the time
that it would take doing advanced a lot
of Christians not aware of their
anointing in Christ are like the farmer
who is trying to plow the field with his
old dull shovel what God wants to do is
let us now listen there's this huge
tractor sitting in my backyard and it's
got a huge plow behind it and here's the
key to it go drive it and make it happen
make it happen that's the anointing of
the Holy Spirit biblically these are
spiritual gifts and allow me just to say
a couple of very practical general
things about spiritual gifts before we
wind up this morning just to whet your
appetite and to clarify a couple of
things
number one spiritual gifts are precisely
that they are gifts that means it's
freely given the fact that it's freely
given means two things you don't earn it
the Holy Spirit isn't given to you
because you're good you've behaved well
and you're high up on the religious
ladder or because you have worked for it
the Holy Spirit is given by faith in
Jesus as a free gift but you know what
the other side of that is God gives the
Holy Spirit as a gift to some pretty
funny people and their character can be
very immature even while they operate in
the power of spiritual gifts we have to
keep those two things separate because
spiritual gifts without character almost
always blows up people's lives the
reason God chooses David / saul is
because David had character that could
contain the anointing Saul did not same
anointing on both of them Saul
self-destructed because his heart was
not set on the things of God never
confuse the fruit of the Spirit with the
gifts of the Spirit they are separate
things you can have the one without the
other and you can have the other without
the one there's a lot more that we could
talk about but let me just throw that
out there very quickly secondly
spiritual gifts are sovereignly bestowed
by God 1 Corinthians 12 what are the key
passages and this kind of information
all these that is the spiritual gifts
are the work of one in the same spirit
and he gives them to each one just as he
determines the way it works i believe is
this Jesus has everything at the
Father's right hand he has the fullness
of the Spirit underneath here's the body
of Christ and he deposits part of his
priestly prophetic and kingly ministry
and he gives it to you and to me as he
chooses and so some of gifts of speaking
some of gifts of serving some of gifts
of Prayer some have gifts of doing
miracles Jesus pours them out as he sees
fit and what that means is that it is
determined entirely by him in what gifts
we get to operate in my experience
there's almost always an overlap between
natural gifts and spiritual gifts take
David for example after the Holy Spirit
comes on David he's a man full of faith
and he marches out there and he takes
that uncircumcised Philistine Goliath
and he knocks him to the ground cuts his
head off everybody is amazed at his gift
of love and his boldness and doing that
and that's because he's been anointed by
the Holy Spirit but long before he was
anointed by the Holy Spirit what did he
practice a lot he practiced on a bear
and a lion so there is a natural gifting
of courage and boldness and faith in
David's life but what the Holy Spirit
does is he multiplies that by infinite
amount of degree and while it is true
that it isn't always that the natural
and the spiritual go together very
commonly you will see that whatever the
Lord has created in
you when the Holy Spirit comes upon you
it gets accelerated there is an
increased degree of faith there is an
increased degree of anointing and power
and one of the best ways to find out
where is God calling me what is he
equipping me for is to say what is the
passion that God has placed in my heart
what drives me what longing has God
placed their longings and in some cases
go back to when you were a child dreams
that you often put on hold because it's
impossible for them to be realized
humanly speaking and yet God by the Holy
Spirit can do whatever he wants to do
and that's the anointing so he decides
he gives them as gifts just very quickly
the purpose of spiritual gifts obviously
is the further God's kingdom again 1
Corinthians 12 7 to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for
the common good Peter says exactly the
same thing he says each one should use
whatever giftee is received to serve
others faithfully administering God's
grace in its various forms there you
have that emphasis again it's going to
vary across the body in the way that God
chooses to administer it if anyone
speaks as you do it is one speaking the
very words of God if anyone serves these
you dude with the strength God provides
so that in all things God may be praised
through Jesus Christ the purpose of
spiritual gifts is never to make you
feel significant or to enable you to do
a one-upmanship over somebody else Paul
writing to the Corinthians sister them
at one point what do you have did you
have not received and what are you
bragging about because the Corinthians
had a particular problem
they were intensely and immensely
anointed by God's Holy Spirit for the
job that God was calling them to but
they were a bunch of spiritual babies
they were always comparing and
contrasting and they were saying yah yah
yah i got more than what you got that's
not how it works when you get tempted to
get carried away because you're so
incredibly gifted just remember this in
the Old Testament God was able to speak
through Balaam's donkey and if he could
speak through a donkey well we'll leave
that one hang there okay winding up with
this number four in my experience our
experience of the uniting of God's Holy
Spirit is a function of our surrender to
the lordship of Jesus Christ Paul starts
that passage or verse 3 of 1 Corinthians
12 I tell you no one who is speaking by
the spirit of god says Jesus be cursed
and no one can say Jesus is Lord except
by the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel
Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and
the function of the Holy Spirit is
always to exalt Jesus one of the very
practical questions whenever you talk or
teach about this kind of subject that
all of us have is how do I experience
more of the anointing of God's Holy
Spirit and there are many different
theologies about what this baptism of
the Holy Spirit looks like and those
theologies are generally based partly on
what scripture says and they're
generally based on what people have
experienced in their own lives because
everybody's experience to some degree is
the same but to some degree is very
different so here's what you need to
remember everything you need spirit
within in spirit upon which is the
distinction that Brad long used to make
among us many years ago and we had
Dunamis conference
is is available to you in Christ and if
by faith you have surrendered your life
to Jesus then there's a big room in
heaven if you will that has everything
you need to fulfill the calling that God
has on your life well that's in church
whether that is outside of the church
whether that's in Christian
organizations whether that is in your
household whether that is running in
your business whatever you need to
accomplish God's calling is there how
much of that I believe with all my heart
flows in your daily life is determined
to no small degree by the degree to
which you have yielded to the lordship
of Jesus because God doesn't waste his
anointing and he doesn't want to see his
anointing use just to advance your own
kingdom he wants to see it used to
advance his kingdom so if you want more
and experience more of who God is and
what God wants to do in you and through
you then here's what you did number one
have I surrendered my life to Jesus if I
have it's not spiritual pride to say God
has anointed me he has an anointing on
my life number two is there anything in
my life that stands in the way of what
God wants to do in me and through me and
sometimes you will find no there is
nothing that stands in the way sometimes
there will be unforgiveness or places of
anger or places where you refuse to bow
the knee before Jesus and you need to
come to that place and you need to say
Lord breathe on me help help me to come
to that place of surrender and then I
would say by faith
you claim the uniting of the Holy Spirit
avaiable says be filled with the spirit
it's a command and so by faith we can
say Lord fill me with your spirit and as
you fill me with your spirit I will do
everything that I can to step into it so
that my life can count for you a next
week Lord willing when we come back to
this we're going to look at what happens
when you do that because again
experiences will vary but God is true to
his word and his power is there to do
the work of the kingdom so here's what
we're going to do one ask you to stand
as we spent a few moments in prayer just
like we did last week again if you will
and if you're comfortable hold out your
hands like this and we're just going to
pray for the lord to seal this word and
to fill us a fresh so that with gladness
and with joy we can run the race all the
way to the end with perseverance Oh Lord
Jesus we're here and we are your people
and we thank you that you are a God who
has a long-term memory and that you
remember the Covenant made with Abraham
and the Covenant made with diva and how
Jesus is the heir to all those promises
made all the way along the line and how
by faith in Jesus each one of us here
now we are eligible for that same
anointing we we don't have to clean up
our lives before you can do that we
don't have to rise to super heights of
spirituality we're just your people and
you love us and you have gifts of grace
for us
Lord sometimes we can't believe that we
don't think we're worthy we feel that
we've messed up we feel inadequate lord
help us to know that especially to the
weaker members you give the greater
honor and I take that to mean the
greater anointing and the greater public
awareness of your presence in your power
so lord help us to be open to what it is
that you pour out in our lives help us
to be open to what it is that you pour
out their lives of others help us to
give space to each other to grow and to
learn but Lord may this place be so
filled with your life and with your
vitality the blind see the Deaf hear
that dumb hear and speak and and the
poor have the good news of Jesus
proclaim many years ago this church went
on record as saying that we want you to
lead us and that we will follow you as
you lead and give us grace that's not
been an easy journey and there are many
of us that still in deep places of our
hearts we smart at the price that some
of us have had to pay but Jesus overcame
and he promised the presence of His Holy
Spirit so come Lord Jesus breathe on us
now breath of God fill us with life in
you that I may love what thou does love
in dear what that would steer we pray
this in Jesus name
amen
you