Holy Spirit - Invisible God in Action

Introduction

Mentioned this morning the fact that the HS is a person, and used several scriptures in (, , ) to show that to be the case.

And one of the reasons that is important is because if the HS is indeed an individual with the ability to think, and exists apart from God the father and God the Son, then He is on equal footing with God the Father and God the Son.

Whereas if He is a thing that merely belongs to God, then that makes what Christianity has long believed to be the truth of the Godhead pretty impossible. There’s no way that the Godhead could consist of God the father, God the Son, and Father’s possession of a thing called a “Holy Spirit”

So showing this morning that the Holy Spirit is a person. A Few more characteristics if you would like to write these down and study them later, But the scriptures show that the HS has:

a mind ()

That he Speaks ()

That he teaches ()

That he testifies ()

That he bears witness ()

That he can be grieved ()

and that he can be tested ()

And so since the HS is indeed spoken of by Jesus Himself as a person, What must we do with that information?

He’s clearly not a human, that is seemingly obvious, and so we are left with Him being an angel, or part of the Godhead.

Holy Spirit as God

Perhaps you are familiar with the Christian phrase “the trinity”

While it is certainly true that the word “trinity” is never mentioned in scripture, it does convey scriptural truth regarding the three distinct persons of what we often prefer to refer to as the “Godhead”

We prefer this term because of our desire to call Bible things by bible names, but in reality there is no agreed upon one word that captures the idea of the trinity, or the Godhead.

Turn with me to

Acts 17:29 ESV

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Now if you are reading from ASV, the KJV, or the YLT, you’ll see Godhead here, but for me in the ESV, I have Divine Being.

Though the words might be different, the idea is the same. The characteristics of the three persons of the Godhead, or the divine being, are in view here. And they are not like what?

STUFF! they are not “it” but instead are living and have personal characteristics.

So with that in mind, someone might say “OK, but to have a plurality of the Godhead, you only need two.”

This is true enough, but I let’s look at some scriptures that I think beyond a doubt show that the Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the HS.

Matthew 28:19 ESV

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,

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Now in both Matthew and 2 Corinthians, wouldn’t it be odd to include something less than God alongside God the Father and God the Son? I think it would absolutely be absurd.

Jesus is is telling his disciples to baptize them by the authority of the father, the Son and the spirit.

Let’s say you go in tomorrow and your boss gives you a Job to do, let’s say he says to clean the floor in his office.

Well what if you are afraid

And if anyone tries to stop you tell them you are authorized to do it by me, the CEO, and this lamp!

No, the HS obviously has authority, because he is a member of the Godhead.

And lastly, perhaps the strongest evidence is found in...

- Ananias and Saphira

Acts 5:3–4 ESV

3 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? 4 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.”

So since the HS is God, it’s a great question to ask, what did he do during the OT?

The HS in the OT

Well as we discussed this morning, the HS was there during creation and it appears that He was active in the creation of the world and everything in it.

Genesis 1:2 ESV

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.

Genesis 1:26 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

John 1:1–3 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:15–17 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

And so we might say that God the Father was the architect, and Jesus (the word) was the means through which the architect built our world.

But what did the HS do? He was there

Well it seems that the Spirit made order out of the Chaos, and it is my believe that it is the Spirit of God that gives and sustains life.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

It seems no coincidence to me that what it took to animate mankind, and I believe all living creatures on the earth, was God breathing the breath of life into man.

This is another reason why it is important to know the HS as a HE and not an IT.

I believe that from Creation no life has ever come to existence on this Earth that has not come from another LIVING creature.

For all our science, for all our learning, for all our advancements, we cannot form life in a lab. We cannot figure out how to put the basic building blocks for life together and to impart it with the Ruach, the Pneuma that it needs to become more than that.

I think the HS role in creation was to initiate and sustain life, to order the chaos, and to make things live.

Psalm 104:29 ESV

29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

27 - These all,

Leviathan

All the creatures of teh sea

the lion, the birds, the men, every beast of the field

in short, every living creature relies on ruach from God.

And so the HS animated the world, brought life out of the chaos, formed life where there was none, and that is something that we cannot do, and I don’t think we ever will do.

But in the OT he also gave his people certain abilities.

The first person that we read about the Spirit working through is Joseph, is is given the ability to interpret dreams as recorded in 1:38

Next we see that Bezalel the son of Uri was filled with the Sprit of God and given the ability to create artistic designs and endowed with amazing craftsmanship to work with God, silver and bronze to make things for in the Tabernacle of God.

And the Spirit of God would continue to temporarily come upon individuals during the history of the Jews, Priests, and Judges and kings.

And most notably, the spirit of God would come to the prophets and He would allow them to see the world and the situation of God’s people as God saw it, and the Spirit gave them insight into what was to come in the future.

- Dry bones becoming whole

Joel 2:28–32 ESV

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

The spirit that gives life will be poured out on a spiritually dead people, and they will be born anew. Brought back from spiritual death, and begin to live according to a new covenant as it states in .

That was the hope of first century Jews living during the time of Jesus. And with that in mind, next week we will begin looking at the Holy Spirits Role in the first century church, both during the time of Jesus, and during the growth of the church.