Acts: Holy Spirit as Comfort and Correction

That's where we're going to be looking at probably the first half of the book of Acts.

So maybe you're here and you're in high school, or you remember high school 20 years ago or 50 years ago, whatever it was.

And maybe you went to homecoming.

Or if you didn't go, you remember hearing about homecoming, or at least you'll know the feelings because the feelings are why am I wearing this oversized sports coat?

That's number one, because you're 16.

And then does my body fit into this dress?

And for me, 22 years ago, I was uh I was incredibly scrawny.

I mean, take like 30 or 40 pounds off of this frame, and that's what you saw.

So a little bit of an oversized sports coat.

And so that was me with my black and white checkered pants that I bought at DJ's at the mall, which I thought were so sweet.

And I was 16 years old, and I picked up this 15-year-old girl to go with me.

I'd asked her, and she went with me to homecoming, and she had red hair, and I married her, ended up marrying her, so be careful who you take to homecoming when you're 16 years old.

I ended up marrying her.

And she had big, big red hair and a shiny blue dress, really sequence, like that's a sequence.

I think it was all sequence, actually.

It was all sequence.

And I can I can remember getting to the dance, and you've no you know this feeling.

You you get to this.

You walk into the cafeteria, you walk into the gym, you're worried about your sports coat.

How's the dress?

How's the dress?

How is it?

You know, how in all the places, and you walk in, are people noticing me?

Who's here?

Are people looking at me?

Are we gonna go like straight out and dance?

Or are gonna kind of like warm up?

Are we gonna kind of like swing by the refreshments and say hello to a few people and kind of wait for some momentum to build?

Are we gonna go straight out there?

Maybe you're a straight out there person, or maybe you're a refreshment person, you're gonna warm up a little bit.

But inevitably, at a homecoming dance or a dance like that at school, inevitably, at some point, you will end up out there.

And maybe you're just out there in the blob, like in the middle, and you're just kind of, you know, you're so protected, you don't have to do a lot, you know, you know, you you know, you know, you don't have to do the hands, you can just kind of right?

But you're caught up, you're caught up in it, right?

Like you're caught up in that dance.

And it's a great feeling, like that feeling finally when you're when you're in it, right?

Like, compare that to the feeling when you first walk in.

You first walk in, you're anxious, you're afraid, you're nervous, what's going on, you're worried about yourself, how people are viewing you, and then all of a sudden you're caught up in that dance.

And when you're caught up in that dance, there's this feeling like the anxiety goes away, the fear goes away, like you're you're you're in it.

We forget to be nervous and anxious and afraid.

And this is this is actually probably the best image of God.

Because this is paracaresis, which we studied in Genesis chapter 1, the Trinity.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

This is this concept of God that we see throughout the scriptures.

It took us to the third century to call it the Trinity, to understand that there is Elohim, there's God, there is Spirit, and then there's the Word, which we learn is the Christ, which we know in Jesus the Christ, and that this is showing up throughout the scriptures.

And this is known as the Trinity, the paracresis, which means the dance of love.

And so if you've if you've ever experienced when you're in that dance, that blob, and maybe you ain't really shaken up, maybe you're just kind of hopping a little bit, but at least you forget to be anxious and afraid and you're relieved and you're at rest.

Like that's a little taste, right?

That that's what that's that's that's a taste of God, the flow of love that exists in three that dance together and overflow into creation in Jesus the Christ who lives and dies and resurrects.

And then we're reading here in Acts chapter 1, ascends, and as he ascends, he says, By the way, when I ascend, I will send the Spirit to you.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

I will send the Spirit to you, and the Spirit will never leave you.

So three persons God, Spirit, and Jesus.

And so we're gonna look this morning at this spirit.

Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, right?

Even in church says Holy Ghost.

We've been in all different places when it comes to this topic.

The person of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you're here, you've been in churches that talked a lot about the Holy Spirit, a lot about the gifts of the Spirit.

Maybe you've been in churches that were incredibly emotive about the Spirit.

Maybe there was like spirit laughter and there was like gold dust and stuff, and I have my cynical issues on that.

I'll be honest about that.

Or maybe you're here and and you're from a background like where like the spirit's work was always contemplative.

And you're like, was the spirit ever excited?

You're not even sure if the spirit's ever excited, it's just always contemplative and intellectual.

For me, I spent time in church, I was looking back at kind of my life, my life, spent time in a church where there was no talk of the Holy Spirit, church number one.

Church number two, I was in a church where the Holy Spirit only existed to zap you when you screwed up.

And you're going, like, so this is somebody I want a part of my life.

This is a spirit that I want to be engaged with.

It never sounded real appealing to me.

And then in college, the Holy Spirit was presented, the ministry I was a part of, was presented good ministry, but when it came to the Holy Spirit, it was presented as the Holy Spirit favored the ones who had their spiritual act really together.

And that was determined by a predetermined list defined by the people who decided they did have their spiritual act together.

And then what it created, what it created for the rest of us.

And I know it created, not just for me, but for the rest of us, because we talked about it together as groups.

Am I enough?

What's wrong in my life?

I mean, the spirit's doing all this in these people's lives.

They're talking about it all the time.

They're much more emotive than I am.

So what's wrong with me?

What's wrong in my life?

What else do I need to do to be favored like that?

So, wherever you've been, whatever your particular Holy Spirit experience, knowledge, background is, hey, we're glad you're here.

I'm glad you're here.

And we're just going to look at this text this morning, Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

I'll reread verses 4 through 8, a portion of what Sam read.

And while staying with them, this is uh talking about Jesus, and while staying with them, he, Jesus, ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized.

Now that word means to be immersed or to be overwhelmed.

You'll be overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit.

Not many days from now.

So something different is about to happen.

Verse 6.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

They're going like is everything gonna be fixed?

Are we getting the political power back?

And he says, verse 7, he said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria until the end of the earth.

So, what is this power?

Point number one.

This is a reminder of who has always been there, and an introduction of what the relationship will now be.

This is a reminder of who has always been there and an introduction of what the relationship will now be.

Meaning this, the spirit was hovering over the waters in the beginning in Genesis.

The spirit spoke through kings and prophets throughout the Old Testament.

It's not like God was holding the spirit back and the spirit had no activity.

I mean, even in chapter 1, verse 16, it talks about how the spirit had been speaking through people.

But something here is still shifting.

There's still some difference that's about to occur.

Now, if you remember the word for spirit in the New Testament, is the word pneuma or the word breath.

So the spirit is the life force that's always with you.

But also in the scriptures, these are personal pronouns for the spirit.

So it's not an impersonal force.

We can't take away the personhood of the spirit.

So so it's a it's a person-like forever existence with us, and it's as close to you as breath.

So the best metaphor for you to understand spirit is to think about breath because there's nothing closer, but it's like a person that's that close to you.

And the spirit is coming to exist with us, humanity, here in Acts chapter 1, from this point on in history, and a new way to give us some sort of power.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Some sort of power.

Point number two the spirit is not earned or maintained, but given once and for all.

These people didn't even ask for this.

Right?

I mean, they didn't go to Jesus and say, hey, we're noticing we're not doing real well.

Uh you died.

We didn't do real well with that.

We sort of all ran off.

Now we're all afraid.

Um, we're figuring you might go away at some point.

Will you will you give us something?

No, they didn't ask for this.

They definitely didn't earn it.

I mean, they were they were a group that just sort of ran off, and Jesus finds them in a room.

I mean, this is this is God's idea toward them.

This is God's movement towards them.

They're not courageous, they're not faithful, they're not brave.

You know what they are?

They're you and me.

That's what they are.

And the spirit in your life is not about you having your act together.

The spirit in your life is about God's goodness to you as he has chosen to exist in you.

The spirit works in the grace of God, existing in the gospel heartbeat, that by Jesus' death and resurrection in that work, the spirit's a part of your life, not your work toward him.

Because the gospel, the gospel is not.

It is not.

You do more and be enough and do enough and maintain enough.

And if you do all of that, the spirit will be a part of your life.

And if you get your act together up to this level, then the spirit will be a part of your life.

Then the spirit can do something in your life.

The gospel is though you do not do those things perfectly, and you're not perfect.

Jesus' work for you is enough, and he deems you enough, and he deems you righteous, and the spirit will work in your life because you are his.

Point number three.

This is about walking with who already abides fully in you.

This is about walking with who already abides full in you.

It's not about walking good enough in order to have somebody abide in you.

This is about walking with who already fully abides in you.

So here we have this spirit.

When we talk about the spirit, we have um we have complete objectivity, but we also have complete subjectivity, all at once, both objectivity and subjectivity.

Here's what I mean.

If you think it's all objectivity, it's objective, it's true, it's done, there's no personal experience to it, you can turn quite stiff and stale.

Maybe you've known people like that, you've known churches like that.

But if you don't understand the objectivity of the forever gift and take in some personal, right, some personal subjectivity, then you're just the stiffness, you're just the staleness.

But without the subjectivity, if you're just the objectivity, if you're or you're just the subjectivity, no objectivity, right?

If you go the other way, then you're asking those questions.

What what else must I do?

It's all subjective.

I have no objectivity, it's all subjective.

So what else must I do?

Am I enough?

Am I enough now?

Will God move in my life now?

And life turns into a lot of self-evaluation and anxiety.

So maybe Tuesday traffic is bad, and maybe your coworker is a moron, and maybe your test is coming up, and maybe the boy dumps you, and maybe maybe the cancer is back, and maybe you feel ashamed, and you feel like a failure.

So you're not feeling it.

Maybe you're not feeling the spirit working in you today, or on a Tuesday, or on a Friday.

That's fine.

Right?

Like it's not all subjectivity, it's also objectivity.

It's still true, right?

Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it's not true.

There's the gospel freedom for you, that it's the promise to you.

To have to always feel it is bondage to always having to put yourself into the state of feeling it.

But to live knowing you will flow in and out of the reality of the Holy Spirit's forever promised presence in your life.

To know you're going to flow in and out of that, now, now at least you begin to have some freedom from the anxiety and the fear that so much church produces.

Last week I watched the great Atlanta Falcons get whooped by the New England Patriots.

Just salt in the wound, wasn't it?

Just salt in the wound.

If you remember, by about the third quarter, I think, the game was way over.

And about the third quarter, that fog set in on our hearts, and but no, really, fog set in on the stadium, is what happened.

It's like literally, like it was just like a cloud came in.

It was happening to you if you were watching it in your living room, but it was happening in the stadium, fog, and the main cameras up high that show most of the game.

You could you couldn't even see the game.

They had to switch to like the sky cam and the field cameras.

And at one point they switched up to the camera, uh, camera like up in the booth with the commentators, Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth.

It's Sunday night football.

I mean, this is the prime time spot.

Like, like these are this is it.

Like these are the best sports football commentators that exist.

And they're calling the game, and it's getting toward the end of the game.

I'm still watching it.

The fog has settled in, the game is way gone.

It's over.

I'm still watching this.

And I'm thinking to myself, why am I still watching this?

I'm not even that big of an Atlanta Falcons fan, to tell the truth.

These guys are so good.

I'm just listening to them talk.

I love listening to these two guys talk to each other.

They're that good.

They're incredible.

And then it got me thinking about these games on like SCC Network 4, you know, like on my TV, it's like channel 780, and you're like, I didn't know we had a 700s.

I didn't even know it that existed.

And it's like an 11 a.m.

game, and it's sunny out, and the stadium is packed, and the game is tight, and it's fourth quarter, and the commentators are so bad.

You just keep finding yourself changing the channel, or you want to turn it off.

And it makes no sense that you would want to turn it off because the game is tight.

I mean, the sunshine, the stadium's packed, but they're so bad that you just want to turn it off.

And so, what is that?

What is that feeling?

Well, that's the feeling that the commentary occurring is so bad, it's ruining the experience.

And I mention all that because I think it's a little bit of a good way to think about this fleshly self that the New Testament talks about, the false self.

And it's the self that tries to justify or manufacture itself via any means other than God.

It's a self-saving self.

And it says, I don't need to surrender to God, I don't need Christ, I don't need Jesus' death, I don't need grace toward me.

You know what I need?

I need religion, I need moralism, I need some rules, or I need sex or power or control, and I will do these things to justify myself or to manufacture myself.

And it's the bad commentator, is what it is.

It's the false self.

And yet the promise is the that loving, perfect commentator, the gift, the spirit that births the new self inside of us, which is the true self, saved by grace and not merit, and secured by Christ's sufficiency for us.

And that's that good commentator that is constantly speaking into our hearts and our lives.

And Jesus actually teaches us exactly how all this works in John chapter 14, is the midst of much longer conversation, but verse 26 says this but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you.

John 14 · chapter mention

See, there's that pronoun for us to go, oh, it's a person, so it's not just like an impersonal force.

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Now that word helper could also be translated counselor, maybe in in your Bible, and it's even deeper than that because it means to stand alongside and declare.

So let's imagine you are on America Ninja Warrior.

Like you're the you're the contestant, right?

I said imagine.

It's a stretch.

I know.

For most of us, just like walking upstairs to the platform, we all sort of act like I'd like to give that a go.

Yeah, that would go really well.

All right, so that if you rem if you remember, you've seen it, right?

Because I I can't figure out how this works, but they're always like there's always a new round, and I don't know how the ladder works, but they're always like divisional, and then oh, he's out, and I can't figure it out.

I wish they would lay that thing out for us constantly, but there's always somebody qualified, lots of qualifiers going on in this American Ninja Warriors, what I figured out.

I so obstacle course, like like intense, crazy fitness buff obstacle course is always at night, lots of lights, there's water underneath, and there's like crazy stuff for them to go through, and it looks really, really, really hard, right?

And so imagine you're you're on it, it's you, and they always have the loved ones, right?

One or two or three people right down, right up front, and the camera's real close to them.

And so they're down front, and you're about to go.

Your loved ones are down there, and off you go.

And you can hear them, your loved ones.

You can do this, but they always make sure they can be heard.

You can do this, you got this, you were made for this, you can do this, you got it, you can do it, go, you can do it, and you like you do the little leap, the angled leapfrog, and then you go over the the the turning wheels and I don't know, whatever it is, and then you have like several things you hang on to, so your arms are tired, and then you get to like like this plexiglass, vertical plexiglass, and it has these like little hand holds you go across, and you just see it, and you're already worn out, and so you just you're you're done.

You you you just sit down.

You sit down.

You're thinking about quitting, you're kind of shaking it off, but in your mind you're going, I should quit.

There's no way, I can't do this.

And so you sit down, but you hear you hear your loved one again.

You hear them calling out like, no, like, get up, get up, you can do this, you got this, get up, get up, get up, get up.

And so finally you get back up, and you begin across that thing, and you get about halfway, and it just ain't gonna happen for you in the Denver qualifier of American Ninja Warrior at night over water.

And so you drop, and you fall into that pool of water, and you you you climb out of the pool, and you go over to your loved one, and the camera's there.

And what's the first words out of the loved one's mouth?

It's always the same.

You do great.

Oh, we love you.

You did so good.

You can get it next year, you can get it next year, you can train more, you got it, you got it.

Right?

The loved one the entire time is standing alongside to declare.

Declaring comfort and declaring correction in love.

And so Jesus says in Acts chapter 1, you're getting this.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

This is what you're getting.

And if you're still enough, if you are still enough amidst life, you will hear the Spirit in accordance with the gospel and in accordance with the scripture, whispering and speaking to you.

Comfort and correction.

Thursday night, Chris and I went to uh Ellie Holcomb concert in Atlanta, and it was at this this venues, it's called City Winery, and so you sit at tables and you eat while the artist sings.

And so we go in, and Christy had bought the tickets, and so we're going down there, and as we're walking in, I see all the tables, and I just turned to her because I started computing, and I realized we're not with any friends right now, and there's tables of four.

And so I got I just turned her, I said, like, are we sitting with strangers?

Like, is that what's about to play out here?

And I'm gonna like for the next hour, you know, be Mr.

Friendly.

And I'll be all I wanted to do was eat and listen to the concert, right?

Like, you know the feeling, I'm not being obnoxious, right?

You just know the feeling.

And I just turned to her and I said, Are we are we sitting with strangers?

And she said, she said, Yeah, we've only bought two tickets.

I'm like, Oh, great, this is gonna be this is gonna be great.

I can't wait for This.

And we sit down and we meet Billy from Cornelia.

And she was 55 years old, and her daughter was with her, and we start chatting it up, and it doesn't take long.

And me and Billy start having a great time.

And I said, Well, where are you from?

You know, were you originally from Cornelia?

Where are you from?

She said, No, I grew up off of Pleasant Hill Road.

I said, Well, I grew up like right by there, and she said, Oh yeah.

And we talked about, I said, Yeah, I grew up off of Highway 29, and she said, Oh yeah, well, I've lived on that side of Pleasant Hill Road, and we'd be getting going, she said, Well, my in-laws own the RK one stop, and then you gotta be kidding me.

I used to ride my bike to the RK one stop to buy gum and Coca-Cola.

I'm having a blast.

We are talking about dirt roads we rode our bikes on.

Me and Billy, we are having so much fun.

I'm feeling ashamed for my bad attitude because me and Billy is, and then finally I said something about, you know, I went to Bethesda Elementary.

She said, Oh, my in-laws live like two doors down from there.

And I said, Oh, is that toward Miss Beatty's house because she was my kindergarten teacher?

And she said, Oh, you mean this Miss Beatty?

She pulls up a picture on her phone of her and Miss Beatty like a week before.

I can't believe Miss Beatty's alive.

Because really, when I had her, she and I thought she was further along in the process.

And I'm like, she's alive.

And she's like, Yeah, she's alive.

I'll tell her you said hi.

We're having so much fun.

And then so Ellie Holcomb comes out and we have to stop talking, which I wasn't happy about at that point, we're having a good time, we were best friends.

And Ellie Holcomb comes out and begins to sing.

And for me, uh, who gets to come to a lot of church, but not have a lot of church.

Like I was having me some church.

Because that girl can sing, that girl sings some gospel songs, and then like in between the songs, she pretty much kind of preaches some gospel.

And I'm just sitting there and I'm I'm just soaking, I'm just soaking it up.

And the Holy Spirit begins, right?

The counselor who corrects and who comforts and loves, who stands along beside you to declare to you, begins to just declare to me.

Because she's singing about God being faithful.

And the Holy Spirit just begins to declare into my heart like a lot of lies, like revealing a lot of lies I was believing and have been believing about me and my life, and so I'm receiving that.

And then she starts singing the song Magnolia, and the Holy Spirit shifts from correction to comfort, both in love, but shifts over to comfort.

And she's singing these words.

And by the by the way, uh you and I are Magnolia in this song.

Um I think it sounds more poetic than like Steve.

So, you know, if you're a guy, work with it.

Keith, you know, it just doesn't work as good.

So if you're a man, just work with it.

You've been working till your hands they bleed and your eyes can't see.

You've been hoping that you could make it right, but the more you try, the more you're failing.

Oh Magnolia.

You've been walking through this world alone.

No place to call your home except your heartache.

You've been trying to make it all work out.

When the sun goes down, your soul is burdened.

Oh Magnolia, won't you please come home?

Oh Magnolia, you don't have to walk alone.

Oh Magnolia, won't you rest your head on my shoulder?

My brothers and sisters, may you hear the spirit this morning.

You do not have to walk alone.

We have a counselor.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that we are deemed beloved and you give to us your spirit that is as close to us as breath.

And that you care for us enough in all of our imperfection and all the ways that we run and ignore you and your saving grace.

You just keep loving us.

May we hear those words of correction and comfort.

May we yield and repent as to no greater life in you.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.