Pentecost 2022 - Notes

Intro: We are pretty confused about the Holy Spirit.

Goal of sermon: Teach three ways that the Holy Spirit is a gift to us.

Structure:

1. The Holy Spirit is a gift of love, because he is love himself.

2. The Holy Spirit is a gift of power, because he is power himself.

3. The Holy Spirit is a gift of vibrant life, because he is life himself.

The Holy Spirit is a gift of love, because he is love himself.

Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The Holy Spirit is first and foremost a gift of God himself.

What happens when God gives himself to us? Love is poured into our hearts, and that love is God himself, the Holy Spirit.

St. Augustine & Aquinas - Both describe God the Holy Spirit using this analogy: The Father loves the Son perfectly. The Son responds to the Father’s love with perfect love and adoration, and the Holy Spirit is breathed forth as the perfect love between the Father and the Son.

1 John 4:16 - God is love. The Holy Spirit uniquely spotlights this love in his very being and personhood.

Thus in Romans, the love that is poured into our hearts is the Holy Spirit. The love that is poured into our hearts isn’t some kind of mushy understanding of love that comes and goes whenever you happen to feel it. Rather it is the love that is the Holy Spirit himself - the love that is the perfect bond between God the Father and God the Son. The love that is poured into our hearts is God himself, who is love.

But what does the Holy Spirit do to us? He isn’t just poured into us, but he brings us into Jesus Christ. By the Holy Spirit we are united to Jesus and hidden in him - so that the love that is extended from the Father to the Son, is now yours, because you are hidden in Christ. The Holy Spirit isn’t just poured out on us, but it brings us into the perfect love of the Triune God.

Why is this so important?

Let’s talk about identity for a moment. Where is our identity created? How does your identity form? Today, most people would say that our identity is formed out a multitude of different things: from our experiences and associations or simply knowledge. How many times have you thought that if you could just change how someone thinks, you could change who they were? But that never really works, does it? Can any of us think our way into being someone?

No, our identities are formed in what Neuro-theologian Jim Wilder calls the “fast-brain.” This is the part of our brain that moves faster than our conciousness. The part of the brain that tells me who I am, and what my people do in situations like this. This is why so often we respond to situations in ways that we regret. Later we think…that’s not me. That’s not what I believe. It’s because the “fast-brain” that tells you who you are and what people like you do in situations like this, it’s outpacing your conscious brain.

Now, where is the “fast-brain” formed and developed?

Our identity is formed around love and joy bonding. The people that we have bonded with, that we have attached ourselves to, teach us what our identity is. In order to learn who we are, we have to learn whose we are.

Now this usually happens when we are very young. When my son, who is two years old, smiles at me, I can’t help but smile back. Peter can be doing the most infuriating thing, testing the seventeenth boundary, but when he looks at me with those big eyes and that big goofy smile, I can’t help but smile back at him. Why? Because we have bond of joy, and that bond of joy can be described like this: “It’s good to be me here with you.” And that is what Peter is learning about himself. Whether he knows it or not, he is learning whose he is as he is learning who he is.

In the brain science word, that is called attachment. Now isn’t that interesting? Because what does the Holy Spirit do? He attaches us like a branch to the vine. He attaches us to the Son, so that when the Father looks upon you, what does the Father say? It’s good to be me here with you. How we form our identities is a work of the Holy Spirit as He unites us to Jesus, and we find our identity in the joy of the Father and Son.

So many of us are trying to change, and we’ve think that if we just change our circumstances, that will change our identity - or if we just change our behavior, that will change our identity. But it all flows from joy and love. Who you are, because of whose you are in Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is a gift given as a gift of the perfect love of the Father and the Son, that brings us into that reality, so that we know whose we are in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is a gift of power, because he is power himself.

Acts 1:6–8 ESV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 2:1–13 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Luke can’t even explain what’s happening so he uses similes. It’s like a rush of wind, and tongues as of fire. And then all of a sudden, they start preaching incredible sermons. Such incredible sermons that we later discover that the church went from about 120 people to 3000. Why? Because the Holy Spirit does a work of speaking through the disciples and a work of hearing on behalf of the crowd and a working faith within their hearts. The Holy Spirit moves hard hearted people and draws them into faith and salvation in Jesus Christ.

We’re given an image of power. The Holy Spirit is power. This isn’t taken out of no where. In Genesis 1 we see the Holy Spirit is hovering over the waters. Now, you might be picturing something calm and serene, like a dove hovering over the sea, but no! In the ancient Israelite mind the waters were where you didn’t want to be. The waters were the seat of chaos. It was the place where the pagan God’s came out to destroy Israel. The waters were seen as chaos and disorder. And what does the Spirit do? He brings order out of the chaos of the waters. This isn’t a whispy wimpy dove, this is the Spirit of Power descending on the earth to bring order as it’s sovereign Lord. The very first image of the Spirit that we see in the Bible is Lord, who brings order out of chaos.

In the Old Testament, we see the pattern of the Spirit resting on someone to empower then for a task, and when the Spirit leaves a person, they are weakened. The Spirit is the one who is Power himself, and he brings power into the world. In Acts, that power is on display in this incredible act of evangelism - but in other places in the New Testament that power is on display in acts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control - all things that in our world we do not consider powerful, but in the Kingdom of God they are the very definition of strength.

What I want to tell you today is this: all works of ministry are empowered by the Spirit. There is no work of ministry that you can work your way up to in your own strength. There is no gym that you go work out at to become a good Christian on your own strength. All Christian works begin and end in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that is good news. Many of us feel very weak in the task that God has given us. We have said here that you’ve been appointed to live where you live for the benefit of your actual neighbors, and you may think to yourself…I can’t talk about Jesus with them…and you’re 100% right. But guess what, the Spirit that ordered the universe, can do a work that is beyond your ability. Maybe the task that God has given you is to love your spouse even when you don’t want to, even when you don’t feel like it. Yeah, the Spirit is the one who can actually work love in you. It’s a gift given by him - the first fruit of the Spirit. Maybe what you really need is patience with your children. That is something that you just can’t generate in yourself. Well the Spirit can work that in you.

The reality is that all work of Christian faithfulness begins and ends in the working of the powerful Spirit. He is the one who does this work in you. And this is a good reminder for us. As we’re asking the Lord, what work he would have this body do in the rest of this year and into the next, it begins with seeking the Spirit. That he might move in us and lead us and empower us.

Plug for night of prayer and prayer walking.

The Spirit not only gives himself as love, but he gives himself as power.

The Holy Spirit is a gift of vibrant life, because he is life himself.

Acts 2:12–15 ESV

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.

It was the way in which the disciples were preaching, that it was assumed they were intoxicated.

Why do people abuse alcohol? Because they falsely believe that it will give them a vibrant life.

Connection between Spirit and alcohol because the Spirit gives true life.

Removes fear and unhealthy inhibitions because we know who we are and whose we are.

Spirit leads to joy - and specifically, joyous proclamation of the goodness of Christ.

Do we believe that the Holy Spirit still moves and works miracles? Rome was far more pagan than Lawrenceville.

I pray that we be a church known for the joy and vibrant life that is given through the Spirit.