Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.8 – January 2007
God’s Spirit is His Life to Us
A Sermon by Rev Sjirk Bajema on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 20
Scripture Readings: John 16:5-16; Galatians 3:26-4:7
Congregation…
The Person we are looking at in this sermon was busy right at the beginning of the Bible. He is the Person who works out everything, and yet we can’t see Him doing anything with our physical eyes!
Who am I talking about? Well, listen and try to pick it out: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:1 f). Of course, we are talking about the Holy Spirit of God.
As Lord’s Day 20 makes clear, we confess to believing in the Holy Spirit when we recite the Apostles’ Creed. And yet, don’t we so often wonder just who this Holy Spirit is?
We’ve heard that at creation He was busy. And ever since He’s been just as busy working out the will of the Father and the salvation through the Son. But as to who He is…?
The Bible is full of the work of the Holy Spirit, just as it is full of Jesus Christ and God the Father. Because of this, it is impossible to say all there is to say about the Holy Spirit in one sermon. But in following the Catechism’s explanation, we can consider three basic points about the Holy Spirit. We can think about:
Who he is,
What he is,
What he does.
1. WHO HE IS
First, Who is the Holy Spirit? The Catechism answers with simple clarity: “First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God.” The Bible’s teaching is that God is One, but that he exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So we express the doctrine of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to the ‘wind’ in the Bible, and that comparison is a good way of showing how something we can’t see can still make a big difference to our lives. Just think about when we have some hot weather over the summer. You are sweltering – it’s hot and sticky. You’re inside keeping away from that bright and intense sun. It’s burning outside!
Suppose we are there, inside our house, or inside anywhere with air-conditioning, and we notice a difference happening outside. The wind is blowing. And it’s blowing from the sea. You can see or hear the relief of those who are outside – whether they’re people, or animals, even the plants.
You turn on the radio. The announcer says that a cool change has come. But you want to know more – to be sure. You switch on the TV. There you see film of thousands of people leaving the beaches as the temperature quickly drops. Now you believe it. It’s a fact – the wind has come. Here is a Biblical analogy that can help us think about the work of the Spirit.
To draw this back to our subject of the Holy Spirit, we firstly say… He is everywhere because he is God. This is simply summing up the beginning of Answer 53, which declares: “First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God.”
We are talking about an equal Person in the Triune Godhead, one which though may not be so openly obvious, yet is one and the same. In fact, the word for “Spirit” in the Old and New Testaments tells us why He isn’t seen as such. For the word used throughout the Bible for “Spirit” means literally, “breath”, or “wind”.
Wind. Remember our illustration before! The work of the Holy Spirit is just like that. Like the wind you can’t see Him. And yet looking around you can certainly notice when He has come!
Because of the Spirit’s work, creation literally sprang to life! Throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit continued to give new life to God’s people within the nation of Israel, and even on occasion to some Gentiles who became associated with Israel.
Still, of all the workings of the Spirit surely the greatest has to be His coming upon Jesus. The anointing of Jesus with the Holy Spirit at his baptism clearly demonstrates the importance of the Spirit’s work. It was at his baptism and anointing that our Lord was divinely set aside for His ministry. In the words from Luke 3:21-22, “…heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’.” What a scene! Not only does it clearly show the Triune Godhead in action, but it so vividly proves the empowering of the Spirit on God’s Son.
Still, that might strike us as strange. Why would Jesus, of all people, need this strengthening? Let me begin to answer this by asking another question: Why does the Spirit need to keep coming upon us today? Haven’t we been saved? Hasn’t the blood of Jesus washed us forever clean?
Boys and girls, remember the illustration about you being inside your home during that hot weather, waiting for the cool change to come? When you went outside you got so hot and sweaty! Being in school then you just wished you could get some kind of relief – and not just to be sent home either! Even your home has almost become an oven.
Now, what are you going to do when you see and hear of how the weather has changed outside? Do you want to feel that refreshing cool change? And if it’s raining too – after so many weeks and even months without rain – wouldn’t you like to experience that?
Of course you would! You would have reason to do it! It was so hot and stuffy! And now I just have to get out and know it for myself!
2. WHAT HE IS
That leads us to our second point: What he is!
The Catechism notes that “he has been given to me personally”. The Holy Spirit is a gift from the Father and the Son. Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Again we read it in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Or the words of Ephesians 1:13-14, “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”
Do you get the picture? God the Father and God the Son have poured the Holy Spirit out on the church as a gift to each believer. Paul twice describes the Holy Spirit as a seal guaranteeing what is to come. It’s as if the Father seeks out all who are his and says: “He is mine”, “She is mine”, “These are mine”, and then puts his mark, his stamp, his seal on each one, so that they will never be lost. The seal is the Holy Spirit, given as a gift and a guarantee.
When you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, can your identity ever be doubted? Could Satan ever grab you back and say, “No, Lord, in fact he is mine!”? Could you ever lose your anointing with the Holy Spirit? Never! God’s seal is permanent. Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.”
Here, then, we move beyond the truth of the Holy Spirit being EVERYWHERE to realising personally HE IS IN HERE.
The Holy Spirit is eternal God, one of the three Persons of the Trinity. He has always been God and always will be God. But He as the “breath” of God isn’t going to be anything to me unless He comes into me! For unless he changes me and makes me a new person, I cannot even know who he is!
You and I must acknowledge that HE IS IN HERE! He must have made us come alive in our very souls before we can even begin to know that we so desperately need the LORD. This is what Paul meant when he wrote to the Galatians in chapter 4 verse 6, “Because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’.”
In the example of the cool change we talked of earlier, we know we should be outside, basking in the refreshment of that cool wind. In that example, all the evidence is in; the facts about the cool change are plain.
And, yet, in the case of the Holy Spirit, if you see and understand his work, it is only because He, God the Holy Spirit, has so worked in you to make you able to do that. It was He who moved in me! Unless He had “been given to me personally”, to use the words of the Catechism, it might as well have been as if I had never heard about Him at all! For then we wouldn’t even believe any of those words we’ve already confessed in the Apostles’ Creed before we got to saying, “I believe in the Holy Spirit”!
What use are those details about what Jesus did! Without the work of the Spirit, they are all just words and no more! Without faith in our hearts we might as well have never been born! It’s not as if we could have made a choice – it was God who by His Spirit brought the saving work of Christ into our hearts and lives!
Many Christians look back on their lives and know that they did have a decision to make in their conversion. They still remember the day – even the time – when they chose Jesus as their own Saviour and Lord.
If you are thinking like that, could I ask you to think back to that time again? Whose decision was it, ultimately? Who was the One, who, through His ever-working Spirit, arranged everything so that you would make the right decision? The Holy Spirit was the One who worked so graciously!
Just as surely as the “Wind of God” swept into your life then, doesn’t He still do the same today? In the words of 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, “…it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
3. WHAT HE DOES
The Spirit guarantees us the future. And so we move to our third point. We have thought so far about who the Holy Spirit is – he is God. He is a member of the Trinity, and so he is everywhere. We have also thought about what he is – he is a gift from the Father and the Son to each believer, and so he is in here. But now thirdly, let’s think about what he does.
The Catechism summarises what he does in these words: “He makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me and remains with me forever.”
Congregation, we now have a share in eternity! To lose that would make us, in the words of Paul, “to be pitied more than all men” because it wouldn’t have been men letting us down – God Himself wouldn’t be true! But of course, that’s the one thing that could never happen, as the Catechism makes plain here. For the Spirit is a guarantee of what lies ahead.
The Catechism speaks of three ways in which God’s Spirit proves to be the guarantee of what’s to come. We are blessed, we are comforted, and we are assured.
The first of these is that we are blessed. In the words of the Catechism, “He [the Holy Spirit] makes me share in Christ and all his blessings.” And believe me, there are many blessings! Although not listed here, some will be appearing in the next Lord’s Days – like the tremendous privilege of membership in the one holy catholic church, being part of the communion of saints; the amazing grace of God in the forgiveness of our sins; the resurrection of our bodies with Christ’s return; together with eternal life. Just a few and already, aren’t we so rich!
Secondly, through the work of the Holy Spirit we are comforted. Here the Spirit guarantees our faith by teaching us all things and reminding us of everything Jesus has said already. The Word of God sets the firm foundation. It’s the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word which uniquely reminds us of what God has done in Christ.
The difficulties we have in our faith may well be because we don’t place ourselves continually under God’s Word. We become casual in our attitude towards church and fellowshipping together around His Word. Maybe it’s been reduced to whenever you feel like it. And you don’t feel like it much!
Dear friend, if you need to have regular meal times in order to be nourished, is it any different for spiritual food? And if you keep being irregular, that becomes your lifestyle too – in fact, you could skip God’s Word altogether for so long that you cause serious spiritual damage, just as we would do if we didn’t eat for a long time.
On the other hand, there’s never been such a thing as a spiritually fat Christian, one who’s had just too much of the Word! Actually, doesn’t the believer who is really lapping it up always want more! So… be comforted, by the Spirit, through his Word.
And then also, thirdly… be assured. When struggles and heartache come into your life, know that this happens to believers. The apostle Peter knew it. He wrote in his first letter chapter 4:14, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest on you.”
And let’s not limit this insulting to when we are specifically abused for our faith. As a pilgrim just passing through this world there are many things which try to pull us away from the heavenward journey. The prince of this world will do whatever he can to make you stay by falling away. But keeping looking on dear brother, dear sister. Be at peace in your soul.
Rest assured, what our Lord Jesus said, in John 14:16-17, is true, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
Boys and girls, when you felt that cool change, did you see it? Was there something to show that this was wind after all? “Yes,” you say, “I felt it! I can see how it’s refreshing everything around me.” The Holy Spirit works the same. He turns our hearts to seek Jesus Christ. And then He renews us in our Lord. Mind you, not that we can see Him. Then He wouldn’t be the Spirit-wind.
But as the cool wind in our weather comes because of a certain cause, such as a low depression off the coast, so too does the Holy Spirit. And His cause is the ultimate cause. The cause for which we must be the effect! In the words of Jesus in John 16 verses 13 and 14, “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He won’t speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”
Let’s not get caught up by the things of this world – the sights that dazzle and the sounds which seduce. If our faith is of God, may His Spirit sweep His Word into our hearts and our lives. Then He will guide us in the walk towards that eternal day.
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Lord God, we thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit. And may He bring this Word into our hearts fresh to us again today. For we pray this in the Name of the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
Amen.