Come Holy Spirit: (1 Thessalonians 5:14-24)
This Sunday at ResLife NYC we walked through 1 Thessalonians 4 beginning in verse 14:
"And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idol, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
This list of demands seems pretty impossible. Is it realistic that you could actually be patient with everyone? Have you ridden the subway lately? How could I possibly be kind to everyone, even the people who have done me wrong? Joyful always? Are you kidding me?
But perhaps the middle of the passage reveals the missing factor in the lives of so many Christians: "Do not put out the Spirit's fire." It is only through the transformative and empowering filling of the Holy Spirit that anyone can live the kind of beautiful and hope-filled life the Bible describes.
In Acts 19:1-2 “Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Like so many Christians. They didn’t even realize what they were missing.
Then we unpacked a long and powerful passage of Scripture in Romans 8:1-18: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
And from this point on, the Bible starts to paint the CONTRAST between
living according to our own flesh
versus living according to Spirit of God in us
Check it out. Verse 5 continues:
"Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ."
"But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life 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 because of his Spirit who lives in you."
"Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."
"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The Bible says you can’t truly live out what it looks like to be in the image of Christ in your own strength! You’re going to just keep running around as messed up and discouraged as everybody else in this crazy city.
But the Holy Spirit can make you miraculously different. God wants to make you more beautifully like Christ, in a way that is so radically different from how most people around us live.
Have you confessed and fully surrendered everything to the Lord? Have you invited the Holy Spirit to come and fill you, transform you, and make you more like Christ?
Perhaps you could pray and do that now.