Holy Spirit: 3-in-1

1 John 5:1–8 ESV

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

Read 1 John 5:1-8

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Who is the Holy Spirit?

Council of Nicaea (325 AD) The Nicene Creed

Homoousious - Same Substance

Council of Constantinople (381 AD) Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed

Hypostasis - Persons

The Doctrine of the Trinity

1. Distinctive to Christianity

2. Differentiates Christianity

3. Difficult

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Monotheism - Polytheism

Isaiah 55:7–8 ESV

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

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Is the Holy Spirit God?

There is God

Jesus is God

Is the Holy Spirit God?

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Peter Believes it

Read Acts 5:1-4

Acts 5:1–4 ESV

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 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? You have not lied to man but to God.”

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Paul Believes it

Read 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

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The Bible Says It

The Holy Spirit is Eternal

Read Hebrews 9:13-14 and Genesis 1:1-2

Hebrews 9:13–14 ESV

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Genesis 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.

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The Holy Spirit is Omniscient - “All Knowing”

Read 1 Corinthians 2:9-11

1 Corinthians 2:9–11 ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

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The Holy Spirit is Omnipresent - “All Present”

Read Acts 20:18-23

Acts 20:18–23 ESV

And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

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The Holy Spirit is Omnipotent - “All Powerful”

Read Matthew 1:18

Matthew 1:18 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

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Can God Be Three in One?

Read Exodus 3:13-14

Exodus 3:13–14 ESV

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

God Reveals that He is More than just “one” thing

Read Deuteronomy 6:4

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

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Elohim - אלוהים

This is a plural noun always used with a singular verb

There is plurality in Unity

Triadic Passages

The Creation:

Read Genesis 1:1-2

Genesis 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.

Read John 1:1-3

John 1:1–3 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

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The Baptism of Jesus:

Read Matthew 3:13-17

Matthew 3:13–17 ESV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

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The Great Commission:

Read Matthew 28:19

Matthew 28:19 ESV

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,

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How Can Three People Be One?

Augustine (354-430 AD)

Person is a Metaphor that fails to fully describe God

Instead see God based on His Functions and Relationship with the World

God as Creator = God the Father

God as Redeemer = God the Son

God as Sustainer = God the Holy Spirit

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