The Holy Spirit

Spirituality seems very popular today. Spirituality courses abound and there are a multitude of books on the spiritual life. Every group of Christians, and many that are not Christian, claim to be led by the Spirit. However, as the apostle John cautioned, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)

At the Last Supper, Jesus said to his disciples, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear." Just hours before Jesus' death, his disciples were in no fit state to take in everything he would want them to know - and, more importantly, someone essential had not yet arrived! Jesus continued, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth." The disciples would not have to rack their brains trying to remember what Jesus had taught them, God the Holy Spirit will lead them.

However, having listened to Jesus for three years, will they now be taught something different? No. Jesus explained that the Spirit "will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you." Just as the God the Son made God the Father known (John 1:18), so God the Holy Spirit is going to make God the Son known. "All that belongs to the Father is mine," Jesus declared. "That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." (John 16: 12-15)

There are some church leaders today who claim that the Spirit is leading the church in new ways - beyond the words of scripture, the message of Jesus and the preaching of the apostles. The role of the Holy Spirit, however, is to enliven God's word - not to add to it, change it or nullify it. Only then can the word of God be "living and active" (Hebrews 4:12) and accomplish its purpose in our lives, which is to bring us to repent of our sins and believe in God's Son.

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Rooted and built up in Christ

When I am listening to music, I like to play an album from beginning to end - not set it on "Shuffle." When I read a book, I like to read it cover to cover - not dip in and out. In both cases, I want to experience the work as the artist intended it to be experienced. For the same reason, I tend to preach sermons and lead Bible studies through whole books of the Bible. Each of these sixty-six books, whether long or short, was meant to be read from beginning to end.

After a marathon series of sermons on the Gospel of Matthew, I am now beginning a series on Paul's letter to the Colossians - a book which is less than one tenth the length of Matthew! But don't let its brevity fool you. Douglas J. Moo, a New Testament scholar (who has preached at St. Matthew's), begins his new commentary on the book with these words: "Paul's letter to the Colossians has had an impact on Christian theology and practice out of proportion to its size." These five short pages (in our pew Bibles) pack quite a punch.

Of Paul's thirteen letters, it is in Colossians that he tells us the most the about nature of Jesus Christ, who he really is. However, the apostle has not written all this potent theology to impress us, but to change us! Paul wants us to continue to live in Christ Jesus as Lord, to be "rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Colossians 2:7) Please read this marvelous letter in your Bible at home - and then come to church asking God to speak to us through it!

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What the Resurrection Means

On Easter Day we will celebrate a most remarkable event: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is such a startling miracle, we could be forgiven for simply marveling at it, thinking about it in amazement: a man who had died came back to life! But, as natural as those reactions are, we must move on and consider what Jesus' resurrection means - for him and for us.

The resurrection vindicated Jesus - it proved that he was who he said he was, and that he spoke and acted with God's authority. As the apostle Paul said, Jesus "was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1:4)

The resurrection also tells us that there will be a day of judgment, and that Jesus will be the judge. Again, as Paul says, God "commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17: 30-31)

The apostle Peter declared that the Jesus' resurrection is meant to lead us to repentance: "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead." (Acts 10: 39-42)

The wonderful Good News, Peter concludes, is that everyone who believes in Jesus "receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (Acts 10:43) When we repent, God forgives, and we are given new life in him. Then one day we, too, will experience a resurrection like his!

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