Sermon Tone Analysis

Hello

Hey Good Morning Church.

How’s everybody doing today?

Good, good.

Less than a week until Christmas.

Yeaya.

Can I get some whoops whoops or something.

Let’s get a little bit excited, right!

I love it.

So good.

Before we jump in, let’s pray.

(prayer)

Amen

Alright.

Here we are, one week from Christmas and three weeks into our “with” series.

Today in the third week, we are going to be talking about the Holy Spirit.

Now before we jump in deep on the Holy Spirit, I want to spend a moment putting up the frame for today's picture.

Although we’re going to talk about the Holy Spirit, of which honestly we could do a million teachings on and still have more to say, the goal of this sermon series is going to play the role of framing this look at the Holy Spirit for us.

And I’m thankful for that because it’s going to help us focus in and hopefully get a chance to walk away with a new and grown understanding and relationship with the Holy Spirit.

So that frame, the “with” series.

A good place to start for this idea of us being “with” God would be Matthew 1:23.

This word Immanuel is being spoken about Jesus.

He, as we see here, was born of a virgin mother, Mary, and would go on to be the Savior of the world.

And as we’ve been seeing these last few weeks and will continue in today, Jesus coming and being on the earth for 30 some years before he ascended to Heaven was only the beginning of this idea of “with”.

Scripture doesn’t say that “God was with us” and then he went to heaven and now God is no longer “with” us.

No, that whole “with” part continued, after Jesus goes to heaven, God remained with us.

This presence of God, the ways in which we experience how He is “with” us in this life is experienced in the promise, the church, and as we’ll see today, the Holy Spirit.

So “who is the Holy Spirit?” That’s a great question.

And, well, I’m going to tell you upfront, it would be crazy talk for me to say I can fully explain the Holy Spirit, even if I had all day.

The Holy Spirit is mysterious, secret, otherworldly and indescribable by human words.

BUT, that doesn’t mean that God, through the Bible, hasn’t revealed to us much about the Holy Spirit.

That’s where we are going to start today, exploring some of the foundational truths the Bible tells us.

The Holy Spirit, or as often referred to in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God, is the third person of the Trinity.

That means, just as Jesus and God are one, so is the Holy Spirit a part of that perfect union.

That means that the Holy Spirit is God, just the same way that God is God and Jesus is God…the Holy Spirit is God.

Perfect, pure, eternal, all knowing, all powerful, the creator of all things, fully divine, God.

The Holy Spirit, is often called; advocate, comforter, helper, among other names, and shows up in a lot of different places throughout scripture.

From Genesis to Revelation.

Today, we are going to press into how scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is real, inside of every believer and looking to give you the most full and complete relationship with God that we could ever imagine.

Today, we will look into how the Holy Spirit is part of the great news that God is “with” us.

So where to start with this.

We know that the Spirit is discussed throughout the Bible.

We see in the Old Testament in Genesis that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters during the creation of the earth.

In the Book of Joel, God tells us that on the Day of the Lord He will pour out His Spirit on all people.

Even in the Christmas story, we actually see that Jesus is borne of the Spirit through Mary.

Not many chapters later, we see that same Spirit descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove at the time of His baptism.

The Spirit is seen with Jesus and leading him many times through the Gospels.

Yet, despite the Spirit being in Jesus and Jesus teaching about the Spirit throughout the Gospel stories, the idea of the Spirit being in believers and in relationship with them hasn’t taken place yet.

This is explained in John when we read

In short, the Holy Spirit in believers didn’t come until after Jesus’ death, resurrection and going up into heaven.

That means, the disciples were experiencing Jesus with them in the flesh, but they were not experiencing Jesus through the Holy Spirit, since during the time of Jesus was not yet part of that “with” statement.

Fast forward to the Last Supper.

Jesus and His disciples are eating the day before He is arrested and led to be crucified.

These are Jesus and His disciples last moments together before His death.

Jesus brings up the Holy Spirit again but tells them something mind blowing.

The reason I’m setting this scene up with the Spirit throughout the Gospels is because it’s important to note two things

The Holy Spirit was present and working prior to and throughout the life of Jesus .

Spirit’s been around for forever.

As we just saw in Scripture, the Spirit had not yet been given to the church, and more specifically, the disciples.

This means that the Disciples knew about the Spirit, but more so as the Spirit of God seen in the Old Testament, and they were likely being intellectually challenged by some of the new ways that Jesus was talking about it.

But, in reality, they had yet to experience the Spirit of God inside them.

And before that happens, Jesus tells them he is leaving.

But He tells them, it’s for their good.

Let’s pause here and think about this.

The disciples, who have been hanging out with Jesus, God in the flesh, for years.

They just got told by Jesus, it is for you benefit that I am going , because if I don’t go away the Counselor, Holy Spirit, will not come to you.

This is possibly one of the biggest “with” statements that we hear in the Bible.

Think about this.

Our lives our here on earth.

We all know about earth.

I mean, just the last two years, we’ve got covid, racial injustice, insane political division and unrest, tik tok, shootings at schools and other public places… and that’s just the stuff that we see on the news and social media.

I’m sure you’re personal list of crazy tough things going on in your life is just as long.

For us, it’s easy to imagine something being better than this.

If Jesus tells us he is sending a Spirit and it’s going to be good, we’re like, “yup”

But think about the apostles.

Things were crazy back then as well.

I mean, people were literally plotting to kill their teacher Jesus.

But they had Jesus, in the flesh, sitting at the table with them.

While we’re sitting here thinking, “I hope it gets better, I hope Jesus comes near”, they’re probably over here thinking “how could anything be better than Jesus at our side, He can’t get any nearer”

… Yet Jesus says, “it will be better for you if I go”

Guys, this right here is some straight up razzle dazzle big time stuff.

This Counselor is so good for us, that it is better that Jesus leaves earth so His followers can receive it.

This Holy Spirit is God “with” us, and this “with” is better than Jesus with the disciples in the flesh.

It feels crazy, but we have to realize, God doesn’t want to just hang out with us.

He doesn’t want to be a friend that goes home at the end of the night.

He doesn’t want our relationship to be limited by the physical laws of this world.

Guys, God is Spirit.

He is Supernatural.

And He wants a relationship that connects with the supernatural part of who we are.

God doesn’t just want to hang with us, He wants to dwell IN US.

As a part of who we are.

To not be limited to the hearing of our ears of the speaking of our lips.

No, He wants a relationship with our soul.

So much so that he wants to connect WITH YOUR SOUL.

He wants to be a part of the truest you.

The part of you that continues on into heaven.

Not the flesh that is of this sinful world.

And not only does He want to just dwell in us, Jesus says

He wants to help us.

He wants to work in us.