Dissing the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:1-17 Pentecost Series. Dr. Greg Anderson June 18, 2017

Transcription

1 Dissing the Holy Spirit Romans 8:1-17 Pentecost Series Dr. Greg Anderson June 18, 2017 Riverdale Baptist Church Whitehorse, Yukon

2 Introduction 1 We continue with our consideration of Pentecost the Baptism of the Holy Spirit upon all who, in the words of the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do you want to receive God s gift of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, to be with you and in you? Then repent, turn from a lifestyle with little or no acknowledgement of the living God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ committing yourself to a lifestyle of following Jesus. It is that simple. God s gift is waiting for you. Two weeks ago, on Pentecost Sunday I explained the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus Christ was for the main purpose of those followers in community to demonstrate in word and deed to the watching world the goodness and beauty of God and his kingdom. Is this not what people desire? Not so much miracles ; though if you are suffering in an impossible situation, a miracle is wished for. Rather; purpose, peace, unity, justice, love and everything else Jesus taught about, vibrantly demonstrated as actually happening among a group of people. This is where the gift of the Holy Spirit always leads to just read the last few verses in Acts that record the conclusion of the day of Pentecost. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is fundamentally experienced in all that builds the congregation for the mission of Christ. Last week, Pastor Michelle dug a bit deeper and explained three ways in which we individually experience the Holy Spirit: The simple fact of Christian belief in a person s life. This exists from the Holy Spirit. The settled commitment in the believer s life to join with others in a congregation striving to live out the kingdom of Christ in the here and now. This exists from the Holy Spirit. The passionate whole person desire in all of life and particularly when bereft of any other support, to cry out to God as Father, even when words are not possible. This intimate recognition that God is not remote but is as a father, exists from the Holy Spirit. Now, let s go a bit deeper into the personal experience of the Holy Spirit. However, keeping before us the Spirit s main purpose is congregation building for witness to Christ; working in believers together to light up dark places with Christ s goodness. Romans 8 (along with Galatians 5) has some of the most significant scriptural direction on the experience of the Holy Spirit in and among believers.

3 Text 2 First a couple of comments about reading and understanding Romans 8. Do not be misled by commentators who claim the correct view in contrast to others. As a rule, that arises from intellectual arrogance, not Christian humility. Search for explanations reflecting the spirit of Vincent of Lerins writing in the 400 s all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. Among commentators of Romans 8 we have a school arguing that Paul is describing who the believers are people led by the Holy Spirit the ontological perspective. Another school agrees with this but emphasizes Romans 8 is more an exhortation by Paul to those led by the Spirit not to be misled by the flesh. I am certainly in the second school. Second, recognize that when reading the English translation, Spirit, which in our NIV is almost always with a capital S, signifying the Holy Spirit is ambiguous in the original. It is a theological interpretation to translate with a capital S, signifying the Holy Spirit in contrast to a lower case s signifying the human spirit. The point being, reading Romans 8 requires some theological understanding of Paul s view of the nature of a person being of body, soul and spirit. Pastorally, I would say as a Christian a person s human spirit has come alive in relationship to the Holy Spirit and the Christian spirit is critical in guiding the whole person into God s will. Third, Paul uses the word flesh in several ways, some less benign than others. For our purposes in Romans 8 the flesh is human nature created good by God but now all together tainted by sin. Sin being a power of rebellious contrariness toward God. Original sin as inherited from Adam and contributed to by all of history and as shaped in a person by his or her own maternal and paternal lineage. And as culminated by a person s own decisive acts against God. Apart from Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, people are simply flesh. Here is the Roman Catholic teacher, Dr. Italy from the Crossroads Initiative site: When Paul is condemning the flesh, he is not talking about the human body, created by God. Rather, he is using flesh as a code word for the distortion that original sin introduced into human nature. The flesh twists and misdirects natural desires so as to make them destructive and degrading. Lust is a good example. It is not another name for sexual desire. It is what the flesh does to sexual desire, making it an instrument of selfgratification and exploitation, rather than committed love and the miracle of new life, as intended by God. Pride is not the drive for greatness and excellence. Such drive naturally arises from our being made in the image and likeness of

4 3 God. No pride is what the flesh does to this natural drive, causing it to refuse submission to legitimate authority, even God, exalting itself at the expense of others and seeking to dominate and belittle others..... Yes, the flesh is still there, even after we are justified through faith in Christ and cleansed in the sacrament of baptism. But its back is broken. It no longer can tyrannize us... unless we choose to let it. We now have the freedom and power to ignore its tugs towards sin, which should become weaker and weaker as we grow in holiness. Chastity is the virtue, given by the Spirit, which empowers us to sanctify sexual desire by making it an instrument of love and life. Humility is the virtue that enables the drive for greatness to respect the sovereignty of God and the dignity of fellow-human beings. Paul, in Romans 8 and Galatians 5 portrays a warfare experienced by all people wherein the flesh either dominates a person, no matter how good they otherwise are, or is subjected in a person living under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. This is why the Holy Spirit is described as gift. Nothing else in the universe can subdue the power of flesh, only the indwelling Holy Spirit. Finally, as we read Romans , a linchpin of what is described is the mind set. Verse 6 in the NRSV(I believe the most helpful translation): To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Just a brief word. I will come back to this next week. Google tells us a mindset is a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person s responses to and interpretations of situations. Our mental inclinations, assumptions, way of thinking and opinions. In many regards, research tells us our mindset is shaped not just independently and rationally, but socially in accordance with our tribe and family. For a long time, in Western culture, a Christian mindset was normal. No longer. Indeed, now in our times, if we do not actively develop a Christian mind we will simply have the dominant secular mind of our surrounding culture. So setting the mind on the Spirit is not simply an individual intellectual exercise, rather it is the conscious abandonment of secular thought hand in hand with the development and maintenance of Christian thought. Well, all of this is background to what I wanted to say this morning! Because I believe Romans 8 is an exhortation to live by the gift of the Spirit there remains the very real possibility we will not do so. As a pastor spending his life working intimately with baptized Christians I can assure you the possibility is real indeed. Next week I want to look into, with you, the meaning of setting the mind on the Spirit.

5 But before we do this, a word of warning about setting the mind on the flesh. 4 Throughout the New Testament this danger is recounted. Jesus with the Pharisees: Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness. Peter with Ananias: why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit Stephen to the Jews: you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit Paul to the Ephesians: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God To the Thessalonians: Do not quench the Spirit Or, as I have entitled the sermon: Dissing the Holy Spirit. When Christians talk about God they refer to God as Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The ancient creedal formula is this: We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the consubstantial Trinity. (Constantinople II 553AD) The use of the word person in one regard arises from Scripture and the way we are taught to relate to God in a personal manner: God is our Father ; Jesus Christ is our Lord and indeed friend ; the Holy Spirit is with us and in us. Application Evidently, we can resist, oppose, grieve, quench, even lie and blaspheme, the Holy Spirit. We are familiar with this kind of personal dissing in our everyday relationships. We should be alert to behaving this way with the Holy Spirit. How do we avoid it? Today is Father s Day. Here is the most famous Bible verse regarding fathers: Ephesians 6:2 Honor your father and mother this is the first commandment with a promise: so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Honor. In verse one the Apostle calls on children to obey parents in the Lord. But honor is a wider and gentler concept than obey that also involves in the Biblical idea, the care of elderly parents (Best). There is the idea. Just as your father loved, nurtured, protected and cared for you throughout all your growing years, honor your father. The is the first step to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit. We honor the Spirit s presence in our lives.