The Spirit of life

Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned (John 16:5-11a).

This weekend, we start the season of Pentecost. Pentecost is the second half of the church year. The first half is called the festival season—it begins with Advent and Christmas, continues with Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration, and reaches its climax with Lent, Easter, and our Lord’s ascension into heaven. The festival season focuses on the most dramatic events of Jesus’ time among us.

The season of Pentecost shifts our focus to Christ’s Church here on earth. Pentecost is when God the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and equipped them for building a community of believers, a fellowship that has gone from a mere handful of followers huddled behind closed doors in Jerusalem, to billions of Christians living their faith openly around the world. Pentecost is the part of the church year where we look at what Jesus teaches us and see how it affects our lives out in the world.

Because of the sin that corrupts our thinking, we are not able to understand Jesus’ teachings properly, nor can we hope to live a perfect life according to the wisdom that He has brought down from heaven. This is why Jesus made the promise in today’s Gospel lesson—He has sent us the Counselor, the Holy Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to be Christians, it is the Holy Spirit that brings us together into a fellowship of believers that Paul calls the body of Christ, the Church. And so today, the first weekend of the Pentecost season, we devote our attention to the builder of Christ’s Church, the Spirit of God.

The first thing to remember is that the Holy Spirit is a distinct Person within the Triune God. It doesn’t get any clearer than Jesus’ words of the Great Commission: go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). It is clear that Jesus regards the Spirit as a full-fledged partner in the Trinity. This point is borne out further by an incident recorded in Acts chapter five; there we read of a convert to the faith named Ananias. Ananias had told a lie to the other members of his congregation, in order to make himself look good. But when Peter confronts him, notice what Peter says about the Holy Spirit: Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to men but to God." Peter also makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is just as much God as is the Father and the Son.

And yet the Spirit has His own unique relationship within the godhead. In the Apostles’ Creed, we speak of the Spirit ‘proceeding’ from the Father and the Son. What does this mean, exactly? Well, this statement is based on what Jesus Himself teaches. In John chapter 14, Jesus says: the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. And in John chapter 16, Jesus says: Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. From these and other passages, it is clear that the Holy Spirit comes to us both by the Father’s direction and by the Son’s—and so we say that He proceeds from the Father and the Son, that He comes forth by their mutual will.

What is the mutual will of the Father and the Son? That we be saved from sin and death, of course. The evil that twists our every thought and desire is born in us, and is inescapable. Because God only surrounds Himself with the beauties of perfection, sin is loathsome to Him and it makes us unworthy to be in His company. To die apart from God is to suffer dying eternally in hell. But such an outcome is not what God had in mind when He created us; His intent was for us to be perfect and to enjoy eternity seated around His feet. So God sent His Son to offer us escape from our inescapable sin. Jesus did this by being the perfect child of God that we should have been, and by diverting God’s anger at our sins to Himself, suffering the punishment that our evilness had demanded. By living and dying in our place, Jesus took away the tragic consequences of our sin and in exchange gifted us with His perfection, a perfection that makes us worthy to kneel before the Father without fear of His displeasure. Jesus and the Father were together committed to this ultimate act of love on our behalf.

So when we speak of the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, it should not surprise us that the goal of His work among us continues to be the work of bringing life from death. One of the great truths of Scripture is this: the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). Already in the first verses of Genesis, the Spirit is involved in the creation of life: 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. When mankind was created, the Holy Spirit discussed the matter together with the Father and the Son: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26).

In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends says: The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4). Here we see the idea that the Spirit of God is like a breath, like invisible but life-giving air. It calls to mind how Adam was given life: the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). That breath of life was the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit!

It is by the working of the Holy Spirit that God breathes new life into we who were spiritually dead because of sin. This has both immediate and long-term benefits. The immediate benefit is access to Jesus; it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the faith we need to be one with our Savior. 1st Corinthians chapter twelve tells us, no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. It is only by the work of the Spirit living within us that we can recognize Jesus for who He truly is and trust in Him to lead us towards holiness of living. In Romans chapter 8, Paul tells us that Jesus works together with the Holy Spirit to offer us salvation: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

It is the Spirit of God that equips us, strengthens us, and leads us through life. The Spirit came down and remained on Jesus at His baptism, then led Him, fully prepared, to confront Satan’s temptations in the wilderness. At Pentecost, the Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in many different languages so that they could witness to the foreigners living among them. When unbelievers challenged Stephen, Acts tells us that they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. The Spirit guided Paul on his missionary journeys; in Acts chapter 16 Luke writes, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to…During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. And you are well aware of the gifts that the Spirit promises to give those who ask: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are all ways by which the Spirit works in us directly.

In order to help us to live the new life of faith, the Spirit also provides other supports. The most important of these is the Bible. Although set down on paper by men, it was the Spirit of God who provided the inspiration; Peter tells us, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:20-21). We can trust that everything in the Bible is true, because God the Holy Spirit caused these words to be set down for our learning. The only reason that we frequently fail to understand what the Spirit has given us is because sin clouds our ability to see the truth in all its marvelous perfection. The Bible is God’s instruction manual for life, the kind of life that has purpose and meaning and value and dignity, the kind of life that is aimed at eternity.

Another support that the Spirit gives us is the Church. All the way back in Genesis chapter two, God said it is not good for the man to be alone. Throughout history, people have sought the company of others. People gather for the joy of companionship, the comfort of mutual support, and the security of being part of a community. The Holy Spirit has built Christ’s Church to provide us with these same blessings. Christians gather together for the joy of companionship. We have things in common with each other that are hard to share with an unbeliever because they just can’t understand the spiritual component of our lives. We also have the feeling of belonging that comes from being part of a family; when we come to church for worship or study or to work for the Lord, it’s like going to visit the house of a favorite relative.

The Church also gives us the comfort of mutual support and a sense of security. We are constantly under attack—we are tempted by Satan to build our lives on something else than Jesus, we are pressured by people around us to accept their sinful choices as good and right and normal, we are seduced by the desires of our bodies to abandon Christ’s leadership so that we can indulge in every sinful desire for pleasure that comes along. It is because of these attacks, both from within and without, that we find ourselves suffering all kinds of pain—pain of bodies mistreated, of minds poisoned with destructive ideas, of souls wounded by betrayal. It is because we are attacked and wounded that we have been given the community of the Church, a place of retreat, protection, and healing. Here among our brothers and sisters in faith, we can cry without shame or embarrassment. Here we can talk out what confuses us and be reaffirmed in what God tells us is good and right and holy. Here we can find forgiveness for our mistakes, and can hold each other up as we turn to God for healing and the strength to persevere. This is what the Holy Spirit created the Church to do, what He has called each of us to do as members of this Church.

But the Spirit does not restrict Himself to giving us only short-term benefits. Having the Spirit of God in your heart yields a long-term benefit as well. Galatians chapter six tells us, A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. We are promised that those who are inhabited by the Spirit will be raised to live forever; Romans chapter eight: if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. When we are united with God through the indwelling of His Spirit, He will welcome us into everlasting fellowship with Him and all our fellow believers in Christ. The community that we have been made a part of by the Spirit’s work here on earth--the Church--that community will continue to surround us with all its joys and benefits forever in God’s presence, a true communion of saints. The time that we invest in God’s house here is an investment that will carry into eternity!

The Spirit of God is every bit as essential to our lives as is the Father and the Son. Why is it that we spend so little time talking about Him? Because the Holy Spirit is the silent partner in the godhead; His role is not to call attention to Himself, but rather to focus our eyes on Christ, and through Christ, on each other as fellow children of God. But on this, the beginning of the season of Pentecost, we turn our attention to Him who gives life to our dead souls.