What Does the Holy Spirit Want with Us

Colette Freeman : What Does the Holy Spirit Want with Us

RightNow Media/Sinclair Ferguson

Folks we have such a treasure trove in Rightnow Media. There are so many very good teaching series. This week I listened to the whole series from Lingonier MInistries on Who is the Holy Spirit. There are 12 sessions and if you listen on a computer you can listen at 1.5 or 2xs the speed if you’re in a hurry.

Anyway Sinclair Ferguson is the one who does the teaching and in video 5 on Trinitarian Fellowship, he reminded me of some doctrine that also had been touched on in my theology class which in turn reminded me of something I had learned before. But I wonder how many of us have heard this or thought of it and then forgotten it.

Here’s the quote:

“It’s very helpful to understand that what Jesus does in his ministry, he does as the second man and the last Adam. Not by transferring powers from his divine person to his human nature. That would have made him not true man, but some kind of mixture of God and man. But by his perfect dependence on the Holy Spirit His Father had given to him in order that he might be empowered to be our savior. “— Sinclair Ferguson, Ligonier Teaching Fellow, RightNow Media, video 5 Trinitarian Fellowship

Jesus could do what he did...

We say to ourselves, of course Jesus could do what he did, he was God’s son, he was God. But the teaching of the church is is that is that he didn’t access his full deity while he was on earth . That’s essentially what the hymn in Philippians 2:6-8 is all about.

Philippians 2:6–8 (ESV)

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus said “son of man” = mere man or this human being

We tend to think that when Jesus calls himself “son of man” in the book of Mark that he’s taking that as a title. I don’t think so. That text “son of man” was also used to mean “mere man,” or “this human being.” Remembering this doctrine, I think that he’s making a point. As fully God and fully man, he could have done many things as God while on earth, but he didn’t. He lived fully as a mere man, as that human being, while being fully God and fully man.

So how did he do what he did? How did he heal others, know things a human shouldn’t, cast out demons, raise people from the dead, turn water to wine, and all the rest if he wasn’t accessing his Godhood?

Yep.

The Holy Spirit.

Keep that in your minds for the rest of what I’m going to say this morning. That all the amazing things Jesus did, he did not do out of his Godhood. He did it, setting his Godhood momentarily aside, as fully man, merely man, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The question before us today is “what does the Holy Spirit want with US?” We mere humans?

Holy Spirit’s goal or mission

First I want us to look a little at what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish as a whole. And there are many ways to look at this. So many books have been written on the Holy Spirit and each author has their own take on the Holy Spirit’s mission and focus. And of course many of them are right.

AND, I think there’s an overriding focus that everything the Holy Spirit does in the whole bible comes under.

We get a glimpse of this in Exodus 31:1-6

Exodus 31:1–6 ESV

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

Now commanded may seem like harsh word, because we’ve been involved with people who like to lord it over others and use power and coercion to accomplish their own will. That word translated command could also be translated as being charged with something, or instructed, or commissioned, or to give.

The point is, anytime we read of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, he’s involved in helping accomplish what God wants done or charges, or instructs or commissions or commands.

So if the Holy Spirit is accomplishing God’s will, God’s instructions, his commands, what in the world does he want from us?

Our evangelical roots and looking at scripture would tell us

Well, it would seem a reasonable conclusion that he would want from us “An All-in Relationship with a whole-life yes in the Body for the World.

An All-in Relationship

What do I mean by that?

Well Luke 10:27 says we should

Luke 10:27 ESV

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

That’s a lot of all.

I think the difference between Judas and Peter gives us a good view here. Judas thought he was keeping secrets from Jesus. John 12:6 tells us that Judas was the one who kept the money box, and he often stole from it. Judas is the one who secretly goes to the Jewish leadership to make a deal for handing Jesus over. Did he think Jesus would not know. Did he think God would not know?

Contrast that with Peter who seems to lay everything on the line. Jesus knows just what Peter is thinking most of the time not because the Holy Spirit tells him, but because Peter is so open with what he’s thinking and feeling.

This is what I mean by an all-in relationship. All that’s in us, all that’s going on in our interior world: our emotions, our thoughts, our intentions all open and available to God. Not running from God, not hiding from God.

So, an All-in Relationship with a whole -life yes in the Body for the World.

With a Whole-Life Yes

What in the world is a Whole-Life yes.

All-in is our interior world, whole-life deals with the exterior world. And I think of many people in the bible two people who exemplify this.

First think about the example of Mary. When the Angel Gabriel comes to her and tells her she’s going to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit with the son of God she says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Think of that. Think of saying to the Lord, “my entire future, my entire body, my entire reputation, whatever I had dreamed for my life are yours, I give them up for you and what you want.” That’s a whole life yes.

Another example of this would be Joseph, Mary’s betrothed. We never read a word that he speaks, yet four times we read about him having dreams through which God talks with him and he immediately follows or obeys the instruction given him. We see by the actions of his life that whatever he had planned for his reputation regarding having what people thought of as a pure wife, whatever he had planned vocationally after Jesus birth, whatever he thought he might do or where he would live after returning from Egypt, he was available to the Lord for the care of this child Jesus and of Mary.

Both of Jesus’ parents, at least while Jesus was young exhibited a whole-life yes toward what the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives.

So, an All-in Relationship with a whole -life yes in the Body for the World.

In the Body

Scripture is pretty clear on this point. Jesus talks about our being part of a vine, while Paul gives us a clearer picture with these few verses picked from many.

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 ESV

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

So, an All-in Relationship with a whole -life yes in the Body for the World.

For the World

Here we look to the Great Commission

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

John 16:8 ESV

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

All of that together is

An All-in Relationship with a whole -life yes in the Body for the World…BUT none of this is possible on our own.

People have tried this. This is sort of the evangelical focus. Through human effort, yet without the Holy Spirit, it can bring us to two extremes among others. We can be so focused on working hard and the letter of the law of this that we can become bound up with all the to-dos and the rules. Without the Spirit,

Proverbs 16:2 (ESV)

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

It’s because of not listening to the Spirit, not being with the Spirit that we can have such things in Christian history as the Inquisition. Such things as denominations--primarily the Methodists, the Baptists and the Presbyterians—all having an evangelical focus—splitting nation wide, north and south over allowing slavery. And everyday Christians being so bound up by what must be done or what they can’t do there’s no breath of life in an individual Christian or in a congregation.

But that’s not what the Spirit does in us when we allow him to work...

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 (ESV)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Galatians 3:2–5 (ESV)

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Romans 8:15 (ESV)

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Going the other way, we get people so focused on being loving in the way they reach the world that they begin to believe that obviously the Word must be wrong and there is no baseline for Christian thought and behavior. This way of moving without the Spirit is so focused on the love God has for the world that nothing is out of bounds, everything is okay.

Again, this is not what the Spirit does in us when we allow him to work in us...

John 14:26 (ESV)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

This is Jesus talking to his disciples. Remember Jesus who said in the same experience with a woman caught in adultery, “Let the one who has no sin cast the first stone.” AND “Go and sin no more.”

John 16:13a (ESV)

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...

Ezekiel 36:27 (ESV)

And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

So we see that with the Spirit, we are enabled to stay in the good narrow way, between the ditches of just following rules and throwing rules out the window.

We need the Spirit, because without him there’s no way we can do what seems to be expected of us and stay out of the two ditches and be in an

all-in relationship, (heck, I don’t even know myself and my intentions half the time how can I be in an all-in really honest relationship with God ever?)

with a whole-life yes, (what if I don’t want to be a missionary, what if I just want do my life things? what if I’m just barely hanging on to everyday life?)

in the body (sometimes I don’t even want to see anyone in my church for fear of what they’ll say to me, or what I’ll say to them.)

for the world (I can’t even talk to my neighbor, let alone think about the world)

We need the spirit to help us!

But maybe we’re afraid. Maybe we’re afraid to really break loose and allow the Spirit to move. And because of this fear the light yoke you know you were promised has become actually a heavy yoke for you. And the narrow road has become this broad path of doing it yourself, just doing all the lists the Christian life has become for you, spending time checking the boxes. Maybe you have constrained yourself only to what you know and have already experienced because you don’t want to become “one of those people who raises their hands in church” cause that’s scary and what would that do to your reputation? Or maybe you don’t want to become “someone who just seeks out experience” because you intuitively know, and are right, that there’s more to the Christian walk than just mountain top experiences all the time.

So what is it that the Holy Spirit wants from us? If we can’t do it on our own?

Well, let’s recap what we know.

After hearing Daniel’s first two sermons in this series, we understand that the Spirit of God is described as a wind (ruach), as breath (pneuma), and we’ve settled for ourselves that the Holy spirit IS God, he is a person, he is a part of the Trinity—this teaching is doctrine of orthodox Christianity, it’s taught in the Westminster Catechism, it’s a part of our Presbyterian heritage.

In fact, if you already believed that you were a sinner and that Christ is your Redeemer, you’ve already encountered the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7–9a ESV

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:

It’s only by the spirit that you were even able to understand that you were a sinner. It’s by the Spirit that you understood you needed salvation! You were walking in step with the spirit when you came to that realization and walked in that understanding whether that was an adult and you had one beginning experience of understanding salvation or were a confirmand and had a gradual understanding of what that means.

But maybe since that time, it has been difficult for you to walk with the Spirit. Maybe you’ve even resisted. We must be careful here! As we’ve been reminded, the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. If we resist the Holy Spirit, we are resisting the Trinity. We are resisting God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So...

What did it take for you to begin walking with Jesus.

My guess is that it took you trusting God. Believing that the word of salvation was right and true. It took continued believing as you ordered your life around what you read in scripture and were taught in The Way of Christ.

Walking with the Spirit is no different.

What does the Spirit want with us? He wants us to trust him, the third person of the trinity. To welcome him into our life and practice. That’s where it starts.

But that may be the most difficult place, because there’s something inside us that wonders “what about me” what if I give in and trust the spirit? what happens to what I want? what happens to all my plans? what happens to all the order in my life?

all I can do is quote what you already know: Psalm 37:4-7

Psalm 37:4–5 (ESV)

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

Faith. Trust.

To not be afraid to allow him to move us in our interior life, in the realm of our emotions, to allow ourselves to be blown by his wind and his breath into the shape of interior character he wants from us

To not be resistant to his moving us in our exterior life as we worship and love him, as we interact with others for God’s glory

To welcome his gifting that molds us into the place he wants us in Christ’s Body, in Christ’s kingdom

To be open to his using us in some small way in our neighborhood, or in the wider community.

Because none of that can come from us and be truly fruitful or life giving without the Spirit.

Lastly, if Jesus didn’t do the will of God without the Holy spirit’s power, how are you expecting yourself to?

2 Corinthians 3:4–6 ESV

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

give my testimony?

Holy Spirit I want to trust you.

Give me the ability to trust you.

Father, I know that you give good gifts to your children.

I trust that the Holy Spirit is a good gift.

Jesus, thank you for living as a mere human

that I can see how your indwelling Spirit can work in me.

Closing:

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.