The Spirit Of The Lord Is Upon Me
Nov.2, 2008 Micah 6:6-8 Luke 4:16-30
There is an undoubtedly an excitement around our nation as we face an election that is almost unbelievable. Not only did out ancestors who were in chains during the time of slavery did not think this could be possible, but even we ourselves, just a year ago from today would not have considered this a possibility this soon in time. There is a nervous tension in our country of what’s really going to happen on Tuesday. Everybody has their hopes, but none of us knows what’s truly going to happen.
There was a great orator coming on the scene who when he spoke, people were amazed. His message was in touch with the common people. They were telling others, you’ve got to come here this guy. Even the people who disliked him were saying, “I’ve never heard anybody speak with the kind of authority this man has” The crowds were growing larger and larger as he went from city to city with a message of hope, a message of change, and a message of a new day coming.
People were asking the question, where did this man come from? Where did he get all this knowledge? He looks just like one of us. Just a few years earlier, very few people even knew his name. He came with the message that a change was coming. There would be no more business as usual. Those in power recognized there was a potential threat to the way they had kept people in check and ruled over their lives. Before he could get started good in his campaign, there were attempts being made on his life. But they failed because he had a destiny to fulfill.
He went back to his home town to officially announce his candidacy and to state what would be his agenda for the nation as well as the world. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus went back to his hometown of Nazereth and went to the synagogue or the church as was his custom. Now Jesus did not go to church just around election time. It was his custom to be there every week. If you’re going to model your life after Jesus, you need the custom of being in church each week.
Jesus had a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures from Isaiah in his hands and he stood up to read it. That portion had been written at a time when God’s people had been second, third and fourth class citizens in Babylon where they had been sent as captives after their nation had been destroyed in war. They knew what it was like to have been at the bottom of the bottom, and to have been discriminated against as a people.
The people were looking forward to a day in which God would reverse their bad times, and put their lives back on the right track. The people had been released from 70 years of captivity from Babylon, and had returned to their country, but they still were under an oppression of a different kind. This time the Romans were abusing them. Jesus had decided that the purposes of God would make up the essence of his political and social platform for his life.
He began with the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me.” Jesus did not bring any delegates to the church that day, but he came with the only vote that mattered, and that vote came from heaven above. The reason Jesus is going to give this speech, is that “The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.”
When we think of the Spirit of the Lord as really being upon someone, we often think of someone shouting, dancing, prophesying or preaching in a powerful manner, and that’s okay. But that’s not all of what the gospel is about. The Spirit comes upon us in order to bring us into a vertical relationship with God that’s going to have a horizontal relationship with others around us.
Our purpose statement begins with bringing us into a right relationship with God, but it ends with making a difference in the lives of others. It’s that contact with Jesus in the middle of it that connects the two together. If claim we have a great spiritual relationship with God, and yet we do not make a difference in the lives of those around us, we are just fooling ourselves.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed you to do something. Now Jesus was already in a right relationship with the Father, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Him because he was about to be anointed to do something specific in the lives of others.
Jesus said, “ he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” Now the good news that we have, is that Jesus died for your sins and he can make a difference in your life. But for it to be good news to the poor, “there has to be first an element, that Jesus changed my life and I’m here to help you if you want me to. How can I assist you? Our love for God, has to lead to an acceptance of people and an openness to be in contact with them. We are more prejudiced against the poor than we want to admit. It is easy to close our eyes, and pretend they do not exist and live in our world of abundance and boast of how the Lord has blessed us.
When we talk about the Least of These Ministries in our church, we need to recognize we need the least of these as much as they need us. For the least of these reminds us that Jesus is at work in the lives of people that we are willing to cast by the wayside. How are you going to bring good news to the poor this week? When it comes to voting for candidates, we need to ask the question is voting for this person going to bring good news to the poor? God has a special place in his heart for the poor. Not because they are more holy or more righteous, but because they are poor. The greatness of a people will be judged by what they did with the poor.
Jesus said, “he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” The word prisoners here literally means those who were captured at the point of a spear. We have people who have been captured by all kinds of things. Some have been captured because of the greed and abuse of others. Some have been captured by making poor choices for their lives.
Some have been captured because they believed the lives of the evil one, who told them, “no one will ever find out”, “this one time won’t matter”, “you’re different, you can handle this.” Jesus was anointed to help people find a way out of the captivity they have found themselves in. How can we help proclaim freedom for the prisoners around us today?
We do it by helping people to have a second chance in life. I challenge us as a church to become a second chance church. People from all backgrounds, all addictions, all heartaches, and all pain can come through our doors and find a group of people willing to stand with them as they seek a second chance with God and a second chance with society. It’s alright seek to build a building for God, but let’s press to a greater level of seeking to build lives for Jesus Christ. We can’t take a building to heaven with us, but we can take people.
When it comes to voting, are you voting for candidates who give people a second chance? At some point we have to stop voting for people who want to brand people felons for the rest of their lives. We saw a couple of weeks ago, how in our own county, racism allowed blacks to be tried as felons, whereas whites who did the exact same thing and sometimes more, were to be charged with misdemeanors. We can’t just vote Democrat or Republican, without asking, what are you going to do about this injustice that is ruining people’s lives. The Spirit of the Lord is upon to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, not to lock them up and throw away the key.
Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to proclaim recovery of sight for the blind. Jesus no doubt had in mind the physical healings he was going to do such as healing blind Bartimaeus and others. But Jesus also spoke saying there is a blindness that comes from people who think they are seeing correctly but are not. How many people around you can you see that are making terrible decisions with their lifestyles, yet they are convinced that what they are doing is perfectly fine and everything is going to work out well in the end.
That’s true about the teenage girl who does not believe that 80% of teen mothers suffer poverty for most of their adult lives. It’s true about the wall street executive who does not believe that if you lie about how much your company makes, it will cost people their jobs no matter how big of a bonus you get. Both groups choose to be blind.
We get tired of people making bad choices and we just want to sometimes let them do what they want and pay the consequence for it. But Jesus says, he has come to proclaim recovery of sight for the blind. People on all levels need the Lord. You see Jesus not only cares about the person blinded, but also about all the people who will be hurt because of the person’s blindness.
Our neighborhood has been crippled by the boys selling drugs on the corner. But the damage they have caused to our neighborhood is minor compared to the destruction caused by the greed of the bankers and sub prime lenders with all the boarded up homes on our streets. Entire families have been uprooted. Property values have plummeted.
When we vote, we need to vote for people who recognize that white collar crime is as devastating as any other crime to the victims in neighborhoods. We have been anointed to help open the drug dealer’s eyes as well as the bank executive eyes to the reality that they need Jesus in their lives. That’s why we go into the neighborhood on foot and into the business world on the internet with the same Jesus.
Jesus said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to release the oppressed.” The actual wording in Greek is to set free those who are bruised. The word bruised refers to broken in heart as well as broken in body. How many of you have been bruised by life, bruised by people who didn’t understand you, or bruised by events that brought pain into your life. Bruises sometimes cause us to limit ourselves. We think because I have this or because that happened to me, I could never… Jesus is saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me in order for me to mend your bruises and set you free from the limitations they have caused you.
The Spirit of the Lord comes upon us to set free those who are bruised. A lot of times people are bruised through no fault of their own. You’re bruised as a child when your mom or dad has been sent to prison and can’t be there for you. You’re bruised when you’re in prison and can’t be there for your child. You’re bruised when your job is shipped overseas or simply eliminated. You’re bruised when you can’t get the treatment you need because you have no health care.
You know we do what we can as a church to help with these bruises through our Prison Ministry, through our single parent fund, and through our prescription medicine fund. We should vote for candidates not based on how big of a tax cut they may offer us, but on how eager they are to help set people free from the bruises they are suffering.
There are no perfect candidates for us to vote for, because there are some issues of justice and morality with one candidate and other issues of justice and morality with another. We are often times forced to choose between the two. We live in an imperfect world. But it is important for us to choose and to vote because voting is a tool God has given us to make a difference in the lives of others. We vote not to make it easy for ourselves, but to identify with making better the situations of the least of these.
No matter what happens on Tuesday, our nation will have a reached another milestone in it’s history. Our cause as Christians however is far greater than either team and either ticket, for in 8 years and maybe 4, that candidate will have moved to the background of yet another election. But the Spirit of the Lord is going to be upon us to continue to press for the same agenda that Jesus announced there in his campaign speech some 2000 years ago.
Jesus final declaration for the Spirit of the Lord being upon him was to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. In other words, Jesus is proclaiming today is the day in which you can receive God’s favor. God’s Spirit is on us to let others know, they don’t have to wait to get old, they don’t have to wait to get clean, they don’t have to wait to get it together.
No matter who is elected President, he is not going to be able to do all the things that have been promised or spoken of, because there are going to be obstacles to prevent it. We may talk about the President being the most powerful person in the world. But really how powerful is our president right now, when his own party does not want to be seen with him. All power this world has to offer is passing away and fleeting.
But Jesus is not going anywhere. His power is just as strong today as it was 2,000 years ago. Nobody elected him to office. Nobody can stop what he puts into motion. Nobody can effectively end any plan that He has determined is going to happen. That’s what makes Jesus’ promises so special. Jesus can do what you need for him to do in your life. Are you willing to allow the Spirit of the Lord to be upon you in order to bring you into a right relationship with God, so that you can be equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ, to go forth and make a difference in the lives of others? Unlike candidates who are happy to just have your vote, Jesus demands a lot more. Jesus demands your life. He said, if anyone would come after me, that one must deny himself, pick up his cross and come follow me. Jesus is not running for president. He is already the Lord of Lords and the king of kins. You are invited to enter into his kingdom where true righteousness and holiness is going to prevail.
But first you must be willing to be changed, so that your primary allegiance in your life is to Jesus. I warn you in advance, the campaign for Jesus will not stop, it will interfere with your schedule, it will change your plans, and it will cause your some heartache and pain. Jesus said, “before you say yes to me, sit down and count the cost..” No decision you make will be as important as to whether or not you choose to follow Christ or you choose to put it off until a later date.
Let there be no doubt that we will choose to follow Christ because the Scriptures says one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. The Spirit Of the Lord is upon you, to help you choose correctly.
