The Promised Holy Spirit - Pastor Tom Loghry
In the first sermon of a new series on The Spirit and the Church, Pastor Tom digs in to the first chapter of Acts, honing in on the Spirit promised to the apostles and the way that promise has been passed down to us.
Transcript:
I'll be reading this morning from John chapter 16 verses 7 through 15. But very truly, I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me, because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
All that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said, the spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.
As some of you know, I'm a volunteer at the Chopmist fire station and for the past month, our fire engine, engine 62, has been away at the shop for repairs. On Thursday, it made its return to the station, which I was very excited about, because when you ride in the tanker, you have to ride backwards. I hate riding backwards, so I like to be able to look forward on the road.
So on Thursday, I went up that afternoon to give a hand loading equipment back on the truck. Now, among the things that we put back on the truck was some of our extrication equipment. It's popularly known as kind of the Jaws of Life, which is used to rescue people when they're trapped in their vehicles in a crash.
Now, our equipment is nimble and utilizes batteries, rather than being directly connected as those ones are in the picture. And as we were returning the gear, some of the guys noticed that a few of the batteries needed charging. As powerful as the tools looked, without the batteries, they couldn't be used for anything if they didn't have any power.
After we loaded the equipment back on the truck, we also went up to fill the truck's water tank and also to make sure that the truck was, truck was fueled up. Without water, we wouldn't be putting out any fires. Without fuel, we would never make it to the scene. The truck might look impressive, the tools might look strong, but without these things, they are nothing.
We might say the same about the church. It's very easy to judge local churches by their appearances. Look at their building. Look at their staff. Look at the size of their congregation. These aren't bad things. Just as there's nothing wrong with the fire engine, as far as it goes. But like the engine, the church won't go far on these things alone.
The power of the church is not in its steeple. And the power of the church, as surprising as it may sound, is not in the people. The power of the church comes from beyond to reside within her. The power which is a person, in fact God, who brings the body of Christ, the church, to life. This is what we learn as we begin this series looking at the first half of the book of Acts.
We're going to go back to the beginning of the church. Revisiting Christ's parting words, remembering what is so easily forgotten. So I'm going to invite you to open up to Acts 1. Acts 1, it's right after the Gospel of Luke, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, oh it's actually after the Gospel of John, but you'll see why I associated with Luke in a second.
Right after the Gospel of John, we have the book of Acts. We have the first three verses here. It says, In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. Now the thing that's interesting about so many of the books of the Bible is they don't always say at the very outset who the human author of the text is.
But in the case of Acts, we can do some detective work on our own without merely relying on church tradition because this book is addressed to a person. It says in my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. And when we go back to the Gospel of Luke, this is why the Gospel of Luke was on my mind, when we go back to the Gospel of Luke, we find that that Gospel is likewise addressed to Theophilus.
And so this is a continuation of the account of the early life of the Church. Of course, beginning in Jesus, but now continuing beyond the time of Christ's ascension. And the author is Luke, who is an associate of the Apostle Paul, and was witness of these things, and had access to those who were witnesses of these things.
So much of what we have here in this first chapter, actually has some overlap with the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which, which makes sense. It's kind of a segue between the two. Now, in these opening verses, Luke is telling Theophilus about this time that followed Christ's resurrection. A period of 40 days, in which it says that Jesus was teaching his disciples, notably it says in verse 2, giving instructions to them through the Holy Spirit.
And it's important to pick that out, I think, because so often when we think about Jesus, the Son of God, we think of Him working as an independent actor. Yes, He prays to the Father, but I mean, He's the Son of God. That should be enough, right? Well, no. When we look throughout his ministry, we in fact see him working in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 3, at the time of his baptism, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. And then it's at that point that his ministry really commences. In Luke 4: 18, he says, he, Referencing Isaiah 61, he says the Spirit of the Lord is on me. So everything that Jesus is doing, he is doing in concert with the person of the Holy Spirit.
And so, the importance of this will become more clear as we go along. So he is teaching his apostles, he is giving instructions to them. And, during this time of 40 days, what he's doing is he's offering them convincing proofs that he really, truly has been resurrected from the dead. So we see in Luke 24, verses 36- 43, just notice here, the pains to which Christ is going in demonstrating to the disciples that, yes, I'm really here. Sometimes, I think, when we think about ancient people, we think like, Oh, they would have easily believed that someone was raised from the dead. It's not the case. In the Gospel records, we find that they're quite doubtful. And, it's interesting to see Jesus kind of going to one explanation, immediately, that might come to mind, which is that they think that maybe he's just a ghost.
It says in verse 36, While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your mind? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself.
Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, Do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish. And he took it and ate it in their presence.
So Jesus is like saying, Look, listen, I'm really here. Give me some fish. I'll eat it. I'll show you. See? Ghosts can't eat fish. It's important. And I could have a whole other sermon on this. It's important that Jesus is raised from the dead. It's not enough that Jesus just died. It's It wouldn't have been enough that he just died and just kind of floated up as a spirit to heaven.
Christ's resurrection from the dead demonstrates to us everything that he said about himself. That he is, in fact, the Son of God. That his sacrifice for sin is, in fact, acceptable to the Father. And it demonstrates the reality that death has been conquered. That we will be raised from the dead. And that God's intent is not, in fact, to abandon his creation.
To just scrap it, but in fact to redeem it and to restore it. And we see this in Jesus Christ. And so this is what Jesus is doing over the course of these 40 days. He appears to the 12. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 15 that He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time. He appeared to many people.
And during the course of this time, He's teaching them about The Kingdom of God. What to expect. Now we're given the very essence of Christ's teaching during this time in verses 4- 8. Luke continues, he says, On one occasion, while he was eating with them, He gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
So, as Jesus is eating with his disciples, He instructs them saying that they are not to leave Jerusalem, but that they are to wait there in order to receive a gift promised to them by the Father. What is this promised gift? The promised gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus makes reference to this differentiation between the baptism of the Holy Spirit versus the baptism that was offered by John the Baptist.
Because The disciples were familiar with baptism. They were familiar with the baptism that John offered, which was by means of water, which Jesus himself participated in. But in the case of Jesus' baptism, we do see the Holy Spirit descend upon him. That was not the case though, for everyone else. John's baptism was merely a baptism of repentance of saying, yeah, I've done bad stuff and I really need to turn my back on it.
But it had no power. Within itself, it was just taking an act of obedience, turning your life, saying, yes, I am going to try to pursue righteousness. But John's baptism was never going to be enough. There was a reason why Christ had to be sent. He had to be, Christ had to come to offer a sacrifice for sin.
And so that the Holy Spirit might be sent. Now, John the Baptist himself recognized this in Matthew 3:11. He says, I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. All right, so Jesus is telling the disciples, you're to wait in Jerusalem to receive this baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Great. But what is the Holy Spirit? Is it like the Christian version of the Force? That's what many people think it is, because when we think of Spirit, we just think of something kind of misty. It's important for us to understand, though, that the Holy Spirit is nothing like Star Wars. It's nothing like the Force.
Something just, I mean, not to take Star Wars too seriously, when we think about the force in Star Wars, it's something that is able to be manipulated by the dark side. It's kind of just a power. It's almost like nuclear power. You can use nuclear power for good things. You can also use nuclear power for bad things.
This is not the case with the Holy Spirit. And the reason why it's not in the case is especially because the Holy Spirit is not a mere force. The Holy Spirit is in fact a person. The Holy Spirit is, in fact, one of the persons of the Triune God, and we'll see this more clearly in Acts 5. But for now, just, these passages I'm going to show you might be worth highlighting when people ask you questions about the Holy Spirit, regarding whether it's a force or a person.
Jesus himself, in John 14, makes it very clear about the nature of, of the Holy Spirit, just implicitly in the way that he's talking about the spirit. He says, and I'll ask the Father, and he'll give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him, him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
So we see that personal pronoun there, John 15:26 very much the same thing. He talks about the Spirit in a personal pronoun, saying that He will testify about, about me. When we go to John 16, which was read this morning, we see the same again and again, and I've highlighted the cases in which the personal pronoun appears.
And we also discover some of the purpose of the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit does. Now this doesn't exhaust everything that the Spirit does, but it's important to kind of just at least set some initial groundwork here in terms of what is the Holy Spirit about, what does he do? Jesus says in verse 8 of John 16 that he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.
So to bring conviction and condemnation. When we go on to verses 12 through 15. And again, we see all these personal pronouns here. It says that he will guide you into all the truth. Now this is especially important here for the apostles. We have to understand that they are in fact, the first audience here of what Jesus is talking about, because there is no new Testament at this point, they're going to have to figure out a whole lot of things in terms of guiding the church.
How are they going to do that? Especially once Jesus ascends, how are they going to figure out all these things? They're going to figure it out by the guidance that's going to be provided by the Holy Spirit. He will guide you into all truth. Now that said, that's something that continues to be the case today.
The Holy Spirit does guide us into the truth as we seek him. Now, just something that Jesus is at pains about throughout his ministry is to make clear that he is united with the Father, and also as we see here, that he is in perfect unanimity with the Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are working in perfect unity.
In verse 13, the latter part, he says he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. So it's not like the spirit's gonna tell you something different than what the Son would tell you or what the Father would tell you. They are all in one accord here.
And in verse 14 it says that the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus because it is from Jesus that he will receive what he's going to make known to the disciples. So the Father is glorified by the Son, the Spirit, the Son is glorified by the Spirit. They're all in, they're in this circle of glorification, all working together for their, for the glory of God.
And the latter part of verse 15 says, He will make known, it says, That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what He will make known to you. So again, the Spirit is working here to give this guidance, this insight to the Apostles that they are going to need. Now the Spirit brings instruction, guidance, the Spirit also brings power to do that which will be required.
And we especially see this early on in the life of the church in terms of the signs that are provided in order to open up gateways for people to receive the gospel. And I think this is implied by what Jesus, Jesus says in John 14: 12, he says, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I've been doing and they will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the father.
Well, you ask, well, how is it that the believers are going to do greater things than Jesus? Certainly not by their own strength. And what connection does it have to do with Jesus going to the Father? Well, to read between the lines here, what Jesus is saying is that they're going to be able to do these things because of the person of the Holy Spirit who's going to be sent after his ascension.
Now when we, when we're talking about the person of the Holy Spirit, another Name for the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ. And this can be helpful, because sometimes you come up, you're reading in the Scriptures, and you come across something that talks about the Spirit of Christ. Romans 8: 9 makes clear that we're talking about one and the same here.
Paul says, You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. So when we talk about Jesus living within you, having Christ within you, what we're talking about is the presence of Christ being communicated to us, within us, through the person of the Holy Spirit who now resides within us, who dwells within us.
They're both tied together, even as they are distinct persons.
Now, getting back to this idea about the Holy Spirit being promised, Paul talks about this in Galatians 3: 14 saying that we were redeemed in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. This promise of the Spirit was not something God promised.
That was merely introduced by Jesus. It was something that was, in fact, given before Christ. We could go over to a bunch of Old Testament texts. But just to look at one this morning. We look at Joel 2: 28- 29, also verse 32. It's prophesied there. It says, And afterward 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. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
The Old Testament prophets were expecting an age in which the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon the people of God. And what this reminds us of is that there is in fact an important difference of before Christ and after Christ. There is a real difference between B. C. and A. D. Before Christ, the Holy Spirit was certainly operating.
You see how the Holy Spirit comes upon David in many instances. The Holy Spirit is working. But it's only with the coming of Jesus Christ, His death, resurrection, and ascension, that a new outpouring of the Spirit is introduced, in which the Holy Spirit actually takes up residence within the people of God, making the people of God, in fact, the temple of God, collectively.
Now, hearing all this, hearing this word of how the Holy Spirit's going to come and they're to wait in Jerusalem. You can imagine this anticipation building up within the Apostles. So that naturally they would ask, Okay, is the Kingdom of God going to be introduced now? So as they gather around him and ask, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?
Now, again, just as with the Spirit, they should have had reason to anticipate this outpouring of the Spirit, they had reason to expect that the Kingdom was going to be restored. In Isaiah 62, verses 10 through 12, we hear it prophesied, Pass through, pass through the gates, prepare the way for the people, Build up, build up the highway, remove the stones, Raise a banner for the nations, the Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth.
Say to daughter Zion, see, your savior comes. See, his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him. They will be called the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. You'll be called sought after, the city no longer deserted. You have to understand that the Jewish people at this time were yearning for the kingdom of God to be introduced.
They felt like a city that was deserted. They felt deserted in many ways by God because they were under this Roman, this Roman occupation, this Roman subjugation. And so at this point, the apostles are thinking, this is it. This is where everything now comes to pass. The Spirit is coming, now the kingdom is going to be introduced.
But Jesus wants to make clear to them, as he has in fact throughout his ministry, There's more that has to transpire before that is going to be realized in full. In Luke 17: 20- 25, we hear Jesus talking about this. It says, Once I'm being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. It says that Jesus replied, The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed.
Nor will people say here it is or there it is, because the kingdom of God Is in your midst. Then he said to his disciples, the time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the son of man, but you'll not see it. People will tell you there he is, or here he is, do not go running off after them.
For the son of man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. So we have a bit of a tension here in what Jesus is saying because. On the one hand, what Jesus wants to tell his disciples is that, in fact, the coming of the Kingdom of God has actually come upon you.
Because the King has come. He is the King. He's right there in their midst. And he tells these parables about how the Kingdom of God is like yeast spreading out throughout flour, throughout dough, and it gets larger and larger, even though you can't see it working. Of how it's like a mustard seed that's small, but then it's growing.
This is the nature of the Kingdom of God, and in fact, operating, it's growing right now here in our midst, even though we can't see all the ways in which it's progressing. Now we have, in fact, at this, you know, 2, 000 years on, we do see how the Kingdom of God has grown. Of how the Church has stretched across the globe.
But in the immediate, especially, you know, when you think about locally, we don't always see how the Kingdom of God is working and progressing. But it is, in fact, in our midst. But yet, there is something more yet to come. Jesus doesn't want them to be deceived and thinking, you know, there's going to be people saying, Oh, there's Jesus.
There He is right there. And He says, No. When I show up, when everything's going to be brought in full, it's going to be like lightning across the sky. You'll know it. So there is a now aspect of the Kingdom of God, but there is also a not yet. There is something yet to come. And Jesus tells the disciples, It's not your place to know the day or the time.
And he told them this 24: 36. It says, But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven or the Son but only the Father. And He doesn't want them to be concerning themselves or trying to speculate about the time of Christ's return. Their concern is only to wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit and then to move forward in the mission that God has for them.
Now, Jesus, the sending of the Spirit was already anticipated in John 20 verses 21 through 22, Jesus said to them, peace be with you! As the Father has sent me I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And then it talks, he says, you have the authority to bring the message of forgiveness to people that they would be forgiven or their forgiveness would be withheld if they don't respond to the gospel.
The sending of the Spirit goes hand in hand with this mission that is given to the apostles. Jesus has been sent to the Father.
Now Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, and he tells them, wait in Jerusalem to receive the full baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so too, you are going to be sent. So Jesus has been sent, and now we have been sent. We are following in the footsteps of Jesus, and being sent out into the world.
In this mission, Jesus tells the apostles, He tells them that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and to the ends of the earth. And we hear very much the same thing in the, in the Gospels in Matthew 28. He says, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you.
And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Mark 16. He says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. So the Holy Spirit is essential to this work, to this mission that the church has been given. They cannot go about this work of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth without the sending of the Holy Spirit.
And when we think about the sending of the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, through the Son. And what this demonstrates is Christ's own divinity. That He has the authority to send the Spirit. It demonstrates the unity of the Godhead though, that He's not sending, it's not as though He's sending the Spirit independently.
This is in unity with the Father. His sending the Spirit distinguishes the Spirit from Himself. Because if the Spirit is just sent by the father directly, then we think, well, maybe the father has two sons, but that's not the case. That's not what scripture reveals. Spirit is his own unique person.
By the sending of the spirit, we see the unity, the continuation of Christ's work now introduced into our own lives, that we are being enveloped into the work that Christ has done so that we are to bring this message of reconciliation to the world. So that we see at the end of Revelation 22, 17. We find the Spirit and the Bride.
And the Bride is, of course, the Church. It says, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. Let the one who is thirsty, Come. And let the one who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life. So both the Holy Spirit and the church are about this mission of inviting people to respond to the gospel.
To receive this gift of the water of life. To receive forgiveness and restoration. Now Luke records that Christ ascended to heaven following these words of instruction. We're looking at verses 9 through 11. It says, After he said this, Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. These two men that came alongside them dressed in white, clearly angels. Their garb is consistent with the garb of angels described elsewhere.
The disciples are looking up, seeing Jesus ascend. And the question that was probably may have been in their minds, it might be in yours, is why. Why is Jesus ascending? Why doesn't He just stay here with us? Well, we could delve into a lot of different aspects as to the necessity of Christ's ascension. We could talk about His priestly intercession.
He's basically our representative before the Father. He stands in the gap for us, mediating on our behalf because of his own righteousness. We couldn't go to the Father on our own accord, but because of Jesus, we can come before the Father. So we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. He's our representative.
He covers our sins because of his own sacrifice. He also has to ascend because the Spirit has to be sent.
And,it'And, it'st of a myster, you know, you could think, well, why not both? Why not have Jesus stay here and the Spirit be sent? Sometimes we don't know. There's things that we don't know all the answers to. But in God's perfect wisdom, it was necessary that Christ would be asceednt and the Spirit would be sent afterwards.
Something that is very clear, though, is that Christ ascends in order to occupy His rightful place upon the throne. We have several passages here that testify to this. Hebrews 1: 3 says, The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. 1 Peter 3: 22 says Jesus Christ has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him. And when you go to Matthew 28, the verse immediately preceding the Great Commission, that therefore go into the world and make disciples, immediately preceding that, Jesus states clearly his position of authority.
It says, Jesus came to his disciples and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus is on the throne right now. His authority is present and real. And it's being revealed today, I think, through the ministry of the gospel, through the progress of the kingdom of God. And in the end, it will be revealed in full at the day of judgment.
And the angels speak to this. They say, you see him visibly ascending into heaven. You are also going to see him visibly return in the same way. And Revelation 1: 7 testifies in the same manner. It says, look, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Those who pierced him, and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be. Amen. And the reason why every eye will see him is because all the dead are going to be raised. Now I think what this does is it impresses upon us the reality of everything that we're talking about here. Christ visibly ascended. Imagine standing outside seeing Jesus ascend into the sky and being hidden by a cloud.
You're like, Get out of the way cloud. I want, I want to see Jesus, but there's a cloud blocking. Jesus actually ascended into heaven. He's going to actually descend. He's going to break into all of our current events, all the news going on, everything going on there's on, on in this earth. He's going to break into the midst of it all.
Everyone's going to stand in silence because their eyes are going to be turned towards the king and his descent. If you can put yourselves in the shoes of the apostles and you've just witnessed all of this, you can imagine you might be ready to run through a brick wall. You got your orders to go to the ends of the earth, and you're gonna go, but Jesus says, wait, wait, you need the Holy Spirit, you need his power, you need his guidance for everything that lies ahead. The reality is that the shoes of the apostles have been passed down to us. Yes, they had their unique place in the history of the church, certainly. But their mission has been passed down to us, and we stand in them now.
We've not seen Jesus with our own eyes, but the testimony of the Apostles has been handed down to us. They saw Jesus in the flesh. They touched him. They ate with him. For forty days Jesus talked with them. And they saw him ascend to heaven. Jesus is alive. He is enthroned in heaven. And he is coming again.
The mission he gave them is our mission and the power that he told them to wait upon, the person of the Holy Spirit, he is the one that we continue to need right here, right now. The boards of this building, our flesh and blood, are not enough. On those things alone, we will fail. In themselves, they are nothing.
They're powerless. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to be who God has called us to be and to do what he has called us to do. And if the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we will have all the power we need. And he has given to all those who believe. Let's pray.
Dear Father.
We did not see your son with our own eyes. But we believe as the apostles believe. We believe that Jesus Christ has been risen from the dead. That he is alive, that he is the king of kings. He is the Messiah.
Father, we submit ourselves to him as our Lord. We sit at his feet, ready to hear his instructions. Father, today we recognize that instructions that he gave to the apostles continues to apply to us today, father. That we have been called to bring the gospel to bring this message of reconciliation, forgiveness, resurrection to the world, father, to our neighbors and to the ends of the earth, father.
It's a weighty mission, Father. Inspired as we are by the reality of all this, father, we confess that although the truth is a powerful thing, and we believe we have the truth, we need more, we need the power of God, we need the person of the Holy Spirit in order to enable us to be and do what you've called us to, Father, and Father, we pray that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon this congregation, that you would fill every person in abundance with his presence, so that we would glorify you and bring worship to you as more and more added to our number so that you are praised in the way that you are due. Father, we, we come to you in weakness, but know that you would be glorified by using weak vessels like ourselves. And we open ourselves to the person of the Holy Spirit. May he dwell within us.
Father, we pray, it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
There's a reason why the Spirit couldn't be sent before the Son. The Spirit is sent in order to communicate that which is provided by the Son. In fact, to go to the question earlier, you know, why is it that Christ has to ascend in order for the Spirit to be sent? I think that is the explanation. That He presents Himself as that sacrifice to sin in the heavenly temple.
And the Holy Spirit communicates to us all the good that Christ has achieved by the sacrifice of Himself. So that as we come and partake in this meal, we can know that the Holy Spirit, He is present and active. So if we know any peace, it comes by the person of the Holy Spirit. If we feel the love of God, it comes to us by the Holy Spirit.
If we are made into a new people, if we're sanctified, it's because of the Holy Spirit who communicates to us the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.
But there is no work of the Holy Spirit without the work of Christ. And we receive the complete work of redemption, God's complete work of redemption, Father, Son, Holy Spirit by faith. By saying, yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He is the Messiah. And I believe that He is my Savior because He laid down His life for me and that I may receive this by faith. If you believe in Him this morning, you are invited to partake in the bread and the cup. You may come forward to receive them.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)