“I Believe in the Holy Spirit”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#8 Sermon in the Series on the Apostle’s Creed
A Sunday school teacher had cleverly taught her class to recite the Apostles’ Creed by giving phrase by phrase to each child. So when the day came for the Sunday school show and recitation to begin, they pulled it off magnificently. One child: “I believe in God the Father Almighty,” and so on and so forth. Finally they got to the place where one child said, “He shall come to judge the quick and the dead,” and there was a deafening silence. Finally a little girl spoke up and said, “The boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is absent today.”
That is a great story and I actually, unfortunately, think that it describes a lot of churches today, particularly mainline churches. It seems like, at least partially so, that the Holy Spirit is absent and we have a hard time believing in the Holy Spirit. Why is that so? Well, I think part of it is because if we think we are going to get close to the Holy Spirit, or think about the Holy Spirit, we are going to become like the folks who run the aisles or speak in tongues, or do all those kinds of different things. So we just think it’s weird. Or, I have a feeling part of it is that we have such a deep fear of the spirit world, and I think particularly now with so many movies out that sort of awaken our awareness of these things. There is a new Exorcist one. I just saw an ad. We are going, “Oh no, not again” “There it is again.” Boy, just over and over again.
Part of it, though, may be the Creed itself. I have shared with you as we have gone through the Apostles’ Creed that it is a great document but there are a couple of glaring omissions. One is the life of Jesus Christ. We go from Jesus’ birth to his death. They just want to get to the main stuff, I guess. But here we are, we have talked about “God the Father Almighty.” We have talked about Jesus, and that is the biggest part, and rightly so. One line for the Holy Spirit. One line. So we just say “I believe in the Holy Spirit” and move on. And you know it is not because Scripture doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit. You know, I, again, in preparation for this sermon, I was reminded how many times the Spirit appears in the Bible. We find the Spirit right at the beginning, “hovering” over the waters in the Creation. We find the Spirit inspiring prophets and kings and priests to speak throughout the Old Testament. We find the Holy Spirit as the main actor in the miracle of the virgin birth. We find the Spirit inspiring John the Baptist and Jesus himself receives the Holy Spirit to take care of his ministry. The Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus, again and again to the disciples; and when Pentecost comes, BOOM, he comes down. Then the Spirit is working throughout the Church in the New Testament. And at the very end, Chapter 21, the Spirit is like water “flowing out from the throne of God into the New Jerusalem.” The Spirit is everywhere. Why is he missing? I think part of it is we just don’t know the Holy Spirit. The Spirit seems mysterious to us, maybe because we can imagine what God the Father and Jesus sort of look like, but the Spirit is mysterious.
Let’s pray and ask God, the Holy Spirit, to come into our hearts today that we may know him better:
Lord God, be with us now as we prepare for the communion. As we hear your word, help us to know this person we call the Holy Spirit, who is mysterious to us in many ways but serves as the lifeblood of our own lives and the lifeblood of our church. We do pray in your name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, where do we begin? I think we begin by remembering that we are trinitarian. As Christians we believe in one God, one God, who is three persons. Now, we have already talked about how that is pretty hard for us. We tend to put people who have multiple personality disorders on medication. It is hard for us. But, like a river, which has the head waters and the flowing river and the mouth at the end, God is the same, yet three persons. Or the oceans which are all the same; the ocean is the same everywhere and yet different oceans have different characteristics. Or maybe even like an apple which has a core and the meat and the skin. All those analogies fall far short of reality but they help us a little bit in understanding God. Maybe the place to start is just this is what the Scripture says.
One of the verses that we look at that mention all three is Jesus’ own command to “go out and make disciples and baptize them in the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) Maybe just the place to start is to remember that this is the same God who loves you, who forgives you and wants you to love him and worship him, too. That is who the Holy Spirit is.
Secondly, we move on and I think maybe the best way to understand the Holy Spirit is by what the Spirit does. If you are reading the notes, you will notice it is a little bit different. I turn my notes in on Wednesday and sometimes by Sunday, a few tweaks happen, and I reserve the right to do that; so the second one is: The God who serves. The Holy Spirit is the God who serves.
Remember Rick Warren’s great book, great book, The Purpose Driven Life. You remember one of the first sentences of the first chapter, “It’s not about you!” “It’s not about me!” That is the credo, or a great credo, for Christian living. If we can just remember to do that, we would go a long way in living well for Christ. “It is not about me!” That is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a job. He is kind of like the person who is sent out by the Commander to go perform the mission. That is what the Holy Spirit does and the Holy Spirit’s job is not to point to himself but to point to Jesus. It is all about Jesus, for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins in Christ’s existence by performing a miracle in his birth, fills Jesus, and then after Jesus goes back to heaven is sent out amongst his people, again, to point us to Christ.
Jesus promises this. He says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” (John 15:26) If you remember nothing else, you fall back on that. If you want to understand the Spirit, it starts right there. He is a servant of the ministry of Jesus Christ in this world. That’s what he is all about. It is what he does. J. I. Packer puts it this way. He says, “In the gospel message, Jesus is set before us, throughout saying, ‘Come to me, follow me.’ In our conscience as we hear the gospel with the inner ear of faith, the Spirit, standing behind us as it were to throw light over our shoulder onto Jesus, constantly urging: ‘Go to Him; deal with Him; believe in Him.’ So we do” The Spirit, as J. I. Packer says, “this is what makes us Christian.” This is what makes us Christian.
What’s his job? His job is to point to Christ and the message of Christ. That is what it means. When he comes he will convict the world of guilt in regards to sin and righteousness and judgment.
Thirdly, he is the God who connects. You will notice if you are reading the notes three and four are switched. Again, a little tweak. He is the God who connects. Now listen to what the Spirit is about. Paul says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:16). He says, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26) There is another one I am looking for… And Paul says: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1Corinthians 3:16)
I believe that the Bible fits together and one of the things you will find in biblical history is that initially when God came in amongst his people, he identified with a particular place. So when God came to the children of Israel and they were taken out into the desert they set up a tabernacle, a tent, if you will. People would come there for worship. Later, the tabernacle was succeeded by the temple. It is not that people couldn’t worship in other places; but special worship, this was the place where God was especially to be. But when the Old Testament era ended and Jesus came it all changed. These are things that had been promised by the prophets themselves, that the place of worship would change and it would become none other than in his people. The marvelous thing, the breathtaking thing about biblical history, and what God has done, is that in this history the temple and the tabernacle have been done away with. I believe will never appear again- though some Christians disagree with that- because God now lives in his people. It is everywhere in the New Testament. It is not just in the verse I just told you about. The Spirit comes into his people. It was promised by the prophets, fulfilled in the New Testament. Peter says, “You are living stones built into a living temple.” (1 Peter 2:5) The temple is his Church, which is his people, not a building. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t come to a building to worship; because these buildings are important and we are to be together. Skipping church is not necessarily a good thing. We are not Lone Ranger Christians. We are saved into a people. But the wonderful thing is that, whether you know it or not, God lives in you, and you, and you, and you. You are never alone. No matter how abandoned you might feel God is there with you. No matter how lost you may feel God is there. No matter where you are, God is there. No matter what you are going through, God is there. You may be going through hell itself right now. God is with you wherever you go. If you didn’t have a good father, you have one now. He lives inside of you, if you believe in Jesus. You may not have had good parents, a good mother, you may have just had all kinds of things happen to you now or sometime in your life; God is living in you. He not only loves you he lives in you. I love to use the image that you are kind of like a house and God has moved in. He is a permanent house guest. Now I know the old saying that fish and relatives stink after three days. Not so with God. God lives in you, and that is biblical. That is the role of the Holy Spirit.
You know we get so wrapped around the axle about this speaking in tongues stuff, if you don’t want to speak in tongues, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to do anything weird, you don’t have to. That’s not what it is about. It is about connection. It is about God living in his people. Remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well. “You Samaritans think you are supposed to worship God here and the Jews think they are supposed to worship in Jerusalem. It won’t be that way in the future. From now on you will worship in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:22-23) …in Spirit, Holy Spirit, and in truth. It’s about being connected. You might say, “Well, what if I don’t feel like it. I never had this experience.” Well if you are a Christian, he is there, O.K. You may not have noticed. But if you want to feel the Holy Spirit, if you want the Holy Spirit, just ask. It is as simple as that. Jesus says in Luke, Chapter 11 (verse 9-13), he says, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Suppose one of your fathers is asked by his son for a fish. Well you won’t give him a snake instead. Or if he asks for an egg, you won’t give him a scorpion. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, if you ask.”
Another job the Holy Spirit has is transforming us. He transforms us in our life. It is called sanctification, the theological term. But his job is to transform us. I love the story that Tony Campolo says, talking about a man living in Kentucky who had a very colorful life style. “Every time the revivals would come to town he would go and he would run down to the front and he would say: ‘Fill me Lord Jesus! Fill me Lord Jesus!’ And a couple weeks later he was back to his old lifestyle. Finally he did this one time, the revival came, he went down to the front and he said: ‘Fill me Lord Jesus! Fill me Lord Jesus!’ And someone shouted from back, ‘Don’t do it Lord! He leaks!’”
Well, the problem is we all leak. So the Holy Spirit comes and makes a permanent residence with you but on the other hand we all leak. We continue to ask the Holy Spirit to help us and to fill us.
I played golf on Friday. I have been having a lot of trouble with my golf game this year. I have been just pulling a dead left every time, just every time. But, I have been working on it, getting a little better. I played and the first hole, this is Baker National, it has a wonderful first picturesque hole, and you hit a pretty good drive. But if you hit it a little bit left, which I did- I was still on the fairway- you are going to be behind the trees, with the trees between you and the green. And that’s what I did. But I got out my six iron and I hit the most beautiful soaring shot. Arnold Palmer couldn’t have done better. It landed on the green, kerplop! Right there. And I went “Did I do that?” Yes, I did. Well, I said to myself: Oh, I am going to have a good day today! But after my three putt….I didn’t do it. And the second hole, after I topped it off the tee, third hole I hit one dead right. It wasn’t a bad day. I recovered from all that. But, you know, golf is a great analogy for life. I know what to do. Every now and then I can do it, most of the time I can’t, even though I know what to do. I know what to do, I just don’t do it. But the miracle is that God takes this leaky old guy and still uses him for different things. It is true for all of us. And in the process does work on us and transforms us. It is a slow thing. It is a process.
You might say, again, “I don’t feel the Spirit in my life.” Well sometimes we just don’t know he is there but another way of getting the Spirit in your life is that we just need to repent. That is what Jesus says. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) Now he does that, but you know what? Have you ever had people show up at your door who were even your friends and you didn’t want them to come in because your house was dirty? Lots of times! I don’t want you to see the clutter or dirt or the stuff. I think sometimes we leave Jesus on the porch. The Holy Spirit gets shoved out a little bit. Maybe you have a life style problem; maybe you are just doing something that you know is not right. Maybe you are holding a grudge. Maybe you are just not doing what the Lord says. You know, Jesus is like our heart and the Holy Spirit is like the lifeblood of our bodies. We have lots of things that can clog us up and keep the Holy Spirit from flowing in our lives. Sometimes we just need to repent. Notice what Jesus says, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.” (Revelation 3:19) He doesn’t just accept you the way you are. He loves you but he says, “So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:19-20) Now that verse is often used about non-believers, but it is addressed to the Church. It is addressed to the Church. Lots of us leave the Holy Spirit out on the porch, and we need to repent.
You know what I think is the biggest thing that keeps us from being Spirit-filled? It is embarrassment. We really are afraid that he is going to make us do something we don’t want to do. Like I said, if you don’t want to speak in tongues, that is not important. Actually speaking in tongues is one of the least important things. Some people can do it and it’s great for them. It isn’t about that. It is about having a connectivity with God and power to live the Christian life because we do leak.
I love the story told by a man named Robert Short who is the author of The Gospel According to Peanuts. You may have read that. It is a great little book using cartoons of Peanuts to illustrate gospel principles. It is an old book. I have a copy of it and I think we have a copy of it in our library. But he tells how a high school student in Midland, Texas became an agnostic though he was raised in a Methodist home. He became the president of a science club that caused such a controversy that the high school principal complained to his parents. He tells how he sat across from his mother, who with tears flowing down her face, she said, “I thought we raised you right. I never thought it would come to this, our son, an agnostic.” Well, later, he became a Christian, found a new relationship with Christ, felt a call to the ministry and at home he told his mother of his decisions. Sitting in the same kitchen table with tears running down her cheeks, she said, “I never thought it would come to this, my son, a religious fanatic.”
Now we know what fanatics do and the bad part of fanaticism and what some people do in the world with that, but there is some sense of being committed. A commitment that in some cases people will think you are weird because your life is not lived according to the standards of this world. You have a boss who is bigger than any other boss. You don’t work for anybody else. You may get your living from someone else. Now, I mean this in the kindest way possible, I don’t really work for you. I work for God. I am accountable to you. No preacher though, Buck or myself, works for a church. Being a pastor of a church is an interesting relationship because that is what it is. It is kind of like being married, in some way. It really is. But, we don’t work for you. We are accountable to God. Sometimes I don’t hear God very well, I have already said that, and I have to be held accountable by you. But you don’t work for your employer either. You work for Jesus. We don’t work for anybody else because we have a different way of going about things.
Last but not least, you know, again, I was reminded about how much the Holy Spirit appears in the Bible and how much the Holy Spirit actually does and I said: Well, that’s worth three sermons. I don’t have three sermons. We will just have to do it again another day. And I could keep you here a long time and I know you don’t want that. But last but not least, the God who sends. Actually I would also say that he is the God who not only sends but who goes. The God who goes.
When the disciples saw Jesus on his last day when he was getting ready to go back to the heavenly realms, he gives them this commission. He says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) So there is this circular thing. First you start local and then you go a little further out to Judea and Samaria, and then the whole world. That’s the purpose of the Church. It is one of the purposes of the Church, to go out. We are an evangelical faith in the good sense of the word. We are not to stay to ourselves. We are to be outward focused all the time. If you are inward focused, eventually you will die. That is true of many churches. But we are outward focused. Yes, we are going to stumble along and we are going to be leaking and we are going to be not doing very well; and the wonder of it all is that God will use us anyway. But he will use us. I like to say, and I don’t know if I coined this or not- I think I steal a lot of things and pretend I coined them- but “God will never drive a parked car.” If you are just sitting there, if we are just sitting there, God is just going to let you sit there. You have to start it up and start driving and then God leads; and God will lead out. We are a missional church in everything we do and even in ourselves. I know that makes us nervous. You know, sometimes I will sit on an airplane and go: I don’t know what to say to this person, or any person anywhere. That is true of all of us. But if we just start, do what we can. God will help you. Pray for the Holy Spirit to help. You can’t do it by yourself anyway. I can’t. The Holy Spirit will help you, will help our Church. The Holy Spirit loves you, just like God, because he is God. He forgives you and will use you if you are available. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let’s pray together.
Lord God thank you for being who you are and we don’t know all of that. We will find out more when we get to heaven; but, in the meantime, we know that you are God the Father and you are the Son and you are the Spirit who fills us and empowers us and comforts us and loves us. May we know him better and better. Now, Lord, be with us as we commune with you through the Lord’s Supper and we commune with one another. Fill us with your Spirit, tie us together. May we experience you in a way that is very real today. Amen.