What Is The Anointing Series

ENCOUNTERING THE HOLY SPIRIT PART 2

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I AM ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO CARRY ON THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN MY WORLD

Isaiah 61:1-3; LUKE 4:15-30

INTRODUCTION

Little Johnny was home sick from Sunday School and church. It was Palm Sunday, and when his dad returned home from service he had brought a palm branch to give to Johnny.

‘What’s this?’ Johnny asked

His dad replied, ‘It’s a palm branch. When Jesus came to the city, the people waved palm branches.’

Little Johnny responded, ‘Aw, the Sunday I get sick is the day Jesus comes to church.’

It was Jesus’ custom to attend public worship, a custom all of His followers should imitate today (Heb_10:24-25). He might have argued that the “religious system” was corrupt, or that He didn’t need the instruction; but instead, He made His way on the Sabbath to the place of prayer.

A typical synagogue service opened with an invocation or prayer for God’s blessing and then the reading of the traditional Hebrew confession of faith (Deu_6:4-9

“Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.[a] 5 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

This was followed by prayer and the prescribed readings from the Law and from the Prophets, with the reader paraphrasing the Hebrew Scriptures in Aramaic.

This was followed by a brief sermon given by one of the men of the congregation or perhaps by a visiting rabbi .

If a priest was present, the service closed with a benediction. Otherwise, one of the laymen prayed and the meeting was dismissed.

Jesus was asked to read the Scripture text and to give the sermon. The passage He read included Isa_61:1-2, and He selected it for His “text.” The Jewish rabbis interpreted this passage to refer to the Messiah, and the people in the synagogue knew it. You can imagine how shocked they were when Jesus boldly said that it was written about Him and that He had come to usher in the “acceptable year of the Lord.”

The reference here is the “Year of Jubilee” described in Lev_25:1-55. Every seventh year was a “Sabbatical year” for the nation, when the land was allowed to rest; and every fiftieth year (after seven Sabbaticals) was set apart as the “Year of Jubilee.”

The main purpose of this special year was the balancing of the economic system: slaves were set free and returned to their families, property that was sold reverted to the original owners, and all debts were canceled. The land lay fallow as man and beast rested and rejoiced in the Lord.

Jesus applied all of this to His own ministry, not in a political or economic sense, but in a physical and spiritual sense. He had certainly brought Good News of salvation to bankrupt sinners and healing to brokenhearted and rejected people. He had delivered many from blindness and from bondage to demons and disease. In essence, Jesus was proclaiming that He was the fulfillment of the year of Jubilee.

In this scripture we see something very powerful

#1 We see that Jesus knew exactly what he supposed to do.

#2 We see that Jesus knew that he was empowered to do the work

In other words; Jesus was consciously aware of an enduement, an equipping, a supernatural endowment called the anointing.

I. WHAT IS THE ANNOINTING?

smear or rub with oil, typically as part of a religious ceremony.

"high priests were anointed with oil"

synonyms: consecrate, bless, ordain; More

• ceremonially confer divine or holy office upon (a priest or monarch) by smearing or rubbing with oil. "the Lord has anointed me to preach to the poor"

synonyms: consecrate, bless, ordain

The origin of anointing was from a practice of shepherds. Lice and other insects would often get into the wool of sheep, and when they got near the sheep's head, they could burrow into the sheep's ears and kill the sheep. So, ancient shepherds poured oil on the sheep's head. This made the wool slippery, making it impossible for insects to get near the sheep's ears because the insects would slide off.

From this, anointing became symbolic of blessing, protection, and empowerment.

In Bible times, people were anointed with oil to signify God’s blessing or call on that person’s life for a special service.

When giving instructions for anointing the High Priest and his soons, Moses writes in Exodus 29:7 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brushed with olive oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. 6 Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred emblem to the turban. 7 Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.