Do You Know Who Lives in You?

 Sunday, 9:00 a.m., June 15, 2003

North Heights Lutheran Church, Arden Hills

Pastor Greg Berglund

 

 

 

          Happy Father’s day to all of you.  It’s good to be together in church today.  We are going to continue our series on the Holy Spirit through the course of the summer, and that’s where we’re at today with Romans chapter 8, verses 9 through 11.

 

          When I was young, I grew up in the church and I learned the catechism, I learned the Apostle’s Creed, learned the Lord’s Prayer.  And I was like most Christians, I feel, most Lutherans, where I knew some about who God was.  I knew He was the Creator of the heaven and the earth and so on from the Creeds.  And I knew who Jesus was.  I knew about Him.  At camp in 7th grade, I really did meet Jesus personally and committed my life to Him, and it kind of fizzled into some of the high school years. 

 

          But if you’d asked me who the Holy Spirit was, I would have just said, like the Creed says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints.”  Like the Creeds, we don’t expound on who the Holy Spirit is.  We ask the person who says, “I’m a Christian,” “Tell me about the Holy Spirit, who he is, what does the Bible say about him,” and we don’t have as much understanding.  We don’t know him as well.

 

          But the Scriptures are plentiful as to who he is.  For me, after some high school years, I remember I was president of the Luther League, but I also was quite far from God.  I kept going to church, but I wasn’t living for Him.  In my freshman year of college ‑‑ this is some 20 years ago  ‑‑ I ended up getting on an outreach team, partly because I liked music and partly because I was at a Christian school, at Concordia College in “Marble Forehead” (Fargo Moorhead).  And yet I did not understand and know and have commitment and relationship with Jesus. 

 

          I went through October, November, December on this singing outreach team.  We went out to churches and went out and proclaimed the Good News, but I didn’t have it proclaimed in my own heart.  I needed a breakthrough.  I remember thinking, I don’t know how this is going to work for me to stay on this team because I don’t know if I can keep getting up in front of church on Sunday morning and then sowing some wild oats.  I wasn’t a bad person, but I wasn’t living as a Christian the rest of the week.  And I thought, I’m just not being true.  I can’t do both of these.  So this church stuff probably has to go.

 

          I know these other nine people in this group were praying for me now.  I know they prayed for me, and one of them especially prayed that I would be a fireball for God.  My aunt, who was a sponsor for me at my baptism, is a Spirit‑filled Christian, and later on she found out what had happened to me  ‑‑ I will tell you briefly here in a bit  ‑‑ and she said, “Good.  My prayers have been answered.”  She had been praying for decades, a couple of decades almost.

 

          Well, in January we took a long trip from Fargo to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to sing, be special music and be part of this conference on the Holy Spirit.  Okay.  And I went to this, and there were 2,000 people there sitting in this gymnasium, and it was worship like I had never seen or experienced before, and people sang and were standing.  Many had their hands raised, and I thought, “I’m the only one who’s here whose hands are not raised.  I better put them up, you know.  I don’t know.  Maybe they all have to go to the bathroom or something.”  But I didn’t understand what was going on, but yet I could tell there was something about that meeting and the presence of God there. 

 

          But still I wasn’t all that interested.  I needed, what I learned to be later, what I found out what happened, I needed a breakthrough of the Holy Spirit.  It was the job of the Holy Spirit and his function, his role that very night in January ‑‑ it was 30 below zero and we almost didn’t go because of the cold ‑‑ because he took what the Scriptures say and turned me to Jesus. 

 

          And how did it happen?  Well this was a charismatic meeting.  It was a conference on the Holy Spirit.  In between some of the songs, some of the people would come down front to a microphone sitting out and say some message, and that was nice, and still I didn’t really listen.  I was kind of putting in my time.  And then just before the speaker came to speak to us, a man walked down.  He opened his mouth, and it wasn’t Norwegian, it wasn’t German. It wasn’t anything I had ever heard before, but it was a message given in tongues.  I remembered at that moment, and it was the Holy Spirit, I realize now who brought to my remembrance, “Oh, yeah, wasn’t there something about that in the Bible?”  And what was happening?  My attention was now focused.  Then the leader of the meeting said, “We have been given a message in tongues.  Let’s pray for the interpretation so we can know what God is saying to us.”

 

          And friends, I wanted to know.  These other people came up to the mike and were speaking words of prophecy, also mentioned in scripture, but my ears were dull.  But this sign came, a sign of the power and the presence of God through people, the work of the Holy Spirit, and it got my attention.  I think as a what, 18, 19‑year‑old boy or young man at that time, I was looking for something to commit my life to, and I was looking for something worthy of my commitment.  I was starting to make career decisions, starting to form my adult life, and I wasn’t very satisfied.  I really had committed myself to basketball, but that wasn’t worth getting committed to, and now as a freshman in college. 

 

          Then shortly after another person got up and he said these words, something like this:  “My spirit and the cleansing water of my spirit avails for you.”  Avail, I wasn’t really sure what all that meant.  But then the message, “Come now before it’s too late.  Come to me.  Return to me.  Come to Jesus.”

 

          Isn’t that the Holy Spirit, not to call unto himself, but unto Jesus.  And it hit me.  I remember it was just like those words just hit my chest.  The rest of the time there my eyes were open, my ears were open.  What is this?  I mean, is God not really on the other side of the moon?  Is He doing something in people’s lives today?  And I’ll tell you, it wasn’t so much the outward expression of the gift of the spirit as it was that God was interested in being active in people’s life. 

 

          Then through the course of the weekend, I saw a woman who could hardly walk because of arthritis come down front.  This man -- you know, it could have been anybody there -- laid his hands on her, and she bent over, touched her toes, stood up straight, and was healed by God.  This made a huge impact on me, and we had a seven‑hour drive back home, and I had seven hours’ worth of questions for these other nine people, and they answered them very well.  The next Thursday night, I remember I was alone in my dorm room, and I said, “God, I repent.  Forgive me of my sins.  I’m giving my life to you.  I want you in my life.”  And what a change, what a conversion.

 

          I could go on and on.  But one of these people on the team said to me the next weekend, because I went and told one of the girls singing on our singing team what had happened and what I did that Thursday night, and there was great joy among everybody there.  And she said, “Now you have to pray for the Holy Spirit and his power to come into your life.”

 

          Do you know him?  Let’s take a look at our scripture today, Romans, chapter 8, 9 through 11.  I would say that you may have a variety of experiences of the Holy Spirit, but what the scripture is about is that you need to know the Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  That’s what we are focusing on this summer.  And you can experience Him.  How many people know about God and His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but do you know Him?  Do you have a relationship with Him?  Let’s look at these words.

 

    This is Romans 8, verses 9 through 11:  “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.”  

 

          This whole chapter, if you want to memorize something, what a great chapter, the whole chapter of Romans 8.  And look at these words here, just to back up a bit from the Holy Spirit and our focus to the Trinity, the words Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Christ, and Jesus in this text are all used synonymously.  Look at it.  “You are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,” still talking about the same thing, “he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin.”  “And if the spirit of God is living in you,” “the Spirit.”  And you get my point.  This is one consolidated text where we find evidence for the Trinity, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and when you ask Jesus to come into your heart and your life, you do get a three‑for‑one deal.  He brings the Father and the Holy Spirit with Him, and the Holy Spirit does dwell in all believers.  Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord and says “Jesus Christ is my Lord and my King,” you do so by the Holy Spirit.

 

          But the Bible talks about, and we will get into this in succeeding weeks,  about an empowering, an encounter with the Holy Spirit, and we’ll talk more about that later on.

 

          When you ask Jesus into your heart, you get all three.  And then Jesus said, “And by the way, I’m going to bring the whole church in too.”  And this is where sometimes we have problems.  You have met people who have said, “Well, I’m a Christian.  I believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but I just don’t know if I get along with the church that well.”  Well, friends, when you ask Jesus into your heart, you are part of His body along with all the rest of us.  We are linked together.  If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit, if the Spirit is not in you, the scripture here is black and white, you do not belong to him.  Don’t pretend anything else. 

 

          Do you know him who lives in you?  Does he live in you?  Do you have the Spirit of Christ in you?  Could it be that you’re like me where you’re sitting in the church, going to church, president of the Luther League, and do not have the Spirit of Christ within you?  He dwells in you. 

 

          And here is one of my favorite verses.  “The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you."  How amazing is that?  What happened at that time?  Jesus died on the cross.  Just after some six hours of bearing the sins of the world, He died.  And what happened?  There was a great thunderstorm and the earth turned dark.  Some said it could have been a solar eclipse that occurred right at that time.  I don’t know.  But the earth turned dark, a demonstration of God’s power, His presence, and of the darkness of sin. 

 

          But then He was raised from the dead, and scripture says a number of things about what happened at that time.  The curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, and it’s said that this curtain of the temple was thick.  It was very heavy, some even say inches, six inches thick, and it was torn.  No human being could tear such a curtain.  It was torn from the top to the bottom, a very big curtain.  It illustrated and symbolized what had been the place of the Holy Spirit, the Holy of Holies in the temple of God, was now fulfilling prophecy that Joel had spoken, given out to all people, all who call on His name.  Anyone who has Christ in their hearts would now have the Holy Spirit in them. 

 

          Do you know the Holy Spirit who dwells in you?

 

          It says in the book of John or one of the gospels  ‑‑ I should have looked it up  ‑‑ at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, there were some who came out of their graves and walked around Jerusalem.  That’s like the night of the living dead.  Can you imagine that picture?  You read that, read past that, you don’t maybe realize this was an incredible thing. 

 

          And what does it say in Romans 8, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and in me.  How amazing is this?  If we could capture some of who this Holy Spirit is, do you know him today?  And if we would focus on the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and in all of us who believe and not focus so much on our problems and on our questions, on our unbelief but on the Word of God, and make him great, magnify him in that way, what an amazing power and love and presence of the Holy Spirit we would become aware of.

 

          Of course, most spectacularly, Jesus rose from the dead and walked around for weeks and then was raised up into heaven.  The same spirit that did that dwells in you and in me.

 

          Who is this Holy Spirit?  John uses the word Paraclete, and we don’t have an English word that is equivalent to the word Paraclete.  It means Comforter.  It means Counselor.  It means guide, teacher.  These are some of the words to describe the Holy Spirit that lives in believers.  The Greek words para means alongside of, and kletos the verb form from which the noun clete is made.  Kletos means to call.  So the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, is someone who is called to be alongside of us, and even more than that, to be within us.  The scripture also uses the words “upon us”.  It is hard to put into terms, into English and into words when we talk about spiritual matters, but that’s what the Bible is about, and that’s what the word is, and that’s what we come to experience.

         

          Jesus said it was better for Him to go because He would call the Holy Spirit to come alongside of us, to guide us, to counsel us, to teach us, to comfort us.  So the Holy Spirit is in you and he’s in me.  How do you come to know him?  It’s by practicing awareness of his presence in us and through us.  When you read the Scriptures, when you pray, when you come to church, you remind yourself of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  It’s Christ in us, the Holy Spirit within us.  He’s not just a doctrine or a concept.  He’s a person.  He doesn’t call attention to himself, but he has a distinct role.  He takes what is Jesus and he brings it to us.  This is who the Holy Spirit is.  It’s his interest as he dwells in us to make the work and the power and the words of Jesus happen in you and in me. 

 

          I don’t know about you, but when I read the Bible, I’m interested in not just finding out some historical facts, I’m interested in having it apply to my life.  And more than that, these words are the Word of God, so we believe, and I know it’s true, and the Holy Spirit is there to bring it to our remembrance.  He is there within us and to make these words become true to our lives. 

 

          I want to experience it.  Don’t you?  Don’t you want to see and experience what happened as we read in the Bible?  And at that conference some 20 years ago, that’s what ignited me in my faith.  That’s what made me want to turn around, because I thought, you know, this isn’t just a book about history.  It’s not just a story of something that happened.  It’s happening over and over again in our lives.  And this, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit.  He said, “Ask anything.”  Jesus said this about seven times in the Gospels, and in the New Testament it’s recorded 14 times.  When you think of this, “Ask anything in my name and it will be given to you.”

 

          Later on after this conference when this girl who was part of our team said, “Now you need to pray for the Holy Spirit to come and empower you,” I thought, “Well, great, fine.”  I had never heard of some of the controversy in some of the churches about saying, “Well, the gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit was only done back at the time of Jesus because it was needed then to get the church started, but now we don’t need those things any more.”  As if to say we don’t need healing any more, huh?  Or we don’t need to be set free any more?  It really does not stand up to good Biblical exegesis to say that these things are not going on any more. 

 

          Anyway, I was oblivious to all of that, and I said, “Well, fine.”  She gave me a book to read, and I read about the Holy Spirit, and later on encountered him.  I’ll tell you, when Jesus says ask anything, I found the empowering of the Holy Spirit to be prominent in this way, that what I asked for seemed to get answered more often.  Maybe it was because I was praying more along the lines of what God wanted.  Maybe it was that my eyes were opened to see the answers to prayer that God was giving.  I don’t know.  But there was a power in prayer that the Holy Spirit brings to each of us.  How little we pray when there are such great promises.

 

          Do you know him?  The Spirit of God is a distinct person of the Trinity who dwells in believers.  He is manifest, that is, he shows himself through you in your own personality.  The Holy Spirit works in Bob Cottingham in the Bob Cottingham way and in Sandi Cottingham in the Sandi Cottingham way.  And it’s not the same, is it, between the two of you?  And the same for you. 

 

          I remember asking people this question on a few occasions.  When the Holy Spirit came into you and you were empowered with the Holy Spirit, was it like you became something totally different that you weren’t happy with?  If so, raise your hand.  And I have never seen anybody say, “Well, no, that was a bad gift” or “I wasn’t happy.” More often people say, “I’m really more who I am, just me.” 

 

          There was a girl at a Bible camp that I worked with a few years later.  She was going to go into seminary to go into ministry.  I began to talk with her about what happened in my life about the empowering of the Holy Spirit. I’ll never forget this.  She said, “Well, I want the Holy Spirit, but I don’t want to have anything to do with those gifts of the Holy Spirit.”  I said, “That’s fine.  The gifts and the Holy Spirit are different.”  He gives those gifts, and you know why?  Because she had an image about who the Holy Spirit was and what he does to some people and how their personalities express the Holy Spirit that she couldn’t identify with.  She didn’t want to have to jump up and down and spin around three times and spit on her shoulder if she was going to pray, whatever.  You know, you don’t have to get worked up.  She just wanted to be herself, but she wanted to live her life out as a Christian. 

 

          Later that day she asked me to lay hands on her, and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come.  And what happened?  That very day she began to experience several gifts of the Holy Spirit, and she said, you know, “It feels good.  It’s just so natural.  It’s so normal.” 

 

          Do you know him who is within you?  “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets,” it says in 1st Corinthians 14:32.  And what does that mean?  What does that mean, the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets?  It means just what we were just talking about, that we have this option to quench or grieve or suppress or neglect or ignore or reject the person of the Holy Spirit within us.  Or, we can yield to him, listen, follow that inner witness.  We can take a step of faith.  We can invest in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, he’s a gentleman.  The spirit of the prophets is subject to us, to the prophets, to a believer.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  He’s not going to push and force himself on you.

 

          Do you know him?  Is he within you?  Could it be that to know him is to invest in his indwelling presence in these kinds of ways?  By His Spirit we are able to put to death the deeds of the body.  Many are trying to do this in their own strength.  The Holy Spirit has been given to us for our own good.  It is a good gift.  He is a good gift.  Ask for the Holy Spirit.

 

          Luke 11:13, if even sinful persons like ourselves -- and the scripture uses the word fathers on this Father’s Day -- if even sinful fathers like ourselves know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more is our Heavenly Father going to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him? 

 

          We have three holidays, big holidays in the church year.  One is Christmas where we celebrate the birth of Jesus into this world.  Another one is Easter when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus after he died.  The third one is not as big a holiday, but it is a big deal.  We don’t celebrate it as much, but it is a big deal.  It is the third big holiday, and that’s Pentecost where we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who believe.

 

          How about you?  Do you know the Holy Spirit within you?  Do you have your own Christmas?  Christmas is celebrated December 25th, but do you have a day when Christ was born into your heart?  Do you have an Easter, your Easter where He was raised up?  We were all baptized with Him and were baptized into His death, if you have been baptized, and then you are raised with Him into newness of life.  When Christ is born into your heart, you then can let him become Lord and King, let Him be raised up.  If the Son of Man is raised up, He will draw all of us unto Himself, and you and I can raise Him up, place Him as Lord and King, and recognize that He is in charge of all things and all events, and with Him nothing is impossible. 

 

          But still, do you have a third day, a Pentecost experience, a time where the Holy Spirit came upon you?  And throughout the course of this summer as we focus on who the Holy Spirit is and various aspects as scripture talks about it, when you’re ready, if you have not had someone lay hands on you or pray for you or something -- we’re gentleman, hopefully, like the Holy Spirit does not push himself on us.  But if you say, “Look, I want to ask for the Holy Spirit,” and this kind of thing happens in a variety of ways, but Biblically and today most commonly it is when another Spirit‑filled believer prays with you and asks for the Holy Spirit to come in his presence and his power upon and within you.

 

          Do you have your own Pentecost?  I heard a preacher say once, “Pentecost at any cost.”  We must depend on the Holy Spirit and his power. 

 

          Do you know him?  Do you know who he is and how he is at work in you?

 

          We’re going to close in prayer.  We’ll continue this series week after week through the course of the summer, and after a few announcements and closing, as we always do, we’ll have opportunity for people to come for prayer, your Christmas, your Easter, your Pentecost, and, of course, if any other matter is on your heart or mind, we are always glad to join with you in prayer.  Let’s pray at this time. 

 

          Lord, we thank you for your word and for the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ who was been sent, and Lord, we want to know him.  Holy Spirit, we want to know you.  We thank you that you are our Comforter and our Guide, our Teacher, our Counselor, and that you are with us, alongside with us.  And we say come, Holy Spirit.  We also say Lord, we know you are here already and we remember and we look to you and we depend on you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I ask you, Lord, I ask you Jesus now to send the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit into this room, and I pray for people whose God-ordained time is this morning, much the same as that weekend for me in Eau Claire, Wisconsin was.  As I look back on it, it was your plan, but at the time it felt like I needed to take some steps and it was my action.  And Lord, I pray that you would give freedom and a calling to the hearts of people today to know and experience the Holy Spirit and his love, his gentleness, his counsel, his power and strength, his touch. 

 

          Come Holy Spirit, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.