Our breath is truly a gift from God.
Genesis 2:7 (ESV) describes how, "...then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." To what or whom should we credit our life? The apostle Paul, when debating the philosophers and intelligentsia in Athens said, "...nor is he (God) served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." See Acts 17:25 (ESV).
For our purposes today let's call this our first breath.
This week we used a 200 pound test dummy for our Journey to the Cross event. It had all the appearance of being real. It had arms, legs, a head, and a torso. It had a creepy plastic smile, plastic hair, and human-like skin tone. It was wearing a uniform, belt, and boots. But the one thing it lacked was breath. Jeremiah 10:14 (ESV) says, "...every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them."
A while back, Lara and I found some life-like dog puppets. The puppets are total frauds, but our Schnauzers don't know any differently. They gnash their teeth and snarl at the mere sight of those puppets! But the puppets have no breath.
Psalm 104:29-30 (ESV) says, "...when you (God) take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground." Job 12:10 (ESV) says, "In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind."
My favorite breath verse is Job 19:17 (ESV) where Job says, "My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother." Altoids anyone?
But back on point. To breathe is to be physically alive! This is our first breath.
But there is a sense in which we want to be more than just alive. We want our bodies to be full of strength, like Samson's. We want our minds to be filled with wisdom and knowledge, like Solomon's. We want to exude God's character, like Joseph did. We want to tirelessly show God's love, like Ruth demonstrated.
We want to live boldly for God, like Peter did. We want to supernaturally unleash our gifts so we can change our world like Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Ezra and Nehemiah did! We want to feel God's presence and power when we pray, as in the early Church.
We want to excel at raising children, like Mary the mother of Jesus, or like Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.
While Jesus walked the earth, he was more than just alive or just breathing. As one theologian stated, "Jesus lived a fully human life." He was fully human in the deepest, richest sense of the word. Isn't that what you want?
Can you imagine a person with deeper love? Deeper joy? A deeper sense of peace? Can you imagine a person who has had a deeper impact on all of history? As Phil Robertson is fond of saying, "The whole world keeps track of time by his life." There is life before Christ (B.C.) and then there is life after his death (A.D.).
Jesus came from the Father full of grace and truth. That sounds pretty thriving to me, how about you? He's the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint of God's nature, and the image of the invisible God. Jesus thrived in every conceivable way. He was fully human in every sense that God created us to be human. But there is a little known fact that many people overlook about Jesus.
Jesus thrived through the power of the Spirit.
The gospels are careful to observe how Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and formed in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit. In baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. In obedience, Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness, where he fended off the wild beasts, Satan, and temptation. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way imaginable, yet was without sin.
In his hometown synagogue Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by reading from Isaiah the prophet as detailed in Luke 4:18-19 (ESV). "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
By the power of the Spirit, Jesus healed, preached, freed, and restored. He drove out darkness, demons, and evil spirits.
Clearly, then, Jesus thrived through the power of the Spirit.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would fill people, come upon them, fall upon them, speak through them, rest on them, be poured out on them, be placed upon them, or even enter them. The Spirit would grant people capacities beyond their very human limitations. They were given outstanding skills or even supernatural abilities to perform mighty and necessary deeds for the salvation of God's people and for his eternal glory. (Adapted from Gerald Hawthrone, The Presence and the Power).
From the beginning of creation in Genesis 1:1 to the present, the Spirit of God is ever creating, sustaining, maintaining, ordering, and renewing. Like breath, the Spirit is ever and always infusing people's lives with vitality. Like the wind, the Spirit's power is invisible, irresistible, and unpredictable. (Adapted from Gerald Hawthrone, The Presence and the Power).
R.A. Torrey was right to observe, "The Spirit isn't some mysterious, or wonderful power but a real person, infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty, and infinitely tender. Ever present, ever loving, ever helpful, ever gracious. He stands ready to help us in every emergency, but not just in emergencies! Our question shouldn't be how can I experience him, or get more of him. Our question should be, "How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?"
Jesus had all of the Spirit and the Spirit had all of Jesus. That's why he thrived!
One way we can think about this is to say that we need two breaths. Our first breath is necessary for physical life. God breathed in Adam, and Adam became a living creature. But a second breath is needed for us to be more than just alive or just breathing. Like Jesus, like the men of old, we need the breath of God in order to thrive. We need the Spirit of God!
The greatest demonstration of the Spirit's power came not during Jesus' life, but after Jesus died. There are two facts that no one disputes about Jesus. First, no one disputes that Jesus of Nazareth was fully human, that he lived and breathed, and that he walked this earth just the same as you and I. And second, no one disputes that Jesus died. Mark 15:37 (ESV) describes how, "...Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last."
But what distinguishes Jesus isn't that his breath expired. Romans 1:4 (ESV) tells us that Jesus, "...was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 8:11 (ESV) tells us the Spirit of the living God, "...raised Jesus from the dead."
People of other religions point out what a great teacher Jesus was. They point out how their holy books bear striking similarities to the moral teachings of Jesus. But that is where the comparisons end. Jesus staked the validity of everything he ever taught, indeed, he staked his very identity on whether God would raise him from the grave. Consider Mark 8:31 (ESV) which says, "And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again."
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV) Paul tells us that Christ's resurrection is the core truth of all the Christian faith. "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..."
You might say that there are two ways in which Jesus thrived. First, he lived life to the full. Second, he was raised to everlasting life. Both things happened through the power of Holy Spirit. So in what sense do you want to thrive? Only for this life? Or also for eternity? In John 10:10 (ESV) Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
Interesting enough 1 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV) says, "God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power." Wow! Romans 8:11 (ESV) says, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
And this is God's offer to us in Christ Jesus! Life to the full, and life everlasting. In John 4:13-14 (ESV) Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at a well, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." In John 11:25-26 (ESV) Jesus tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."
Our second breath is also a gift from God.
God's desire for us isn't just physical life, it's also spiritual life. In John 20:22 Jesus breathes on his disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit. The first breath gives us physical life. But this second breath, the Holy Spirit, enables us to thrive and to have life everlasting!
In John 3 Jesus meets with one of Israel's teachers, Nicodemus, and tells him he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Of course, Nicodemus is confused. He's already been born once. In what sense could he possibly be born again?
In John 3:5-6 (ESV) Jesus tells him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
The analogy here is that of birth. When a baby is physically born, the water breaks, and soon thereafter, the baby takes its first breath. And it's just like when the Christian is born again. The moment we're baptized, and we pass through water, our first act is to receive the Spirit. It's to breathe!
Just as a baby cannot live until it takes that first breath, so we cannot thrive (neither in this life, or in the life to come) until we receive God's Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables and sustains the Christian life. In John 6:63 (ESV) Jesus says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all."
Our baptism isn't just a way that we indicate our desire to receive the Holy Spirit. Baptism is also the way we declare our confidence in God to raise us by same power that he raised Jesus from the dead! In Romans 6:4-5 (ESV) it says, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."
Yes, we too can thrive by the power of the Spirit!
Long before Christ was born, God spoke to Ezekiel the prophet about the power of the Holy Spirit to resurrect life. Ezekiel 37:1-14 (ESV) tells us the exchange between God and Ezekiel.
"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surfaces of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O LORD God, you know.' Then he said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.' "
"So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the LORD God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army."
"Then he said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the LORD God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people."
"And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD."
Let me end with a question.
Where is your confidence this Easter? Is it only in your flesh and in what you can do in the power of your flesh? Or is your confidence in God and in what he can do through the power of his Holy Spirit? When your breath in this life runs out, what breath will sustain you now and for eternity? Are you happy to just be alive, or do you want to be more than just alive and just breathing?
Let me pray for us all. God, we cannot complain that there is no hope for the future. God, you have promised that your Spirit will give us breath, and we will live again. You have said that you will bring us home and that we will know that God has kept his promise to us.
Once a baby is born and it takes its breath, the parents can take it home. Father, once we've been born of water and Spirit, and take up your Spirit, only then are we truly ready to be at home with you, in your presence, for all eternity. May we learn now what it means to more than just alive, but to thrive in your Spirit.