Sermon Tone Analysis

Holy Spirit and Scripture

Synopsis

The Holy Spirit inspired the original writing of all the Scriptures, and illumines their meaning to believers.

The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture

The Spirit inspired the writers of the OT

(NIV) — 1 These are the last words of David: “The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse, the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, the hero of Israel’s songs: 2 “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.

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(NIV) — 30 For many years you were patient with them.

By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets.

Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.

(NIV) — 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

(NIV) — 24 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me, 25 and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.

(NIV) — 8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

(NIV) — 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.

So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

The NT recognises OT writings as inspired by the Holy Spirit

“God-breathed” means “breathed out by God” rather than “inspired”;

(NIV) — 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

(NIV) — 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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(NIV) — 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’?

For he says,

(NIV) — 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

(NIV) — 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

(NIV) — 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: 26 “ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

(NIV) — 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.

10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’

11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

”

(NIV) — 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.

First he says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.

I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

(NIV) — 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

The Spirit inspired the writers of the NT

This revelation by the Spirit probably includes the apostles’ understanding of the gospel and their preaching as well as the writings of the NT.

(NIV) — 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.

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(NIV) — 40 In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

(NIV) — 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

(NIV) — 11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

(NIV) — 17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

(NIV) — 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

(NIV) — 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

(NIV) — 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

(NIV) — 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The Holy Spirit illumines the meaning of Scripture

“what God has freely given” refers to “God’s secret wisdom” (verse 7), the “deep things of God” (verse 10) and the “thoughts of God” (verse 11).

(NIV) — 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

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(NIV) — 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

(NIV) — 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

15 All that belongs to the Father is mine.

That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

(NIV) — 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.

It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

(NIV) — 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning.

(NIV) — 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

(NIV) — 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.

But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

The relationship between the word and the Holy Spirit

The association of God’s Spirit and breath with his word(s)

; ; ; ; “word” here probably means “the gospel” rather than Scripture as a whole.

(NIV) — 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

(NIV) — 21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord.

“My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.

(NIV) — 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

(NIV) — 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.

The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.

(NIV) — 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The Spirit is essential for obeying God’s law

Reliance on the letter of the law alone is useless.

(NIV) — 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.

Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

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(NIV) — 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

(NIV) — 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

(NIV) — 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?

(NIV) — 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

(NIV) — 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The Spirit enables believers to fulfil the law

(NIV) — 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

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(NIV) — 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.