Carrying Christ

Introduction

Thank Thomas and Ev for having me

I don’t think I’ve been here in a while, but I just want to personally thank you guys for giving so generously to the HFTH offering for the central building. I know I say central building but really, we have a one church policy - it belongs to all of us. I say that full knowing that when we start to raise for South’s new building, we will be giving in force - but not only that; I will be using that south building as an office seeing as it’s probably going to be much closer to my home so thank you in advance for that.

I heard that you guys just finished a wonderful series on the Holy Spirit - what an amazing topic.

We’re also entering the Christmas period so Tom and Ev have asked me to share on Holy Spirit experiences that centre around the Christmas story.

Which I admit, when Tom first asked me - I was like…are there any? But as soon as I started looking I immediately found something in the life of Mary.

See - Mary is actually a powerful image of how the Spirit-bearing believer is meant to work. She is sort of a “type”, a standard, if you will - for what a Spirit-filled believer is meant to be.

And looking at her life - there are many things that we can learn about the life of a Spirit-filled believer from seeing how she bore and carried Christ physically.

Let’s get straight into it - let’s pray.

Segment 1: Stop Trying To Produce What Only The Spirit Can Create

Luke 1:26–38 “26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

The virgin birth is one of the most incredible miracles to come out of the Bible. It’s a complete an utter impossibility that defies every biological law on every possible level.

It’s also one of the first times that the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the gospel accounts.

I think traditionally we sort of write it off as something that we can’t really take much from - it’s an event, and we just learn to take these sort of events on as fact.

But a closer examination of the story reveals to us how Mary really modelled for us what Spirit filled believer should be.

I mean first of all 10 points to Mary for not laughing out loud when the angel dropped what is possibly the most shocking news in the history of shocking news. “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son despite being a virgin, NOT only this - he’ll take the throne of David and reign over his kingdom forever, NOT only this He’s the Son of God”

I think it’s a miracle on its own that Mary stayed logical and pointed out the obvious; How will this be, since I’m still a virgin?

And that’s when we have the first mention of the Holy Spirit - the angel responds to Mary “The Holy Spirit” will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

I don’t think it’s an accident that Paul uses the same phraseology in Acts 1:8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

And so right here we have the beginning of the miracle - notice immediately that it didn’t begin with human effort, or human strategy, it was not part of a human plan - it began in the SPIRIT.

In other words the work of the Spirit is NOT manufactured in the flesh.

The Spirit filled life that God intends for us to live is by the SPIRIT and cannot be initiated through the flesh!

John 6:63 “63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

Whether it is the ongoing work of sanctification, or the miracle that God has ordained for your life, whether it is the empowerment of spiritual gifts, or the bearing of spiritual fruit - or even the very work of salvation itself -

The working of the Spirit cannot be manufactured in the flesh - by our own strength, will or plan.

And this may sound like a nominal, basic point - but I really do think that sometimes we forget it and often try to “manufacture our miracles”.

Maybe it’s quite literally in our expectation of a miracle, something that we’ve been praying for where we grow weary of waiting and start to rely on our own effort and smarts to manufacture the miracle

Maybe it’s trying to lead someone to Christ - and we grow impatient and start to rely on our own effort and wisdom to speed the process along

Maybe it’s growing something that God has given to us - a ministry, a promotion at work, whatever it is we can often so easily defer to conventional human means to try and bring about the growth or the result that we’re seeking.

Segment 2: Connected to the Vine

I mean so many biblical authors remind us of this but I’m always drawn back to Jesus in John 15:5 “5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” we’re a branch! It’s not our job to manufacture, it’s our job to STAY CONNECTED to the vine.

But sometimes I feel like we, as the branches, try to hard to squeeze out fruit - we push and strive and make the Spirit filled life something that it simply isn’t; and that’s when we grow weary and burn out.

Why? Because we can’t manufacture a work of the Spirit through the flesh!

We bear the fruit of the Spirit by being connected to the Spirit, by being connected to the vine - not by forcing it out on our own accord.

ILLUSTRATION: The Gardener (Uncle Richard)

You know we have a lot of great gardeners in our midst, alot of green thumbs I think they’re referrred to in Australia. I remember having a conversation with an uncle back in one of the churches that I was pastoring at. And from the get go I just knew that this uncle - Uncle Richard, was a great gardener. You know when you’re in a conversation and it’s just so obvious that the person you’re talking to knows so much more about the subject? That you have to like fake it to make it sorta thing? Anyway Uncle Richard was talking to me about how he takes care of his roses and all of that gardening stuff and I was like just trying to stay in the conversation “Like yeah i’ve got roses in my garden too” I remember he asked me what variety of rose I had and I was like…the Red…variety. I think that sort of gave me away.

But imagine going to the house of a great gardener like uncle Richard - and you walk in and you see that he’s got a beautiful grape vine - and you ask Uncle Richard “Could you show me how to look after this grape vine so that it will bear fruit?” and Uncle Richard goes “Sure!” and then he grabs a bunch of grapes that he’s bought from spudhsed and he starts stapling it to the branches, and duct taping it to the branches; that’s ridiculous isn’t it! It’s absurd, there’s no way that a good gardener would do that!

But you know, that’s really what our Christian walk can look like sometimes when we try to “manufacture the miracle” we try to live spirit filled lives while walking in the flesh. And we wonder why the Christian life is so difficult, why it seems so fake, seems so unnatural and powerless sometimes - well the answer is simple; we’re not doing what a branch is meant to do - we’re not CONNECTED to the vine! We’re trying to live a life of divine result while walking solely in the flesh. It’s just not going to happen.

But I look at Mary and I think that she exemplifies this Spirit-filled dependency, this Spirit filled connectivity perfectly.

When the Angel declares that the Holy Spirit will come down upon her look at how she responds: “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Complete surrender to the will of God. And a mark of the believer who wants to walk in the Spirit.

The Christian who desires to walk in the Spirit must understand that all they have to offer is their surrender to the Will of God.

Surrender is the mark of the Spirit-filled life.

Galatians 5:25 “25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

Paul asks us to keep in step with the Spirit - that means following the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, surrendering our will to that of the Spirit, surrendering our desires to those of the Spirit.

Segment 3: You can’t carry Christ and carry ordinary at the same time.

And so Mary is a model for how we are to receive the Spirit into our lives - with surrender, but she is also a model in the way that she carried Christ within herself literally.

Luke 1:39–45 “39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.””

Just as Mary carries the Saviour here phsyically, we carry Him spiritually.

1 Corinthians 6:19 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,”

And I think that this one interaction that Mary has with Elizabeth is so important because it paints the image of how the World yearns to respond to the Christ, the Holy Spirit within us!

The MOMENT Mary gives her greeting - Elizabeth hears and her baby leaps in her womb; and immediately Elizabeth was filled wih the Holy Spirit! There’s immediately a filling of the Holy Spirit just from the GREETING that Mary gives.

It’s infectious, it’s live giving, it’s hope bringing - the presence of Christ within Mary, and the same presence of Christ within us!

Elizabeth could immediately tell that Mary was not just pregnant with a normal baby - She could immediately see Christ within her - and she declares it out loud “why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Just like Mary bore Christ within her body, we bear the Holy Spirit within ours!

But do people know? Do they notice? Have they heard, can they sense even in some small way that there is something DIFFERENT about what we carry, that we are DIFFERENT BECAUSE of what we carry!

Just like Elizabeth - do they RECEIVE something from merely being in the same room as us, does salvation fall on their household as a result of an encounter with the Holy Spirit within us? Does something within their Spirit leap for Joy because they know that Christ is within us - the hope of glory.

You can’t carry Christ and be ordinary at the same time.

And I believe this point because scripture talks unashamedly about how we are MEANT to stand out in the world - this is what it means to bear Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit; we WILL stand out! We WILL be different!

Philippians 2:14–15 “14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”

There is meant to be something life giving, something hope bringing, something DIFFERENT about believers who carry the Holy Spirit within them.

We are meant to be salt to the Earth, light in the darkness, a city on a hill, love in a world of hate, hope in the face of death.

We aren’t meant to blend in, we are meant to stand out!

ILLUSTRATION: Acts 4

You know who I think of when I talk about this? Bearing Christ in a way that is so obvious to the world? I think of Peter and John in Acts 4. These two, ordinary, uneducated men get dragged before the rulers and scribes and elders because they had been teaching the people about Jesus to GREAT effect, like thousands had come into the faith as a result of their work.

And so they get questioned in front of all these elders, leaders of the temple and of the city. And they don’t do anything unusual but they answer in such a way - that it literally says in Acts 4:13 “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

Did you catch that? They saw such boldness, such forwardness in Peter and John - that did not match their looks; they were uneducated, they were common, they were a lower class of person standing before the elites. Where is this boldness coming from? How come they’re DIFFERENT? Why do they STAND OUT?

And of course the realisation soon comes to follow in the next sentence; they recognised that they had been with Jesus. There was just something about them, something different, something bold, something special - these men had been with Jesus!

Oh guys honestly - this is what I long for in my life personally. I long to carry Christ in a way that when I walk into a room people can tell just from the way I SPEAK, just from the way I act, just from the boldness I have - this man has been around Jesus. This man KNOWS Jesus.

And this is what it means to bear Christ in such a way that He shines THROUGH us. That we are so dead to self - that only Christ remains, that people don’t see us, they just see Christ when they look at us. THIS is what it means to be a Spirit filled believer, THIS is what bearing Christ really should look like: Like Mary bearing Christ to Elizabeth who immediately receives the Spirit and whos baby leaps for joy because they know they’re in the presence of the Lord, Like Peter and John who stand before the rulers of the city and amaze them with their boldness to the point that they immediately recognise these people KNOW Jesus.

How can we be ordinary when we bear the Spirit of God within us?

Segment 4: There’s a way to live

You know the way we bear the Holy Spirit matters. It matters! There is a way for us to get in the way of the Spirit, to dimish the light of the Spirit within our lives. It’s true - it sounds strange because He’s God, how can you diminish God? But Paul says quite clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 “19 Do not quench the Spirit.”

And by saying this, it does not mean that we are diminishing the VALUE of the Spirit, or making God lesser in ANY way. The word for quench is sbennymi which is the same word used for putting out a fire.

The Spirit’s NATURE is not diminished within you at all; but rather His WORK within you is quenched, His FIRE within you is quenched, His demonstrations within you are quenched.

In other words - there is a way to live that quenches the power of the Spirit within you, that stops Christ from being outstanding in your life.

You know, it’s quite interesting that Motherhood is the model for the Christian carrying the Spirit of God because there are some real parrallels that we can draw.

Just as a mother during pregnancy must be careful of what they do, they must watch what they eat and what they drink, they are to be careful with what goes into their body, and the environments that they spend time in;

So too believers must also take the same care of the things that we do, what we put into our bodies - not just talking about food, but media, information, the thoughts we entertain and the beliefs we adopt.

The Holy Spirit is a person - He is alive, living within us - entirely affected by the things that we do which is why scripture even tells us that it is possible to GRIEVE the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:30–32 “30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Paul lists in this passage and in the one before, real ways that we can grieve the Holy Spirit whom we carry within us - we are called to live in a way that does NOT Grieve the Holy Spirit; we are called to live in a way that the Holy Spirit can shine through us. In fact Paul right after this passage tells us that we are to discern in our lives what is pleasing to the Lord

Ephesians 5:10 “10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”

All this to say that just as Mary tenderly bore Christ within her we are to tenderly, lovingly bear the Holy Spirit within us, so that just like Christ within Mary - He can bring light into every place we find ourselves in, every situation we find ourselves in.

Segment 5: He went low so that His grace could go wide

And of course finally we reach the apex of the story, the virgin birth itself - the culmination of this entire narrative.

Luke 2:6–7 “6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

This is the apex of the story - Christ is made a reality in this world! Immanuel, God with us.

And the point to draw from this seems quite obvious - just like Mary we are to bring Christ into the world around us. Which is truth and honestly I’d be very happy to end the sermon here; BUT

I want to end by speaking into this small caveat that really seems truly quite unnecessary but changes absolutely everything about our faith.

And that’s this notion in v7 - that Jesus was born in a manger because there was no place for him in the inn. A part of the story which I’m sure we all know well, we’ve all seen nativitiy scenes.

Christ was born into the lowest of places - why? Why does this mean? Why did God make it this way? Why so..ordinary?

The answer is so simple - and yet at this time of year particularly, so important for us to catch.

Christ was born lowly because He came for everyone.

Christ came low because He came to reach the least of these.

He went low so His grace could go wide.

And we, as the bearers of the His Holy Spirit, must remember this ESPECIALLY heading into the Christmas season.

That the same humility that Christ embodied in His birth and life - is the same humility with which we are to bear His Spirit.

We must be FOR the Low, FOR the lost, FOR the lonely, FOR the orphan, FOR the loveless. Because these are the people that Christ came to reach.

*Call up keys*

ILLUSTRATION: Jesus’ view on Prostitutes

You know I remember a story that the author Philip Yancey told. He said that he was invited to minister at a conference which would be attended by women who were prostitutes. And so he accepted the invitation and went to minister and speak to these women.

At the end of the conference he actually asked the women in the conference a question. He said, “Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession? He said “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” He talked about how Jesus was speaking to religious authorities when he made this statement. And so he asked the women “What do you think Jesus meant? Why do you think he would single out prostitutes in this statement?”

The congregation was silent for quite a few minutes before one Eastern European woman spoke up in broken english. She said this, “Everyone has someone to look down on. But not us. We are already the lowest. Our families feel shame for us. In most places, we are breaking the law. Believe me, we know how people feel about us. People call us names. We know it - we are the bottom. And when you are the lowest - you are always crying for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. I think this is what Jesus means.”

And she’s right - Jesus came low, so His grace could go wide. He came for everyone - no exceptions.

And He calls us to do the same - that as we bear Christ - we will do so with the same humility and grace that He embodied in His birth.

Altar Call