Pastor Joe Fuiten, January 8, 2006
1 "Here is my
servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my
Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not
shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3 A bruised reed he will
not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will
bring forth justice; 4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes
justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope." 5 This is
what God the LORD says-- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who
spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its
people, and life to those who walk on it: 6 "I, the LORD, have called you
in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make
you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open
eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon
those who sit in darkness. 8 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not
give my glory to another or my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have
taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce
them to you." 10 Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of
the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and
all who live in them.
This Sunday is about mission. It is about the mission that Jesus and about
your mission. At some level you must
know that your life is about something.
Not just in the grand scheme of things but in the daily scheme of things
as well. There is always the big picture
but more is important are the daily little pictures.
Paul is very clear about that in Ephesians
in one of the most important passages in the Bible. Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by
works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
But I am ahead of myself. I want to start with the mission of Jesus.
The prophecy of Isaiah 42 said: "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.
When we hear it 800 years later in Luke 3 it says, “And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." The voice of the Old Testament Prophet and the from heaven sound remarkably alike. The prophet Predicted that God would put his Spirit on him, and that is what happened as Jesus prayed following being baptized by John.
We call it Epiphany because for the
first time the public knows who Jesus is.
He is the Son of God and he has a mission.
Jesus had a clear mission. The mission necessitated the anointing. What does the prophet say? I
will put my Spirit on him and
he will bring justice to the nations. Some
people want to have God’s Spirit upon them, period. There is no “and” in their life.
One reason you may lack God’s anointing upon your
life is that you have no sense of a heavenly mission. If you have the mission, God will answer your
prayer for the anointing to get it done.
The text makes it clear that Jesus
had a mission to bring justice[1]
to the nations. He would not be
contentious and cry out in the street.
He would not extinguish the smoking wick. People who were struggling he would not
destroy, even if their flame was only smoldering instead of brightly lit. But in the end, he would render his verdict
and bring justice.
The Spirit placed upon him was to accomplish that
mission. Verses 2-4 express what the
servant of God will do while verses 5-7 express what God will do. It is God who will “make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from
the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
This is the very thing that Jesus said he came to do. He spoke of his mission immediately after
receiving the anointing of the Spirit on the banks of the
I think many Christians take a far
too passive view of ministry. They have
been well taught that we cannot earn salvation.
They know that no good works are effective to get us into heaven. Unfortunately that sometimes gets translated
into a passive attitude toward God. When
they pray, they say “God, use me any way you like. Here I am waiting.” That is fine as far as it goes, it just
doesn’t go far enough. There needs to be
some connection to what God has already asked us to do. He has already spoken about loving God, and
loving your neighbor in tangible ways.
He has already called us to build up our faith through devotional
acts. He has called us to build the church
through our giving, our participation, and through evangelism. We are already sent to take this Gospel to
the whole world.
If we are not going to engage in these kinds of
activities, why would God anoint us with his spirit? There is a relationship between mission and
anointing. In the very last words that
Jesus spoke (as recorded by Luke) he linked anointing with mission. He said, “But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in
As you
think about your mission, don’t avoid the obvious. Don’t avoid the callings of family as a
parent, child, or sibling. Don’t avoid
the neighborhood or the school. Not
every mission is to find the cure for cancer.
Sometimes it is to fill the pothole at the end of the street. Don’t be ashamed of small missions. Life is not about thinking big but about
serving a big God.
Have you
noticed that most people start out trying to become successful? A reasonable number accomplish that. Of those who become successful, a large
number of those find success, by itself, to be inadequate. Their next quest is significance. They want their life to be significant. In the end, they want to do the good works that
God created in advance for you to do.
Most of the time, the good works come disguised as problems that need to
be solved.