A. It’s been about a month since we had a sermon in our Holy Spirit sermon series, so I’m thankful to be able to return to our series today.
1. So far in our series, we have learned that the Holy Spirit isn’t an it or an impersonal force, but is the third person of the Godhead – the trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. We have learned that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and guide.
3. We have learned that the Holy Spirit is like the wind and that the Christian life should be more like sailing a boat than rowing a boat.
a. Ultimately, we cannot be who we should be or do what we should do without the help of the Holy Spirit empowering us and carrying us along.
4. We’ve learned that the Holy Spirit is our intercessor.
a. We learned the amazing truth that the Holy Spirit prays for us and does so especially when we don’t know what to pray for.
5. In our last sermon in the series, we learned that the Holy Spirit is our seal.
a. The sealing of the Spirit is the mark of permanent ownership that gets put on us and in us when we become a child of God – when we believe and are baptized.
b. The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our heavenly inheritance and is our guarantee from God - it is like the initial installment.
c. We can have assurance and confidence in our salvation because of God’s promised Holy Spirit who is our seal and guarantee.
d. The fact and assurance of our salvation should not give us reason to neglect righteous living and loving service but should be the very thing that motivates us towards faithfulness and cooperation with the Spirit.
B. Today, we want to learn what it means for us that the Holy Spirit is represented as a dove.
1. If you ever have the chance to visit the catacombs in Rome, Italy, then you will see the tunnels under the ancient city where many of the early Christians were buried.
2. On the tombs of those Christians, you will see three common Christian symbols: the fish, the anchor, and the dove.
3. A popular early Christian symbol is the picture of a fish – probably because Jesus makes us fishers of men.
a. Along with the image of a fish the early Christians used the letters of the Greek word for fish to stand for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
4. The anchor came from the idea that as Christians were going through difficult and insecure times, their hope in Christ anchored their souls.
5. The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, because of the way the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism in the form of a dove and because of other times the Bible uses the dove as an illustration.
6. I want us to explore how the Holy Spirit, like a dove, is the symbol of peace, gentleness, and security.
C. Svalbard, Norway is considered one of the safest places on the earth.
1. At least that’s what those in charge of the Global Seed Vault determined.
2. The Global Seed Vault is an ultrahigh security and ultralow temperature vault that has the capacity to house seeds of every plant we eat, more than 4.5 million of them.
3. Even if Svalbard isn’t the safest place on earth, it’s certainly one of the coldest places and very few people live there – polar bears outnumber humans!
4. The underground concrete bunkers that house the seed vault are built to withstand floods, fires, and nuclear attacks.
5. In the event of global warming or worldwide disaster, the seeds are safe.
D. Many of us might wish we could live life in a safe bunker like that.
1. So many things in our world present themselves as serious threats to our safety and wellbeing.
a. If global temperatures rise just a few more degrees…
b. If classified information falls into sinister hands…
c. If the wrong person ends up with the nuclear codes, or gains access to the red button…
d. If another pandemic strikes…
2. All of this is enough to make a person want to purchase a flight to Svalbard.
3. And if the worldwide perils weren’t enough to create anxiety, then the personal ones we face certainly can well.
a. Blood cell counts go up and savings accounts go down.
b. Marriages go south and kids get lost in drugs or social media.
c. Work goes off the rails and stress goes off the charts.
4. The result of all this can lead to fear and anxiety that takes our sleep, numbs our minds, and fills our hearts with dread.
E. The good news is help is here – the Holy Spirit is our helper.
1. The Holy Spirit is the calming presence of God in the world today.
2. The Holy Spirit is able to help us defy the voices of fear and enter into the presence of God’s peace.
F. The Holy Spirit’s first act in earthly history was to turn chaos into calm.
1. Genesis 1:2 says: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
2. The earliest depiction of our planet is not a welcoming one.
a. We can all imagine images of spewing lava, colliding waves, and a lightless existence.
3. Yet in that moment of primal frenzy, we see the presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over the surface of the waters.
4. We might expect a different verb describing God’s activity – we might expect something like: the Spirit of God ruled or commanded or directed, but that’s not what Scripture says.
5. The inaugural activity of the Holy Spirit was to hover over a frenzied world.
G. The world “hovering” doesn’t appear often in the Bible.
1. In one of the other times the Bible uses the word “hovering” it is again used in the context of chaos.
2. God’s relationship with ancient Israel is described like a hovering, protective eagle.
3. Deuteronomy 32:11 says that God: He watches over his nest like an eagle and hovers over his young; he spreads his wings, catches him, and carries him on his feathers.
4. Can you picture an active eagle’s nest with squawking eaglets with their open mouths and bobbing heads?
5. The nest is a swarm of energy, inexperience, and inability.
6. But then here comes momma or daddy eagle and their presence calms their babies and their provision nourishes their eaglets.
7. The task of the parent eagle is to calm the chaos and bring comfort and peace.
H. And so, the Old Testament begins and continues with a description of the Spirit of God as a hovering, settling presence.
1. How fitting it is then, that early in the New Testament, we see the Spirit of God descending as a gentle dove.
2. Jesus came to John the baptizer at the Jordon river to be baptized by him.
a. John tried his best to reverse the roles and have Jesus baptize him, but Jesus would have none of it.
b. And so John baptized Jesus and as Jesus was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descended on Jesus.
3. All four Gospels tell of that special moment (Mt. 3:13; Mk. 1:20; Lk. 3:22; Jn. 1:32).
4. Luke, in his Gospel, goes so far as to say that Spirit descended, not like a dove, but as a dove – in the form of a dove.
I. We’ve already mentioned in our sermon series that the Holy Spirit is depicted in different ways: as a wind and as a river, but today as we explore the Holy Spirit as a dove, we might wonder wouldn’t a different bird have been better?
1. Wouldn’t an eagle or a hawk – the symbol of strength and fierceness - been a better image?
2. Wouldn’t an owl – the symbol of wisdom – been a better image?
3. Wouldn't a meadowlark – the symbol of song and music – been a better image?
4. But that’s not the image that God wanted to project to us.
J. God chose to present the image of God the Holy Spirit as a dove – to descend on Jesus with the gentleness and peacefulness of a dove.
1. The Holy Dove of God is sent to sooth the noisy, tumultuous, excitable and vindictive atmosphere of our hearts.
2. That’s why the fruit of the Spirit – the product or result of the Spirit – is: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) – that’s what the presence of the Holy Spirit brings.
K. Our enemy, the devil, seeks to destroy our peace and fill us with fear and doubt.
1. In C.S. Lewis’ famous work called the Screwtape Letters, the author helps us imagine the way older demons try to train younger demons in the ways of destroying God’s people.
2. It’s easy to picture demon students being taught the dialect of dread and doubt.
3. There they are trained to sow seeds of distress and fear in the minds of the children of God.
4. They are trained to exaggerate, speculate, and negate.
5. They learn how to make people assume the worst and envision a world of no escape, no resolution, and no hope.
6. They learn how to whisper these kinds of things in our ears:
a. No one cares about you.
b. Everyone is against you.
c. No one will help you.
d. You will never get through this.
e. Just give up.
7. Why is it so easy for us to believe the whispers of demons and so hard to believe the words of God?
M. Our stress-laden society has developed many tactics for dealing with anxiety.
1. There are breathing exercises that can be done and medications that can be taken.
2. There are all kinds of books, and seminars, and tools.
3. And as helpful as all those things can be, there is a greater helper available to us.
4. The Holy Spirit who lives in believers is the greatest resource there is to control anxiety.
5. The next time a wave of anxiety begins to get its grip on us, we can immediately turn to the Spirit for help.
6. The Holy Spirit is on call all the time (24/7).
N. The apostle Paul wrote: 18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ… (Eph. 5:18-20)
1. In those verses, Paul contrasts two strategies for facing inner conflict and chaos: one is inebriation and the other is celebration.
2. Many people try to numb themselves from the conflict and chaos they are experiencing.
a. Some do it with liquor or marijuana, others do it with working long hours, or bouts of shopping or gambling, or hours of playing golf or video games, or mindless scrolling, pornography, or binge watching of TV programs or movies.
b. Anyone who has tried this approach knows its falsehood and uselessness.
c. Happy hours do not make us happy.
d. These approaches may help us forget our problems for a moment, but they are awaiting us when we leave the bar or turn off the computer or television.
3. What is the better approach? Turn to the Holy Spirit in worship.
a. Fill the air and mind with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
b. Praise is the cleansing element that flushes the trash of worry and anxiety.
c. Turning our eyes and hearts to the Lord plugs us into the real source of power and sanity, hope and peace.
O. Turning to God in worship is what Paul and Silas did.
1. Their enemies had dragged them before the magistrates of Philippi.
2. The authorities beat them with rods and threw them into the deepest part of the prison and secured their feet in stocks.
3. What a difficult and terrible turn of events for Paul and Silas!
a. Hundreds of miles from home, in foreign territory with no local advocates, in a dark, dank prison, bruised and bleeding, and immobilized by the stocks.
4. How did Paul and Silas respond? The Bible says: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. (Acts 16:25)
a. Wouldn’t you have liked to have heard those songs and prayers?
b. Those listening were certainly impacted by what they heard.
5. Keep in mind that Paul and Silas didn’t know how this story would end – they hadn’t read the rest of Acts 16!
a. They weren’t sure of their deliverance, but they were sure of their deliverer – we can be also!
b. Like them, rather than panic, we can choose to pray and praise.
6. Our prayers and praise override and drown out the whispering lies of the enemy.
a. We can overcome and defeat the devil’s seeds of doubt and despair with God’s power and truths.
P. Jesus is a good example for us about what to do when experiencing storms and oppression.
1. When the storm came into His world, Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still.” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. (Mk. 4:39)
2. When the demon took charge of the man in the synagogue, Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be quiet and come out of him.” (Mk. 1:25)
3. But you might say, “David, that was Jesus and I am me, so there is no comparison or no doing what Jesus did.”
4. But remember what Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (Jn. 14:12)
5. And when Jesus went to the Father, the Holy Spirit was sent to be with us and be in us.
6. Paul had this to say about the Spirit in us: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment [sound mind]. (2 Tim. 1:7)
7. We have power through the Holy Spirit and we just need to put it to use.
8. When the storm of fear comes, we can speak against it in Jesus name, “Peace, be still.”
9. When the evil one draws near, we can rebuke him and resist him and he will flee, “Be quiet and be gone.”
Q. So, when we find ourselves in a difficult place physically, emotionally or spiritually, then our best course of action is to reach out to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
1. We can seek the Lord in Scripture, prayer and song.
2. We can experience what King David experienced and expressed in Psalm 34:3-7.
a. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.
b. Aren’t those verses encouraging?
c. When we seek the Lord, He answers us and His spiritual forces encamp around us.
d. God supplies rescue and relief, joy and peace.
3. So, when chaos is surrounding us, we can cast our anchor in God.
a. We can be reminded of the promises of Scripture.
b. We can sing praises and be reminded of God’s truth in song.
c. We can pray in the Spirit and the Spirit will pray for us.
d. In doing so, we cast our anxiety on God and the peace of God the Holy Spirit will guard our hearts.
e. Picture the dove of the Spirit descending on you.
f. Picture being under the Spirit’s wings of protection.
R. I want to end the sermon with the story of a hymn that would be a good hymn for us to sing when we are experiencing chaos and anxiety.
1. The hymn is “There is a Place of Quiet Rest” and it was written by Cleland McAfee in 1901.
2. The hymn was born out of tragic circumstances when Cleland McAfee suffered the loss of two infant nieces to diphtheria.
3. McAfee was a preacher of a Presbyterian Church in Missouri.
4. His daughter described the account of the creation of this hymn in her book, “Near to the Heart of God:” “The family and town were stricken with grief. My father often told us how he sat long and late, thinking of what could be said in word and song on the coming Sunday… So he wrote the little song. The choir learned it at the regular Saturday night rehearsal, and afterward they went to Howard McAfee’s home and sang it as they stood under the sky, outside the darkened, quarantined house. It was sung again on Sunday morning at the communion service.”
5. Here are the words: (let’s sing it together)
There is a place of quiet rest, Near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of comfort sweet, Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Savior meet, Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release, Near to the heart of God,
A place where all is joy and peace, Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God.
S. I pray that all of us find the peace that passes understanding as the Holy Spirit keeps us near to the heart of God.
1. The Holy Spirit is our dove of peace and calm.
2. The Holy Spirit covers us with wings of protection and comfort.
3. Praise God that God the Holy Spirit is always with us and is in us.
Resources:
Help Is Here, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2022
Hymnal.net
