Sermon: "How To Win The Secret Battles"

Delivered May 15, 2005 (Pentacost) by Rev. George Antonakos.

Theme: As Christians we don't always find it easy to follow Christ. In fact it is impossible unless we tap into a power beyond ourselves and beyond our best intentions. This sermon speaks of where that power comes from.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (3.8MB)

Well today I want to talk about two great powers: two great powers that are in our human experience and can be even in our human Christian experience. And because today is the day of Pentecost we are talking about these two powers, and I invite you to turn to Galatians, Chapter 5 and in that epistle at the end of the letter we will see something that Paul says to coach his friends in Galatia because he was very upset with them and I will tell you why in a minute. But let's look in Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 16 through 25. Here's Paul talking about life, I mean just everyday life:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you would, but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, (those are a category of a sexual oriented sins) idolatry and sorcery, (religious kind of sins; heathen type stuff), and then a whole list of interpersonal relationship type sins: enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy; drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things, that those who make such things a practice will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit on the other hand is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. In other words, there is no law that you could follow that could produce this fruit. It comes in another way. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

Two great powers within human Christian experience, they are both in this text. One is the Spirit and one is the flesh and I will share with you a little bit about both. Today is Pentecost Sunday, that's why the paramen is red up here, that's why we talked about the tongues of fire, its that red. If some of you are wearing red that's very theologically correct. Way to go. And it's about the thing that John the Baptizer said would happen when he first started his ministry before Jesus ever appeared on the scene. He said, "I baptize you with water. One day, there is somebody coming who is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit." This day that we celebrate in history is that day that he was speaking of. Jesus himself stood up on the last day, a great day of the feast in John, Chapter 7 and he probably stretched out his arms and he said, "All who thirst, let them come to me and drink, and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." Now the Scripture goes on to make an immediate commentary in John, Chapter 7. He says, "Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified."

Now I am going to share with you just a little theology of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost and just stay with me. It's a little bit academic, but just think with me. It's my view that Pentecost marked basically, in a sense, the second coming of Jesus and what we think of as the second coming of Jesus may really be thought of as the third coming of Jesus. Now don't get nervous, just think with me on this. We get very excited about the first coming of Jesus on Christmas Day and we decorate the sanctuary. We go all out because if we really understand what's going on, we are celebrating Advent, the first coming of Jesus as the perfect human being, who perfectly fulfilled all of God's will without sin and then finished the work that he was called to do by offering himself on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for the whole world: for you and for me. And he said, "I have finished the work that the father has given me to do." He was the perfect human who lived out God's will for all of us, in all of us, imperfect, sinful humans and he was raised on the third day.

But he who was sent from the father had to go back to the father. And so you remember Jesus after the resurrection in the garden tomb, Mary comes up and grabs a hold of him and he says, don't cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. In essence what he was saying was, it's not that he didn't want her to touch him, it was he was saying don't cling to me because you haven't seen anything yet. Something is going to happen that is going to be beyond your ability to comprehend. And so the Day of Ascension comes where he ascends in heaven: it's the beginning of the Book of Acts. And I will tell you what, did any of you guys celebrate the Day of Ascension by any chance, like you do the day of Christmas? I don't think anybody did. We just called it Cinco De Mayo this year. We don't even know the Day of Ascension is on the calendar, right? The Day of Ascension is so theologically important because just like Jesus came in the incarnation, he ascended and went back to the father to inaugurate the reign of the kingdom of God. "Crown him with many crowns," we sing, in order that the Spirit now that Jesus is glorified might be able to come down in to you and in to me who believe and make us one in fellowship with the father just like Jesus, the Father and son are in fellowship, the Holy Spirit enabled that to happen and birthed that in to reality. That's what Pentecost is. That's the Spirit's power indwelling each and every one of us.

And if you will look at Galations, Chapter 4 just for a moment, take out the Bible there. But if you look at Galations, Chapter 4, Verses 4 to 6 Paul says in three verses what I just got finished saying to you about two comings. 4:4:

"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman," (That's the first coming, that's Christmas.) "Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons and daughters, listen, God has sent the spirit of his son in to our hearts crying Abba, Father."

So when the spirit of God comes we understand a fellowship with the father that we never understood before. That's the reality of Pentecost. Jesus joins us to himself and every time we come around this communion table when it is set, we celebrate again the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit making us in to the church, in to the people of God. And not only does Jesus come at Pentecost now he comes and he not only unites us with the father, but he gives us the same mission that he had and that mission: to transform people in to disciples, is the work that we still have to do until what I call the third coming; you can call it the second coming if you want, when Jesus comes again and gathers everything to himself and presents it back to the Father and says, "Here. This is the complete fruition, the completion of everything that was thought about before the foundation of the world." That's Pentecost. That's life. That's the kingdom in which we live. Do you remember Jesus' first sermon? What was his first sermon? He said, repent, the kingdom of heaven is near. See, he said it was near. It's not here yet, but when Pentecost came you could say, repent, the kingdom of heaven is here. He is inaugurated. The spirit has made us one with the Father and the Son.

The kingdom reality now lives and we can live in one of two kingdoms. The kingdom of God or the kingdom of self. And that's where we are going in a minute. But here's the question today in spite of the million bracelets that say WWJD; you know what that says right? What that means? I think according to Pentecost, it should be WIJD: What Is Jesus Doing? Not, what would Jesus do. Because that can make us think, "Oh Jesus was a great person who lived back there, and I get to follow him, and I am really going to try hard to see if I can do it, because he set such a great example." It's not the gospel. The gospel is Jesus comes in to our life by the power of the Holy Spirit. He's in the world today. He's here today and we are living in to his presence today. What we do here today: its not our ministry efforts that make Jesus practical today, it's his ministry through us that makes us practical today. It's his life that we are in, and we are in him or we are not in him. Those are the two kingdoms of the world and Pentecost has made those a reality and that's why Jesus said you must abide in me. You must remain in me so that the Holy Spirit can minister through you.

But now in our text Paul is very concerned because his friends who knew this in Galatia started to go back in to another kingdom. In fact, in Galations 3:3 he asks them a very powerful question. He says, "Having begun in the spirit are you now ending in the flesh?" You began in the spirit, why on earth would you go back to living under that old rule? It's a well-worn illustration, but I will share it with you anyway. It just makes the point. It's about a woman who married a tyrant who told her what to do all the time. This is like the law. The law says you got to do this, this and this. It's like this woman who marries a tyrant and he makes a list for her everyday before he goes to work and he says you better get these 15 things done or its going to be trouble, right? I know there is nobody like that in this congregation, but that is what this woman experienced. And every day she gritted her teeth and she did all those things and she lived out of fear and she got them all done. And every time she checked something off, she was just bitter. Fortunately for her, the old guy died and two or three years later she meets another fellow who loves her like you can't believe. No lists. He just adores her. She is going through her day a couple of years after she is married the second time and she comes across this little piece of paper stuck under the cushion of the sofa. Wouldn't you know it, it was one of those lists and she marveled as she read the list and she was doing every single thing. She didn't think about it. She was doing everything. Now that is the difference between law and grace. That's where Paul is trying to get his people. He says, look you started with grace. Why on earth would you want to go back and live by religious rules? You can live in the life of Christ and in the life of the Spirit. Why would you want to go and live in the life of the flesh?

And that's brings us to the question, what is the flesh? Because that's the second great power. It's the resident power in all of us and you know this power, you know it, you experience it everyday and it's a power that will never be completely eradicated until Jesus Christ comes and assumes all things and presents them back to the father. It's called the old nature. It's called the sinful self. It is that tendency in our first parents that caused them to say "No" to God's rule. It's that aspect of human nature that wants to lock God out or wants to lock God up and put him in a little box and take him out when necessary, but basically you live the life.

I remember the first time I ever heard the good news of Jesus Christ. It was in 1970 and Billy Graham was preaching on TV and I was sitting in a dorm room with five of my friends and God's spirit was working on me, it's the first time I ever heard it and I distinctly remember leaving that room. I never said these words out loud, but I said them in my mind. Nobody is going to live my life or run my life but me. There is the flesh in a neon sign. That's what it is. I am in charge. It's not our physical body. Don't get confused: It's not our physical body. When he says the flesh and the spirit war against each other. He is not talking about our physical body. The works of the flesh obviously live through our physical body, but its not our body per se. It's that internal pool of pride that wants to control: wants to control God, wants to control others, wants to control life, and when the flesh hears, "Turn your life over to God, submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, come under his rule, yoke with him, believe in him, follow him," you know what the flesh says? "No. No, then I won't be in charge. Then I won't be in control."

And don't think it goes away when you come through those doors. It doesn't go away. It lives in the church. There is a battle of the flesh, you know. Just because we become Christians doesn't mean we all get along. If you look at the whole context of the text that I am reading to you today, its all about serving one another in love: don't fight, don't bicker, don't envy, don't provoke, all of that is right in here. The flesh loves to be religious. Who did Jesus have the most difficult time with? Religious, controlling people. So the flesh can look like tight religious control, like religious addiction, or it can look like total self-indulgence. Listen to Gene Peterson's description of the works of the flesh according to what we read earlier. This is how he says it in The Message.

"It's obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time. Repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness, trinket Gods, magic show religion, paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition, all consuming yet never satisfied wants, a brutal temper, an impotence to love or be loved, divided homes and divided lives, small minded and lopsided pursuits, the vicious habits of depersonalizing everyone in to a rival, uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions, ugly parodies of community."

He says, "I could go on." It's why the Apostle Paul said "I put no confidence in the flesh." I know that power is there, and why he said, "I die daily." I die daily everyday. I say, "Lord you are it." I did a little devotional for my wife's Ellen school over at Trinity Assembly of God, I came in on a Thursday and I was talking about St. Patrick. You know St. Patrick's breastplate? It's called St. Patrick's breastplate, Christ above me, Christ below me. Christ behind me, Christ before me. Christ on my right. Christ on my left. Christ within me. Christ in the eyes of all who I meet. Christ in my eyes as I encounter them. See, he would put on, that's why it is called St. Patrick's... he would put on Jesus Christ everyday to go in to the battle with the world and the flesh and the devil. And so, here in Galatians, Chapter 5 we understand this battle that goes on. Every time we have ever said to ourselves, "I am going to read the Bible more. I am going to have a quiet time everyday. I am going to lose a few pounds. I am going to exercise. I am going to run." Every single time we make these resolutions, we understand the power of the flesh and of the Spirit.

And so how do we win these battles, these secret private battles? Verse 16: "But I say walk by the Spirit." That means conduct yourself, by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, because these two powers are opposite of each other. If you are under the influence of the one power, you will not be subject to the other power because they are opposites and it works both ways. If you are under the influence of a self life, a self orientation, you will not follow what God Spirit tells you to do and if you are under the influence of God's Spirit, you will not follow what your flesh tells you to do. Now we understand this every time we get on a plane or at least think about it when we get on a plane. Gravity doesn't go away, but the laws of thrust and acceleration and lift are another power or another plane that we are living on. And so, this whole idea of the flying power of the Apirit keeps us from succumbing to the gravity power of the flesh. They are opposite powers. And so Paul says, "Wwalk by the Spirit." Walk means walk. It means take a step and then take another step and then take another step. It's conduct yourselves. It's the habits and choices of everyday life. It's the decision whether to speak sharply or kindly to somebody who lives in your house. It happens in the every day nitty gritty of life. Walk by the spirit. Deliberate. Rick Warren says that our character is essentially the sum of our habits. Not float, but walk deliberately every single day. If we don't do this, we will purposely trade one slavery for another. If we don't let the Spirit control us, something else will control us. D.K. Chesterson kind of mocking the woman's liberation movement in the United Kingdom a decade or generation ago, put it this way. He said, "10,000 women declared, I will not be dictated to and went out and became stenographers." In other words, we trade one thing for another if we don't walk by the Spirit. Something else will control us. It's like the kid who says, "I am not listening to my parents. I am going to join the Marines." Right? It will happen one way or the other. You will bow to something, okay? So he says walk by the Spirit, bow to the Spirit.

Verse 18: "Be led by the Spirit." "Conform your will to God's will." The walking is our part. Work out your own salvation. For God who is at work in you. Be led is God's part. It's like riding a horse. It's an active passivity. Have you ever seen somebody ride a horse who doesn't know what they are doing? It looks really weird doesn't it? But then, you can have somebody right next to them that's unbelievable, they just look like the horse and rider are one. Why? Because the person who is in the saddle is allowing the flow of the power to happen and just riding with it. That's being led by the Spirit. And then he says, "Live by the Spirit." That means just be in communion. Be in church. Read the Bible. Do all the disciplines. The Word and sacraments and being in fellowship with the people of God. Be in communion with the Spirit because we are the Spirits family. We are God's family. And it says that if we live by the Spirit, if we are in communion like that, then let's also walk by the Spirit. Now it's a different word walk, he means just simply to say, then let's just get in line with the Holy Spirit. Let's just conduct ourselves in line with the Holy Spirit and what we know that he wants us to do. And when that's happening, what will our life be like? It won't be like all those other things I read to you. It will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And how does all that happen? Verse 24. Verse 24. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh." There's that word. There is Paul again saying I died daily. I crucified. That old self, that old nature has no power over me now that the Holy Spirit of God lives in inside of me.

Recently I read an article written by a woman named Michelle. Michelle married for the thrill of it and she never adjusted to the simple stability and discipline of married living. She always wanted to go out, to be free even after she was married. Well you can imagine in a situation like that it wasn't long before the fighting started, separate bedrooms, threats of divorce, pleading from her husband to not go that way. Shared custody eventually. Amiable relationship for the sake of her two boys and soon divorce. Soon her life out there somewhere became stale. She became lonely and one day she found herself talking to a co-worker. She asked the co-worker, "What do you guys do for fun?" She was fun loving. What do you do for fun? One lady said, "the most fun and excitement in my life is my church, the church I belong to." And in her mind, the article said she said sorry I asked. Okay? Right? By the next Sunday though something happened. Because she had found out during all this divorce time, she had been divorced for five years that her husband, her ex-husband starting taking her boys to church. And the Sunday after the conversation with that co-worker, she woke up one morning and there was this urge, she described it as the very urge that she always felt when she had to go out and be free, this urge to go to church. She drank a cup of coffee and she said maybe it will pass. She finally just can't fight the urge. She gets her two sons up, they are kind of groggy, the stumble in to church, they sit in the back pew and she says this is close enough. She says I don't belong here. And then she heard the message of the good news of Jesus Christ, how Jesus sacrificed his life for her so that she might be part of a new family, so that she might experience a new power. And over time life became different. Instead of going out she started to read her Bible at night. There was another power at work. And she started praying for her ex-husband. She said Lord please help him to find the kind of woman that he needs, somebody who will be a good church going woman who will take care of the kids when I am not around and God started doing something in her life and in her ex-husband's life and finally her ex-husband comes to her and he says, "You know what? I think God is telling us we are supposed to get back together."

Now, let me just say quickly, over half of all remarriages to the same person don't make it, but this was different. She went to her pastor and he said "Look I am not sure what God is telling you to do, but six months, non-intimate, non physical relating, not even holding hands. Reacquaint yourselves with one another." It's five years of divorce, okay? Here's how the story ends. They were supposed to write letters of gratitude to each other at the end and she said, Dear Michael, I am so thankful for you. You are doing an excellent job raising our sons. I don't know how long I have on this earth, but however long I want to spend it with you. And then he wrote, Dear Michelle, you are the only woman I have ever loved and then for the first time in seven years he grips her hand and prayed this. Listen please to the prayer. "Lord, we want to do what you want us to do. Just help us understand what that is." He said, "Michelle will you marry me again?" She said, "Yes" and this is how she ended her article. This time I knew what I was getting in to. Whatever I needed wasn't out there somewhere in the night waiting for me to find it. No, it's been there all along with Michael and our sons. It just took time for God to change me in to the woman and wife I was meant to be.

Do you know that your life can start all over again in the power of the Holy Spirit? You know sometimes we come here and say, "I have just blown it so bad". Listen, today after the service all who are active members in this church get to cast a vote about whether I will be associate pastor or not. But let me tell you that is not the most important vote today. The most important vote today is if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savor it's to vote for him and decide for him and said "Lord I am tired of running it my way, please come in to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be." Some of us as Christians have wandered and the flesh and Spirit have been battling and the Spirit is not winning and so the vote today for you: "Lord help me realign myself under your control. Conduct myself, walk and be led by the Holy Spirit again today." That's the vote that is all-important.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your love and grace in our lives. We know that if it weren't for you we would never even be thinking about you, that you have drawn us here. I am certain Lord that someone is here today who is just starting to understand what it means to trust you and to love you, realizing that perhaps for the first time that Christianity is not just a religion of rules, it's a relationship with a living God. So I pray for the Holy Spirit's power to come down on this place and help us to align ourselves in whatever way we are unaligned with your purposes so that me might be the people of God, so that the world around us might sit up and take notice that something, there is a different kingdom being expressed in that place. Lord we know that if we stay close to you this will happen and so we trust you gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2005, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org