From the Pulpit

God’s people have many needs and vulnerabilities but God’s Spirit has been given to help meet those needs and minister to our weaknesses. As rebels against God, we need saving, so the Holy Spirit regenerates, making believers new creatures who are born again from above. We need security in and assurance of that salvation, so the Spirit indwells us, seals us, and testifies to us that we belong to him. We need truth in a world of deception, so the Spirit teaches us. We need fellowship with our Saviour and with his people, so the Spirit unifies us. We need to be holy, so the Spirit sanctifies us. We need guidance and power, so the Spirit fills us, leads us, and prays for us. 

But there is another great need of humanity for which the Spirit was sent to address: the need for all people to be convinced of the serious nature of sin.

Living in a fallen world, it’s not uncommon for people—even God’s people—to feel disoriented and isolated, overwhelmed by choices and trials, decisions and disappointments, insecurities and uncertainties, hurts, fears, and loses. Sometimes the cumulative fatigue of such experiences, the emotional taxation of helplessness, and the dramatic intensity of uncertainty rises to such a level that even God, the only one who can ultimately bring guidance and deliverance, seems out of reach. 

It’s in these most dire circumstances that the Holy Spirit graciously ministers to those whom he indwells by showing them the way out of the darkness and by calling for help when they’re unable. It is when God’s children are at their most needy, most vulnerable, and most weak, that the Holy Spirit can lead the way and does help them pray.

If you have been with us in the past weeks, you’ll know that we have been doing a series on the Holy Spirit. Today we will continue that series with the topic of sanctification.

Our word sanctification comes from the latin “sanctus”, which means holy. In other words, today we will talk about becoming holy, and the role the Holy Spirit plays in that. Holy can mean blameless or pure, and often we define it by what is not: to be holy means to be separated from sin. If you think it about this way, than sanctification means to become more pure, become more blameless, to become more separated from sin. 

The filling of the Holy Spirit could rightly be considered the centre of his work in the world today—the hub to which his other ministries connect and by which his other ministries are rightly experienced. 

The Spirit has regenerated, indwelled, and sealed every believer. But it is the filling of the Spirit that helps us understand and celebrate those realities. The Spirit teaches. But it is his filling that empowers our recognition and reception of that education. The Spirit unifies. But it is when we are filled that we are able to appreciate and preserve that oneness. 

To say it another way, the filling work of the Holy Spirit does not cause his other ministries but it does highlight them, uncover them, and empower God’s people to experience them. And Christians need that for maturity. If the goal is growth in godliness, believers must have the Spirit’s power and we must experience the Spirit’s work.

Speaker: Jim Rennie

Series: God In Us: A Study of the Holy Spirit

Speaker: Lew Worrad

Text(s): Selected Scriptures

Topic: The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit

Series: God In Us: A Study of the Holy Spirit

There’s a sense in which home ownership has two corresponding realities. There’s the objective reality. When the funds are confirmed and the mortgage is signed the house is owned. It’s a done deal. But there’s also the subjective reality. This is the process by which the owner grows in their experience of their ownership by moving-in, unpacking and renovating, and sharing their home with others. In these ways, the objective reality becomes increasingly experienced and enjoyed. 

Similarly, when an individual places their faith in Jesus Christ the payment has been made, the deed has been signed, and the Lord is now their owner. It’s objectively a done deal. But there’s also a subjectivity—a process by which believers can grow in the experience, enjoyment, and certainty their salvation by the work of the Holy Spirit as he moves-in to his new home (indwells), unpacks in his new home (seals), and shares his new home (testifies).

If you’re a Christian, whether you can fully remember it or not, there was a moment when you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life. You may have been seven, seventeen, or seventy. It might have arrived suddenly or after much consideration. Maybe you were praying with a parent, chatting with a friend, listening to a sermon, or reading a book. Maybe you were at an evangelistic event or at home alone. 

Whatever the details, for all who belong to Jesus in the present, there was a moment in the past when, by God’s grace, you passed from death to life, from darkness to light, when “you who formerly were far off [were] brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13)! And today we want to acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s role in that moment and in the moments leading up to it. More specifically, we want to celebrate with gratitude the drawing ministry of the Holy Spirit and the regenerating ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible teaches that there is one God existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—eternal in being, identical in nature, equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections, and worthy of the same worship, confidence, and obedience. Over the centuries, the Christian church has come to incapsulate this mind-bending, creature-humbling truth in a single word: trinity. 

Now, most Christians today eagerly worship God the Father and long to know and serve God the Son. But, relatively speaking, many are confused by God the Spirit. When it comes to the Spirit of God there’s often much we don’t know, things we wrongly think we know, and lots we’d still like to know. And, just as in our relationships with one another, the more ignorance that remains between us and our God, the more barriers to intimacy with our God. So, let’s get reacquainted with the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, God in us.

Not long ago one of my sons was given a remote-control drone as a birthday present. While he had fun almost immediately, mastery of the device alluded him as he chose to ignore the instruction manual and, instead, was content to repeatedly crash it into walls, into the ceiling, and into his siblings. As soon as my son unwrapped that toy he became a boy who owned a drone and, while he enjoyed it to a degree, his experience of that gift was limited by ignorance to its capabilities and proper use. 

Christians, likewise, have been given a great gift, that of eternal life. Unfortunately, not all believers read the instruction manual and, thus, fail to learn the extent of this gift and how best to enjoy it. Instead, we can become a people who haveeternal life but who fail to experience and express that life to the extent God desires. The Holy Spirit, speaking through John, wants to help us avoid that tragedy in this closing and cumulative chapter.