Bear in mind, Pink wrote those words in 1933! There are two extremes Christians can go to when it comes to the Holy Spirit:

Transcription

1 INTRODUCTION: [A.W. Pink quote, pp. 5-6] Bear in mind, Pink wrote those words in 1933! There are two extremes Christians can go to when it comes to the Holy Spirit: We don t talk about the Holy Spirit that s all weird and spooky and we re thinking people We re obsessed with the Holy Spirit Christianity is this trippy experience where miracles are the norm and anything that looks normal is the flesh I have grown increasingly annoyed at either option we don t ignore any part of the Christian faith because it is weird or unusual-sounding; neither is it appropriate to attribute all manner of craziness to the Holy Spirit. As with most things in life, the Bible gives us much to think about when it comes to the person of the Holy Spirit and His critical work in your life. Jesus said, it is to your benefit [advantage ESV, NASB, NET; for your good NIV] that I go away, because if I don't 1

2 go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. John 16:7 Maybe the radical nature of that skips us by when we read it (if we ve read it at all) Jesus was God in the flesh: the disciples had lived with Him, travelled with Him, seen Him defy the laws of nature on a level they had never seen and would never see again. He was their everything! And Jesus has the temerity, the unmitigated gall to tell these mourning men, Guys, it s good for you that I go because there is Someone who can do what I cannot do with you right now Here s a boiled-down summary of what I believe the Bible teaches about the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, sent by the Father and the Son. He was an active participant in creation, bears witness to Christ, applies His work to the sinner and makes the Christian life possible. 2

3 I. WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? The nature of the Holy Spirit is one of those subjects that shouldn t be difficult but there is an astounding amount of confusion as to who He is or if He is a He at all! The Jehovah s Witnesses say the following about the Person of the Holy Spirit: The holy spirit is God s power in action, his active force. (Micah 3:8; Luke 1:35) God sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will. Psalm 104:30; 139:7. The Bible also refers to God s holy spirit as his hands or fingers. (Psalm 8:3; 19:1; Luke 11:20; compare Matthew 12:28.) Just as a craftsman uses his hands and fingers to do his work, God has used his spirit to produce such results as the following: The universe. Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 66:1, 2. The Bible. 2 Peter 1:20, 21. The miracles performed by his ancient servants and their zealous preaching. Luke 4:18; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. The fine qualities displayed by people who obey him. Galatians 5:22, 23. The holy spirit is not a person By referring to God s spirit as his hands, fingers, or breath, the Bible shows that the holy spirit is not a person. (Exodus 3

4 15:8, 10) A craftsman s hands cannot function independent of his mind and body; likewise, God s holy spirit operates only as he directs it. (Luke 11:13) The Bible also compares God s spirit to water and associates it with such things as faith and knowledge. These comparisons all point to the impersonal nature of the holy spirit. Isaiah 44:3; Acts 6:5; 2 Corinthians 6:6. The Bible gives the names of Jehovah God and of his Son, Jesus Christ; yet, nowhere does it name the holy spirit. (Isaiah 42:8; Luke 1:31) When the Christian martyr Stephen was given a miraculous heavenly vision, he saw only two persons, not three. The Bible says: He, being full of holy spirit, gazed into heaven and caught sight of God s glory and of Jesus standing at God s right hand. (Acts 7:55) The holy spirit was God s power in action, enabling Stephen to see the vision. I m sorry but that s complete babble. The Bible, when read properly, teaches us that the Spirit is a Person and that the Spirit is God, along with the Father and the Son: A. The Holy Spirit is a Person: The same article on tries to counter the problem of the Spirit constantly being referred to as He, Him, etc with the following: The Scriptures do at times personify the holy spirit, but this does not prove that the holy spirit is a person. The Bible also personifies wisdom, death, and sin. (Proverbs 1:20; Romans 4

5 5:17, 21) For example, wisdom is said to have works and children, and sin is depicted as seducing, killing, and working out covetousness. Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35; Romans 7:8, 11. Similarly, when the apostle John quoted Jesus, he personified the holy spirit as a helper (paraclete) that would give evidence, guide, speak, hear, declare, glorify, and receive. He used masculine personal pronouns such as he or him when referring to that helper. (John 16:7-15) However, he did so because the Greek word for helper (pa raʹkle tos) is a masculine noun and requires a masculine pronoun according to the rules of Greek grammar. When John referred to the holy spirit using the neuter noun pneuʹma, he used the genderless pronoun it. John 14:16, 17. How would you answer that? Three categories of Biblical information about the personality and personhood of the Spirit: 1. He has the attributes of COGNITION He possesses a mind and is capable of acting in a rational, thinking way: A. He possesses a mind (Romans 8:26) B. He counsels and imparts wisdom (Isa 11:2) C. He speaks (Acts 8:29, 13:2) D. He teaches (John 14:26) 2. He has the attributes of VOLITION He has a will and is capable of making decisions: 5

6 A. He directs (Acts 16:6-7) B. He contends with sinners (Gen 6:3) C. He distributes spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:11) 3. He has the attributes of AFFECTION He has the capability to feel and respond: A. He possesses joy (1 Thess 1:6) B. He can be insulted (Heb 10:29) C. He grieves over sin (Eph 4:30) Enough evidence to suggest that the Spirit is not just God s active force or a personification akin to wisdom being called a lady in Proverbs HE IS A PERSON! B. The Holy Spirit is God: We can group the evidence on this side under three headings: 1. He is called God: Acts 5:3-4 The story of Ananias; note the parallel between the Holy Spirit and God in the text. 2. He has all the perfections of God: a. Eternality Heb 9:14 b. Holiness Ps 51:11; Isa 63:10-11 c. Omnipotence Luke 1:35, Rom 1:4 d. Omnipresence Ps 139:7-10 e. Omniscience - Isa 40:13, 1 Cor 2:10-11 f. Truth - John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13 6

7 3. He is always associated with the Father and the Son who are God: a. Matthew 28:19-20 we are baptized in the name (=on the authority) of Father, Son and Holy Spirit b. John 14:16, 26, 15:26; 16:7 the Helper is referred to as another Helper; another allos another of the same kind c. 2 Corinthians 13:14 - Father, Son and Spirit together minister in communion to the believer There you have it The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, sent by the Father and the Son. II. WHAT DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT DO? There is so much that could be said about the work of the Holy Spirit so we ll have to fly through some of it so we can camp on other parts. A. The Holy Spirit in Creation You don t have to look far to see the Holy Spirit in action He was active in creation and continue to be active in it. Gen 1:1-2. Blink and you ll miss what insight we can learn about the Spirit s role in creation. The Father is the architect, the Son is the agent of creation but listen to Calvin on the Spirit s role: 7

8 We have already heard that before God had perfected the world it was an undigested mass; he now teaches that the power of the Spirit was necessary in order to sustain it. For this doubt might occur to the mind, how such a disorderly heap could stand; seeing that we now behold the world preserved by government, or order. He therefore asserts that this mass, however confused it might be, was rendered stable, for the time, by the secret efficacy of the Spirit. (John Calvin, Genesis, 73-74) There you have creation the Father speaks, the Son creates and then you have the Spirit beautifies and ordering this creation. B. The Holy Spirit in Salvation When we get to salvation, the Spirit is again more than a bit-player He plays a prominent role in the application of Christ s work to those the Father has chosen. 1. REGENERATION: We covered this last week that in union with Christ, we are made spiritually alive. Tit 3:5, John 6:63. Four words describe the Spirit s role in regeneration: BIRTH or to use the phrase we all know and love: born again. CLEANSING those who are made filthy as a result of the sin problem are made clean. CREATION renewal anakainosis; lit. new again. Root word kainos new in quality -> 8

9 RESURRECTION John 6:63. To the one spiritually dead, the Spirit is the One who gives life through the means of the Word. We do not birth ourselves into God s Kingdom the Spirit is the agent by which we are given spiritual life! 2. BAPTISM: We re going to park here a little bit because this gets very confused in modern evangelical circles. Some either make it more than the Bible says it is this post-conversion event a. The Expectation of Spirit Baptism: Matthew 3:11-12; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16-17 and John 1:32-34 All four Gospels allude to this baptism they don t explain it but they create the expectation of a baptism that will come in the future. We do learn a few things from these quick references: 1. Jesus is the baptizer 2. The Spirit is the means by which we are baptized Acts 1:4-5 Jesus reminds them of this future event. 9

10 b. The Experience of Spirit Baptism: Ten days after that reminder, Pentecost happens Acts 2:1-21. About six years later, the events of Pentecost are reproduced at Cornelius house under the preaching of Peter Acts 10:44-48, 11: This happened again in Acts 8:14-24 in Samaria and in Acts19:1-7 with twelve disciples of John. The question is: IS THIS BAPTISM ALWAYS ACCOMPANIED BY THESE UNUSUAL HAPPENINGS? I am not convinced they are for a few reasons: Note the people groups and how they parallel Acts 1:8 Note that tongues are not universal in every one of those events Note that the disciples of John the Baptist hadn t even heard there was a Holy Spirit they re still believers under the Old Covenant For these reasons, I believe a strong case can be made that what you see in Acts are events designed to signal the reality that the New Covenant age has begun and the Gospel is going out beyond Israel to the nations. If that s the case, we still need to explain what the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is. 10

11 c. The Explanation of Spirit Baptism: The one text that explains what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is 1 Cor 12:12-13 ACTIVITY: 1 COR 12:12-13 questions: What is the focus of this section? Unity in the body v.12 Who or what are we baptized by? The Spirit v.13 What are we baptized into? Into the body of Christ v. 13 What other benefit comes as a result of this baptism? Made to drink (partake of) one Spirit v.13 Let s dig a little deeper into that: This baptism is universal - we were all baptized by one Spirit This baptism leads to a new position - into one body Paul alludes to these realities in Romans 6:3 we re baptized into Christ. The baptizing work of the Holy Spirit may be defined as that work whereby the Spirit places the believer into union with Christ and into union with other believers in the body of Christ Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology, 717 When you become a Christian, Christ joins you to Himself and to His body by means of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit baptism is a positional act, taking place in the life of every Christian concurrently with regeneration The church, 11

12 the spiritual body of Christ, is formed as believers are immersed by Christ in the Spirit and united with all other Christians John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, Biblical Doctrine, 358 Baptism with the Holy Spirit is another perspective on that truth we considered last week UNION WITH CHRIST. 3. SEALING: 2 Cor 1:21-22, Eph 1:13-14 In the context of salvation, the seal points ot God s ownership of the believer, who has been bought with a price=the blood of God s Son Jesus Christ (John 6:27) MacArthur and Mayhue, Biblical Doctrine, 358 The Spirit acts as the proof of purchase that we are Christ s. He is the guarantee that God will fulfill His promise of eternal life and a glorified body. He does so much in our salvation but what about His work now we are saved? C. The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life I want to consider four key areas really quickly: a. INDWELLING: 12

13 In the Old Testament, only selected people were indwelt by the Spirit but one of the blessings of the New Covenant is that the Spirit indwells every believer. Romans 8:9 (another reason I don t believe in a postconversion baptism of the Spirit) 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19; Eph 2:22; 2 Tim 1:14 b. FILLING: Another area that is highly confused and it doesn t have to be! Eph 5:18: It s a command It s conditional It s continual Being filled with the Spirit involves three things all of which flow from the word PLEROO: PRESSURE: The word for filling was used for when the wind would fill a sail and give a ship direction and drive. ð The Spirit applies sanctified pressure upon the life of the believer so he/she can be all that God desires them to be PERMEATION: It also has the sense of permeation of saturation the sense in which we usually think of filling like a hand filling a glove or Robinson s saturating a jug of water 13

14 ð The Spirit takes greater and greater possession of different areas of our life, making his influence more and more pervasive POSSESSION: The word is used in Luke 5:26 and 6:11 to speak of being taken up by an emotion ð The Spirit takes hold of us in every aspect, bringing about Christlikeness Put it simply: the filling of the Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit whereby day-by-day, moment-by-moment He takes possession of the believer, aligning his will and his ways with that of God. c. FRUIT Galatians 5:22-23 the classic passage Fruit is a natural result of the Spirit s uniting to Christ not perfect and we can affect the productivityally n d. ILLUMINATION Illumination is the work of the Spirit where He shines light upon the believer so that they can appreciate and apprehend divine truth. 1 John 2:20, 27; 1 Cor 2:

15 We ll speak about empowerment and spiritual gifts in week 9 but as we close, I want to III. CONCLUSION Why have we spent time this evening to think about the person and work this evening? Spend a few moments with your group looking at John 16:7 and how this impacts our relationship with the Holy Spirit 15