Introduction
During a week of prayer and fasting recently, I believe that the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that he is often in a state of grief concerning the church. This is a condition that prevents him from fulfilling his missionary task to fill the people of God with the power to disciple the nations to Christ. Unless the Spirit is released from the state of his grief over much of the contemporary church we will never see genuine spiritual revival in this or other cities. The key first step to this transformation is the simplest and most difficult of all; to never speak a word other than that of grace.
Part 1: Mission is the central Purpose of the Spirit
That the promotion of mission is the central task of the Spirit is evident throughout scripture, so I will give only a few illustrations.
When the Spirit is poured out upon Jesus at his baptism, which is his “baptism in the Spirit”, the Father speaks a word of joy from heaven: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22). God is in fact quoting from two Old Testament texts that relate to the Messianic King and Servant of the Lord bringing the salvation of the kingdom of God to the world. “You are my Son” comes from Psalm 2:7, which goes on to say, “Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:8). “In whom I am well pleased” relates to Isaiah 42:1, “Here is my servant, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” The Spirit remains on Jesus because he is the one who will baptise all the people of God in the same Spirit and for the same purpose as his own Spirit – baptism” (John 1:32 – 34). . Jesus did not receive the Spirit for the purpose of his own joy, to speak powerfully, manifest spiritual gifts or draw large crowds, as such, but to establish the Lordship of God’s kingdom over the whole earth
The reception of the Spirit relates to Jesus own expressed purpose. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:8- 19). Jesus defines the Spirit in terms of kingdom ministry: mission.
Such an understanding he transmits to the apostles. “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in my name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high….But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Luke 24:46 – 48; Acts 1:8). These passages clearly spell out that the operation of the Spirit in the church is to continue the mission of Jesus.
John understands this to be fulfilled in the following way: “Jesus said to them, ‘As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any they are retained.’” (John 20:22- 23). The Spirit is given for gospel proclamation.
Luke fills out the last words of Jesus concerning the coming of the Spirit recorded in his Gospel and Acts by recounting the repeated surges of the expansion of the kingdom of God that follow repeated outpourings of the Spirit. This begins with the foundational “Spirit – baptism” at Pentecost where the gospel of the kingdom of God in Christ is first preached (Acts 2:4,11,22 – 39). What is important to note here, in line with the argument so far, is that people “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) here the gospel on that day. Jesus has begun to disciple of all nations.
The gospel is continually promoted via such Spirit – fillings. Those praying in Acts 4:31 are filled with the Spirit and “speak the word of God boldly.” Stephen is a man filled with the Spirit and power (Acts 6:3,10); the Spirit takes Philip on his journeys (Acts 8:26,39). Saul (Paul) must be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17) in order to go to “the Gentiles” so they might turn from Satan to God (Acts 26:17- 18). It would be quite valid to translate the word “Gentiles” here as “nations”.
Many other examples could be offered from Acts and the rest of the New Testament (Acts 13:1- 3; Romans 15:18- 19; Revelation 5:6 etc.), but this should be sufficient to establish that the primary purpose of the coming of the Spirit is to effect mission.
Part 2: The Holy Spirit’s Grief in the Church
Not only is the Spirit grieved over the generally missionless state of the church, but he is deeply hurt over an attitude in the church that is preventing his outpouring to remedy this situation. This is a critical attitude of judgement. My main passage for this is Ephesians 4:29 –32, which I will give in a translation based on the Greek text.
“Do not any foul talk keep on coming out of your mouths, but only what is good for building up the needy, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. Do not keep grieving the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed for the day of liberation. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
The word for “foul” (sapros) is used in the New Testament of rotten or bad fruit and food (Matthew 12:33 – 34; 13:48; 17:17 –18; Luke 6:43). At the time it was sometimes a synonym for another term, aischros, that may be translated “dis – graceful”. The sort of talk in mind is the bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice spoken of a little later in the passage. These are absolutely prohibited because they pull down rather than build up. They are the omission of a heart that is in a graceless state towards another person in the image of God. (James makes much of this point in James 2:9.)
Since the gift of the Holy Spirit is in Paul’s reckoning the summation of all the blessings that God promised to Abraham, anything which (Galatians 3:13- 14) that is curse – like is a spirit in direct contradiction to the Spirit’s nature and disposition. The result is that the Spirit is “grieved”. I am simply not permitted by God to say a harsh or judgemental word against anyone, whether that person is the pastor or Roman Catholic or a Pentecostal or a liberal Christian or an aboriginal or a homosexual or….whoever. This does not exclude “speaking the truth in a spirit of love” (Ephesians 4:15), but it does totally bind the spirit of judgementalism.
When the Spirit is grieved (Greek lupe) he is in a state of sorrow, pain or distress. In such a condition he cannot manifest his presence and power; which is primarily the presence and power of mission.
Whilst working on this text, and particularly the issue of foul speech, I saw a picture I believe was from the Spirit himself. This image is simultaneously one of the demonic and the human. As Christians were speaking putrid words about others a stream of vomit – like filth issued out of their mouths and was used by accusing and unclean spirits (Revelation 12:10; 16:13 –14) to cover those they were addressing. This was a disgusting and repellent picture. The Holy Spirit cannot abide in such a place.
Of great interest to me was a connection between the term for the foul talk “coming out” of the mouths of believers in Ephesians 4:29 and the word for the flowing of the Spirit of life flowing out of the temple in Ezekiel 47:1 and Revelation 22:1. In Greek the word is the same in each instance, ekporeuomai. The Spirit himself is indicating that all unwholesome talk issuing from our hearts (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:34) brings death and decomposition. This is the very opposite of the transformation from death to life that the healing power and presence of the Spirit is pictured as doing in Ezekiel 48 and Revelation 22. We (the church) are the true temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19, yet in many ways we are putting forth an opposite spirit to that of the Holy Spirit of God. How then is can this power and presence of God be released in the church so that it becomes that which it was always meant to be, a light to the nations (Isaiah 60:1 –3; Matthew 5:14 –16)?
The answer is simple if difficult, indeed, humanly impossible. All we need to do is what Paul commands, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” When this happens we will experience what it means to be “sealed (by the Spirit) for the day of liberation.” “The day of liberation”, often translated “day of redemption”, is the time when all the suffering, pain and sorrow of the universe is removed and forgotten because God dwells with his people (Revelation 21:3 – 4).
“Liberation/redemption” is the opposite to “grief/sorrow”. The Spirit rejoices and abides in the person and community that blesses and forgives unconditionally and without judgementalism, that is, in the community that is holy and blameless like God (Ephesians 2:21- 22).
The “sealing” of the Spirit to which Paul refers (Ephesians 1)