Joshua 4 - How to know that you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit Proposition: the greatest evidence of the Holy Spirit on a person s life is their love for the church family. The apostle Paul said that there are three things that are the most important things in this world and in the life to come. Faith, hope and... love. And the greatest of these is... love. As we come to the book of Joshua 4 this morning and we look at their story which in so many ways parallels our story, I want to suggest to you that we can see these same three themes being lived out in our passage: faith, hope and love. We have been talking about how the book of Joshua is an illustration of, a picture of, the Spirit filled life. And how if you and I really want to go deeper in our relationship with Jesus and be more led by the Spirit, that there is much to learn from their story to help us in our personal journeys. Last week we saw the children of Israel cross through the river Jordan, a picture of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Only as the priests stepped out in faith did the waters miraculously part and the people were able to pass over on dry land. Now as we open our text the people are in the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. This crossing over the Jordan river into the abundant life is just like what happened to those first 120 believers in Jerusalem where they were having a quiet prayer meeting in that upper room until the Holy Spirit came on them and they all spoke in new languages and became such powerful witnesses for the Lord that they truly turned the world around them upside down. Here s a summary of these first few chapters: Chapter Two - The People are given a heart of hope. You will recall how the two witnesses went into Jericho and stayed with a prostitute there who said, we have heard about you, we know your God is powerful and is with you and He has given the land to you, and our hearts tremble with fear. When the witnesses took this report back to the Israelites they had a heart of hope. We know, we are confident, we are absolutely expecting good things to come our way. Here is the evidence. God has gone before us. A heart of hope. In chapter 3 we saw Steps of faith. Joshua 3:13 As soon as the priests carrying the chest STEP into the Jordan, the water will stop flowing and pile up as if someone had built a dam across the river. Not before the Priests stepped out, but as they stepped into the Jordan river the water was held back miraculously. As they stepped out in faith, God turned up. There comes a point in each one of our lives when God has been nudging us in a certain direction that reading another book or doing another course is not the answer, we have to step out in faith believing what God has said to us. A lady was once asked by her friend, What do you do with the promises of God in the Bible? To which her friend replied, I underline them all in blue. Now that is not a bad thing to do, to highlight or underline a promise, but that is not the main thing that God wants you to do. He wants you to believe them and then step out trusting that He will be true to his promises. You have to step out to see a miracle even if you think it s risky or you could look stupid. In chapter 2 we see steps of faith. There is a little saying that has been around forever which I think is so true, it goes Without Him, I can t Without me, He won t 1
The abundant life is about partnering with God. We step out by faith, trusting in His promises and as we step out by faith, God meets us there. In chapter 4 we are about to see A portrait of love And the greatest of these is... love. I ended the sermon last week by asking the question; how do you know that you have been Baptized in the Holy Spirit? How can you be sure? You see the apostle John in Acts 19 went to this group of people in Ephesus and he looked at them and he listened to them and he could see that something is off here, something is missing, these people don t seem like normal Christians and so he asks them Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed? 2x Now I believe that every Christian needs to be able to answer that question with a yes. Yes, I received the Holy Spirit when I was baptized and this is my marker, this was the sign, this is my story. How does a person know if they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Most often that question is answered around a person s understanding of spiritual gifts. The Charismatics say that if you have a spiritual gift then you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostals say that when you were baptized in the Holy Spirit you received a new prayer language and other gifts as well. Paul would hold to that second view. He said, I wish you all would speak in tongues. He didn t say, I wish you all would speak in tongues, but too bad you can t. In Mark 16, Jesus said this Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world. 16 Anyone who believes me and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe me will be condemned. 17 Everyone who believes me will be able to do wonderful things. By using my name they will force out demons, and they will speak new languages. 18 They will handle snakes and will drink poison and not be hurt. They will also heal sick people by placing their hands on them. So Jesus was by definition a Pentecostal. But is tongues the Key? No, I don t believe that it is. I am convinced that tongues are incredibly helpful to our lives and to praying. I mean, how many times are we praying for someone and we really don t know what God s will is or what that person will be facing next, so often we can t describe in our own language what we feel like saying to God and so tongues is really good and really helpful, as is prophecy and every other spiritual gift. I personally believe that every Christian who has been through that second baptism can speak in tongues, they have that prayer tool available to them, even if they haven t used it. But is tongues the sign? Some people say to me, Russell, I asked for the Holy Spirit and some one laid hands on me and prayed for me, but I didn t shake or fall down or start laughing, but that happened to my friend so, am I baptized in the Holy Spirit? Now I think that God can give people those experiences when they receive the Holy Spirit, but I would never look for those things as a sign or as proof that you have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, why not Russell? Now while I think God is in it, I don t look for it because it s not in the Bible. Nowhere in the NT do people fall over or start shaking or start laughing. Well there are two places. Firstly, in the garden of Gethsemane some soldiers fall over when Jesus declares he is God and then Ananias and Saphira fall over in the book of Acts, but... they don t get up. How do I know that I am baptized in the Holy Spirit? 2
4 After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua: 2-3 Tell [a] one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then have the men set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight. 4 Joshua chose twelve men; he called them together, 5 and told them: Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. 6-7 Someday your children will ask, Why are these rocks here? Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today. 8 The men followed the instructions that the LORD had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua had some other men set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river. Two monuments: the first one in the middle of the river to be soon covered and out of sight and one on the banks of the Promised Land. This one was to be a monument and when their children saw it, it was to remind them of their story, a sign of something amazing that God had done in their lives. When the kids saw this second monument and asked, what is that about? They were to say, we were in the wilderness, saved but bored and kicking sand and then as the priests stepped out in faith the waters were backed up miraculously and we all walked across the Jordan on dry land. And we began to take possession of God s promises at this point. These 12 rocks, linked together and stacked carefully into a monument were to be a reminder to the generations of their faith story. I don t know if you need reminders. Since I passed 50 I need them more and more. I am told that what each of us retains in our brains would fill the volumes of any library and yet 92% of what we have learnt, experienced, seen is forgotten. As we age I wonder if it s a bit scarier than 92%. Monuments or memorials like the cenotaph at Laurie Hall Park or The Michael Joseph Savage monument at Bastian Point feel significant. They get you thinking. I know when I looked into the Bastian Point monument I became really interested in Michael Joseph Savage and what he achieved and I can still picture that monument and recall what went through my head. They were to build two monuments. One on the banks of Promised Land would be seen forever and God would use it as a catalyst to start God conversations between parents and children. When my children were growing up, I worked most days and most evenings but we had this time every night where I would hype them up and then talk about where was God in the experiences they had that day. Often I would tell them stories about what I had seen God do that day. With my little Anna, I would say, about 1 out of 3 bedtime talks involve me telling her stories about what I had experienced with God that day. Build a memorial to remind you of the story. You see those twelve rocks are precious. Once the rocks were in the middle of the Jordan River and God held back the water and we crossed over and began living a much more exciting, fulfilling life in the Promised Land. In the same way there is a sign, a monument that declares to you and others, that you too had an experience of passing through a second baptism and into the Spirit filled life. 10-13 The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan. They marched quickly past the sacred chest [b] and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh [c] led the way, as Moses had ordered. [d] The priests stayed right where they were until the army had followed the orders that the LORD had given Moses and Joshua. Then the army watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across. 3
Two and a half tribes elected not to live in the Promised Land, but they were part of the tribes of Israel, part of the monument and they were required to send their fighting men with the rest of Israel, about 40,000 men. 14-18 Joshua, the LORD said, have the priests come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them. So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the LORD had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again. That s how the LORD showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader. For the rest of Joshua s life, they respected him as they had respected Moses. 19 It was the tenth day of the first month of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho. 20 The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument. 21 Then Joshua told the people: Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. 22-23 Tell them, The LORD our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea, 24 because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him. What a story! What a supernatural event! But how does this relate to the Spirit filled life and knowing that I have been Baptized in the Holy Spirit? 12 stones, fitted carefully together into one monument. The apostle Peter describes each one of us as living stones. You see, tongues are important, prophesy is important, being able to cast out demons and work miracles, it s all good and God wants that to be a part of your life but... the greatest sign, the greatest monument to the fact that you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit is that fact that you love God and you love other Christians and you see them as your family. You want to be in church on Sunday, you want to be around other Christians. As Jesus prayed in John 17 for us he prayed that people would know that we are followers of Jesus and the sign would be... that we have love one for another. 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 speak about spiritual gifts and especially tongues and prophecy and how they are to be used in an orderly way in worship but what is sandwiched there right in the middle of 12 and 14? Chapter 13, which is about... love. Now God clearly wants us to do miracles and understand mysteries and prophesy and be willing to be martyred for His name s sake but if you have those gifts and you die sacrificially, it means nothing if you don t have... love. Now you and I can try to be loving to all people and we can kind of succeed on our own strength for a day or two, but to truly love the Agape way is totally supernatural. It s not normal to want to be together and to love the church when we are all so different. We struggle to understand each other, we come from different back grounds, and we have different levels of education and different lifestyles. The church covers the full range of the community. We shouldn t get along naturally but we love each other. Kiwis can be naturally critical and cynical and fault finding and sin sniffing. Why do we love each other, truly, because there was a moment, there was a time when we received the Holy Spirit upon us and He changed us. There have been times in my life when my oldest son in particular has come to me and said, dad, why are you so kind to him, he has opposed you publically; dad, why do you still help her, she has stabbed you in the back; dad why do you give so much time to that family, they have used you in the past? And your children will have said the same to you. And what is the answer? The answer is that when we received the Holy Spirit on our lives that God changed us. It s not us, it s Him. And if you are here this morning and you are saying, well I feel critical of Christians, I feel 4
critical of the church, I only come to church because I have to, not because I want to then there is something missing in your life that is the second Baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Paul met these people in Acts 19 and asked them Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed? Why? Because something was missing - Love. The fact that you want to be joined to the other living stones is a sign, that you want to go to church, that you want to meet, and share and serve other Christians is a sign, a monument, that you have love for them and that you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I want to invite our pastors and the elders to come forward as we turn our attention to communion. Elders and pastors we will need your spouse s to help, plus our student pastors. On this table is another monument. Traditionally, one loaf of bread and one cup of wine. What do they symbolize?.. that though we are different, diverse, we have been made one; that we love each other and belong together. There were two monuments in our story today. One that declared unity, such dynamic unity that even our children would ask us questions about it. Mum, dad, how come you love him, how come you love her, they are so different, they hurt you... yet you love them, you love going to church with them, how is that possible? Our unity powerfully testifies to God on our lives. And there was a second monument in our story, one that got submerged when the river closed up into flood again. Only God could see that monument. When I come to communion and these monuments two things go through my mind, firstly I want to ask God, Lord are we OK, have I let anything get in the way of our relationship? The second thing I consider before I take the bread and take the cup is Lord, are we OK, is there anyone that I may have hurt or anyone that I have been avoiding? In the quietness as the elders serve you communion ask yourself those two questions. God, am I OK and God, are we OK? Please hold the elements and we will take together. Prayer Closing song about the body of Christ being in unity/ a witness/ a monument/ love 5