Welcome to Resurrection Parish as we begin the third week of our Easter message series, “Brand New.” Nearly everyone likes new things, whether they are something simple as a new pen, or something larger like a new computer. The brand new engenders a feeling of hope for the future, even if it is only the immediate future.

In this message series we are exploring the position that the desire each of us have for the brand new is placed in our hearts by God, and for a reason. The Resurrection of Jesus is the key. Before the Resurrection death is the ultimate and final reality. After the Resurrection Christ is the ultimate and final reality. Whatever new thing we are longing for, whether we know it or not, what we’re really longing for is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

St. Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God wants to make us new in Christ Jesus, but of course we have to cooperate with the grace he offers us.

Last week, we said that God wants to make us brand new creation and that begins with the renewal of our minds. Change your thinking and you change your life. The most effective way to do that is by increasingly turning to and repeating God’s word instead of constantly repeating the words we tell ourselves.

Besides our mind and our body, there is another aspect or element that makes us who we are, and it could broadly be called our spirit. God promises to give us a new spirit; “I will put a new spirit with in you” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Of course there is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit can give us gifts such as wisdom and understanding.

However, each of us also has our own spirit, which is personal. Our personal spirit denotes all that belongs to the higher life of reason, art, religion, morality…as opposed to our mere flesh with it’s instincts and appetites, its passions and needs. Our personal spirit is characterized by self-determination and freedom.

Fundamentally there are only of two kinds of spirits. There are spirits opposed to God, and are directed only by our own will and emotions. The fruits of such a spirit will be any number of unattractive outcomes and behaviors: fear, slavery to sin, self-centeredness, anger, dishonesty, disloyalty, cowardice, foolishness. Then, there are spirits obedient to the living God, regardless of ones faith. The fruits or signs of such a spirit are entirely attractive: freedom from fear, selflessness, peacefulness, honesty, generosity, wise choices.

When Scripture talks about a new spirit, it is about our spirit being subjected to God’s will cooperating with God’s grace. God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, can help us make the transition. What does it look like to have a new spirit?

We can see it clearly played out in an important episode found in the Acts of the Apostles. The story we’re looking at today shows a kind of before and after look at the apostles. Before the Resurrection the apostles did not really have access to the spirit of God. So, when Jesus was arrested and put to death, what did the apostles do? They ran. They ran fast and far. Their spirit lacked power and they were completely helpless. Their spirit lacked loyalty and commitment. Their spirit lacked courage.

Then came Pentecost. They received God’s Holy Spirit and suddenly their own spirit were transformed. For one thing, they could do what they could not do before. In the days following Pentecost the apostles would go to the Temple precincts and preach the risen Jesus.

The religious and political leaders, who had put Jesus to death out of jealousy once again became enraged with jealousy now directed at the apostles. This Jesus movement was out of control, at least it was out of their control, and they were deeply threatened by it. They had to stop the Apostles.

As we pick up the story, they had the Apostles arrested and thrown in jail for the night, the plan being that the next day they would rush forward with a show trial, leading to a death sentence. That night, however, Scripture tells us that an angel of the Lord lets them out of prison 

and charges them, “Go and stand in the temple and speak the words of life” (Acts 5:20).

When the religious and political leaders met the next day, the apostles were not in the jail even though all the doors were securely locked. Then someone says, “The men whom you put in prison are in the temple and are teaching the people” (Acts 5:24).

“When the captain and the court officers had brought the apostles in the high priest questioned them, ‘We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name? Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching’” (Acts 5:27). 

Here is where we see the difference a new spirit makes. Before the Resurrection, the old Peter would have said something like, “Yes, sir, I am sorry sir. It won’t happen again, sir.” But with the new spirit the Resurrected Christ had given him he says, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). He goes on, “We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32).

All of this begs two questions? First, if a spirit obedient to God brings all kind of good things then why do we allow our spirit to be influenced in any other way? Why would we rather do our own thing? Lots of reasons probably. It can be as simple as a lack of discipline. Sometimes our emotions get in the way. Sometimes the culture confuses us, we live in accordance with the spirit of the age. Sometimes its just a lie we buy that the solitary pursuit of my will, the insistence of my way, really is in my own best interest. Sometimes its just a matter of pride.

The more important question is: How do we get to the place Peter and the other apostles got? To cultivate that new spirit requires that we first be honest with ourselves. We have to be honest and name the spirit that’s directing our actions. There is tremendous power in honesty. 

Second, ask for God’s grace, God’s Holy Spirit, to cultivate a spirit obedient to him, make it a part of your daily prayer. 

Third, practice. A Godly spirit increases in strength and effectiveness with every act of obedience, with every act of humility over pride. This begins in the smallest of ways. 

This week when you feel your conscience calling you to serve someone or help someone, 

to give or sacrifice for another, to let someone else have their way, despite what you want, don’t push away, obey that Godly spirit. 

A new spirit is part of the new you that God has in mind.