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Sunday 06/09/24
Title: The Spirit within… the Spirit upon Pt. 3
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The Spirit within… the Spirit upon Pt. 3
For the past few weeks since Pentecost we have been looking at that prophetic word given by Joel, Jesus and John the Baptist that the Holy Spirit would come UPON us.
In our exploration of this topic we have established beyond all reasonable doubt that this was and is an event subsequent to initial salvation. That when anyone is born again, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within them and their bodies actually become His dwelling place and therefore His temple.
It is my intention to explore this in later messages as we progress in our understanding of our relationship with the Holy Spirit of God, but for now we are finishing up our topic of the Holy Spirit coming upon us.
So far we have restricted our search to the initial statement of Jesus to His disciples – especially in the Gospel of Luke that upon Jesus our Lord ascending into heaven He told them to WAIT in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father – for “Power from on High”.
We referenced John 20:22 as the moment the disciples became born again when Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. This was a clear fulfillment of the words Jesus spoke to them just before going to Gethsemane as is also recorded in John 14:17, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be IN YOU.” So this second giving, if you will, of the Holy Spirit was not within them but as it clearly states – UPON them!
Peter attested to this being the fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had foretold about the Holy Spirit being poured OUT UPON the sons and daughters of God.
- This began in Jerusalem just as Jesus said it must. – Acts 1:8; Acts 2.
- Then it spread to greater Judea
- Then to Samaria – Acts 8
- Then to the Gentiles beginning with Cornelius – Acts 10; 11 & 15
In each case the Holy Spirit came UPON those who believed AFTER they believed (albeit sometimes nearly immediately). Peter goes out of his way to testify that belief preceded this outpouring. He also connected it by the leading of the Holy Spirit with the words of Jesus and John the Baptist when they spoke of a future baptism of the Holy Spirit – Mark 1:8; Acts 1:5 & Acts 11:16.
In covering these passages we have literally examined every instance of the HolySpirit coming upon believers in the entire New Testament. However, there is more regarding the baptism of the HolySpirit we have not yet covered and we will address them today.
In our study of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – also known as the Holy Spirit coming UPON believers subsequent to salvation – we have also uncovered the fact that though tongues did occur in several of these events, it is not specifically mentioned in all of them.
This is NO proof that it did not, but it does introduce a need for caution in our claims about this Baptism. Of course the same argument could be made regarding salvation and being baptized with water. While the greatest majority of examples offered in scripture water baptism always followed belief and is associated with salvation, it does not appear EVERY time. So to claim water baptism is necessary for salvation is also something we need to be careful not to be dogmatic about. However, in our assembly, we DO teach that it is a primary and scripturally supported means of professing Jesus as our Lord publicly and so should ALWAYS be submitted to by anyone who comes to faith in Jesus!
As such, we have decided to not be dogmatic on the doctrinal belief that the ability for a believer to pray in the Spirit or in tongues always follows being Baptized in the Holy Spirit. We DO however, believe that praying in tongues (which differs from the gift of tongues requiring interpretation) is for EVERY believer and in many, MANY cases it is first experienced by believers when they ask the Father to pour out His precious Holy Spirit upon them or to Baptize them in the Holy Spirit. We recognize this but also know this may simply be the result of our expectations in faith and God honoring both at the same moment yet, independently. We simply do not know and since the scriptures are NOT clear on it – it is obvious that it does not matter.
Finally, in our determination to be scriptural in all our beliefs to the degree that we have understanding, we have concluded that the ONLY 100% clearly stated purpose of this Baptism with the Holy Spirit is to empower believers as witnesses of Jesus.
Now with that concise review under our belts let’s press some of these issues a little further.
To do so we will simply read through the words Jesus spoke to His disciples on the evening of His betrayal. Then we will read a key passage in 1 John and time permitting we will begin looking at what the New Testament DOES say regarding tongues as a prayer language before we close out today. In all truth I don’t hold much hope of getting that far.
John 14:1-31,
“(1) Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (4) And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
(5) Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
(6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (7) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
(8) Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
(9) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
(10) Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My Own authority; but the Father Who dwells in Me does the works.
(11) Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
(12) “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. (13) And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
So we see that a key to the Holy Spirit being given was being a disciple or one who had and kept God’s words…
(15) “If you love Me, keep My commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— (17) the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells WITH you and will be IN you.
(18) I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
(19) “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
(20) At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
(21) He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
(22) Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
(23) Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
(24) He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s Who sent Me.
(25) “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. (26) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
(27) Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(28) You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’
If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. (29) “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
(30) I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. (31) But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”
John 15:1-27,
“(1) I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
(2) Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
(3) You are already clean [pruned] because of the word which I have spoken to you.
(4) Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
(5) “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
(6) If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
(7) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (8) By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Remember that in chapter 14 we just read that this is directly connected with the Holy Spirit being given…
So we see a key to the Holy Spirit being given was being a disciple or one who had and kept God’s words…
John 14:15-17,
“(15) If you love Me, keep My commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— (17) the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells WITH you and will be IN you.”
(9) “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
(10) If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
(11) “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
(12) This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (13) Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (14) You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
(15) No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
(16) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
(17) These things I command you, that you love one another.
(18) “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
(20) Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (21) But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
(22) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
(23) He who hates Me hates My Father also.
(24) If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. (25) But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’
(26) “But when the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (27) And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
John 16:1-33,
“(1) These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.
(2) They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (3) And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. (4) But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. “And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
(5) “But now I go away to Him Who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
(6) But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
(7) 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. (8) And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
(9) of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
(10) of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;
(11) of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
(12) “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (13) 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.
(14) He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
(15) All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
(16) “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”
This is why He had told them that it was to their advantage that He go away.
“(17) Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” (18) They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”
(19) Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them,
“Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’?
(20) Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
(21) A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
(22) Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
(23) “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. (24) Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
(25) “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.
(26) In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; (27) for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
(28) I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
(29) His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! (30) Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”
(31) Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? (32) Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. (33) These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
So in recap, the Jesus told them that the HolySpirit was a that time dwelling WITH them and they knew Him, but that soon the HolySpirit would be INSIDE of them!
Again this was fulfilled with Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit of God in John 20:22.
Jesus established that though they had walked with Him and been beside Him in life and ministry for years they did not truly know Him – but that this would change with the HolySpirit came. The Spirit was going to lead and guide them into all truth.
Then He began to speak to them in chapter 15 about living what they knew. That they be disciples of Jesus through obedience to His commands and that THIS would open the door to them receiving the Spirit later.
Finally Jesus began to speak to them about being His witnesses and that such would be the result of the Spirit’s work of testifying of Jesus to them.
In other places we see that the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of all who are disciples of Jesus are in cooperation with one another. We testify BY THE SPIRIT what we have seen and what we have learned.
So it is that we go to 1 John which also speaks of this but with more clarity.
Holy Spirit upon:
1 Jn. 5:1-12,
“(1) Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child fathered by Him.
(2) By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey His commandments. (3) For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments. And His commandments do not weigh us down, (4) because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.
This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith.
(5) Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
(6) Jesus Christ is the One Who came by water and blood – not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the One Who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
(7) For there are three that testify, (8) the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.
(9) If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that He has testified concerning His Son.
(10) (The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning His Son.) (11) And this is the testimony:
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (12) The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.”
Blessings!
Tri
