Because He Lives...We Have the Holy Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning and welcome
Over the last 3 weeks we have been working through the implications of the resurrection of Christ. In the last 3 weeks we have examined the following:
Reunion with God
2) The Importance of Christian Community
3)The Full Measure of Redemption
For this week, we are we going to be taking the next step in this journey of what it means that we serve a risen Savior. And for this week I want to examine the idea that Because He Lives.....We Hvae the Holy Spirit.
Turn with me to the book of Acts
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Let verse 38 of the weekly text serve as the focal point.
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In week 1, we discussed the gift of salvation. We discussed the fact back in week 1, that we are no longer separated from God, that because of the redemptive work of Christ, that which had previously separated us from God has bee removed. Through our salvation we are reconciled with our Father. Let me say that another way....we are reconciled tp the Father through the work of the Son. Amen!
Here, we take it a step further. Here in Acts, Peter finds salvation and the Holy Spirit inseparable. “Without the life-changing, ever-renewing power of the Holy Spirit, our Christianity can never be where it should be. We were baptized to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. What water is to a plant or breath is to a living being, the Holy Spirit is for all of us who want to walk in the ways of God.” In this way, the Holy Spirit represents the completion of the work of Christ.
What Christ began in us, redeeming us, is completed through the work of the Holy Spirit. Think about this for a moment......I have said before that the work of Christ was to bring us back to where we were intended to be in terms of our walk with Christ. Was that complete, did we immediately become who we were intended to be because of our salvation, or was there more to do?
The coming of the Holy Spirit seems to be Jesus’s primary focus when he talks
about his ascension.
But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
In John 16, Jesus regards the Holy Spirit as the necessary entity to complete his ministry on earth. The Holy Spirit was sent so that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection might come to bear fruit; bear fruit in the world through leading many to the knowledge of Christ and bear fruit in the church by transforming us to become more like him (these changes manifest in the fruit of the Spirit).
There are far too many accounts of the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in Scripture to unpack in a single sermon. Let’s focus on the one at hand: Peter. Weeks previous to today’s reading, Peter was the man who cut off a soldier’s ear, ran, and denied Jesus, all in one night. He was afraid, often brash, and not an educated man. He was a fisherman. He was not an orator. He was usually trying his hardest to simply be a good follower, and frequently falling short.
Yet we see him in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, and he is different from the man we knew throughout the Gospels. He is persuasive, bold, and full of conviction. His sermon draws thousands to repentance. The Holy Spirit has changed him.
Some of you may know that when I was in school I was a TA for a chemistry lab, and when we would work through lab, you have to know the chemicals that you are working with and what is going to happen.....perferrably befopre you start mixing things together.
In chemistry, there are catalysts. They are defined as
“any substance that increases the rate of a reaction without itself being consumed”.
The desired powerful results in many reactions are not achieved without the presence of a catalyst, the thing that propels a reaction to the desired degree.
In this same way, salvation is limited in power in our lives without the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in salvation, drawing us to God and transforming us in a way that, in the case of Peter, even being in the presence of Jesus himself doesn’t seem to occur.
The Holy Spirit is the greatest result of the resurrection that we will experience on earth. The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God, unlimited and present everywhere. The Spirit draws us to himself, leading us to salvation. The Holy Spirit demonstrates the comfort of God in our lives. The Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and minds, making us more like Christ. The Holy Spirit works in us and through us to lead lives that are otherwise impossible.
Without the power of the Holy Spirit we become what is talked about in 2 Timothy 3
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
It is important as followers of Christ that we have both the name as well as the power. We can’t call ourselves followers of Christ while at the same time fail to accept the power that He walked in.
There was a podcast that I listened to, and it talked about a sport called competitive bikepacking, a sport in which participants must backpack on a bike, across hundreds of miles. Not only though do they have to bike across all these miles…they have to do it while in isolation from the physical or even emotional support of other people (no “physical drafting” or “mental drafting” off other people is allowed). “If someone who cares about you is there, we make different choices,” says one bikepacker.
Also interviewed was Jim Coan, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia; he has studied the physical and brain impact of the presence of a loved one in a stressful situation. When a person was exposed to stressful input, their physical stress responses soared when alone, but when a loved one held their hand, the physical stress responses were negligible. “It threw up this forcefield that protected her from the threat of [the stressful input]. It made her feel on some level as if it wasn’t really a threat at all”.
The Holy Spirit’s presence functions in a similar way, at least in part. The Spirit transforms our responses and experiences, enabling us to live out what would previously be prohibitively stressful with greater courage and confidence.
Jesus never intended for us to accept salvation and neglect the role of the Holy Spirit. From the mouth of the first person to minister after having received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is the present gift of salvation. The two are not meant to be distinct, though we often find it so in contemporary theology and practice. The Holy Spirit is far more than an “add on” to salvation to be accepted or nullified at our discretion. The Holy Spirit is the power of salvation on earth.