Audio Worship 2/18/2024, "The Holy Spirit" 1 Corinthians 2.1-16

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1625

February 18, 2024

1 Corinthians 2.1-16     Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Holy Spirit”

 

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

 

  • Faith and the Holy Spirit

 

We have so far examined our Essentials of Faith in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church covering the authority of Scripture, the Sovereignty of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and today we take up the Holy Spirit. Here is Essential #3 - The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior, indwelling our hearts. He gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.

The third person of the Godhead is probably the most neglected and the least understood of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Perhaps even more so when we used to refer to the Spirit as the Holy Ghost. It is understandable that we cannot relate as well to the person of the Spirit since the concept of Spirit is more mysterious to us. Just about everyone can relate to the concept of father. We have had a father, unless lost early life, or perhaps a step-father. Having a male figure in our life whether biological or not helps us to relate to God the Father in some fashion whether favorable or unfavorable. So too we can relate to God the Son, Jesus Christ who came as baby and lived as a man. We know what it is like to relate to males, whether sons or any males. But the Spirit is more elusive. We sense a spirit within our being, our self, our own aliveness!

 

Paul, in the beginning verses of this chapter, sort of dismisses his ability to preach with fancy words or wisdom of the Greeks, but what Paul emphasizes is the work of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s speech and message.

 

1 Cor 2.4, “and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

 

What is at work is the Holy Spirit working in the hearer as much if not more so, than in the speaker. In the essential about the Spirit, He has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior, indwelling our hearts. So often we feel like we have to have the right words or have some special ability to persuade people with clever strategies. But what if we thought of it this way, that God is using whatever we are able to say by the power of the Holy Spirit to work something in the life of the person to whom we are speaking. It has little to do with what we might say or how we might say it, but it has much more to do with the power of the Spirit to work in that person’s life. The Spirit is able to glorify Christ and apply the saving work of Christ in their hearts. It is the Spirit who convicts of sin and draws people to Christ. We cannot do those things, only the Spirit. But we are called to do what Paul did, to preach and teach and have conversations about Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. We might only say, “Jesus died for your sins,” and the Holy Spirit can take those words alone and work a mighty conversion in that person’s life. It may not happen right before our eyes, but we might be one person in a long line of professors, professing Christ crucified to anyone who will listen.

 

So then 1 Cor 2.5, 5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The faith of another person does not depend our our abilities or our skill in presenting the gospel. Yes, we need to be able to articulate something of the gospel, but the faith of that person hearing the words does not rest on our words but on the power of God. That is, the power of the Holy Spirit is at work to give faith. This is why we interpret Ephesians 2.8 as God giving us the gift of faith, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” It is all the work of the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in our salvation, to convict us of sin and draw us to the Savior, to lead us to repent and to new life in Christ.

 

  • Revealed Through the Holy Spirit

 

1 Cor 2.10, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

It is solely by the work of the Holy Spirit that we know any of these things! God has revealed everything about Jesus, about the Father, and about the Holy Spirit through the Spirit. It is not about intelligence or our own natural insight but totally the Spirit at work in us. This is a contention among those who do not believe the teachings of John Calvin, but I, for one, do not want to take any credit for my faith, my salvation, or my understanding of these things. I only want to thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit in my life and in your life. For whatever reasons only known to God, God has revealed to some and not to others, and God has demonstrated that those who seek to understand through their own power cannot get it. The natural man or person does not understand or accept the things of the Spirit.

So how does one come to understand the things of the Spirit, the things of God? It is only those whom the Spirit regenerates. It is God’s work through the Holy Spirit. The spiritual person can discern spiritual things that are folly to the non-spiritual or natural person. A lot of people claim to be spiritual, but those claims are not usually of the Holy Spirit. They are normally some new age or old pagan practice of humanist spiritualism. As the essential professes, the Holy Spirit instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.

 

 

 

  • The Holy Spirit Received

 

Jesus, in John 14, was teaching the disciples about Himself, things like Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He taught them several times in the gospels that He would be going away, but He also taught them in John’s gospel that He would not leave them orphaned. The Father would send the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. John 14.26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

We receive the Spirit when we believe and the EPC Essential uses the phrase about the Spirit “indwelling our hearts”. Paul builds on this teaching in 1 Cor 2.12, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. I want to say a word about the Spirit in our hearts. The heart, in the Jewish tradition is the center of our being and thoughts and motivations. In modern times we associate the heart with emotions, but in Jewish thought it is about everything, the core of our being. The Spirit indwelling our hearts is what gives us understanding of the things freely given by God.

Again the gospel of John helps us with the Spirit being received. In John 3 Jesus is meeting with the Pharisee Nicodemus and Jesus teaches that we must be born again (vs 3) then in verse 8 He equates born again with the phrase “born of the Spirit”. Then in verse 18 He connects receiving the Spirit with faith so that whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. Wrap that all up in the package of salvation in that the Spirit of God regenerates our hearts so that we might believe in Him and receive the Holy Spirit in order to understand the things of God. We respond to that indescribable gift with a hearty “thank You, Lord” and then with a life of discipleship.

 

In the Westminster Confession of Faith, the confession we use in our denomination, it says of the Holy Spirit: He regenerates men by his grace, convicts them of sin, moves them to repentance, and persuades and enables them to embrace Jesus Christ by faith. This is the Spirit we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God who regenerates our hearts and lives. He reveals our sin to us so that we might repent and turn back to God. He enables us to trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, not by our own might, but by God’s grace.

 

  • The Mind of Christ

 

At the end of 1 Corinthians 2, Paul teaches us that having received the Holy Spirit, have received the mind of Christ. What a fabulous thought! We have the mind of Christ (vs 16). We have the capacity to think like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to learn from Jesus, to follow Jesus. Paul opens that up for us a little bit more in Philippians 2.5-8, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Have this mind among yourselves. Have the mind of Christ, the attitude of Christ, the disposition of Christ. It is an attitude of humility, obedience, and that of a servant.

Such a mind or attitude can be incredibly challenging because it means changing the way we would normally think. It requires a change that can only be wrought by the Holy Spirit. It requires us to reject the spirit of this world and embrace God’s way of life, God’s wisdom, God’s commandments as a way of life. It is the way of self denial, being crucified with Christ in order to be raised up to new life in Him. This is also a shared identity in that we share in the mind of Christ as the church. We are united in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Together we share in the presence of God by the Holy Spirit. We share in peace, unity, and purity because of the Holy Spirit. We see everything from the perspective of Jesus Christ because we have the mind of Christ. We still struggle with our old nature and our old ways of thinking, but we are being transformed by the Spirit in the Word to grow in sanctification, that is, maturing in Christ. We are seeking to grow deeper and deeper into the mind and attitude and perspective that is of Christ.

 

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit of God, our helper, our advocate, our counselor, our intercessor, a gift from God. We tend to focus a lot more on the person of Jesus Christ, but we might want to work on learning more and more about the power and wonders of the Holy Spirit.

Just a few verses from Romans to end our look at this essential of faith:

Romans 5.5, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8.6b, ...to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8.14, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 8.26, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 15.13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

 

Amen.