Sunday 08/18/19
Series: Walking the Talk
Message – Living out our Union with the Holy Spirit Pt.2
Podcast: Download (43.3MB)
Living out our union with the Holy Spirit
Last week I reminded you of Jesus’ Own words given as a type of introduction for the Holy Spirit – how He called him allos paraklaytos “Another Comforter”.
This is very important – who can remember what that essentially means to us, what was Jesus communicating to His disciples and us? Same function different person.
Allos – the same as
paraklaytos -is very similar in meaning to the word God used for women as the helpmate for man. It is used to refer to an advisor, pleader, proxy, or advocate, one who comes forward in behalf of and as the representative of another.
The Holy Spirit IS to us what Jesus was to His disciples AND what He was to Jesus Himself.
This Holy Spirit is…
- the Spirit of truth
- our forever companion and friend —
- Abides WITH, IN and UPON us. The word ‘in’ [En] – means someone Who is in near connection with you, intimate union, oneness of heart, mind, purpose. Part of His purpose is to facilitate our branch/vine union with Christ our head.
The nature of our relationship with the Holy Spirit is that of a…
- Friendship
- Mentor
- And parent
John 14:18, “(18) I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.”
My goal in last week’s message was to illustrate two things…
- The similarities between Jesus’ relationship with the Holy Spirit and ours.
- To point to Jesus’ relationship with the Holy Spirit as an example for how our relationship with the Holy Spirit is to work. What we can expect, how we are to interact and so on.
- The primary work of the Holy Spirit to Jesus was to show Him the Father, so that Jesus could reveal the Father to the world.
Now I gave you some similarities between our relationship with the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ when He was on earth. They covered such things as…
- CALLED, Led and empowered for His mission
- Reveal the Father
- Never alone
But since the most important thing at this point is to develop that relationship, this week we are going to dial back a little and go back to basics, then to go deeper with these thoughts as we Spooky them personally by breaking into groups and discussing a few key questions on the original sheets I gave you two weeks back. This will help you to see yourself living these truths.
We’ve already affirmed that the Holy Spirit is here to reveal Christ to us. We even hinted at the two primary reasons for that were:
- To be changed into the likeness which we see – ‘Christ in us’
- To reveal Jesus to the world – be witnesses of Him.
But we cannot be changed into a likeness we do not see and we cannot testify concerning someone we do not know. So let’s take a look at the nature of our relationship with the Holy Spirit, because He is our heading and sight.
Turn with me to 1Cor. 2:1-16, (Remember that as Paul is writing here, he is talking about when he came to bear witness of Jesus to the Corinthians. So this allows us to see into that relationship by what Paul teaches about the Holy Spirit, but also by how Paul tells us the Spirit worked through him)
“(1) When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. (2) For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Commentators seem to agree that this means that he determined to make known nothing to them but Jesus and Him crucified, and while that certainly fits in the context and flow I am suspect there is more to it than that.
Paul clearly came to teach and preach God’s Testimony – which according to John in 1 John 5 – is ALL ABOUT HIS SON!
1Jn 5:6-12, “(6) Jesus Christ–He is the One who came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. (7) For there are three that testify: (8) the Spirit, the water, and the blood–and these three are in agreement. (9) If we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that He has given about His Son. (10) (The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.) (11) And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (12) The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.”
But I also believe Paul was saying that even though the Corinthians were quite pagan and very carnal people, he refused to acknowledge their carnality with anything more than instruction about Christ. He was appealing to the best in them, rather than to their flesh and the best in them was Christ Jesus in a state of being crucified to His flesh – a state which Paul, by the Spirit, was laboring to bring about in these carnal Christians.
Paul embraces his weakness
“(3) And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. (4) My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, (5) so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.”
It is IMPERATIVE that you get this. Without embracing your weakness you CANNOT have Christ formed in you and you CANNOT be a true testifier of His person.
KNOW THIS – you cannot embrace your weakness if you do not believe in His strength in and towards you!
Paul was a man of great learning and he no doubt could have argued and debated with the best of them. He may even have been able to convince people into a superficial belief in the facts, but you cannot argue someone into embracing surrender and heart submission. One has to be inwardly convicted of Jesus as Lord and Savior in order to believe into Him.
“(6) However, among the mature we do speak a wisdom, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. (7) On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory.”
NOTICE the wisdom of God has been hidden from human AND angelic view. These are things angels desire to look into according to Peter and according to Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:10) it is through the church they will see and come to know these mysteries of God’s wisdom.
We have to acknowledge however, that these awesome mysteries were determined and decreed long ago to be revealed to us FOR OUR GLORY!
So the revelations the Holy Spirit is revealing TO and THROUGH us has our glorification as it’s intended outcome!
Who can tell me what out glorification is? Christ IN US!!!!
“(8) None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
If the devil had known that Jesus was the Lord of Glory – meaning the King over it and the One by Whom humans, who were originally made in God’s image, might once more bear His true image and glory – satan would NEVER have accommodated God’s work by seeking the death of His Son!
“(9) But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man’s heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Notice three things:
- This does not just simply “dawn” on people without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. These truths man is not even looking for, much less able to find on their own.
- God has been and IS working – preparing this glorification and the glories that follow for a very long time. God has desired it, longed for it, worked for it and is producing it in us even now!
- This is NOT for just anyone. It isn’t even for those who just “believe” – no it is for those who LOVE HIM! I’m telling you, God is NOT mocked. This salvation is not just for fair-weather professors, but those committed at heart to HIM. Which is why the invitation has to be GOD centered not heaven centered!
“(10) Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit,…”
Someone read that from another translation other then the Holman.
What does it say? “God HAS!”
This is where it gets real people – do you believe Him or NOT!
Jesus said it this way as recorded in John 10, “My sheep HEAR MY VOICE and the voice of a stranger they WILL NOT FOLLOW.”
The words “has revealed” is A-pok-aloop-toe – it means Literally, to remove a veil or covering exposing to open view what was before hidden.
What was covering Moses’ face after seeing the goodness of God? A veil
Why? So they would not see the end of the law – Who is Christ Jesus (or LIFE). (“For if there had been a law which could have given LIFE – righteousness would have come through the law.”)
That is why 2Cor. 3 says that the veil is taken away in Christ!
The Weymouth says it this way,
“(10) For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature.”
In fact, I am at this point going to switch over to the Weymouth because it does such a superior job to many other translations, though I encourage you to read through this passage in as many translations as you have with concordance in hand!
“(10) For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature. (11) For, among human beings, who knows a man’s inner thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God’s Spirit is acquainted with God’s inner thoughts. (12) But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God.”
Why was the Spirit given to us? THAT WE MIGHT KNOW!
Don’t you think that makes our relationship with the Holy Spirit a threat?
Know what? THE BLESSINGS!
What blessings? Those freely and lavishly bestowed upon us by the FATHER. (Js. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers, EVERY Good gift and EVERY perfect gift comes down from the FATHER of lights.”)
“(13) Of these we speak–”
Of what does Paul speak? The blessings.
I thought He was preaching Christ to them!
IT IS – look back in chapter 1 verses 21-31,
1Cor. 1:21-31, “(21) For after the world by its wisdom–as God in His wisdom had ordained–had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it. (22) Seeing that Jews demand miracles, and Greeks go in search of wisdom, (23) while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified–to the Jews a stumbling-block, to Gentiles foolishness, (24) but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men’s wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men’s might. (26) For consider, brethren, God’s call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called. (27) But God has chosen the things which the world regards as foolish, in order to put its wise men to shame; and God has chosen the things which the world regards as destitute of influence, in order to put its powerful things to shame; (28) and the things which the world regards as base, and those which it sets utterly at nought–things that have no existence–God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that do exist; (29) to prevent any mortal man from boasting in the presence of God. (30) But you–and it is all God’s doing–are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance; (31) in order that it may be as Scripture says, “HE WHO BOASTS–LET HIS BOAST BE IN THE LORD.”
So Paul says,
“(13) Of these (BLESSINGS) we speak–not in language which man’s wisdom teaches us, but in that which the Spirit teaches–adapting, as we do, spiritual words to spiritual truths. (14) The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged. (15) But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is himself judged by no one. (16) For WHO HAS PENETRATED THE MIND OF THE LORD, AND WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But *we* have the mind of Christ.”
How many of you have heard the Spirit testify in your heart about the Lord of Glory – how He is the ONLY way to the Father and that salvation is through Him alone?
How many of you have believed this testimony, which God has given of Himself?
How many of you can say that you know for certain that since you have come to God you have a genuine love for your fellow believer. A love that transcends reason, experience or knowledge of any kind?
Then Paul says to you – that you ALWAYS attain to the knowledge of God, are able to correctly judge spiritual matters and you HAVE BEEN penetrated with the heart of our Lord and know the thoughts and purposes of His heart.
THIS MAKES YOU A THAT TO THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS!!!
What did Jesus tell His disciples?
John 15:12-16, “(12) This is my commandment to you, to love one another as I have loved you. (13) No one has greater love than this–a man laying down his life for his friends. (14) You are my friends, if you do what I command you. (15) No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you. (16) It is not you who chose me, but it is I who chose you and appointed you that you might go and be fruitful and that your fruit might remain; so that whatever petition you present to the Father in my name He may give you.”
Now I want you to divide into groups – just be led in who you are with.
Since we have discussed the heart, mission and purpose of the Holy Spirit THE most important thing you can do is begin to believe in His good heart towards you.
LISTEN TO ME!!!
His heart for and towards you could not be more generous, more caring, more solicitous, more gentle or benevolent – but His heart towards you is NOT just for you. JUST like the allos paraklytos for the disciples did not do what He did for them, but for His devoted love for the Father, even so the motivation of the Spirit is His great and eternal love and devotion and deep admiration for the Son!
Make no mistake He loves you too, but one of the reasons for the stability and dependability of that devotion is because it is FIRST and FOREMOST towards God the Son! He ADMIRES Him, is devoted to Him and will spend Himself 100% selflessly for Him – this is FOR HIM AND you – but HIM FIRST!
That is NOT to say He cannot be grieved or worse, but no true child of God who loves God and desires to overcome their flesh in honor of Him (regardless of their past success rate) has any reason for fear in that relationship.
But like the lady I told you about last week who mistook the warning of the Holy Spirit for a temptation to fear from the devil – she walked headlong into danger the Spirit would have had her avoid had she listened – had she had EARS TO HEAR.
Looking Glass Self
If you are a person given to perpetual self-loathing, self-hatred, always believing and expecting the worst from yourself – you will transfer that onto the voice of the Holy SPIRIT. EVERY word of conviction or even love will be perceived through that filter…. so that every convicting word for reconciliation will be heard as a condemning voice towards judgment and separation!
You MUST learn WHO IT IS you are dealing with!
Now – break into groups and be HONEST with each other. Your particular hang up may not been self-loathing, it may be self-pity or some other thing. All of which only serve to distort HIS face with your face according to the flesh. Which brings us full circle.
What did Paul determine NOT to know among them? ANYTHING but Jesus having died to sin!
Go over questions 12-15 but ESPECIALLY 12-13!
Go!
I hope this message will bless you richly…not because I taught it, but because it reveals Christ. He alone is our blessing and if in any way – whether big or small, 100% accurate or even just partially so – I have revealed our great God and Savior to you in a relationally knowable way, then this was time well spent on both our parts.
We at Living Grace Fellowship encourage you to place your trust in Jesus Christ, deliberately choosing Him and bowing the knee to Him as your Master and Lord, so as to come to realize Him as your Savior.
You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. The fact that you exist… that you are His creation, says you were in His heart, you are His delight!
If you do not know Him, please reach out to us. Give us a call at the number located on every page of this website or use our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We would be deeply honored, if you gave us the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will EVER be mentioned.
If you HAVE been spiritually fed by this ministry and WANT to give, we truly appreciate that and you may do so here, but please understand that all the outreaches of this ministry are FREE for you and anyone to enjoy at no cost.
Blessings!
