Have We Been Readied To Receive The Spirit And Father With Christ as Master Over Our Lives?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we have a come to Jesus meeting for we are looking at the inevitable reality of death. And we could ask why me? But that would not be all that helpful. Regardless there is a need to be made ready for that inevitable day when we must give an answer and an accounting. We eventually will be called and compelled to respond. The question I pose now is, Have We Been Readied To Receive The Spirit And Father With Christ as Master Over Our Lives?
Scripture: But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
Acts 7:55-60 (NRSV)
“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 (NRSV)
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus sets a tremendous example for us of how to love in a profound union with the Father and the Holy Spirit in a dance of complete love and mutual eternal indwelling. He even shows us how to deal with impending doom in a way that goes beyond time. He shows that the peace of his presence can trump any chaos. The sentiments expressed in the John 17 prayer reveal the intimacy and union Jesus enjoys with his Father and that we are to share. This is the Spirit of encouragement that is eternal. The boundary between time and eternity is gone. Jesus is on his way to the Father, a sort of spiritual ascension long before the physical one. The prayer is saturated with a sense of urgency, that is not of Chronos time, historical time, but of Kairos time, salvation time. This scripture is designed to give us both an intimate knowledge of God and enjoyment of God’s character and nature in the Spirit of love. Here we consider the eternity of our heart. Here we see what God is like, what God likes and what God would like us to be and become and believe. And the nature of this prayer is an intercession that does not cease and will not until all is completed. It was being prayed before the foundation of the world, is being prayed right now. And here love, Jesus’ favorite way of describing the name, character, essence of God, supersedes the idea of unity. That we may be one, as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, becomes that we may be love as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are love.
And So, I figure that people go to Church to experience God. Some think they get it through fellowship. Some think they get it through music. Some think they get it through the sharing of the Word and sacraments. Some think they can find salvation by being part of Holy History in the witness of a miracle. But it is all that and much more. You see we all desire an encounter with God, but it is a relationship modeled after the accord of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…a mystery based on a word not even found in the Bible that requires our faith and works to improve and restore us. This approach is central to the Christian faith. And frankly if we believe the Athanasian Creed, the thought of its implications should bring us to our knees in the wisdom of the knowledge that the only thing that saves us is being in unanimity about this three-part harmony. Friends, we are to worship one God in three persons in perfect agreement. And getting to this point is not easy. If you know anything about the early history of the Church, you probably know the struggles people had with believing Jesus was the Son of God and fully God. That is why we say, in the Nicene Creed, “being of one substance with the Father,” “very God of very God.” This three in one approach is not just for our belief but also for our adoption in the Holy Spirit. Count it One, Two, Free. Maybe we do not learn it but somehow are claimed by this mystery of grace instead. Indeed, the Trinity works in unity for our redemption in mysterious ways.
Pray we have a triune relationship with the Lover of Creation in the form of the Father and the Beloved in the person of Jesus and his sacrifice and through the act of love in the power and relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Pray we realize that if we try to understand the doctrine of the trinity, we may lose our minds, but if we deny it we may very well lose our souls. Pray
we realize that we cannot neatly divide the work of God between the three persons of the Trinity, giving a specific part to each. Pray still, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, set up a divine kingdom in our midst. Pray the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God rule with mercy on all us sinners in the continuing work of God’s creation. Pray the Holy Spirit, breathe of the living God, renew each of us and in turn transform all the world. Pray, even as we pray in this way that we realize that in the mystery of it all, creation is not the Father’s alone. Pray we realize that redemption is not limited to the work of the Son. Pray we realize that regeneration does not belong to the Holy Spirit alone. Pray we realize that the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts when each part is infinite but in our finite minds our encounter with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is made greater because of their unity given we are made in this image. Pray therefore we imitate Jesus praying to the Father for the Holy Spirit to indwell with believers in the unity of love. Pray we live a life as a divine baptism of Jesus with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s power redeeming us. Pray we find hope in the Trinity. Pray we find redemption in a divine relationship that makes us whole.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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