The Holy Spirit and Resurrection

Welcome to All Bible Prophecy Fulfilled Podcast. This is William Bell, and I'm looking forward to this study with you as we share another message on the Word of God. We're talking about the Holy Spirit, and there are some who have a love-hate relationship with the Holy Spirit. In other words, they've been introduced to the Spirit in ways that seem to be a little bit negative for them, and because of that, they are a little hesitant to become engaged with the Holy Spirit in terms of learning about the Holy Spirit or having an experience with the Holy Spirit based on these things that they've been taught. So if the Holy Spirit is a mystery to you, or you are fearful that the Holy Spirit will be doing and saying things that seem to be outside of your realm of comfort, then these lessons will certainly help you. They'll make it easier for you to walk in the Spirit, and they'll remove the mystery that surrounds the study of the Holy Spirit. And so we want to speak today on the subject related to the Holy Spirit and the resurrection. The Holy Spirit completing the resurrection. We talked about the inheritance in the last message, and today we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit and the resurrection. So let's get started. Thank you for being with us today. Now, as we speak of the Holy Spirit and resurrection, we're showing and talking about the function of the Holy Spirit related to the completion of the resurrection, and the resurrection of course being also a part of that inheritance that relates to the return of Christ. Because all of those events are concurrent events. For example, in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and the verses 1, the Bible says, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. So we have the coming of the kingdom, the coming of the Lord, the judgment of the living and the dead, and of course, judgment involved in that text as well. And you can see how all of these things correlate the one to the other and are therefore concurrent events. And so as we've talked about judgment, we've talked about the coming of the Lord. We've talked about the inheritance, et cetera. All of those things demonstrate the work of the Holy Spirit in that first century timeframe. And in accomplishing the salvation and bringing about the fulfillment of the promise of God. Well, a part of that promise was the resurrection. And if you want to see a text that specifically identifies the resurrection as the promise and as the hope of God, I don't think anyone has too much of a problem with understanding it as the hope. But to see it as the promise, which ties together this lesson with the previous one, you can look at Acts chapter 26, starting at verse 6. The Bible says, And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise, our twelve tribes earnestly serving God night and day hope to attain. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? And so notice how the resurrection is a part of that promise. Remember from Galatians chapter 3 and verse 14, that the promise of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through faith, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. And so the promise of the Spirit would come upon the Gentiles through faith. That was the promise that God made to Abraham. And so again, he says, And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. To this promise, our twelve tribes earnestly serving God night and day hope to attain. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? Now you see, this puts into perspective what we read in the previous lesson from Galatians chapter 3 and verse 21 that says, For if there could have been a law which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. Now in verse 21, along with Galatians 3 and verse 18, you find that the inheritance was life because in Galatians 3 and verse 18, the text says, For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. So let's put these together. The inheritance is the promise. The promise is life, and the promise is the resurrection. So the life that is spoken of is life from the dead. That is the promise God made. But also, he says, If there could have been a law which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. So that tells you that the promise is also righteousness. So the resurrection of which we're speaking of in Acts 26 verses 6 through 8, which equates with the promise, is a resurrection to righteousness. Now that's confirmed in both the Old and the New Testament. When we look at the Psalms, the 17th Psalm, where David makes the following statement concerning his desire as far as his resurrection was concerned. In chapter 17, verse 15, David says the following, As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. You see, seeing the face of God is to see him in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness. So when you see the righteousness of God, you see the likeness of God, and therefore that is the resurrection. That is seeing the face of God because it is seen in righteousness. Now in 1 Corinthians 15, and the verse is 33 or 34, he says awake to righteousness. The word awake is the term Daniel used, also Isaiah and David, as we've just seen. But Daniel used that in Daniel 12 and verse 2 to talk about the resurrection. When he said, Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt. Well those who are raised to everlasting life are raised to righteousness. Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And then the last text we're going to look at related to that concept of resurrection being life and righteousness is the third chapter of Philippians where Paul says in verse 9 and 10 that he wanted to be found in Christ. He says, And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Paul was being conformed to the death of Christ in order that he might be conformed to his resurrection. And he was not physically dying in order to do that, but he was being crucified with Christ and had been so through his conversion, through his baptism into Christ through faith. So the life from the dead is the awakening to righteousness. Now the Holy Spirit had an extremely important role to play in that process of bringing man out of sin death, the death that separates us from God, the death that is the true enemy of man, the death that Adam suffered in the garden when he ate of the tree of which God commanded him not to eat and said to him, in the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die. And when Adam ate, that's when he died, not physically. That's when he died separation from the glory of God separation from the father. That's when he lost a relationship with God. And so that's the death that the Bible speaks of that is being overcome in the resurrection. That's being overcome in righteousness. You see, sin is what caused him to enter into that death and thus sin had to be overcome in order for him to achieve righteousness. So what is the role of the Holy Spirit as it relates to the overcoming of sin and completing that process of resurrection, initiating and completing it? Let's begin by looking at John chapter 16 verses 8 through 11. This has been a key and pivotal text for the discussion on the Holy Spirit. And it continues to be so because of the relationship with those events that I put together at the very beginning, which was the concept of judgment. So let's notice the Bible says in John 16 and verse 8 regarding the Holy Spirit. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now look at how those three are connected in the text of sin 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. Now when we talk about the time of judgment, we're discussing the time of the resurrection because remember 2nd Timothy 4.1 that states specifically that God would judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. And so we're talking about the resurrection at the time of judgment. In 1st Corinthians chapter 6, we have a text that tells us that the Holy Spirit is involved in accomplishing the resurrection 1st Corinthians chapter 6. And this, as we spoke on the earnest in a previous lesson, we have to see that this is the work of the earnest of the spirit. This is the pledge that God gave until they were given life from the dead. And so in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, and the verse is 14, 1st Corinthians chapter 6, and the verse is 14. Notice what Paul says. He said, and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Now the power that he refers to here is the power of the Holy Spirit. God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Now, if you go back and look at verse 11, you can see how he had introduced the spirit of God when he said, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. So there you have the work of the Holy Spirit involved in this process of being raised up. God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19, the Bible tells us the power by which Christ was raised from the dead. The scripture says in verse 19, 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 his right hand in the heavenly places. Now look at what he did. The Bible says, this is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the working of his mighty power. Now, what did he do with this power? How did he exercise this power? And upon whom was this power demonstrated? The text says in verse 20, which he worked in Christ when, when he raised him from the places. So it was the power of the spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead. Now, we're not saying that the Holy Spirit alone did this because Christ spoke of raising himself up by his own power. And he spoke of being raised by the power of the father. So all three were involved in the raising of Christ from the dead. But this text demonstrates that the power of the spirit, the exceeding greatness of that power is the power exercised in the resurrection of Christ from the dead and seating him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And so first Corinthians chapter six and verse 14, which says, God both raised up the Lord Jesus or raised up the Lord. We now know that the manner and the means by which Christ was raised up was through that exceeding greatness of power, which was the power of the spirit that was wrought in him when he was raised from the dead. And that is the same power, the Bible says, will raise up the body of Christ that raised up the body of Christ, because we're talking about the time in which the Holy Spirit was functioning in that earnest of the spirit, in that miraculous power of the spirit. God both raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise us up by his power. And so there we have the power of God mentioned in connection with the Holy Spirit and the resurrection. It is the power of the Holy Spirit. All right, let's take a look at another text. And in this text, we want to consider second Corinthians, second Corinthians chapter four, and the verses 14. So let's note second Corinthians chapter four, and the verse is 14. And watch again how the Bible indicates that the work of the spirit would be involved in raising the body of Christ from the dead. That is the spiritual body of Christ, the church. The scripture says in second Corinthians chapter four, verse 14, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus. Do you see how he first introduces the resurrection of Christ, the raising up of the Lord Jesus by the spirit in order to demonstrate that the body of Christ, the believers are connected in solidarity with Christ through the work of the spirit. And thus saying, he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. Notice he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. This is Paul as an apostle writing to the church at Corinth and telling them as he did in the first epistle that the one who raised up Christ from the dead, who was the spirit would also raise up them with Jesus and present them with the rest of the body of Christ. Now, this is a Jew Gentile dichotomy that is being spoken of here. So when Paul says that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up, he's talking about Jews who had been caught up in the body of Moses under the law, exacerbated the condition of death through sin because through the law came the knowledge of sin and exacerbated the problem. As Paul said in Romans chapter 5 verse 20, when he says moreover, the law entered that the offense that is the sin, which he said earlier versus 12 and 14 came through Adam and reigned from Adam to Moses. He said that the law entered that that offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so that death under the law was working in the apostles. It was working in the Jews, but God did not allow the Gentiles to come under the law. According to Acts chapter 15, Peter, after they had had a great dispute over whether or not the Gentiles were required to follow the law of Moses, Peter rose up among them and said, men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. What's the them and the us relationship of the text? Them refers to the Gentiles, us refers to the Jews. So God gave them, that is the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. So the salvation was available to both Jew and Gentile, and God gave the Gentiles the Holy Spirit to demonstrate to Israel that Gentiles were also worthy of salvation. Now, as a result of that, Peter asked this question. Now, therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? So he says, why are you putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples? We couldn't bear it. Our fathers couldn't bear it. So why do you want to put this process of keeping the law on Gentiles? And if we've had 1500 years of trying to keep it and failed, then how in the world do you think they're going to do it? So he concluded, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. Now, this is very, very important. So let's pay attention here. He told them that they, that is the Jews were going to be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles who did not have the law. Did you get that? That's a critical point. The Jews were going to be saved as the Gentiles who did not have the law and the Jews were still keeping the law. You can read Acts 21 started around verse 21. They were keeping the law, but the Gentiles were not, and they were forbidden to keep the law. And they wrote a letter to that effect. And you can read that in both the rest of Acts 15, as well as Acts chapter 21. So notice here when Paul said in second Corinthians chapter four, that they were, this is verse 10, always carrying about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus's sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us. That's the Jew, but life in you. Why? Because the Gentiles were never under the law of Moses. And so when they came into the gospel, they only had to live. They didn't have to die to the old covenant. They didn't have to die to the system of Moses. Like the Jews did who were under the law, who were yet keeping the law and who were commanded to do so until their redemption was completed. That's Matthew five in verse 19, whosoever, therefore shall break one of these least commandments and teach men. So the same shall be the least in the kingdom of heaven. So they were dying to the law. They were having a somewhat different experience in their salvation than the Gentiles. And they were longing for the time when God would save them just as he saved the Gentiles without that burden of the law. And that's what he means in verse 14. Death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. And there you have the unity of Jew and Gentile in the body of Christ and the Gentiles being saved apart from the law. The Jews were longing to enter into that state of salvation, which would arrive when the mystery was complete at the coming of the Lord, where they would be saved without having to keep the law. And that's why the temple was destroyed. That's why the Levitical priesthood is no more. That's why there are no more animal sacrifices. That's why Jesus Christ is our salvation. Now we're going to do part two of this lesson on the Holy Spirit and resurrection. So we ask you to look forward to that message coming up as well. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen today. Always bring an open mind, an open Bible and an open heart and let God open your understanding with the word. If you'd like to learn more about the Holy Spirit, we encourage you to get our book. Have you spoken in tongues? It's available at amazon.com or you can go to our website, which is www.allthingsfulfilled.com and you can purchase it there and you'll certainly be blessed by that book. And I assure you that your knowledge and your confidence and your peace will be increased as you study about the Holy Spirit through that book and allow it to bless you and to bless your heart and to bless your family as a result of studying the word of God. Until next time, I'm William Bell saying have a very pleasant day. We'll see you in our next broadcast and thank you very much for being with us today.