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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, everyone. And welcome to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. I'm the preaching minister here at our church. This week, we're talking about, again, the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:We're talking about anointing. What does it mean when the holy spirit anoints someone? Isn't that interesting? A lot of, probably a lot of definitions going around your head, but what we do is we're gonna study, at least two kings and going on a that were anointed in scripture. And so, this this should help us to understand what does anointing mean and what do we do going forward if we have been anointed.
John Gunter:Again, thanks for listening. We hope you'll come see us sometime. Have a great week. This has been so far more of a teaching kind of series as we kind of discover anew what all God has been up to through the work of the spirit over scripture. You may again have come in with certain ideas when the holy spirit is mentioned, but God has done a lot over the course of old and new testament through the power of the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:One of the things some of the things we talked about last week, or last couple of weeks, is how God uses his spirit to empower people. How God has used his spirit to teach and instruct in in giving the law, and how last week as we talked about how God wants through his spirit to enact and to for people to stand for justice. And as we talk about anointing this morning, we are talking about anointing kings. And remember, God never planned, never told the Israelites to have kings, they decided that on their own. They looked around at all the other nations and said, well, they have kings, why can't we?
John Gunter:Sounds a little childish. You ever acted like that before? Raise your hand. No? Okay.
John Gunter:We've all kind of acted in in that way where I want what I want, and let's make that happen. And so, God does not kick them out because they decided they wanted kings, but God does require certain things of the kings as he goes with them. The kings were supposed to be strong leaders. Right? Supposed to protect the people and go before them, that's what they wanted kings for in the place.
John Gunter:We want a king to go before us as we fight battle. The kings were also supposed to know the law. They were all supposed to know the law so that they can instruct in that way, and also, as as we talk about justice, they were to protect the vulnerable. And so what we're gonna do for a few minutes here is is read some scripture that talks about exactly this and what God required of the kings. From Deuteronomy 17, when he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law taken from that of the Levitical priest.
John Gunter:It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God, and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees. Do you hear the the amount of importance that's put on the word here? You're you're supposed to be in it. I can only imagine when we get to heaven and we meet some of these kings that were supposed to have the law with them at all times, and we pull out our cell phone. And they said, what in the world, God, I had to carry around those scrolls.
John Gunter:Right? But you're supposed to have the law again to to know it, finishing up in verse 20, and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites, and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. God is saying, follow the law and I will be with you. Kings, again, were also supposed to be for justice.
John Gunter:Psalm 72 has several scriptures through here. Endow the king with your justice, o God, the royal son with your righteousness. Verse four, may he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy. May he crush the oppressor. Proverbs thirty one eight and nine, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who or or for the rights of all who are destitute.
John Gunter:Speak up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the poor and the needy. Jeremiah says it this way, hear the word of the Lord to you king of Judah, who you who sit on David's throne, you, your officials, and your people who come through these gates. This is what the Lord says, do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.
John Gunter:Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. Kings 10, praise be to the Lord your God who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Again, this is coming from God. We see this kingship coming from the Lord. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.
John Gunter:Kings, of course, did not always follow this, did they? And as we read through all of those things, and hopefully as we read through those things, you think, yeah, that's what we want for this world. As we look around and see all the ways that it seems to be veering off the path that we would like it to go, I think this list of what the kings are supposed to be about, what God finds important, those things are important, but they could not be done alone. God did not set a king on the throne and say, here you go, you're all by yourself. All of these people needed the spirit of God.
John Gunter:And so, what you see with the kings is they were all anointed with oil, and what this did was this said that this is kind of a symbolic, you are now anointed with this office or this task. This God wants this to happen in this place, and you are the person for it. But God did not leave them alone, he sent the spirit of God. One thing that might be interesting to you is God didn't always just send his spirit to Israelites. Where we've gotten to in the story this spring, remember, the Israelites had been cast and taken off into Babylon, but then they returned, and they returned because of king Cyrus, the Cyrus edict or decree.
John Gunter:And read what Isaiah says about king Cyrus here. He who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please. He will say of Jerusalem, let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, let its foundations be laid. This is what the Lord says to his anointed. God talking about a non Israelite.
John Gunter:God says, you're anointed to Cyrus whose right hand I take hold of. And so even someone who was not an Israelite, God said, I am anointing you. You go, well, what's that all about? Again, this is just someone who is going to do the will of God, and we know what Cyrus did was he released all of the captives to go home. Can you imagine they they thought pretty favorably about Cyrus after that?
John Gunter:You are finally after I think they were actually released about fifty years later, but the temple was rebuilt about seventy, but after that long a time, they were able to go and go home. A few weeks ago, we talked about Saul, and we talked about his anointing, but I wanted to just reread it in this context as Samuel anoints him. Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him saying, has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance? The spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into a different person. When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him.
John Gunter:The spirit of God came powerfully on him, and he joined in their prophesying. This was the sign that God not only talked about Saul being the anointed one of God, but that Saul was actually the anointed one of God. That you see this outward kind of manifestation of the spirit of God that he is able to prophecy, and it was kind of odd to to read this, and it seems like what Saul does is kind of zones out and prophesies. You think, man, what what did I do with that? But as we've talked about before, the anointing of the spirit of God, the coming on of the spirit of God did not mean that everyone who had that was always obedient, were they?
John Gunter:Just think of Saul's case in particular. Saul begins this with this manifestation, this awesome work, and he starts off on the right foot, but then as he goes, he continually walks further and further away from God. But all the time, this anointing, though he even strayed from God, still commanded a respect. Do you remember when Saul and David kept getting into it? That David still had this respect for Saul because he was the anointed one of God.
John Gunter:This anointing also happens to David in Samuel 16. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. Anybody remember that part of the scripture? I remember watching ESPN when I was a teenager, and I don't remember if it was Dan Patrick or who, but it said, fill thine horn with oil and go.
John Gunter:He would say that on a home run, a scriptural reference. But here, God says it to to Samuel, fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king, and you remember how that went down. As he goes in, he looks at all of Jesse's sons, the strong, the powerful, the older ones, and all of a sudden he says, don't you have another son?
John Gunter:And he brings in the shepherd boy. So he sent for him and had it brought in. He was glowing with help and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. This is the one.
John Gunter:So, yeah, 13. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah. And so, we know the story of David, don't we? The spirit of God coming on someone did not mean he was going to be morally perfect.
John Gunter:Otherwise, David would certainly not be counted, as a person after God's own heart. And I I say that this morning because I think that needs a little bit of explanation. Because as we look at, so many people in the the the Bible in general, as we see someone like David who did so many things against God, and then we get to, but he was a man after God's own heart, we need an explanation. Doctor Christopher Wright says this, the heart in Hebrew idiom is where you do your thinking. And before you think, well, that's weird, we kind of do that too.
John Gunter:It's from the heart. Don't we say that? It's from the heart. This is where you do your thinking, you're weighing up, deciding, and planning, So, a man after God's heart means one who will think and do as God chooses, one who will carry out the plans that God has in mind. Just like Cyrus, an anointed person of God, an anointed king of God, is someone who's going to carry out, though they are not morally perfect, but someone who's going to carry out what God wants to happen.
John Gunter:In the context of of when God said this, he's actually comparing David to Saul. You remember Saul, as he begins, he's he's okay, but then he keeps walking away. Well, David, we know had his issues. Right? But the difference in the two is that when David was confronted with his sin, he repented.
John Gunter:He turned back. He came back, and God was still able through him to do exactly what he wanted to do. So you're not morally perfect just because the spirit of God is poured out on you, but you should be a person after God's own heart who will do exactly what God's want. In fact, most of the kings didn't even get close, did they? As we read through the story this spring, what you see most of the time is that this king did more evil in the sight of God than any before him.
John Gunter:Now, I hope none of you have had that said about you. That your parents didn't look at you and say, this daughter has done more evil in my sight than anyone else. But that's what was said time after time about the coming kings and even the good ones had their faults, did they not? And so, what was God gonna do about that? What we see in scripture and what will be familiar to those of you who have been in my Wednesday night class, is God had a plan for the coming messiah, did he not?
John Gunter:From Isaiah eleven one through five, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord. Are you getting you getting the pattern there? What's gonna happen and what's going to empower the coming Messiah? And he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
John Gunter:He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears, but with righteousness, he will judge the needy. With justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with a rod of his mouth. With the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness, the sash around his waist.
John Gunter:And from Isaiah 42, here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed, he will not break, and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out. In faithfulness, he will bring justice.
John Gunter:He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching, the islands will put their hope. This is what the God this is what God, the Lord says, the creator of the heavens who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on it. And from Isaiah 61, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me. And this is exactly the scripture that Jesus quotes.
John Gunter:After Jesus has been led out into the desert to be tempted by Satan, he comes back and he gets to stand before the synagogue and read, and he finds the spot in Isaiah. It says, and he says, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance for our God to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. God's plan then is no longer to, anoint kings in the way that they had been anointed before. God's plan now is to anoint a messiah, which again means anointed one.
John Gunter:The one who is to come and who is to set all things right, and he is this person is to do all of these things that God sees as important and to do them correctly. Did you notice that? When he judge when he judges someone, he doesn't judge with what he sees, because that's deceptive. We hide things from each other, don't we? He doesn't judge with what he hears because my goodness, how would we all be judged if only we judged off of what we heard?
John Gunter:But he judges correctly. He does the will of God perfectly, and what we are tasked with is getting on mission with this messiah. And I believe, and I hope we as a church believe, that when we meet Jesus, when we come into contact with the Messiah, we cannot walk away not being changed. That when I come into contact with with Jesus and I come into contact with the truth of God's word, that I cannot walk away saying, I'll just stick with what I've got. And we are a church that believes in the power of God's mission, that we believe in the power of God's anointed one who was sent for all of us to die on the cross for all of us to come and make things right for all of us.
John Gunter:We don't meet Jesus and tell Jesus what he's supposed to be concerned with. We meet Jesus, and we have to decide whether or not we're gonna get on board. That God, I see what is important to you. That I see how you want to do all of these things, and I wanna be a part of that, and that's called being a disciple. What we have a lot of times, and I think what we may be pressured towards or feel like we need to do is sit and listen, or just read and agree.
John Gunter:But when we come into contact with God and his word and his son, we have a decision to make, don't we? Will I be a true disciple of God? Because I believe if we sit here unaware or unconcerned about the mission of God, we are not serving the mission of God. And so that leaves us with the question, whose mission are we serving? And as we meet in this place and we are surrounded by people who can encourage and help us along the way, that hopefully we are not complacent to the point where we just say, you know what, whatever.
John Gunter:But we are convicted to follow God and to be on mission with him. Next week, what we're gonna do is talk about what it means to be involved in, part of God's mission. We could have done that today, and we would have let out about 12. So I wanted to split it into two parts here. That's our task as a church.
John Gunter:I'll tell you recently, I have been so impressed with how many different people are getting involved in this congregation. I think what we can feel like sometimes is that, well, we're not where we want to be yet, so we've just got to sit and wait. But what I'm seeing is people saying, you know what? There's a lot we can do right now. How can I get involved?
John Gunter:And maybe you need to be asking that question this morning. And maybe you've been complacent, maybe you have been just going along for the ride, maybe it's just, okay, routine every week. Maybe God is asking you to do more. Maybe God is asking you to look at all the ways you have been gifted. The way that remember we read about how God even pours out his spirit on us to use creativity.
John Gunter:Scripture doesn't try to be exhaustive and say, well, here's all the ways that the spirit of God gifts you. So maybe we need to look at our lives and say, God, what is it that you are doing here with me? What are my talents? What are the ways that I can serve you and your church and your mission? And if we decide to do that, I believe God will use this church in ways we can't even comprehend.
John Gunter:That we'll have to build something very quickly because we have outgrown this space. And I wanna thank you for all the hard work that you guys are doing. But I also wanna pray with you and for you that we are people who are opened up to God's will and God's mission. Would you pray with me? Our God in heaven, God, God, we come to you right now.
John Gunter:Lord, as we have opened up your word, as we've seen, for the way you anoint people, imperfect people, Lord, to do your will. Lord, help us to see this with a light that or convicts us and encourages us. Lord, to step out of our comfort zone and, Lord, to understand that we don't do this alone just like none of the kings did what they did alone. Lord, that you have lavished your spirit out upon us, and that we walk in your power. God, help us to feel that power in what we do.
John Gunter:Lord, help us to walk with a conviction of, Lord, who it is we're serving. Help us to be people who are, Lord, like Jesus, who who you sent, Lord, not to be commanding officer, so to speak, but a a servant, and a suffering servant at that. Lord, help us to be your hands and feet. Lord, convict us when we are going our own way, we're trying to do our own thing. Help us to feel again, Lord, the way that you would have us to go.
John Gunter:Lord, we thank you again for being our God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. We love to pray with you this morning. We love to encourage you if if you need that.
John Gunter:We'd also love to see you baptized and begin that walk with him. We're gonna offer an invitation song. Now Jacob has one picked out. Would you come as we stand and as we sing?