Fan the Flame of the Holy Spirit

Good afternoon, everyone. Happy sunny Sabbath day to everyone who's here. And hello to everybody who's on Zoom.

Hopefully you'll all be able to be back with us before long. Hope everyone had a nice week. It's great to be into these really nice early summer months. Hopefully everyone's getting a chance to enjoy the outdoors a bit and soak up some of the sunshine.

If you'll turn with me to Acts 2, we'll start the message today with a scripture, a passage of scripture related to the time we're about to enter into, the day of Pentecost. And we'd like to cover a topic today that's related to that.

Acts 2 will read verses 1 through 4 to start the message today.

Acts 2 verses 1 through 4, many of you can probably already recite what it says here without looking at it. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now this will seem a little strange at first, but think if you will of a song that you enjoy.

And what I'd like you to do is take a moment and try to repeat the lyrics of that song without the melody, just like you're reciting a poem or passage from a book.

I see people staring at me.

Part two of the experiment. Take that same song and say the words or sing the words to yourself. Did you have a hard time figuring out all the words when you were trying to repeat them without the music?

Maybe. Couldn't think of a song.

I was thinking of this earlier, and related to scriptural passages like this. You know, we're so used to reading through things, just like sometimes we're used to singing a song. Like, have you ever tried to repeat the words to a hymn?

It can be a little bit difficult, yet at the same time, if you've got the music playing and people are singing along, you just kind of sing the words along without really thinking about them. I think sometimes we hit some of these scriptural passages that we've read so many times that the words just sort of flow and we don't really stop to think and reflect on some of the things that might be going on in that passage. And that's something I'd like to spend a little time on today in this passage. As you know, sometimes, too, everybody's torment. I love looking at patterns that exist in the Bible and that repeat themselves over and over what those things might mean for us. And there's actually one of those in here. I don't know if you can think of what that might be, but it's related to the tongues of fire. And that's where I'd like to spend some time today as we think about flames of fire and holiness.

You know, the word Holy Spirit rolls right off of our tongues, but what is it about the Spirit that makes it holy?

What does it do within us? Why did God choose tongues of fire as the main visual manifestation when the Holy Spirit was granted there on that famous day of Pentecost?

And what are the implications for all of us? I'd like to spend a little time today going through those elements as we walk through the Scriptures.

So what I'd like to put forward, just to take the mystery out of it, is a progression that we're going to see over and over and over again as we look through the Scriptures. And it repeats itself a number of times. We're going to go through a number of passages, starting with several in the Old Testament, that go through this progression repeatedly. And that progression is first of all flames. Secondly, God's presence. Thirdly, holiness. And fourthly, action.

So this progression that we see over and over, flames, God's presence, holiness, and action.

Any places you can think of that would have that pattern exist as we start looking through the Old Testament. Let's start with Exodus 3, not too far into the Old Testament. And let's read the account of the burning bush. For those of us who recall the time that we commemorate during the Passover, the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, this is a time that actually preceded that. If we recall, Moses had been in Egypt. He'd been raised, even though he was the daughter of Hebrews, he was raised in the household of Pharaoh as really one of his sons.

Tradition would tell us what little history there is available, that he was probably a commander of Pharaoh's armies, and perhaps even in line for the throne of Egypt. And then he did a rash act, as he saw one of the Egyptians getting in a fight and beating one of the Hebrew slaves, and he killed that Egyptian, and then had to flee into the wilderness. And at the end of this period of time in the wilderness is when this account happened in Exodus 3. In verse 1, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. And so this is the famous burning bush, what we call the burning bush episode. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

And then Moses said, I'll turn aside and see this great site. There's probably a big, lots of understatements in the Bible. Burning bush. Guess I'll check out what's happening over here. Not surprising. There's probably not a lot of unusual things that happen in his life in the desert. And so he turned aside to see the great site and why the bush doesn't burn. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. And he said, don't draw near to this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. And moreover, he said, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hit his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And so here we see the first example of this pattern that we might not have really paused to look at before. This progression, flames, burning bush, not consumed, but there was this at least appearance of fire as God's glory sat on this bush. And clearly, as God spoke from there, it was clear that God's presence was there. Because of God's presence, Moses was told that this was holy ground. So God being present in a place or a thing creates holiness, a separateness there. And there was action required as a result. In this case, Moses had to take his sandals off. He couldn't approach that area of holiness without some level of action. I'd like to read a passage from the Expositor's Bible commentary that talks about this.

Then it points out some interesting things for us to think about as we then look through some of the successive episodes that come after this. Here, Expositor's Bible commentary mentions that the presence of God demanded a holistic preparation of the one who would aspire to enter into God's presence. Now, if we think about temple worship, the tabernacle of ancient Israel, we know there are a lot more extensive things that had to happen other than just taking sandals off in this case.

The passage goes on to say, therefore, to teach Moses this lesson, God set up admittedly arbitrary boundaries. Don't come any closer. And he commanded that he should remove his sandals. This was to prevent him from rashly intruding into the presence of God and to teach him that God was separate and distinct from mortal men. The presence of God, the fact that he was there, his holiness, had to be treated in a special way. Because God was present, it goes on to say, what had been ordinarily, what had been ordinary, became holy ground and consequently set apart for distinct use. And so it was just because of God's presence. The place where sheep and goats had traveled just a short time ago was transformed into holy ground by God's presence. As Bush, another commentator, observed, it is not an intrinsic holiness due to the nature of the ground itself, but relative only to and based on the divine appointment that remains true as long as God ordains it so. This is also the first occurrence of the noun holy in Scripture. This is the first time we encounter this idea of holiness. And what he's writing, to paraphrase it, is God was there, he was in the burning bush, he instructed Moses what to do because the area in God's presence was holy. It wasn't holy the day before. There were sheeps and goats wandering across. And I would venture to say the next day, as shepherds went by, even as Moses went by, God wasn't there. The bush wasn't burning. No one was asked to take their sandals off. So it was the fact of God's presence there that made it holy ground. It wasn't some permanent holy place that could never be tread upon again with shoes on.

So we see this progression introduced the first time that holiness comes forward in the Old Testament. What else does this make you think of as you think of some of the accounts that we read about going forward in Exodus and some of the subsequent books of the Pentateuch? Let's look next at God's presence with ancient Israel.

So Leviticus 9 is the section in the Pentateuch that initiates the priestly service in the tabernacle. So the book of Leviticus includes, and also some of Exodus, extensive instructions in terms of how things were to be dealt with in the tabernacle and what was to be done in the sacrificial system. And it all revolved around this idea of approaching holy space, what it was that had to be done in order to show the proper respect and to do the proper things when approaching God and his presence. Let's read in Leviticus 9, and we'll start in verse 22.

This is the beginning when the first offerings are offered in the tabernacle after it was built. Leviticus 9, verse 22.

Now, this had to be a pretty incredible thing to see after all of these offerings were offered that supernaturally this presence came down, manifested through fire, and also included physical fire that burnt up the offering. So again here we see flames and we see the presence of God. This is a parallel to Exodus 40, which talks from a different point of view of the same event that happened. Let's read Exodus 40, verses 34 through 38. It gives us an additional set of information that's important as we look at how God interacted with children of Israel going forward. This is the same account most commentators would believe. Exodus 40, in verse 34, the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So it was so dense you couldn't even see it as this was coming in. It had to be quite a spectacle, quite a sight to see. And then it talks more from the future of what happened after that in verse 36. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go on onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For in verse 38, the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all of the house of Israel throughout all of their journeys. So this fire at night and the cloud by day signified the presence of God. It was that physical manifestation at night of flames, and on an ongoing basis it showed that God's presence was there over the tabernacle, which signified the presence of God or a physical symbolism of His throne in the midst of the children of Israel. So what does that have to do then with holiness and with actions that tie to it?

So the tabernacle, if we haven't seen diagrams of it, was essentially a combination of collapsible or fabric type of boundary that bounded an entire courtyard area, and then a tent that was within it, sometimes called the Tent of Meeting, and the Holy of Holies was inside of that. And it was something temporary that was constructed so it could be taken down, folded up, and carried along, because as we read, when the cloud or the fire lifted up, children of Israel would pack up, and they would travel wherever it led them to, and then once it stopped again, they would set up camp, and in the center of the camp they would set up the tabernacle again. As I was looking through notes for the sermon, it was interesting to see that more space in Scripture is devoted to the tabernacle than to any other topic. I'd never really thought of that before, but if you read all the way through Exodus 25 through 31, it's all about the tabernacle. It goes through painful painstaking, maybe more than painful, sometimes painful if you're reading through all the details of it, detail of everything that was supposed to be done, how carefully it was supposed to be handled, all of the materials that were to be used, and how they were materials progressively of greater worth and preciousness as you worked your way to the center, to the Holy of Holies, which signified God's actual throne. So all of this time spent in Scripture that's given to us devoted to talking about the tabernacle itself. The tabernacle then was divided into three areas. There was the outer court, so think of a big area that had large curtain-type things around it so you couldn't go into it. That outer court was accessible to Israelites if you brought a sacrifice, and so you could have access to that area. Inside of that was what was called the tent of meeting, and into there you could only go if you were a priest, and you could serve there and you would offer offerings, you'd do some of the other things that had to be done there, including tending to the fire. And then lastly, if you want to look at that, Numbers 18 verses 21 and 22, specifically verse 22, lays this out, saying that the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. And so God's presence being there, there were rules, just like take off your shoes to Moses approaching the burning bush, there were rules for entering the outer court, there were rules for entering the tent of meeting itself, and as we might remember, there were rules for entering the Holy of Holies, which happened once a year on the day of atonement, and it was only the high priest that could do it. So again, as we think of that progression, these lessons in holiness, the presence of God that were being made to ancient Israel, the flames signified his presence. His presence was there, as was shown by the supernatural events that happened, and because of that, there was holiness. God's presence gave holiness to that area. That's why the Holy of Holies is called what it is, because that was the signifying of God's presence with the children of Israel, and there were specific actions that had to be taken in specific ways to respect the holiness of God that was there. It was something that required thought, it required respect, it required understanding of what it was that was happening, and God was sending a signal here that it was not something that should be taken lightly or treated capriciously.

How do we know that? We know it in part by a very specific incident that happened not long after this period of time, and it's told to us in Leviticus 10. I guess pretty typical of human behavior. It only takes one chapter from Leviticus 9 when instructions are given and things are initiated to Leviticus 10 where something goes wrong. That's the story of human life. It doesn't take very long for us to mess things up, but God in a pretty strong way sends a message about how seriously he takes these instructions that he gave related to his holiness. Leviticus 10 verses 1 through 5. We read here about Nadab and Abihu, who are the two sons of Aaron. In verse 1, each of them took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come near to me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. So Aaron held his peace, and Moses called Mishael and Elzephan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. And they carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. Now, this seems pretty extreme to us from our 21st century sensibilities, doesn't it?

I mean, what did these guys really do? They grabbed some other fire and used it to light something. Big deal, right? Because God was showing a very specific lesson here, because he'd laid this out for the Israelites. This was signifying his dwelling place, his holiness, his presence, with the children of Israel. So what is a censer? Perhaps some of you have seen this. There are things like censors that are used in rituals in some churches today.

A censer, and every priest had one, was essentially a pan, perhaps made of bronze, and it was a place that you would put coals, and you could put incense on top to burn incense. But even without the incense, it could be used to light fires. And again, you know, we think of lighting a match, or just taking one of those clicklighters and getting a fire going.

But back then, it wasn't so simple. And if you wanted to start a fire and save yourself a lot of hassle, you would grab some live coals. And you could carry those live coals in a censer. You could concentrate the heat. You could throw some kindling on them, and they would burst back up into flame. And we understand that there is a flame within the tent of meeting that was supposed to be kept burning.

And the idea was that there was not supposed to be outside fire brought into there. It was part of God's presence, God's holiness being there, that you didn't bring things in there that didn't belong there. And so what they should have been doing is going in there, using the coals from that fire, and if they had to rekindle the fire using those coals that were already there and part of that fire. Now, Scripture doesn't tell us exactly what it was that made this profane fire, but we would guess that likely what happened was it was a whole lot easier as they were making their way in that day to just grab some coals from a campfire on the way in, or perhaps they had a fire backed by their tent, and that way they knew they'd have some flames, they'd save themselves some extra hassle, and they could just introduce that in there and get the fire burning again.

But God made it very clear there were specific actions that had to be taken, respect that had to be shown, away things that had to be done because of His presence and His holiness there. If we return to what's said there in verse 3, by those who come near to Me, I must be regarded as holy. Separate, different, set apart is what that word means. And so that fire that was there within that place because it was proximate to God had to be thought of as holy, treated differently, not treated just like any other campfire that might have been around them in the camp.

I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified. So a very stark lesson that was taught had to be a very painful lesson when you think of Aaron, but a lesson nevertheless that God felt was strong enough and important enough that the children of Israel had to learn it and to respect His holiness and the instructions that He gave them. Let's fast forward a ways. So we remember that after the children of Israel came into the Promised Land, there was still a tabernacle, and it existed for quite a long time.

In fact, all the way through till the time of the kings, there wasn't a permanent temple to be had. And if you recall, King David, man after God's own heart, wanted to build a permanent house for God, a temple for him. And what was it that God said? God said, he's a bloody man, he's a man of war, he was not to build the temple, but he did go ahead and design it. And his son Solomon is the one that finally built that temple.

And there's an account then in 2 Chronicles. In chapter 6, it records the dedication of the temple. We're not going to go through that today, but it's an interesting read if you'd like to read the prayer that Solomon offers and the things that happened during this time as he was dedicating the temple in 2 Chronicles 6. But why don't we pick it up in 2 Chronicles 7 verses 1 through 3?

Because again, there's a familiar progression of things that happens at this point in time when Solomon finished his dedication prayer. 2 Chronicles 7, and starting in verse 1. When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven, and it consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Imagine what people thought at that time. You know, you would have been hundreds of years past the conquest of the land. People would have heard stories going back in their families of what would have happened as the children of Israel were working their way towards the Promised Land.

Miraculous fire coming down from heaven. The scriptures that we've read would have been preserved for them, and they would have read about the glory of God being above the tabernacle. What was God showing in this sign that Solomon built the temple? He was showing that just as he had dwelled with Israel in the wilderness, his presence was there in the temple.

He was honoring that prayer that Solomon made and the temple that had been built, and his presence had come there. And in verse 2 we read, the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house.

Sounds like just what we read before in Exodus, doesn't it? Where they couldn't enter because this glory of the Lord, this cloud, was just so dense they couldn't get there. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and they worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, his mercy endures forever.

So they recognized that God had recognized this temple and he had come there to dwell with them. His glory came there just as it had been in the tabernacle. It created holy space because of his presence there, and they took action as a result of that. They bowed down. You can just imagine what it must have been like to be there at that point in time to see that fire coming down. The same thing that you'd heard of legends from centuries past, and it was happening there right before their eyes as that temple was being dedicated. And the temple was built in the same sort of a general plan as the tabernacle. It had those same three areas, and so those ideas of holiness and who could enter the different parts of the temple were respected. Even today, if you go to Jerusalem, Orthodox Jews will not go up on the temple mount, in part because they're afraid they don't know exactly where the Holy of Holies was, and they're afraid that they might step on the space where the Holy of Holies was. Now, as we saw from the account of the burning bush and other things, it's not a place itself that's intrinsically holy. It's God's presence there, but it shows how seriously they learned to take that because of these events in their history. Eventually, and I didn't write down the exact chapter, but Ezekiel records this whole process of, just before the children of Judah at that point, went into captivity, how God retreated from the temple. The glory of God actually was withdrawn from the temple. And you can think again at a very low point in the history of Judah what it must have meant to people to see the glory of the Lord disappear. People believe that actually for centuries that glory of the Lord, that physical manifestation, was there. It was not till this time of Ezekiel and what he showed that it was taken away. So this manifestation, this physical understanding of God's presence being there, and His holiness being there with His people. So with that in the back of our minds, let's jump back to Acts 2 and let's see what Acts 2 means to us as we read this account again with more of this background in our minds. Acts 2, starting in verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. So what is it that's familiar here in this passage? We look back at what we've read about in these last sections.

The fire is very familiar, right? Signifying the presence of God. And the speaking in tongues, the actions that took place represent the fact that there was holiness there. And that's why we talk about the Holy Spirit. It's God's very essence. It's what He is. It's His presence that's in us. And by implication, the flames in His presence has to carry with it the same requirements of holiness and action that go with it. There's something else, though, here that's incredibly different. And you've probably spotted that already, haven't you? Because where is it that the fire sat? And what did it do? It wasn't a single flame of fire as it was in the Old Testament tabernacle. It wasn't a single column or pillar of fire as it was in Solomon's temple. It divided up.

And it sat on individual people. What is it that was being told to the people on that day of Pentecost through that physical manifestation that they saw? They would have understood exactly what the fire meant as they thought about things that happened long ago in the desert. They thought of things that happened not quite so long ago, but still centuries before in the Temple of Solomon, and then seeing this manifestation. But the fire didn't rush through wherever they were and sit on the altar in Herod's temple, which would have been in existence at that time. There was a physical temple. The fire could have gone there. It could have sat over the Holy of Holies in Herod's temple, but it didn't. It sat individually on each and every one of those people that were gathered together, signifying God's presence and God's holiness, being on them as individuals, not being in any physical building, not being in any place, but being within people.

So you talk about a complete change in what's happening, and when you think about this symbolism, what they would have understood through the history of everything that had happened, a very strong message to them that God was dwelling in a different way and a different place as a result of the new covenant that had come, as a result of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, and the coming of the comforter that he had promised. So on the balance of the message, let's take a little bit of time to think about holiness and us. What's it mean to be holy? Holyness involves or results in actions. What are those actions that are supposed to do? As we said through Pentecost, God showed via those flames coming and sitting on individuals that his presence would now dwell within individual human beings and not in a physical structure. So the action, the requirement for holiness and the action that goes with it, shifts to us as individual believers.

So let's look in the balance of our time at two elements of this. One, the fact that we, as Christians, are holy space because God's presence is in us. And secondly, the actions that have to result from that. Now that might seem a little strange to say. People who aren't familiar with Christianity in any way when we say that we as Christians are holy space would probably look at us like really weird because it sounds like a very strange thing to say, doesn't it? But let's look in the Bible and see what it says about that as we look at it.

Let's start in 1 Corinthians 3 verses 16 and 17. And hopefully this language will mean something just a little bit different as we look at it in the context of all the things that happened through history before that. 1 Corinthians 3 and we'll start in verse 16. Here Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says, So if we believe in the scriptures, there's not really an argument left for us to say anything but the fact that we are holy. That's what Paul is saying here. You are the temple of God and the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are. He starts with the phrase, do you not know?

So this is something that he's reminding them of. It's not a revelation, not something new and different. He's addressing this as something that they should already understand. Of course, we know there were all kinds of issues in the Corinthian church.

They were very blessed in very many ways, but also very licentious and had drifted away from being really careful in their observance of God's way. And perhaps that's why he starts the phrase this way, do you not know? Guys, you should know this, right? You as people, as Corinthians, should understand this. This is something that was there in your understanding that you are the temple of God. It's reminiscent also of the instructions around the temple in the Old Testament and the importance of holiness that we see there. You know, we need to recognize the fact that God lives in us. And there are ways, there are actions, there are things that we're supposed to do because of that holiness, because of God living in us, because of the temple of the Holy Spirit that we are. And so we're left, as Christians, having to ask ourselves the question, do we use the same care for God's spiritual sacred space as he's required of his people over the course of time? Now, we know, of course, that we're called to different understanding, a different agreement, a different covenant than the people of Israel were. But we also know it's the same God that stands behind these agreements. And the way that he treats his presence and where he is, is something that we need to understand and make sure that we're being careful in how we treat. You know, Moses had respect for holy ground because God's presence was there. He was asked to take action, to take off his shoes and be careful in the way that he approached God in the burning bush. Nadab and Abihu, in a much more tragic circumstance, learned that they couldn't take things carelessly. And the children of Israel, by extension, saw that as an example. The fact that God's holiness was there, in that case inside the tabernacle, they had to deal very carefully with that. Likewise, as we recognize God's presence and holiness within us, we need to think about the same care. And of course, the book of Leviticus and all the regulations that are given there for the sacrificial system go into minute detail about the things that need to be done in order to approach the holiness of God, in order to approach sacred space. All as lessons, things that we should understand, even though we're not part of the sacrificial system, there are concepts behind that that apply to us as well in terms of taking seriously the presence of God, treating it in the way that God would have us treated, and producing actions that are consistent with that. Let's turn to Romans 8, and we'll read verses 9 through 11.

We read a similar concept here, Romans 8 verses 9 through 11. Here Paul, writing to the Romans, says, "'You're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.'" And so we see again that there is a difference. There's difference in action. There's a difference from God's point of view in substance and what we actually are at the point that we've taken on Jesus Christ's sacrifice, we've been baptized, we've received his Holy Spirit. We have, in the eyes of God, been transformed.

There's an important lesson here, I think, as well about what constitutes reality. You know, when we look in the mirror, we see our flesh and blood. If you're like me, you're hit in the face with your own fallibility and sinfulness from time to time, sometimes too regularly. But is that reality? What is reality? You know, when you look at the children of Israel, anyone who saw them saw a ragtag group of slaves that fled Egypt and spent 40 years not knowing where in the world they were going in the desert. And there was some cloud around them. That's all they saw. What did God see?

He saw a chosen generation, a nation that he had made a covenant with, that he was bringing to the Promised Land in his way and in his time, but that's what he saw. And likewise, as we see here, those that God has called and given his spirit are similar. You know, the world around us will look at us, we look at ourselves probably too often, and we see our own fallible human selves. But God says that he sees us as his children. Amazing as it sounds, he sees us as sinless through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And who are we to argue that what we see as human beings is actually more real than what God sees? And so what's left for us is to figure out how do we have to live our lives, motivate our lives, lead our lives as a result of the reality that God has created within us, whether we recognize it from moment to moment or not. So let's turn lastly to that, the actions that we should be taking as a result of the holiness of God that is in us.

Let's start in 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7. There's another scripture that we can probably, many of us recite in our sleep as soon as I read the first few words. Your brain will probably fill in the rest. 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7. Therefore, I remind you in verse 6 to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying out of my hands, speaking there of God's Spirit and the gifts that were given to Timothy through that Spirit. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Now the reason I like going to this scripture for this sermon is that stir up is a direct reference to fanning a flame, which again harkens back to this idea of flame signifying God's presence and His holiness. Other translations like the New Living Translation you would see read, I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift that God gave you. So figuratively, using the same language as we think about the fire that had to be kept constantly burning inside the tabernacle, a similar thing that happened within the temple, and then that flame of God's Spirit, His very essence, that's within us as a result of having conversion, taking on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, having it applied to us, and having His Spirit. I don't know if any of you watched the TV show Survivor. Our family has enjoyed watching it over the years, and you know they get on this island and they have to do challenges and vote each other off and different things happen. And down at the end, there's often, if there's a tie or when they get to the final few people, there's often a fire-making challenge. And two people have to sit down and they put a string above two wooden dowels, and then they've got this little table where they have to build a fire. And the first one to build a fire that's tall enough to actually burn through the string wins the game or is able to advance in the game. And there's a lesson to me that comes out of that as we think about this whole idea of fanning the flame.

What is the natural state of fire? It goes out. If you don't tend to a fire, it simply slowly burns out. And that's why in the Old Testament the priests all had censors, not only to burn incense, but they had to keep the fire burning. There is a huge symbolism there in the things that were done in the tabernacle in the temple that apply to us as Christians. And we read here Paul writing to Timothy saying, fan the flames. Because the fact is if you start a fire and you don't do anything else, you look at it, hey, I got a nice flame here, and you don't keep putting sticks on it, slowly bigger sticks, and turns into logs, and you can build this huge bonfire that's burning bright.

So bright, you know, you can read by it. You can cook food on it. But if you don't tend it, if you don't continue to put fuel on it, what's going to happen? It dwindles and it burns out. And so when we read this Paul writing to Timothy, we need to think about what is it that we do to light that flame within us?

And I'd like to, there are a lot of different ways we could answer that. I'd like to go ahead and use what he puts in verse 7 and just read briefly through a few thoughts on these three elements. And Paul uses a fairly common construct here where he gives one negative and three positives. He says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he has given us a spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind.

And those three qualities are directly tied to the idea of fanning the flames. So let's spend just a few minutes looking at this. My purpose here today is not to give you an answer to everything, but rather to hopefully kindle some thought, get the pun, to kindle some thought and encourage everyone to think further about this in the week plus a day as we're moving towards Pentecost. So how is it that we fan into flame the spirit? First of all, power. Scripture I thought of when I think about power and God's spirit is Ephesians 6.

We look at the armor of God and we'll just briefly read through this starting in verse 10 of Ephesians 6. Here Paul writing to the Ephesians says, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So this is directly approaching the power of the Holy Spirit. Put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And again, this is stated that you can stand against the wiles of the devil.

You just have to put on the armor of God. We don't stand against it ourselves. We stand against it through the power of God. For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this age, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly place. It's therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

There's no doubt laid out here of what the power of the Holy Spirit can do. The challenge here is for us to take up the armor. And so as we think about what it is that we do as an action, as a result of that holiness, the presence of God within us, to experience the power of Holy Spirit is to take up this armor. Stand therefore, in verse 14, having girded your waist with truth, putting on the breast place of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

The helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, praying always in verse 18 with prayer and supplication of the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And then in verse 19, and we can easily extend this to the church in this modern day, for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

There's a lot there. We're not going to be able to cover it in eight minutes left in the sermon, and so I'll leave that for you to think about, and hopefully feed the flame a little bit in this upcoming week as you reflect on the power of the Spirit.

Let's think for a moment about love. Again, as we think about fanning the flame of God's Spirit. We read all over, you know, the verses we read at Passover by this, all men will know that you're my disciples if you love one another.

In the end, 1 Corinthians 13, right, the love chapter, distills down all of the essentials of what it is about Christian life and the fact that it comes out, it expresses itself, as love. The Spirit in each one of us should drive stronger and more harmonious relationships with others, whether it's people within the church or people outside the church.

And that's really easy to say, and it's really hard to do because we're all human beings, we're all different, we all see things differently, we all have different things that get us worked up from time to time, but that's what it should be doing as we mature as Christians. 1 John 3, verses 10 through 15, we're not going to read every word of this passage, but encourage us all to think about it as we think about this attribute of love coming out and kindling the Spirit.

In this, in 1 John 3 of 10, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousnesses of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. It's a pretty powerful statement.

The dividing point between the children of God and the children of the devil.

That's a statement we don't usually make ourselves if we're not reading the Scripture, but that's what Paul wrote out.

Loving our brothers is that measure. In verse 14, carries that thought forward. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Pretty stark. You know, we read what happened in Nate Avenue by who? Not fun to read. Not easy to explain to a 21st century audience. And these words are similarly strong.

But Paul wrote them to the Christians of his time. They do point to the Christians of our day as well. What it is, it has to happen within us, the actions that result from God's presence and his holiness within us. And it's not only our brethren in the church.

Matthew 25 verses 31 through 36 is a passage I always think of as one of the most frightening passages within the Bible because of what it lays out. Those who are accepted by God and those who aren't. And in verse 33, talking about the Son of Man coming in his glory, judgment in verse 33, it says he'll set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. And what's the dividing point between them? It's the love that's expressed to people. Just general people. The king says in verse 34 to those on his right hand, come blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom because I was hungry, you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you took me in, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me. What it lays out is just helping to meet very basic needs of other people. Having that level of love and compassion and concern for other people, whoever and wherever they might be, that were moved to fill their needs because we see them as fellow human beings created in the image of God. Another outgrowth of God's spirit, his presence, his holiness being within us.

Let's look lastly at the sound mind. Can Paul said power, love, and sound mind? What is it that's meant by sound mind? It's interesting. This is the only time this specific Greek word is used in the New Testament, and I'm not going to go into concordances and all those things to figure out what it might mean, but in general, if you read commentaries, they talk about this word referring to self-discipline. In fact, in some translations of the Bible instead of sound mind, it is translated self-discipline. Others will say it refers more to sober-mindedness and this idea of helping to bring others to self-discipline. So not just directed inwardly and having your own self-discipline, but living a life that encourages and draws others to being more sober-minded, to avoiding the cares of the world, and to being more disciplined as Christians in what they do. Let's look at 2 Timothy 2, verses 3 and 4 in this vein, and then on to verse 22. I think this also lays out this concept pretty clearly for us as we think of what it means to be sound-minded as a result of the Spirit. 2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 3. Paul telling Timothy, you must therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And so in verse 22 he says, flee also youthful lusts but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

He's really defining there in that passage, that combination of passages, what this sound-mindedness means, encouraging other people as he talks to Timothy as a minister to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord and to teach those things. So that's the last element that I'd like to encourage us all to think about in terms of the actions that come out as a result of God's presence and God's holiness. So in conclusion, Acts 2 provides us a familiar image of the divided flames of fire on the heads of individual Christians. Hopefully, as we've looked a little more at this progression of fire and God's presence, the holiness and the action that came with it, starting all the way back when Moses was first commissioned by God to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, it gives us a different understanding, a fuller understanding, hopefully, of what it meant when those flames came and sat on individuals as Christians who would have the Holy Spirit. So as we approach Pentecost, I would urge everyone, let's reflect further on this pattern that was laid out in the Scriptures, and let's think further about the actions that should happen in our lives as a result of God's presence and holiness that lives within us.