John Gunter: Hi friends and welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. Before we get into the episode this week, we wanna remind you, something we've said, Sunday. We are going back to 2 services. That's right.
We have grown enough that we need the room and hopefully this will, make some room for you to invite your friends and so, please do that. This week again, we're talking about the Holy Spirit. We're talking about what Jesus said in his ministry about the Holy Spirit and, this thing is helpful for me. I have loved this series and I hope it's helpful for you as well. Just got a few more weeks left in it.
So come join us anytime. Small groups start back September 13th. So be looking forward to that. Have a great week. Kind of lonely thing where Jesus was by himself, and I think often that's what we feel when we are tempted.
In Sunday Bible class this morning, I asked the question, how many of you, when you actually give into that temptation, feel alone? How many of you would answer, yeah. Like, when I finally give in, I feel like I am separated not only from God, but I almost feel like I'm separated from all of you. Like, man, they would they would be so disappointed in me right now. You ever have that feeling?
I think that's just another one of Satan's ways of of kinda getting in there and try to, put a barrier up so that we don't restore that relationship. Remember, Jesus didn't go into this temptation alone. It said, he went into the wilderness in the power of the spirit. When he came back out of the wilderness, he came with the power of the spirit. And for all of us, we have been promised that when you are baptized, god gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We finished with this, scripture last week from Luke 11 verse 11 through 13. Which of you, fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? This is at the end of the conversation where Jesus is saying, ask, seek, and knock.
Ask, and it will be given. Seek, and you will find. Knock and what? The door will be open. So many times we feel all alone, but the spirit of god goes with us everywhere.
And god, as he pointed out this morning, Jesus tells a parable like the the 99 sheep, the one lost sheep. God said, I will leave all of those to come get you. And here we are a lot of times feeling like we're out there alone. But our father in heaven is looking for us and wanting to restore that relationship. We have been talking about the gospel of Luke.
This morning for the at least the first part of the sermon, we are really going to kind of cruise through the gospel of John. It talks a lot about the Holy Spirit. Jesus in John 3 says this, Jesus answered, very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and, what? The spirit, yes. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Jesus says, the spirit is a necessity.
Don't overlook the spirit of god. It is a necessity in your life. You are not alone. Even Jesus, again, as we talked last week, has the spirit. In John 327, to this, John replied, again, John the Baptist speaking here, a person can receive only what is given them from heaven.
You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Messiah. So what's he responding to? Are you the Messiah, John the Baptist? He said, I am not the Messiah, but I am sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom.
The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater. I must become less. One of the the best scriptures in in in all of scripture.
He must become greater. I'm stepping aside. I must become less. The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth.
The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the spirit without limit. We might need to highlight that one in our in our Bibles.
Right? That god gives the spirit without limit. The father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands. Even Jesus, again, operates on the power of the Holy Spirit and you look at Jesus, you think, man, I could never do that. Well, you can't when we're out here trying to think, man, what kind of ability do I have?
I'm operating on what I can do and what I can control, and we are not God, are we? Sometimes we we make ourselves out to be in our own lives, but we are not God. And so we depend on the spirit, and and what John is saying here is god gives you the spirit. Jesus said, god will give you the spirit. All you need to do is ask.
And then what we'll do is go to lunch here in a little bit and we'll think, man, this is out of my control. I just can't handle any of this. This. Depend on the spirit. When, Jesus meets the woman at the well, Jesus says this, woman, love that.
How many of you just triggered by that? I I just love that. Woman, Jesus replied, if I did it at my house, my wife would give me that that side eye. Jesus, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. So there's a discussion about, between Samaritans and Jews.
Where where is the real worship gonna happen? And Jesus said, neither on this mountain, none of this. Don't worry about this or Jerusalem. He said, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews, meaning the guy sitting there speaking to you.
Right? Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. I have approached this, this series in a in a way that really relies on my experience. I know some of you are different, but we just didn't talk much about the Holy Spirit.
The scripture talks about the spirit over and over and over, and he is important, and he goes with you, and he encourages you, and you can have it if you'll just ask. And you're supposed to worship even in spirit and in truth. The location, whether in Jerusalem or on a mountain, doesn't matter. But Jesus goes on to say in John, chapter 7, he says, on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
Remember, he has just said this to the Samaritan woman too. The woman at the well is like he he says, I have living water that will sustain you forever. And she said, where is it? I will take some. Thinking there's some kind of magic water.
But, again, look, said rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this, he meant what? The spirit. By this, he meant the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. That had to be frustrating, didn't it?
Jesus keeps talking about this and it's going to happen in the future. John in this moment and John's I love that John is open. He he's he's open to saying, listen. At this time, we didn't know what he was talking about. But it was only later we understood.
And so I think that was that's what John is doing here. He we were gonna get the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus had not been glorified. And so there's this point where after Jesus dies, and we just read in the last few weeks, Peter stands up and the Holy Spirit is on them. Right?
And out from this comes the these miraculous things from the spirit and people are able to speak in tongues and in languages that others understood because the spirit of god has that kind of power. In John 14, he says, if you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you to be with you. How long? Couple weeks? After baptism, you stand the first time?
Was it He's not going away. The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. Doesn't it sound like us? Man, I hadn't seen the spirit.
I have seen Jesus, so I don't believe. The world doesn't accept him because they don't see him and they don't know him. But you ought to know him because you are children of god. This is one of god's promises to you. You know him for he lives, what?
With you. And will be in you. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I will not leave you as orphans. Remember talking about being alone?
I will not leave you that way. There is no reason for you to feel that way because I will come to you, Jesus said. Again, he mentions kind of the same language a few verses later. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, 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. So there is a reason that the Holy Spirit is coming to encourage, to empower, to help remind of what has happened.
Some people have lost faith because they they get down the road and they realize the the gospels are written several years after Jesus died. And he said, man, I could remember all that stuff. Well, scripture tells you why and how. That the Holy Spirit of God was sent to remind you of all the things that will happen. All the things I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.
And that's the only way that I can imagine that Jesus could look his friends in the eyes and say, I'm leaving, but it's better that I leave. How many of your good friends, if they said that to you, you'd say, oh, yeah. Yeah. I could see that. Good.
We one of those friends' friends. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's kinda better. I got more time.
You're kinda dramatic. But Jesus said, It's better that I go away so that the advocate comes to you. The advocate actually testifies in John 15, you see, where John talks over and over and over about the Holy Spirit. When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me, and you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. There was a reason for these men who had walked with Jesus needed to be out in the world saying, all of this was true.
And the spirit guides into truth. He says that in John 16, I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear, But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
Remember, every time we've talked about anointing, this comes from god and the way to discern this and somebody says, I've got a word for for you from god and they tell you some nonsense. You say, no, thank you. Because this is not from god. I I have the word of god and that doesn't quite fit. Now, if it fits, that's something you ought to consider.
But often, what we get is, I don't know about that. And so that's how we discern that he will make all these things known to you. 15, all that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said, the spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you. That the spirit of god comes from god the father.
Acts is also one of those nonstop holy spirit, chapters of books. I can't keep this on my ear. I'm sorry. I know the video is horrible when the guy is just grabbing his ear all the time. Francisco, we gotta get this figured out.
Every time Francisco leaves, we we mess with these all the time. Could you stand up and hold this for no. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Thank you.
But that's one of those nonstop holy spirit books, and we we know that because, again, it it begins that way. Right? Acts 2? But it's it's nonstop holy spirit, holy spirit, holy spirit. But there are some ways that we can do things against the holy spirit.
Right? Stephen, in his speech remember, Stephen stood before everyone and was about to be stoned. And for whatever reason, I I don't understand this, they allowed him to get one more speech off. And it was pretty long, you know, when we have capital punishment, you know, do you want to say anything? I don't think usually you give a guy a long time, if I don't wrap it up.
But Stephen says this in a part of his speech, he says, you stiff necked people, trying to win them over, of course. Your hearts, they've got stones in their hand, and he looks at them right now and said, you stiff necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit.
What an accusation. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you have betrayed and murdered him. I think he's getting to him.
You have received the law that was given through the angels, but have not obeyed it. So there's a way in which we can resist the Holy Spirit. You know that. God wants to give you this free gift of the spirit of His spirit, and there's a way you can say thanks, but no thanks. Paul says it this way in Ephesians, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth.
This is kind of a this is a way to live type of, passage. But only what is helpful for helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Do you grieve the Holy Spirit? Do you think we've ever grieved the Holy Spirit?
What about even believing in him? That god sent them Is that a form of grieving the Holy Spirit or something to consider? Is it not? For this power is all over the book of Acts. We see in Acts 9, the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened.
Living in the fear of the lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Encouraged by the Holy Spirit. How many of you need a little encouragement from the Holy Spirit? I do. Every time in in ministry that you get your hopes up, man, I hope this is going to go well and it doesn't.
I mean, as I just mentioned, we have had a phenomenal summer as far as people showing up and being present for these series, and then last week, I don't know if you know that because most of you weren't here, I think you all got a group on and went to vacation or everybody got the same bug or something at the same time. We had, like, 56 here last week. Somewhere around there. 60, 56, 60, somewhere in there. And even in that moment, I I have you guys have blessed me because it's, you know, when you get up here, it's hard to not take things personally.
Can you imagine? So when somebody's not here, it's like, okay. What I do? Last week, it was low and and even with just 1 week out of the summer, you showed back up today. Sometimes, it feels like, oh man, I just need some encouragement.
I think that because I think that's from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit encourages us. But Jesus was, as we've mentioned, Jesus was also empowered by the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:34. Then Peter began to speak, I now realize how true it is that god does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
You know the message god sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is lord of all? You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how god anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Remember I said, if you ever ask the question, how did Jesus do what he did? That is with the Holy Spirit. That that is how he was empowered and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because god was with him.
But it didn't stop with the Jews, did it? We are here today because god said to Abraham, through you, I will bless all nations. And we see this later on while Peter was still speaking these these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. So what did they expect at that moment?
Oh, it's huge. We've got this special relationship with god, but all of a sudden these outsiders, these Gentiles, you folks, you folks all of a sudden are receiving the Holy Spirit as well. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising god. God gives them this sign. Not just for them but for Peter and the rest To understand that through this, god has included all nations.
Isn't it interesting? And Peter, Peter expands on this and I I love Peter's openness. How many of you have a a personality like Peter? Like, I'm just gonna jump in. Not a whole lot of filter.
Don't make me start pointing at people. Yeah. Just sometimes it just comes out. Right? And usually, you think about it later.
Maybe I should've said it like that. If you well, that's a diff I have a different personality too. But Peter explains it this way in Acts 11. He says, right then, 3 men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. The spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.
How much hesitation you're gonna have? Somebody shows up to your house this afternoon. Right? But he's listening. He's tuned in to the spirit of god and the spirit of god says, go.
These 6 brothers also went with me and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.' As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said, John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with what? Holy Spirit.
Yeah. So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in god's way? Boy, I think we ought to take that on. Who am I to stand in god's way about how god wants to work, how god wants to bring about repentance and salvation in others? I think sometimes we look around and say, well, you didn't do it like I did.
And we gotta stand in judgment of other people. And maybe their route into salvation was different than yours. So we kind of stand there as judge, and Peter says, Who was I to think I could stand in God's way? Amen? When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God.
There's the attitude right there, right? And I'm going to praise god that these people have come to salvation saying, so then, even to Gentiles, god has granted repentance that leads to life. And the question is, church, this morning, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to live knowing that god has gifted us, that he has blessed us Give us freely his salvation That he offers us his spirit and all we have to do is ask. All we have to do is have faith in him that leads us into this relationship.
That we are baptized into his name. Again, calling on the name of the lord, pledging obedience to him, that he can freely. And through that, that's how we live our lives, isn't it? Talk about, as you'll see in your bulletin, the fruits of the spirit. What does it look like to have this kind of life?
Okay, now I know mentally, the spirit of god is is within me, that god has given me this gift. What does that look like? And what we're going to talk about are the fruits of the spirit. One of the, earliest things, songs my son, Evan, learned was he went to a mother's day out at a baptist church. And he came back and he, he was singing the fruits of the spirit.
And I looked. The fruit of God, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And he went up an octave. Love, joy, peace, Mickey Mouse. But as we see that we understand and hopefully we can recognize in our lives both when the spirit is present, when we are tuned into the spirit, and how we are living.
And also we're able to contrast that and look at our lives, look at ourselves in the mirror and say, I have drift away from God. There's no sense in feeling loneliness. There's no sense in feeling ostracized that I can't come back to church or God will never accept me because we don't read anything about that in scripture. Actually, the opposite. That God always wants you to come back to him.
He's always looking. I'll leave the 99 to come find you. We have a yes. We have to come back. That's what God is.
Let's operate this morning that we are a church, that we are searching, we are looking, and that we are tuned in to the Holy Spirit, understanding that he empowers, he encourages, he uplifts, he give us gives us that advocate with the father to bring back to you. Tyler's got a song of invitation. We'd love to pray with you, and we'd love to see you baptized in the name of Jesus this morning. If if that is your wish, would you come as we stand and sing?