(If you have found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org or www.ChristianWisdom.info)
It should not be misconstrued that Christians believe in three gods. God is one. The Creator Father, the Redeemer Son, and the Counselor Holy Spirit are three manifestations of the same essence, three ways that God has chosen to allow us to know and experience God, each with distinct roles and each with distinct functions. The Holy Spirit interacts with us, helps us to understand the words and actions of Christ, and convinces us of the truth of God’s presence.
I believe that the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in faith formation, in the acquisition of convincing faith, and, in the process of the life-long spiritual transformation of the believer in which the believer becomes more and more like Christ, our “teleological goal”, our “ultimate concern” as Christians. In order to successfully carry out our “Great Commission”, the commission to go forth into the world teaching all nations and making disciples of our Lord (see Matthew 28:19), we need the help of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that connects us to God, and it is the Holy Spirit that verifies our testimony to the world. The Holy Spirit can and does confirm what is really real in a way that science simply cannot.
A. W. Tozer writes: “To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God. But the God we must see is not the utilitarian God who is having such a run of popularity today, whose chief claim to man’s attention is His ability to bring them success in their various undertakings and who for that reason is being cajoled and flattered by everyone who wants a favor. The God we must learn to know is the Majesty in the heavens, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the only wise God our Savior.”
I draw your attention especially to Tozer’s words, “the God we must learn to know”. This statement suggests two questions. The first is, “Why must we learn to know God?” and the second is, “How do we learn to know God?”
I hope to explain why it is so very important that we answer these two questions, but first, in way of additional introduction, I will quote from a popular Christian writer who is, perhaps, known to many of you, Max Lucado. Lucado writes: “The prevailing world-view denies the existence of absolute truth. So, when the Christian message, which is essentially historical… is proclaimed, modern listeners hear what they interpret as simply ‘one person’s preference—another free human being’s choice of lifestyle or belief….’ Our handy prepackaged God-talk won’t do. Before we tell them what the Bible says, we may have to tell them why they should believe the Bible…. And we need a Christian (explanation) that doesn’t just make the case for us; it must touch the chords within our unbelieving friends and neighbors and begin to alter their view of reality.”
What is that view of reality which, as Lucado suggests, dominates the way so many people today think? I think you know the answer to that question. Many today believe that truth is relative, that religion is personal, that ultimately none of it really matters because nothing can be known for certain. Why is that? Why do so many people have that idea? Quite simply, it is because we live in a scientific world dominated by faith in what science can reveal. Because of the success of modern scientific inquiry, most people have come to believe that the only way we can know what is really true is through empirical methods, that is, by observation and measurement that involves use of the five senses (touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing). Science can neither prove nor disprove God. Consequently, many people opt to doubt the existence of God because God can neither be proven nor disproved empirically through use of the five senses and direct measurement.
The five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste) cannot perceive God, no matter how hard we try. We can see smaller and smaller things through the use of microscopes, and larger and larger things through the use of telescopes, but we cannot see God. While science can refine with ever greater precision the data collected through the five senses, there is no way of being certain of the meaning or spiritual nature of what is being perceived. This limitation has given rise to relativism in faith and morals, and has led to skepticism or even atheism in the minds of many people. “Beauty”, as they say, “is in the eye of the beholder.” The same or something similar is also being said about what constitutes good or evil.
I can tell others that God is real, but the response, well more than likely these days it will go something like this: “Great, I’m delighted for you that you find something of meaning in your religion, but since God cannot be proven, I prefer to remain skeptical about the whole thing. Your hymns and prayers do nothing for me. We must each find or create our own meaning.”
Now let us return to today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 28:19, the Christian’s commission from Jesus to go forth and make Christian disciples throughout the world. How can we accomplish this when people today have become so trusting of empirical science? The prevailing viewpoint is that anything that cannot be demonstrated or measured empirically through use of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, smell or taste) must be doubted or rejected? This is the root of the problem that the church is facing in the modern world, and it is the reason why fewer and fewer young people are placing their trust in God today. The Holy Spirit cannot be quantified. Our culture today, dominated as it is by a narrow view of what constitutes a trustworthy empirical epistemology, rejects the experience of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is ultimately the only way to know God empirically, but such experiences may not be measured, recorded and quantified.
Over the past few years many people have commented to me that they don’t really understand the Holy Spirit. They haven’t heard much about it and as a result do not understand what or who the Holy Spirit is, and how this might be important to them. That is unfortunate and the product of neglect on the part of those teachers and pastors who are responsible for this neglect. The end result of such neglect is that many Christians are not mature in their faith. Some may be attending worship only or the music or for the fellowship or social support only, not realizing what Christianity actually is and what it could mean for them. Christianity is not a harmless myth, it is not just a fairytale that gives comfort whether it is true or not. It is true, and it is the gateway to wisdom and eternal life.
If we are going to have any chance of effectively carrying out the Great Commission, we are going to have to bridge the gap between reliance upon empirical science as our only guide, and acceptance of the guide provided for us by God, that “guide” being the Holy Spirit. Not that the Holy Spirit will instantly help us understand all mysteries. That, of course, is not the case. The Apostle Paul wrote, “now we see but dimly”. But the point is, we do see, even if dimly, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and this “insight” or “illumination” is just as real as any other experience. Moreover, it is the one and only way in which to experience convincing faith. In God’s own time, our understanding of the teachings, the example and the presence of Jesus grows through the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Saying “yes” is the foundation for a valid epistemology. Teaching this epistemology, the epistemology of the Holy Spirit, is the only real chance we have of carrying out the “Great Commission” in the 21st Century.
Empirical science based upon the five physical senses provides a vital tool helping us learn about the natural world around us. There are, however, limitations. While we can see smaller and smaller things through the use of a microscope, and things that are farther and farther away through the use of telescopes, we cannot, however, directly apprehend or quantify the essence such things as love, beauty, commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, and so on, at least not in the same way. We can measure these things indirectly, but not directly. Love, a sense of honor, beauty, and so on, cannot be directly touched, seen, smelled, tasted or heard. And yet, there is an inner testimony to the reality of such things. And, there being an inward testimony to the reality of these things, it is really not much of a stretch to include God in the category of things that science cannot directly measure and yet we can agree exist. There is an inner testimony to the existence of love, for example, which we would not wish to disregard. And the same is true of God.
Even though we see only in part, there is One who perceives all truth, understands all mysteries and knows the ultimate nature of all things. That “Great Perceiver”, as we might call this ineffable reality, is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We learn and become anchored in this truth not just through Scripture, but also through the influence of the Holy Spirit illuminating for us the meaning of Scripture and relating it to our day-to-day experiences.
Experience is an un-interpreted stream of raw data entering our consciousness through the five senses, waiting to be interpreted. It is impossible to experience direct apprehension of meaning, all data is always, in a sense, metaphorical. Understanding is built gradually, “metaphor upon metaphor”. All understanding is built through the use of metaphors, words and thoughts themselves being metaphors. There is no direct apprehension of anything physical or spiritual in our existence, except for the Holy Spirit. Everything is understood through metaphor building upon metaphor, and that is the nature of language, of science, of all human consciousness. Incidentally, the greatest and most useful metaphor of all by which God reveals God’s self, God’s love, and God’s plan of salvation, is Jesus Christ (John 3:12-13 and John 6:45-46).
Here is where the Holy Spirit becomes so very important to us. The Holy Spirit brings the words of Jesus Christ to mind and helps us to understand those words by bridging the gap between metaphor and internal understanding—connecting us with the otherwise ineffable (see John 14:26 and John 16:13)—something an epistemology based solely upon a type of empiricism relying only upon the limited perception provided by the five physical senses can never do. Because the Holy Spirit perceives the things that we ourselves through the five senses can never perceive, the work of the Holy Spirit is to be tested (see 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 NKJV) against standards just as any other empirical evidence must be tested.
The Holy Spirit sometimes touches our soul in chance encounters with others who have a word from God just for us (though they may not realize it). In subtle flashes of insight, in our recollection of the Words of Christ prompted by these chance encounters and the Holy Spirit helping us to see that the encounter is an answer to something we need or some question or burden we carry, at such times our spirit resonates in response to the Holy Spirit creating within us an experience which transcends that which can be apprehended through the five senses. Our insight, the “illumination of the Holy Spirit” can then be tested against the standard of Christ’s teachings.
Yes, our entire world around us is always apprehended metaphorically—light and sound and words and touch, all are indirect means of apprehending what is beyond ourselves—but it is the very thing that is most foreign to our physical body which is, paradoxically, most familiar to our soul through the power and influence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Helping others to become sensitive to the Holy Spirit is vital to the continuation of the Christian church, especially at this juncture in human history when scientific empiricism, because of its limitations, has given rise to relativism, pessimism and skepticism. The New Testament teaches that no one can say and truly believe that Jesus is Lord except through insight that flows from and through the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:3). The gift of faith comes to us in and through the experience of illumination provided by the Holy Spirit. That’s the way it is, and it is a wonderful thing.
Do you remember how the Apostle Thomas asked to see the Lord’s wounded hands and to touch the Lord’s wounded side before he would believe that Jesus had risen from the dead? And do you remember the Lord’s response: “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. How happy are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Yes, how happy!—happy because the Holy Spirit has prepared the heart to process the many metaphors in our lives, all of which ultimately point to God’s love and God’s plan of salvation. Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus directly, physically. The rest of us today cannot experience this in the same way. We can see in the sense that we find evidence of the power and truth of the God’s Word. We can see in the sense that we truly hear and see the historic record and the present indicators, those indicators being evidence of God’s work in, through and among us. How extraordinarily blessed we are because of this great and wonderful miracle!
If we are to be making disciples, we must understand that most people are ‘from Missouri”. They want to see and be convinced before they will be convinced and commit. They will never have the opportunity to see the physical nail wounds in Christ’s hands or touch the wound in his side, and, as a result, may never experience regenerative faith if seeing and touching physical evidence is what they demand. The Holy Spirit, however, present in chance encounters with others, in subtle flashes of insight, in recollection of the Words of Christ at times applicable to one’s situation, can and do illuminate the soul of those who are willing. We can be the instruments, the living metaphors, through which others come to experience the redemptive love of God. This then is our task—to become living metaphors by which others see the Lord. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.
In order to introduce the non-Christian to the empirical testimony of the Holy Spirit, we must first be open to it ourselves, and secondly, we must understand that the Holy Spirit has an absolutely vital role to play in the making of disciples. Mahatma Gandhi, who faced tremendous obstacles yet eventually changed the course of history in India, has written “The only tyrant I accept in the world is the ‘still small voice” within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.” Gandhi had the strength of conviction because he had tested the “still small voice within” and found it to be a true beacon. Christians have such a beacon. It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gain influence in our life as it helps us understand the words of Christ. The Holy Spirit has an absolutely vital role to play in bringing the non-Christian to Christ because the Holy Spirit guides us into an understanding of the words of Christ. It is a mistake to insist that others surrender reason to religious doctrines, that they accept our doctrines uncritically. Everyone needs empirical proof, verification through experience. Verification of that which we wish to share comes only through the influence, the illumination, of the Holy Spirit. In this sense, the work of the Holy Spirit might be compared to the “still small voice” of which Gandhi speaks.
One last word of encouragement worth sharing: God, through the Holy Spirit, has given you a “down payment” to bolster your faith— a foretaste of glory (see 2 Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13-14). This earnest deposit lies just beneath what we see and smell and hear and touch and taste—just beneath. It is the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the very image of Christ born again within our soul. Remember, it is there, and it is a powerful resource given to us for a purpose.
Someday the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all the earth. Right now we wait and watch. Let us not forget to pray for the blessings of the Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, and, a closer daily walk with God). These blessings are windows to the transcendent. They are stepping stones toward spiritual growth. And, finally, let us not forget to give thanks to God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May the Holy Spirit dwell in us that we ourselves might become strengthened in our own faith, thereby becoming more effective instruments of God’s love and more effective participants in our Lord’s redemptive ministry.
(If you found this sermon to be helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
