Holy Spirit, week 3

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0:00 This morning as I was looking at continuing this conversation about life in the Holy Spirit or Holy Spirit in the life of the church coming out of Pentecost, I was thinking about last week and how we spoke about that armor of God that the Holy Spirit gives you what you need to stand firm in the faith. I thought it might be a good place for us to start just a little bit, get you moving this morning intellectually moving now physically.

0:30 Because you're stretching yourself a little bit this morning to have a conversation with each other about what kind of support you need. You might think about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Is there one of those that you really need this morning? And then have someone that you're sitting with ask the Lord to give you that. So in place of a song of worship to start this morning, I want to start this way where we're asking the Lord to give the people sitting next to us one of those fruits of

1:01 the Spirit. Take a few minutes, think about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What are you missing this morning? And invite someone sitting next to you to ask the Lord to give you that this morning. Let's take a few minutes and do that before we start into our text. Oh, also kids elementary school, preschool, little ones. We do have Sunday school this morning. Ms. Eileen is in there with some helpers. If you guys want to go, get a lesson this morning and explore over there. Okay.

1:38 Through the Spirit. When you read where Paul outlines the fruit of the Spirit, it's really fun to imagine. It feels almost like he can't believe that in this life on this side of Pentecost, that transformation could happen, that he could be a new person from the inside out.

2:12 You get this feeling when you read through Paul that he was the Hebrew of Hebrews, he study under Gamaliel, he understood all the laws and made sure people followed the laws. He was very accustomed to the idea that if he followed the right rules, he could eventually be right even though he didn't feel right. And then you read Galatians and you see like he's almost like he can't believe this is an option, life according to the Spirit, that he could be the right person from the inside out.

2:43 And he starts to describe these emotional states that are available to him. And I love the idea that then he goes on to talk about this as a foretaste. It's my favorite. So that if we have known joy here, it's a small sampling of the joy we will know forever. If we have known love here, it's a down payment on the love that we will know forever. I love the idea that these through the Spirit are available to us now and that they intensify

3:15 as we grow in faith and then forever in eternity with God. So anyway, I think it's a, I hope that that can be a good marker for you to go which pieces of the armor do I need to put on. When I realize I'm completely lacking joy, maybe there's a piece of truth or a knowledge about my salvation, my eternity of secure that I'm forgetting that I need to put back on these pieces.

3:45 Maybe if I'm fearful, I need to remember in what do I have faith? The God who secured my future and protects me over against other things I may be putting my faith in. Remember that those two things work together. We got to the armor of God last week because I've been looking at this book. He's from Rhaenyarokan to the Messa who was the preacher to the papal household. I went back and looked. This book was published in 94. So not too long ago, no longer ago.

4:18 What is, how long ago is 94? What, 27 years? Did I say anything? Okay. So, long older than this row back here, Nathan and Weston, lived in this row. Anyway, he's going through, we got to this idea because we were thinking in Pentecost about what it means that the original life-giving, creative spirit of God is released on people

4:49 as Joel prophesied indiscriminately. Young and old men and women. And we get the Holy Spirit. And what we see when we pay attention is that this, like, the way humanity gets the Holy Spirit is different after the resurrection and the extension of Jesus than before. And that's evidenced by the fact that people like Paul have significant life transformation, not like a minor turn, but a complete 180.

5:22 Right? His characteristics and traits are the same, but what he's working for in the world changes completely. His demeanor and attitude changes. Peters, Peters' capacity for courage and hope is completely different with the Holy Spirit and is evidenced in things like the fruit of the Spirit. And then, so we've been looking at that and then this guy's helping us think about what does it mean now that we have the Holy Spirit, that we live on this side of Pentecost.

5:57 In order to answer that question, he's guiding us to look at what does the Holy Spirit do explicitly in the life of Jesus. And so lastly, we looked at that the Holy Spirit, anoints Jesus as baptism and immediately takes him out into the desert to be attempted and do battle with the enemy. And now this week we're looking at another instance. There's only three recorded in the gospels where it says the Holy Spirit came on Jesus

6:33 for a specific thing. The second one is shortly after that baptism and temptation. In chapter four, if you look of Luke, Luke's account of gospel, if you look there with me, Luke chapter four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Luke chapter four, and I want to start at verse 16. Luke says, and he, Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

7:06 I don't know how long he's been away from Nazareth at this point. Remember that he was born in Bethlehem, but probably by the time the Magi came, by the time he was two years old or so, they had gone back to Nazareth where Joseph and Mary were making a living, and that's where he grew up was in Nazareth. And then he lives there and presumably he goes through Hebrew school, but then apprentices

7:38 as with Joseph in the carpet be prayed. And then at some point when the moment seems right or he understands the time has come, he goes down to find his cousin John the Baptist. That takes a period of time. And he's baptized there. And then like we saw last week, immediately leaving to Jordan, he goes out into the desert for 40 days and fast. And then at some point after that he makes his way back to Nazareth, but they definitely

8:12 know him. Nazareth is not a big place. It's mostly few purters there in the meadows. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He had a custom at least by now. And he stood up, and the scroll of prophet Isaiah was given to him, and he unrolled the scroll and found a place where it was written. I guess this is the way they would do it.

8:42 Most people, like a rabbi would come through a synagogue. You had to have so many Jewish families in order to have a synagogue. And then you would make any sacrifices at the synagogue. Of course you could only make sacrifices at the temple, but you would do a reading of the scriptures. And then some ceremonial practices. And then if you didn't have your own rabbi, there would be ones traveling through like Jesus' itinerant rabbi. And a lot of times in the text, around the outside of the text, there would be written

9:17 notes about rabbinical understandings and interpretations. And most rabbis had learned their interpretations of the Torah from a previous rabbi so that there were several schools but a finite number. So that when you came to a text, they didn't always have all the scrolls at every synagogue. So a rabbi comes and you give him the scroll that you have, or the one that's up for that day. And a scroll is not as convenient as a bound book, so you might just take it where it is.

9:51 You might just open it up to where the last guy left off. Otherwise you're going to be there like moving the bindings, the scroll several times to get to where you want. So Jesus comes to Nazareth and he's there and he's been in enough synagogues now that he has a custom. He goes to this one, they hand him the scroll. He finds a particular place in the scroll of Isaiah, the one that he's looking for. And that might take a minute, right? And then he's given to him and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was

10:25 written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. It's not because he's done using the preach from sitting down.

10:55 And the eyes of all the synagogues were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. I mean I appreciate that Luke got this down for us maybe because it was in Nazareth, even Mary told him about it, right? I love that he has the first line of the sermon from Jesus. Thank you. I would like the whole thing. Wouldn't you? He began by saying to them today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, but I

11:29 would like to hear how Jesus helps them understand, proclaim good news to the poor, sent liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I would like to hear that message. Maybe we will one day. Thank you Luke for getting us started, but it's not this pain. And then they said, is this not Joseph's son?

12:02 And they said, in doubtless you will quote this proverb. Well, but first, verse 22, and all spoke well to him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. This happens a lot when Jesus preaches marveled at the gracious words coming from his mouth or it says they'll be amazed at the authority with which he spoke. And I think that's because he's probably compelling speaker. I mean people follow him. You know, at one point there's like maybe five, seven, eight thousand people away from food and the wilderness following him just to hear his teaching.

12:34 I imagine he's a pretty good teacher. He makes up these stories we call parables that have been translated and transfixed people for thousands of years. I imagine part of the reason they marveled is Jesus is a good speaker. But the other reason they marveled is because whenever he teaches he's not teaching a line of thought that they've heard before. It's not just the member I said that there would be rabbinical traditions more than one but a finite number. Jesus is going, he reads Isaiah and then they're expecting one of maybe five or six streams

13:12 of thought on Isaiah chapter 61 and he goes somewhere different and they marveled. And they're amazed. And then they go, well wait a minute, don't we know you aren't you, Joseph's kid. But the point for us today is that Jesus says that that original spirit of God who hovers over the waters at creation and over shadows marry at the incarnation who will eventually

13:48 be unleashed on the church for the transformation of lives at Pentecost who is breathed into Adam and Eve at the very beginning to animate human life. That spirit comes upon Jesus for the purpose of the proclamation of the good news. He describes it this way here, right? The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, receiving of sight to the blind

14:21 and set at liberty those who are oppressed. I don't think Jesus needed the spirit in order to know Isaiah 61. I don't even really think Jesus needed the spirit of God in order to know that he would be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. I think part of the reason he goes down to John the Baptist in the beginning and sets

14:52 off on the ministry is that in some communication with him and God the Father, God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth is aware that now is the time for him to start a ministry that is the fulfillment of things like Isaiah 61. I don't think that Jesus of Nazareth needed the spirit to know that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. I think what he's saying is the Holy Spirit has anointed me because as I announce this it's going to go out into the world with the power of the spirit. It's not just words of humanity being spoken, but it's words of the human Jesus of Nazareth,

15:29 the incarnated God, speaking laden with the power of the spirit. If we go to the right just a little bit we see that this like job goes forward beyond just with Jesus in Luke chapter 10. Let's look there just a little bit to the right. Luke chapter 10.

16:00 He's taking the next step here. Jesus is in this like anointing. The spirit has anointed me to announce this thing, the year of the Lord's favor, which will be marked by these certain things. Jesus does that for a period and then in Luke chapter 10 he pulls together 72. Isn't it interesting? We think about Jesus with his disciples so often as the 12.

16:31 And of course so much of that is colored by the way we've learned about it and also just the way we've read about it. There are certainly at certain points he lists 12 disciples, but he also talks about his friend Mary and Martha, talks about Mary and Magdalene following him around. We looked here in chapter 10. He has 72 people for whom he gives a significant job and they do it.

17:02 Let's look at it in Luke chapter 10. After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him, 2 by 2, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. Wait a minute, 72, 2 by 2 is what, 36? 36 places where Jesus is about to go.

17:34 Dude is busy. That's a lot of walking around. I never put that mat together. I'd have to make a list of the towns I visited to see if I visited 36. Certainly not in three years. He's on a mission. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

18:06 Carry no money bag. Take no money. No knapsack. No extra stuff. No sandals. And greet no one on the road. That's interesting. Don't get distracted. Don't just meander about. Whatever house you enter, first stay peace be upon this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.

18:37 But if not, it will return to you. That's the whole mother thing we could talk about. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide for the laborers deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house whenever you enter a town and they receive you. Eat what is set before you. Heal this tick and it stay to them. And in it stay to them. The kingdom of God has come near to you. Then he goes home. If they reject it, it will be worse for them than the Sodom in that town.

19:09 Shake the dust from your feet. He sends out 72 people, 36 teams into towns where they'll go. He says, don't take anything extra so you're not distracted or think that anyone's going to provide for you except for the one who's in charge. And don't get distracted on the road. Go straight to a town. If they recognize that you're bringing peace and they welcome you, stick around. If not, leave.

19:39 Go to a different house. Don't worry about it. And then when you get there, heal this tick. He doesn't tell them how to do it. And then he says, and then also, tell them this. And the message is, the kingdom of God has come near to you. He's sending 36 teams out, 72 people out into the world with nothing except this thing. The kingdom of God has come near to you. Look at verse down, verse 17.

20:13 The 72 returned with joy saying, hey man, this thing worked. The 72, 36, I don't know how long that took. They walked several places. I'm curious if Jesus is on a personal retreat. Like storing up to hit all these 36 places to come in behind him. Like it's interesting to think about the logistics or the mechanics of how he sends out 72 people with nothing. And they all go out there. And they find a house of peace.

20:44 And they find food. And they find people to heal. People to heal. And people to hear the notions that the kingdom of God has come near to you. And then they all come back. And what's the gathering like? Right? They didn't talk to anybody on the road. They got to focus. They each went to their way. They had their assignment. They went out. They can't believe they found a house. It was nice to them because they had nothing. And then they can't believe that those people fed them and they ate well. And then when they said this thing that seems simple, the only thing that Jesus gave them,

21:18 that the kingdom of God has come near to you, they can't believe it. It works. This is because in the same way for Jesus, it is for this first version of the church, the spirit of God comes on the words and empowers the good news. The kingdom of God is here. This is like what the whole thing is built on. Look forward with me in Paul's letter to the church in Romans 10.

21:54 So if you're in Luke, you go to the right, Matthew, John, Acts, Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians. Romans 10. You know, Romans is like Paul's, Paul is like spends a lot of time and effort trying to get all the way to Rome. Paul is the most strategic evangelist that we at least have story or record of in the scriptures.

22:25 He's like following plans about where he goes. He seems very strategic in the town. And actually his strategy to get to Rome is to get, he's arrested. They try and set him free, but he's like, forget it. I don't want to go free. I want my case to be heard in front of the emperor. So he stays in house arrest until they take him to Rome. He's staying arrested in order to get to preach to the emperor in Rome. We don't know if he ever quite makes the biblical narrative sounds like maybe he dies in Rome. Some church history says he preaches in Rome, gets released from house and makes it all

23:00 the way to Spain, trying to go to the end of the earth with the gospel. But this letter that he writes to the Romans, we're pretty sure he's writing, well, he's in house arrest waiting to get to Rome because he's heard that there's a group of people who are believing already and he wants to make sure that they're believing the right thing. So when you read Romans, he goes into a lot of theology, people call it Paul's gospel, that he lays out for us the full theology of what it means that Jesus Christ is Lord. And he sums up that that is the heart of it right here in Romans chapter 10.

23:37 We don't have time to go to it. So we'll go right to verse 9. Romans chapter 10 verse 9. He says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Most scholars think that this phrase right here, Jesus is Lord is the very beginning of the creedal identity of the church. And in this idea, Jesus is Lord. You get the kernel, the like concentrated essence, right?

24:15 The perfect reduction of the good news. Jesus, the one Jesus of Nazareth born of Mary, Jesus is King of Kings. Lord of Lords in charge of all. Jesus is Lord. So when Paul is writing this into Rome, he's not just making up words. He's quoting what is said among the church in the first century and making sure that

24:47 the Christians in Rome have the powerful statement that the Holy Spirit has been imbibing and empowering and enlivening a church with. That the Holy Spirit comes with this good news and transforms people from the inside out that Jesus is Lord. And then the second piece that they added to it after Jesus is Lord is that Jesus Lord and believe in your heart that you will be raised from the dead, you will be saved. That Jesus Lord and then Jesus Lord for me. His death is for me.

25:21 And so this phrase, Jesus is Lord is like what the church then starts to run with. And they can't believe it, right? Starting with Peter at Pentecost, 3000 people convert. And then when Paul encounters it on Damascus road and Jesus appears to him and says, why are you persecuting me?

25:51 Right? And he realizes that Jesus is Lord. And then all throughout Asia Minor, right? And then frame the people who first Jews who never encountered the way of Jesus while he was alive and only encountered it after. And then remarkably Gentile believers who've never been Jews before are animated by the idea that the God of creation and life, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, might be for them as well through the person Jesus of Nazareth.

26:23 This miracle of faith that the God of creation and life could come into a person, die and defeat death, raise again. And now though he is not seen or heard, be Lord of lords and coming back for me, this miracle of faith is empowered by the spirit over and over again. It's miraculous that people might believe in. And what they have to do in the early church is codify to go, when we do this, the Holy

26:54 Spirit comes in. And the this is announced that the kingdom of God has come, that Jesus is Lord and the Holy Spirit comes. And miraculously people believe. And as they believe, oh my, lives are transformed. Like a lot of joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

27:25 Paul goes into it a little bit more deeply in his letter to the Corinthians. Sorry, I'm taking you to a lot of texts because this was so cool for me to look at because if you've been around me at all, you know I love talking about the reign of God and to see it pulled out like this by Raniara Contilla Messep made me very happy. So we're going through all of it. First Corinthians chapter two. Paul gets actually, he starts to talk about in his letter to the Corinthians when he's

27:58 calling them back, he's like, remember what I, what I, what I, how you came to the face. Because he's like getting on them about all these different nuanced theologies that they're following and then fighting over. Right? Well, first Corinthians chapter two verse one. And I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ.

28:33 Jesus Christ is not a first name and a last name. It's a first name and a title. The title means Lord. I came, I came among you knowing nothing except Jesus is Lord and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not plausible with, were not in plausible words of wisdom.

29:04 It's notorious in the story of scripture when you read it carefully, especially in acts and pause letters that Paul was a diminutive person. He, he, like literally he was small of stature and supposedly did not have a good oratory voice. Also, you can imagine he's been through a lot. He's been stoned. So he's probably kind of rough, right? And he's been chipper, and he's walked a lot. He's been run out of town on more than one occasion.

29:35 Paul is not known for being, at least doesn't ever take credit for being in scripture, a good speaker. He's a much better letter writer, it seems. And so he says, when I came among you, I like was, I was fumbling. I was trembling and afraid. I did not speak with high logic or wisdom. What I knew was Jesus the Christ crucified, right? And when I, my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration

30:10 of the spirit and of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul got really good at getting out of the way of the work of the spirit of life. He started to say, the way faith comes, he's like, he says, I cannot argue you into faith. I cannot make some apology and prove to you that the creator of the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob found his way into a human and the human lived alive, died, defeated

30:45 death, rose, ascended and sits on the throne where he is king of all kings, waiting to come back and take you into a world he is prepared for you. I cannot logically convince you that is true. But if I announce to you that Jesus Christ is Lord, then on occasion with regularity, the primordial original spirit of God will animate you to believe. He's imploring at this point as you live your life and faith, don't forget that your

31:17 faith is not built on logic, but on the spirit which gave you faith to begin with. So that as you come up against opportunities for growth in faith or as you come into places of talent, remember that our faith is built on the spirit, on the good news, preach to

31:49 the poor, that Jesus Christ is Lord. He goes on and says, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although this is not a wisdom of the age, of the rulers of the sage, but according to those pass away, we proclaim a hidden wisdom of God which is God decreed before the ages. He goes on and then if you go down, these things God revealed to us through the spirit. For the spirit searches everything even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except for the spirit of that person, which is in him,

32:22 so no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. He's saying, you do get knowledge about the faith, but it comes at the gift of the spirit. And this for me is like the major takeaway for us. I mean I think that it is implied in this, and I hope that you are making the connection, that as you go about in life and encounter opportunities where there are like Jesus said,

32:55 people who are captive, who are poor, who are oppressed. The announcement to them is that their future is not contained in their present circumstances, that their potential is not bound by their own limitations. They are not the masters of their own future and thereby limited, their future is not limited

33:31 by what they can imagine or accomplish on their own. No. When you encounter people who are poor, oppressed and captive, our answer is to announce to them, hey, Jesus is Lord in charge of me and you and all that is in the world. He has ordained a future and has redeemed a past. And these are secure under his authority, not our own.

34:05 I hope that you hear that the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in order to empower the words, and what we see on this side of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit empowers the words of the church as well when they go out with this message, that the reign of God is near, that Jesus Christ is Lord. The other thing I want you to grasp in this season of Pentecost, from this work of the Holy Spirit, is where your power is for you.

34:43 Because there is a temptation or like a rut we can fall into where the notion, Jesus of Lord, is an intellectual agreement or a habitual one. Meaning we can understand the words logically, but live as though we are our own lords in the world. We were at an event, Meredith and I and my family were at an event yesterday or Thursday, Friday.

35:20 And it was at a banquet hall. It was like a plated lunch thing. I've never had this happen before. And the server was very attentive. It was really nice. I had a piece of gum when I got in there and I put it in my little wrapper and got ready to put it just in my pocket. And he came over and had his hand out like this. And I was like, I want to shake it. And he was like, no. He wasn't talking, he had a mask on. And he's a no. And I couldn't figure out.

35:53 And then he pointed. He wanted my gum in his hand. OK. So I put my gum in his hand. I didn't have to worry about him. It was just kind of nice. And then he came by later and he picked up the plate in order that I would take the napkin that was underneath the plate and put it on. He's super attentive. Came to water several times. Towards the end, we're having coffee with the dessert. And he comes over and says, would my Lord like some coffee? I said, sure.

36:25 He said, any portant, he said, there you go, my Lord. Literally, the dude called me my Lord. Not my Lord, my Lord. It's nice to feel important. Yeah. It's very easy for us to say intellectually or habitually that Jesus Christ is Lord.

36:59 And admit that we're living as our own Lord. Right? The tragedy of that is that when you say Jesus Christ is Lord habitually or rationally or it doesn't come with the gift of the Spirit. When we live as though we are our own Lord and just say, Jesus is Lord, we don't get the Spirit to animate life.

37:31 And then pretty quickly, we're living as though we're our own Lord, though saying habitually or logically, Jesus is Lord. And we begin to resent the fact that our life looks like everyone else's. That there is no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, good as faithless, gentleness, self-control. And we very sneakily miss the fact that we're saying Jesus Christ is Lord, but never even really living that way, believing it. But faith.

38:04 Remembering Paul says what your faith was built on, the miraculous belief that Jesus Christ is for. There's an opportunity living on this side of Pentecost for the indwelling Spirit to transform your life. Right? So don't settle for habit or logic. And counter the notion, Jesus Christ is Lord, and sit with it. What might it mean for you if Jesus Christ is Lord?

38:36 Come back to the idea over and over again that Jesus Christ is Lord. Ask yourself, how I encountered the notion that Jesus Christ is Lord of my life today? What might that mean? As we encounter the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, that his reign is here for us, that we are not our own things, that he is our king. The Spirit comes. As it did that time in Nazareth when Jesus announced it, as it did in those 36 places

39:09 with the 72 went out, as it did for Peter in Jerusalem, as it did for Paul and Corinth and Rome, it does for us today. The Spirit comes with the announcement that Jesus Christ is Lord, and it comes to you. And don't settle for anything less, intellectual agreement or habitual kind of capitulation. Jesus Christ is Lord. Let me pray. Hey Lord, the Lord, we thank you that you have not abandoned us to habit or logic, but you

39:44 have gifted us with your Spirit. We just want it means to live with the reality that you are our Lord. Died and risen, ascended and dispatched the Spirit that we might live under your reign and authority. Do that for us this morning, for the sake of Jesus. Amen.