[AI translation] A week ago today, on the feast of Pentecost, we spoke about how we have much more to do with the Holy Spirit than we consciously recognize and acknowledge. The Holy Spirit is here, we do not have to pray to him from heaven, because the Holy Spirit was sent by the Lord God, not at our request, but at the request of Jesus, when he said, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." (Jn 14,17) Jesus' request has been granted: the Holy Spirit is here on earth, surrounding us like air, and wants to enter our hearts without fail. Prayer is the breathing of the soul by which it breathes the Holy Spirit into itself. In this way, the Holy Spirit is not only around us, but very often also within us, penetrating our souls during a sermon, a Bible study, a deep spiritual conversation or a prayer. Here it begins to work within us, to illuminate, warm and purify us. Like a flame of fire, it plants and kindles a spark of faith in the soul. Those who already have some small, flickering faith have the fire of the Holy Spirit kindled in them. However, many of us have experienced that this little flame, whose flame brings so much joy to the soul, is extinguished and the soul becomes dark, cold, tired and sad again.That is why I now read this very serious warning from the Word, "Do not quench the Spirit," because we have the dangerous ability to quench the Holy Spirit. We have the power to quench the Holy Spirit of God in others and in ourselves! There are many ways in which this quenching of the Spirit can happen, but let's try to look at some of the most common ones, so that we can better guard against it!
You extinguish the fire of the Spirit in others when you offend them with something. Jesus considers this a terrible, serious case. He says: "But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe on me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the depth of the sea." (Mt 18,6) But let us be very careful, for not every stumbling is a stumbling. For there are some people who stumble at every little thing. Some people are offended even when someone does not smile at them or greet them as they would have expected. Some people are offended when a priest takes the Old Testament as the basis for his sermon and talks about things they don't like to hear. We have a member of the church who has declared that he will not come to church until he sees a certain other brother here, because he is offended at the presence of that person in the house of God. Some have been seriously offended and have turned their backs on the church because we did not elect them as presbyters. Or they have stumbled because they have received aid but not enough, or not in the way they would have liked. It is not to such stumbling that Jesus' statement refers, for in these and similar cases it is the wounded self-esteem that stumbles, not faith. Faith has nothing to do with such stumbling, only vanity, selfishness, and let it stumble! The greater the stumbling, the more violently vanity and selfishness clash, the more hope there is that one day they may be crushed, broken, and make room in the soul for humble faith. So let us be very careful when we stumble! Let us seriously examine whether it is our faith in Christ, or just our wounded sense of self, that has been stumbled upon!
This serious statement of Jesus refers to stumbling in faith. In the original text of the Bible, the verb "scandalous" is used, which is rendered "stumbling" in the English text. The root of the verb 'scandalidzo' is 'scandalon', which not only simply means what we use the word scandalum to express, but originally meant a trap, a dagger, used to catch, catch, catch and bring down unsuspecting birds or other animals. Such a trap is the stumbling block, into which the bona fide, unsuspecting believing soul falls, gets caught, cannot continue on the path of faith, and the weak, awakening, fledgling flame of faith tends to die out. For example: A soul earnestly longing after Christ goes to Bible class, and there expects to find its wavering faith sustained in fraternal fellowship, and is suddenly shocked to find that it was just now singing devoutly, and praying, have not even left the room before they start gossiping, gossiping about the faults of those who are absent, and insulting others, as if they had gathered in a casino on a boulevard for the sole purpose of doing so. This behaviour is like a cold shower on the soul of the shy sheep who has wandered in, and as he leaves, he thinks to himself, "If even the community of believers is like that, thank you very much, I don't want any more of it. It is precisely those into whose community he has gone to be strengthened who have quenched his spirit.
Nietzsche, the famous cynical soul, proclaimed that if Christianity were true, Christians would have to look much more redeemed. Woe to those whose Christianity has thus offended a poor soul! It does not alter his responsibility. He is not saved by the stumbling lives of others, for the need to stumble cannot be avoided in this life. God has designed that we grow in our faith by training in struggles and victory. Woe to him who is caught in the snare of stumbling, but woe still more to him by whom the stumbling falls! All our actions are stumbling blocks that discredit the gospel of Christ in others. None of us stands or falls alone, with every fall we drag others down with us. And it will be much harder for us to account for the souls of others at the judgment than for our own.
We should take great care not to quench the souls of others! But not in ourselves! Do you know how you quench the Holy Spirit in yourself? By not taking care of Him. Whoever seriously wants the Holy Spirit to be quenched in him, should also take seriously the advice of the Word: "Separate yourselves from this evil generation" (Acts 2:40). How many times does it happen that, under the influence of an evangelization or preaching, a soul is stirred up, awakened to faith, but does not immediately join a spiritual community, remains alone and is slowly extinguished again. If you take a glowing piece of wood from a bundle of embers and set it apart, it will cool and burn in a matter of minutes. But if you leave the same one in amongst the other embers, it will continue to glow for hours afterwards. And so it is with the fire of the Spirit, in need of the communion of other believers. If one in whom the Holy Spirit begins to kindle the light of faith earnestly desires to have this blessed fire strengthened in him, he should far avoid a place where the desires and temptations of flesh and blood are straining in the air. If a man goes out into the pouring rain with a lighted candle, let him not be surprised if the light goes out at once in his hand! If you receive the Holy Spirit here in vain, the question is, what will you do with it when you leave here? The Holy Spirit is not willing to go anywhere with you. Lest you quench the Spirit, separate yourselves from this world! That is, from everything that the Holy Spirit of God hates!
The Holy Spirit of God is quenched even by those who do not want to use it for the purpose for which the Lord God gave it. The Holy Spirit always glorifies Christ, always points to Him, always puts Him in the centre, in the foreground. So, if someone asks for the Holy Spirit because he knows that without the Holy Spirit he is incapable of living a true Christian life, and he wants to show the world that "Look at me, look at me, this is the great Christian I am! See, such an amazing divine power is at work in me! Marvel, and acknowledge my venerable spiritual superiority! God does not want to glorify you with the Holy Spirit, but Christ. You will not get the Spirit to flaunt your own privilege, you will not get help from God to achieve your selfish ends, only from the devil. Even the Holy Spirit in you will be quenched immediately, if you are not led by the desire that men, seeing your good works, may glorify your Saviour Christ! The moment you want, demand, to be glorified, you have already quenched the Spirit within you!
And finally, he who does not obey Him immediately, quenches the Spirit of God in himself. In the Book of Acts we see that God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him! Are you ready to obey the Lord? Are you willing to submit to His discipline? Is it not because you are still disobedient in something that the Spirit is always falling asleep in you? God has been warning you for a long time to put it away, to count it up, to cast it out of your soul, to turn away from Him, and you have not yet fulfilled it! And you will not take a single step further on the path of faith until you have fulfilled one of God's recognized commands and instructions! Do not quench the Holy Spirit in yourself by your disobedience!
Whoever takes seriously the fact that the Holy Spirit is here and wants to breathe into his heart with the breath of prayer, should also take very seriously this warning of God today: 'Do not quench the Spirit': by stumbling in others, and in yourselves by not separating from the world, by wanting to use it for selfish ends, for your own glory, and by disobedience! If you are really careful not to quench the Spirit, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit and the blessed, precious fruit of the Spirit! (see Gal 5:22)
Amen.
Date: 1 June 1947.
Lesson
Mt 18,1-9