Both of today’s readings are about
the third person of the Trinity – God the Holy Spirit.
And this morning I’d just like to say
a few words about the Holy Spirit and then look briefly at these two passages
and see how they’re relevant for us today.
Firstly, the Holy Spirit is a person
– he’s not just an invisible force or power.
He shares the same nature as God the
Father and Jesus, and he is referred to in scripture as the Spirit of God - or
the Spirit of Jesus.
He speaks as for instance we see in
Acts when he gives specific instructions to the apostles. And he has emotions
and feelings and he can be grieved by our actions.
He was involved in Creation when we’re
told he hovered over the face of the waters.
And he was the one who descended upon
Jesus in the form of a dove and empowered him to do the miracles he did; and he
continues to empower the church to spread the gospel and God’s kingdom today.
And Paul tells us in his letter to
the Romans that he is the one who raised Jesus from the dead.
By God’s mighty power Jesus was
raised back to life and burst forth from the tomb with an explosion of light
and life and energy.
And the Holy Spirit is the one who
raises us from spiritual death to eternal life.
Initially, as it says in verses 8 to
11 of our gosepl reading, he convicts us of our sin and our need to repent and
be put right with God.
And then, as we do this, He comes to
live within our inner beings and imparts eternal life to us – the life of God’s
kingdom.
Indeed the biblical definition of a
Christian is someone in whom God’s spirit dwells. Without the Holy Spirit living
in us, we remain spiritually dead and blind and cut off from God’s life and
kingdom.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus tells
his disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
John chapter 16 is the continuation
of a long narrative that begins in John chapter 13 and takes place at the last
supper.
Jesus tells the disciples that he is
going but they are not to be dismayed because he will not leave them as orphans.
On the contrary – the Father will
give them the Advocate or Helper as some translations put it - to be with them
forever - the Spirit of truth who will guide them into all truth.
And we see this promise fulfilled a
bit later in John chapter 20 - after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, when he
appears to the disciples and breathes upon them and says, "receive the
Holy Spirit.”
As Jesus breathes upon them the Holy
Spirit comes to live within them and they become spiritually alive children of
God.
Their spiritual eyes are opened and
if any of them still had doubts about the identity of Jesus, they don’t any
longer.
Indeed the revelation that we receive
when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us is that Jesus is Lord, that he is God
– and that we are to worship him.
The other place we see the Holy
Spirit come is of course at Pentecost, where he comes in power upon the
disciples to empower them to continue the work that Jesus started.
He empowers them to preach the good
news about the Kingdom of heaven and to demonstrate the power of that Kingdom
by healing the sick and casting out the powers of darkness from people’s lives.
And in today’s reading from Acts we
see Paul laying his hands upon some disciples of John the Baptist who hadn’t
yet experienced this empowering by the Holy Spirit.
And as Paul lays his hands upon them
and prays for them, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and fills them with the
life of God and imparts new spiritual gifts to them – and as a sign of this, they
speak in tongues and prophesy.
Bible commentators have different views
about the spiritual condition of these disciples of John before Paul came to
them – and whether they were true believers - but I don’t think this is the
most important thing.
What is important is that they are
open to receive God’s empowering. They don’t resist it or turn away from it.
They don’t come up with theological
reasons at to why they don’t need it.
And they don’t shy away from it because
of imagined fears.
And of course these passages are
highly relevant for us today – because just like those first disciples, we too desperately need the comfort and
guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit in order to live as Christians.
Just as an engine cannot function
without petrol and a sailing boat cannot function without wind – so we cannot
function as Christians unless we have God’s life giving spirit living within
us.
We need to welcome the Holy Spirit
into our lives in order to become Christians in the first place - and then we
need the continuing empowerment and filling of the Holy Spirit in order to make
Jesus known and to bear fruit – just as those first disciples did.
So how can we receive the Holy Spirit
today? Well the answer is simply by asking God – but when we ask the desire in
our heart must be genuine.
God is more than willing to come into
our lives – He longs to come and live in us – but He comes where He is wanted
where there is a true desire and thirst in people’s lives to know Him.
Jesus said “let anyone who is thirsty
come to me and drink.”
I’m sure all of you here have been
really thirsty and have really longed for a cool refreshing drink that will
quench your thirst.
As well as being physically thirsty
we can also be spiritually thirsty, and Jesus says that those who are
spiritually thirsty should come to him and he’ll give them a drink to quench
that thirst.
And the drink he will give us is the
Holy Spirit. So as we drink in and receive The Holy Spirit – our spiritual
thirst will be quenched.
And we will become spiritually alive
as he enables us to know Jesus and to understand the bible, as he enables us to
know God’s love and peace and joy in our hearts.
Without him in our lives, our faith
will remain parched and dry. Jesus will remain just a historical character and
the bible a confusing book.
Perhaps some of you here have been
coming to church for a while. You’ve heard lots of talks about Jesus and you’ve
read your bibles a bit but somehow it’s all just head knowledge.
You’ve built up a picture of Jesus
but like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle - there’s still a bit missing.
Well the missing piece of the jigsaw
is the Holy Spirit.
As you receive him into your life –
your faith will become real and alive and you will come to know Jesus as your
Lord and Saviour.
When you pray you will no longer just
hope that God might be listening to you - you’ll know that He is listening to
you. You’ll have the assurance that God is with you in your life.
The Holy Spirit is very quiet and
gentle and unobtrusive and a lot of the time you won’t be conscious of his
presence with you.
But he will always be with you to
help you to live your life as a Christian – to guide and empower you, to help
you to pray and to understand the bible, and to love others.
There may also be some of you here
who have been Christians for a while, who have received the Holy Spirit into
your lives in the past – but you also feel spiritually thirsty.
You may feel a bit like a battery
that has lost its charge or a bit like a dry lawn that desperately needs some
rain.
You would like Jesus to refresh and
revive you – to pour out his spirit upon you and fill you afresh.
Of course God is love – so when you
receive his Spirit – love will enter your heart. And this love is the love of
Jesus which desires to reach out to and help other people.
So the question we need to ask
ourselves this morning, is do we want to receive more of God’s presence in our
lives?
Are you spiritually thirsty? Do you
want to know Jesus? Do you want to be a Christian rather than just a church
goer?
If you’re already a Christian do you
want to be able to serve God more effectively? Do you want to be filled with
and empowered by his Holy Spirit?
Do you want to your Christian life to
be more vibrant and alive so that you can serve God more effectively?
I think one of the things we at Brenchley
Church need most over this coming year if we are going to grow, is to be a
church who are more filled with and open to the Holy Spirit.
But that can only happen if we will
open our lives to receive more of God.
I’m going to close with a time of
quiet where we will have the opportunity to ask God to send His Holy Spirit
into our hearts and lives.
A time for you – if you want to - to
ask Jesus to give you his Spirit to quench your spiritual thirst.
If you’d prefer, I’d be very happy to
pray with you after the service - a simple prayer asking Jesus to fill you with
his Spirit– or for any other need you may have.
So let’s close our eyes and focus on
God.
SHORT PAUSE
Lord Jesus thankyou that you stand
among us now.
Lord you see our hearts and you see
those of us who are spiritually thirsty.
Lord Jesus we ask you now to send us
your Holy Spirit to quench our spiritual thirst.
Lord come to all those of us here
today who are thirsty and fill us with your your life giving Spirit. Fill us
with life and your love and your power.
PAUSE
No comments:
Post a Comment