The Spirit of a Saint
Genesis 1:1-5, Acts 11:15- 25, Luke 10:17-22
Because All Saints Day, November
1st, falls between Sundays, some churches have designated
this Sunday for observance. I always felt that it comes after
Halloween, so we will be celebrating all saints next Sunday. However, in
preparation of that celebration this morning we're going to take a look
at what makes a saint: this Sunday what makes a saint tick, and next
Sunday what keeps a saint ticking.
What comes to your mind when you
hear the word saint? A first century martyr? A cloiseted soul from the
Middle Ages? Or from our time, a missionary who travels to primitive
places without any creaturely comforts to offer the Gospel to a hostile
dangerous people? Or closer to home, a saint is someone who is a sweet
self-sacrificing soul who brings hot dishes to the homes of those with an
illness, or grieving a loved one, and sings in the church choir, never
misses a Sunday, and distributes the altar flowers to shutins? Some one
who never complains, always smiles, and has nothing but kind words for
everyone. Yea, that's a saint, wouldn't you agree? Or maybe it's the
guy who after a full day at work, or on his only day off, takes time to
help widows with a balky furnace, or rough idling car, or repairs the
broken lock on the back door. Yea, that's a saint. Are you sure? Sure
those are nice people who do helpful goodly things, but is that what
defines being a saint?
Certainly the seventy Jesus sent
out did extraordinary things: Jesus gave them specific instructions in
Luke 11:7-8 “ And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such
things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not
from house to house. And whatsoever city ye enter and they receive
you, eat such things as are set before you, and heal the sick that are
therein...” The seventy were to stay where they were received and not
dictate the menu, but eat whatever their hosts provided. And they ere
not to be social gadflies, but remain.
The seventy returned rejoicing
over their success: people were healed through their ministry. They even
cast out demons. These were ordinary folk with extraordinary success!
They did not study exorcism, read the texts, do their homework, write
their papers and pass the exams. They did not receive a diploma. They
received Jesus! They were under the authority of Jesus, doing the work
Jesus assigned them. Jesus tells them as much. He told them in verse 19
“ Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy. Who is the enemy? Ceasar?
Pilate? Ceasar and Pilate would be long gone in their graves. Jesus was
speaking of the universal enemy, the enemy of God: that old wiley
serpent, the devil. He gives his saints power over the work and
deception of the devil.
Then Jesus adds in verse 22 “All
things are delivered to Me of My Father.” The power of God is in
the person of Jesus. God knows Jesus perfectly. Jesus perfectly knows
God the Father and reveals God to whom He will. Those seventy souls saw
the mighty power of God revealed through their hands, touch, and voices
when they healed and people were made whole, and they cast out demons,
and people were made free.
The seventy rejoiced in this.
They had the stuff! They did miracles! But Jesus quickly directed their
joy to the true source of their success and joy. Verse 20 Rejoice not
that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven. Jesus is saying that the greater
miracle is not the number of persons healed or delivered, but they themselves are written in the registry of heaven.
Tonight when I stay at the Super
8, I will sign a registry. That means I have access and availability to
not only the room, but all the additional amenities: the ice machine,
the exercise equipment, the swimming pool because I am registered. The
greater miracle for the believer in Christ is not just whatever works we
do for the love of Jesus, but that all of the right, privileges, and
amenities as it were, of heaven are ours. We are citizens of the
heavenly Kingdom. Get this – children of the King. Sure, the seventy
did saintly things but that did not make them saints. Their names
written in heaven as believers in Christ made them saints.
So how does one sign up for
heaven? Get your name on the roster? Make a reservation for eternal
life? What do you have to do to make the grade? The answer: nothing. A
saint does not become a saint by doing saintly things. A saint is
someone in whom the Spirit of Jesus lives. A saint invites, receives,
and welcomes Jesus to live in his or her heart – and change them from
within.
Just as the Spirit of God
hovered over the earth and brought forth creation, one movement at a
time, beginning with light, so a person becomes a saint, by allowing the
Spirit of God to bring forth in them a new creation by the power of
Jesus living in them, change by change, beginning with light, with
revelation of the Father, and the Father's eternal love. All who believe
on the name of Jesus are saints.
This astounded the apostle
Peter. He was waiting for lunch on a rooftop when God showed him a
vision that prepared him to receive messengers, Gentiles. He went with
them to the home of a Gentile. No Jew would ever darken the door of a
non-Jew's home, but because of the revelation through the vision, Peter
obeyed and preached the Word of Christ, the Son of God, crucified and
resurrected for the sin of the world. As he began to preach immediately
the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles gathered just as the Spirit had
come upon Peter and the disciples on Pentecost. What was Peter to do? He
had to defend himself to his Jewish brethren his rash actions: preaching
to Gentiles Peter remembered the Word of the Lord, John baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. In his
own words, vs. 17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as
he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I that I
could withstand God. In other words, since the Gentiles believed on
the name of Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, who was Peter to argue
God?
A saint is anyone in whom Jesus
lives. Maybe your language isn't up to heaven snuff. Maybe your
attitude is less than generous. Maybe your life is rocky in spots, your
relationships a bit argumentative. Maybe you're just not perfect. No one
is. But if you have asked Jesus to live in your heart, and truly desire
for Him to change those things in your life that are not pleasing to the
Father, guess what, you're a saint. God will take you up on your
offer. Beloved, the line forms here.
The spirit of a saint is nothing
less than the Spirit of Jesus Himself living in and through you. Read
and take to prayer and heart these words from Philippians 2:3
For God is working in you, giving
you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.
Jesus has got you covered. Together
with Him attitudes sweeten, language gets cleaned up, relationships are
transformed by the renewing of your mind, the healing of your heart, the
joy of your spirit in Jesus.
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in
His Spirit and said, “ I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes, even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight.” Babes in arms know nothing but their total dependence upon
the one holding them. Jesus rejoices when we become as babes in arms,
the arms of God, knowing nothing but our total dependence upon the one
who is holding us. A saint is someone in whom Jesus lives. Be that
someone for Him and through Him for someone else.
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