John 14:15-17; Luke 24:44-49; Acts 2:1-4
May 27, 2007
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Jesus was the perfect minister. He always spoke the truth in love. He knew how to challenge people to bring out God’s best within them, and he knew how to lead people to new places in a gentle, yet firm way.
As he walked the roads with his disciples, he explained to them what was going to happen to him at Calvary. He was going to be brutally killed by crucifixion. He also explained to them what was going to happen after Calvary. In between a wedding here, a service of worship in the synagogue there, and a healing both here and there, Jesus would speak of the One who would come after him.
Can you imagine these conversations? I can’t help but make a connection with Jesus’ conversations and a funeral that Neil, Jackie, and I attended this past Tuesday for Leigh Martin, the son-in-law of Pastor Tim Vaughn.
Leigh was only 21 years old when he died from injuries sustained in a four-wheeler accident on May 18th. His wife of only 11 months, Tim’s daughter, Jennifer, stood during the funeral and shared memories of their courtship, Leigh’s marriage proposal, and some other special moments in their short life together. Now a widow at only 20 years old, this young woman stood to share these things while holding the hand of her husband’s earthly body lying in the casket.
I can’t imagine how it would be if any of us would meet someone, know them just a short period of time (the Vaughn family knew Leigh about 6 years, the disciples only knew Jesus for 3 years), and then, one day this new person in our life starts telling us how they are going to die, where they are going to die, and who is going to come visit us after they die. How would that have been if Leigh would have started talking like that? How would it be for any of us with a fairly new acquaintance? What would we think of that person?
But Jesus doesn’t let what the disciples might think about him, stop him from speaking out the truth. And he speaks to them clearly and compassionately about how he isn’t going to abandon them, ever – no matter how it might look.
Let’s listen to his words from John 14:15-18, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
Jesus promises that God the Father is going to send someone new to come alongside them – someone who will be an advocate (a supporter, a promoter, a backer). The Spring Run Post Office had a lot of advocates in this last month, didn’t it? Supporters, promoters, backers.
Jesus said, “I’m going to send you an advocate”…not someone to support, promote, or back me or you – someone to campaign for GOD and promote God’s Truth in you and in me! The Spirit of Truth Jesus said.
God’s advocate is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lives within believers and reminds us and teaches us what we should be doing based on the truths already revealed. At the moment you or I confess Jesus Christ as Lord, believing that God did raise him from the dead, the Holy Spirit comes alive within us as God’s advocate to speak to us, to tell us the truth, and to help us live lives that bring honor to God.
Now listen to what Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24:44-49, “Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The disciples stayed in Jerusalem even though they had no idea what it meant to be clothed with power from on high. Were fancy powerful-looking capes and crowns going to come from the sky and wrap themselves around the disciples so they could be clothed with power? Who knew what this meant? But they did what Jesus told them to do because, after all, the man commanding it of them was the same man who had just risen after 3 days from the dead. They stayed in the city and waited for Jesus’ promise to be fulfilled.
Acts 2:1-4, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
Pentecost means the 50th day after Easter. (Pente=five) Fifty days after Jesus left an empty tomb behind him, we celebrate the Father’s promise, spoken by Jesus before he was crucified, of the sending of an advocate to be with us forever. The living Spirit of Jesus Christ (who was and is and always will be holy, set apart, no sin) – comes upon us, clothes us in power, and lives in us.
What difference does this make, or should this make in our lives as followers of Jesus?
I want you to think about the people who rallied down at the post office several weeks ago. They held up signs advocating for the saving of the post office. They were promoting, supporting, backing the saving of the post office.
The demons in our lives are advocating for the devil and his lies. They are marching up and down our mind and our souls.
The Holy Spirit is advocating for the Father and his truthful promises.
“You’re nothing,” the demons tell us.
“You are a child of God,” speaks the Holy Spirit.
“You don’t have anything to offer.”
“Every believer has been given gifts to use to love and serve God and love and serve others.”
“God doesn’t have a plan for you.”
“I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.”
“God doesn’t love you.”
“God IS love, and can do nothing BUT love you.”
“God doesn’t care about you.”
“For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son to die in your place.” “God knows how many hairs are on your head.” “If he clothes the flowers of the fields, and makes sure the birds have a nest, isn’t it clear how much he cares about you?”
Pastor Timothy Vaughn was able to lead the funeral of his dearly beloved son-in-law (he simply called him his son) because of the power of the Spirit of truth within him. The advocate, the supporter, the promoter of the truths of God, shouted God’s promises inside of Tim as he preached them to the hundreds gathered in front of Leigh’s casket last Tuesday.
“Leigh is dead. He is gone.”
“Leigh is alive! He is merely beyond our sight.”
“You can’t do this, Tim. You’re too weak.”
“You can do all things [that God calls you to do] through Christ who strengthens you.”
The Holy Spirit, God’s advocate, spoke God’s peace, and comfort, and hope to Leigh’s widow, Jennifer in such a clear way that she was able to say words to this affect:
“Our wedding day was the second happiest day of our lives. Today is the happiest, because I love him so much, I’m so glad to know he is with Jesus face to face in heaven.”
Only by the power of the Spirit can words such as those be uttered authentically.
Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can people speak a brave truth in the midst of their hurting marriages.
Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can people hope for new life to spring forth out of broken relationships.
Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can someone stand and confess they are addicted and they need help.
Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can a church change and grow and give as generously as you have given recently.
I want you to know what I say about you when I’m asked the question most pastors dread being asked. “So, how’s your church going?”
Here’s what I say (and said just last weekend when I saw an old friend who is now a pastor in Media, Pa.) “I am so proud of them.” I am. I am so proud of you for being open to the Spirit’s leading among us. I am so proud of you for your generous commitment to spreading the Gospel through mission trips and outright giving to those in need. We’ve raised nearly $30,000 since January for mission work in Honduras and in Montana. We haven’t been the ones to give all that, but we have been the ones putting in a lot of the time. I am proud of you. I am proud of the way you have welcomed so many new people into our midst. I am blessed to serve you in whatever way the Holy Spirit advocates.
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that any of us take delight in serving one another with only one goal in mind – to honor Jesus.
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that any of us can speak the truth, receive the truth, live in and for the truth, and yearn for more truth.
Only the truth as lived and spoken by Jesus sets us free from old destructive and unproductive patterns. This is what our men and women in uniform have died to preserve and protect. We may not look like a nation “under God,” but we still are standing on and fighting for the foundational principal truths found in God’s word. We remember and we thank God for those who gave their lives for the freedom to live and speak the Truth.
Think about Fuzz Johnson running up and down your mind in his mobile PA system! What was he doing? He was advocating to save the post office.
What is the Advocate shouting out to you (and me) from within? The devil is shouting too. Will you listen to the lies that condemn, shame, and accuse you? Or will you listen to the Truth that convicts, challenges, and encourages you?
Whatever the Holy Spirit is speaking to you – I want to make sure you know that the power to respond in just the right way, is within you. You may not know that it’s there – but it is there – all you have to do to get it going is first, to receive Jesus as Lord, and then to live in resurrection hope. Those disciples were told to “Stay here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The disciples remained in faith in Jesus as Lord and they waited in anticipation that his promise would be fulfilled.
We must remain in faith that Jesus is Lord of all. And, we must wait with anticipation, believing that the power is coming at just the right moment to work its way in us, around us, and through us to accomplish whatever God chooses in the way He alone knows is best.
Oh Holy Spirit,
come and clothe us with power from on high.
Amen.
