The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit end 41 begin lesson 42

We are Lesson 41, and I have one more question, and I don't think it'll take that much. The question is six in Lesson 41. We'll do that, and then Myles will take over. By what power did the Word become flesh? Any guesses? By the power of God, by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was also involved. Well, yeah, they all are involved. I thought this was pretty much a giveaway question.

I don't think it was because of anything else other than the Holy Spirit working in the Incarnation, all the things, realizing the raising of Christ and all that, all of them are involved. We see this in Luke 135, the angel answered and said to her, this is Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. So again, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and then the child shall be called the Son of God. There's a link there that the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, Christ will be formed in her through the power of the Holy Spirit. So the word became flesh at that point through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's also shown in Matthew 1.20, But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Again, who conceived in her by the Holy Spirit is of the Holy Spirit. So, again, no question how the Word became flesh. We also have it in John 1, 32 and 34.

John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, This is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. Again, this is when Christ is in the flesh, but the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.

And John sees that and recognizes, again, just the association between Christ and the Holy Spirit. Last part is where a write-out says, from these scriptures we learn that our adorable Lord Humanity was due to the power of God through the Holy Spirit. He came voluntarily, became flesh voluntarily, and here we see the share, may we say, of Father, Son, and Spirit in connection with His incarnation. So any other thoughts with that? Again, just relatively obvious by which the word became flesh. Any other comments?

I think it's kind of important to note that all those scriptures say Jesus is the Son of God. And you can't really be the Son of God without being part of the Trinity, you know? Right. Again, fully describing the Trinity too, the triune God, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit, all working together. We see that in the resurrection too, we see all of that. the unity of the three that we see. Different functions they do, but all part of the triune God.

Which, again, when you really try and explain that, it's kind of hard. They're all God, but they're all different. And the Son of God, what is that? Versus the Holy Spirit. me being a water guy. You can see water in three different phases, a solid, a fluid, and a vapor, and a gas. All the same, but three different forms. So that's the geeky way, the engineering geeky way to kind of try in that they're all the same molecularly, but they are in three different forms.

Anything else before we let Miles take over with Lesson 42? I would say that it just isn't another man. It's a brand new man who's different than every other man that's ever been here. You know, God had the principle where like begets like in Genesis, and so everybody that came from Adam was like Adam, and now we have a new man who isn't from Adam.

And he is going to be the one, based on his submission to the Father, that the Father finds all this pleasure in him as a man. I guess that's the thing. I would say, though, he came in the flesh. He's like us in the flesh. Yes, he is. So he's different, but he's in the flesh, and that's the important part, that he came in order to ultimately give the sacrifice for all of us. try to articulate the hypostatic union of a man and God together?

Yeah. Well, and with the Colossians, whatever, you probably know it, but he's fully God and fully man. Right. And there's a guy who was in, I think I've mentioned this before, who Nick works with. Oh, he wasn't God, he was, you know, just in power. But no, fully, read the scripture, it fully says, fully God and fully man. And that's hard to digest. How does that, you know, we as sinful flesh, I don't understand how that works. I mean, you know, you struggle daily with sin in the flesh.

And yeah, he was in the flesh, but perfect. What we're going through today, I mean, they were saying that he was walking, he was filled with the Spirit the whole time he was here. Yes. Yeah, I mean, he's fully God but filled with the Holy Spirit. Which is interesting about him is that he is totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to live. And that's one of the big problems we have as sons of Adam, we fully depend on ourselves to live. And the secret of the Lord Jesus really is the dependence on the Spirit. Yeah, through his fleshly life.

Right, right. You know, and then the interesting part is then, you know, he says it's better for him to leave and for us, because we now have the indwelling. Right. So we have that same indwelling spirit. Right, we do. And so what allowed him to function here should allow us to function here. It should, but I think that's what spiritual growth is really all about, is learning how to be dependent. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, it becomes that thing that faith, you need to believe. And that's what his job is, that we've studied for a year now, is to convince us of what's true about us and convict us of it.

Any other thoughts? Well, I was just going to say one last thought, maybe. You could almost read that passage that Rideout quotes. He says that we learn that our adorable Lord's humanity was due to the power of God through the Holy Spirit. You could read that personally as well, that our new nature, our new man, is totally due to the power of God through the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying, you know. He said it was better for him to leave so we'd have that same power in us.

Right. You know. All right, anything else? Otherwise, we'll turn it over to Miles, and I will shift the camera so you're not just looking at a blank wall. You can see all our smiling faces here. Yeah, it's always fun when I get to teach, because I get to turn the camera around and I get to see everybody that's actually in the room.

Well, we can admit Mike. We can... Yeah, we don't need Mike. We don't need Mike. We can get everybody... Okay, Nick is not going to let me do it. Oh, that's good. Yeah, who's sitting behind Mike? I can't quite... That's Bob. Bob Lockwood. Bob's behind... Okay, yeah. Awesome. Yeah, well, it's... I'm excited about these questions here, Lesson 42. We totally just answered number one and number two with our discussion there.

I figured everybody's been preparing for this lesson, and so everybody had those answers in mind. But question one is, by what power did the Lord Jesus do everything He did when He was here? And then question two is, might one think that our lives are to be lived the same way? So we just gave that the 30-second answer version. We'll expand on those a little bit.

But these are pretty exciting questions, really, when you think about that. You know, we talk about the fact that Jesus Christ is true humanity, united with, you know, deity. And then we are united to that. We are united to Jesus Christ, you know, and we have the same spirit in us. Just a huge and exciting truth.

So we gave a brief answer there to by what power did Jesus do everything. I'll just read the little quote from right out of the book. This is on, I have the print books, it's page 237. Then he says, everything our Lord did as a man was in the power of the Holy Spirit. It was by him our Lord cast out devils.

Through him he offered or presented himself without spot to God. His baptism and anointing set him apart thus to God to accomplish his will." Everything is an intimate connection with the Holy Spirit. So, I kind of wanted to explore a little bit there where Rydell says, his baptism and anointing set him apart thus to God to accomplish his will.

And all throughout the Old Testament, we see this anointing, and anointing was for all sorts of things. We see it for priests, and for kings, and for inanimate objects used in worship. The whole nation of Israel is referred to as my anointed ones. But it always carries the idea of dedicating or setting something apart for a specific use, which kind of matches what Raida was saying there in Jesus' baptism and anointing to accomplish God's will. And then, of course, clearly we have, through the Old Testament, the Messiah was talked about as being God's anointed.

I think it's Psalm 2, verse 2, and then Isaiah 60, verse 1, which Jesus quotes, and we'll look at in a moment. So, I kind of wanted to ask the question, when exactly was Jesus anointed? That's a question for the class. Is it when the dove came down? Yeah, that's a blessing, I think, too. When he was baptized. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it was kind of interesting because I had to, you know, Erido puts that together, his baptism and anointing and stuff. And what's really interesting, actually, I discovered, you know, is that, you know, all four Gospels record the anointing of Jesus. Only two really record the birth of Jesus, and John just kind of gives it the comment, the Word became flesh. But all four Gospels record the anointing of Jesus. And it might suggest to us that the anointing of Jesus is more important than even his virgin birth, right?

So, Courtney already read this scripture here, John 1, 32-34. where John the Baptist is saying that he's seen the Spirit descending as a dove and he remained upon him. And all four Gospels, when they talk about the baptism, refer to the Spirit descending as a dove. All four of them are consistent in that. The Gospel of John there that Courtney read, John uses the phrase, he remained upon him, which I thought was significant.

But what's interesting is that all four Gospels record this event as the beginning of Jesus' ministry. So, Luke deviates slightly in that he talks about this, and then he And then he gives this genealogy, but even the genealogy starts with the words, which when he began his ministry, he was, and he gives this genealogy.

And then he records the temptation in the wilderness as the next event. But all three of the other Gospels record that Jesus was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness. I wanted to read here from Mark 1, 9-13, where Mark records this event and he says, In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came out of the heavens, you are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. Immediately, the Spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness, 40 days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild beasts and the angels were ministering to him.

You get, again, you get the consistent message that the Spirit descended like a dove, and you get this voice from the Father, here where, and we talked about that already, that this, you know, we talked about Jesus being the Son, and it's here at His baptism, and this anointing, that the Father declares Him to be His Son.

And then, and I partly chose Mark because he uses this word, impelled, in the NASB. And, um, not a word we use very often, but it really kind of struck me. The Spirit impelled him. And, um, and it's a really strong word, you know, to be kind of driven or almost forced is, if you look up the, you know, the English dictionary, um, use of the word impelled. And, and so, I just found this really quite fascinating that it was at this point where Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came down upon him, and then he was driven or impelled by the Spirit.

Do you have a comment? I have a couple of questions, Miles. One is, He had a life that he lived for 30 years before he started on his ministry. And, you know, there isn't a lot of discussion in the word about that life. But we know, as we'll see in another question, he didn't sin.

But what I'm after is he came for a specific mission. from the Father and via the eternal covenant. And is every believer, every believer has a specific mission, would you say, in service of the Lord? That's a really good question. That gets the gears turning because if you think about it, Jesus was always God. He was always fully God and fully man.

So it's not as if at this anointing that he suddenly began to live the Christian life, I guess. It's not that at this point he became Christ and began to live the Christ-like life, I guess you could say. But what's interesting is that once this anointing came, he began immediately the fulfillment of a specific A specific role, a specific purpose that the Lord had brought him into the world for.

And then yeah, as believers, what does that mean about us? I wonder if, what I'm thinking is that whether you become a believer as a child or as an adult, I think every single one of us is to serve the Lord in some capacity. And although we're not going to go to the Jordan River and have a dove come down on us still, I like the word impel. I think the Spirit of God impels people to do what he has called them to do.

And a lot of those things are not high profile. You know, it's like Alyssa. Is Alyssa impelled to be a mom? Yeah, I think so. You know, and maybe it changes as your family grows up. I think there's a lot of things within the sphere of where we are and what we do as men, especially in our, what we do as wage earners and to earn a living and support our family. All of that is part of the work of the spirit, I think. And I think sometimes believers think, well, I have to live in the flesh and earn a living and then on Sunday I'll be in spirit. No, it's not like that. The Lord Jesus didn't work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then take the next three days off.

What's the anointing? Do you think we're all anointed? Go ahead, yeah. As I studied this out, I really had to kind of figure this out a little bit. Because interestingly, none of the Gospels, when they record that baptism, use the word anointing, which is why I asked the question earlier, when was Jesus anointed? Because if we just read the baptism event, it says he was baptized, the Spirit came down as a dove, and then, but it's a little bit, you know, I mean, growing up in my Christian experience, we didn't talk a lot about anointing. It just, you know, so what is it?

And, you know, But what I found really fascinating is in Acts chapter 10 and 11, you've got Peter, he comes to Cornelius' house, and he's telling him about Jesus, and he says in Acts 10.38, he says, you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God is with them. So, I found it really interesting.

Peter, you know, in this brief account of what Peter talked to Cornelius House about, he is sure to mention that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power, and then he talks about what he did, you know, so there's this connection with this anointing of the Holy Spirit and power and how he went about doing good and healing and the whole ministry, we would say, of Jesus.

So Peter makes it pretty clear that there's this anointing of Jesus for his ministry and then when we get into, and then of course what's interesting is that in the midst of that sermon the Holy Spirit falls upon those who are listening, and then The Holy Spirit, in the next chapter, where Peter goes back and he's getting in trouble for going to Gentiles, and then he's explaining what happened, and he gives this explanation, and it's in his explanation where it becomes pretty clear. In chapter 11, verse 15, he said, and as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and this is significant, just as he did upon us at the beginning, so that's Acts 2, Pentecost, when the Spirit fell upon them, so he makes that connection for us. And then he says, and I remember the word of the Lord, how he used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

I think it's right there where Peter makes this connection that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is equivalent to anointing. And I think that's what he's doing when he's explaining this event. So would you say that there's a difference, and we've talked about this before, I think it's obvious, there's a difference between being indwelt by the Spirit and being filled by the Spirit. I think the believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you know, I don't think there's any question about that.

But the filling of the Spirit has to do with a specific thing that the Lord would have you do to serve Him. And I, you know, like I say, it's like there was a guy at Holly Hills 30 years ago that was sitting in the pew listening to somebody from a mission group talk about it and that very day he went and joined and left and he's been in the missions ever since. And the Spirit just called him and he knew it and off he went. And you run into others that are like that but then you run into a ton of Christians that I don't know if they're dissatisfied that they don't have enough aggrandizement about what God has called them to do, or they don't think they have a gift, or they don't think this, or they don't... I think every one of us has at least one.

Daniel, were you going to go ahead, or...? Well, so this might be a teaching moment for me. I'm trying to go back to, first of all, Donna's question. Are we anointed? And then I'm learning through Acts and trying to make the connection with baptism and anointing. So my definition for anointing has always been being set apart for a specific task.

And I think that that last portion of it is a little bit different than being baptized. But that might just be my systematic thinking and definitions that I've got stuck in my head. So I recognize that we're all baptized with the Holy Spirit. So we've been identified through baptism. But I'm curious about, you know, Jesus wasn't anointed until much later in his life. And that's when it got specific.

And so I think there's a, I don't know, I'd have to go back and kind of rethink what you just mentioned there, Miles, in terms of Acts 10 and 11. But, you know, I think the word anointing is a little bit scary for more of the conservative evangelical side of Christianity.

We know that there's a lot of funky stuff out there that goes on, however, If we're defining anointing as being set apart for a specific task, I think, what is that specific task for a believer after Pentecost for us? So J.D., following up on that, the anointing, is that when we believe? And are we anointed by the Holy Spirit at that point? Or, you know, going back to Mike, do we have special filling now?

I don't know. I got scared of that word. Right, that's where I'm kind of like, you know, we're totally indwelled, full power of the Holy Spirit indwells us the minute we believe. And so, you know, what is the anointing? Then it kind of went back to his original question is, you know, do we have a specific mission? And I don't know if there are specific missions, you know, and a couple of things, you know, again, I think To me, the anointing is probably at our acceptance of the Lord, because that's when we're set apart, we have the indwelling, and then I go to the gifts. Each of us has a gift at least, if not multiple, and they may change over time, so I don't know a specific mission. You know, I don't think there's a specific way. He may use you at a certain time for certain, you know, helps or, you know, then teaching at some point and, you know, different use of the gifts. I don't know if it's specific and whether you have a different anointing at the time that you suddenly start teaching or you, you know, whatever.

So, I go back to Ephesians 2.10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so we would walk in them. That's not specific.

We could have a lot of different tests. Yes, I think that's, Les is talking to me over here on the side, and we're kind of thinking the same thing there, Courtney, that obviously there is baptism and eternal identification with the Lord. That's permanent. Being set apart to him is one aspect of having been identified with him.

But I think that there, you know, if we're going to use the term anointing as being God setting us apart for a certain task. Then those tasks change, right? Mike, you know, you were a realtor, and you became a believer, and you got involved in learning, and then you ended up teaching, and then you ended up becoming an elder, and then you ended up, you know, so we all, you know, we were missionaries in Canada for five plus years, and Les is a homeschooling mom right now, and there'll be a different task that she'll be set apart for with the gifts that she's been given. And so, you know, I kind of see that as a very active thing.

I mean, if we're trying to relate ourselves to the Lord Jesus in terms of how he was anointed for his task, that's a tough one. I'll have to think on that a little bit further because that was very, very specific and it was a one-time mission, so to speak.

He was anointed to do the work of the Messiah. Yeah, that was his purpose. And his agreement with the Father in the eternal covenant, and he had to be anointed to do what he did. You know, I think without the Spirit of God he wouldn't have been able to accomplish it, he wouldn't have.

Well, the other thing that's running through my mind too is that Christ was fully God, fully man. So, we're baptized into Christ at the point of belief. Yeah. Did Christ ever have a moment where he didn't believe? No. So, if there's this one specific time where he baptized for the path that he was taken to the cross. Right. But he was kind of unique in that way. He never had a point that I can think of that he decided to believe that who God was, you know, or it's different. How did he know that today was the day we're going down to the river? Yeah. You know, we're going to run into John. Well, he and John knew each other. They were cousins. You know. Didn't the Holy Spirit direct him? Yeah. See, I think he did.

And as far as Donna's question about what are we anointed But looking here in 1 John, and he's writing to his children, and he says, in 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. And then further on, he says in verse 27, as for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as this has taught you, abide in him. So were we anointed when we believed? Yeah. Yeah, I had that verse right next to my notes because I asked the question and my notes said, are we waiting for some special anointing for power? And I think we've been anointed.

You know, I think we have been set apart, and I think the reason that the word baptism becomes this term, this thing in the New Testament, is because it's our baptism that identifies us with Christ. And in the same way that we're identified with His death, His burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, you know, if He has been anointed for a specific task and we are united to Him, well then we're united to Him in that task. That's exactly it, right?

I mean, right now the body of Christ is being built up to fulfill the task of the Christ. That has a purpose right now during the church ages, the building of the body and so forth, but it has an eternal purpose that goes on into eternity. Because Jesus Christ's task is an eternal task. His ministry is the eternal ruling of this creation from His throne in Jerusalem.

And we are participants in that. So if we have been brought into that, then we have to have the same power. We have to have the same power behind everything that we do, which is the same anointing that he received. Would you say, Miles, that the original, whatever term you want to use, anointing or baptism for every believer, based on what you just read, is the fact that we have the capacity from the Spirit to learn of Christ and who He is, We see, we can see things that the non-believer doesn't see. And that would be the Spirit working in each one of us to show us the wonders of Christ. And in that process comes, I like the word, I like the training, the word training, where the Spirit of God is Training us for something that he has in mind down the road, you know And it seems like we're always being prepared for the next thing and you don't know really what the next thing might be Yeah, it's always the next thing Yeah, what's really cool about what you just said is that if we again kind of being a little bit semantic here but We're set apart at salvation for a specific task.

What is that task? That task is to behold who we are in Christ. It is to grow in dependency. Your task is to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit with whatever you do. And those things will change over time, right? But you're set apart for the task of beholding who you are in Christ. And that's an eternal task that is in conjunction with the Lord Jesus himself.

Is that a fair way to summarize what you just said? I would say, J.D., that maybe it's just to behold Christ himself. And the reason I say that is that the Lord Jesus said, I never do anything of myself. In other words, I'm not beholding myself in the Father. I just do what I see him doing. It's really with us, it's Christ in us.

We do what we see him doing, maybe is a better way to say it. We get to be involved in it. That's the cool part is that there is that unique personality that Mike Doyle has that's kind of annoying sometimes and really great. Sometimes. We've been talking according to that. As I was preparing for this lesson and Alyssa and I were talking about it, we said that exact same thing, not that Mike is annoying, but that it's so neat to see that there are unique individual personalities united into the Christ and how he can do that, you know, and it becomes this amazing diversity within his unity.

But I guess we're getting to time here, but what you kind of said there, JD, about this, you know, bringing our minds back to this thought of beholding him and what is the purpose of What is our purpose? And I was reminded as you're saying that, Ellie Maxwell, back in 1922, set the mission, whatever you want to call it, motto of Prairie Bible Institute as, to know Christ and to make him known. To know Christ and to make him known. And that still is on the sign out in front of the school today, as far off track as they are, it still says it right on the front of their campus. And I really think that is the purpose of the church, to know Christ and to make him known. I don't think we can go too far off track if that's the focus. One last thing. I was thinking kind of jumping on what Davey said.

I think the number one is to be conformed to the image, to have the intimate relationship with him. That's number one. I think everybody jumps on, I've got to serve, I've got to do this, I've got to do that first before The one thing, you know, is to know Him. And I think kind of what JD was saying, I think that's the number one is to know Him, to be conformed to Him and ultimately glorify God. That's the number one thing.

And as we do that, we manifest Christ and then we do the service or the mission or the purposes that He has for us. But the number one thing is to be conformed ultimately to Him and to ultimately glorify God. I think that's the number one thing that the Spirit is, you know, doing in our lives is to conform us to the image of Christ and, you know, to be transformed to have the mind of Christ. You know, then the service and the activities and the workmanship, you know, the things He has for us will be, you know, brought before us for whatever reasons.

How else would you know the direction that the Lord would have you go if you didn't know him? Right. I mean, it's kind of like we put the cart before the horse. A lot of people want to go out and become a missionary once they know the Lord. I'm going to go out and be a thousand different things before they really know the Lord. Sure. And I think number one is establishing Christ in the believer. foundation for all of that.

And he'll, you know, again I go back to Simon, he'll allow us to do that. We'll run out ahead of the cart and get run over by the cart and realize that we're in front of the cart and all those things, you know, all those will, he'll allow us to do it. But ultimately it's to, you know, draw us into the relationship with him and to conform us to him. Great. That's good. Courtney, one, you were saying one thing and we're at time. Gus and I were just kind of chatting off the side here.

To glorify him is the ultimate task, right? And how is that done? It's done by beholding him, getting to know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and his sufferings. Don't forget that part. But ultimately, he gets glorified through the transformation, the conformity that he's doing in each of our lives. So anyway, yeah, we've always got to go back to the dispensational answer of glorify God.

But it really is, and if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, what else is He going to do, right? But glorify Christ. And so I'll leave with the last question, I guess, that I kind of put in my notes here, is that if we're already anointed by the Spirit, are we being impelled by the Spirit? And if we're not being impelled by the Spirit, there's only one other thing we can be impelled by.

I think that's kind of the question to ponder, but let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that we can just marvel at the amazing things that you've done. The fact that you have baptized us, united us to your son, to participate in in this life of Christ that you have set apart for your eternal purpose. And Lord, we pray that you would just impress upon us more fully the magnitude and the wonder of that, and that we would just behold behold Jesus Christ and all that He is, and that you would impress upon us more fully the truths and the reality of who He is, and that you would conform us to that likeness, and that in doing so, you would glorify yourself, glorify your Son, Jesus Christ, by what you do in us. In Jesus' name, amen.