The Groaning Spirit

Introduction

Last week, we looked at the suffering of creation and how it groans waiting for the day of redemption. Paul transitions from a focus on creation to the believer. Not only they, but ourselves. Part of living in a sin cursed earth, is pain and suffering. Just like creation, we ourselves groan under the weight of suffering. Sometimes, Christianity sends the wrong message about suffering. There is a subliminal message in churches that says we should always be happy even when life hurts. Paul is not here shying away from what we all truly feel during times of suffering. Suffering causes us to groan within ourselves. Did you notice two words in vs 22 last week, groans and travails in pain.

Life doesn’t always feel good. When we were children life was often carefree and easy, but the older we get the more we experience pain and suffering. It is inescapable. We build fancy houses, develop technology, create medicines; all in the hope of diminishing the pain of our existence. But if you were to ask the man who has it all, the drug addict who medicates his pain or the computer nerd who has developed all kinds of convenient devices if their developments have made the pain go away, they would all say know. The Rich man has to have more to keep the voices at bay, the drug addict is never satisfied because it is only a temporary fix, the techy finds himself alone with his creations. All these things we have created do not remove the suffering. So we groan under the pain of our existence.

Later in 2 Corinthians Paul would expand on why we groan.

2 Corinthians 5:2 “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” 2 Corinthians 5:4 “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”

For the Christian, we groan not merely because of the pain but we long for the solution. We know their is coming a day when all of this will be made right again. We long for the adoption : the redemption of our bodies. Someday, we will experience transformation of our bodies, the glorification when all pain, sin and suffering will be removed. All tears will be wiped away. Death will be swallowed up in victory. But the truth of the matter is that that day is not today.

It almost seems like Paul has drastically lost focus on the Holy Spirit, but he is going to tie all of this together. This morning I would like us to look at the role of the Spirit in our suffering. Though we are in pain now, we are not alone. God has not forgotten us. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he sent us another comforter who would be with us in our suffering. Paul describes the role of the Spirit in three ways in these verses:

The Spirit is the firstfruits of our glory

Romans 8:23–25 “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Remember back in vs 15-17 when Paul said that we were adopted? Like many doctrines in the scripture, this is what we call an already/not yet doctrine. We are adopted with all the rights and privileges of that adoption, but our adoption is not complete. It is secure as we will see in the rest of the text, but we still wait for it. Don’t you see why the security of the believer is so important in this text. We have been spiritually adopted, but our bodies have not been redeemed yet.

Our bodies still decay, our bodies still ache with pain, our bodies still have sin remaining in them. The work has only just begun. But considering the work has only just begun what guarantee do we have that God will finish what He started? What if He just decided to quite on us.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that God will finish what he started.

Ephesians 1:13–14 “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

There are two pictures Paul uses in Ephesians to describe this work of the Holy Spirit:

seal- a seal was a piece of wax laid over the edges of a letter and then implanted with an image guaranteeing who it came from. The wax was intended to show that the letter had not been opened and was still secure.

earnest- The other image Paul uses is of a downpayment. How many of you have purchased a home? When you put in an offer on your home most likely you also gave earnest money until the purchase was complete. In practice, if you back out of the deal you lose that money. It is the guarantee that you are purchasing the home until the moment you complete the purchase.

We still await God’s purchasing of our bodies when we will be resurrected in glorified bodies. Until then we have the Holy Spirit as our downpayment. Back in Romans, Paul using another figure of speech to illustrate how the holy Spirit works in our lives. He is called the

c. firstfruits- The first fruits of the crop would be brought by the steward of the house to the master as a guarantee that more was to come. But those first fruits serve another purpose as well: They are the first taste of what is ahead. Another way of looking at it is they were the first stage of many to come. In Romans 16:5 “Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” Paul uses this term to apply to the first phase of Christians in Achaia.

The Holy Spirit is the first taste of the glory we will experience.

In this way the future has invaded the present. Glory is not merely something I look forward to but I experience now. And it is because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit that we groan.

Have you ever eaten a starburst, but you let it sit in your mouth for a little while? The flavor is so exciting to your tastebuds that you find it hard to not just eat the whole thing.

Its like that first kiss on your wedding day. You have waited for this day for so long and for those who refused to kiss before getting married it is even more special. But that first kiss is the first of many to come and you long for more.

It is like water on an hot Oklahoma day. You have been working out in the yard for the past few hours, you are sweating and your throat is dry. As soon as you get a glass of water you don’t just take a sip; you guzzle it down.

It is like pringles, once you pop you can’t stop.

We have now a taste of the glory which is to come because of our relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit. If you have never delved into that relationship, you may not know what this groaning is like. But the closer we get to the Lord, the more we want of Him.

Suffering doesn’t have to be the thing that drives you away from God. For many, pain causes them to pull back from the thing they need the most. They stop coming to church because circumstances aren’t what they desire. They are in pain and while they still go about their normal lives they forget their time with the Lord. Pain becomes their firstfruits and the taste is bitter. They lose hope.

We have been saved in hope. Yes, today we may not experience the fullness of that hope. Hope that is seen is not hope. If you had it all now, you wouldn’t have anything to hope for.

So we are called to a life of endurance. Patiently waiting, but this endurance doesn’t have to empty, dead hopeless waiting. We can wait experiencing the glory available to us know in the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit helps us in our suffering

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The Holy Spirit isn’t just our first taste of glory: He is also our help during our suffering. Our infirmities here speak of our weakness, sickness, even disease. We are unable to overcome the curse on our own, but the holy Spirit helps us.

The word help here means he comes alongside of us to help us. He is like that friend who comes beside you when you have sprained your ankle and gives you a shoulder to lean upon.

Enduring is hard, but you are not alone. You have all the strength you need available to you in the Holy Spirit. Help comes in many different forms: it can be money when you need it, it can be physical help adding their strength to yours, it can be encouragement when you are ready to give up. I believe the Holy Spirit can help in a variety of different ways, but in our third point, we are told specifically what form of help that help takes: The Spirit helps us by praying for us.

The Spirit prays for us when we don’t know what to pray for.

Romans 8:26–27 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

I mentioned that infirmities means weakness- The specific are where we are weak is in prayer. Our weakness is in that we do not know what God’s will is in relation to our circumstances. How many times have we prayed for someone who was sick that they would get better? Have we prayed someone who was dying would recover only for that person to pass away? Prayer requests like these are hard to pray knowing God’s will. We pray in submission to that will, but sometimes God’s will sin’t our will. Consider what some might consider a failed prayer request by the apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Paul prayed three times for this thorn to be removed and it never was. God answered the prayer, but not in the way that Paul wanted. God gave him grace.

Our weakness is that we don’t know how to pray as we ought.

we don’t know what to pray for in moments like these. 1 John 5:14–15 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Let’s be honest, we don’t always know God’s will.

What if it is God’s will for that person to suffer? What if there is something God is trying to do in their life? This is our weakness. Our minds are finite

Paul doesn’t tell us to overcome our weakness and try to find out God’s will; there are some parts of God’s will that we will never know until after the fact. But this is what Paul is saying: It isn’t up to you to overcome your weakness and find out God’s will about the situation, the Spirit overcomes our weakness and prays for us. When it comes to suffering, we may not always know what God’s will is in this situation; nor will we always understand the why, but the Holy Spirit makes up the difference for us. The verse says the spirit makes intercession for us.

He does so with groanings- The Greek here is literally unspeakable groanings. Creation groans, we groan and now the spirit groans because of the curse. He prays for us, but he doesn’t do it passively. He feels the pain that we feel. He grieves for the suffering that is in this world because of sin.

In vs 27, the one who searches the hearts is God the Father. But God knows the Spirits requests and the Spirit makes up for our weakness by praying and groaning for us according to the will of God.

Conclusion

When you are hurting, you might feel alone, but you are not.

When you are hurting, you might feel like there is no hope of things getting better, but the Spirit is your taste of that hope.

When you are hurting, you might feel helpless, but the Spirit is there to carry you along and help you endure.

When you are hurting, you might feel like you don’t know what to pray. That is alright because the Spirit prays for you.

When you are hurting, you might feel like God doesn’t care, but the Spirit is literally groaning over your suffering.

You are not alone. Endure for the night will end. Stir up that hope by tasting the glory you have now by your relationship with Jesus through the Spirit. There is hope on the horizon. Paul’s purpose and mine in this text is to remind you there is hope. Don’t quit.