Tonkawa,
In John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you…”
After Jesus lived, died, and rose again, and ascended into Heaven, His story wasn’t over.
After He ascended, John 14:26 and the Nicene Creed tell us He did something else.What was it?
After Christ ascended, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. For some of us, that makes us queasy.
You might think the Spirit is the church’s crazy uncle.
We like Him, we think He’s sweet and has a good heart, but when company comes over, we “accidentally” lock him in the basement because we don’t want Him to scare our guests.
Or maybe to you He’s the church’s unimportant uncle.
He’s family but you met once 10 years ago at a reunion but you haven’t talked since.
Or maybe He’s the church’s dead uncle.
You look back fondly on your family history in Acts; what mover and shaker Uncle Holy was! But he’s been dead for a while now and all we have are pictures on the mantelpiece.
These are routes many have taken concerning the Spirit. But it’s not the route of God’s people. I
A critical part of the life of Jesus is that He sent the Spirit to us, and therefore we want Him at the dinner table, not in our basement; in our living room, not on the mantelpiece.
So to do that, for the next 5 weeks in this space we’ll look at the Spirit in Eternity, the Spirit in the Present, the Spirit in the Future, and what that means for everyone watching this today, believer and unbeliever. First, eternity.
The Bible opens with a declaration that the universe has a beginning and therefore necessarily the universe is dependent upon a creator.
Romans 11:36 says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
And who is that Creator that from and through and to all things are? God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To get specific in the creation narrative, it is the Spirit, the “breath” of God, that animates God’s creation.
Psalm 33:6-9 says,”By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host...9 For he spoke, and it ...