July 7, 2025 • 30 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
When you read in Acts , chapter 2, when the day of
Pentecost comes, you read howthe disciples were sitting there
, and this big wind comes andthe Holy Spirit shows up and it
talks about how there was.
Every nation under heaven wasthere, and when the message was
given, they could hear it intheir own tongue, their own
language.
And in this faith community werepresent every nation under
(00:27):
heaven, which I love about thisplace.
And so each week we're havingsomeone different read the
scripture in their native tongueand their language.
And so today, sunil is going toread in both English and in
Urdu Good morning church, soGenesis 1, 2 says Good morning
church.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So Genesis 1, 2 says Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over thesurface of the deep and the
Spirit of God was hovering overthe waters.
Urdu Ur zameen viraan aursunsan thi aur gehrao ke upar
andhera tha aur khuda ki rooppaani ki sata par jumbish karti
(01:05):
thi.
Genesis 2, 7,.
And the spirit of God was onthe surface of the water Genesis
2, 7.
Then the Lord, god, formed aman from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrilsthe breath of life, and the man
became a living being.
Urdu and God made man from thesoil of the earth and in his
(01:46):
veins the Holy Spirit.
Urdu, this is the word of theLord.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Thanks be to God.
Thank you, sunil.
Well, to continue ourconversation about the Holy
Spirit, today we're talkingabout what it looks like in the
midst of breath, and so I havesomeone that's a pastor in my
life, has actually been aprofessor in my life.
We've had him here before.
His name is Dr Joe Grana, andyou're going to really get a lot
out of, I think, what he hastoday.
There's very few people that Ihave in my life that get to
(02:11):
pastor me, and he's definitelyone of those that does that, so
will you please give a warmwelcome to Dr Joe.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Grana.
Thank you, pastor Lawrence.
So good to be here and to bewith you.
Yeah, it's been a couple ofyears since I've been here, so
it's nice to be able to comeback and to be able to
fellowship, to worship with youtogether and to meet a few new
(02:38):
people.
Two weeks ago, pastor Lawrencetalked about the Holy Spirit is
not a force, he is a person.
Holy Spirit's not an it, he's aperson.
He is a person.
Holy Spirit's not an it, he's aperson.
Today we want to talk aboutfrom the perspective of the
breath of God and the imagesthat are used there.
I read a book several years agoentitled God Was in this Place
(02:59):
and I Did Not Know, by LawrenceKushner, who's a rabbi Did Not
Know by Lawrence Kushner, who isa rabbi, and this book is a
number of rabbis who made theircommentary on the event of
Genesis 28, 16, when Jacob issleeping and he sees this ladder
going back and forth to heaven,angels ascending and descending
(03:19):
, and each gave their views, andthe rabbis are okay with
differing views because theybelieve that there's a little
bit of truth in each one ofthose perspectives and so when
you put it all together, yougrab a greater truth.
But one of the rabbis inparticular very much struck a
note with me that has stuck withme for many years Concept.
(03:40):
I had never thought about.
Concept I had never thoughtabout.
He said the first word that ababy, a human being, says is not
mama, is not dada, it's notsome other word that might come
up in a particular vocabulary ofchild, but that in actuality
the very first word a child saysis the name of God.
(04:04):
And the reason the rabbi saidthat is because in the Hebrew
the word for God and we'rereally not sure how to pronounce
it it's either Yahweh orYehovah.
Maybe you've heard Jehovah,yahweh, those are our best
guesses as to how to pronouncethat.
But the shortened form of it isthe word yah and it's a breath.
(04:26):
And so this rabbi's perspectivewas that when a baby is born
they get a breath and then theylet it out, and often the first
let out is with a cry.
But they can't cry out unlessthey breathe in and that's the
(04:47):
name of God.
I had the privilege of beingwith my father when he took his
last breath, and when he tookhis last breath his chest went
down in and went and it justkind of struck me, and it just
(05:10):
kind of struck me.
Maybe not only is the firstword that a human being says,
but the last word when they passfrom this life is also the name
of God.
And so I'm not saying that's agospel, I'm not saying that I
can, that's for truth.
I'm just saying it's abeautiful thought that a rabbi
prays for me to think that thefirst thing that we say is the
name of God, and then myexperience is that the last
(05:31):
thing, at least what my fathersaid, was the name of God as
well.
The breath of God is the HolySpirit, and so we want to look
at that from this perspective.
There's different words that areused.
In the Hebrew.
The word is ruach.
You even get a little bit of aha there.
(05:51):
It's kind of like the German,it's kind of in the back of your
throat.
Just try that with me, will you?
Just ruach, try it, go ahead,ruach.
So there's a little bit of thebreathing there, and that word
ruach can be translated asbreath, wind or spirit.
In the New Testament, which iswritten in Greek, we have the
(06:16):
word panoima or panuma, or, ifyou just leave the P off in our
language it's pneuma, from whichwe get pneumatics, compressed
air, pneumonia, dealing withyour lungs and your breathing.
And this Greek word also can betranslated as breath, wind and
spirit.
And so I want to look at theHoly Spirit today from that
perspective, those threedifferent angles.
(06:37):
They were able to see what Godmight be saying to us today.
So let's begin at creation,that the breath of God at
creation, and in Genesis 1, itsays this now, the earth was
formless and empty, darkness wasover the surface of the deep
and the spirit of God washovering over the waters.
(06:58):
Tyler Staten in his book saysit doesn't tell us here that the
breath of God or the breathingof God was breathed onto
creation, but he said maybe it'svery possible that it was.
It says simply that he hoveredand if actually the word means a
flutter, that the Spirit of Godis fluttering over the original
(07:19):
creation.
Where there was emptiness,formless and darkness, there was
chaos and, regardless ofwhether he breathed or not, his
presence brought order out ofthat chaos.
And I'd like to suggest thatthe presence of the Holy Spirit
brings order out of the chaos ofour life.
Do you have any chaos in yourlife today, Anything personal
(07:41):
that you're dealing with that ischaotic.
Do you have anything about ourcountry in which might be
concerned chaotic?
Anything about the world, theworld situation?
There's a lot of chaos all overand I would like to suggest
that the only real way thatchaos can be dealt with is with
the breath of God and with thebreath of the Holy Spirit.
(08:02):
God brings order out of chaos.
Now, that doesn't necessarilymean that the chaos is going to
go away.
What it does mean is that Godgives us a process, a means by
which we can handle and have aperspective of that chaos and
(08:23):
find peace within ourselves.
We go on in creation and we findthe creation of the human being
, and it says in Genesis 2 thatthe Lord God formed a man and
from the dust of the ground andbreathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the manbecame a living being.
God took some dust, he madeclay.
(08:45):
I don't know if he got a littlewater and sprinkled it in there
, I don't know if he kind ofspit on it a little bit and made
a little bit of mud but hecreates Adam and then he
breathes into him and when hebreathes into him, he gives him
life.
Breath is a gift of God, andit's not something we think
(09:09):
about very often, is it Becausewe breathe automatically?
The times we think about it iswhen it gets hindered for some
reason.
We get out of breath becausewe've exerted ourselves or
trying to catch our breath.
Maybe we get frightened andfrantic and it takes our breath
away.
Maybe something happens andsomething goes over our face and
it keeps us from doing it, frombreathing properly.
(09:31):
I can think back of when I was akid.
I went over to Ronnie Foster'shouse and I climbed up in a tree
in his front yard and I didn'trealize that the limb that I was
on was rotten and after alittle while of playing up there
and sitting on it it broke.
After a little while of playingup there and sitting on it, it
(09:51):
broke and I came done crashingdown with that limb.
Now, thankfully there was abicycle underneath the limb, so
it kind of broke my fall, but italso then threw me onto the
ground and I went back on myback and it took my total breath
.
I couldn't breathe.
I don't know if you ever hadthat experience where you fell
and you just couldn't breatheand I got frantic.
I thought I was going to everhad that experience where you
fell and you just couldn'tbreathe and I got frantic.
(10:12):
I thought I was going to die inthat situation.
But after a little period oftime I got breathing again.
It wasn't too much later thatit happened to me again, falling
out of a tree house and I fellon the ground, got my breath
taken away and then I thought,okay, this is not fun, but you
will breathe again.
It gave me a little bit ofcomfort in that process.
(10:33):
So we don't think about ourbreath until something takes our
breath away, in some sense ofthat word.
God breathed into Adam and hebecame a living being.
Whether it's physical orspiritual, breath is a gift of
(10:54):
God.
There's an old song and it'snot like one of the old hymns,
it's an old praise song.
It says this is the air Ibreathe, your holy presence
living in me, and that song istalking about that.
(11:18):
The breath that we breathe,whether it's physical or
spiritual, it's really a gift.
It's a presence of God and atthe end of our service we're
going to have the worship teamlead us in that song.
Then we find, as we go into thebook of John, jesus got the
(11:39):
disciples together.
It's after the resurrection, infact, two weeks ago, pastor
Lawrence talked about thisbriefly and he gathered them
together and, it says, and hebreathed on them, received the
Holy Spirit.
Now I like to kind of putmyself in those positions and
wonder well, how did he do this?
(12:00):
Did he come up to Nathaniel andsay Nathaniel, be filled with
the Holy Spirit, come over toMatthew, matthew, be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Went over to John.
Oh, I'm sorry, john, I breathea little bit too hard on you.
Let me wipe that off.
He comes to Peter and he saysbe filled with the Holy Spirit.
(12:21):
And then, after everybody hasbeen breathed upon, he comes
back to Peter and said you know,peter, I don't think it took I
need to breathe again upon you.
So I don't think it was exactlylike that.
I think it was a very sacredmoment, but where he said he
just be filled with the HolySpirit.
(12:46):
Now, what's interesting is theword that's used here is not the
pneuma word, it's actually theword emphasao, and emphasao
that's the only time this wordis found in the New Testament,
and maybe you can see an Englishword, you know, there emphazema
comes from this word, and soemphazema is when there's a
(13:09):
problem with your breathing.
Here Jesus breathes on them andhe doesn't give them emphysema,
he's trying to keep them fromhaving spiritual emphysema.
It's to be filled with the HolySpirit that you might be full.
Well, that's the concept ofbreath.
Briefly, let's go into thesecond aspect of this and that
(13:33):
is of wind.
Two passages I want us to lookat.
The first is in John 3.
Jesus is talking to Nicodemus,teacher of the law, and
Nicodemus doesn't understandwhat Jesus is saying.
Jesus says you've got to beborn again.
He said how can I be born again?
Am I going to go back to mymother's womb to do that?
You see, people didn'tunderstand Jesus all the time
(13:56):
because he spoke in metaphorsand they would take those
metaphors literally and miss theidea.
And here he is, a teacher ofthe law, and he still doesn't
get that either.
He's not understanding whatJesus says.
And so Jesus gives anothermetaphor here and he says the
wind blows where it pleases, youhear its sound, but you cannot
(14:16):
tell where it comes from orwhere it is going.
So it is with everyone born ofthe Spirit.
Now there's a little play onwords there.
The word wind and the wordSpirit are both the word pneuma
and pneuma, and obviously theycan't mean the same, or else
he's just being redundant.
And so that's why it's spirithere rather than wind, because
(14:39):
it's talking about the HolySpirit.
He's making an image here.
The wind blows, we don't knowwhere it comes from.
Oh, it might come from theocean.
Maybe it comes down from Alaska.
We might know that, but wedon't know where it comes from.
Or it might come from the ocean, maybe it comes down from
Alaska.
We might know that, but wedon't know exactly where it came
from and where it's going.
Wind circulates around.
Sometimes it might come back tous, sometimes maybe it is.
(15:00):
We don't get any of the sameair that we've had through all
our life Because we don't knowwhere it comes from or where it
goes.
And he says that's the way theHoly Spirit is.
Well, it's like a wind, and thewind comes and we're not even
aware of it until we become alittle bit more attuned.
(15:21):
Where the Holy Spirit might benudging us.
He might be convicting us ofour sin, he might be guiding us,
and we didn't even realize that.
Oh, that actually was Godworking in my life.
In retrospect I see that, eventhough I didn't see it while it
was actually happening, becausethe Spirit could surprise us in
so many ways.
It's a beautiful thought to seethat the breath of God, the
(15:46):
wind of God, blows.
Now I prefer gentle breezes.
I don't think we get too manygentle breezes up here, it's a
little bit stronger.
My daughter loves that.
She doesn't like hurricanenature but she likes it when the
trees are going back and forthand the leaves are blowing,
(16:08):
where I just kind of like thegentle breeze, it feels soft and
relaxing on me.
But here we find in the book ofActs a different kind of wind
here.
So suddenly there was a soundlike a blowing of a violent wind
and it came from heaven andfilled the whole house where
they were sitting.
And it came from heaven andfilled the whole house where
(16:30):
they were sitting.
It was the Holy Spirit who cameupon them and as a result of
this the apostles startedspeaking in other languages.
There's a debate here on theday of Pentecost Was the miracle
in the hearing of the peoplethat they heard in their
language, or was was in thespeaking of the apostles so that
(16:51):
people would hear?
My lean is to the speaking thatthey were filled with tongues,
filled with languages that theydidn't know, that the person
speaking didn't know, but thepeople listening did know.
And all these different peoplefrom various countries hear
about the message of God andthey are in confusion.
(17:12):
There is some chaos in thatsituation because it's like
what's going on here?
In fact some people are veryskeptical and saying, oh,
they're drunk.
That's what's going on here,but they all got the same
message and the same message isthat just Jesus, who was
crucified, is both Lord andChrist and the Spirit of God
(17:33):
touched them in such a way that3,000 people at one setting made
commitments to Christ becausethe wind was blowing.
You see, the Spirit was blowingand it touched people's lives
and it changed them, was blowingand it touched people's lives
and it changed them.
So the Holy Spirit is thebreath of God.
(17:54):
The Holy Spirit is the wind ofGod who works in mysterious ways
.
But I want to talk a little bitabout the Holy Spirit Himself.
We use the word Trinity.
You've heard Trinity.
It's not a Bible term.
Trinity is a theological termto try to describe something in
(18:19):
the Bible.
The biblical term is Godhead ordeity.
That's how the New Testamenttalks about the nature of God,
the Godhead, the deity.
But in trying to understandFather, son and Spirit that we
sang about.
We use the word Trinity,tri-unity, three in one.
It's a pretty difficult conceptto understand and it's been
(18:40):
debated through centuriesbecause people are trying to
wrap their heads around the factthat how can three be one?
But don't disparage too much ifyou don't understand that,
because who understands thenature of God?
I tell God regularly.
I'm so sorry that I am soshallow in my understanding of
(19:01):
you.
I mean, just think about it fora second.
There are 8 billion people inthe world.
God knows every one of them.
He knows a number of hairs onevery one of those people's
heads.
He knows what's in everybody'smind and what they think.
Not only that, he is with 8billion people and he's in
(19:21):
heaven being worshiped by theangels, and he is creating in
the universe, light years andthousands of light years away,
and he is in all those placesall the same time.
Can you understand a God likethat?
I can't comprehend that.
But I do know something aboutGod from creation.
(19:42):
I do know something about howGod works in people.
I do know something about Godfrom Scripture and I know a lot
more about God through Jesus.
Because if you want to knowwhat God would say if he was
here on earth, look at the wordsof Jesus.
If you want to know what Godwould do if he were here on
earth, look at the actions ofJesus.
(20:02):
So there are some things that Ican know and I know enough to
have faith and I know enough totrust, but I don't comprehend
what God is like.
I think it's going to take useternity to be able to fully
comprehend that.
So we come to the Trinity, andso Judaism and Islam thinks that
(20:25):
we're kind of pagan, we'repolytheistic.
In fact, it's kind ofinteresting that the Romans said
that Christians were atheistsand the reason they said
Christians were atheists?
Because Christians believed inone God and rejected all the
(20:46):
other gods.
And they were right.
They're atheists about thoseother gods.
I have a friend who is anatheist, who was a pastor, and
it's a whole nother story.
But he said you know, you'realready an atheist, you already
have millions of gods you don'tbelieve in.
I just want you not to believein one more.
That's what he's trying to do.
(21:06):
So they look at us aspolytheistic and it makes sense
from their perspective.
You've got God, the Father, godthe Son, god the Spirit.
You have three, that's poly,that's more than one, and it's
true mathematically that oneplus one plus one equals three.
But I'll have you think aboutit from this perspective one
(21:42):
times, one times one is one.
And so it gets me thinking.
If, mathematically, you canhave three integers, you can
have three different numbers andyou still end up with one,
perhaps and I believe it is true, but perhaps it's also possible
that God could be three butalso be one, because it's true
mathematically it could be truein regard to him as well.
I don't totally understand that, but I believe it, and so I
(22:05):
hope that's a helpfulperspective.
So he's part of the Godhead, heis a person, not an it, not
just a force, but a reality of aperson.
So how do we get connected tothe Holy Spirit other than him
blowing in and blowing out on us?
And we find in the book of Actsverse 38, on the second chapter
(22:27):
.
On the day of Pentecost, petersays this.
He says repent, be baptizedevery one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgivenessof your sins.
The Holy Spirit comes throughthe conversion experience.
He comes to live within us.
(22:52):
As Pastor Lawrence was talkingabout that.
We have the Holy Spirit withinus and therefore we're the
temple of God.
That's true individually, it'strue collectively.
And so he says you all knowthat we are the temple of God.
And how did that happen?
As the Holy Spirit comes intoour life, when we accept Christ,
we repent and we're baptizedinto Christ.
(23:15):
Now let me get on a littletangent here for just a moment
on this baptism, to try toexplain something.
Some of you have come from aCatholic background, or some
Episcopalian or Lutheran.
All of us have heard the termsacrament, right, I mean, after
all, sacramento is not too faraway and sacramento comes from
(23:37):
called sacramentos not too faraway.
And sacramento comes from itsname, comes from the idea of
sacrament.
Now, sacrament also is not abiblical term, it is a
theological term to try todescribe holy things.
But if you go back into thefirst century time, the Roman
culture, here's what a sacramentwas.
A sacramentum was an oath ofallegiance and that oath of
(23:58):
allegiance changed one's status.
So someone is single, they takea sacramentum we use the word
vow and then that sacramentum,that oath of allegiance, changes
their status and then nowthey're married.
Also, if somebody was acivilian, they take a
sacramentum, an oath ofallegiance to Caesar, they then
(24:21):
become a military person,interestingly enough, at least
for a nerd like me and that isthat a civilian was known in the
first century as a pagan.
And so the Romans would say aperson's a pagan, they take the
sacramentum, the oath ofallegiance, and they change
their status and become amilitary person.
Early Christians kind ofadopted that flow and they said
(24:46):
a non-believer is a pagan.
They take the sacramentum ofbaptism in the Lord's Supper.
It changes their status andthey become a follower of Christ
and a part of the family of God.
And so that's kind of how thatprocess took place and how that
word is continued through allthe years.
(25:06):
We receive the Holy Spiritthrough the conversion
experience.
He's working on us.
He's always there, trying to dowhatever he can, but he comes
and resides when we make acommitment to follow Jesus.
We also see that he's acomforter, a counselor.
(25:27):
The Greek word is the wordparaclete, which means to call
to the side of, and sometimesit's translated as counsel.
It doesn't mean counselor likea psychotherapist, it means a
counselor like a lawyer, and alawyer stands by your side to
plead your case, and so the HolySpirit stands by our side to
(25:52):
plead our case to the Father.
It is also translated ascomforter, and that is somebody
brings comfort when they standby the side of someone, when
they're with them and they helpthem.
The Holy Spirit is ourcomforter to stand by our side,
to help us in our time of need,and so His presence gives us
(26:18):
comfort, his presence gives usconfidence before God, not
because of our goodness, butbecause of the goodness of Jesus
and the presence of the HolySpirit in our lives.
So what's the takeaways that wecould have here?
The breath of God brings orderout of chaos, and so my
(26:41):
encouragement to you today that,in the midst of whatever chaos
that you're in, whatever chaosyou're concerned about that, you
would open your lives and yourhearts to the Holy Spirit so he
can bring order out of that.
Even if the chaos is not takenaway, he can give you a way to
find peace and comfort in themidst of that chaos.
(27:04):
Secondly, some of us need afresh wind.
Our faith is stagnant, we'restuck and we need a blowing of
the Spirit, like on the day ofPentecost, to give us a new
perspective and give us a newexcitement about our faith.
And if that's you, I wouldencourage you to be open to the
(27:25):
leading of the Spirit, to giveyou a fresh wind within your
faith, and then I would alsoencourage you always to find
comfort and counsel from theHoly Spirit.
He's there to stand beside you,to take your case and to
comfort you in your time of need.
I'm going to pray and then theworship team is going to come
(27:49):
out and lead us in the song.
This is the Air I Breathe.
The song this is the Air IBreathe, and my prayer for you
is that you might be filled withthe Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, thank you for whatyou've done for us and thank you
, holy Spirit, that even thoughwe don't totally understand how
(28:13):
you function and work yet, weknow some things about you and
we're grateful and I pray thatyou would breathe upon each
person, as here today, and forsome of us, we need a rushing
wind to become convinced and Ipray that that would happen.
And some of us are hurtingtoday.
There are sickness, there'srelationship problems, there's
(28:37):
finances, all kinds of things,there's concerns about our world
conditions, and I just praythat we might find comfort in
you, knowing that even out ofthis chaos, there can be order
because you're in our life.
I pray this in your name Amen.
When you read in Acts , chapter 2, when the day of
Pentecost comes, you read howthe disciples were sitting there
, and this big wind comes andthe Holy Spirit shows up and it
talks about how there was.
Every nation under heaven wasthere, and when the message was
given, they could hear it intheir own tongue, their own
language.
And in this faith community werepresent every nation under
(00:27):
heaven, which I love about thisplace.
And so each week we're havingsomeone different read the
scripture in their native tongueand their language.
And so today, sunil is going toread in both English and in
Urdu Good morning church, soGenesis 1, 2 says Good morning
church.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So Genesis 1, 2 says Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over thesurface of the deep and the
Spirit of God was hovering overthe waters.
Urdu Ur zameen viraan aursunsan thi aur gehrao ke upar
andhera tha aur khuda ki rooppaani ki sata par jumbish karti
(01:05):
thi.
Genesis 2, 7,.
And the spirit of God was onthe surface of the water Genesis
2, 7.
Then the Lord, god, formed aman from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrilsthe breath of life, and the man
became a living being.
Urdu and God made man from thesoil of the earth and in his
(01:46):
veins the Holy Spirit.
Urdu, this is the word of theLord.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Thanks be to God.
Thank you, sunil.
Well, to continue ourconversation about the Holy
Spirit, today we're talkingabout what it looks like in the
midst of breath, and so I havesomeone that's a pastor in my
life, has actually been aprofessor in my life.
We've had him here before.
His name is Dr Joe Grana, andyou're going to really get a lot
out of, I think, what he hastoday.
There's very few people that Ihave in my life that get to
(02:11):
pastor me, and he's definitelyone of those that does that, so
will you please give a warmwelcome to Dr Joe.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Grana.
Thank you, pastor Lawrence.
So good to be here and to bewith you.
Yeah, it's been a couple ofyears since I've been here, so
it's nice to be able to comeback and to be able to
fellowship, to worship with youtogether and to meet a few new
(02:38):
people.
Two weeks ago, pastor Lawrencetalked about the Holy Spirit is
not a force, he is a person.
Holy Spirit's not an it, he's aperson.
He is a person.
Holy Spirit's not an it, he's aperson.
Today we want to talk aboutfrom the perspective of the
breath of God and the imagesthat are used there.
I read a book several years agoentitled God Was in this Place
(02:59):
and I Did Not Know, by LawrenceKushner, who's a rabbi Did Not
Know by Lawrence Kushner, who isa rabbi, and this book is a
number of rabbis who made theircommentary on the event of
Genesis 28, 16, when Jacob issleeping and he sees this ladder
going back and forth to heaven,angels ascending and descending
(03:19):
, and each gave their views, andthe rabbis are okay with
differing views because theybelieve that there's a little
bit of truth in each one ofthose perspectives and so when
you put it all together, yougrab a greater truth.
But one of the rabbis inparticular very much struck a
note with me that has stuck withme for many years Concept.
(03:40):
I had never thought about.
Concept I had never thoughtabout.
He said the first word that ababy, a human being, says is not
mama, is not dada, it's notsome other word that might come
up in a particular vocabulary ofchild, but that in actuality
the very first word a child saysis the name of God.
(04:04):
And the reason the rabbi saidthat is because in the Hebrew
the word for God and we'rereally not sure how to pronounce
it it's either Yahweh orYehovah.
Maybe you've heard Jehovah,yahweh, those are our best
guesses as to how to pronouncethat.
But the shortened form of it isthe word yah and it's a breath.
(04:26):
And so this rabbi's perspectivewas that when a baby is born
they get a breath and then theylet it out, and often the first
let out is with a cry.
But they can't cry out unlessthey breathe in and that's the
(04:47):
name of God.
I had the privilege of beingwith my father when he took his
last breath, and when he tookhis last breath his chest went
down in and went and it justkind of struck me, and it just
(05:10):
kind of struck me.
Maybe not only is the firstword that a human being says,
but the last word when they passfrom this life is also the name
of God.
And so I'm not saying that's agospel, I'm not saying that I
can, that's for truth.
I'm just saying it's abeautiful thought that a rabbi
prays for me to think that thefirst thing that we say is the
name of God, and then myexperience is that the last
(05:31):
thing, at least what my fathersaid, was the name of God as
well.
The breath of God is the HolySpirit, and so we want to look
at that from this perspective.
There's different words that areused.
In the Hebrew.
The word is ruach.
You even get a little bit of aha there.
(05:51):
It's kind of like the German,it's kind of in the back of your
throat.
Just try that with me, will you?
Just ruach, try it, go ahead,ruach.
So there's a little bit of thebreathing there, and that word
ruach can be translated asbreath, wind or spirit.
In the New Testament, which iswritten in Greek, we have the
(06:16):
word panoima or panuma, or, ifyou just leave the P off in our
language it's pneuma, from whichwe get pneumatics, compressed
air, pneumonia, dealing withyour lungs and your breathing.
And this Greek word also can betranslated as breath, wind and
spirit.
And so I want to look at theHoly Spirit today from that
perspective, those threedifferent angles.
(06:37):
They were able to see what Godmight be saying to us today.
So let's begin at creation,that the breath of God at
creation, and in Genesis 1, itsays this now, the earth was
formless and empty, darkness wasover the surface of the deep
and the spirit of God washovering over the waters.
(06:58):
Tyler Staten in his book saysit doesn't tell us here that the
breath of God or the breathingof God was breathed onto
creation, but he said maybe it'svery possible that it was.
It says simply that he hoveredand if actually the word means a
flutter, that the Spirit of Godis fluttering over the original
(07:19):
creation.
Where there was emptiness,formless and darkness, there was
chaos and, regardless ofwhether he breathed or not, his
presence brought order out ofthat chaos.
And I'd like to suggest thatthe presence of the Holy Spirit
brings order out of the chaos ofour life.
Do you have any chaos in yourlife today, Anything personal
(07:41):
that you're dealing with that ischaotic.
Do you have anything about ourcountry in which might be
concerned chaotic?
Anything about the world, theworld situation?
There's a lot of chaos all overand I would like to suggest
that the only real way thatchaos can be dealt with is with
the breath of God and with thebreath of the Holy Spirit.
(08:02):
God brings order out of chaos.
Now, that doesn't necessarilymean that the chaos is going to
go away.
What it does mean is that Godgives us a process, a means by
which we can handle and have aperspective of that chaos and
(08:23):
find peace within ourselves.
We go on in creation and we findthe creation of the human being
, and it says in Genesis 2 thatthe Lord God formed a man and
from the dust of the ground andbreathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the manbecame a living being.
God took some dust, he madeclay.
(08:45):
I don't know if he got a littlewater and sprinkled it in there
, I don't know if he kind ofspit on it a little bit and made
a little bit of mud but hecreates Adam and then he
breathes into him and when hebreathes into him, he gives him
life.
Breath is a gift of God, andit's not something we think
(09:09):
about very often, is it Becausewe breathe automatically?
The times we think about it iswhen it gets hindered for some
reason.
We get out of breath becausewe've exerted ourselves or
trying to catch our breath.
Maybe we get frightened andfrantic and it takes our breath
away.
Maybe something happens andsomething goes over our face and
it keeps us from doing it, frombreathing properly.
(09:31):
I can think back of when I was akid.
I went over to Ronnie Foster'shouse and I climbed up in a tree
in his front yard and I didn'trealize that the limb that I was
on was rotten and after alittle while of playing up there
and sitting on it it broke.
After a little while of playingup there and sitting on it, it
(09:51):
broke and I came done crashingdown with that limb.
Now, thankfully there was abicycle underneath the limb, so
it kind of broke my fall, but italso then threw me onto the
ground and I went back on myback and it took my total breath
.
I couldn't breathe.
I don't know if you ever hadthat experience where you fell
and you just couldn't breatheand I got frantic.
I thought I was going to everhad that experience where you
fell and you just couldn'tbreathe and I got frantic.
(10:12):
I thought I was going to die inthat situation.
But after a little period oftime I got breathing again.
It wasn't too much later thatit happened to me again, falling
out of a tree house and I fellon the ground, got my breath
taken away and then I thought,okay, this is not fun, but you
will breathe again.
It gave me a little bit ofcomfort in that process.
(10:33):
So we don't think about ourbreath until something takes our
breath away, in some sense ofthat word.
God breathed into Adam and hebecame a living being.
Whether it's physical orspiritual, breath is a gift of
(10:54):
God.
There's an old song and it'snot like one of the old hymns,
it's an old praise song.
It says this is the air Ibreathe, your holy presence
living in me, and that song istalking about that.
(11:18):
The breath that we breathe,whether it's physical or
spiritual, it's really a gift.
It's a presence of God and atthe end of our service we're
going to have the worship teamlead us in that song.
Then we find, as we go into thebook of John, jesus got the
(11:39):
disciples together.
It's after the resurrection, infact, two weeks ago, pastor
Lawrence talked about thisbriefly and he gathered them
together and, it says, and hebreathed on them, received the
Holy Spirit.
Now I like to kind of putmyself in those positions and
wonder well, how did he do this?
(12:00):
Did he come up to Nathaniel andsay Nathaniel, be filled with
the Holy Spirit, come over toMatthew, matthew, be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Went over to John.
Oh, I'm sorry, john, I breathea little bit too hard on you.
Let me wipe that off.
He comes to Peter and he saysbe filled with the Holy Spirit.
(12:21):
And then, after everybody hasbeen breathed upon, he comes
back to Peter and said you know,peter, I don't think it took I
need to breathe again upon you.
So I don't think it was exactlylike that.
I think it was a very sacredmoment, but where he said he
just be filled with the HolySpirit.
(12:46):
Now, what's interesting is theword that's used here is not the
pneuma word, it's actually theword emphasao, and emphasao
that's the only time this wordis found in the New Testament,
and maybe you can see an Englishword, you know, there emphazema
comes from this word, and soemphazema is when there's a
(13:09):
problem with your breathing.
Here Jesus breathes on them andhe doesn't give them emphysema,
he's trying to keep them fromhaving spiritual emphysema.
It's to be filled with the HolySpirit that you might be full.
Well, that's the concept ofbreath.
Briefly, let's go into thesecond aspect of this and that
(13:33):
is of wind.
Two passages I want us to lookat.
The first is in John 3.
Jesus is talking to Nicodemus,teacher of the law, and
Nicodemus doesn't understandwhat Jesus is saying.
Jesus says you've got to beborn again.
He said how can I be born again?
Am I going to go back to mymother's womb to do that?
You see, people didn'tunderstand Jesus all the time
(13:56):
because he spoke in metaphorsand they would take those
metaphors literally and miss theidea.
And here he is, a teacher ofthe law, and he still doesn't
get that either.
He's not understanding whatJesus says.
And so Jesus gives anothermetaphor here and he says the
wind blows where it pleases, youhear its sound, but you cannot
(14:16):
tell where it comes from orwhere it is going.
So it is with everyone born ofthe Spirit.
Now there's a little play onwords there.
The word wind and the wordSpirit are both the word pneuma
and pneuma, and obviously theycan't mean the same, or else
he's just being redundant.
And so that's why it's spirithere rather than wind, because
(14:39):
it's talking about the HolySpirit.
He's making an image here.
The wind blows, we don't knowwhere it comes from.
Oh, it might come from theocean.
Maybe it comes down from Alaska.
We might know that, but wedon't know where it comes from.
Or it might come from the ocean, maybe it comes down from
Alaska.
We might know that, but wedon't know exactly where it came
from and where it's going.
Wind circulates around.
Sometimes it might come back tous, sometimes maybe it is.
(15:00):
We don't get any of the sameair that we've had through all
our life Because we don't knowwhere it comes from or where it
goes.
And he says that's the way theHoly Spirit is.
Well, it's like a wind, and thewind comes and we're not even
aware of it until we become alittle bit more attuned.
(15:21):
Where the Holy Spirit might benudging us.
He might be convicting us ofour sin, he might be guiding us,
and we didn't even realize that.
Oh, that actually was Godworking in my life.
In retrospect I see that, eventhough I didn't see it while it
was actually happening, becausethe Spirit could surprise us in
so many ways.
It's a beautiful thought to seethat the breath of God, the
(15:46):
wind of God, blows.
Now I prefer gentle breezes.
I don't think we get too manygentle breezes up here, it's a
little bit stronger.
My daughter loves that.
She doesn't like hurricanenature but she likes it when the
trees are going back and forthand the leaves are blowing,
(16:08):
where I just kind of like thegentle breeze, it feels soft and
relaxing on me.
But here we find in the book ofActs a different kind of wind
here.
So suddenly there was a soundlike a blowing of a violent wind
and it came from heaven andfilled the whole house where
they were sitting.
And it came from heaven andfilled the whole house where
(16:30):
they were sitting.
It was the Holy Spirit who cameupon them and as a result of
this the apostles startedspeaking in other languages.
There's a debate here on theday of Pentecost Was the miracle
in the hearing of the peoplethat they heard in their
language, or was was in thespeaking of the apostles so that
(16:51):
people would hear?
My lean is to the speaking thatthey were filled with tongues,
filled with languages that theydidn't know, that the person
speaking didn't know, but thepeople listening did know.
And all these different peoplefrom various countries hear
about the message of God andthey are in confusion.
(17:12):
There is some chaos in thatsituation because it's like
what's going on here?
In fact some people are veryskeptical and saying, oh,
they're drunk.
That's what's going on here,but they all got the same
message and the same message isthat just Jesus, who was
crucified, is both Lord andChrist and the Spirit of God
(17:33):
touched them in such a way that3,000 people at one setting made
commitments to Christ becausethe wind was blowing.
You see, the Spirit was blowingand it touched people's lives
and it changed them, was blowingand it touched people's lives
and it changed them.
So the Holy Spirit is thebreath of God.
(17:54):
The Holy Spirit is the wind ofGod who works in mysterious ways
.
But I want to talk a little bitabout the Holy Spirit Himself.
We use the word Trinity.
You've heard Trinity.
It's not a Bible term.
Trinity is a theological termto try to describe something in
(18:19):
the Bible.
The biblical term is Godhead ordeity.
That's how the New Testamenttalks about the nature of God,
the Godhead, the deity.
But in trying to understandFather, son and Spirit that we
sang about.
We use the word Trinity,tri-unity, three in one.
It's a pretty difficult conceptto understand and it's been
(18:40):
debated through centuriesbecause people are trying to
wrap their heads around the factthat how can three be one?
But don't disparage too much ifyou don't understand that,
because who understands thenature of God?
I tell God regularly.
I'm so sorry that I am soshallow in my understanding of
(19:01):
you.
I mean, just think about it fora second.
There are 8 billion people inthe world.
God knows every one of them.
He knows a number of hairs onevery one of those people's
heads.
He knows what's in everybody'smind and what they think.
Not only that, he is with 8billion people and he's in
(19:21):
heaven being worshiped by theangels, and he is creating in
the universe, light years andthousands of light years away,
and he is in all those placesall the same time.
Can you understand a God likethat?
I can't comprehend that.
But I do know something aboutGod from creation.
(19:42):
I do know something about howGod works in people.
I do know something about Godfrom Scripture and I know a lot
more about God through Jesus.
Because if you want to knowwhat God would say if he was
here on earth, look at the wordsof Jesus.
If you want to know what Godwould do if he were here on
earth, look at the actions ofJesus.
(20:02):
So there are some things that Ican know and I know enough to
have faith and I know enough totrust, but I don't comprehend
what God is like.
I think it's going to take useternity to be able to fully
comprehend that.
So we come to the Trinity, andso Judaism and Islam thinks that
(20:25):
we're kind of pagan, we'repolytheistic.
In fact, it's kind ofinteresting that the Romans said
that Christians were atheistsand the reason they said
Christians were atheists?
Because Christians believed inone God and rejected all the
(20:46):
other gods.
And they were right.
They're atheists about thoseother gods.
I have a friend who is anatheist, who was a pastor, and
it's a whole nother story.
But he said you know, you'realready an atheist, you already
have millions of gods you don'tbelieve in.
I just want you not to believein one more.
That's what he's trying to do.
(21:06):
So they look at us aspolytheistic and it makes sense
from their perspective.
You've got God, the Father, godthe Son, god the Spirit.
You have three, that's poly,that's more than one, and it's
true mathematically that oneplus one plus one equals three.
But I'll have you think aboutit from this perspective one
(21:42):
times, one times one is one.
And so it gets me thinking.
If, mathematically, you canhave three integers, you can
have three different numbers andyou still end up with one,
perhaps and I believe it is true, but perhaps it's also possible
that God could be three butalso be one, because it's true
mathematically it could be truein regard to him as well.
I don't totally understand that, but I believe it, and so I
(22:05):
hope that's a helpfulperspective.
So he's part of the Godhead, heis a person, not an it, not
just a force, but a reality of aperson.
So how do we get connected tothe Holy Spirit other than him
blowing in and blowing out on us?
And we find in the book of Actsverse 38, on the second chapter
(22:27):
.
On the day of Pentecost, petersays this.
He says repent, be baptizedevery one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgivenessof your sins.
The Holy Spirit comes throughthe conversion experience.
He comes to live within us.
(22:52):
As Pastor Lawrence was talkingabout that.
We have the Holy Spirit withinus and therefore we're the
temple of God.
That's true individually, it'strue collectively.
And so he says you all knowthat we are the temple of God.
And how did that happen?
As the Holy Spirit comes intoour life, when we accept Christ,
we repent and we're baptizedinto Christ.
(23:15):
Now let me get on a littletangent here for just a moment
on this baptism, to try toexplain something.
Some of you have come from aCatholic background, or some
Episcopalian or Lutheran.
All of us have heard the termsacrament, right, I mean, after
all, sacramento is not too faraway and sacramento comes from
(23:37):
called sacramentos not too faraway.
And sacramento comes from itsname, comes from the idea of
sacrament.
Now, sacrament also is not abiblical term, it is a
theological term to try todescribe holy things.
But if you go back into thefirst century time, the Roman
culture, here's what a sacramentwas.
A sacramentum was an oath ofallegiance and that oath of
(23:58):
allegiance changed one's status.
So someone is single, they takea sacramentum we use the word
vow and then that sacramentum,that oath of allegiance, changes
their status and then nowthey're married.
Also, if somebody was acivilian, they take a
sacramentum, an oath ofallegiance to Caesar, they then
(24:21):
become a military person,interestingly enough, at least
for a nerd like me and that isthat a civilian was known in the
first century as a pagan.
And so the Romans would say aperson's a pagan, they take the
sacramentum, the oath ofallegiance, and they change
their status and become amilitary person.
Early Christians kind ofadopted that flow and they said
(24:46):
a non-believer is a pagan.
They take the sacramentum ofbaptism in the Lord's Supper.
It changes their status andthey become a follower of Christ
and a part of the family of God.
And so that's kind of how thatprocess took place and how that
word is continued through allthe years.
(25:06):
We receive the Holy Spiritthrough the conversion
experience.
He's working on us.
He's always there, trying to dowhatever he can, but he comes
and resides when we make acommitment to follow Jesus.
We also see that he's acomforter, a counselor.
(25:27):
The Greek word is the wordparaclete, which means to call
to the side of, and sometimesit's translated as counsel.
It doesn't mean counselor likea psychotherapist, it means a
counselor like a lawyer, and alawyer stands by your side to
plead your case, and so the HolySpirit stands by our side to
(25:52):
plead our case to the Father.
It is also translated ascomforter, and that is somebody
brings comfort when they standby the side of someone, when
they're with them and they helpthem.
The Holy Spirit is ourcomforter to stand by our side,
to help us in our time of need,and so His presence gives us
(26:18):
comfort, his presence gives usconfidence before God, not
because of our goodness, butbecause of the goodness of Jesus
and the presence of the HolySpirit in our lives.
So what's the takeaways that wecould have here?
The breath of God brings orderout of chaos, and so my
(26:41):
encouragement to you today that,in the midst of whatever chaos
that you're in, whatever chaosyou're concerned about that, you
would open your lives and yourhearts to the Holy Spirit so he
can bring order out of that.
Even if the chaos is not takenaway, he can give you a way to
find peace and comfort in themidst of that chaos.
(27:04):
Secondly, some of us need afresh wind.
Our faith is stagnant, we'restuck and we need a blowing of
the Spirit, like on the day ofPentecost, to give us a new
perspective and give us a newexcitement about our faith.
And if that's you, I wouldencourage you to be open to the
(27:25):
leading of the Spirit, to giveyou a fresh wind within your
faith, and then I would alsoencourage you always to find
comfort and counsel from theHoly Spirit.
He's there to stand beside you,to take your case and to
comfort you in your time of need.
I'm going to pray and then theworship team is going to come
(27:49):
out and lead us in the song.
This is the Air I Breathe.
The song this is the Air IBreathe, and my prayer for you
is that you might be filled withthe Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, thank you for whatyou've done for us and thank you
, holy Spirit, that even thoughwe don't totally understand how
(28:13):
you function and work yet, weknow some things about you and
we're grateful and I pray thatyou would breathe upon each
person, as here today, and forsome of us, we need a rushing
wind to become convinced and Ipray that that would happen.
And some of us are hurtingtoday.
There are sickness, there'srelationship problems, there's
(28:37):
finances, all kinds of things,there's concerns about our world
conditions, and I just praythat we might find comfort in
you, knowing that even out ofthis chaos, there can be order
because you're in our life.
I pray this in your name Amen.
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