What does the Holy Spirit do?

(Jn. 3.5-8)

"What does the Holy Spirit do today?"

Let's have a moment quiet in which you can think how you might answer that question. We know that the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God,

but... what exactly does the Holy Spirit do?

(pause)

Well of course there are many different answers to that question, ...and we will be looking at some of them this morning. But I want to begin with what it says in the Nicene Creed.

We say this week by week here in church, ...so lets turn to page 124 and remind ourselves as we say together the second paragraph:

"We believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and Son he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets."

The Holy Spirit is the giver of life.

A new baby is born as the result of the joining together of a man and a woman. Similarly, we are spiritually born as the result of the joining together of the Spirit of God and our spirit.

In our gospel reading next week we will here Jesus speaking to Nicodemus:

"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. (Jn.Ê3.5-6)

The story is told of Sunday school teacher who was trying to explain to children the difference between her physical birth and her spiritual birth. In trying to draw them out on the subject she asked, "Are you born a Christian?" One little boy replied, "No, Miss. You're born normal!".

But he was right in that none of us were Christians when we were first born. And as Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'"

Now Christians vary enormously in their experiences of how their spiritual birth came about:

- some people can put their finger on a precise time and place.

- other people can't put their finger on a precise time and place. For them things have been a lot more gradual. The Holy Spirit has still been working in their lives, ...but it's been more of a gradual growing into faith, as opposed to a sudden conversion.

We are all different, and people become Christians in variety of different ways. That's good! The world would be pretty boring if we were all the same!

The stories of our physical births are all different too.

I was present at the birth of all three of my children, and I could tell you a different story about each of them. They were all painful!, ...(at least for Jan they were!), ...but the stories are each different!

With Emily I was driving to London for an important meeting with a client. I phoned home from a motorway service station and Jan told my that she was in labour; ...but that's another story.

The point is that there's a unique story behind each of our physical births. Some of you may know the details of your birth, others won't. But that's not the most important thing, ...what is more important is the fact that you're alive.

And the same thing is true in the spiritual realm. Jesus said that "no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit". Some of you may know the details of your spiritual birth, others won't. But that's not the most important thing, ...what is more important is whether or not you know that you're spiritually alive.

But here's the crunch. Most people are not spiritually alive, ...they are spiritually dead. And the only way that we can become spiritually alive is through the work of the Holy Spirit.

"We believe in the Holy Spirit, ...the Lord, the giver of life."

So the short answer to the question, "What does the Holy Spirit do?" is simply this: the Holy Spirit gives Christians spiritual life.

In the second half of this sermon, I now want to explore what that means.

You see, when a baby is physically born, it is born into a family. Similarly, when we are spiritually born, we are born into God's family.

Now this is one of things that the Holy Spirit does. He gives us an assurance that we are indeed God's children. In Romans chapter 8, St.ÊPaul writes these words:

"Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's [children]. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, "Father! My Father!". God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children." (Ro. 8.14-16 GNB)

Now as a human father, I want my children to be sure about their relationship with me. I want them to know that I'm their father. And in the same way, the Holy Spirit wants us to be sure that we are God's children.

Billy Bray was a drunken and loose-living miner from Cornwall, born in 1794. He was always getting into fights, but at the age of 29 he became a Christian. He went home and told his wife, 'You will never see me drunk again, by the help of the Lord.' ...And she never did.

Crowds of miners came to hear him preach. Many became Christians, and there were some remarkable healings. He always praised God saying that he had abundant reason to rejoice. He described himself as 'a young prince'. He was the adopted son of God, the King of kings, and therefore he was a prince. His favourite expression was, 'I am the son of a King'. (Questions of Life, p120).

Christians who have this confidence aren't being arrogant or presumptuous, ...they're simply listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit helps us to develop this family relationship. In Romans chapter 8, St. Paul goes on to say that Holy Spirit helps us to pray (v26), ...and elsewhere in the New Testament Paul tells us that the Spirit helps us to know God better (Eph. 1.17).

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit also helps us to grow into the family likeness.

People often say to me that it's obvious which are my children, ...because they all have blonde hair. They have the Pringle family likeness.

Well the Holy Spirit wants Christians to grow into God's family likeness. In a nutshell, he wants us to become more and more like Jesus. This isn't something that happens overnight, but the Holy Spirit slowly changes us, ...and as He does so, the fruit of the Spirit begin to grow.

In Galatians chapter 5 we read that the Holy Spirit produces:

"love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control".

All these things are evidence of the family likeness. They are called the fruit of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit slowly grows them in us like fruit.

Finaly, the Holy Spirit helps us to become disciples of Jesus.

God doesn't simply call us to believe in Jesus, (although that is a vital step), ...But he calls us to be disciples of Jesus.

When Jesus walked among humankind there was a certain simplicity to being a disciple of Jesus. Primarily it meant to go round with him, to literally follow him, in an attitude of study, obedience and imitation. There were no correspondence courses. One knew what to do and what it would cost. Simon Peter exclaimed "We have left everything to follow you!" (Mt. 10:28) Families and occupations were deserted for long periods to go with Jesus as he walked from place to place.

The mechanics are not the same today. We cannot literally be with him in the same way as his disciples could. But the priorities, ...the intentions, ...the inner attitudes of disciples are forever the same.

There is a decision to make: the decision to devote oneself to becoming like Christ. The disciple is one who, intent upon becoming Christ-like, systematically and progressively re-arranges his or her affairs to that end.

By these actions, even today, one enrols in Christ's training, and becomes his pupil or a disciple.

But we can't do it on our own. If we try we will certainly fail. We can only do it with the help of the Holy Spirit.

So we return to question with which we started:

"What does the Holy Spirit do?"

We have seen that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. When he comes into our lives we become spiritually alive. Without the Holy Spirit we are spiritually dead. Jesus said that:

"...no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit."

When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives we are born into a God's family. One of the things that He then does is to give us the assurance that we are indeed God's children.

And the Holy Spirit also helps us to become not just believers, but disciples of Jesus.

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

Prayers

In the power of the Holy Spirit, let us pray.

For a fresh in-breathing of life and power in each church community, which breaks down our barriers and sets us on fire with God's love.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

hear our prayer

For the grace to see this world with its needs and problems through the eyes of love, hope, justice and mercy; for the grace to abandon prejudice and build bridges of reconciliation.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

hear our prayer

For the Spirit of loving kindness to fill our homes, schools and places of work; for family rifts to be healed and long-standing conflicts resolved.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

hear our prayer

For the restoration of those who are sick to wholeness and well-being; for courage and patience in all suffering, and for good to be distilled from every painful, destructive experience.

Silence

Lord in your mercy

hear our prayer

For a deeper knowledge and love of the God who knows and loves us completely.

Merciful Father,

accept these prayers

for the sake of your Son,

our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.