William G. Pollard - "What Is the Holy Spirit?" (March 2, 1958)

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	(choral music)	0:03
-	Heavenly father, since all of our money came from thee	0:19
	we now return a portion of it to thee	0:23
	for thy use here on campus and around the world	0:26
	in Jesus name.	0:29
	Amen.	0:31
	(distant organ plays)	0:32
-	I have given as the title of this sermon,	0:53
	"Who is the holy spirit".	0:55
	We worship God as father, son, and holy spirit.	1:02
	But although we can identify what we speak of	1:09
	when we speak of God, the father	1:17
	and when we speak of God, the son, Christ	1:19
	there is considerably more difficulty at the present time	1:25
	in knowing exactly who or what it is we're speaking of	1:32
	when we speak of God, the holy spirit.	1:37
	On the other hand, as we read the new Testament	1:45
	it's quite clear that the God	1:48
	the holy spirit is there a living reality.	1:54
	It is evident that to all Christians	2:02
	it was as clear and definite who was being spoken of	2:08
	when the holy spirit is mentioned	2:15
	is when Christ, the son of God is mentioned,	2:17
	that it was just as definite and distinct to point	2:26
	to Christ as the son of God, as to point	2:35
	to something else that everybody recognized and knew	2:42
	not as a theory or a doctrine, but,	2:47
	as something shared in the direct experience of all	2:51
	whether they understood it or not.	3:00
	The holy spirit is mentioned just as frequently	3:05
	throughout the new Testament as is Christ.	3:08
	And what we need to do	3:15
	rather than discussing the holy spirit as a doctrine	3:19
	is to attempt to identify that living reality	3:23
	as a vivid, known, shared experience	3:34
	which the new Testament is clearly an obviously speaking to,	3:38
	throughout, when it speaks of the spirit.	3:42
	It seems to me that the primary source	3:48
	of our difficulty today is the extent to which	3:51
	we have made religion a private, individual affair.	3:56
	Each one is expected to have some sort of formulated faith	4:03
	of its own, of his own, which most people hold in private.	4:11
	And each individual faith is a rather different thing	4:20
	from some other individual's faith.	4:24
	Edward R. Murrow ran a program,	4:30
	This I Believe,	4:33
	in which various people gave brief accounts	4:35
	of their own faiths.	4:39
	Each one of these was different.	4:45
	Each man was bearing witness	4:50
	to his own private religious world,	4:52
	taking it for granted that religion is somehow the flight	5:04
	of the alone to the alone.	5:09
	It's something that each person works out in private	5:15
	for himself.	5:20
	But New Testament Christianity was nothing of this sort.	5:23
	It was the faith of the church to which all responded.	5:31
	One would at that time,	5:37
	no more think of having a private religion	5:38
	than someone today would think of having a private physics	5:42
	or chemistry.	5:46
	This was a corporate thing.	5:54
	The gospel was felt to be intensely real,	5:58
	a part of external reality.	6:01
	A part of the structure of of this world	6:05
	as it's really made and governed.	6:09
	And people, as they came into the church,	6:16
	sought out this reality,	6:18
	which was being shared corporately by a body of people.	6:21
	All of whom were giving their allegiance,	6:28
	not to a faith of their own,	6:32
	but to the great central affirmations	6:38
	of the Christian faith, of the apostolic faith	6:43
	as it had been delivered to them through the church.	6:48
	And I'm confident that in order to understand the reality,	6:54
	the experiential reality of God, the holy spirit	7:01
	One must have a real lively sense	7:06
	for this corporate character of Christianity.	7:10
	That the holy spirit, if you wish,	7:19
	is a corporate manifestation.	7:23
	It's a sociological entity, not a psychological entity.	7:26
	It has no meaning when referred to isolated individuals,	7:34
	no meaning whatsoever.	7:39
	It can be experienced and known only in community	7:43
	because it is that kind of thing.	7:48
	I have found it most helpful in making this clear	7:54
	to make use of an analogy.	8:03
	An analogy to well-known corporate entities today,	8:07
	that we're all familiar with, which have a spirit.	8:14
	We might take, for example, the Marine Corps.	8:21
	The Marine Corps has a spirit.	8:26
	The spirit of the Marine Corps is something definite.	8:30
	Something that none of us have too much difficulty	8:34
	recognizing what was being talked about.	8:41
	And the spirit of the Marine Corps dwells in the Corps.	8:46
	Individuals can share in it fully only by becoming Marines.	8:51
	If a boy wants to have the spirit of the Corps,	8:59
	well how can he get it, we ask?	9:04
	How can he get it?	9:07
	Well, the only way he can get it,	9:09
	whether this is just or unjust, isn't a question.	9:13
	It's of the nature of the spirit of the Corps,	9:17
	that in order to fully share in it,	9:21
	to be lifted by its power,	9:24
	he must subject himself to the discipline of bootcamp,	9:28
	he must enlist.	9:33
	He must make the decision that he wants to be a Marine.	9:35
	He goes in as a rookie, he's not a Marine yet.	9:45
	He goes through a period of preparation	9:51
	and training and discipline.	9:54
	And ultimately there comes the time when he knows	9:57
	and everybody else knows that he's become a Marine.	10:01
	And then, then once he's a Marine,	10:11
	he has the spirit of the Corps.	10:16
	And the spirit of the Corps is a powerful thing.	10:20
	It can lift him and strengthen him and ennoble him.	10:24
	It can give him powers and strengths	10:29
	that he never had before.	10:32
	And he knows that this spirit,	10:38
	there's something very real about it.	10:40
	Very definite, it's hard to get hold of and define,	10:45
	but it's certainly there.	10:48
	And it's a corporate thing.	10:51
	The spirit dwells only in the body, only in the Corps.	10:53
	It isn't a matter, however,	11:01
	in order to share in its reality and its power,	11:04
	once one has become a Marine	11:09
	and shares the life of the Marines, it isn't a scent.	11:11
	It doesn't vanish when a Marine is off by himself.	11:17
	Even if a Marine got assigned to duty on a desert island	11:26
	where he didn't see any other Marine for a year.	11:35
	Well, he hasn't lost the spirit of the Corps,	11:40
	he's still a Marine.	11:43
	He still shares the fellowship of the Marines in spirit.	11:46
	He knows himself to be one.	11:52
	He's still nurtured by the spirit of the Corps.	11:54
	Maybe he goes out at night	11:58
	and sings the Marine Corps songs to the skies.	12:00
	This stirs him up.	12:04
	Although it's a corporate affair,	12:13
	there's a subtlety to its corporateness.	12:16
	It is reinforced by Marines coming together,	12:22
	but it doesn't disappear or vanish	12:28
	when they happen to be apart.	12:31
	But nevertheless the only way to get it	12:35
	is to become a Marine.	12:41
	It's always been said of the holy spirit that	12:48
	the holy spirit was given, was promised to and given to	12:51
	the church, the ecclesia,	12:56
	and a lot of modern people rebel at this, they say,	12:59
	why should I be forced into the church	13:03
	in order to share in the power of the holy spirit?	13:08
	Well, would you say, is it unjust, unfair,	13:14
	that a young man has to be forced into the Marine Corps	13:19
	in order to share the Marine spirit?	13:23
	No, we wouldn't say that, it's clearly of the very nature	13:28
	of the reality of the Marine spirit,	13:31
	that it just has no meaning.	13:34
	No existence apart from the existence of the Corps.	13:38
	This is the same with school spirit,	13:44
	with the spirit of any other body.	13:48
	And once one has become a part of that body,	13:59
	one begins, whether he is good or bad,	14:05
	one nevertheless shares in the power of its spirit.	14:11
	And the moment one begins to share in it,	14:21
	one knows it's come mysteriously as a gift of grace.	14:23
	It can't be earned.	14:30
	It can't be manipulated.	14:33
	It suddenly comes to one.	14:37
	When one has really become a Marine, then one has it.	14:40
	This is the kind of thing that is being talked about	14:53
	when the holy spirit is mentioned, unquestionably.	14:58
	And an analysis of all of the New Testament references	15:05
	to the holy spirit make it quite clear	15:09
	that this is what the holy spirit is.	15:13
	People knew the spirit of other associations	15:18
	in those days, too.	15:22
	But when they came together as the church,	15:27
	as a holy community,	15:33
	the faithful in Christ assembled together	15:35
	as the very body of Christ.	15:40
	As the New Testament puts the image.	15:44
	They shared a spirit.	15:48
	There was a spirit living in that body of tremendous power,	15:50
	That was alive and clearly there.	15:58
	And this spirit that lived in this association,	16:04
	this corporate body of people, although similar in character	16:11
	to the spirits of other corporate associations,	16:16
	was nevertheless less differed	16:24
	in about the same way that the central witness	16:28
	of the church was, that in the man, Jesus of Nazareth,	16:34
	there was a difference that set him apart	16:40
	from all other men who had ever lived.	16:47
	That in him, there was God himself.	16:51
	This was the word made flesh.	16:59
	Amazing and remarkable as such an assertion seemed,	17:04
	nevertheless, it was gloriously true.	17:14
	That in this, that this man was the very incarnation of God	17:18
	in the human estate.	17:23
	This Jesus, who was therefore Christ, and the son	17:28
	of God, the incarnate son of God.	17:36
	So too, in this particular community, the church,	17:39
	the spirit that dwelt there differed from all other spirits	17:45
	of all other communities, the Marine Corps, schools,	17:49
	any other national bodies,	17:55
	any other spirit you wanted to pick out,	18:00
	because this spirit was none other than God himself.	18:03
	Of the same character as God, the father and God	18:09
	the son, therefore the third person of the Trinity,	18:13
	that God mysteriously was experienced and met and confronted	18:19
	in three different ways.	18:27
	And yet it was the same God being confronted in all three.	18:30
	Confronted as father,	18:36
	And he, whom we confront in Christ is none other than God,	18:40
	God the son.	18:44
	And he whom we confront in this, in the reductive saving	18:46
	fellowship of the church.	18:55
	He too is God, God, the holy spirit.	18:58
	You know, one can pursue this analogy further	19:04
	to get some insight into what is often been	19:09
	exceedingly puzzling to people	19:13
	about why the sin against the holy spirit	19:17
	should be set apart by our Lord	19:20
	as essentially different from every other kind of sin.	19:24
	no matter how heinous it might be.	19:29
	That every other sin could be forgiven,	19:34
	but that could not be forgiven.	19:37
	There seems to be a kind of arbitrariness	19:41
	about this determination that is very puzzling,	19:46
	but it should not be puzzling at all.	19:51
	If we return to our Marine Corps analogy	19:54
	you can see just why this should be.	19:57
	Because a Marine can do anything,	20:04
	can break any kind of rule, Can fall into behavior	20:07
	that brings the deepest kind of disgrace upon the Corps.	20:15
	And it is still possible for the Corps to redeem him,	20:21
	to bring him back.	20:25
	Provided one thing only is there.	20:30
	Provided he has not sinned against the spirit of the Corps.	20:35
	But suppose he sins against the spirit of the Corps.	20:42
	In other words, suppose he comes to the point	20:45
	where he hates the idea of the Marine spirit.	20:48
	Where he detests it, Where he no longer can stand it	20:53
	and rebels against sharing in it.	20:59
	Fights being lifted by it at all,	21:04
	just hates the spirit of the Marine Corps.	21:08
	Then the Marine Corps is powerless to do anything	21:13
	with that person.	21:17
	This is the one thing the Corps can absolutely not handle.	21:19
	The only thing to do is get him out of there.	21:27
	The Corps has power to do everything else, but heal that.	21:32
	If a Marine loves the Corps	21:40
	and loves the spirit of the Corps and responds to it,	21:45
	no matter what else he's done, he can still be saved.	21:49
	And the Corps can still do something with him.	21:56
	But the sin against the spirit of the Corps,	22:00
	it can do nothing about.	22:02
	And this, it seems to me,	22:07
	is clearly what our Lord is speaking about	22:08
	when he speaks about the sin against the holy spirit.	22:11
	But the holy spirit in the New Testament church	22:16
	was just as living and clearcut and straight a reality,	22:19
	whatever anybody's doctrines about it might be,	22:24
	as the spirit of the Marine Corps is an identifiable	22:29
	clearcut idea to us today.	22:34
	This is who the holy spirit is.	22:44
	If you ask who God, the holy spirit is,	22:49
	saying you know who God, the father,	22:53
	You have some idea, anyhow, what is being spoken of	22:56
	when we speak of God, the father and of God, the son.	23:03
	Then if you ask who God the holy spirit is,	23:07
	we must point to this corporate spirit	23:11
	that at times in history rises to great redemptive heights.	23:18
	It's been a low ebb,	23:25
	it's been at a low ebb in the late 19th,	23:27
	and the first part of the 20th century.	23:30
	People often enough do not find this tremendous power	23:37
	within the life of the church.	23:44
	Somehow or other it's too respectable to be a Christian.	23:50
	It's too proper to have the spirit come alive.	23:58
	But I do think the spirit is coming alive again now	24:10
	in one congregation after another.	24:15
	And when it does, it's something lovely and powerful	24:19
	and tremendous.	24:22
	Something that can take a person and remake them,	24:25
	that can transform human life, and build it up.	24:30
	And then we'll know, when we really see that,	24:39
	when we're in a worshiping congregation where	24:45
	the spirit has come alive among them,	24:48
	we'll know who God, the holy spirit is.	24:51
	Cause we will see it right before our eyes.	24:54
	We'll see him at work. And the power of him.	24:59
	Let us pray.	25:13
	Grant, we beseech thee merciful God	25:23
	that by church being gathered together in unity	25:27
	by thy holy spirit may manifest thy power among all peoples	25:31
	to the glory of thy name, through Jesus Christ, our Lord	25:37
	who liveth and reigneth with thee, and the same spirit.	25:42
	One God world without end.	25:47
	Amen.	25:50

Item Info

Title:

William G. Pollard - "What Is the Holy Spirit?" (March 2, 1958)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4ms3q336

Date:

March 2, 1958

Speaker:

Pollard, William G.

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 RR-0047
ref5313_ojq
uachapelsermaud
duke:628522
dcrau002090
ark:/87924/r4ms3q336
33670540-4241-41ca-8dfa-7d0c5ad21f18

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William G. Pollard - "What Is the Holy Spirit?" (March 2, 1958)

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