Vision 2020 – Follow the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12-13)

Vision 2020:
Follow the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 2:12-13

INTRODUCTION:
In November of 2007, Rachel, the girls, and I attended a missionary retreat in Rothenburg, Germany. It was our last Thanksgiving in Romania as missionaries and we decided we would spend the money and make the effort to attend this retreat. We drove across the country of Romania (where we met up with some Romanian Christians who were also going) and then into Hungary. We took the autobahn across Hungary, into Austria, and then into Germany.

We had an enjoyable 4 days there and then headed back home. We got off the autobahn onto a European highway in Budapest, Hungary. It was there that we got lost. We drove around in the city of Budapest for three hours! We stopped three times to ask for directions but either our Romanian brothers could not understand the Hungarian or the Hungarians did not know how to give directions.

Finally, at the last stop, a taxi driver overheard our Romanian brother asking for directions, and he told our driver if we would follow him, he would get us to the highway where we needed to be. We followed him and he lead us correctly and we finally arrived home, extremely late but safe.

If you and I are going to make it to heaven, we’ve got to have help. We must have directions. “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps,” the prophet Jeremiah tells his audience in Jeremiah 10:23.

On the first Sunday of each month in 2020, I am using “20/20” as a metaphor for perfect vision, or focus. Who are we as a church? Who are we as a body of believers, a body of Christians? Well, let’s make sure we are focused on what is important. Back in September, I gave you a definition of the Swartz Creek church of Christ that I wrote myself, but it was, of course, based on what Scriptures teach. The Swartz Creek church of Christ exists, by the blood of Jesus, to share the gospel with the lost, strengthen the weak, encourage the members, and worship God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the “gospel” that we will focus on this morning, or better said, the source of the gospel. In January, we talked about honoring God as a part of our focus. Last month, we discussed glorifying Jesus Christ as a part of our focus. Well, there are three members of the Godhead so we need to honor the Holy Spirit by following His lead. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to lead us to heaven. He is our guide.

When I express my love to Rachel or the girls, I do it by actions and by words. My “actions” might be hugs or holding hands or doing something special, unique, or above and beyond expectations. With my words, I show my love by expressing my love - “I love you” - or appreciation or complimenting them, etc.

When God expresses His love for us, He does so in the same way - through actions and words. His actions are the blessings He showers on us: from the rain and sunshine to the food on our table, the clothes we wear, our homes, etc. God shows us He loves us through His words in the form of the Bible, the Word of God, which we read and study often. But it is the role of the Holy Spirit to communicate God’s message to us through this printed word. That’s why we need to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and that’s the focus of this study this morning on “Vision 2020.”

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
The Spirit of God is first mentioned in the OT in Genesis 1:2, where Moses writes about the creation: “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” We do not know exactly what that means, what exactly the Holy Spirit was doing at the creation. But, the verb “moving over” suggests the idea of a bird hovering over its nest, which is how the verb is used later in the book of Deuteronomy. The picture we have, then, is the Holy Spirit beautifying the creation, setting the last pieces of creation into place, kind of an “interior designer” of creation.

Later, the Spirit will empower two Israelites to oversee the creation of the tent of worship in the days of Moses: Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 31:1-6.

Later, the Spirit will inspire certain men to help Moses judge the nation of Israel so that the nation can stay faithful to God (Num. 11:16-17).

Still later, the Spirit will give wisdom, strength, and battlefield prowess to certain of the judges so that they can lead God’s people to freedom from the nations around them who were trying to oppress them: Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, Deborah, and Samson.

Eventually, God would send the Holy Spirit on King Saul, who would refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit and on King David who would listen to the Holy Spirit. Because of that, God led David to share the words of the Holy Spirit, for example in the book of Psalms (2 Sam. 23:2).

Israel was having a hard time staying faithful to God because of the temptations of their culture. God sent prophets, waves of prophets to Israel over a period of hundreds of years. It was the role of the Spirit, through the prophets, to instruct Israel on how to live for God (Neh. 9:20). God was extremely patient with Israel as He admonished them by His Spirit in His prophets but the sad state of affairs was that Israel would not listen to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God had to give Israel into the hands of their enemies (Neh. 9:30).

In the middle of that punishment - 70 years exiled from their own homeland - Ezekiel the prophet promised Israel that one day, God would send His Spirit on them and they would receive a new heart. They would no longer have a heart of stone, a stubborn and rebellious heart, but a heart of flesh, a heart that was humble, submissive to the God of heaven, a heart that was eager to follow and serve God (Ezek. 36:26-27).

THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS US TO HEAVEN:
There are three points I want to make in this lesson: 1.) There is no way we can know what God wants out of us unless the Holy Spirit reveals it. 2.) That revelation is in the Bible; 3.) We must, must, follow the Bible, specifically the NT as it is the covenant of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit reveals God and His ways - In Luke 10:22, Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

The Son reveals the Father through the Holy Spirit who is sent from the Father. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26).

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).

Let us pay special attention to the words of Jesus in John 16:7-13: "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

So, it is the role of the Holy Spirit to reveal God and His ways…

The Holy Spirit’s revelation is the Bible. Let us look at two passages in this regard. First, 1 Corinthians 2:10-13…

Before we read the text, let me summarize a few thoughts from the first part of chapter two. Paul says that he did not preach in Corinth with “superiority of speech or of wisdom” (verse 1). He only taught “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (verse 2). From a physical perspective, Paul preached in weakness, fear, and trembling (verse 3).

But, Paul’s message was one of power since he combined his preaching with displays of miraculous power given by the Holy Spirit (verse 4). Remember our sermon last Sunday about Moses having the strength to serve God despite his humble attitude toward his own weaknesses? God wanted Israel’s faith to be in God’s power, not Moses’ power so God chose Moses to be the leader of Israel. In the same way, God chose Paul, who was not a powerful speaker, to share the gospel of Christ so that Christians’ faith would be in the power of God and not in man’s wisdom (verse 5).

In verse 6, Paul says that he did not teach with man’s wisdom but (verse 7), with God’s wisdom. The rulers of this world did not understand God’s wisdom (verse 8) - in fact, they still don’t understand God’s wisdom! So, how do we get “God’s wisdom”? That’s the text, beginning in verse 10:

“For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

Let me summarize what Paul has just said… God’s wisdom is revealed through the Spirit to the apostles. None of you know what goes on in my mind and in my spirit; only I do. I do not know what goes on in your mind and in your spirit. Only you do. In the same way, we do not know what goes on in God’s mind; only the Spirit does so He must reveal whatever it is God wants out of us. The Spirit has revealed God’s will to the apostles, notice verse 13, combining in those apostles “spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” Incidentally, we are going to begin a 6-month study of 1 Corinthians in our Wednesday night class, starting this Wednesday.

Let’s look at one more passage in this regard: Ephesians 3:1-6:

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

This is why Paul will say in Ephesians 6:17 that the sword of the Spirit, the tool, the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses is the word of God. If God shows His love to us through His actions especially in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, He shows His love through His words in the revelation of His will through the Holy Spirit in the apostles.

Finally, we must follow the Holy Spirit’s message in the NT. Let’s take a look at Romans 8, where Paul has the greatest concentration of references to the Holy Spirit in the NT. Let’s begin in 8:12-17:

“So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Paul makes a few points here relevant to our study. We can’t live “according to the flesh” and please God. We will die in our sins if we live “according to the flesh.” But, if we live “by the Spirit,” then we are killing the works of the flesh in our body and we will live. If we are being led by the Spirit of God, then we are children of God, we have been adopted into God’s family and we can call God “father,” if we are being led by the Spirit. As children of God, we are fellow-heirs with Jesus Christ of that beautiful estate where God lives, called heaven.

We must be led by the Spirit! In Ephesians 4:30, Paul tells Christians, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? By not living according to the Holy Spirit’s revelation. The Holy Spirit knows what is the mind of God. The Holy Spirit knows what it will take to get us to heaven. So, if we do not live according to His teachings, it grieves Him.

In the same way, in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonica: “Do not quench the Spirit.” If the Spirit is trying to communicate with our spirit through the message He sent the apostles, and then we refuse to allow His message to change our lives, then we are quenching the Spirit - refusing to let Him change our lives. We must follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.

John will emphasize this in the book of revelation when, at the end of all seven letters in Revelation 2-3, John says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.”

Family, I try my best to present the Spirit’s message to you every Sunday. If I don’t, I am not being faithful to the Holy Spirit. You should, if you have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit’s message, take me aside and say, “Hey, Paul, you are not understanding things properly.” Because we must be led by the Spirit if we have to be children of God!

Take home message: We can’t know the mind of God unless the Spirit reveals it. Let us focus on the Spirit’s message in the Gospel of Christ and follow His lead.