The Holy Spirit Elements of Air, Fire, Water, (Earth)
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I have often tried to imagine what it must have been like to experience that first Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It must have been quite dramatic!
The sound of a rushing wind, what seemed to be tongues of fire resting on each one there, and then miraculously, each one speaking in other languages or tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Remarkably, as people from all the nations in the then known regions of the world had gathered, all of them were able to hear in their own language the words that were being spoken! What must that have been like?
While I can certainly say that in my lifetime I have never experienced something that dramatic, there have been gatherings that I have been part of where the presence of the Holy Spirit has been palpably present. Not that long ago towards the end of February Pastor Jun and I attended a Prayer Summit with other leaders in the CRC just north of Los Angeles. At one point in our time of prayer together we were led in prayer first by our African American brothers and sisters, and then by our Korean brothers and sisters. Each invited us to join together in a style or form of prayer that comes out of their cultural tradition. What a gift that time was. For a couple of hours we poured out our hearts to the Lord and were blessed with a very sweet and very palpable sense of the Spirit’s active presence among us. No it wasn’t quite as dramatic as that first Pentecost, but I know it was a great source of strength and encouragment for all of us who were there that evening.
And it’s this active, experienced presence of the Holy Spirit that we find manifest on Pentecost. An active presence that we see manifesting again and again throughout the book of Acts.
Jesus, when he was about to ascend into heaven, told his disciples that they must wait for the Spirit to clothe them with power from on high. And the Bible teaches us that 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection this event took place, hence the name Pentecost.
Early in the week, when I started thinking about my sermon for today, I knew I was going to preach on this text that was read, but I was still wondering what aspect of the text that I would be highlighting or focussing on. And I just so happened to receive an email from one of our worship planners, Ingrid, that contained a poem, a sonnet actually, written by a well-know British Christian poet and song-writer named Malcolm Guite. He lives in the UK. He is a strong friend of Regent College here in Vancouver as he often comes as a guest professor.
When I read the sonnet for the first time, I thought, “this has some great ideas for a Pentecost sermon!”
In a short introduction to the poem that Malcolm writes he shares this about his sonnet:
“I have been reflecting on the traditional ‘four elements’ of earth, air, water and fire. I have been considering how each of them expresses and embodies different aspects of the Gospel and of God’s goodness, as though the four elements were, in their own way, another four evangelists.” (https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/tag/pentecost/)
And in the poem, Guite connects all four of these elements to some aspect of the Holy Spirit and the message of the Gospel. You know, I think all four of these elements have some connection to Acts 2 and I want to unpack that with us this morning.
The “Classical Elements” as they are called, of air, water, fire, and earth originate in ancient culture and were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter using simpler substances. It was believed that all nature was in some way connected to these four basic elements. In some cultures these elements were connected to various deities. In fact, even today, the 12 signs of the zodiac are connected to these four elements.
Now let me be clear, the Bible does not teach that these are indeed the four basic elements of the universe. Not at all. But what is interesting is that each of these elements are present in the Bible and each of them are in some way explicate the Gospel and are connected to the work of the Holy Spirit which we remember and celebrate in a special way today on Pentecost.
So, let’s begin with AIR.
First, we need to know that the Hebrew and Greek words which are often translated SPIRIT are also the words translated WIND, AIR, and BREATH. The Holy Spirit is in some sense the breath or air of life for all creation. We read in Genesis 1 that the Spirit hovered over the waters of chaos like a wind and from there life and order originated.
Air, breath, is LIFE. We don’t think about it, because we’re always breathing, but if we pause for a moment and pay attention to our breathing we feel how the taking in of air into our lungs gives life and energy. Notice what happens when you stop breathing how your body begins to protest. I experienced the connection between breath and life most vividly when I was with my parents as their lives on earth came to an end. I vividly remember listening carefully to their breathing and watching them inhale and exhale. Towards the end their breathing became slower and slower, and then finally it stopped. And at that moment your struck with the powerful reality of death.
No breath, means death.
The Bible says the Holy Spirit is the breath of life.
Recall these words from Gen. 2:7 when God created ADAM,
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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One of the stories in the Old Testament where God’s Spirit breathing life is powerfully depicted in Ezekiel 37. The prophet is given this vision of a large valley filled with dry bones. Separated from God because of their sin and rebellion God’s people are like dry bones lying in a valley of death. But then these words come to Ezekiel:
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”
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A very powerful passage that depicts the wind and breath of God bringing the dead to life.
Now remember what Jesus says to Nicodemus about what is necessary for a person to enter the Kingdom of God.
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The 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.”
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The only way a person can experience the Kingdom of God, or life with God, is that they must be born again by the wind or breath of the Spirit.
This breath of life is given in a very significant way when Jesus appears to his disciples right after his resurrection. Listen to what John writes:
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
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And then comes Pentecost..... the Spirit comes not with a gentle breath, but like a violent wind.... a wind that marks a powerful out pouring of the breath of the Holy Spirit on a newly established community of Jesus. And what do we read later in chapter 2 of Acts? The gift of the Holy Spirit is poured out on many, in fact 3000 people were born again and found new life in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit......remember the vast army coming out of a valley filled with dry bones?..... Well 3000 is certainly a significant beginning of that vast army....today that number is 2.6 Billion people around the world from every nation and language.
The Holy Spirit element of AIR brings LIFE.
WATER
A few Sunday’s ago we considered how Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is the Source of Living Water in our lives, so I say too much about this “element” this morning.
Although in the very opening verses in the book for Genesis describe a watery chaos and darkness, by chapter 2, God’s creative Word has beautifully ordered a fruitful garden that has four rivers, each one flowing to the four corners of the earth. And as we saw a few Sunday’s ago, that picture of rivers from the garden temple of Genesis 1 and 2 is picked up by Ezekiel in chapter 47 where he is given a vision of a temple where water flows out from to form rivers that bring abundant fruitfulness to the earth.
Water brings LIFE, and FRUITFULNESS. Water satisfies. Water brings joy.
And already in the OT the Spirit of God is connected to the life giving properties of water.
Consider Isaiah 44:3
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
This text from Isaiah becomes an important background for the words that Jesus will share with the Samaritan woman who he meets at a well in John 4
14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
A few chapters later, on the greatest day of the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus himself cries out in the temple,
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
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The Holy Spirit brings to us the Water of Life and this is one of the reasons why Peter on that first Pentecost, when the crowd asks him, what must we do to be saved, Peter says, “Repent and be baptized and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
In the baptism that we witnessed this morning of Pauline, all of us are reminded of how the Gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us in our baptisms, a gift that satisfies our spiritual thirst and brings fruitfulness and abundance into our lives.
The Holy Spirit element of WATER satisfies our thirst and brings joy. Think of these words from Isaiah 12:3
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
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FIRE
Thirdly, we consider the Holy Spirit element of FIRE.
And though there are many places in the Bible that we could look at, I want to draw our attention to four. And you can remember them with these four words: Bush, Pillar, Temple, People.
First bush. One of the most important stories in the OT where we are introduced to God himself in a very particular way is in Exodus 3. There God reveals himself as: I AM that I AM. And he does so in the presence of a bush that burns but is not consumed.
The fire is the presence of God, but the bush is not consumed or destroyed, rather it becomes glorious and radiant. And Moses in that moment, with his sandals removed is able to remain in the presence of God.
That same presence of God leads the people of Israel in all their wilderness wanderings. Recall how the people were led by a pillar of fire…God’s presence always with his people.
Bush, pillar, now Temple.
When God’s people were to remain in a place, whether it was a camp in the wilderness or in a city like Jerusalem....the glorious presence of God was always seen in the tabernacle and the temple in the fire of the altar.
12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.
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As a visible symbol of God’s presence with the people, the fire burns continuously..... and as sacrifices for sin are offered on the altar, the people are not consumed by God’s presence.
Now we moved forward in the Biblical story to John the Baptist’s words about Jesus. He says,
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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In other words he will baptize you with the very presence of the Living God.
And that of course brings us to Pentecost! When in the rushing wind all of them saw what appeared to be tongues of fire that rested on each of them.....and they were filled with the Holy Spirit..... and guess what, like the burning bush long ago....they were not consumed. Our sinfulness was consumed and dealt with by the death and resurrection of Jesus.... now the Presence of God is within all of us....mobile Temples.... mobile burning bushes....people who have been filled with the Spirit to radiantly display the beauty and glory of God.
I love what one of the early church fathers says about the Christian life:
Irenaus - “the glory of God is a human being fully alive”
A life fully alive with the Spirit of God.... filled with the breath of life.... filled with water that brings joy....filled with fire that brings passion and glory.
The Holy Spirit element of FIRE brings us the presence and passion of God.
EARTH
But, Andrew, you are asking.....How does the element of earth connect with the Holy Spirit? Well, maybe you noticed in the sermon title, I put the element EARTH in brackets. Why?
Well, listen carefully. What is the name of the first human being? His name is “ADAM”....and that Hebrew word is very closely connected to the Hebrew word for earth, or ground, or soil.
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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We human beings were made from the dust of the earth....and through the work of God’s Spirit....his breath, his living water, and his fire..... he gives us life, and joy, and passion.
As the ancient preacher, Irenaus wrote, we become fully alive human beings that display the glory of God!
And see how in Acts 2 and beyond Spirit-filled sons of Adam were transformed into bold preachers and powerful witnesses. The dry bones had come to live. The sons of the earth were filled the life of heaven.
And there are the Holy Spirit Elements of air, water, fire and earth.
This is how the Bible invites us to consider the powerful work of the Holy Spirit on the lives of God’s people.... inspired in part by this lovely poem by Malcolm Guite.....I’d like to conclude by reading it for us:
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LEAD TIME OF PRAYER..... inviting Holy Spirit to come and fill us afresh.
