You and the Holy Spirit

April 6, 1997

John 20:21-23

This penultimate chapter of John is full of realization or expectation; it contains the final purpose for which Jesus, the living Word, the Son of God, the Creator, ever came to earth. The nuclear center of that purpose is stated in verse 31 "But these (words, this book) were written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have (eternal) life through his name."

To my mind, John seems to say that believing comes differently to different people and personalities. But the important thing was that each of them were enabled to believe because Jesus revealed Himself to them. It was a gift of faith that was somehow different for each one, and yet somehow the same: Jesus was risen! Jesus is Lord!

But there are other key conclusions in this chapter as well; things that Jesus expects his church to be and do.

Jesus tells his nascent church that they will have a key role in telling the world their sins have been forgiven through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them." Mysterious words, these. There is good news for the world that the church has to tell. God loves them, and values each one of them, even as he loves you and values you.

But the one expectation I want to touch just now is that (mysterious) part where John wrote "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."" Before they could tell the Good News, they were to have the Holy Spirit for themselves. Luke makes an even bigger thing of this command, both at the end of the gospel and the beginning of Acts. In both places Jesus says in effect: "Don't leave town until you know you have the Holy Spirit!"

What can this mean, to receive the Holy Spirit? Who has the Spirit? Who may have the Holy Spirit? How do we receive the Spirit now, today?

What does it mean 'to receive the Holy Spirit?' Do you know?

Wherever you are just now on your spiritual journey, the Holy Spirit is with you. You already "have" the Holy Spirit in the sense that wherever any person may be, God cares, and God is speaking, and God has made provision to do whatever is necessary to make that person a part of his family.

So we could say: to receive the Holy Spirit for a person seeking after God is simply to pray a prayer of discovery, or for discovery— a prayer that says, "Lord God, if you are there, I AM WILLING TO LISTEN!"

But that is not all that Jesus meant that Easter Sunday evening when he told the disciples:" Receive the Holy Spirit!" We can be pretty sure of that.

For we could say: to receive the Holy Spirit for a person finding God is to pray a prayer something like that little chorus many of us learned in Sunday School: "Into my heart, Into my heart— come into my heart, Lord Jesus!" It can be amusing, and yet we really are not confused about "God in there!" (Ben told the doctor "Jesus is in there!" - - and when Joe Finn was here he was telling about his boy at the barber's opening his mouth looking in the mirror "He must be way down in there . . .")

But HE IS IN THERE!! Romansn 8 "If any person does not have the Spirit . . ."

But we Nazarenes re-discovered what Wesley re-discovered: the truth of "secondness"— the fact that Christians have to make their own sacrifice of self-will— God loves us so much that he won't dominate us like puppets. And so we have heard stuff like— "The Spirit is WITH you but he wants to be IN you— so "get sanctified!" We have prayed for the Holy Spirit to come when he is already there— but God has understood what we were crying for and had accepted our sacrifices all the same. And the Holy Spirit has come in to make Christ THE UNCHALLENGED LORD OF OUR HEARTS. We have said an ETERNAL YES to God's will.

So: to receive the Holy Spirit for a person seeking to be entirely sanctified is to say from the heart: NEVERTHELESS, NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS—FOREVER AND EVER!

And that's the end. Right? WRONG!!

For to say we are now "filled" and that's that is to ignore the dynamic realities of the way life is lived.

We need a daily, fresh infilling with the Presence of God. We need to tell God how much we love him, and receive the Holy Spirit today, now.

And there will be times along the way when we need a very special infilling, a grace that borders on the miraculous— certainly supernatural. I think of Acts 4, when the disciples were threatened and frightened and warned never to speak in the name of jesus again. What does the record say? They went back to the fellowship, they prayed until they prayed "through." The place was shaken— and what? THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPOKE THE WORD OF GOD WITH BOLDNESS.

So what am I saying? That you don't need the steps of conviction, and conversion, and consecration and cleansing and all that?

Not at all— but I am saying that wherever you are on your spiritual journey— God loves you very much and cherishes you. And God is very, very near to you and asks you to receive from Him what he has to offer you. And that gift is HIMSELF! "Receive the Holy Spirit!"

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey— RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Prayer

Chorus: