Jesus, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit

I can point you to the bible, and say, “here, read this…it contains everything you need to understand the Jesus Memo”…I could say that, and it would be true. It IS true. You do not have to be a scholar, or go to seminary to understand the bible. More today than ever in history, the word of God is available and in our country, the resources to understand the Bible are readily available, free of cost. We can read, listen, and even watch the Bible, and understand not how to become a good person, but rather…how to be more like Jesus.

It happens with Love

Love. It’s more than an emotion, it’s more than a physical feeling or urge. WE are perfected by love, and we become more like God when we show love to other people, and ourselves.

I like to read a lot of scripture, and it’s a habit I’m working to share with others, for reasons which I’m all too happy to share with people who ask. You see, God talks to us through scripture. Scripture, is the compilation of accounts of history and accountings of God’s people and the Life of Jesus, and the early Christian church. The apostle John, knew Jesus. He was persecuted repeatedly for his life which not only followed Jesus, but helped others to understand the heart of Jesus. I read this week that John was considered the apostle of love, because he wrote so much about the concept of love. That’s because Jesus is about love. Let’s read one of John’s letters where he is speaking about love: You can read along in 1st John, Chapter 4.

1 John

1 John 4:7–21 NASB95

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

There is a lot to unpack there. I strongly encourage each of you to read this chapter and do some research on 1st John as a book. It isn’t very long, and it is a part of a three letter series in which scholars believe John wrote towards the end of his life, after he was over 100 years old. Plenty of time to start getting to an understanding of these concepts of Jesus-like love.

An interesting side note about John, he was once tortured by being dipped into a vat of boiling oil. He lived for decades after that before dying a martyrs death for his faith in Jesus. He must have been a forefather of Chuck Norris. Even tough guys can love like Jesus.

Loving people is hard

A lot of people don’t make it easy to love them. Do you know anyone like this in your life? I have a few… Jesus lived a life of relationship and discipleship. That is to say, he had people around him constantly, whom He was pouring Himself into, through life and relationship. Some of His followers were hard to love. Jesus showed a perfect love, at all times. Following His time on earth, after He had risen from the dead and spent time with people whom He loved He spoke of the Holy Spirit, whom He would send to help His followers in learning how to love like He did.

In the fourfold ministry of Jesus Christ, which we’re covering in this sermon series, the second part of Sister McPherson’s revelation, was Jesus Christ’s embodiment of the Holy Spirit, and the power of being baptized in this spirit. I’m not talking about the utterance of tongues, I’m also not talking about Pentecost specifically today. But rather the way in which people who are followers of Christ, can live a life which shows and models…and literally IS Christ’s love to others. The kind of love we’ve been talking about.

The Holy Spirit helps us

The Holy Spirit is fully God. He is a part of the trinity, which is God expressed through three distinct persons, who are all three, fully a singular God. I understand that sometimes this concept is difficult for us to understand, I would submit that the difficulty comes not from God, or His word, but through our limited understanding of God in relation to our much better cultural understanding of a world without God at its center. The Holy Spirit is our advocate and helper. Let’s read from Romans, and capture more of this concept.

Romans 8:1–25 NASB95

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Romans 8:

We are to be the LIGHT of the world

As I was studying this week, and doing my usual search for a video to illustrate the message God has inspired me to share, I was struck by sailing movies, and stories, and my own limited experiences on the sea. In, “The Heart of the Sea”, a movie aimed at being a more realistic telling of the whaling stories that inspired the great novel, “Moby Dick”, there are scenes, and you’ve probably seen these in other movies, but these scenes depict the massive sailing vessels, stuck…out in the middle of the ocean, without any wind. People get hungry, water starts to get scarce, and the spirit of desperation really comes across in the experience of the characters living this out in front of us. These boats were, “treading water” in the sea. We can study sailing all we want, we can build fancy sail boats, but without wind…we’re just not getting anywhere. We may be sailing, but we’re only existing, we’re not traveling along God’s path. We aren’t called to sit in stagnated winds and calm seas....we’re called to be the light of the world, amongst the storms.

We need the Holy Spirit to love like Jesus

Just as Jesus calmed the raging waters, so we as Christ followers are called to be a part of the calming of others around us. We’re called to show God’s love to others, without judgement or persecution, or conditions. THat’s a tall order, and we need the Holy Spirit speaking into our lives to make it happen. Just as Jesus modeled to His disciples in His last evening with them, when something significant in our lives happens, we should celebrate with song. Let’s sing some songs together, and rejoice that Jesus doesn’t ask us to be perfect people, and lead perfect lives, but rather He sent the Holy Spirit to help us be God’s love to others, among other ways and things He helps us do. Joel, would you come up here and lead us in singing songs to Jesus? Thanks.

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