Having had a bit of a break last week, as we celebrated Harvest together, this morning we are back in the Creed, exploring in detail what we say week by week, and what it means for our day to day lives.
We’ve already explored our belief in God the Father, our creator, and in God the Son, Jesus. Today we’re focussing on the Holy Spirit, and our declaration that we believe in the Holy Spirit.
We begin our exploration with what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, which was written down for us by Jesus’ friend and follower, the disciple John.
There is a lot here, so I just want to emphasise three things.
The first is the close connection between the Father, the Son, the Spirit. At the beginning of this passage, in v26 we read that Jesus sends the Spirit from the Father. Then towards the end Jesus emphasises that the Spirit only speaks what he hears, he glorifies Jesus, and only passes on what he receives. This is a more than a connection, it is completely woven together. The Holy Spirit is not an afterthought, an addition, the third wheel, an optional extra. The Holy Spirit is fundamental to our vision of who God is.
The second thing to notice is that Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as an Advocate. This is someone who supports us, who speaks up for us, who teaches us what to say, who walks with us through our trials. The Holy Spirit is God’s comforting presence with us now.
And thirdly. The Holy Spirit is repeatedly described by Jesus as the Spirit of truth. What the Holy Spirit says to us, shows us, reveals to us, about God is true. It is reliable and trustworthy. In a world which is so badly infected by Satan, the Father of Lies, how much do we need a reliable, independent, source of truth. That is what the Holy Spirit gives us. Reality, not fake news. Truth, not spin.
So, how might this all work out in practice? To find out let’s rejoin Peter. Two weeks ago we accompanied him to Cornelius’ house in Joppa, where, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he taught them about Jesus – crucified, risen, and ascended. As he did so, the Holy Spirit descended and led Cornelius and his household into seeing that what Peter was saying was true. As a sign of this the Holy Spirit gave them the gift of tongues and of praise to God. Peter recognised that this was God at work, and baptised the new believers.
All good, yes? No. The believers in Jerusalem, almost all of whom were Jewish, weren’t sure about this at all. Weren’t these people Gentiles? What was Peter doing going to eat with them?
So, Peter tells them the whole story, about the vision that he had had, about the way in which the Holy Spirit had worked in these people’s lives.
As he comes to the end of his account, we see again the intimate connection between Father, Son, and Spirit.
“God gave them the same gift (the Holy Spirit) he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Those who heard it recognised God at work, through the gift of the Holy Spirit and praised God that the good news of forgiveness of sin and of new life was being made available to the whole world.
As Gentiles, we are some of those who have benefitted from this. And now we have been commissioned, just as Jesus’ first followers were, to testify to this, to bear witness to what God has done, and to share the good news with others. We are sent to be closer to others.
As we do this, as we reach out to others, we aim to “Find out what God is doing and join in.” Sometimes I’m asked the question, how do we find out what God is doing so that we can join in?
It seems to me that we just need to follow Peter’s example. We look for the Holy Spirit at work. And how do we see where the Holy Spirit is at work? We look for evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.
In his letter to the Christians living in the region of Galatia, Paul wrote about the evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in someone’s life. He called this evidence the fruit of the Spirit.
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Now, it is clear from the context of what Paul is writing, that he is talking about what fruit that we would expect to see in lives of followers of Jesus who are living in step with the Holy Spirit.
However it seems to me perfectly reasonable to extend this further. It is clear from what happened with Cornelius that the Holy Spirit goes ahead – he was at work well before Peter got there.
What if, whenever we saw some of this fruit growing in a person’s life, in a situation, in an organisation, we recognised it as the Holy Spirit going ahead.
What if, instead of getting all tied up in knots trying to work out where God’s at work, we just opened our eyes to the little things – the daily kindnesses, love, joy, gentleness, patience – praised God for them, thanked the Holy Spirit for being at work in that person, in that relationship, and asked him to show us how to encourage it. Then, at some point, we might also ask for the opportunity to say to someone, “I love the fact that you’re so kind, it reminds me of how kind God is.” OK, maybe that’s a bit cheesy – but I think you get the idea.
In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul talks about another sign of the Spirit at work – unity. He calls us to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
This week at PCC we were discussing something that has threatened our unity – the funding of the organ restoration project. As I said then, unity is not about thinking the same about everything, or even agreeing. It’s about how we treat each other when we disagree. The Holy Spirit has made us one, we are the one body of Christ. Jesus commands us to love each other in that unity. It is when we disagree deeply with each other that we have the opportunity to learn to do this.
I wonder if you ever sit and talk with the Holy Spirit.
Now, fundamentally I don’t think it makes any difference which person of the Trinity we pray to. One of my main points this morning is that Father, Son, Spirit are so close that when we talk to one we’re talking to all three.
Even so.
I was thinking about this in my own prayer life a little while ago. I quite often talk to my Father, the one who created me, who loves me, who sometimes rebukes me, who gathers me in his arms and embraces me. I’m just as likely to talk with Jesus, my friend and teacher, the one who sacrificed his life for me. But I realised that I rarely talked in the same way to the Holy Spirit – and it occurred to me that that was because I didn’t have as full an understanding of the Holy Spirit as a person in the same way that I did of the Father and the Son as persons.
I’m still exploring what this means, and it might not be something that you recognise in your own prayer life, which is great. But for me, there has been work to do in learning to see the Holy Spirit as a person – as my comforter, as my guide, sometimes as my corrector, as the one who stands by me, no matter what.
I think that this is important because, as I said a couple of weeks ago, when we say the Creed we say we believe in, not “we believe that”. We don’t say with our heads that we believe that there is a Holy Spirit. We say that we believe in the Holy Spirit. This is not about stating facts about a thing but about trust in a person.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to trust the Holy Spirit.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to see the Holy Spirit as a real person in the most real relationship that there is – the relationship that is the unity of the Holy Three.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to trust that he will stand beside us, comfort us, convict us, be the truth that will not be shaken.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to look for the fruit and follow where that leads, even into the most unlikely places – just like Peter.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to ask for and receive his gifts with faith and gratitude.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to trust in unity – even when it costs us.
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