The Lost Outpouring of the Spirit
Romans 12; 9-13
· Your love must be real.
· Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good.
· Love each other like brothers and sisters.
· Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.
· Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.
· Be joyful because you have hope.
· Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times.
· Share with God’s people who need help.
· Bring strangers in need into your homes.
(Bullet points by FUNdMENTAL)
The Everyday Bible : New Century Version. 2005 (Ro 12:9-13). Nashville, TN.: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
This generation is looking for an Outpouring of the Spirit. Good for them!
I do think that is an honorable goal for any generation…
But, where have we got our ideas on what an outpouring of the Spirit even looks like?
Some, especially the younger believers connect this with Music. Not just any music (of course), but something that is thoroughly modern, loud, and able to generate movement upon the listeners.
Some olders have the same musical hang-ups. Just in the opposite direction.
Large numbers of Christians see outpourings when they see large groups on their TVs or filling large stadiums and other venues. Their unspoken theology is “the bigger the crowd the bigger the Spirit”.
The “Spirit-Filled” Christians tell us that an outpouring of the Spirit would bring about a mass giving of the sign gifts. We’ll know that the Spirit moved when there are people speaking in tongues and there are miraculous healings.
We fundamentalists sometimes could be said to believe that there will be an outpouring when we all believe in the same way. Most preferably our way!
This passage in Romans comes right after a short discussion on gifts.
I was intrigued this last week going through this for Sunday’s preparation that when gifts and the Spirit are mentioned in Scripture there is another word (or concept) right alongside them. . .
Love.
Is it possible that we have lost the sign of the outpouring of the Spirit and have come up with manmade alternatives?
Everyone who has been around the church for a while knows what happened in Acts chapter 2.
Pentecost. The few believers were in an upper room praying and the Spirit came upon them. That went outside and they started to prophesy about Jesus the Messiah. They did this in “tongues”; however you wish to define that, instigating some comment from the established spiritual ones.
But at the end of chapter two when Peter was finished his preaching. They asked “What must we do to be saved…? Peter’s answer was to repent, be baptized and you will receive the Holy Spirit.
However we define the outpouring of the Spirit early in chapter 2, we see another outpouring of the Spirit in verse 2:41. There no mention here that this group received an outpouring of tongues (as in fact most salvation stories in the NT do not discuss the presence of this gift).
In verses 42-47 they are shown to have an outpouring of Love.
We tend to miss that … instead we spend time debating the first part of the day of Pentecost.
Should this be a surprise to us about this outpouring of Love.
John, in his gospel account, has a lot of words spoken by Christ to his disciples about his leaving, the Spirits coming, and how they and the world may know of the Spirit’s presence on behalf of Christ.
John 13:33 Jesus said, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and what I told the Jews, I tell you now: Where I am going you cannot come.
34 “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. 35 All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”[i]
John 14: 15-17 “If you love me, you will obey my commands. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he lives with you and he will be in you.
John 15: 12-17 “This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
John 17: 24-26 “Father, I want these people that you gave me to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the world was made. 25 Father, you are the One who is good. The world does not know you, but I know you, and these people know you sent me. 26 I showed them what you are like, and I will show them again. Then they will have the same love that you have for me, and I will live in them.”
It doesn’t say anywhere that vibrant music is the sign of anything.
It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that Tongues or Healing is the sign of Spiritual Blessing.
It does say that the presence of the Holy Spirit brings into our midst LOVE.
So whatever else is outpoured if there is not Love it is not from the Spirit. (1 Corinthians chapters 12 & 13)
John 15:16 mentions that Jesus said that that he chose us to “go and produce fruit, fruit that will last.” I believe that it is near impossible to not reference this fruit with the fruit that Paul discloses as the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: 22-23.
It is possible, I understand, that we could punctuate this list this way – The Fruit of the Spirit is love: joy peace patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Even if we chose not to punctuate as such we must acknowledge that there is a reason why Love is at the head of this list.
Love is The Fruit of the Spirit.
Love makes our gifts usable
Love keeps our fervency of praise from being an obnoxious noise.
Love gives life to Orthodoxy
True love is what saved us.
Not that frilly and flower love that girls tell us it is.
Males came up with love in the first place:
1 John 4:10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.
1 John 4:19-21 We love because God first loved us. 20 If people say, “I love God,” but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars. Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have never seen. 21 And God gave us this command: Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.
No true love that the Spirit would bring out is one that acknowledges that
· GOD took the first step.
· Love is upward, then outward, then inward
· Love is a verb; not a feeling.
· Love is sacrificial.
· We praise God’s Love, not our own love for God.
· The way to show our love to God is to show Love to others.
What would churches look like if there was this Spiritual outpouring of love?
Regardless of the makeup of the Gifts given there would be LOVE and we would see churches that are no longer conformed into the image of the world. There would cease to be churches confined into the image of one or two “special” gifts. We would see the end of the church of Pedantic Seminary.
We would see a Church transformed into the image of her Creator, Savior, Sustainer…
Philippians 2: 1-8 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? 2 If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. 3 When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. 4 Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.
5 In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.
6 Christ himself was like God in everything.
But he did not think that being equal with God was something to be used for his own benefit.
7 But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.
He was born as a man and became like a servant.
8 And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God,
even when that caused his death—death on a cross.
There is a lost Outpouring of the Spirit: We have grown accustomed to power without sacrifice, exultation without humility; the right to praise God without serving another, abundant life without a cross.
Sign gifts, crowds and fervent singing have me dry and wanting.
The closest I have been to the Spirit lately was in straightening the rest rooms.
Sad part is that , it doesn’t say much about our “Worship” times
[i] All Scripture references are from: The Everyday Bible : New Century Version. 2005 (Jn 13:33-35). Nashville, TN.: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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