The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 31 Conclusion
Miles Driedger · Aug 14, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 74
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192837398

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so we're going to get through this lesson today. I wrote down a couple of thoughts, kind of recapping some of what we've been through. You said the indwelling, we were talking about the indwelling and the filling. So the indwelling is unique to the Church. Based on the study that I've done, it appears that prior to the Church, the Holy Spirit came upon people, and in certain cases almost constantly, as with David. However, the indwelling seems to be different and unique to the Church.

We also talked about the fact that the filling of the spirit has to do with the empowering of the individual for service. One of the really interesting things that was made more clear to me in this study is that, in some cases, the Holy Spirit may fill an individual to accomplish His will, apart from the conscious faith of that individual. And John the Baptist is, I think, a key example of that. From the womb, he was filled with the Spirit. For us, the body of Christ, this power of the Holy Spirit, I don't know if this is the best way to say it, but this power is constantly available to us. Through simple faith, His powerful working is carried out through us. So we had an interesting kind of illustration that I was going to share kind of in regard to that at Alyssa's expense a little bit.

But a couple of weeks ago, we were coming home and we noticed that the power line had been knocked down just outside of our property. There's only two houses on that road. And so we knew, well, we've got no power. So we got home and I have this little worksite generator. And our house happens to have a transfer switch, anyone who has a little bit of electrical background. So get the little gas generator running, plug it into the cable, and pull the transfer switch. And it's a 20-amp breaker, but we can keep the refrigerator running and the water pump going and that kind of a thing. And so it's fine.

And then we had to run to town to do some errands. And Alyssa got back home before me and she texted. She says, good news, the power's back on. And I had to chuckle to myself and I texted back and I said, that's great. I'll just have to switch over the transfer switch when I get home because the generator was still running. And I knew until I switched the transfer switch back to the main line, the house was still being powered off the generator. So, you know, she got home and, you know, the lights were working and so forth. But she didn't realize what the power source was.

She had seen that the lines had been repaired, you know, driving into the road and that kind of thing. But the source of the power was still a generator, you know, and this measly little generator that can, you know, keep the fridge going, but it's not It's not the source of power that we have through the main lines, right?

I mean, every analogy falls apart, but in some way it reminded me of what we talked a little bit in the last couple of weeks about the fact that there's a source of power to the unbeliever as well. We looked at that a little bit in Ephesians 2. Where the analogy falls apart is that the source of power, the alternative source of power, produces nothing but sin, right? Whereas the power available to us through the Holy Spirit produces His righteousness. But it's kind of like that transfer switch. We don't always know which power source we're operating from, you know. And that's something that he reveals to us, and we got to learn what the source is, right?

So, anyway, kind of a fun little story that happened to us. But we left off on the question, and I think we finished it up pretty well, but what was the most important aspect of Stephen's power? and said that it was by faith and that it wasn't his power, it was the power of the Holy Spirit. And because it was the Holy Spirit's power, we saw that really neat fact that the leaders were unable to cope with the wisdom. So, moving on then to question six, we said, is John the Baptist a member of the body of Christ? And explain. So, Anyone want to explain that? If you say yes or no, then you have to explain. Yeah, somebody should say yes or no and then explain. Anyone want to take a stab at that? I'll say no. All right.

So, John the Baptist is not a member of the body of Christ? No. Well, he might be. No, he couldn't be, because he died before Christ was crucified. Yeah. Right. Well, Rideout said, now we know he was not in the church, but the forerunner of the Lord. He was not sealed with the Spirit, nor baptized by the Spirit, but he was filled with the Spirit.

Filling has to do with power and service, and John was endowed for his service from earliest childhood. That's on page 149 of the printed book. If you turn to John 3, 28 to 30, that's where John explains himself. And I think it's kind of a neat little thing that he says. And he says, uh, you yourselves are my witnesses that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent ahead of him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. And, um, he doesn't associate himself with the bride. He calls himself the friend of the bridegroom. Mike, is there something you want to say?

Well, you know, it's one of those distinctions that at least reformed people don't recognize, you know, because I think it's because they don't understand exactly what, they don't understand even the minimal amount of identification truths. The thing is that what the Spirit does when a person, after Christ went to heaven and the Spirit came on Pentecost, after that point, when you were baptized by the Spirit, so many things happened that aren't evident, at least until you start studying Paul's epistles.

The most unique thing is that we were identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, but we were placed in Him. And once you're placed in Christ, then your positional identity is what His is. And so we're members of His body, of His life, we're united to Him. And John the Baptist Even the Lord Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest man that ever lived on the earth. But he wasn't in the body of Christ.

Here's an interesting thought on that, Mike. I'm glad you brought that up because it says Matthew 11, 11 and Luke 7, 28 parallels there. Jesus says, truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there's not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. What was really interesting in connection with that is in what we just read, John said, he must increase, but I must decrease. Right. And then Jesus comes along and says, there's no one greater. And I think about that a little bit in the fact that I think it's true for each of us. As we decrease, we increase. As I decrease, He increases. As I decrease, He increases. And that is where our strength is. That's where our power is. It's in Him.

Would you say that contemporary Christianity would say that if you could emulate John the Baptist, you would be a really holy person? A really good Christian maybe is the way to put it. Explain that a little bit. Like putting on camel skin and eating locusts? Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far. But if you were in a position where your life was demonstrable by the things you said and what you did. It would seem from a contemporary Christian viewpoint that you would certainly be a godly man. You would be everything contemporary Christianity would say it takes to be a Christian.

I think that this idea that I might decrease so that he may increase also goes along with the not I but Christ. And one of the things that contemporary Christianity does with those comments or those thoughts is they think the less of me there is, and the more of Christ there is, and a complete replacement kind of concept, the better the church would be, right?

Because it's not me that's doing anything, it's Christ that's doing everything. But there's a tendency to take that even to the next step of where the unique personal identity that the Lord gave each of us continues. And it's not that our unique personal identity decreases, it's that the life of Christ increases within who he created us to be individually.

And so, yes, there is a source, there's a power source, right? You talked about the source of trusting in the sin nature and that decreasing to trusting more in who you are in Christ and the source of the resurrected life. But we oftentimes think of doing things in order to show that the increase in the not-I's are evident in our lives, whereas the Lord is saying, it's not that I'm removing you from the scene, I'm growing you up in the scene. And that's a difference between replacing you and getting you out of the way. And I just think that those two, the not-I but Christ and the increase-decrease, gets lost in the fact that And I don't know that it relates directly to John the Baptist, but nonetheless, works can swiftly come in and you can start to check off boxes that look more like, not I, but Christ, or less of me and more of him. But the growth factor is really the key point there, is that he's growing you individually, uniquely up in the life of Christ, just like he's doing I think to add her to that and the confirmation of that is the body concept.

There's feet, legs, arms, not all the same. And if we're all just, I mean, yes, we're to manifest Christ, we're conformed to image, but I agree with you that It isn't. We're all Charlie Browns. We're all the same. We're John the Baptist or whatever. Everybody is different within the body. And each member is growing, like I said, but it's not that we have to be exactly the same. We're being used differently, too. You know, they're apostles, prophets, you know, they're all different. They're different, you know. Everybody's different. I like what you're saying. Each grows in Christ, individually.

Was that verse that you quoted where John the Baptist said I must decrease? If I have it correctly copied in my notes here, that's John 3 verse 30. So my question is, the believer would look at that, a growing believer, and say, would say the same thing, but I don't think they mean the same thing. Because John the Baptist, you know, has said, I must decrease so that he must increase. Is that the same thing as a believer or the Apostle Paul saying that? I think it's different.

You know, it wasn't that John the Baptist didn't have life from God in him, he did. But he didn't have He didn't have two natures, maybe is the way to say it. So the decrease of the believer has to do with the application of the cross to the old man. John the Baptist, maybe he referred more to his having to move off of the scene so Christ could fill the gap.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, as I was reading that, you know, I realized that that phrase comes in the context of his, you know, being the forerunner of Christ and that he was not to Christ and that he would kind of fade off the scene and Christ would come in. And yet, I kind of, yeah, I thought we can apply that line of thought as in the to ourselves, but in a different sense.

If that makes sense. Yeah, one of the translations says he must become greater and I must become less important. That's not the same thing as the cross being applied to my life as a believer. To put the old man out of business. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, awesome.

I think it also has to do with the source of the message, right? Because there's a lot of context about the heavenly source of what Christ is communicating. And so it's almost like, don't take my word for it in the sense that you've got Christ right here to tell you. And so there's just a massive chasm between what I'm able to communicate about these heavenly Yeah, absolutely.

It was a great, really great thought. Thank you, guys. Let's move on to question seven. What are three of the effects of the filling of the Spirit? I wouldn't have been able to probably put these three down on paper if I wasn't just taking them straight out or right out. Did anyone catch that in his order? Was anybody able to get the three of these without having read what Rydos said? No. Well, I'll read him.

He says, there are three or more effects of this filling. So there are more, but he's focusing on three. We have filling for service, filling for joy, and filling for testimony. And then he says, I do not mean that these are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are closely linked together. But each of these features is prominent in certain scriptures. So, it's interesting.

I think the one thought I had on this is that, to me, the filling for joy was the one I would have been least likely to have picked up on or picked out in Scripture. I don't know, is that, am I just alone in that? I mean, I think I see the filling for service and the filling for testimony. You see people, you know, filled with the Spirit and they speak out boldly or act some service, but the filling for joy, that's an interesting See, I guess I'm, of course, the odd man out. First thing I think of is, what are the fruit of the Spirit? Joy. Joy is one of those.

I think the filling is, I think that's before anything else happens. You have the filling and you have that. I guess that's what came to mind, what the filling is. If you're filled, the fruit, singular, will be. I'm like you, Miles, in that sense. I think that when I think about filling of the spirit, I think about service first. Obviously, testimony kind of comes with that. I'm going to talk about the things that I'm filled with. I think I would overlook at times the internal reality of joy that comes from being filled with the Spirit.

I wasn't raised charismatic, and so it's not something that is a you know, but that is not what I'm talking about. Turn the camera off in the back. No, that's not what Courtney is talking about. And what Courtney is talking about is something that I would probably have an opportunity to think more about, because that is a result.

There are scriptures that talk about joy as a result of being filled by the Holy Spirit, and sometimes those are overlooked because you're so busy thinking about what you're supposed to be doing, you know? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, I totally get what you're both talking about there on that. on that point. I kind of know what you're saying, JD, about, you know, charismatic background, because, you know, kind of some of the things I was in, you know, in contact with growing up, the filling of the spirit would have been the idea of joy, in air quotes there, but it was really just a kind of a hyper-emotionalism that they might have called joy, but very fleshly, and it was not spiritual. It was stimulated flesh. And so I think probably in my thinking I've swung more to the idea that the filling of the spirit is very what's the word, but cerebral almost, you know, like it has to do with words and with, you know, testimony and service and that kind of thing. But you're right.

I mean, Courtney, you know, the fruit of the spirit. you know, love, joy, peace, all these things. You know, I think Mike and I've got, you know, talked about that a few times, you know, to remove all the joy, you know, it's like service, you know, and it's like, no, it's a life and it has joy. It has things that are, you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, you know, those aren't non-emotional Factors in our relationship with Christ or a manifestation of Christ. So, you know as opposed to the feelings of You know charismatic where you have the feelings drive your scripture or derive that that's you know Backwards and right, but there is an emotional component. Otherwise, I think it's a very sterile life and And so I mean it's not that you have to have the door of the feelings, but that should be an outcome of the spirit When I was thinking sorry Michael it I'll just say I'm in common to that. Um, I I was thinking about this in the last couple of days, you know, I think the joy and the other aspects of the fruit, but joy in particular, when it's the joy of the spirit, I think it's quite often in response to things that the world is baffling to them.

Because they're like, how can there be joy in your life in these circumstances? It's a supernatural, if I can, I don't like that word, but it's a divine joy. Yeah, I mean, that's one I always quote, is James. Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. How does that fit in the world system? Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. But again, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and goes on. But that is at 180 degrees from what the world is. But where we get it from is through the Spirit. Absolutely. Mike, did you have a comment?

Yeah, I think as you grow as a believer, you're able to distinguish between what soulish enthusiasm is and for lack of a better way to say it, spiritual enthusiasm. And I think that when you're involved to some degree with the Lord's work, whether you're teaching or counseling or whatever it might be, or any of the fruit of the Spirit. I guess you can use soulless words to describe, but it's not really a feeling, but there's a rest about it and a peace about it and a persuasion that this is really what This is of the Lord and I'm thankful that I'm engaged in it and involved in it, but I'm not, you know, putting on the party hat and blowing the whistle, you know. It's just a calmness, I guess, that he would allow any of us to be involved in what he was doing.

The fact that he did and does is an amazing thing. You know, and it's not something you can, you know, run around and shout about. It's kind of a quiet thing. Right. Yeah. You know, I think when you listen to Paul and he goes through his list of, I was hit with a lash 39 times. I was shipwrecked. I was in the sea for, you know, three nights and three days. All the apostles were martyred except John.

There's some real deep things about this joy that I think you're trying to explain, you guys. Yeah. I agree. I like that, Russ, because it should sustain you in times where you're enjoying and other times where you're suffering. There should not be... I think the fruit of the Spirit operates no matter what the external circumstances are. That's really good. Yeah, thanks for sharing that Russ.

We read these men who suffered in the early church in the New Testament, and they considered that a joy. They were happy to be able to suffer for the sake of Christ. Sometimes I think about how little we suffer and kind of wonder what that would do for us to learn to suffer. But we'll see. Well, one of those hungry hearts says, you know, just wait around, your turn is coming. Yeah, I was going to say, you're saying I need 40 years or so and then I'll... You know, an example of that, the only guy I can think of that we've ever known that kind of had that was Hal Malloy.

He would be diagnosed with some malady and he'd have to go in the hospital for surgery and his viewpoint was not how painful it was going to be or how inconvenient the surgery was going to be. His viewpoint was he knew that the Lord had somebody in that hospital that he was going to be able to talk to. And so he looked forward to it. I remember he walked around here with that broken leg where they kept lengthening But with all the people he encountered during that process, the doctors who had an apparatus on it that they could turn the screw a quarter and it would separate the bone out a little bit and it would fill in and then they'd turn them again.

It's like a medieval torture machine. I know. Yeah. I just remember when, you know, he was His last days there and they sent in the counselor to you know, give him counseling in the end times counseling and and she she came out crying and And knowing about the Lord and all this and the lawyer was happy as can be. Yeah, the Greek counselor came out, you know Yes, so amazed at how? There's opportunity that to witness to her and Yeah, I'm actually just listening to Hal's series on trials and sufferings, so it's been great, really. I think that was 2004 on the website there, so pretty neat, learning a lot.

So let's look at our last question here in this lesson, see if we're going to make it. The question is, why did the Lord Jesus need to be filled with the Spirit in order to accomplish His work? This is a big one, so we've got almost ten minutes, but let's look at that. I'm just going to read Luke 4-1.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness. And that's the NASB, and they put in a footnote on the phrase, by the Spirit, that he was led around by the Spirit, and they footnoted that under the influence, or literally in the Spirit. And we put this as Jesus in the control of the Holy Spirit. So, that's where we get this primarily from. written down a couple of other references we'll look at in a minute, but that Jesus was filled with the Spirit and was led around by the Spirit, and this is at the beginning of his earthly ministry. But why did the Lord Jesus need to be filled with the Spirit in order to accomplish his work?

This applies in the face of one nature, in some ways, but this is distinct and different in the sense that Because the solution to the sin problem had to be both, we had to have a human representative, right? So we needed a man. That man needed to be perfect without blemish in order to satisfy the consequences of sin in such a way that it could also be accepted by the Lord as sufficient. So he had to be divine or God.

So the Holy Spirit is necessary to function in the same way that it functions for us for Christ in the fact that he was a man. Is that fair to say? Yeah. And that's a little hard to understand, I'll be honest, because here you've got the God-man who is filled with the Holy Spirit, but it's consistent with exactly what the Lord does with us, and so there's a perfect consistency there, but yet we're like, why? Why would that be necessary? I think this is a natural inclination there. Yeah.

I was going with a much simpler answer. Cuz. Cuz that's what it says. Cuz. Well, you know what? I have in my notes here, because it pleased the Father. That's one thing. That comes from Colossians 119, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. That's the divinity of God, right? He's functioning in His triune nature. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And if we go to, I noticed Colossians 1.19 was footnoted to Colossians 2.9, and this is really good. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

You know, and I sometimes miss that, in that we think of Jesus as God-man, well Jesus is the Son, you know, and the Son is not the Father and the Son is not the Spirit, right? We know our little triangle diagram, I don't know. The Son is God, the Spirit is God, the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father, and the Son is not the Spirit. But in Jesus, the fullness dwelled. Not just the Son, but we have the Son, the Father, and the Spirit dwelling in bodily form in Jesus Christ.

That kind of floored me this week when I looked at Colossians 2.9. I think you have to look at the timing. Colossians and talking about the Lord Jesus, is after all the work is done and he's gone to the Father and been glorified as a man, up until that point he's not.

He set aside all his prerogatives as deity. So in order to do the work that he was sent to do, which includes everything from being baptized by John the Baptist all the way to resurrection, he's dependent. None of this he does himself or in cooperation. Well, I think resurrection might have been in cooperation, but he was dependent on the Father and the Spirit to carry out the work that he and the Father had agreed would be his role in the eternal covenant. And I think that's tough for us because I think because of the sin natures we all have, we all have this nagging thought in our minds, I got this, I can do this. And I might need a little help, but I can still do it.

Where the Lord Jesus said, no, I'm not ever going to have that viewpoint about anything. I'm dependent totally. Yeah, no, that's really good to read what Rideau said about this. I'll read it here. In the 30 years of retirement at Nazareth, pre-ministry. He uses the word retirement as kind of a... Yeah, the retirement came first. Retirement was first, yeah. Then he went to work. Yeah.

Our Lord was the perfect one, truly and absolutely the Father's delight. But when he came forth to serve, the Spirit was sent, not only as the seal of approval, so that's, if we ask why, that's I think the first point, as a seal of approval, but not only as a seal of approval upon him for what he had been during his retirement, but to empower him for his special ministry.

Our blessed Lord's life, we must remember, was one of perfect dependence. That's what you were talking about, Mike. His life was one of perfect dependence. He did not use his divine prerogatives directly, but did all by the Spirit of God who filled him. And thus we read how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good, Acts 10 38. Thus, our blessed Lord is filled with the Spirit for service. And so, that's exactly what you're saying, Mike, right?

Because his life was one of perfect dependence, which is exactly what Our walk, as believers, is supposed to look like. It's supposed to be that dependence. Our dependence just isn't perfect dependence. But we learn that. We learn that dependence as we grow. But it's the same source of power. That's Courtney's line.

And I think that dependence on the spirit for service in the church today covers the entire gamut of whatever your service is. If your service is to empty the wastebaskets, you have to be filled with the spirit to do that with the right attitude. What we consider menial jobs in the body of Christ, from God's perspective, are not menial at all. No, so yeah, that's that's something where did right? I'll say I won't be able to find it right now, but he says there are no what's the word he uses?

But he says he says essentially that oh, I'm missing a page There's no such thing as temporal affairs in the Church of Christ all things are sacred Yeah and Well, this is kind of it for time, but I was going to read, following on the heels of Colossians 2.9, and I'm going to read this out of least expanded translation.

So 2.9 says, for in him all the fullness of deity dwelleth in bodily form, and then moving into 2.10 in the expanded, and it says, and you are in him. having been completely filled full with the present result that you are in a state of fullness in him who is the head of every principality and authority. And he goes on.

But that thought, I think, is a good thought to kind of conclude this lesson on here in that he is filled with the fullness of deity and we are in Him, and we've been completely filled full and are in a state of fullness. And that goes back to what Courtney mentioned last week, I believe, that we have a position of fullness, a position of being filled. Are we trusting that independence? Are we trusting that filling to empower our service as believers?

So, a closing prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time that we've been able to look at your work, the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, and to gain a greater understanding of what it is that you have done. And Lord, I pray that we would all be just continuing to learn to walk in that dependence on you for your working in us. Lord, we just pray that you would continue to make this clear to us going forward. In Jesus' name, Amen.