The Holy Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you have been in church for very long or even if you haven’t, you are most certainly aware of the importance of God. More than likely, you are very aware of the importance of Jesus. — Salvation?
We have a tendency to think that Father (God) and the Son (Jesus) are very important and most of us would not even try to live our lives without allowing the Father and the Son to influence our lives in a very real way.
However, when it comes to the third part of God, the Holy Spirit (the Spirt of God), often times we try to put a little distance between us and the Holy Spirit. Why is that? Possibly it that name that the Holy Spirit is often referred to the “Holy Ghost”. I remember a few years ago that one of the churches in Oklahoma City was doing a series called ‘Ghost Stories’.
Now Ghost Stories can be spooky and even a little scary. I wonder if that’s not part of the reason why we tend to put some distance between us and the Holy Spirit.
As a people of God that as a denomination are known as Pentecostals, we should be very aware of the Holy Spirit and of the many ways the Holy Spirit of God affects our lives. In fact we should have our own Ghost Stories to tell.
Tell a few Ghost Stories.
We often think of the Holy Spirit as becoming part of our lives after Jesus ascended into Heaven, but did you realize that the Holy Spirit has been around for much longer than that.
Did you realize that the Holy Spirit had a very active role in the creation story? This lesson/message today could be called ‘Holy Spirit 101 or The Spirit in Creation. This is meant to be an Introduction, if you will, to the Holy Spirit. In fact, I want to start out today in the very beginning of the Bible. Now I doubt that we get all the way to the end of the Bible today.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
1 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see.
2 Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
I love this image — the Spirit of God hovering over the emptiness. Another word for the emptiness here is chaos. Reminds me of a mother hen brooding over her eggs until they hatch.
The Hebrew word for Spirit is the same word as breath, wind, or air. It is a word that sounds like the thing it describes. The word is:
Ruach
In the New Testament, in Greek, it is the same — the same word means Spirit, breath, wind, or air. It also sounds like what it describes:
Pneuma
Even the English words Spirit and Ghost have that quality about them — something elusive, a whispering wind.
I like “Ruach” it sounds more like a storm, or a hurricane (at least a gigantic sneeze) than a whispering wind.
The Ruach of God was brooding over the chaos/emptiness of the deeps, whipping up the waters, not bringing destruction, but bringing order, bringing creation.
The Spirit broods over the Chaos and hatches the Cosmos.
Chaos - a complete disorder of things
Cosmos - the universe seen as a well-ordered whole.
Now you may be familiar with the word Cosmos referring to the world or the universe, but in its original Greek it also has the meaning of order, clean, or beautiful. So, the Spirit broods over the chaos and brings order, purity, beauty.
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
God Ruached into Adam’s nostrils the Ruach of life and the man became a living being.
He breathed into his nostrils the Spirit of Life and the man became a living being.
Adam was just like a statue, a model, a mannequin until the Spirit breathed life into him.
The Spirit Brings Life!
The Spirit Brings Life!
We are told in Genesis that God spoke creation into being — John calls the Son the Word of God.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
The Father spoke the Word to create, and the Word was Jesus, through Him all things were made, and then He breathed His Spirit and creation became animated with life — the life of God.
Without God’s Spirit there is no life!
Without God’s Spirit there is no life!
7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
Even Job’s friend Elihu says
4 The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
14 If he decided to hold his breath,
15 every man, woman, and child would die for lack of air.
The Spirit’s breath kick-started Life and now that we are breathing He could back off at any minute! The Holy Spirit gives life and sustains life, and restores life — The presence of the Holy Spirit in all creation is what keeps creation and stops us from returning to Chaos.
Paul explains this to the ancient people of Athens
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
The Holy Spirit is a vital part of all activities that took place at Creation, and Creation does not exist without Him! This also has a number of implications for us today.
We often think that our life is broken down in to two separate areas - 1) Our Spiritual or Sacred Lives, and 2) Our Secular Life.
We would try to say that things like prayer, worship, and scripture are spiritual and things like work, eating, and recreation are secular. According to the scriptures we have read, all of life is animated by the Spirit and all of our life can be connected with the Spirit.
We need to stop regulating the Spirit to the sphere of our spiritual (church) life .. the whole of creation is home to the Spirit’s operations.
When we call on the Spirit to come upon us, we are calling the mighty power of God
For whatever purpose, we are not calling this elusive presence of God, we are calling the mighty Power, the “Ruach” of God who breaths life into all things! It is no small thing to be filled with the Spirit — He is the Creator Spirit, the storm that brought order out of Chaos!
The Spirit in Redemption Life
The Spirit in Redemption Life
I have this picture of Adam being brought to life by the Power of the Spirit. If I had any image before it was of Adam lying on the ground possibly in a fetal position and God gently breathing into him so that in a few moments he wakes as if from a dream and drowsily looks around at this brand new world that is his to discover. Today, I imagine it to be much more forceful, that the mighty Ruach of God comes upon him and like someone using a defibrillator jolts him into being most explosively alive.
How Does this affect Me?
How Does this affect Me?
It is that same power that jolts us to life in God through the Power of the Spirit when we believe in Jesus.
Jesus describes the work that the Spirit does in our life when we receive the Spirit as being born again, or being born from above. The Spirit gives us the physical life that we all have, but when we believe in Jesus, he gives us a Spiritual life that we lacked and we are brought to life through the very Breath of God breathing on us and beginning to make order, purity and beauty out of the chaos of our life.
Do you feel like your life is one of Chaos? Not the Chaos outside of you, but the chaos within?
Jesus promises us that the Spirit will come and hover over the chaos that is our soul and bring order and purity and beauty.
He will breathe into us the breath of life, so much that we describe the experience as being born again — like we were never really alive before. The Spirit of Creation is the one who has Re-created us and who is still Re-creating us.
The Spirit Redeeming Creation
The Spirit Redeeming Creation
The Bible tells us that God will not just redeem His people, but that He is redeeming all of creation — that there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
When you look at the mess that we have made of the earth and our world, you might wonder if God can fix it.
The incredible thing is that The Spirit allows us and enables us to Partner with Him in the Re-creation of People and the Re-creation of the Earth! Through this Partnership, we can seek the Holy Spirits presence in all things.
Folks we need this mighty Ruach (breath, wind, mind, spirit) power of life working within this church - this House of God and You need this might Ruach (breath, wind, mind, spirit) power of life working within you.
Do you want this force to brood over your life and make order and something beautiful out of the chaos that is within?
Get up on your feet and pray for the Holy Spirit to come.