God speaks to whomever he wants to speak, about whatever he wants to speak, whenever he wants to speak to them. The message isn't about how to make God speak to us more. What we're talking about here is how to put ourselves in a posture to listen. To hear when he speaks. And I don't know about you, but if I am predisposed to not want to do what God says, and yes sometimes I'm not. Did you hear that, he's a pastor? The pastor doesn't want to do what God asks him to do sometimes, shocking! But when I am predisposed to not want to do what he says, I'm more inclined to avoid him. Like take literal steps to avoid him. To make myself unavailable when his number pops up on my phone. I'm much more likely to let it go to voicemail, and then conveniently forget to check it.
But I've also experienced the opposite. I've also experienced those times and seasons where I've practiced saying yes. Stepping out in faith when I think I hear God asking me to do something, even when it's scary. Even when it feels, at first, like I'm actually losing something. And every time I do, I relearn the lesson, that truly His yoke is easy, His burden is light, He does not lay anything too heavy or unfitting on me. And every step of obedience I've taken, always ends up leading me in the right direction. Sure, God comes and asks these people to do some pretty crazy things in these stories, but man, when they said yes to Him, what a ride! What an adventure! And I believe that those adventures, those experiences, those encounters with God, are available. Available to us, right now, right here, where we are, if only we would listen.
Seems to me Jesus, by his example, prefers a table at the back of the restaurant. He prefers the obscure. The small places. The small people. The small things. So, he works his plan through a carpenter named Joseph. A teenager named Mary. Some Shepherds working in the fields. A little town called Bethlehem. An atmosphere of poverty, powerlessness, and oppression. He prefers the simplicity and the humility of a baby.
These are the actors and the factors in the Advent story. Not a random or meaningless group of details. Rather this is the Jesus way and God did it this way because this is who he is, and this is how he works. He is found in the small places. He dwells in the unspectacular. He sneaks in the back door. He prefers the shadows. We find God on the back roads, off the beaten path. So, we find God in children. We find him in the elderly. We find him in the Forgotten. We find him amongst the hurting. He's a community theater God, not a Broadway God, we might say. Big and flashy and loud and impressive are not his way. He can be found there, but often the big and the flash and the loud are distractions that keep us from seeing and hearing and encountering the humble God, who puts on flesh and shows us God's heart.
The story that Luke chooses to begin his telling of the coming of Messiah with, is the story of a couple waiting. And sure, like with everybody else, they are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. Like everybody else in the Jewish Community was in those days. But more personally, Zachariah and Elizabeth are waiting for something else. They're waiting for a baby of their own. And as those who have experienced it know, infertility is a special kind of waiting. When you're waiting in infertility, it's not like waiting in a long line at Costco, where you know eventually it will be your turn. Waiting to conceive, it's waiting for something that you really, really, really, really, want but there is no guarantee that you're going to get it. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Oh, I know, there's lots of options for fertility treatments out there. There are tons of things that you can try. But for all our fertility treatments, have only served to further prove the point, getting pregnant isn't something you can control. And so you wait. Of course getting pregnant isn't the only kind of waiting that fits that category, right? There's tons of things that fit the waiting for an uncertain outcome list.
This Faith thing is a we thing not just a me thing. But today we remember that Jesus breathed on each of his disciples. John, Peter, Simon, Matthew and all the rest were filled with His Spirit. Each had a transformational encounter with God and ongoing experiences with him for the rest of their lives. Their lives were never the same. Everyday life was never the same because the Holy Spirit now inhabited each of them. He was at work in and around them.
So if you are a follower of Jesus, he has breathed His Spirit into you. And when Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us we experience God. And the key word is experience. The key emphasis is experience. This isn't the transaction in triplicate form. You know sign here, initial there. The spirit lives in you. You interact with him. He speaks to you and you to him. He teaches you. He reveals things to you. You hear his voice. In The Bible or through another person. He nudges you to take action. He stirs in you when you stray off the path. See, we're talking about an interactive relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, who right now lives in you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Yes we received him when we first believed and when we first asked Jesus into our lives, but we're not talking about just one experience. We're not talking about an experience with God back then. There are fresh experiences with the Spirit, in the course of everyday life, that without a doubt, hear this really loud and clear, without a doubt, are usually small and unspectacular. Not wild or wacky kinds of things, but real experiences, real encounters.
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit judges the world and the verdict is guilty and that has implications for the particulars of our lives here at the end of 2024. If Jesus and his way, and His Kingdom, truth, and goodness are true north, the way things are supposed to be. The way God intended them to be. The way God wants them to be. Then the world, that is wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment is morally, intellectually, ethically, and spiritually headed south. When the New Testament uses the term world, there's a whole lot of meaning packed up in that. When it uses the term world it often means, maybe even usually means, that the world and its systems are bankrupt. They're not slightly off course, they are completely off course. Instead of heading toward true north, they are heading toward false South. In every single way, a train bound for nowhere, literally. And the Holy Spirit's job is to alert the world that it's traveling this train bound for nowhere.
Sometimes we wish God spoke more often and more clearly to us about the specifics of our lives. What major should we take in college? Is this the right job? Is this the right marriage partner? Should we move to a bigger house? What President should we vote for? Should I retire? What should I do after I retire? And a million other particulars that we might wish God would just stand in front of us and say, “Do this and don't do that.” But here's the thing, the Holy Spirit's primary goal in guidance is not to give us the answers, but rather to shape us into people who follow and honor God even when the questions remain unanswered. His goal is not to give us specific guidance in every situation. His goal is to guide us to become a certain kind of person who is mature in the character of Christ, so we don't need his specific guidance in every situation. Or put it this way, we don't need to constantly consult the “All Trails App”, because we are an experienced and mature hiker, and we know where the trail is even when it's not obvious.
The other thing that Jesus points out here, is that the focus of the Holy Spirit's communication, his speaking, isn't in the direction of the Father, but it's in our direction. In verse 26 Jesus says, “But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” If the Holy Spirit, Advocate role, was on our behalf before the Father, you would think that Jesus would be emphasizing that the Holy Spirit is saying to the Father. Instead, Jesus is emphasizing what the advocate will be reminding us of. How he will be reminding us of the things that Jesus said. And then there's the fact of who exactly the Advocate is testifying for, on behalf of whom, the advocate is testifying for. Jesus says in John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father -- the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father -- he will testify about me.” Jesus is saying that the advocate testifies about Jesus. Which when you put all of this together sure makes it sound like the Holy Spirit isn't so much our Advocate before the Father, but rather Jesus's Advocate before us, before humanity. That in the definition of "paracletos," that I read earlier, you know this definition of a person of high social standing who speaks on behalf of a defendant in a court of law before a judge. That the defendant in this case is Jesus, and the things that he has taught us about the Kingdom of God. That the courtroom is the court of human will. And that the judge, the judge is us.
The holy spirit is here with us right now, comforting us, guiding us, teaching us, challenging us, and yes even correcting us and telling us when we have missed the mark. You see, the Holy Spirit isn't simply God's afterglow or Jesus's afterglow. We'll talk about people in our lives who aren't with us physically, but we'll say stuff like, “well, you know they’re here in spirit,” which is really a way of saying that they're not here. They're really gone, but we kind of, sort of can remember them, sort of thing. I mean, sometimes we think about the Holy Spirit that way, God's afterglow, the things that we remember about him, kind of a passive presence in the corner. A reminder that at some point Jesus walked the Earth, and yes, at some point in the future we'll see him again, but until then, I guess we have the Holy Spirit to remember Jesus by. That's not who the Holy Spirit is! The Holy Spirit is a fully alive, fully present, fully active, member of the Trinity.
A scandal in the Bible is something that causes us to stumble, to trip. A scandal in the Bible then is a rock sticking up ever so slightly, in the middle of the trail, and we don't see it, but our left foot clips it as we walk by, and we stumble, and we might even fall down.
1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul writing, “…. we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block, a scandal, to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Christ crucified, a scandal, scandalous to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles, why? Because no King, no one with power, no one of importance, no great leader, no one claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be from God, claiming to be God. No one would die willingly, on a despicable Roman cross. But love the way God does, it is scandalous.
Christian hope is bound to the resurrection of Jesus. When you read the Bible on hope, you find hope very close to language about the resurrection.
1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…..”
The New Testament's rallying cry is, Remember The Resurrection. It's a good word of encouragement. Kind of a good thing to say to one another, “hey remember the resurrection.” Remember God raised Jesus from the dead. Remember his power brought him back to life. Remember that the God we follow has that kind of power. Remember the God we follow is greater than the sin, death, decay and all of the old that author such horrific pain in this world. Remember the God who raised Jesus from the dead is in charge of this world, and he is moving this world toward his will and purpose. And one day he's going to finish the job and all will be well. Remember The Resurrection.