Living in the Glory of God the Holy Spirit

Introduction  https://youtu.be/1eZERd4_d3E

This is our final sermon in the 3-part series of “Living in the Glory of God”, and my final sermon as the locum priest in charge of St Mark’s Bassendean. At the conclusion of last week’s teaching on “Living in the glory of the Son” I exhorted us to understand that as Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to be born of the virgin Mary[1] (Matt 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35), teach with power and authority (Matt 12:18; Luke 4:18ff), cast out demons and do mighty works (Matt 12:28), to suffer under Pontius Pilate (Heb 9:14) and to be raised from the dead (Rom 1:4; 8:11) we need the same presence and power as he did[2]. If “the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10)[3], the Spirit is constantly testifying to the Church that the plan of God is something we are called to share in, to the greatest possible degree. This is the call of our infinitely loving Father[4]. Being able to know the intimate character of God as “Abba! Father!” (Mark 14:36; John17:3; Gal 4:6) depends upon us being filled with the Holy Spirit sent “from heaven” (1 Pet 1:12) [through Jesus (John 15:26),] for this eternal purpose. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”  (Rom 8:15-17).

Confusion over Identity

As there is confusion amongst Christians over the identity of God as our Father, and a tendency to downgrade the complete humanity of his Son, there is equal confusion about the identity of the Spirit and his workings. To my lasting regret, I publicly fell out badly some decades ago with a godly brother over whether the Holy Spirt still works through the gift of prophecy today[5]. Today I can see that underneath our argument about spiritual gifts were the more profound issues of my own selfish ambition[6] plus our spiritual inability to discern[7] that we were being deceived by evil “spirits”[8]. In those days I was far less Christ/cross-centred than I am today[9]. Only by being “filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) can we become clear on his identity and actions.

We most fully appreciate the character of the Spirit through understanding his work/ministry in unfolding the loving unity of the Father and the Son in their passion to save a lost world. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as one who was “called alongside to help”[10] him in his times of need[11].  In John 14:16-17 he explains, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate/ Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even ethe Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” Here Christ calls the Spirit “another” Helper because he himself is the first Advocate/Helper send from heaven by the Father to bring us to himself[12].

To help us understand the intimacy between the Spirit and Jesus, theologians go so far as to say that the Spirit is “another Jesus” or Christ’s alter ego, his “alternative self”. All that Jesus does and thinks the Spirit does and thinks[13][14]. All the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace etc.), are fruit we see in the earthly life of Jesus[15]. Sometimes people say, “I wish I could have been alive when Jesus was present….healing and teaching.” But Christ taught us, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate/Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7). This enabled Christ to prophesy, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12). When Jesus returned to the Father in heaven he did so as a glorified human being with authority to send to us the one who had always empowered him (Acts 2:33). In John 17 Christ testifies, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39). The outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is the Climax of the life of Christ until he Returns to bring the created world to its consummation in himself. As a young Christian I came home from church[16] desperately hungry for God one Sunday night determined to get down by my bed praying on my knees (not my normal practice) and call out to the Lord until he poured out on me without measure (John 3:34; Isa 44:3) his Spirit so that like the first disciples I might be able to speak in other tongues (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6; 1 Cor 12:10)[17]. Unforgettably the Lord did pour out his Spirit and I did speak in tongues as waves of love and joy swept over me until the early hours of the morning, with many tears of praise. Unfortunately I did not appreciate at the time that the overwhelming joy, peace, love and power of that encounter with God’s Spirit was a real share in the glorified love, joy, peace and so on of the exalted humanity of Jesus.

Jesus promised, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children/grand great-grand children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11) How much more will the Lord of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:3; 2 Cor 3:18) share with us, not a facsimile, a likeness or copy of Jesus’ mind, will, emotions, presence and power etc, but an actual share/participation/communication in his own glorified human joy[18] peace[19] love[20] and power[21].

This is true too of the gifts of the Spirit[22]. What we call “charismatic” gifts, supernatural “wisdom…knowledge…faith…healings…miracles…prophecy…discernment of  spirits…various kinds of tongues…the interpretation of tongues….according to the Spirit’s will.” (1 Cor 12:8-11) are not weird[23] cultic realities but tangible packets of the love of God poured out by our Father[24] from heaven upon the Body of Christ to glorify the name of Jesus by imparting insight, health and wholeness. Since these things are part of what it means to live in the glory of God the Holy Spirit, why are they so rarely seen or experienced today? An older friend of mine who has always been a Pentecostal Christian [amongst those who teach on these spiritual realities,] keeps saying, “We don’t see people healed like we used to”. Why not? As I was lying in bed the other day, sometime between 3 and 4.30 am, I felt the Lord gave me an answer to this question, an answer upon which the future of the Church depends.

The Spirit of the Cross

Unlike us (Ps 51:5), Jesus began his life conceived by the Holy Spirit in the power and life of God his Father[25]. He was a Spirit-filled human being all his days[26], and as a Spirit-filled man he always had a sense of completion in God as his Father and a knowledge of his own Sonship that gave him power over temptation (Matt 4:1-11; Heb 4:15). How then can scripture describe Jesus as the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). How can there be no distance between Jesus and God on the one hand and Jesus and fallen, wretched, lost sinners on the other hand[27]? The answer is that it was through “the eternal Spirit (of God)” (Heb 9:14) that Jesus breathed out this lament “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), for it was with the help of God the Spirit that his perfect humanity took into himself the bottomless pit of emptiness that has occupied every human heart since the sin of Eden. We have all driven the precious Holy Spirit[28] out of our hearts, but in love and faith (John 3:16; Heb 12:1-2) Jesus descended into the hell[29] of the bottomless pit full of dark demonic powers to struggle with the devil[30], this was a holy descent into the outer darkness of human anguish[31] , into the “gloom of utter darkness” (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 9) reserved for the worst of sinners. In limitless sacrificial love Jesus willingly[32] took into himself the emptiness of the world, an emptiness constantly drives rebellious men and women to futilely try to fill their lives with everything other than the Spirit of God, every form of addiction and destructive behaviours (Rom 1:18-32) other than God’s own all-consuming unfailing loving-kindness[33]. In hearing the pain of Jesus, we hear the Father’s anguish in the Spirit over lost men and women who refuse to come to him. Praise God, the cross is not the end of the story, the fullness of the new creation birthed in resurrection through the power of the Spirit (Rom 1:4; 8:11; 1 Tim 3:16) is now available to us in the name of Jesus (John 14:26; 16:223-24, 26).

Why not more of the Spirit and His Power?  

The Bride of Christ can only be glorified, made “holy and without blemish…before him in love” (Eph 5:27; 1:4), as bearers and imparters of his life-giving Spirit[34] (1 Cor 15:45) in the same way that Jesus himself was “glorified” (John 7:39; 12:28) and “made perfect” (Heb 2:10), through his voluntary suffering as the “grain of wheat (which) falls into the earth and dies…(in order to) to bear much fruit” (John 12:24). If we would live in the Spirit (Gal 5:25) we must be willing to become like the first church, miraculously “multiplied….as it walked in the fear[35] of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31)[36]. The limitless holiness of the Spirit is now one with Jesus eternally glorified through sacrifice[37]. For Christ’s sake, do we really desire to be a holy Church, whatever the cost?

Conclusion

The presence and power of the Spirit, for which Christ died and rose again, is held back because we ignorantly grieve him e.g., it’s great that we have a Saturday prayer meeting that we become an apostolic church, but it is shameful that so few attend it! [Since the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son (Acts 2:33)] Spirit-filled holiness is life lived in separation from all other primary concerns than those of God the Father and God the Son in their eternal covenant relationship. It is not “great faith in God” but “faith in a great God” that we need (C.S. Lewis).  The key to spiritual revival and renewal in Bassendean and beyond is a word shared from heaven by Jesus for Paul based on his own saving life experience, and for which we all qualify, ““My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor 12:9). There is no limit to the love of the Spirit for God the Father and God the Son[38]. Let me close with a story.  I have only ever been to Bali once. As I was walking along the beach at night praying, I came to a place where a powerful searchlight which was illuminating the ocean surf far out to sea. The searchlight never focusses our attention on itself, but always on “the testimony of Jesus” to the glory of God the Father.   Today let us allow the Spirit to shine the search-light of his love on all that Jesus has done for us[39]. “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Tim 1:6-7)