Ministering At The Altar

In our Lesson 6, we studied the Scripture to verify that Jesus was fully God. Yet He did not use His supernatural God-power when He lived and ministered on the earth. Instead, He waited until God had baptized Him with the Holy Spirit before starting any ministry. Then He ministered through God's power, given by the Holy Spirit. Later, after He ascended into heaven, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill and empower His followers. That's why He was able to tell us, in John 14:12-14, that we could do the same works He did - because He gave us the same Spirit that empowered Him.

Luke 4:14-15 says, "And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all" (NASV).

Now why would that be in there? He returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit? Did a lot of people return to Galilee who were not in the power of the Spirit? Did you need the power of the Holy Spirit to go to Galilee? No, people who were not in the power of the Spirit went to Galilee every day. It wasn't a prerequisite to be in the power of the Spirit to make a trip to Galilee. So why is that in there? It's in there so we'd know that's how Jesus operated - in the power of the Spirit.

All you have to do is follow Luke. In chapter three, Jesus was baptized and the Spirit came upon Him. In Luke 4:1, led by the Spirit, He went into the wilderness. Verse 14, in the power of the Spirit He returned to Galilee. When He got home, they gave Him a shot at the daily Bible reading. It happened to be out of Isaiah. He reads this: (Luke 4:18-19) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (NASV).

Luke 4:21-22 continues that story. "He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing'" (NASV). Jesus applied these verses to Himself. He said, "The Spirit is upon Me. He has anointed Me." Once again we see that He never did any public ministry until He was anointed.

Then we follow Jesus in the progression of His life, to see what the anointed life looks like. Here is the pattern for Jesus' life, as He describes it for us in John 5:17-21:

"But He answered them, 'My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.' For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes'" (NASV).

That is the anointed life. The Christian life is a lot simpler than we make it. We want to make it really complicated, but it isn't. Look, see what the Father is doing, and do it. It is three simple steps: look, see, do. So we have this same truth repeated over and over again throughout Scripture.

John 7:15-18 says, "The Jews therefore were marveling, saying, 'How has this man become learned, having never been educated?' Jesus therefore answered them, and said, 'My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him' " (NASV).

John 8:26 says, "I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things that I heard from Him, these I speak to the world" (NASV).

How do we teach? We hear what the Lord is saying, and we say what He says. Once again let me repeat that this is not very hard. In fact, it is quite easy.

John 8:28-29 says, "Jesus therefore said, 'When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him'" (NASV).

Can we see the pattern here? This is the key. This is the anointed life.

Let's say you and I are going to Fresno. We will leave from the same place, but I will drive a car and you will riding a bicycle. You would say, "Hold on! This isn't fair. You're expecting something from me that you're not even doing."

Now for God to give us a command to walk in the Spirit and to do it like He did it, and then to not give us the Spirit, or the Spirit be enough to fulfill all His commands, would not be fair. If Jesus used His deity as the second Person of the Godhead to do the works He did, then in all fairness He could not expect us to do the same works He did, much less greater works. That's why Jesus did everything by the power of the Spirit, the same way He expects us to.

He was completely human. His sacrifice on the cross was real. His pain was real. His temptation was real. When He cried out to God, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" that was a real cry from His soul.

The Gnostics in the first century taught that God could not suffer pain, that God could not be flesh, God could not be tempted, God could not sin. They had developed an entire theology that John had to dispute in his letter (I John). The emphasis here is that Jesus played by the rules of humanity. He was fully human.

Matthew 12:15-21 says, "But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed Him, and He healed them all, and warned them not to make Him known, in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, might be fulfilled, saying, 'Behold, My servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to the gentiles. He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory. And in His name the gentiles will hope'" (NASV).

The word "upon" is a very important word that we will see consistently used when the Word talks about the anointing of the Spirit. Of course, the Pharisees were pretty upset. They were bothered by Him casting out demons.

Matthew 12:27-32 says, "And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come" (NASV).

In verse 28, Jesus lets us know by what power He cast out demons, by the Spirit of God, not because He is the second Person in the Trinity.

There has always been a lot of debate on blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Is it calling Him names, using profanity or vulgarity in reference to Him? Let's allow the word to interpret itself. Jesus was saying in verse 28, "I am not the one who is casting out demons. The Spirit of God is casting out demons. However, you can say about Me what you want to say. You can blaspheme Me all you want, but don't mess with the Holy Spirit." (My paraphrase.) What they were doing was attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil.

Attributing to the devil the works of God is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If I'm taking a stand and giving credit to the devil when it's really the Holy Spirit doing a thing, I'm blaspheming the Spirit. I'm calling the Holy Spirit a devil. That's what this passage is saying. To me it's a very dangerous thing to begin labeling things that you don't understand when those things could very well be the Spirit of the Lord. Before you say it, print it, or speak it publicly, you had better be sure it's the devil. I do think God compensates for those who are just stupid. If you're just ignorant in that area, I believe God has a lot of grace. But if you pursue it like a hound dog and close your ears to hearing the Lord in that area, you are in big trouble.