The Spirit Of The Lord Is Upon Me

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.