Apostles' Creed Sermon - 10
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Apostles’ Creed – The Holy Spirit
Romans 8:12-17
1. Introduction – This morning we are starting the third paragraph of the Apostles’ Creed.
a. So far, we have studied the creating and gracious work of the Father. We’ve studied, in some detail, the rescuing work of the Son.
i. And from there, the Creed turns to the work of the Spirit. It is in this section we hear about the church, about the saints; we hear about forgiveness, resurrection, and everlasting life.
b. But before getting into the work of the Spirit, the Creed states very simply, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”
i. We are actually going to spend the next three weeks studying this word Holy. The Greek word is the hagios. The Creed states “I believe in the hagios pneuma, in the hagios catholic church, and I believe in the communion of the hagios – the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, and the holy – or the saints.
ii. We would be in a very sad state as Christians if we limited to what the Creed has said thus far.
1. The last words are words of absence, of Jesus’ ascension and departure from the earth.
a. But the good news we have as Christians is that God is not distant, God’s presence on earth didn’t end with Jesus’ ascension, but God is here, God is still to be praised and celebrated as Emmanuel, as God with us…
i. Because God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is with us every second of every day, no matter where we go.
c. The Holy Spirit, God himself, third member of the Trinity – empowers and indwell his people with power from on high.
i. And the truth of it is this. We need the Spirit. We neglect the Holy Spirit to our own impoverishment.
1. When we don’t consider the Spirit, when we aren’t sensitive to his moving, we have a shallow view of who God is and what he can do.
d. Without the Spirit, God is distant, Christ is I the past, the Gospel is lifeless, the church is simply an organization, mission is propaganda, and worship is the summoning of spirits.
i. We need the Spirit; like we need air in our lungs we need the Spirit. We need the Spirit moving in our church and filling our bodies with heavenly fire.
e. So, this morning we are going to be introduced or reintroduced to the power and work of the Holy Spirit. Often the Spirit is the neglected member of the Trinity, but without the Spirit, it would be impossible for us to come to faith and impossible for us to live the Christian life.
f. Please realize that this is one sermon on a topic we could spend years studying and never fully grasp.
i. This one sermon is not exhaustive in its content on the Spirit. I recognize I have left out some really important aspects of who the Holy Spirit is and what he does.
1. This morning, I am simply going to highlight for you 4 important aspects of the Spirit’s work throughout history and in to the present day.
a. We’ll at the Spirit’s work in the OT, in the life of Jesus, in the lives of individual Christians, and in the life of the church.
2. In the OT – We could mistakenly perceive that the Holy Spirit only really began his work on the Day of Pentecost.
a. On that day, 50 days after Easter, when the disciples were in the Upper Room, and tongues of fire fell on them.
i. When they hit the streets with the message about Jesus and 3000 people were saved.
b. But, if we comb through the OT, we’ll see that the Spirit of God has been active throughout all of history.
c. Consider Genesis 1:2 – the Spirit of God… Right at the very beginning of time, God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, was active in the creating work of God.
i. And through the rest of the OT, we see people filled with God’s Spirit in order to fulfill a task.
1. Moses and Joshua were Spirit-filled men who led the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land.
a. The elders of Israel were filled with God’s Spirit to lead and rule God’s people.
i. The judges were men and women who were filled with God’s Spirit in order to deliver Israel out of oppression.
d. The prophets, especially the prophets, were people who God anointed and used to be his spokesmen.
i. They foretold the future through the power of the Spirit, but their primary role was to call the people of God to repentance in the present.
e. I want you to take note of the trend here – people weren’t filled with the Holy Spirit simply for their own pleasure or enjoyment.
i. Being filled with the Holy Spirit meant being commissioned for a particular task.
1. A task that required great responsibility and often it was fraught with danger.
f. And I think that’s something we need to grasp today. We believe in the Holy Spirit – we believe that upon our salvation, God the Holy Spirit took up residence inside of us.
i. In a very real and significant way, God is with us, and listen again to what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
1. Being filled with the Spirit means being commissioned for a particular task.
a. We aren’t simply given the Spirit so we can enjoy intimacy with God – though that it part of it.
i. But, we are filled with the Spirit in order to do a job – as God’s people we are commissioned to do something. What that something is will look different for each individual…
1. But just let that sink in a bit – yes, the Spirit is in us and with us so that we can enjoy intimacy with God, but we are given the Spirit in order to fulfill a certain task.
3. In Jesus’ Life – Not Only was the Spirit active through the OT, but the Spirit was actively involved in every aspect of Jesus’ life on earth.
a. As we saw a few weeks ago, the NT tells us, and as the Creed states, we believe that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:35 back this up.
b. Not only was he conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, but throughout his earthly life Jesus was also led by the Spirit. Look at Luke 4:1
i. In this particular verse, Jesus is being led by the Spirit out into the wilderness for a time of fasting, prayer, and temptation.
1. But the opening phrase of the verse states that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. And we can safely say that while he was on the earth, Jesus was led by the Spirit.
c. Jesus was also anointed by the Spirit. Look at Luke 4:18.
i. Jesus was anointed by the Spirit to proclaim, to liberate and to heal.
1. Jesus lived his life, performed the tasks of his ministry through the filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit.
4. In Christians – And we come to what I want to hone in on today. The Holy Spirit is actively involved in our lives as Christians.
a. First, without the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit, you would have never come to a saving faith of Jesus.
i. It was the Spirit who opened your eyes to the ways of God. It was the Spirit who convicted you of your sin before God.
1. And it was the Spirit who impressed upon you to turn to Jesus in repentance and for forgiveness.
a. And it is by the ongoing work of the Spirit that you are transformed from one degree of glory to another.
b. It is the Holy Spirit who enlightens us when we are reading and studying the Bible. The Spirit opens our minds and helps us understand what we are reading.
c. And when the Holy Spirit indwells believers, he will nurture a whole new set of attitudes and will ignite in us an unforeseen passion for God.
i. And it’s this transformation, this set of attitudes that I would like to focus on for a bit.
d. Let’s think about this. You weren’t saved just so you can get in to heaven. This isn’t a Willy Wonka thing – where you win the golden ticket and get to go to the chocolate factory.
i. God didn’t save, put his Spirit in you, simply to give you a ticket to heaven. That’s part of it, the end part of salvation, but there’s so much more to the Christian life before that.
1. You were saved in order to be transformed. You were saved in order to become a new creation, a new person, or rather, you were saved to be made holy.
e. There are a number of passages and verses we could look at, but I would like to focus on a passage from Galatians 5:22-23.
i. In this passage, Paul lists for us the set of attitudes, the fruit, we are to have as Christians. Aren’t those amazing characteristics?
f. I want to draw to your attention a couple points.
i. First notice that the fruit is the evidence of the Spirit’s work in your life. Fruit is the perfect analogy. When a tree is healthy, it will produce good fruit. The fruit is the outward sign that the inside of the tree is healthy and operating as it should
1. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit is the outward evidence that we are living a life dependent on the Spirit. It is the evidence that we are, as Paul says a verse later, keeping in the step with the Spirit.
a. The fruit of the Spirit is the sing that we are indeed being transformed by the Spirit from degree of glory to another.
g. The second aspect I would like to draw to your attention is the singularity of the fruit. Notice it doesn’t the ‘fruits’ of the Spirit – but love, joy, peace, etc.… evidence themselves as one fruit.
i. And because it is one singular fruit of the Spirit, as Christians we must make sure we are developing all of these attitudes. One can’t be developed at the expense of the others.
1. Actually, I believe that they are all tied together. Try to have peace in your life if don’t have joy or you aren’t patient or kind.
a. You can’t have love without joy, kindness, faithfulness, goodness.
i. It just doesn’t work. This isn’t a list where we can pick and choose which characteristic we want to develop.
1. This isn’t a list where we look at it and think, “I’m good in this area, but not so much here…I’ll leave goodness to someone else.”
ii. It is one fruit, one singular fruit that we are to strive after and develop in our character as Christians.
1. We are people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, shaped by the Spirit, and the evidence of that walking, leading, shaping and transforming is the fruit of the Spirit.
5. In the Church – And finally this morning, the Holy Spirit is active in the church.
a. The Holy Spirit is present with us as we worship. He is connecting us to God, the Spirit moves in our hearts and in our souls.
i. Our worship is not a concert or a speech we observe. If we listen closely, if we pay close attention, worship is the movement of the Spirit through this place. It is detectable in a bowed head, the rustling of bulletins, in the silences, in the soaring melodies, in truth spoken, and sometimes we can even feel the Spirit moving in the announcement time.
b. When we as God’s people gather in his name, the Spirit is here with us, leading, guiding and directing us in our worship.
i. And not only is the Spirit present here with us, but the Spirit also equips us with gifts – to be the church. We often call this spiritual gifts.
1. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, the Bible teaches that when people come salvation in Jesus, God gives them certain gifts to use for his honour and glory.
a. Paul has a couple lists of spiritual gifts, in Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12.
i. Spiritual gifts can improve upon talents and abilities you already previously had, or it can be another skill altogether.
1. These gifts are sometimes given for a season, or given for a life time.
c. Now a lot of times when we hear about or think about spiritual gifts, we think about the more public ones. Preaching, teaching, prophecy, speaking in tongues or healing.
i. But we shouldn’t think only of the public or more charismatic gifts.
1. The Spirit has given gifts, abilities, talents to people in our church so that we can function properly and do the necessary jobs as a church.
ii. Think about the abundance of gifts we have here in our little church.
1. Those with musical talents, with administrative skills, hospitality, helps, evangelism…
iii. And look at these verses from Exodus 31:1-5. Are you gifted in the arts? Skilled with your hands? Ever entertained the notion that God has given you those skills to use for his honour and glory and for the betterment of the church?
d. Last thing about spirit gifts, they are to be used for the betterment of the church body.
i. Our gifts, are different gifts, should not divide us, but they should unite us, as we realize we all have special and unique roles to play in our church.
1. And unlike the fruit of the Spirt, the gifts of the Spirit are unique to each individual believer – and even those with the same gift with differ in how they use that gift.
e. They are to be used in the church to strengthen the body and glorify God. And whenever we speak of spiritual gifts, it is always important to remember that we are to use our gifts with love.
i. Paul writes that he could be Superman, able to do amazing things, but if there is no love in his actions, then his gifts are useless.
1. The same is true for us. We use our gifts in love, knowing that each member of our body here has a special role to play and has been uniquely gifted by God for service in this church.
6. Conclusion – It’s a simple thing to stand and say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” But like every line of the Creed so far, when we dive into its meaning and implications, we see who deep an impact this statement has.
a. To say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit” means you believe that God’s Spirit has been active throughout history…
i. It means you believe that God’s Sprit is active in the present.
b. To say this line is to dedicate your life to the transforming power of the Spirit, recognizing that he is never done molding you, shaping you and transforming you from one degree of glory to another.
i. To say this line is to keep in step with the Spirit all the days of your life, wherever he is leading you.
1. To believe this line is to continually develop the fruit and evidence of the Spirit’s work in your life.
a. And to believe in the Holy is to use the gifts that God has given you for the betterment of the church, and ultimately, the glory of God.
c. Next week, we’ll start to look at how the Spirit specific works through the holy catholic church…and we’ll begin to figure out what the word ‘catholic’ really means.