The Mission: Understand the Ministry of the Spirit (Part 3: Reveals & Unifies)
Acts: The Mission of the Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsHow can we be led by and live by the Holy Spirit unless we really know who he is?
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PRAYER: Dear Lord, your ways are mighty. You have searched and known us but you are too great for us to comprehend. You hide your face from us: we are not worthy to behold your splendor. You know when we lie down and when we rise. You know the thoughts and deeds that we try to keep secret, yet to you there is no place those thoughts and deeds can hide from you. You scrutinize our every thought and motive as David stated, “you are intimately acquainted with all my ways even before there is a word on my tongue.” There is no other being on heaven or earth who has this kind of power. You enabled David’s pen to scribe beautiful and magnificent praise that has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to worship you and then here I am. I cannot describe you are wonderfully as David did. How can my faulty tongue speak the praise you deserve? We do not speak as we ought, pray as we ought, or worship as we ought because we are all stained. You command us worship you command me to bring you public praise, even though I do not have the Psalmist’s gifts. May you find something in my prayer, our prayer, to be pleased with. May our obedience in this great task be clothed with all humility. Cause our tongues to generously and boldly praise you inside your church building and in all public places just like your servant David. Cause us to think of your might, your kindness, gentleness, and mercy so often and to be so moved that we cannot but help declare who you are moment by moment and model those same attributes, best as we can to a world who needs you.
We are not worthy to be called your children, yet you set your gaze on us and determined love us. Cause us to understand deep things about your glory. Cause us to be humbled so that we may live moment by moment only with the power of the Spirit that strengthens our innermost parts. Fill us with such a love and joy that we will not want nor cannot do anything but live to bring you sweet-smelling praise. May you find glory in our worship and praise this morning. Amen.
This morning’s message is the final part of an attempt to answer a question that continued coming to my mind through my study in Acts. “How can we be led by and live by the Holy Spirit unless we really know who he is?” We have touched on two ministries so far: the Spirit empowers and the Spirit transforms. This morning, I intend to cover the final two ministries which are at the same time separate and overlapping. I hope as we consider these works that you will be moved as I have been, in amazement at God’s wisdom and in thankfulness for the Spirit God sent to minister to us.
The Holy Spirit reveals the deep things of God.
The Holy Spirit Reveals
The Holy Spirit Reveals
This ministry is essential in the salvation process and certainly essential for all Christian growth. His revealing work is closely tied to his transforming and empowering works. We know from...
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Without the Holy Spirit’s revelations through men of God in ages past, we would have little knowledge who God is or what He is like. We are grateful for and deeply indebted to Him for this ministry. Without God’s written Word we would not be exposed to it’s wonderful light. Without it, He would not be able to empower, transform, or unify us. I am only able to highlight two aspects of The Spirit’s ministry of revealing this morning. The first and most important aspect is located in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and also in 2 Peter 1:21...
He revealed Scripture. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Pet 1:21)
2 Peter 1:21 (ESV)
holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The prophets had been faithfully speaking and recording God’s words from the beginning of time because of the Holy Spirit. Once the Spirit had revealed, through scripture, everything that God intended, the gift of prophecy faded away. There is no evidence outside the written works contained in the Bible of any other revelations or prophecies that line up with what we know to be inerrantly God’s word. Prophecy has faded away, but had He not revealed Scripture, how then should we live? What standard would we have to live for? What path would we choose to take us to the goal- bringing God glory in all things? Scripture is the all-powerful tool which God chose. He uses that tool to continually reveal who He is, what He has done, and who we should be.
We know from Heb 4:12 that the revealed words are extremely powerful...
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
If Scripture had not been revealed, sin would not have been exposed. This was even true in the OT times. Scripture was revealed to Moses and the judges, and other prophets. Sin was exposed, purification based on faith was revealed, and holy living was instituted all because 1. God spoke directly to prophets or 2. the Holy Spirit revealed God’s words. The Holy Spirit revealed Scripture in time past and since time past, and today, and for future generations, the Spirit will use that Word to expose and reveal sin. Where the law did not exist sin did not exist. The law, the written Word of God continually shines light continually exposing sin. The Holy Spirit reveals sin.
He reveals sin. (1 Jn 3:20, Jn 3:20)
This work proves that the Spirit is God, it is mighty and incredible that He does such powerful things.
20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
The Spirit resides in our heart which is the center of all our thoughts and emotions. The Holy Spirit is God and is all knowing and all powerful just as God the Father. He knows everything about us and nothing, not even something in the deepest, darkest parts of our being is hidden from Him. There is nothing the Spirit does not know.
When I think of the heart, I sometimes visualize the Mariana trench.
+ The Mariana trench is located in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan and east of the Philippines. It exists where two major tectonic plates meet.
+ It is the deepest oceanic trench on earth with the deepest known part being 6.825 miles.
+ If Mount Everest were sunk in the trench, it’s peak could still be covered by water about 1.2 miles deep.
+ Light only minimally penetrates the ocean below a quarter mile, and no light penetrates below 6 tenths of a mile. If my math is correct, only 4 tenths of the Mariana trench is exposed by light and even most of that 4 tenths is very dark.
In this morning’s scripture reading, David stated, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I go to flee from your presence?” That chapter goes on to elaborate the point that hiding from God is impossible.
Even if I was to hide in the Mariana trench, God would be there and see everything just as clearly as He does in the day. There is nowhere we can go to hide from God and His Spirit.
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Only 4 manned expeditions and three unmanned expeditions have ever reached what is believed to be the bottom of the Mariana trench. Even after 6000 years of existence, humans still don’t know, and never will know what is contained in the deepest parts of the earth nor in the deepest parts of the human heart. During those seven expeditions in the trench, life was discovered, but that life barely scratches the surface of what those depths may contain. We will never know all the species that reside there because it is scientifically impossible to discover everything in such a huge area of water and in such deep waters.
We don’t know what the darkness contains, but guess what!?!? we don’t even know what the light contains.
In just 2020 alone, it is estimated that 503 new species were discovered in fully lit parts of the earth. Not only were hundreds of new species discovered, but several species which were thought to be distinct were rediscovered. Again, all these wonders were hidden in the light. If after 6000 years of existence we still haven’t even discovered what the light contains, how in the world can we even hope to discover what hides in the darkness? We haven’t even come close to mastering living in the light. The Spirit revealed light, He enables us to tolerate the light, and without the Spirit we would not know the marvels contained in God’s glorious light. Much will remain a mystery until we see Him face to face.
Jeremiah understood these truths. He probably didn’t know of the existence of the Mariana trench, but his words certainly describe it...
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
The depths of the heart only breed evil continually. The heart cannot produce anything good. All humanity is living “comfortably” in the deep depths of sin in a hopelessly lost state. Please turn to Jn 3:20. I used this verse last week and it certainly is applicable today...
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
The wickedness that the depths of the heart contain, like the Mariana Trench will never be completely known nor discovered by humanity. This is why over 23,000 pages have been written containing federal criminal law. The depths continue to produce all kind of wickedness in ever increasing abundance. More wickedness is being produced, more species of wickedness are being discovered daily, and even in our own Christian hearts. The depth of wickedness is not just a metaphor or a story pastors use to try to scare people into Heaven. The deep wickedness found in our hearts is truth: this is why we so desperately need a relationship with the Creator who know and reveals all things.
All people, saved and unsaved cannot tolerate the light. We are like deep sea creatures in the Mariana Trench which don’t even have eyes. They don’t need eyes. They don’t need to see in the dark and they are perfectly content to live in that complete darkness. They are blissfully unaware of the barren ugliness of the world at 6.825 miles deep. The creatures certainly don’t want to know the perils lurking in those depths. If deep sea creatures were brought to the top half mile of the ocean, the light would be bright, painful, intolerable and those deep sea creatures would immediately try to escape the light by diving back to the comfort of the dark. David’s question, “Where can I go from your Spirit?” speaks that God’s all knowing eye is uncomfortable and our sin nature craves escape into those comfortable depths. Jeremiah stated...
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
The Holy Spirit fully knows what the heart contains 6.825 miles below skin level. He searches those depths and will repay us for the evil that abounds in those depths. Do we want to reap the the rewards of evil deeds? God forbid! Even though we crave escape from His knowledge of us, the Spirit holds us in the light because it is good for us. At the same time the Spirit reveals sin he also reveals that God’s love is far deeper than the deepest part of our wicked heart. The Spirit reveals the....
He reveals the deep, deep love of God. (Eph 3:14-19)
Just as we do not know the depths of our sin, we also do not know the depths of God’s love. This is why the Spirit’s ministry is so important. Please turn to...
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Spirit who dwells in our hearts continually causes us to know that in spite of all the abominations lurking in the depths of our hearts, God still loves us! (Emphasis) Did you catch that? God still loves us! We know the height of Everest because we can measure it. We know, for the most part, the width, length, height, and depth of the Mariana trench because we can measure it. What is the width, length, height, and depth of God’s love? It far surpasses anything we can measure, yet the Spirit works to cause us to understand a part of God’s love. We know His love can never be matched in strength or power.
Paul wrote in verse 14, “For this reason I bow my knees before the father.” Sometimes we willingly bend our knees in a contrite and humble response to the Spirit’s teaching. At other times, the Spirit causes us to understand truths about God’s love that are so amazing that it feels like a kick behind the kneecaps. Remember in grade school that bully who walked up next to you and knocked your knees out from under you? Sometimes that is the sensation that Paul may also have been writing about. God’s love is too vast, too wonderful, and too brilliant so we can do nothing but bow in worship.
Paul also wrote in verse 19 that the Spirit causes us, “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with ALL the fullness of God.” The Spirit prevents that great wickedness from surfacing in our thoughts or actions and He instead puts new thoughts and deeds in their place. The old are passing away, the new has come. The Spirit desires and works to the goal that we, God’s children, will be completely filled by only God alone. and “soli deo gloria,” for God’s glory alone.
The Spirit empowers us to comprehend Biblical truth. He uses that truth transforming us to bear every good and perfect fruit and finally, the Spirit’s fruit unifies God and Man and man to man. Let’s consider these two aspects. The Holy Spirit unifies.
The Holy Spirit Unifies
The Holy Spirit Unifies
God and man
At creation, and up to the original sin, God walked and talked in the Garden regularly with Adam until Adam and Eve’s sin broke that fellowship. God’s perfect law of liberty had been broken once and for all time. Humanity was no longer perfect as God intended, instead everything become not only tainted by sin, but all consumed by sin. 1 Jn 3:4 informs us that...
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
Sin means “to miss the mark” “to fall short” and “eternal separation from God.” Since that point all humanity has been in a constant state of rebellion against God. Fellowship was broken because of that rebellion and will continue to remain broken unless the Spirit works on a person to begin the restoration process through salvation. All the ministries of the Spirit culminate at this one point. All His ministries work to accomplish one end. He exposes sin, causes faith, and replaces our evil, lawless deeds with deeds that glorify God. His whole ministry is about uniting fallen man with the pure and Holy God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
God the Father, Son, and Spirit all work together to reconcile man to God but even after salvation that relationship remains strained at best...
Romans 7:25 (ESV)
...I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
We shouldn’t want to suffer God’s wrath as His enemies, but if we are going to live as friends, like God and Adam, we need help. The only way peace that passes understanding is even possible is through the unifying ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t want us to fall victims to God’s wrath so he prays for believers (Rom 8:26-27) Please locate...
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
“We do not pray as we ought” means a couple of things.
First, The Spirit prays perfectly because we cannot.
We live in weak earthen vessels where sin significantly interferes with our prayers. We do not understand how to pray effectively because of our imperfections, even when we are living in obedience to God, we still don’t pray as we ought. We cannot pray perfectly because we are not yet perfect...
Our own prayers are not good enough for God. They are not like the perfect, spotless sacrifices commanded in the OT. Our prayers are not sweet-smelling sacrifices because they contain much error, yet we are commanded to pray. If our own prayers are ineffective and imperfect, how could a prayer save our souls from hell? A prayer can’t save us because even they are are flawed according to this verse. The Holy-Spirit prays for us because sin incapacitates all worship including prayer and yet He somehow enables our worship to please God. Amazing!
Verse 26 contains a phrase, “the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” This does not mean the Holy Spirit unscrambles our prayers. He is not making sense of our ramblings, instead this phrase means we do not pray according to God’s will, so the Spirit prays according to God’s will for us. This is how I believe the Spirit prays for us…
Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV)
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, (HOLY) be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
We do not know nor ever can know the mind of God. We can never know what God wills to accomplish through situations, save one truth. God always moves us to worship and proclaim God as “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The Spirit IS God. He perfectly knows the will of God, and so the Spirit always prays perfectly according to that will.
I believe the Spirit always prays for our spiritual growth and nothing besides that. Our only true need is 1.) to know God deeply and 2.) to be deeply conformed to God’s image. Does the Spirit pray for our food, clothing, shelter? Does he pray for the sick or dying? Does he pray for safety? I don’t think He does and I don’t think we ever need to pray for these things. The Spirit only prays for such things and circumstances that will 1.) convict us of sin and 2.) move us to be more righteous. Perfect prayer is always focused on God’s will and glory. Perfect prayer always oozes faith and thanksgiving. The Spirit prays perfectly, so how should we pray more perfectly? I believe Scripture clearly teaches us to simply trust that God will provide.
We find these words in Matthew...
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
“More valuable than many many sparrows.” The sparrows don’t pray for food and shelter, yet God automatically provides for their needs.
Our only need is obey God completely and to enjoy Him forever. A key element in the Spirit’s prayer, if not the only element in His prayers is that God continue to conform us to His image. When God does this, he imparts the necessary grace so we will have strength to stand in these evil days. The Spirit prays for us just as Christ himself prayed for Peter.... that we will not fall away. If it were not for the Spirit’s prayers for our spiritual maturity, we would not be in church today nor any other day. His intercession has up to this point prevented us from falling away. God’s grace and the Spirit’s intercessions will enable us to publicly and boldly declare God’s glory when the evil days of persecution befall us.
Second, “pray as you ought” means that we do not “pray without ceasing.”
The Spirit prays without ceasing because we fail. (Rom 8:26-27)
Again, read...
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We fail to continually pray, so the Spirit has to do this for us. The Spirit who is in us is continually shepherding us into a deeper relationship with God through His work of prayer. God designed prayer, so God the Spirit knows how to perfectly pray. This is where God’s omnipresence kind of kicks my knees out from under me. One poll estimated there could be as many as 2.382 billion Christians in the world. The Holy Spirit prays for every single one of those 2.382 billion people at the same point in time, every moment in time, and for everything every single one of those people needs to become more like God. Prayer has unlimited bandwidth!
I love using the internet for all kinds of things, but my internet service provider has a big problem. It is called bandwidth. I am only paying for a bandwidth of about 200mbps, but at times I could really use a bandwidth of 25GBPS. I am only paying for a tiny bit of data flow that I would really like to have. You may be thinking, “I don’t really understand tech,” so let’s think of communication like water. We are told to “pray without ceasing” but we don’t pray with that much flow. When we pray, it is like we barely turn on a faucet in our homes so only a drip comes out once in a while. That is how we pray and why God gave us instructions for prayer.
We should be praying in such a way that our prayer looks like this: (faucet fully on). Perhaps this is what the prayers of an effectual, fervent person looks like.
By contrast, this isn’t even perfect prayer. I think when the Spirit prays for us that the Spirit’s perfect prayers for one Christian looks more like this (firehose).
Now multiply that volume by 2.382 billion people and we are talking about such a volume of water that we would have another worldwide flood on our hands! We should literally be drenching God with prayer every moment of every day.
One person said, “Prayer is not for the work, prayer IS THE WORK.” Prayer is the most important thing we can do with our lives and so the Spirit enables us to pray and He prays for us when we fail to obey in this area. Isn’t God wonderful who would provide such an ally for us? Isn’t Christ blessed for leaving earth so the Spirit could come in His place? The trinity works together to complete God’s perfect, holy, perfect will in our lives.
What shall we do?
What shall we do?
We have a lot to learn about the depths of sin. We have a lot to learn about the depths of God’s great love, and we certainly have a lot to learn about prayer. As we close in the final song, please think about what the Spirit is causing you to learn this morning, and commit to remembering and growing in that area this week.
My English teachers said I could never make an outline that had only one point below it, and so this morning’s outline feels odd and looks odd to me. Lord willing, I plan to send other thoughts your way via the text chain and Faithlife this week so we can continue learning how the Spirit unifies and I trust you will take time to study those Scriptures this week.