Ministry of The Spirit

Ministry of the Spirit...
Sermon Notes – Ps. Jim White
Sunday 28th March 2010
• Last week, Gary Hourigan shared an outstanding message on what it means to be free in Christ. And I encourage any of you who weren’t able to be here, to get a copy of the CD.

• And it is such an important and vital message that I want to continue on with it this morning. More specifically, I want us to look at what it really means for us to be ministers of the Spirit. Because as 2Cor3:17 says – “...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

• I don’t think the church in general still has a handle on who we are as new covenant disciples of Christ. We can talk the talk – but I’m not sure that we walk the walk in our everyday lives, as people who live in the freedom of the Spirit, and the freedom of Christ – let alone minister that freedom to others.

• Gary brought up the point that in some respects, we can be just like the believers in the first church, who had all kinds of trouble, grappling to try and understand and to move from being people under the law, to being people under grace.

• I think it’s partly because we know we don’t deserve grace. We know we don’t deserve to be forgiven. We certainly don’t deserve the amazing love of our Heavenly Father, who adopted each one of us into His family – to be true sons and daughters – with an inheritance that includes eternal life in heaven – wholeness and healing now – the blessing of being set free from every bondage that this earth can throw at us.

• We know we deserve the full weight of judgement – and the law confirms that – so we feel more familiar with the feelings of guilt and condemnation and shame that the law brings.

• But that’s not the new covenant message. That’s not what Jesus and the apostle Paul and the disciples taught us in their letters to the churches.

• Paul said to the church in Galatia (Gal 3:2,3), “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

• And this is a valid question we need to ask ourselves – because there is a great danger in firstly accepting salvation in Jesus Christ by faith and grace alone – but then, believing that somehow through our works, what we do or don’t do, how well we perform, how successful we become, or don’t become – according to our own human effort – that there’s some self based process of perfection to become a mature Christian.

• That’s called slavery. It’s called bondage. It’s called trying to earn the favour and blessing of God. And the worst part is that it puts you straight back under the letter of the law, which Jesus set us free from.

• The moment you begin to measure yourself by your own standards and performance as a good Christian, you then cop the whole brunt of the law. When you measure yourself by a little bit of it, you automatically set up a standard according to all of its requirements. And do we really believe that our own goodness can come anywhere near the goodness of God anyway?

• 2Cor 3:7 calls this belief system, the ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation.

• There have been plenty of preachers in times past – and sadly, even now – who have a ministry of condemnation and death. I think we’ve all seen examples of fire and brimstone preaching – attempting to frighten and bully people into the kingdom of God. It’s known by another name as well – religion – trying to find acceptance with God through our own human effort and good works. Who wants to have a ministry like that?

• The main scripture though that I have for us this morning is from Rom 8:2 – “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.”

• The law of sin and death is of course the law of the old covenant – but what is the law of the Spirit of life?

• Surely the law of any kind is what we’ve been set free from. So I did some research and found out that the word “law” here actually means – something that is established – a foundational truth. And it speaks of power and authority.

• So just like the law of the Old Testament carried power and authority, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus carries an even greater power and authority based on and established in truth.

• This is always a relevant and vital message, but particularly as we are about to enter into the Easter period, we need to know what we are celebrating when we celebrate the resurrection. We’ve been given resurrection life – a life where the chains of sin are broken – and we are no longer slaves to sin or slaves to the flesh.

• We’ve moved from sin and death, to Christ and life.

• But sometimes it doesn’t look like we live from that positional truth and freedom. Heb 12:1 says that we are called to run the race of life with endurance. But it also says that sin is there just waiting to so easily ensnare us.

• It’s a sad fact that many people who have actually been set free in Christ, aren’t running at all. They are crawling along on their hands and knees, because the chains of sin are still wrapped tightly around their legs. They’ve been so easily ensnared.

• Many of us can tend to settle for a life that is far less than what God intended for us to have. We learn and become satisfied with limping and crawling around spiritually, when there is actually a freedom by which we can run.

• Church we have some running to do. None of us need to be carrying any chains around with us. And we don’t have to. Because the power and authority of the Spirit is far greater than the power and authority of the law of sin and death.

• Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law anyway. So simply because of that, the law no longer has any power or hold over us – unless we give it power.

• Every moment that we tolerate living with chains, is another moment that we are missing out on God’s best for our lives. We are missing out on the freedom and life that He desires for us to have.

• Back in 2Cor 3, Paul says in verse 6, that God has “made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Then in verse 7, “But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.”

• The law of Moses was a holy and spiritual law. It came from God – and it carried with it the glory of God – and that glory was all over Moses’ face as he came down from the mountain with the tablets of stone. But the trouble was that people were flesh – and carried around with them the sin nature.

• Paul even said in Rom 7:14 – “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

• That’s why the people had trouble looking at the new glow on Moses’ countenance. Not because it was too glorious, but because their own lives were so dark in comparison.

• They had to put a veil over the face of Moses, because they could not look at the glory. But it says that the ministry of the Spirit will carry an even greater glory.

• And later in that chapter, it says that when we turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away – and with unveiled faces, we see the glory of the Lord through the liberty of the Spirit, and we are transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory.

• Isn’t that the kind of ministry we want to be involved in. The ministry of glory! God’s glory.

• But some of us have still got the old veil over our face. We sing about God’s amazing grace, but we still don’t have a true handle on what freedom in the Spirit really means. And we have yet to experience the full expression of the glory of the ministry and freedom of the Spirit.

• It comes by revelation – allowing the Spirit of God to reveal Himself to you. But also it comes by choice. We can continue to choose to live under our own determination and judgment of what’s good and bad about ourselves according to our own human effort. Inevitably though, we come up short.

• But that choice also means that we will usually flow over into making judgments on others according to the same standards. If we haven’t had a revelation about our own freedom, we certainly aren’t going to be gracious enough to extend it to others.

• Or we can choose to live in the power and authority of the Spirit of Jesus Christ – and be set free to be changed from glory to glory into His image. And to be able to set others free – and to allow the Holy Spirit to do His job of conviction. Conviction – not condemnation.

• I love what Gal 5:1 says – in the NIV – “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” And the message bible says, “Christ has set us free to live a free life.”

• What an amazing thought – that Jesus Christ has set us free simply for the sake of freedom. There are no agendas – no conditions – no laws. Our response will most likely be to love Him by serving Him with our whole body, soul and spirit – but God’s primary motivation is not that He will get something out of us – it’s simply that we will experience true freedom.

• When you begin to understand that you are a free person in Christ – you then begin to live like one. First the revelation and understanding of the gift – and only then do you begin to respond with a whole heart to God – by loving Him, and ministering the life of the Spirit.

• Maturity and wholeness in service for the kingdom of God only really comes when we understand who we are as free men and women. Otherwise, our service and our good works can come from a place of still trying to earn acceptance – trying somehow to build ourselves up – to strive in our human effort to become someone that in reality, we already are – a loved and blessed and fully accepted child of God.

• How are we going to get the message across to those who don’t know Jesus yet, that the Christian faith is not about striving to be a goody goody two shoes, if we don’t understand it ourselves? It’s about being transformed by the Spirit of God, and being set free from religious laws and judgments.

• Too many people still have memories and experiences of church that are based on fulfilling the law – doing the rituals – being a good person, according to their own standards of goodness. My father is one. I believe he is still stuck in believing that God is about religion. All he knew was the Catholic priests ruling and lording it over him at school and at church. He was even an altar boy at one stage.

• But then he would see these same priests who sprouted high moral laws – betting, drinking, smoking and swearing and basically living like everyone else from Monday to Friday. What else would a young impressionable boy think, except that religion was hypocritical and false. These men dressed in elaborate robes, supposedly speaking the oracles of God – but living life as if they weren’t at all transformed by the glory of God.

• It’s not about Catholics – it’s about religion – it can happen anywhere.

• And then he saw his own father – who never entered the doorway of a church – reject him and his bride to be – because she was a protestant. Dad’s father (my grandfather) wouldn’t even attend their wedding because of the religious differences.

• And of course I understand now why I would have been a thorn in his side as well – being the offspring of such a marriage. It was only years later of course that I used to wonder why it was I never had much to do with my grandfather. And I also wondered why mum was never included in the very rare visits to his house.

• How tragic religion can be. What a ministry of condemnation and death it can be.

• I remember, quite innocently and naively and very proudly, taking our little baby Megan to see my grandfather. Visits were a very rare occasion. And I think we all knew at the time that he didn’t have terribly long to live.

• And I placed Megan in his arms for a photo – and he just held her and cried. But I could tell there was more to those tears than the joy of being a great grandfather. I sensed the tears were a terrible symptom of a broken heart – the left over bitter taste of a religious and bound life, full of regret and the haunting reminder of what could have been.

• I don’t know that I ever saw him again. But I know that religion and law and self-righteousness, ministered condemnation and death to that sad old man.

• Our experience of religion may not be as obvious or drastic as that – but it can be a very subtle and insidious thing that robs us of our true freedom.

• This morning I believe is a time for reflecting on our own path – our own relationship with God and the church – and allow the Holy Spirit to pinpoint any areas of pride, self-righteousness, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, unforgiveness... anywhere that we have allowed the ministry of sin and death to take hold of us.

• For some of us – we need to stand up and begin to run – and leave behind the sin that so easily ensnares us. We can do it when we know that we are sons and daughters of God – and we can do it as a choice, to allow the ministry of the Spirit to break the chains that bind us.

• We have been called to love people into the kingdom of God. Everything we do should be founded on love – not condemnation. We can love sinners to life. Acceptance and love are probably the two most powerful tools we have in our spiritual toolbox.

• Loving God and loving others fulfils all the law and the commandments.

• It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and transform people from glory to glory into the image of Jesus Christ.

• Let’s take a load off our own shoulders a bit and step into the ministry of the law of the Spirit.