“What would the Holy Spirit say to us today?”
Revelation Chapters 2 & 3

Intro:
Good morning. Just a reminder that if I make a mistake in the lesson or say something you disagree with please come and see me and we can look at the scriptures together.

I was reminded recently of the story of a preacher sharing a sermon one Lord’s Day and he heard two teenage girls in the back giggling and disturbing people. He interrupted his sermon and announced sternly, ‘There are two of you here who have not heard a word I’ve said.’ Then everything went quiet. When the service was over, he went to greet people at the front door, and was met by three adults who apologized to him for going to sleep in church, promising it would never happen again.

We have now come to the end of our sermon series on the seven churches of Asia Minor but I wanted to share with you one more sermon. If you have been listening closely over the past seven lessons you will have realized that at the end of every letter, to the churches in Asia Minor, there is a little phrase which says, ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

I. Now I want to consider the question, what would the Holy Spirit say to us today? I believe that the first thing the Holy Spirit would say to us is this. Believe in Me.
a. If the Bible didn’t exist, or if you had never read the Bible, you would not know anything about the Holy Spirit. That’s because it’s only through the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to mankind. Let us take some time and look at some of what scripture tells us about the Holy Spirit.
i. Certainly there’s no denying the existence of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is mentioned 88 times. The first mention being in Genesis 1:2. 23 books in the Old Testament refer to the Holy Spirit, although the actual expression ‘Holy Spirit’ is used only 3 times.
ii. These are found in Psalm 51:11 “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”, Isaiah 63:10 “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.” And Isaiah 63:11 “Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them.”
iii. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is mentioned 264 times. There are 60 or more references to the Holy Spirit in the Gospels. The Book of Acts has 57 references to the Holy Spirit, which is why some call it ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit.’ The epistles refer to the Holy Spirit 132 times and there are only 3 epistles that make no mention of the Holy Spirit, Philemon <fi-lee-mon>, 2nd and 3rd John… There is no denying the existence of the Holy Spirit when we use the Scriptures.
b. Now I have to ask, do we as a Christian believe in the Holy Spirit? I’ve noticed we talk a lot about God the Father and Jesus the Son but not often about the Holy Spirit. Perhaps part of the reason for neglecting to preach, teach or even talk about the Holy Spirit is because we don’t want to be associated with some other religious groups.
II. The Holy Spirit says to each and every one of us today, ‘believe in Me!’ He would tell us that He is not some ‘active force’ like the Jehovah Witnesses believe. He would tell us that He is not some form of ‘electricity’ like the Mormons believe. He would tell us that He is not an ‘it’ but He has a personality and He is as much a part of the Godhead as the Father and Son are.
a. When Jesus prepared for His return to heaven, He said to His apostles in John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter to help you and be with you forever” That term ‘Comforter’ is derived from two Greek words that signify ‘beside’ and ‘to call,’ it denotes one who has been called to the side of another for assistance. Could an impersonal ‘active force’ give the apostles help and comfort them? I don’t see how.
b. You see the Holy Spirit can do things only a person can do. Let’s look: John 14:26 tells us the Holy Spirit can teach: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things... John 15:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit can testify: But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: John 16:8-13 tells us that the Holy Spirit can convict, guide and speak: And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
c. A real person has the attributes of personality, which include a mind, a will, and emotions. Does the Holy Spirit have a will? Yes He does. When it comes to the distribution of spiritual gifts Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:11 - “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” Tell me, does the Holy Spirit have a mind? Yes He does. 1 Corinthians 2:10 - “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Ok then, does the Holy Spirit have emotions? Yes He does. Ephesians 4:30 - “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
i. If the Holy Spirit can be grieved, then He has emotions and because the Holy Spirit has a mind, a will, and emotions, we know that He is a Person. And a real person also has the capacity to have relationships with others. To stand by them and comfort them.
ii. Just as we have a mind, will, and emotions and therefore can have a relationship with others so can the Holy Spirit. According to Philippians 2:1, the Spirit is able to have fellowship with us. According to 2 Corinthians 13:14, the Holy Spirit can have communion with us. One who is able to commune and to have fellowship is capable of personal relationships, therefore, the Holy Spirit is a person.
III. However not only is the Holy Spirit a person, He is also Deity. For example we all know that God is holy but so is the Holy Spirit, holiness is in His name. Holiness is a basic characteristic of the Spirit, in fact the Spirit is so holy that blasphemy against the Spirit cannot be forgiven, although blasphemy against Jesus could be according to Matthew 12:32 - And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Insulting the Spirit is just as sinful as trampling the Son of God under foot according to Hebrews 10:29 - Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?.
a. Not only is He holy like God, He is also eternal like God. According to John 14:16 the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, will be with us ‘forever’ and Hebrews 9:14 clearly tells us He is eternal.
i. We also know that the Holy Spirit is ‘omnipresent’ which means He is present everywhere.
ii. How do we know that? When David is praising God’s greatness, he asked in Psalm 139:7-8 - “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” David says I can’t go anywhere without your Holy Spirit being present.
b. We also know that the Holy Spirit is ‘omnipotent’ which means He is all powerful. The works that God does, such as creation, are also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Job 33:4 - “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Psalm 104:30 - “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”
i. The miracles of Jesus Christ were done ‘by the Spirit’ according to Matthew 12:28 -. In Paul’s ministry, the work that ‘Christ has accomplished’ was done ‘through the power of the Spirit’ according to Romans 15:18-19.
c. The Holy Spirit is also ‘omniscient’ which means He knows everything. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:10 that: “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” The very next verse, 1 Corinthians 2:11 - ”For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
d. Holy, eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. These are attributes of God’s essence, that is, characteristics of the nature of divine existence. The Holy Spirit has all these attributes, which means He is God. He says, you openly believe in the Father and the Son but what about believing in Me? After all, I am Deity, I am God.
IV. I know this is difficult to illustrate and understand in our minds, but the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all One, they are God in three persons.
a. I remember someone trying to explain this to a friend once using potato as an illustration.
b. He put a potato on the table and around it He put some frozen fries, a packet of potato chips and some boiled potatoes. He then went on to explain that although there were three different items, they were all in essence a potato but in different forms. I know that’s a poor illustration folks, but the Holy Spirit is Deity.
c. After all when you think about it, when we baptize someone, according to Matthew 28:19 we baptize people into ‘the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ In other words we are baptized into a relationship with what the Bible calls the Godhead. Folks, the Holy Spirit speaks out to every one of us, ‘believe in Me’.
V. I think the second thing the Holy Spirit would say to us today is, ‘use Me!’ In Acts 2 when the Jews were asking what must they do to be right with God, Peter replied in Acts 2:38 “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
a. Peter tells us that at our baptism we receive the forgiveness of our sins and we receive the ‘dorea’, the gift, of the Holy Spirit. Now why has God blessed us with the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself? Well there are many reasons but one reason we have the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself is because He acts as our guarantor.
i. Ephesians 1:13-14 - “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
ii. In: 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 – “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” Given us what? The Spirit. Where? In our hearts.
iii. Paul tells us that the sanctifying and comforting influences of the Holy Spirit seal believers as the children of God, and heirs of heaven. It’s by Him that believers are sealed, that is, separated and set apart for God, distinguished and marked as belonging to Him. In other words, the Holy Spirit doesn’t want us worrying about our eternal salvation, because as long as He continues to live in us, He will act as the deposit which guarantees our inheritance to come.
iv. God could have made a body for the Holy Spirit as He did for Jesus, but He didn’t. God gives us the privilege and the indescribable honor of hosting the Holt Spirit within us. 1 Corinthians 3:16 - “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
b. The Holy Spirit lives in us folks and He says to each of us, ‘use Me!’ But how can we use Him? In what ways can we use Him? Let me share with you at least two areas where I believe we could all benefit from using the Holy Spirit.
c. First use the gifts that He has blessed us with. Romans 12:6-8 - “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
i. Paul says that we all have different ‘Charisma,’ gifts. When I look around at our members I know that each one of us have at least one of these gifts, they are all different but all important. Let me clear here about the understanding that the gift of prophesying has ceased.
ii. Yes in 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us that ‘prophesying will cease’ but this is talking about supernatural prophesying, that includes ‘forth telling’. In Romans 12:6-8, Paul is not talking about supernatural prophesying or ‘forth telling’. Paul is talking about the other meaning of ‘prophesying’ or ‘forth speech’ which simply means preaching.
d. When I look around at my brethren today I can see many preachers and I’m not just talking about the men. You don’t need a pulpit to preach, the bus stop is your pulpit. Your workplace is your pulpit, at the family table is your auditorium and your friends and family are your audience.
e. The Holy Spirit says, ‘use Me’, don’t rely on yourself to prepare and deliver a lesson, use Me to help you prepare and deliver that lesson. Notice that you are prophesying in accordance with your faith, which means you can preach according to your ability and understanding of the Scriptures. Some people know a lot about the Bible, others don’t, but it doesn’t matter, just teach what you know.
i. I recall Moses complains that he is slow of speech and of a slow tongue. But notice in that whole story that God does not promise him a new tongue, He does promise that He will be with him and train his tongue in Exodus 4. When you read Deuteronomy and listen to Moses forty years after in the Moab plain, it’s as though his brain fired up and his tongue got loosened and trained.
ii. By the end of Deuteronomy he gives that series of farewell talks burning with eloquence.
f. Another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is serving. He says ‘use Me, to help you serve.’ I don’t know of one single member of this congregation who doesn’t serve in some manner. But the kind of serving I’m talking about is the kind where you don’t want to serve or can’t be bothered to serve.
i. You see we don’t know what it means to be a servant until we get treated like one. Yes we’ll all bring food to potluck but who’s going to stay behind and wash the dishes? And I know some do. Perhaps a better example is gardening where lots of us will dig in and help plant a garden but who’s going to do the tedious job of removing the weeds?
ii. The Holy Spirit will help you serve in areas where you don’t really want to serve in.
g. Another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is teaching. He says ‘use Me, to help you teach.’ This is much like the gift of preaching but without the pulpit. He will help you prepare and deliver a lesson if you allow Him to guide your thoughts. You can teach one person or a thousand people, it makes no difference. When you’re sharing the Gospel with others He will remind you of Scripture, so that you can be a more effective teacher.
h. Another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is encouraging. He says ‘use Me, to help you encourage others.’ Who encourages the encourager? We all need encouragement, don’t we? A simple phone call, text message, a visit or kind word all help make our Christian journey a little more bearable.
i. Another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is giving. He says ‘use Me, to help you give generously.’ Now please don’t think just about monitory giving, we can give in so many ways. We can give of our time, our energy, our ears, our council, our strength, our love and the Holy Spirit will help us give generously in all these areas.
j. Still another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is leading. He says ‘use Me, to help you lead diligently.’ Paul doesn’t just have in mind leading like the men do each Lord’s Day. He’s telling us that the Holy Spirit will help us lead by example. And we all should be doing that in our homes, in our workplaces, in the supermarket, wherever we find ourselves. We should be leading by example and showing the world that we are Christians.
k. Another gift the Holy Spirit will help you with is showing mercy. He says ‘use Me, to help you show mercy cheerfully.’ The Holy Spirit wants us all to be like the Samaritan, He wants us to help those who have been or are being afflicted by others. He wants us to help the helpless, He wants us to feed the hungry and visit the sick. Now folks don’t each of us possess at least one of these gifts? Each and every single one of us has the Holy Spirit within us and He’s crying out to us all today, ‘use Me!’
VI. I personally believe that the second area where the Holy Spirit asks us to use Him, is in our moments of weakness. Romans 8:26 - “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
a. Have you ever had moments where you just feel burdened with all sorts of worries and cares? I don’t know about you but there have been times in my life when pain and confusion have set in, and I simply don’t know what to pray for or how to pray about it to God. Paul says when you get to the point when you just don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit will intercede for us.
i. In other words, He will speak to the Father on our behalf; He will express our deepest needs to the Father. So the Holy Spirit says, listen folks, when you get that low, when you get to the point you want to pray but don’t know how to pray, then don’t worry. He says, use Me, He will speak on our behalf to our heavenly Father. Can’t we see that He wants to help us? Use Him! He wants to help us use the gifts He has blessed us with and He wants to help us pray when we can’t.
VII. Finally I think the third thing the Holy Spirit would say to us today is simply this, ‘let Me use you!’ A young artist was trying to copy Raphael’s ‘Madonna and Child,’ considered one of the most beautiful pictures in all the world. He went to Florence and gazed on it, then got his easel. Sitting down in front of it he began to copy it. As he looked at it, his picture became a thing of beauty, too. But suppose that, instead of only copying, the spirit of Raphael could have come upon that young man, what a difference it would have made!
a. That is what we have. You see when we come to the Lord Jesus He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us live as He would have us live, and the more the Holy Spirit controls our lives, the more like Him we become. Romans 8:29 - “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
b. God wants us to become like His Son and the Holy Spirit says, ‘let me use you, to look more like Jesus’. 2 Corinthians 3:18 - “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord..”
i. That word, ‘transformed’ is the Greek word ‘Metamorphoo’, and it’s where we get our word ‘morph’. You see God didn’t give us the gift of the Holy Spirit just for the fun of it, He gave us the gift because He wants to change us, and He wants to morph us into the image of Jesus.
ii. Ask yourself, do you look more like Jesus today than you did a year ago? Do you talk and think and live more like Jesus today than you did when you first became a Christian? Because the Holy Spirit is saying, ‘let Me do that, let Me change you.’ Let the world see that He is using you.
c. How will the world see that your life is being influenced by the Holy Spirit? Look with me at: Romans 8:14 - “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” People will know we are children of God because we allow His Spirit to lead our lives. And in: Galatians 5:22-23 - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
d. Are we allowing Him bear His fruit in our lives folks? Because remember He doesn’t want religious nuts, God wants the fruit of the Spirit to be shown in our lives.
e. I remember hearing a story about a non-believing woman who was in an old people’s home and in the home one of the caregivers was a Christian. Now the Christian never made a big deal about being a Christian but quietly went about her job caring for people. Well one night after having a bad day, the elderly lady had a really comforting dream and in the morning she spoke to the Christian about it and said, ‘your Jesus came to me last night in a dream, the strange thing was, He had your face!’
i. The Holy Spirit wants to use us, not only to show the world Jesus in our lives but also to bring others to Christ. I believe we rely too much on ourselves sometimes rather than relying on the Holy Spirit when it comes to reaching the lost.
ii. For example when you think about the Lord with Nicodemus in John 3. Wasn’t that a case of the right man, in the right place, saying the right thing, at the right time? Here was a man who came already prepared and we know today, sometimes when someone comes to us with a religious question, we can be almost certain they are a prepared person.
iii. Look at John 4 with Jesus and the Samaritan women. When you think about that story, wasn’t that the case of the right person, in the right place, at the right time? Here was a woman completely prepared and Jesus was responsive to her, He was responsive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within Him and He immediately recognized from the way she responded that here was a woman who was ready.
iv. Look at Acts 8 and the case of Philip and the Eunuch and we can see that once again, the right man, in the right place, at the right time. Here is a man riding in his chariot reading the Scripture and the obvious question to ask was ‘do you understand what you are reading?’ He was reading Isaiah 53. But who had put it in his heart to read that? Obviously again it’s the right person, at the right time.
f. We need to allow the Holy Spirit do what He does best and that is prepare people’s hearts. When we allow Him to do that, He speaks through you, to say the right thing, to a prepared person, at the right time. And remember this church, the Holy Spirit is more eager to bring us in touch with the person He is working with than we are.
g. But we to keep an alert ear and eye and keep little feelers going out until we get a response. ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ Are we listening church?

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon
Mike Glover Dec. 2012

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