The Promised Holy Spirit

/ / Next week, May 23rd, is Pentecost Sunday. And we’re going to take this week and next week to talk about something really important. The Holy Spirit. We value Holy Spirit here at Cutler Bay Worship Center. Holy Spirit is not only welcome here, but has authority here. If the Holy Spirit of God wants to disrupt what we have planned on any given Sunday, that’s entirely up to him, and we welcome the breaking through of God’s presence when we gather. So, for this week and next week we’re going to talk about the Holy Spirit, about Pentecost, about what it was and what it is.

Ya know, Pentecost is a major day on the Christian calendar. But it was a major day on the Jewish calendar as well. If you have been around the church for a while you’ve probably heard about Pentecost, and if not, that’s ok, I’m going to give a bit of history and some context, and then we’re going to talk about the purpose of it.

These next couple weeks we’ll be looking at Acts 2, which is the New Testament account of what happened on the first Pentecost Sunday AFTER Jesus had been crucified, raised from the dead, spent 40 days on earth with his followers, and then ascended to heaven.

To give you the briefest of overviews, when we as the church celebrate Pentecost, we are celebrating the events of Acts 2. starting in vs 1, it says, / / On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

So, this is the event we celebrate on Pentecost, the first mention in the bible of Christians, followers of Jesus, receiving on mass, the Holy Spirit.

What’s unique about Pentecost, is its connection to the Old Testament and its connection to The Crucifixion. Both the crucifixion of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit happened on Major Jewish Holy days.

What we now call Good Friday & Easter happened at Passover, which was the annual festival that Israel celebrated to remember what God did for them in Egypt that led them out of 400 years of slavery. To get Israel free of their slavery, God sent 10 plagues on the land of Egypt. Each plague worse than the one before, but every time Pharoah would get more angry and bitter, refusing to let them go. Finally, the 10th plague is what got Israel free. But it was a terrible plague. Moses told Pharaoh that if he did not let Israel go, the Lord would come to Egypt and take the life of every first born son in all of Egypt. And he didn’t say every first born Egyptian son, but every son. There was no distinction.

So, o protect Israel, God told Moses to tell the people to prepare a sacrifice. The took an animal, either a goat or a lamb, and sacrificed it, and took some of the blood of that sacrificed lamb and smeared it on the sides and the top of the door frame of their home. Then they roasted the meat and gathered together as a family and ate a meal. And in Exodus 12:12 the Lord says, / / On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgement against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood I will PASS OVER you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Hence, pass over. Because the sacrifice of a lamb, its blood smeared on the doorposts of their home, gave noticed that this family was saved and the Lord passed over them and did not bring judgement on them.

What’s amazing is that this is exactly what we experience through the sacrifice of Jesus. Judgement is not something that anyone escapes. Judgement is pronounced, we will stand before God one day and answer for our lives. Not just Christians, not just Israel, his chosen people, but everyone. There is one God, there will be one final judgement. And like I said, in Exodus 12 it doesn’t say, I will come and strike down only the Egyptian sons. It says every. All. We all face the trial, we all will stand before God. BUT, just like the blood of that lamb on the doorposts showed the salvation of God for Israel, the blood of Jesus Christ, who willingly sacrificed HIS life is smeared on us, and we no longer get judged, we are passed over.

John 3:17, / / God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him.

Our belief in Jesus Christ is that smearing of His blood on the doorposts of our life! There is no judgement. Judgement passes over us.

So, that’s Passover, and how incredible is it that this NEW passover through the life of Jesus happened over the celebration of the Old Testament passover.

Now, Pentecost, which the original Hebrew word actually means “50th”, happens 7 weeks, or 50 days after Passover. And Pentecost was a celebration to honor God for the harvest they received, but also became a very important festival, and primarily celebrated when God gave the law to the people of Israel on Mt. Sinai.

Is this important? Well, I want you to see the connection, and the fulfillment of things.

Passover was a celebration of Israel being passed over from God’s judgement BY the sacrifice of an animal.

Then Jesus, as John says of him in John 1:29, / / “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Once and for all completing the cycle of sin & sacrifice. No more, no longer, never again would a sacrifice need to be made to cover the sins of humanity. Jesus Christ is a once and for all sacrifice.

Pentecost was the celebration honoring God for his abundant blessing in harvest, and his giving of the law. And what was the purpose of the law? To lead to life. It was so that God would have opportunity to Bless Israel. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 describes the blessing that comes by following God’s instructions. / / If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all of these blessings if you obey the Lord your God:

towns blessed, children blessed, crops blessed, farm animals blessed, fruit baskets blessed, breadbaskets blessed, every path you walk blessed, every enemy you face conquered, guaranteed blessing on all you do, filled storehouses of grain.

Those blessings were a direct result of God giving Israel instructions to follow. And that’s what they were celebrating over Pentecost. Now, the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, becomes the gift of the Holy Spirit for BELIEVING in the one who COKMPLETED the law.

Jesus Christ, through his life, death and resurrection completes that sacrificial cycle of fulfilling the law. You are now free to follow and love God without the burden of sin and sacrifice. And when you believe in Jesus Christ, the promised gift is the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee that we will receive the inheritance of the New Covenant. The law was the old covenant. But we live in the new covenant.

So, today we’re talking about the Holy Spirit, who is that promised gift, the down payment for our inheritance for those who believe. So, we’re going to ask a couple questions: who is he? and how is he promised?

/ / First let’s ask, who is the Holy Spirit?

Well, first and foremost we believe that God is what we call / / Trinitarian. The word Trinity means a grouping of 3 things or people. And in our Christian doctrine we believe that God is ONE God in THREE persons. Or three entities in 1 person. There is evidence all through Scripture that God reveals himself in multiple ways. Three of them. And Jesus makes this most abundantly clear when he tells his disciples to / / baptize believers in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he says so in one fluid thought, not separated. He says in the name of, not the names of, but “name of” and doesn’t repeat that. He doesn’t say in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit, but instead says it in one statement, The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One thought, one God. And although we’re not focusing on the Trinity today, The bible is very clear, and if you want to talk more about that, please, let me know, we can grab a coffee!

But, to establish the fact that the Holy Spirit is God, you can look at Acts 5:3. The story in Acts 5 is of a couple who lie about selling a piece of property and how much they sold it for and then give less to the church based on that lie, but in the story Peter, one of the Apostles of the early church, says to them, / / “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not to sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

You lied to the Holy Spirit, not to us, but to God.

Peter clearly establishing that Holy Spirit is God. One in the same.

Jesus also says very clearly that the Holy Spirit and him are distinctly different. He says in in John 14:25-26, / / …when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative - that is, the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

Very distinct difference between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And Jesus has already established that His father is God [John 3:16, “…that he gave his Son...”] [Luke 10:21, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth...”] AND in John 10:30 says, / / The Father and I are one.

So, who is the Holy Spirit? / / The Holy Spirit is 100% God as part a part of the trinity, and 100% an individual with his own function, purpose and distinct characteristics.

/ / The Holy Spirit is a PERSON, not a force.

I know, I know, “May the Fourth be with you” and all that jazz… but to clear up any misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit is not simply some sort of a mystical power or force that you can manipulate, and the power of God is not accessed by calling upon the universe to help you! Good vibes and the universe ain’t got nothing on God. The Holy Spirit is very much an individual, a person, and I use that word loosely because clearly the Holy Spirit isn’t a person like you and I are a person. That is not to say the Holy Spirit is not Powerful, nor is it to say that we do not experience that Power and the Bible isn’t FULL of the expression of the power of God through the Holy Spirit. He very much is. The Holy Spirit IS power.

/ / The Holy Spirit FEELS

Isaiah says that the Holy Spirit was grieved by the actions of Israel, so he has emotions, feelings. He can be happy, joyful, and sad, angry, insulted, or even grieved.

/ / The Holy Spirit is our Teacher.

Jesus says in John 14:26 which I just read a minute ago, / / ...the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

And in Luke 12:11-12 he says If you’re ever brought before religious rulers or authorities, don’t worry about saying the right thing, / / …for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.

/ / The Holy Spirit is a Counselor

In John 14:25, the word Advocate that Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit is a multi-faceted word. And one of the meanings is Counselor.

In John 16:7 Jesus says, / / ...it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [Advocate / Counselor] will not come to you; but IF I go, I will send Him to you.

/ / The Holy Spirit is our COMFORTER

Another word in the meaning of Advocate is comforter. The Holy Spirit comforts us.

/ / The Holy Spirit IS POWER.

Romans 8:11 says this of the Holy Spirit. / / The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead is INSIDE OF YOU!

And Ephesians 3:16-20, / / I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his hime in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down in God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his might power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

And in Ephesians 1:19, / / I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead...

So, let’s put those two things together:

Ephesians 1 , the incredibly great power of God raised Christ from the dead.

Romans 8, the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead.

Now the greatest part...... and he IS inside of you!

/ / So, why don’t we see the power of the Holy Spirit all the time?

That’s a great question, and I’m not going to assume I can fully answer or even have a sufficient answer for that one. But, for one thing, in Acts 7 Stephen, a young leader in the early church says to a group of religious leaders who were really pushing against what was happening in the early church, / / You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!

Just because God promises something, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. And that’s not because God breaks his promise, but because we need to agree with the promise, accept the promise, and follow God into the promise. Hebrews 11:6, one of my favorite verses, says, / / It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

The reward comes from what? Believing in God, believing in His truth, AND sincerely seeking Him.

I’ve said this a few times lately. The word of God is not fulfilled in our lives unless it is applied to our lives. James 1:22, / / But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.

So, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the power that He embodies and gives, is not met unless we intentionally meet it. And there are many in the church who do not understand the connection God wants to make with us through the Holy Spirit, and as a result their lives are lived resisting that presence and purpose because they don’t learn to understand it.

You may very well have something, but you don’t believe it is purposeful, powerful and effective, you will not choose to lean into it, to use it. And for fear of people being confused or led astray by something that can’t fully be explained, there are entire denominations of the Christian Church that do not teach about or embrace the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because it was easier for them to believe that those gifts are in the bible, and they ended after the bible. It was for the apostles of the early church, but not for us.

Well, we don’t believe that. We believe the Holy Spirit is as alive and well and active today as he was 2000 years ago when he raised Christ from that grave, proving that He is the Messiah, the one and only God, the savior of the world. AND his power has not wained, has not gone down, has not diminished, not even one iota. He is the very power of God AND HE IS A promise for every single one of you who believe!

And of course we believe this all the time, but Pentecost is a special time, a unique opportunity for us to honor and pursue this truth. I want you, I want me, I want all of us to commit to going after that promise. Because a church without the Holy Spirit is not fully what God intended. Jesus said in Matthew 19, / / Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.

We don’t just want, we NEED the presence of God, the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives and in our church. If we want to see all that God has for us, we must rely on, believe in, and pursue the presence of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Christ from the dead wants to WORK in you and me.

/ / How is Holy Spirit Promised?

Ephesians 1:13-14, / / ...when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

So, Ephesians 1 tells us a few things about Holy Spirit we need to look at.

/ / 1. The Holy Spirit was a PROMISE from God

Like I said, a promise is something that someone else makes to us, but in this context it is also an invitation. If someone promises, I’ll be there. They mean they’ll be there. But if someone says, I promise that I will give you this box if you walk across this room and put your hand out. There’s an action involved. The promise is secure, you WILL get that box IF you go across the room and put your hand out.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is for those who BELIEVE. And this promise starts long before the New Covenant. See, in the old testament we don’t read about people being filled with the Holy Spirit, we read about the Holy Spirit coming UPON someone, for a purpose… for a moment. But the promise of the Holy Spirit for the New Testament believer, those who believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, is that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit, completely!

In Acts 2, which is the day of Pentecost in the New Testament when the Holy Spirit shows up and fills a whole group of Jesus’ followers, Peter speaks to people who are trying to figure out what’s just happened, and he says this:

/ / What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel… and he proceeds to share a prophecy, or a promise from God that Joel shared some 800 years earlier. He says, / / ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.’ (Acts 2:17)

So, this is the promise, long before it happened, hundreds of years before it happened. the Holy Spirit is going to be available to everyone, not just God’s chosen people, Israel, but to everyone.

As we’ve read in John 14, and again, we see a promise that is an opportunity. vs 15, / / “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be IN YOU.”

/ / 2. The Holy Spirit confirms your belief!

Ephesians 1 says / / …when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I’ve had people say, I don’t feel the Holy Spirit. How do I know that He’s there. And that is a great question. Never be afraid to ask that question, “God, I don’t see you, feel you, understand how this works....where are you?”

So, let me ask you:

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Yes, of course I believe.

Do you believe He has saved you? Yes, absolutely.

Do you believe the blood of Jesus has washed you clean? Of course.

OK, / / If you believe in Jesus Christ, believe that you HAVE received the Holy Spirit.

Listen, I don’t always feel the salvation of Jesus physically.

I don’t feel the blood of Jesus physically.

Yet I believe wholeheartedly in faith that I am saved, set free, delivered and redeemed. why? FAITH.

The first step is to believe.

Did you see what John 14 said, The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.

They don’t know what to expect. But you do. I like how Paul writes this in Ephesians because he says, WHEN you believed in Christ, HE identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t say, “When you believed, you got the opportunity to ask for the Holy Spirit, and because you didn’t ask, you’re a Christian without the Holy Spirit.” NO!!!

You HAVE received the Holy Spirit BECAUSE you believe. Whether you are experiencing the effect, the work, the power, is most likely based on expectation and what to look for.

A lot of people actually experience the goodness of God, but they don’t recognize it as such, because they aren’t looking for it, and so they don’t give God the praise for it. But the more we recognize God working in our lives, the more we become aware that it truly IS Him, AND it causes us to expect more.

So, the Holy Spirit is the confirmation that you believe, not something you now have the opportunity to ask for and you didn’t, so you don’t have it. This is why Stephen says, STOP RESISTING the Holy Spirit by your unbelief. See, when he said that he was talking to a group of Jewish people who did NOT believe in Jesus as the Messiah. But they believe in the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is all over the Old Testament, BUT, he says, You are resisting the very Spirit of God by NOT believing in the one whom was sent by God, that is Jesus Christ. And as long as you are resisting Jesus, you’re resisting the Holy Spirit, you’re resisting the very God you say you serve.

And they stoned him for it. Because some people aren’t ready to believe.

/ / 3. The Holy Spirit is a little piece of heaven.

The third thing Paul says in Ephesians 1 is this, / / The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised...

Our inheritance is eternal life. John 3:16, For God so love the world he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not parish but have everlasting [eternal] life.

That’s our true inheritance, eternity in heaven with God. Salvation, complete salvation, forever.

The Holy Spirit is our downpayment of that inheritance. He’s our reassurance that we’ve got that salvation. Again. do you always feel him? Maybe not, but do you believe?

Start with belief, not doubt.

We see this all the time. Doubt stops so much. If you’re about to try something, and all you’re telling yourself is, “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it. I am going to fail, I am going to fall...”

What’s your probability of success? It goes WAY down, doesn’t it?

So, when we say, “I don’t know if I have the Holy Spirit. I’m afraid I don’t. I don’t see him working. Maybe I did something wrong. I don’t speak in tongues and someone said if I have the Holy Spirit I have to speak in tongues, maybe I don’t have the Holy Spirit. Maybe I’ve never had the Holy Spirit....”

What’s the probability of EXPERIENCING Holy Spirit if you’re constantly telling yourself he’s not there?

So, the first step to experiencing the Holy Spirit is to BELIEVE, not only the Holy Spirit exists (like Hebrews 11 says), but that as God he rewards those who diligently seek him. And as I’ve said before, what is the true reward for seeking? Finding!

As we go into this pentecost Sunday, next week. I want you to begin to believe. Believe that you already HAVE the Holy Spirit, BECAUSE you believe in Jesus Christ, and the moment you did, you received. God MARKED you as his own. God said, This one will spend eternity with me, that is the inheritance for belief, let’s stamp the hand so THEY know and keep the faith! The guarantee is not for God, it’s for US! God doesn’t need a reminder that we’re saved. The Holy Spirit is a gift to US for this life, NOW. Eternity in Heaven is for after death, but to experience God in the presence and power of His Spirit is for NOW!

And if you have never confessed that you believe. If you have never come to a place where you say, “I need Jesus Christ, the savior. I WANT to believe. I DO believe.” Then today is the perfect day for that, because on the other side of belief is freedom. Freedom from our humanity, the very things that hold us back. Freedom from religion, the thing that maybe held you down. And an invitation into relationship. God rewards, meets with, and we experience him when we believe he exists and diligently seek him.