Holy Spirit Series 2000
The Case for the Spirit
Romans 8:15-27
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
I loved those old Sherlock Holmes movies I watched as a kid. The scenes were different. The crimes varied from movie to movie. The bad guys had different names. But we all knew the outcome.
The plot went something like this. A crime has been committed. The police arrive and secure the crime scene. They interrogate all the witnesses and a number of suspects. An evidence team arrives. They scour the scene looking very the smallest tell tale information about what happened. A piece of thread here; a bloodstain on the carpet; a footprint outside the bedroom window.
Eventually a suspect emerges. Everyone is convinced that they have the bad guy. A veteran of such movies knows that it’s not that simple. The camera pans to Holmes. He is puffing his pipe and scratching his chin. He’s thinking. He’s pondering some strange bit of evidence that everyone else overlooked. He spots some weird little inconsistency in the testimony of a witness. Dr. Watson watches in bewilderment.
Eventually, Holmes cracks the case. Scotland Yard’s top cop has done it again. Always, somewhere near the end, he replies to Watson’s incredulous query about how he did, “Elementary, Watson, elementary. It’s the evidence just the evidence.”
The work of the Holy Spirit may not be elementary but to understand his work we merely need to follow the evidence.
Today’s message brings us to our fourth in a series on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. We have been examining seven names, titles, or descriptive terms for the Spirit.
Our last three names or descriptive terms provide what I will call “the case for the Spirit.” Each of these three names provides a piece of the evidence that together reveal who the Spirit is and what He does. What would you site as evidence of the Spirit? What proof could you find for a compelling case for the Spirit?
Some in our day, like the other detectives in the Sherlock Holmes mystery, gather a bounty of evidence for their case but end up at a dead end because they have either gathered the wrong evidence or overlooked the real evidence. Some point to enthusiasm, sincerity, or emotional intensity as the proof of the Spirit. Obviously, the Holy Spirit can and does produce enthusiasm, sincerity and emotions. But so do a high school football game, a rock concert, and an Amway convention. No, there must be more evidence than that.
As noted in a previous study, some point to signs and wonders, speaking in tongues, or futuristic predictions as the evidence of the Spirit. I believe God can do all of those things. But I also know from the Bible and from history, that each of those things can be counterfeited and abused. Throughout history, totally pagan and non-Christian religionists have spoken in ecstatic tongues, fallen into spiritual trances, and appeared to perform inexplicable feats and amazing wonders. Nowhere does the Bible ever suggest that such things, in and of themselves, make a case for the Spirit.
If not these, then what? What is the evidence of the Spirit? What does he do when he is present? What footprints of the Spirit should we expect to find at the scene of his work?
Three terms, names, or descriptive titles will help answer these questions. The three also will highlight the past, future, and present work of the Spirit. Together they form a three strand cord around the classic Christian virtues—faith, hope, and love. If you are a born-again believer, the past work of the Spirit was to bring you to faith. He is the Spirit of Life. His future-oriented work is to remind us of the hope that awaits us. He is the Spirit of Promise. Right now, in the present, his work is to make us one, to enable us as followers of Jesus to so live together that we make Jesus look good. He is the Spirit of Unity.
I. The Spirit of Life
The first and most fundamental work of the Spirit is to bring people to a saving relationship with Jesus through faith in the Gospel. As he does this, He is the Spirit of Life. Listen to Paul’s words in Romans 8:
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.£ And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man£ is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind£ is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Rom. 8:1-8)
Many do not fully appreciate this work of the Spirit because they do not fully appreciate our human predicament. What was your problem before you came to faith in Christ? Folk offer many answers. For some the problem was association—I just hadn’t been going to church. For others, it was information—I just didn’t know much about the Bible. Some see a ceremonial problem—I just hadn’t been baptized. Some more humbly declare--my life was headed in the wrong direction. The real radicals might acknowledge that they were sinners in need of forgiveness. But all of these analyses of the human predicament miss the point.
Before Christ I wasn’t just uninformed, unbaptized, unchurched, or even messed up. Did you catch the Bible’s terms in Romans 8? I was a captive, powerless, weakened, hostile to God, unable to please God. The most graphic phrase is in verse 6, “the mind of sinful man is death.” Here is why the Spirit of Life is important. Without Christ, we are more than uninformed, unbaptized, or unchurched. We are dead, totally unresponsive to God. We need more than a change of direction, or change of address, or change of religious association. We need resurrection. Trying harder to do right, going to church more often, associating with different people—none of these are enough. A radical problem calls for a radical remedy.
Did you hear the one about the drunk who stumbled upon a baptismal service one Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeds to walk down into the water and stand next to the Preacher. The minister turns and notices the old drunk and says, “Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?”
The drunk looks back through blood shot eyes and mutters, “Yes, Preacher, I sure am, “ not at all knowing what was happening.
The minister then dunks the fellow under the water and pulls him right back up. “Have you found Jesus?” the preacher asked.
“Nooo, I didn’t!’ slurred the drunk.
The preacher then dunks him again and holds him under for a quite a bit longer, brings him up and says, “Now, brother, have you found Jesus?”
“Nooo, I did not Reverend,” he sputters.
The preacher in disgust holds the man under for at least thirty seconds this time, brings him out of the water and says in a harsh tone, “My God, man, have you found Jesus yet?”
The old drunk wipes his eyes and says to the preacher, “Are you sure this where he fell in?”
Paul describes the pre-Christian problem in this way-- “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world . . .” (Eph. 2:1-2).
This is exactly why Jesus insisted, much to the surprise of his very religious student, that the only way to enter the kingdom of God is to be born again. “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit£ gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You£ must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)
How does the Spirit of Life do this in a person? How did he do it in you and in me—if we have been born again? He directed our circumstances. He created “coincidences” that we couldn’t avoid. He created a hunger and thirst for something that was missing. He answered the prayers of godly parents and grand parents who prayed for us. But ultimately he brought across our path somebody with the Word of God, who taught us about Jesus. Maybe a preacher. Maybe not. Maybe a Sunday school teacher. Maybe a parent or neighbor. But it always happened when we came in contact with the Gospel.
1 Peter 1:23-25 explains it, “23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. . . . And this is the word that was preached to you.” Ephesians 1:13 adds, “You also were included in Christ when you head the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
Do you want evidence that the Spirit of Life is at work? Simply look for signs of life, sinners who were once dead in sins, now alive in Christ. Don’t let anyone ever devalue this work of the Spirit of life as if it were a small thing. New life in Christ is not a small thing; it is the main thing. It is bigger than signs and wonders, bigger than the casting out of demons. As Jesus said, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)
II. The Spirit of Promise
Our second piece of evidence for the Spirit is found in a passage we just noted. Listen again to Ephesians 1, “13And 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, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory (13-14). The KJV terms the Spirit here the Spirit of promise.
There are two key words in this passage that require explanation. First, Paul calls the Spirit of Promise the seal of God on us. The term “seal” refers to a stamp of ownership. You can think of a cattle brand like in the old west. In biblical times, it was more than likely a stamp or mark on an object that indicated the owner. A letter from the King might bear a wax seal of the ruler’s signet ring. The seal proved ownership and warned those to whom the object didn’t belong to leave it alone. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives marks us as belonging to the One who saved us.
What is that brand or mark? Primarily two things: the testimony of faith in Christ alone and the evidence of a transformed life. Have you confessed with your mouth what you believe in your heart about what Jesus did for you in his death and resurrection? Has your life been changed? Where you once walked in the ways of the world and in selfishness, do you now walk in greater holiness and selflessness? That didn’t happen by accident. You didn’t do it yourself. The Spirit of Life was at work.
A second term in the passage is translated “deposit”-- or “earnest” as older versions rendered it. The term referred to a down payment made during a business transaction. It was a guarantee that the deal would eventually be completed, that it was for real. When you buy a new car, the salesmen ask for a deposit to hold the car while you finish your financial arrangements. The older term earnest is still used in real estate. Your offer on a house or piece of property will not be considered until you prove that you are earnest, for real, by making a deposit toward the purchase.
According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit working in our lives is the earnest of God’s promise to us. We don’t now possess all that God has promised us. We have a new home, a new name, a new song, a new body, new rewards, and much much more awaiting us when Christ returns. We don’t have it all now. There is much more to come. But we have a down payment to remind us of all that is yet to be ours. That down payment is the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
Listen to how these ideas are brought together in Romans 8:15 (im- mediately following the discussion of the Spirit of Life noted previously):
5For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that£ the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. (Romans 8:15-27)
Following Jesus isn’t always easy. Sometimes it is very hard. Sometimes we face adversity and suffering because we still live in a world that is not fully under the dominion of our God. Someday it will be different. Someday the suffering and disappoint will be over. How do we survive until then? By hope. We wait expectantly for what will be but is not yet. What keeps us going during those in between times? The reality of the down payment! The Spirit of promise is at work assuring us that all of the promises will be for real someday. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit and our futures.
III. The Spirit of Unity
The third term for the work of the Holy Spirit is not a name or title in the same sense that the others were. But it is an important concept for understanding what the Spirit is seeking to do in us right now. If the Spirit of life deals with our transformed past and the Spirit of promise our guaranteed futures, then this concerns our present. The first is related to faith, the second to hope, and this third to love.
In 2 Corinthians 13:14 and Philippians 2:1, Paul speaks of what he calls “the fellowship of the Spirit.” The Greek term is “koinonia” or partnership. It describes two or more persons who hold something in common that links them together. Ephesians 4:3 speaks of maintaining “the unity of the Spirit.” This obligation is a result of the fellowship of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 appeals to Christian oneness based on the fact that all born-again believers have been “baptized in the same Spirit.”
The point is that Christians who love the same Lord, believe the same Gospel, and have been brought to new life by the same Spirit have something in common far more enduring that any social, economic, racial, national, political, or denominational identity.
This is a beautiful concept that Christians have not always lived up to. Apparently this is nothing new or Paul wouldn’t have had to call for his readers to work so hard at it. If Christian harmony could be taken for granted, Jesus probably wouldn’t have had to pray that “ his followers would be one so that the world would believe on him” (John 17:21). Followers of Jesus have always been tempted to allow the Enemy to divide them into warring, fighting factions, both within congregations and between denominations.
We don’t talk about it as much as we should, but one of the great legacies of the Christian tradition of which this congregation is an heir (contemporary historians call it the Campbell-Stone Movement; former generations referred to it as the 19th Century Reformation or Restoration Movement) was an appeal to Christian unity across denominational lines. Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist pioneers became frustrated with the denominational divisions that handicapped their witness on the American frontier and began looking for a better way. They knew that their fights with one another made Jesus look bad in the eyes of unbelievers.
Many asked why couldn’t we just give up or at least hold a little looser the non-biblical traditions that separate us, return to the simple faith of the Bible, and just be Christians. Many did. That movement became one of the fastest growing religious phenomena of the 1800’s. It was out of that vision that in 1913 a group of believers founded a congregation in Aurora that would be called a Christian church. They were not saying they were the only Christians in town, simply that they wanted to be known as a people who held no higher aspirations or loyalties than to be simply known as followers of the Christ.
As their descendants we face a double-edged sword. We are called to continue that appeal to Christian oneness without giving into the modern temptation to forsake belief in everything important, to pretend that since there is no such thing as Truth, only personal opinion or taste, every belief and unbelief is the same thing. I refer you back to our discussion about the Spirit of Truth and the challenge of life in a post-modern world. Christian unity must be based on common faith, not a common lack of faith.
But our bigger problem is not contending for a spiritual unity between denominations. We have more than enough trouble demonstrating it within our own congregation, sometimes within our own families. That is where the real evidence of the Spirit is found.
Do you want to make Jesus look good? Of course, Jesus is good regardless of what you or I do. But if we don’t act like Jesus, then no matter who Jesus is, nobody is going to believe it. Unbelieving friends and family will conclude with justification, according to Jesus, that if that is how followers of Christ are, why would I want to be one of them. It is for this very reason, that after calling believers to “maintain the unity of the Spirit” (Eph 4), Paul stops preaching and goes to meddling, by pointing out the practical implications of the work of the Holy Spirit in the here and now of the Christian life. Real Christian faith can’t be lived in your private life all by yourself. Real faith has to be lived out in relationships with other believers. Fasten your seat belts and listen:
17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. . . . 20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph 4:17-32)
Summary:
The Holy Spirit of God always leaves evidence behind when he visits a life or a church. If you look for the evidence in the wrong place, if you look for the wrong signs, you easily end up heading down the wrong path. What is the evidence of the Spirit? What are the unmistakable signs that He has been at work? The answers might be many. But some things are always present.
1) Lives are changed. People who didn’t believe the gospel come to believe in it. They don’t just get baptized or become church members. They become believing followers of Jesus who are changed from spiritual dead men walking into active living breathing servants of the living God. He is the Spirit of Life.
2) Hope takes over. Life doesn’t necessarily become easy. Suffering, heartache and tears don’t all disappear. But God is faithful. The fact that He has changed the direction of lives becomes the guarantee that He will not let us down. As Paul puts it in Romans 8:32, “If He loved us enough to give up his own son for us will he not with him give us all things.” Spirit-filled people may not always be happy, but they are always hopeful. He is the Spirit of promise.
3) Love rules. The most certain mark of a Christian, of a Spirit-controlled life, is self-sacrificing, truth-telling love. The Holy Spirit takes people who don’t like one another and breaks down the barriers, makes them family, and supernaturally enables them to act like it. That’s the amazing part. Spirit-ruled people don’t just talk about love and mercy and compassion, they talk and walk it. Spirit-filled churches are filled with people who like, love, and live in harmony with one another. He is the Spirit of unity.
If Sherlock Holmes were building a case for the Spirit in your life or in this place, what evidence would he find? Are you ready to begin providing some evidence today? There is a helpful process with which you can begin today? Some call it “spiritual breathing.” First, you exhale. Breathe out through confession to God the parts of your life that are blocking the Spirit. Then inhale. Ask the Lord to come in cleansing power and fill you from the inside out with his Spirit. Are you ready to take a deep breath?
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
