Life In The Spirit- part six
Feeling Orphaned? You’re Not!
Are you surrounded by people and yet you feel so alone? Do you have a mother and father and yet you feel like an orphan? There.s just something missing in your life. It.s like you can.t have somebody with you all the time, somebody that.s there to give you help, to give you counsel. Does it leave you lonely? Does it leave life very vacant of purpose? Oh Beloved, today we want to talk about why it doesn.t have to be that way, how you can have life in the Spirit.
What is life in the Spirit all about, Beloved? It.s about never being abandoned. It.s about never feeling like you.re an orphan or at least not legitimately feeling like you.re an orphan. You might have that feeling, but it.s a lie from the pit of hell. Jesus had come. He was the One that was going to bring eternal life. Jesus was going to die. He was going to be buried. He was going to be raised from the dead. He was going to ascend to the Father.
And this is what He.s talking about He.s talking about the fact that He is going to return to the Father from where He came. And this is troubling their hearts. He has told them that He is going to die. I mean they have pushed it out of their minds. They don.t want to believe it. They have had three awesome years with Jesus Christ. They have become His disciples. They have become His learners. They have become His followers. They have watched Him do all sorts of incredible things, even walking on water. And now He.s telling them that He.s going to leave them. They feel orphaned. They feel alone and He knows that. He looks at their faces and He says to them, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me also.” (John 14:1)
Now where am I quoting from? I.m quoting from John, chapter 14, this incredible scripture that tells them that He is not going to leave them as orphans. In John, chapter 14, let.s go back and let.s look at it. He says, “In My Father.s house are many dwelling places. And if it were not so, I would have told you so. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.” (14:2-3)
Listen, I am leaving, but I am coming again. And they.re saying, “but wait a minute. We don.t want you to leave. Don.t leave.” And they.re grabbing and they.re clinging. “Don.t leave. Don.t leave and come back again, just stay.” But He.s got to go away, because if He doesn.t go away then the Spirit cannot come. And it.s the Spirit that is going to come and indwell inside of them. It.s the Spirit that is going to give them the power. It.s the Spirit that.s going to be able to be there with them all the time, and so He.s trying to explain this to them. I.m going away. I.m going to come again. And they.re panicked about in the mean time, in between time. What are we going to do?
And this is what He says. He says, “If you ask Me anything in My name I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He, the Father, will give you another Helper that He may be with you, now listen, forever, forever…,” (14:14-16) He says, “… that is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and He will be in you.” (14:17)
So here they are living on the earth and they have seen the work of the Holy Spirit. And they have seen and sensed that the Holy Spirit was with them. But He says the Holy Spirit is not going to be just with you, He is going to be in you. God is not going to leave you alone, God is never going to let you be an orphan. “God will never leave you. He will never forsake you, so that you can boldly say the Lord is my Helper. I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
Now I just quoted to you from Hebrews, chapter 13. So He says the Holy Spirit is with you, the Holy Spirit will be in you. O, this is what Joel talked about. Joel talked about the Spirit of God being poured out on all mankind, on young and old, on male and female, on bondservants and on free people. The Holy Spirit would live inside of them.
Now I want you to go to verse 17 because He.s going to describe to us the Spirit of truth. He says, “… that is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans…,” You want to underline that one. That.s good. He says, “I will come to you.” (14:17-18)
So as we saw, He.s going to send another Helper of the same kind. He is going to be in them. He.s not going to leave them. They.re not gong to be orphans. And of course I want to stop and remind you that you need to mark every reference to the Spirit here.
So you would mark verse 16 where it says another Helper because it.s a synonym for the Holy Spirit, that He, and you would mark that, may be with you forever. And you.d put a time clock over forever so that you know how long He.s going to be there.
And then that is the Spirit of truth. Here.s another synonym for the Spirit, so you would mark it the same way.
Whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him; mark it like the Spirit again.
Or know Him; mark it like the Spirit again.
But you know Him; mark it like the Spirit again.
You got the point? All right, because He; mark it like the Spirit again, abides with you and will be in you.
And this is so awesome. In verse 25 He says, “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.” (14:25) I.ve done this while I.m abiding with you. But He wants you to see something else. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit ….” so now just in case you weren.t sure that the Helper.s the Holy Spirit, He says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit …,” watch what it says, “… whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” (14:26)
Do you know how you learn this book? You learn this book by coming to God and by acknowledging that you.re a sinner, that you.re in need of a Savior. You believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Promised One, that He is the Son of God and you receive Him.
When you receive Him, you.re going to receive the Holy Spirit. All right the Holy Spirit is going to come inside of you. Then the Holy Spirit is going to become your teacher. So the Holy Spirit is going to communicate to you the things of God because the Spirit knows the things of the Father. And so the Spirit then, takes the things of God and He communicates them to you.
All right, and as He communicates them to you, all of a sudden you are learning and you are learning truth. This is the promise of the Spirit.
Now, let.s go to Luke, chapter 24, Luke, chapter 24. And we could go more and more into the scriptures and through the gospels and see all the references to the Holy Spirit, but we really don.t have time because where we.re headed is of
what is this life like with the Spirit of God inside you.So in Luke, chapter 24, which is the last chapter of the gospel of Luke, in Luke, chapter 24 Jesus has died. He.s been buried. He.s been raised from the dead. He.s been with the two men on the road to Emmaus. He.s revealed to them that He is the One that was crucified, that was buried and just like He said, He has risen from the dead.
But now in Luke, chapter 24, as He.s talking to them and He.s talking to all of His disciples now, it says “Then He opened their minds to understand the scripture, and He said to them, „Thus it is written that the Christ, the Messiah…,.” Another word for Christ is Messiah; “… should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance….” (Luke 24:45-47) a change of mind that leads to a change of direction. And I underline that in red and then I flip it up around the end of repentance and make the arrow go the other way and put a point on it. Because repentance means a change, it.s metanoeo and it means a change of mind.
And so He says then, “… that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name, in Jesus. name to all the nations…,” now catch it, “… to the all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.” (24:47) You want to remember that phrase. He says, “You are witnesses of these things.” (24:48) You knew Me before I died. You knew that I was crucified. You saw My crucifixion. You knew that I was buried in a tomb. You see now, that I am raised from the dead and you are to be My witnesses.
Remember I told you that witnesses is a very important word, that you would mark it throughout the gospel of John. Well you also want to mark it wherever you find it because you and I are to be a witness. So these disciples are witnesses, eyewitnesses. They have seen Him, they have handled Him, they have touched Him, they have heard Him, they have seen Him before He was crucified, they.ve seen Him after He was raised from the dead. You.re witnesses of these things. “And behold,” now hang on, “… I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you….” (24:49)
Promise of the Father? What is the promise of the Father? The promise of the Father is that the Father is going to send another Helper, another, as the same kind of Jesus, another member of the Godhead. And so He.s saying that I am sending forth the promise of My Father. I.m sending the Holy Spirit. “But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed…,” now watch this, “… with power from on high.” (24:49)
Not only, Beloved, are you never going be alone again, not ever are you ever going to experience being an orphan, because the Spirit is going to come inside of you. But when the Spirit comes inside of you the Spirit is also going to give you, power... power to be, power to do, power to know. That.s what He.s going to give you when He gives the Holy Spirit.
All right, now we.ve seen this in the Old Testament. We.ve seen the promise. Now we are about to see it come to pass. And we.ll do it right after this break.
Power to be, power to do, power, people of power,
that.s what life in the Spirit is all about. And what we.re doing is we.re moving through the Scriptures, building precept upon precept so that you can understand God.s precepts. He says, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding.”
Well, now let.s go from Luke, chapter 24 where Jesus said, “I.m sending you the promise of My Father. And you.re to stay in the city until you are clothed with power on high.” Let.s go to Acts, chapter 1. In Acts, chapter 1 it, again, is a book that is written by Luke and it is written to Theophilus.
Remember he wrote the gospel of Luke laying out in consecutive order the things that Jesus Christ did. Now he.s carrying them on and telling them what happened as a result of Jesus. death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
And so he says, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, was all about that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day He was taken up, after He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2)
Jesus was God. He was totally and absolute deity. He was deity though, incased in humanity. And deity in humanity walked the way you and I are to walk.
He walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. So watch what He says. “After He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these, to these apostles He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised.” (1”2-4)
Now what had the Father promised? That.s right. It.s the Holy Spirit. So you.re going to mark what the Father had promised, just like you mark the Holy Spirit there. You.re gonna color it yellow and you.re going to underline it and then put that side of the the triangle up there and a cloud. And it says, “… which, He said, the promise of the Father, which He.s gonna give to you, which you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water….” (1:4-5)
Now remember we saw that John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, he went out baptizing and telling people to be baptized because the kingdom of heaven was at hand and to repent. So it says, “… John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (1:5) Now remember, to be baptized means to be united with.
When they went into ancient Greek writings they saw that the word baptizo, was used for making pickles. You get the cucumbers and you soak them. You dip them into this brine; you leave „em in that brine until the pickle absorbs the flavor of that vinegar and that solution that it.s put in. That.s called baptism.
It was used for taking a cloth and dipping it in dye and pulling it out and having that cloth take on the color of that dye. So He.s saying this: John baptized you in water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. “And so when they came together they were asking Him, saying, „Lord, is it this time that You.re restoring the kingdom to Israel?. And He said, „It.s not for you to know the times or the epochs, which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you shall receive power, ….” (1:6-8) power is coming into your life. You.re not an orphan. Power is coming into your life, “… when the Holy Spirit, has come upon you.” (1:8)
So in your mind.s eye, when I.m saying watching, just imagine a handkerchief on my head and that handkerchief being a symbol of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And so this is what He.s saying. In verse 8. This is very important; you ought to memorize it. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My …,” what, “… My witnesses …,”
It comes from the word that we get martyrs from. A martyr is one that testifies to what he has seen. “…you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” (1:8) So He.s saying, now you wait for the promise of the Father.
All right, now Pentecost is coming. Pentecost came 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So you have the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits. So I should say it comes 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits. But all three of those knit together. And then 50 days later comes the Feast of Pentecost.
So Acts, chapter 2. In Acts, chapter 2, verse 1: “And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared tongues as of fire on top of their heads distributing themselves to each one and resting on each one. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (2:1-4)
Remember we saw in Luke, chapter 4 that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, here are all of them being filled with the Holy Spirit. How do you know this is happening? I.m telling you, God let the fireworks go. God says I.m making this a memorable occasion. I.m making it memorable till you see and hear that strong violent rushing wind and then these cloven tongues of fire. Then all of a sudden these guys are speaking in languages that they don.t know. Not angelic kind of tongues, but in dialectos, is the word; they.re speaking in other men.s dialects.
Well, others are around there, they.re hearing this and it says, “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.” (2:5) They had come to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. “And there they heard them speaking in their own language.” (2:6) It says, “Cretans and Arabs, we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. And they all continued in amazement….” (2:11) It was a whoa moment “… and great perplexity was coming over them and they were saying, “What does this mean?” (2:12) What is happening? Because it was a show. Because it was the first event of the fulfillment of what? Do you know?
Well listen, and some were mocking and saying, “Ah, they.re full of sweet wine. They.re drunk. You.re drunk and you.re speaking in a foreign language that you don.t know. You.re drunk and there.s cloven tongues of fire over you head. You.re drunk and there.s mighty rushing wind. Don.t think so. Bad thinking.”
“But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven…,” You say eleven; I thought Judas defected. He did and he died. But they chose another one in his place. “And Peter taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: „Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be made known to you, give heed to my words, these men are not drunk, as some of you suppose, it.s only the third hour of the day…,.” It.s only 9 a.m. in the morning. “… but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: And it shall be in the last days God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind….” (2:14-17)
You say, but these are only Jews. You.re right, but God.s got more to come. We.re not going to see it today, but we.re going to see it in the next program.
