Anointing

Starting out today again in Isaiah 61, first verse. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me with power to do these things. We're all aware of the fact that to get anything done at all in this world, you have to have power. Without power, you're pretty soon left behind and you can be sitting high and dry while the whole world goes on.

You can starve to death and nobody will even notice it. The world offers certain specific kinds of power, like the power of money, the power of public opinion, political power, that is having the right connections, the power of guns. For 20 centuries, whenever professing Christians have been aware of a lack of genuine power in their lives, they have invariably turned to one or another of these forms of power provided by the world for their support.

We've done it. How many times we've turned to money for our confidence, or to people's opinion of us, or to trying to get the right connections. Some of us have even succumbed to the temptation to arm ourselves with guns.

And there's no doubt we must have power to survive or get anything done, but power of a totally different order. Jesus had power. He was meek, lowly of heart, but when Jesus came out of the wilderness temptation and began to teach in the synagogues of Galilee, the thing that set him apart from any other teacher they had ever listened to was the fact that this man had power.

When he spoke, his word had power. When he stretched out his hand and touched a sick, there was power to heal. It was not the power of money, it was not the power of public opinion, it was not the power of having the right connections, nor was it the power of swords and spears and guns.

Yet wherever he went, doors opened and chains broke. Reading from Luke chapter 4, verse 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went throughout all the surrounding country.

What was this power of the Spirit? Reading in verse 16, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and he went to the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read, and it was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And this was his power. And this anointing of the Spirit that was on Jesus was, without measure, it was in fullness. And the fountainhead of his power was this anointing.

But what we need to see is that there is a source to this thing. It doesn't just zap him indiscriminately or in some capricious manner, but there is a reason why it happens to him. There is a starting point.

Where does he get this power? How come it comes to him? This was the question really on Nicodemus's mind, when Nicodemus comes to him by night and says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these works which you do unless God is with him. I see the power. I don't understand where it comes from.

Notice that Jesus does not say to Nicodemus, but Nicodemus, after all, I'm the son of God. I mean, I got an inside trap. I got something here that you're never going to have, Nicodemus.

He didn't say that. He said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. When you are, you will understand where this is coming from and you will have it too.

So where does this power come from? Where does it begin? Notice that the Spirit comes on him. This anointing begins at his baptism. Remember, he comes out of the Jordan River.

The Spirit comes. Now he's the anointed one. Why at his baptism? Because his baptism is an offering of himself to the Father.

His baptism is the beginning of an awesome worship. His baptism is a death. He then is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

His power increases. It's refined there. Why? Because in the wilderness, Jesus denies himself in favor of his Father's pleasure.

It's another death. It's an offering of himself. It's an offering of himself as a sacrifice to the Father's will.

And from that point on, his whole ministry is drenched in power. And the source of the power is this offering up of himself. You can only understand Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me, if you see it in the light of Isaiah 53.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.

With his stripes we are healed. The power comes because he offers himself up. That's why it comes.

From the moment Jesus offered himself to the Father at his baptism until the moment he finally gives up the ghost and dies on Good Friday, his entire life is worship. It's an offering. He fixes his eye on the goal at the end of the road where there is going to be that final, glorious, wonderful offering up of everything to the Father on that cross.

He sets his sights on that and he never labors. His eye is single. He salutes no man on the road, doesn't let himself get distracted, and he shakes the dust from his feet whenever anybody tries to get him off the track, whether it's his mother or the Apostle Peter or anybody else.

He just keeps moving. A passage that was read this morning by Johnny, part of it, Mark 11, 7. They brought the cold to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they cut from the fields.

And those who went before and those who followed cried out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David that is coming. Hosanna in the highest.

He's got them now. He can do anything with them. If he wants it, he can now have financial power, all he wants.

Man, would some of the big-time TV evangelists love to have that opportunity. They'd be there filling their computer lists. If he wants to now, he's got public opinion with him.

If he wants it, he's got political clout. He can have connections now. He can broker this power which he has.

In fact, he can even get the power of guns and spears if he wants it now. He can take over Israel like Castro took over Cuba. This is his opportunity.

But he passes it all by. He doesn't reach out for the money. He doesn't push and take advantage of the public opinion role he's on right now.

He doesn't become a politician and he doesn't become a general. He spurns it all for the one anointing that really counts and brings power, real power. The anointing that's going to take him as it always will to a cross.

The anointing that's going to bring him to offer up in an act of consuming worship to his father. This was his power. This is why Jesus could bring good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, deliverance to the oppressed.

This is why he had a message that brought hope, preached the acceptable, the year of the Lord's favor. I was thinking last Sunday afternoon when we were over on Shane, had a little, had an ordination service for Bill Elster. A little storefront, place with jams, beautiful.

And then I was thinking how it's going to be as it is right now over there on Shane. What do they have? They got a little handful of people and some folding chairs and a card table. They don't even have a piano.

Now how are they going to have an impact on that neighborhood without a piano? They'll have a piano and they'll have everything else they need. If they, that handful of brothers and sisters of ours, offer themselves up. If they do, they will bring good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind.

They'll do it. Now exactly the same thing is true of us. The crowd is bigger.

We've been at it longer, but our power is exactly the same. It's the only power that's valid for us. We will have an impact absolutely beyond our comprehension on this neighborhood and on this city and on the suburbs and wherever God wants it, along with other believers.

If we offer ourselves up as our offered himself. Reading from Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11, and it sounds very theoretical, but try to follow closely even if you know it by heart. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy place, taking not the blood of goats and hens, but his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.

For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? This is not theoretical power. This is very, very, very practical power. This is the power that is able to transform people who are slaves of guilt, they're victims of dead works, trying to work off this guilt and getting nowhere, finding no peace, troubled all the time, into sons and daughters of the kingdom, people who are full of joy and gladness and wisdom and freedom as they serve the living God.

Now this power is in the blood. How much more shall the blood of Christ, power in the blood, but not to make the blood some kind of fetish. His blood has power because he offers himself up.

He offered himself at his baptism. He offered himself at his temptation. And now today he's on this donkey, this colt riding down to the city like a king, which he is, but he is on his way to the final sacrifice.

Now when that offering of himself gets hold of us, when it touches us in some way, we are changed by it. When in some way we see this and feel it and know it and understand some of it, we are delivered from dead works to serve the living God. We are transformed from slaves into sons and daughters of the kingdom.

And we are caught up in this worship of the Father, just as he's doing it. We are lifted by him into this. And pretty soon we offer ourselves up too.

And as we do, we have power. Romans 12, 1. I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable without spot, to God, which is your spiritual worship. Offer yourselves up, he says to us, every day, all the time, just like Jesus.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove, demonstrate, show, manifest what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The world says, indulge yourself, pamper yourself, coddle yourself, gratify yourself, conserve yourself, take care of yourself, take lots of Geritol. The Spirit of the Lord says, offer yourself, offer yourself, offer yourself.

Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord, in the volume of the book it is written of me, says Jesus, and we say it with him. We're coming to do his will. And to do his will means that we just give ourselves all the way to him, all the time.

And this is not just one momentary act of worship, but it becomes then a daily thing. The offering of ourselves means that we commit ourselves to live the life that Jesus specifically describes in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount becomes deadly legalism if we just try to make ourselves do it, and it just drives us crazy.

But the Sermon on the Mount, when it's lived as worship, when it becomes an offering, brings with it tremendous power. For instance, now here we are, we're gathered together, we're here for the purpose of offering ourselves to God. You bring a gift to the altar, and your gift is yourself.

And then remember that your brother has something against you. Go, leave your gift there, and go and get reconciled. So we're here, and now it suddenly becomes evident to me, let's say that I'm not treating my wife right, or my husband right.

You know, I've been walking around and spouting the Bible all over the place and treating my spouse like a dog, or my fellow worker, or my employee, or my employer, or my neighbor, or my third cousin. But now I'm aware of this. So I leave my gift, and I get reconciled.

I make up my mind, I'm going to be reconciled to this person. I'm going to start making it up to my wife or my husband. Now we offer ourselves up, and it becomes glorious.

As we're offering ourselves to the Lord in worship, we become aware of the fact that our eye is going off to the side. We're looking upon that man, or that woman, with lust. So you take the right eye and you pull it out.

You put it under the blood, you confess this thing, so your eye is single. And now we offer ourselves up. We've been singing these hymns, gorgeous hymns, tremendous truth, with these tongues, which in the past seven days have gossiped, exaggerated, murmured, complained, complained, complained, and murmured.

And now we're saying, thank you, Jesus. And it becomes evident that this tongue has to clean up its act. So our speech becomes, yes, yes, no, no.

And we can repent of this. We cleanse this thing, and now we can offer ourselves up. We become aware of the fact that our attitudes, or the people who have wronged us, is destroying us.

We're just absolutely bitter about this group of people, or that group of people, or this race of people, or that nationality, or General Motors, or the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party, or the labor unions, or whoever we're mad at, whoever becomes the object of our bitterness. And now we begin to pray for this person. We pray for this group.

We ask God's blessing on them. Now we can offer ourselves up. Going on in Matthew 6, we become aware that our walk with God has been really with one eye to God and one eye to the audience.

So I'm giving alms, I'm praying, I'm fasting, but I'm getting mileage before the eye of my brothers and sisters. They're impressed with my piety. And now I'm under conviction.

That has to end. I go into my room and shut the door, and secretly before God I offer myself to him. Then together we can offer ourselves.

We're aware of the fact that our faith is in God and mammon, when it must be only in God. So we repent of this. Can't serve God in money, too.

Now we're going to commit ourselves today. We're going to offer ourselves up to the kingdom, trusting that God will provide whatever money we need, and he will. We're conscious of the fact that as we've been going around taking the speck out of everybody else's eye, we got this huge log in our own eye.

The Spirit convicts. Get that log out, that log of unmercy. We're going to pull the log out, we're going to start thinking mercy, and now we can offer ourselves.

The source of our power is the offering of a clean, a spotless, a committed, a holy life to God in this way. And if we do this, the power becomes ours. And it's a daily offering of the life, all the time.

When you have a man or a woman who commits himself or herself in an offering like this, you have power. When you have a body of believers that commits itself in this way, you have unspeakable power. And it is to this that the Spirit of the Lord is calling this body, to present ourselves corporately as a body to him.

As beginning at his table, as we eat his body and drink his blood, and going on as he guides us until we finally together come to a cross. Arise, shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. To respond to that glory, to arise and shine in response to that light, is to present ourselves.

To rise up in that flame that comes down from heaven, go right back up in it. To spend ourselves day in and day out in his name and for his glory until there's nothing left. If we will do this, we as a body will have power.

Power that will move mountains, power that will break chains, power that will raise the dead, power that will heal the sick, power that will bring people from darkness to light, multitudes from Satan to God. Let's just spend some time in silence and let the Spirit speak to us in our hearts first.