Date: Nov. 9th, 2008
Speaker: Kevin Snyder
Title: The Defining Difference
Series: "Can Turkeys Fly?"
Introduction
Today we want to start a little mini-series on the Holy Spirit.
I think like these children we have a vague idea of who he is but aren’t really sure. We know rightly that he is God or connected to Jesus and God but just who is he and what does he do?
Who is He?
Think of the Bible as a 3 act play with each act revealing a major character
Act 1: Old Testament (Eden – 400 years before christ)
This is a long act that lasts from the beginning of creation until the birth of Jesus. The major lesson of this timeframe was that there was one God and no other. All other gods were simply idols. This one God chose a people, Israel, for himself to reveal his character and nature to the world. He showed his nature and expectations through the events, through the law given to Moses, and the Prophets. We see God as Creator and the All-Powerful God
Act 2 – New Testament Gospels : Bethlehem – Ascension
This is the shortest act. In Act 2, God comes in person to make himself known. He comes as Emmanuel – “God with us.” God reveals himself in flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.
We see in the birth, life, miracles, and death and resurrection of Jesus a full disclosure of the nature and character of God
Heb 1: 1 – 3
Long ago, at many times and ain many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but b?in these last days c?he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed e?the heir of all things, f?through whom also he created g?the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and h?the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Col 1: 15, 20
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
… For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
We came to see God as Christ-like. The God over them was not just our Creator, but he came alongside us, revealed himself in human terms, and rescued us from our self-induced estrangement from him.
Act 3 – New Testament: Acts – Revelation (Pentecost – Return of Christ)
Graphic: Dove
Act 3 began at Pentecost, and has not ended….and won’t until Christ returns. Jesus said that when he ascended he would send the Holy Spirit.
The disciples were to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them
God the Creator, the God who had come alongside us in Jesus, now made himself available to come within our very personalities in the Holy Spirit.
We are invited to…
- walk by the Spirit,
- be filled with the Spirit,
- to live by the Spirit.
Act 3 is about the Spirit of God taking residence in our lives.
He is not a force, but a person who teaches, guides, convicts, gifts, empowers. And can be grieved, and resisted.
Note :
Now the difficulty with this “play” analogy is that we can think of these 3 expressions as “costumes” That the Creator God changed costumes in between acts, and became Jesus and then changed again and became the H.S.
However, that idea is what the early church leaders fought against and why we have some of the creeds we do.
The correct, but difficult thought to get your head around is that the 3 major actors in the 3 acts all co-exist at the same time.
For instance, when Jesus was baptised we see all 3:
The Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove and the Father spoke from heaven saying this is my beloved Son.
As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
And so the Christian view of God is -
One God eternally existent in 3 persons – God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit.
2. What does the Holy Spirit do?
Michael is right on the DVD – “he does lots of stuff”.
For example,
a. We know from the Old Testament that the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times and empowered them to do extraordinary things.
(i.e. Samson)
b. In the New Testament gospels we find that the Holy Spirit is active long before we become a believer.
- He tugs at our hearts and makes us aware of our need for Christ
John 16:8 – “When he comes he will convict the world of guilt.”
The Holy Spirit is at work in this world, and long before we realize drawing us towards God. Now we can resist that but that is one of the things he is doing.
- He opens our eyes and understanding
4 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
But the focus of what I want us to look at today is:
What does the Holy Spirit want to do in the life of a Christian?
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, what did he do in the lives of believers?
Acts 2 refers to this event as “they were filled with the Holy Spirit.”
What comes about as the H.S. fills us?
1. Enables Life Change
Galatians 5: 14 - 25
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
I don’t know how else to say it: The more Christ fills our cup the more there is life change. Doesn’t come all at once. But there are seeds of change.
Filling of Holy spirit creates life change…
The Message describes the fruit this way
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
If we look back at Acts we see one of the most basic changes in these people was life change. These people experienced a life change. They became a people who changed direction & devoted themselves to learning and following Christ (Acts 2:38- 47)
2. Acts 2 – Increases Effectiveness
One of the most dramatic changes I see in the disciples is that there is a whole new level of effectiveness.
The Christian life without the infilling of the Holy Spirit is like a wagon with square wheels.
Holy Spirit moves them from a life/ministry done by perspiration to life done by inspiration.
You see, it seems in Acts 2 we see the transition from doing ministry and the Cn life from doing it out of our strength (strength of the flesh), to doing it out of the gifting and empowering of the Holy Spirit
Without the filling of the Holy Spirit everything about the cn life seems hard, and arduous.
- It’s an effort to even get to church.
- It’s an effort to even connect with God on a regular basis.
- There is a tiredness and discouragement because for all the work and perspiration there isn’t much to show for it.
One of the characteristics of a life increasingly filled with God’s Spirit is a life with wind in its sails, and round wheels. There is a new energy to live the Christian life. It becomes a life of more inspiration and less perspiration. We experience the gifting and empowering of the Holy Spirit.
3. Acts 3 – Fills Life With Anticipation of “God-happenings” (Miracles)
Acts 3 is about a miracle that happens… a man is healed who had been lame since birth.
Miracle =”something only God can do”
And it seems when the Spirit fills a person, some God-happenings start taking place.
- Prayers are answered.
- Lives are changed.
- People are healed – emotionally, physically, relationally.
- There is a sense of God moving and doing something that can’t be added up by my human effort.
- And that fills life with a sense of anticipation
- Peter & John say to lame man: “We don’t have anything to help you, but we believe Jesus does – let’s see what he can do.” And God performs a miracle.
Contrast:
When we are “spirit-empty” and self-full, there isn’t much going on outside of our strength. We can’t see much for God-happenings. And we don’t expect much – we go thru motions but really don’t expect God to do anything. Don’t expect any miracles.
We pray but don’t really expect God to answer
We go to church but really don’t expect to encounter Christ or have him really speak to us.
We serve but we really don’t expect for it to do much.
.
Liken it to baseball player
Can you imagine if every time came up to bat never expected to hit the ball?
When I look at Acts I see these believers coming up to bat expecting God is going to work and they are going to hit it out of the park.
- I believe when the H.S. fills our cup we live with anticipation:
- How is God going to work today?
- How is he going to answer that prayer?
- How is he going to speak to me?
- What is he going to do in these people’s lives?
There’s a “God – dynamic.”
The Bible says of some people “they had a form of godliness but denied its power.”
They changed a few beliefs and practises like going to church, but they really didn’t expect God to dramatically change lives, to show up in worship, to answer prayer, to do anything that only God can do.
Holy Spirit fills our lives with anticipation of “God-happenings”
4. Acts 4- Creates a Winning Faith
.
It is well-known that I am prone to cheer for the Bombers. It isn’t so well-known that Dave is a Ti-Cat fan. …a persevering soul he is.
Game a week or so one of the commentators said about Ti-Cats. “They need to learn and believe they can win”
Found that as Coach: Player last year - got mad and stomped off court
Sit him down & say – You need to go out there with new attitude. Instead of “I can’t’ you need to go out and believe you can beat every opponent….keep studying and learning until you find way.”
In a sense the Holy Spirit enabled these New Testament players to believe they could win. In Acts 4 we see a bold and conquering version of faith.
After this miracle the religious leaders called the disciples to account for this healing. They tried to intimidate and cause them to stop. But these disciples, who before cowered behind closed doors in fear, now stand before the leaders with boldness. They can’t be stopped. They had a winning faith.
Listen to their prayer:
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rageand the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people?c? of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
i.e.
Maglite vs candle
- Maglites are pretty durable and strong lights.
- Candle is pretty fragile. One puff and it’s out. You have to spend time protecting it, instead of it in a sense protecting you.
The infilling of the Holy Spirit gave the disciples this maglite faith. It was transformed from this fragile, cowering, fortress cnity to a bold, winning faith
- It went from hunkering down and trying to survive until next Sunday….to a faith seeking to thrust back the darkness
- From fearing that the big bad wolf would huff and puff and blow their house down.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
The life filled with the Holy Spirit had a new strength, courage, conquering element to it.
5. Stirred a Radical commitment to the Cause and the Team
Acts 4: 32 – 35
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
Perhaps we could summarize these verses with this phrase:
“What God is doing in my church is much too important to be casual about it.”
They saw the cause. They saw the vision. They captured the mission of Jesus. They saw what the church could be. They got it.
And they bought in –
- they were of one heart and mind.
- they gave sacrificially of time and resources.
- They saw the vision and the cause as much too important to be casual about.
Contrast
A spirit-empty life/church is casual.
- It’s casual about the vision.
“What God is doing, and what my church is doing really isn’t all that important….it’s not as important as doing laundry, sleeping in, going for breakfast….” If I miss I’m sure I won’t miss anything.”
It isn’t all that critical that we be a community known in this area for our radical love, acceptance, and forgiveness. A place where people can be “restored for better”. It isn’t all that important that we be make a difference in this community.
It isn’t all that important that I show up, that I get involved, that I help make that vision of God’s church be a reality.”
We get casual about God’s vision for us at East Side.
- It’s casual about the unity of the body of Christ.
We think that…
- it’s no big deal that I hold hard feelings toward someone in the church.
- It’s no big deal that I gossip about something I’ve heard.
- It’s no big deal that I criticize the pastor’s and leaders to others without talking to them first.
- It’s no big deal that I withhold my tithe or withhold my support because I don’t like something
- It’s no big deal that I won’t come to sit in the same section as another person or talk to someone.
A church empty of God’s Spirit, gets casual about the body of Christ.
- It’s casual about holiness.
Acts 5 - Story of Ananias & Sapphira.
Story is about a couple who lied about what they sold some land for when they gave it to the church. They wanted to present an image of greater spirituality than what they had. They could have said we want to give ½. But no they kept some but lied saying “This is all of it.”
But God isn’t impressed and they both fall over dead right in church. That would shake us.
That’s a rather scarey side of a spirit-filled church, eh?
God wanted church to be real, not phoney.
He didn’t want it to become a place where we put on masks of spirituality.
But a Spirit-filled church aspires to holiness. It doesn’t get casually about a double-standard.
It doesn’t get casual about hypocrisy.
Conclusion
Friends, God sent his Holy Spirit for a reason:
- God sent him to enable life change
- H.S sent him to increase our effectiveness and put wind in our sails
- H.S brings a “God-happening” dimension to our lives
- H.S. brings a conquering attitude to our faith
- H.S. brings radical commitment to the cause and body of Christ, that moves us from casual attitudes
Key question: What cup do you want?
Life filled or empty of the Holy Spirit?
- Do you have a nagging ache to your Cnity that says “There has to be more”
- I’m tired of the gap between N.T. cnity and my reality.
And maybe it was always that way:
Over the last few months I’ve held my cup up to this cup in Acts. And I saw a gap. Oh, I had prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit earlier in my Christian life. But what I have witnessed is “I leak”
i.e.
Story of church – woman every Sunday came to front and prayed loudly “Fill me with your H.S. Lord’
After many of weeks one older veteran cn yelled out “Don’t do it , Lord, she leaks.”
And friends, I have found I leak.
I have found that the Christian life is like my gas tank in my car….it needs refuelling.
And over the journey my tank was becoming depleted.
And friends, that’s what I want to invite you over these next few weeks. …
To journey together towards having our cup increasingly filled with the Holy Spirit.
- To allowing the Spirit to breathe wind into our sails,
- Enable us to participate in God-happenings,
- To move from perhaps a cowering to a winning faith
- To enliven us to the cause of christ and the body of Christ.
1st step is coming to grips with “want to”
Times we say we want that, but aren’t really hungry = “wishful thinking”
Plato – “what do you want?”
‘Follow you”…air
When you want to follow like you want “air” then can be disciple.
How bad do you want it?
1st step is to start confessing that to God
Do you want it bad enough to confess
- That I’ve relied on perspiration rather than inspiration & I’m tired we were of doing squared wheeled ministry
- Confess that you want to see more than just the sum total of our effort…see God at work
- Confess your faith survival mode and want a winning conquering faith
- Confess “casual’ attitudes –
And do you want it bad enough to begin to journey towards having your cup filled?
Next Week: “Plugging In”
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a [Num. 12:6, 8; Joel 2:28]
b 1 Pet. 1:20; [ch. 9:26; Acts 2:17]
c ch. 2:3
d See Matt. 14:33
e Ps. 2:8; Matt. 21:38; See Matt. 28:18
f [ch. 3:3]; See John 1:3
g ch. 11:3
h See 2 Cor. 4:4
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S. Heb 1:1-3
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Col 1:19
The Holy Bible: New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mk 1:10-11
* Or who don’t have the Spirit; or who have only physical life.
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. 1 Co 2:14
Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. Ga 5:22-23
a That is, Christ or Messiah
b Psalm 2:1, 2
c The Greek is plural.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 4:23-31
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. 2 Ti 1:7
The Holy Bible: New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 4:32-35