Title: The Holy Spirit Who Makes Life Perfect
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<Sunday of Pentecost on May 19, 2002>
Nurturing Sermon / Video
The Holy Spirit Who Makes Life
Ezekiel 37:7-10
Romans 8:1-11
Today, we should once again examine the work of the Holy Spirit and pray that we can move forward in a more mature faith through the Holy Spirit who comes and works among us today.
The Spirit of God, the Source of Life
The book of Ezekiel we read today is a vision of a valley of dry bones. In the valley of dry bones, when the prophet received God's command and cried out, the dry bones were put together to form a skeleton, and flesh was put on it and finally breathed into life, a great army that came alive. has been This was a prophecy that the nation of Israel, which had become like dry bones, would become like an army brought to life by the Spirit of God. Verse 14 says, “I will put my Spirit within you, that you may live.” It means that only when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, enters into them, they become real living beings.
In Genesis 2, when God created man, he molded it from dust and breathed life into it. It means that human life is animated by the Spirit of God. Our lives are sustained and grown as the Spirit of God, like the wind, enters and exits us. We can see that God's spirit, or holy spirit, is the fundamental power that sustains our life. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit departs, our lives are destroyed. The Bible says that after man fell through sin, death began to dominate man. It means that the Spirit of God, the source of human life, has departed from us.
After God's spirit departs, physical life still breathes and lives well, so we don't really understand the death that God's spirit caused us to die. It's because we don't really understand what humans are.
human beings imperfect
Humans were not created from scratch as finished products, but to be completed through gradual growth and development. In the process, God's spirit continues to work within us, so that our lives can be brought to completion. The Holy Spirit is the fundamental force that makes our lives grow to perfection. However, as the work of the Holy Spirit was stopped because of sin, we lost the power to reach perfection. Humans grew up and stopped growing halfway through. This is death. In an automobile factory production line, the parts are assembled one after the other, and finally the finished car rolls out. However, if the production line stops due to a sudden power outage, the products are assembled but become useless as unfinished products. Man, who has fallen because of sin, is like a car that has been put together and stopped, and is incomplete and, therefore, dead, useless.
The way we live today is imperfect and weak. Fighting, killing, greedy, and greedy are making it impossible for the whole world to live together. On the other hand, our bodies are imperfect, and we are prone to disease, breakdown, and injury. Our abilities are limited and we have no choice but to live under many restrictions. All these phenomena indicate that we are now in an unfinished state. It is because we are, after all, imperfect that we have sinned and fallen.
The Holy Spirit who leads life to perfection
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save and perfect these humans, and through His cross and resurrection, He atoned for human sins and broke down walls that were blocked so that the wind of the Holy Spirit can blow. As this wind of the Holy Spirit blew among the people together with the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, they received new life power, and with that power they were able to achieve change and growth. They have experienced great changes both mentally and spiritually. Romans 8 says that the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from sin and death.
So now those who live with Christ Jesus are never condemned. It is because the law of the Holy Spirit, which gives life with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 (Joint Translation)
Therefore, we are no longer bound only by our physical life, but we have become freed beings, new creatures that can grow into eternal life. The Holy Spirit comes to us to renew our perception and broaden our horizons to the spirit world. He is now letting us know the world of the spirit, which was blocked because of sin, and leads us to hope. Therefore, if we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will eventually reach eternal life.
Those who live according to the flesh think of things pertaining to the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit think of things pertaining to the Spirit. The carnal mind is death. But the mind that belongs to the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:5-6
Living according to the flesh means thinking only about life on earth, which ends in physical death, because we do not believe in and see the eternal world that the Holy Spirit opens us to. The result is only death and despair. However, those who live according to the Holy Spirit live and grow in the hope of the eternal world that he enlightens, so the result is life and peace.
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings
However, although the Holy Spirit breathes life into us, we are an imperfect and sinful human, so we are far from reaching the goal the Holy Spirit is leading us to. That is why the Holy Spirit knows our weakness and prays for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26
The reason the Holy Spirit prays with groanings that cannot be uttered is because we are too weak. It seems almost impossible to elevate human beings who are too weak in spiritual power to the stage of perfection. Since we are too low and the goal we need to reach is too high, shouldn't we have no choice but to pray and groan for the Holy Spirit who will accomplish this mission?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to his disciples, “Be ye therefore perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Wouldn't this be a far-fetched goal? How can we reach God's perfection? But Jesus wanted to bring us up there, and the Holy Spirit is praying for this with groanings that cannot be uttered, giving us the strength of life.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These virtues are, in fact, things that a perfected human can have, and must be hard to have in an imperfect life now. We are rather closer to the other side. We are accustomed to living according to the desires of the flesh: fornication, uncleanness, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, envy, anger, selfishness, divisions, sects, jealousy, drunkenness, and revelry. The distance from this fleshly desire to the fruit of the Spirit cannot but be too far away. How far would the Holy Spirit groan and pray?
amazing life force
But do not be discouraged, the power of life that the Holy Spirit gives is great and wonderful, and it renews us daily and makes us grow. In Romans chapter 8, we can see how strong the power of life given by the Holy Spirit is.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, threat, or sword?
He said that no threatening force in this world can separate us from the love of Christ. That is why the power of life that the Holy Spirit gives us is strong. He also said that menacing forces in the spiritual world cannot separate us.
I'm sure. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor present, nor future, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. There is not. Romans 8:38-39
The power of life that the Holy Spirit pours into us is great and wonderful. We have nothing to fear if we recognize that we have this power within us.
The Holy Spirit who unites all life
However, the life force that the Holy Spirit gives is both individual and communal. The Holy Spirit binds together the scattered lives like grains of sand to form a great body, so that life is maintained and grown. Although there are 10 trillion cells in our body, if those cells fall out one by one, the life of the cells themselves will die, but the whole body will become sick at the same time. Not only are individual cells healthy, but the whole body is healthy when they are organically organized and connected to each other. Likewise, each human being is transformed and grows into a new life, but in order for those lives to continue to grow, they must form one body. In other words, when we become a member of the church with Christ as the head, the power of life continues to be exercised, and we grow and finally reach completion. Therefore, there is no salvation apart from the body. Salvation is the process of forming a body, and when the body is completed, it becomes the kingdom of God. There is no way for an individual to be saved apart from the body.
The churches on this earth are a miniature or model of the Kingdom of God that will be accomplished in the last days. It is to practice forming a beautiful community of love by gathering together in church. Worshiping, celebrating the Lord's Supper, and activating the fellowship of the saints, making service a daily routine is the process of preparing for the kingdom of God. Although we need monasteries or prayer houses for personal spirituality, true spiritual growth can only be achieved through meeting and loving others. Separated from other people, my own spirituality is only half. As my spirituality deepens, I will take the lead in meeting, loving, uniting, and building unity with others. It means that the Holy Spirit not only completes our individual lives, but works so that perfected people come together to form the kingdom of God.
Beloved, the Holy Spirit is working today to perfect human life. The Holy Spirit is leading us to the consummation of the life created by God the Father, the life saved by the Son Jesus Christ. The life force he gives is great and strong, and he is able to overcome all adversity and obstacles on this earth.
Now, through the work of the Holy Spirit who prays with groanings that cannot be uttered, let us believe that human life, which was blocked by death, can lead to eternal life. wish.