The Holy Spirit is the Solution

Genesis 11:1-9
Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20
Joel 2: 28-32
Acts 2:1-11
John 20:19-23

If you aren't paying attention,
Pentecost
seems to be the most random event in history.
A group of people 
praying in a room in Jerusalem
suddenly 
see fire on their heads
and they begin to speak in various languages.

And many people and churches
do not understand why Pentecost is important
and they call it the birthday of the church.
And for people who believe that the Holy Spirit 
withdrew a generation later,
they try to downplay this event
and look at it as an anomaly.

This is why we read all these lessons each year
to show that Pentecost 
is part of a continuum in Scripture,
and also
a great restoration
of God's original plan.

Pentecost is the fulfillment of everything
the Messiah said he would do.

The Holy Spirit is the author of scripture,
and the central character throughout.
This is one of the interesting aspects of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit always directs the attention to someone else.
You can miss the Holy Spirit in the Bible
if you are not looking.

The Bible begins with the Holy Spirit 
hovering over the waters 
and out of this chaos comes order.
The Holy Spirit always brings order out of chaos.

In Hebrew and Greek
the word for "spirit" 
can be translated
wind, breath, and spirit.

The Holy Spirit,
in the guise of the Ruach Ha'Kodesh:
the Breath that is holy.
The Wind that is holy.
Breathed into Adam
the breath of life.

And when Adam disobeyed God,
the Holy Spirit did withdraw--this is the only time
there was cessation of the Holy Spirit,
and Adam was made able to die.
Without the Holy Spirit
things die.

And so man, humanity,
decided it would try to build things without God.
And they discovered
they could do a lot without God.
And so they built a city,
and they built a tower,
and they created a system of government
without God.
Babel.

I mentioned in a Tuesday prayer talk
that humanity is always on a spectrum:
earthly,
soulish,
and demonic.
And so the men at Babel began to build a tower out of the earth,
and they combined the power of their human souls,
and they were beginning to tap into the power of the demonic.
And so,
God knowing that they would become supernaturally evil,
confused their speech.
And the city
would be forever the symbol 
of human government without God,
the great beast,
Babylon.

Out of that chaos,
the Holy Spirit moved again,
and called a man.
Abram.
And Abram was given the promise that he would be
the Father of many nations,
more than the stars in the sky.
And he was given a promise,
that he and his wife Sarai 
would have a child in old age.
And then
God changed their names,
to Abraham and Sarah.
God added a "heh" to their names.
They were given the Holy Spirit.
And out of this child,
Isaac,
was born the nation of Israel.

After Israel was freed from slavery,
the Holy Spirit moved again,
and they were brought to Mount Sinai.
And the Lord was going to give this nation
order
in the midst of the chaos of the world.
The Lord descended on Mount Sinai,
and in fire
and smoke,
and a trumpet blast,
the Lord gave them the Law.
And the people were afraid,
and they told Moses they would not receive the law
for themselves,
but only through him.
And they took on themselves a veil.

And because they did not embrace their calling as priests to the earth,
they turned to idols.
And Moses had to correct them.
And God raised up Bezalel the artisan
to create all that Moses saw on the mountain.
And for the first time since Adam
the Holy Spirit breathed into a man
and filled him with gifts and abilities 
to make order out of chaos.

And as the Old Testament story continued,
the promise increased:
God was going to raise up a new king
from the house of David,
and this King would be Anointed
with the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit would once again
be poured out on all flesh.
And there would be revelation:
prophecy,
dreams,
and visions.
There would be order.
Freedom from captivity and bondage,
the year fo the Lord's favor.
And there would be life 
God would raise the dead,
heal the sick,
and restore all things.

And there would be a new temple,
with a river running out of it.

The promise of the New Covenant
is the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus says this many times.
Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.
If you destroy this temple,
I will raise it up on the third day.

In John's gospel,
after the resurrection,
Jesus breathes on them
and they receive the Holy Spirit.
The Church was not birthed on Pentecost.
It was birthed during Passover.
Pentecost,
was the sign of the release of the New Law.
Pentecost marked the shift,
from a temple in Jerusalem
to temples of human hearts
where the law of life in Christ Jesus
would rule.

And in the upper room,
we see for the first time,
the release of the Government of God.
Their speech was no longer confused,
because the power behind them was not human,
soulish, or demonic.
It was from above,
from the Holy Spirit.
There was not one mountain,
or one prophet,
or one tablet of law.
It was a group of people
baptized in fire,
and the law was inscribed on their hearts.
They became a kingdom of prophets, priests, and kings.

So what does this have to do with us today?

It makes all the difference for us who are called
to be artists and creative people in exile in Babylon.
We cannot tap into the world system
and do it in our own strength.
Your earthly thinking,
becomes soul power that masquerades as spiritual,
and this eventually taps into the demonic.
The world, the flesh, and the devil are our mortal enemies.

Paul goes into detail 
in Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8
about the shift from the Old Covenant to the new one.
As I once wrote,
the New Covenant is not the just the old one with jazzy music.
It is really different.

The letter to the Romans is misunderstood
because people think Paul is writing to a bunch of 
Presbyterians,
and they are using Plato to interpret it.
Paul is writing to a group of Jews,
some of whom are believers, but not all.
It is a Jewish book,
written to Jews,
full of Jewish ideas.
When you read Romans as a Presbyterian
who believes that the Holy Spirit withdrew 
at the end of the first century,
then this book becomes confounding,
and depressing.
And so,
you hear a lot of sermons on the end of chapter seven:
O wretched man that I am,
who will free me from this body of death?
I do the things I do not want to do 
and I do not do the things I want to do.
And the instruction to us
is to live a life of stoicism in this unhappy state.

That is garbage theology 
that is useless for hurting people.
The folks who preach being gospel centered
lead you to no gospel at all.

Paul in Romans six and seven
is describing in detail,
the reality of Jewish life under the Old Covenant.
You have the law and prophets,
and you know what morality is.
And your morality,
no matter how many obligations you pile on,
can only get you so far.
That old law
is a law of sin and death.
And that old law makes you feel like a wretch.
And Paul asks rhetorically,
who will save you from this?

And beginning in Romans chapter 8
Paul takes the truth I have already shared,
God moved his glory from Mount Sinai
and a physical temple 
to human beings.
And out of these human beings will flow the Holy Spirit.
There is therefore,
now no condemnation
for those who are in the Messiah Jesus.
Because the law of the Spirit of Life in Messiah Jesus
has set me free
from the law of sin and death.
And when ever you try to live under a law
without the Holy Spirit,
you are coming under condemnation,
and you are as Paul says in Galatians,
opening up yourself to a curse.

Instead,
we are invited to surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit,
and in that surrendering
we have a renewed relationship with God,
and we cry "Abba Father."
We are in the same relationship with the Father as Jesus.
By the holy Spirit we are no longer condemned.
By the Holy Spirit we have power to do the impossible.
By the Holy Spirit,
the law of God is written on our hearts,
and we instinctively
can go the right way.
By the Holy Spirit,
we can pray even though we do not know how to pray.
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us
in ways that are mysterious.
Because of the Holy Spirit,
God is for us not against us.
And nothing
can seperate us from the love of God.
For God works in all things in our lives
by the Holy Spirit
for good.
The Holy Spirit in you,
as a temple 
makes all of this possible.
This is the new covenant,
this is the undoing of Babylon.
This is the Kingdom of God
that Jesus said was inside of you.

You don't need to look out to a building,
a program,
a system,
or morality.
You have to look in
and experience the presence and power of Jesus
in you.
The Messiah is in you.
This is the point of Pentecost.
And those 
on that first day
knew
this was what everything pointed to,
and the three thousand were baptized.

Many people are afraid of the Holy Spirit,
because they think things will get out of control.
There was this meme that went around last year that showed a living tree branch with the word "Order" above it.
Next to it was all the component parts,
dissected,
organized and arranged.
The parts of the tree were taken apart
and they were dead.
And next to this systematic tree branch
was the word "Chaos."
People want their chaos and control,
and not God's living order.
The Holy Spirit brings life and order.

Eighteen years ago
God called me to raise up an army of artists.
It's been a challenge to do it the Kingdom way
and not the Babylon way.
One night,
in those early days
I was watching a documentary on the Nazis
and how they had pagan occult gatherings to access evil
in order to establish the Third Reich.
Remember what I said about
earthly, soulish, and demonic power.
They went right for the demonic.

And as I watched this film,
I prayed one of those simple,
yet powerful prayers.

Father,
I ask for the same measure of power
from the Holy Spirit
for good,
that those men accessed for evil.

And I was knocked off my chair and onto the floor.

We are living in evil days.
What I have shared today is not just theological opinion.
Christians all around us
are unaware that we are in a war.
And we need another Pentecost
on this house,
and our our army of artists.
And so
We invite you Holy Spirit
to once again
come down as fire
and set a law in our hearts
and bring order out of chaos.