Have We Quenched the Holy Spirit

So Lily and I had just gotten married, and we were on our honeymoon, naturally. And it was finally a time of relaxation, a time to kind of relax and let our guard down and have fun and go see all these different places.

For those of you who don't know, Lily and I had started on our journey into the Kingdom life only a couple of months before we had gotten married. And so this was followed by a lot of questions from family and friends. And so finally, the honeymoon. And we were here in the Carolinas, and there's a place in the Carolinas called Sassafras Mountain, and it has an overlook on it where the state line that divides North and South Carolina actually runs right through the middle of the observation deck. And so when you walk up onto the stairs, there's a line that goes north and south, and then you can walk up and along both sides. And then you get this beautiful panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains once you're on top.

And so anyways, we were there, and to our surprise, we went at a time of day and nobody was there. We had thought surely there was going to be a bunch of people. It was a beautiful day, and there was nobody there. So we parked in the parking lot, got out, went up to the deck, and looked around, and we're kind of enjoying the sights of the mountains.

And then we heard a car come in. The parking lot isn't too far away. And this man and his wife start coming up the steps, and it is what it is. Naturally, that's a public place. And he made eye contact with us, and he kind of stared at us a little harder. And normally, I wouldn't think anything of it. Somebody makes eye contact with you, you smile, say hello. And he kind of didn't stop staring at me.

And then he started walking a little faster, and at this point, he's holding his wife's hand, and it's almost like he's leading the way, like he has a mission, and he's coming to talk to us.

And so I want to give you a brief account of how this conversation went between me and this man. And so he introduced himself and his wife and smiled and was very kind. And then he asked, "Do you like to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?"

And I responded, "Yes, we try our best to." He continued, "I was out shooting my bow for archery season." He looked at me. He's like, "I'm assuming you like to hunt." "Yeah, I do." So I was out shooting, sighting my bow in, and he's like, "This doesn't happen to me. I got this overwhelming notion. It was something I can't explain, and I've never had it before, and I'm not a prophet, and this doesn't happen."

He's like, "But I had this clear sense that I needed to go to Sassafras Mountain today, right now." And so I put everything down. We were expecting company that evening, and I told my wife that we can't, we have to cancel, and we have to go to Sassafras Mountain.

So I called up the people, and I explained to my wife and them that, "Hey, we're sorry, but we can't host you." And so we loaded up into the car. He's like, "And we don't live all that close. It's about half an hour to 45 minutes from here.

We don't come here very often. We drove right here."

When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw your car with the Pennsylvania plates. And I started up the stairway, and as soon as I saw you, I knew why I was supposed to come here. You see, I used to live in Pennsylvania, and I see the way you're dressed and your car's from Pennsylvania.

And I just want to let you know, and I want to talk to you, brother, that it's not by the traditions of your father that you will be saved, but it's through Jesus Christ, by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

It is through him that we know that we are in the Father. You need the Holy Spirit to be saved. And he continued on, "True undefiled religion is that which gives to the poor and fatherless, the orphans and the widows." Just like James says. Do you know that verse?

And he continued on for quite a while, quoting messages that his pastor had given, and kind of started to back away. And I could tell he was about ready to leave. And he got next to the stairs, and he kind of got a little quiet. And I said, "Oh, yeah, I do know that verse. And thank you very much, brother. That was very encouraging, and it was very nice to meet you and your wife, and I'm glad that we got to meet." And he kind of looked at me and turned around and walked off and sat on a rock with his wife down over there.

And so after this exchange, I'm standing there, and Lily and I are standing there, and I looked at Lily, and she kind of looked a little saddened, and she said, "Cal, can we go back to the Airbnb?" And I begrudgingly said, "Okay," because we didn't get to explore anywhere there. We didn't get to go on any of the trails. And it's a beautiful mountain, beautiful day.

And so we got back in the car. I kind of looked at her and sat there, and it was very quiet, and I kind of wanted to break the silence. So I said, "Well, that was encouraging and very kind of him to do."

And still quiet, Lily looked at me and said, "Cyle, he was telling us we need the Holy Spirit, that we aren't saved." And it was at this moment that I realized I was very much misunderstanding what this man was saying.

Because the whole time I was agreeing with him. I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's not by the traditions of my father that I'm saved. It's through Jesus Christ. And I do need the Holy Spirit to be saved. And yeah, I do know that verse."

And yeah, I agreed with everything he said. In fact, I was genuinely uplifted by this interaction.

But as soon as Lily said that, I saw his motives, and I replayed the scenario in my mind, and it clicked. And it was super clear at that point. This man thought, naturally, that I grew up in an Anabaptist family, and he was trying to evangelize me.

And so this sent me into a spiral that led me to a lot of questions. I genuinely believed that this man was truthful. He was telling the truth. And so why would God send him to us? Maybe he was trying to tell us something.

Maybe this is a sign that we are on the wrong road. And this kept replaying in my mind. What? Why did this man think that we did not have the Holy Spirit? This may have been one of the most difficult times in my faith. I had to stop and think, "Am I ignoring what God wants me to do?

Am I quenching the Spirit?"

And so good morning. Good morning. What a beautiful day it is to gather together. I don't know if the sun's shining. It was when I woke up this morning. And so the title of my message today is, "Have We Quenched the Holy Spirit?"

And this is a topic that has greatly challenged me.

And I hope that this message can be an uplifting message, but also a good reminder of who the Holy Spirit is and what his role is in the life of believers and the church. And so I'm going to focus on three points today. And I know that these three points are not an exhaustive list, but they are ones that had greatly helped me through these questions that I was experiencing.

And so my first point will be, how my view of the Trinity affects my view of the Holy Spirit. The second one is, what is the Spirit's role in my personal life and our lives as a whole? And the third is, what does it mean to quench the Spirit?

And so to start off, how my view of the Trinity affects my view of the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and God. For the majority of my Christian faith, I was taught a view of the Trinity that put the different persons of the Godhead on the same level. I was taught this. It was a very common one that had popped up in church and everything else. And at first, it looks very good. You have the Father who is God, who is not the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, but they're all God.

And yet when I was explaining this, and this is just my own experience, I was formed to think that this way of viewing God makes the Holy Spirit have the same amount of authority as Jesus and the same amount of authority as the Father because they're all God. And so if the Holy Spirit, if I feel the Holy Spirit working, then obviously that is the same as God speaking. It is God speaking.

And so because I haven't felt the Holy Spirit convict me that the way I'm living right now is wrong, then I don't have to change. I can explain it away and go on with my life, and I can live my life saying, "Not today."

I just haven't felt convicted. These things were for believers then, but not now. It was just a thing for maybe that time. Or that's great if you do it, if you've felt convicted by the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit hasn't convicted me, so therefore I don't have to.

Now, when I look at this and say that, it sounds, yeah, like at least there is a, at least there is somewhat of an authority in my life. At least God is that authority figure. But because there is no headship, no order, because I can just blame or push everything off as the Holy Spirit hasn't convicted me yet, then necessarily there is no authority. There is no, yeah, direction in my life.

Even if Jesus says to love my enemies, to turn the other cheek, to be holy, to dress modestly, because I am not fully convicted of the Holy Spirit, well, I just don't have to do it today.

And so then the mindset becomes, if it's so important to God, then obviously he will convict me through the Holy Spirit.

And so when I started to look through the Trinity through the lens that the early Christians did, this all kind of shifted and changed. To see the Trinity in a headship order, that the Father is the head of all, and Jesus submits to the Father, and the Holy Spirit submits to the words and teachings of Jesus.

That the Holy Spirit isn't some lone ranger that wanders around the earth and convicts certain people of some things in Scripture and others of different things.

So then when I look at God through this lens, the Holy Spirit should be convicting me to live by the words and teachings of Jesus and his apostles. And even if I am not hearing the Spirit tell me to do this, he is by the words of Jesus who ultimately come from the Father.

And so I tried to find a diagram, but I couldn't of how I've wanted to, so I made one myself, as you can tell. And so Tertullian points out this great aspect and diagram of the Son, and he has three others that I'll get into.

And it really helped me to kind of understand this of how the Father is the big gas ball of the Sun. He originates all things that come from it. And the Sun is the light that radiates off of the Sun.

And I tried as hard as I could to find a picture of heat, but you can't get a picture of heat. So imagine the fire, and you put your hand over the fire, and you feel the heat. That would be the Holy Spirit that is radiating off of the rays, the heat that radiates off. And so they are all the Sun. They are all that same substance, but yet there are three distinct parts of it. The Father originates the ray, and from the ray comes the heat. But it all comes from the big gas ball, the Father.

There was another image of a fountainhead. And so if you can picture, I didn't try and do a diagram of this one. And so if you picture a mountain, and from the mountain, there is this stream that bubbles up, or a fountainhead or a stream on the top of the mountain. And from that stream, from the fountainhead, comes a river that flows down this mountain.

And off of that river, there's little shoots of streams that go every which way. And so we can see that the fountainhead is the Father that originates the stream or the river, and from that river come the streams of the Holy Spirit.

And so Origen puts it this way, "Let no one indeed suppose that we give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that his dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion." It would be illogical because we would be preferencing or elevating the Spirit over the Son or over the Father, who is the origin of all. And so to elevate the Holy Spirit, which comes from the Father, and to elevate him above the Father would be, as Origen puts it, illogical.

Novation builds on this point. The Paraclete has received from Christ what he may declare. But if he has received from Christ what he may declare to us, Christ is greater than the Paraclete. For the Paraclete would not receive from Christ unless he were less than Christ. But the very fact that the Paraclete is less than Christ provides proves Christ to be God. So the testimony of Christ's divinity is immense in the Paraclete being found to be less than Christ in this economy.

Pause. Who is the Paraclete?

Paraclete is a Greek word or term that in English would be similar to saying a helper, an advocate, an intercessor, or a counselor. The word is used to describe the Holy Spirit in many examples in John, one of them being John 14:16. The word helper would be the word Paracletos.

The early Christians often used this term interchangeably, Paraclete and the Holy Spirit. And so what is Novation saying? He's not saying that the Holy Spirit is less God. No, they are the same substance. However, he submits himself to Christ.

And finally, the source of the entire Holy Spirit remains in Christ, so that from him could be drawn streams of gifts and works while the Holy Spirit dwells richly in Christ.

And so if we could turn to John chapter 16:5-15, I'm going to read it up here.

It says, "But now I go away to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me. For he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you."

And so we can see in this passage the headship of God. We see that in verse 5, that Jesus is going back to the Father who sent him. In verse 7, we see that Jesus is going to send the helper.

Not that the helper originates from Jesus. He originates from the Father, the originator of all. But Jesus is the one that sends him. And in turn, in verse 13, he, the helper, does not speak on his own authority, but from Christ, as he says in verse 14.

And so with all of this, we can say that the Holy Spirit will never teach us anything that is different than what Jesus or the apostles taught. And instead, the Holy Spirit should be convicting us all of the teachings that Jesus and the apostles taught, so that when we read through Scripture, we can say that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us.

And this quote from Origen I thought was fitting. "When you read the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit speaks to you."

So then it's the Father, Son, and Holy Bible.

How many of you have heard this saying before? Nobody? Just me. So when I had first started coming to this and started to kind of look at Scripture as a more authoritative way of my life, this was the phrase that was said to me, "Kyle, you're viewing it as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible, not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

And people used to use it to jest and to tell somebody that your interpretation of the Bible is too literal. You're maybe taking it too seriously, or they would call it legalistic. And that you're taking the approach that Scripture is more important than God. You're focusing in on what the Bible says more than on what God himself says.

And I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but from the context that we came from, it felt like a valid argument.

And yeah, we should not be legalistic. I'm not going to argue that. However, we shouldn't throw out following the commands that Christ gives us. It is by reading Scripture that we can know the heart of God and his intentions and plan for us. We can learn how to live in his kingdom here on earth.

And so therefore it is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We don't worship the Bible. It is important that we listen to the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us the truth and knowledge of God through Scripture and through his living word.

So this brings me to my second point. What is the Spirit's role in the lives of us individually and collectively as a body and a church?

And so the Spirit is a helper, as it says in John 14:26. He convicts the world of sin, like it says in John 16:7-10. He dwells within each one of us in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11. He's the source of revelation, wisdom, and power, said in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 and Acts 1-8.

And I really liked this verse and this whole account. I said I was going to write this down and read it, but I didn't write it down.

So in this account, this is when Jesus returns and they are

yeah. So starting in verse 6, "Therefore, when they had come together, they had asked him, saying, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And he said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witness to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.'" And I really enjoyed John Chrysostom has a thing on this passage.

And he says that Jesus was offering them something better than what they had asked for. He parallels it to a parent and a child. When a child comes and asks for something, and the parent hides it behind their back, and they go, "I don't have anything." And he shows them his open hands.

And then the child still persists, and the parent gives them something better. And he says that seeing that they wanted to know when the kingdom was going to be restored to the Jews, Jesus says they are going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes.

Power for what? Power to overcome the tempter, Satan, the devil, and his demons. Power to spread the news of the new kingdom that he inaugurated and soon will be reigning on the earth. Power to live in that new kingdom. Power to be a witness of the King who is Jesus, the Christ.

The third is the revelation. Ephesians 1:17-20 says that God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places."

And so does this mean that we can have new revelation or something new can come from what has already been said? No, I do not believe.

For it is the faith that has been once delivered to the saints. That means for all. This revelation that we would receive, as it says in Ephesians, I believe would be a general revelation, something God has shown us when we open our eyes to what he says, something that is revealed to all mankind who earnestly use the Spirit to discern the Scriptures, much like the Bereans in Acts who tested Paul's words by the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit gives us, guides us to all truth and knowledge, as in John 16:13-15. He gives us spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. He seals us as a down payment, as in Ephesians 1:13. This one I really enjoyed. "In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."

Continuing on John Chrysostom's thoughts, he writes concerning a similar verse in Romans 8:23. And he says that the firstfruits are so great that through them we are freed from our sins and attain righteousness and sanctification. If this is the case, consider how great the eternity of the Spirit will be.

I love that the greatness that we have right now, that we experience through the Spirit now, is a fraction of what it will be in eternity.

It's just a firstfruit, a down payment, an earnest.

The Spirit intercedes for us, like Paul says in Romans 8:26-27.

He renews us and grants us eternal life, like he says in Romans 8:10-11. He sanctifies us and enables good fruit into our lives, as in Galatians 5:16-25.

And so my final point. Am I quenching the Spirit?

Jumping back to the story of our honeymoon, when we got back to the Airbnb, I sat on the porch and it started to rain.

And I listened to the rain and just thought.

I ran through every possible thing that we could have been maybe doing wrong, every time I felt the Spirit calling us. And then I traced it back to how we got those convictions.

And it all came back to what I thought was the simple interpretation of Scripture, a life of obedience to Christ, one that had to have been led by God's Spirit.

So then what does it mean to quench the Spirit? Because for many people that I've grown up with, this is referring to something that they would refer to as legalism or following the laws that God sets forth.

And so this is my final quote from John Chrysostom.

He puts it this way, and he does it in such a really good way that I had to use the whole thing. So it is a little bit longer, but bear with me, because it's really useful. And in this homily, he refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit as a lamp. And in doing so, he says this.

On this account, Paul says, "Quench not the Spirit, that is, the gift of grace, for it is custom so to call the gift of the Spirit. But this an impure life extinguishes. For as anyone who has sprinkled both water and dust upon the light of our lamp extinguishes it, and if he does not this, but only takes out the oil, so it is also with the gift of grace.

For if you have cast over it earthly things and the cares of fluctuating matters, you have quenched the Spirit. And if you have done none of these things, but a temptation comes from some other quarter, has vehemently assailed it, has some wind, and if the light not be not strong, and it has not much oil, or you have not closed the opening, or have not shut the door, all is undone.

But what is the opening? As in the lamp, so is it also in us. It is the eye and the ear. Suffer not a violent blast of wickedness to fall upon these, since it would extinguish the lamp, but close them up with the fear of God. The mouth is the door. Shut it and fasten it, that it may both give light and repel the attack from without.

For instance, has anyone insulted and reviled you? Do you shut the mouth? For if you opened it, you add force to the wind. Do you not see in houses when two doors stand directly opposite and there is a strong wind? If you shut one and there is no opposite draw?

Sorry. The wind has no power, but the greater part of its force is abated. So also now there are two doors. If thy mouth and his who's insults and affronts thee, if thou shutest thy mouth and dost not allow a draw on the other side, thou hast quenched the whole blast. But if thou opens it, it will not be restrained.

Let us not therefore quench it. And the flame is often liable to be extinguished, even when no temptation assails it. For the oil fails when we do not. Alms, the Spirit is quenched. For it came to thee as an alms from God. Then he sees this fruit not existing in thee, and he abides not with an unmerciful soul, but the Spirit being quenched.

John then goes on to say that once our lamp is out and the path is dark, our road from heaven, earth to heaven, is dangerously filled with demons, wild beasts, and spirits of wickedness. If we have the light, they can do us no harm.

But once our light goes out, they will take us captive and rob us of everything.

The Holy Spirit is trying to bring believers to the original intention for humanity. To relate this to the sun example previously, he is helping us to know what the ray feels like, what the sun looks like. Or the fountain example, he is helping us to know what the fountain head tastes like.

So then what does quenching the Spirit look like? Well, I believe to quench the Spirit is to disobey God. But maybe more simply put, to quench the Spirit is to not love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to not love your neighbor as yourself.

However, we must continue to listen carefully to him. He is tender at some points. We must keep in step with him.

And so a very short conclusion. I wish I could go back to find the man on Sarsaphras Mountain. Although I have no idea why he came there, I can't help but think that maybe I missed an opportunity, one to share about our life and how we arrived at the place we did, an opportunity to show that it was only by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit that we could have ever arrived at the place we are now.