John 14:15-17: The Grace of the Indwelling Spirit Pt. 1: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Scripture Reading

Intro

Who is the Holy Spirit?

There is a lot of confusion… misunderstanding… and false teaching about the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the lives of believers today.

So much confusion that most believers… don’t even know what to do with the Spirit.

They don’t know what to make of Him… how to worship Him… how to follow Him.

And so for most Christians the Holy Spirit lives on the periphery of our spiritual life.

We know He’s there… we know He’s God… we know we worship Him… but what that looks like practically we have no clue.

I hope to help us fix that.

To know Him… worship Him rightly… and follow Him to growth and maturity in our spiritual life.

John 14 through 17 has some of the most extensive and and clearest revelation on God the Holy Spirit anywhere in Scripture.

And as we move into these chapters, I want to give a broad overview of the Holy Spirit and the grace we have in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives today.

The Holy Spirit was promised by Christ as a comfort to believers while Christ… physically… is away exalted at the right hand of the Father.

He even said John 16:7 that it was to our advantage that He go away for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

Which would you rather have?

Jesus Christ right next to you living breathing in the flesh or the Holy Spirit in you?

According to Christ… the Holy Spirit in you.

Why?

Because of who He is and His ministry in the lives of believers today.

So who is the Holy Spirit?

With so much confusion, false teaching, and misinformation surrounding the Holy Spirit floating around out there today we must study the Holy Spirit… who He is and what He does…

And in studying the Spirit, grow in our spiritual maturity in Christ following the Spirit… living in the Spirit… walking by the Spirit in our day to day life.

But how can we do that if we don’t even know who He is or what any of that even means?

How can we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling… grow in our sanctification … if we don’t know or understand the Spirit’s work in our sanctification?

And perhaps most importantly… how can we know God and worship Him rightly if we don’t know Him and most of our worship functionally ignores the Third Person of the Trinity?

So Who is the Holy Spirit and what role does He play in your life?

That’s the question I hope to answer of the next two weeks and in the coming months as we look at Jesus’ own teaching on the Holy Spirit beginning in John 14:15-17 where… this week… I want to focus on “Who is the Holy Spirit?”

And Lord willing… next week look at the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer.

And so for today on Who is the Holy Spirit? we are going to have 4 points.

Number 1… The Holy Spirit is a person.

Number 2… The Holy Spirit is God.

Number 3… The Holy Spirit is our Helper.

And Number 4… the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. The Holy Spirit is a Person

John 14:15–17 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

This is a crucial aspect of our theology.

If I were to ask you how do you know… biblically… that the Holy Spirit is a person and not an impersonal force, what would be your answer?

We often talk about the Power of the Holy Spirit and that kind of language has given some Christians an understanding of the Holy Spirt as a power or a force that you tap into like plugging something into an outlet on a wall…

And not a Holy and Righteous God that we love follow and submit to.

Biblically the Holy Spirit is a person.

He is a He… we do not refer to Him as it.

We see that in even Jesus’ own words here: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Grammar

Even grammatically in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is referred to as a person.

Jesus says I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper.

We will talk about what that Helper means here in a little bit, but the word Jesus uses for another means another of the same kind as in I like that cookie I’ll have another.

So the another Helper is one like Jesus… that is a person who stand in and takes the place of Christ in His absence.

Another Helper in comparison to Christ could not be an impersonal force.

Likewise the word Helper is masculine not neuter.

And while the word Spirit, is neuter in Greek the Bible uses masculine words like Helper, and masculine pronouns to describe Him.

A little bit later in John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he [masculine pronoun] will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (cf. John 16:13-15)

Why is that significant?

Because usually you match the gender of the pronoun match up with the gender of the noun its referring to.

And by using the masculine pronoun He for the neuter noun Spirit, Jesus is clearly saying that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force.

Personhood and Acts

But that’s not all… throughout Scripture the Holy Spirit also acts as and has the attributes of a person.

He has understanding and wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:10-13, 2 Peter 1:21, Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 11:2, Romans 8:27).

He has emotions.

Paul says do not grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30, cf. Isaiah 63:10).

An impersonal force cannot be grieve.

He has a will.

1 Corinthians 12:11 All these [talking about the spiritual gifts of members of the body] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

He also does things only a person can do, such as teach (Luke 12:12).

We saw it earlier John 14:26: He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

He speaks… leads… and directs. (Acts 8:29, 10:19, 13:2, 20:23, 21:11, 1 Timothy 4:1, Revelation 22:17; Matthew 4:1, Acts 13:4, 16:6-7, Romans 8:14).

Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

He sovereignly rules and appoints elders over the Church.

Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

He prays and intercedes on behalf of the saints.

Romans 8:26 The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And He Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16).

Likewise… He can be lied to (Acts 5:3), blasphemed (Matthew 12:31), and insulted or outraged (Hebrews 10:29).

These are all things that would be improper to say if the Holy Spirit were not a person.

Practical Benefits of the Spirit’s Personhood

Now what practical benefits might the personhood of the Spirit have for the Christian life?

Well for one… it makes walking by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit and living in the Spirit a personal relationship (Galatians 5:16, 18, 25).

Keeping in step with the Spirit is not trying to grope our way in the dark trying to figure out the secret spiritual formula… the right prayers or spiritual discipline… to tap into this powerful spiritual life.

Its following Him.

Listening to Him and His voice in the Word and depending on Him for strength to live out the Word in every area of our Life.

The personhood of the Spirit completely reorients and revolutionizes the entire Christian life.

There is not some secret power… some spiritual force… that you need to tap into.

The Christian life is not doing just the right spiritual disciplines just the right spiritual way…

We follow the Spirit.

We follow… Him!… a person… the Third Person of the Trinity… who loves and cares for us with the same love that characterizes the Father and the Son.

What does He say in the Word and then we depend on Him and His grace to live that out.

The personhood of the Holy Spirit means when we come to some spiritual need or difficulty we don’t try to figure out how to access some greater power… we go to Him…

Depend on Him…

And follow Him and what He has said in God’s Word.

Number 2… the Holy Spirit is a person, but He’s not just any person… He is God.

II. The Holy Spirit is God

How do we know the Holy Spirit is God and not just another person as in a holy angel?

If someone asked you how do you know the Holy Spirit is God, what would you say?

Well the greatest proof is in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 (cf. 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Corinthians 13:14).

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Baptizing them points to God’s work in saving sinners… He is the Lord of our salvation.

And Jesus says to baptize them in the Name… singular… of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One God… Three Divine Persons… One Name.

The Holy Spirit is God co-eternal and co-equal with God the Father and God the Son.

Attributes

Likewise He possesses divine attributes that we can only associate with God Himself.

We are made in God’s image, but there are some things only God has or is.

For instance He is Eternal… without beginning or end (Hebrews 9:14).

He is omniscient knowing all things (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

Paul says the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

Now the Spirit searches not in the sense of not knowing something and trying to find it out.

He searches in the since of revealing or bringing to us divine knowledge of who God is.

He is omnipresent… that is everywhere at once.

Psalm 139 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7).

He is all powerful or omnipotent… bringing life from the dead

Romans 8:2 calls Him the Spirit of life.

Job 33:4 says The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

The Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and He gives us new spiritual life in the New Birth through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 1:4, John 3:6).

He possess foreknowledge according to Acts 1:16, which we say all the time doesn’t just mean that God knows the future, but He ordains the future and accomplishes all His Holy will.

He foreknows because He foreordains.

Isaiah 46:9–10 I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

The Holy Spirit also does things only God can do.

We talked about regeneration and giving life to sinners in the New Birth.

John 5:26 As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself pointing to the deity of Christ.

Well the Spirit also has life in Himself in taking sinners who are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins and making them alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1–3).

The Holy Spirit was also involved in Creation.

Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Just as with Christ who was in the beginning with God… and All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:2-3).

So the Spirit was in the beginning with God.

And as Creator the Holy Spirit… with the Father and the Son… is in a different class altogether than created.

The Holy Spirit is God.

In fact, Acts 5:3-4 explicitly names Him as God.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

Notice Peter says why have you lied to the Holy Spirit.

And then verse 4: You have not lied to man but to God.

Application

So what does all this mean?

Worship

Well first, we should worship the Holy Spirit as God just as we worship the Father and the Son.

Now what that looks like we will see a little bit later as our worship of God flows out of who God is and what God has done in our salvation.

We worship all three Persons of the Trinity in general as the One True God of our salvation but we worship each in particular in their particular role in our salvation.

For example we worship Jesus, not God the Father, for dying on the cross while we worship God for sending and giving up His only beloved Son.

To worship the Spirit, we need to see the Spirit’s role in our salvation.

Faith

And secondly… as God, the Spirit is worthy of all our faith and trust.

Just as we cast the full weight of our soul on God the Father and God the Son, we cast the full weight of our soul on the Holy Spirit.

We trust Him, rely on Him, and follow Him wherever He goes.

We depend on Him not resting on our own strength and power.

We strive to honor Him and not to grieve Him by walking in holiness obeying His will, direction, and leading in the Word and conviction in our hearts.

And that takes us to point number 3.

The Holy Spirit is a Person.

The Holy Spirit is God.

And…

III. The Holy Spirit is Our Helper

John 14:15–17 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus here promises the grace of the indwelling Spirit which Lord will we will look at in more detail next week.

But what I want to focus on is when Jesus says I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever.

Helper and Spirit of Truth both define the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer.

The Greek word translated Helper is the Greek Word paraklētos which is why sometimes you’ll hear people call the Holy Spirit the Paraclete.

And its a word that is rich in meaning that doesn’t quite come together in one English Word.

It has been translated as Helper, Comforter, Counselor, Exhorter, Encourager, Intercessor, Encourager, and Advocate as in a defense attorney or one who comes to your aid ann defense.

All of these explain the Holy Spirit’s role as Paraclete.

Para kaleo leading to this explains whyu the KJV translated it as comforter.

This is who the Holy Spirit is in the life of the believer in the context of 1. Jesus leaving and the world hating the disciples and 2. if you love me you will keep my commandments. BIG IDEA the HOly Spirit comes with strength to empower and encourage our Faithfulness to Christ

Explain paraclete and define it as the ministry of Jesus as another paraclete. The Spirit is Christ’s presence with us on earth.

Practical

Walking in the Spirit = depending on Him.

IV. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth

Scripture

I felt the spirit lead me but He never leads contrary to the Word.

Conviction

Testifies to the Truth (Christ Himself)

Incarnation/Ministry (Beeke 119)

Applying to Believers all that Belongs to Christ

Conclusion

Let’s Pray