The Workings of the Holy Spirit: Character and Gifts – March 5, 2017
When I was 16 years old, I had been living with serious depression for three years. I was using a lot of marijuana, which was only numbing the pain. It wasn't helping me make any progress in life. So I was pretty sad. At night time, I would sit on my bed and lean on the windowsill of the third-floor bedroom window at the back of my parents house.
It was dark outside, and I would look at a porch light that was perhaps for houses east of ours. I would talk into the air about my anxieties and fears and sadness. This became something I did nearly every night.
After a number of weeks doing this, I would finish my times doing this by saying: "I say this to the Lord inside". After a few more weeks, doing this most every night, I would finish what I was doing and I would say: "I pray this to the Lord inside".
You have to understand, I was not a believer in anything. I was far from being a Christian, from believing in God, far from any type of faith, or so I thought.
So, what was that? Just a bizarre, strange thing for my father’s youngest kid to do? No, that was the Holy Spirit wooing me. The Holy Spirit, who I had zero clue even existed was working in my life.
Flash forward three years. When I was 19, it had been two years since I excepted Christ into my life. I struggled with a lot of questions and doubt, as I’d been raised to have a very skeptical view of anything to do with God.
It didn't help that my family was relentless in trying to "unconvert" me. They thought I had joined a cult or was otherwise on a very dangerous road, being a Christian.
One night I went with some friends to an event where The speaker was talking about the Holy Spirit. He was talking about the work of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This was pretty much new information for me.
At one point there was an invitation to go forward and be prayed for. So after a while, I went forward.
The pastor prayed for me, and prayed that I would receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit.
I began to speak in tongues, for the first time. It was sort of weird, sort of incredibly peaceful. I was worshiping and I was praying and I was fixed on Jesus.
After that, every single doubt that I had entertained about Jesus, about the Christian faith, evaporated. If I had doubts anymore, they were doubts about myself, never about God.
What was that? Just some emotional experience? A fleeting, passing event that was to have no impact on my life?
No. It was the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing, along with one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, an incredibly deep and profound conviction about the truth of Jesus, the truth of the Bible and the importance of being a follower of Jesus.
I haven’t looked back in 37 years. March 15 will be my 37th year as a Christ follower. So no, it wasn’t a fleeting experience.
For the last Number of weeks we have been spending quite a bit of time looking at the Way of Jesus markers.
A number of us met a few Wednesdays ago for an introductory evening about the Way of Jesus platform, and those who are interested will be attending three Saturday sessions, one in April, one of May and one in June.
I thought it would be good to follow up that series, that Pastor Ron Farr completed last week, by looking at how it is that we are even able to consider following Jesus, following the Way of Jesus.
One thing that is for sure is that we cannot do it on our own. But if not on our own, then how?
After Jesus suffered and rose from the grave, he told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait for the coming Holy Spirit.
They did that, and the Holy Spirit fell upon each of them as recorded in acts chapter 2. That was the beginning of the church.
And an important teachings of the early church, that remains vital still today, is the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Today we are going to spend some time reflecting on what the Holy Spirit does in the church, and in the lives of individual followers of Jesus, who collectively make up the church.
I’ve already shared a tiny bit of my story and how the Holy Spirit has worked in my life.
Today’s message is a teaching message, intended to impart as full an understanding of the Holy Spirit as is possible given the time allowed.
Galatians 5: 9 talks about the Fruit of the Spirit. 1st Corinthians, Romans and Ephesians all speak about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today we are going to look at both.
We are going to look at both, because they cannot be separated. If we do separate them, we run into trouble.
if we focus only on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is to do with the development of Christlike character, we can actually become overly focussed on our character, how it may reflect or not reflect the character of Jesus.
Over the years, when doing this, Christians have become dogmatic. Some have become judgey. Some have become strangely lifeless, in this pursuit of moral perfection.
On the flip side, if we become focused only on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, what tends to happen is that people focus on the supernatural gifts: speaking in tongues, prophecy, healings etc.
It can become too focused on the fantastic, too obsessed with the supernatural.
It can become a bit of a roadshow, and theological error can and has crept in in places where there has been an overemphasis on the gifts of the Spirit
So, again, today we are going to look at the Fruit of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit. I hope you will follow along with me.
First of all, what are the fruit of the Spirit? They are [Show PPT] Love (seeks the highest good of others); joy (gladness that is not based on circumstances); Peace (Deep contentment, shalom, unity between people); Patience or Forbearance (Slow to speak, slow to anger); Kindness (showing mercy, a sweet tenderness); Goodness (generous and open-hearted); Faithfulness (dependable, loyal and full of trust); Gentleness, calm, non-threatening); Self-control (Behaving well and in a way that honours God).
What does the Bible mean when it refers to these things as fruit of the Spirit? Well, they are qualities of Jesus’ own character that emerge and continually increase in the life of a person whose heart is submitted to Christ. They are qualities that reflect what Jesus is like.
The Apostle Paul wrote this because in the life of a Christ-follower, we understand through our baptismal vows that as Christians we died with Christ and rose again to life.
A life new and clean, in which the evil things of the old self are gone and the lovely things of the Spirit come to fruition. In real time, this takes time.
But we have the promise of sanctification, of being made holy.
Ephesians 1 says: 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.
So as believers, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, working in us to be more and more like Jesus. Our hope is in God IN us, Christ in us, working out His perfect will over time.
[PPT - Picture of stagnant water].
What is this? It’s water that is not fresh. It’s stagnant. Would you want to swim in it? Would you want to drink it? Not likely.
At my parent’s cottage on Lake Wagner up near Uxbridge, sometimes the water would be clear and lovely.
Sometimes you would need to take a shower after swimming to clear away the slime. I’m hoping no one here finds this appealing.
Jesus said something quite beautiful, but a bit cryptic or hard to understand in John chapter 7. He spoke of what happens when a person comes to place their faith in Him.
He said: [PPT] “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified”. John 7:38-39
So in poetic language, Jesus is telling us that what happens when we place our faith in Him is that evidence, something real, tangible and beautiful will flow out of us.
Then the Scripture tells us that this ‘living water’ is the Spirit, the Spirit which at the time Jesus spoke those words was not yet given, but Who would be given on what we call Pentecost, as recorded in Acts Chapter 2.
Now since we’re talking about the Holy Spirit, let’s look at some of the symbols of the Holy Spirit that Scripture speaks of.
Symbols of the Holy Spirit: The Dove - “After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming on him” (Matt 3:16).
Inferred is the dove’s 1) beauty, 2) gentleness, 3) peace and 4) coming from heaven
Fire: Now when the day of Pentecost had come, . . tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4).
Do not quench the Spirit (NASB I Thess 5:19)
Wind: “Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting (Acts 2:4).
The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8)
Water: On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.
Those are the ways in which God conveys to us in His Word Who the Holy Spirit is, and it’s important to keep this in mind as we proceed.
So we’ve looked briefly at the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Note that it is ‘fruit’ and not ‘fruits’ of the Holy Spirit.
The word ‘fruit’ refers both to a single fruit and more than one at the same time. Bit of an ESL nightmare, but that’s English for you.
There’s the Fruit of the Spirit, and there are also Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
These are gifts given sovereignly by God to the church to bring glory and honour to God, and to uplift the body of Christ, the church, so that it can function as the body of Christ.
Take away the gifts of the Spirit, and instead of church you have a social club meeting.
The great Revivalist D.L. Moody said: “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as try to liver a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.
With the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling believers and manifesting His presence in believers, you have an alive, dynamic church that is focussed on the mission of God.
What is the mission of God for the church? It’s expressed a few different ways. Jesus said to “Go and make disciples of all nations”. (Mt 28:19) That’s one critical part of why you and I are here: to be equipped to make disciples.
Another way the mission of God for us is expressed as Jesus says to His disciples in the Upper Room after He rose from the dead: “As the Father sent me, so I send you”.
And we learn what that means in Luke chapter 4 as Jesus says,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Lk 4:18-19)
As God sent Jesus to do these things, so Jesus sends you and me as the church to do these things.
That’s the mission of God that we really do need to believe in and attach ourselves to if we are to be in the will of God.
To not believe this can be to wonder: “Why do I go to church?” “Why do I bother praying and reading the Bible”.
Or at least potentially we could find ourselves spinning our wheels in that way if we resist the call of Jesus in our lives.
Now, the Holy Spirit is HOW we accomplish the mission of God, the will of God, in our lives individually and collectively as His people.
The gifts of the Spirit answer the HOW question. How am I to serve? How do I make my contribution to the life of the church.
How should I get involved and what should I put my time and energy toward. How do I serve?
The answer to that is twofold: each of us can serve in a general sense for the general needs of the church.
And for now we’ll just talk about life in the church of Christ.
Of course this applies to all of life, but church life is very important because when we gather we gather as Christ’s body.
How can we serve in a general sense? We can volunteer to serve as our energy allows.
A lot of people here help put away chairs after the service. Help to restore this space to its usual state after the service. Some have helped with preparations on Sundays.
Some of you serve as greeters. Some help with refreshments. Some help with teaching the children.
Some participate in the service, reading Scripture or praying or otherwise contributing.
Those are general ways that we each can and should be making a contribution.
For the first number of years that I attended church, I couldn’t figure out how to get more involved. I wanted to make a contribution.
So eventually I learned that if I asked how I could help, I would be asked to help.
Sometimes I would clean the church. Shovel the snow in front of the church.
Greet people, pray for people. Help out in Sunday School.
Eventually, because I had gifts in music I started to help out musically in the church. Others did these same things too.
So I hope you are thinking about how you can make a contribution.
If you are already doing that, you know that you feel more a part of the church as a result, you feel connected because you are serving alongside others.
You are helping out, taking ownership of what goes on here.
If you’re like I was and wondering how to get involved, for sure don’t just spin your wheels and keep wondering.
Ask how you can help, and keep asking. If you do, you’ll be one of the few, and as you serve you will be and you will feel more connected to the body.
So we each serve in a general way as we can to help with the running of the church, of the service.
But like I said this is not just about Sundays. We’re open for ministry 4 days a week.
It’s really about every day, in our everyday lives. At Church at the Mission there is an awful lot going on during the week as well.
Some of you are involved in our mid-week events - the Bridges Program on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There are so many ways to get involved and start serving. Sometimes it seems like we never close.
And when you start serving you will start growing in new ways as well.
There’s that general way we serve, and we all need to be doing this.
And then there’s the service we give because of the gifts [PPT] that God gives us by the Holy Spirit.
What are those gifts?
{PPT of Gifts] This is not a complete list. There are other gifts as well. We don’t have time right now to go into the meaning of all of these.
But if you keep listening, you’ll learn soon of an opportunity to learn more.
Romans refers to the gift of serving, encouragement, giving, leadership, mercy. 1 Corinthians refers to the spiritual gift of helps and guidance.
1 Corinthians also refers to the message of wisdom, the message of knowledge, distinguishing of spirits, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, tongues, the interpretation of tongues.
And Ephesians 4 says this: 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors) and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
You may wonder, if you’re the skeptical type, about these gifts. This may be new to you.
You might be thinking: well, that was a lot of information.
How does this relate to me? It was a lot of information. Do I have spiritual gifts? Is there evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in my life?
As it happens, we are running a course on Monday nights starting on March 20 at the Christian Community Centre.
During that course, if you decide to join us, you will discover what your spiritual gift is, what your personal style is and what is your God-given ministry passion.
This will also help to unpack the fruit of the Spirit that is evident in your life.
So we are called to live the way of Jesus. Put simply, that means to live as new creations in Him.
As He did in my life, He works in the life of every person who puts their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
There is no greater joy that to be free in Christ.
There is no greater joy than to love God by serving Him, and to love our neighbour - to love each other, by serving each other according to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us.
May we resolve, each of us in our own hearts, to honour Jesus with our whole lives, and to follow the way of Jesus as the Spirit of God gives us power.
