The Presence of the Holy Spirit

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Any time we are going to talk about the Holy Spirit, I think that we are prone to go to one of two extremes. At the more “charismatic” end of the spectrum, there are those who have attributed to Him emotional and spectacular experiences that, at least from my perspective, seem to bring more attention to men than to God. This would include faith healers like Benny Hinn, who has been exposed as a fraud by his nephew. And it would also include movements like the Toronto Blessing in the mid-late 1990’s where people who claimed to be full of the Holy Spirit laughed, danced, became paralyzed, and even barked like dogs. To a large degree many of these people treat the Holy Spirit more like a power to be harnessed for their benefit rather than a God to be worshiped.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who have been guilty of undervaluing the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In 2009, Pastor Francis Chan wrote a book titled Forgotten God. I read that book about a year ago and I’ve been re-reading it again recently as I prepared for this new sermon series. Chan begins the book with these words:

You might think that calling the Holy Spirit the “forgotten God” is a bit extreme. Maybe you agree the church has focused too much attention elsewhere but feel it is an exaggeration to say we have forgotten about the Spirit. I don’t think so.

Tension

Most of us are probably much more likely to fall into this second camp. Chan continues with these insightful words:

From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten. While no evangelical would deny His existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can.

I find that for those of us who would fall closer to this camp, we tend to have a lot of information and theology about the Holy Spirit, but not a lot of experience with Him operating in our lives in a noticeable way. Let me quote Chan one more time:

If it’s true that the Spirit of God dwells in us and that our bodies are the Holy Spirit’s Temple, then shouldn’t there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not?

That’s a question that is worth pondering for a moment. Does your life show evidence that the Holy Spirit is living in you?

Truth

For the next four weeks, we are going to see some of what the Bible reveals about the Holy Spirit. Obviously in four weeks, we will only scratch the surface when it comes to learning about the Holy Spirit. But my goal is not just for us to come away with more head knowledge or theology, but that as a result of what we learn that we would do a better job of allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our lives in a way that they would reflect His presence in our life.

Today, we will be talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, but before we do that, I want to address...

2 IMPORTANT TRUTHS ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

These 2 truths about the Holy Spirit are foundational to everything we’ll learn in the next four weeks. So we need to take the time to make sure we have a firm handle on them before we proceed.

He is 100% God

He is not a lesser or a different kind of being than God the Father or Jesus. We see this clearly in Acts 5 where Peter explicitly refers to the Holy Spirit as God:

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.

He is a person, not an impersonal force

I often hear people refer to the Holy Spirit as an “it” rather than as “he”. And to be honest, I know that I’ve probably slipped and done that, too. But I’m going to do my very best in this series not to make that mistake. As we’ll see more clearly today, the Holy Spirit is someone that we can have a relationship with. He is not merely some impersonal force to be harnessed for our own benefit like Simon the magician thought:

Acts 8:18–19 ESV

18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter immediately rebuked Simon for trying to use the Holy Spirit like that. And fortunately for Simon, he repented.

This is probably a good time to address the use of the term “Holy Ghost”. That is a phrase that is used primarily in the KJV of the Bible, where it is found 90 times in the New Testament, but not at all in the Old Testament.

In the 17th century, when the King James translation was done, the word “ghost” had a different meaning in English that it does today. Then, it referred to the essence of a living person. So it actually had a meaning that is closer to the way we would use the word “spirit” today. But gradually over several centuries, it came to describe the essence of a dead person or some kind of paranormal or demonic apparition. So pretty much every modern translation has chosen to use the phrase “Holy Spirit” rather than “Holy Ghost” to refer to the third person of the Trinity. But in deference to those of you who prefer the KJV, I’ve titled our current series “Ghost - The Holy Spirit”.

With that important background, we’re now ready to tackle today’s topic - the presence of the Holy Spirit. We’re going to be looking at a number of passages, so you’ll want to keep your Bibles handy. This is where having a digital version of the Bible might be really helpful.

The first appearance of the Holy Spirit in the Bible comes right in the first two verses:

Genesis 1:1–2 (ESV)

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

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.

So we see right away that God the Holy Spirit was both present at the time God created the world and that He was an active participant in that process. This reaffirms the idea that the Holy Spirit is 100% God.

From that point forward, throughout the rest of the Old Testament, we see the Holy Spirit coming upon various people in order to equip them for specific tasks. In most cases the Spirit was said to “come upon” a person for a period and then He would leave whenever the person rebelled against God, like in the case of King Saul, or when the task was completed. We saw this in our study of Samson where his supernatural strength was a result of God’s Spirit coming on him. And when He failed to recognize God as the source of his strength the Holy Spirit left him and sadly he didn’t even realize that. But we don’t ever see the Holy Spirit dwelling permanently in God’s people in the Old Testament.

That all changes in the New Testament. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that though He was going to go away, He wouldn’t leave them as orphans:

John 14:15–18 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Jesus tells His disciples to obey His commandments. But He knows that left to their own devices, they can’t possibly do that. So He promises to send the Holy Spirit. At the end of the message, I’m going to summarize some of the important aspects of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but let me point out a few important details here:

First, the Holy Spirit is called a “another Helper”. The word “another” that John uses here means “another of the same kind” rather than something completely different. This indicates that the Holy Spirit would have a function in their lives that was similar to the one that Jesus had with them while He was on the earth.

The word translated “Helper” is a compound word that literally means “to come alongside”. In classical Greek it was used to describe an attorney who was called alongside an accused person to help defend him. We’ll talk about this more next week when we study the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but for now what I want us to understand is that the role of the Holy Spirit is to come alongside us to help us obey the commandments of Jesus. But He will never force us to do that. We must choose to cooperate with the work He is doing in our lives.

The second important thing to note is that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would be with His disciples “forever”. Unlike in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would be with them permanently and not just for a short period of time.

Third, the Holy Spirit would “dwell” with them and “be in” them. The word translated “dwell” could also be translated “remain” or “abide”. This reinforces the idea that the Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

The apostle Paul confirms some of these same ideas in his first letter to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

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

Once again we see here that the Holy Spirit is “in us” and that He “dwells” with us. Paul uses a different Greek word for “dwell” here. This verb literally means “to occupy a house” and it conveys the idea of taking up permanent residence.

Paul confirms this idea later in the same letter:

1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV)

19 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,

Here Paul writes that the Holy Spirit is “within us”, which is just another way of saying that He dwells in us.

Let’s look at one more passage from Paul’s writings. If you are part of our quarterly Bible reading plan, this should be familiar to you as it was part of our reading on Monday:

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Here, we get some more insight into exactly when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell permanently in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

While this passage is very straightforward and clear, there are some who teach a doctrine known as “the second blessing” or the “second work of grace”. According to those who hold to that doctrine, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” are two separate events. They believe that while all Christians have the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, some more mature Christians experience the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, which is evidenced by speaking in tongues.

That is different than the filling of the Holy Spirit, which we’ll be talking about in the last message in this series. So if you want the whole story, you need to join us again then. But what I will say for now is that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one time event only experienced by “super Christians”, but rather something that every disciple of Jesus can experience on an ongoing basis.

Now that we’ve addressed that idea, let’s get back to this passage. As I said, this is really very straightforward. At the very moment that we hear the gospel and put or faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit - not just part of Him, but all of Him. The verb “were sealed” is an aorist verb. In laymen’s terms that means it occurred at a single point in the past. It’s not an ongoing process or something that we are still waiting for. It is not something that we have to do over and over. We don’t ever get more of the Holy Spirit at a later time, although as we’ll see in a few weeks, we can either cooperate with or hinder His work in our lives.

And that one time event happens at the very moment that one “believes” in Jesus. As we have talked about frequently, biblical belief is more than just intellectual assent to some facts. It is trusting in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross to a degree that it changes the way that we live our lives.

Let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far and then we’ll talk about the implications this has for our lives.

SUMMARY

Every disciple of Jesus receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of placing one’s faith in Jesus

At the very moment that someone becomes a disciple of Jesus by placing his or her faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit - all of Him - immediately comes to dwell in that person. At that moment we have all of the Holy Spirit we will ever have and all of Him that we will ever need.

We do not need to do anything else before the Holy Spirit comes to make His home in our bodies. And there is nothing we can ever do to get more of the Holy Spirit because we get all of Him the very moment we believe in Jesus.

From that moment, the Holy Spirit dwells permanently in that person’s life

Unlike in the Old Testament, we don’t just get the Holy Spirit coming into our lives to operate on a temporary basis. Once He makes His home in our bodies, that becomes His permanent home for as long as we are alive on this earth.

And just like there is nothing we can do to earn the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, there is also nothing that we can do that would cause Him to leave. As we’ll talk about more in the coming weeks, we can certainly choose to ignore His guidance. We can grieve Him or quench Him. But He will never leave us.

The Holy Spirit is a Helper, not a dictator

The Holy Spirit will come alongside you to help you obey the commandments of Jesus as well as some other things that we’ll talk about more next week. But He will never force you to follow His guidance.

His guidance, as we will learn, is quiet and gentle and you will have to actively seek it out in conjunction with what you find in the Bible. The Holy Spirit will not hit you over the head with it like a 2 x 4.

Application

That’s a lot of good information, but so what? How does this have any impact at all on my daily life? Before I answer that question, let me ask you a question:

How many of you would like to be able to experience the physical presence of Jesus here on this earth right now?

I think all of us would like that, right? But what if I were to tell you that you already have something even better than that? That’s our main idea today:

In my life on earth, the presence of the Holy Spirit is better than the physical presence of Jesus

I know that some of you probably think I’m crazy right now, but if you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe the words of Jesus:

John 16:7 ESV

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I 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.

Jesus told His disciples that it was better for Him to go away and send the Holy Spirit to be with them than for Him to remain with them physically on earth. I’m sure the disciples were even less likely to believe and understand that than we are. But if you consider everything we’ve learned today, it actually does make sense.

While Jesus was here on earth, He chose to be limited by a physical body. That meant He could only be in one place at one time. So even during the three to three and a half years of His ministry here on earth, He couldn’t always be even with a small group like the 12 apostles, alone with all of His disciples.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t have those limitations. As a spirit, He is not limited by time and space, so He can dwell inside of every disciple of Jesus every moment of every day and He is available to each one of us all the time.

Action

Interestingly, I had someone contact me this week to ask if it was OK to pray to the Holy Spirit. I’m going to tell you right up front that I know that not everyone is going to agree with my answer, but here is what I told this person:

Most of the prayers in the New Testament are prayed to the Father in the name of Jesus the Son. There are also some prayers that are made directly to Jesus, but, as far as I know, there aren’t any Biblical examples of prayers to the Holy Spirit. However, as we have learned today, the Holy Spirit is a person which means that it is possible to have a relationship with Him. And it seems to me that part of any good relationship is the ability to communicate and talk with each other. So since the Bible doesn’t prohibit us from praying to the Holy Spirit, and He is, after all, God, I see no reason we can’t pray to Him. I think that it is particularly appropriate to pray to Him regarding the work He does in our life, which we’ll discuss more next week.

So as we close our time this morning, I am going to ask you to pray to the Holy Spirit. For those of you who are disciples of Jesus as a result of putting your faith in Him, I want you to take some time to thank the Holy Spirit for dwelling permanently in your life. Thank Him for being your Helper. And then ask Him to help you better understand His role in your life and how to hear His voice as He guides you.

If you’ve not yet put your faith in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has another important role in your life. He has been tasked with impressing upon you your sinfulness and your need to make Jesus your Savior. So as we pray, perhaps you just need to ask Him to speak to you about that. He probably won’t answer in an audible voice, but He is certainly capable of speaking to your spirit and helping you understand your need to make that commitment.

Let’s pray.

Inspiration

This morning we have learned that...

In my life on earth, the presence of the Holy Spirit is better than the physical presence of Jesus

Knowing that is certainly important, but I promise you that learning to live your live day-by-day based on that truth will radically transform every area of your life. I pray that you will take advantage of that tremendous blessing.