I’d like to begin this morning by sharing my testimony about my walk with Jesus. And then when I finish, I want to ask you some questions about that testimony.
My walk with Jesus began as an infant. Although I obviously don’t remember it, I was christened at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church here in Tucson as a baby. Our family continued to attend worship and Sunday School there throughout my childhood. But eventually we quit going to church. By the time I got to high school and even through my first year of college, I really didn’t have anything at all to do with church or even with God.
But, as I know I’ve shared with you before, one day I was sitting on the grass mall at the U of A when another student approached me and asked me if he could share about his faith in Jesus. I listened carefully to all he said and was convinced that I was indeed a sinner who was headed for hell one day if I didn’t place my faith in Jesus. And since I didn’t want to go to hell, when he asked me if I wanted to pray and ask Jesus into my life, I said “yes” and I prayed the prayer that he led me to pray.
That summer, I took a job as a student host at the U of A, where I met Mary. I still remember the first time I saw her in Student Union building before our first training session. We got to know each other a bit during the couple of weeks that we worked together and had some time to hang out with the other student hosts outside our work hours. After that, Mary kept coming by the Lucky Wishbone where I worked – always, it seemed, when I was off work - which is really amazing considering how many hours I was working over the summer. Some of my fellow employees began to ask me about this good looking girl that kept coming by to buy a soda and ask if I was working. Now I’ll admit that I was a little slow, but I finally got up the courage to ask her out.
As we began to date steadily, Mary asked me if I would go to church with her. Even though I wasn’t real comfortable with the idea, I liked her enough to give it a try – at least once. But church was nothing like what I expected. They actually taught the Bible there in a way that was interesting and relevant for my life. And over time I began to understand more about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
So one Sunday during the altar call, I walked down front and told the pastor that I had given my life to Jesus. Not too long after that I was baptized in that same church. But I later realized that at that time I really never focused much on the idea of repentance. I was a lot more interested in staying out of hell than I was in really following Jesus in my day-to-day life. But over time, I came to understand what it meant to repent and turn from my own ways and follow Jesus instead. And I’ve spent the rest of my life attempting to do that the very best that I can.
So here are two questions that I want to ask you this morning:
1. When did I become a Christian? Was it when I was christened as a baby? When I was attending church on a regular basis as a child? When I prayed the “sinner’s prayer” that day on the mall at the U of A? The day I walked down the aisle in response to the altar call? When I was baptized? Or when I finally understood what it meant to repent?
2. When did I receive the Holy Spirit into my life? At which of those same points in my life did the Holy Spirit come to dwell in my life?
The reason that I shared my testimony with you and that I asked you these two questions is because I’m convinced that those are two questions that all of us need to ask and answer in our own lives.
This morning’s message on the Holy Spirit is going to be quite a bit different than I first thought it would look like when I started working on it last week. Although I occasionally skim through other pastors’ sermons in my preparation in order to get some ideas about how to approach a topic, I almost never listen to or watch an entire sermon. But for some reason this week I was drawn to a sermon on the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan. And as I began to watch the video of that sermon, I couldn’t stop watching. I felt like God was speaking directly to me through his words.
And I’m going to credit the Holy Spirit Himself with that and trust that what I’m going to share with you this morning is what God wants for us. I’m certainly not going to attempt to just repeat the sermon that I watched – I tried doing something like that once earlier in my ministry and it was a complete disaster. But I’m convinced that some of the ideas in that message are so relevant for us that I’m going to incorporate them into my message this morning.
My original intent was to walk us methodically and logically through the process of salvation so we could see how the Holy Spirit is involved in each step of that process, including the time when He permanently takes up residence in our lives. I’m still going to touch on that briefly. But what I really want us to be able to do this morning is to look at our own lives and determine, based on the clear teaching of Scripture, whether we truly are followers of Jesus who have the Holy Spirit living in us.
So let’s begin with a brief summary of how the Holy Spirit works in the process of salvation. I’m going to go through this pretty quickly without a lot of commentary, not because it isn’t important, but because I want to spend more time dealing with what is most important.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PROCESS OF SALVATION
1. He draws
Before we enter into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus, the Bible is clear that we are spiritually dead and blind:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
(Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
(2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV)
And since we were all dead and blind at one time, we were incapable of creating spiritual life on our own. A dead person cannot resuscitate himself and a blind person is incapable of restoring his own sight. Jesus made it quite clear that without God’s intervention in our lives, we are incapable of even being drawn to Him:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
(John 6:44 ESV)
So when we are dead and blind, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and initiates the process of salvation by drawing us to God:
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
(Galatians 4:3-6 ESV)
It is only when the Holy Spirit enters our hearts that we can recognize our need for a savior and cry out to God.
2. He convicts
Once the Holy Spirit has drawn us to God, the next step is to convict us that we are sinners in need of a savior.
And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
(John 16:8-11 ESV)
By nature, no one wants to admit that he or she is a sinner who deserves God’s wrath and who therefore needs a savior. That’s one reason it’s so difficult for us to share our faith with others. Until someone is willing to admit his or her sin, the rest of the gospel message is completely irrelevant. That’s why we need to be specifically praying for our lost friends and family members that God’s Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin and their need for a savior.
3. He regenerates
Regeneration is one of those theological terms that we tend to use without necessarily having a very good understanding of what it means.
Since, as we’ve already seen, we were all spiritually dead at one time, we need to be reborn spiritually. Our dead spirit needs to be regenerated. And only the Holy Spirit is capable of doing that. Paul summarizes this idea very succinctly in his letter to Titus:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
(Titus 3:4-6 ESV)
Notice the work of all three persons of the triune God here. God the Father initiates the process of salvation. God the Holy Spirit regenerates and renews our dead spirit. And God the Son, Jesus, is the means by which our salvation is made possible.
Jesus spoke of this same process in John 3 where He explained to Nicodemus the need to be “born again”:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:5-8 ESV)
4. He seals
At the very moment that our spirit is regenerated by the Holy Spirit and we place our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit also comes into our lives as a seal, to guarantee that the work that He has done will be carried to completion. Paul describes the sealing work of the Holy Spirit in two of his letters:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
(Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV)
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
(2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ESV)
Paul writes that the Holy Spirit is like an earnest money deposit. Any of you who have ever purchased a house are familiar with how an earnest money deposit works. When someone signs a contract to purchase real estate they make an earnest money deposit to show that they are serious about fulfilling the terms of the contract, understanding that they will lose that money if they fail to perform their contractual obligations.
God gives His Holy Spirit to every single believer as His guarantee that God will bring our salvation to completion. Since Holy Spirit is the one who both initiated the process of salvation by drawing and convicting us and is the one who regenerated our dead spirit completely apart from anything we could do, it is certainly fitting that He is the one who is the guarantee that our salvation will be brought to completion and that we will live eternally in God’s presence.
5. He immerses
I’ve used the word “immerse” here rather than “baptize” because the topic of the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is one of the most controversial topics with the church. We obviously don’t have time to deal with this in any great detail this morning, so I’m going to use the “Connections” time next week to explore this topic in more detail.
As many of you know the English word “baptize” is merely a transliteration of the underlying Greek word rather than an actual translation. In my opinion, much of the misunderstanding about the baptism of the Holy Spirit would be avoided if the translators had just done what they have done with nearly every other Greek word and just translate it into English rather than transliterate it.
“baptizo” =
“to place into”, “to immerse”
Let’s keep that definition in mind as we read what Paul wrote about the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
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.
(1 Corinthians 12:13 ESV)
Now let’s take that same verse and translate the word “baptizo” rather than merely transliterate it:
For in one Spirit we were all [placed or immersed] into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Once we do that, the meaning of this passage becomes very clear. First, note that Paul writes that all were baptized or placed or immersed into one body. This is not some special manifestation of the Holy Spirit that only some believers experience.
Second, we see the importance of every believer being an active participant in the body of Christ. Since the Holy Spirit has placed every single believer into the body of Christ, the church, then that must be important to God and it ought to be important to us.
So let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far. If you are a genuine Christ follower, it is not a result of anything that you’ve done. It is the Holy Spirit who has:
• drawn you
• convicted you
• regenerated you
• sealed you, and
• immersed you into the body of Christ
Even the faith to trust in Jesus for your salvation is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
This is all some crucially important information for us to understand, but what is vitally important for us this morning is to understand how this information should impact our day-to-day lives.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR US
I’m going to use the verse that Francis Chan focused on in his message to help us understand some practical implications for us.
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 2:38 ESV)
I realize that I’m taking a risk here because this is one of the most argued about passages in the entire New Testament within the body of Christ because it gives rise to the question: “Is baptism required for salvation?” And those on both sides of that argument carefully analyze the underlying Greek language of this passage and pull in other related passages in order to prove their point.
But let’s put this verse in perspective for a moment. In Acts chapter 2 we find that about 120 of Jesus’ disciples were gathered together in one place. And as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in a number of languages. This attracted a large gathering of devout Jewish men who had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. Even though these men spoke many different languages because they had come from many surrounding nations, they all heard the words being spoken in their own language.
And then Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, stood and preached the gospel, using the Old Testament Scriptures that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. At the end of his message, the people responded to the message:
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
(Acts 2:37 ESV)
It is in answer to that question that Peter gave the answer that is recorded in verse 38 that we looked at just a moment ago. And it is instructive for us to see how the people responded to what Peter told them to do. They didn’t ask whether repentance was necessary for salvation. They didn’t argue about whether baptism was necessary for salvation. They didn’t question when exactly they were going to receive the Holy Spirit or whether there was some second “baptism of the Spirit” that they needed to experience at some future time.
They just obeyed. The first thing they did was to repent. I know we’ve discussed what it means to repent before, but let me use a personal illustration from my own life to see if I can’t help us to understand the concept of repentance a little better.
When I fell in love with Mary, it made a tremendous difference in my life. Before we started dating, I developed my schedule around what I wanted to do. I spent my money on the things I wanted to buy for myself. I thought about the things that were important to me. But even after just one date, I began the process of repentance in my life.
Right after that first date our family left on a lengthy vacation during which we travelled in a motor home throughout a lot of the Rocky Mountain West. On the last night of our trip we were getting near Phoenix and were deciding whether to head back to Tucson that night or to stop in Phoenix for the night. Knowing that Mary was leaving on her own family vacation the next morning, I wanted to get back to Tucson that night, hoping that I could see her one more time before she left. I didn’t tell my family that’s why I wanted to head back to Tucson that night, and I got outvoted, so I didn’t get to see Mary again for several more weeks.
After that, my whole life changed and went in a completely different direction. I now planned my schedule around Mary’s. I spent my money on things that would please her. And my thoughts were consistently filled with her and my own desires took a back seat.
When it comes to our relationship with Jesus, genuine repentance looks very similar. When I fall in love with Jesus, it means that I turn around and start to follow Him. I don’t just keep living my life the same as I did before and ask Jesus to come along as my co-pilot. It means that my schedule, and the way I use my resources and my thought life now revolve around Him and His purposes, plans and ways rather than my own.
That day, those believers who were gathered there did just that. We know that because just a couple of verses later we read about the dramatic transformation in the way they lived their lives:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people...
(Acts 2:42-47 ESV)
These people, who had previously lived self-centered, self-focused lives, repented – they turned their lives around and lived in a way that would further the purposes, plans and ways of Jesus rather than their own. And they lived life together in a way that would encourage others to do the same.
But not only did the people repent, they were also baptized – immediately:
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
(Acts 2:41 ESV)
I’ve always held the position that baptism is not a requirement for salvation and although I still believe that, I must also acknowledge that, at least on the Day of Pentecost, it was really hard to really make a sharp distinction between the actions of repenting, being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. The people who were there that day seemed to view all three actions as something that occurred almost simultaneously. They just loved Jesus so much that they just wanted to be obedient to the words that Peter had spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They really weren’t interested in arguing about the theology of what occurred that day.
Obviously to the people there that day, salvation was about so much more than just staying out of hell one day when they died, or about praying the “sinner’s prayer” or even about walking down an aisle. If that is all salvation is about we really don’t need the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day lives right now. But if salvation is the kind of radical life-changing encounter with God like they experienced that day, then the constant work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is indispensable. If we truly desire to repent and follow Jesus live a holy life, we can’t possible do that without being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit are not merely some optional add-ons for those who would desire to follow Jesus. They are the essence of what it means to be a mature disciple of Jesus. So rather than arguing about whether they are required for salvation or not, or the exact sequence in which they occur or engaging in other similar theological arguments, it seems to me that the more important thing is to follow the example of those first century disciples and just obey what God has told us to do. And if we’ve done those things, then our lives, like the lives of those first century believers ought to be radically transformed.
Pastor John Piper had this to say about the life-changing experience of receiving the Holy Spirit:
The really valuable contribution of the Charismatic renewal is their relentless emphasis on the truth that receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is a real, life-changing experience. Christianity is not merely an array of glorious ideas. It is not merely the performance of rituals and sacraments. It is the life-changing experience of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord of the universe.
So here’s my question to you this morning:
Have you experienced the life changing experience of receiving the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ?
Notice that I didn’t ask you if were christened as an infant. I didn’t ask you if you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into your life. I didn’t ask if you’ve walked down an aisle in response to an altar call. As I shared with you earlier, I did all those things at some point in my life. But based on what I’ve learned this week, I know realize that I wasn’t truly saved as a result of doing any of those things. And notice that I didn’t even ask you if you’re a member or a regular attender here at TFC because that, while it is important, doesn’t make you a Christ-follower either.
So let me ask the question again:
Have you experienced the life changing experience of receiving the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ?
I know that at least some of you here this morning can answer that question with a confident “yes” because your life has been radically transformed by your faith in Jesus. But perhaps some, even many of us, aren’t quite sure how to answer that question. So let me suggest a few other questions that might help you answer that question:
1. Are you so in love with Jesus that you are willing to follow Him regardless of the cost? Have you genuinely repented and turned from living according to your own desires and to living according to Jesus’ desires for your life?
2. Have you obeyed the Word of God and given testimony to your faith by Scriptural baptism? Regardless of whether baptism is “required” for salvation, the clear teaching of Scripture is that Jesus desires for us to declare our faith in Him through that physical act. And if we are really in love with Jesus, we will desire to please Him through our obedience in that area of our lives.
3. Is there evidence that the Holy Spirit lives in you? Are you becoming more like Jesus, living a life of holiness and helping others to do the same?
This may very well be one of the most important messages that I’ve preached in quite some time. Unfortunately there are many people who sit in church week after week who have been deceived into thinking that they are Christians. As John Piper observed, they perform rituals and sacraments. But there is really no evidence of them having ever experienced the life changing power of the Holy Spirit that accompanies genuine faith and repentance. This morning, if that describes your life, please don’t leave here today until you address that situation in your life.
Please don’t do like I did for a time in my life and settle for a salvation that is nothing more than fire insurance that is intended to keep you from going to hell some day but which is completely devoid of power to live the abundant life that comes from following Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, right now.
This morning, I’m obviously not going to ask you to pray some prescribed prayer or to have an altar call and ask you walk down the aisle, but I am going to ask you to make sure that you let us help you come to the place where you can answer that question I asked earlier with a resounding “yes.” That is absolutely the most important thing I do as a pastor and the most important thing we do as a church.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to settle this issue in your heart, so there are a number of ways you can let us know you’d like some help. You can see me, or any of the other elders, after the service. You can also contact any of us during the week. Our contact information is in your bulletin and it also available on our website. You can fill out the information on the flap of the bulletin and give it to me or to one of our greeters after the service. Or you can certainly go to the “Contact Us” page on the website and contact us that way.
Remember the two questions I asked you earlier after I shared my testimony?
1. When did I become a Christian?
2. When did I receive the Holy Spirit into my life?
To be real honest, I’m not exactly sure. I know it wasn’t when I was christened as a baby or even when I prayed that prayer on the U of A mall that day. But beyond that, I’m not exactly sure. But I can tell you without a doubt, based on the Word of God, that today I stand before you as a Christian who has received the Holy Spirit into my life. I know that I have repented and turned from trying to follow my own path and to attempting the best I know how to following Jesus. I know that I have been obedient to Jesus by testifying to my faith in Him through Scriptural baptism. And I can see the evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. And based on the promise we saw this morning in Acts 2:38, I am confident of my relationship with Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. Do you have that same assurance?
