Welcome
Prayer
As an homage to the birth of Jesus we will break from singing His word today and have three Christmas recordings to hear and sing along to if you are so inclined – one for each generation – sort of.
We will also forego our moment of silent worship today.
MUSIC
1st Corinthians 2.9-end
Milk
December 24th 2017
I realize that tomorrow is the big day and tonight is the big night for some, but in my estimation everyday is the big day and we honor Him most in knowing Him better –
Because we can know Him by and through the study of His Word we will continue on our verse by verse today despite the external celebrations.
Nevertheless, Merry Christmas and all and praise God for loving us so much He gave us His only begotten Son.
So we left off at verse 8 with Paul writing to the believers at Corinth.
There he said, speaking of Jesus:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Then, in comparison, he continues and speaking to believers says something very hopeful. He says
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
So jump back with me to verse 9 where after saying that the Hebrew princes were blinded to the truth and as a result put the Lord Jesus to death, he says:
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
This passage is quoted from Isaiah 44:4 but again it is used and quoted not literally as Isaiah 64:4 says:
“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”
I want to point something out here. If we were sticklers for the Words of scripture and lived by them literally and actually in every situation (instead of by the Spirit of them) we would have a real issue on our hands here because Paul has taken the passage from Isaiah and he has actually changed it! And then says here, “as it is written!”
Look on the board as I’ve written the Isaiah passage and the 1st Corinthians passage to compare them:
Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
1st the order of things is obviously rearranged (which is fine) –
Next, both speak of eyes not seeing and ears not hearing – so that’s good –
But then, Isaiah says, “From since the beginning of the world” (which Paul omits) but Paul does add “neither has entered into the heart of man,” (which is not in the Isaiah account).
Finally, the Isaiah passage says:
Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
But the 1st Corinthian passage says:
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
So Isaiah says “Waiteth,” but Paul rewrites it to say, “Love.”
And again, to top it all off, Paul says that “it is written,” but then both paraphrases and changes WHAT is written and I suggest that this tells us something very important that cannot be over emphasized – the WORD of God is living, and dynamic, and it was NEVER intended to be understood by the flesh in legalistic law-school terms, but has always thrived in the heart by the Spirit of the Words, so MUCH so that the Apostle Paul takes a passage from Isaiah, says that it is written, and then changes it himself!
But that is how the Spirit works in and with us relative to the Word!
And the message we take away from it is to allow the Spirit to reign and step back from demanded literal and dogmatic applications to every single syllable of the Words of God.
What’s also interesting is that the words of Paul are found in “the apocalypse of Elijah,” and both Origen and Jerome suggested that Paul quoted from it instead of Isaiah.
If that’s the case, we are then exposed to a whole new line of thought. Why does he quote from a non-canonical book instead of from Isaiah?
I don’t know and I don’t care! This situation is not limited to Paul and Isaiah. It happens frequently throughout the New Testament endorsing the idea that even the apostles took liberties in citing the Old Testament in their day.
All this being said, when you are trying to convey a concept and someone corrects you with exact wording, but the concept is clear, you are in the right – by the Spirit – you are right.
We can see that Paul is not attempting to give us details of the afterlife – unlike many writers today who claim to have died and visited either heaven or hell.
Instead he merely says:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
We might be inclined to say that this is it then. That eyes and ears and the imaginations of men cannot understand the things that God has prepared for those that love him after this life – believing (at this point) that Paul is describing heaven and our future there.
But he isn’t. I would suggest that Paul is talking about the natural man here, “that no natural man’s eyes or ears or imagination can know the things God has in store” for those who love Him. All of our previous text in 1st Corinthians support this interpretation but the next verse gives us extra clarification to this point saying to believers:
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
This is a fantastic passage showing the primacy of the Spirit of God in believers – that by it, people CAN know the things he has prepared “. . . FOR the Spirit searches all things, year, the deep things of God.”
Here we have a passage supporting the idea of Sola Spiritus as we note that the passage does not say,
“But God has revealed them unto us by his Word: for the Word searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
In light of this, I reiterate the teaching that a woman or man with the Spirit of God in them has the right to see and interpret things for themselves, “even the deep things of God” and I suggest that the truth of those things will be supported in scripture though many may not agree with the interpretations of them.
John the beloved said in
1st John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Seven verses earlier he wrote:
1st John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
The Natural eye, and the natural ear, and the natural imagination of Man has not been able to comprehend the things that God has prepared for those who love Him, but Paul adds:
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
In this age, the age where God, as Hebrews 8 and 10 say, has written His laws upon our hearts and minds, we all have access to the mind of God by Christ IF we are willing to receive what He reveals.
This idea is lost in many of todays church of biblical legalists and sola scripturist’s. I am all for the word being a written resource, the living Word of God, but it MUST be understood by the Spirit.
It is in this that God reveals unto us the things that natural eyes and ears and imaginations cannot see, hear, and conceive of.
Of course, God is not contradictory so the principles revealed would never contradict the written word, but this does not mean that those who love Him are not given differing views by the spirit of interpretation from the uninspired masses.
It is here where I find myself at odds with people who want me to conform to their traditions rather then what I believe God reveals by His Spirit.
That’s not gonna happen.
And I stand boldly before my God and King responsible for these insights and my sharing of them.
Not as a prophet.
Not getting new scripture for the world.
But simply understanding His word in ways that He reveals rather than what traditions demand.
This is what Paul says here – “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”
Then he adds –
“for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. “
This word “searcheth” in the King James does not fully express the force of the original, “ereuna” which means to “accurately, diligently, search” so as to “fully understand.”
Perhaps “fathoms” is a better word over searcheth.
Proverbs 20:27 says
“The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”
So we have the Spirit that searches both the deep things of God AND the Spirit searches the inward parts of Man.
It seeks, observes, discovers, fathoms, and perhaps fills in the gaps of the heart of searching people with the deep things of God, giving human beings wisdom and knowledge and understanding that cannot be discovered through any other means – including intelligence and education.
I don’t think we can say that the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit is searching to discover knowledge but perhaps is more of a distributor of knowledge and therefore a comfort to those in need of it.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
“Shawn,” (he said with a southern drawl).
“God has put it on my heart strongly to get in touch with you. And so here I am calling you.”
The caller “Wayne” went on to describe his rather lonely life living way out at the far end of Georgia and then how he came about discovering me.
He then asked if he could share something with me before he let me go. I said, “sure.”
And then he said, “Now, I have researched and researched what I am about to tell you and I want you to tear it apart and I have to tell you that pretty much everyone I speak to about this shuts me down but I am driven to share it with you . . . so here goes.”
So I took my hand away from the keyboard where I had just written
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
And made myself listen to him. Now, I frequently have people share their ideas with me but every now and again – as it was with pastor Glenn Hill, Pastor Don Preston, and my friend Pastor Darrel Scott – some of them share things that speak directly to my heart by the Spirit and then once the Word supports them the homework is done.
Since sharing them Wayne’s insights have struck my heart AND have held up to the research I have been able to do. The topic?
The Holy Spirit is feminine.
What first hit me in his message was the fact that I have issues with the Trinity because in the Greek the word for Spirit is gender neutral.
It was just convenient for the King james writers to refer to the Spirit in the masculine because it came from God (which is in the masculine) so the Holy Spirit became a he.
But going back to the Hebrew, the Jews have always viewed the Holy Spirit as female – this I was able to confirm.
I was also able to discover that the Syrian Orthodox view the Holy Spirit as feminine, unlike the Roman Catholics, and therefore the notion is not so far fetched.
Add in that a number of early church leaders and writers considered the Spirit feminine and we have a little room to work.
But don’t take this wrongly – we are not talking about gender – we are speaking to paternal and maternal natures OF God – and all I am suggesting is that His maternal feminine nature is embodied by the Holy Spirit.
The only real biblical language that has the Spirit in the masculine is Latin – which is when I think everything began to fall apart.
Daniel Wallace, of Dallas Theological Seminar fame, says this
“it is difficult to find any text in which pneuma is grammatically referred to with the masculine gender”.
So at this point I say, hmmmm?
Then I read an article by a guy, RP Nettlehorst, a PH.d candidate from UCLA who said:
“In my graduate Semitics program at UCLA, one of the languages I had to study was Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic written with rounded letters reminiscent of modern Arabic.
Syriac was the language of people living in northern Mesopotamia, from at least 300 BC until the time Arabic became dominant in the region, around 1000 AD.
Most of the Syriac documents available today were produced by a Monophysite branch of Christianity, today known as the Syrian Orthodox Church (monophysitism is the belief that Christ had but one nature).
One striking puzzlement of the texts, at least to me, was the constant reference to the Holy Spirit as “she”.
I was aware, of course, that in Aramaic (and hence in the dialect known as Syriac) the natural gender of the word “spirit” was feminine; however, I was surprised to discover that this accident of grammar had resulted in a whole theology constructed around the femininity of the third person of the Godhead.
An example of Syriac theology is found in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas; it is usually assumed that this particular work was influenced by speculative gnostic Judaism because it contains the notion, that associated with God was a wisdom, or creative power – a spirit – which was feminine.
After reading such materials I decided that Syrian Orthodox Christianity was somewhat heretical (though perhaps only through an accident of grammar), and so I wanted nothing to do with Syriac literature. I would find something else on which to do my dissertation.
Then came the Spring of 1986.
I was teaching advanced Hebrew, and I had decided to take the class through the book of Judges. As we read along, I noticed something odd about Judges 3:10:
The Spirit of Yahweh came upon Caleb’s younger brother…
In English, this passage from Judges doesn’t appear startling, but in Hebrew something strange leapt out at me:
“came upon” was a third person FEMININE verb, indicating its subject “Spirit” was being understood as a feminine noun.
Hebrew is not like Aramaic in its use of the word “spirit”.
While the word is exclusively feminine in Aramaic, in Hebrew it is sometimes masculine. Therefore, the question that came to mind was why had the author of Judges chosen here to make the Spirit of Yahweh feminine, when he could just as easily have made it masculine?
“Oh well.” I just shrugged my shoulders and went on, not overly concerned. “Occasionally, I thought, one finds something inexplicable in the Bible: no big deal.
But then came Judges 6:34. Again, “Spirit of Yahweh” was feminine.
At this point I decided to consult the concordance. Much to my surprise, every occurrence of “Spirit of Yahweh” in Judges is feminine.
As I pondered that, I recalled Genesis 1:2, the first occurrence of “Spirit of God” in the Bible, and realized to my shock that it too is feminine.
It reads:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God (spirit of Yahwey) moved upon the face of the waters.
“So back to the concordance,” the author continues and says:
“Out of 84 OT uses of the word “spirit”, in contexts traditionally assumed to be references to the Holy Spirit, 75 times it is either explicitly feminine or indeterminable (due to lack of a verb or adjective).
Only nine times can “spirit” be construed as masculine, and in those cases it is unclear that it is a reference to God’s Holy Spirit anyway.
The New Testament references to the Holy Spirit are not helpful for conclusively deciding on the gender of the Holy Spirit, since “spirit” in Greek is neuter, and so is referred (I would add that it should be referred to) as “it” by the New Testament writers.
The conclusion of all this is that our traditional assumption of a masculine Spirit is questionable; in fact, the evidence seems overwhelming that the Spirit should be viewed as “She”, which does seem to make sense, since the other two members of the Godhead are labeled “Father” and “Son”.
END QUOTE
Okay – back to me. Please do not get troubled here and think I am returning to the errant teachings of Joseph Smith and a mother in heaven because Smith took his idea and made mother in heaven an anthropomorphic entity that actually bears spirit children with God the Father, a gloried Man.
To say that the Father and Son are masculine and the Holy Spirit is feminine is not to say they are men and women – not even close.
But to say that both genders are present in the One God – perhaps so much so that we MAY even wonder if through them we have the eternal Word (who became flesh and dwelled among us) not only gives us some connection to the earthly human family but also gives women a great deal to see in God that we have never allowed them to see in Him before.
So, what are the theological implications of a feminine Holy Spirit? Nettlehorst proposes four which are worthy of consideration:
A feminine Holy Spirit clarifies how women can also be said to be created in the “image of God”. It has long been recognized that he Godhead must include some feminine aspects, since Genesis 1:26-27 explicitly states that both men and women were created in God’s image. Listen to it:
Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Later in Genesis, once God took Eve OUT of ADAM, we read Adam say:
Genesis 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Could it be that the Hebrew ruach (spirit) also came out of God and is female too? Supporting the model we have in the construction of Man through Adam and Eve?
A feminine Holy Spirit explains the identity of the personified wisdom in Proverbs 8:12-31.
This section of Proverbs is all in the feminine. Because of this many scholars say that it is speaking of a pre-incarnate Christ – but I have to disagree – as the Son is always in the masculine. Perhaps wisdom, described here in the Old Testament (Sophia in Greek – feminine) is a description of the Feminine Holy Spirit. This is what the Proverbs says – listen closely to the attributes of Wisdom (again, all feminine):
12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
16 By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: {lead: or, walk}
21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
We might believe Jesus even supported this because in the least He endorsed the fact that wisdom is feminine saying in Matthew 11:19
“The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.”
The third benefit Nettlehorst sees in recognizing the femininity of the Holy Spirit is that it explains the subservient role that the Spirit plays. Remember, still the Spirit of God, but subservient to God Himself. The Bible seems to indicate that the Spirit does not speak for itself or about itself; rather the Spirit only speaks what it hears. Interestingly enough, Jesus said the same thing – that He only spake what His Father gave Him to speak. The Spirit is said to have come into the world to glorify Christ (See John 16:13-14 and Acts 13:2). In contrast, it should be noted that the Scripture represents both the Father and Son speaking from and of themselves in different areas and ways.
Finally, a feminine Holy Spirit, with a Father and Son as the rest of the Trinity or make-up of God, may help explain why the family is the basic unit of human existence. That model suddenly makes great sense and has a meaningful application in our world.
Another lesser scholastic point (but certainly pertinent is one) that has long troubled me relative to Man being made in the likeness of God.
Half – probably more of the human race is female but with “all of God being described in masculine terms”that half is pretty much left out of the loop when it comes to relating to God, His Son or the Holy Spirit as anything but three males.
Why would this be? Because God is MALE? What does that even mean?
If we allow ourselves to remember that God is NOT a man but a spirit of fire, there is absolutely nothing to stop us from accepting the fact that while part of Him is masculine another part is entirely feminine.
And this is not only acceptable it appears to be true and supported by scripture.
Perhaps this is even the bigger question – “Why is this so troubling to others – especially when we consider history, language, and then (now) the Bible itself?
In addition to Genesis 1:1-2, Genesis 2:7 and Proverbs (on wisdom), we also have
Luke 3:22 where Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit at the baptism of Jesus descended in bodily form like a dove and there the dove is singular feminine.
Then in John 3:5-6 we read:
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Even though the Spirit here in the Greek is gender neutral, if it were written in Hebrew it would in all likelihood be in the feminine and we have a consistency between human beings being born of a woman and Christians being born or regenerated of the feminine elements of God.
That makes sense – through women we are generated and through the Spirit we are regenerated.
The Holy Spirit being feminine also helps us understand her being called the comforter by Jesus, and perhaps there is some insight into the gentle and non-crass conception of Christ as we read
Matthew 1:20 But as Joseph considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit;
As we continue through scripture we will try and take note of the scripture to see if this trail will dead end for us or open wide up to the mysteries God reveals only by His Spirit.
Getting back to our text in 1st Corinthians 2 we have read:
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Then, to provides an earthly comparative saying:
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
This passage automatically tells us a few things, doesn’t it?
First it differentiates between the spirit that is in man and the Spirit of God within man.
They are different.
One guides and speaks to us relative to the our world and ways and ambitions and goals in the flesh.
The other speaks of spiritual heavenly eternal things – though this is not to say it can’t also speak to the temporal.
I would suggest that this is one place where the scripture reads pneuma but means psuche – there are a few places where this occurs.
But what I think Paul is referring to is the mind, will, and emotions in a human and not a separate spirit – but again, I could be wrong.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
In other words, if a man does not possess the Spirit of God that man will not know or comprehend the “things of God.”
Here is another reason why I believe that the Spirit is primary over all things – not that the Word is irrelevant but if you give me a room full of Phd Theologians without the Spirit verses one hillbilly with her I would trust the hillbillies interpretation of the scripture over the educated.
I wouldn’t trust the hillbilly with my dental care, or as my tax advisor – but the point is, the Spirit is not only primary in our understanding of scripture, it is necessary to knowledge of Heavenly things.
Why don’t we leave off here, go to Q and A and Comments.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Hey, and have a merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.
