Who is the Holy Spirit?
Notes
Transcript
Good morning! Thank you for being with us today. Today I’m starting a new sermon series I’m calling God - Part III: The Holy Spirit. Over the next several weeks we are going to be talking about the Holy Spirit, and the ways that we relate to Him in our lives. Now, Baptists aren’t exactly the most comfortable when it comes to issues regarding the Holy Spirit. In a lot of evangelical churches, we know about the Holy Spirit and believe in His importance, but we don’t really emphasize Him as a part of our week-to-week and day-to-day experience. I think sometimes this comes as a reaction to what we’ve seen in charismatic churches where people speak in tongues, or dance in the middle of a church service, or do other things that are different than what we’re used to doing in our services. In our effort to not emphasize the Holy Spirit TOO much, we’ve gone too far to the opposite extreme, and almost forget about Him. So we’re going to spend a few weeks finding a more healthy balance in our view of the Holy Spirit, and of how we relate to Him. In the end, having a proper view of and relationship with of the Holy Spirit will help us a GREAT deal as we seek to become the people God created us to be, as we become more and more like Jesus.
In His last lecture to His disciples before His death, Jesus taught them about the Holy Spirit. He told them...
26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.
Over the course of this series, we are going to look at various aspects of the Holy Spirit and His activity in the world and in the life of believers, but before we get to that, we need to start with a basic question of identity. Today we are going to try to begin to answer an important question:
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
I say we’re going to BEGIN to answer this question because we will never reach a complete and full understanding of who God is. But we can understand enough for our need to be able to relate to Him rightly and for our faith to be strongly grounded in Truth.
First of all, we need to understand that...
1. The Holy Spirit is a Person.
1. The Holy Spirit is a Person.
I don’t mean that He’s a person with flesh and blood like Jesus was, or that He is human. What I mean by that is that He is an individual that we can and should have a relationship with that goes beyond what we have with an inanimate object or a mysterious force. Many times Christians approach how they relate to or understand the Holy Spirit like they would a source of power or some kind of mysterious force or energy. For some people it’s almost like “The Force” in the Star Wars universe. It’s a mystic resource that you can somehow tap into to gain power, access hidden knowledge, or develop new skills with. But the Holy Spirit isn’t an inanimate force or power, He is a person. In Matthew 28, when Jesus is telling His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, he tells them to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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,
All three of those people are each a part of the Trinity that we know make up who God is. A couple of months ago we looked at how when the Bible tells people to do something “in the name of” someone, it doesn’t just mean to say the words, “I do this in the name of ____,” it means we do it in a way that lines up with who that person is, what they represent, what they would do, and with their authority. The way you know who a person is, what they represent, what they would do, and what kind of authority they have is by having a relationship with that person.
So, we are called to relationship with the Holy Spirit, not just to use Him as some mysterious power source. He is someone we are supposed to be in fellowship with. When we talk about being in fellowship with each other here at church I think about a potluck dinner and sitting around a table with others getting to know them, enjoying each other’s company, laughing and growing in our love for one another. It’s about RELATIONSHIP.
Battery – it’s a source of power, but not something I can have a relationship with.
The Holy Spirit also is NOT a feeling we get that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Feelings are a source of motivation that give us power to change and do things that are hard, but they are not in themselves something that we can have a relationship with. (Love, fear, excitement, etc.)
Since the Spirit is a person, as believers we are to approach the Holy Spirit in a way that deepens our relationship with Him.
Since the Spirit is a person, as believers we are to approach the Holy Spirit in a way that deepens our relationship with Him.
So, we know that the Holy Spirit is a person, but He is not just another person or spiritual being. He is not like an angel or another one of the heavenly creatures, He is, as I mentioned before, a part of the Trinity, which means that...
2. The Holy Spirit is God.
2. The Holy Spirit is God.
In the book of Acts, there is a clear example that shows that this is true. Early on, Christians were living in a sort of community that shared resources and helped each other out. Many of the people who were in Jerusalem during the Passover and Pentecost celebrations were from out of town. When they heard Peter and the other disciples share about Jesus, many became followers of Jesus, and stayed in Jerusalem to be a part of that community of believers that was just getting started. This meant that there were people there who did not have their normal access to work and places to stay because they were not from Jerusalem. So, part of what the disciples and early believers did is that they shared resources with one another.
32 Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.
From time to time, someone would sell a piece of property they owned and would bring the money to the disciples to help pay for the needs of the community. Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, also sold a piece of property, but instead of turning over the full amount, they kept part for themselves, but pretended it was the full amount.
3 “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land?
4 Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.”
As he was talking to Ananias, Peter interchanged the words “Holy Spirit” and “God” from one sentence to the next. It was clear that the Apostles understood that the Holy Spirit was God.
Other verses throughout the Bible make it clear that the Holy Spirit is God as well, part of the Trinity made up of Father, Son and Spirit. God is always united and not divided. There is no disagreement or contradiction within the Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit will always say the same thing and lead in the same way. This is important for our understanding of how we relate to God in our daily lives, and how we relate to what God has taught us in Scripture.
The Spirit is like Jesus in you; He would not command or direct you in any way that would be different than Jesus would. The Spirit would never lead us to do something that contradicts what Scripture teaches. In the long passage where Jesus is explaining the Holy Spirit to His disciples in the Gospel of John after they celebrated their final Passover meal together, before Jesus is arrested, Jesus explains to His followers the importance of remaining connected to Him.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
The question then becomes, “How do we remain in Jesus?” Jesus went up to heaven after he rose from the dead, so how do His followers stay connected to Him? He sent the Holy Spirit to teach us and show us His way.
Since the Holy Spirit is God, we know that He will always speak and lead in ways that agree with what He has said and how He has led in Scripture.
Since the Holy Spirit is God, we know that He will always speak and lead in ways that agree with what He has said and how He has led in Scripture.
So, if the Holy Spirit it God, then it makes sense that...
3. The Holy Spirit is eternal and holy.
3. The Holy Spirit is eternal and holy.
The book of Hebrews describes the salvation we receive through Jesus, and in its description it points out the eternal nature of the Spirit.
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?
In the passage in John where Jesus is telling His disciples about the Spirit, who He also call the Counselor, he says...
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.
That means that the Holy Spirit will be with believers forever, even in heaven throughout eternity. I used to kind of think that once we got to heaven and were living there with God the Father and with Jesus, that somehow the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be necessary, but that’s not what this verse says. It says that the Spirit will NEVER leave us. What exactly that looks like when we are spending eternity with Christ, I’m not sure, but I think it’s going to be amazing and we’re going to experience the Holy Spirit very differently then than we do now.
But what does the fact that the Holy Spirit is holy and eternal mean for me in my daily life? Because the Spirit is holy, and He lives in believers, then our bodies are holy sanctuaries.
Story of my college bedroom – dirty, cluttered, couldn’t even walk in the room without stepping on something. Several years ago, I cleaned my golf bag after not using it for an extended period of time and found some old food I had stuffed in a pocket years before. My college bedroom and my golf bag have sometimes been full of junk and rot and nastiness, and no one wants a part of that. And yet sometimes as Christians, we have rooms in our lives and in our hearts that are full of junk, trash, filth and other things that are offensive to God, and we don’t even feel bad about asking God to live in such a place. The Holy and perfect God deserves a better place to make His home in. None of us is perfect, but that doesn’t mean that we ignore and fail to address areas in our lives that we know offend God.
If the Spirit of God is Holy and eternal, then we should strive to make ourselves a worthy temple for Him, and allow God to transform our lives to be more and more like Jesus’s.
If the Spirit of God is Holy and eternal, then we should strive to make ourselves a worthy temple for Him, and allow God to transform our lives to be more and more like Jesus’s.
How do we present ourselves to God to be His place of dwelling? Is it worthy of God? It’s amazing that God chooses to make His home in us.
Another aspect of who the Holy Spirit is is that...
4. The Holy Spirit has His own mind, and He prays for us.
4. The Holy Spirit has His own mind, and He prays for us.
Paul writes in his letter to the Romans...
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
This is an extremely comforting thought. The Holy Spirit is on our side; He is interceding for us. One of the names of the Holy Spirit is Counselor, or Advocate. He is actively looking out for what is best for us and pleading our case before the Father. Not that the Father is against us and the Spirit is for us, because God is One, and so all of God is on our side advocating and defending us as our enemy the devil accuses and attacks us. But whenever our adversary, the devil tries to accuse us or oppose us, we can rest assured by the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is actively fighting on our side.
Believers should be encouraged that we have an advocate and comforter who actively takes our side and intercedes for us.
Believers should be encouraged that we have an advocate and comforter who actively takes our side and intercedes for us.
5. The Holy Spirit has emotions.
5. The Holy Spirit has emotions.
The Spirit isn’t some aloof, emotionless personality far away from us, He is a loving and sensitive person who cares deeply about us. He can even be hurt by us. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is listing a series of behaviors we should avoid, and others we should engage in, and in the middle of his list he writes...
30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.
In our culture, we value people who are able to control their emotions; who don’t show them or who suppress them. But God created emotions, and they are a part of His purpose for us. God has emotions too. The Bible says that the Spirit is sometimes grieved by the things we do. When there is broken relationship with Himself, or with others, when there is disunity, or a lack of love, or gossip, or jealousy, etc., all these things grieve the Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit is God, His grief is deeper than what we can imagine.
So our behavior and our actions can bring grief to the Spirit. Conversely, they can also bring joy to Him when we do what is good and what pleases Him. I know that we have all learned that God loves us. Many of us grew up learning the children’s song, “Jesus loves the little children…” But as we grow up, we sometimes need to be reminded of God’s love.
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
The fact that we have been given the Holy Spirit is a demonstration of God’s love for us. Why is remembering that the Holy Spirit loves us important?
Only love can grieve. Love must be present before there can be grief. If you don’t love, you cannot grieve. The Holy Spirit loves us more deeply than we can understand. That’s why when we insult Him, He is grieved; when we ignore Him, He is grieved; when we resist Him, He is grieved; when we doubt Him, He is grieved.
In the same way, when we obey Him and believe Him, He is pleased and rejoices, because He loves us so much.
Since the Holy Spirit has emotions, we should desire to bring Him joy, not grief by the way we relate to Him and obey Him.
Since the Holy Spirit has emotions, we should desire to bring Him joy, not grief by the way we relate to Him and obey Him.
God isn’t just holy, He doesn’t just have emotions, He doesn’t go around throughout time just randomly and haphazardly, God has desires and He has a plan to accomplish those desires...
6. The Holy Spirit has desires and a will.
6. The Holy Spirit has desires and a will.
In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul is listing the different spiritual gifts that God gives different people, and he tells us that it is the Holy Spirit who determines the gifts each person gets.
11 One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.
The gifts of the Spirit are empowered by the Spirit, who gives to each person as He wills. God is in control. The Spirit has a plan, and we don’t get to choose what God intends for us or for the church. We need to pray like Jesus did, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” God’s plan is a good plan. It may be hard to give up our own plans in order to follow His, but it is never the wrong choice to follow God instead of ourselves.
What are some desires of God? The Bible tells us that God desires that no one would be lost. He wants everyone to be saved. Yet He gave us free will, and He doesn’t force us to believe in Him and follow Him. He wants us to choose to love Him and follow Him. So if he desires for none to be lost, what is His will for His followers? His will is that we go and tell others who don’t know God and don’t know that salvation is found only in Jesus about the amazing and great news of Christ’s forgiveness for those who repent and put their faith in Him. These are some of the desires that God has for all people.
The Spirit has other desires and plans for us individually. He might desire for one person to reach out to a waitress and tell her that God loves her. He might desire for another person to take a specific job and be a light in that workplace. He might desire for one person to stay close to home and make disciples of people in their community, and for another person to move to the other side of the world and tell another community about God’s salvation. God has specific actions He wants you to take. He has specific people He wants you to talk to and tasks He wants you to accomplish.
We need to listen to the Holy Spirit so that we can know His desires and His will for our lives.
We need to listen to the Holy Spirit so that we can know His desires and His will for our lives.
Another important aspect of who the Holy Spirit is that...
7. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful, He is everywhere, and he knows everything.
7. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful, He is everywhere, and he knows everything.
In the book of Zechariah, God commanded Zechariah to rebuild the Temple after the nation had been in exile for seventy years. So Zechariah went back and began to lead God’s people to rebuild God’s Temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah at the time. This was a monumental task, but God tells Zechariah...
6 So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies.
In other words, the power of God’s Spirit was the power through which His people would accomplish what they were asked to do. So, we don’t have to have the power in ourselves to accomplish what God asks us to do. In addition to God having all the power, the Bible tells us that He is everywhere we might ever need Him.
7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
No matter where we might be, how far we might feel from God, or what situation we might find ourselves in, God is there. He is available to His people.
And finally, He has all the information there is so that He knows exactly what kind of help we need. There is nothing that will take Him by surprise. There is no situation or circumstance that He is unprepared for.
10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
These three things, His endless power, His presence everywhere, and His knowing everything means that
As followers of Jesus, there is absolutely nothing that we need to fear or lose hope about.
As followers of Jesus, there is absolutely nothing that we need to fear or lose hope about.
There is never a situation we are helpless in. This is hard to grasp sometimes, but it will hopefully lead us to an attitude of praise and humility.
8. The Holy Spirit wants to be your Best Friend.
8. The Holy Spirit wants to be your Best Friend.
He knows your thoughts, He prays for you, He gives you gifts, He helps you grow and become a better person through the “fruit” He produces in you, He is your Counselor, He is your Advocate,
In the same conversation in the gospel of John that we started in, Jesus tells His disciples that they are not slaves but friends.
15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.
Earlier, we saw that Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit is the one who reminds us of what Jesus taught us. He is the one who tells us and helps us understand the things the Father wants from us. He is the one that Jesus sent to be with us day-by-day as we follow Jesus. He wants to be our best friend, if we will only let Him.
But even more than friends, we are God’s adopted sons and daughters. We are His children.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
Over the next few weeks we will learn more about The Holy Spirit and His activity in the world and in the lives of His people. I hope that you will experience more and more the reality that He is more than just an abstract power or mysterious thing we rarely think about.
The Holy Spirit wants to be actively involved in your life, and wants to be the best friend and resource you could ever ask for, so that you can become more like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit wants to be actively involved in your life, and wants to be the best friend and resource you could ever ask for, so that you can become more like Jesus.
Throughout this coming week, read through the verses of this week’s message and ask the Spirit to help you know Him better.
Let’s Pray...
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.