Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Preaching theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

We begin this year by taking a look at the values that guide our vision.

If you want to know about our vision and values at SCF, they are on our website, in our membership information and I have made some extra copies which are available in the back.

We began with worship, the Word and the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

Then we talked about the Kingdom of God - God’s rule over creation and over the earth that is being reasserted by His people, first Israel and then the Church.

Now we are going to go back and talk about the Holy Spirit again, except this time and the divine empowerment and the driving force at work in God’s people, empowering them to do their mission.

There is a literary feature in ancient literature that occurs often in the Bible called a chiasm.

It is a pattern which builds up to a central focal element and then repeats the pattern leading up to the climax in reverse, making a mirror image of the first part.

We talked about this last year in our study of Daniel, because the first six chapters of Daniel are a chiasm.

If you have ever read the book of Exodus, you may have wondered why Moses goes up the mountain before and after the ten commandments.

No - it wasn’t because he smashed them.

It is the way the story is written with the mountaintop experience being mirrored on either side of the ten commandments which is the focal point of the book.

In the class that I took two weeks ago, we examined a similar pattern in the first three chapters of the gospel of Mark with the verse on new wineskins being at the center and then concluding with the story of Jesus’ mother and brothers attempting to visit him.

Well, I inadvertently created a chiasm in our values statement.

It begins with worship (the overflow of our hearts toward God) and ends with generosity (the overflow of our lives toward others.

Then we have the Word of God which is our objective source of revelation and opposite that we have fellowship which is the context for working out and living out that revelation.

At the center we have the Kingdom of God, which belongs at the center because it is our focal point at the people of God who are tasked with establishing His rule in the world.

And on either side of that we have the Holy Spirit who is the means by which we accomplish this task.

Did the writers of scripture cleverly devise all of these elements or is it evidence of another writer, the Holy Spirit, working through them.

I can tell you that I certainly didn’t know that there was a pattern to what I was doing - I was just listening to our leadership group and listening to the Spirit and this is the result.

When we live by the Spirit, we expect supernatural things to happen!

We expect God to do more working through us than we could do on our own.

This is because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We value the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

We encourage the filling (baptism) of the Spirit, the gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit as well as the leading and empowering of the Spirit for a life of ministry that glorifies God.

We encourage people to pray in the Spirit either in their own language or the language that the Spirit gives.

We are going to take a quick tour through what the Bible has to say on this subject.

Each of these sub-points could easily be a whole sermon or a sermon series.

But I want us to see just how much the Holy Spirit wants to take us above and beyond what we could do ourselves.

And then we want to pray for impartation and receiving more of the Holy Spirit.

The filling of the Holy Spirit

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon special people at special times in a special way to accomplish some great thing for God.

But the prophet Joel spoke of a time when the Holy Spirit would come on everyone , regardless of age, social class or gender.

And the Holy Spirit would be given without limit - a literal pouring out to overflowing.

The Holy Spirit indwells God’s people.

I don’t have time to read all of the scriptures pertaining to each point - that would take an entire sermon.

My favorite text to preach from on the Holy Spirit is John chapters 14-16, where Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples and tells them about the Holy Spirit that He is going to send.

The Holy Spirit is just like Jesus except He is in them and therefore always with them.

The point that I want you to hear is that the Holy Spirit is not in just a few “anointed” people.

The Holy Spirit is in every believer to one degree or another.

People who are “baptized in the Holy Spirit” do not have the Holy Spirit whereas other believer don’t.

None of us would know Christ apart from the Holy Spirit.

The language of “baptism in or with the Spirit” implies opening one’s self for more of the Holy Spirit - that literal outpouring that was prophesied by Joel.

Is it a second work of grace - yes, and much more besides!

Why stop with a second filling?

We need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit!

And continually allowing the Spirit to expand our capacity for more.

The more we are filled with the Spirit, the more we understand that this filling has a purpose.

The Holy Spirit liberates God’s people.

Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah about the anointing of the Holy Spirit and claimed to be the fulfillment of this anointing.

But this anointing also has a purpose.

It is to liberate God's people from bondage to sin, satan and systems of oppression.

The way to get free from bondage to an oppressor is to bind yourself to someone stronger.

When you belong to Jesus the powers of darkness can’t hold you.

Even the demonic can’t keep you from calling on Jesus.

It can only hide, and operate to the degree that you allow it.

As we grow in Christ and receive more of the Holy Spirit, His Presence comes in conflict with those areas of our life which are oppressed.

You either have to limit the influence of the Holy Spirit in your life by hardening your heart,

or the Holy Spirit will cause those areas of your heart that have been in bondage to lies to be exposed.

Yes, we can pray for deliverance in the Power of the Holy Spirit,

but I have also seen people delivered by virtue of being filled with more of Jesus and the Holy Spirit so that other things just go.

It is also the work of the Holy Spirit to help us to recognize what is of God and what is not of God.

We already talked about the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification.

Sometimes that sanctification is a power encounter with the Holy Spirit where the things that once bound us clash with the power of God moving in our lives.

If that describes your experience, then just know that you can help things along by opening yourself to more of the Holy Spirit and telling those other voices to “go in Jesus’ name!”

I’m speaking mostly about freedom from personal oppression, but the same principle of inviting the Holy Spirit’s influence can be applied to the church, the community or the larger society.

So how do we get more of the Holy Spirit?

Where does it come from?

The Holy Spirit revitalizes God’s people.

The Holy Spirit comes from within, like a spring of water coming up from the ground.

We are drinking in Jesus.

We are inviting Jesus to be our source of life.

We are confessing Jesus as Lord - the rightful ruler of our lives.

And the Holy Spirit flows from the Presence of God within us.

The life of God is like a fountain springing up from within us.

People go looking for so many things that they think will satisfy them or bring fulfilment to their life - like they are empty on the inside and need something from the outside to fill them.

The Holy Spirit fills us from the inside as a never-ending stream.

Jesus is the source of life and gives us everything that we need to live life to the fullest.

I’m not just talking about joy and peace, but also creativity, skill and the ability to do whatever we do in a way that glorifies God.

In case you think I’m exaggerating...

The first person in the Bible who was said to be filled with the Spirit was Bezalel, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.

(Ex.

31:3)

So what did God anoint him to do?

He was anointed with the gift of craftsmanship to build the tabernacle and all it’s furnishings.

That’s right, he was anointed to do his job of working with his hands.

We often over-spiritualize the work of the Holy Spirit

by making it for a few instead of the many

by making it it something we do in church instead of something we do everyday.

by making it something mysteriously unattainable, whereas the Bible makes the Holy Spirit very practical.

Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to His followers to finish what He started.

The Power of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is power; but that power operates through people.

As we look at the power of the Holy Spirit, take special note of the purpose of the power.

What does the Holy Spirit empower God’s people to do?

OK, great story; but what is the purpose?

Jesus said in the previous chapter that the power is so that they will be His witnesses.

The Holy Spirit empowers God’s people to witness.

Do you think that Jesus would entrust his disciples with His mission and not give them any help?

Of course not!

But how often do we try to do God’s work (sharing the gospel, teaching Sunday School or just serving the community) and forget that this is a God-empowered activity.