The Spirit Who is in Us

The God We Worship:
The Spirit Who is in Us
Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:26-27

What makes a person a Christian? We could answer, “Faith,” or “Faith and obedience,” or, well there could be a lot of answers along that line. But I think if you were talking to Paul he would have pointed to the presence of the Spirit in the life of a believer,
“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink,” 1 Cor 12:13.

I. The Promise
The promise that Jesus made to his disciples was that he would send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, John 14:16-17. I don’t think the disciples at that point had a clue about what Jesus was talking about or what it would mean. When the day of Pentecost finally arrived and they experienced the coming of the Spirit they understood that as long as the Spirit is present so is Jesus. The Spirit becomes a part of the proclamation of the gospel, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,’” Acts 2:38. In the churches of Christ we have often put the emphasis on “baptism for the remission of sins,” but we would have done better to give equal emphasis to “the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

What a difference the Holy Spirit made for those early Christians. He provided them matchless courage to stand and proclaim Jesus as Messiah and Lord. He gave them the grace to forgive their murderers just like Jesus. The Spirit was constantly teaching, guiding, and empowering the church to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave his followers.

II. The Spirit’s Mission
The work of the Spirit is varied just as Jesus’ mission in the world had many aspects. The Spirit is to “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment,” John 16:8. Jesus told his disciples that the Spirit “will guide you into all truth,” John 16:13. The Spirit works through the written word and through the Christian community as well as in ways we may not perceive or understand.

As Christians we need the Spirit. We cannot understand what God is doing in our lives and the life of the world, 1 Cor. 2:12. We could not understand spiritual things except by the empowering and enlightening work of the Spirit in us.

The Spirit helps us in ways we do not understand. We receive gifts from the Spirit that allow us to serve and build up the body of Christ, 1 Cor. 12:7-11. The Spirit also assists us when we pray. I don’t know how this works but I am so thankful that at the worst or the best moments of my life when I am overwhelmed and do not know what to pray or how to pray, the Spirit is there to speak to God just what needs to be said, Rom 8:26-27.

The Spirit also produces in us the character of God, the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22-23. And yet the Spirit doesn’t take over, possess us in some demonic sense, but instead the Spirit works with us. God does not violate our will, our ability to choose and decide. The Spirit of God does not make us less human but instead frees us to become human beings God created us to be.

III. Grieving the Spirit
The Spirit’s presence in us makes change possible but that doesn’t mean it is easy. Each day we must choose whether we will listen to the Spirit, whether we will follow God’s gentle leading. We can resist the Spirit; we can grieve the Spirit.

It is fairly easy to see how we resist the Spirit. Stephen as he stood before the Jewish counsel said, “You always resist the Holy Spirit!” Acts 7:51. They resisted basically by not listening to God’s messengers, the Prophets. How many prophets did God send to his people? He sent many more that those whose prophecies were recorded and preserved. How many sermons have you heard? How many Bible classes have you attended? Possibly a better question is how many have you skipped or sat through without really paying attention? We can be quite critical of the Israelites but I wonder how we would stand under a similar criteria.
Paul writes about grieving the Holy Spirit. One grief that the Spirit must feel is disappointment and sorrow when we fail to grow. In Ephesians 4:29-32 grieving the Holy Spirit is put in the context of actions. Almost all of those actions concern how we treat one another. The unwholesome talk that Paul writes of is not cursing but words that tear down instead of encourage and build up. When we destroy the hearts of people because they don’t measure up to our standards then we grieve the Holy Spirit.

We live in a world where anger and rage seems to be a pandemic worse than any bird flu threatening our world. It is one thing to see these things in the world; it is another to see them among God’s people. When anger, rage, malice and bitterness rule in God’s people then the Holy Spirit is grieved, the Holy Spirit is resisted. Jesus walked a different path and the Spirit will lead us in that path when we quit resisting him.

It is not possible to be God’s people without God’s Holy Spirit living in us. I believe that each of us as individuals and as a congregation needs to look at our hearts and lives. Am I resisting the Spirit by not forgiving my brother or sister of something they have done against me? Does anger rather than the fruit of the Spirit characterize my life? Are we truly in step with the Spirit of God? Paul had a warning for a church that was struggling to walk the walk. He wrote,
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Gal 6:7-8
What are we sowing? What will we reap?

Livonia Church of Christ: November 13, 2005