Alba 4-2-2023
There Is One Spirit
Ephesians 4:4
This morning's message is entitled “There Is One Spirit” from Ephesians chapter four, verse four.
Sometime back the Associated Press carried this news article: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor."
In the same way, trying to get ourselves going spiritually without the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are like a car without an engine.
Trying to start anything without the Spirit of God is an exercise in futility. We are reliant on the Holy Spirit for the power to start up each new day, each new project and each new relationship.
That is why Jesus told the disciples in John 14:16“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” He said this to His disciples after His jubilant ride into Jerusalem and just before His crucifixion and ascension because Jesus does not want, nor does He intend, to leave us alone.
In John 14:18 Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans”. He knew that we would need help – divine help – if we are going to be His disciples in his “absence.” The Spirit is the “Helper” He sent.
John 16:5-7 records His words, “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
Jesus uses the Greek term “parakletos” to describe the person and work of the Spirit as our helper. This word is translated in different ways: counselor, comforter, helper, friend, and advocate. Translated literally it means, “one called alongside.”
Back in 1945, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Jackie Robinson to play for them. Now to people who don’t know much about baseball, that may not seem all that important.
But back then, it was very important – because Jackie Robinson was a black man… And until that time black men were not allowed to play ball with white men.
The owner of the Dodgers told Robinson he intended to change baseball and break the racial barrier. As expected this decision was not accepted well. Robinson endured mistreatment from opposing teams, and crowds would boo him and insult him, calling him all kinds of nasty things.
In a game they played in Boston during his second year with the Dodgers, the insults and taunts became almost unbearable. It was at that point the short stop, a white southern boy named Pee Wee Reese, called time out and walked over to Robinson and put his arm around him.
In that simple gesture Pee Wee Reese was telling the crowd, “This is my friend. This is my teammate. And I stand with him.” From that point on the crowd settled down and backed off their insults.
It was such a powerful gesture that there is a statue in New York that commemorates it. (slate.com/articles/sports)
It is a powerful thing for someone to come along side another to help, comfort and be a friend. That's why Jesus sent His Spirit to dwell with us.
Just as Jesus is our comforter, counselor, advocate, helper, and teacher, so the Holy Spirit also has this role, expressly to continue the work of Jesus. The Spirit takes up where Jesus left off.
Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to indwell His people, and to empower us for His work. It is the Holy Spirit who has been given to us to guide us to live our lives as Christians and meet the challenges we face in this life.
After the apostle Paul was converted from being a persecutor of the church to a follower of Jesus Christ, it says in Acts 9:31 “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord (and note this) and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.”
The Holy Spirit brought comfort to the churches, coming “along side” of them, indwelling them, providing growth in their numbers and in their spiritual walk.
The indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit is promised to those who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and are baptized. In Acts 2:38, the apostle Peter responded to people who believed his message about Jesus telling them:
“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Peter points out that this “indwelling” is for “everyone”. In verse 39 he continues saying, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit isn’t just for one generation, but for “all” generations! This is talking about the “one spirit” of Ephesians chapter four.
I Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”
And Romans 8:9 says that, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” The truth is, there is a definite difference in one who has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
I Corinthians 6:19-20 asks, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
The name is “Holy” Spirit on purpose. Those who have the Spirit of Christ will endeavor to live a holy life. Romans 8:5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
There is a prophecy in the Old Testament that there would come a time when God would send His Spirit to indwell us and help us to live as holy people.
In Ezekiel 36:26-27 the Lord says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
We have a desperate need for the Holy Spirit to come along side of us and help us in our desire to live the holy lives we are called to live as Christians. We tend to be weak on our own. And the devil will use that weakness if he has a chance.
Romans 8:6-8 warns us that, “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
There is a continual spiritual battle going on in the world. The devil uses whatever means he can to lead people away from the truth of God's love in Jesus Christ.
We live in a culture that has increasingly become more pagan and carnally minded. Children seem to be the target of the devil's attacks, not only with a shooting in a Christian based school, but also in attempting to tear down the biblical, and biological, understanding of male and female. Add to that the sexualized drag queen story hours that children are subjected to.
Larry Banta, a Practical Child Psychiatrist and a Christian in Boise, Idaho, wrote an article saying, “We need to be active parents and Christians, walking the talk and talking the walk, living for Him.”
He warned “Satan has a plan for us. He wants us to first DOUBT what God has said, he will then DISTRACT us from our walk with Jesus, and then DIVERT us into sin, DECEIVE us so that he can DEPLOY us and then eventually to DESTROY us.
How do we overcome Satan's power? Romans 8:11gives us the answer. It says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Jesus hung on that cross to die so that our sins could be taken away, and then he was buried in a tomb that was sealed with a heavy stone. The devil thought he had won. But that day he lost.
The same power that brought our Jesus back to life is the power of the indwelling Spirit in our lives.
The Spirit of God is our power source – that’s how we “plug in” to God. Look at the electrical plugs along the wall. I could plug something into one on this side, and you could plug in something else on that side. But we’d all drawing the electricity from one source.
And there is one Spirit from whom we all receive power to be what we otherwise could not be. Power to live a holy life. Power to say no to the devil. Power to walk the talk, and talk the walk.
As the Holy Spirit comes along side to help us, we are strengthened as we read and study the Bible. That's because the words of scripture were inspired by the Spirit.
II Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
The New International Version translates it, “all scripture is God-breathed.” The Greek word for breath is pneuma which can also be translated Spirit. It was God through the Holy Spirit who gave us the Scriptures.
Before His crucifixion Jesus also told the disciples in John 16:12-14, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
The words of the disciples and apostles and writers of Scripture are not simply human words – but God spoke through these men to give us our inspired – “God-breathed” – Scriptures.
By reading and studying the Bible, we are constantly being filled with the things of the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, “do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.”
That refers to our being so under the Holy Spirit’s control and leading that our thought and life patterns are entirely taken up with honoring Jesus Christ, of whom it is the Spirit’s chief responsibility to bear witness.
Only God can fill us with His Spirit. In Luke 11:13 Jesus says, “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!” He wants us to ask!
D. L. Moody was once asked why he urged Christians to be filled constantly with the Holy Spirit. “Well,” he said, “I need a continual infilling, because I leak!” He pointed to a water tank which had sprung a leak. “I’m like that!” he said.
Someone once said that, “Every Christian has the Spirit, but the Spirit does not have every Christian.”
Imagine Clark Kent living his whole life without knowing that he was Superman. Can we picture Clark Kent on his deathbed, looking down and muttering, "What's that big 'S' on my T-shirt?
How sad! Sadder still is the fact that many Christians while still living are unaware of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, unaware of the power that lives inside of them.
There are gifts and there is fruit that the Holy Spirit is able to use within one who is a committed follower of Jesus Christ.
The gifts of the Spirit were given for the purpose of serving and building the church. While the fruits of the Spirit are given for the purpose of strengthening and empowering individuals to live a Spirit filled life.
The evidence of the Spirit in our lives is not in the gifts we have, but in the fruit we bear. And the Spirit does not operate automatically in the believer’s heart, but waits to be yielded to, or depended upon.
So, the Holy Spirit is the indwelling presence of God in our lives. The Spirit is our teacher and the one who leads us to understand more fully the revelation of God in Jesus.
The Spirit is the one who enables us to be witnesses and testify on behalf of Jesus. The Spirit is the one who points us to Jesus continually, reminding us that Jesus ought always be the center of our focus.
So here are some questions:
Is your life yielded to the Spirit?
Are you governed and guided by His presence?
Are you using your gifts to serve Him?
Do you bear fruit to glorify His name?
There is one Spirit... God's Spirit... given to indwell you when you in faith were baptized into Christ. Allow the Spirit to do His work.
CLOSE:
A group of ministers had gathered to make plans for a city-wide evangelistic campaign. One of the men suggested that the well-known evangelist D. L. Moody be considered as a possible speaker.
The ministers discussed the suggestion and several spoke favorably about Moody. But one young preacher who wasn’t in favor of inviting him stood up and said with a note of sarcasm, "From the way some of you talk, you’d think Mr. Moody has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit."
The room became quiet. Then another minister said, "No, Mr. Moody doesn’t have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit does have a monopoly on Mr. Moody!"
Oh, that such a thing would be said about each of us!
