Heavenly Father, here we are as your family in Linfield. And we thank you this morning for your Holy Spirit whom you’ve given us. Please may he shine the light of Christ into our hearts, give us understanding of what we read and may our hunger and our expectation of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ grow. We ask this for your namesake. Amen. Well, if you are joining us for the first time we are working our way through a short series of core convictions, things that we believe are part of our DNA as a church. We thought about being Christ centred, we’ve thought about being Bible rooted and this morning we’re thinking about being spirit empowered. You’ll find our core convictions on a board at the back of church under the tower there. Chris has produced a beautiful board for us to remind us of them. So please do go and have a look. If you haven’t seen that this morning we’re going to think about being spirit empowered and the place to start. The Lord Jesus Christ, what is his relationship with the Holy Spirit and therefore what is our relationship with the Holy Spirit? So let me begin with a question this morning. How did Jesus do all his miracles? How did Jesus walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead? How did he feed 5,000 people? How did he know things about people when he met them? How did he just know those things? How did he suffer and die? How did Jesus rise again? How did Jesus do anything that we read of in the Gospels? I think it’s tempting to think of Jesus in a way we think about Superman, the comic hero. When we read in the Gospels, it’s tempting to think that when Jesus does ordinary things, eating, working, sleeping, when he shows emotions, sadness, anger, frustration and so on, that that’s his human side, like Superman, the Clark Kent side. But then we see Jesus in the Gospels do something extraordinary, a miracle, and we say, ah, but that’s his divine side. And so if we’re not careful, we split Jesus into two persons, human and divine and we chalk up various things to him, to his human nature and various other things to his divine nature. If we’re not careful, we end up with a Jesus who is really two persons, not one. Is that right? Is that what Jesus is like? Well, lots of people in the Bible do miracles and some people today do miracles, but they don’t have a divine side. So how do we explain what we see in Jesus? Well, the prophet Isaiah, as we’ve already read, has given us the answer. Have a look down at Isaiah, chapter 11. If you’ve closed your Bibles, do open it up again. Isaiah 11. 2. The prophet says, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. That is, everything we see Jesus doing in the Gospels, he does through the Holy Spirit who rests on him. His wisdom, understanding, knowledge, power, miracles, preaching, compassion, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, return. Everything he has done is doing today and will do in the future. He does through the power of the Holy Spirit. So what I’d like to do is divide our sermon into two parts and in the first part, think about Jesus relationship to the Holy Spirit, Jesus dependence on the empowering of the Spirit, and therefore second part, our reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit as we follow Jesus. Does that make sense? So the first part, Jesus relationship with the Holy Spirit. Let’s have a whistle stop tour of Jesus life. If you have a Bible, turn to Luke’s gospel. Luke chapter one. We’re just going to look at one or two verses in those early chapters of Luke. Luke chapter one, verse 35. That’s our first verse, verse 35. And we notice that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35. The angel answered, Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the one to be born will be called the Son of God. His conception was empowered by the Holy Spirit. His childhood. Well, we’re not told a lot about his childhood, but we are told one incident in Luke’s Gospel when he was 12 years old and he was left behind at the temple. Do you remember? And when his parents found him, he was talking with the teachers of the law and asking and answering questions. And they were amazed at his wisdom and wondered where he had got such understanding. And Isaiah 11 tells us, because the Spirit of wisdom and understanding rested upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding rested on him. What about Jesus? Baptism? At the start of a priest’s ministry in the Old Testament, the first thing that would happen is that they would have a ceremonial Washington. Then they would be anointed with oil. Then they would begin their public ministry as priests. So Jesus as our great high priest, has a washing in the River Jordan and is anointed by the Holy Spirit, publicly commissioning him and empowering him for the ministry that lies ahead. And that’s something for us to stop and think about. Jesus was anointed with the Spirit for ministry, for serving God. God gives his spirit of power so that we can serve him. And it’s of course, it’s not that Jesus never had the Holy Spirit when he was a child. He’s always had the Holy Spirit without measure. But when he was a child, he didn’t need to be a great preacher, he didn’t need to raise the dead, multiply loaves and fish and so on. He didn’t need those things. It was only when he began his public ministry that he needed those gifts. And so at his baptism, he is publicly anointed in a visible way for what lies ahead. And what lies ahead. Let’s keep going. We need to motor on. Luke 4:1. Have a look down. Luke 4:1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. So the first thing Jesus does in his public ministry is take our place and face all the temptations of the devil and defeat the devil on our behalf. The Spirit empowered him for that. What’s next? Luke 4, verse 14. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. And he went into the synagogue in Nazareth, do you remember? And he opened the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. At Isaiah, chapter 61. He found the place where it is written. Verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom from the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind and so on. His preaching, healing, miracles. Everything he did, he said, is empowered by the Holy Spirit. His death. Yes. Hebrews 9:14. On the cross, Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself up to God, his resurrection. Yes. 1 Peter 3:18. Christ was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit, his ascension. Yes. Acts 2:33. He received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on his church at Pentecost. In other words, everything that Jesus has done from the very beginning to the very end, that everything that he is doing now in this world is done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, why does all that matter? Why labour that point? Because when we look at Jesus, we see how life is meant to be lived. We see what a truly human life is. And if Jesus had to rely on the Holy Spirit for everything he did, then those of us who are Christians, who are in Christ, in Jesus, united to him, we too need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit for everything we do, day by day. So, second half of the sermon, if you’ve just dozed off a Little bit. Come back. We’re in the second half now. Let’s think about the Holy Spirit and us. If you’ve got Luke’s Gospel still open, look down at Luke 3:16. Luke 3:16. These are words of John the Baptist. He tells the crowds there at the River Jordan that he is baptising with water. But when Christ comes, he will baptise in or with the Holy Spirit. He will baptise in or with the Holy Spirit. Now, question, what does that mean? What does it mean to be baptised in or with the Holy Spirit? Well, many Pentecostal brothers and sisters of ours have argued that the baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to a particular experience that somebody has, either the moment they become a Christian or perhaps later on, a second blessing it’s sometimes called. And maybe there’s somebody here this morning who has had that experience. It may have been accompanied by an overwhelming sense of the love and presence and warmth of the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes also accompanied by the gift of tongues, the ability to speak a language that you didn’t learn, a heavenly language. If you’ve had that experience, wonderful. Praise the Lord for that. But not everybody, the Bible says, is given the gift of tongues. But being a Christian is about a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So there ought to be an experiential side to it. We don’t always feel something being a Christian, but if we never have, well, maybe something is missing. Romans 5:5 says that God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he’s given us. But should we all expect an experience like the disciples had, as the disciples had at Pentecost? Is that normative for all Christians? Well, let’s think about Pentecost just for a moment or two. Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem. In Acts 1:5, he said, John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. Now, the disciples were already believers, but Jesus promises them a great pouring out of the Holy Spirit to empower them for a particular task. Verse 8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. God was sending his apostles to take the gospel to the whole world, and they needed the Holy Spirit’s power to do that. Remember, we see that in the life of Jesus, the Spirit is given to empower ministry and mission. So there they are in Jerusalem ten days later, when Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit on them from heaven and it says, In Acts chapter two, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. And there were people in Jerusalem at that time from all sorts of different countries who suddenly heard the Gospel being preached in their own languages. And they became Christians and the gospel goes global. First and foremost, Pentecost is a unique event in the life of the church and its mission. It wasn’t a template experience that every Christian should expect to have, even though many Christians have had a similar experience since. Pentecost marked a new chapter in God’s plan of salvation. Jesus, birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the church going global. And then still to come, Jesus returned to make everything new. Now, since Pentecost, you can be British, Kenyan, Korean, American, Australian, and you can be a part of God’s international church, direct. And the proof of that is that you too have been given the Holy Spirit. When I was a teenager, I wanted to have the experiences of the Holy Spirit that I had heard other Christians talk about, gifts of tongues and so on. But I think looking back, I mixed up in my mind the giving of the Holy Spirit with some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As I got older, I understood that every Christian has the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to every Christian. We don’t all get the same gifts, but we get the gifts the Spirit himself wants to give us. Sometimes a particular gift for a particular task, a particular moment. But we all, I’m sure, want to be open to whatever gifts the Spirit himself wants to give us. That phrase, baptism in the Holy Spirit, baptism by the Holy Spirit, it’s used in only one other place in the New Testament, and that’s in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Paul says we were all baptised in the Spirit into one body. Whether we were Jew or Gentile, we were all baptised in or by the Spirit into one body. It says that the baptism in the Spirit isn’t something only some Christians have. It’s not a separate experience from becoming a Christian. It’s part of the definition of being a Christian. Anyone who’s part of the body of Christ, the Church, is baptised in or by the Holy Spirit. You can’t be a Christian without being baptised in or by the Holy Spirit. Now, does that mean that God doesn’t pour out His Spirit in new and fresh ways on Christians, wonderful ways throughout our lives? No, it doesn’t mean that. He certainly does do that. Lots of people have experienced that. But maybe a more biblical way of describing that is to talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, Filled with the Holy Spirit. So when we think about him, about the Holy Spirit, we shouldn’t expect anything more than what the Bible promises. But neither should we be satisfied with anything less than the Bible promises. We shouldn’t limit his presence or work to a single event in our life and think that’s it. No, we want to know the Lord more and more, be open to him, to the work of His Spirit in our lives. So as we come to an end, let us just think for a moment about the filling of the Holy Spirit and turn to Acts, the book of Acts, if you would, and to Acts 4. At Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the spirit. But two chapters later, in Acts 4, Peter and John are being questioned by the Jewish leaders. And we’re told in Acts 4, 8, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, he’s already been filled at Pentecost. Now two chapters later, he’s been filled with the Spirit again. A bit later on, Peter and John are released and they meet up with the other Christians and they pray about the opposition that they’re facing. And it says in Acts 4:31, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Peter had been filled with the Spirit at Pentecost. He’d been filled with the Spirit as he answered the Jewish leaders. Now he and the other believers are filled with the Holy Spirit again as they face opposition and they pray for courage to keep going. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:18, don’t get drunk on wine. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s a command in the present tense and you could translate it. Be continually being filled with the Holy Spirit. Be continually being filled. It’s not a one off thing. It might happen many times in a Christian’s life and it might describe somebody, as it might describe the character of somebody. They are spirit filled. The presence of the Spirit is so apparent in their life as it was in the life of Stephen the deacon in Acts chapter 6, that he could be described as somebody who was spirit filled. Maybe think about the first time you served the Lord in a particular way. Maybe the first time, perhaps after you became a Christian, the first time you shared your faith with somebody, or the first time you served in church in some way, perhaps leading a children’s group or in a ministry of another kind, perhaps you were very anxious, you’d never done it before. You Were nervous, what did you do? Well, if you were like me, you prayed, you prayed you depended on the Lord and He helped you and it went well. Now, if you’re like me, the danger is after a while you think, yes, that went well. I know how to do that. And we stop praying if we’re not careful. We stop depending on the Spirit’s help. Prayer goes out the window and we rely on ourselves. And something’s missing, the power has gone. We can still be busy, full of activity, but those around will be able to tell after a while something’s changed, the power has gone. And it can be the same in a church. Churches can be busy. Evangelical churches, gospel preaching, churches particularly, full of activities, full of ministries. But is it God’s power that’s at work or is it just human energy running around? And when a church is full of able, successful, professional people who know how to get things done, the temptation is not to rely on the Spirit himself. Prayer goes out of the window. The prayer meeting becomes a good intention that’s never realised. Our hunger for the Lord fades. We don’t think we really need Him. We know how to do this. The activity goes on, but without the power and without the fruit. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in them, they will bear much fruit. Without me, you can do nothing. So how do we stay connected to Jesus divine? How do we make sure we are receiving His Spirit? Being filled with the Spirit, well, I think it looks very ordinary. It is taking God’s word in day by day. If my Word abides in you and you in me, Jesus says elsewhere in John 15, taking in his Word, letting His words dwell in our hearts, obeying them, putting them into practise, bringing our lives and our thinking in line with him, confessing our sins, recognising that sin matters and that we turn away from it, try to keep in step with His Spirit. Coming to church, being together, not neglecting the fellowship. We need one another, getting baptised, sharing the Lord’s Supper regularly as we are about to do, inviting others to church gathering, to pray, serving, giving our time and our money, laying our lives down for one another in different ways. These are the ways that God has given us that we might stay connected with him and we might know the empowering of His Spirit. So this is our third conviction that we be Christ centred, Bible rooted, spirit empowered. Shall we pray? And then I think we’re going to say the words of the Creed together. We bow our heads for a moment and we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the Lord Jesus, and we see in him one who depended on your spirit in everything. We thank you that through Christ you have given us your Holy Spirit as well. And that by your spirit we now live. Please, may he help us to grow in Christ. May your spirit fill us. May we know his life and power at work in us this day and in the days ahead, as we live for Christ and serve him. And we ask this Lord, in Jesus name, amen.