Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Monday, June 1, 2020

Breathing the Spirit

Again Jesus said, “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.” (John 20:21-22)
As we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, there is much we can learn about the Spirit in the Gospel According to John:

  • The Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove from heaven and remained on him (John 1:32).
  • Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. (John 1:33).
  • What is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6).
  • Everyone born of the Spirit is like the Spirit (John 3:8).
  • The Spirit is of infinite measure in Christ (John 3:34).
  • The giving of the Spirit is related to the glorification of Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39).
In John 14-16, Jesus speaks much of the Holy Spirit.
  • The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot understand because it does not know him (John 14:17).
  • The Spirit is the Advocate the Father sends in Jesus’ name, who teaches us everything and causes us to remember everything Jesus taught (John 14:26).
  • The Spirit testifies to us about Lord Jesus, who is the Truth (John 15:26).
  • The Spirit guides us into all truth, because he does not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears from the Father; he tells us of what is to come (John 16:13).
  • All that belongs to the Father belongs to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and reveals it to us (John 16:14-15).
There is much more in these chapters concerning the Holy Spirit, but let us now turn to John 20:19-22. It is the evening of the Resurrection, and the crucified and risen Christ comes and stands among the disciples. “Peace be with you,” he says, and then he shows them his hands and his side. The disciples are overjoyed to see him. Jesus again says, “Peace be with you,” and adds, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)
It is a scene that recalls a moment in Genesis, in the beginning, when God created Man. God formed humanity in the image of God and according to the likeness of God (that is, to be like God). “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” (Genesis 2:7).
The Scriptures are about the crucified and risen Christ (see Luke 24 and Reading the Scriptures), so Genesis is about the crucified and risen Christ, by whom, through whom, for whom, and in whom all things are created (Colossians 1:16-17). It is Christ who made the Man in the image of God, and it is Christ who breathed the breath of life into the Man. In the Septuagint (aka, LXX, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew text), the word for “breathed” is emphysao, to puff. Christ puffed into humankind the puff of life, and it was only then that what he had formed from the earth became a “living being.”

In John 20, the crucified and risen Christ “breathed” on the disciples. The word used here is the same as in the LXX of Genesis 2, the word emphysao. Just as Christ puffed the breath of life into humankind in the Garden, so here he puffed his breath on the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for “Spirit” is pneuma, which is also translated as “breath.”

The Lord Jesus breathed on the disciples, and the Holy Spirit is that breath — the holy, life-giving breath of God. As the psalm writer says, “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:30). The NET Bible has it as, “When you send your life-giving breath ....” Christ gives the life-giving breath of his Spirit to his disciples, and so to the Church, which is the body of Christ, alive with his Spirit. As we confess in the Nicene Creed, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life.”

The crucified and risen Christ is the “firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:18). As he imparts his life-giving breath in Genesis 2, so he does in John 20, and the body he formed from the earth becomes a living being.

At Pentecost, Christ gave his Spirit, his life-giving breath, pouring it out not just on the disciples but on all people (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16-17), to renew the face of the earth. For he says, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5).

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Do You Not Perceive It?

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Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18)
The Lord says through Isaiah, “Forget the former things.” These were not just the bad things that had happened to Israel, such as the bondage in Egypt or even the Babylonian exile Israel now found herself under. They included even God’s great saving act of the Old Testament, the deliverance of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
This is what the LORD says — he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things. (Isaiah 43:16-17)
That was a wonderful redemption, and the basis of Israel’s relationship as the covenant people of God. But it was a past event, and what they needed now was a present-day deliverance. God would soon bring them out of Babylon and back home to Jerusalem. Yet even that would become a “former thing” because, historically, although Israel was restored to the land, they still remained under foreign dominion.

But all the Law and the Prophets are ultimately about Jesus the Messiah and are fulfilled in him. It is to him that all the former things point and in whom they find their true meaning. In the Lord Jesus, God brought forth the new thing he had long promised Israel. Jesus is not just another in a long series. He is God’s final word, the perfect expression of God and the one by whom everything in heaven and on earth is turned back to God.

Jesus is the “way in the wilderness” that God promised his people, the way who leads us back to the Father. But he does not just lead us on the way — Jesus is the way. There is no path to follow by which we may find our way home. There is only a person, Jesus the Messiah, the Shepherd who brings us safely back to God.

God also promised “streams in the wasteland,” and it is in Jesus that we discover these waters. To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

On the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, while priests performed the water-drawing ceremony that foreshadowed God’s promise of rivers of life-giving water flowing from the temple (see Ezekiel 47:1-23), Jesus stood up and announced, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37-38). John tells us, in verse 39, that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit.

The way in the wilderness. Streams in the wasteland. Do you not perceive it? It is not a matter of observation. It does not come to us by reason but by revelation. God’s ways are not our ways. Yet God has revealed his way — revealed himself — to us in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

There are physical aspects to this revelation: The Virgin Birth, the miraculous ministry of Jesus, the Cross, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, and also the sacraments, such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are historical, for in Christ, God has stepped into history in a singular way and joined himself to humanity — he became a human being and dwelt among us. But the meaning of it all must be imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, for it is mystery, and we should otherwise never be able to perceive it at all. Paul speaks of this in one of his letters to the Church at Corinth.
However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?

In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:9-16)
In Jesus Christ, God has done a new thing and now it springs forth.

Do you not perceive it?

Father of Glory, give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may know you more and more. Open the eyes of our heart that we may know the joyful anticipation of what you have called us to, the wonderful inheritance you have placed in us, and the incomparable greatness of the power you are working for our sake ~ through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Sowing to the Spirit and Reaping Life

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Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Galatians 6:7-10)
It is a simple truth, one easily observed in nature and is applicable to life in general, even in the spiritual realm: we reap what we sow. What Paul has in mind here is the contrast between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit, and he seems to be referring back to chapter 5, concerning the “acts of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit.”
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
When Paul speaks of the flesh, he is talking about what we are apart from the Spirit of God. So the “acts of the flesh” are works done apart from the Spirit. It is important to understand that Paul is not addressing people who want to do corrupt things but people who want to do good things: they want to follow the Law of Moses. The history of Old Testament Israel, though, is largely a history of faithlessness and failure to keep the Law. So these are not works of the Law that Paul is describing but works of the flesh failing to keep the Law, for the Law was of absolutely no use against the corrupt ways and desires of the flesh and provided no means for producing what the Law required.

In Romans 7, Paul describes this problem and how easily it leads to desperation. He sums it up this way: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). The problem was not the Law but bondage to sin, a problem that affected not only Israel but all of humanity. But God promised that the solution would one day come: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

The good news of the gospel is that, in Jesus Christ that time has arrived. For through Christ, God has not only broken the bondage of sin but has also put a new spirit in us — God’s own Spirit. So in contrast to the works of the flesh, and the inability of the Law in the face of them, Paul offers the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
The Law of Moses is certainly not against this. Indeed, it is love, particularly, that fulfills the Law (Galatians 5:14). Yet what the Law was helpless to produce in us, God has given the Holy Spirit to bring forth in us.

Back to chapter 6, now, where Paul draws the contrast between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit and the harvest each one brings. Sow to the flesh and you will reap destruction — ruin, decay, corruption. Sow to the Spirit and you will reap eternal life.

Let’s take a closer look at “eternal life.” We are accustomed to thinking of it as being outside the time frame of history and having very little, if anything, to do with this present world. But the Greek word for “eternal,” aionios, has to do with ages, particularly the age or ages to come. The truth of the gospel is that in the resurrection of Christ, the age to come has broken into this present age and God’s new creation has already begun. “The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining,” is how John puts it (1 John 2:8).

“Eternal life” (zoen aionion), then, is the life of the age to come. But since Christ and his resurrection have already entered into this present age, so also has the life he brings. It is available to us now and may be experienced now, for it is not merely a duration of life but, more importantly, a quality of life.

What does this life look like and how may we experience it? It looks like the fruit of the Spirit and it comes forth through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It is a life of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we sow to the Spirit, we reap the lively fruit of the Spirit. We can think of this fruit as the character of Christ manifesting the life of Christ in us.

How, then, do we sow to the Spirit? It is a matter of trust, of faith. For the fruit is not something we could ever produce in ourselves, otherwise we would be back in the same predicament as Israel was with the Law, trying to live up to a certain standard but without the wherewithal to do so. No, the fruit is the Spirit’s and therefore something only the Holy Spirit can do in us. So we yield ourselves to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit rather than to the flesh, and we do not try to accomplish by Law what can only be done by the Spirit of God.

“The only thing that counts,” says Paul, “is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). Sowing to the Spirit is dependence on God. Yet even that dependence, that faith, must come from God — we receive it as a gift. We can no more work it up within ourselves than we can conjure up love from within ourselves. The nature of the faith that comes from God is that it is energized by the love that is the fruit of the Spirit. That faith and love, then, are the manifestations of the life of the age to come, and by them we do what is good.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Gospel According to John the Baptist

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. (Luke 3:15-18)
This is how John the Baptist preached the gospel, or at least how Luke summarized his preaching of the gospel. It is all about the Messiah, the Christ, and there are two main points to his message. First, while John baptized the repentant with water, Messiah would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire.

In Ezekiel, the Lord had promised that he would sprinkle his people with clean water, cleanse them from all their impurities, give them a new heart and put his own Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:25-27). At Pentecost, the promise of the Father was fulfilled and the Church received this baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon each of them as “tongues of fire.”

This fire of the Spirit burns with the love of God, for the God whom the Scriptures call a “consuming fire” is also the God who is love. His love is a refining fire that burns away the dross so that the gold may shine brightly. In this sense it is a judgment, separating what is good from what is evil. So also, the baptism of divine fire refines us, burning away what is worthless so that the light and life of Christ may shine brightly within.

The second point of John’s message flows from the first: There was to be a winnowing, a judgment that would separate the wheat from the chaff. Messiah would gather the wheat into the barn and the chaff he would burn up. As the Holy Spirit is doing in us, so Christ is also doing in the world. The fire of God’s love through Christ burns away what is evil and worthless so that what is good and fruitful may be safely gathered into his own.

The good news of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to judge the world — with the consuming fire of his love. For as Paul said to the Athenian philosophers, God has “set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed [Christ]. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

God’s purpose in Christ is to “reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). So shall Christ make all things new, with the fire of the Holy Spirit and the love of God.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Prevailing Unity of the Trinity

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, though they are three in number, yet they are one in nature, one in substance. They dwell in each other, participate in each other, have intimate fellowship with each other. The early Church Fathers thought deeply about these things and theologians have referred to the mutual fellowship and participation of the Three as perichoresis, the interweaving of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a sort of divine choreography.

The Three are glorified with the same glory, which is the greatness of their goodness revealed. In his divinity, the eternal Son of God always possessed this glory, but in his humanity, which happened in time, this glory was given to him.

The Three also love with the same love. There is only one love, for God is love and God is one. And it is out of the abundance of their love for each other that the world and humanity came into being.

In the garden of Gethsemane on the night before he was crucified, Jesus prayed for the same unity for his disciples, and all who believe through them, that we may all be one. This is not only unity with each other but also with God — for there is no unity apart from God, who alone is one.

Just as the Father is in Jesus the Son, and Jesus is in the Father, so Jesus prayed that we may be in the Father and the Son. Jesus is in us just as the Father is in him. We are in the Father, Son and Spirit, and they are in us. So we are taken up into the divine interweaving of their fellowship.

The glory Jesus received from the Father is the same glory he shared with the Father before the world began (John 17:5). This is the glory he gives to us, so that we may be one, just as the Father and Son are one. It is a complete unity that Jesus prays for us, for the love the Father has for us is the same love he has for Jesus — love itself is one and cannot be divided.

The Church always confesses the mystery of the Trinity: One God, three Persons. And though Jesus has two natures, fully human and fully divine, we confess that these natures are perfectly united in one person. The unity Jesus prays for his disciples is the unity — the wholeness — of the Three and of Jesus in his divine and human natures.

The truth about all who are in Christ is that, though we be many in number, yet we are one. We are one body, and though the body has many members, yet it is still one body — the body of Christ. This unity is not something we must somehow accomplish for ourselves — it has already been done by Christ himself — but we must learn to live out this oneness by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)
The unity we have with each other is the same unity we have with the Father, through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Thus we partake of and participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). What God is in his own being, he shares with us in grace. It is given to us so that we may enjoy fellowship with the Father, Son and Spirit, the same fellowship they have always enjoyed together with each other from before the world began. This unity is all-encompassing and is why Jesus came.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)
In the end, heaven and earth, though they be two, shall be fully and completely one. And God shall be all in all. The eternal unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit shall prevail in everything.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Glory of the Three Revealed in Us

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. (John 16:14-15)
The ministry of the Holy Spirit in us and through us is all about King Jesus the Messiah. He speaks to the world through us about Jesus in regard to sin, righteous and judgment. He guides us into all Jesus wants to teach us. Everything he does is to glorify Jesus, showing the greatness of his goodness.

Whatever belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to the Son (and the Father) and reveals it to us. The Spirit “takes” it because it belongs to him just as much as it does to the Father and the Son.

So the Three — Father, Son and Spirit — share all things in common and are made known to us by the Holy Spirit. This is by no means a lesser intimacy than the disciples enjoyed before, when Jesus walked with them. He could only be with them then. But the coming of the Spirit would bring a greater intimacy because Jesus would now be in them — and in us.

The Spirit does not just reveal Jesus to us but also in us. And Jesus does not just reveal the Father to us but also in us, through the Spirit. In this way, then, the glory of God is revealed to us, in us and through us. The Father reveals it by sending us the Spirit, who glorifies the Son, who glorifies the Father.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Spirit to Guide Us

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. (John 16:12-13)
Jesus had been with the disciples for three years, teaching and training them, yet there was still much more they needed to learn. But now there seemed to be two problems. First, they were not yet ready to learn what else Jesus wanted them to understand. Second, Jesus would soon be going away, ascending to his throne at the right hand of the Father.

This would indeed have been a problem, except that Jesus promised that the Spirit of God would now come to be in the disciples as well as with them. And now Jesus himself would likewise be in them as well as with them — through the Spirit (see Ascension and Pentecost). The Spirit would be a paraclete. Paraclete is a Greek word that is variously translated as Advocate, Helper and Comforter. And now Jesus calls him the “Spirit of Truth.” The Spirit of God who would soon come upon them would guide them the rest of the way, leading them into all they would need to know. He would show them the truth.

Today, we almost always think of truth in propositional terms, and there is certainly a propositional aspect to the truth about Jesus the Messiah. However, the New Testament understands truth to be a person — Jesus himself. Earlier, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He does not simply show us the way — he is the way. He does not merely bring us life — he is life. He does not just teach us the truth — he is the truth.

When the Holy Spirit guides us into “all the truth,” then, it is all about Jesus. Indeed, he reveals to us Jesus himself. That is why the Holy Spirit does not speak on his own, independently of the Lord Jesus. He speaks only what he hears and tells us the things Jesus wants to say to us. That is the same way Jesus himself operated. Jesus did only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:18), exercised no judgment independently of what the Father judged (John 5:30), spoke only what the Father told him to say (John 12:49-50). The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always in agreement.

Jesus also said that the Spirit would tell of what is to come. It is unclear exactly what this refers to. Perhaps prophetic understanding in general. Perhaps revelatory understanding about the things the disciples themselves were about to see and experience. Perhaps the many things Jesus still had left to teach them, unfolding for them in the days ahead, revealed to them, and through them to us in the Scriptures. The overall point is that the Church will never be at a loss, for the Spirit is always here to help us understand.

Monday, May 25, 2015

The Spirit and Sin, Righteousness and Judgment


The ministry of the Holy Spirit is all about King Jesus the Messiah. In the Upper Room on the night before he was crucified, Jesus described three things that the Spirit would do in and through the disciples when he came upon them. We will look at these over the next few days. First, there is this:
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. (John 16:8-11)
When the Spirit came on them, he would show that the world had been wrong about Jesus of Nazareth. One of the points of the Gospel According to John was to draw the distinction between those who received the Lord Jesus and those who rejected him, but especially that John’s readers might be among those who received.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:11-12)

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (John 3:18)

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
Bringing out the truth of these things would not simply be the work of the disciples but that of the Holy Spirit working through the disciples. In one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to the disciples, he said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22). Imparting the Holy Spirit to them was very much part of sending them out to testify about King Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit came, Jesus said, he would prove the world to be in the wrong about three things: sin and righteousness and judgment.
  • About sin, because they did not believe on Jesus the Messiah. Yet he is the one who came to deal with the problem of sin and destroy its power. The unbelieving world crucified him, yet it was at the cross that Jesus broke the power of sin — for the sake of the world.
  • About righteousness, because Jesus has ascended to his throne at the right hand of the Father. His kingdom establishes the righteousness and justice of God in the world, and will continue to do so until it is complete. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet,” so that in the end, God will be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:25, 28).
  • About judgment, because the “prince of this world” has now been condemned. This was a reference to satan. The cross was not God’s judgment upon Christ but Christ’s judgment upon satan and all his works. Earlier that week, when Jesus came into Jerusalem for the final time, he said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:30-31). The power of the devil was broken at the cross, and the principalities and powers of this world were disarmed.
The Holy Spirit has come to reveal the truth about these things through us as well as to us.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Baptizer in the Spirit

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:26-27*).
Who did this John that was baptizing people out in the wilderness think he was? That’s what the Pharisees and Jewish leaders wanted to know. Was he Messiah? Was he Elijah, who had not died but was carried off to heaven in a chariot and would come again at the end time? Was he the Prophet, the one like Moses who also would come in the last days?

No, no and no. John’s answers were short. He was getting annoyed.

The Jewish leaders were also annoyed. “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” (John 1:22).

John answered in words that echoed the promise of Isaiah 40:3. “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’” (John 1:23).

Then the Pharisees in the group stepped closer. They had been sent to interrogate, and they had an agenda — John’s message of repentance had not been very kind toward them. “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” they asked (John 1:25).

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:26-27).

No, John is not the Messiah. But he is the one who comes before and prepares the way of Messiah. He is the forerunner Isaiah prophesied about. So he preached a baptism of repentance, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2 NKJV).

There was no comparison between John and the Messiah who was about to come — and who was already in their midst. John could only baptize with water. But Messiah would bring something much greater: fulfillment to the messianic promise God foretold through the prophet Ezekiel:
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)
When Messiah came, God would not only baptize his people with clean water and wash away their impurities, he would also give them a new heart and a new spirit. Indeed, God would put his own Spirit in them!

John’s answer to the Pharisees, then, was indirect: John baptized with water … but Messiah was already among them. Those who had ears to hear would be able to understand. On the next day, however, when the Pharisees were gone, John saw Jesus coming and said, “This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:30-31). Jesus had already been baptized by John at this point, and John testified about it:
I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1:32-33)
John could only baptize with water, but he who was baptized with the Spirit is also the one who now baptizes us with the Spirit. And throughout the Gospel of John, we can see this means for us:
Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:5-8)

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. (John 3:34-35)

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life. (John 6:63)

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39)

If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — 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 will be in you. (John 14:15-17)

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, 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 14:25-26)

When the Advocate 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. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)

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." (John 16:12-15)

Again Jesus said, “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.” (John 20:21-22)
*All Scriptures in this post, except where noted, are taken from the New International Version.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Torrents of God’s Redeeming Love

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenbrackstone/5356815972/
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39 NKJV)
This was the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The priests were celebrating the water-drawing ritual, making procession from the pool of Siloam with jars of water to pour out at the base of the alter in the temple. As they went, they sang from Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” The word for “salvation” in that verse is yeshuah.

Now here was Jesus — Yeshua is how you say His name in Hebrew; it means “Yahweh saves.” Standing in their midst, He “cried out.” He was making a declaration, an important announcement for all to hear. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me [Yeshua] and drink.” It was an invitation to come and drink from the true well of salvation, the one God had promised long ago.

Then He added: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” This is not a direct quote; no verse in the Old Testament comes out and states it in just that way. It is an allusion to things spoken of in the Prophets. Readings for the Feast of Tabernacles included passages from Zechariah and Ezekiel. Zechariah 14:8 spoke of a time when “living waters” would flow from Jerusalem.” Ezekiel 47 spoke of the “day of the LORD” and of water flowing out from the temple, first as a trickle and then becoming a mighty river, a river of living water, bringing life and healing wherever it flows. It is also in Ezekiel that God promised, “I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14). Anyone familiar with the water ceremony and the Scriptures that accompanied it would have understood the dramatic import of Jesus’ words.

The word translated “heart” in Jesus’ declaration is not the usual word, kardia, but koilia, which refers to the abdominal cavity. It is sometimes used of the belly and at other times of the womb. The HCSB has it as, “from deep within.” The NASB says, “innermost being” and The Message, “out of the depths.” It is the place in us where the spirit dwells, where God promised He would put His Spirit. This is what Jesus was talking about, the Holy Spirit in us.

The revelation He was bringing is that the new temple, where God would dwell by His Spirit, would not be a building made with hands, but would be found in whoever believes in Jesus the Messiah. The old temple was about to pass away. The sacrifices offered there would soon be made obsolete by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The temple itself, as well as the city of Jerusalem, would be totally destroyed within a generation, as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24. But the new temple would come when Jesus was glorified. After His death on the cross, after His resurrection from the dead, and ten days after He ascended to heaven, the disciples waited in Jerusalem, during the Feast of Pentecost, for the “promise of the Father” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4). God poured out the Holy Spirit on His people then and there.

Now all who believe in Jesus receive the Holy Spirit. We have become the temple of God, living water coursing from our innermost being like mighty rivers, bringing life and healing to the nations. Our part is to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This is not something we do for ourselves but something He does in us; we simply yield ourselves to Him. The rivers that flow out from deep within us are the overflow of being filled with Him. They come forth as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and the miracles and manifestations of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-10). They are the torrents of God’s redeeming love, and through them, we minister the gospel of King Jesus the Messiah that gives life and heals the world.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation


In Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed for believers, asking that the Father would give them the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” — that is, wisdom and revelation by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:17). Paul was an adept theologian and teacher who could be quite eloquent, and his teaching and letters were inspired by the Spirit of God. But that was only part of the equation. As he knew very well, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit was required on the part of those who heard that teaching and read those epistles. Paul’s words went only so far; the Spirit of God would have to carry them through all the way.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)
So Paul prayed that God would reveal by His Spirit the things Paul himself never could. The purpose was that these believers might know God more and more and, specifically, that they would know understand these three things:
  1. What is the hope of His calling. In both the Old and New Testaments, the words for “hope” speak of a confident expectation, a joyful anticipation. God has called us, set us apart for His own special purposes, not just for the life to come but for this present life as well. It is a life-changing, world-changing destiny, and every believer should live with the joyful expectation of fulfilling that divine purpose.
  2. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Toward the fulfillment of this calling, God has placed an inheritance in each one who has received His Son, King Jesus the Messiah. Paul tells us elsewhere that we are joint heirs with Him (Romans 8:17). It is the richness of His own glory that He wants to reveal in and through us.
  3. What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. This is the same divine power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father, “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). It is the same power by which God is able to doing exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or imagine, the power that is now at work in us.
Paul prayed that God would release wisdom and revelation by the Holy Spirit to His people, and that is my prayer for you. Do you suppose that anyone could ever receive that holy wisdom and divine revelation and not be changed by it?

Monday, January 4, 2010

Transformed by the Holy Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
“Be transformed,” Paul tells us in Romans 12:2. Notice that he does not say, “Transform yourselves.” That is something we cannot do — God must do it for us. “By the renewing of your mind,” he adds. Even that, however, is not something we can do on our own. God must renew it for us.

This is always the way it is with the grace of God. He always initiates the what needs to be done in us — He is the only one who can — and our part is simply to respond, to yield and allow Him to do work the work in us. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

How does God do this? By the Holy Spirit.

In his letter to the believers at Galatia, Paul contrasts the work of the Spirit with the work of the Law. The Law, with its rules and regulations, is external to us. We might try to conform ourselves outwardly to the shape of the Law, but that can never bring about the inward transformation of the heart that is required by God. So God has given us His Spirit to do in us what we cannot.

That is why this work is called the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is not externally produced; it comes forth from the life of the tree. If you have ever driven through an orange grove or a peach orchard, you might have noticed that you never see workers pinning oranges or peaches to the trees. They do not have hot-glue guns to stick the fruit to the branches. No, the oranges and peaches come forth from the inside, springing from the life of the tree. What the workers do is nurture the life of the trees, allowing that life to do the work of bearing fruit, then at harvest time they reap the benefit.

It is the same way with the fruit of the Spirit. It comes forth from the life of the Spirit of God at work in us. Our part is to yield and let Him transform us. Then that inward change will eventually work its way outward and produce the fruit of the divine life that is in us.

This fruit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (or faith, the Greek word is the same for both), gentleness, self-control — is what people are looking to see in others and longing to see in themselves. It is the only fruit that will endure, the only fruit that can transform the world with the reality of God’s kingdom (see The Transforming Reality of God’s Kingdom).

It does not and cannot come by outward conformity to any rule or regulation. That’s what Paul means when he says, “Against such there is no law.” It is solely a work of the Spirit of God, the Spirit by which we are born again through faith in Jesus Christ.

The fruit of the Spirit is not about conforming to rules and law but about being transformed by the life of God at work in us through His Spirit.