Church Without Walls VI
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
 19 May 2002

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Today is Pentecost - the Day of the Spirit. It’s the day on which we remember how God kept His ancient promise and poured out the gift of His Spirit on His people. It’s often thought of and described as the birthday of the Church.

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

But who IS the Holy Spirit? And where does the Holy Spirit belong in all I’ve been saying and all we’ve been thinking about together in connection with the ‘Church without Walls’ Report? In the Church the Holy Spirit hasn’t always had a “good press” and attitudes towards him ( I use the pronoun deliberately because in the Bible the Holy Spirit is personal, not abstract) - in the church attitudes towards him have differed.

i) A VAGUE INFLUENCE?
On the one hand, the church has always had a good many professing members who know about as much about the Holy Spirit in their experience as the disciples at Ephesus who were asked by Paul “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” and who replied “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Of course the folk at Ephesus must have heard something about the Holy Spirit if they’d listened with any attention at all to John the Baptist with whom they’d had links and been baptised, but they didn’t realise that the promised Spirit was available for them, that the promised Spirit was relevant for them, that the promises Spirit could make a difference to their lives!

“Many church members today are in the same state. They've heard in a vague way about the Holy Spirit, but they’ve either put it all down to typical ecclesiastical in-talk or assumed that, whatever it was, it wasn’t intended for ordinary folk like themselves.”

For all intents and purposes the Holy Spirit can be discounted. Christianity is a matter of church-going, of soldiering on and trying to do one’s best, of believing in the existence of God - and Jesus, of course - and trying to live up to His teachings.

ii) A DIVINE “BACKER”
On the other hand, there have always been people in the Christian Church who have been very sure of the Holy Spirit. It’s simple. He is the divine “backer” of their particular emphasis in theology and practice.

the divine backer of our particular emphasis?


In some church traditions the Holy Spirit has been tamed, domesticated and has become, in certain people’s minds, the perquisite of the church at the beck and call of baptising priest or ordaining Bishop. In the Catholic Church there is one tendency - the tendency to confine the Holy Spirit’s operations to a particular tradition or formula of words. In the Protestant Church there has been a different but equally dangerous tendency - the tendency to pay the Holy Spirit lip-service but, for all practical purposes, to shut him up within the pages of the Bible or the pages of the past!!

“It’s the safest place for him” some may say - “in the history of the churches past, not in the hurly burly of real life today.”

THE CENTRAL ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

It is essential, as we explore the issues raised by the ‘Church without Walls’ Report and consider a change of ‘mindset’ and new ways of BEING church and DOING church, that we see how central the person and operations - the help - of the Holy Spirit is to the process!

When Jesus said “without me you can do nothing” to His disciples, it wasn’t his physical or bodily presence He was speaking about. It was His Spirit. “I am with you” he told, them, and then, referring to Pentecost and the gift of His Spirit, “I will be in you....”

When Jesus left the disciples He HAD to leave them - it was to their great and enduring advantage for Him to leave them because He wasn’t leaving them to abandon them but to be with them in a new way!!

He knew that a church without HIS PRESENCE would be no church at all. And so he promised them His Spirit and told them “without me you can do nothing.”

It is the Holy Spirit alone that can raise the dead, that can bring dry bones to life; that can renew health and strength...

The ailing patient, which is the Church of Scotland, is suffering from a kind spiritual anaemia. It needs a fresh infusion of the Spirit,

the holy spirit can renew health and strength



All the plans and proposals, all the words and talk, all the debates and discussion, all the conferences and consultations, all the deliverances and decision, all the changes in the world, will mean nothing and are certain to come to nothing apart from the Spirit’s assuring, directing, transforming and empowering.

No-one can say this too strongly or too often - the whole Church without Walls process, nationally as well as locally, will achieve nothing unless its is God’s voice we hear; nothing will make much difference unless it’s the Spirit’s prompting we are ready to respond to and His leading that we are ready to follow!!

It is the breath of the Spirit - and the Spirit alone - who can raise the dead, who can bring dry bones to life;who can renew health and strength...

Jesus didn’t say “Without me (my Spirit’s help) you can do less” or “Without my Spirit’s help you can do little.” He didn’t even actually say “Without me you can do nothing!” It’s more forceful than that!! He said “Without me you can do nothing at all - nothing whatsoever!!”

Today I want you to see how the Holy Spirit’s operations - His presence and activity - is central to the whole process of the church’s reform and renewal..

THE QUESTION OF CHANGE

Take the question of CHANGE.

The ‘Church without Walls’ Report unambiguously summons the church to CHANGE. It demands a new mindset across the church. It pleads for radical changes in the way the church operates, in the way that it practices and communicates its faith. It holds out the prospect of a very different kind of church.

A church adhering to the same truth, proclaiming the same Gospel, living by the same kingdom values - YES! - but doing so in new places and in new ways.

Now, though the report describes its call to change “not as a threat but an invitation,” it also wisely acknowledges that change “creates insecurity and fear.”

A VISIT TO THE DENTIST
I remember once, as a student and a young Christian, going to the Dental School with toothache (I won’t say which one because the story reflects no credit upon it!) One of the students - perhaps I was his first patent I don’t honestly know - examined the offending tooth and decided to remove it. Now I had always been rather frightened of the dentist as a child and knowing that the young man doing the job was just training, not yet qualified, didn’t allay my fears.

He started on the extraction, but instead of wrenching the tooth out managed instead to break it into pieces, embedding splinters deep into what was by then a very bloody gum!! He abandoned me and went for help!!

My insecurity and fear were betrayed by the white knuckled hands clenching the arms of dentist’s chair! It was then that recalling the promise of God “Do not be afraid, I am with you..” I decided to experiment by releasing my insecurity and fear to him - letting God’s Spirit keep me calm.By the time the student returned with his supervisor all the tenseness and anxiety had gone. I was relaxed and unafraid

It is one thing to talk about CHANGE but change is never easy - especially when it may mean choosing to leave behind what’s familiar and precious. Can we do it? Yes!! How can we do it?? By letting the Holy Spirit - who symbol is the dove - the spirit of calmness - His Peace - dwell in us and reign.

When God called Abraham to travel from the familiar territory of his homeland in UR to the unfamiliar territory of a land not known, Abraham didn’t go alone - God was with him on the journey

That’s the question of CHANGE

WHERE ARE WE GOING?


Take next the question of WHERE WE GO. Just as God guided Abraham, so God will surely guide us. And, again, His Spirit is the key!!

Just as God’s Holy Spirit can provide assurance to dispel our fears during the Church without Walls process, so God’s Holy Spirit can provide wisdom to direct our ignorance. The ‘Church without Walls’ Report calls upon us to explore new ways of being the church. It sets before the church thee need, locally and nationally, “to begin again building the church from the ground up.”

What that will mean for us is something we don’t really know yet. It’s something need to discover!! Many of us will have more questions than answers - but that it’s necessary - that change must come- we know.

So where do we begin?

Its easier to begin with our situation than to begin with our theology - but the theology of the Holy Spirit’s a very good place to start.

When Jesus was speaking to the disciples before His departure about the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, He said two things (John 16:13) that are very important in relation to where we’re going in the ‘Church without Walls’ process and what it will mean:
“ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,” Jesus told the disciples, “he will guide you into all truth.”

Now Jesus was speaking about more than propositional truth. He was talking about what’s right, what’s best!! On our own we might take the wrong direction - but His Spirit can point us in the right direction.

“He will guide you into all truth” Jesus said, and “he will tell you what is to come.”


Perhaps if there is one verse from scripture which I would choose to set over the whole ‘Church without Walls’ process as it will take place in our congregation during the next year or two it would be these words - pointing us beyond ourselves and our situation to God, and reminding us that we are neither abandoned nor alone, these words, referring to the Holy Spirit:

“he will tell you what is to come.”
John 16:13 NIV


We need the Holy Spirit to show us that church as it is and the church as it should be from God’s side of reality. It’s true here, as in all endeavour, that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.” We need heaven’s direction!! But how?

“he will tell you what is to come.”


Not by some sudden and dramatic illumination that comes unbidden (though God’s power to speak in such ways is undoubted) but by the four ways the Spirit speaks:

* first, through circumstances. The present shortage of candidates for the ministry, for example,
is recalling the church to “ministry” not as the task of the one - THE minister - but as the calling of
ALL believers. Through circumstances.

* second, through other Christians. It is through a humble and open exploration together, in which
we listen to one another, learn from one another and test ideas, that the mind of the Spirit will
gradually emerge.

* third, through Scripture. Not through wrenching texts from their context or a “proof text”
approach but by “letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16) .Because as one
writer vividly puts it:“an increasingly broad appreciation of Scripture will give us a developing
ability to scent the will of God in any given situation.”

* fourthly, through prayer. As we wait upon God - really wait and really pray, looking to Him in
faith, God will reveal His will. We may not have an intellectual certainty, but rather a growing sense
of the rightness, a deep inner peace about what is proposed.

THE QUESTION OF RENEWAL

Take, third, the matter of being a NEW PEOPLE and a NEW CHURCH in the 21st Century. It is not through changes in attitude, structure or method that the church will be renewed, but by the Living God alone. It is not through human effort or the world’s strength that the church will be renewed but by the enabling and empowering Spirit at work.

This means opening the door to Him in our lives in the Church in a way that we perhaps need to learn again. It means acknowledging our own inabilities and disabilities and exchanging them for his super-ability!!


It means acknowledging our own inabilities and disabilities and exchanging them for his super-ability.


It means rediscovering the excitement and vibrancy and warmth of a strong spiritual pulse!! It means returning to our roots not just as a people of the Word (as reformed Protestants) but people of the Spirit (as new covenant Christians)!!

THE CHALLENGE OF CHRISTIAN MISSION


Take finally, the matter of Christian mission - of witness and evangelism, of sharing our faith. The ‘Church without Walls’ report calls the church to recover its nature as “disciples making disciples” - as a missionary organisation. It is not merely for its own survival that the church must be a missionary church - it is for the sake of obedience to Christ and for the glory of God.

But it’s the witness baptised by the Spirit that will work.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judaea and Samaria and to the end of the earth......” (Acts 1:8 NIV)

The enduement of Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, accompanied by supernatural signs, resulted in the communication of the Gospel and its spread to others!!

THE WAY LUKE PUT IT IS TANTALISINGLY PROVOCATIVE.

The hearers (on the day of Pentecost) asked: “How is it that each of us hears in his own language, Parthians, Medes Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia......”

(Acts 2:8 NIV)


On the day of Pentecost EACH heard in HIS OWN language!! In Luke's day it was the language of people groups and nations - in our day it is that languages of generations and cultures that are the barrier....

But the enduement of the Spirit is still the great requirement and openness to the Spirit the indispensable key....

Spirit of the Living God.
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God.
Fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me,
Mould me, fill me.
Spirit of the Living God.
Fall afresh on me.



(Note: The first section of this chapter is adapted from Ch.1 of Michael Green’s book “I believe in the Holy Spirit” and the preacher (writer) gladly acknowledges his indebtedness to this source.)

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