Pentecost
Receiving the Things of Jesus
By Linda Rex
June 12, 2022, HOLY TRINITY—Last week we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus from the Father, following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. During our journey through the days on the Christian calendar, we have come to see the love of the Father expressed to all humanity as the Word of God, the Son of the Father, took on our humanity in the incarnation, lived our life, died our death and rose again, bringing all humanity in his glorified human flesh into the presence of the Father.
There at the Father’s side Jesus reigns supreme, and death, evil, and sin have lost their power over us. We are free now, in Christ, to love God and man, to be who God designed us to be as image-bearers of the divine One who is Father, Son, and Spirit, living as unique but equal persons in unity and perichoretic love. We celebrate the ascension and the coming of the Spirit, for now we find ourselves included in the midst of the intimate union and communion of the Father and the Son in the Spirit—included by faith in God’s very life and love.
During the season following Pentecost, we begin to look at what it means that Christ and the Father are present now in human flesh in the Person and presence of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean that God dwells with man even now in and through the Spirit? What difference does this make in our lives?
For many of my younger years, I believed that God was made up of the Father and the Son but that the Spirit was merely their power and essence, that he was not a personal being. I had missed all the scriptural references that quite clearly showed that the Spirit was a Person—the other Helper like Jesus—who made decisions, who gave gifts, who spoke and who listened. The biblical evidence was that what the disciples experienced and what Jesus taught about the Spirit, indicated that the Spirit was of the same essence as the Father and the Son, and was equal with them and yet uniquely related to them in that the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.
The unique role that the Spirit plays in our lives is to take what is Jesus’ and to reveal it to us. Jesus forged within us the capacity to be temples of the living God—the dwelling place of God himself by the Spirit. What we find in the coming of the Spirit is that we can, by faith, participate in all that Christ did for us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. His life as the beloved Son of the Father becomes our very own as we by faith are adopted as the Father’s beloved children. The perfected humanity of Christ becomes our very own as we trust in Christ’s finished work. What we discover when we turn away from ourselves and turn to Christ in faith is that God himself dwells in us.
The beginning of the human story was in God’s heart, as he determined to share life with his creatures in a unique and special way. We, as human beings, were designed from the beginning to reflect the nature of God and were given the capacity to make choices and to reject or accept God and his love. Our true way of being is to live in loving relationship with God and others. But we human beings have so often chosen instead to turn away from God and to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong, and to try to run this universe in a way which so often ends in death.
God knew, though, before he ever created us our capacity to reject him and to choose the ways of death. And he planned even then to come himself and do whatever it took to bring us home to himself. And so, we see that even before he created us, God had planned through the coming of his Son to include every human being in his life and to give them his Spirit so that they could live in union and communion with him forever.
Whatever we do as human beings, we need to realize that the truth of our being is found in the person of Jesus Christ and is present within us by the Holy Spirit. God wants us to awaken to the reality of what Christ has done in offering himself freely in his life, death and resurrection—by the Spirit we participate in his loving relationship with his Father. All of our life then becomes an expression of that loving relationship—we begin by the Spirit to reflect the qualities of Christ and begin to look like our loving heavenly Father, as we trust in Christ.
The Spirit is, as Jesus said, another Helper just like himself. When you see the Spirit, you see Jesus. When you see Jesus, you see the Father. The oneness of the Triune God is evident in their relationship with you through Jesus in the Spirit. How amazing it is that we each now live swept up into the life of the Triune God! But it is by faith in Jesus that we participate in and experience this reality. It is the Spirit who makes our experience of Christ’s intimate relationship with the Father and with us, real.
The Holy Spirit in you and me speaks to us the words of Jesus. Jesus said while on earth that he spoke only what he heard the Father say. This is why the apostle Paul said that when we walk in the Spirit, we won’t walk in our flesh. If Jesus is the truth of our being, then we want to walk in him, right? So, we follow the lead of the Spirit, who speaks to our hearts the truth about who Jesus is and how Jesus lives, and we won’t live in a way that is contrary to the truth of who we are in Christ.
The Spirit in us gives us guidance. When we read the Scriptures and ask for God’s inspiration and guidance, the Spirit enables us to discern the truth about Jesus and about ourselves. When we listen to inspired speakers who preach the Word of God in accordance with the truth, the Spirit enables us to understand it and moves us to live in obedience.
The Spirit places within us Jesus’ own heart and mind, and we discover we don’t want to do the wrong thing, but desire to do what is right in the Father’s sight. We find when temptation is strong and we turn to Jesus, that we are able to resist the temptation and make the God-honoring choice because Jesus’ choice is given to us by the Spirit. And when we don’t do what is loving and we experience the guilt that comes with failure to be true to who we are as image-bearers of God, the Spirit reminds us of the grace of God, enabling us to see that God knows all things and he does not condemn us—he forgives us.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, we pause to ponder, in awe and wonder and gratitude, our amazing God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit, and who has included each of us in his life and love. How blessed we are, that we are never alone, but are always and ever held in God’s love, cared for and cherished, now and forever, as God’s beloved adopted children, in Jesus by the Spirit.
Heavenly Father, thank you for making us your very own, beloved and cherished, and for including us in your life. Thank you for the gift of your Spirit, who enables us to know you and live in relationship with you, all through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12–15 NASB
[Printable copy of this blog https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/receiving-the-things-of-jesus.pdf ]
New Beginnings
By Linda Rex
May 23, 2021, DAY OF PENTECOST—Recently while on vacation, I pulled out an empty canvas and some acrylic paints a dear friend had left me, and began to paint. Staring at an empty canvas that needs to be filled is a lot like staring at an empty page and trying to figure out what to write. There are so many possibilities ahead that one hardly knows where to begin. Consider for a moment what it was like as the Spirit hovered over the waters, as everything was without form and empty.
In times past I have avoided painting due to the difficulty I have in controlling the outcome. The brush has a mind of its own and I cannot always get it to do what I want. My preferred method of artwork usually involves colored pencils or pen and ink for this very reason. But there is a loss of freedom in such control of the outcome.
But the Creator sees things differently—he gives each and every thing which he creates an incredible freedom. He does not need to control every movement and every decision—otherwise we would all be robots. Instead, God allows each tree, plant, fish, bird, animal, and human to be who he created them to be. By his creative Spirit, he moves in all he has made to accomplish his purposes, but always with this element of true freedom based in his love.
This creates a built-in risk for our Creator—what if a creature he has made decides to live in a way which is different from his design? When my brush takes off across the canvas in a way I didn’t plan for, I get frustrated—in my mind, I now have a big mistake to rectify. But what if mistakes are part of the picture? What if the possibility of something not turning out in the way I expected actually ends up adding to the result, making it better?
What we find is that the Creator of all things planned in advance for this reality in what he created. We discover in the written Word of God that even before he created all things, the Maker of all had a plan to redeem and restore his creation should it wander away from its intended life path. He made our mistakes a part of his picture—redemption and restoration in and through the gift of his Son was allowed to be an essential part of his creation process. In fact, God always meant to include us in his life and love—and our turning away from him did not prevent this purpose from being realized.
Think about the history of human beings and how God has worked in and through each one to accomplish his purpose. Over the millennia before Christ, we find kingdoms rose and kingdoms fell, people lived and died, children were born and grew up. Through all these events, natural calamities, and over a long period of time, the creative Spirit worked. God even included certain people in his efforts—calling Noah to build an ark, Abraham to leave his country and people, and Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. Flawed people included in his plan—and yet the Creator continued his masterpiece.
Indeed, we find that all along God was working to restore and renew his creation, and allowing us as broken human beings to be a part of the process. When he sent his Son, we find angels celebrating this momentous event. Now God had moved even closer to his creation—he had taken on human flesh to live and walk on earth as one of us! The divine Painter had himself become the brush in the hand of the creative Spirit!
How amazing that God reconstructs the creatures he made in his image from the inside out. He enters our space and time, experiences our limitations and frailties, and begins to redeem and restore as one of us. He develops personal relationships with those he made and begins to teach them what it means to be truly human, demonstrating it by the way he lived. Rather than being enslaved by the sin which controls us, he conquered it, taking it all the way to the cross and delivering us from it through death and resurrection. And then he took our humanity up with him into the presence of the Father—our humanity restored and renewed in his person, dwelling forever with God as was always intended.
Jesus told his disciples when he left at ascension that he would not leave them as orphans. He was going to send them the Spirit, the other Helper like himself, who would be with them forever. The creative Spirit was poured out on all flesh from the Father by Jesus so that we all could participate in Christ’s true humanity. Instead of the masterpiece being so flawed that it must be thrown out, all God has made has incredible possibilities in store!
Think for a minute about Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition. This man had many choices in his life, the capacity to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. But he was given over to thievery—often stealing money from the common purse. And when push came to shove, he sold the Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Here was a mistake beyond mistakes—selling the Messiah for a paltry sum so that he ended up being crucified.
But the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a part of the masterpiece God was creating. It was not as though God wanted Judas to do this idiocy, but rather, that he included it as a necessary part of the picture. It was not God’s choice for Judas, but it was Judas’ choice, which God honored and allowed, using it to accomplish a greater purpose in the end, the redemption of all humanity.
What if, instead of focusing on our faults and failures, we offered them up to the creative Spirit to pour into them his recreative power to renew and redeem? What if we allow Jesus to be who he is—our Savior and Redeemer, the One who restores all things? What is it in your life and mine which needs to be reconstructed?
There may be a time of deconstruction first—God sometimes needs to remove some things so there is space for something new. But God’s purpose is to transform, heal and renew—and we can participate with him in that process. And who knows what the outcome will be? God says that through Christ and by the Spirit, it will be better than we can ever ask or imagine! His masterpiece—humanity transformed and renewed—will live with him forever in the new heavens and new earth, as we begin by his Spirit to experience this life in relationship with the Father and Son even now.
Thank you, Creator of all, for everything you have made and how wonderfully you have worked and will work to transform, heal and renew your creation. We invite you, Creative Spirit, to finish what you have begun in us and in our world. Keep our focus on you, Jesus, and the incredible possibilities that are ahead, because of all you have done and will do by your Spirit to the glory of the Father. Amen.
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4 (5-21) NASB
“O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; | The earth is full of Your possessions. … You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire | And return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; | And You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:24, 29-30 NASB
Receiving Water from the Rock
By Linda Rex
May 31, 2020, DAY OF PENTECOST—There is a place as you drive down Illinois state road 100 where the road begins to meander next to the Illinois River. As you continue south on this road, the Illinois River joins with the Mississippi River, creating a huge flowing mass of water. On the banks of the river, you can see birds feeding on the fish and other creatures, and hanging over the water are many varieties of trees.
The Great River Road goes on following this massive body of water downstream, and next to it are bike and walking trails and small tourist communities where people gather to rest and recreate. In many ways, it reminds me of the description in Ezekiel 47 of the river which flows out from the temple bringing healing to the nations in the last days.
Looking way back, there was a time in the life of the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness when they found themselves without any water to drink. Being in a desert without water is a critical situation, and they complained that God had abandoned them and left them to die. But God told Moses to take his rod, which he had held over the Red Sea when God parted it, and to strike the rock with it. Out of the rock came water that kept the people from death.
This is a critical lesson for us to understand. The story of the beginnings we read in Genesis tells us how Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden of Eden. They had all that they needed there in the garden, and could eat of the tree of life at any time. There was no need to be concerned about death or suffering.
But it seems that we have a tendency as human beings to listen to voices we should not listen to. They believed the serpent when he told them that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would not cause them to die but to become like God instead. They believed him when he told them God was holding out on them, keeping them from having real life, even though it was available to them at all times, right at their fingertips, should they desire it.
The human condition is such that we think we are choosing life when so often we choose death instead. And when faced with death, we insist that God doesn’t love us, that he doesn’t care about what is happening to us. We neglect to see that right there in front of us is what we are needing—God is present, loving us and desiring to be a part of our lives, and to help us choose life rather than death.
God is so concerned that we choose life rather than death, that he chose to take death upon himself so we could be free from the fear of death once and for all. In Christ, God took on our humanity, lived our life and died our death, rising from the grave to lift us all beyond the grave into new life. But that wasn’t enough for him. Bearing our resurrected glorified humanity, Jesus rose, bringing us into the presence of the Father. As the scripture says, we are hidden with Christ in God—the truth of our being is there for us to participate in by the Spirit (Col. 3:3).
So the Father’s sending of the Spirit on all flesh which we read about in Joel and see fulfilled in Acts 2, gives humans the capacity to share in Jesus’ mission in this world and to participate in the divine life and love through Jesus in the Spirit. As the Spirit moved the believers that Pentecost millennia ago to tell of the wonderful works of God, so he moves today to bring healing, renewal, and to bring people to faith in Christ, giving them spiritual life.
Sometimes it may feel as though we live in a spiritual desert, where there seems to be more death than there is life. We may find ourselves facing little deaths and even major deaths, including the loss of our home, our job, a significant relationship, or a person we love. Death seems to be the voice which speaks loudest to us. We may find ourselves in the same position as those Israelites in the desert wondering how they were going to survive without any water to drink. If all you see around you are rocks and absolutely no water, it is very difficult to have hope.
But think of it this way. The human condition was such that we walked out of the garden away from our source of life. We decided we could live apart from the Creator who made us and who sustains us. In reality—the only reason any of this exists in our cosmos is that he sustains it by the word of his power. Death meant we would drop back into non-existence because God made everything out of nothing. If Jesus had not done what he did, we would have no hope of life after death.
Now, because Jesus died and rose again and sent his Spirit, we have life—life in relationship with the God who made us and who sustains us. Our human existence doesn’t end at the grave—Jesus took it beyond the grave into the presence of the Father, and sent the Spirit so each of us could participate in that eternal life, that eternal knowing and being known which have always existed between the Father and the Son, and which we were created to participate in.
Our human bodies were meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit, and believers together were created to be a temple overflowing with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. From the body of Christ, the church, is meant to flow a vast stream of life-giving water, giving God’s life to the world around us. But this does not happen apart from what Jesus did in planting in our humanity a fountain of living water, a resting place for the Holy Spirit.
God’s presence isn’t just found in a garden now. It is found within us as well as with us. There is no escaping the presence of God—he is everywhere all at once. But now, as we trust in Christ, we find he dwells within us, including us in the life-giving interrelations of the Father and the Son in the Spirit.
What we need to do first is to recognize our thirst—our need for a living connection with the God who made us and who loves us deeply and completely, even in our brokenness. Then we need to drink—to turn to Jesus Christ, trusting in his death and resurrection, receiving the grace he offers and the life he gives. Jesus breathes on us—receive his life-giving Spirit.
Could it be that you are immersed right now in his living streams and don’t realize it? Ask God to awaken you anew to the indwelling Christ—the presence of God himself in you and in your life. Rest quietly in his presence as he brings healing and renewal in your life. May you experience the life-giving overflowing waters of his love and grace today.
Abba, thank you for loving us so much that you did not abandon us in the spiritual desert we’ve chosen for ourselves. Thank you for sending through Jesus your life-giving Spirit that we might share in your grace and love now and forever. Awaken us anew to your presence in us and with us through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37–39 NASB
“You hide Your face, they are dismayed; | You take away their spirit, they expire | And return to their dust. | You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; | And You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:29–30 NASB
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” John 20:22 NASB
A New Capacity
By Linda Rex
PENTECOST—As a pastor, I am often burdened by the struggles and suffering of those I minister to and of those I encounter as I move about in my community. I would love to help people find freedom from the things which enslave them and to find peace, joy, and renewal in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
But I realize how easy it is to allow the distractions and interests of life to occupy my own mind, time, and attention to the place that I lose focus on the things of God. Any relationship becomes stale or divided if not enough attention is given to it. To become indifferent to another person rather than deeply connected with them can easily happen without our realizing it if we are preoccupied with other things.
When we read about the disciples after the resurrection, we find them gathered together in community continuing in their relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer. As a group they were focused in prayer and they remembered that Jesus had told them they were to be witnesses to his life, death, and resurrection. But Jesus had told them to wait—to wait until they were clothed with power from on high.
I have no doubt that Peter could have told a powerful story of his own personal redemption, of how he had betrayed Jesus but Jesus had forgiven him and recommissioned him to tend the flock of God’s people. Matthew could have told about how Jesus found him in the marketplace, a despised tax collector, and told him to follow him, and how Jesus had changed his life and given him a new purpose. Mary Magdalene could have shared how Jesus had freed her from her many demons and given her a new life of service and obedience to her Lord.
But Jesus had told each of them to wait. He had told them that telling his story in their story would not be enough. Something more was needed.
God had come in the person of Jesus Christ, had taken on our humanity, had forged a new human existence for us, and had taught his disciples how to love and serve others in the way God meant us as humans to live. But Jesus was touching only a few people’s lives while he was here on earth. From the beginning God had intended the transformation of the entire cosmos. He had meant a change in the very substance of our human existence which would heal, restore, and renew all things.
For this reason, after his death and resurrection, Jesus needed to return to the Father and send the Spirit. Pouring out this gift of God’s presence and power on all flesh gave each human being the capacity for the new life Jesus forged for us while living in our humanity. And Jesus was frank about the reality that the world would not receive this gift. He knew and understood our human capacity to rebel against God and to resist the gracious love of the Father.
It seems that apart from our Abba’s work, we do not receive this gift and walk in the truth of our existence as his adopted children. Our tendency is to listen to and embrace the lies of the evil one instead and to seek our life in this broken existence rather than in the One who created us and redeemed us. We prefer to design and assume our own self-created identity rather than embracing the one given to us by God—to be his image-bearers, children who love him and one another with a self-sacrificial, humble, serving and gracious love.
What we don’t realize is that apart from this precious gift of the Spirit and the work of God’s power and presence in our lives, we are living as if something is missing. There is a capacity we do not have which we need so that we are able to truly be the people God intends us to be. We are not truly ourselves apart from the indwelling Spirit, for when the Spirit dwells richly within us, God dwells within and we participate in the realization of the kingdom of God. We experience in those moments what it describes in Revelation 21:3-5 where God comes to dwell with man and Jesus works to make all things new.
In Genesis, we read how Adam and Eve walked in the garden of Eden with God, talking with him and sharing all of life with him. Being in God’s presence and experiencing a personal relationship with our Creator is what we were created for. But more than that, we have been given through Jesus Christ by the Spirit the very real presence of God within our very being. Now God dwells within us permanently rather than merely being with us.
The power and presence of God within is lifechanging and transformational, but we will not experience the reality of this as long as other people and interests command our attention and focus. If our dependency is upon the things of this life, we will not depend upon God and his Spirit. Due to God’s grace, we can survive quite nicely for a while doing this, but we will miss out on the capacity to fully participate in our real human existence as children of God. We will struggle to truly express the nature of God in our words and actions and any witness we may give to the person and work of Jesus Christ will be limited and ineffective.
Attending upon the things of the Spirit through the spiritual disciplines such as prayer, worship, silence, sharing, bible study, gratitude, and meditation opens us up to the Spirit’s work within. Slowing down and taking time to focus on Jesus Christ allows the Spirit fill us and renew us for the work we have been given—to testify to the goodness and love of the Father expressed to us in his Son Jesus Christ. Just as the early church learned to wait for the promise of the Spirit before moving ahead on mission with Jesus, today believers learn to rest in Christ and to wait upon the Spirit before attempting to do ministry in this broken world.
Today, how can we pause and make room for the Spirit’s work within? How can we give undivided attention to the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer and the other spiritual disciplines? Perhaps all that is needed is simply silence and rest. God is present and real at all times—we simply need to awaken to his presence and power within, and to allow the Spirit to renew, inspire, teach, and lead us.
Thank you, Abba, that through Jesus you have sent your Spirit. Awaken us to your presence and power at work within us. Enable us to experience renewal, refreshment, and healing by your precious Spirit. Holy Spirit, fill us anew and empower us to bear witness to Jesus, and to live and walk in truth in Jesus’ name. Amen.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:4 NASB
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 NASB
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 