The One Who Is Spiritual

Message Notes

God is 3 peeople in one
God the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.
They are in substance all God and yet 3 separate people.

As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
Mark 1:10-11

Jesus was being baptized,
The Holy Spirit descends like a dove an
The Father speaks from heaven.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-11

The Holy Spirit can reveal the secret things of God to us that no one else would know except God himself because the Holy Spirit is God.

Pastor Anna’s Story

“And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.”
1 Corinthians 2:12-13

“For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:2-5

“But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:14-15

We are introduced in these verses to 2 types of men
Natural Man – not a believer
Spiritual Man – a believer

In the last part of our main text today we have one other type of man introduced.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 or you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-4

We have here what we will call the Worldly Believer.
There are only 3 classifications and all of us here are one of these. You are either a believer or you are not, and if you are a believer you can either be worldly or spiritual.

3 Types of Man
Natural Man
Worldly Believer
Spiritual Believer

“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.”
Romans 8:5-7

“How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”
Galatians 3:3

We cannot live out our faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Spiritual Believer understands the deep revelation of God that cannot be understood by a natural man.

“…those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means
… Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things”
1 Corinthians 2:14-15

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
John 16:13

“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.”
Romans 8:9

The spiritual believer experiences the freedom of living in the spirit and not being controlled by the sinful nature.

There are 2 big movements a person can make.

• The first is to move from a natural man to a spiritual man by deciding to follow Christ. We call this being “born again”, being born of the spirit.
• This can result in someone being either a worldly believer or a spiritual believer.
• Both movements require the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
  

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”
John 14:16-17

Jesus says they already know the Holy Spirit, he is with them and that will change to being IN them.

Paraclete
advocate, teacher, comforter, counselor, helper

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?”
1 Corinthians 6:19

7 Ministries of the Holy Spirit

1. Restraint

The Spirit holds back the ruler of this world, until it is time for Jesus to return. He prevents the enemy from overwhelming the world.

“And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.”
2 Thessalonians 2:6-8

2. Reproof

Reproof is correction or conviction of sin. He doesn’t shame us but reveals sin so we can receive forgiveness through Jesus sacrifice.

“And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.”
John 16:8-10

3. Regeneration

This is why we would say you are “born again” when you receive Jesus gift of sacrifice and decide to follow him with your life and be a disciple of Jesus. That is when you are born of the Spirit.

“Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.”
John 3:6

“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”
Titus 3:5

4. Indwelling the Believer

The Holy Spirit comes to live in believers like we see here and, in the verses, earlier in Corinthians about believers being a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are fundamentally changed when you decide to follow Jesus, to a Temple of God.

“We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.”
Acts 5:32

5. Baptizing

“Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:13

6. Sealing

This is an authoritative God aspect to seal the believer as belonging to God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer is a divine mark or seal.

“And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”
Ephesians 4:30

7. Filling of the Spirit

This is an ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit that Pastor John is going to talk about with us next week. You will want to be here for the second part of this series to learn more about the filling of the Spirit.

7 Ministries of the Holy Spirit
1. Restraint
2. Reproof
3. Regeneration
4. Indwelling the Believer
5. Baptizing
6. Sealing
7. Filling of the Spirit

4 of the Holy Spirit Ministries happen all at once when a person decides to follow Christ.
Regeneration
Indwelling
Baptizing
Sealing

2 are to allow the natural man to come to Christ.
Restraint
Reproof

1 is for the believer to live out their faith while on this earth
Filling

This is all about our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit is critical to that relationship.
He is the one that is with us and teaches us.

Which of the 3 are you?

Natural Man
Has no faith and the Gospel is like foolishness, no understanding.

Worldly Believer
Has some spiritual revelation from the Holy Spirit but they are still controlled by their worldly (sinful) desires. Still learning easier faith concepts.

Spiritual Believer
Fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Understands deep things of God and is controlled by the Spirit

There is no shame here with God
If you want to move from a natural man to a believer or from a worldly believer to a spiritual believer we want to pray with you and support you.