“That’s So Fire!!” (How to Start a Fire: Receive the Holy Spirit, pt.9) – 6/11/23 Service
June 11, 2023
Stephen Streett
How to Start a Fire: Receive the Holy Spirit, pt.9
That’s so Fire!!
John 17:1-11
That’s so fire! That’s current Gen Z teen slang for “off the charts awesome!” When something happens that is dynamic, amazing, and, as we older generations might say, “really, really cool,” it’s now “SO fire!” People in the workforce recognize “FIRE” as a different concept. For many, FIRE means “financial independence, retire early,” a lifestyle aspired to by many. The idea is to work hard and long in your early years so that you can retire early and enjoy your later years. Sadly though, this strategy has backfired for many, leaving some retirees to languish for years upon years without a feeling of connection and purpose, while their money declines rapidly in an inflation economy. Some have returned to the workforce in their later years due to necessity, some due to financial or psychological need, as a panacea for their dilemma. We need connection. The “FIRE” lifestyle may seem enticing in the short term, but it’s the purposeful engagement with something that “fires us up” that makes us feel that life can be “so fire!”
It’s no wonder then that Jesus’ best promise to us is the kind of life that he knows will give us our best sense of identity, connection, purpose, mission, and joy: the “life of God.” Or better said perhaps: “life in sync with God”––a life that is Fully Intimate, Relational, and Exceptional! A FIRE life. Not the kind of FIRE life in which we “retire” and remove ourselves from work, mission, purpose, and connection, but the kind that immerses us entirely within it. That’s what entering into the “life of God” means. It’s a kind of spiritual life in which we exude joy, peace, holiness, and intimacy. And it happens right in the here and now no matter our other circumstances. Eternal Life. That’s the promise Jesus makes to his disciples.
But what exactly does that mean? Scholars tell us that the word “eternal life” here in the Greek is “zoe aionis.” The phrase suggests a kind of life that happens in the fullness of time. It refers not to a duration of life or a future destination in life but to a “quality of life” based in the “knowledge” (ginosko) of God (the Father/Son/Holy Spirit). As we said when we talked about the “Way” of Jesus, “eternal life” in this sense is not something we look for in the hereafter, but something we can have right now –a fully intimate, personal relationship with God, in which we “know” God spiritually, emotionally, deeply, and truly. We bond with God in a way that makes us “one” with God. Jesus explains to his disciples that he has had this relationship with God himself as he completed his mission on earth. He now offers that same kind of relationship to his disciples, so that they too can “know” God (and Jesus) in the person of the Holy Spirit personally and intimately and can therefore do amazing things in Jesus’ name.
The Holy Spirit is tasked therefore with a mission to unify the disciples with God and with each other in a way that enables them to harness the power of healing and change that will enable them to make an impact in the world in which they are living right now.
The disciples by way of this “eternal life” condition will experience a special relationship with God. All who belong to Jesus, who believe in him, will be gifted “eternal life” –the ability to forge a life with God in which Jesus resides in them and they in him now and in the future.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
