Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Good Morning!

This has already been a wonderful weekend.

We got to celebrate with Paul and Rachel last night as they were reunited in marriage.

On behalf of Paul and Rachel, I want to say thank you to all that have supported them and who helped make yesterday happen!

Today, worship and testimony were wonderful, and now we get to dive back into Luke’s narrative.

We are going to be looking at Luke 1:39-45 today, so you can go ahead and flip there now.

Last week we covered Mary’s experience when Gabriel appeared and told her that God had chosen her to carry Jesus in her womb.

I want to recover a few details of that story because today is the continuation of that work in her life.

Mary, who was about thirteen years old, is visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her that God has chosen her to give birth to the long awaited Messiah.

Gabriel tells Mary who this baby will be and what He is going to do for the world.

He is the Son of God, the savior of the world, the continuation of the line of David, the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem the world.

In response to this overwhelming moment and news, Mary responds in faith.

She believes Gabriel and offers herself to God’s service.

Luke includes this part of the story to show that Jesus is not just another prophet.

He is the Son of God, and we can know that because Jesus is the fulfillment of many promises that God made through the prophets.

Isaiah and Jeremiah, to name a few.

The details that Luke covers in that story are vital to understand because they prove the nature of God, the glory of this birth, and the claims that Jesus eventually makes of Himself.

We were reminded last week that God wants to work with the same kind of power in our lives.

God is not limited by our lack of anything whether that be faith, age, knowledge, etc.

All that is required for us to experience God work is simple obedience to what He has asked us to do.

We are going to see that kind of simple obedience in today’s passage.

Mary has this interaction with the angel, hears about what God is doing in her life, and what God has done in her relative Elizabeth’s life.

We pick up today right after Mary chooses to be used by God and the angel leaves.

Let’s pick up where we left off last week in Luke 1:39-45

Luke 1:39–45 CSB

39 In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah 40 where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! 43 How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you learn something it becomes such a part of who you are that you don’t even notice it anymore?

Friday night I went and bought some bales of hay for our horses.

When I got home the boys came to help me unload it.

Luke was having trouble picking up the bales and I was reminded of being his size when I was his age.

It isn’t the weight that Luke struggles with because he easily packs 50lb bags of feed and the hay weighs about half that much.

I was telling Luke that I struggled the same way when I was his age.

At the same time in my life, I was learning to calf rope and part of that process is running down the rope, and flanking the calf so that you can tie it’s legs.

I learned how to use my body weight as leverage to flank calves that were twice my size.

You use your knee as a fulcrum point, pull with your arms while leaning back, and you can easily lift the calf.

I began using that same technique to lift bales of hay.

As I’m thinking through all of this I realize that I still pick hay up that way.

I’m twice the size I was at 13 and I’m significantly stronger, but my technique is still the same.

It has become so ingrained in my muscle memory that I do it without even thinking about it.

The point I making is that when we truly learn something, it moves into our subconscious and it just becomes part of us.

So Saturday morning I sat down to start writing the sermon and as I reviewed my notes and outline from my writing retreat I realized that I had subconsciously out lined this story in a very particular way.

The points that I had written down are the milestones in the abiding cycles that are happening in the narrative.

Seeing that pattern has become part of who I am.

I didn’t sit down with the intention of seeing those milestones and calling them out.

I simply looked at the story and those are the things that stood out to me.

This is significant because Luke’s intention is to show that the person of Jesus is the actual son of God.

As I read this story, I see God’s activity in Mary and Elizabeth’s life , and it is the proof.

This is the purpose of this whole passage.

Luke tells this part of the story because it is Elizabeth and Mary’s personal testimony of what God did.

Look at this with me.

The first part of the cycle, God speaking happened in last weeks passage.

God speaking through Gabriel is the first milestone in this abiding cycle.

We talked about this at length last week so let’s keep moving.

Milestone two is...

Mary submits to God’s will and goes to see Elizabeth.

Mary immediately obeyed God and she was blessed by it.

Mary moves forward in obedience by going to see Elizabeth.

Look back at Luke 1:36 where Gabriel tells Mary about Elizabeth.

Luke 1:36 CSB

36 And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless.

In the CSB it says “consider”, but other translations use the word “behold.”

Gabriel isn’t just giving her news, he is telling her to go and see Elizabeth.

You can’t “behold” something from 90 miles away.

That’s about how far Mary, who was a teenager, traveled to go see Elizabeth.

To make a journey like this, was no simple feat, and Mary isn’t just shrugging God off and saying she believes.

Mary express her faith through action.

She believes God to the degree that she is willing to undertake this long journey.

And what did she find when she got there?

Sure enough, Elizabeth is exactly as Gabriel described.

She is well into her pregnancy.

This is another theme that we are going to see Luke revealing all through this book.

Theme: God always does what He says He will do.

Not only is Elizabeth pregnant, but look at what happens when Mary enters the house. Luke 1:40-41.

Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit upon hearing Mary’s voice.

Mary’s obedience became a blessing to Mary and the catalyst for Elizabeth to see more God exclusive activity.

Do you remember what Gabriel told Zechariah would happen?

Look back with me at the second half of Luke 1:15.

Luke 1:15 CSB

15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.

Once again, we see that God did exactly what He said he would do.

Elizabeth was told that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb and it happened just as she was told.

Consider for a moment what it does for a person, perhaps for you, when God gives you a series of promises and then the first one happens just like He said.

We talk about this in abiding.

As we step out in faith and then experience God’s activity, it builds our faith.

If you are here today and are still waiting on the fulfillment of a promise, I would ask that you simply have faith and patience.

God has shown Himself, time and time again, to be true to His word.

This is how it works in abiding.

We obey, God acts, and we come to know Him better.

As we abide, not only do we come to know God better, but our friends and family do as well.

We don’t talk about this aspect of abiding as often, but we see it happen in a couple of different ways in this part of Luke’s gospel.

Look at the completion of this particular cycle.

God speaks to Mary, Mary obeys by going to see Elizabeth, Elizabeth experiences the fulfillment of her promise, Elizabeth praises God.

Elizabeth praises God for what He has done in her life.

Next week we are going to talk about Mary’s response.

But for today, notice that...

Their experience (ginosko) of the Holy Spirit revealed God’s character to them.

Both Mary and Elizabeth know God better now because of their combined obedience.

I can’t say this enough, so I’m going to say it again.

Your abiding helps other people to experience God.

This week as I prepared for Paul and Rachel’s wedding, I was thinking of all the things that God has done in their life to bring them to this point.

I read part of this passage in their wedding and it is applicable to our message this morning.

2 Corinthians 4:1–10 NLT

1 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this. 3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

God uses us, fragile jars of clay, to carry and reveal His light to the world.

In us is a treasure (the Holy Spirit), and God put that treasure in us so that it would be obvious that God is the one that is sustaining us.

This is how God was working in Elizabeth and Mary’s life.

Not only were they women, whose value, at that time, was placed in their ability to carry children.

But neither of them would have been the ones that the world would have chosen.

God chose two “nobody’s” to prepare the way for Jesus and to bring Jesus into the world.

This is the most important part of the redemption process and God chose an old lady and a little girl.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what stage of life you are in, or whether you feel like you are good enough.

God wants to work through you and if you will allow Him to do so, He will do incredible things in your life and in your communities life.

As we share our experiences with God, the truth is revealed about God and His character.

Mary and Elizabeth were blessed by this experience.

Luke 1:45 CSB

45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”

Elizabeth proclaims Mary’s blessedness and it isn’t because of who she is.

Mary is blessed because she is allowing God to use her.

God wants to work in your life the same way.

He wants to bless you and to bless the people in your life through your faithful obedience.

Luke writes all this so that we can put the pieces together and understand that God does what He says.

If you will allow it, God will prove this to be true in your life as well.

Whatever God is speaking to you, choose to believe Him, move in faithful obedience, and experience God’s exclusive activity in your life.

Church, this is how we share the Gospel.

We share what God is doing in our lives.

Last week I had one of my subcontractors in my office and we were reviewing some of our billing.

This was the kind of meeting that has the potential to go south real fast.

I was making him show me all his invoices and labor calculations to validate what He was charging us.

His final billing was almost 20k more than his original bid.

So, naturally, I was concerned about how this meeting was going to go.

My goal was simply to understand what changed so I could help him and know how to present this to the customer.

It was immediately obvious that this guy was nervous.

If you look at the social dynamics of the room, He is about 15-20 years older than I am and business owner, He has way more experience in his field of work than I do.

However, I have the authority to deny his billing and make him only bill his original bid.

I think he came into the meeting expecting that to happen and had his defenses up.

I don’t blame him at all because I’ve been in his position may times when I’ve worked as a subcontractor.

As we looked over everything, He got flustered with himself because he couldn’t make sense of his own numbers.

This is the moment when I could have just shut it down and finalized the billing at his bid amount.

But, I could feel God’s leading to be gentle and help him figure it out.

God had me respond with grace and help him figure it out.

We started from the top and worked all the way through the job, his cost, labor, and expenses.

As I did that, you could feel the tension fade away.

As we finished up, he thanked me and asked why I responded to him like that.

This was my opening to talk about God’s grace and mercy in my life.

I shared with him what God was saying in my heart as we were meeting.

Of course, he asked how I could know all that.

Well, sitting the corner of my desk is a couple of copies of the abiding cycle.

So, I shared with him how God speaks into our lives and the results of that.

I offered him a copy and he excitedly took it.

God told me to treat the sub with grace and mercy.

I did.

The tension dissolved and he felt it.

I got to share what God was doing in that moment.

He better understood what it feels like to experience God’s grace.

Church, here is what God wants us to see.

Mary didn’t begin her day knowing what as coming, and neither did Elizabeth.

God showed up and they simply responded in faith.

God wants to do the same thing in our lives.

He is going to show up, but we have to be paying attention.

If we see it, we respond in faith.

When we do, people are going to see God in a way they haven’t before.

This is who we are and how we share the gospel.

In my story, it started with an awkward work conversation, but it ended in discussing God’s character and His word.

Luke writes this part of the story to show us God’s activity in Mary and Elizabeth’s life.

He wants us to see that God completes what He starts.

God is working in your life and He wants you see that He always keeps His promises.

Respond in faith and wait for God to work, because he will.

Let’s pray.