Sermon Tone Analysis

Stories

Well Hey everyone!

It’s so good to be with you tonight.

My name is Jake Augeri and I’m the High School Pastor here at Red Mountain.

We’re in a series called Stories right now.

What we’re doing throughout summer is taking the time to look at different stories that occur as we peruse through the Bible.

A lot of times, if you’ve grown up in the church (or maybe if you’ve even just heard the stories), it’s easy to believe that you know the general gist of what it is you’re reading and it’s easy to simply read right through it.

I love this because a lot of times, if we’re honest with ourselves, we haven’t really done the hard work to think through or examine what’s really going on and what that may mean for our lives.

So over the first couple of weeks, Matt walked through the creation story and unpacked a healthy way for us to view one another through a healthy grid of gender & partnership.

Then last week, Matt went over Cain & Abel and unpacked the realities behind the fact that the very blood of humanity cries out from the ground.

Tonight, we get to talk about the Holy Spirit .

The Holy Spirit is one of those interesting topics that we think about and talk about some times, but it seems as though we never really know exactly what His deal is & what His actual job is.

So tonight, what I hope to do is to unpack a Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit & work through a couple of key texts.

Then we’re going to talk about the relationship that Jesus has with the Holy Spirit and how the two interact relate with one another.

So tonight, what I want to suggest is two things:

1.) When the Son of God entered into our world as Jesus of Nazareth, He had no more access to the Father than you and I do today.

2.) The reason this is true is because of the presence of the Holy Spirit living inside of followers of Jesus.

We’re going to be primarily in Luke’s Gospel starting in Chapter 3 in verse 21.

Ok so as we get started, right away, we want to put ourselves in a position where we’re thinking and reading this like someone in the first century would have.

John the Baptist was speaking in Israel to primarily Jewish people.

It’s important for us to understand what the current state of the Jews were in that time to fully understand the implications behind what’s happening here.

It’s really important for us to understand the nature of how the Holy Spirit operated in the Hebrew Scriptures.

What we see happen is the Holy Spirit or Ruach was hovering over the waters in creation and intimately involved in the process of creation.

One writer says this about the Spirit of God:

“God is power; he is the ultimate in vital energy (), and his Spirit is the fullness of creative power universally present.

From the chaos the Spirit of God created cosmos.

The Spirit, as the source of all energy and life, impregnated, as it were, the deep nothing ness or formless void, and out of it came forth at the divine behest the vast realm of created order.”

So the spirit is involved in creation.

Then we see that there are different touches with the Spirit as the Scriptures progress.

He comes upon people to empower them for specific tasks:

In

This also happens to the judges of Israel .

This was to Samson as God was using him in a mighty way.

The Spirit of God also came on Kings.

For example in the live of Saul., Israel’s first king.

Lastly, we see that the Spirit of God would come upon prophets.

Here

So there’s a ton of different ways that the Spirit interacted and worked with the nation of Israel.

It was sporadic and yet intentional and very strategic for the betterment of humanity and the nation of Israel.

And yet, one of the things that was true is it was not permanent.

One of the realities that the Old Testament speaks to and points forward to is a Messianic figure who would bring salvation & healing to the Nations.

So they were waiting for a messianic figure who would rule the world in justice and righteousness.

Not only were they looking for that, but they were longing for a filling of their own lives by the Holy Spirit.

paints this incredible picture.

Ezekiel 37:11-14

So fast forward to our passage for tonight.

We have this incredible picture of the Spirit of God descending on Jesus like a dove.

You are my beloved Son.

With You I am well pleased.

Imagine what this must have been like for Jesus.

Jesus was a jewish boy & so chances are, he would have had the entire Old Testament memorized by this point.

To go into the wilderness to be baptized because that’s what many people from the nation of Israel were doing and then to have this fascinating moment occur.

And so we need to catch the gravity of the moment here.

In the same way the Holy Spirit would come upon the figures we just read about, the Holy Spirit was coming upon Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus was a man.

He was human like you & me.

He had flesh & bones.

What I want to suggest is that this is a moment where Jesus comes to understand more fully what He was called to do.

let’s jump down to starting in Verse 1

So there’s this awesome moment that Jesus has where the Spirit of God comes upon him & he hears the voice of the Father speaking His identity over him and the first thing the Spirit does is to drive him in to the wilderness.

And yet, our Bible don’t do the best job of translating this, becuase at a first glance, the general appearance is the Spirit says head on out to the Wilderness and have fun.

But the original language suggests that Jesus was being led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit didn’t just leave once He sent Him out, but was present and walking with Him throughout the temptations.

Jump down to verse 14.

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

Then we go on to read about all of these incredible things that Jesus does & I think it’s really important for us to recognize that these things are done because of the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life.

So one of my professor’s used to say, “ Jesus was the perfect Spirit-filled man.

He provided an example of what it looked like to be filled with the Spirit & to allow Him to color & shape all of our lives.”

So.. Jesus lives a Spirit filled live.

Eveyrthing that He did, He did by the Spirit.

Even His resurrection from the dead was something that was brought about by the Spirit of God.

Paul tells us that in Romans.

So Jesus was a perfect Spirit-filled man.

He accomplished what the Messiah was supposed to accomplish and yet the promise of the Spirit bringing life to people yet that we read about in hasn’t come to fruition.

That brings us to .

As a result of the filling of the Spirit in , we see that those who become followers of Jesus are now filled with the Spirit.

So tonight, what I want to ask is are we stepping into a life that’s filled with the Spirit.

Are we people who are engaging with the Spirit in such a way that our lives are characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

Those fruits are always such an interesting list in that we tend to try and want to just put those things on and say ok, today I’m being loving & gracious.

What Paul has in mind is that we would be so saturated in intimacy with the Spirit that we are surrendering to His will and direction & every moment.

In our decisions, are we listening for the Spirit’s voice?

As we plan our day, are we listening for who the Spirit may want us to engage with?

As we think about rhtyhtms & patterns, are they saturdated by the Spirit?