The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on December 4, 1983. The title is, The Anointing Spirit, and the scripture reference is Matthew chapter 3, verses 1 through 12. 

The great theme of Advent is repentance. repentance in preparation for the coming of Messiah. He comes as the Holy One, and we who are not holy need to be ready to meet Him, and we get ready through repentance.

The season of Advent is primarily associated with the ministry of John, whom we call the Baptist or the Baptizer, because that was his message, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That word, that phrase that we translate, at hand, in Greek has the sense of something just about to happen. It's just about to happen.

You might use that of a wave that is curling just about to break. The kingdom of heaven is just about to happen. And so repent, get ready, for the king comes and you need to meet him, having asked God's forgiveness for your sins.

That's the message, the theme of Advent, But there's another one. There's one that comes particularly in this morning's Scriptures. And I don't know if you could follow a single thread all the way through all three Scriptures.

But I ask that all three be read because this is at least as important. You really can't separate the one from the other. The theme of repentance and this other theme go hand in hand.

But I want us to focus on the other theme this morning. John the baptizer puts it this way. He says, I have come to baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one greater than I, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

There's a similarity there. Two baptisms. Baptism with water for repentance.

Another baptism. Holy Spirit baptism. fire baptism there's a similarity but there's also a difference mine is only preparatory his is the real thing mine is symbolic his is the reality mine is external his is internal mine is a washing away symbolically of sin his is the addition of power do you understand what I'm saying?

the man that we call the Baptist in effect is saying the real Baptist is about to happen. And I'm just a little foreshadow of that. Jesus, the baptizer, is the one that John proclaims.

As a matter of fact, it's interesting. That's the only thing that he says about Jesus' ministry. He alludes to the forgiveness of sin.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But he doesn't explain that. He has nothing to say about Jesus' death, or resurrection, or ascension, or coming again.

He has nothing to say about Jesus buying for us a place in the kingdom of heaven, or opening to us adoption as sons and daughters. He says nothing about life eternal. He says He comes to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

That's His ministry. That's His mission. That's the one that I am preparing the way for.

The real Baptist is about to be here. And his ministry is to baptize you. Not in water, but in the very Spirit of God.

I call that the other theme of Advent. You know what happens immediately after this. Jesus Himself appears and He says to John, I want to be baptized.

And having just said all of that, John is absolutely horrified. He says, you ought to be baptizing me. And Jesus says, that's okay.

It is appropriate that I do this in order to fulfill all righteousness. And Jesus submits himself to John's water baptism. And you stop and think about that, and of course that really doesn't make any sense at all.

Because it's a baptism for repentance, and Jesus didn't need to repent. It's a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and he had no sins to be forgiven. But you see, what's happening here is Jesus is identifying himself with you and me.

It's our baptism that he's undergoing. This became a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis.

I don't know if you've ever read him on the subject, but he makes this interesting comment. He says, you know, a thoroughly evil person, thoroughly evil person couldn't repent. there would be nothing in him that would want to repent and so strangely enough it takes a little spark of goodness a little spark of responsiveness to God to be able to repent which leads to the ironic conclusion that the better a person is the more easily he or she will be able to repent even though from one point of view they have less to repent of which takes him finally to this conclusion that the only person who can truly adequately repent is the one who doesn't need to at all and that's why Jesus was baptized because you and I can't do it right we can't even do that right and so he identified himself with us that even repentance is His gift to us.

And He steps into the waters of the Jordan. And as He comes back up again, it says, Immediately the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove. And the voice of God the Father spoke audibly, this is My beloved Son in whom I am very well pleased.

I want you to get the significance of that, friends. The One whose ministry it would be to baptize people in the Holy Spirit begins His ministry by being Himself so baptized. Did you follow that?

Should I run that past you again? the one who John says it's his ministry to baptize others in the Holy Spirit that's his ministry he does not begin that ministry until he himself is baptized anointed, empowered by the Spirit of God from on high do you ever stop and think about that? up until this time Jesus doesn't have a ministry he's the best carpenter in Nazareth after this time he never again goes back to the carpenter's bench and think about who we're talking about.

This is the eternal Son of God. With the Father equal from before the foundation of the world. God from God, light from light, true God from true God.

Begotten, not made of one being with the Father. Conceived of the Holy Spirit. And yet he didn't begin his ministry until he was empowered by the Spirit from on high.

I wonder if that leads you to any conclusion. If Jesus needed the Spirit of God to baptize Him, to anoint Him, to equip Him, to fulfill what God had for Him, do you think maybe you and I need some help? Need the Spirit of God?

Turn to Isaiah chapter 11. There are lots of passages in the Old Testament that talk about the coming of Messiah. And many of them bear witness to the fact that He will move under the anointing of the Spirit of God.

You remember that Jesus read from another passage in Isaiah when He went to His own hometown and He said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. but I think that this particular passage is probably the principal one that led to John's proclamation about the coming Messiah certainly it's the most startling of the passages that speak about this look at it again there shall come forth a shoot a little branch, a little twig growing up from the stump of Jesse the house of Jesse that's David's father the house of David the king has been cut off. And people said, no way will anybody ever sit on the throne of David again.

It has been utterly destroyed. And Isaiah says, no. No, it looks like that. Looks like it's been cut off never to grow again.

But out of that stump, there's going to come a little branch. A little shoot. A branch shall grow out of his roots.

And listen, listen to what he says about him. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom.

The Spirit of understanding. The Spirit of counsel. The Spirit of might.

The Spirit of knowledge. The Spirit of the fear of the Lord. How many spirits?

Sounds like seven. No, it's not seven spirits. It's a seven-fold spirit.

Those are seven titles, seven characteristics of the Spirit of God. And of course you know the number seven is perfect, complete. He's complete in Himself.

He is all the equipment that Messiah will need. Messiah will carry out His ministry under the empowerment of this sevenfold Spirit of God. By the way, it explains a very cryptic remark in the book of Revelation.

In Revelation 1 and again in Revelation 5, it speaks of the seven spirits of God. And you scratch your head and you say, I don't understand, I thought there's only one spirit. Yeah, there is.

Seven fold. We're coming into the season of Hanukkah. And if we had a menorah up here instead of those two candles, I might light that seven branched candelabra with one taper.

How many fires would there be? Seven? Are you sure?

One? One in seven places? One Spirit of God sevenfold?

And this is the one under whose anointing Messiah will carry out His ministry. What I'm trying to say to you is that you cannot separate the ministry of Jesus from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You can't do it.

You can't do it. John knew this because he knew the Scriptures. And so he proclaims, I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the sevenfold Spirit under whose anointing He operates.

And you see the implications of all of that. Jesus doesn't teach out of His own wisdom and understanding. Do you know that?

He teaches as the Spirit gives Him wisdom and understanding. He doesn't counsel out of his own best insight or his own gut reaction to something. He counsels as the Spirit of God gives him counsel.

He's victorious in every circumstance, not because of his own power, but because of the might of the Spirit of God resting upon him. It's not his own knowledge that guides his decisions, but that that the Spirit gives him. And even his own reverence for God the Father is anointed and empowered by that of the spirit of fear, the spirit of reverence of the Lord.

So the next verse says, He shall not judge by what His eyes see. He shall not decide by what His ears hear. He's going to judge and decide and minister and move and operate and work miracles according to the anointing of the Spirit of God.

That's the Messiah that we're proclaiming. That's the Emmanuel who comes to Israel. That's the one that John says will come after me.

And I'm not worthy to unloose his shoes. And I'd put it to you this way. This may be a shocking way to put it, but I think it's absolutely accurate to say that Jesus not only doesn't make it as a man, He doesn't even make it as the God-man, apart from the Spirit of God coming upon him and enabling him to make it, to be and do what God calls him to be and do.

You begin to get the picture. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. That's how you're going to be Messiah.

That's how you're going to save the world. And you say, well, that's all very interesting, but what does it have to do with us? Well, Romans 15.

It was summed up in the last verse that we read together. Verse 13. Paul says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The key to the Christian life is the anointing of the Spirit of God. And the whole story is that what Jesus came and experienced in Himself, He then would pass on to anybody else who would receive it at His hands. He comes to baptize you in the Spirit.

That you're not going to rely on your own wisdom and knowledge and understanding. You're not going to counsel out of your own gut reaction. You're not going to try to get the victory in your own strength.

What he came and experienced, he wanted to pass on to anybody who would receive it at his hands. The next verse, we didn't read this, but verse 14, translated by Williams, reads this way, As far as I am concerned about you, my brothers, I am convinced that you especially are abounding in the highest goodness, Richly supplied with perfect knowledge and competent to counsel one another. That's where J. Adams gets the title of his book, Competent to Counsel.

What's he saying? You are equipped by the Spirit of God to counsel, to support, to minister to each other. You have perfect knowledge in the Spirit of God.

A couple of weeks ago we were talking about strengthening the pastoral ministry at this church. and that does involve adding additional staff. But that's not the whole story.

We're talking about every single one of us and the body moving corporately into a deeper anointing that the Spirit of God might equip all of us just as He equipped Jesus to carry out whatever ministry is needed. That's the vision that we have for this church. That this One who came in the power of the Spirit would pass on that same power to each and every one of us and we would open our lives to receive what He has for us.

So many folks say, I've got Jesus. Praise God. I've got salvation.

Praise God. I've got my sins forgiven. I'm going to heaven.

Praise God. What about the Holy Spirit? Well, I'm not too sure about Him.

One of the men I met at that first Soma conference, you've been hearing about the one that was just held in Africa, the first one that was held in England, I met the Bishop of the New Hebrides. Ever hear of the New Hebrides down in the South Sea? And he had a conference center.

You could only get to it by boat because it was on a little island. And he called all of his clergy. He said, you're coming to the conference center.

Took them there by boat and sent the boat away. so you don't come back until they all get it they all got it I'm sort of tempted to lock the doors don't be afraid of this spirit of God some of us really have been resisting the spirit of God I don't want to speak in tongues I don't want to do those oochie goochie things you'll never speak in tongues if you don't want to speak in tongues God is a gentleman he's not going to force that on you but you'll never be what God wants you to be if you draw a line and say to the Holy Spirit thus far but no farther we just sang together pour out your spirit on us and that needs to be our prayer the great message of advent is not just repent you got to do that you got to repent clean up your act ask God to help you clean up your act but it's not just negative fill me with your spirit let me be as a little Christ the anointed one that's what it means what do you think Christian means? It means the anointed ones.

The little Christs. Fill me with Your Spirit. I'm available to You.

Minister to me, through me, in whatsoever way You want to. To the praise of the name of this Lord Jesus. Let's bow our heads together.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, how astonishing it is that You waited until God's perfect time and did not presume to do anything in your own strength, but only as He empowered you. Lord, we confess that we need that same empowering, that anointing, that filling of your Spirit, and we ask you that each one of us in his or her own way would like Jacob of old wrestle with You until You bless us. That we'd refuse to settle for anything less than all that You have.

That You'd take us individually and corporately and make us a people of Your Spirit. To the praise of Your name. Amen.