SERMON

             Snapshots of

            the Holy Spirit

      

                                   Acts Chapters 16 – 18

 

 Pastor Robyn Hogue                           August 16, 2015                     Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

 

Over the years I’ve seen many snapshots of my husband Larry. There’s a black and white framed photo of him as a toddler in a sailor suit. No one in his family served in the Navy, but that sweet photo inspired me to get pictures taken of both Dan and Evan in sailor suits at very young ages. I cherish a photo of Larry as a boy of about ten beside a lakeshore. His family has been camping and he was fishing with his dad. I’ve seen pictures of Larry the member of the high school jazz choir, football team and male vocal lead in “Oklahoma.” I’ve shown our sons the tanned and sun bleached “wild man” photo of their dad as swim instructor. I’ve cherished the pictures of my bearded groom on our wedding day; the tender father with infant sons in his strong arms. My cell phone contact photo is a candid shot of Larry smiling as he talks with a co-worker from his days employed at Group Health. These pictures seem to take in the whole sweep of his life to date, and yet they in no way give me in a complete sense about this person I have married. Thirty-eight years later I am still married to a mystery.

In that same sense, the Holy Spirit is a mystery. The Spirit is not a principle, a philosophy, a doctrine. We can’t know the Spirit as we would chemistry and history and algebra. Nonetheless, we learn something about this mystery by taking a kind of sweep through our spiritual family album—the Bible—and see if we can find some well-defined snapshots of the Holy Spirit.

Most students of the Book of Acts study the people, the events, and particularly, the activities of Paul. Let’s for the moment compare Paul to a surfer. We see him, figuratively taking all kinds of wild waves. He bobs up and down tumbling, falling, riding the crest. Now, rather than focusing on Paul, we’re going to focus on the wave. Remember, the surfer doesn’t make the wave. He or she simply rides it—well or poorly. The wave that carries us along as the Church of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Our job is to ride that wave the best we know how.

With this preamble let’s take our look at one of these Holy Spirit snapshots found in these next chapters. The first is in chapter 16, beginning at verse 6. Paul and Silas are beginning their third missionary journey. They attempt to go into Bithynia, but, we are told, “The Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,” and so they went instead down to Troas. Here, through a vision, Paul is told to come over to Macedonia and help us.” Let’s call this photo “The Macedonian Vision,” with a subtitle, “Who’s in Charge?” One of the truths which stands out in in this snapshot is that the Spirit is able to intervene and direct the lives of believers.

As we have seen, Paul wanted to go to Bithynia but instead is given a vision which sends him to Macedonia. Thus, for the first time, the gospel is brought to Europe. The first European convert is a woman, a rich merchant, Lydia, a seller of purple goods. She is the prepared person who receives the good news gladly and through her Christianity is launched in Europe.

The Spirit can operate in our lives just the Spirit did in Paul’s. There are times when the Spirit seems to say “no,” and our path is blocked. Another time, a door opens unexpectedly, and we can go through it. The Spirit can direct us in terms of when to take that new job, start that new venture or make that phone call. I remember giving pastoral care to a gentleman in my former church who was concerned for his business partner, a man in his late forties who was dying. This gentleman said, “We never talked about the really important things, about life and death. Pray that I may have a chance to do that this week. He has only a short time to live and I want him to know about the Lord and His love.” He made the call that week, but somehow the opportunity was not there. There were other visitors and many interruptions. The next week he reported, “I tried, but I failed. I think the Spirit said “no.” Just days later, the dying man called this gentleman to come over. The spent three uninterrupted hours and opened their hearts to each other.

Snapshot #1 reveals who is in charge of the church. No hierarchy, no group of officers, no long-range planning committee decided that it was the right time to bring the Gospel to Europe. The Spirit chose the time, and the church responded in obedience to that Spirit.

The next snapshot is found in chapter 16, verses 16-18. Paul and Silas are met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination. Her soothsaying has produced much profit for her owners. For many days she has followed Paul and Silas, crying, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” In annoyance, Paul turns and charges the spirit to come out of her, and she is healed. Let’s give snapshot #2 the title “The Slave Girl Healed,” and the subtitle “The Holy Spirit is Comfortable with Imperfect People.”  The snapshot captures the truth of the Holy Spirit using both this imperfect slave girl to broadcast Paul and Silas’ presence in the city and an irritated Paul as God’s healing agent in her life.

My version would have gone like this: Paul is preaching the riches of Christ and suddenly is moved by compassion for this girl who has been following him in agony for several days. Filed with pity and the Spirit of Jesus, Paul turns to help her, he lays hands on her, prays for her and she is healed, and then send her off on her way with his blessing. It didn’t happen that way according to Acts. This fanatic little evangelist has a laser beam vision, pinpointed on preaching the Gospel in season and out of season, and all the while she’s calling out in her disturbed state, “Oh, listen to this man! Listen to this man!” Finally Pau has had enough. She has busted up his meeting once too often. In annoyance, he says something like, “For heaven’s sake, in Jesus’ name, be healed and get out of here!”

If you’re like me, you’re sometimes annoyed by interruptions, even feeling resentful about his person who is ruining our schedule. We don’t have an hour to give right then, and we feel pressured. But even though we may not feel good about this interruption, who cares? The Spirit has put us in that situation and if we can keep our mind and heart open, the Spirit will do the rest. The Holy Spirit can act whether our motives are high or low, loving or otherwise.

A third snapshot of the Holy Spirit, which we’ll call “Songs in the Night,” is found in verses 25-34 of chapter 16. The men who lost their livelihood when the slave girl was healed managed to have Paul and Silas thrown in prison, their feet fastened in stocks. At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns when a great earthquake shook the foundations of the prison and all the doors were opened and all the fetters unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw what had happened he drew his sword about to kill himself. In those times, if prisoners escaped, the jailer received their sentence. He was just about to save the authorities the trouble of executing him when Paul called our and reassured him that the prisoners were all there. The jailer rushed in, fell down before Paul and Silas and asked “Men, what must I do to be saved?” They spoke the word of the lord to him and to the members of his household, and that very night he was baptized with all of his family.

When we really believe that God, the ultimate being, loves us, we’re home free. Paul and Silas didn’t know that they would be delivered. They might have been killed. But there they are, locked in the stocks, singing hymns, praising God and holding a revival meeting in prison. This is not because they expect deliverance but because they are riding the rising tide of the Spirit. Billy Graham was once asked how he could remain so optimistic facing all the tragedies in the world. He said, “I’ve read the last chapter in the Book.” That’s the kind of certainty we need in order to sing songs in the night.

If you are subject to sleepless nights, wakeful and beset by anxieties and pressures, I hope you can begin to sing songs and to say, “Lord, I face a tough day tomorrow, but my life in Yours and I’m trusting You.” That kind of supreme confidence is the mark of the Spirit. When we’re in tight places we can believe “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world?” (I John 4:4)

From prison Paul goes to Thessalonica and Berea, a neighboring town. He has wonderful success among the Gentiles. When opposition once again forces him to leave he heads off for Athens leaving Silas and Timothy behind. In chapter 17, verses 24-32 we read that Paul has arrived in the university center of the world.  Athens’ great days of glory are past, but the city was still a great hub of learning, the Oxford or Cambridge of tis time. Inn that marvelous, rarefied atmosphere, Paul goes to Mars Hill, where the scholars and philosophers gather each day to hear something new. This sophisticated bunch has heard it all. They sit al day just exchanging ideas. We all get caught up in that sometimes. Think for a moment on the amount of time you spend reading things on the internet, Facebook, Pinterest, blog posts, internet news sources. There are the inevitable earthquakes and floods, politics and wars. We understand those Athenians.

Paul’s audience is made up of these people who want to discuss great ideas. He gets their attention by building a bridge, by commenting on their many statues to their gods. He moves on to talk about the one true God, but when he mentions Jesus being raised from the dead, he loses them. Some mock him and even worse, others say, in effect, “Tell me about this later.” The title of this snapshot is “Flop in Athens.” Paul has his big moment and he blows it. My suggested subtitle for this one is “The Holy Spirit Keeps Us Humble.” A small company did believe and joined Paul, but for the most part, the crowd said, “Ho hum. We’ll come back and hear you another time.” But the real mark of spiritual maturity for Paul, and for us, is how we deal with failure. How do we handle it when we blow the big one? We hoped so much to accomplish some particular goal, and as far as we can tell, we flopped. Paul seems able to say, “Well, win some and lose some,” and moves on. Too often in that situation most of us spend too much time wallowing around, paralyzed by our failure. Paul never missed a beat. He just kept on preaching.

My last snapshot for today is found at the beginning of chapter 18, verses 1-4. Paul moves on from Athens to Corinth. He is befriended there by Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, both of whom are tentmakers like Paul. They are in Athens because Emperor Claudius has ordered all of the Jews to leave Rome. Paul moves in with them and they begin to work together in their common trade. I’ll call this photo “The Rhythm of Life.” Paul sits eight to ten hours a day sewing tents, and by night he continues to be the world’s most exciting evangelist and preacher. I think the Holy Spirit wants that same rhythm of life of all of us. I’ve got a confession to make about being a “religious professional.” I think my life can at times take on somewhat of a lopsided focus. It is spiritually healthy to have a job or calling where you volunteer “out there in the real world.” We need the rhythm of prayer and play, work and worship. All the while Paul is in Corinth (about a year and a half) he is the center of intense controversy—preaching, converting, and challenging his opponents. And yet we have a picture of him sitting quietly, sewing all day with his colleagues. My suggested subtitle for this snapshot is “Lay Ministry.”

These snapshots do not sum up the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will always remain more than we can comprehend; known and not yet fully known. All of these snapshots are part of a much bigger album, one which captures that wave of the Spirit which moves through history and which continues throughout the world.