I have titled this sermon “Biology of the Breathe of Life”, because we are studying here Life itself. The origin of everything. I want to title it before as Evolution of the Breathe of Life, but Life for me could not evolve but complete in itself. God is Life. No beginning and no end. There can be no evolution of life because it is Absolute. If there is evolution of life... it is from us, since we came from the dust of the ground, and the life that we now live came from the Original Life. The ruach Elohim of the moving of waters in Genesis 1:2. Move, and breathe and “like a wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8). Our consciousness of this Life is what I am driving at today in this preaching and how it accomplishes it’s purpose to everyone that calls upon the name of Jesus. The “Biology of the Breathe of Life” begins in our midst now as it surely hovers overs us. Let’s start.
1- The Face of the Waters:
from the voidness and darkness and nothingness....
there was a breathing, a moving and the Bible says hovering like a hen nurturing and brooding her eggs of the coming of refilling, reconstruction, and birth of a new creation. A new creation is about to hatch from such incubation of the Holy Spirit. The darkness would soon be dispelled by the power of the Word; “Let there be Light!” That was the beginning of recreation. Ruach Elohim would soon move into life every word that would come out of the mouth of God. The Wind, the Word and the Lord would commence their life.
HalleluJah!
Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (The "Spirit of God" hovering over the waters in some translations of Genesis 1:2 comes from the Hebrew phrase “ruach elohim” which has alternately been interpreted as a "great wind". Rûach (?????) has the meanings "wind, spirit, breath," from: wikipedia.org)
After that....
2- The Dust Of The Ground:
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (from: gotquestions.org God breathed His own breath of life into man. Man is more than “dust” or physical substance. Man has a spirit. We can picture it this way: Adam’s body had just been formed by God from the dust of the earth—a lifeless human body lying on the ground. Then God leaned over and “breathed” His own “breath of life” into the man’s nostrils; God is the Source of life, and He directly placed life within man. This breath of life is seen again in John 20:22, as Jesus imparts new life to His disciples. Genesis 2:7 tells us that man became a living soul (KJV). The word soul in Hebrew is nephesh, meaning “an animated, breathing, conscious, and living being.” Man did not become a living soul until God breathed life into him. As a physical, animate, rational, and spiritual being, man is unique among all living things upon the earth.
So, what is the breath of God? It is the life and power of God, given to man to animate him. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, which means “wind, breath, air, spirit.” The life of God lives on and on; the immaterial part of man was designed to live eternally. The only question is where will we live?).
3- The Fearful Disciples:
When someone asks us about the resurrection, we can gently point them to this passage.
The disciples were full of fear as their leader for three and a half was with them, they witnessed His power not only in deeds but in words. But now, all of it was now was about to be lost. To them it was Finished. It was really done. Consummated in their living in the old world. They will be ushered in the greatest revolution of life the world is about to see. Yes, For the disciples, death was still death. Fear was still fear. Despair was still despair. The disciples, grown men, were in fear. How does it happen that such frightened men, such cowards, become brave as lions? How do such timid people, become bold? It takes only common sense and a small amount of logic to fill in the blanks.
The episode in John 20:22 did not involve the actual reception of a supernatural empowering of the Holy Spirit on that immediate occasion. Rather, that circumstance was only a foreshadowing of the promise that would be fulfilled almost fifty days later. I believe W.E. Vine captured the sense of the text quite well. “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”referred not merely to His own breath, it was symbolic of the Holy Spirit as about to be sent at Pentecost. It was connected with their being sent out into the world, and with the effect of their ministry of the Gospel in the forgiveness of sins by the Spirit’s power, or the retention of sins by the rejection of the message (vv. 23,24). It was a prophetic act as well as symbolic of the action, the promised coming of the dunamis power of the HolySpirit! And so after fifty days in the upper room, the coming of the wind that would change our existence and the life of everything would be affected from thereon...
4- The Birth of the Church: Acts 2ff
It is ironic that we have a different church now from the day that the Church was born on Pentecost. So different that it pains my heart to post this story written by a first timer in the Church.
Some time ago an 18-year-old girl from Washington state attended a worship service. For the first time in her life she heard the gospel message. The following Tuesday the members of the church received a letter from her. It read:
Dear Church Members:
Last Sunday I attended your church, and I heard the preacher. In the sermon the preacher said that all men have sinned and rebelled against God. Because of their rebellion and disobedience they all face eternal damnation and separation from God. But then he also said God loves man and sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to redeem men from their sins and that all those who believe in Him would go to Heaven and live with God eternally. My parents recently died in rapid succession. I know they did not believe in Jesus Christ, whom you call the Saviour of the world. If what you believe is true, they are damned. You compel me to believe that either the message is true, that you yourself don't believe this message, or that you don't care. You see, we live only three blocks from your church, and no one ever told us.
What happened?
This is the reason.... The Holy Spirit's coming creates a seismic shift in the hearts of the Apostles. Peter's explanation becomes the first distinctively Christian sermon. People are cut to the heart, and the Church grows by 3,000. The young Church walks in unity and garners praise from the people. Salvations become commonplace.
The word wind in the original Greek language was the word pneh'-o (pay na-o) which means to breath hard or blow. It was here that the church received, not its start, but its empowerment.
We have made our churches so churchy that we forgot the very words of Jesus Himself in its very beginning... “4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1 KJV).
Oh, come once more Ruach Elohim...
Come once more pneumonia-o!
5- The Inerrancy of the Bible:
2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Or were inspired by Ruach Elohim of Genesis 1:2. Inerrancy rises because we claim this Scripture is the very Word of God. The center of God’s revelation is Jesus. And He is called the Word of God incarnate. And He said Scripture cannot be broken. He said: Until heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a dot, littlest of dot in iota will pass away from the law until all is accomplished. So the Word of God validates the Word of God written. The Word of God incarnate validates the Word of God written in the Old Testament and then later on commissioned His apostles to speak His Word as the foundation of the Church and He promised when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. So Jesus stands at the center as the Word of God incarnate and looking back He validates the Word of God written and looking forward He validates the Word of God written and the apostles took it that way because they said amazing things about their authority.
Our Bible, the Word of God is a collection of tested, tried and proven writings by holy men. In fact, The word inspiration means God-breathed. This holy Book that we hold in our hands is the very words of God, penned by holy stenographers who were chosen by God.
Not only was the Bible written by divine intervention, but it was preserved by the very moving of God.
the Bible— is definitely God’s Holy Word. There is not another book in this world like it. You hold in your hands the Word of God.
Oh, how we need to read it, love it, and devote ourselves to it! Don’t just toss it aside... accumulate dust in the shelf or even Put it deep inside.
Don’t throw it out, wear it out. Don’t try to change it, let it change you.
Sin will keep you from that Book, or that Book will keep you from sin.
God breathed it into existence.
Illustration:
”In George Foreman’s book, God in My Corner, the former heavyweight boxing champion writes: “‘In 1974, before I went to Africa to fight Muhammad Ali, a friend gave me a Bible to take along on my trip. He said, ‘George, keep this with you for good luck.’ I believed the Bible was just a shepherd’s handbook, probably because the only verse I knew was ‘the Lord is my shepherd.’ But I was always looking for luck, so I carried that Bible with me. I had lucky pennies and good luck charms, so now I added the ‘lucky’ Bible to my collection of superstitious items.
After I lost the fight, I threw the Bible away. I never even opened it. I thought, The Bible didn’t help me win, so why do I need it? I thought I’d get power simply from owning it; I didn’t realize that I needed to read it and believe what it says. Since then, I’ve come to understand that the Bible is my road map, not my good luck charm.”’
It is now complete. We are now temple of His habitation.
Pneh-o inside us.
Pneh-o outside us through His Book. From Ruach Elohim to penh-o!
Finished.
Conclusion:
Now, as we end up today’s preaching let the Holy Spirit continue to breathe on us. Life forevermore. To us. To our fellowmen... lots of them should know and have this complete Biology of the Breathe of Life...
To God’s creation because of us that we might at least lessen their groanings because of man’s sinfulness.
The breath of God, gave meaning to our planet, gave life to man, power to the church, removes fear and anxiety to the men and women of God and lastly the existence and inerrancy of the Bible as an inspiration!
finished:0105pm26march2019@doJpowerHouse!12thSunday2019
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