PMCBC

Luke 1:26-38

Introduction

• Upon this broad foundation of Old Testament teaching concerning the Spirit of God, the Gospel writers set forth the climactic revelation of the Spirit in the person and ministry of Jesus.

• From the Christian perspective, Jesus is the supreme revelation of God in human history.

• This includes the supreme revelation of God as Spirit in the life of Jesus.

• To this teaching about the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus, we now turn to…

I. The Birth of Jesus

• The accounts of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels fittingly emphasize the activity of God in the totality of His Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• The Son of God, and the Son of God only, “was made flesh” through Mary.

• The Bible makes that abundantly clear.

• There is never any confusion on this point.

• For this reason, it is most unfortunate that the phrase “mother of God” came to be applied to Mary in the early centuries of church debate about the person of Jesus.

• In that debate, the phrase “mother of God” simply meant that Jesus was already the divine Son of God when he was begotten in the womb of Mary, therefore, she gave birth to a baby who was the Son of God in human flesh when He was born.

• He did not become the Son of God later by adoption, as some heretical theologians argued, either at His baptism or His resurrection.

• That Jesus was divine from the very moment of conception is clearly taught in the Gospels.

• Because the word God usually signifies the Father-Creator, the phrase “mother of God” sounds as if Mary is the source of Deity.

• To the naïve mind, it may suggest that God came into Being through Mary.

• God’s Son came into human flesh through Mary, but His Being is eternal.

• Otherwise, He could not be God.

• Luke spelled this out in clear and beautiful language: “in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27).

• When Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive in her womb “and bear a son” and should “call his name Jesus,” Gabriel said explicitly that this child would “be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:31-32).

• In astonishment Mary asked how this could happen and received the answer that has been orthodox Christian theology for twenty centuries: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

• It would be difficult to imagine how this great doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God could be expressed in more simple language.

• No suggestion is found here of sexual cohabitation between divine and human beings, as in Greek mythology.

• The “Most High” is certainly the Father-Creator.

• The “power of the Most High” is the Holy Spirit, revealed throughout the Bible as the invisible but powerful presence of God.

• The Child to be born would be called the Son of God.

• This is a fundamental view of the Trinitarian activity of God, long before Christian theologians had ever formulated a doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the fourth and fifth centuries.

• Matthew supported this statement about the activity of the Holy Spirit at the conception of Jesus in his independent account: “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came bout: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18).

• By saying “before they came together,” Matthew excluded the possibility that Joseph could be the biological father of Jesus.

• In the phrase “through the Holy Spirit,” Matthew used the Greek preposition that means “out of.”

• The Holy Spirit was the source of Mary’s “child,” not Joseph.

• This is the biblical answer to the haunting question of the beautiful Christman, “What Child Is This?”

• When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, urging him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, even more explicit language was used: “for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20).

• Here the biological event of conception is attributed to the activity of the Holy Spirit.

• This is the real meaning of the doctrine of the virgin birth.

• It has nothing to do with the theory of the “perpetual virginity of Mary,” which developed later in church history.

• On the contrary, Matthew made clear that Mary and Joseph had four sons, who are named, and a plural number of daughters, who are not named.

• In this event of the incarnation of the Son of God, the Divine Power bypassed the procreative process that He had ordained in the creation.

• He begot Jesus directly, thereby making a new beginning in the human race.

• This is why Jesus can be called a “new Adam.”

• God began the human race again in Jesus.

II. Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth

• Immediately after the announcement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, she “went with haste” to visit her relative, Elizabeth, who was about to become the mother of John the Baptist.

• Although Elizabeth’s conception was certainly a miracle, considering her extreme age and that of her husband, there was never any suggestion that John the Baptist was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

• In fact, the words of Scripture make it abundantly clear that Zechariah was the father, even as Elizabeth was the mother, in the announcement of the angel: “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John” (Luke 1:13).

• But something is said about the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of Elizabeth.

• She was inspired to give a beautiful blessing to the young virgin who would become the mother of our Lord: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!’” (Luke 1:41-42).

• The significance of this experience for Mary, and for the later Christian community which treasured these words, was that the Holy Spirit, through Elizabeth, confirmed Gabriel’s promise to Mary.

• Mary was not left to wonder if something were wrong with her mind, or if she were having hallucinations.

• After all, her experience was without parallel in all of human history.

• How could she be sure?

• The same Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary bore witness through Elizabeth that, indeed, Mary was to be the mother of the Lord.

• How much Mary needed this reassurance!

• And the Holy Spirit was going to bear further witness to the holy Child of Mary.

III. The Witness of Simeon

• It may be very significant that there is no reference to the Holy Spirit in the beautiful account of the actual birth of Jesus.

• There were many heavenly visitors, to be sure; they brought the glorious good news of the birth of the Savior.

• But the birth of the Babe was painfully earthy, with no room in the inn and only the crude surroundings of a stable to shelter that blessed event.

• Perhaps that is the Bible’s way of reminding us how utterly and fully human was this Baby who was, and is, at the same time, the eternal Son of God.

• But the Holy Spirit came to center stage with the presentation of Baby Jesus in the Temple.

• A powerful and public witness was borne to Jesus as the promised Messiah by the activity of the Holy Spirit in a devout old man named Simeon.

• No doubt many mothers in Israel had hoped that they might bear a son who would be the Messiah.

• And, as often happens, many parents and relatives expressed exaggerated hopes for a newborn child or grandchild.

• They always have.

• But the Scripture makes three exceptional statements about the Holy Spirit preparing Simeon to recognize and bless Baby Jesus: “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him” (Luke 2:25).

• This first statement about the Spirit being upon Simeon alerts us to the fact that, although there might have been many righteous and devout people in Israel, the special power of the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon in such a way that his words and actions were from God Himself.

• Then a second thing was said about the activity of the Spirit in the life of Simeon: “It has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26).

• Now we can be sure that the “consolation of Israel,” for which Simeon was looking in the first reference, really meant that the was looking for the Lord’s Anointed, the promised Messiah, to deliver His people.

• We have the added word that the Holy Spirit had assured Simeon that he would see the Messiah before he died.

• Not only did the Spirit confirm this marvelous event to Elizabeth when she met Mary, but the same Holy Spirit had prepared the heart of Simeon beforehand to recognize this divine Child when he came.

• In fact, all three tenses of the activity of the Holy Spirit are revealed in these birth narratives: in the past, Simeon had been prepared to expect the Messiah before he died; in the present, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and the Messiah was conceived in her; then after that conception, Elizabeth, filled with the Spirit, bore witness that Mary was, indeed, to be the mother of the Messiah.

• With all the people coming and going in the Temple, it would have been very unlikely that old Simeon would have happened to encounter just this couple and just this Baby among the thousands.

• This brings us to the third and final statement about the Spirit in the life of Simeon: “Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel’” (Luke 2:27-30).

• With the Spirit upon his life, and with the Spirit revealing to him beforehand that he would see the Messiah, the Holy Spirit still had to lead the old man to the right place, at the right time, to meet the child Jesus.

• The Wise Men were led by a star to the Christ child.

• But Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit to the Christ child.

• And so, it is with us.

• None of us can find our way to Jesus until the Holy Spirit leads us!

IV. The Witness of John the Baptist

• The angel has said to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, that his child would “be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born” (Luke 1:15) and would go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).

• Like many of the Old Testament leaders and prophets, John would be filled with the Spirit to carry out his appointed mission, preparing the way for the Messiah.

• It was never said or suggested that John was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

• Only Jesus was conceived by the Spirit.

• But, like many other divinely chosen leaders, John was filled with the Spirit to enable him to do something that in human strength, he could never accomplish.

• When John was born and Zechariah’s speech was restored, the happy father “was filed with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them’” (Luke 1:67-68).

• When John preached in the Jordan Valley, he proclaimed the Coming One “more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie” (Mark 1:7).

• Then John made another significant contrast: “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

• This clearly identified Jesus as the Messiah because He was the One who was anointed with the Spirit; He was the only one who could baptize with the Holy Spirit.

• If there were any doubt that this promise pointed toward Pentecost, the parallel passages in Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16remove it: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

• The tongues of flame that accompanied the rushing mighty wind at Pentecost (Acts 2:2-4)were the explicit fulfillment of this promise of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.

• Finally, this witness of John the Baptist is powerfully confirmed in the Gospel of John: “Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me: The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” (John 1:32-34).

• John recognized Jesus as the Messiah by the Spirit of God descending upon Him and remaining.

• Throughout the Old Testament revelation, the Spirit came and went, only temporarily abiding upon a judge like Samson, or a prophet like Ezekiel.

• But, upon Jesus, the Spirit came to abide.

• This marked Jesus as the Anointed One, the promised Messiah.

• The One who was anointed with the Spirit who anointed Jesus for His messianic mission would baptize His followers for their mission in the world.

Psalm 31:5

Introduction

• The last division of the Old Testament canon was originally the Psalms, the hymn book of Israel.

• The Wisdom Literature, the historical Books of Chronicles, and the prophecy of Daniel were added before the rabbis closed the canon, near the end of the first century AD.

• Because the Psalms are concentrated on worship and personal devotion, a whole new dimension of the activity of God’s Spirit is disclosed: the role of the Spirit in the personal life and worship of the believer.

• The other writings echo the same themes we have found in the earlier portions of the Old Testament.

I. The Holy Spirit in the Psalms

• Even in the dire extremity of suffering, the faithful worshiper cries out, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5).

• The is Scripture from the Psalms that spoke so deeply to the need of the dying Jesus that it was His last word from the cross.

• Earlier He had cried out in the words of Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

• The most persistent use of the word spirit in the Psalms designates the inner life of the worshiper.

• The spirit is that aspect of human personality that is most closely related to God.

• God blesses the one “in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2) and “saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

• The truly acceptable sacrifice to God is “a broken spirit” (Psalm 51:17).

• While crying out to God in the day of trouble, the psalmist meditated and his “spirit faints” (Psalm 77:3).

• But “when my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way!” (Psalm 142:3).

• The fainting spirit, also seen in Psalm 143:4 and 7, was lifted up by looking to God: “May your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 142:10).

• For the psalmist, the Spirit was not simple a doctrine; He was the intimate presence of God, without which the psalmist could not live a single day!

• In one of the classic passages in all of Scripture, David confessed his terrible sin and cried out: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

• As we saw in Ezekiel, complete cleansing from sin requires a new heart and a new spirit, and only God can give it.

• It is a miracle of God’s grace, and it is our deepest need.

• The next line, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11), reminds us that the awful consequence of sin is separation from God.

• The intimate relationship for which God made us is broken by sin.

• We can even see this in human relationships.

• When we sin against people and hurt them, the relationships are marred or broken.

• Only a genuine forgiveness can open the possibility of a renewed relationship.

• In the great creation Psalm (104), the sustaining power of God’s Spirit, revealed in the opening chapters of Genesis, is celebrated in some of the most beautiful words in the Bible.

• In a majestic panorama of the heavens and the earth, the psalmist sand of all the living things in God’s creation: “When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust” (Psalm 104:29).

• What a poignant reminder that everything in this marvelous universe depends upon God at every moment!

• And God’s creative work is not finished: “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:30).

• This renewing of the creation makes possible the later New Testament vision of a “new heaven and a new earth”: which God will bring at the end of time.

• The last great emphasis of the psalmist was upon the omnipresence of the Spirit, literally filling the whole universe.

• Nowhere can one escape His presence:

o “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).

• The pervasiveness of God’s Spirit is overwhelming.

• It might be troubling to the sinner who is trying to hide something from God because there is no way to escape Him.

• But, to the psalmist, it was the most powerful message of comfort and assurance.

• No matter what came, in life or in death, God would be with him.

• In the first verse of this beautiful passage, the two lines of Hebrew poetry parallel “thy Spirit” and “thy presence.”

• It provides one of the simplest and clearest definitions of God’s Spirit in all of Scripture.

• God’s Spirit is, quite simply and profoundly, God’s presence.

• There is no better way to think of the Spirit of God than to remember that the Spirit is God’s presence with us, in joy or sorrow, in victory or defeat, in life or in death.

II. The Spirit in Job

• Because the Book of Job is dominated by the struggle of that suffering man to understand what was happening to him and why God seemed to be sending such punishment upon him, the word spirit is used primarily for Job’s spirit.

• He was looking inward and agonizing over his own condition.

• But through this devastating suffering, Job’s faith persevered.

• He was confident of the Spirit and power of God, even in his deepest despair.

• These references to the Holy Spirit enrich the biblical teaching on this doctrine.

• Those who “plow evil” perish by the “breath of God” and by “the blast of his anger” (Job 4:8-9).

• The same divine power which brought the creation into being can come in judgment to destroy it.

• Eliphaz continued his discourse on the justice of God by describing “a spirit” which glided past his face, causing the hair on his flesh to stand up, and, out of the terrifying silence, asking the disturbing question: “Can a mortal be more righteous than God?” (vv.15-17).

• This visionary spirit does not seem to have been the Holy Spirit, but one of the spirits who serves God.

• It adds to the general biblical teaching that there are ministering spirits who serve God, sometimes identified as angels, but, at other times, simply called “spirits” or “ministering spirits.”

• The Creator Spirit is seen again in Job: “By his breath the skies became fair” (Job 26:13).

• Job’s own breath is sustained by God’s Spirit:“As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies” (Job 27:3-4).

• Even the “spirit in a man” which gives him understanding is called “the breath of the Almighty” (Job 32:8).

• This implies more than physical breath or mental acumen.

• The “breath of God” gives us understanding that we could never attain in our human resources alone.

• Job found great reassurance, through all his sufferings, in the conviction expressed by Elihu: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4).

• If God “should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14-15).

• This perception of the Spirit of God permeating our physical lives gives a sacredness to human life and physical relationships, which we often ignore.

• We cannot divide our lives, neatly into the physical and the spiritual, denigrating the physical and exalting the spirit.

• Even the physical is permeated and sustained by the Spirit of God.

• The Book of Job continues some of the main teachings about the Spirit, but it emphasizes the power of God’s Spirit to preserve his servant through devastating suffering.

III. The Spirit in Proverbs

• Another of the Wisdom books, along with Job and the Psalms, is Proverbs.

• Like all the Wisdom Literature, it gives guidance for daily living in accord with the law of God.

• This was the meaning of wisdom in the Old Testament: practical instructions for living one’s life in obedience to God.

• It had little to do with the abstract knowledge; it was concerned with the urgent question of living in right relationship to God and neighbor.

• This means that most references to the spirit in Proverbs are concerned with the human spirit of the faithful person.

• We are given a range of descriptions of the human spirit that runs the gamut of human emotions: the faithful spirit, the hasty spirit, the broken spirit, the haughty spirit, the humble spirit, the wounded spirit.

• God “weighs the spirit,” even though man may be “pure in his own eyes” (Proverbs 16:2).

• The remaining references to the Spirit in the last division of the Old Testament canon of Scripture echo the themes we have already seen.

• The Spirit of God came upon Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1) or upon Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20) to accomplish His purpose through them.

• Surprisingly, God stirred up pagan kings to do His bidding (Pul, king of Assyria in 1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Chronicles 36:22.

• God did not put His Spirit on them; rather, He stirred up their spirits.

• This makes them responsible for their spirit, and yet it provides a way for the prophetic writer to see the hand of God in the judgment which fell upon sinful Israel through the articles of their enemies.

• God can use the spirit that is obedient to Him; He can also work through or in spite of the spirit that rejects Him.

IV. Analysis and Summary

• In the last division of the Old Testament, the Psalms give us the most insight into the nature and activity of God’s Spirit.

• Only God can create a clean heart and put a new spirit in the sinner.

• Without the convicting, renewing power of the Spirit, there is no redemption and no hope for the guilty one.

• The whole of creation is permeated by God’s Spirit, making even the physical world the sphere of God’s presence and God’s grace.

• God is concerned about the physical needs, as well as the spiritual needs, of mankind.

• His spiritual activity in the old creatin is the ground and assurance of the coming “new creation.”

• Nowhere in the whole universe, in life or in death, can we get away from God’s presence, the Holy Spirit.

• This is the basis of the biblical teaching that even beyond death everyone must face God in the judgment.

• There is no escaping His omnipresent Spirit.

• But this same truth brings the glad assurance of eternal fellowship with God for those who have opened their lives to the regenerating power of His Spirit.

• Although many people seem to think that the Holy Spirit only appeared on the earthly scene at Pentecost, we have seen that there is a rich and diverse background of the activity of the Spirit throughout the Old Testament.

• It is now possible to understand in a fuller way how the New Testament teaching about the Holy Spirit builds upon that foundation.

Joshua 5:1

Introduction

• The second major division of the Hebrew canon of Scripture, our Old Testament, is called simply, the Prophets.

• This is exactly what Jesus called it when He named the three divisions of Scripture in a resurrection appearance to the disciples: “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44).

• This second division of the canon was further divided into the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets.

• The Former Prophets consists of the books we usually call the Historical Books, through 2 Kings.

• The Latter Prophets consists of the great writing prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, together with the minor, or shorter, prophets through Malachi.

• Because these shorter writings are usually grouped in a single scroll about the length of the single scrolls of Isaiah or Ezekiel, they are simply called the Scroll of the Twelve.

• The way in which this division of the canon of Scripture developed gives us a wonderful opportunity to follow the growth of the teaching about the Holy Spirit.

• We can see how the activity of the Holy Spirit was understood in the history of Judah and Israel, and we can compare that with the unique emphases in the writing prophets.

I. The Holy Spirit in the Historical Books

• The one reference to “Spirit” in the Book of Joshua is to the human spirit of the kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites who “heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no longer any courage (spirit) in them to face the Israelites” (Joshua 5:1).

• Their confidence or “spirit” was understandably broken when they saw the power of Israel’s God.

• But the “Spirit of the Lord” is a veritable refrain throughout the following book, the Book of Judges.

• In fact, the entire book is a story of the Spirit of God raising up one leader after another to deliver His people from invading armies.

• We would call them charismatic leaders today because they were called and filled by the Spirit of God to accomplish miracles that they could never have done in their own strength.

II. The Cycle of Sin and Deliverance

• Judges follows the pattern laid out in chapter3:7, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.”

• Their sin was followed by God’s judgment: “The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years” (Judges 3:8).

• Then would come their cry for the deliverance: “But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them” (Judges 3:9).

• In the case of Othniel, and many of the succeeding judges, it is simply said that “The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war” (Judges 3:10).

• The Spirit of God was the active power that was ruling and delivering Israel, even though He used many human instruments: “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon” (Judges 6:34).

• “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah” (Judges 11:29); and the entire life of Samson is told with the repeated refrain, “And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him” (Judges 13:25);or “The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore a young goat” (Judges 14:6); even when Samson’s wife betrayed his riddle to the Philistines and he was boiling with anger, “the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men” (Judges 14:19). 

• The sad story of Samson’s abuse of his God-given strength brought him, bound and blinded, to the prison in Gaza, deserted by the Spirit of the Lord.

• Even his last prayer for the return of the strength to bring down the idol temple of Dagon and let him die with the Philistines is a solemn reminder that God’s judgment falls upon those who fail to acknowledge their dependence upon His spiritual power and who fail to use it according to His will.

III. An Evil Spirit from the Lord

• One of the most surprising statements to appear at the point in the biblical record is the “God stirred up animosity between Abimelehand the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimeleh(Judges 9:23).

• This spirit is not called the Holy Spirit, and in the context, it is clear that God allowed the bitterness and hatred between wicked man to result in the ultimate accomplishment of God’s purpose.

• But, from this point on, the Scriptures often say that God sent an evil spirit upon Saul or a lying spirit upon one of the false prophets, and it raises a moral question for us.

• Two things should be said in reference to this question.

• First, biblical writers attributed everything directly to God, without making any distinction between what He permitted and when He initiated.

• Since God was the ultimate power behind everything, they did not shrink from affirming that anything that happened was in the will of God by permission or by direction, for good or for evil.

• This is why we read that God moved David to number the people of Israel against God’s own explicit commandment because God’s anger was kindled against Israel and He was going to bring the consequences of this deed in judgment upon their heads. 

• In 1 Chronicles 21:1, the writer said, “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”

• To place the direct blame upon Satan may have been very important for the theology of the writer, but he knew very well that Satan could do nothing without God’s permission.

• Even if Satan and the evil spirit were responsible for their own evil actions, the biblical writers believed that God set sever limits for their action and that they could never seize control from the hands of God.

• Ultimately, the power of God ruled over everything, including both good and evil spirits.

• In the second place, the sending of an “evil spirit” is a way of describing God’s moral law of sin and retribution.

• The evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem was a consequence of their wicked deeds, showing God’s inevitable judgment upon sin.

• He has built His moral law into the very fabric of the universe, and it is as dependable as the law of gravity.

• The “evil spirit” was the consequence of the violation of God’s moral law; it came from God because, by His holy nature, sin is always condemned.

• From this biblical teaching we understand that not all spirits in the world are good.

• Some spiritual powers oppose God.

• This is the background for the later warning that we must test the spirits, whether they be of God (1 John 4:1).

IV. The Spirit Upon Saul and David

• The Books of Samuel carry out the theme of Judges.

• The Spirit of God came upon a person in order that he might lead God’s people.

• This is what happened when Samuel the prophet anointed Saul and told him that he would rule over Israel (1 Samuel 10:1ff).

• The Spirit came mightily upon Saul, and he joined the band of prophets and prophesied with them (vv.6,10).

• As long as Saul obeyed God, His Spirit was upon Saul.

• Because of Saul’s disobedience, the Lord rejected him: The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as kings over Israel?” (1 Samuel 16:1).

• The Lord sent Samuel to find the shepherd boy David and anoint him to be king over Israel: “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David” (1 Samuel 16:13).

• As the laying on of hands was a sign of the bestowal of the Spirit, so the anointing with oil became a special sign of the coming of God’s Spirit.

• A remarkable thing happens in the very next verse: “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him” (1 Samuel 16:14).

• It seems that in the very act of coming upon the young David, the Spirit was departing from Saul.

• The power of the Spirit to rule over Israel was taken from Saul and given to David.

• The choosing of David meant the rejection of Saul.

• But an even more surprising thing is said: when the Spirit of the Lord was taken away, an evil spirit from the Lord was sent to torment Saul.

• If a person is abandoned by the Spirit of God, he seems to be in danger of being taken over by an evil spirit; he will not be left empty.

• This “evil spirit” seems to have been a kind of moodiness or depression that swept over Saul.

• He knew he had failed God and forfeited his great promise as a leader of his people.

• This was the working out of God’s judgment, as we saw in the Book of Judges.

• When David played his harp for Saul, Saul’s spirits would be lifted, and the evil spirit would depart from him.

• But Saul was only dealing with his symptoms.

• He refused the permanent cure for the fundamental disobedience which had brought about God’s rejection of him and the taking away of God’s Spirit.

V. The Contagious Spirit

• The rest of the days of Saul were tormented by this spirit of jealousy of David.

• He threw a spear at David when the evil spirit rushed upon him, or he sent messengers to capture or kill him.

• One of the most pathetic accounts in the Bible is Saul’s futile effort to snatch David from under the protection of the Spirit.

• When Saul sent messengers to take David, “they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied” (1 Samuel 19:20).

• Outraged that his messengers had been “taken in” by the Spirit, Saul sent messengers a second and third time, and they also fell under the spell of the Spirit and joined the band of the prophets.

• Saul must have been livid!

• In desperation, he went to do the job himself.

• Saul also fell under the power of the Spirit, prophesying, stripping off his clothes, and lying naked all day and night.

• How he must have hated the taunt with which he had to live the rest of his life: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Samuel 19:24).

• This episode portrays the Spirit of God as a kind of field of energy, like a massive electromagnet.

• When one enters the “field,” that person is in danger of being captured by it.

• This description of the Spirit of God as a powerful and invisible force is consistent with biblical teaching from the very beginning.

• Sometimes He can even have a compulsive effect, seizing someone before one knows it.

• The developing doctrine of the Spirit moves toward a more personal emphasis and takes on the characteristics revealed by Jesus in the New Testament.

• But it never loses completely this dimension of an awesome and even dangerous power, which is never to be taken lightly.

• Even in the New Testament, lying to the Holy Spirit could result in instantaneous death, as described in Acts 5:3ff.

VI. Inspiring the Word

• In the “last words of David,” an oracle given in 2 Samuel 23, we have an explicit reference to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the life of the prophet or biblical writer: “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2).

• David was not speaking, but the Spirit spoke by him.

• “His word was on my tongue” reminds us that the word of God was often spoken before it was written, and the Spirit of God was just as active in the oral word as in the written Word.

• What is said here in such a simple and direct way becomes a great theme in Scripture and in Christian doctrine; the inspiration of the Word of God.

• “The God of Israel spoke” (v.3) is the clue to the whole doctrine of inspiration.

• It means that even though God used David, He did not violate human personality.

• God still spoke His word through David.

• This is the fundamental element in our whole understanding of inspiration.

• God used human beings, empowered by His Spirit, to bring His Word directly to us.

• When we truly hear this Word, we are not listening to men by to God!

VII. The Spirit in the Writing Prophets

• Isaiah and Ezekiel were the great prophets of the Spirit.

• The other prophetic books have only limited references to the Spirit.

• Isaiah and Ezekiel do mor to advance our understanding of the Holy Spirit than any other Old Testament writings.

• The New Testament teachings would be impossible to understand without them, and our Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit is enriched by the contribution of these prophetic writings.

• A new and important role of the Spirit is proclaimed in Isaiah; the anointing of the Messian.

• The Hebrew word for Messiah means “anointed,” and the context makes clear that the Messiah was to be anointed with the Spirit of God.

• The first great passage on this anointing is found in Isaiah 11:1-3: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse: from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” 

• This beautiful passage tells us that the Anointed of the Lord will come out of the line of Jesse, the father of David, and enumerates the special gifts of the Spirit which will enable Him to fulfill His messianic mission.

• A related passage in Isaiah 61:1-2enumerates the things which the Anointed One will do on His mission: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.”

• Jesus read this passage in the synagogue in Nazareth, as a kind of inauguration of His mission, stopping at exactly this point in the text and infuriating His hometown hearers by His message.

• Evidently Jesus saw in this text from Isaiah the program of His ministry, and He fulfilled it to the letter.

• This close relationship between the Spirit and the ministry of the Messian prepared the way for the later teaching about Father, Son, and Spirit.

• Other themes concerning the Spirit are evident in Isaiah, but I think that you get the point.

• There are twenty-five references to the Spirit in the prophecy of Ezekiel.

• Most of these simply describe the Spirit taking up the prophet and moving him where God wanted him to go: “As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me” (Ezekiel 2:2).

• On another occasion, the Spirit lifted him up between heaven and earth and brought him “in visions of God to Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 8:3).

• The Spirit was Ezekiel’s regular method of mobility, and he sometimes said explicitly that it is in a vision.

• The message of Ezekiel is summarized in this ringing promise of the Lord, “I will no longer hide my face from the, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declared the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 39:29).

• Ezekiel was the prophet of the new covenant, the new heart, and the new spirit in God’s people by the power of the Spirit of the Lord.

VIII. Analysis and Summary

• In this section, the Spirit of the Prophets, our understanding of the person and activity of the Spirit of God has been advanced along several lines.

• In the ongoing history of Israel, the prophets saw the Spirit of God not only raising up leaders to guide His people but also coming in judgment upon their sin and rebellion.

• The clue to the whole meaning and purpose of their history is that God is the energizing power.

• Behind all their victories and failures, their blessings and their punishment, was the powerful Spirit of God, working to accomplish His ultimate purpose of the redemption of His people.

• The writing prophets sharpened this understanding of the Spirit.

• With the promise of the coming Messiah, anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, the redemptive purpose of God came to a new focus.

• The Messiah would bring a new day, when the Spirit would be poured out upon both men and women, slave and free, young and old.

• The Servant of the Lord, anointed with the Spirit, would give His life as a ransom for many.

• In the new day of redemption, God would put a new heart and a new spirit in them.

• The same Holy Spirit who was active in the original creation would bring about a new creation, fulfilling the purpose of God.

• Each of these elements is included in a complete formulation in of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:1-2

Introduction

• “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1).

• This is exactly how far back we have to go when we begin our study of the Holy Spirit.

• He was at the beginning of creation and before.

• Just as God was before anything was created, so the Spirit was in the being of God from all eternity.

• The second verse of the Bible records the very first reference to the Spirit: “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2).

• The Hebrew word used here means “hovering or brooding” like a bird over its nest.

• Something was about to come forth out of “the deep” by the mighty power of God’s Spirit, which was “hovering” over it.

• This first reference to the birdlike brooding of the Spirit may support the biblical imagery of the Holy Spirit as a dove.

• Until this day the doves hover on the wing over the Jordan Valley, hardly moving their position for hours.

• We can easily see the appropriateness of the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus like a dove at His baptism in the Jordan River.

• The word Spirit in Hebrew means “wind” as well as “spirit.”

• This does not mean that God’s Spirit is literally wind because wind is air in motion, a part of God’s created world.

• God’s Spirit is the Creator who made the wind—and all other created things.

• But it does mean that the common word for “wind” was a good word to describe or name the invisible but powerful activity of God.

• Like the wind, God’s Spirit is powerful and invisible.

• We cannot see the Spirit any more than we can see the wind, but we can see or experience the effects of the Spirit, as we experience the effects of the wind.

I. The Universal Spirit

• No theme permeates the Bible more completely than the power and presence of the Holy Spirit of God.

• Just as we encounter a direct reference to the Holy Spirit in the second verse of the Bible, so we have the Spirit in the closing verses of the Bible: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17).

• In dealing with the topic of the Holy Spirit, we are not simply considering one separate theological doctrine.

• We are considering the omnipresent God Himself.

• We are searching for the Reality and Person of the Living God, in whom we live and move and have our being.

• Our attitude must be of humble worship and praise, for we can never comprehend or understand Him fully with our limited minds.

• What we can do is learn more about the Person and activity of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Scriptures, especially in the life and ministry of Jesus.

• In this way we can learn more about surrendering our lives to the Holy Spirit in order that He may live and work through us.

• We dare not relegate the doctrine of the Spirit to a single article in a creed or confession of faith.

• The Spirit permeates every aspect of our life of faith, and no Christian doctrine is complete without Him.

• He is the Breath which gives life to every Christian doctrine, from the convicting power which brings us to salvation to the resurrection of the spiritual body and the life everlasting.

• We will find it impossible to treat thoroughly any Christian doctrine without examining the role of the Holy Spirit in that particular aspect of the Christian life.

• A full analysis of the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit will, in a similar way, touch on every aspect of the Christian life.

• The Spirit is truly universal.

• He is present everywhere, in all of human history, and throughout all eternity.

II. The Creator Spirit

• When the Bible describes the creation of human beings, an even more intimate word is used for God’s activity than is used with other parts of creation: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

• The word for breath is neshamah, a closely related synonym to wind or spirit.

• We have a picture of God bending down over the still form of the body that He had shaped out of the dust of the earth and, in a kind of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, actually breathing His own life into him.

• This specific activity of God breathing into the nostrils of man is not said of any other creature.

• It is true that breathing animals are sometimes described in the Bible as living beings, using the exactly the same language that is used of human beings.

• But it is never said that God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, nor is it ever said that they are made “in the image of God.”

• This special relationship to God is reserved for human beings alone, and it means that human beings will be held responsible for the way they relate to God in obedience or rebellion.

• In a general way, then, the Spirit of God is active throughout the entire created world, animate and inanimate.

• But, in a very special way, God’s breath or Spirit brings man into being and puts human beings in a relationship to God that no other creature has.

• God’s Spirit empowers a human being to live but does not control him like a puppet.

• Men and women are free to use this precious gift of life to love God and their neighbor.

• When the Russian cosmonauts, in one of their early space flights, radioed back to earth that they had not found any God out there, the very breath with which they mocked Him was given to them by the Creator God.

• How awesome is the responsibility we have to use this God-given breath in a way that will honor Him and bless the lives of others.

III. The Sustaining Spirit

• In a closely related idea, the Bible also teaches us that the same Holy Spirit who brings us into being sustains our lives at every moment.

• The same Creator God who gives us life and breath can take it away, and we die.

• In Genesis 6:3 we read, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’”

• There are two interpretations of this verse.

• One, it can be interpreted to mean that God will not keep on “striving” with man to convict him of sin and bring him to salvation.

• There would be a time when the stubborn sinner would “cross the line” and God would give him up to destruction.

• Another interpretation reminds us that our days on the earth are limited.

• Man does not live by his own strength.

• He is frail flesh, and he lives only as long as God’s creative Spirit sustains him.

• This sobering truth could transform the life of mankind if only it could sink into the center of human consciousness.

• Even Christians seem to think that by certain laws of nature, created by God, they have been given life and, barring accident, they are likely to have a number of years in which to live out their choices and make their decisions.

• But this word from the Lord is a solemn reminder that we cannot take a single day for granted.

• Each day is a gift from God.

• Each breathing moment of life is sustained by the Spirit of a loving God.

• How can we ever afford to be careless about the way we use this precious gift?

IV. The Human Spirit

• Because the Spirit of God is the invisible power that brings human beings into existence and sustains them, the same Hebrew word used for spirit is often used in the Pentateuch for the invisible human spirit which interacts with the divine Spirit in every human life.

• The Bible does not confuse the two because the human spirit has a mind and will of its own.

• Without the divine Spirit there would not be a human spirit to make any choices at all, but the divine Spirit does not make the choices for the human spirit.

• Human beings can grieve the Holy Spirit of God, using the divine gift of life to disobey the God who gave them life.

• In Genesis 41:8, we read that when Pharaoh awoke from his disturbing dream, “his spirit was troubled.”

• Here “spirit” is used to define that aspect of human nature which most directly relates us to God.

• The activity of God’s Spirit brought the troubling dream to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh’s spirit responded to God’s Spirit.

• This interaction of divine Spirit and human spirit is not just at the physical level of sustaining life.

• It is also at the level of human will and decision.

• It is the most intimate expression of the “image of God” in us, the capacity to interact responsibly with the living God.

• In short, the human spirit is that aspect of human nature with which we relate most directly to God.

V. Spirit as Human Vitality

• In the thrilling account of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, their grieving father, Jacob, could hardly believe them when he learned that Joseph was still alive: “But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived” (Genesis 45:27).

• Here the term “spirit” simply means human vitality, including emotion, feeling, and attitude.

• Even so it is further evidence that human vitality is ultimately dependent upon the sustaining power of God’s Spirit.

• There would not be any human vitality apart from the power of God.

• When God sent Moses to the people of Israel in slavery in Egypt with the promise of deliverance from their suffering, “they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor” (Exodus 6:9).

• The human spirit depends upon hope; when hope is gone, the spirit is crushed or broken.

• In a world threatened with nuclear destruction, with pain and suffering headlining the news every day, we are reminded that the survival of the human spirit depends upon the promise of God!

• Pity those who have no hope.

VI. Spirit as Personal Attitude

• Sometimes the word spirit simply means the attitude which a person expresses in life relationships.

• A suspicious husband had a “spirit of jealousy” come upon him (Numbers 5:14).

• God “hardened the spirit” of Silion the king of Heshbon who refused to let the wandering Israelites pass through his land (Deuteronomy 2:30).

• In these cases, the persons were clearly responsible for their attitudes, and God held them accountable.

• Consistently, throughout the Bible, spirit is the area of our responsible interaction with God.

• God commended his servant, Caleb, “because he has a different spirit and had followed me fully” (Numbers 14:24).

• Instead of the attitude of distrust and disobedience which had characterized so many of the Israelites, Caleb had shown a “different spirit” of faithful obedience and trust.

• It was all the more remarkable because it ran counter to the attitude of his fellow Israelites all around him.

• Again, we see great emphasis placed on the freedom and responsibility of the human spirit.

VII. The Redemer Spirit

• We have seen that the Creator Spirit of God brings the human spirit into being and interacts with it at every level of life.

• The other primary activity of God’s Spirit in the Pentateuch is the effort to deliver His people from sin and slavery and to bring them into fellowship with Himself.

• When Moses was commanded to gather seventy elders to share the burden of leading the people out of slavery into the Promised Land, God said, “I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone” (Numbers 11:17).

• The spirit of Moses was not put upon the elders.

• It was the Spirit of God, which had already been placed upon Moses to empower him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness of Sinai where they formed the covenant with God.

• The redeeming activity of the Spirit is closely related to His creative activity.

• In fact, it is like the other side of the same coin.

• By creation, the Spirit brought us to be living beings; by His redemptive activity, the Spirit brings us to the fulfillment of His purpose in our lives.

• Creation and redemption are so close together that Paul could even speak of redemption as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

• The Great Creator becomes our Great Redeemer, fulfilling in the new creation His original purpose in the old creation.

VIII. The Spirit of Prophecy

• Continuing God’s redemptive activity, some of the Spirit that was upon Moses was put upon the seventy elders “and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied” (Numbers 11:25).

• When Joshua worried that this might diminish the leadership of Moses, he received a sharp rebuke, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29).

• Even a reluctant prophet, Balaam, was moved to utter an oracle of blessing upon Israel when “the Spirit of God came upon him” (Numbers 24:2).

• Since the prophetic word was used to carry out God’s purpose of redemption, the “spirit of prophecy” should be seen as another aspect of the redeeming activity of the Spirit of God.

IX. The Succession of the Spirit

• One further activity of the Spirit is seen in the Pentateuch—the passing of the Spirit from a divinely called leader to his successor.

• The Lord commanded Moses to “take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him” (Numbers 27:18).

• Moses obeyed the Lord and “took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses” (Numbers 27:22-23).

• This laying on of hands was the beginning of a long biblical tradition that extends all the way through the New Testament to the present time, as persons are set apart for particular ministries by the “laying on of hands.”

• In this first instance, the context makes clear that two very important things are accomplished by this act: The individual is given a very powerful personal confirmation that God has put His Spirit upon him to enable him to accomplish the task to which has been called; the ceremony of laying on of hands is witnessed by the congregation as a sign and confirmation of God’s choice of His servant to minister in their midst.

• The Spirit was not actually conferred by this physical act.

• The Spirit was already in Joshua, the son of Nun (Numbers 27:18).

• God had already selected him.

• God was not dependent upon a human ritual to convey His Spirit to His chosen servant.

• The ritual of the laying on of hands was a sign to the individual and to the congregation that God had already placed His Spirit upon the chosen leader and that the leader would carry out his mission not in his own strength but in the power of God.

Analysis and Summary

• There is no way to exaggerate the importance of these first books of the Bible in laying a foundation for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

• Everything else that is said in the Bible about the Spirit, all that is taught in our Christian doctrines, and all that is experienced in our Christian life rests upon this foundation.

• It should certainly assist our continuing study if we can pull together these basic teachings about the Sprit in an orderly way.

• First and foremost is the absolute identification of the Spirit with God Himself.

• God is Spirit, and Spirit becomes the primary word for the invisible and powerful activity of God in the world.

• The Bible emphasizes the holiness or otherness of God, what theologians call His transcendence.

• The counterbalancing emphasis upon the nearness and presence of God in the world in our lives is what theologians call God’s immanence, His abiding in us and with us.

• This is the role of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence and power of God.

• The Spirit is not simply one aspect of God’s being or nature.

• The Spirit is God Himself, powerful and present in His creation and in our lives.

• The second important truth that is unfolded in the opening pages of God’s Word is that the Spirit of God is active in two primary ways: in creation and in redemption.

• In creation the Spirit is active in bringing everything into existence and sustaining all things at every moment.

• In a very special way, the Spirit or breath of God brings man and woman into existence and holds them accountable for the way they respond to the activity of God in their lives.

• This is the essential meaning of the “image of God” in us, our capacity and responsibility to relate to the Spirit of God as He works with our human spirits to accomplish His purpose in us.

• The second primary way in which the Spirit of God works in human life and history is for our redemption, the bringing of men and women into a vital, personal relationship to God.

• This can be seen in the calling of special leaders (like Moses) to guide us in this journey with God or in the sending of the word of prophecy to instruct us along the way.

• Because this redemptive process continues as long as history unfolds, God has demonstrated His power to call new leaders in each generation and put His Spirit upon them.

• The rest of the Bible is the story of how this creating and redeeming activity of God’s Spirit continued with His people, from the wilderness to the Promised Land, in the times of the kingdom and the warnings of the prophets, in victory and in Exile, culminating in the ministry of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church.

• For believers the Spirit is the clue to the whole Bible, the key that unlocks the meaning of human history.

• Amen!

John 4:24

Introduction

• “God is spirit.”

• This statement of Jesus in John 4:24 means that everything we say about God must be related in some way to spirit.

• It means invisible rather than visible.

• It means that we cannot relate to God as matter that we can touch or see or measure.

• The scientific principles that govern all our experience and education in today’s world cannot be applied to God.

• But this fact has opened the door to a jungle of confusion and strange cults regarding the Spirit of God.

• If we cannot depend upon science and human reason to provide our understanding of the Spirit, what can we depend upon?

• The Christian answer is clear and unmistakable: We must follow the teaching of Jesus as revealed in Holy Scripture.

• Just as Jesus revealed to us the Father, so He also revealed to us the Holy Spirit.

• Any spirit which does not magnify and exalt Jesus is not the Spirit of God.

I. Spirit in the Old Testament

• Because all of our understanding of the Holy Spirit goes back to the biblical witness, we must look first at the activity of the Spirit in the Old Testament.

• Some Christians have assumed that the Holy Spirit began on the Day of Pentecost, when the early church was empowered by the Spirit to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

• But what happened at Pentecost can be compared to what happened at Bethlehem.

• Jesus did not become the Son of God by being born of Mary in Bethlehem.

• The Son was with the Father from all eternity.

• Otherwise, He could not be the divine Son of God.

• He became flesh and blood through His birth to Mary.

• The eternal Son of God became the man Jesus through Mary.

• In a parallel way, the Holy Spirit came to indwell the body of the church through the outpouring at Pentecost.

• Like the Son, the Spirit had been with the Father from all eternity.

• As Genesis 1:2 says, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

• But this eternal Spirit of God found a dwelling place in the body of Christ, the church.

• Pentecost was to the Spirit what Bethlehem was to the Son—the place of incarnation or embodiment of the Son and the Spirit for their ministry in the world.

• The primary role of the Spirit in the Old Testament was in creation.

• He was present in the creative activity of God in Genesis 1, and Psalm 104 shows that the Spirit keeps the created order alive and functioning.

• In this role the Spirit does not have a particular dwelling place but rather permeates the whole of creation at all times.

• This is very different from the New Testament where the Holy Spirit dwells specifically in Jesus in His redemptive ministry, empowering His miracles and His words, and then indwells the church, which continues the ministry of Christ in the world.

• There is also a redemptive role of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

• He brought the powerful word of God through the prophets, and He moved through the wind to roll the waters back and deliver God’s people from death.

• But in these activities in the Old Testament, the Spirit was coming and going.

• He did not have a permanent dwelling place.

• This is a significant difference in the role of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

• Tracing the activity of the Holy Spirit through the Torah, or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew canon of Scripture is an exciting journey.

• The Spirit who was active in creation became the powerful presence of God leading His people out of slavery, in the Exodus, and guiding them to the Promised Land.

• The Spirit was active in forming and preserving the covenant of God with His people.

• In the second division of the Hebrew canon of Scripture, we have the activity of the Spirit of God in the prophets.

• He inspired and empowered the word of God through the prophets to the people.

• The work of the Holy Spirit in the prophetic canon of Scripture was primarily redemptive activity, bringing the saving word of God to the people and convicting them of their sin.

• But, in the background, we still see the creative activity of God’s Spirit in the whole universe and to all the peoples of the earth.

• The twofold work of the Spirit came to focus on both creation and redemption.

• In the Psalms and Writing, the third and final division of the Hebrew Bible, the creative role of the Spirit in sustaining the whole universe is still very prominent.

• But a new dimension of His activity came to the fore, that was His personal work in the heart and mind of the worshiper.

• In the Psalms, in particular, the Holy Spirit was the powerful presence of God in the life of the individual worshiper.

• This emphasis upon the personal ministry of the Spirit anticipated and prepared the way for the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian believer.

• The fundamental difference is that in the New Testament the Holy Spirit had the redemptive ministry of Jesus as the basis for His convicting and regenerating work in the life of the Christian believer.

• Because of the atoning work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament was able to regenerate the life of the believer and empower him to share with others the new life in Christ.

II. Spirit in the New Testament

• Unlike the Old Testament, where the Spirit of God came and went, the Spirit came upon Jesus and stayed.

• Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary.

• He was anointed with the Spirit at His baptism; by the Spirit of God Jesus cast out demons; Jesus gave up His Spirit as He died on the cross and was raised up from the dead by the Holy Spirit.

• The anointing of Jeus by the Spirit at His baptism for His messianic mission is exactly what the name Christ means: the Anointed One!

• The fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, was embodied in Jesus.

III. Jesus and the Holy Spirit

• Careful study of all of the Gospels is necessary to see how the Holy Spirit lived and worked through the life of Jesus.

• This study will focus especially upon Jesus’ conception and birth, and then it will trace His development “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

• The critical role of the Spirit in anointing Jesus at His baptism for His messianic ministry will lead us to a careful study of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the teaching and the miracles of Jesus.

• Just as we learn about God the Father from the intimate relationship of Jesus to His Father in His prayer life, so we come to understand the power of the Holy Spirit in the miracles Jesus performed.

IV. The Paraclete

• By far the most important Scriptures for understanding the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will be the five Paraclete hymns, or sayings, in John’s Gospel.

• These beautiful verses, probably sung in the early church, spell out the relationship of Jesus to the Spirit-Paraclete and the relationship of the Spirit to the Father and the Son.

• We learn more about the personality and the ministry of the Holy Spirit from these words than from any others in the Bible.

• We will see that the Son bears witness to the Father and that the Spirit bears witness to the Son.

• This sequence and relationship are crucial for understanding the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives today.

V. The Holy Spirit in the Church 

• When Jesus returned to the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Jesus’ band of followers in order that they might continue His ministry in the world.

• The Book of Acts records this thrilling story.

• For this reason, Acts is sometimes called the “gospel of the Holy Spirit.”

• Even as the Gospels record the redemptive ministry of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, so Acts continues the story of that redemptive ministry in the church, empowered by the same Holy Spirit.

• We are continuing in that same ministry in the church today, and we are completely dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish our mission in the world.

• If Jesus needed to pray and depend upon the empowering of the Spirit in His ministry, how much more must we rely upon the Holy Spirit to empower us?

VI. The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Christian

• Even as the Holy Spirit fills the church for its ministry in the world, the individual Christian must be filled with the Spirit for a victorious life in the world.

• The very word filling is often used to describe the way in which the Spirit comes into the life of the believer to empower that life for service.

• Sometimes the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is used to describe the coming of the Spirit into the life of the believer.

• We need to discover exactly what this means in the New Testament and how it is related to the “filling” of the Spirit.”

• Some of the deepest misunderstandings in the church today come about because of confusion over the “baptism of the Spirit,” the “filling of the Holy Spirit,” and the “gifts of the Spirit.”

• The writings of Paul, in particular, emphasize the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church and in the lives of the individual members.

• While these spiritual gifts undoubtedly bring joy and fulfillment to the individual believer, Paul stressed their role in building up and strengthening the church.

• They are not private gifts in which the Christian may glory; rather, they are God’s gift to the church, for His glory.

• Much of the confusion and conflict in the church today over the gifts of the Spirit would be corrected if this primary emphasis of Paul were remembered. 

• They are corporate gifts, given for the edification and blessing of the whole church, not for private enjoyment.

• The Spirit is the “earnest and seal” of our final redemption at the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the body.

• The presence of the Spirit in the life of the Christian is already a foretaste of the life to come; at the same time, this gives the seal and assurance the believer needs until faith becomes sight.

• This is another great emphasis of the apostle Paul, and it has brought strength and blessing to the suffering Christians down through the centuries.

• By the eyes of the Spirit, they have already been able to see the end of the journey.

• Christians know that the suffering of this present time is not even to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed when Jesus comes.

VII. The Spirit of Christ

• Some misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit has come about through the effort to distinguish between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, making two different spirits in the being of God.

• The unity of God is the absolutely fundamental doctrine of the being of God, and all such efforts to separate God into different beings, even spiritual beings, would result in the destruction of the most precious doctrine of all: “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

• This unity makes impossible some of the doctrines proclaimed today which sharply separate Christ from the Spirit.

• For instance, in 2 Corinthians 3:17, we find, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

• Some teach that one may have Christ, or be saved by Christ, but not have the Holy Spirit until later, or not at all.

• The Scriptures simply do not allow the splitting of the being of God in this fashion.

• The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in the work of regeneration and redemption because all are one.

• There is no activity of any of the persons of the Trinity which is in isolation from the others.

• Otherwise, the unity of God would be destroyed.

VIII. The Regenerating Spirit

• Just as the Spirit of God was active in the creation of the world, so He is active in the new creation, the regeneration of the individual believer.

• Every born-again believer knows that it takes a miracle of God to transform life and make a new creature.

• No amount of human effort can accomplish this, and no adequate explanation can leave out the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

• For this reason, any proper understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit compels us to acknowledge the reality of miracle.

• Only a power above and beyond us can account for the creation of the whole universe, and only such a supernatural power can sustain the whole creation at any moment.

• In a parallel way, only the superhuman power of the Holy Spirit can recreate the human life and make it over again in the renewed image of God.

• Some people fail to see the miraculous nature of the new birth and concentrate instead on miracles of physical healing or material blessing.

• These miracles may be more visible to those who are only spectators, but the genuine believer knows that there is no greater miracle than the new birth.

IX. The Empowering Spirit

• Just as Jesus was begotten by the Holy Spirit and then later was anointed by the Holy Spirit for His mission as Messiah, so those believers who are born again by the Holy Spirit must be continually filled and empowered by the Spirit for their lives of service in the world.

• The baptism of the Holy Spirit is always closely connected with the beginning of the Christian journey, with regeneration and water baptism.

• It is a once-for-all experience, never repeated in the life of the believer.

• On the other hand, the “filling” of the Holy Spirit or the anointing of the Spirit may be often repeated and may even enable the Christian to perform a particular task for the Lord.

• There has been so much conflict over the doctrines of the baptism of the Spirit, over the claims of the second blessing of “work of grace,’ and over the gift of tongues as a sign of this spiritual baptism that some have turned away entirely from any serious study of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their Christian lives.

• That reaction is tragic.

• The conflict calls for more careful study of the biblical teachings and more experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

• The best way to clear up the confusion is through an intensive study that will lead us to a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Nehemiah 8:10

Esther 9:22

Isaiah 51:11

Psalm 33:1

Psalm 37:4-5

Psalm 51:10-12

Psalm 66:1-2

Psalm 84:2

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Philippians 2:2

Matthew 5:16

Romans 8:28

Mark 11:20-22

Matthew 7:21

Hebrews 11:1

Matthew 7:20

Galatians 5:22

First Sunday: A Child Will Be Born to Us ​(Isaiah 9:2-6)

Monday: The Creator of Man—Genesis 1:26-31

Tuesday: The Fall of Man—Genesis 3:1-24

Wednesday: Promise of Redemption—Genesis 3:15

Thursday: A Prophet Will Come—Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Friday: A Virgin with Child—Isaiah 7:10-14

Saturday: A Righteous Judge—Isaiah 11:1-5

Second Sunday: The Birth of Christ​​(Matthew 1:18-25)

Monday: A Savior and Deliverer—Isaiah 19:19-25

Tuesday: The Sovereign Lord Comes—Isaiah 40:9-11

Wednesday: Behold My Chosen One—Isaiah 42:1-4

Thursday: A Servant Brings Salvation—Isaiah 49:1-7

Friday: A Man of Sorrows—Isaiah 53:1-12

Saturday: God’s Spirit Is Upon Him—Isaiah 61:1-3

Third Sunday: The Shepherds and the Angels​​(Luke 2:8-20)

Monday: A Righteous Branch—Jeremiah 23:5-6

Tuesday: A Ruler Over Israel—Micah 5:2

Wednesday: Your King Is Coming—Zechariah 9:9-10

Thursday: The Messenger Is Sent—Malachi 3:1

Friday: The Birth of John Is Foretold—Luke 1:1-25

Saturday: The Announcement to Mary—Luke 1:26-38

Fourth Sunday: The Visit of the Magi​​(Matthew 2:1-12)

Monday: Elizabeth and Mary—Luke 1:39-56

Tuesday: The Birth of Jesus—Luke 2:1-20

Wednesday: Presentation in the Temple—Luke 2:21-38

Thursday: The Pre-Eminent Christ—Colossians 1:15-23

Friday: Worthy Is the Lamb—Revelation 5:1-14

Saturday: The New Heaven and New Earth—Revelation 21:1-7

Christmas Eve: Celebrating the Visit of Christ​​Luke 1:67-69

Meditation Questions:

(1) How do you feel knowing that Christ is looking intensely at His world, His Church, and His people?

(2) What do you think about when you consider the Second Coming of Jesus?

Matthew 2:1-12

Introduction

• As we learn how the wise men worship the Lord 2000 years ago, they reveal certain characteristics of worship that should also be true in our own worship today.

• Their worship was intentional.

• These men came to Jerusalem for the sole purpose of worship.

• Worship was why they left their homeland.

• Worship was why they brought their treasure.

• Worship was why they journeyed.

• Worship was at the heart of everything we see them do in this passage.

• “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?…for we have come to worship him.”

• We should always come to His house with worship as our goal.

• We should approach Him in prayer with worship on our hearts.

• We should open His Word seeking Him in a spirit of worship.

• Worship should not be something that “just happens.”

• It should be something we set our hearts on.

• It should be something we seek.

• We ought not sing just because the congregation is singing!

• We ought not bow in prayer just because it is time to pray.

• We ought not open our Bibles just because it is time for the sermon.

• We should determine in our hearts that every song, every prayer, every sermon, every deed, every day, and every breath will be an act of worship designed to glorify our Heavenly Father.

• Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).

• I do not know what the Lord has done for you, but I know what He has done for me!

• I know about the day He saved me.

• I know about the times He has moved my mountains.

• I know about His grace, His mercy and His glory.

• I know these things, and the least I can do is worship Him for them!

• Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

• The Bible calls upon us to “shout” unto Him in praise; to “clap” our hands to call attention to Him.

• Psalm 47:1 says, “Clap your hands, all younations; shout to God with cries of joy.”

• Psalm 98:4 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music.”

• When these Magi came to worship, they did not worship on the cheap.

• Their worship cost them something.

• The wise men gave to Jesus in three important ways.

• They gave of their TIME, their TREASURE, and their TRUST.

I. They Gave Their Time

• We are told that the wise men came “from the east.”

• We are not told exactly where they came from, but nearly all scholars are in agreement that it was most likely that they came from Mesopotamia.

• If that is true, then these men traveled several hundred miles to get from their homes to worship Jesus.

• It would have been a tedious journey that would have taken several months to complete.

• It would have required great expense and much time away from home and family.

• It would have been a journey fraught with danger and trouble.

• Yet, they made the trip and paid the price because they deemed Jesus worthy of worship.

• Worship will still cost you time today!

• Most of us can be at church in less than 30 minutes.

• It is not a long journey for us to come this way.

• Real worship is an investment in time every day you live.

• It takes time to pray and seek the Lord’s face.

• It takes time to deal with sin in your life.

• It takes time to prepare the heart for worship.

• You can’t live out in the world all week and walk into church ready to meet Him in worship.

• There must be some time spent preparing the soul.

• There must be time spent in repentance of sin; in feeding the soul on the Word of God; and in private worship.

• When you see people who truly worship in public, you are seeing people who have already spent time worshiping in private.

• Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

II. They Gave Their Treasure

• These men came before the Lord and they gave gifts to Him.

• They gave Him “gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

• The gold presents Jesus as our Potentate.

• The frankincense presents Jesus as our Priest.

• The myrrh presents Jesus as our Propitiation.

• All three were costly gifts that did not come cheap, yet they gave them to Jesus, who was just a small child, and they gave them to Him with no strings attached!

• They walked into that house and they “opened their treasures” and “they presented unto Him gifts.”

• They carried those gifts hundreds of miles, and they willingly gave them away because they wanted to honor Him in worship.

• That should speak to us today!

• We ought to look at our giving as worship.

• If you can’t give your tithes and offerings to Him with gladness, you would be better off keeping them for yourself.

• 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

• If you can’t give to Him with no strings attached, you really haven’t given Him anything.

• It is a privilege to give to the Lord!

• The only reason we should give is because He has first given to me!

• Everything we have is the gift of the Lord!

• Listen to the words of James 1:16-17, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

• Let’s determine in our hearts that we will not be cheap in our giving to the Lord.

• He has always been extravagant in His giving to us.

• We ought to be just as extravagant in our giving to Him!

• You will never beat God in giving!

• Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

• In Matthew 6:20-21, we find these words of Jesus, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

III. They Gave Their Trust

• While these men gave financially, the greatest treasure they gave to God that day was their trust.

• These men were no ordinary men.

• Our text calls these men “wise men.”

• Some versions translate it, “magi.”

• The Magi were men skilled in philosophy, medicine, religion, and natural science.

• We have been taught that there were three of them and they came alone.

• We probably made this assumption because there were three gifts but the Bible does not say that there were only three men.

• All the evidence seems to suggest that these men represented a priestly class that held significant power in the area around ancient Babylon.

• More likely, there was a large group and they were probably accompanied by guards to protest the treasure on the journey.

• These wise, educated, sophisticated men laid aside all pretense and pride and they gave their adoration and worship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

• They “bowed down” before a little boy and they honored Him as their King!

• Then God warned the Magi in a dream that they were in danger from King Herod, and they were to return to their homeland by a different route.

• They heeded the message of the Lord and went a different way.

• God has promised us in His Word that if we would just put our trust in Him, He will lead and guide us until we reach that Heavenly home.

• Our duty, therefore, is to listen for His voice and then respond in obedience when He reveals His will unto us.

• There are many who run to and fro looking for the answers to life’s questions.

• But God has already given us His perfect revelation and our job is to read it and follow it to the letter.

• Wise men still today listen for a Word from the Lord!

• When “returned to their country by another route,” this showed us that those who put their trust in Jesus are always changed.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!”

• That is the power of His grace; that is the power of His salvation.

• If you place your trust in Jesus today, He will save your soul, change your direction and you will be a new creation.

• Everything will change because of Christ!

• Amen!

Luke 2:8-20

Introduction

• Many of us have had more Christmases than we care to remember!

• Some of us dread this season of the year because of the superficial spirit brought on by the build up of publicity to enter into the spirit of the festive season.

• The business world, it has to be said, with an eye on the cash till, seizes upon the idea of goodwill and generosity to encourage us to give presents and to celebrate with rich living.

• Let us be reminded of a famous quote, “There are three stages in a person’s life. First, he believes in Santa Claus. Second, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. Third, he is Santa Claus.

• In a business magazine I read, there was an article about a company, imaginary I hope, that was planning its Christmas sales campaign. The board of directors was puzzled how they could beat their competitors, then suddenly the chairman had an idea. “We’ll have a crib,” he said, getting very excited. “We’ll have the most expensive manger in the world. We’re about to put Christmas back into Christmas!” From then on there was no stopping them. They decided on a slogan lifted from the New Testament, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” That chairman told his sales staff, “We’ll have to emphasize the variety of gifts available. See to it that the Oriental Kings are handing a proper assortment of presents to the Holy Infant.” And he went through the great catalogue of the goods they sold. The sales staff arranged their goods in a great pyramid, topped with a stable with the animals, and Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus giving their blessing to all the merchandise. When the chairman saw it, he was delighted as he thought of all the money they would make. And then he began to scowl. He called his manager, “What’s that thing on top?” “It’s the manger, sir.” “We don’t sell mangers, do we?” “Well, throw it out!” he shouted. Only a parable, but all too close to the truth of what passes for Christmas.

• Celebrate Christmas by all means, says the world, but don’t bother too much whether Christ figures very much in it.

• It doesn’t say so in so many words, but that’s what happens in practice.

• Christmas with the most important element missing—Christ Himself!

• Have you ever eaten a delicious-looking pie only to be disappointed in the end?

• That is what Christmas is without Christ!

• Absolutely empty of meaning!

• If we are to celebrate Christmas properly, we need to set aside for a moment the traditions and rituals that for so many hide its true significance.

• We must return to first principles—to the Christmas story itself.

• It’s here that we will discover the real meaning of Christmas.

• Luke tells us of:

I. The Word of the Angel

• God’s moment had arrived.

• The sure word of prophecy unfolded over the centuries by the Hebrew prophets had to be fulfilled—and it was.

• The angel announced to the terrified shepherds, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

• He was born in Bethlehem because he was of David’s royal line.

• And yet in David’s city, the heir of the House of David found no room, even in the inn.

• So, the baby was born in a place where cattle were kept.

• The angel gave the shepherds a clue as to the type of building to look for.

• He said the Christ child would be found in a manger—a humble feeding trough pressed into service as our Lord’s cradle.

• How wonderful that our Savior should begin His earthly life in this way.

• The birth of a baby in a stable was unusual, but no doubt it had happened before and will happen again among the extremely poor and underprivileged.

• There are millions even today who are living in refugee camps and in shantytowns surrounding the world’s big cities.

• The wonder in the situation arises when we consider who the baby was.

• This was the Lord of Glory!

• This wasn’t the beginning of His life.

• He had lived from all eternity in heaven.

• His hands made the universe.

• All glory was His by virtue of who He was as the Second Person of the Trinity.

• We must remember this if we want to understand how great was his condescension.

• Centuries ago, King Henry VIII on occasionwould leave his royal court and disguise himself as a lowly peasant and go about his people to find out for himself the real state of England.

• Yet, in doing so, he never for a moment ceased to be the all-powerful king whose word was law.

• So, it was with Christ.

• Although temporarily reduced to poverty, he was still a King!

• The Word of the Angel links Christ’s birth with His lordship, “born to you…Christ the Lord.”

• Although His glory was partly veiled by human flesh, He never ceased to be the Son of God.

• He veiled His power, and became a helpless infant, unable to walk, to think, to speak, being absolutely dependent on His earthly parents.

• He veiled His knowledge and learned as all children do.

• He laid aside His sovereignty, His majesty.

• What condescension!

• God considered our needs and the worth of our relationship of Him to be sufficient cause to go through the trauma of changing places.

• Listen to the words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

• It was for our sake, that He might be our Savior.

• The angel was justified in saying to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10).

• This was the best news that the world had ever received!

• The shepherds may have been startled by the drama and awe-stricken by the spectacle before them, but they had no need to be afraid.

• The Gospel is always good news to the humble in heart as were the shepherds.

• It’s only the proud and arrogant who refuse to accept the Word of God, who need to fear the wrath of God!

II. The Worship of the Heavenly Host

• Luke tells us that hardly had the angel finished speaking, God’s herald was joined by a crowd of heaven’s host.

• Picture the scene: the night sky suddenly lit by an army of heaven.

• What a sight!

• And what a song!

• “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).

• Here we have a declaration of what the coming of Christ means to both God and mankind.

• God in heaven would be glorified, as He would be revealed as a God of love.

• Before the coming of Jesus, men’s knowledge of God was imperfect.

• God had spoken through the prophets as his intermediaries but the writer of the letter to the Hebrews states that “he spoke to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:2).

• Jesus could tell His disciples, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

• And then there is the effect upon Earth of His coming.

• The angel’s song went on, “and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14b).

• So, why isn’t there peace on Earth?

• It’s because this peace comes only to those in whom He is well pleased.

• It’s faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord that is the key.

• That’s the only condition that God makes in offering His peace on Earth.

• It’s an offer that is still open but, sadly, the apostle Paul writes, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

• The worship of the angelic choir was especially appropriate to the occasion.

• Jesus had come to the world without pomp and circumstance.

• There were no fanfares of trumpets.

• No crowds waiting for news outside the palace gates for a bulletin.

• On the contrary, His birth went by quite unnoticed by the general public.

• There was a local tradition for musicians to gather at the home when a child was born to welcome the infant with simple music.

• This pleasant welcome wouldn’t have happened for the birth of Jesus, as Mary and Joseph were only travelers.

• But what a lovely thought that the heavenly choir took the place of the missing earthly singers.

• Strangely enough, it’s the worship of human lips that gives our Lord the greatest pleasure.

• Let us not fail in this duty!

• The nativity story began with the Word of the Angel and led to the Worship of the Heavenly Host.

• It was followed by the:

III. Witness of the Shepherds

• It’s quite in keeping with God’s way of doing things that the first public announcement of the birth of Jesus should come to the shepherds.

• God often chooses those who are lowly esteemed by worldly standards to be a means of blessing.

• The great and the good of that time despised the shepherds.

• Their daily occupation in the fields left them unable to keep the detail of the ceremonial law and so the religious classes looked down on them as very common people.

• But God by-passed these pharisees, giving the shepherds the honor of being first to hear of the Messiah’s coming.

• The shepherds lost no time in making their way to Bethlehem.

• It must have been the most unforgettable moment of their lives.

• It was something that they couldn’t keep to themselves.

• At the end of Luke’s story, there is a significant phrase, “The shepherds returned” (Luke 2:20).

• Where did they return?

• To their work, to be sure, as the faithful shepherds they had been before.

• But there was an added element to their lives.

• They “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20).

• They had seen the Messiah!

• They were eyewitnesses of the coming of the Lord and they couldn’t keep it to themselves.

• We are told that the shepherds “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child” (Luke 2:17).

• If we are Christians, we have come into a living relationship with Jesus and it’s our duty to share the good news to a world still in darkness.

• The Christmas story began with the Word of the Angel, which enlarged into the Worship of the Heavenly Host, then focused on the Witness of the Shepherds.

• It ends with:

IV. The Wonder of Mary

• What happened on that night of nights made a profound impression on the young mother.

• Luke makes that comment “And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:18,19).

• And well she may.

• The Christmas story is the most wonderful story ever told.

• Because of this, we have heard it repeated over and over again.

• But here is a danger.

• It is possible that in the familiarity our sense of wonder is dulled.

• The stupendous fact is that we have the wonder of the universe.

• Charles Wesley’s hymn tells us that in the Incarnation we see, “Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man!”

• The philosopher Pascal wrote, “Say what you will, there is something in the Christian religion that is astonishing.”

• This is what we are celebrating this Christmas time.

• Let’s be like Mary and recall that sense of wonder, the uniqueness of the Nativity.

Conclusion

• When you come to think of it, it is really incredible that the baby lying in the manger was God Himself—God in human form, the God who made the universe.

• Dorothy Sayers expressed it this way: “What happened at Bethlehem as nothing less than the personal interruption of God into human history.”

• Or, to put it in Bible language, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

• God and man were united in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• The babe in the manger isn’t only Mary’s child, He’s God’s Son.

• Bethlehem is the meeting point of Heaven and Earth, of eternity and time, of deity and humanity.

• Make this Christmas indeed one to remember!

Luke 1:5-25

INTRODUCTION

• Do you ever get tired of the repetition that happens at Christmas?

• Does it ever seem to you to be the “same old’, same old’”?

• Does it seem to you that we always do the same things every year… the same traditions…the same songs…the same long waits in line…the same wrapping paper and bows that were saved from the year before…the same fattening snacks and cookies?

• It was a few days before Christmas on the Oregon coast. Two men whose families lived next door opted to go sailing while their wives went Christmas shopping. An unexpected storm surprised the weekend sailors. Before long, the sea became angry, and the two had a difficult time keeping the sailboat under control. While heading toward the harbor, the craft hit a sandbar and grounded. Both men jumped overboard into the icy water and began to push and shove in an attempt to get the sailboat into deeper water. Knee-deep in mud and repeatedly bounced against the hull by the unfriendly waves, the one said enthusiastically to the other, “Sure beats Christmas shopping, doesn’t it?”

• For some, Christmas is a time of disappointment.

• There are many that have a real difficult time this time of the year.

• And it is more than an issue of repetition.

• It becomes a time of pain and heaviness.

• Using Luke chapter one, let’s examine five stages in the story of Zechariah that describe how he went from disappointment to merriment.

I. The first stage is the SETTING (vv.5-7)

• Zechariah and Elizabeth knew disappointment.

• Both knew the pain of infertility.

• Here was a couple that was well beyond the normal years of child bearing.

• For years, they heard all of the advice that couples trying to conceive heard.

• The text reveals the fact that both Zechariah were upright in God’s eyes.

• You see, the infertility is not the end of the story.

• For God delights in working through people who listen and seek to follow Him.

• This leads to…

II. The second stage is the SELECTION (vv.8-10)

• Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

• And when the time for the burning of the incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

• Zechariah was one of about 20,000 priests of Israel.

• He served at the temple at Jerusalem for two one-week periods each year.

• Now…when it came to offering the incense at the daily sacrifice, a priest could only do this once in his lifetime.

• It was an honored ministry, for the priest stood in the Holy Place alone.

• As the worshippers prayed outside, the priest offered the incense inside, symbolically offering the prayers of the people to God.

• This was a task of prestige because there were some that would never have the opportunity to enjoy this privilege.

• On this day, it finally happens to Zechariah.

• The lot has finally fallen on him.

• But it is a whole lot more than coincidence.

• This brings us to…

III. The third stage is the SCOOP (vv.11-17)

• It is at this point that Zechariah’s life takes on new meaning.

• God was preparing a surprise for Zechariah and Elizabeth.

• The timing of the surprise was God’s timing.

• Can you imagine this scene for Zechariah?

• He gets all the proper priestly garb on.

• He works to remember all the steps he must follow.

• He is probably a bit nervous.

• And being a faithful man, he was very much humbled by the whole process.

• Just as he is in the routine, there is an angel who must have startled the daylights out of him, for the angel says, “Don’t be afraid!”

• You know why he says that?

• He says it because Zechariah was really scared.

• This is not what he expected to face when he entered.

• And then, the angel gives the gracious part of this message, “Your prayer has been heard.”

• There is going to be child after all!

• Yes, it had looked hopeless, but this is the very thing that God specializes in.

• Zechariah and Elizabeth would have a son.

• And he was to name him John.

• John was the shorter form of the Hebrew name, Jochanan.

• Jochanan means, “God is gracious.”

• It was a name full of meaning, for God was not only being gracious to Zechariah and Elizabeth, God was being gracious to all the people of the world.

• For this son, John, was going to be a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah.

• He was going to prepare the way for the Messiah.

• For Zechariah, this was the dawn of a new day.

• For 400 years God had been silent, and on this day, he is the first to hear from God.

• But now comes…

IV. The fourth stage is the SKEPTICISM (v.18)

• Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

• This is probably not the smartest thing that Zechariah has ever said.

• He is experiencing the supernatural, but he is stuck in the natural.

• Zechariah is really saying, “You can’t really be serious.”

• We would be thinking, “I really know biology and this makes no sense to me what so ever.”

• Remember this…Zechariah has been faithful.

• And faithful people sometimes make mistakes!

• But for Zechariah, there is more learning that must be done.

• For God teaches us that He often wants us to believe in order to see.

• Which leads us to…

V. The fifth stage is the SENTENCE (vv.19-25)

• Zechariah hears the sentence for his unbelief.

• He will be silent until this day happens.

• Meanwhile, the people are waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.

• When he came out, he could not speak to them.

• They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

• When his time of service was completed, he returned home.

• After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

• “The Lord has done this for me,” she said.

• “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

• Even though Zechariah is silent, there is a sparkle in his eyes because the Lord has been gracious to both of them.

APPLICATION

• God desires to touch us.

• God wants to make an appointment with you about your disappointment.

• Whatever your heartache, God knows you and cares for you.

• God breathes hope into the stale air of impossible solutions.

• Let God touch you today…realize that God calls you for something very special; He calls you to meet Him.

• Let God touch you today…the Master’s hand wants to touch you because you are a soul of worth and the change is worth the cost.

• Let God touch you today…so that you can leave in speechless wonder and find contentment in knowing that the Lord is near.