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