Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories

Acts 2:1-12; Matthew 3:13-17

Delivered March 6, 2011

By the title of this message you may think I am going to be talking about Ghost Hunters, Ghostbusters or Ghost Whisperers. I am not going to be talking about mediums, specters or spooks, as fascinating as those subjects are to many people. I am going to be talking about the Holy Ghost, or as he is more commonly called the Holy Spirit. The question I want to address this morning is: Who .. or what … is the Holy Spirit?

I can’t talk about the Holy Spirit without introducing the concept of the Trinity, because the Holy Spirit is considered the third person of the Trinity. Christians have this strange idea of a triune God – that God is not only one, the way the Old Testament teaches (The Shema of Judaism: “Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”) Christianity teaches that God is also three - three in one. This doctrine is confusing to many and has gotten Christians in big trouble with both Jews and Muslims, both of whom suspect that Christians are really closet polytheists who worship three gods without admitting it. The best way to understand the Biblical concept of the Trinity and the Holy Ghost is to tell stories, hence the title of my message: Ghost Stories - biblical stories that feature the Holy Ghost.

I. The first story is the baptism of Jesus. It is found in all four gospels but I will be using Matthew’s account in 3:13-17. It is always important to put scripture stories in context. Right before this scene of Jesus’ baptism is the story of John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing in the wilderness. John says in Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Then Jesus appears and goes out into the wilderness to hear John preach and is subsequently baptized by him. Let me read our Gospel Lesson for today. (READ Matthew 3:13-17).

Notice that the next verse 4:1 also talks of the Holy Spirit: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Also notice that the temptations that Jesus faced focusr on Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God. Therefore the Spirit appears in the Gospel in the context of water and fire and Jesus as the Son of God. At the baptism of Jesus there is a vision of the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove and an auditory revelation from God the Father pronouncing Jesus as his beloved Son. All three person of the Trinity are present in this story.

This is one example of an event that prompted the doctrine of the Trinity. The earliest Christians knew the one God from their Old Testament roots. But they also experienced God in Jesus. How do you explain that? They explained it with the idea that Jesus was divine – that Christ somehow shared the very nature of God. To put it very bluntly – that Jesus was God. That was a revolutionary statement! They also experienced the Holy Spirit as God. The Holy Spirit was understood not just as the power of God, nor an impersonal force that emanated from God. They experienced the Holy Spirit in a personal way. So they called the Holy Spirit a Person – the third Person of the Trinity. So God was described as three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Don’t ask me to explain the Trinity any more than this. I can’t. It is not that I haven’t studied the theological explanations.  It is just that all theological explanations fall short. My best attempt at describing the Trinity is to say that it is beyond understanding. It is an experiential doctrine and not a theoretical one. It came out of the experience of the early Christians who encountered God as Father, encountered Jesus as God, and then at Pentecost (which we will get into in a moment) experienced God as the Holy Spirit. Similarly the only way for us to comprehend the Trinity is to experience the Trinity – experience God as Father, experience God as Jesus and experience God as Holy Spirit. Without the experience, the Trinity makes no sense. But when we experience God as three in one, then we believe the Trinity.

II. Let me get into the second story about the Holy Ghost. This is the famous account of the earliest Christians being filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It took place fifty days after Easter, ten days after Jesus disappeared from their sight into heaven. The small band of followers of Jesus was gathered in one place. It doesn’t say who exactly – whether just the apostles or all the followers – men and women. Likewise it doesn’t say where, although the two most frequent suggestions are the upper room or the temple courts.

Acts 2:1-4 says: “ When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Soon a crowd gathered, which leads me to believe they were not in a closed upper room but outdoors, likely the temple courts, which would have been the normal place for Jews to be on this Jewish holy day. Also Peter later explains this phenomenon by quoting the prophet Joel: “That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, … ¹⁸ And on My menservants and on My maidservants
      I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” This leads me to think that both men and women were involved. Anyway people from all over the Roman world heard these Christians speaking in their own languages. They say in verse 11, “we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

These early Christians experienced the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That is what I want to focus on in this story. The Holy Spirit is God inspiring men and women. The apostle Peter in his first letter writes: “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The apostle Paul says to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

The Holy Spirit is God inspiring humans to speak the words of God. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us when we surrender our lives to God through faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God dwelling in us. We normally think of God in heaven – “Our Father who art in heaven…” We think of Jesus as God incarnate in human flesh in the first century. We experience the Holy Spirit as God within us here and now.

This way of talking about God is a bit cumbersome because if God is omnipresent – that is everywhere – then he is both inside and outside everyone at all times. Otherwise he would not be omnipresent. There is no place where God is not. Psalm 139 says, “If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there.” So this language of inside and outside, up in heaven and down on earth even lower down in hell is metaphorical at best. We are trying to communicate with spatial language the spiritual reality of experiencing God within, and experiencing the inspiration of God. We recognize that God has inspired some people in history in a special way and we call their writings scripture. But God also inspires us. That is the whole point of the story of Pentecost. On that day Peter got up to explain to the people. He said,

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. ¹⁵ For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
       That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
      Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
      Your young men shall see visions,
      Your old men shall dream dreams.
       ¹⁸ And on My menservants and on My maidservants
      I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
       And they shall prophesy.

Through our union with Jesus by faith we are one with God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

III. This leads me to my third story, which is about how to experience the Holy Spirit. The story is about Nicodemus found in the Gospel of John 3:1-16. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a member of the ruling Jewish council, a very high ranking and respected religious leader. But there was something missing in his life. So even though most other religious leaders scorned Jesus, he sensed something Godly in Jesus. So he came to Jesus secretly under the cover of night, so as not to be seen. He said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” And Jesus answered  him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” I love how Jesus gets right to the point.

          Nicodemus answered, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  ⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This rebirth that Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus is the key to the spiritual life. It is the key to experiencing the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. But it is often badly misunderstood. The term “born again” has negative connotations to a lot of people. These days it is equated with one segment of Christinaity - the religious right and a narrow form of Evangelicalism. It has been distorted to simply mean converting to a specific form of Christianity.

For many people it involves no more than saying a printed prayer and buying into a certain cultural and religious worldview. This is not what Jesus is talking about. Being born again is not converting to a religion. Nicodemus had religion, but he was clueless when it came to the spiritual reality of the Holy Spirit that begins with a new birth. ⁹ Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” I think many religious leaders, many Christian people, conservative and moderate and liberal, are in exactly Nicodemus’ position. Many outwardly confident religious people feel deep down that they are missing something important about the spiritual life. Perhaps what they are missing is the Holy Spirit - missing the birth of the Spirit in their lives, missing walking in the Spirit and living by the Spirit.

Let me tell you my experience. In my experience religion is not enough. A seminary education is not enough. Being ordained as a minister is not enough. Being a professional religious leader is not enough. Being the pastor of a church is not enough. Church is not enough. Christian doctrine is not enough. Even the traditional conversion experience is not enough. Baptism is not enough. Confirmation is not enough. Church membership is not enough.

“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The only thing that is enough is a spiritual awakening that opens one’s eyes to the Kingdom of God. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Do you see the Kingdom of God? I am not talking about believing you go to Heaven when you die. I am talking dying before you die - dying now to this physical reality and being born spiritually to the Kingdom of God. Can you say with the apostle Paul “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” ?

Being born of the Spirit is a spiritual transformation where your old self dies and your eyes are opened to the Kingdom of God. Holy Spirit becomes your new life. You live in the Spirit and walk by the Spirit. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

We Christians talk about God and we talk about Jesus, but how often do we talk of the Spirit. Yet there is no spiritual life without the Spirit, no spiritual sight or insight without the spirit, no spiritual living without the Spirit. May your life and my life may be the story of the God told through our lives, the story of the Spirit lived through our lives.