Life in the Spirit
Life in the Spirit by Rev. L. John Gable
May 23, 2021
Given the option which would you choose: to have lived long ago, during the time of Christ, when you could have walked with Him and talked with Him and seen Him face to face, or to live now as we do, learning of His life and ministry through the witness of the disciples and the teachings of the Church? Certainly there are advantages to both. Personally, I would love to have had the opportunity to be with Jesus during His earthly ministry; to see for myself His tender compassion and witness His healing power; to hear for myself the sound of His voice as He spoke about the nature of God and the life we are to live now as we prepare for life eternal in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even saying that, I’m not sure that being with Him then would have made faith any easier. To see Him as “fully human” might have made it difficult for me to profess Him as “fully divine”. So I am grateful for the nearly 2000 years of history and testimony and teachings of the Church which guides us and helps us to understand who this Jesus of Nazareth really was and who we believe Him still to be.
Still, on the whole, given the chance to choose between living then and living now, at least in matters of faith, I think I would chose to be with Him then.
That is why Jesus’ message in our Gospel lesson this morning is so shocking, even to us today. Setting the stage: it is late in the season of Jesus’ ministry. He and His disciples are in Jerusalem and the cross looms large before them. Jesus speaks candidly about suffering, His and theirs; and then says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now…I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away.” Those words seem to jump off the page for they sound utterly ridiculous. Surely the disciples must have wondered what on earth He was talking about. How could it be to their advantage that He leave them? Any who have suffered the death of a loved one or endured an unwanted separation would recoil at such a thought. Isn’t it always better to be with someone than to be without them?
But Jesus continues. “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Jesus tells them that despite the pain of grief and loss they will feel in His going, the Heavenly Father will provide them with a benefit that is greater still, but they must wait and watch for it.
We move forward in the story to the events recorded for us in Acts, chapter 2. It is now 50 days after the resurrection. The disciples are still in Jerusalem, obeying Jesus’ instructions for them to stay there until they are “clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49). They are cloistered together in an upper room while the Jewish festival of Pentecost is being celebrated on the streets below. Suddenly, “There came a sound like the rush of a violent wind from heaven and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Tongues, as of fire, rested on each of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:2-4) The disciples, timid and afraid as they were, were suddenly filled with boldness and the conviction to proclaim Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, as Savior and Lord, which they did on the streets of Jerusalem and that day 3000 people came to faith. God’s promise to send the power of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled on Pentecost, the day we celebrate today, and believers have never been the same since.
Surely there is no argument to say that the twelve disciples had a unique experience with Jesus, unlike any who would follow after them. They had the privilege of actually being WITH Him, and I admit that I am envious of that. Their faith is based on what they heard Him say with their own ears and watched Him do with their own eyes. Which of us wouldn’t want such a privilege? Yet, Jesus said that those of us who follow after them will have a greater benefit, and here is why. The privilege of actually being WITH Him was limited by both time and space to only a few. Given the billions of people who have lived, only a relative handful actually got to see this man Jesus of Nazareth. So, what about those of us who have lived 20 years, 200 years, 2000 years after? Is our faith based only on the retelling of someone else’s story from long ago? Absolutely not!
God, in His infinite wisdom, has made a wonderful provision for those of us who could not actually be WITH Jesus. Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God has made it possible for Jesus to be with us and, better still, to live WITHIN us. This is the promise of Pentecost, not just for the few, back then, long ago and far away, but for us, now, in this time and place. Jesus is with us now, not just in the collective memory of the Church or in the dusty pages of history, but in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit of God living WITHIN us.
This is Paul’s message as he describes the presence of the Spirit in his letter to the Romans. Contrasting the new life we have in the Spirit to the old way of life we have in the flesh, following the pursuits of earthly desires rather than those of God, the desires of this world rather than those of the Kingdom of God, listen to the way he speaks of the Spirit’s presence not merely WITH us but WITHIN us as he writes, “You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God DWELLS IN YOU. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of God does not belong to Him. But if Christ is IN YOU, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead DWELLS IN YOU, He who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that DWELLS IN YOU”.
Whereas the first disciples were able to be WITH Jesus (certainly a wonderful privilege), we have what Jesus calls the greater “advantage” of having the Spirit of God actually LIVE WITHIN us. In a sentence, this is the defining characteristic of what it means to be a Christian. It is to have the Spirit of Christ LIVING IN us. To say, “I am a Christian”, is to say that the Holy Spirit of God has to come into my heart and lives WITHIN me still.
Throughout the Scriptures, from the opening verses of Genesis on, the Spirit of God is described as like “wind or breath”; the Hebrew word is “ruah” and the Greek is “pneuma”, as in pneumonia. Like the air all around us, the Spirit of God is constantly present. While we cannot see it, we can feel its effects, and without it we are not. It is life-giving, essential to life itself, as we take it into ourselves every time we breathe. Spiritually speaking, the Holy Spirit of God is around us always, but does not enter into us unless and until we welcome it when we confess our faith in Christ. Unlike some modern teaching about spirituality which suggests that all we need do is fan the spark of the spirit inherent within us in to flame, that is not Christian teaching at all. The Holy Spirit is with us and around us always, but it is not naturally within us, until it is super-naturally given to us by God as we come to faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.
Centuries ago Blaise Pascal talked about the “God-shaped void” within us. Of course, he is speaking metaphorically not anatomically, but we know exactly what he’s talking about. There is within each of us a void, an emptiness, a vacuum that we try desperately to fill with other things, the things of this world, what Paul is calling the things of the flesh; but no matter how hard we try, nothing will ever satisfy our inner longing. Like air surrounding that hermetically sealed container, God desires to come and fill our emptiness, but we keep Him out; until finally we hear the Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ and we crack open our hearts just a little, and like air rushing in to fill a vacuum, the Spirit of God comes and fills that God-shaped void within us. In that instant, something radical happens. Just as on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God, the full power and presence of God, the same Spirit that moved across the face of the waters at the dawn of creation, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead on the first Easter morning, enters IN TO us and takes up residency WITHIN us and begins to transform us from the inside out. When that happens we transfer our citizenship from the kingdoms of this world to the Kingdom of God, and abandon the old way of life in the flesh and embrace the new way of life in the Spirit.
This is what it means to be a Christian. Not just that know about God or a way to God, or obey the rules of God; many make those kinds of claims. But, the promise of the Christian faith is that, as we are willing, the very Holy Spirit of God actually comes and lives WITHIN us. This is the “advantage” about which Jesus spoke to those who were WITH Him, that one day He would live WITHIN them and all who would put their trust in Him, and that promise was fulfilled at Pentecost.
It is this presence of the Holy Spirit DWELLING WITHIN us that brings about all the benefits of the Christian life. It is the Spirit living within us which gives us faith and allows us to know Jesus for ourselves, intimately and personally. One has described the Holy Spirit as being “Jesus Christ in the present tense”. I love that, because it is the Holy Spirit that allows us to think of Jesus as a contemporary, rather than as a legend of ancient history; as a companion and friend, One with whom we can talk and cry and pray. And because of the Spirit, that privilege is offered now to the many, not just to the few.
The story is told of a great explorer who returned to her people. They were eager to know all about her adventures, and in particular about the mighty Amazon, which she had travelled. But how could she speak of the feelings which had flooded her heart when she saw exotic flowers and heard the night sounds of the forests; when she sensed the danger of the wild beasts or paddled her canoe over treacherous rapids? She said to the people, ‘Go, and find out for yourselves.’ To guide them she drew a map of the river.
They pounced upon the map. They framed it in their town hall. They made copies of it for themselves. They studied it night and day and became experts in interpreting the river. They knew every turn and bend, they knew how broad it was and how deep, they knew where the rapids and waterfalls were. They knew everything they could know about the river, yet not one of them ever left the village to see the river for themselves. All they knew of the river was what they had been told of it.
Friends, God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not intended only for them then, but for us now, so that we too might experience the adventure of faith for ourselves. Our faith need not be dependent on someone else’s testimony about who Jesus was and how He has touched their lives. We too can know Him for ourselves, today, intimately and personally, by the indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and all we need do is welcome Him in.
When by faith we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord something remarkable changes within us. In that simple act of opening our hearts, the Spirit enters in and we are born again, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, and we become Children of God. Paul writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God…you have received a spirit of adoption.” In that first moment of faith, our relationship with God changes. We pass from death to life, from rebellion to obedience, from being an outcast to being a member of the family, such that we can pray to God with the same intimacy and confidence that Jesus did, saying, “Abba, Father, for it is the very Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God and inheritors of His promises.”
As much as I would love to have walked and talked with Jesus long ago, and long to meet Him face to face one day, I know that we have been given the better part. By the ministry of the Holy Spirit our fellowship with Christ is not bound by time or space. While the few had the privilege of living WITH him, I know we have been given the greater blessing of having Him live WITHIN us.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN.