Anointed Past: The Spirit at Work in the Ministry of the Messiah
The Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Anointed Son
The Anointed Son
7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
John Flavel paraphrased
[God] enriched and filled thee, in a singular and peculiar manner, with the fulness of the Spirit, whereby thou art consecrated to thy office: and by reason whereof thou out-shinest and excellest all the saints, who are thy fellows or copartners in these graces - John Flavel, “The Method of Grace in the Gospel of Redemption”
16 Draw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.
Even i n the OT, there does seem to be some illusion or reference to partnership between the Spit and the Son.
A two-fold mission between Son and Spirit
We see this elsewhere in
Isaiah. 11:2; 30:1; 32:15; 42:1; 44:3; 48:16; 59:21; 61:1; 63:11
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
John 3:34
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
Christ’s reception of the Spirit is a fulness of abundance, which suffices not only for Himself but for others also, so that we all can drink of His fulness. Francis Turretin, “Institutes”
Divine & Anointed
Christ is divine (has always been)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Christ is the anointed Servant of the Lord (as seen in Isaiah)
That Christ is the Servant of the Lord is to recognize that the Spirit has come upon Him:
Isa 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
As the human Servant of the Lord, Christ needs and receives the graces of the Spirit to live and fulfill His office.
So that Christ is divine and that He was anointed and the Spirit came upon Him are two sides of the same coin. The are both essential to sound Christology and to understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus.
Remember the Trinity
The Son and the Spirit are each distinct persons.
The Son and the Spirit are both fully God, possessing the same divine essence with the Father.
But there is a cooperation between the persons of the Trinity in that the Father anoints the Son to give the Holy Spirit to sinful men. Christ received the graces of the Spirit to live and fulfill His office.
Litmus Test
1 John 4:1-3
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
How does John say one can know if spiritual happenings are from God?
The Spirit’s ministry is so tied to Jesus Christ that tests for authentic Spirit of prophecy are, among other things, whether people are led to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
We can also see a similar litmus test described in Revelation regarding the issue of prophecy.
Rev 19:10
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The aim of prophecy is to bear witness to Jesus for God’s glory.
The Incarnation
The Incarnation
Matthew 1:18,20.; Luke 1:35
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Do these verses teach us that the Holy Spirit is the father of Christ’s human nature?
The last phrase in verse 18: from the Holy Spirit - the preposition indicates place of origin. The sense here is that the Christ-child in Mary’s womb originated from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit formed Christ’s human nature.
Christ is one person with two natures (divine and human), both perfect.
The reason that Joseph did not have to serve Mary a certificate of divorce was the fact that Mary’s pregnancy was the result of the Spirit’s work of creation in her womb.
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
That Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that is, that Christ’s humanity was formed by the Holy Spirit, showed that He was not a mere man.
And because the Holy Spirit formed the humanity of Christ, He will be called holy, the Son of God. This means that which will be born from Mary is holy and the Son of God. This speaks to the unity of the person. Jesus was human, but His humanity was holy. He was also the Son of God, that is, divine. One person, two natures.
So what we sought to bring out in this brief consideration of the incarnation is that Christ would not be the God-man apart from the power of the Holy Spirit forming His humanity.
Herman Bavinck:
The activity of the Holy Spirit with respect to Christ’s human nature… began with the conception… continued throughout His entire life, even right into the state of exaltation… [for] the true human who bears God’s image is inconceivable even for a moment without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Herman Bavinck, “Reformed Dogmatics”
Baptism
Baptism
Matt 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
At this point in Jesus’ life, He was ready to transition to His public ministry.
What did the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus communicate?
the inauguration of the public ministry of Jesus. An endorsement, of sorts.
It made clear to all who were present that He was Messiah.
Going beyond the text here, but the Spirit was given in His baptism to empower Jesus to execute His mediatorial offices of prophet, priest and king.
And by receiving the Spirit in this way, He would be able ti dispense the Spirit when His work was accomplished. (More on this later)
And notice the Trinity here:
The Father reveals Himself by an audible voice
The Son appears in the flesh which He assumed and
The Spirit descending like a dove.
So, Jesus’ baptism marks a milestone in His life. Luke continues in the next chapter:
Luke 4:1
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
It is only after His baptism that Jesus is referred to as empowered and led by the Spirit.
Here in His baptism, Jesus receives a fresh fullness of the Spirit for His unique calling.
And after His time of testing in the wilderness, Luke tells us:
Luke 4:14-21
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus lived His life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Death, Resurrection & Exaltation
Death, Resurrection & Exaltation
His Death
His Death
Heb. 9:14
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Jesus gave Himself willingly on the cross, but His will to do so was not disconnected from the power of the Spirit.
His Resurrection
His Resurrection
Rom. 1:3-4; 1 Peter 3:18
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
It is difficult to know exactly what Paul is getting at here, but it seems to me that the power of the Holy Spirit is shown here to be connected to the resurrection and in the designation of Christ as the Son of God.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
His Exaltation
His Exaltation
Acts 2:33
33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Jesus had received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He was able to pour out the Spirit onto His people.
Smeaton describes this as an ascension gift.
And this should not be disconnected from the context of Acts 2. The giving of the Spirit was for the creation of the church.
Christ’s Going and the Holy Spirit’s Coming
Christ’s Going and the Holy Spirit’s Coming
John 16:7-11
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Our question in response to what Jesus says in verse 7 is, why not. Why would the Holy Spirit not come unless Jesus went away?
Jesus answers, if I go, I will send Him to you. OK, that really does answer our question, but let’s push forward here to get at the answer. It’s probably not surprising that such questions are not provided such straight forward answers.
Jesus tells us in verse 8 that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning:
sin - because they do not believe in me
righteousness and - concerning righteousness because I go to the Father
judgement- because the ruler of this world is judged
So, if we pull back a little, we can see that one effect of the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus has on the world is that those events show the world that its wrong. It convicts the world about the justice of Jesus’s crucifixion and proves they’re guilty. The Holy Spirit’s work is to make that clear after the resurrection. Then in verse 11, we read, “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” When did that happen? That judgment of Satan was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus (Colossians 2:15).
But consider what Jesus says next:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
he will glorify Christ. John 16:14 is the most important sentence about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Bible: “He will glorify me.” Specifically, the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ’s resurrection glory and his achievements over sin and Satan on the cross. That’s the peak, the apex of the glory of Christ in the gospel. But you cannot glorify Christ for that if he hasn’t done it.
One more text to consider and I will attempt to answer the original question.
2 Cor 3:18; 4:4
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit reveals the glory of Christ… that’s what the last phrase says.
Where do we see the glory of Christ?
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The Holy Spirit’s role is to reveal the glory of Christ in the gospel, which could not be done until Jesus died, rose and ascended. There is no gospel until Jesus fulfilled His mission
So what does the Holy Spirit do?
exalts Christ
applies the gospel
convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgement
defeats the power of Satan
and all of these aspects of the Spirit’s ministry are based on the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
