Do Not Quench the Spirit
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· 11 viewsSeptember 4, 2022 Morning Worship
Notes
Transcript
Pre-Introduction
Pre-Introduction
Good morning and welcome!
This morning if you would like to follow along in your Bible, I am going start out in Luke 12, verses 1-12.
And I want to go ahead and read through the passage before we get into it, so if you are able I’d invite you to stand for the reading of God’s Word.
Again, we are in Luke 12, starting in verse 1 . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
>PRAY WITH ME<
Introduction
Introduction
Now, the passage I read from is very intriguing and interesting to look at.
And how I came to this passage was different than many other times when the Lord gives me a passage or message to preach.
As part of my daily routine, I like to go out to the Fort and sit toward the back for a little while, where I can be totally disconnected from technology and anything else and spend some time in prayer.
And I was out there Monday, and up until that point, God had not given me anything for today.
So, I just started praying and asking God “what do you want me to preach this Sunday?”
And all I heard in return was “Luke 12.”
And at the time I had no idea what the content of Luke 12 even was.
I, unfortunately, am not like some of the much smarter preachers and scholars who have a map of Scripture in their head.
I have to study, and study, and study—and still sometimes do not get it.
So, I jotted it down on a sticky note and looked it up when I got home.
So, that’s how we got to where we are this morning.
And I have prayed and prayed that this message is received in the way that God wants it to be received.
And hopefully that after a decade of pastoring here that you know that the messages I give from up here are given from a place of love and obedience to God.
And obedience to God is my first and foremost priority here.
So, I want to sort of start with a background of what is going on around this passage and then get into the meat of it itself.
And to be honest, I really don’t know how much this message is going to be a “teaching” message and how much will end up being a “preaching” message.
I always set out to “teach,” but sometimes you got to do a little preaching in there as well.
So, in order to get the entire full picture and context you have to look at Luke 11 and what is going on in Jesus’ life and ministry at the time.
And what surprised me when I started looking at Luke 11 was that over the course of the last several weeks, a lot of the things that are talked about are things that actually came out one way or another in other sermons.
So, I think in some ways we were dancing all around the subject here but never zeroing in on the target itself.
But who knows if you watch for the enemy long enough—he will show his cards.
He will reveal what he’s up to.
Which I believe he has done.
And now that he’s shown his hand, We know how to fight against him.
And all of this is beginning to come to light in Luke 11.
And don’t worry, for the sake of time, I’m not going to go back and read Luke 11.
I’m going to summarize it and you can go back and read it on your own—which you should be doing anyway.
Rightly divide the word of truth!
Which means READ, STUDY, AND UNDERSTAND God’s Word so you know for yourself what you are being told is the truth.
Never, rely on someone else to divide the word of truth for you—no matter how much you like them.
YOU have to divide the word of truth FOR YOURSELF.
Anyway, when you look at Luke 11 what you will find the first thing Jesus does is teach his disciples how to pray—how to CONNECT with God.
Then Jesus teaches them about PERSISTENTLY and CONTINUALLY seeking God and seeking God’s face and seeking MORE and MORE of God in their lives.
And then, Jesus has the audacity to tell them that God will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask. I will read that verse . . .
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Jesus heals a demon possessed man and then the trouble starts.
The first thing they do is accuse Jesus of driving out demons in the name of Satan, to which Jesus rebukes them.
Then the same ones who accused him of doing in everything in Satan’s name basically asks him to perform miracles to “prove Himself.”
To which Jesus tells them the only sign they are going to get is the sign of Jonah—the sign of God’s judgement.
To which they don’t like but in an attempt to really trap Jesus one of the Pharisees invites Jesus to dinner.
He goes, but he doesn’t wash himself in the ceremonial way—the TRADITIONAL WAY, the RELIGIOUS WAY.
The Leaven of the Pharisees
The Leaven of the Pharisees
And it is here, where Luke 12 picks up.
And before we get into the passage I want us to understand how the enemy has shown his hand.
Because if you notice when Jesus starts talking about TRUE and CONTINUAL connection with God, which ONLY COMES through the Holy Spirit, that is when trouble starts.
Because as long as the people were living under RELIGIOUS TRADITION, then enemy didn’t have anything to worry about.
No one was going to get saved under religious tradition.
No one’s lives were going to be transformed under religious tradition.
No one was going to be delivered—or miracles performed under religious tradition.
And it is NO DIFFERENT today.
Religion and religious tradition, HAS NEVER SAVED ONE SOUL.
It has NEVER PERFORMED ONE MIRACLE.
It has NEVER DELIVERED ANYONE FROM ANY FORM OF BONDAGE.
All it has done is lull the Church to sleep, made the Church complacent, and masked itself as a “form of Godliness” as Paul puts it.
As a matter of fact, let’s look at what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3 . . .
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Now, stopping right there really quickly, notice Paul is talking about a spirit that comes on people in the last days.
It is a spirit of pride fullness and haughtiness.
It is a spirit that says, “things have to be done my way or the highway.”
It is an unforgiving and inflexible spirit.
And it derives from a place of CONVICTION by the Holy Spirit.
It derives from a place of COMFORT and COMPLACENCY.
It derives from a place of RELIGION and TRADITION.
And it takes on A FORM OF GODLINESS, but it is a deceiver and only a form.
Paul says get away from it.
He also says in verse 7 that it is . . . .
always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And the enemy uses this to manipulate good, well-meaning people.
And it manifests as as COMPLETE UNWILLINGNESS TO ADAPT OR CHANGE.
A complete INFLEXIBILITY TO OTHERS.
And it is extremely dangerous, which is what Luke 12 gets into.
So, I want to start out with the first three verses and then break it down from there.
Again, starting in verse 1, Luke records . . .
In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Now, just to get the setting of what is going on, we have this incident at the Pharisee’s house and this crowd begins to form around Jesus and his disciples.
And the crowd is there because they want to hear all the drama.
They want to hear what Jesus is going to say or do next.
The crowd was not really concerned so much about any sound and life-altering teaching that Jesus was going to be do.
They were just there for the show.
And the Pharisees were there to show their power, their authority, to exercise their religion, their clout if you will as the respected religious community.
And Jesus did not want to get his disciples caught up in any of this.
Jesus wanted to make sure that his disciples—and when I say disciples, I am talking about those who have settled in their hearts that they are following Jesus and ONLY Jesus.
This included His 12 and some others that were there with them.
And the Bible said the crowd was huge.
And it’s kind of like the old saying about how a church should think—we should rather choose a few dedicated to following Jesus over a house of hypocrites.
That is really what Jesus is wanting to drive home.
And to get a complete picture I want to read the same verses, this time out of The Message translation . . .
By this time the crowd, unwieldy and stepping on each other’s toes, numbered into the thousands. But Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness.
So, Jesus is calling them out right there.
When you start mixing this thing we are calling religion with what I am calling chasing Jesus, it doesn’t work.
It is just like trying to make unleavened bread.
If just a little yeast is introduced, what happens?
It’s ruined and the whole thing gets thrown out.
For context, look at what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5 . . .
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
And Paul is talking here about their boasting in how religious they are even though their is sin going on right under their noses.
So he says . . .
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
He is saying sacrifice that old self and put on the new person that you became in Christ.
Let the Holy Spirit purge you of anything that is preventing you from receiving the fullness of God.
Now back to Luke 12, verse 12, Jesus goes on . . .
You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known.
You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
And let’s let that rest for just a second and sink in.
If we are hiding behind religion, if we are hiding behind tradition, all that is, is a religious mask.
Sooner or later it will crumble away and you are left with nothing.
Nothing because the Holy Spirit is not there.
Nothing because your faith has been in the authority and religion of man and not the power, the authority, and the anointing of God.
And all the things that you say under your breath, behind closed doors, where you think no one sees or hears.
Well, God sees it and God knows it.
And I may never hear it but if it it is not of God, then you will have to deal with Him.
Remember the words of Paul . . .
But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.
Your Worth to God
Your Worth to God
And it is important to understand these first three verses because Jesus is going to build on that in the rest of this passage.
And the first thing He is going to talk about is who has true authority and who we should really fear. Jesus says . . .
“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
And again, I think it is important to understand the context.
Yes, in Jesus’ day the religious elite—the Pharisees, had the authority to have people who wasn’t on the same page as them thrown into prison and even killed because they would claim all sorts of things to the Roman government and also the Romans didn’t really care what they did so long as they kept order and didn’t cause them trouble.
So there was a real threat of death in those days.
And Jesus is telling them don’t be afraid of that because even that is only a temporary condition.
However, NOT being true to God results in something far worse than someone who can kill your body.
God can cast your very soul into Hell, which is an eternal condition.
So, if you are going to have fear—FEAR GOD and NOT MAN!
And Jesus goes on to remind them of their worth to God and that God can and will take care of them.
Now, that is the literal, in the moment application, but there is also an application of this for us as well.
And for that, I want to read these verses in The Message translation again . . .
“I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being.
Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.
“What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one.
And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
Folks, do not be intimidated into silence.
The Moody Bible Commentary put it this way “Pressure often causes people to ‘go along to get along.’”
In other words, pressure and bullying often cause people to just give in and go along with everyone else, just for the sake of getting along.
If the disciples would have done that, where would we have been today?
If Martin Luther, instead of nailing his complaints about the hypocrisy of the Church to the church door, would have just kept silent, we wouldn’t even have denominations to fight about.
DO NOT COMPROMISE your walk with God for the sake of making people happy.
But MAKE SURE YOU ARE FOLLOWING GOD AND NOT YOUR OWN SELFISH AMBITION.
And really the only way sometimes you can tell the difference is when the Holy Spirit is speaking it INTO YOU.
Grieving the Holy Spirit
Grieving the Holy Spirit
Which brings us to the last part of this passage.
And I know it’s been a long message but just hang with me for a few more minutes, because this part is vital.
In verses 8 and 9 Jesus tells them this . . .
“Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
Now, what does confessing or denying Jesus have to do with the Holy Spirit?
Everything.
Because confessing Jesus is more than just words.
It is more than just a statement we make.
It is more than just some head knowledge we may have.
Confessing Jesus is an active acknowledgement by every aspect of how we live our lives that He IS God and He IS the Son of God.
That He IS Savior AND Lord.
And the Holy Spirit must be present in order to do this.
And if YOUR LIFE is not confessing Jesus, it is DENYING Jesus.
And to DENY the Son, you also DENY the Father AND the Holy Spirit.
Which is precisely why these two verses are included in this discussion about blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
So Jesus tells them . . .
“And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
And there is a lot of confusion around what it means to “blaspheme the Holy Spirit.”
All sorts of commentary and discussion about the subject.
But at the root of it, it is really an attack on God by “taking aim a the Holy Spirit,” as The Message translation puts it.
And how do we take aim at the Spirit?
Things like rejecting the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
Things like mocking those who are being moved by the Spirit in worship.
Things like failing to respect how others worship God, in the Spirit.
In 1 Thessalonians Paul says . . .
Do not quench the Spirit.
So, anything you do that quenches the move of the Holy Spirit is DANGEROUS, because it is hovering close to blaspheming the Spirit.
And there are lots of things about the Holy Spirit that we do not understand, but one thing I understand completely is that if it talks about it in the Word of God, then however the Spirit moved then He can move today.
And we had better be careful what we say and what we do when it comes to the Holy Spirit.
Last passage.
1 Corinthians 12 . . .
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
The Church is all ONE in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
And we had better get used to it before it’s too late.
So, I’m done.
>>ANNOUNCE THE GATHERING PLACE—BOARD STAY<<
Pray with me.
