Luke 3:21-22

21 Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened,

22 and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”

Jesus modeled Baptism

Hebrews 6:1

1 Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,

2 of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Die with Christ, resurrected with Christ.

This is why I like immersion baptism so much. It symbolizes the drama of Jesus going into the tomb and being raised again.

If you’ve never been baptized, I encourage you to talk about it with me and seek to get baptized.

Three people getting saved.

Three people being baptized.

The Holy Spirit. Living through the spirit.

I’ve said a lot about the Holy Spirit in this past year because I feel as though He is the neglected person of the trinity.

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As Mennonites committed to the example of Jesus, He is in the primacy. When Rory comes this is the topic I’ve asked Him to speak on. After He is gone, I am going to begin interspersing some of my sermons on Luke with some teaching on God the Father.

It is important for us to realize that Jesus did nothing apart from the Spirit.

Gregory of Nazianzus, an early church father wrote:

Christ is born; the Spirit is his forefunner. Lk 1:31, 35

Christ is baptized; the Spirit bears him witness.

Christ is tempted; the Spirit leads him up Lk 4:2

Christ performs miracles. The Spirit accompanies him. Mt. 12:22

Christ ascends. The Spirit fills his place. Acts 1:9

One of the most dangerous things we can do is to live in our own strength.

For most of us we don’t realize that we are doing this until we come to a tragedy for which our strength is not enough to get us by.

And then when we come to that point, we don’t even want the Holy Spirit to be our strength. What we want is for God to fix the problem so we can go back to business as usual.

Larry Crabb writes in “Shattered Dreams”

‘In our day of feel-good Christianity, we have come up with a wrong view of our spiritual journey. We think of suffering as something abnormal, as evidence that we lack faith. We work so hard to escape suffering [even demanding that God bail us out] that we fail to realize what good things might be happening in us as we suffer.”

“It’s a testimony to how desperately we’re committed to finding ourselves apart from God that the choice to abandon ourselves to Him is often most powerfully made when life has dragged us to the brink of blasphemy. Until we know how close we come to giving up on God (“Look what He allowed to happen in my life!”) we’ll know little of what it means to give ourselves fully to God.”

Shattered Dreams, p. 166

Here is where Jesus’ example is so profound. He did nothing in His ministry apart from the Holy Spirit. He did not begin until the Holy Spirit annointed down upon Him.

It’s a little confusing to figure out what this scene meant because since Jesus was fully God as well as fully man, He would have had the Holy Spirit already. But what I think is going on here is that while He had the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit annointed Him for ministry. In the same way, while we have the Holy Spirit when we are saved, I believe that He anoints us at various times for ministry in the church and to the world.

The trinity

I’ve been thinking about the complexities of the trinity this week.

If it were not for the testimony of the New Testament, we would believe as the Jews do that as God proclaimed His identity. He is one God. Yahweh: “I am.” Not “we are”

If it were not for the testimony of the Old Testement and Jesus’ declarations that He and the Father are one, we would have to believe that God was three persons.

The confusion is not that God reveals Himself as either one person or three people, it is that God reveals Himself as both.

One of my pastor friends says that if you find two things in the Bible that seem to contradict each other, both must be true.

If you’d like to read an anabaptist article on paradoxes in the Bible ask me after the service and I’ll make a copy or point you to the website.

Here in the story of Jesus’ baptism we have a wonderful example of the three persons of the trinity.

Jesus, God incarnate is anointed with the Holy Spirit and approved of by God the Father.

There is no doubt that God is three persons from this verse.

Close with what the trinity means to us. I’ll flesh this out more another time.

One of the important aspects that the trinity teaches us is intimate fellowship. God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are in constant communion. They are not alone. And their communion is intimate: close.

We need to follow this example in our marriages.

We need to follow this example in a few close friendships. One of the things I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older is that I have fewer close friends. Many have drifted away. And in the laziness of my older age, I haven’t invested in new ones.

We need people. Just as the trinity are in close communion with each other, we need to be in close community with each other.

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What does it mean to be repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit?

“You will only revive the burning power and passion of Christ in your life by opening yourself to the power of God’s Spirit, by anchoring your daily life in the disciplines of worship, Bible study, prayer, and faithful service, and by welcoming god’s direction in the everyday routine of your life.” – Greg Laurie A Passion for God p. 13

Three word pictures in the Greek help us to understand what the term “filled” means.

First, it was used of the wind filling a sail and pushing a boat through the water. To be filled with the Spirit is to be moved along by God Himself. He becomes our source of motivation. When we are filled with the Spirit following His commands becomes a delight instead of a drudgery.

Second, being filled carries the idea of permeation and was used of salt permeating meat in order to flavor it and preserve it. God wants His Spirit to permeate our lives and influence everything we think, say and do.

Third, being filled means to be under the control of something or someone. The previous verse says to “not be drunk with wine.” The problem with drunkenness is that it controls you. When you are drunk, it controls your body, your mind, even your mouth. And then when you later aren’t drunk, it controls you by drawing you to the time when you can get drunk again.

Being filled with the Spirit is similar, only in a much more positive way. It means placing every thought, every decision, every act under the Spirit’s control. Galatinans 5:16 promises “Walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” When you walk in the Spirit you have the resources to do what God wants you to do and to not do the things God doesn’t want you to do.

How to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit?

How to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit?



“Be filled is a command. Doesn’t really give us an option.

But paradoxically, the greek shows that it is not something that we can achieve through our own efforts,

It is something done for us and to which we submit.

We do our part and the Holy Spirit does His.

So, what is our part.

1. Ask to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit

Luke 11:9-13 9 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

keep asking. not just asking once.

keep seeking. not just seeking once.

keep knocking. not just knocking once.



This is so basic, but I can tell you that I don’t always keep asking.

Acts 1:4-5 4Being assembled together with them, he charged them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. 5 For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Wait. Waiting is hard.

Wait expectantly. “for the promise of the Father, baptism in the Holy Spirit.”



3. Don’t quench the spirit. 1Thessalonians 5:19.

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.



We quench the spirit when we have unrepentant sin, a lack of love for God, and/or for others. Or when we deny the work of the Holy Spirit.

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What does the Bible say about The Holy Spirit?

1. The Holy Spirit is a comforter

John 14:16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever

2. The Holy Spirit is a teacher of what Jesus taught.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.

This is very important when you experience the supernatural. Test the spirit by lining it up with the teachings of Jesus. If a spirit teaches contrary to Jesus then it is not the Holy Spirit.

Hans Denk an early anabaptist writer said

“Whoever thinks that he can observe the law by means of the Book ascribes to the dead letter what belongs to the living Spirit. Whoever does not have the Spirit and imagines that he will find him in Scripture looks for light and finds darkness, looks for life and finds only death.”

3. The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus

John 15:26 ““When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.”

4. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth

John 16:7-15 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; 9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more; 11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.

12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you. 15 All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.

5. The Holy Spirit gives us power to be witnesses of Jesus

Acts 1:4, 5, 8 Being assembled together with them, he charged them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. 5 For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

A.W. Tozer wrote

“if the Holy Spirit were taken away from the first century church, 90 percent of what they did would come to a halt. But if the Holy Spirit were taken away from the 21st century chruch, only 10 percent of what it does would cease to exist.

What is the filling of the Holy Spirit?

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What is the filling of the Holy Spirit?

I like to call myself a frustrated pentecostal. I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still present. I’m frustrated because a subconscious part of me still believes my pentecostal upbringing that the gifts of the spirit are only manifested in supernatural signs like tongues. But consciously I am more like the charismatics that teach that the gifts of the spirit are not only manifesting in supernatural signs. How difficult it is to undo the teachings of our childhood.

Anyway, I believe that when we become a Christian we are initially filled with the Spirit. But fillings are not just when we become a Christian

The book of Acts tells multiple stories of people being repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4:8, 10-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 10 be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole. 12 There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”

Acts 4:31When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Acts 13:9 But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fastened his eyes on him,

Contrast

“Believers often fall into one of two camps regarding the ministry and gifts of the HOly Spirit. One extreme emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit in practically everything they say and do. They have conferences on the Spirit, sing songs about the Spirit, and constantly talk about the work and the gifts of the Spirit. Often they are so busy seeking direct revelations from the Spirit of God that they overlook the clear written revelation in the Word of God. Although these believers may have a genuine love for the Lord, their desire to witness “power” has led them into unscriptural practices.”

“At the other end of the spectrum, we have Christians whose focus is on Bible exposition. They study the Word, learn the Word, and memorize the Word (as we all should). Unfortunately, however, sometimes these zealous students or Scripture are close-minded to the working of God’s Spirit. They can be very knowledgeable about the Spirit and yet quench the Spirit by not allowing Him to move in their lives outside their time-honored traditions.”

“The key is balance: knowing the Word of God and implementing the practical power of God’s Spirit.

A good example of the need for balance is in Acts 2:16 Peter put speaking in tongues and prophecying in the context of God’s Word. “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.”

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One of the most incredible sections in the Bible is 1corinthians 2:6-16

“We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,

“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,

Which didn’t enter into the heart of man,

These God has prepared for those who love him.”

But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.”

No matter how well you know me, you can never know me truly. Verse 11 says “who knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him.” Only I know myself.

Also true of God.

“No one knows the things of God, except God’s spirit.”

But then the most incredible verse in verse 16.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? But we have Christ’s mind.”

Earlier in verse 12 he said that we have received the Spirit which is from God that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.”

The Spirit imparts the mind of Christ on us.

Isn’t this remarkable?

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Ephesians 5:18-20 Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and singing praises in your heart to the Lord; 20 giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;

There are a couple problems with being full of the Spirit.

First:

It has been said that we only use 10% of our brains. I don’t know if this is a myth or not, but I’m pretty sure we don’t use our brain to it’s full capacity.

Can our brain contain the mind of the infinite Holy Spirit?

No of course it can’t.

Even if it was functioning at full capacity, it couldn’t contain the infinite holy Spirit. The Mind of God. The mind of Christ.

Second:

We leak.

Over time our passion wanes.

It is very difficult to sustain the fire of our salvation.

We struggle to maintain the disciplines of filling ourselves with the Word of God and communing with God in prayer in worship, the activities that give the Holy spirit increased place in our lives.

It’s all too easy to get formulaic which also quashes the spirit. to rely on our rituals.

So, Paul tells us in this Bible passage to keep on seeking to be more full.

A place to start is a simple prayer: “Lord give me more of the Holy Spirit. Let me know more of the mind of Christ. ”

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