What the Holy Spirit Did
the Next Day and Today

Romans 8:26-27

by Dave Wilkinson

May 31, 1998

Today is Pentecost -- the birthday of the church and the celebration of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Earlier we read the account from Acts 2 of the day of Pentecost. The events of Pentecost were marvelous and unique in the story of the church. But what did the Holy Spirit do in the church the day after Pentecost? What does the Holy Spirit continue to do in our lives today?

In this series of sermons from the Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans we have already come upon several clues. Romans 2:29 is the first mention of the Holy Spirit in Romans, Paul declared that it is the work of the Spirit that brings about true change in the life of an individual. Romans 5:5 explains that it is through the Spirit that God pours out His love into our lives. Romans 7:9, 8:5 and 8:11 tell of the role of the Spirit in giving direction to our lives in Christ. Romans 8:16 tells us that the witness of the Spirit is the guarantee of the relationship we have with God as His children. Later in Romans, we will explore at length the role of the Spirit in the life of the church.

This morning, in Romans 8:26-27, Paul communicates some more great truths to us about the role of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives -- that not only is the Spirit the one who leads us but He is also the one who makes it possible for us to follow.

According to Ministry , a magazine for clergy published by the Seventh Day Adventists, there are three possible kinds of sermons.

The first type of sermon is the "springboard" sermon in which the preacher reads a text in order to use it as an introduction to his or her own thoughts about religion. This is known in other circles as "taking a text and departing from it."

The second type of sermon is the topical sermon. This is a sermon which centers on a topic such as "faith" or "love" as it is set forth in a variety of scriptures. For example, the Fifty Day Adventure that we do before Easter calls for topical preaching,

The third type of sermon is the expository sermon -- from the Latin root meaning to lay bare or expose. This type of sermon is built out of taking a text and exploring it phrase by phrase.

Of the three types of sermons, the last two are valid -- for the goal of preaching is to set forth the word of God is a way that is understandable to the hearers and is applicable to their lives. A "springboard" sermon does not do this because it is not God's word that is being preached -- just one person's ideas about that word, religion, or life in general. If you ever feel I have preached one of these "springboard" sermons please call me on it because you don't need to hear my ideas about life. You need to hear the word of God because that's where the power to change lives is to be found.

Our text for this morning lends itself to a expository type of sermon because each phrase is significant for our understanding. Therefore, let us read the text and then explore it phrase by phrase.

Paul writes: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

The first thing that Paul says is, "likewise, or in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness." Paul is referring here to verse 14 -- that all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God -- and is explaining that the Spirit is not only the one who points in the direction we should travel but also enables or equips us to get there.

The immediate context or issue is prayer. But Paul is not just talking about prayer. For the Spirit helps us in every area of our lives. Not only do we not know how to pray as we ought. We also don't know how to love as we ought or serve as we ought or give as we ought. We need help everywhere. The Holy Spirit is

the one who gives us the help we need. The Holy Spirit is the one who convinces us of sin and leads us to Christ, who makes us a new creation through identification with the resurrection of Jesus, who lives within us and gives us His power.

Before Jesus ascended to the Father, He promised that He would send us the Holy Spirit. In fact, He said that it would be better for us if He left, because otherwise the Holy Spirit would not come.

We sometimes think that if we could just talk to Jesus face to face like the disciples did that our Christian problems would be over. But is this so?

Writing in Campus Life Magazine, Jay Kessler asks the question: "Suppose Jesus were here physically today. What would it really be like? He could only be in one place at a time. We would all flock to Him. Probably he'd stay in Jerusalem and you'd have to save your money to take a once-in-a-lifetime excursion to see Him. Once you arrived, you'd have to fight the crowds. Perhaps, if you were lucky. you'd get in to see Him with a group of others. He might say a few words, shake hands with everyone and answer a couple of questions.

"Then for the rest of your life you'd try and remember that moment well. But your memory would fade, and you'd lose touch with Him. Furthermore, you might not have a complete picture. If you saw Him on a day similar to the day He chased the money changers out of the temple your view would be different from the guy's whose only memory was. 'Let the little children come unto me for of such is the kingdom of God.'

"But because we have the Holy Spirit we don't have these problems. The Spirit is Christ speaking to each of us at any time. He is not limited by geography. And because He speaks to us through the Bible, we get a balanced point of view. Our encounter with Jesus Christ isn't limited to a few moments."

The gift of the Holy Spirit means that we are special to God. God is not content to give Himself to the masses. He wants to give Himself to me and you as individuals. He wants to know us. He wants to help us as we move through life.

One of the down sides of being the pastor of a growing church is that I don’t have as much time to spend with each individual. While our church has tripled in size since the day we chartered, I don’t have any more hours in my day. This is one reason I value the ministry of our deacons so highly. The deacons are able to be in situations and give particular focus where Sheri or I are unable to, They are very good about letting us know of situations that require our personal involvement.

Now think how much that church of Jesus Christ as a whole has grown since the day of Pentecost. But, unlike me, God isn’t at all stretched. Through His indwelling Holy Spirit He is able to know the needs or each one of our hearts.

This brings us to the next part of our text. Paul says that we "don't even know how to pray as we ought." This inability points up the degree of our weakness for prayer is the most elementary duty we owe to God. 1 Thessalonians 5 says that we are to "pray without ceasing." Revelation describes the prayers of the saints as a "righteous fragrance ascending to the throne of God." Prayer is very basic but we don't know how to do it.

However, Paul says, "the Spirit intercedes for us." This is a legal term that is used here to describe the actions of an attorney for the defense. It is reminiscent of Abraham interceding for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and Moses interceding for the people of Israel after they had sinned against God in the wilderness.

Last March, Janet Loughry of our congregation took the step of becoming a candidate for ordination as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church, This involved speaking before the Presbytery and sharing about her Christian experience and her sense of call.

The next time Janet appears before the Presbytery it will be because she is ready for ordination. She will share her statement of faith and them the members of Presbytery are free to ask her any questions they desire.

Standing in the patio of the Montecito Church last March, I warned Janet that I was planning to ask her to carefully distinguish between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the risen Christ in her own life.

I’m sorry to say that my friend Jan Armstrong who is pastor of our church up in Grover Beach ruined my question. He gave her the answer.

The answer? There isn’t any difference.

The Holy Spirit is described as the one who intercedes for us but Jesus is also described as our advocate with the Father. We cannot divide the Triune God in this way -- for God is of one mind that He means good for His children.

So if we don't know how to pray as we should and if the Spirit intercedes for us, why do we need to pray at all? Why not just let the Spirit carry the ball?

There are at least three reasons "why not."

First, we are told to pray. James 4:2 says that we do not receive because we do not ask. Philippians 4:6 say that in everything, by prayer and supplication, we

are to let our requests be made known to God.

It is true that we don't know how to pray as we ought, just as a small child cannot really articulate his feelings and needs to his parents. But we do know how to pray at least to an extent and these imperfect prayers are as welcome to our heavenly Father as the imperfect phrases of a child are welcome to his parents. Even though they are imperfect, they are signs of growth.

Second, we are called to pray because prayer changes things. We do not live in a world where God has chosen to write the whole of history with His own hand. We are not robots acting out the parts He has written for us. God's will will be done. That is promised. "The kingdom's of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ." That is predestined. But within God's will there is room for our initiative. If this is not so then we should not just ask, "why pray?' but we should also ask, "why do anything?' Why get up in the morning or drive safely or anything else?

We are skirting the edges of the concept of predestination here but let's hold off on it until a bit later when we confront it squarely in Romans 8:29-30.

The third reason for prayer is that prayer changes us. As we pray we are tuned in to people and problems and opportunities we need to address. It is very important in prayer to take time to listen -- for prayer is conversation with God; not placing our order on His answering machine. Prayer is an opportunity to ask God for what we need -- Jesus Himself said that we are to pray for our daily bread even though God knows that we need it -- but it is also an opportunity for God to do what He wants in us.

Too often we think of prayer of groping after God when in reality it is the opening of our lives to Him. We, in seeking God, should realize that it is He who is seeking us, and that prayer is one of the ways in which He shows Himself to us,

Sometimes in our thinking we reverse the parable of the Lost Sheep. We act as if the shepherd is lost and we sheep are doing the seeking. We speak of "finding God." But God is not lost. That's the condition of humanity. Finding God is a matter of letting Him find us and listening to Him in prayer.

Jay Kessler observes that "we all have misconceptions about prayer we need to get rid of. Prayer is not trying to get an insensitive God to be sensitive. We all act as if it were at times though. "Dear God, I'm terrible concerned about the Burmese refugees. I really feel their pain. I wanted to point out their situation to You." A popular song from the ‘60s goes like this: "What the world needs now is love, sweet love -- Lord, if you really want to know." But God doesn't need our instructions in loving. The real God is infinitely sensitive and compassionate -- and in prayer we are sensitized to share His compassion. The next time you are praying and someone or some situation comes to your attention, it may be God asking what you are going to do about it. We need to pray because prayer changes us.

But there are times in all of our lives when we know that there is something there that we cannot put into words. Or there may be a depth of religious feeling for which words are inadequate. It is then that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words." We don't know how to communicate it but the Spirit does.

I want you to note the marvelous progression of groans in this chapter. First we are told that the creation groans while waiting for the revealing of thechildren of God. That's in verse 22. In verse 23 it says that we groan within ourselves while waiting for the culmination of our adoption as God's sons and daughters. And now we find that the Spirit also groans. God has not chosen to disassociate Himself from the distress of His creation but has chosen to identify and participate in it.

Then, in the second verse of our text, Paul says that He who searches the hearts of men and women -- in various places this is said of both the Father and the Son -- knows what the mind of the Spirit is -- that is He interprets the inarticulate groanings -- because the Spirit intercedes for the saints -- that's us -- according to the will of God.

There are two dimensions here. First, it is God's will that the Spirit intercede for us -- that is implicit in the fact that the Spirit of God is within us.

Second, and more important, the Spirit intercedes according to God's will. That is the Spirit translates our requests in order to make them compatible to what we really need for the abundant life Jesus came to give. When it says, "We don't know how to pray as we ought" it not only means that we don't know the words to say but that we also don't know what to ask for. As Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, God desires to give us more than we are willing to request or can even imagine.

Jesus said that if we ask anything in His name it will be given to us. But the key phrase is to ask in His name or according to His will. God will not grant prayers that will harm us. As James 4:3 points out, we do not receive because we ask for the wrong things and with the wrong motives.

Prayer is not a mechanism by which we get an immediate and automatic response from the Deity. It is not magic in which we bind God to do our will. You cannot, as in an automat, put in a dollar’s worth of prayer and automatically receive a dollar’s worth of blessing. Indeed, have you ever paused to think what would happen if all our prayers were answered affirmatively -- what chaos there would be in the universe if it were controlled by the whim of anyone who bent his or her knee. The weather would certainly be a mess. The picnickers would pray for fair weather while the farmers prayed for rain and the sailors on the lake prayed for a clear day with a good stiff breeze. If all our prayers were answered affirmatively it would simply mean that God had abdicated and that we were running the universe.

But God does have a will. And though we don't know how to pray as we ought the Spirit intercedes for us according to that will with the promise that God is bringing to completion through that will the loving plans he has for our lives.

As Tony Compolo writes in his new book How to Follow Jesus Without Embarrassing God: "Our prayers are immature. When we pray, our incredibly limited understanding and our shallow spirituality keep us from praying as we should. But we do not need to fret because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is always there lifting up the prayers that we ought to have prayed to the Heavenly Father but were unable to pray. The Holy Spirit actually prays for us!"

Compolo writes: "When I was seven years old I wanted to be a cowboy. I had seen a Hop-Along Cassidy movie and was so impressed with Hop-Along’s heroics that I was sure I wanted to be just like him. I asked my father if he would help me become a cowboy, and he just smiled and said, ‘Let’s wait and see.’ I’m glad my Father didn’t give me what I thought I wanted at the age of seven. Suppose that I, at the age of seventeen, had asked my father about going to college and he had said, ‘College! You can’t go to college! When you were seven, you said you wanted to be a cowboy. I went ahead and bought you a ranch in Texas with fifty head of cattle!’

I would have said, ‘How could you? Being a cowboy was the idea of a kid who really didn’t know what life was all about.’

Fortunately, because my father didn’t give me what I, in my immaturity, had thought I wanted, he was later able to give me what I really needed. So it is when we pray to our Father. According to Romans 8:26, when we are finished praying, we will have prayed all wrong. But no sweat! When we finish praying, the Holy Spirit prays the prayer we should have prayed and would have prayed, if only we were spiritually mature, It is as though the Holy Spirit turns to the Father and says, ‘Father, I know that was a stupid prayer Tony prayed. This is the prayer he should have prayed," and then goes on to pray on my behalf.’

Compolo concludes: "If that isn’t comforting, I don’t know what is. Even if I don’t have some itinerant faith healer or super Christian praying for me, I do have an intercessor -- the Holy Spirit. And with the Holy Spirit praying for me, I really do know that all things work together for good.’"