Sermon: "God's Presence"

1st in the "The Holy Spirit" series.
Delivered May 23, 2010 (Pentecost) by Rev. Laura Crihfield.
Sermon Text: John 14:15-27; Acts 2:1-4

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Happy Pentecost everyone! Right? Happy Pentecost! So glad you're here to celebrate with us. Some of you may be saying, "What is she talking about?" Look with me at Acts 2. It's not our main text for today, but I want to read verses 1-4 because I think it sets the context and gives us an important piece of information as we begin our sermon today.

Acts, chapter 2, the beginning of the early Church, says,

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place," they being the disciples. "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

Let's pray: God, thank you for your Word, and thank you that it has such amazing stories of amazing ways that you move and have moved in the lives of believers. God, thank you that the Word that you spoke and the Word that was lived and the Word that was written so many years ago is as alive and relevant for us today as when it was written. I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would come, that you would enable us to understand, and that you would allow us the privilege of living for you, perhaps a little bit more fully, because of what we hear today. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Can you imagine that scene? There you are hanging out with the other disciples when suddenly the Holy Spirit arrives. He doesn't just come. He arrives. There's wind and fire, and you and your friends start speaking in completely foreign languages you've never heard before. Unbelievable!

Pentecost, which is the day we celebrate today, is the day when the Holy Spirit came to reside in the hearts of believers permanently. Up until this time, the Holy Spirit came and went on God's behalf, doing God's thing, and then departing. There was no concept of the Holy Spirit as permanent residence with God's people. So I'm sure the disciples, on some level, had to have been terrified by what they were experiencing. I'm pretty sure that I would've been in that category or that camp.

But I don't think they were totally surprised. That's because Jesus had given them a heads up about this when he spoke to them just before his death, which brings us to our primary text for today. We're gonna invite you to turn in John... to John, chapter 14, 984 I think... yep, 984 in your pew Bible or your seat Bible or your whatever-you-want to-call-it Bible in front of you. John, chapter 14, verses 15-21. Hear the Word of God:

"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them."

As early as Adam and Eve in the garden, it has been clear that we were meant for relationship with God. And we see that the Holy Spirit has been involved in that plan from the beginning. We could see it throughout the entire Old Testament, which we're not going to go into today. That would take awhile. But if we start at just one spot, we could think about Moses at Mount Sinai.

The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt. They were let out of bondage under Moses' leadership, and they headed off to the desert. Fifty years... 50 days later... probably just felt like 50 years... they reached Mount Sinai. Moses went up to the mountain. He had a very intense and intimate interaction with God, which included fire and wind and the voice of God, sound familiar? And he came down with the Law written on stone tablets.

This new Law was the blueprint. It was a way of life that honored God and through which the Israelites could demonstrate their love for God. It was a continuation, if you will, or another sign of God's covenant with his people. And it was a tremendous gift.

Jump ahead to Pentecost, the day Jesus is foreshadowing in John. The previous Passover, Jesus died and was raised, providing a way out of slavery (common themes again) and into forgiveness. And 50 days later, like Moses from Sinai, God comes down in the form of the Holy Spirit to encourage the disciples and to reaffirm what he had told them. I love the parallels. The first time the Law was written on stone tablets. This time it's written on human hearts. Both times are about God coming to his people and providing the means necessary to be assured of his presence and providing an opportunity for them to demonstrate their love for him.

It's crucial that we understand the connection here because both of these events point us directly to the truth that God's plan for God's presence with his people has been around since the beginning of time. And as I said, it's woven throughout Scripture. It's especially evident in the Old Testament writings of the prophets who envisioned a day when God's presence would be with his people forever.

Joel, chapter 2, verse 28, says,

"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

In Isaiah 44:3, another one of the prophets says,

"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants."

The Old Testament prophets were envisioning Pentecost, the day we celebrate today. Philip Yancey talks about the significance this way, he says:

"From God's perspective, if I may speculate, the greatest advance in human history may be what happened at Pentecost, which restored the direct correspondence of spirit (ours) to Spirit (God's) that had been lost in Eden. The arrival of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers on this day, however many years ago, lots of years ago, was the beginning of the permanent reality of God's presence with us."

Now, that's a lot of theology in a little bit of time, right? I want to help us understand what it means for our life today because all the theology in the world doesn't matter if we don't apply it and if we don't figure out what it means. What can we, sitting here today, really believe about the presence of the Holy Spirit? I want to go back to our primary text, back to John, chapter 14, which gives us four basics about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives... four pegs, if you will, on which to hang our Holy Spirit hat. You ready? Are you ready? Okay, here we go.

The first one is what we see in verse 16, that the Holy Spirit is a person who will be with us forever, right? Verse 16 says, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever." Notice the word "another." It's a little word we might... actually it's not a little word... but it's a word that may seem inconsequential. We might pass right over it, thinking it's not important. But it's really important because "another" indicates there's already been one.

And the first advocate is the very person who is speaking. It's Jesus, and he is saying, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate who is just like me." And that's the Holy Spirit. Now notice that when I introduced this I said "person." The Holy Spirit is not some ghost-like, impossible-to-comprehend being or force somewhere out there. It may feel like that sometimes, but that's not the reality.

Jesus never referred to "it" when he was talking about the Holy Spirit, and the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit as one who speaks and testifies and leads and commands, who can be lied to and insulted and grieved and honored, all things that we attribute to people not things. The Spirit of God is a person. And the promise is that that Spirit will be with us who believe forever, not just for some specific period of time, not just until a certain task has been accomplished like in the Old Testament, but forever. It's a big word, never to depart.

One of my professors in college, Dale Bruner, who's also a very well-known, within the Presbyterian circles, a Biblical scholar, puts it this way, "The gift of the Spirit is the filling of the Spirit. Wherever the Holy Spirit comes to a person, he comes to fill, not only to affect, to dwell, not simply to visit." The minute that you and I invite Jesus into our lives, the minute we say, "I can't do this on my own. I don't want to try anymore. I need what Jesus has done for me, and I need you in my life," the minute we say that is the minute the Holy Spirit enters forever, not just on a short-term mission or visit, but forever. That is a truth that we can hold on to.

The second truth, if I could just name it, is where it gets really weird. Verse 17, the Holy Spirit actually isn't just with us; the Holy Spirit lives in us. "But you know him, for he lives with you and will be... ," what? "... in you." Isn't that weird? I'm not the only one who thinks that, am I? Is this a hard thing to wrap our brains around? Up until now, Jesus had been with the disciples. He defended, befriended, prayed for, and stepped in for his followers. And now, Jesus is assuring the disciples that after he returns to the Father, the Holy Spirit will continue to perform the task that Jesus had been doing from within. It's odd. It's strange to think about the Holy Spirit inside of us.

I don't fully understand it. I'm guessing that none of us really, totally, fully understands it. Some would consider it a pretty insane thought. Maybe a story will help. About a month ago, I had the opportunity to reconnect with a friend who I hadn't seen or talked to in about five years. Nine years ago, I did her wedding when she married her husband, and I had really totally and completely lost contact about five years ago. It had been very sporadic in the four years prior to that. So to say we were not connected in terms of how like life on life is really an understatement.

I knew that she and her family had moved back to Illinois in September and that they were 15 miles from friends that I would be visiting. And so I called her up, and I said, "I'm coming to town. Haven't seen you in at least five years, can we get together? Let's go have dinner. I'd love to catch up." She was all for it.

In those, at least five years, that I had not seen her... it must have been six because she's had three children, right? I hadn't met any of them. I wanted to meet them, so we arranged it so that I would go to her house, just for like five minutes, and then we would go from there, just enough time for me to say hello to her husband and meet her children, and then we would go off and have a lovely evening at dinner.

Well, I was only in that house five minutes. But in those five minutes, I knew without a doubt at the very core, gut of my being, the deepest place within me, that something wasn't right. It was palpable. It wasn't that any words were spoken. Things were cordial. Her husband was cordial. He was nice. The kids were, you know, two... what? Six months, what? However old they were, all under six. It was, you know, they were excited to meet somebody new. Everything was fine.

But the oppression that I felt when I walked into that house and was in there for those five minutes was something I have rarely felt before. It was overwhelming, and I was led to do something I don't often do, which is to go where I wasn't invited. And I was led into action. And as we left that house, I looked at my friend as soon as the door shut behind us. We weren't even to the car yet. I looked at her; I got her to look at me right in the eyes, and I said, "Is everything okay with you guys?" That's all I said.

Well, everything wasn't okay. And what followed was three days of intense ministry with her, helping her to develop a plan to move her and her children to safety and away from her increasingly abusive husband. I was planning a fun evening out to dinner to just catch up. God had other plans, and the only way I can account for it is the work of the Holy Spirit in me, not me. I don't have what it takes to recognize those kind of things, when everything on the surface seems fine.

But the Holy Spirit in me led me in a way that I could not say, "Nope, I just want to fun evening." And I asked the question, and what has unfolded has been nothing short of miraculous. The Holy Spirit in me, I don't fully understand it, but I believe it's true.

The third promise in verse 20, says, "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." Because of the Holy Spirit, we are actually connected to the Father. What Jesus, essentially, is saying here is we're all connected. God, the Father; me, God the Son; God, the Holy Spirit; we are all connected. You may not understand this now, but you will.

On that day, which is the day of Pentecost, and it will become clear to you that this three-fold relationship is one of love, and that all who follow Jesus and show it through obedience (it's really key) are invited in. Now, I say it's really key, this "who show it in obedience." Did you notice how the, this, this section starts and ends? It begins, "If you love me, keep my commands," right? And then in verse 21, it says, "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me."

Now, the word "keeps" here is kind of unfortunate because a better translation is "treasures." If we keep something, we treasure it. You know, we treasure things in our heart. We treasure; we want to hold on to them. That's really the best translation of this word. And there is a clear connection that Jesus is trying to make between loving the Lord and keeping his commands, or treasuring his commands.

If I'm guided by the Spirit and I'm operating out of a desire to honor the Lord, I will strive, I will not be perfect, but I will strive to honor him by doing what he asks. I will treasure what is asked of me. It doesn't necessarily mean I will always like it, but I will treasure it, the very fact that it is from the Lord. Love and obedience, they were key at Sinai; they are key at Pentecost. All right, we're almost there. You still with me? This is a lot of theology today.

Last one, the Holy Spirit is living proof that God loves us and will make his home with us. Now remember, the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. And therefore, if the Holy Spirit is living in us, by very definition, God is living in us. And it all stems from God's incredible love for us.

If God didn't love us, there would be no compelling reason for him to send the Holy Spirit to live within us, would there? It just wouldn't make sense, just as it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to have gone to the Cross for us. What does make sense, at least to me, and I hope it does to you, is that God must love us passionately because he has given us his Spirit in order that we might fully understand that love, and in turn, share it with the world.

Ultimately, that's what it's all about... cultivating our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit and learning to recognize his voice, learning to hear those moments when he is speaking, when it is undeniable that there is something within us that's saying, "Do this," or, "Do that," or, "Don't do this," or, "Say that" because I want you to. How do we hear is voice? It's simple to say that we need to, but how do we?

Well, I think it's really basic. I tried to come up with something more clever than this. I couldn't do it. I think it starts with listening. It's so simple, but that's where we have to begin. And this can happen in a lot of different ways. It can happen by reading God's Word, listening to what it says; by praying, whether alone or in small groups; by asking God to help us learn to hear his voice. We have to ask.

And asking God to fill us with the Spirit of God can also happen by talking to other believers and hearing stories of how they have heard God's voice. Exactly how it happens will be different for everyone. We're all individuals. What's the same for everyone is that it only happens when we make the decision to spend time with God, to create space in which it can happen. If we are so involved in everything else out there and we're not stopping to listen, it's gonna be really hard for God to speak in a way that we'll hear.

Scripture promises that when we ask and we seek with all of our heart, we will find him. That's the beauty of this era, in the history of God's story, that we are in. It is not a mystery like it was in the Old Testament. We have the presence of God with us now. It's not a mystery, and God wants to speak. Are we willing to stop and listen?

Maybe another story will help. I'm going to invite Kevin Good up, and Kevin's going to share with us a little bit about how the Holy Spirit has been operating in his life and through the works of his ministry Acts 4 Youth (www.acts4youth.com) . Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin Good: Good morning. Throughout history, God shows his glory by using people like Jonah, David, me, and you to advance his work. Without the work of the Spirit, who is Christ-likeness, living through the lives of his sons and daughters, we would not be able to participate in his plans to restore creation, which includes restoring us and also just restoring society.

The evidence of God's Spirit in my life is just as real today as it was 12 years ago. I was teaching a class of students comprised of upper-class Caucasians and lower-income African-American students, North Carolina. The African-American boys presented numerous challenges, not that the Caucasian kids were perfect. And I found myself frustrated and at a loss to teach them.

As the year went on, the Spirit of Christ gave me compassion to learn more about what contributed to their conduct. So I spent countless hours in their communities, getting to know their families and surroundings. The Spirit made it clear to me, because that's part of his job, that there was need for restoration due to the effects of fatherlessness, crime, addiction, and lost aspirations. And just a quick point, this began with a lot of frustration and anger.

When I say God, his Spirit, because it's Christ-likeness in, in me, gave me a sense to love these boys, and that was kind of weird to be honest with you because the whole love thing, I, I wasn't raised in a Christian family. I can't say we were the most intimate family, so the idea of, okay, God calling me to love these boys who I didn't know much about was, was a real journey in faith.

After searching for ministries, I targeted these boys in North Carolina. Not finding any, I was directed back home, here to Baltimore. My family and I moved into a community in North, in North, in North Baltimore City where there was a large population of boys just like those I had befriended in North Carolina. After spending the next seven years working in urban ministry to youth, the Spirit started to move me closer to Christ by showing me a need to express love specifically to at-risk boys in Baltimore by starting a proactive and comprehensive ministry inside a traditional public school where some of the most under-privileged boys attend.

Before I could begin this new journey, which involved leaving friends, a job, and starting over with nothing more than a vision to short circuit the trajectory for at-risk boys and a little bit of seed money from a church out in Howard County, I had to become more Christ-like. Why would I leave a more secure job and surroundings, enter a context where I was the minority, and face people who questioned my motives and sometimes show more anger than appreciation? I don't know about you, but again, the whole idea of loving, if it wasn't for the Spirit of Christ working in me, it, it... and I laugh because there are days when, certainly I don't feel like loving those who, who God has called me to work with.

Without the very Spirit of... and also working in a system, referring to the school systems, that sometimes feels like an enemy and not a ally, without the very Spirit of Christ in me, this would not have been possible. Christ left his Father's side in heaven to come to earth and subject himself to living on earth because he loved us. He loved me, and he loved you. So in the same way, he had called me to share his love with these boys who, in, in some ways, are present-day orphans.

In order to prepare me for this type of ministry, I had to seek God's healing and grace for some of my own father wounds and numerous missing pieces in my own life that often left me feeling very unprepared, inadequate, and there's that word "angry" again. In order to minister to these boys, I had to yield to the movement of the Holy Spirit, and that's a continual process, and experience in a new and deeper way his acceptance and grace that prepares me to share the same father-like love to these boys that are, in many cases, left fatherless and in need of someone to come alongside them and help fill in... try and fill in some of their missing pieces and navigate a life that is filled with way too many pictures of violence, crime, addiction, and hopelessness.

In the same way that Pastor Laura talked about the Holy Spirit coming along side as an advocate, in the same way, God empowers us to do that to other people. Baltimore can see revival and experience restoration as his people, empowered by the Holy Spirit, move into schools and communities with his presence. And again, I'm, I'm not saying these things are wrong, but I'm not the type of person, when you talk about the Holy Spirit, that screaming and yelling or speaking in tongues, but I think it has a lot more, at least in my case, a lot more to just with God indwelling me, allowing me to experience more of his love, and then just sharing that with other people. It's, it's his... well, I didn't want to say simple because I don't, I don't think that. It wasn't too simple, but it was good.

Please consider calling on the same presence of Christ in you to see if you were to join us in just trying to short-circuit the trajectory for boys in Baltimore City, if you're interested, you can visit us at our tables out in the lobby or June 3rd. If you're interested in learning more about what we're doing and meeting some of the boys and families, we're having a banquet here June 3rd at 6:30. Thank you.

Laura Crihfield speaking: Thanks, Kevin. I hope the bottom line in all this is clear: God is present with us through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the person of the Holy Spirit. And the reason for that presence is very practical. It's not just to edify us. N.T. Wright says it really well. He says, "The point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus, to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces evil, that a new world has opened up... ," here's the catch, "... and that we are able to help make things happen."

We are able to help make things happen because of the power of the Holy Spirit. Things like Kevin and his team are doing, things like what is happening in many of your lives, that is the ultimate desire of God's heart. He wants us to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, and we can receive that presence through faith in Jesus Christ. You can do amazing things for God in the world as you are guided by that presence. It was true for the first followers of Jesus. It is true for us.

If that is something that you desire, that you really want to experience, whether you are still trying to figure out what this faith peace is all about and you have never experienced that, or you have been walking with Jesus for a long time and you just, at this point, for whatever reason, feel like you are in that desert place that we were singing about, kind of in that dry spell. Stopping, listening, asking, through faith in Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit to come in is all that we're asked to do. And then we get to sit back, and we get to watch. Or maybe we have to be called to action. Maybe we are.

But the bottom line is the power is yours. There is no restriction. And I've asked myself this question throughout the course of this week, and I will leave you with it as well. If you're feeling like there's not the power of the Holy Spirit in your life right now, are there ways that maybe God is asking you to take a step of obedience to open up that power in your life?

Let's pray: Lord God, thank you. Thank you that as we stop and we listen and we ask, that you respond to us. As we say in God's Spirit, rain in our hearts; flood into our hearts through the power of your Holy Spirit that we might know more and more who you are and who you call us to be. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

© 2010, Rev. Laura Crihfield
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org