The Fire of the Spirit
When on holiday, we visited the local Anglican Church in a village. There were few people present. The liturgy was read through as doubtless it had been for the last two centuries. The talk was short and I think it was about the glory of gardening. As we left the vicar said,
“Nice to have you with us.”
And that was that!
That evening I was reading through Luke’s account of the gospel about Jesus Christ and was struck by the way Luke slips in little phrases about the Holy Spirit. He is clearly an active invigorating spirit who brings about radical changes in people.
An angel of the Lord spoke to Zechariah when he was officiating in the Holy Place of the temple and told him that he was going to have a son who he was to call John. The angel said,
“ . . . he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:15-17
In this passage there seems little doubt that the characteristic of God referred to is the winning of many people back to a relationship with God and a determination to follow his ways.
A little later Luke records about John,
“And the child grew and became strong in spirit.” Luke 1:80
What does this mean? Similar concepts are later used on two occasions about young Jesus.
“And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.” Luke 2:40
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.” Luke 2:52
It is most unlikely to mean the two lads grew physically, that is not worth saying. Surely it means they grew in their understanding and commitment to God and therefore appealed to those around them. The Spirit of God was changing people so they could fulfil God’s wishes.
After Jesus’ baptism by John there was a visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit coming to Jesus.
“And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” Luke 3:21-22
The apostle John also records this event (John 1:32). It clearly made an impact on those who were present. This was verification by the Spirit that God was in Christ.
After he had been tested in the wilderness, Jesus began his public ministry. The first story Luke records is of a return visit to Nazareth, possibly a year later as by this time his reputation as a preacher and a healer was already widespread. The wording is again significant.
“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught . . .” Luke 4:14
In the synagogue he was handed a scroll and he started to read from Isaiah chapter 61. It would have been very interesting to hear the emphasis he put on different words.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:18-19
Did Jesus emphasise the words ‘me’, ‘me’, ‘me’ in order to emphasise who he was? Did he emphasise the words, ‘preach’, proclaim’, ‘proclaim’ in order to make it obvious that he was not primarily a healer, but that he had God’s message that he had to deliver to all people. Luke stresses this in the next chapter. After the crowds had been flocking around him, wanting healing and for evil spirits to be cast out, he had a difficult choice to make - was he a preacher or a healer – which was more important?
“At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’ And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”
The Spirit of God was leading him to proclaim the gospel.
In the next few chapters Luke emphasises that many of the people Jesus came into contact with were possessed by unclean spirits.
This is the background story of Luke’s gospel. Jesus is God’s Son, the Messiah, God’s chosen king and he has come to save His people from their sin. This is not just to save us from the penalty of sin, as a sort of insurance policy, it is much more than that. Jesus came to overcome sin in us, to deliver us from the power of Satan. We are all naturally subject to the temptations of Satan and fall for his lies so often.
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, orgies, and the like.” Galatians 5:19-21
Jesus came not just to forgive but to change our natures.
George repeatedly returned to see his doctor with a wide variety of symptoms. He was anxious, not sleeping and had chest pains for which no obvious cause could be found. His Christian doctor repeatedly tried to help but problems kept recurring. At yet another consultation it dawned on the doctor that at root this may be a spiritual problem. George had no purpose in life, he felt guilty about so many aspects of his life. The doctor took out his prescription pad but this time, instead of prescribing more sedatives and sleeping pills, he wrote down the telephone number of a local Christian minister. George did phone the minister and was invited round for a meal. He then started to join in a Bible Study group in the minister’s home and subsequently joined their ‘Christianity Explored’ group. The message was clear. The Lord Jesus wants to step into people’s lives and change them for the better, for good. George recognised that he had real needs and asked the Lord Jesus to step into his life and help him start again. George came to love his new Lord and the Word of God. He was very bright and worked hard and became an able Bible teacher very quickly and within a year could lead the Bible studies. He is now a key worker in the church who cares deeply for others – a changed man. Such is the work of God’s Spirit, George has clearly been born again.
Baptism by Fire
John the Baptist prepared people for the coming of God’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus. He said,
“I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11-12
Baptism with the Holy Spirit surely means that we have the same Spirit of God and are motivated and empowered to live for Him, in His way. As we have already seen, this is Christian conversion. I receive God’s Spirit when I put my faith in, that is commit my whole being to the Lord Jesus. I have just met up with a young lady who had no Christian background. She had brought her son to join in an evening children’s party organised by the church. She was full of questions about the Christian faith. When she left I gave her a copy of my book ‘Cure for Life’. Two months later she wanted to talk again. She had started attending a church in her home town and felt cared for by the Christians there. She was fascinated and impressed by the Christians she had met but it soon became clear that she had yet to commit herself to the Lord. It is only that submission that brings about the gift of the Holy Spirit that will make her a Christian and have her name written in God’s Book of Life.
But is baptism with fire a separate event to conversion or is it the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life?
At Pentecost everyone in the church was baptised in the Spirit. The young church believed in Jesus but had not experienced the changing power of the Holy Spirit. This was not a personal event – it was the gift of God to the whole church. Just as when Jesus was baptised, this auspicious event was associated with physical events.
“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” Acts 2:2-3
After this they found that they could speak in foreign languages that they had not learned. Later people from other nations were able to understand as the gospel was explained to them in their own languages. These were not just noises but real languages.
The tongues of fire were seen by all and the rest of the book of Acts makes the symbolism clear. The Christians were to have their ‘tongues on fire’ to share the message about Jesus Christ. But there is probably more to the fire symbolism.
For most people the coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives is experienced as a change in attitude to everything to do with Jesus. This may or may not be associated with an overwhelming ‘Wow’ experience. For many this love for Jesus comes as they grow up in a Christian family. There be subsequent emotional experiences during a Christians life but emotions must not be mistaken for the work of the Spirit. However a work of the Spirit may well be associated with an emotional climax. Blaise Pascal was a brilliant French mathematician and philosopher. On November 23rd 1654 he had an overwhelming experience of God.
“From about half-past ten in the evening till about half-past twelve
FIRE
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars.
Certainty. Certainty. Feeling. Joy. Peace.”
The important feature of this work by God’s Spirit was that Pascal’s life was changed.
John Wesley also has a vivid emotional experience on May 24th 1738.
“Went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
The fire of the Spirit changed John Wesley from then on. Howevert is not the emotion that should be emphasised but the subsequent change. The Greek word for ‘baptism’ means to ‘completely suffuse’. In classical Greek it has been used of a sunken ship suffused with water. What matters when a person is suffused with God’s Spirit is that subsequent longing to live for the Lord Jesus, to please him. It does not matter whether there is an ecstatic emotional experience or not; that will pass in any case. The evidence of the Spirit is a changed life that overflows to others.
Fire discloses and refines
It is important to remember that in the Bible, light and fire were synonymous. Homes were lit in the evenings by burning candles and lamps.
The East African Revival began in Ruanda in the 1930s and spread to adjacent countries. The churches were being held back by personal sin in their members. They learned that Jesus did not just come to forgive past sin but to change peoples’ attitudes to sin profoundly. Small groups of men and women, often young, urged people to come into God’s light and to publicly confess their sins. The East African churches had many nominal Christians whose lifestyles did not match up to their profession. The openness of these Christians was so attractive and many joined in the Balokole movement. Balokole is a Lugandan word meaning ‘the saved ones’. The effect of this fire spread rapidly. Missionaries from East Africa travelled widely urging us to be open with God and come into His light. This teaching is not just for revivalist groups -it is for all Christians. At the final judgment that we will all have to face, we will be assessed on how we have lived; the dross will be burnt and the valuable will remain.
“If any man builds on this foundation (Jesus Christ) using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.” 1 Corinthians 3:12-13
The Bible warns that we should all repeatedly reassess how we are living. The apostle John wrote,
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; and in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5-7
Repentance is not just being sorry for past sins, it is a turning from the rule of sin to the rule of Christ.
A major problem in many contemporary churches is the growth of worldliness. The resulting sexual immorality, anger, family breakdown, financial irregularities and lack of commitment to God’s people are all too common symptoms. The church is to be in the world – but not of it. The nineteenth century Christian leader, D. L. Moody wisely said,
“The place for the ship is in the sea, but God help the ship if the sea gets into it.”
No wonder many churches are static; they have been waterlogged by waves of worldliness. The Spirit not only discloses such problems but also refines the church.
In 1517 a young scholarly monk, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg church. He intended to start a discussion about the erroneous beliefs and damaging practices that he perceived in the Roman Catholic Church to which he then belonged. His first thesis is very significant.
“When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
In other words true Christians have turned from self to live for Christ. Without such a lifelong turning a person is not yet a Christian, not yet born of the Spirit.
The Spirit leads us to want to become like Christ in spite of repeated deviations from this path. The Dundee preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne prayed,
“Lord, make me as holy as it is possible for a saved sinner to be.”
Such is good evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in a person.
Fire illuminates, glows and changes
One of the joys of regularly running ‘Christianity Explored’ groups for enquirers is to see the light gradually dawn on people. The Bible comes alight and its message is exciting. This also is the work of the Spirit. People change from being critical and even aggressive to being appreciative and thoughtful. This also is the work of the Spirit.
If you have been to a glass blowing centre you will have seen an illustration of this. The glass is made by heating up silica sand and other ingredients in a furnace. The result is a red molten viscid liquid. The glass blower then dips a hollow rod into the molten glass and begins to shape it by all sorts of means. Then the finished product appears. So it is with Christians, we are changed by the Spirit of God but first we have to be melted by him. We cannot be moulded into an article useful for his purposes without the Spirit melting our hearts, any impurities are removed during this process.
The problem with this analogy is that it suggests that the making of a Christian is a once only event. It starts that way but the Christian life is one of repeatedly returning to God to be remelted, repurified and remoulded so that we become more useful servants. Chasing experiences never makes a person holy, only a contrite heart, open to live God’s way, will do that.
Fire of the Spirit invigorates
What a wonderful sight it is to see an individual, a family and especially a church on fire for the Lord Jesus. There is a deep sensitive longing to be effective for Christ. People find a boldness to invite friends and those they meet to hear about the gospel. Salvation means o much to them. Some years ago I was travelling on a bus in Kenya when a young lady stood up at the front of the bus and explained to us all that she had recently become a Christian, had been forgiven her past sin and wanted to live for Jesus Christ. She was so sensitive in the way she spoke, this was not harsh cajoling but a genuine appreciation of the Lord who had entered this world and died for her.
I remember when I was studying for the final FRCS, I attended course in orthopaedics at Rowley Bristow Hospital. Mr. Graham Appley, the famous orthopaedic teacher who ran the course demonstrated patients to the whole group. One patient was a retired soldier, General Sir Arthur Smith, who had a stable pseudoarthrosis of his left tibia which intermittently discharged. When Mr. Appley had finished discussing his case, the General, then aged 92, asked if he could say something to the large group of doctors there.
This is what he said in his military public school voice,
“I sustained this injury when I was hit by a piece of shrapnel at Ypres, during the Battle of the Somme. My foot was just dangling about. I was taken to a field hospital, a Nissan hut, and was put in the last bed at the end. Everyone was very worried about my foot, they thought I would have to lose it, but I asked them to patch it up as best they could. I didn’t know what would happen. The next morning I read my ‘Daily Light’, which for those of you who don’t know consists of portions of the Bible, God’s Word to us, by which I live my life. I read for that day the words,
“The Lord is thy confidence, He shall stop thy foot from being moved.”
The whole group of us burst out laughing at this point, we were gripped by this story.
“At the base hospital,” the General continued, “a doctor said that it would have to come off. ‘Not so,’ I exclaimed, and to this day I have my foot to remind me of God’s faithfulness. I do hope that all of you young men here will come to find that God is faithful, and that you can trust him.”
The group of us spontaneously erupted into a combination of applause and enthusiastic laughter. On the way back in the train we all talked about the testimony of that courageous old soldier. I shall never forget seeing an elderly Christian on fire in the service of the Lord Jesus.
The Holy Spirit always centres on the Lord Jesus. Churches can be very active in meeting social concerns but leave Jesus out. This is not the work of the Spirit. It is good to meet social needs but the prime purpose of the church is to give glory to the Lord Jesus. Social activity without promoting Christ always results in a dying church. In contrast a church on fire for Christ, like a fire, will spread.
Fire is powerful and spreads
Very soon after the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven the Holy Spirit descended on the church with gifts that demonstrated the ascended power and authority of Jesus. They marked the demise of Christ’s enemies through his church. Paul, quoting Psalm 68:18 wrote,
“When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” Ephesians 4:7-8
The gift of the Holy Spirit to the church is to enable us to display the glory of God to those around us just as a bride is made attractive for her husband.
The Spirit does not protect God’s people from the problems of living in a fallen world, he empowers us to overcome the difficulties through our relationship with the Lord Jesus. What a disaster it is to reassure people that because they are Christians their problems will disappear. The following appeared in a Christian magazine,
“My husband . . .and I were youth directors in our church . . .when our 2½ year old son accidentally drowned. We had lived for the Lord and never lost anyone. We thought we would be spared such things. I went through four years numb, not understanding, not accepting my anger, continuing to try to be strong. I really was not talking to anyone about the pain and finally went into deep depression.”
The work of the Holy Spirit is to mould us into becoming like Jesus. This is supernatural. He is certainly not a magical panacea by which all problems can be avoided. That is not the Bible’s teaching. Jesus suffered, the apostles suffered and so will we as we live for Christ.
Some churches have been described as ‘God’s frozen people’ when they should be ‘God’s chosen people’. The fire of God can change us into beings on fire for his glory. In the Methodist revival that followed the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitfield there were many who were critical. Similar criticisms follow most revivals. One person was openly critical of the evangelistic methods of D.L. Moody. Mr Moody replied,
“Frankly, sir, I prefer the way I do it to the way you don’t do it.”
How we need to rekindle the fire of God’s Spirit in our churches today, to be a holy people set apart for the glory of God because we are sure of his love for us, both now and in eternity.
BVP
