7-11-10 Holy Spirit: Foundation

Video Clip – Youtube – Popeye – “Spinach Shortage” -

“Do you ever feel powerless like Popeye without spinach?” Do you ever feel powerless to change your marriage? Do you ever feel powerless to change your relationship with your children? Do you ever feel powerless to stop an addiction? Do you ever feel powerless to stop angry tirades, and you just keep going off, though you’d like to stop? Do you ever feel like you’d like to make a difference in a person’s life, or in your community, or in your schools, or at work, but as you think about how big the problems are, you feel powerless to change to change anything, so you don’t even try? Do you ever feel powerless?

Popeye drew his power from spinach, but where does your power come from? Now I know that’s not a normal question to ask people in the 21^st century. I know it’s a bit of an unusual question in our world, but do you ever feel like you don’t have enough power? Do you ever feel like you’re powerless? Maybe the problem is at the supply?

The way that most people in our world answer the power question is they try to make more money, because we know that money is power. We think that if we just have more money, then our power problem will be solved, because we know that you can buy almost anything if you have enough money. Notice I said almost.

You can’t buy a better marriage. You can’t buy something that makes you a better parent. You can’t buy anything that will give you more time, when your time is up, your time is up. You can’t buy peace, or joy, or love. You can change how you look on the outside with money, but you can’t change how you feel on the inside with money. The power that I’m going to be talking about today, money can’t buy. Many of the wealthiest people in the world have died very lonely and very empty people because ultimately they couldn’t buy what they needed with money. They needed a different kind of power.

So I ask the question again, “Where does your power come from?” That question is not only a question that many people today have never been asked, but it’s also a question that the early church was never asked, but then one day Jesus said these amazing words to his disciples. He said,
You will receive power. . . Acts 1:8

Now I wonder what kind of power Jesus is talking about? Is he going to give them money? Is he going to give them political power? Maybe military power? What kind of power could Jesus be talking about?

Jesus said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you

You will receive power. What does that look like? When someone receives power from the Holy Spirit what does that look like?

In Acts 2 the Apostles and the early church received power from the Holy Spirit and they began a powerful movement that continues to this day. When the Holy Spirit came upon this early group of believers, they became so powerful that they changed the world. They not only changed the world in their day, but the power that was given them by the Holy Spirit continues to change the world today. What they did 2000 years ago continues to make a difference in the world today. Now I’d say, that’s power! That’s powerful!

They didn’t have power, but then Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and power and from that point on, they lived powerful lives. God gave the early church some sort of extra power to live their lives. One moment these people were like you and me, knowing that they were missing something, knowing that they weren’t very powerful, but then, all of a sudden, they felt the Holy Spirit descend upon them and they were different. They were filled with God’s power, filled with His Spirit and it changed everything. It changed the dynamic of the whole world for the last 2000 years.

So, this morning we are going to start a three part series on the Holy Spirit and the power that God gives us. Today we are going to be looking primarily at how the Holy Spirit or God’s power, enters IN us and changes us from the inside out. Next week we’ll be looking at how the Holy Spirit comes ON us and empowers us to do great things in our world.

This morning I’d like to suggest that people without the Holy Spirit IN them is like:

v  A book without any pages in it

v  A pen without any ink in it

v  A cell phone without any coverage

v  An ipod without any songs on it

Your life and my life were created for an extra power that we are not born with. You and I were created to receive power from the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot be what God created us to be. We are empty of his power. It’s like a car being without gas. It’s like a hose being without water. It’s like a light bulb without electricity. We were created to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But what does that mean? And how do we know if we have the Holy Spirit’s power? How do you know if you have it or you don’t? How do you know if it’s available to you?

If you’re like most Christians you assume that you get the Holy Spirit’s power when you are baptized, but often times I hear people say, “But I don’t feel any different”. Because if you were more powerful you’d feel it right? If you don’t feel more powerful, what’s up with that? You know that you feel inadequate in your life and you sometimes wonder “Is God really with me? Is the Holy Spirit really in me?”

Is the Holy Spirit really present in my life? Where’s the power? And for some of you you’re asking a different question. You might be asking, “Who is the Holy Spirit?” Is he like Casper the friendly ghost or what? Who is this cat named the Holy Spirit.

So we’ll be walking through each of these questions as we jump into this three part series on the Holy Spirit. The whole point of the series is to move us toward understanding the Holy Spirit, and becoming powerful, Spirit filled and Spirit empowered people so that we can be difference makers in our world, because certainly we need powerful people who can make a difference in our world today.

Now, before we begin I want you to realize that I don’t want this message to be a monologue. I would love it to be a dialogue, because what I’m going to be talking about today is not easy to put into words. What we are talking about today is the mystery of how God works – the intangible presence of God who works in us, through us and all around us in the person of the Holy Spirit. There are not adequate words to fully describe how God works within the lives of human beings. Much of it is mystery, so I need your help. Ask question if you have them. This is a safe place to ask. All questions are good questions. OK?

Now, God, as I said, is mystery, but there are patterns of movement in which we see the Holy Spirit working in certain ways. We also have God’s word to direct us toward who he is and how we are created to live in him.

So here we go. First up is the idea of Trinity. The word Trinity is not a word that is found in the Bible. The word was created by some of the early church fathers in the 4^th century in order to describe the 3 primary ways that God reveals himself to us in scripture.

Trinity, whose root means three, is descriptive of our God who reveals himself in three very unique ways. The first way that God reveals himself to us is “Father”, the second is “Son”, and the third is the Holy Spirit. God the Father reveals himself primarily in the Old Testament. The Son, Jesus is primarily revealed in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are the first four books of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit is revealed primarily in the New Testament books from Act through Revelation. (Separate Bible with colored dividers to show which portions of the Bible is primarily dedicated to each person of the Trinity).

Ok, now it’s important to identify the roles that each of the person’s of the Trinity have traditionally carried out.

v  The Father is primarily seen as the creator, visionary, warrior, and disciplinarian in the Bible.

v  The Son is understood as the one who makes God’s will become real. He is the model of God’s will. When we look at Jesus, we see how we are supposed to live, how we are supposed to be. In Jesus we see what powerful looks like. We see a man fully immersed in the Holy Spirit.

v  The Holy Spirit is understood as one who cleanses, redeems, and empowers us to live as Jesus did. The Holy Spirit empowers us to effectively live out God’s will in our lives, so that we can experience God’s blessings in our marriages, in our families, in our jobs, and in every area of life. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live like Jesus did.

The Father is the vision or the plan. The Son is the model of how the plan works. The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to live into the Father’s plan like Jesus did. God, the Father is the plan. Jesus is the prototype, and the Holy Spirit is the builder or general contractor who is at work creating the full scale working version you and I in the world.

My house – Dream (Father), then blueprints (Jesus), then lots of work to carry out the plan and the model – I was the one who had the money, hired and fired people, made day to day decisions about the construction and quality of the world being done. The Holy Spirit is the one doing the work of the Father and the Son. I envisioned the house. I drew the plans. I did the work – all the same person, but I revealed myself in different ways. Father = Planner, Son = Architect, and Holy Spirit = Builder

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all persons of God that are working together for the restoration and goodness of the world. God is one God, but he reveals himself to us in 3 different ways.

v  I have three roles Husband, Father, Son, in all of those roles I am still Adam. However, I speak to my wife different than to my kids and I speak to my parents different than I speak to my wife. I am the same person, but reveal myself in different way. So it is with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The focus of this series is just on the person of the Holy Spirit. Even though I said that the Holy Spirit is primarily revealed in the last half of the Bible, the Spirit is also present in the Old Testament and the Gospels.

In order to understand the person of the Holy Spirit, I’d like to share with you some of the places that the Holy Spirit is present in the Old Testament, so that we can have a bigger understanding of just who the Holy Spirit is and how he works to empower our lives. There’s no better place to begin that the beginning.

The Holy Spirit was at Creation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit, was hovering over the waters Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV). The Holy Spirit is God. He is the Creator of the world.

Now, after Adam and Eve sinned, God separated his Spirit from people because evil was in them. After Adam and Eve sin, and throughout the entire Old Testament, the Holy Spirit comes upon just a few of the leaders that God used to direct his people, the people of Israel.

In the Old Testament we see the Holy Spirit coming in power upon just a few leaders who God used to lead his people. The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment in their lives was often to equip them for special service.

In the story of Moses we see Moses trying to be the judge for all of Israel, and people stood in long, long lines, from sun up to sun down waiting on Moses to hear their case. Jethro his father in law saw this and he told Moses that what he was doing was not wise. He said to him, “Moses, you need to entrust lesser judgment cases to other solid leaders. When Moses prayed about this to God the Father, God said to Moses,

Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone. Numbers 11:16-17 (NIV)

This is seen throughout the Old Testament, where God’s Spirit comes, not on everyone who was a follower of God, but upon certain leaders to empower them to do his work. All the rest of the people of God could never expect God’s Spirit to rest on them. However, there were prophecies like the one in Joel that suggested that a new day was coming in which the Spirit of God would be poured out on all people.

God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Joel 2:28-29 (NIV)

Joel prophesied that one day God was going to give his Spirit to men and women, young and old, rich and poor – to all people who called on his name. The people of that day thought, “That will be a glorious day when that happens”.

Joel’s prophesy hung in people’s memory for several hundred years until one day something remarkable happened. An angel of the Lord visited a young woman by the name of Mary and told her that she was going to have a son.

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called ‘Son of God’. Luke 1:34-35 (NRSV)

This is really amazing what the angel says to Mary. The angel says to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, this is what the Holy Spirit had been doing ever since Adam and Eve sinned – coming upon people. The Spirit of God had only come ON certain people in order to serve God. But then look at the angel says next, “And the power of the Most High will overshadow you, basically he’s saying, “God is going to do something through that you could never do. God says, “I am going to do something inside of your womb that you could never do by yourself.” Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. The child that will be born will not be filled with sin at birth as every other human being, but instead he will be holy, he will be without sin. He will be called the Son of God

There’s a very important distinction here that we need to understand. At conception, Jesus had the Holy Spirit at work “IN” him. This is something that hadn’t happened since the time of Adam and Eve. Throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came “upon” or “on” people, but the Holy Spirit was never in anyone.

Throughout the Old Testament God was empowering people from the outside, but he was never able to truly change their hearts because sin was in the way. God is a Holy God and he and sin don’t mix. God did not place his Spirit within his people, because they were full of sin. Instead, God empowered them from the outside.

Think of it this way. If you’re teaching your son or daughter to play baseball, you might wrap your body around theirs and bat with them. You swing the bat, and they swing that bat with you, but you know that you’re the one hitting the ball. It’s not them. That’s what the Holy Spirit was doing in the Old Testament. He was empowering them from the outside and we’re going to be talking a lot about that next week. But here’s the deal.

If your son or daughter is going to be a good baseball player, you know that they have to, at some point, be able to hit the ball by themselves. They have to be aggressive and take the right stance and get the timing down, and someday, after lots and lots of practice, hit the ball well. This is what is going on beginning with Jesus’ birth. The Holy Spirit is in Jesus.

This is huge. The Holy Spirit came ON Mary, just like it had for all the leaders of the Old Testament, but now we are told that the Holy Spirit is IN Jesus. This is something very special!

Here Mary is told that Jesus is going to be holy or without sin from conception. The Holy Spirit is IN Jesus from his conception.

In Genesis, the Holy Spirit took part in creating the world. In Jesus’ birth the Holy Spirit took part in creating something new, a New Creation that was ushered in at Jesus’ birth.

So then, for 30 years Jesus grows in wisdom and in stature with the Holy Spirit in him, and then we are told in Luke this:

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22 (NRSV)

Now, it is highly significant that Jesus did not perform any miracles until after his baptism of the Holy Spirit, hence granting him gifts for power of service. This was a decisive turning point for Jesus because up until this time Jesus had the Spirit of God IN him from conception, shaping and molding his character as well as giving him knowledge of the Father and of the Bible. But now the Spirit has descended ON him to give him power for service.

This is the point that I want to make today. There are two workings of the Holy Spirit, two different ways that the Holy Spirit empowers us. The first way is for transformation of the inner you. The second way is for power of service. Traditionally the church has talked about the Holy
Spirit as being IN people, but they have neglected to teach on the Holy Spirit being ON people.

We’ll look at the differences between the two over the next couple of weeks. I end with this question, “Do feel like you lack power?” and then this very important question, “Where does your power come from?” As an electrician, if we lacked power in a home, we would always go and check the source of the power. Where is your power source? Is there a problem with your supply?