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Sermon - September 28, 2004



The Apostles' Creed: I Believe In The Holy Spirit

Rev. David Ryan

 

My wife Jeanette has an amazing ability

Well – actually she has many amazing abilities

but the one I am thinking of this morning

has to do with counting.

 

When we are watching the Wheel of Fortune

she can look at the panels being shown on the screen

and immediately tell you how many letters

are in the phrase.

 

I don't know how she does it.

It's not a matter of counting really quickly -

which is what I would have to do.

She can just look at it and know.

 

I wanted to know how many words

were in different parts of the Apostle's Creed

but I have to count them

Can't just look at them and know.

What I can tell is that there is an imbalance

in the phrases -

I can tell that just by looking!

 

The first part of the creed – that we have already considered

is about God the Father.

“ I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven

and earth”...12 words. An even dozen.

 

Last week, we considered the part of the creed having to do specifically with Jesus.-- and that section has a lot of words.

And in Jesus Christ, his only son our lord

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

Born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

was crucified dead and buried.

the third day he rose from the dead

 he ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of God the

Father almighty

From thence he shall come to judge the

quick and the dead.

 

Any guesses as to how many words that is?

65 words!

And if you included the other phrase -

        he descended into hell...it would be 4 more – so 69 words.

 

 

 

But then – when it comes to our next phrase -

 “I believe in the Holy Spirit”--

there are only  6 words!

What's up with that?

Is it because the holy spirit may be so hard

for us to describe?

 

It's not that hard for us to grasp – at least in the most elemental way -

God the creator/God the Father.

We can imagine  -sort of – God creating -

We have earthly Father's – so we get that aspect -

We can start to get our heads around Jesus -

We know what a Son is – some of us are sons -

some of us have sons!

And we know enough of the story of Jesus

from the scriptures – so we get that.

 

But what – or rather – who is the Holy spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a mystery to us.

In fact, the whole concept of the Trinity

can be confusing to us

but it's an important aspect of our faith.

In your bulletin, we've placed an illustration -

a Trinity Chart –

and as the chart tries to show -

there is a unique oneness to what we sometimes call

“the Godhead”.

 

There exists within the Trinity a oneness – a unity -

and yet there is distinction.

The Father is God, the son is God the Holy Spirit is God.

While at the same time, the Father is not the Son,

the Son is not the Father, the Holy spirit is not the Son

or the Father –

it gets messy doesn't it?

 

There have been other attempts at describing the Trinity -

St. Patrick is famous for holding up

a three leafed clover -

and showing the individual leaves -

and yet the three make up the one clover.

Others have said it's like how water can exist -

as a liquid, as steam or solid – in ice -

yet its all H2O

 

 

 

Still others have tried to explain it to how we are as persons

I am a Father, I am also a son, and I am also just me -

three, yet one.

All of these illustrations are helpful

but they also all break down along the way

Because in the end, God – all of God -

is mystery that we don't fully have the words or images for -

 

The word spirit shows up about 500 times in the bible.

In the Old testament there is a word -

Ruach – in the New Testament there is the word

Pneuma ( NeW MA) -

the words can mean breath, air, wind as well as spirit.

 

While there can be much we say about the Spirit

This morning, there are three aspects of

what I believe we are affirming

when we say those words in the creed

“I believe in the Holy spirit”

        and – so that you can remember what these are -

        I want to share the as three Ps. -

 

The first thing, I believe we are affirming -

we have sort of already covered -

and that is the Person-hood of the Spirit.

The spirit is not a thing

the spirit is not an “it”

the Spirit is a person – just like the Father and the Son -

We often use the pronoun “he” -

but it's important to note that the Spirit is without gender.

But we don't have a gender-less pronoun in English

so we end up using He...

what we don't want to use is “it”

The Holy Spirit is a person.

A person of God.

 

Before he died, Jesus told the disciples

that when he died and returned to His Father -

that he would not leave them as orphans -

he would send another one -

The comforter – to be with them.

We find this in the gospel of John -

in the 14th - 15th and 16th Chapters -

we read a bit of that this morning -

but I would encourage you to give

all three of those chapters a read this week.

Jesus calls the spirit -

 

the Paraclete -

The Greek word comes from two words -

para – meaning close by or beside

and kaleo – from which we get our word call -

in some legal circles – a Paraclete  - was one who

stood by the defendant to advocate for them -

a defense attorney  -

it can also be used for one who comes alongside

someone else to help them, to comfort them, to hold them

This is the role of the Holy Spirit -

This also leads us to a second thing that we affirm

when we say - “I believe in the Holy Spirit “

and that is Presence -

the Holy Spirit is God present with us now

when we say – and I hope you have had occasion to say this -

I hope you can say it every day –

When we say – I really felt God with me today

or  “I felt God speaking to me today”

or when we sing – He walks with me, and talks with me  - and tells me I am his own....

when we say that – we are really talking about the Holy Spirit.

That's how God is present with us now -

through the Holy Spirit -

the Holy Spirit – God – is not only around us -

the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

 

Paul asks the Corinthians -

do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?

After Jesus had ascended -

the believers were gathered together

in a upper room -

perhaps the same room where they had

gathered for the last supper -

although now there were many of them gathered

it was the day of Pentecost -

a Jewish feast day -

and so there were many people in Jerusalem -

And the scriptures tell us that the house

was filled with a sound like the sound of a mighty wind

and there appeared to be something that looked

like tongues of flames that separated

and came to rest on each one of them.

And it says that each of them

were filled with the Holy Spirit

(This is in Acts 2)

 

I shared with your before

about Justification and Sanctification -

but these are important concepts

and I want to make sure we all get them.

When we become “Christians” -

that is when we place our faith in Christ

when we ask him to be our Lord

when we ask him to be our savior -

when we come to not only believe that he exists,

but that ask that we be forgiven of our sin

and that we receive the gift of his eternal life -

Two things happen – both at the same time.

Justification happens - 

        that is we, we are forgiven of our sin -

        we are cleansed -

        we are made right with God

        we are given eternal life -

        not only in a future heaven – but also right now -

        this is something that happens and is once and done.

And at the same time, Sanctification begins.

        Sanctification is a process -

        notice I said – it begins.

        It's the ongoing process of us becoming

        more and more like Jesus.

        Yielding our will to His will

        Becoming obedient -

                learning to yield, day by day.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

Which leads us to our third “P” -

and that is that which the Holy Spirit Produces in us.

The person-hood

The presence

The production.

When those early believers received the Holy Spirit

in that upper room

they didn't just break out into praise.

They didn't just sit there and think -

oh how blessed we are! This feels so good.

        Just sitting here...praising God.

        La la la la....

no – what did they do?

They went outside!

They met people

they interacted with people -

Miraculously – they could speak in languages

they did not even know -

so that others could hear the good news about

Jesus Christ.

 

They didn't just sit there and say -

what a nice service -

no – they went and did something!

They went out in Jesus' name

and told the good news.

 

Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit

just so we could have warm fuzzy feelings!

We get those –

but if we really have the Spirit – we go out!

We share what we know

We share the love of God -

in words and in actions.

We are not saved just for ourselves alone -

but that others might see – and that they too

might be brought into right relationship with God.

 

And that's not all! There's more!

We have the fruit of the Spirit within us.

You remember that?

Galatians 5:22

The Fruit of the spirit

is love joy peace patience kindness goodness

faithfulness, gentleness and self control

Remember too, Jesus warning

about a tree that does not bear fruit

not good for anything but to be cut down

and tossed away

We don't want that.

We want to be fruitful

We want to have the Spirit alive within us.

Again – another mystery.

In way – that's not up to us.

The work of the spirit is God's work with in us -

its grace

We don't do it ourselves – we can't do it ourselves -

 

And yet -

and yet we have something to do with it I believe.

I think we always have a choice in the matter

God will not work where God is not invited to work.

1 Thessalonians 5 – where we are getting our memory

verses from – says -

“Do not quench the spirit”

There are things we can do in our lives

that quench the spirit -

but that is maybe a sermon for another time.

Enough to know that what we do – how we live -

what we do or don;t do – effects the work of the spirit

in our lives.

 

We talk from what we know.

If the pastor is sports guy – you get sports illustrations

If the pastor is a parent – you get parent illustrations

If the pastor is in a marriage- you get illustrations from marriage.

For a year or two, I had a boat.

 

Of course  when I first got the boat, – I had been told – and those who told me were right -

if you have a boat – there will usually be a problem!

I had my boat out on the water for  - I guess it was

the third time – and the engine started to not run right -

it sounded like it was going to conk out on me -

and it did – It would start again -

but there was a problem -

it wasn't getting enough gas -

without gas, the engine does not run!

Thankfully, the gas line had a bulb on it

that  you can pump by hand -

and that forces gas into the engine -

and as long as I pumped the bulb -

it ran – and got us back to where we had put in.

sometimes our lives are not running

on enough Holy Spirit gas!

Our spiritual lives can conk out on us.

We can stall out

and if we do that – we are soon adrift -

and get ourselves into all kinds of predicaments –

 

you know what I am talking about?

Yeah.

We can get messed up.

And so sometimes we need to pump that bulb

to get ourselves going.

Spiritually speaking,

I pump bulb when I take the time

to read my bible

When I study the word

When I take time to pray

When I engage in worship

when I join in fellowship with others

when I engage in service

sometimes I gotta pray

Lord I am running low!

I can;t do it on my own -

I need some help.

Do what you gotta in  my life to keep me going

 

Oh my friend -

God always answers that prayer.

I eventually had to take the boat to a repair guy.

Sadly, I got pretty used to that trip.

Had to take it a number of times before

I finally sold it.

sometimes we need to take our lives

before the Holy spirit

and simply pray – fix me.

I'm messed up.

I've done what I know to do

and I'm still messed up.

Fix me.

 

And when we yield to him – Him will fix us up

I know it.

I believe it.

Will you say that phrase of the creed with me?

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

That is – we believe in his person-hood.

We believe in his presence

We believe in what he produces in our lives

keep your engine primed folks!

Be filled with the Spirit!

Let's affirm it one more time -

“I believe in the Holy spirit”.

Amen.

 

 

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