Presented to Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto; 03 April 2016
by Captain Michael Ramsay
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Today we will be speaking
about the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. You did so well on Palm Sunday on our
quiz that I have another one for us today. Let’s see how we do. [Answers below,
before footnotes]
1)
When is the first time the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of God shows up in Scripture?
a.
Genesis 1:1
b.
Revelation 2:4
c.
John 1:1
d.
Acts 2:4
2)
When is the first time the Holy Spirit is specifically
mentioned contending with a multitude of people for their salvation?
a.
Genesis 6:3
b.
Isaiah 9:6
c.
Matthew 1:23
d.
Acts 2:4
3)
When is the first time the Bible openly talks about specific
people having an indwelling of the Holy Spirit or a personal relationship with
the Holy Spirit?
a.
Genesis 41:38
b.
Judges 2:7
c.
Matthew 1:18
d.
Acts 2:4
4)
What book in the Bible is an anthology of separate incidents
of the Holy Spirit personally empowering people for salvation of themselves and
others?
a.
Exodus
b.
Judges
c.
John
d.
Revelation
5)
When is the first time the Holy Spirit shows up chronologically
in the New Testament?
a.
Matthew 1:18
b.
Mark 1:8-10
c.
Luke 1:15
d.
John 1:32
6)
When is the first time the Holy Spirit is recorded
as being poured out to people after the resurrection of Christ in the New Testament?
a.
Matthew 1:18
b.
Mark 4:35
c.
John 20:22
d.
Acts 2:4
John 20:19-23: This is a
really interesting passage. It is mentioned in the liturgy for many Christian
churches. It is in the same chapter as the Resurrection, which every Christian
church celebrates at Easter, and yet for some reason people in the 21st
Century Church often skip over this chapter and think that the Holy Spirit first
shows up in Scripture in Acts 2 or that He first enters peoples lives
personally in Acts 2 or that He first shows up to empower people for salvation
in Acts 2 or that He first shows up in the Christian Church in Acts 2.[1]
None of this is technically true[2]
(unless, of course, Acts 2 is simply Luke account of John 20 here, which it
could be).[3]
God, the Holy Spirit is part of our life and our world at the creation of the
world and God, the Holy Spirit is still apart of our life at the creation of
the church and beyond.[4]
This week I have spent a
lot of time contemplating the Spirit of God. We have just finished reading the
Gospel of John as a congregation and I have spent a lot of time looking at
articles, commentaries and resources about the life and role of the Holy
Spirit in the Gospel of John. Let me share with us a little of what struck me
this week.
First, John Chapter 1:
John 1 is known as one of the great trinitarian pericopes in the Bible. What
does trinitarian/trinity mean? (3-in-1). Right off the top in John’s Gospel,
John tells us that Jesus is God and God is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit
is Jesus. John then goes on in this very same chapter, Chapter 1 of his book,
to mention the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus as a dove at His baptism
(1:33) and from that point on it is really interesting to look at what Jesus
says about the Holy Spirit.
I have handed out a few verses
for some people to read aloud, which I will ask you to do shortly but first I
have another question. John uses the Greek word ‘Paraclete’ to refer to the
Holy Spirit. Does anyone know what ‘Paraclete’ means? (One who is a comforter, an
advocate, and/or who comes alongside). Jesus throughout this Gospel – and
especially during his farewell discourse –repeatedly promises that the same
Spirit of God that descended upon Him, that is within Him and that has been with
God since before the creation of the world, that same Spirit of God that is in
everything and that God has poured out at pivotal times in salvation history, will
be our Paraclete, our comforter, our advocate.
Today we have given a
number of people verses in John about our Paraclete, our comforter, our
advocate, the Holy Spirit. If you have one, please read it aloud now for all of
us to hear:
·
John 3:5, 'Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no
one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water
and the [Holy] Spirit.'
·
John 3:34, 'For the one whom God has sent speaks the
words of God, for God gives the [Holy] Spirit without limit.'
·
John 7:38-39a: Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture
has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant
the [Holy] Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.
·
John 14:17: the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot
accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him,
for He lives with you and in you.
·
John 14:26: But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you
of everything I have said to you.
·
John 15:26: When the Paraclete comes, whom I will
send to you from the Father—the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the
Father—He will testify about me.
John has a lot to say
about the Holy Spirit that is really important for us to understand today. To
recap, John says:
·
The world can’t accept the Holy Spirit (John 14:17),
and
·
Without the Holy Spirit no one can enter God’s
Kingdom (John 3:5), but
·
Those who serve Jesus will receive the Holy Spirit
(John 7:38), for
·
God gives the Holy Spirit without limit (John 3:34),
and
·
The Holy Spirit will empower you to tell people
about Jesus (John 15:26); so that they can be saved unto eternal life and be a
part of His Kingdom forever.
The word for ‘spirit’ both
in Hebrew and in Greek has the same range of meanings. What does the word ‘spirit’
mean? (Wind. The word for wind and the word for spirit in each Greek and Hebrew
and in each the OT and NT is exactly the same. Hebrew, ‘Ruach’; Greek,
‘pneuma’; we can even think of God, the Holy Spirit as the Holy Wind or the
very Breath of God.)[5]
This is exciting because
in Acts 2 we have the Spirit coming like a wind to empower us to share the
gospel;[6]
In Genesis 2 (cf. Ezekiel 37) and John 20 we have God breathing His Spirit into,
onto or over people. Genesis 2:7, at the creation of mankind, records, “Then
the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The psalms
(104:29) even tell us that if that Spirit of God is removed from us then we will
all die. And John here in our passage today draws on that same imagery as he
tells us about the coming of the Paraclete.[7]
John 20:21-23, Jesus says to his disciples, probably many more than ten, eleven
or even twelve of them; reading Luke into this, possibly even the people who
met Jesus on the road to Emmaus are present with this crowd:[8]
21 Again Jesus
said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And
with that he breathed and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive
anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are
not forgiven.”
The Holy Spirit is given
here so that we can share the Good News with the World, just as Jesus did. And
what is that Good News? That Good News is that, John 3:16, for God so loved the
whole world that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have
eternal life... in His Kingdom to come.
I have a short story for
us today and then we will conclude our time here. I love everyone here and as I
have been getting to know all of you more, I love you even more. I am getting
to know and love the city and I am even beginning to learn about baseball as we
have a great team here. But one thing that I have missed here – because I was
new or for whatever reason – is ‘leading people to Christ’, being there when
they receive that gift of salvation and eternal life from God. Honestly, it had
been weeks and months and I was starting to wonder if it might become a year
even without my having the joy of celebrating with someone as they accept the
forgiveness of sins and the eternal life (where none of what we have done
before – no matter how bad – even matters anymore). I even brought up this at
one of our staff meetings, asking people when the last time any of us have had
the joy to be there when people accepted God’s gift of forgiveness of sins. I
was starting to be sad about this because I know there are people are suffering
through the struggles of this life alone when they don’t need to; we all can
rest in the Spirit and enjoy the comfort of the Paraclete; we can each ask
Jesus to come into our life and be saved. This all was in the back of my mind
as I was preparing for today. I was sad.
In the front of my mind
this week was the Holy Spirit and the fact that the word ‘spirit’ means ‘wind’
or ‘air’ or ‘breath’ and that as we receive the Holy Breath, we can be saved in
everything both now and forever.
And then the phone rang. I
was told there was a man in the Toronto General Hospital who had a terminal
respiratory illness. He was going to die from not being able to breathe the air,
the wind. I was told he might not live until tomorrow. I was told he needed a
minister and I was told his family wanted a Salvation Army Officer there. I was
told he might be ready to accept forgiveness for his sins and receive eternal
life. I ran downstairs, I told Patricia and Monica, asked for prayer and John
drove me over the the hospital, he prayed and I headed upstairs to see the man
and his family. And to make a long story short, this man who was dying of a
lack of breath, accepted the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit and received
eternal life; so that even as he dies, yet shall He live. This man accepted
eternal life, God’s Holy Spirit, even on his death bed. Praise the Lord!
What about us here? Is
there any in this room who have never asked Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit to come
into our lives? Are there any of us here who our dying of an eternal respiratory
disease? Are there any of us here who are going through and the struggles of
life without being a Christian, without taking hold of the comfort God offers?
Is there anyone here who hasn’t prayed to receive the Holy Spirit yet? If so,
you don’t need to wait until your death bed; you don’t need to wait until your
dying breath; you can accept forgiveness for sins and live forever today.
Is there anyone here who
has not asked God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus into their lives yet? Would you like
me to pray for you? If so come up to the front here and we will pray for you.
Let us pray.
Answers to Quiz:
1) (a) Genesis 1:1 –
Right in the beginning of the Bible: “Now
the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
2) (a) Genesis 6:3:
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they
are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
3) (a) Genesis 41:38
mentions the Moses as having the Holy Spirit in him and Exodus 35:30-32 speaks
about the Holy Spirit being with Bezalel son of Uri, many more example follow
throughout the OT.
4) (b) Judges
5) (a) Matthew 1:18. Matthew
1:18 records: ‘This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His
mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together,
she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:8-10 first
mentions the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus at his baptism. Luke 1:15 speaks
about the Spirit in terms of John the Baptist "for he will be great in the
sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he
will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born." John 1:32:
John 1:1-18 implies the presence of the Holy Spirit at creation but – like Mark
– first mentions Him specifically descending on Jesus at His baptism like a
dove in 1:32.
6) (c) John 20:22
---
[1] Cf. Gary M. Burge, ‘John’ in NIVAC Bundle 6: Gospels, Acts. NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi, Zondervan: 2000), 70911-70934
[2] Cf. Rodney A. Whitacre, John (IVP NT Series: IVP Academic: Downers
Grove, Illinois: 1999), 482
[3] Gary M. Burge, ‘John’ in NIVAC Bundle 6: Gospels, Acts. NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi, Zondervan: 2000), 70952
[4] Cf. John Kistendahl, ‘2nd Sunday of Easter: John
20:19-31: Exegetical View’ in Feasting on the Word Year C Vol 2:Lent through
Eastertide, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown, ed. (Louisville,
Kentucky, Westminister John Knox Press:
2000), 14135
[5] Gregory Robbins, ‘2nd Sunday of Easter: John 20:19-31:
Exegetical View’ in Feasting on the Word Year C Vol 2:Lent through Eastertide,
David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown, ed. (Louisville, Kentucky, Westminister John Knox Press: 2000), 14176
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Acts
2: Scene 1. Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 August 2007,
Swift Current Corps 23 May 2010 and 17 May 2015, and Corps 614 Regent Park
Toronto 04 October 2015. On-line:http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/05/acts-2-scene-1.html
[7] Gerard Sloyan, John, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for
Teaching and Preaching, (Atlanta,
Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 225
[8]Cf. William Hendricksen, John (New Testament Commentary: Baker
Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2007), 460
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