Monday, June 17, 2019

After Pentecost

When God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, moves into our hearts, it is just like what happened at Pentecost.  God showed up and things changed!  That Pentecost IN the church is best understood considering Jesus’ analogy (John 16) of the Vine and Branches.  Jesus is the True Vine, and we are his branches.  The branches are supposed to bear fruit.  What kind of fruit?  Note what Paul said:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

So, this morning I would like for us to explore three results you will always see when the Spirit of God moves-in on Pentecost, and what that looks like afterward.  Let’s see the results after Pentecost.
Result #1 Spiritual Blessing
Fruit is a good thing.  We call it a spiritual blessing because that is what the Bible calls it.  Spiritual food – in this case the fruit of spiritual blessing – is supposed to satisfy the spiritual hunger you have for the things of God.
Food is a touchy subject for those of us in the “Weight Watcher crowd.”  The Good news is the fruit of the Spirit isn’t fattening or filled with cholesterol.  It has no additives, preservatives or carcinogens.  It won’t make you fat, grumpy, hyper or drunk.  It just might, however, cause people to view you with a new appreciation for goodness and graciousness.
THE FRUIT IS A GIFT FROM GOD

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.  Ephesians 1:3            

Spiritual gifts are themselves gifts from God.  There are three things we should do about these gifts

a. Uncover them

Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.  1 Corinthians 14:1        

In the lives of many believers these spiritual gifts, or God-given abilities lie dormant.  We need to uncover, or re-discover them. 

b. Understand them

Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this.  1 Corinthians 12:1

Spiritual gifts aren’t spooky things you do in a trance.  The gifts of the Spirit involve teaching, helping, preaching, mercy and wisdom.  Spiritual gifts are not simply abilities, they are talents and strengths with which God has blessed you, and we need to use them for His glory. 
For instance, if your gift is mercy, you might really enjoy helping people out of a tough spot.  However, even though you enjoy it, your enjoyment isn’t the point; the person being helped learning to praise God for His answers is the point!  The fact that you enjoy being merciful is one of the little side benefits a believer who is willing to be used of God experiences.
Understanding the gifts means investigating what God wants you to do, and then trusting Him to put the power to do that very thing into operation.

c. Use them

And the same is true for you. Since you are so eager to have the special abilities the Spirit gives, seek those that will strengthen the whole church. 1 Corinthians 14:12  

To strengthen the church is to build up others.  Our gifts are for the building of the Kingdom of God.  That means winning the lost and teaching the saved.
There is (at least) one other application to the building up of God’s people besides edification; there is reclamation.  Sheep who have strayed need to be gathered back into the fold.

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.  Galatians 6:1

There is not a more difficult, nor a more neglected activity in the body of Christ than the reclaiming of saints who have wandered away.  Many of them have been sent away by grouchy, temperamental wolves among the sheep. 
It is hard to be delicate about this matter.  However, those of us who are faithful have no right to be the cause of someone else’s loss of faith.  Jesus said it would be better for me to have a gigantic grinding stone tied around my neck and thrown into the Uwharrie River, than to offend a little one.  He was talking about making certain that we are kind, gentle and gracious.  Some folks have all the graciousness of a bulldog.  When we are offensive in spirit or personality it sends the opposite message of what Christ intended,.
GENUINE HOLY SPIRIT FRUIT IS A GRACIOUS FRAGRANCE
You can tell quickly when you’re around someone who is indwelt and controlled by God’s Holy Spirit.  There is an atmosphere, an aura of Christ likeness.  In my first pastorate out of seminary, McIntosh’s biggest industry was the Huff Orange Groves.  Most of the orange grove acreage was on Orange Lake. 
Every Easter we would have a community sunrise service in a little clearing overlooking the lake.  At 5 o’clock in the morning, when you turned onto the dirt path, surrounded by orange blossoms, there was no mistaking that you were in Huff’s groves.  The fragrance was overwhelmingly sweet.  The lake was still, and the air was crisp.
It is like that with joy, peace and gentleness; there is a sweet fragrance of God all around people who belong to Him.  You may not be able to adequately describe it for a non-believer.  But you know it when you’re near it, that spiritual blessing.
Result #2 Numerical Blessing
Some people say that Methodists are too hung up on numbers.  If there’s more than one, we’ll count it, put it in a new class, and report the stats to the Holy Land in Charlotte.  The principles of bearing fruit help us understand that fruit always multiplies.  It begins with the seed.  Spiritually speaking, Jesus is the seed of Christianity.  Paul called Jesus the first fruits of resurrection[1].  You don’t get a fruit without a blossom, or branch, or vine, or seed.  It all begins with the seed; what Jesus was in seed, we are to be in fruit. 
The life of Jesus was filled with the seed of joy.  You could find him at weddings, parties.  He ate with the down and outers, and the up and outers.  Children came to Jesus.  Sinners were forgiven.  People were healed.  That was the seed.
Jesus invested his whole life and ministry in the lives of twelve men, and a few women that followed.  He was the seed; they became the branches that would bear fruit.  Now, the law of the harvest demands that you always must sow the seed to bear the fruit.  It also decrees that you reap later than you sow, and you always reap more than you sow.  But you will definitely reap WHAT you sow!  Jesus reaped spiritual fruit in the disciples who followed him, because his seed was love, joy, peace, etc...
Numerical blessing applies to virtually every discipline of life.  When the Spirit of God moves into the heart of man, the harvest will be plentiful.  Our duty is simply to open the gate, let Him move in.
Result #3 Physical & Mental Wholeness

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.  Proverbs 17:22

Fruit sustains life.  A balanced diet will provide for the physical or nutritional needs of life, which also affects our mental, or emotional state of wholeness.  If there is one thing sorely needed in our culture, it is balance. 
Balance includes our relationships, and how we treat others.  A woman told the evangelist Billy Sunday that she had a bad temper, but that it was all over in a minute.  He replied, so is a shotgun; but it blows everything to pieces.
In the list of spiritual fruit is goodness.  This is not so much the act of being good or behaving oneself.  It is the existential condition of inherent goodness, with outward manifestations that affirm the inner being.  Huh?  Really!  It means as William Barclay has written, Good, through and through, and everybody can see it.  How does this come about?  It is a gift from the Spirit of God. 
We need to be careful to allow God’s Spirit to reign in all areas of our lives.  If you struggle with temper, grouchiness, or a critical spirit, that means that you are reigning in that area of your life.  God wouldn’t act that way. 
Can you change?  Yes, with the Spirit’s help. 
Mental and physical wholeness are connected.  I know a doctor who refers to treating the physiological conditions as the hardware of this computer we call a body.  The emotional state is our software, our programming.  They are so connected that this doctor has an MD, and a Ph.D.  He treats the hardware if you’re physically sick, and the software if you’re emotionally unstable.  In the same way, the Spirit of God wants to deal with every area of your life. 
The Bible describes heaven and the fountainhead of this spiritual fruit we’ve been talking about.

On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.  Revelation 22:2

The healing of the nations is a description of perfection in spiritual fruit.  A perfect state of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.  Some people in this auditorium are going to partake of that fruit.

Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.       Revelation 22:14

You can go to the harvest.  The one command that you must obey to have a right to the tree of life is what the Scripture calls being born again! 
When you are born again, the Holy Spirit of God comes into your life and gives spiritual blessing, numerical increase, along with physical and mental wholeness.  This is the meaning of Pentecost. 
God’s Spirit came to birth the church, and after Pentecost the Spirit now lives in us to bear Kingdom fruit!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] 1 Corinthians 15:20


[i] All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)  Title Image:  Pixabay.com
[ii] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

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