Knowing the Holy Spirit April 24, 2005
Jesus and The Spirit
Acts 10:37-38
We often talk about Jesus’ deep connection with the Father. We say that the reason that he was able to do the miraculous things that he did, teach the amazing things he taught, obey even to the point of death is his intimate relationship with the Father
This intimate relationship is spoken of and pointed to all through the Gospels and the New Testament, but Jesus’ statements in John really speak of that intimate relationship.
He says things like…
John 5:19
Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does
John 14:7
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:31
but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
This intimate relationship with the Father should be a model for us in our Christian lives We must understand that all fruitfulness comes out of intimacy. If you are missing Spiritual fruit in your life, get closer to the Father.
But Jesus coming among us is not just about Himself and the Father (and us). The incarnation is a Trinitarian event, and we need to understand the relationship that Jesus has with the Spirit if we are truly going to understand who Jesus is, and who God is.
Born of the Spirit
You may remember how Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would have a son, and she said, “How will this be since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:35
The picture harkens back to how the Spirit hovered or brooded over the chaos in Genesis 1 and brought about the creation. And now that God is doing a new thing in creation by sending his son to walk among us, The Spirit comes once again to bring order to the chaos, and create a child without the help of a man. The Father sends the Son into the world, and the Spirit brings him there.
Anointed by the Spirit
We call Jesus the “Christ”, which is the Greek word for the Messiah, which means “the anointed one”
What makes Jesus the Christ is his anointing by the Holy Spirit
Peter explains to Cornelius’ household that Jesus is the Messiah with these words:
Acts 10:37-38
You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached – how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
Jesus himself describes his ministry and his mandate in his first recorded public speaking in Luke 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Hi ministry and mandate is closely connected to his relationship with the Holy Spirit and his anointing by the Spirit.
By the Spirit he set people free from entrapment. He brought them hope and liberated their relationships. Demonic powers were driven out, and creaturely life was restored. All this happened because the energies of the life-giving Spirit were at work in Jesus.
– Pinnock p.89
Directed by the Spirit
Matthew 4:1
[ The Temptation of Jesus ] Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
As soon as Jesus is anointed at his baptism, the Spirit takes the lead and brings him out into the desert to do battle with the devil.
In Ezekiel 1, the prophet Ezekiel is given a vision of the throne of God as this strange and amazing vehicle
There is this platform with a throne on it, and Christ sitting on the throne. The platform is held at each of its four corners by angelic beings with wings and four faces facing each direction. At the angelic beings feet are wheels with wheels intersecting them. The whole picture is amazing, but the key point for us today is found in verses 20-21 when is says “. 20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”
This vehicle of the presence of the Lord moves when the Spirit moves and stays still when the Spirit stays still. This is a picture of Jesus – God’s presence here on earth – when the Spirit moves, he moves, when the Spirit is still, He is still.
You may wonder why Jesus heals when he does, teaches when he does, goes off to pray, waits before he goes to his sick friend Lazarus. He always stays in step with the Spirit.
Jesus exists in Trinity, always Doing what the Father is doing, always instep with the Spirit
Empowered by the Spirit
In Luke 4, Jesus is taken out into the desert by the Spirit, and then after defeating temptation, verse 14 says, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.” - Luke 4:14
The term “in the power of the Spirit must mean the relationship that he has with the Spirit, and, since word about him spreads everywhere, it must also mean the power to perform miracles and heal.
In Matthew 12:28, Jesus describes the power that he has as coming from the Spirit. He says, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
It may offend you to say that Jesus’ power is the power of the Spirit. You might say, “Doesn’t Jesus have his own power?”
We have a cultural bias that says that independence is strength. If I can do something without help, then I am strong. The trinity gives us another picture – a three-stranded cord is not easily broken. Jesus’ strength does not come from his individual power, but from his relationship with the other persons of the Trinity.
We see persons often in competition with the others with them, so we hear that God has three persons, and immediately we want to know who is on top, and what roles the different persons have. The trinity exists not in competition, but in a glory giving cooperative circle dance.
St. Patrick begins his great prayer of protection called the breastplate or the lorica or the deer’s cry with these words:
For my shield this day
A mighty power
The Holy Trinity!
Affirming threeness
Confessing oneness,
In the making of all
Through love
The Trinity is the strongest thing that Patrick could have called to his guard, and Jesus exists in that trinity – nothing can stand in front of him.
Raised Up by the Spirit
Rom 8
11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
It was the power of the ruach of God, the life-giving Spirit who breaks through the wall of death and raises Jesus from the dead.
Just as God breaths on the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 and brings the vast army to life, the Spirit’s breath comes on the body of Jesus, heals him and raises him up to eternal life. And if hre did it with Jesus, he will do it with us as well.
What does this have to do with us?
If Jesus ministry is always in community with the trinity – connected to the Father and empowered by the Spirit, how can we expect to be effective in our Christian lives if we too are not connected to the Father and empowered by the Spirit?
I once heard a man say “I don’t ask God to do anything I can do myself.”
There is good and bad in this statement.
The good is that we often think that prayer is a Christmas wish list – we ask for it and God runs off and gets what we want. We need to recognize that God often has a role for us to play in the answering of our prayers or of someone else’s prayers.
I saw this cartoon of a person saying “I was going to ask God why He doesn’t do anything about all the pain and suffering in the world.” His friend asks him why he didn’t. He responds, “I’m afraid he’ll ask me the same question.”
It is Good to recognize that God wants to use us in his desires and in our own.
What is bad is that there is an arrogant individualism about the statement – as if we can do anything outside of God. If God has laid something on our heart, it is because he wants to work with us in partnership to see it happen. We can do nothing good outside the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We cannot bring life to a situation or a person with out the life-giving Spirit working in us and through us.
Our need for the Spirit of God both individually and as a church is like saying fish need water. Thus the line from the song “Breathe” – This is the air I breathe, Your Holy Spirit living in me.”
This image of air, or wind or breath for the Spirit points to our desperate need for Him to function.
Without the spirit we are like a kite with no wind
Like a fast car with no air in the tires
What to do?
Be born of the Spirit
Believe in Jesus, give your life over to him, turn from anything you know is wrong, accept his forgiveness, and The Spirit will bring you to life
Be filled with the Spirit
Paul tells us to continually be filled with the Spirit – ask him to fill you up, ask others to pray for you for filling
Walk in the Spirit
Learn to “read the wind” – learn to follow his lead as Jesus did
On a sailboat, there is this little flag on the top of the mast that lets you know which way the wind is coming from no matter which way the boat is going. The Bible acts as that little flag. Particularly passages like Romans 8 which the publishers have wisely titles “Life in the Spirit.” As we obey the God-breathed word, we will learn to hear the words he is whispering in our ear.
Jesus is completely reliant on the Spirit. We must be as well.
