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Book: Luke
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Luke 4:1 The Life of the Spirit
I. Jesus lived an exemplary life.
A. JOH 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do
as I have done to you.
B. JOH 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as
I d you.
C. 1PE 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye
should follow his steps:
D. 1JO 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also
so to walk, even as he walked.
1. How did He walk?
2. He walked after the Spirit.
3. The Spirit was certainly uppermost in His life.
E. He lived as God intended man to live, His life was dominated
and controlled by the Spirit.
F. He taught the superiority of the life of the Spirit over the
life of the flesh. He said, "It is the Spirit that makes
alive, the flesh profits nothing."
1. He then lived the life of the Spirit to demonstrate
that it was possible.
2. In Luke 3 when He was baptized we read how the Holy
Spirit descended upon Him.
II. And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit.
A. That is normal life as God intended it to be.
1. That is not how you observe life today.
2. You do not see man as God intended man to be.
3. You see man in his fallen nature.
4. God intended man to live in the fullness of the Spirit,
that the Spirit be uppermost and ruling.
5. We see man for the most part being ruled by the flesh.
B. When a man is full of the Spirit, he is living in fellowship
with the Father, thus Jesus lived in full fellowship with the
Father.
1. God meets man in the realm of the Spirit.
2. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in Spirit and in truth, and He seeks such to
worship Him.
3. His Spirit bears witness with our spirits.
C. This is the way Adam lived before the fall.
1. God communed with Adam in the garden because his spirit
was alive and uppermost.
2. It was when Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden
fruit that his spirit died and his fellowship with God
was broken.
3. Man then began to live as an animal.
4. He became a two dimensional being, body and soul, his
spirit dead because of trespasses and sins.
5. Jesus said to Nicodemus, that if he wanted to enter the
Kingdom of heaven he had to be born again. He had to
have a spiritual birth, for that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit.
a. Nicodemus had no idea of what Jesus was talking
about.
b. He tried to understand it in a natural way,
wondering how he could return to his mother's
womb to be born a second time.
5. The natural man understands not the things of the
Spirit, neither can he know them for they are
spiritually discerned.
a. Being full of the Holy Spirit may sound rather
strange to some of you.
b. Living in fellowship with and communing with
God may sound rather far out.
III. Luke then tells us that Jesus was led of the Spirit.
A. Paul tells us that as many as are led of the Spirit, they are
the sons of God.
B. What does it mean to be led of the Spirit?
1. It means that you are sensitive to the leading of the
Spirit.
a. Acts 16 Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit
to preach in Asia.
b. They then went to Mysia, and were going to
Bithynia but were again were stopped by the
Spirit.
c. They then went on to Troas where by a vision
they were directed to go to Macedonia.
2. If your plans are suddenly disrupted, look for the hand
of God. Maybe you were going in the wrong direction,
pursuing after something that He did not desire, and He
is seeking to redirect your life.
C. To be led by the Spirit, you must first be filled with the
Spirit.
1. You must then desire to be led by the Spirit.
2. You must become sensitive to the Spirit.
D. It is interesting that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
1. This means that being led by the Spirit does not mean
that you will avoid spiritual conflicts.
2. You declare that you love God, that love may be tested.
a. Jesus said to Peter, "Lovest thou Me more than
these?"
b. Do you love Him more than your chosen career?
3. You say that you trust God, that trust may be tested,
how much do you trust Him?
a. Do you only trust when you can see and
understand His purpose?
4. How glorious it is when you pass a test.
IV. Verse 14 we read, "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee."
A. Filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, now empowered by the
the Spirit Jesus is ready to commence His ministry.
1. It seems rather strange to me that there are those who
think that they can have a successful ministry apart
from the anointing and empowering of the Spirit.
2. Perhaps even more strange are those whose ministry was
begun in the Spirit and they are now endeavoring to be
perfected in the flesh.
a. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Oh foolish
Galatians who has bewitched you, are you so
foolish as having begun in the Spirit are you
now going to be perfected in the flesh?"
b. This is the tragic story of the history of the
church. Those fresh moves of the Spirit usually
develop into a new denomination which then
seeks to define, refine, and confine the move
of the Spirit as we attempt to perfect the work
of God by our fleshly wisdom.
c. Somehow we seek to gain the respect of the
godless world who wants to know which seminary
we graduated from, and what training we had to
qualify us for the ministry God has given us.
B. Jesus commanded His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they
had received the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit. For with
the baptism of the Spirit would come the power of the Holy
Spirit to enable them to be witnesses.
1. That same Spirit that filled Jesus can fill you.
2. That same Spirit that led Jesus will lead you.
3. That same Spirit that empowered Jesus can empower you.
4. He said to His disciples that the works that He did
they will do and even greater works would they do, for
He was going to the Father and He would pray to give
them another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth whom
the world could not receive because it neither saw Him
or knew Him.
5. They were not to seek to commence their ministry until
they had received this power of the Holy Spirit.
6. Dare we to endeavor any work or service for God without
being filled, led, and empowered by the Holy Spirit?
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