SERMON OUTLINE

The Signs of Advent (4)

The Power of the Holy Spirit Genesis 6.3

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Luke 1.35

God is Trinity

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit

God the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Has always been active from Creation to Consummation

-Creation, Genesis 1.2

-Before the flood, Genesis 6.3

-Moses, Numbers 11.16-17

-Prophets, 2 Peter 1.21

-David, 1Samuel 16.13

God the Holy Spirit at Advent

-John filled in the womb, Luke 1.15

-Elizabeth, Luke 2. 41, 44

-Zechariah’s prophecy, Luke  1.67-79

-Mary’s conception, Luke 1.35

-Simeon, Luke 2.25-35

God the Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus

-His public ministry, John 3.34-35, Matthew 12.28

-His death and resurrection, Romans 1.4; Ephesians 1.19

God the Holy Spirit in the Church

-The Holy Spirit promised within John 14.16-18

-Pentecost the birth of the Church, Acts 2 (see verse 33)

God the Holy Spirit in the Believer

-The believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit. This is the mark of God’s ownership and a guarantee of our eternal inheritance. Ephesians 1.13-14

-The most ordinary believer is greater than John the Baptist, the greatest of all the prophets. Matthew 11.11

God the Holy Spirit is Calling Unbelievers

Today the Church and the Spirit call out to you to Come and Drink freely of the water of life. Will you ask Jesus to save you from your sin and fill you with His Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ may be born in you? Revelation 22.17

SERMON NOTES

Series: The Signs of Advent (4)

The Power of the Holy Spirit Genesis 6.3

-We began this series by looking at the prophecies of the OT that pointed to the advent of the anointed One. (Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek. Jesus Christ means Jesus the anointed One. Christ is not the second name of Jesus) Then we noticed God’s preparations during the 400 years prior to the advent of Jesus. Last week we met the original participants of the Advent of the promised Savior. Today we are going to focus on the power of the Holy Spirit at the Advent of Christ.

-God reveals Himself in the Bible as One God in three persons. The Godhead – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are perfectly unified in their purpose and fellowship. What God the Father purposes, God the Son fulfills, and God the Holy Spirit empowers and applies. God the Holy Spirit is always involved in the empowering and application of God’s purposes in individual lives.

-We first meet the Holy Spirit in the second verse of the Bible where we are told that, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” at creation. The power of the Holy Spirit of God was at work in creation.

-We read how the Spirit of God was calling men to righteousness before the flood and we are told in the NT that the Spirit did this through the preaching of Noah.

-The power of the Holy Spirit was at work in the ministry of Moses. “The Lord said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone’ ”. (Numbers 11.16-17)

-It was the Holy Spirit Who spoke through the prophets. Peter writes “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1.21)

-God anointed David and the kings of Israel and Judah who worshipped and obeyed God, with His Spirit. “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.” (1Samuel 16.13)

-Throughout the OT we find the Spirit of God working with power to apply God’s purposes and plans to His people. When we come to the advent of Christ we find the same Spirit of God at work in the original participants of advent.

-When the angel Gabriel announced John’s birth to Zechariah, he said that John would “be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” (Luke 1.15) This may have happened when Mary visited Elizabeth and greeted her. Scripture says, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Elizabeth said to Mary, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 2.41, 44)

-Being filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb had never happened before. That is one of the reasons why Jesus called John the greatest prophet that ever lived. Turn with me to Matthew 11.11 [Read]

-John was chosen by God to prepare the way for the Messiah and was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. John was the most privileged of all the prophets that ever lived. With John the line of OT prophets ended.

-I want you to notice very carefully the second part of verse 11, “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to form the Church, God is calling all men and women to repent of their sin and to receive the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. When a person receives God’s forgiveness in Christ they are sealed with God’s Spirit and joined to the body of Christ. This is a unique privilege that John never had. Today the most ordinary believer is greater than John because they have the Holy Spirit within them and are in union with the living Christ.

-When John was born his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about what God was doing through the birth of John in the fulfillment of all that God had promised. (Luke 1.67-79)

-Gabriel came to Mary and announced to her that she would give birth to as son whom she was to call Jesus because “he will save his people from their sins”. Gabriel told Mary that Jesus would be the Son of the Most High, and that he would be the son of David whose kingdom would never end, and that he would be called Immanuel which means God with us. Mary responded by saying, “how will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel Gabriel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”. (Luke 1.35)

-God the Son was born into this world untouched and unblemished by the sin of Adam because he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit working in Mary.

-Finally after the birth of Jesus, when Joseph took Mary and the baby to the Temple to present Mary’s purification offering and to consecrate Jesus to God as the firstborn, they met Simeon. The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. When Simeon saw baby Jesus, the Holy Spirit confirmed to him that He was the Messiah that Israel was waiting for. (Luke 2.25-35) Simeon is another example of how the Holy Spirit prepares people for the coming of Jesus.

-The four gospels do not tell us how the Holy Spirit moved the wise men to come to visit Jesus, or how the Spirit directed Caesar Augustus to call for a census of the Roman world, or how the Spirit of God worked in the heart of Joseph to take Mary as his wife, but we can be assured that the Holy Spirit was at work in all of those circumstances as well. God always works through the power of His Spirit to apply His purposes in everyday life.

-Jesus was also filled with the Holy Spirit from birth and carried out His public ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. John the apostle tells us that “The one whom God sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and placed everything in His hands”. (John 3.34-35) By the Spirit of God Jesus healed the sick, drove out demons, and preached the kingdom of God. (Matthew 12.28)

-God raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 1.4; Ephesians 1.19) So not only was Jesus conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and ministered by the power of the Holy Spirit, but He was also raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.

-Before Jesus ascended into heaven He promised to send the Holy Spirit to earth to live in His people, so that Jesus could be with His disciples by being in His disciples. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14.16-18) Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.33) to live in His people on the day of Pentecost, and on that day the Church was born by the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was born to Mary by the Holy Spirit so the Church, the body of Christ was born by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2) Since the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit has directed the affairs of the Church and empowered and gifted the Church for its world-wide mission to make disciples of all nations.

-The Holy Spirit of God has been at work since the beginning of time to empower the purposes of God and to apply the purposes of God to individual lives and the Holy Spirit continues in that ministry today.

-I want to close this morning by asking you to turn to Ephesians 1.13-14.

-This verse is addressed to Christians. They heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, and believed. They heard that they were sinners and that they could not save themselves and that Jesus died on the cross to save them, and they believed, and God saved them from their sin and the judgment of hell.

-Then we are told in this verse that having believed they were marked as belonging to Christ with a seal, and that seal is the promised Holy Spirit. Everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. Everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ is spiritually alive because of the work of the Holy Spirit. No Spirit, no spiritual life and no salvation. The Holy Spirit is God’s seal of ownership on those who believe.

-Livestock and slaves were branded with a seal by their masters in order to indicate to whom they belonged. So God seals us with the Holy Spirit to show that we belong to Him.

-The seal of the Holy Spirit living within us is also a guarantee that we will inherit the eternal life that God has promised to us. The Holy Spirit is a down payment, the first installment of the full payment to come. The Holy Spirit is our foretaste of the fullness that God has for those who belong to Him.

-Just as the Holy Spirit of God conceived Jesus in the womb of Mary, so the Holy Spirit of God wants to bring the life of Jesus into your spirit and raise you from spiritual death to eternal life.

-In the last chapter of the Bible we find the Church and the Holy Spirit pleading together with those who do not yet have life from God. The Church and the Spirit say “Come and take the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.” “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22.17)

-Will you come on this Christmas season and ask Christ to save you? If you come to Christ, He will save you from your sins, and come and live inside of you by His Spirit, and give you eternal life.