God in YOU Series
Intro:
EXPERIENCE! We remember experiences, don’t we?
∙ I can still recall, in vivid detail, the sounds, smells, and sensations that were a part of my extended visit to India in 1985! After a quarter of a century, the experience of stepping off the plane in Madras and into a throng of people so very different from me is still with me.
∙ My son, Jay, is now 32 years of age, but I can still remember the powerful emotions that swept through me when they laid him in my arms when he was a newborn!
Christianity is an EXPERIENCE! Yes, of course, there are truth and doctrine that are part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. But, I love this quote from Dr. Gordon Fee. “The only worthwhile theology, after all, is one that is translated into life.” (Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, Hendrickson, 1996) The first Christians did not just sit around discussing philosophy and ideas about how to live a better life! They came to KNOW Christ, to EXPERIENCE the presence of the Spirit, and their entire lives were turned inside out.
Fee goes on to point out that the normal Christian life involves an experience of the Holy Spirit of God that is foundational to our lives in Christ. He writes,
“God made us to share life, in His own image, for He Himself is a personal, relational being. ... The Holy Spirit cannot a merely impersonal force or influence or power. The Spirit is none other than the fulfillment of God’s promise that He would be present with His people. The Spirit is God’s own personal presence in our lives; he leads us into paths of righteousness.”
Dr. Fee says that many Christians, because of ignorance, conceive of the third Person of the Trinity as ‘the oblong blur,’ a shapeless form, an idea from the Scripture about some vague influence in their daily lives.
It is true that the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood, overlooked Person of the Godhead. In Acts 19, when Paul arrived in the city of Ephesus, he found some early disciples. Noting a lack in their experience, he inquired- “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Many today can strongly identify with their answer. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2, NLT)
In this series of messages, I want to introduce you to a Person, and my prayer is that you will EXPERIENCE the powerful transformation that knowing Him will produce.
There are more than a few Believers who have been Christians long enough to begin to understand they aren’t really all that good at serving God. As they grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures, as they get closer to some mature and godly Believers, the glaring gaps in their own Christian life seem to grow. They feel miserable – not experiencing the joy of the Lord, but knowing too much to just walk away and call it quits.
∙ You don’t have to just ‘settle’ as some do, for a mediocre and joyless dutiful Christianity built around discipline and maintained by sheer will and gritted teeth!
∙ You don’t have to excuse away your apathy towards God by deciding that joyful, fulfilling Christianity is for a select few to which you apparently don’t belong.
You need to hear the promise of the Lord concerning the Holy Spirit.
I prepared this message with the prayer that this information, coupled with His revelation, will give you an “A-ha” moment. As you see it, it will be clearly as Truth by which you can live!
Len Sweet describes those kind of moments that change us. He says an ‘A-ha’ moment is when .....
∙ you suddenly figured out how to shift a standard transmission . . . and gained your freedom on wheels.
∙ you suddenly read and understood your Spanish assignment in Spanish . . . and heard the heartbeat and felt the rhythm of another culture.
∙ you suddenly got timing right for a round-off back-handspring . . . and made the team.
∙ you held your newborn child and discovered parent-hood . . . and never slept soundly again.
∙ you suddenly could transpose from the key of C to the key of F-sharp without writing a note . . . and felt the music in your soul. - Len Sweet
Text: John 14:15-17, 25-26; 16:7-15 PB 1676
The 14th chapter of John’s Gospel is a tender passage that tells us about Jesus’ conversation with his friends as they are sharing Passover on the night He was taken away to be tried and crucified! These men who have spent 3 years together, who have started to grasp the message of the New Kingdom, but there are still big holes in their understanding. Jesus focuses their attention on the Person that would come to them when He returned to the Father’s side.
The Challenge –
John 14:15
What a setup! Well, not really, but Jesus sets the standard high. “Our love,” He said, “is demonstrated by our actions.” In throwing out that challenge, Jesus tells those men, and us, that “Christianity Lite” won’t cut it. It’s not about a sentiment, an idea, or a philosophy! It’s about living it!
If you let yourself think you are living the Christian life because you show up in church on Sunday, or because you have a Christian radio station playing on your car radio, or because you think some devotional thoughts at dawn and say a little prayer as your drift off to sleep, THINK AGAIN!
Obedience is what God wants, radical, total obedience - in our use of time, money, in our leisure, in our relationships, in our sexuality, in our vocation.
“If you love me, obey my commandments." (John 14:15, NLT) Hearing Jesus’ challenge, what do we do?
Here’s what I do when I face a challenge:
I analyze the situation.
I assess my strengths.
I put together my available resources, then–
I go for it!
And, sometimes, I fail! But, when it comes to meeting Jesus’ challenge, if we attempt to meet it as we usually meet challenges - failure is certain. Paul, who was first called Saul, was raised a Pharisee and for a long time was very proud of his religiosity. In Phillipians 3 he states:
“I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 5 For I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. And zealous? Yes, in fact, I harshly persecuted the church. And I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault.”
But despite his pedigree and performance, he came up lacking in the true righteousness department.
In an “A-ha” moment, he realized his efforts at pleasing God had fallen way short. Paul’s anguish at his inability to live up to God’s challenge of obedience is evident in his cry:
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin. (Romans 7:24 NLT)
Most of us have identified with his anguish at one time or another. . . And if you’re serious about serving so will you, if you haven’t all ready!
The EXPERIENCE–
John 14:15-17
What a powerful promise, but many of us miss it! In those few words Jesus reveals THE core of a fulfilling, intimate, effective Christian life. What are high points?
A. You’re not about to be abandoned like orphans. God, the Father, will send another Friend.
B. He is going to be your Counselor. His name is the Holy Spirit.
C. He will not merely be with you; He will be IN YOU!
Do you realize that it is better for us that Jesus returned to Heaven?
Frequently I hear Christians wistfully say, “If only Jesus were here on earth, in the flesh!”
In John 16:7 Jesus told his friends, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
IF our wish for Jesus to be physically back on earth were granted, most Christians would not be able to KNOW the Presence of God. Jesus, when He lived in Palestine, the God-man, was limited just like we are by time and space. If He were living here on earth, we would have to make a pilgrimage to wherever He choose to live to be in His Presence. But, since He’s gone to Heaven and sent the Spirit to live with us, we live in God’s Presence anywhere and all the time!
Comprehending the nature of the Father and of Jesus, the Son, is easier for us than grasping the nature and reality of the Holy Spirit. As I said a few moments ago, the Holy Spirit is the most mis-understood Person of the Holy Trinity. Many of us are virtually clueless about who the Spirit is.
Some consistently conceive of Him as a Person. We respect the Father and we love the Son, but we don’t know how to relate to this ‘it’ who is called the Holy Spirit. This happens because the familiar father imagery associated with God, and the relational stories of Jesus, are missing. We meet the Holy Spirit through word pictures in the Bible - wind, fire, oil!
So, let’s re-think His identity together.
∙ First up, it is HE, not It.
The Holy Spirit is a Person. No, He doesn’t have a body, nor is His work localized, but He does all the qualities and characteristics of Personality. The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit has a will and purpose.
He loves us, works with us, and makes known the Father’s will to us. It is right to love Him. We can commune with Him. We can sense His Presence. He is God, the Holy Spirit.
Don’t make the mistake of diminishing Him by taking away His personhood or His divinity!
The name by which Jesus calls Him in this passage helps us to understand more about Him. He calls the Spirit our Counselor. The word that the original Greek text uses is ‘parakletos.’ It is a word that is difficult to translate well into our English language. That becomes obvious as you read different translations.
The Message says that God will send us a ‘Friend.’
The NLT and NIV both say that God will send us a ‘Counselor.’
The KJV says that God will send a ‘Comforter.’
The CEV says that God will give us a ‘Helper.’
A ‘parakletos’ was a person who stood with his friend in a time of need.
∙ A person who spoke for you in court was called a ‘parakletos.’
∙ A person who intervened on your behalf with someone with whom you had a dispute was called a ‘parakletos.’
∙ A person on whom you called for advice was called a ‘parakletos.’
This is the ministry of the Spirit whom God has sent to us! He is with us, indeed, in us to make it possible for us to fulfill God’s plans and purposes for our life.
John 14:25-26 ...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.
He will make the Mind and Will of God known to us!
I love having ‘inside’ information, don’t you? It’s great to know what’s really going on. The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, will give us ‘inside info!
• Confused? Ask the Counselor to give you wisdom.
• Unsure how to proceed? Invite the Spirit to lead.
• Got a sin habit you can’t conquer? Throw yourself on our Parakletos.
• Feeling spiritually orphaned and alone? The Friend is there. Ask Him to envelope you in His Presence.
Take a look at one more passage today.
READ John 16:7b-14
Let me re-read it from The Message:
“When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said.”
I don’t want to over-simplify the Promise. What is Jesus saying? Basically this:
“Don’t worry that you don’t understand it all, that you don’t have every spiritual mystery solved. The Spirit’s going to be with you and He will make it clear – what is right, what is wrong, who is Judge, and what is ahead on God’s timetable!”
What a promise! I’m so glad that Jesus’ challenge - " “If you love me, obey my commandments" is not all up to you or me to attempt by our own resources. We don’t have to be especially clever, capable of discerning great mysteries, have a special family, or have gone to seminary to be a joyful, fruitful, and fulfilled Believer. What we need is to be ‘super-naturalized’ by the powerful Presence of the Spirit. First step on that road is to begin to love Him, to invite Him to be part of ALL of our lives, right where we are.
A simple faith that says, “Holy Spirit, help me, fill me, transform me!” is the baseline for a Christian life that begins to work. Your Christianity won’t really take off until you’ve come to know YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT do it on your own. When you know enough about God’s nature and His Word to know that you’re hopelessly inadequate to meet the challenge, you’re ready for an experience of the Spirit!
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The very first step is to put your trust in Jesus Christ as Savior!
If you’re still trying to work out your own deal with God, if you’re still thinking that the good things you do will outweigh the dark and shameful things, you’re not there. The Cross stands on the horizon of time as the door to God’s favor and love. Jesus died so you can live. Jesus took your sin.
Trusting Him introduces you to the Person of the Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13-14 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
But that first flow of life through the Spirit is just the beginning. Life with the Spirit is an adventure that continues everyday of our lives.
Over the next couple of weeks, I want to explore that life with you.
We’ll consider the character that the Spirit develops in us, as I ask:
∙ What does a person who is alive in the Spirit do?
∙ How does she act?
We’ll also be considering the supernatural way that God, the Spirit, equips us to serve God passionately and effectively, talking about the Gifts of the Spirit.
In those messages, we’ll be taking a look at the ways that we understand the Spirit’s work in our lives, the experiences of His life in us, and some ways that Christians have come to understand Him. You’ve probably heard words like Baptism in the Spirit, Spirit language, and Sanctification along the way. If the meanings of those words are not clear to you, I invite you to continue the journey with me next week. Amen
Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2009
