Certain Eternity Part 23 – The Knowing Anointed
1 John 2:20, 24-27 March 30, 2025
Introduction
If everyone would close their eyes for a moment, I want us to imagine standing in
the middle of a giant stadium. You hear the crowd roaring around you as you
prepare for a race. You feel the spring in your step as you walk on the racetrack
along the perimeter of the field. The warmth of the sun hits your face and the
gentle breeze of the wind is at your back. The smell of the grass infield mixes
with that of your own perspiration as you prepare for your race. You can almost
taste the stadium food as its smell wafts down to you from the stands. And even
though you can hear, feel, smell, and taste all of these things – you see nothing
because you are blind. Yet despite that blindness, you have a race to run.
You can open your eyes. It is the 2016 Paralympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and
a man by the name of David Brown, an American sprinter who is almost
completely blind – only able to see vague shapes in bright light – is about to run
his race. As you can probably imagine, since I’m telling you this story, David
Brown, who is a strong follower of Jesus, is about to win the gold medal in the
100m sprint, which is incredible; but it’s how David wins that I want us to key in
on today.
Read 1 John 2:18-27
o Focusing today on v20, 24-27
o 2 Points – Anointed, Knowing – with application at the end
Anointed (20a)
1 John 2:20 “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have
knowledge.”
“Anointed” (Gk. chrisma) – literally means that which has been spread on, such
as an oil; this word only appears here and v27 in the NT, and refers to having
received the covering, oiling, or smearing, of the Holy Spirit.
o 12 Corinthians 1:21-22 “21 And it is God who establishes us with you in
Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and
given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
o Elsewhere referred to as the baptism of the spirit:
Acts 1:4-5 “4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to
depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,
which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
now.””(see also Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16)
1 Cor. 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of
one Spirit.”
o John spoke a lot about the Holy Spirit in his gospels and in his letters, and
it is said that because John spoke so much about being anointed by the
Holy Spirit that the Roman Emperor Domitian came up with one of the
ways in which he tried to kill join – to boil him alive in oil. Of course, church
history tells us that the Lord miraculously preserved John from such torture.
Pastor Robert Candlish “This anointing is not a fitful emotion or wayward
impulse, a rapture of excitement, alternating perhaps with deep depression. The
anointing partakes more of the nature of a calm, constant, settled conviction.
Frames, feelings, fancies, are all fluctuating; they are like the surface waters of
the ocean, agitated by every wind. But this inward anointing is far down in the still
depths beneath. It “abides in us;” the same always in its own inherent stillness
and strength, amid whatever tossing its contact with the upper air may cause….
This unction then is not to be confounded with our own varying moods of mind, or
the varying impressions made on us by external circumstances. This anointing is
something far more stable. It gives a certain firm and fixed apprehension of
divine things and persons, which various vicissitudes (fluctuations of our state or
our conditions) can scarcely interrupt or weaken, and cannot destroy. There may
be more or less of the vivid sense of this anointing, at different seasons and in
different circumstances; the signs of it may be more or less clearly discernible,
and the hold we have of it in our consciousness may be more or less strong.
Nevertheless the anointing “abides in us;” keeping God and eternity still before
us as realities, in our sorest trials and darkest hours…”
Important points:
o Anointed by the Holy One (v20)
That is, Jesus (Holy One of God, see Mark 1:24 (by unclean spirit),
John 6:69 (by Peter), Acts 2:27 (by Peter quoting Psalm 16:10) and
the Father (Holy One of Israel, see e.g., Isaiah 1:4).
Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of God the Father (see e.g.,
Romans 8:9) and the Spirit of Jesus (see Acts 16:7)
John 14:26 “26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 16:13-15 “13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you
into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but
whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things
that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine
and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I
said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
o Anointed Once
Exodus 30:30-32 “30 You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and
consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. 31 And you shall
say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil
throughout your generations. 32 It shall not be poured on the body of
an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in
composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.”
In the OT, oil always symbolized being set apart for service to
the Lord and being made holy by Him for that service. It was a
physical representation of the work of Holy Spirit upon that
person.
Kenneth Wuest “This anointing is never repeated. The OT priests
were anointed with oil just once, when they were inducted into their
office [this was the same for kings and prophets]. The NT priest is
anointed with the Spirit just once, when he is inducted into his office
as a priest (when he is saved). This anointing is only potential. That
is, in itself it offers no help to the believer. The help the saint receives
from the Spirit is through the fullness or control of the Spirit (see Eph.
5:18), which control is consequent upon his yieldedness and trust.
The anointing is for the purpose of placing the Holy Spirit in a position
where He can be of service to the believer, namely, in the saint’s
inner being (see Eph 3:16).”
o Anointed for Growth (v24-27)
Abide (x5 in v24-27) and there will be good fruit
John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in
me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you
can do nothing.”
Internally (fruit if Spirit) and externally (God glorified and souls saved)
Knowing (20b-21)
1 John 2:20 “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have
knowledge.” or, more literally, “you all know everything”
“Know” (Gk. eidō) – to have intuitive or innate knowledge [as opposed to
experiential knowledge (Gk. ginōskō) which we have previously studied (see
2:18, earlier in chapter)], which is given by the Holy Spirit.
Remember that John is writing, in large part, as a polemic against the proto-
gnostics who claimed to have secret knowledge that one could receive and
transcend to divinity.
o John is encouraging them to stay true to what they have already been
taught and reminding them that they have no need of any man to teach
them secret knowledge because they have the Holy Spirit to lead them into
truth.
From verse 2:18 onward John uses a mix of innate knowledge from the Holy
Spirit (eidō) and experiential knowledge from walking with God
(ginōskō)…sometimes he puts them right next to one another (see e.g., 1 John
2:29, 5:20).
The point of this version of “know” is that John is not teaching new truth to his
readers, instead John is reminding them of what they already know and what the
Spirit will continue to reinforce to them.
Pastor David Guzik “Humans, by nature, are almost always attracted to
something just because it is new. We almost always think of new as better. But
when it comes to truth, new is not better. That which you heard from the
beginning is better. The apostle Paul communicated the same idea in Galatians
1:6-9, where he warns against going after a new gospel, and emphasizes the
importance of continuing on in the original gospel that Paul taught. This is difficult
because we are tempted to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting (see Eph 4:14). We often itch for something “new” and “exciting” even if it
departs from that which you heard from the beginning.”
Pastor John Piper “In other words John makes effort to avoid the saying that
what the church needs is new revelation. It does not. It needs to let the original
apostolic teaching about Christ abide in them…. So the opposite of abiding in
what you have heard from the beginning is to “go ahead” to new revelations and
secret knowledge offered by Mohammed [Islam] and Charles Russell [Jehovah’s
Witnesses] and Joseph Smith [Mormons] and Mary Baker Eddy [Christian
Science] and Jim Jones [Peoples Temple cult] and Sun Moon [Unification
Church] and an ever larger stream of antichrists in this last hour of deception.
The Holy Spirit does not expand the apostolic teaching of Christ.”
So what do they already know “from the beginning” (v24)
o Knowing the Gospel – the person and work of Jesus (v24)
Who Jesus is – “who do you/they say that I am?” (see Matthew
16:13-16)
Matthew running into Mormons yesterday
o Who is Jesus – not the brother of lucifer nor the spirit
child of the heavenly father and heavenly mother
Pastor Steven Cole puts it this way, “John is telling his readers that
spiritual knowledge is not restricted to some elite inner circle. Rather,
they all know the truth of the gospel because they all have the
anointing from the Holy One, which refers to the indwelling Holy Spirit
that Jesus, the Holy One, promised to send. The false teachers may
have been using the word “anointing” as a technical term for being
initiated into their special gnosis, or knowledge. But John takes their
term and uses it of the Holy Spirit. At the moment of the new birth,
God’s Spirit opens our blind eyes to see the truth about our sinfulness
and the all-sufficiency of what Christ did on the cross to pay for our
sins. This simple gospel message is what these believers had heard
from the beginning.”
Jesus is the Christ (v22, 5:1), Jesus is the son of God (v22, 5:5),
Jesus has come in the flesh (1:1-3), Jesus forgives our sins (1:9),
Jesus is our advocate (2:1), Jesus is our righteous satisfaction (2:1-
2), Jesus is the only way to eternal life (5:11-12), Jesus is God (5:20)
o Knowing the Promise of Eternal life(v25)
Again, we come back to one of the main themes of John’s writing –
that we can have confidence and certainty that we are saved through
faith in Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who seals us and confirms this
knowledge to us.
As we continue to grow and mature, we should not be second
guessing if we are saved, we should have confidence in our
eternal life because we see the good fruit that the Spirit is
producing
o Knowing Everything Else (v26-27)
John is not saying we don’t need teachers. John’s letter itself is a
teaching…but John is affirming that the ultimate teacher and the only
one who can truly open our eyes to truth is the Holy Spirit. He is the
Spirit of Truth.
John 14:26 “26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 “10 these things God has revealed to us
through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths
of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of
that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the
thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we
might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we
impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the
Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual”
The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is theologically referred to as
illumination (in contrast to revelation). His “illumination” shines light
on His “revelation” (Word of God) so that we might understand its
spiritual truths. The Spirit gives us the spiritual capacity to appreciate,
understand, and apply God’s truth which is already revealed in His
Word.
Application
Submit to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God
o You are already anointed – do not need to seek to be baptized/anointed
any further by the Holy Spirit. Instead, we are called to seek the ongoing
filling of the Holy Spirit as we walk in His empowerment and leading.
o Ephesians 5:18-21 “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is
debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the
Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,21 submitting to one another
out of reverence for Christ.”
o Colossians 3:16-17 “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching
and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And
whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Recognize the indicators: worshipful hearts, thankful hearts, unified
and humble hearts toward one another
o Matthew 22:29 “But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you
know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (see also Mark 12:24)
Be wary of anyone who shares anything that does not align with the
Word. Do not be fooled by present day pharisees who know neither
the word of God nor power of God and who claim to have new or
secret revelation – they are antichrists and are not of the Spirit but
are of the world.
Remember, Repent, and Return to your first love
o Revelation 2:2-5 “2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient
endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have
tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to
be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s
sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that
you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from
where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”
Remember the love of Christ, repent from religiosity, legalism, and
mystical pursuits, and return to loving God and loving others through
the power of Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
As David Brown stood at the starting line next to his other blind competitors,
apart from his faith in Jesus, there was one person who gave David supreme
confidence in the race he was about to run. You see, in just a moment David
would be sprinting down the track, but he would be doing so tethered on his hand
to his sprinting guide, Jerome Avery – who would be sprinting right alongside
David.
o Together David and Jerome not only won the gold medal, but David
became the first blind sprinter to run a sub 11 seconds in the 100m race.
o Of his partner who guided him, David said “It’s all about listening to his
cues….Day in and day out, we’re going over race
strategies…communicating with each other—not only verbal cues, but
physical cues.” Wherever Jerome leads David, David follows, trusting his
guide to lead them to victory. David and Jerome still hold the world record
in the 200m race, and were world champions together in the 100m from
2015 through 2017.
We are all running a race, and like David we have a guide who is running ahead
of us leading us on. We are anointed by the Spirit and the Spirit leads us into
truth every day. By God’s grace, let’s follow His lead.
Amen. Amen.