BibleProject - The Holy Spirit Part 3: Holy Spirit in the New Testament

Episode Date: March 10, 2017

This is the final part of our conversation on the Holy Spirit. Tim and Jon look at how the Holy Spirit is discussed in the New Testament. They talk about the ways the gospel authors say The Holy Spirit guided Jesus and some of the Holy Spirit rich events in Jesus life (e.g. virgin conception, baptism and resurrection). They talk about Pentecost, and how Paul envisioned the Holy Spirit interacting with believers. Tim and Jon discuss what does it mean to "keep in step with the Spirit" or "to be guided by the guided by the Spirit?" Do you have a question about the Holy Spirit? Tim and Jon will be hosting a FAQ episode on the Holy Spirit next week. Send us your questions! Message us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jointhebibleproject) or send an email to [e-mail] . If you have the ability to record the audio of you asking the question that would be great! Deadline to submit questions. Noon PST 3/13/17. Music Credits: Defender by Rosasharn Music https://www.facebook.com/rosasharnmusic/ Heal My Sorrows by Greyflood Hiding by Hammock by Greyflood https://www.facebook.com/greyfloodmusic/

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John from the Bible Project, and this episode is the final part of a discussion between Tim and I on the Holy Spirit. In the first episode, we talked about the Hebrew word Ruaq, which is translated as wind, breath, and also God's Spirit. In the second episode, we also talk about how the word Ruaq is used to describe man's spirit. And then we talked about the three activities that we find God's Ruaq doing in the Old Testament, creating, empowering people, and then recreating. Today's conversation moves into the New Testament. The New Testament's written in Greek,

and so the Hebrew word Ruaq is translated with the Greek word Numa, which conveniently can also mean wind and breath to blow Numa, and also mean spirit. We look at how the life of Jesus is when empowered by the Holy Spirit. The resurrection is connected to the Spirit.

Paul uses the creative power of God's spirit to describe what recreated Jesus' body. He was a human, and he ate food and could hang out with his disciples, but he had different properties. We've tried to cover a lot of ground in these three episodes, but we expect that at the end of this, there's still lingering questions. I know I still have some. So what we'd like to do is here from you, what questions you have about God's Spirit. You can send them on Facebook, Facebook.com slash join the Bible project or email them to us,

support at jointhebibleproject.com, and in the next episode of the podcast, we're going to answer your questions on the Holy Spirit. If you have access to record yourself asking the question, that would be really great, so we can play your question on the podcast itself. Okay, so without further ado, the Holy Spirit and the New Testament. Let's go. The way the Spirit is talked about in the New Testament fits into these three main things God's Spirit does in the Old Testament.

So in each of the gospels, but especially Matthew and Luke, Jesus's origins are connected to the work, the creative work of the Spirit. So Matthew and Luke talk about Mary's pregnancy with Jesus as being the activity of the Spirit. Here's the Numa, the New Testament. But that's not a surprise to us.

We already know that God's Rua covers and creates life in dark, uninhabitable places, whether it's the waters or a barren womb. Or a womb. Yeah, that's right. The Spirit plays another key role in Jesus' story at his baptism. And there, it's really cool. So Jesus' baptism, John the Baptist,

is down at the river. He doesn't live in a van by the river, but he is down by the river. Jordan River. And he's starting this renewal movement of the repentant among Israel. And then Jesus comes, and John identifies him as the leader, the one who will renew God's people. And then as he's praying, Jesus is in the water, it says, the heavens were open.

Mark says they were ripped open. And the Holy Spirit descended upon him in physical form like that of a dove. And then God's voice speaks from heaven, you are my son, whom I love with you and well pleased. So did the baptism story. So legit. So much happening here. Why the bird?

Right. So just stop. Can I think of any other times that God's spirit manifests as a bird like thing, activities over the waters? Yeah. Genesis one. Yes. Paid hovering. Yeah. The God's rule of hovers. We talked about this, I think. We didn't talk about being a flight metaphor. Well, the bird, the word used for hover. In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. That word, Rachath, is only used like three other times,

in the Hebrew Bible, and always to describe birds. Birds hovering. Birds hovering. Yeah. So the Gospel authors are intentionally describing the spirit coming on Jesus. The creative spirit of Genesis. Using, recalling the language of God's Rua. That's cool.

Yeah, it's totally cool. And notice also the three and one vision of God here. You have Jesus and God the Father. Who's talking? Who's talking to the Son and the one who communicates the presence and love from the Father to the Son is the Spirit. So you've got it. What later Christians would call a Trinitarian God. The language is later than the New Testament, but the idea of the three-in-one God is all over the New

Testament. The story is really important. One of them. Now it says the Holy Spirit and that's the first time we've used that phrase in this entire conversation. No David said Holy Spirit. Oh, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Yeah, the Holy Spirit occurs a couple times in the Old Testament. It's usually the Spirit of God. What's the Hebrew there? The Holy? Holiness, Kadoch. Kadoch. We didn't talk about that in Holiness video.

Oh, just the vocabulary word. No, you don't. Yeah. Kadoch. Yeah. So don't take your Rulac of Kadoch from me. Yeah. Yeah. So remember, Holiness is about God's unique one of a kindness, specifically referring to his role as creator, the author of life.

So if it happens so infrequently in the Old Testament, why does it become just standard? Yes, interesting. Vocabulary in the New Testament. That's a good question. I'd have to do some homework on that. Sure somebody thought about that, but I don't know. It's not the only New Testament way the Spirit subscribed. The Spirit described as the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God,

and the Spirit of Jesus in the New Testament. But it's all talking about God's personal presence. The personal presence of God, but in the New Testament, just like in the Old Testament, the more clear in the New Testament, it's a distinct, it's a distinct personal presence. It's distinct from Jesus, and it's distinct from the Father. And here we're into the three and one God. Jesus has it. Yes, yes. So what's interesting then, as Jesus goes on from here, all of the gospels talk about

it, but the gospel of Luke highlights it more than any other, is that in his ministry in Galilee announcing the kingdom, Luke mentions multiple times that Jesus is led by the spirit. He speaks by the spirit or like a Luke 4 1. Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan. So full, we're using the water metaphor now. He's filled up, he's like a vessel, like a container filled up with the Spirit. Meaning the Spirit is permeating. Jesus' existence in mind. He's soaked with it. Yeah, it's a great metaphor. So the whole mission of Jesus's day-to-day kingdom

announcement was all linked to the work of this spirit. So he was, it was just a pointing. It's a pointing. He was appointed, yep, to do his kingdom mission by the leading and empowering the spirit. So those two activities are embedded in the baptism scene because it's in a pointing moment. It is, but it comes in this language and form of new creation. The creative spirit. Yep. New creation or creation?

Well, it echoes Genesis 1, but Jesus is here to bring about that new creation that Isaiah talked about. The other thing specific to Jesus' story in the New Testament is the resurrection is connected to the Spirit. So right at the beginning of Romans, Paul talks about Jesus as God's son, born of the line of David, who was declared to be the Son of God with power when he rose from the dead by the Holy Spirit, or literally says, by the Spirit of holiness. So Paul uses the creative power of God's Spirit to describe what recreated Jesus' body

to walk out of the tomb and leave it empty. What, yeah, recomposed it. Yeah, I mean, he was dead, his dead. Yeah. And the kind of existence Jesus had, post-resurrection, was different. Fundamentally different. Fundamentally different. He was a human, and he ate food and could hang out with his disciples,

but he had different properties. Yeah. They can only be described as new creation. As strange as a lion hanging out with a lamb seems to us and children's playing their cobras nest is the kind of physical human body Jesus had or was. And the New Testament authors, here Paul Paul describes that as being the creative work of the Spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says that's precisely the form of existence that

followers of Jesus hoped for in our resurrection. He calls it a spiritual spirit-empowered existence. that a spiritual spirit empowered existence. Which no other humans achieve in the Bible. You don't see any other humans who have a resurrected body. No. Jesus is the only walking, talking bit of new creation in physical existence. But then now we're into the role of them, the spirit in the rest of the New Testament. At the end of John, Jesus appoints his disciples. He says, as the father, this is in John chapter 20, as the father sent me, so I sent you. It's interesting, he's in the upper room with the disciples.

He says that, and then he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit So such a powerful scene and actually the breathing on them John's very Specifically he ruached on them. It's precisely the same sentence phrases from Genesis 2 of God breathing on the pile of dirt. Infusato receive the Holy Ruach, so he breathed on them, which you know we think like, oh what is Jesus' breath smell like? Something. It says so such a strange part of the story, but it's clear he's commissioning them just the way David and the

prophets were breathed upon by the spirit. And then Jesus, but look at what he says before it, as the Father sent me, so what I came and was doing, now you're going to go do that. And just as the spirit empowered Jesus to do it, so now he is appointing them by means of the spirit to go do the same thing. And so now we're into Pentecost, the whole concept of the spirit filling up Jesus as people, empowering them, coming upon them. This is all Old Testament vocabulary, but we're now, it's now all happening through Jesus. So the book of Acts begins using this of a wind, right? The apentecost, the followers of Jesus are in that upper room, and we're told a violent wind comes into the route. Right, a Ruok.

And then they look at each other in the room, that's full of this wind, hurricane in the room, and they look at each other, and there's little, many fires, little fires above everybody's head, which is a clear reference as you want to the pillar of fire and cloud that came to rest over the tabernacle and temple. So now we're melding spirit and temple storylines. Was that the that get melded in the Old Testament? The God's spirit filled the temple.

Oh, it's interesting. No. No. That's Ruak doesn't show the temple. Yeah, God's Rua, it's God's cavaud. His glory. Oh, it's glory. Is what fills the temple. Yeah, it's interesting. So yeah, in the New Testament, God's Spirit is what comes to indwell his new temple, which is the community of Jesus followers.

And then all of them are filled up with the Holy Spirit. Then we're to the appointing, liquid metaphor. So all, yeah. But it's a cool task of going. For the task of, yep. And bringing good news to the one. That's right. Announcing the Kingdom of God.

And so all throughout the rest of the book of Acts, you see the Holy Spirit as an actor, like a character in the story. So Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were working at the Church of Antioch, and the Holy Spirit said, said apart Barnabas and Saul for me. Other times in the story Jesus appears, and he'll say things, but then sometimes in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit just appears and says things. Paul and Barnabas want to go up to Galatia and they're forbidden by the Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus didn't permit them. So we have the Spirit becomes a full on personal presence of Jesus.

But sometimes Jesus will appear to Paul in a visionary form. Other times, it's the spirit of Jesus or the spirit of God. So what's the story within being forbidden by the spirit? Did they miss a boat? They missed the boat. Right, or did? It was like, well, I guess the spirit didn't want us to go. Or did the wind blow and whisper like, you guys shouldn't go. That was a spirit. Or at one time it's through a dream. Paul has a dream of a guy in Macedonia saying, come here. And so he goes, so here we're into the realm of the day-to-day life of a follower of

Jesus, as being a life where if I'm going to become a mature disciple, I need to cultivate the skill of being aware of the spirit and what the spirit is saying to me and prompting or influencing me to do or to say or to be. And that's the appointing spirit. So the very beginning of this conversation in the Holy Spirit that we recorded last time, we talked about our tradition and I come from a cessationist tradition where yeah the apostles needed to pay attention to what the spirit was doing and listening to the spirit and that kind of thing and it's a character. And now I don't

know we never talked about that cultivating that skill. Yes. And whenever I hear someone talk about that, it raises suspicions. Like, is that really the spirit? Did you miss that boat because of the Holy Spirit? Or were you just lazy? Yeah, right. Did you just forget to show up on time? Right.

Or sleep in. Or does God really want you to take that job? Right. Or is that just what you want to do? But we're already prepared for that with the idea that humans have a ruach. God has a ruach. And the way that God will influence you is by influencing my ruach. So then the question is, how do you know when that's happening?

Yeah. Yeah. And the apostles know this is a potential problem. That's why in 1 John, he says, always test the spirits. So, plural. Yeah, yeah, because yeah, John's very aware. If somebody comes with a word from God to a church community, you better test that. You'd test it against the teachings of Jesus, test it against the teachings of the apostles.

And it might be that you're just hearing that woman's or that guy's prophet's ruach. And it's not God's ruach, actually speaking to the church through them. But other times, it will be God's ruach, influencing that prophet's ruach. So when he says test of spirit, it seems, is it that man's spirit or is it God's spirit?

That's what he means. The point is there's many ruaqs out there, really, with many words, yeah, you've got one, I've got one. Okay. There are also other, spirit is one of the words used to describe non-physical personal beings that are evil demons. Demons is another vocabulary word for them in the New Testament But there's sometimes called unclean spirits for evil spirits. That's a whole other topic But so there it's a personal invisible presence of a something gnarly. Yep. That's a whole other podcast But so yeah, the point is is that podcast. But so yeah, the point is is that being aware of the influence of God's spirit in my spirit and doing or saying, making choices because I think that's what God's spirit wants me to do. It's subjective. Maybe that's the best way to say it. It's always a subjective enterprise.

And therefore Paul talks about evaluating words that people say come from the spirit, or John will say test the spirits. You don't see them in acts like testing that they're just like, whoa, the spirit said that. Let's do it. In acts. Yeah, it's good. Well, no, they pray and fast. No, they were praying and fasting. X 13. Let me look. X 13. The church in Antioch, oh, at the church in Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manayan, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, sent apart, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul. So they're in a time of prayer, presumably discerning what God wants them to do. So I have to start to assume what was happening there.

Yeah, that's kind of an untold story. Yeah. Because they could have been sitting there in a room and they're all praying and fasting and one guy goes, I hear God telling us not to go. And then another person go, that's what God's telling me to. And then the other person saying, yep, that's what I'm getting. They're like, okay, we're not supposed to go. So in this case, they are supposed to go. But then later on, oh, we were in chapter 16, they were forbidden. Yeah, there's an untold story there through some means that Luke doesn't tell us they discerned the spirit

telling them not to go up to Glacia. It could be circumstantial, they missed the boat. It could be that there were that they and some others all prayed out it, prayed and discerned that and together discerned discerned and got that's right. Or it could have been or could it have been that have been or could it have been that they got the spirit of God descended like a dove and said, don't go. Here's another way the spirit works. Acts chapter 15, there's this huge debate about whether non-Jewish Christians should start obeying the commands of the Torah. Like some Jewish Christians say they should. So Paul, Barnabas, the Apostles all get together in Jerusalem. They have a serious debate, like dispute.

They're arguing, they're pulling out their Bibles. It's really, it's a long debate. They finally come to a resolution and they write up a letter. And what they say to in this letter, sorry one moment, they say the apostles and elders to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, Galatia, we heard this news so we all agreed to get together and talk about it and it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Oh wow. And then they go on and talk about their conclusion.

So they came up with something God said looks good. Or the Holy Spirit. They discerned that through all of these wise, godly people coming together, debating, praying, bibles are open, they come to a unified agreement, which is surprising, given the diversity of people in the room, and they discern that that was the work of God's Spirit. So they say, it seemed good to the Holy

Spirit and to us. And then here's what we decided. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So it could be through prophets, it could be through Bible-open debate, prayer. You know? Yeah. Not to get too picky. But by that, are they saying, we came to this independently, or we came to this idea, and then God like approved it? Or are they saying, by coming to this idea together,

that's really God's idea. Hmm. I'm not sure. Those are separate. I think the point is they see those as unified. Here's what we came to. Therefore, we discern. That's what God led us to by the Spirit. Let us to or... Well, I suppose. Because the word there is. It seemed good to the whole world. It seemed good and to us.

Well, what does that refer to? Well, all we have to do is... All we have is the story of them having a big debate and Bible interpretation session and prayer meeting. And then what they say is, it seemed good to the spirit into us. Here's what you should do. So they believe that their conclusion through all of that process is what seems good to the spirit. And to them. Yeah. And the book of Acts, it's everywhere saying part of being a mature disciple of Jesus is being aware of the Spirit. This is the Spirit. Yeah, so they would have been very aware when their bibles are open and they're debating that God's there working in this.

The Spirit's here. And so as they're doing it when they're done, they're like, well, it seems good to us and God's been here. Yep. So it's good with God. Yep. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. That's the process they go through. The last main gold mine for the spirit in the New Testament is Paul's letters. He mentions the spirit. Want me to do a quick words? Number search. Yeah. Sure. Sure. I've got 149 hits of Numa in Paul's letters. 149 times, he mentions the spirit. And to put that in context, how many chapters does Paul have? Well, 13 letters. 13 letters. Oh, man, I'd have to do. Let's take a couple of minutes. 13 letters, 150 times. Talks about this. All that to say is the spirit, it's a really big deal for Paul's vision of the Christian

wife. Is it Paul who says, keep in step with the spirit? Oh man, I mean, not whole, best book out there on the spirit in Paul's by a scholar named Gordon Fee. It's called God's Empowering Presence. It's exhaustive. He studies in detail all 149. Oh wow.

Exampling like groups them together in the category is really helpful study. Is it super geeky academic or can- Oh, yeah, I mean it's a thorough study. It's not, he's not messing around, you know. He's not, but he does, it doesn't presume study. He's not messing around. You know? He's not. But it doesn't presume Greek or Hebrew. Heaps most of that to the footnotes and stuff like that.

Cool. Yeah. Can I ask a question? Yes. So we talked about these three activities in the World Testament, creating a pointing new creation. And then we talked... and it seems like a pointing happened for a time. Yes, yes, right. And now in the new testament, there's an

appointing, but now it's a lifestyle. Yes, right? Yes, and it's not just like, hey, for this task, it's like it's it's for a new way of life. Yeah. And so now everything, you have to reorient everything through the spirit. Is that a new step forward, or is that kind of what David, how David was thinking? Well, for the, what we looked at, it's what David and Ezekiel knew needed to happen.

It's what they hoped for. Okay. Moses hoped for it too. In the wilderness, he has this line in Numbers 11, where he says, I wish all of God's people had the spirit on them. So yeah, the Old Testament prophetic voices, hope for and know that a life permeated with God's ruach is what's needed for

new creation to really happen. So if Ezekiel was watching the apostles, yeah, the upper room or Pentecost. Pentecost and then but then all this activity through Acts would he and then he's like oh this is the Valley of Dry Bones happening. Correct. Yes, I think so. The resurrection of Jesus by the Spirit. And then the permeation of God's people, Jesus followers, by the Spirit. The book of Acts, all the apostles are very clearly saying, this is what the prophets were pointing to.

Yeah. We didn't even talk about, there's so much to explore here that we can't do in a necessarily video But at Pentecost, you know Peter as his sermon Because of what the people to start doing with the tongues of pillars of fire over their head is speaking in all these Languages they didn't already know yeah, and there's all of these Israelites there from all over the world and they all become you understand and become unified all of those who turn and follow Jesus as the people so Israel gets renewed there right there at Pentecost the tribes come together again so

Luke's trying to say this is the recreation of Israel, the covenant people of God. And then that same thing happens to Cornelius and the Gentiles. There's another outpouring of the Spirit. And then these non-Jewish people are speaking in these unknown languages, tongues, it's called. There's a lot of debate, obviously, a lot of debate in Christian history about speaking in tongues and so on and the book of Acts It happens at key moments where the boundary lines of God's people are broken and New people more and more different kinds of people get included in the family of Jesus That's when tongues appears in the story it plays that role That's when tongues appears in the story. It plays that role.

So the spirit is about expanding and spreading the more and more humans in the book of Acts. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth. So the point is about the new humanity that the spirit is creating through the mission of Jesus. That's the book of Acts. Luke is saying that's what the prophets were hoping for is what was happening through the people of Jesus. Now, that isn't the fullness of what the prophets were hoping for because lions aren't laying down with lambs and the knowledge of God hasn't permeated the earth. The world doesn't look like Isaiah 11. And people are gonna die and then be resurrected.

And so it's still injustice, still death, all that. So it's just an aspect of what they're hoping for. It's an aspect. Yeah. And so here we're to the whole big storyline framework of the Bible is that Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God. He walks out of the tomb as a bit of walking, talking new creation. Paul talks about the presence of the spirit as a down payment.

He says that second Corinthians and Ephesians. It's a down payment of the new creation. Yeah, so the zats were still at the down payment. Yeah, the inauguration. Yeah, so yeah, if you look into the second mortgage payment, the down payment. Yeah. The inauguration. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, if you look at this, we're not into the second mortgage payment. This is still the down payment. That's right.

Yeah. We're in this period where the new creation has really started. And I get taste of it. When I taste new creation is when I am fully submitted to an aware of and permeated by the presence of the spirit. And so the spirit will be doing something unique during this era of the development. Yeah, messing with people. Messing with people?

Messing with your Ruaach. God's Ruaach comes and starts to mess with your Ruaach. And you're like, oh man, I'm really screwed up. I need help. I need a screwed up. I need help. I need a new heart. I need to be rescued from my selfishness. I need to. And Paul will say, yeah, Paul will say, yeah,

this God's, this, this, the numa of Jesus, the spirit messing with you, preparing you. Numa being the Greek translation of a rock. Yep. Yeah. And, and that's how the spirit works on people. And then when they hear the story about Jesus, they go, that's who I need, I need Jesus.

The spirit always points you to Jesus according to Paul. Never to just have an experience, but to point you to Jesus. And then the spirit then becomes the presence of Jesus. For Paul, the spirit is the presence of Jesus who's gonna start reshaping you. The fruit of the spirit, for example, at the presence of Jesus. For Paul, the Spirit is the presence of Jesus who's going to start reshaping you. The fruit of the Spirit, for example, at the end of Galatians. It's... It's...

It's... Shaping me... It's first of all, for this era. It's first of all, garden imagery. Fruit, yeah. So, Garden of Eden, right there. What would the Garden of Eden look like in me with character renewal? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, which is all that's

Jesus. It's the life of Jesus made alive within me. That's the role of the Spirit is to create Jesus inside of me. So Paul can sometimes say, you know, I died with Jesus when he died on the cross. So the life I now live, it's not me, it's Jesus living in me. So he can say Jesus lives in me. But then later on in the letter of Galatians, he'll say, it's the spirit in you for it. It's two sides of the same coin And that that passage the Paul's I was reminded of that when we were talking about David saying Give me a new rule. Yes, or no, Ezekiel saying Ezekiel. Yeah, well David says create in me a new rock Ezekiel says they need a new rock

Correct. Yeah, so David wants it recreated Ezekiel's like they're gonna get a new one. Yeah. So David wants it recreated. Ezekiel's like, they're going to get a new one. Yeah. And then I was thinking about Paul. He says, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. How does Christ live in me? Yeah. He doesn't say it, but it's through God's rock.

But that's his whole vision of the Spirit. So Paul's thinking, I get it, it's a new one. It's God's work. I need a new life, a brand new humanity, a new existence. So God might be recreating my heart, but as far as my ruac, he's just got a surgery. I need a new one.

It's a transplant. Yeah, and then right after he finishes listing the fruit of the spirit, he says, so if you were given a new life by the spirit Keep in step with the spirit. So you still have a Ruak. Yeah, so like he doesn't balk you over the head and make you a brand new human overnight you have to partner with the spirit Hmm, just like the apostles had to partner with the spirit in that room with the Bible open debating and praying together We're just like Paul and Barnabas. So you're given a new Ruak. Yeah, God's Ruak

But you still have your own sense of self. Yes, that needs to keep in step with it. Correct Yeah, Paul calls it the the war of your flesh and your spirit your sinful nature and Your new humanity created by the Spirit, and there's this battle, he calls it a battle inside of you. And it's been lots of good sermons and metaphors about that. So we have this, so I have a will, a mind, I have God's Spirit, but then I also have the flesh. So there are three kind of elements here.

And I, my rule, I'll have this eye. The flesh there isn't referring to your physical body. Sure. It's referring to your selfish, my aptitude to be morally corrupt. Correct. And so I can decide to keep in step with that, or I can decide to keep it step with God's rule. Yeah.

Yeah. And why didn't Paul call that my spirit? Why did you call it my flesh? Well, yeah, it's a whole long debate, I think. But there's something about flesh in the way that Sarcos used in the bar. Yeah, Sarcos. Yeah, good, Sarkas.

In Greek, where as an image, it communicates. My body has appetites, food, right, sleep, sex, and those appetites can drive me to really destructive behaviors if I don't control them. And so that vocab, that idea gets communicated by the word flesh in the Old and New Testaments. This is why people become monastic. Yes, that's right. But Paul's idea of the new humanity isn't non-physical. It's a,

but it's a new type of physical existence. One that is permeated by the Spirit, which doesn't mean you're not human anymore. It means you're more human. So it doesn't mean, you know, so I can be a glutton, and that's my flesh. But not be a glutton doesn't mean now I don't enjoy food. It means I eat to God's devote. I eat to the glory of God. You eat and drink for the glory of God. And to do that, I have to keep in

step with God's spirit, God's yeah, yeah, yeah, Rua. Rua, I keep doing that. Rua. Yeah, yeah. Rua. Yeah, there's so much of the New Testament begins to, spiritual gifts,

which Peter and Paul talk about, it's the same. Jesus was appointed, we are appointed, so God can appoint different people with different, can enhance their natural abilities, inspire them, so that what they contribute to the church is what God wants to have happen in that church community. So Paul talks about that at length. And that's all about how we, as Christians, live in participation, it's God's spirit. Yeah, which is something that the Old Testament, Ezekiel, and David and Moses,

all these people were kind of longing for and prophesying that this moment would come where humans could do this. However, there's also this anticipation that all of creation will be fundamentally changed. And so we've been talking about kind of this in-between time. Yes. And the New Testament also then will begin to talk about God's Spirit recreating things, right? Now, is this me keeping in step with the spirit and being filled with the spirit,

that's not recreation, that's just to being appointed, or is that the beginning of recreating. Oh, well, so there's two ways Paul will talk about the spirit. One is that appointing. He'll appoint you to be a good leader or a good servant or a good administrator in the church. Those are spiritual gifts. Those are spiritual gifts. But then there's this moral character transformation, ethical renewal, and that's where a new creation territory. That's happening. Yeah, so like in Romans 8,

Paul will say, if the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. The one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit. So he can, first of all, link the spirit that raised Jesus to your own hope of resurrection. But then he can also totally link the spirit of Jesus and the resurrection to your moral recreation. So the moral recreations happening now. Yeah, but your physical recreation will happen in the

resurrection. But for Paul there, it's the same new life that you're participating in. So when I have moments where I check my selfish agenda at the door and I just love and serve my wife or my neighbor even though I'm, I'm hangry. And I didn't get much sleep last night, but I sense, no, Jesus wants me to just be a servant right now. And I do it. And it's the right thing and it's awesome.

Paul would invite you. And you're not even doing it your own strength completely. Yeah, and I'm tired and cranky, but I find this desire and motive and then I and I act on it. And then all this something good comes out of it. Paul would invite me to see that was a little taste of my true self as a new human in Jesus. That's my new humanity coming out. And maturing, follow Jesus for Paul, is someone who, when they tap into that, they go, that's who I really am. I'm going to do more of that.

And when they do more of that, as Paul did, he'll look back and he'll say, I worked harder than all of the other apostles. Well, sorry, sorry. It was God's grace working in me. He'll attribute it to God, even though he was the one who did it. Yeah, and that's the dynamic of the spirit is that when I do it, it's me, but it's not me. Yeah, I'm Colossians doesn't he say something like I work with God's spirit or like he yeah, there's a person Colossians That's kind of speaks to that. Yeah, it's this melding. It's of my will becomes so entwined with God's will.

My ruach, my mind and purpose, becomes so unified with the spirit that that's how I know that's when I know I'm following Jesus. And primarily in the present, it pre-resurrection. For me, that's when I know I'm in the sweet spot. is when I'm exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, when I'm doing the kinds of things Jesus would do. That's my new humanity. And Paul says, feed that, feed that. And you won't be able to do it by yourself. You need a church, you need to be in the community

of a whole bunch of other people who are undergoing that same process. And together, you'll be able to carry each other along in this process. So the life of a Christian, a way to think about it, is really learning how to live in this inauguration period, and to step into one side of it and stay there, and to do that as a community. One side of it being in step with the spirit, even though we still have that baggage of what Paul calls the flesh. The flesh. Paul says in Colossians 129,

To this end, I strenuously contend with all my energy. No, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Oh, yeah. So there it is. So there it is Christ, not the Spirit, me. Oh yeah, so there it is. So there it is Christ, not the Spirit, but he commonly swaps Jesus in the Spirit. Yeah.

Yeah, so here I am working really hard. With the power of Christ in me. With the power that Jesus is working here. Yeah. So is it me or is it Jesus? Exactly. Right. I'm also really going to attach to this idea

like the era of inauguration, because we're still in it, right? And it's 2000 years later. Yeah. So it's not like a moment in time. It's a lot of human history. Yes. Yeah.

And who's to say it's not going to be another thousand years. Correct. It could be. Yep. Or 2000 years. Yeah. And so this whole period of time, where there's generations and generations and civilization after civilization,

and it's all the time of inauguration of new creation. You have to get this really, you have to step back and get this very big history perspective to think of 2000 years as a inauguration. E-nogeration is like a moment. Yeah, sure. It's an era. It's an era.

It's a ceremony. Yeah, right. It's done. Yeah. Yeah. If it was an hour, it was too long. Or, yeah, the better analogy would be the time period between an election in Democratic Republic, in election of a leader and they're being appointed. Usually there's a gap.

Yeah, they're elected in November, they start in January. There you go, yeah. So they're inaugurated in November. Right. Their reign begins in January. Correct. Yeah. So their inauguration lasts for like three months.

But what's the time period between the election and the inauguration and then their appointing? Oh, I don't know. Anyway, but the point is that it's a multi-step process with the gap. That's the way the New Testament envisions the time between Jesus' resurrection and his retreat. Jesus was elected. Jesus was not democratic, was elected and inaugurated with the empty tomb. And then he inaugurates new creation and the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit. And he says, participate in new creation with me. It's not here in full, but it's here and it's happening. And then that's the apostles doing that. And then 2,000 years later, it's us still doing that.

But one day we will look back and we'll go, hey, that season of inauguration, that was just a moment, a brief moment in human history compared to new creation, right? That is the way that Jesus and the Apostles talked about it. Yes. But to us, it's like our entire life. Yeah, we're in it. And our children's lifetime, likely, and generations back as far as we can think. Yes.

And so, to us, it doesn't feel like a special moment in time. It just feels like human history. Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Right. Yes, it's a good point. So what you're pointing out is that it's actually hard for us to foster, to live in the story. Yeah.

It's a hard story to live in. Yeah, it's not easy. You have to think this is a very special moment in human history Mm-hmm. If humans, I mean, we haven't talked about eternity, right? Much, but like if life is eternal and humans and God like will live for a long time together, humanity will be around for a long time. This moment, whether it's 2000 years or 10,000 years. For 20, yeah, right, right.

It's gonna be a, it's a's gonna be a blip in human history. But, and it's a very significant moment of transition that it's at the center of creation, new creation. It's like being built up to with the prophets and then it is inaugurated with Jesus and then we get to live in it. And that's where we're at right now. And just to reorient my mind to that seems important.

And it takes effort. I think especially- It takes a lot effort. Yeah, in the modern Western world with our narrative, our cultural story of progress, political, education, technological progress, right? That's a narrative that says we are just at the cusp of the pinnacle, or we could create the pinnacle, yeah, kind of thing. And so the biblical story also has a progression saying we are a part of something progressing, but what we hope for ultimately is for something that we have to receive as a gift, that we

won't be able to accomplish on our own steam, which doesn't mean sit back and do nothing. That would also be living in the wrong story. So this is all embedded in creation, new creation. Like to understand the spirit, if you understand creation, new creation, then the spirit kind of fits right into the same grids. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But this isn't the new creation video. No. This is the Holy Spirit video. Yeah.

And it overlaps. It overlaps. It overlaps in a big way. Yeah, so the goal is video. What does it going to mean to you if I say the Holy Spirit's role is to bring new creation if that's not a category in your mind? Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Yeah. So we have to bring that in. For me, I think the biggest win for the video will be this reorientation of just God's spirit in the Bible and the work it takes us to get there. And then the storyline that the spirit unified, how this... And the storyline though, being creation, creation, and then appointing a human to lead humanity into new creation. Thanks for listening to this final part

of the discussion on the Holy Spirit. Just a reminder that we're going to do a question, answer, podcast episode, next week on the Holy Spirit. So send us your questions. We're gonna record our answers to those on Monday, so if you can get your questions in for then, we'd love to answer them. Ah, well, Tim would love to answer them.

And I'll do follow-up questions for you. The Bible Project isn't on profit, we believe the Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus, and as profound wisdom for the modern world, you can find us at thebibepproject.com, we make lots of videos, and other resources. The video on the Holy Spirit will be out very soon sometime at the end of March, so keep in eye out for that. And thanks for being a part of this with us. you you