Psalm 2, beginning in verse 1:
Why are the nations in an uproar,
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
And then just two verses in Psalm 110, the first two verses:
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
Then let us turn to Matthew 16. We will begin at verse 13.
Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.
Finally, in Acts 2, we will read two portions from Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost: Acts 2:22-24 and Acts 2:29-37.
Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—
This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ: that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:
“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’”Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus Whom you crucified.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
Let us just have a short prayer.
We thank You for Your precious Word. We do not have to go through this world blindly. We have been given a record and an account in history of Jesus the Christ.
And now we pray that, by a spirit of wisdom and revelation, we may see Jesus the Christ.
We thank You for this time together, for being with us through these days. We thank You that the Spirit blows where He wills. We do not know where He comes from or where He is going, but we know He is here tonight to lift up the Son of God.
We ask that this would be done for His honor and glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We are here this week, and for my own responsibility I was asked to share about the King—specifically, the King Who was revealed to us. We share a common desire to see the King, and since He is invisible to our eyes at present, we need revelation to see the King.
As has already been said in a number of different ways, it is by seeing the King that we come to understand the kingdom. It is out of the King that we realize the character, the life, and the perspective of the kingdom before us.
Now, I am interested to know tonight: how many are here for the first time this year? Just raise your hand. Well now, that is quite a group here for the first time. Good.
All right, now I have a second question. How many of you have heard Lance for more than ten years? Raise your hand. Well, that is an even bigger group.
Now this enables me to explain a little something about the kingdom and the King. Let us suppose I take one of you first-timers and one of you old-timers, who have heard Lance a number of times, to Israel on a trip. We go to Jerusalem, and we meet this very nice, young, marriageable guy named Nathan, who says, “Well, let me take you around.”
Among other things, he takes us into this house. We come in and immediately look around, and everything is either blue, purple, or green. Then we notice a menagerie of animals running through—dogs and cats. We hear parrots and cockatoos. Then a mynah bird says, “Would you like some tea?”
We look around some more, and we see a picture of Queen Elizabeth on the wall. Now, the person traveling with me who has heard Lance speak more than ten times already says, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I think we are in the kingdom of Lambert.”
The person who is here for the first time says, “Well, why do you say that?” Because everything here looks like Lance. He likes the color blue, purple, or green. Have you ever seen him wear anything else? He talks about his birds and his dogs, and he loves Queen Elizabeth.
Now, having known Lance, you recognize his kingdom. And having seen Jesus Christ, you have now already discovered everything about His kingdom. You can tell when you are in it.
It has the life of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the light of Jesus, the holiness of Jesus. And that is the kingdom that you and I are to live in today while on this earth. It is a heavenly kingdom, but it is our privilege to be an outpost here on earth of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, our Lord. That is why we need to get to know the Lord so well.
Now, in the first message that I gave on Sunday night, I spoke about seeing the King of glory. Jesus is now in glory on a throne as a King, and we used primarily the life of Isaiah.
In Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw that tremendous revelation of the Lord of glory sitting on His throne. It is a beautiful picture. It was 754 BC when King Uzziah died, and young Isaiah was already a discouraged prophet.
He ministered and preached repentance and revival. He had a heart for holiness and righteousness, and he knew a God of holiness and righteousness. His foremost desire was that the kingdom of Judah could be the kingdom of God, righteously representing the kingdom of God upon this earth.
When King Uzziah died, those hopes were dashed. Isaiah did not know what to do. With a weak king, there could be no strong kingdom.
So he found himself one day on the Temple Mount, somewhere in the temple courts, when suddenly the smoke—perhaps from the incense—seemed to rise and fill the temple. That smoke was transformed before his eyes into a train, a long robe of a King, which caused him to look up to the source at the top of this train.
There was the Lord sitting on a throne. It was as if he had been ushered beyond the Holy of Holies—not to the seat where the ark was, but to the real throne in heaven. No longer were there golden cherubim covering that seat, but living seraphim circling around and saying:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory.
As he watched, glory filled the place, and the very temple seemed to shake at its foundations. Isaiah fell prostrate to the ground—undone, exposed in glory.
Now, of course, you see the message that was given here. It was this: “Isaiah, this One that you now see has always been the King of the kingdom.”
King Uzziah is nothing compared to this King of kings. You have been putting your trust and your hope in the wrong king. You think that this earthly king, even from the line of David, can bring in the kingdom of God. I tell you, look at your real King.
And he saw, and he was undone. As righteous and as good as Isaiah was, his righteousness was now filthy rags. Even his prophecies—he was speaking as a fool, speaking from an earthly perspective. Now he saw the real King, and he was undone.
I love that song that we sing sometimes. It seems somehow to reflect the heart of Isaiah:
When first I saw Him in His glory,
All self-love and glory sank in shame.
Because that is what happens. When first I saw Him in His glory, all self-love and self-glory sank in shame. He was completely undone.
But, of course, we know that actually it was his beginning. The Lord never undoes anybody that He does not already have plans to raise up into a higher realm.
As Isaiah lay there prostrate on the ground before this glorious vision, suddenly he began to hear the Godhead in counsel:
Whom shall We send? Who will go for Us?
The Father says to the Son; the Son says to the Spirit. There is a council in heaven that Isaiah overhears as he lies prostrate on the ground.
Here is amazing grace: this man, undone; this man whose ministry had fallen to the ground; this man whose lips had been unclean—having been cleansed by this coal—had the grace to say:
Here am I. Send me.
What is it in the love of God that causes a servant who has failed to be such a fool as to say, “Okay, Lord, I am ready”?
The same is sort of the case with Paul. On the road to Damascus, blinded by the glory and finding out that it was Jesus Whom he was persecuting, he had the grace to say:
Master, what would You have me to do?
Oh, I hope you know that love of God. No matter that we are unworthy, no matter that we have failed, if He calls, what will you say?
Here am I. Send me.
It was a whole new beginning. The Lord gave Isaiah a commission, and it is under a commission that you receive authority and power.
He was commissioned to go and speak to people who were dull of hearing, who saw but did not see. This is a peculiar malady of saints: to see, but be so familiar that we do not see; to hear, but be so familiar that we do not hear; to have hearts so dulled by self that we are insensible to the moving of God.
God said to Isaiah, “That is who I am sending you to.” He already knew, as a prophet, that he received no good result. But having heard that this was his mission—to speak to this group—he said, “Lord, how long should I do that? A year or two?”
Basically, the Lord said, “Until I judge all of those who listened but did not listen. But wait: your words will find soil among a tenth. There is a stump in the ground that will rise up and need those words that you speak. The stump, the ten percent, will listen.”
They will remember when they come back from captivity. Or they will remember when the Lord Jesus comes to earth—those awaiting the consolation, that tenth encouraged daily by the words of Isaiah. And those awaiting the second coming of the Lord: you are speaking to a ten percent who are ready for this.
So Isaiah began his deeper and wonderful ministry.
I mentioned that from this initial, one-time revelation of seeing the Lord, the King of glory, Isaiah continued throughout the rest of his life to receive revelation about this Lord Whom he had seen on high.
He came to see Him as Emmanuel, the Son born of a virgin. He came to see Him as a Man who comes into Galilee with the government upon His shoulders, with a name: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
He came to see that this King of glory was also the suffering Servant, Who came to bear our sorrows and be wounded for our transgressions. He continued to receive understanding about this God, and he spoke prophecies of such high and great beauty that we still love to read them today.
Based on this, before I go further—that is sort of where I got to on Sunday night—I want to underscore two matters.
The first is the very nature of the revelation of the King. Isaiah saw a one-time heavenly vision of this King of glory that altered his life and changed the very core of his being. But how did he receive the subsequent revelations of Emmanuel, the Servant of the Lord, and so forth?
Were they also ecstatic, transcendent, timeless, spaceless revelations? Were they only in crises? Were they only when he went to the temple? No.
After seeing this foundational heavenly vision, Isaiah continued to see the Lord as the Word of God came to him. Now this is a very important matter for us who live in this day. How are we to see the King of glory and receive ongoing revelations?
We live in a new dispensation. The Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh. Isaiah was a great and notable exception. Most people did not have such a Spirit and did not receive such revelation.
Today, since Pentecost, the Spirit has fallen on all flesh. All believers now have the Spirit. Here is what the Lord does: He takes the Word of God, and the Spirit reveals and makes real to us that Word concerning Who the Lord is.
The important thing to note is that this kind of vision—through the Word, by the Spirit—is just as effective, thorough, and transforming as the vision Isaiah saw.
I say that because I do not want some of you to form an “I wish I were Isaiah” fan club. “Oh, I wish I could have such a vision. Just let me see the smoke—just even the train.” You see, we even want to run after mystical and transcendent experiences.
But here is the age in which we live: the Word of God, when touched by a spirit of wisdom and revelation, presents to us a Jesus in fullness Who is just as glorious as what Isaiah saw. Could I say even more glorious?
Is that not wonderful? That means that there are people sitting here tonight who cannot say, “Oh, I cashed in on a great vision I had back in 1978. I saw something, the lights went on and off, and I felt heat in the room.” They cannot say that, but they can say, “I have seen the King of glory by the Word of God revealed by the Spirit.”
It is just as effective as the vision Isaiah saw.
Let us look at John 3:3 just for a minute. You know how it says, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Let us make it positive: when you are born again, you can see the kingdom of God.
What do you see when you are born again? Do you see the Father’s house? Do you see Mount Zion? Do you see the heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven? What do you see?
As soon as you are born again, you see the kingdom of God. I can tell you the answer: you see Jesus. He is the center and the core of the kingdom of God. This is the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to show you.
Having been born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit has a top-priority commission: to bring us, as we are able to bear it, into all the truth regarding Jesus. He holds nothing back.
I tell you the truth: those who will pursue and study the Word of God—do violence to yourself here you go, study the Word of God. Hey, do some violence here you go. Pray and ask the Lord regarding the Word of God, and see if the Spirit does not open up to you Christ in a fullness that may be even beyond what Isaiah saw.
We are not limited anymore. There are those in the body of Christ, thank God, who are given to visions and who do see wonderful things. And because we are one in spirit with our brothers and sisters, when a brother or sister shares a true vision of Jesus Christ and tells us what they saw, we can enter into that vision because we are one.
Is that not wonderful? There is such a fullness now for us. So do not be Isaiah wannabes. There is a fuller way open before us now, but it takes those who believe and are willing to pursue and to see. Any child of God can see.
A second point that I want to make before we go further is this, because it leads us to what I want to share tonight.
A transcendent vision—you know what “transcendent” means: above time, above space, and beyond us—just seeing a vision of the King of glory is not complete in itself until we see further revelation of its glorious outworking here on earth.
If one were just to see something transcendent, you could call yourself an Indian guru, but you would be of no earthly good.
Isaiah saw this vision of the King in glory, and then he continued to see the glorious outworking of Emmanuel, God with us; the Servant of the Lord giving His life on the cross in time and space.
God wants us not only to see a revelation of our Lord Who is transcendent as King of glory, but also Who is immanent—God with us. Now there is full revelation. It is not just heavenly; it is heavenly and earthly.
Jesus Christ forever laid down this truth: God is to us transcendent and immanent. He is God come down in the flesh. The Lord wants to lead us, but it begins by seeing that King of glory, as Isaiah did.
Now secondly, I want to share another revelation that we need to see. It is just as true, and just as much a revelation, as seeing the King of glory.
Just as we need to see Jesus Christ as the King of glory, we need to see Jesus the Messiah. Just as we need to be under the King of glory, we need to see Jesus the Messiah upon us.
Just as He is transcendent, He is also here with us. That revelation is the revelation of the Messiah upon us.
Now let us look at Acts 2. When we consider this picture and hear Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, what is he preaching? He is preaching this: there is a Man in glory, and He is sitting at the right hand of God.
Peter shows from Psalm 110 that the Lord has said to the Lord Jesus, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” So Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Peter declares that even though the leaders got in an uproar and decided to put Jesus to death, by the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God—you thought you were doing something, but it was something planned—you crucified Him, but God raised Him up.
He Who sits in the heavens laughs and says, “Oh yes, I have now installed My Son, the Anointed One.” Why were you raging? Why were you working out plans against the Lord and His Anointed, His Messiah? Your great plans came to nothing. Now I have installed My Son. This day have I begotten Thee. I have set the Anointed upon a throne in Zion.
Having installed Him at the right hand, Peter goes on to say in Acts 2:33:
Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
He announces that this Spirit of anointing has been poured forth, and you can see it in Jerusalem.
When Peter spoke these final words, they pierced the hearts of those listening:
Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus Whom you crucified.
They were pierced to the heart. You could not have said anything more powerful: Jesus is your Messiah.
Why were they pierced? Was it because Peter gave a great biblical argument? No. It was because everything he said rang true, because they could see the anointing upon these ones.
They knew that when the Messiah came, God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Everybody knew it was the Messiah Who poured forth that Spirit. Here it was poured out upon women, children, and men on the day of Pentecost.
They realized, “This is it, of course. How have we been so blind? How could we not see the Messiah? He was right in our midst, and we could not see Him. We could see, but we were blind. We saw Him do the miracles, but we never added it up. We never understood it.”
Now Peter said, “He is in the glory. He is the Anointed One, and He has poured forth that which you see and hear.” And they said, as those undone, “What shall we do?”
Could I put it this way? In one sense, they saw Isaiah’s vision by the Spirit right in front of them.
Many people were saved that day, but I do not want to go further into that. I want to ask a question: as Peter was preaching the Pentecost message, was he standing there seeing the heavens open, the smoke filling the temple, and Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father? Was he having an ecstatic vision as he spoke?
We cannot say for certain that he did not, but it does not appear that he did. Later, Stephen did see something like that at his martyrdom. But it does not appear that Peter saw that.
What we see is this: before this day ever came, Peter had a revelation. What was that revelation? Back in Caesarea Philippi, it was this:
Thou art the Messiah.
Peter and the disciples could not add it up either. They knew Jesus was a rabbi, but greater than a rabbi. They knew He was powerful, but when He stilled the sea, they said, “Who is this Man?” When He fed the five thousand, they did not know what to think.
Finally, after walking with Jesus for two years and being alone with Him, Jesus asked point-blank, “Who do you say that I am?” Finally cornered, the Father revealed to Peter:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Peter saw that this was the Anointed One. This was the King, the Anointed One. Messiah and King are the same to Israel.
But on the day of Pentecost, Peter not only saw the Anointed One Whom he had seen at Caesarea Philippi; now he saw the Anointing One.
I hope you can translate that into Chinese, dear brother who is trying. The Anointed One is also the Anointing One.
He is not only anointed in Himself, having the anointing of the Spirit upon Him:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
Jesus spoke this at the beginning of His ministry. But now the anointing oil fell down from His throne in heaven upon the church, and the church was anointed. There was a fullness of revelation in seeing the Messiah.
Now let us talk about Messiah for just a minute. I know most of you could teach me about Messiah, but there are younger people here, so let us explain something.
In the days when Jesus walked the earth, teachers and rabbis talked about the Messiah all the time. There were different theories about where He would come from and Who He was.
There were basically two schools of thought. Some were waiting for a political Messiah, one who would be greater than Alexander the Great, greater than Julius Caesar. He would free Israel from the bondage of Rome and set Israel free, full of political power and at the center of the world.
It was a very patriotic vision—sounds like an American kind of dream, you know? They were waiting for this man to come with great sagacity, great wisdom, as a tactician, a warrior, and a great king—greater than David, from the line of David.
Others were more mystical. They were looking for an apocalyptic return of the Messiah upon the clouds with great glory, angels coming down, and the Messiah destroying the earth, judging the kingdoms, especially Rome, and taking over as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now, you can talk all day about the Messiah. Christians could have talked all day about their theories of the Messiah, and it would not have done anything. But one thing made it inexcusable: they crossed the line when they gave the Messiah a name—a specific Person.
It was no longer a theory. Jesus is the Messiah.
You understand that the word Messiah, Mashiach, means “Anointed One.” How many times do you have the word “Messiah” in your Old Testament, for those of you with an English Bible? Many English Bibles have it twice, both in Daniel 9. That is it.
But many times you have the verbal form, “anointed one.” David and the kings from David on were usually called God’s anointed, because the king was anointed when he became king. Priests were anointed when they became priests.
As Israel declined as a nation, and as its kings became compromised—half Jewish, in league with Rome, and all such things—a desire arose in the hearts of God’s people for an Anointed One Who would be an anointed Priest, an anointed Prophet, and an anointed King.
He would come and establish an anointed reign. This was the idea of the Messiah.
You could have whatever theory you wanted—no problem. But when you say the name, “Jesus the Messiah,” then an anointing comes down.
That is why in the Book of Acts you see it continually talking about the name. We have the name. What is the name? Put Jesus next to Messiah, and the anointing comes—poured out with healing power and preaching conviction.
You put Jesus and Messiah together, and everything changed. So they began to preach this kind of Jesus.
Today, in the church, this idea of the Messiah is being lost. You notice how Lance, when he speaks on Jesus the Messiah, even when he has “Jesus the Christ” in his Bible, still says, “Jesus the Messiah.” We may think it is because he is Jewish.
But actually, I believe at the heart of it is that we have fallen asleep. “Christ” means nothing. Christ is now Jesus’ last name.
No, no, no, I am serious. I think, without thinking about it—and forgive my irreverence—people kind of think Mr. and Mrs. Joseph and Mary Christ had a child and named Him Jesus Christ.
So when you hear “Jesus Christ,” it does nothing. Nothing hits you. It does not mean anything. It has lost its root meaning: Jesus, the Anointed One.
A further reason it has been lost is because we are preaching the gospel today, for the most part, without a kingdom context. As soon as you say, “Jesus is the Christ,” it should mean that He is the King of your kingdom.
We have lost the whole kingdom thing. So what would a Christ do anyway? Even if you knew about anointing, the kingdom context has been lost. What a shame.
Also, much of the church has lost the sense of present anointing. Let me make a couple of broad statements and try to clarify some things, because we want to see a revelation of Jesus the Messiah.
Just as Peter needed a revelation, do you think you can just know it by knowledge? Or do you need a revelation of it?
Here is one statement: there can be no kingdom-living testimony without an anointing upon us.
We can say we are the kingdom. We can say we live in the kingdom. We can talk about the kingdom, and thank God we are part of the kingdom. But if we do not have an anointing upon us, we are not a reality. We are talking a position, but not a reality.
It should be clear to us if we simply listen to what Jesus said to His disciples: “Tarry in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” You cannot be kingdom servants without being clothed with power from on high.
In Acts 1, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the baptism in the Spirit. He said, “You will be baptized not many days from now.” One of the disciples asked, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus answered, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons” of something future. Here you go: you want to know the kingdom? “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses” of the kingdom now—in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
We do not have to wait until Jesus comes back for the kingdom to become a reality. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and now you are living in a kingdom reality. Why? Because the Anointing One is upon you.
So have we really seen Jesus the Messiah?
Here is the problem: this is not a mystical experience. We might say, “Oh, I saw the King of glory high and lifted up, above time and space, eternal in the heavens. I saw the King in a vision. Wonderful.” I hope you have several of those, especially if they are really life-altering.
But have we seen a vision of Jesus the Mashiach—Jesus the Anointing One, Jesus the Anointed One? Have we seen it? It is not mystical.
I do not think we can say, “Ah yes, I remember when I was filled with the Spirit. There I was in 1979, and I got filled with the Spirit. I felt the wrinkles all over my skin, I felt the love of God, and I began to prophesy or cry. Oh, I remember 1979. So wonderful.”
No, no, no, no, no. Is the Messiah, the Anointing One, here now? Never mind 1979. How many people do you know who got filled with the Spirit in 1979 and there is not a drop left? Where did the Spirit go?
You remember the old Pentecostal church? There was a woman who came down at every revival they ever had. She would come running down to the altar with her hands up in the air: “Lord, fill me, fill me, fill me!” Year after year, and finally one time, as she did it during a revival, one of the people cried out, “Don’t fill her, Lord—she leaks!”
When we look at the Book of Acts, we see, simply put, that the anointing is evident in two ways upon the servants of the kingdom.
The first is that when Christ is upon them, very present upon them, they have power—an enablement to serve, even supernatural power.
You remember when Peter healed the lame man at the temple. People began asking, “What happened? What happened?” Peter said, “Do you think I did something? It is the name—Jesus, the Anointed One—that this man stands well.”
There is present power and anointing. Jesus said at the inauguration of His ministry in Nazareth, quoting Isaiah 61 as recorded in Luke 4:18:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor,
To heal the brokenhearted,
To release the captives.
This was His anointing and power as the Anointed One. The inaugural testimony of the Anointing One is when Peter says in Acts 2:33:
Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
I added the word “anointing.” From that day of Pentecost, the anointing was upon the church.
When the church gathers, there is an anointing for the gathering. Let us not be too supernatural about it; that does not mean sparks are flying in every meeting. But there is life—real life—a sense of the Lord among us when we gather for breaking bread or prayer.
There is that anointing upon us. We recognize that He is our anointing.
If we are witnessing, it is not that every time we witness somebody gets saved. But whenever you go out and witness for the Lord Jesus, there is a strengthening in your own life that results, even from persecution. The Lord somehow confirms by the Holy Spirit that which you have done.
In other words, you witness to somebody, and then the Holy Spirit starts to witness to that person.
In our own personal lives, when the anointing is upon us, there are rivers of living water. There is life. The Revised Standard Version calls it, in one place, “aglow with the Spirit.” You can see something in the life of somebody upon whom the anointing is.
Before we get too excited about this as if that is exactly what we want, let us remember that this is also a powerful anointing to wait. How much power does it take for us to pray and wait?
Here is another powerful one: the power in martyrdom. Think about the Book of Acts and what happened with Paul and the different brothers.
This was the power upon Stephen that so upset Paul. Instead of shrieking and yelling, Stephen saw a glorious One standing ready to receive him in heaven. There is an anointing for persecution.
How did Paul make it through all those persecutions? There is an anointing. Even the Lord Jesus was the Anointed One by the Holy Spirit.
The second thing we see in the Book of Acts is that when there is an anointing, there is something to follow. There is direction. There is leading.
It is as if you are moving in a phalanx of protection. You move through the world, through things that are even impossible, but somehow you get through. There is protection, provision, and direction.
When you look back, you say, “That had to be the Lord.” When somebody is being led by the Anointed One, there is a movement whose timing is God.
So much of what is done today in the name of Christ is done out of time, out of sync, by our own resources—unprotected and unwise.
But a real anointing is not only an anointing of power; it is an anointing of leading. We sense the Lord saying, “Go there,” and it is just at the right time. Such is the case with the children of God following the anointing of the Anointing One.
Let me give you an example in your mind’s eye. I cannot help but think of our young brother Timothy, minding his own business out there in Galatia, when Paul and Silas came by on the second missionary journey.
They had heard about this young man as they came into Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. He had a good reputation. I do not know exactly why—the text does not exactly say—but I am sure he was clear in his conversion, clear in his testimony, and righteous because he had been instructed by his Jewish mother and grandmother.
Perhaps he could take the scrolls and explain them to the saints. Do not think that Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium were formal churches where everybody drove in on Sunday, drank grape juice, and had the regular preacher there. No, no, no. Every Sunday was a new invention: “I wonder what is going to happen today?”
Young Timothy obviously had some gift—perhaps teaching from the scrolls and explaining them. Maybe he could read Hebrew and explain what the Old Testament said. There was no New Testament.
People said, “My, my, my, there is something there.” So Paul and Silas came along, saw this young guy, and said, “You. We want you to come with us.”
Up to that time, Timothy loved his mom and grandma’s cooking. Then Paul said, “First of all, he needs to be circumcised.” What? “Yes, because we are going among Jews. You need to be circumcised.” Oh boy, this sounds like fun.
Just think about it. Paul and Silas take this young kid out—I do not know how old he was—and they start to travel. The first thing Timothy sees is what anointing really looks like. Look at Paul. Look at Silas.
He hears them preach along the road, personally witnessing, speaking in marketplaces as they go from place to place. “My, my, my. We were just talking about that Scripture from the scrolls this morning, and here is Paul preaching on it with full revelation this afternoon.”
Then they get to that certain section where the Holy Spirit prevented them from going south and prevented them from going north. There was a whole lesson in leading. They wanted to go this way; they wanted to go that way. But the Spirit of Jesus prevented them.
Timothy is just watching. I do not know how much information Timothy gave the boys. I think it was pretty much up to Paul. Paul said, “Well, let us press on to the west then. What else can we do?”
Then Timothy is there when they are praying, and they see the Macedonian vision. Imagine that. Timothy is two months out of the stocks, and he is already seeing this.
Based on that vision and the leading of the anointing, they cross over into Europe and begin preaching in Philippi. The next thing you know, Paul and Silas are thrown in jail. Timothy was not thrown in, but you know he is listening outside.
Suddenly he hears these two men overflowing with Jesus, singing hymns at midnight. Whoever heard of prisoners doing such a thing? Then came an earthquake. Woo! God is sure leading here.
Then they go on to Thessalonica. In just a couple of weeks, Timothy sees a church coming together built on Jesus Christ in great persecution. Jewish antagonists come, throw Jason in the stocks, and force Paul and Silas out of town.
They flee to Berea, and there they meet beautiful people who love to study the Word of God. They are studying and studying, but Jewish antagonists come again. Paul says, “They are after me. I am going to take off. Tim, stay.”
Timothy got the feeling that Paul was his dad. Now he was with Uncle Silas. Uncle Silas was not quite as good. Anyway, Silas and Timothy stayed for perhaps six months, at least until they got to Corinth, where Paul had moved on.
When Timothy got to Corinth, whoa! People were getting saved in large numbers. People were receiving gifts of the Spirit, and all kinds of miraculous things were happening. The whole city was stirred.
This was a major, decadent city—like New York City—but God was moving. It was amazing. Paul was preaching, and God was moving.
Finally, a rebellion rose up and they hauled Paul before the council. By the prevention and protection of God, the council was pro-Paul. It dismissed the group and said, “Get out of here. This is no charge.”
They continued to work. Paul said, “I received a vision in the night. The Lord says, ‘Do not be afraid. Keep on working.’” So they worked there for another year and a half or so. Then, as far as we know, perhaps Timothy went home and Paul went back to Jerusalem.
I just came back from Russia recently, and I met three pastors who had pastored churches for at least ten or fifteen years. All three had left their churches. Do you know why? A dear sister translated T. Austin-Sparks’ The School of Christ into Russian.
It was the first book in Russian, as far as I know, of Sparks. They read it, and they were slain. They resigned their churches. They are all working secular jobs, praying and waiting to see what the Lord wants them to do. Is that not amazing?
Having said that, I think Timothy may have learned even more than you can learn from reading The School of Christ, because he was in the school of the Anointing One.
For some two years, he saw the leading, the waiting, the preventing, the releasing, the empowering, and the persecution. He learned that the Lord is alive and that He is anointing His people. What a lesson Timothy learned in those two years.
That is the very thing Paul says to Timothy at the end of his life: “Now, Timothy, you remember the school of Christ. Stir up the gift that is within you. Do not allow the spirit of fear to grab hold of you.”
“Serve God and be faithful. Be a good soldier. Pay the price. Keep going. You remember what it is like.” You want to be under the anointing? There is a price to be under the anointing: obedience.
That brings us to the third point regarding this anointing. Having given you those two matters—power and leading—I would not dare take a vote here tonight, but if I asked, “How many of you would like to know that anointing of power and leading?” I think we would get almost ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths percent saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want that.”
Now we come to the most vital point that I have not mentioned yet. Before we can experience the Anointed One as a reality in our lives, there has to be a prior ordering of our lives under the throne.
There has to be something that the Lord does—an ordering of position under the Lord—for that anointing to be real.
I remember when I first came to the conference here. I did not know any of this stuff. I was a young pastor down in Raleigh, North Carolina, and there was a precious group there.
I was visiting one time and talking with one of the brothers. Because I was a charismaniac, I said, “You know what? Jesus is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit.” That was a favorite charismatic expression in those days.
There was a florist in that group, just a man, and he said without skipping a beat, “Yes, but remember where they were when the church was baptized. They were under the throne in one accord.”
That went right into my heart and ruined my whole “Jesus as the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit” routine.
Jesus is the One Who pours out the Spirit upon us, but if we are not together in one accord, do you think, corporately speaking, that He is going to pour out the Spirit with anointing upon us if there is discord, rival factions, and differences that are not worked out?
There is always the kind of rubbing together, but it needs continually to be worked out. If we have all these differences, all this independence, and we are thirty-five independent people meeting on Sunday, how can we come and say, “Oh Lord, give us the anointing?”
We always do pray that, but I am afraid we are not in the right position.
You cannot read the Bible—I do not think you can; show me if you can—and find a servant of the kingdom who is out of position and moving in an anointing.
There is that prior surrender.
Jesus put it this way to His disciples: “Okay, now you know that I am the Messiah.” What was the next thing Jesus said? “Now I am going to Jerusalem. You coming?” Then what was the third thing He said?
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
There is the position. If we are following Jesus but have not denied ourselves or taken up the cross He has given us, what do you think? Is there an anointing?
Here is another positional ordering. He is the Messiah; He is the King, right? “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.” A servant has to be yoked up to know the anointing.
Or, as our brother was sharing last night:
I beseech you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
The Lord loves to anoint the living sacrifice, but there must be a sacrifice.
Servants of the kingdom receive an anointing when they are in position. The church receives an anointing when it is in position. The Mashiach does not mess around on this. He is not going to anoint that which is not one.
For the individual, you will notice in the Scriptures that an anointed one has obeyed a commission and thus has an anointing; or has embraced a calling and so has an anointing; or has received and is bearing a burden and has an anointing under that burden.
Perhaps they have offered a sacrifice and have an anointing. Perhaps they have been entrusted with a stewardship and have an anointing. Perhaps they have received orders and followed the orders, and received an anointing. Or perhaps they were told to make preparations, the preparations were done, and they received an anointing.
We can talk about the King of glory all we want, and about Jesus the Messiah as Jesus the Anointed One. But do we want Jesus to be the Anointing One?
It is a very present reality and revelation for those who are like this.
There is something hard to describe about a servant of God, even one who has an anointing. You notice things about them that are different. They seem to be under the restraint of a vision, or, as Paul puts it, under compulsion.
Paul says, “I am under compulsion. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” It is not something he has any choice about, but it is something for which he received an anointing because he obeyed this matter.
Our obvious example is the Lord Jesus. He said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am straitened until it be accomplished.”
A servant of God—we do not want to overdramatize this—can be seen to be under orders. There is something about them that they have given up for the Lord’s sake.
Like a good soldier, they have not entangled themselves in worldly things so that they can serve the Master and be pleasing to their General Who commissioned them. As an athlete, they are following the rules. As a farmer, they are planting the crops, the seeds.
Jesus wants to be Jesus the Anointing One. How far away is He? The point is that, when it comes to our Messiah, He is as near as our heart and as near as our mouth. He is over His people.
He is the Messiah of the church. But if we do not see it, surrender to Him, and obey Him, why should He give an anointing?
Many of those charismatics during those wonderful, freewheeling, crazy days expended and wasted a lot of what God gave as gifts of grace in fleshly exhibition.
Many people, receiving empowerment and a gift from the Lord, just ran off—not under submission, not under subjection to the Lord, not as His servants—just doing their own thing with God’s gifts.
I do not want you to think that Jesus has any reticence about pouring His Spirit upon His church and pouring His Spirit upon us as individuals. But whenever I see that there is something needing His anointing, I think there is a positional issue—a lack of obedience somewhere.
Perhaps there is something the Lord has asked and we are not doing. Perhaps there is some reconciliation we refuse to make, and then we say, “Lord, please pour out Your Spirit upon us.”
It just is not realistic, because He is the King.
In the simplest servant, we do not have to talk about famous people. In somebody who just knows the Lord’s leading, sometimes in very quiet ways, you sense that they have sacrificed something out of love for Jesus.
The Lord has given His anointing, and they follow and serve in that enabling. It is not necessarily those who can yell the loudest or those who can prophesy with great, great words, but those who truly obey who live under an anointing.
The anointing is not just for powerful times. Even the Book of Acts is something that took place over thirty-three years of faithfulness. The Spirit blows where He wills. We do not know exactly when He comes or where He is going, but as we are faithful, the Lord pours Himself out at perfect times.
And the kingdom moves through the church.
So here we are. It is very simple. Peter said it on the day of Pentecost, and it is still true today: the King has been crowned in glory.
Now He has begun a dispensation of gathering all things together under His headship, both things in heaven and things on earth, even in Him.
That means there needs to be an outpost here on earth representing the kingdom in heaven, and that is the church—outposts all over the world of those who are living by a heavenly rule under His anointing.
The enemy needs to be made a footstool for His feet. This should be going on right now. A bride should be being made ready through all the processes, stretches, tribulations, and blessings of our lives. All these things are going on right now.
The Anointed One in heaven has received the promised Holy Spirit, and now He pours out, as the Anointing One, upon the church to fulfill these things so that He can come back in full glory and full anointing.
He is the Anointing One. He is this close.
I say that the anointing, in one sense, in the reality of it, is not necessarily something that, once you get it, never leaves.
There are people who have known the anointing but have walked away from the Lord. I will not say that the anointing remains with them, although I do see that the Lord continues to deal with people, even those who have stopped dealing with the Lord.
But as to us, perhaps we have been careless about the anointing. Perhaps we have presumed upon the anointing. Perhaps we have not been in position under His throne for the anointing in your life and mine.
Is there a revelation of Jesus the Messiah? When Peter preached his message on the day of Pentecost, he did not have to prove it. It was manifest: the anointing was upon these people.
It cut those who were dry and those who were thirsty to the heart. “What must we do?” Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive this anointing.”
So the church began to grow, and the Lord began to lead in His kingdom, even down to today.
Have you seen Jesus the Messiah—the Anointing One? If you have, there is an anointing upon us. This is a great revelation for us. It is very present and very wonderful.
Have we seen the Anointed King? He is in the midst. There is the good news: He is in the midst.
In Luke 17:21, Jesus was performing miracles, and people began accusing Him of doing mighty works by Beelzebul. Jesus said that people could look around all they wanted for mighty signs and mighty things, but they would not find the kingdom there.
Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
That is how close the anointing is—as close as our bowing before the King and asking, “What is my commission? What is my calling? What is this service You ask me to render?”
Oh, that responsible brothers would steward that with anointing. That those leading Bible studies would steward that with anointing. There is a price to pay to receive a commission and a calling. Something is laid upon our lives, but there is also an anointing to fulfill it.
Do I hear anybody saying, “Here am I. Send me”? Or do I hear us saying, “Oh, I am not worthy. I have got nothing”?
No. By God’s amazing grace, He comes very near and says that His anointing is for us. By faith, we bow before Him.
Whatever task you have been given, however you are a joint of supply in the body of Christ, there is an anointing for that joint. It does not have to be squeaky and dry.
When you realize your calling, your commission, and your joint, take it seriously. Say, “God, I cannot do this without that anointing.” It is there for you. Obey, and He anoints.
He is a wonderful Lord. May we see this as we follow Him.
Lord, we come to You and thank You for the great moment on the day of Pentecost when the anointing was poured out and the Anointing One was seen visibly in the midst.
Lord, we ask that together as assemblies, and then individually as Your servants in this kingdom day, we may understand and learn how to live under the Christ, Jesus the Christ.
How we thank You for that name and all that it releases. How we thank You for all that it binds and all that it looses when Jesus is put together with Anointing One.
We want to know Him in our lives, in the school of the Anointed One. Oh, teach us these lessons, Lord. We do not want to be those who just talk as if this is something from afar, but indeed to be part of that ongoing movement that began in the Book of Acts and continues until You come back to conclude these whole things.
Oh, send Your anointing, Lord Jesus. Send Your anointing, we pray. Find us in position under Your throne, willing servants, ready to do what You have called us to do.
Lord, we pray this in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.