The Spirit of Christmas

The Spirit of Christmas

The Holy Spirit plays a major role in the Christmas story. Which is actually, very exciting. Because if you are a follower of Jesus, you have a relationship it the Spirit that is supposed to be very close, intimate and powerful.

Often when a relationship is really developing and getting serious, an early big step is bringing the new person home for Christmas. That first Christmas (or Holiday) where they meet the larger family is a kind of relational milestone.

We are first deeply introduced to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, not at Pentecost where he indwells believers, but at Christmas!

• Today I hope you will give deeper thought to your relationship with the Holy Spirit.
• “Pneumatology” is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
• This week can be awesome or terrible; and that is 100% determined by your relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit appears nine times in the Scriptural accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth and dedication. (Luke 1:15, Matthew 1:18, Matthew 1:20, Luke 1:35, Luke 1:41, Luke 1:67, Luke 2:25, Luke 2:26, Luke 2:27)

The Holy Spirit in the Christmas Story:

1. The Holy Spirit would Fill (Luke 1:15)

2. The Holy Spirit’s Work at the (Matt 1:18, Matt 1:20, Luke 1:35)

• The verb translated “overshadow” means to surround or encompass. The Holy Spirit would overshadow the natural process of Mary’s body to do something supernatural. God would suspend the natural laws to do a miracle. The Trinity would bypass the human means of forming the babies body. Note Hebrews 10:5, Jesus refers specifically to the body prepared for him.
• Jesus’ Being (essence) was not created in Mary’s womb. He simply entered the womb. He Himself is uncreated; though he the Creator entered creation.

3. The Holy Spirit Filled (Luke 1:41)

4. The Holy Spirit filled (Luke 1:67) (Not mentioned night Birth)

5. The Holy Spirit Lead the (Luke 2:16-25)

Simeon’s Relationship With the Holy Spirit.

Simeon’s relationship to the Holy Spirit should be an example to all of us.

1. the Holy Spirit. (Luke 2:16-35)

Some notes on Luke 2:16-35:

• During the Middle Ages, more than a dozen churches across western Europe claimed to have the ‘holy foreskin’ (Don’t say the online notes don’t give you extra stuff…)
• It says it was time for “their” purification. Both mother and baby needed to be purified after childbirth.
• According to the law, a firstborn male child needed to be ransomed back by sacrifice. This goes back to the Passover, when God said all the firstborn belonged to him. The firstborn male child could be bought back with a sacrifice of a year old lamb, or if the family was poor, two pigeons. Joseph and Mary’s economic status is demonstrated by the offering of the pigeons.
• It is interesting to me that the Messiah was sacrificed for. Every single sacrifice in the Old Testament was prophetic of his eventual death. As they held him, and the sacrifice took place, they were holding the very one who would one day end all sacrifices with his death at Golgotha.
• Luke 2:25, Simeon means, “God has heard.”
• Tradition is that Simeon was 112 years old.
• Simeon walks into the temple area right as Joseph and Mary dedicate Jesus. I wonder what the young couple thought when he took Jesus into his arms.
• The Song Simeon is called the “Nunc Dimittis” from the first words of his song, “Now Lord”

When you got saved, the Holy Spirit moved in to your body. So before you were saved, it was just you. Lonely you in your body. One soul; one body. But now your body is inhabited by two sprit’s – yours and the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is one of getting to know the Spirit of God in you. we are his “temple” of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthains 6:19

Simeon made his life a home that welcomed the Holy Spirit. (Notice in Luke 2:25, he is righteous and devout. (Eulabes.)

The truth that God lives in us should we very exciting.

But we should ask: What kind of a spirit now lives in us? I saw a documentary called, “The worst roommate ever.” Is the Holy Spirit a cruel roommate? Is he hard, mean, harsh? What is the Holy Spirit’s personality really like?

Reading the Christmas account over and over, I realized: I can see the personality of the Holy Spirit. Look at the way he just filled John with joy. I wrote on a notepad, “joy.” And then I thought, and he went began creating Jesus’ body. That would be the body Jesus would carry to the cross. You know, it’s not just the Father who loves us. When it says: God so loved the world, it also means the Spirit loved the World. And the Holy Spirit created that body. That’s love. I thought about what the angels said: Bring you good news of great joy (joy again)… sky full: Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth Peace. I wrote Peace. Then I paused, because I’m slow of heart. And I looked: The personality of the Holy Spirit: Joy. Peace. . .. That’s the Fruit of the Spirit.

The reason you bear the fruit of the Spirit as a Christian is because the reality of the Spirit lives in you.

2. the Holy Spirit. (Luke 2:26, Luke 2:29)

• Luke 2:26, his entire life was defined by what God was doing.
• Luke 2:29, when he was done doing what God wanted, he was ready to “depart” or be “dismissed.” That is, he had fulfilled his mission on earth.
• God will give me Assignments that I could not do without his help.
• Ephesians 5:18, you cannot be under the control of the Holy Spirit and also under the control of alcohol, hate, gossip, lust, greed, cussing. When God fills you, it means that he has the final say in all matters. We think of the filling of the Spirit as being a worship experience or a feeling; which it can be. But to be filled also means that he makes all decisions.
• To do the work the Spirit has for us, he gives us spiritual gifts. God will not ask you to do anything he does not empower you to do.
• We get his backward: We look for our gift then think we found our calling. Instead we should find what God wants us to do, and trust him to empower and gift us to obey him. That’s faith.

3. the Holy Spirit. (Luke 2:27-30)

• Luke 2:27, literally, “And he came by the Spirit into the temple”
• Jesus said: “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:13.
• Every person filled with Spirit can think of times God clearly guided them.